Rainy days and sultry nights

Disclaimer: The characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and the WB, I've just borrowed them for a while.

Author's notes: Dedicated to Nikki who set the challenge. Eternal flame was written and performed by the Bangles.

Willow watched as the rain cascaded down the windowpane, her fingers dancing on the windowsill in time with the steady staccato beat of the raindrops. Her mind drifting to her favourite pass time, Xander, however hard she tried she couldn’t move on. He was the one person who’d always grounded her, offered her security and friendship, she’d tried to be happy with other people, other relationships but she always compared them to Xander. She knew she shouldn’t, but she just couldn’t help herself. He had been the most important person in her life and she thought he probably would be until the day she died.

She moved away from the window and perched on the edge of her bed. Who would think that in four weeks she would be graduating from UC Sunnydale, after four years she would have to start yet another chapter in her life. She would be taking her first real steps out into the big bad world. Moving back onto her bed she grasped the remote control to her TV and began to flick through the endless channels. She stopped briefly at the Discovery Channel, but decided to move on when a diver came nose to nose with a great white shark. All those teeth reminded her of vampires, and she didn’t need to be reminded of Sunnydales’ night population. She continued to flick through the channels until she came to a familiar show, it reminded her of her childhood, it was set in a high school and kids were singing and dancing. She decided to stop and relive a few childhood memories.

She found herself singing along with the words to the theme song, as she sang her spirits were lifted. Willow hated wet weather, everything seemed so dark and dismal and grey. Life was too short to waste and she wanted to live it to the full.

“Fame. I wanna live forever. I wanna learn how to fly. High! I feel it coming together. People will see me and cry. Fame. I’m gonna make it to heaven, light up the sky like a flame. Fame. I’m gonna live forever. Baby, remember my name.” She sang as she began to dance around the room, forgetting the weather, forgetting her troubles and for once carried away in the moment.

As the song ended she slowed her movements, suddenly becoming aware that someone was watching her. She turned towards the doorway, where Xander stood a huge grin on his face; he moved his hands together applauding her performance.

“Now that’s what I call dancing, puts the Snoopy Dance to shame!” Xander teased.

Willow felt her face turn a deep shade of red. “Hi Xander.” She replied quietly.

“Well if I’d have known you were having a singing and dancing afternoon I’d have brought the karaoke machine. There’s nothing I like better than watching other people sing and dance, especially to really old songs that no one remembers!”

“Okay I’m sorry, I take that back, I remember it. Wasn’t that the show you and I used to emulate, I’d try and play the piano and you’d sing?”

Willow nodded, finally feeling the colour of embarrassment fading from her cheeks. “Do you usually enter my room without knocking? What would you have done if I’d have been naked or something?” She asked, mock anger tainting her voice.

The grin on Xander’s face widened, “Well, now you really are giving me a mental picture, naked and dancing!”

Willow grabbed the pillow from her bed and flung it at Xander, hitting him squarely in the face.

“I wish I could print off the mental picture, you naked would be something to treasure.” He said as he removed the pillow and tossed it back on her bed.

Willow flushed again, “Well it’s not as if you’ve not seen me naked before.”

“Yeah, like a picture of me naked is such a rarity! You only have to look through my baby photos.”

“Yeah, but have you looked in the mirror recently, Will? You’ve grown up a little since those photos were taken.”

Willow sighed. “How did we manage to drop the level of our conversation to that of the gutter?”

“I think you had a lot to do with the drop in conversation level, I was just along for the ride, and what a wonderful ride it’s been!”

“Xander!” She said rolling her eyes for emphasis, retreating to the relative safety of her bed.

Willow giggled; he’d managed again to brighten her day. She turned to look at him, pulling her knees up and resting her chin on them. “Why’d you stop by, other than to torment and embarrass me?”

“I think you did a pretty good job of embarrassing yourself.” He smiled again, his brown eyes glinting with mischief. “I stopped by to ask whether you wanted to come to the new dance club in town. Apparently it’s supposed to be very interesting.”

“Yep. Spike has a new job, but he won’t tell anyone what it is. All I know is he’s working at Johnny’s.”

Willow, Xander, Buffy, Riley and Giles walked through the large double doors into Johnny’s. The Village People’s YMCA was reverberating around the room, people were dancing and synchronising their movements.

