TITLE: There's Banging Outside My House
AUTHOR: Ben is Glory
PAIRING: B/R, T/W, R/T
RATING: R in later chapters
SPOILERS: Set before "Into the Woods"
DISCLAIMER: Mega props to "The Man" Joss Whedon
FEEDBACK: We'd love it. Send to: XBen_is_Glory@yahoo.com

When she reached the magic shop, everybody was sitting around the big table, books in hand.

"How's the research going?" Buffy asked.

"Let's put it this way," Xander explained, "if we were looking for nothing, we'd have found it by now."

"That bad, huh?" asked Buffy, obviously disappointed.

"Yeah, I think nothing pretty much covered it," said Riley. He scooted over to make room at the table for Buffy. As she sat down, he put his arm around her for comfort. He could tell she was bummed and all he wanted to do was make her feel better. She was, after all, his girl.

"Well," started Willow, "I'm taking everything on relocation spells, suspension spells, and, what the heck, spells to make him really sleepy, because, slightly better if all we've read about him is true."

"You can never be sure. Some demons like to talk themselves up, make them look better than they actually are. You know, I can kill this, I beat up that. I can eat 500 pigs in three minutes. Met a couple of them in my day. They remind me of modern day football players, actually." offered Anya. "All I'm saying is don't get too wigged. Some demons talk a lot of hype. Remember Gachnar?" Anya replied quickly off of confused looks.

"Well, yes. But I just didn't see that it said he was three inches tall. Even so, I still think that you shouldn't patrol, Buffy. Is Spike going to patrol?" Giles asked.

"I guess. I told him we needed him. But that doesn't mean much to Spike unless you back it up with green paper." Buffy paused for a yawn and looked at her watch. Only 10 pm, but she was exhausted. "Um, it's getting late. I better get Dawn home. Will you guys be alright without me?"

"We'll be fine. We might have to pull an all-nighter but no big," answered Willow.

"All night? As in no sleep, reading these books until morning?" Xander didn't sound interested.

"You can go home too, Captain Whiney," replied Will, slightly annoyed.

"It's just… work, tomorrow. Gotta make money to keep An happy."

"OK, OK. Just go!" everyone shouted in unison.

"Alright, alright. I'm gone. Come on, honey. I can tell when I'm not wanted!" Xander exclaimed as he hurried out the door.

"Let's go, Dawn," said Buffy.

"Do you want me to go with you?" asked Riley hopefully.

"That's OK."

"Bye everybody!" Dawn cried as she left with her sister.

"Right," Riley muttered under his breath. Why do I even try anymore? It's obvious she doesn't love me. Maybe I should move on…

His thought was interrupted by Tara suddenly shouting, "Oh! I think I found something!"

"What does it say?" asked Giles.

"We need an Orb of Ydarg. It is suppose to weaken the demon's central power source. If we could get one, we could hold it on to him and then Buffy can dismember him."

"Do we have one of those?" asked Will.

"Yes, down in the basement," answered Giles.

"I'll go look for it and you guys can work on a way to corner Mequilera without us ending up dead," said Tara as she headed to the stairs to the basement.

************************************

Tara was in the basement of the Magic Box looking for the Orb of Ydarg when she heard someone coming down the stairs.

"W-w-who's there?" she called out.

"It's just me." replied Riley as he reached the bottom. "I came to see how you were doing. You've been gone a long time; we were getting worried."

"How's the plan of action?" she asked, still seaching.

"Fine. They're still working out the details," he said moving closer to her. Until now, he had never noticed how beautiful she was. Her blonde hair that fell just below her shoulders; her penetrating blue eyes. Her full lips he was suddenly dieing to kiss. Stop! Stop thinking those things! You're in love with Buffy and Tara is in love with Willow. She could never love you, Riley thought.

"Are you OK?" Tara could tell something was wrong.

"Uh… yeah. I'm fine."

Why is he so quiet? And why is he standing so close to me? Oh god no, he couldn't be. There is no way he's attracted to me. He loves Buffy.

"Tara?"

"Oh, um… y-yes?" she stammered.

"I, well… nothing. You just spaced out for a sec." God I want her. No, I can't have her. I have Buffy. It's not like Buffy would notice, though. She was too wrapped up in everything else to pay attention to him. But Tara, she always cared about everyone. How can I make her mine?

Ok, this is really freaking me out. How could he possibly feel this way? For me, now. Why? She began to feel more uncomfortable as Riley stepped closer to her. She turned to face him and was unexpectedly met with a kiss.