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59 Talks
 
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Chapter 59 - Talks

“Splainy. Now, please?”

“I’m not sure where to start.”

“Well, that guy is a vampire,” Willow said.

“Yeah…” God, where to begin? “I wasn’t lying about anything I said before.”

“He’s that guy from the Bronze,” she said. “The one you said you had a thing with?” Then her eyes grew huge. “Faith. You’ve turned evil just like Faith!”

“I’m not evil! And Spike’s not evil…right now,” she finished lamely. “It’s complicated.”

Willow paused. “So I’m guessing this is why you didn’t go all freaky when I told you about Oz.”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

Willow was still looking at her expectantly.

Buffy took a deep breath. “I knew Spike before I became the Slayer. He like, does stuff if you pay him. Even for humans—he doesn’t care. He was hired to be my bodyguard; there were these guys trying to kidnap me. Long story short, my dad owed the wrong person money.”

“Did you know he was a vampire?”

“Not at first. Until I saw him—or didn’t see him—in a mirror one day.” Buffy paused. “He was really good at avoiding mirrors. There were several downstairs. But I don’t think he realized that that one was there. Anyway, it all sort of came out, then. I was really freaked out at first, but Wesley—”

“Wesley?”

“Er, yeah. You knew he helped me after I was called?”

“Giles said you knew him.”

“Well, Wesley also knows about Spike. In fact, he’s the one who hired him.” Upon seeing the look on Willow’s face, she quickly continued. “I know how it sounds. But Spike had this reputation of doing anything if you paid him enough. He’s worked for humans before. He doesn’t care what he’s doing or who he’s doing it for. Wesley has an agency now, doing all sorts of cases. He sort of became aware of Spike.”

“Not to be interrupty gal, but if Spike’s a vampire, why wouldn’t he just dust him?”

“Because Spike’s not so easy to kill. Plus, he saved Wesley’s life once.”

Willow’s mouth made an ‘O.’

“So he told me about Spike, and vampires. And it was weird, but I still didn’t really realize what it meant. But Spike and I got closer, and after the whole kidnapping thing was over and he left, we…really got closer.”

Buffy blushed, and Willow’s eyes grew wide with understanding.

“Just the one time,” Buffy said. “Or, the one night.”

Willow nodded, automatically understanding the rule that no matter what happened, it still counted as one time if it was all in the same night.

Buffy continued. “And I was so happy, and he was so sweet—and then it seemed like everything fell apart at once. I discovered that he was still killing people, I became the Slayer, I had to start learning all this stuff and patrolling, he started following me on patrol—I never wanted to see him again, and he didn’t seem to know what he wanted.

“One night this vampire almost killed me, had me down on the pavement. Spike went berserk, pulling him off me and beating him unconscious. That was when I realized that the Slayer package doesn’t exactly come with the best retirement plan. I decided that that wasn’t going to be me. So I made a deal with Spike, hired him to come with me, to teach me to fight, and to help me take down Angelus. And, it’s sort of more than business.”

“So…are you still…together?”

“We weren’t then. But we are now, sort of. It’s complicated. There are feelings.” Buffy paused. “I didn’t want to lie, I really didn’t. But I couldn’t just show up with a vampire. Not after Faith.”

Willow nodded, acknowledging her point. “But why didn’t Wesley say anything to Giles?”

“He doesn’t know Spike came with me. He thinks the last time I saw him was some night on patrol. And I think he wanted to give me a clean slate, vampire-wise.”

“So he’s a vampire, and you said he was still killing?”

“Oh, no! No, no, that was part of the deal. He’s not killing anyone while he’s here with me. I swear he’s not. As long as he’s here, he’s doing what I say. He’s not going to hurt you or anyone else.”

“But he would if it wasn’t for you.”

“Yeah,” Buffy said slowly. “In L.A., he was.”

Willow played with her hands in her lap.

Buffy nervously watched her, unsure of what she should say next. However, what Willow said next surprised her.

“He seemed worried about you. He must really like you.”

“Huh?”

“Well, I mean, when you were arguing, it was because of what happened in the fight. Tonight, he obviously didn’t want to help me, but he did. And for a vampire not to kill just because you ask him not to?”

“Well, it wasn’t just because I asked him not to, it was part of the whole ‘hired’ thing…” Buffy trailed off. The fact that she was paying Spike with blood was one thing that she was not going to bring up.

She frowned at Willow. “So you’re…okay with this?”

“I’m not exactly okay with it, but I’m trying to understand, y’know? Isn’t that what best friends do?”

“Are we? Best friends?”

“I thought we were. Unless you don’t want to be!” she quickly added.

“Of course I do,” Buffy said. “We are. I just never thought about it before.”

“And best friends keep secrets,” Willow said with a nod. “Though, I kinda should warn you, I’m not the best at secrets. But as long as we’re not talking about him, maybe not so hard.”

