Chapter Three
"You think that was wise?" Tara asked Dawn as the younger girl unzipped her suitcase.
"What?"
"Putting Spike and Buffy in the same room," she said.
Dawn looked at Tara, "Why? Do you think something will happen?" She asked innocently.
Tara shook her head, "No. They might end up killing each other," She smiled.
Dawn shrugged, "Or end up falling in love," she said talking a bag of Skittles out of her bag and placing them in the top drawer of the bureau along with her underwear.
"Dawn..."
"What?" Dawn smiled. "I was joking."
Tara looked at her and nodded.
"This bathroom is huge!" Willow said coming out of it. "There's like a jacuzzi size tub and a shower, two sinks and a little room for the toilet. I think I could live in there."
Dawn and Tara laughed. Dawn rubbed her tummy. "Oh, I'm hungry."
"Hungry?" Willow asked. "You ate a whole bag of chips and an apple."
"And three red vines," Dawn added. "But all that sitting made me hungry."
"I'll go see what we have downstairs. The lady said she bought us groceries," Willow said.
"I'll help you," Tara said
"Xander and Anya are probably hungry too," Dawn said. "And I bet Buffy is too."
"Maybe we shouldn't have let Buffy and Spike room together," Xander said.
"Huh?" Anya was in the bathroom that was connected to their room. "What'd you say?"
"Buffy. Spike. Rooming together. Not a good idea," he told her.
Anya shrugged, "Don't worry about them." She smiled coyly.
"I dunno, Ahn," he said completely oblivious to her come-on. He sat on the bed. She sat in his lap. "Maybe we could..." She stopped his talking with a kiss. "Or we could do that," he said.
"C'mon Xander. It's our pre-honeymoon. I don't want to talk about Buffy and Spike. There's nothing between them. Except sexual tension," Anya said.
"Sexual tension. You mean, like tension but it's sexual. The kind of tension that builds up until you have sex, tension?" Xander asked.
Anya nodded. "Yeah. It must be that slayer-vampire thing. And the fact that Spike's has that sexy, bad boy thing."
"You think Spike's sexy?!"
"What? No," Anya shook her head. "He's just got that thing, you know?"
"No," Xander said. "I don't know."
Anya laughed. "Oh, Xander." She kissed him. "Don't worry, Buffy's a level headed girl. Kind of. She wouldn't do anything like that."
"So," Spike said flopping onto the bed. He put his hands behind his head. "What do you fancy, pet?"
"Get off," Buffy told him.
"That's your job," he said.
She threw him a Look. "Uh uh," she said. "Nothing is going to happen while we're here."
He blinked at her all innocent-like, "What do you mean, love?"
"I'm serious, Spike. Dawn, Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara are down the hall," she said.
"Uh huh," he kept looking at her. God, she was gorgeous. Every line, every curve of her body was perfect. Her big green eyes, her strawberry lips, her slightly pointed nose. Her hair was short now. But he didn't mind. It was cute and it fit her. She was everything he was supposed to hate as a vampire, but he didn't. She was good and pure, but she did things that no angel had ever done. He had tried convincing her that she was dark and belonged with him there, but he knew full well she wasn't.
"What?"
She snapped him out of his daydream. "What?"
"You were staring at me," she said.
"Made you all hot and bothered?" He asked.
She rolled her eyes, "More like grossly uncomfortable." She put her things away in a dresser. "Didn't you bring anything?"
"I put them in your bag," he replied. She checked her bag. Sure enough, there was a couple pair of black jeans, tight black shirts, a red silk button-up shirt and a black one. She tossed them out of her bag on onto the bed. "Hey!"
"That's what you get for stuffing your clothes in my bag," she told him.
"You know, maybe I will go sleep in the living room," he said.
"Fine by me," she pushed the clothes off the bed and sat down. He glared at her and pushed her down, sitting on top of her. She giggled.
"What are you laughing at? You made a fine mess of clothes," he said. It only made her laugh harder. "Stop it." He said. She didn't. He pursed his lips and reached down and tickled her stomach.
"No! Spike, don't!" She shrieked. "Stop!" She dissolved into giggles.
"Stop laughing," he told her.
"I can't!" She laughed. He kept tickling her. "Spike!" she tried pushing him off, but she was powerless. Finally, he stopped. She was still laughing softly, kind of like an aftershock.
"What would happen if all the vampires knew they could kill you by tickling you on the stomach?" He asked. He moved her hair away form her face. He bent down and kissed her stomach without lifting her shirt.
"Heh heh," she chuckled. He looked up and smiled at her. She ran her hand over his cheek. "You're smiling," she said.
"So are you," he said.
"You never smile though. You're always smirk-y with the corner of your mouth going up," she touched his lips, "And raising your eyebrow," she traced his scarred eyebrow.
"Buffy..."
Before he could kiss her, before she let herself kiss him, she pushed him over and off her. She got up. "You're sleeping on the floor," she said, straightening her clothes and fixing her hair in the mirror. She went downstairs to the kitchen where Dawn, Tara, Willow, Xander and Anya were sitting and discussing dinner ideas.
