Disclaimer: Willow & Co. don't belong to me, and unfortunately never will. They belong to Joss and his cronies.
Willow smiled at Graham as he walked her to her front door. The two had gone to the Bronze, and partied hearty for a few very nice hours. The walk home had been pleasant, except for a very stupid, now dead, vampire who had thought they would make a nice snack. Willow had quickly dusted her, then turned to see how Graham had dealt with the slayage. He'd blinked, then said "I didn't know when you said 'you dusted a vampire' that that was literal.'" This had been greeted with peals of laughter, to which Graham had simply smiled. A tender kiss goodbye on her doorstep, and Graham left, though reluctantly. The two were quickly moving towards being lovers, but weren't quite there yet. They'd been dating for about six weeks now, during which they had gotten closer and closer. She supposed she should introduce Graham to the rest of the 'Slayerettes', but she figured that could wait until they started university in two weeks.
Willow entered her bedroom, and sighed when she looked at the mess. She still worried too much about what she wore on their 'official' dates, and as a result, her discarded outfit options were strewn all over the bed and floor. She put them away, as she debated what to do. Bed would be the obvious choice, except her body was still humming with adrenaline that came with being with Graham. Spending some time on her balcony would probably help, however. So, grabbing her bag and binder, but skipping the Kool-Aid as she simply didn't want to go downstairs, she went and plopped herself down in her outdoor chair. She opened the binder and began to read, but only a few minutes later the hairs on the back of her neck lifted. No, she thought to herself. He wouldn't dare come back. Not after what he pulled. However, she knew she was kidding herself. There was little Spike wouldn't dare do.
"Hello, Pet. Can I come up?" Spike drawled from where he was leaning against a tree. THE tree. The tree Graham had often leaned against. Her anger rose.
"Sure," she said in a sugar-sweet voice. Spike grinned, and was quickly up on the balcony.
"Not nice revoking my invitation like that, Pet." Willow's eyes narrowed.
"You dare tell me I'm not being nice after what you did?" Willow growled, as Spike took several steps backwards, with his hands in the air, an innocent expression on his face, although Willow could see his lips twitching, trying to form a grin.
"Did, Pet?"
"Don't even try to pull that with me," Willow snarled. Spike's lips twitched harder "And don't you dare tell me I'm beautiful when I'm angry, because I will hurt you if you do."
"Wouldn't dream of it, Luv. So, what did I do to incur your wrath?" This time the grin couldn't be held back.
"Do? DO!" Willow's anger was quite visible, as was her magick which responded to her extreme emotions by creating a bright aura around her. Spike's smile quickly vanished, as he realized that perhaps he'd misjudged the situation slightly. "You dare come here and ask me what you've done?" She stalked towards him as she spoke, looking like a predator who was cornering her prey. Her hand came to rest over his still heart, and Spike had to remind himself to pay attention to what she was saying and not just to her body, or he might just get himself immolated, like any other vampire would if she'd put her hand over their hearts. "You take off without a word to me, leave me to find out three days later from your mortal enemy who you just happened to have a truce with, and then come back over a year later and you don't expect me to be pissed!" Spike could feel the heat burning inside of him, and knew that if Willow didn't take it back into herself before her hand moved away from him, he'd become a big pile of dust.
"Red, sweet, I had to leave. The whole Slayer wanting me out of the country thing, along with Angelus being very pissed with me should she lose…" His hands quickly clasped around the one against his chest, so she's wouldn't dust him in the heat of the moment, so to speak.
"That's just an excuse," she hissed. "She would never have known you were back if you didn't want her to. "
"I wanted to come back sooner, Luv, really. I just couldn't. I'm sorry, Pet. Forgive me?" Spike looked at her imploringly, to which she just sighed.
"I'd let you get away with highway robbery," she muttered under her breath as she removed her hand from his chest after sucking out the heat she'd placed in his body. Spike grinned.
"I do love it when you get angry with me," he said playfully as he leaned down to kiss her. Willow shoved him away.
"Oh, no. I forgive you for leaving, but that doesn't mean you can just waltz back into my life and pretend you never left. Not a chance." Spike blinked. He did love her fire and sass, but not if that meant he couldn't be with her. "I have a human lover now. I don't need you anymore." Spike snarled.
"That whelp that dropped you at the door earlier? He's nothing! And certainly not your lover. I'd be able to smell it."
"We will be soon, and you being back isn't going to change that. I had to share you with Dru, and I damn well hated it. Well, flipside time, Spike. I'm not giving up Graham, and if you so much as touch him I will kill you. So get this straight now. Either accept that Graham is with me, or get the hell out of my life." With that shocking statement, she grabbed her stuff, and stomped into her house, leaving a stunned Spike behind. He blinked, and then turned and jumped off her balcony to land on the ground. His hands burrowed deep inside the pockets of his duster as he thought about Willow's ultimatum. And he knew that she meant it. She'd fallen for that bloke, and from her tone of voice, she was probably even in love with him. He sighed, despite the fact that as a vampire, he didn't technically breathe.
What was he going to do now? He'd forgotten how long a year was to mortals. And now he was paying for that big time. He'd never thought Willow would find someone else. He'd taken it for granted that no one could ever fill his shoes. Well, this Graham bloke might not have been able to fill his shoes, but instead he'd carved himself his own niche in Willow's heart. And now, his only way of being with his fire goddess, was to let her also be with this human.
"I'll be damned if I just let any human be with Red," he muttered. He then nodded to himself. First things first. He'd meet this Graham bloke, and see if he thought he was good enough for his Goddess. And if he was… Well, he'd just figure that out later. For now, he had a rival to meet.