“You’ll be right at home here Will, it’s your kind of music.” Xander teased quietly.

“Does anyone see Spike?” Buffy asked, standing on tiptoe looking through the crowds of people.

“No. But I do see the bar.” Giles replied as he began to make his way towards it.

Buffy watched Giles as he made his way towards the bar, he hadn’t been at all keen on coming to the club, he wasn’t interested in the slightest what Spike was up to.

They walked slowly towards an empty table with a perfect view of the catwalk in the centre of the dance floor.

As they sat down Willow asked “Why do you think they have a catwalk in the middle of the dance floor?”

“Probably for the entertainment, the poster outside said they had nightly entertainers with a difference.” Xander replied as he scooted into the seat next to Willow, accidentally brushing his hand over hers as he did.

“I wonder what the difference is?” Riley asked as he placed his arm gently around Buffy’s shoulders.

“I’m sure we’ll find out.” Buffy replied, still trying to locate Spike in the crowd. She began to wave as she saw Giles looking through the crowd; he nodded his head slightly, acknowledging their location.

Giles walked towards them a glass grasped in his hand. He sat down on the bar stool situated at the edge of the table.

“Fine, apart from the music. Remind me why I came here tonight?” He replied tersely.

“To find out Spike’s secret. We want to make sure he’s not causing any trouble.” Willow reminded him gently.

“Well for Spike that would be a bloody miracle.” Giles replied as he downed the contents of his glass. “He’s caused more trouble since he was neutered than he ever did when he could actually bite people.”

“He’s just a rebel without a cause, or rather a rebel with a cause but no way to execute the cause bit.” Xander explained.

The music suddenly stopped a male voice breaking the sudden silence. “Ladies and gentlemen if you would like to take your seats our first entertainer is ready to take the stage. Please give a welcome round of applause to Spikette.”

Buffy, Riley, Giles, Willow and Xander suddenly looked at each other. Surely not?

The silence was interrupted by a sultry piece of music, a tall figure emerging from behind the curtains.

The gang sighed with relief when they realised it was a woman’s figure appearing from the curtains.

The woman was dressed in a figure hugging blue dress, her long platinum blonde hair falling around her shoulders. She wiggled her hips suggestively at the crowd, pulling the long white feather boa from side to side behind her neck.

She then began to swing the boa around her head, the crowd applauded. She continued to swing the boa as she made her way along the catwalk, stopping occasionally to shake and twist to the tune.

As she reached the end of the catwalk she began to swing the feather boa faster and faster, before finally releasing it into the crowd.

Willow watched in amazement, there was something familiar about the woman, but so far they’d only seen the back of her head, she’d been facing the wrong way.

“I forgot you’re an expert in the exotic dance department.” Willow teased.

The woman then began to remove one of the long armed white gloves from her arm, tantalising the crowd with her every move. As she did she finally turned towards their table.

The dancer stopped with shock recognising the five faces in the crowd. After a few seconds the dancer grinned, waved and turned abruptly back towards the curtains, leaving her adoring fans behind.

“What was in the bloody drink, 100% pure alcohol?” Giles continued, his voice slightly slurred as he stared intently at the glass.

“Hostile seventeen as we’ve never seen him er… her before?” Riley managed to speak before his jaw dropped open again.

“Spike!” Xander exclaimed as his brain finally finished processing his thoughts.

“Spike, well Spikette dancing, rather not dancing but removing articles of clothing in front of a crowd, a crowd in which we’re sitting. Does anyone else here feel physically sick?” Willow babbled, a complete jumble of words swimming around in her head desperately trying to escape.

Xander grasped Willow’s hand hoping to calm her. “Don’t worry Will, we’re all in the same part of hell you’re in at the moment. Not for one minute did I expect Spike to dress up as a woman and dance, it is worse than my worst nightmare.”

“I think that was the grossest thing I’ve ever seen, or would ever want to see. Spike in a dress, and he actually looked quite realistic.” Buffy explained.

“I think I need another drink, a very large drink. Would anyone else like anything, because I think I’m going to be at the bar for a long time.” Giles explained as he suddenly got up from the stool and hurried to the bar.

The male voice that’d announced Spikette began to apologise for the sudden stop to Spikette’s dance. “I would like to apologise for the sudden disappearance of Spikette but she had a pressing engagement with the bathroom. The fire brigade is now on its way to let her out. It seems the lock’s stuck. So without further ado we’ll move on to our next entertainer, Jack and Spot.”

