AUTHOR: Goddess Isa
EMAIL: goddessisa@aol.com
SUMMARY: Moving day! This is the seventh (!) in my new Spike/Anya series. You won't have to read them all to follow along, they're all be stories of their own right, but they'll take us through their relationship bit by bit. Smut is coming, I promise it is
SPOILER: The Wish, S4 rumours
DISTRIBUTION: Sure, just email me & lmk where it's going - I like seeing my name in print =)
FEEDBACK: Please, I'd hate to have to Slay for it. =P
RATING: TV-14
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters, Joss Whedon does. If he ever decides to give them to me, that would be nice. =)
"Ugh!" Buffy threw a box of who-knew-what onto the floor. "God, Will, what is in that?"
"Wicca stuff." she grinned wildly. "Spellbooks, incense holders, oh, I hope nothing broke."
Anya sighed and watched her roommates. They'd moved all of their things into their new apartment that morning, and now, around four p.m., she was exhausted. Nothing was unpacked but their clothes, which hung in the large closet, and their sheets, which were already on their beds.
She opened a large cardboard box on the floor by her bed and pulled out her CD wallet. She flipped through it and placed one in her Discman. She pulled the earphones on and kicked off her shoes. Sliding into her bed, she let the music carry her into dreamland.
//Lying beside you
Here in the dark
Hearing your heart beat
With mine
Softly you whisper
You're so sincere
How could our love be so blind?\\
Anya saw herself dancing with Spike at the Bronze the way they did almost every night. The picture seemed to fade to black but lightened again and became a picture of the two of them watching TV at her old apartment that now belonged to a transvestite and his dalmation named Rupaul. The picture faded again, and she saw the warehouse.
She shook her head, trying to make the image go away. She hadn't been there in a long, long time and she wasn't planning on returning. She didn't like the warehouse. It creeped her out, made her feel like she wasn't wanted or didn't belong there.
Shrugging and shivering, she saw a fight begin. Spike was vamped out and trying to kill someone who looked human. He grabbed the person and sunk his fangs into their neck. Anya tried to scream for him to stop but she couldn't be heard. The next thing she knew, he had grabbed her and was ready to drink her blood.
"No Spike," she kept saying. "No, don't. You love me. Don't do it."
He looked at her for a moment and the shrugged, leaning his head down. She felt his fangs graze her skin and then she hit the floor. She blinked her eyes to get the ash out of them and saw Xander standing there, a stake in his hand.
The image faded again and when it started up one last time, she was at the library, the old one they'd blown up during the Ascension. Everyone was there, talking, laughing, chattering, except Spike. And whenever Anya tried to join in, everyone ignored her as though she wasn't there.
//Living without you
Living alone
This empty house feels so cold\\
She kept trying to make them pay attention to her. She threw a tantrum, pushed bookshelves down, even played with Cordelia's hair and touched Xander's chest. No one noticed. She got down on her knees and started to scream bloody murder.
"Anya, Anya, wake up!" Buffy shook her gently. "Anya, Spike's here."
"Huh?" she sat up, pulling the earphones off and trying to make her blurry eyes focus. They finally did, and then she saw him.
Spike was standing before her, his duster slung over his arm. "Have a nice sleep love?" he asked.
"Too lonely," came the reply.
He sat next to her and immediately they began to kiss.
"Okay, this is our cue to leave." Willow pulled on the sleeve of Buffy's blouse.
"We'll be at Xander's house if you need us." Buffy said.
"Why are we going to his house?" Willow asked as they slammed the door behind them.
"What time is it?" Anya asked. "I could've have slept for more than an hour."
"Twenty to ten."
"Twenty to ten? I slept like five hours!"
"You were up all night moving. You're wiped." he brushed the hair out of her eyes and studied her. Even with no makeup on and bedhead, she was the most gorgeous thing he'd ever seen.
"How'd the hunt go?" she asked, yawning.
"Hunt? Me?" he played innocent.
"How many?"
"Two, but they were bloody cops, they were good for nothing anyway."
"Spike, we've talked about this."
"Could you stop casting spells if someone asked you to?" he questioned. "If I asked you to?"
"No." she replied quickly. "It's my nature."
"And hunting is mine."
"Don't hurt anyone worthy though, okay?" he didn't answer her. Instead he moved forward and began kissing her neck.
She pushed him away and sat back up. "Spike, give me an answer."
He growled but nodded.
"Good boy." she leaned forward and kissed his forehead. "Feel like going out?"
"I'm a bit tired, actually."
"It's hours 'till sunrise. Let's see if this bed is big enough for two."
"Of course." he kicked off his boots and let Anya pull the black socks off his toes, tickling them as she did so. He crawled in next to her and she fell asleep with her head using his chest as a pillow.
*****
"No!" Buffy threw a hotel at Xander. "I am not paying the rent."
