Title: Strip Tease 10

Email: tirel@pcnuthut.com

Author: Velvet Crypt

Disclaimer: Joss is God. I own nothing.

Spoilers: Season 6 ending. AU after that.

Summary: The Aftermath.

“Well….Buff, do you happen to have that spare pair of panties I mentioned earlier? I’ll buy them from you.” Cordy fanned her flushed face and then took a huge gulp of her icy drink.

Willow blushed. Then giggled. Then blushed at being caught giggling. “So, umm…are we sure that was them?” She asked softly.

“Yes.” Angel bit out.

Willow started at the dark note in Angel’s voice. “How do you know?” She managed without a squeak.

“Smell.”

Willow waited a moment longer, but when no further words were offered; she nodded and gazed at the condensation sliding down her glass.

“They sure looked, er…comfortable with each other.” Gunn offered.

“What the hell was with all the blood?” Buffy demanded, her hand clasped white on her own glass.

“Blood and sex tend to go hand in hand for vampires.” Wes offered, shifting in his seat, trying to find a less confining position. “For most demons, actually, as you can see by the response of the audience.”

“Yeah,” Fred added dreamily. “It was probably like watching porn for vampires, just without penetration.” A dark red flush rose over her face and she sat up straight. “I said that out loud didn’t I?” She whispered in mortification. Willow giggled again.

“He bit him!” Buffy snapped angrily. “He rubbed all over him, he made him lick his…his…him! And then he sunk his dirty fangs into him!” Her grip tightened on her glass and Willow scooted closer to Fred in anticipation of shards of glass shooting in her direction. “I ought to stake him. I will stake him! What are we waiting around for? Spike’s probably draining him dry right now!” Her voice rose to a shriek, drawing attention from the surrounding tables.

Wes snorted in derision. Buffy’s head shot around to glare at him, but he didn’t look concerned. “Let’s be realistic, please. Obviously they were both willing participants. Obviously, they’d planned this out. It was quite clear that it was a carefully choreographed dance. And they certainly looked very familiar with how each other’s bodies worked.”

Angel growled. Buffy released her death grip on the glass and slammed forward in her chair. “What exactly is with all the growling, Angel?” She hissed.

Angel clutched the mangled leather pants, unconsciously taking in a deep breath, his nostrils flaring. “Spike is my childe.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “So?”

“So, he’s mine.” Angel rumbled angrily.

“What the hell does that mean, Angel?” She demanded.

Wes sighed. “Did you ever read about vampire behavior when Mr. Giles was attempting to pound your calling through your thick head, Miss Summers? Or did you really spend all of your spare time doing your hair?” Another giggle from Willow followed by an apologetic look as Buffy turned shocked eyes on her. Cordy wasn’t so polite. Her snicker turned into a full-blown laugh as Buffy’s hand inched surreptitiously towards her hair.

“Vampires have a very special relationship with their Childer. A Sire provides leadership, a firm and dominant hand and protection. In return, the childe is a willing vessel, complacently offering of self be it for food, punishment or sex.” Wes looked almost bored. “So, as Spike is Angel’s Sire, I’m sure if you attempt to connect the dots, you can easily see how he might be feeling a tad bit jealous at this moment.”

Buffy paused for a moment, the confusion evident in her eyes. Then, it became very clear that she did indeed connect the dots. Her face paled and her mouth worked in a silent denial. She turned a horrified look on Angel and her gaze flitted from Angel’s face to the pants in his lap with such rapidity that Willow had to look away, slightly queasy from the movement.

“Tell. Me. You. Didn’t.” She breathed.

Angel actually smirked. “Didn’t what, Buffy? Didn’t sire him? Didn’t protect him? Or didn’t fuck him?” His smirk turned bitter.

Buffy winced at his last question. “You…had sex with Spike?” Her face twisted as though she’d bitten into something sour.

Willow frowned, far too drunk to realize she should just shut up at this point. “And you have room to complain, Buffy?” She snorted. “You practically rape him for months and then as soon as you’re caught you’re a virgin again?”

Buffy looked humiliated and betrayed...and angry. Fred put her arm around Willow’s waist and glared at Buffy. Cordy began laughing again, and after a moment of dead silence, Gunn joined her with quiet chuckles.