The spotlight focused on the curtains and a short man appeared with a large stuffed dog, the ventriloquist began his act.

The gang listened to the ventriloquist, still lost in their own thoughts about the revelation of Spike’s part time job. Never in million years would they have guessed that Spike spent his evenings dressing in a blue dress then undressing in front of a crowd.

Spot and Jack finally exited quickly as the crowd threw a shower of cheese whizzes over them.

“I guess ventriloquism isn’t as popular as a stripping vampire in drag.” Buffy retorted sarcastically.

“A little too normal for the entertainment with a difference I s’pose.” Xander replied, momentarily moving his eyes from the stage to look at Willow. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Willow replied meeting his gaze. “Just still a little shell shocked that’s all. It’s not every day you find out a secret, well a shocking secret. I could have believed Spike capable of anything, well anything other than that.” She nodded towards the stage.

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the male voice again. “That concludes our entertainment for tonight, we’ll be returning momentarily to our music from the eighties. There is just one more thing however, Spikette would like to send a message to her friends thanking them for coming this evening and she wondered if Buffy could come back stage to help with the bathroom difficulty. The fire brigade are a little tied up this evening and unfortunately Spikette is still stuck in the bathroom.”

“No. I want to see him explain this one, and what better way than to relieve him from his present situation.” She replied, standing up and pulling Riley with her.

“Don’t you want to hear his explanation?” She asked, her blue eyes holding his own in a firm stare.

“Consider your priorities changed. I’m not going back there alone.” Buffy replied tugging on Riley’s arm.

Willow and Xander watched as Buffy and Riley disappeared towards the back of the club.

“I guess tonight’s not a night we’re going to forget in a hurry?” Xander asked Willow, suddenly aware that he still held her hand in his own.

“No I think tonight is going to stay with us for a very long time. The imagery is going to be very hard to shift. Even harder than the Master or the Mayor.”

“Uh huh, although I can think of something that would shift the image for me.”

Willow rolled her eyes. “Are you lowering the tone of the conversation again?” She asked.

“I think Spike already lowered it further than it’s ever been before, so low that we’re below gutter level and floating somewhere in the sewer system.”

“Do you miss Anya?” Willow asked suddenly, aware that Xander was still holding her hand.

“No. She’s moved on, I couldn’t I was still hung up on someone.” He explained.

“No. Cordy is history just as Anya is. The person I’m hung up on is someone I’ve known longer than that.”

“You can tell me Xander, remember we’re best friends. You can tell me anything.”

“We’re changing all the time. We’re different people to the ones in elementary school, high school and now. That’s what happens in life, we change, grow.”

“That’s what life is about, life is scary. We should know that living here.”

“Don’t you wish sometimes that we could, you know, have a normal life, a safe one, a happy one?"

“We will Xander, it’s just a matter of time. I still believe in the happy ending.”

Xander finally raised his eyes from the table and looked at Willow. She marveled at the darkness of his eyes, she could stare forever into those eyes; they made her feel safe and loved. Where did that thought come from?

“Mmm.” Willow replied enjoying the sensation of his hand touching her cheek.

“I’m in love with the person who I’ve spent my whole life loving. She’s the one person in this world who has shared her life with me unconditionally, supported me and taught me how to love and live.”

“Who is this person?” Willow asked, silently hoping he would speak her name.

Willow nodded. “Yes, with the boy who stole my heart in the sandbox and he’s just returned it now.”

Xander leant forward capturing Willow’s lips with his, slowly beginning a kiss that was free from the restrictions of their first kiss at Homecoming. A kiss that was the beginning of something special, the beginning of their future together.

A familiar song began to play in the background. Xander smiled. “Would you care to dance my lady?”

“Then your wish is granted!” He replied, grasping her hand and leading her to the dance floor.

He gently embraced her and they moved slowly to the song listening carefully to the words. Seeing the parallels in their own lives.

They danced, oblivious to Buffy and Riley chasing Spike across the club towards a very tipsy Giles who was wobbling precariously on his bar stool.

Willow just thought about how a rainy day had brightened into a sunny evening, one of happiness and love.

	a ~ f	g ~ l	m ~ r	s ~ z
		Shimmer	Sairs' fic