Forthright, As Ever
Spike swallowed. "Uh, Slayer, how long you been standing there?"
Without another word, she hauled him from the kitchen into her living room by his ear, shutting the door behind them and slapping him in the head once they were out of sight from the others.
"Hey!" he protested, forgetting his objections to being manhandled a second later when Buffy fixed him with a glare.
"What the hell, Spike?"
"You said it was okay," he reminded her, the words sounding lame to even his own ears as he wondered how he ever thought the harebrained scheme would work and decided to blame the whole thing on Giles and his delicious single malt.
Buffy's glare only intensified and Spike decided to keep the rest of his excuses to himself, lest she immolate him. A second later, though, the balls and bluster routine faded and Buffy deflated into a chair.
"You really did it, didn't you?" she asked, her hands covering her face. "All of them?"
"Anya guessed," Spike told her, hoping it would soften the blow and knowing it didn't stand a chance.
Buffy groaned, peeking out from behind her fingers long enough to glance at the closed door. "Dawn didn't seem to take it well."
"What? No, she was in our corner."
Buffy's hands slipped to her lap. "Really?"
"You'd doubt her?" asked Spike.
"Well, no," said Buffy, sighing. "Not really." After another minute, she asked, "And Willow?"
"I think Red's more confused than anything, to be honest. And Tara already knew, of course." He couldn't help himself from pointing that out.
"Yeah," said Buffy, closing her eyes as shame washed over her features. "From the fact that you're still alive, I'm guessing you couldn't find Xander."
When her assumption was met with a wall of silence, Buffy's eyes snapped open again. "You told Xander?" she almost yelled.
"Well, yeah," said Spike. "He's part of the gang, ain't he?"
"Oh, god! Tell me you didn't call Giles?"
Spike frowned. "I'd forgotten him, actually," he admitted, making Buffy exhale in relief. "Hey!"
"What?"
"I did you a favor, here. Don't be looking all happy that I missed a step!"
Buffy stood up again. "A favor?" she repeated, her tone turning from dejected back to dangerous. That put Spike on the back foot again.
"Yeah," he affirmed, not quite as passionately.
"You're unbelievable!" Buffy exclaimed, throwing up her hands.
"Me?" Spike shot back. "You're a pain in the bloody arse, torturing both of us when all it took was opening your soddin' gob!"
They took threatening steps towards each other, hackles raised, when Dawn knocked the door and popped her head in a second later. "Uh, guys?"
Spike and Buffy spun apart, their breathing hard. "What?" Buffy asked, after a minute.
"Umm, it's just…" Dawn bit her lip then came the rest of the way into the room and shut the door behind her again. "Do you have to do this?"
Spike looked at her, stricken, and Buffy's face paled at catching the look.
The Slayer went to her sister's side. "I'm your guardian. On a few levels beyond the regular. I'm not gonna do anything that's going to upset you."
Dawn sighed in relief. "Good," she said, smiling. "So you'll stop fighting. The last thing I need is mom and dad two-point-O."
Spike and Buffy shared another look. "That's what's bothering you in this scenario?" Buffy questioned. "The fighting?"
"Obviously," said Dawn, looking at her sister as if she'd lost the plot. "What else?"
Buffy donned her most serious parental responsibility face and sat herself down on the couch with Dawn beside her. The sight made Spike smile despite himself.
"Do you remember Ted?"
Dawn nodded. "Sure. I mean, I wasn't actually around for it – mystical energy and stuff – but I remember."
"So you understand," said Buffy.
"Huh?" Dawn looked up at Spike, who tilted his head back at her. After a moment, her gaze returned to Buffy. "You're not seriously comparing Spike to Ted."
"I'm saying Mom brought a guy we didn't like into the family and didn't listen to us. I'm not doing that."
Dawn stood up and shook her head. "Of course you're not doing that. We're talking about Spike!"
"Who the hell is Ted?" he interjected, only to be ignored twice over.
"You're missing the point," said Buffy.
"No," Dawn insisted. "You are. This is Spike. I mean–" she gesticulated in his general direction, "He's Spike!"
"Dawn," Buffy chided.
"What?" she crossed her arms.
"Yeah, Buffy, what?" said Spike.
The Slayer rolled her eyes at him and Dawn made a gagging noise. "You guys clearly have issues, but come on! Work it out!"
Buffy frowned. "You want us to be together?"
"I want you to be happy, Buffy," said Dawn, attitude dropped and tone sincere.
"I–" Buffy began, looking between Dawn and Spike before abandoning the sentence. "This is hard."
"Duh," said Dawn. "So what?"
"So it's more complicated than– than…" she gestured around the room, frustrated at her inability to pick words from the ether.
Dawn took a hold of her sister by the arms and looked in her eyes. "Why is it complicated?" When Buffy didn't answer, Dawn pressed further. "Do you love Spike?"
Spike cleared his throat. "No need to get into all that," he said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
Dawn looked up at him and frowned before turning her eyes back on her sister. "You can see how nervous he is, right? He doesn't even think it's possible. He's not even asking for that, he'd probably just be happy with kissing and movie nights."
"Dawn," Buffy said again, the name coming out choked.
"Tell him," Dawn replied, softly. "It's okay."
Buffy shook her head and blinked tears out of her eyes before they met Spike's. He'd stopped moving; stopped breathing as his brain shorted out. Dawn went over and gave him a hug, whispering something in his ear.
When she left the room, Buffy and Spike took a seat on the couch, their knees touching. It was a while before either of them said anything, but Buffy went first.