“You’d do that? Because I can’t ask you to keep it a secret. I’d like for you to keep it a secret, but I’m not going to ask you to lie for me. If you think you need to tell Giles, fine. But I need to know, so I can figure out what I’m going to tell Giles.”

“I won’t tell Giles. But you should sometime. Don’t you think if you told him, maybe, what you told me, maybe he wouldn’t take it that badly? I mean, Spike did save your life once—”

“Three.”

“Huh?”

“Spike saved my life three times. There were these other vampires before I was the Slayer—it was a whole big thing.”

“Three sounds even better,” she said.

“Yeah, well, here’s the other thing—Spike’s not exactly just some vampire. He’s related to Angelus. And he’s done all this stuff that’s written up in Giles’s books, so I’m thinking Giles is not going to be so much with the open-mindedness.” Buffy looked down. “Besides, it won’t even matter. Spike will leave sometime, and I won’t see him again.” She noticed Willow’s questioning gaze. “That whole ‘no killing’ thing? Apparently it’s a limited time offer.”

“Oh.”

“So it’s not like we’re permanent.”

“But he does like you?”

“And I like him. But it isn’t enough.”

Buffy blinked and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry you got hurt.” Her eyes glanced at the bandage on Willow’s neck.

“He barely got me. And it wasn’t your fault—not like I don’t know the risks.”

“Angelus sent them to attack me,” she said. “You just happened to be there.” Buffy sighed. “C’mon, I’ll drive you home.”

-----

The next day, Buffy went to class and met up with Willow in the late afternoon at the Magic Box. Willow was already telling Giles about last night, being unable to hide the bite on her neck from his sharp eyes. Xander was jokingly congratulating Willow on getting a battle scar.

“Oh no, this sucker is not going to scar,” she said. “I’ve already been putting vitamin oil on it.”

“Buffy,” Giles said, getting her attention. He prompted her for the story again.

“Pretty much what Willow said,” she replied, shrugging. “There were a lot of vampires, we managed to kill them all, but Willow got bit. They definitely weren’t randomly attacking, though.”

“You didn’t see Angelus himself?”

“No. I guess he could have been watching, but I didn’t feel anything.”

“It rather seems he was testing you.”

“Yeah. Got that.” She paused. “Didn’t Angelus ever mess with you guys?”

Giles was silent for a moment, considering. “Not particularly. He must have been aware of us, but I rather believe he didn’t care. But we were never in a serious position to challenge him.”

“And I am. Which is why he made with the barrel full of vampires.”

“It would seem. Though I doubt he thought they would overcome you.”

“But it couldn’t hurt to try,” Buffy finished.

They talked for a bit longer, before Xander said that he had to go pick up Anya at the hairdresser’s. Buffy pointed out to Willow that Anya was getting her hair shorter (and auburn, apparently), and Willow mumbled that she’d ask Oz what he thought, before leaving herself.

Not that she would or wouldn’t do something because of Oz, but it would be nice to know his opinion. On the other hand, Oz changed his hair all the time, so he’d probably like whatever she did. And it would always grow back if she didn’t like it.

Willow walked from the Magic Box toward the Bronze. It was still daylight, but the sun had almost gone down by the time she made it to the street the Bronze was on.

Just before she reached the entrance, she heard a voice say, “Hey, Red.”

Willow wasn’t sure why she turned around. Red was hardly her name, but years of school had made her more or less conditioned to pay attention when someone used a redhead nickname.

Leaning in the shadows of the street was Spike, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

She paused. “Uh, hey.”

Spike regarded her with a neutral expression.

Despite last night, Willow wanted nothing more than to continue on her way, but it seemed like she should at least say something else. Maybe try and be polite to the vampire who liked Buffy.

She started with the obvious. “It’s daytime.”

He grinned. “Not right here, it isn’t. Wasn’t in there, either.” He nodded his head toward the Bronze. “I make a little cash on the side.”

“So, um, Buffy said…do you like buy blood?”

“I manage.”

“She said you weren’t killing anyone.”

Spike tilted his head, studying her. She was smart—trying to see if he’d confirm or contradict whatever Buffy had undoubtedly told her last night.

“Yeah, well, I’m under strict orders from the Slayer. For now,” he added, watching her reaction.

She shifted, blanching slightly. “Uh, right. What orders, exactly?” she continued curiously.

“Well, that’s between me and her, innit?”

Spike stared at her a moment. Then he ran his tongue over his teeth and grinned broadly at her, as fangy a smirk as he could give without actually being in game face.

“No worries, Red. Tell you what. As a personal favor, from me to you, I’ll give you a heads up before I go off the diet.”

He let the smile fade and took the last drag off his cigarette, flicking it to the ground in front of her. “That way you can avoid me.”

She paled further. “Yeah, um…yeah. I’m just—gonna go now.” She quickly hurried in the opposite direction, going toward the club’s doors.

Watching her retreating form, Spike lit up another cigarette and smirked to himself. It really was just too easy sometimes.
 
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