A/N: Heya, it's my first Buffy fic and I'm still a little shaky over some aspects of Buffy so please bear with me; I'm consulting Wikipedia whenever I think I'm getting something wrong or not too sure about something so hopefully there won't be too many mistakes; if there are please tell me in a nice ashy kind of way instead of everyone flaming me. I know I don't really mind flames but a whole story dedicated to flames? I had one once and it wasn't reassuring; trust me. Anyway enough waffle. I own nothing except my own characters yadda yadda yadda; on with the show!

Chapter 1 – Patrols And Visits

Buffy walked through the familiar graveyard, glancing around in search for any demonic activity. Sunnydale had been relatively quiet these past few nights, only one or two vamps per night and tonight Buffy just wanted to beat the crap out of something. College had been so boring she'd almost fallen asleep in a lecture; even Willow had admitted that the lectures had been boring. They'd met at the Magic Box to chill out before Buffy had had to leave the warm and friendly atmosphere to come out and patrol. So far there had been no vamps at all, not even a glimmer of dust from previous encounters.

Buffy heard some noise up ahead and, keeping to the shadows, she moved quickly and quietly towards the noise. She almost groaned in frustration when she saw what was making the noise, a group of four vampires were fighting in between two rows of gravestones. Looks like I'm not the only one out on patrol she thought as she saw Spike throw one of the vampires against a gravestone, knocking him senseless for a few moments. She watched as he plunged a stake into the only female vampire of the group and delivered a quick right hook to the other; he threw the stake into the vampire he'd knocked against the gravestone, successfully dusting him, before kicking the legs out from under the last vampire and plunging the last stake into him.

'So that's why there haven't been any vampires around for me to dust lately; you've been taking them all out' Buffy said, coming out from the shadows.

'Annoyed I'm stealin' your vamps, Slayer?' Spike asked as he collected his two stakes. He smirked as he turned to face her, 'Got your panties in a twist because I'm stealin' all your fun?'

Buffy raised her eyebrows, 'Don't, for one minute, think you have any effect what so ever on my panties.'

'So what do I have an effect on?'

'You're a pig Spike.'

Spike's smirk grew, 'Don't you know it, Slayer'

Buffy shot him a glare before turning and walking away from him, hoping to find a vampire to vent her frustration on. Spike caught up with her easily.

'Bugger off Spike.'

'Not gonna let you have all the fun, Slayer. I've got some frustration to get rid of as well, you know.'

Buffy rolled her eyes, 'Whatever, but the next vamp we see is mine.'

At that precise moment a fledgling broke the surface where Buffy was about to step. Spike grinned as she took a few steps back.

'All yours, Slayer.'

Buffy rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as she waited for the vampire to break free from the ground.

'Come on, I haven't got all night; places to visit, vamps to slay.'

The fledgling growled and leapt at her once it was free; Buffy easily side stepped, rolling her eyes.

'Is that honestly the best you can do?' she asked him; Spike smirked and lit a cigarette in the shadows of a tree.

'Frustrated, Pet?'

'Oh shut up, Spike' Buffy snapped, aiming a punch at the fledgling as it charged again; she sent it flying with a well placed kick, then pinned it down on it's back and began to punch every bit of it's game face she could find.

'Stupid' punch 'bloody' punch 'vampires' punch 'never' punch 'around' punch 'when' punch 'I' punch 'need' punch 'to' punch 'beat' punch 'the' punch 'crap' punch 'out punch' 'of' punch 'something!'

She pulled a stake out and rammed it into the vampire's heart before it had a chance to recover from her punches; it disappeared with a snarl and an explosion of dust.

'Feel better?' Spike asked from the shadows. Buffy stood up and replaced her stake before dusting off her hands and turning to face Spike.

'A little' she replied; Spike snorted.

'Jesus Slayer what happened to get you so frustrated? Captain Cardboard try to snog you or something?'

'Shut up Spike, what happens in mine and Riley's relationship is nothing to do with you' she snapped. Spike smirked.

'So it's true?'

Buffy glared at the blond vampire as he came out of the shadows, throwing his cigarette to the ground.

'If you must know I had an exceptionally boring day and the past few nights have been relatively quiet.'

They continued to patrol for about half an hour with no sign of anything remotely demonic. Finally Spike sighed in frustration.

'Where the hell is everything?' he asked; Buffy shrugged.

'How should I know? Go ask Giles.' she snapped, equally annoyed at the lack of demon activity.

'You might have to do that, Slayer. The Hellmouth shouldn't be this quiet, it's called the Hellmouth for a reason you know.'

'I don't need you telling me what to do, Spike.' Buffy snapped. After a few moments silence Spike spoke again.

'Want to spar?' he asked; Buffy smiled.

'I thought you'd never ask.'