Wes grinned and shook his head. “My, my, my, Miss Summers. You do indeed seem to get around.”

Buffy had her hand in the air, whistling towards Wes’s face when her wrist was caught in a strong grip. She followed the arm up to smoldering brown eyes. “You slept with my Childe?” He asked icily.

Buffy jerked her hand out of Angel’s grasp. “Your Childe?” She laughed, near hysterics. “Your Childe? You hate Spike! You’ve tried to kill him! He’s tried to kill you! You haven’t had a kind word for him in the entire time I’ve known you. And now you’re all ‘Oh, my poor baby boy, he’s been violated by the nasty Slayer and her friend’!”

Wes took a sip of his scotch and gently set the glass back onto the coaster. “Miss Summers…Buffy,” he intervened softly, “You’ve dealt with vampires enough to know that there are just some things that make no sense. Some things for which vampires rely totally on instinct. It’s the same as if you, yourself, were to bear a child who then grew to hate you. Would you stop loving the child?”

Buffy eased back down into her chair and tried to focus on Wes’s now-kind voice. She knew she needed to calm down. “No.” She forced.

“Nor will Angel ever truly stop loving his childe. And just as any father, no matter how annoying their offspring, no one in the world will ever be good enough for his childe.”

Buffy gritted her teeth. “But all fathers do not have sex with their sons.”

Angel sighed and deliberately placed the mangled leather on the table. “All vampire fathers do, Buffy.” He whispered. “Creating a childe is an erotic experience. Knowing you own another sentient thing…knowing that you have the power of life or death over someone else…it’s a heady thing for our demons.”

Buffy looked at him with pained eyes. “So, you’re in love with him?”

Angel shook his head gently. “No. I love him. I’ll always love him. But I’m not in love with him. I never have been. No matter how much he wanted me to be.” Buffy was surprised to see her pain reflected and multiplied in his eyes. “I wanted to be in love with him. Because he needed it so badly. But I couldn’t. So, I did the next best thing. I gave him to Drusilla, hoping she could love him like I couldn’t.”

“Didn’t quite work out that way, mate.” A husky, accented voice answered. Angel’s eyes rose hesitantly and came to a halt on his Childe, once again clad in leather. “She was hopelessly in love with you.” Spike smiled, a hint of sadness in his voice. “She’s been in love with you from the moment you turned her. Even loved you during that stint of yours in hell.”

Angel just nodded and scooted his chair over. Wes did the same, and another spot opened up at the front table. Spike snagged a chair from an adjoining table and flipped it backwards. He straddled it and sank down. “So, how’ve you all been?” He raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

No one spoke. The silence was like a living shroud hovering over the table.

“Tara died.” Willow broke the quiet. “And Buffy got shot. And I lost my mind, and flayed Warren alive and then tried to create a magical world-sized nuke using the life force of everyone on the planet.”

Her statement fell into the oppressive hush with all the force of a freight train. She giggled. Knowing it was inappropriate after a statement like that, but finding it ridiculously funny that the words had just kind of fallen out of her mouth. Fred tried valiantly to remain poker faced, but wound up smothering her snickers with her hand and a cocktail napkin. Cordelia fell into hysterical giggles for the third time in five minutes. In a moment, Wes and Gunn followed and even Angel managed a quirked lip.

Heaving a sigh, Buffy rolled her eyes and the rest of her anger melted away. “Okay, fine.” She grumbled. “So I knew he wasn’t going to drain Xander. I was just squicked about seeing my best friend and my ex-whatever-the-hell-he-was licking each other.” Willow reached over and patted Buffy’s arm.

“The first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one.” She intoned solemnly, and then dissolved into giggles again.

Buffy grinned wryly and shook her head fondly.

“Well, no maimings, no copious amounts of blood and do I detect the melodious tones of laughter?” Xander materialized from out of the darkened club, a drink in either hand. His grin encompassed everyone at the table and then he slid into the empty few inches of chair behind Spike. “Hi, sweetheart.” He tenderly brushed his lips across Spike’s before handing him his glass.

“Hi, luv.” Spike’s smirk melted into an adoring smile and his free hand dropped to cover the arm Xander snaked around his waist.