"Is this what our post-high school nighttime activities are going to be restricted to now?" Willow asked as she rolled the dice and made a mental note that Buffy still owed Xander the money even though technically, since she'd already rolled, Buffy was off the hook. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Monopoly, but--"
"The only place you can go from there on a Friday night is down." Xander said.
"Twister," Buffy commented.
"The Game of Life," Willow glanced at the box on the shelf across from them.
"Clue." Xander shivered at junior high memories of the game. "What's next?"
"Your turn," Willow couldn't make eye contact with him.
He rolled and she let out a squeal.
"What?" he asked.
She pointed to her boot. "I'm on St. Charles Place and I don't have to pay you."
He was about to fight her on it but the phone rang. He leaned over and answered it. "Yello? Xander here."
"Xander? It's Mrs. Rosenberg. Is Willow there? I know the phones at the apartment aren't working quite yet."
"Yeah, she's here, just a second." he handed Will the phone. "Your mom," he mouthed.
She took it and looked away from Buffy, who was crossing her eyes as she slipped a couple of five-hundred dollar bills out of the bank and into her tiny money pile.
"Hi Mom. You're what? Yeah, we're moved in but--all right. Bye." she handed him the phone back.
"What's up?" Buffy asked. "You in trouble for hanging out with me?"
"No, but my parents are coming to visit us at the apartment tomorrow."
"Does this effect me in any way?" Xander asked.
"Only in the sense that you get to house all my Witch stuff 'till they leave. I'm glad I didn't unpack it all yet." she rolled her eyes. "Now of all times they take an interest in me."
Buffy stood up and brushed lint off her butt. "We'd better go."
Willow looked at her. "Go where?"
"To warn Spike and Anya. He can't keep up the spontaneous, all hours visits with Parental Units on the prowl."
"They won't be happy," Xander said as he put the game away, happy to be the self-declared winner.
"They'll deal," Buffy said as they walked out the door.
*****
Anya wasn't happy with the news that Will's parents were coming to visit. Spike was furious. He threw a stake at the wall in Buffy's room and she had to hang a poster over it to cover the hole it created. He suggested Anya go stay with him, but she said with classes starting Monday she really couldn't. He stormed out and the girls finished packing all the occult stuff away.
"You do realize," Anya said as she hid some of her candle holders under the bed. "That this is like a scene outta Felicity."
Buffy held up the fancy chest she kept all her mementos of Angel in. "You'll never see what's in my box."
The three of them cracked up.
*****
"It's nice," Sheila said after she'd toured the entire apartment twice. Anya was out with Spike but Buffy was standing beside Willow for moral support. "Very.........nice." she eyed her daughter. "I thought you had another roommate. There's another bed."
"I do. We do! Anya. She's out right now though."
"Getting textbooks," Buffy added for their benefit.
"Anya, that's an unusual name." Ira said.
Buffy made a face. As though Willow was such a common name.
"Where's she from?" he asked his daughter.
Willow looked to Buffy for help.
"Jersey," Buffy named the first place she could remember a tale of a scorned man coming from. "She grew up there, moved out here with her dad for senior year and we became friends."
"Willow never really mentioned her," Ira said.
"Willow never mentions anything except you, Bunny, and Xander and that library she loved so much." Sheila shook her head. "It's good that she's in an apartment on campus now. You'll meet lots of new people honey, get into lots of new things."
Buffy rolled her eyes and Willow gave her a small smile since her mother wasn't looking right at her and she couldn't return the gesture. "Did you guys wanna go get dinner?" Will asked. "The Chinese place closes at seven on weekends."
"Oh, yes, let's go." Sheila grabbed her purse off of Willow's bed and they left. As soon as they were gone, Anya and Spike fell out of the closet laughing.
****
Willow's parents decided to stay in town until the following weekend to make sure their "little girl" was settled. They met Anya on Sunday and seemed to like her. On Monday the girls went to class during the day and had dinner with Will's parents that night.
Tuesday, Anya said to Hell with her classes since Spike had spent the night. He couldn't go out during the day, so she stayed in bed with him, cuddling and kissing.
Around four p.m., they fell asleep entwined in each other's arms. Both being demons, they were deep sleepers and didn't hear anyone knocking. They didn't hear Willow's parents enter or walk into the bedroom either. The both woke up when Sheila screamed and Ira fainted.
*****
"So your parents pretty much hate me?" Anya wrote. It was Wednesday afternoon, and the three girls were sitting in English class together. The professor was late, but one of his assistants was rambling on about Shakespeare and how he wouldn't hear of them studying his work this semester. The girls were bored and were talking via a legal pad and three number 2 pencils.
"'Hate' is a bit drastic. They did try to get me to move into the dorm instead though." Willow wrote.
"Your parents'll deal," Buffy wrote.
"I hope so," Anya added. "I don't want anyone to hate me."
Buffy and Willow exchanged a Look and burst out laughing, pissing everyone in the classroom off.