She turned and tried to catch him off guard with a flying kick, he caught her leg and sent her flying; Buffy twisted in midair and landed on her feet.

'Not bad.' Spike commented with raised eyebrows. They continued to spar for the next ten minutes, exchanging punches (Spike had to make sure his missed otherwise his chip would give him one hell of a migraine) and dodging attacks. Finally Buffy was able to kick Spike's legs out from under him when he moved to dodge a punch aimed at his head; he reacted fast though and grabbed hold of her, managing to flip her over as they hit the ground. Spike grinned.

'I win this round, Slayer' he said; Buffy kicked him in the stomach and flipped him over.

'I win this round' she said, mimicking him. Spike growled in annoyance; Buffy was breathing heavily, slightly tired after their fast tempo fight. After a few minutes she noticed Spike was smirking again.

'What are you smirking at, Spike?' she snapped.

'I'm just thinking you must like this position, Slayer, you've kept me pinned for the past few minutes; any particular reason?'

Buffy slapped him round the face and stood up.

'Pig'

Spike stood up, his smirk still plastered on his face. 'Come on Slayer, admit it; you want me.'

Buffy rolled her eyes, 'Grow up, Spike. I don't want you, I never have wanted you, and I never will want you.'

'I can smell a lie, Slayer.'

Buffy was about to retort, despite a nagging little voice in the back of her head that said that he was right, when her phone rang. Cursing quietly she answered it.

'Giles? What's up?'

'How is your patrol going?' Spike heard Giles ask on the other end of the phone.

'Quietly, nothing around except four vamps; well one for me, Spike was already sorting out the other three when I arrived' she answered.

'Is Spike still with you?'

'Yeah, I'm here Watcher. What do you want now?' Spike asked; Buffy glared at him.

'I take it he's still there then' Giles said, Spike rolled his eyes.

'Yeah, why? You finally gonna let me stake him?'

Spike was about retort but just settled for a smirk and another cigarette; 'Remember what we were talking about just now Slayer?'

'Get lost!' she snapped.

'Buffy?'

'Sorry Giles, not you. I was talking to Spike. Anyway what's with the phone call?'

'Well you and Spike better get to the shop. We're all still here and Willow's come up with a very unnerving suggestion as to why it's been so quiet on patrol lately.'

'You're still at the shop? It's gotta be midnight at least!'

'Buffy can you save it until you're at the shop please?'

'Alright, we'll be there ASAP. See you in a minute.'

'Goodbye Buffy.'

Buffy hung up and looked to Spike.

'We've got to-'

'Go to the shop. Yeah I heard; ain't got vampire senses for nothing you know.' Spike said, stamping out his last cigarette. Buffy rolled her eyes again and then she and Spike headed towards the Magic Box.

Buffy and Spike walked into the Magic Box and saw the others as they had been when Buffy had left earlier; the only difference was that there were a few more books on the table.

'So what do we think's causing the demons to go all quiet and stay in at night?' Buffy asked, taking a seat next to Willow. Spike leant against one of the shelves and watched the Scoobies sat around the table; he liked to stand in the shadows, or to one side, seemingly forgotten by everyone and just watch what happened; he'd picked up a lot of information that way. Right now he watched as Tara and Willow held hands under the table, he watched as Anya leant into Xander as they looked to Giles and Buffy, he watched Giles take off his glasses and clean them before putting them back on and rubbing his forehead with his right hand, he watched as Buffy looked at Giles and waited for her Watcher's words of wisdom.

'Well Willow suggested that maybe the demons were being all quiet because they were getting ready for a big attack, or they were waiting for something to come.' Xander said, one arm around Anya's shoulders.

'So we wait for another near apocalypse to come and then when we've stopped that from happening the demons go back to normal night lovingness?' Buffy asked.

'It appears that may be the case.' Giles answered.

'So; any idea when this apocalypse might be happening?' Buffy asked, tilting the chair back onto its back two legs.

'That's what we're trying to find out. We're trying to find any clues in past demon behaviours similar to this so we can try and pinpoint what's going to happen and when.' Giles answered. Just then there was a knock on the shop door. Everyone turned to look at the offending door.

'What on earth is knocking on the door at this time of night?' Giles asked, standing to open it; Buffy raised a hand and went to the door, sword ready. Everyone was stood ready to attack when Buffy opened the door to reveal a girl with shoulder length black hair and blue eyes, Buffy's sword went down when she saw the fresh cut across the girl's cheek. What surprised everyone was when Spike spoke.

'Tala?' he asked, walking forwards as Buffy moved out of the way, mouth hanging open slightly.

'What the hell are you doing here?' he demanded. 'I told you to stay at school! I didn't want there to be even a little chance of you being attacked by demons!'

'Err… hi?' the new girl said with a nervous grin.