(We left Buffy on her break at work, and Willow, Dawn and Xander with a spider that keeps coming back to life.)

Finished with her extra long shift at the Double Meat Palace, Buffy can't hide her enthusiasm at finally getting out of there. Seven and a half hours of flipping burgers and taking orders from random strangers was not her favorite way to pass the time. She grabbed her red coat from her locker in the staff lounge area, and punched out her card and had to take deep breaths of burger smelling air to stop herself from running full speed out of the shabby building.

Deep breaths Buffy, you're almost there, she encouraged herself. She hated the Double Meat Palace, but what choice did she have? Just being an eight dollar an hour councilor occasionally at the high school was not going to pay the bills. And anyways this way, she could put aside a few dollars per pay check to save up for a car. Probably not a very nice car (since she was an almost minimum wage employee), but a car none the less.

Flinging her purse on her shoulder as the walked, she exited the building filled with relief. She would probably stay in the high of the moment for the next few hours, until she realized how much longer she had until she would be right back in the fast food restaurant living life to it's fullest. Oh how sarcasm makes life seem less dreary. Buffy was sarcastic a lot these days, sarcastic to her friends, her sister, her work peers, employers, to herself even. It just seemed to help pass the time between jobs.

"Help me!" A frightened female's scream brought Buffy out of her thoughts. Time to patrol I guess.

Buffy turned into the alley where a tall dark haired vampire was teasing a young woman, probably only a few years older than Buffy herself. "Didn't you mother ever teach you not to play with you food?" Buffy scolded the vampire before punching his hard in the jaw. "You can run now." She said over her shoulder to the girl.

The girl ran away in a whoosh of dirty blonde hair, and Buffy turned her attention to her game. Her eyes way on the girl too long though she realized as an undead fist bashed her just as she'd done only a moment ago. "I am not in the mood to get my teeth knocked out today thanks, I was just at the dentist a while ago and I do not want to go back there again any time soon. So if you don't mind." She punched the vamp again and he fell backwards into the hard brick wall. She reached to pull the stake out of her pocket when she realized she was very unarmed. She must have left the stake in her locker.

Her searching left her vulnerable to a low kick to her feet that sent her sprawled on the cold pavement.

"Not today princess, mmm you sure look tasty." The vampire licked it's lips before kicking her in the ribs with an uncomfortable thud.

Another vampire appeared then, jumping down from the roof onto a garbage bin, and then from the garbage bin to the ground. "Now, is that anyway to treat a lady?" Angel smirked and staked the vampire through the heart, and watched him dust. "You ok Buffy?"

"Yeah, just a little sore." She prodded her ribs which she was sure would be a dark purple in the morning. "Got a good kick in there." She winced.

"Here let me help you." Angel offered quickly, taking her arm and pulling her to her feet.

"Thanks," She smiled at him. He took her hand and they began back onto the street, the half moon shining down from above them. "I guess we'd better hit the graveyard?" She considered.

"Yeah, I guess so." He grinned and then turned and pushed her into a tree that was on a green patch beside the sidewalk. "Or not." He bent his head and pressed his lips to hers for a moment before pulling back with a flutter of his eyelashes.

Buffy pulled his face back down to hers and after a moment she whispered, "Or not." And they resumed their semi-romantic kiss only a couple of blocks away from the destination she knew she should have been seeking.

"Xander hit it again!" Willow shouted when the spider began scurrying towards the edge of the desk.

"I did it won't die!" He called back aggravated. He picked up another, heavier book, and threw it down hard on top of the little hairy black arachnid. "There, I think that did it." He looked down at the thing with distaste and turned back to the girls. "Man that was annoying."

"Yeah," Willow chuckled nervously. She wore the same wide eyed deer in the headlights sort of look that Dawn had on, and were staring past him towards the streak of slime. "Except you didn't kill it."

"What?" He turned around and sure enough, the spider was crawling towards him again, only this time, it seemed to have doubled it's size. "What is this?" He demanded to no one in particular.

"I think I can help you there!" Anya said in a rather saved the day kind of voice, and she walked into the room with a jar.

"Ahn, when did you get here?" Xander asked confused, but relieved when Anya seemed to know what she was doing.

"Oh a while, I was just down stairs listening to the comedy act going on up here when I decided to end your misery and help." The jar she held was filled with water, and she scooped the spider with a quiet "there we go, come on" and slipped him into the jar, screwing on the lid. "All fixed. She grinned and revealed that the spider was flipping around in the water unable to escape.

The others side in relief and smiled at one another.

"Maybe next time we should just put it outside." Willow said brightly.

"Yeah, maybe." Xander gave her a look that clearly read 'you think?'

The pizza had extra cheese, pepperoni, and not enough tomato sauce to taste, but the scoobies were sure that Buffy would be pleased with their selection when she got home. They were all on their second slice when she finally entered with a cheerful "I'm home!" that sent everybody into a large group hug.

Angel had gone back to his place after they had a quick round of 'beat some ugly vamps to a pulp'. He had offered to walk her home, but she'd insisted that she could manage on her own. The pain on her side was slightly less, but she figured she'd still be stiff and a little sore in the morning.

"So did you kill any vampires?" Xander waved his pizza hand in a questioning gesture.

"Well, not personally." Her response received many puzzled glances from her friends. "It was a slow night; Angel got the only guy we found." She grabbed a slice of pizza and bit hungrily into it. The almost warm almost cold cheese unstuck itself from the bread before the got the bit into her mouth, and it was a little drier than she imagined pizza should be, but pizza was pizza and she was glad to have it.

"So how was work?" Dawn asked leaning her hands on the island and looking for any kind of amusing story.

"Also slow." Was as amusing as she was going to get. "Actually, there wasn't many people there at all today. The manager actually let more than half of the workers off because it was so dead in there." A snorted laugh from Xander made her add, "Pun not intended."

"Well that's definitely strange." Xander said with a mouth full. He swallowed before continuing. "The place is usually jam packed with people." He took another, slightly more animal, bite out of his pizza slice that was more like a dog tearing flesh away from it's prey.

"Xander stop being such a pig!" Anya criticized with a disapproving glare. "Seriously, most of the demons from my home plane ate more politely than you." She shook her head and took a very small nibble from her pizza's crust.

Xander's mouth was full to burst as he looked up with an emotion on his face that was Xander's alone. Willow Dawn and Buffy chuckled at the couple, and then simultaneously burst into laughter at the look on their friends face.

"Wow guys, just wow. Ok I'm going to bed." Buffy grinned before rinsing her plate in the sink and heading for the stairs.

When she finally got into bed, a creak from the window caught her attention as a tall hansom Angel appeared climbing into her room. "Hey Buffy." He gave her his sweet smile that showed a lot on his face when he was with her.