"How about hamburgers?" Xander asked. "It wouldn't take long to make them. We can eat them out on the deck."
"You really want to work that grill," Willow said.
Xander shrugged, "It looks like fun. I can wear a little apron that says 'Kiss the Cook'."
Anya kissed him, "I do that anyway." He smiled at her.
"Hey Buffy," Tara greeted the blond slayer warmly.
"Hi. We're having hamburgers?" She asked.
"I don't want hamburgers. Let's get pizza," Dawn said.
"You always want pizza," Buffy pointed out. "Let's eat something different."
Dawn sighed but nodded. "Where's Spike?"
"Up in the room," Buffy replied.
"What were you guys doing in there? I heard you laughing," Dawn said.
"Uh... we were... telling jokes," She said lamely. "They were funny."
Xander frowned. "Spike? Telling jokes?"
"He can be funny. Sometimes," she said looking down.
Tara stood up, coming to Buffy's rescue, "Let's start dinner. Xander you can grill."
Xander broke into a smile, "Yes!" He pumped his fist. "Okay, I lost cool points there."
The gang went to work getting dinner ready. Tara, Anya and Willow prepared in the kitchen. Spike came downstairs, Buffy noticed he changed into the blue button-down shirt. It made his gray-blue eyes appear bluer. He saw the girls in the kitchen, then opted to help Xander up on the deck in getting the grill started. But help from Spike meant criticizing what Xander was doing. Buffy and Dawn set the table outside.
"You're doing it wrong," Spike said.
"Do you want to do it?" Xander asked. " 'Cause I don't think you should get too close to the flame, vamp-face."
Spike glared. "Probably do it a lot faster than you, wanker," he muttered. Xander finally got the BBQ started and Spike threw the patties on.
"Oh wow," Willow said coming out on the deck with a bowl of chips. "The sky is so clear out here."
"Must be because we're away from all the city lights," Dawn said. "Janice told me that the stars never really go away, but because the Sun is closer to us, we can't see them during the day."
"Dru used to see the stars during the day, and inside," Spike said.
"That's because she was a taco short of a combination plate," Xander told him. Spike glared at him.
"I think it's beautiful," Buffy said. They all sat down and ate. Spike sat between Buffy and Red. He really didn't want to eat a hamburger, but compromised with it being rare and washing it down with a mug of blood. He liked the chips though. During dinner, he and Buffy rubbed each other's legs under the table until she got a little too close and he yelped, shaking the table.
"I thought I felt a bug," was his lame excuse. Xander shook his head and Tara hid a smile behind her glass.
Later, after they put the dishes away and cleaned up they sat out on the deck. Xander and Anya shared one of those long chairs, Dawn sprawled out on the bench, forcing Tara and Willow to sit on the swing together. Spike sat in the other long chair and Buffy sat at the end. He resisted the urge to pull her up into him.
She looked up at the stars. They twinkled down at her, shining with all the energy in the universe. Suddenly, she felt very small, she wrapped her arms around herself. Spike leaned over and draped his button down shirt around her.
"Thanks," she said quietly. Only Tara noticed this little action and didn't say anything.
Dawn started nodding off and decided to go to bed. Anya and Xander said their good-nights and Willow went with Dawn. Tara gave Buffy a smile and nodded at Spike, retiring to the bedroom with Dawn and Willow. Buffy started to go. She handed Spike back his shirt. He took it, looking longingly into her eyes. She let go first, and went inside. He followed her.
"Buffy!"
She sighed deeply. "Not tonight Spike. I'm tired."
"Did I say anything about that?" He asked.
She turned around, "I know you were."
"I wasn't!" He said defiantly. "I was going to tell you good night."
"What?"
He rolled his eyes, "I'll sleep downstairs."
She furrowed her eyebrows. "You don't have to."
Spike sighed. Here he was, trying to do the decent, gentlemanly thing and she was questioning it. "No, you need your beauty rest and all that."
"I need beauty rest?"
He gave her a Look. "Just go."
She wrung her wrists, like she did when she was trying to say something, but was too embarrassed to say anything. "No. If you sleep there, they're gonna think something's up."
"Right."
She turned around and headed to the bedroom. Ironic that it was the farthest away from everyone else's.
"Is that Spike and the slayer?" Warren asked watching the tv monitor in their van.
"I can't tell," Andrew said squinting. "The reception's all fuzzy."
"And who's fault is that?"
"It's all the trees," the blond one said. "They make the signal harder to read."
"Maybe, we can try sneaking in there and changing the cameras?" Jonathan suggested.
"No way. The house'll never be empty. During the day, Spike can't go out, so he'll be there and at night, they're all there," Warren said.
"I wish we still had the invisibility gun," Andrew said. "It'd make this a whole lot easier.
"We'll just have to deal with this crappy reception then," Jonathan said.
"Unless..." A evil grin spread across Warren's face as the two other boys looked at each other worriedly.
