Per Aspera Ad Astra
*Through the thorns to the stars*

First of all, I have a lot of notes, but to spare you space, I only put some at the top and the rest at the bottom. This will not be the case for most of the chapters. Nos, I answered your question at the bottom. Much thanks to my lovely beta, Izzy. :)

All standard disclaimers apply.

Other notes: I plan on using Lamia as the name of the town. Lamia is really a town in Thessaly, but I feel like transferring it to Rome. I have my reasons. Also, I spent much time researching everything, down to the rooms in the villa and the name structure so everything is pretty much real. So, if it takes me time to come out with chapters, this is probably the case.

***

Chapter One

***

"So ... do any of you speak Latin?"

"I do, Glinda," Spike answered Tara's question quietly.

"No, seriously," Xander said, annoyed.

Spike leveled his gaze. "Seriously, you wanker." He glanced over at the appraoching man. "You want me to make up a story? I think I remember enough about Rome to pull it off."

"Salvete!" the man in the tunic called. He was eyeing their unusal clothing curiously.

"It's now or never," Willow said under her breathe as Spike got to his feet and walked over to the man.

"Salve," Spike said in response, gripping the man at the elbow in an odd sort of handshake.

The two got to talking, a name leaking out every now and then and some darting eyes. Spike finally finished with a, "gratias maximas tibi ago" before turning back to the group.

"So?" Anya asked, a little anxious. "I'm not sure I like this situation very much. It's creepy, and we don't have any money at all."

"I told him that we're foreigners, and we're lost and don't know how we got here. I also said that none of you know how to speak Latin. I gave him some altered forms of your names for some of you to make them sound realistic."

"What kind of names?" Dawn asked, suddenly curious.

"I said your name was Davna, Nibblet." (AN: Okay, I usually don't do this either, but Romans didn't have the letter w, so they used the letter v with the same pronunciation as a w, so basically it's Dawna. I won't use the v's any other time except for introductions.)

"What's the fun in that? One letter, big difference," Dawn muttered to herself.

Ignoring her, "I kept Tara and Anya's names the same, and I changed Willow to Villiana (Williana). Said Xander was Alexander."

"What about us?" Buffy asked.

"Well, Spike and Buffy are probably about as far from a Roman name as you can get, so I told him my name was Villiamus (Williamus)." This sent Dawn into a surge of giggles that he also pointedly ignored. "Told him your name was Anna from your middle name."

"What's toga guy's name?" Willow asked. "He looks very Giles-y, doesn't he?"

Spike glanced back over his shoulder. "He does, didn't notice." Snorting to himself, "His name is Crispinus Scribonius Tiberius. Crispinus is his given name, Scribonius is his family name, and Tiberius is his nickname. Call him that."

"So do you know what's going to happen to us? Where are we staying? We don't have any money!" Anya was nearing frantic.

"He says we can stay with him in his villa," he indicated the large house with a nod

"Just like that?" Xander asked, trying to be civil in front of Buffy. "He doesn't even know us."

"Romans have a policy of hospitality, think the gods or whatever will reward them for it," he answered. "'Sides, there's a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Buffy asked.

"Well, you don't speak Latin for one."

"Oh."

"And the other, we would draw too much attention from the servants. We're very suspicious, pet." He looked at her with kind eyes that she promptly looked away from.

"W-Well, anything unusual usually draws the attention of the servants," Tara pointed out, fingering the hem of her blouse nervously.

"Love, it isn't exactly respectable for a lady to be travelling alone without a related male, so to fix this problem, I told him that demon girl and the whelp are married. Told him that the Slayer and Nibblet are sisters, and you girls are together." He ran a pale hand through slightly curling hair, still a little uncomfortable in the sunlight.

"You told him what? Is that even legal?" Willow asked.

He smirked, pleased with himself. "Look, you girls will just have to make do with the living arrangements. You only have to share a room to sleep. And, of course, Red, the Romans openly accepted homosexuality. It was pretty common, especially among men although I don't know the hell why."

"What about you?" Xander asked. "If Anya and I are together, and Willow and Tara are together, where do you fit in? You look nothing like any of us, so you can't say you're a weird older brother or something." He grinned. Maybe they could ditch him.

Spike fidgeted. "You'll probably be mad, pet," Spike said cautiously, "but it's not like I want this arrangement either."

"Spit it out," Buffy narrowed her eyes. Spike was up to something.

"I told him we're married." The words came out in a rush as Spike steeled himself for a blow.

Instead, he was met with wide, frightened eyes. "What?"

