A/N: This chapter takes place three or four days after the last one. Spike and Anya have pretty much just been getting settled in and used to living with one another. Things b/t them are still platonic, they haven't had sex or fooled around again... yet ;O) ALSO, I don't know if Spike ever saw Oz enough to be able to recognize him, but for comedy/irony's sake we're just gonna say he did.



When Anya closed the Magic Box for the day, vague gray wisps of cloud were only just beginning to gather over the clear horizon. She'd thought nothing of them until she actually left the shop and noticed them thickening and stewing above the town. A chilly wind had begun to move through the area, dry at first, but soon accompanied by a sheet of small, cold raindrops. By the time Anya reached the fence of the graveyard, those small drops had turned into a steady downpour; and by the time she reached the crypt, she was soaked to the bone.

Spike was startled out of his nocturnal slumber by the sounds of soggy footsteps squelching through his un-living room area. He shot straight up in his chair, game face flashing in a sleepy show of instinct as he became fully awake and alert. Cautiously, he climbed to his feet and peered up over the bier, expecting to find some kind of mucus demon looking for a fight. Instead he found, to his suprise, the much more pleasant sight of Anya standing in the middle of the room... peeling her shirt off.

As he collected his jaw from the floor, she turned around and gave him a dark look, to which he quickly responded by glancing away from her.

"Sorry, Anya," he said. "Didn't mean to ogle you like that, you just kinda caught me by suprise."
"No, that's not what that look was for," she told him, unbuttoning her pants. "I'm upset because I got caught in the rain and now I'm unpleasantly damp. I don't care if you look at me. Stare all you want. We're roomates, it's only natural to undress in front of each other." She grunted as she suctioned her jeans away from her legs. "Hello, by the way."
He looked back at her and grinned. "Hello, cutie. How was work?"
She shrugged, bending over to pick up her sopping clothes. "Same as usual. How was *your* day?"
"Same as yours," he replied casually. "Normal. Just slept the whole time."
"Ah." She wrung her shirt out onto the concrete floor and then walked past him to her clothes chest. "I'll get that puddle in a minute."
"Don't worry, I got it," he told her, grabbing a rag from the corner and throwing it down over the water. "What are you planning on doing tonight, pet? Anything?"
"Not really," she responded, pulling a sweatshirt on over her head. "I just figured I'd stay in and watch a video. I'm in a very lazy mood right now."
He nodded, watching her as she slid her pajama bottoms up her legs. "Mind if I stay in with you?" he asked. "I'm not gonna go out if it's raining."
She smiled at him. "Of course not! This is *your* crypt, after all, and I've been wanting you to see the movie I'm planning on watching."
"Which one's that, luv?"
She pulled a video out of her trunk and displayed it for him. "'Can't Hardly Wait'," she said. "It's a racous teen comedy from 1998 featuring an ensemble cast that includes Jennifer Love Hewitt, Seth Green, and Ethan Embry. It's one of my favorites."
"Seth Green?" Spike asked. "Is that the small bloke from that movie about the English spy? What's it's sodding name..."
"Austin Powers?" Anya offered.
He nodded. "Yeah, that's the one. That him?"
"Yes," she confirmed. "He's very funny in this."
"He looks a helluva lot like Red's former," he said. "Oz, I think his name was. It's kind of eerie."
Anya looked down at the video. "Hey, you're right!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe I never noticed that before. The resemblance is striking."
"Isn't it?"
She nodded. "There's someone else in here, too, who looks a lot like... well, when we get to her part I'll point her out and you tell me who she reminds you of."
"All right, luv. Pop it in, then."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Tara!" Spike yelled. "That girl holding the banana looks just like Tara!"
Anya laughed as he gaped at the TV. "I know, it's very strange,"she agreed. "The actress's name is Amber Benson, and if you've ever seen 'Bye Bye Love', she looks even *more* like Tara."
Spike shook his head. "It's amazing. Maybe this Amber Benson bird is Tara's evil show-biz doppleganger."
Anya shrugged. "It's very possible," she said. "I mean, look at the Olsen twins. One of them has *got* to be evil with all the fluffy bunny-ness around them. It's not natural, I tell you."
Now it was Spike's turn to laugh. "Evil twins, huh? You've really got a knack for reading people, don't you Anya?"
She shrugged again. "I just tell it like it is. A virtue that is sadly unappreciated by some." She gave a cough that sounded oddly like 'Xander'.
Spike shot her a sympathetic look, shaking his head. "Like I told you, luv, a man who can't appreciate a woman who speaks her mind obviously has control issues. Major ones."
She sighed and nodded, giving him a small smile. "I know. I'm sorry to bring it up again, it just seemed like an appropriate place to slip in a little venting. I'll let us get back to watching the movie now."
Spike shook his head, placing his hand over hers. "Nothing to feel bad about, pet. You can always slip a little venting in whenever you want to."
Her smile grew slightly. "Thank you. You're always welcome to vent at me, too, of course."
He gave her hand a fond pat. "Glad to hear it. Now let's forget our worries for a while and keep watching, all right?"
"All right," she agreed. "Do you like it so far?"
He nodded, grinning at her. "I love it."


TBC...