A/N: Let's just say that Angel lost his soul properly around this time on Angel. That the ecstasy served to get him into bed with Rebecca in 'Eternity.'
"Angel?"
"Angelus, actually, honey. Been running a rampage around LA, but then I thought-well, what's a little world-torture without visiting my one true girl, eh?" The Irish lilt had slipped back into his voice, a reminder of his evil persona that gave Buffy the wiggins. "And Spike...aw, did ickle Willie get a chance to surface when they shoved that luvverly hunka metal up yer cranium?"
Buffy found her voice. "What's he mean, Spike?" Her voice trembled, and she left out words when she spoke, but Spike still was grateful she was there. He broke eye contact with his grandsire to glance at her with more reassurance than he felt. "No idea, love." His words came out laden with bravado, and he felt bloody proud of himself in the face of the slightly taller vampire.
"Oh ho, but he does," came the silence breaker from Angelus. Spike and Buffy had continued to gaze at each other in mutual kindness and a united front against him, and his possessive side came out. He hated Buffy, but she was his to torture. He rubbed his hands together. "Anyway, what're we doing standin' around an' catchin' up? We got ourselves an each other ta kill-" His left fist flew straight into Buffy's face, and his left leg into Spike's groin, and they winked and grabbed the offending limb and snapped it up.
"Jesu Maria!" Angelus shouted, as Buffy used her stylish-yet-affordable boots to kick him in the...area. Let no one deny her power in the face of an ex-lover, she thought savagely, before thrusting her stake in for the kill-
She couldn't. She may not be totally in love with the guy anymore, but she'd given him her virginity.
Angelus used her pause to kip up to punch Spike, and she saw red, lashing out to spin him around and floor once again, but he turned and ran, his face a mask of pain.
She remembered the demon lying on the ground, and against her Slayer instincts she followed her Buffy ones-Angelus seemed to have done a number on him, a throbbing purple bruise surfacing on his slack, pale scalp. She tentatively reached a hand out, realising the smaller bruises dotted around the demon that had tried to warn her of her vindictive ex were actually of her infliction. "Hey, er...thanks for what you did. I'm-well I guess I'm sorry for what I did, you know, beating you up and all. I thought you were, well, evil?" Her vocal inflection rose at the end, making her sound questioning, and for one small moment as Clem accepted her help up, Spike saw the woman she still was, even as the Slayer. She embraced that side of her, even when dealing with ostensibly-but-not evil demons like Clem. It made him lo-
Hold it right there, William, he told the ponce inside himself sternly. Admire her. Grudgingly respect her. But never lo-
"Spike? Erm, could you give us a hand?" called Clem plaintively.
As Spike went over to help his friend stand, he smiled.