"I said I told him we're married. Pet, it's just a coverup, and he would expect you to be married by now. Most girls here married at fourteen." He gave himself a mental kick. "Look, would you rather I said I was married to Dawn?"

"I can't believe you did that!" Xander roared. "You could have said you were a-a servant or something!" He was beyond pissed now.

"I am not the bloody servant! A servant wouldn't be bilingual you stupid sod!" Spike glared. "So deal."

"No, that's it, Deadboy, Jr.," Xander shot back, "As soon as I find a stake, you are so gonna fit into a mini-vac."

Spike lifted a scarred eyebrow at him. "Well that's just too bad, bricklayer."

"What are you talking about?" His fist clenched.

"I'm the only one who can speak Latin here, at least fluently. So you're stuck with me." He smirked.

"Guys, cut it out," Dawn cut in, "Giles the second is looking."

"You mean Tiberius?" Tara pointed out.

"Whatever," Buffy said. "I'll do it. We just have to share a room?" Spike nodded. "Fine. But this doesn't mean that things between us are any different."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Slayer," Spike sneered. Without another word, he turned back to Tiberius.

The old man smiled as he was spoken to, slightly graying whiskers turning upward. Gesturing to the rest, he started for the villa, speaking to Spike the entire time.

Spike glanced back and translated for them. "He says we'll be given four cubiculum. That's a bedroom."

"Four?" Dawn asked, then, "Oh. One each for every couple with one left over. I get my own room? Wicked." She grinned to herself, and Tiberius laughed as if he could understand what she was saying just by her facial expressions.

"Don't get your hopes up, Nibblet. The only thing you do in your room is sleep." She rolled her eyes in response. "We're in the atrium," he announced as the rest looked at the shrubbery-lined walkway. "This is just the entrance to the house."

"House?" Anya said off to the side. "More like mansion. This man is really rich."

They walked through a pair of large heavy doors into a much larger room. There was a big hole in the middle of the roof as well as a pool in the middle of the room beneath it surrounded by marble columns.

"Whoa," Willow breathed. "A swimming pool in the middle of a mansion."

Spike chuckled. "That's the impluvium. It's meant to catch rain water."

"Darn," Xander replied sarcastically. "I was hoping to catch you offguard and give you a little push."

"Sod off."

They continued on through the entire villa, Spike naming rooms as they came to them. The taberna was near the front entrance. Those were the shops used to sell goods the servants made. The triclinium, or the dining room, was situated next to the culina, or the kitchen. In the dining room, there was a table surrounded by three lounge couches. Each couch fit three. The lararium was a room-shrine dedicated to the penates, or the household gods. This room was next to the latrina, the bathroom at which Dawn immediately wrinkled her nose due to the replacement of toilet paper with a sponge. Separated from the main building was a bath house with hot running water. Towards the middle of the villa was the peristylum, the garden that everyone immediately marveled at. It seemed like the entire house was built around the open-air space complete with an aviary full of foreign and exotic birds.

"He must be really rich, An," Xander muttered to his fiance.

Finally, they came to a rather large study, the tablinum. Tiberius gave them a grave expression, dark brown eyes turning even darker, before telling Spike that they had to stay out of it. Then, he called four servants, Justinus, Servius, Fulva, and Messalina, to show them to their rooms and bring them clothes to wear. They were directed to four rooms adjacent to one another and handed a buncle of clothes each but not with several odd looks.

None of the rooms had a door, but a thick piece of cloth was strung across the doorway on a rope just as the windows. There was a large chest at the foot of each bed full of garments, and the beds, in all actuality, weren't beds at all. They were reclining couches with a couple throw pillows and beautifully woven blankets.

"Hey, Spike," Xander said, sounding confused. "How come I don't have a toga? I got this dress thing instead." He held it out with two fingers. He had a garment that looked like a long t-shirt that would stop just above his knees. He held a leather belt, leather sandals, and a hunting knife with sheath in the other hand-just the same as Spike.

"We don't get to wear togas, you whelp. We're not citizens. Don't they teach you anything in school?" he glared.

"I didn't take Latin!" Xander protested. "Which would explain why I can't speak it either."

"Hey, Anya, why don't you speak Latin?" Tara asked curiously.

"I haven't spoken it for a long time. I'm very rusty, and I'm sure my accent has gotten atrocious," she answered. Tara nodded in understanding.

Frowning down at the clothes in her hands, "Everyone just go change."

The one of the servant girls touched her on the shoulder. It was the one with the blonde hair. Fulva. She spoke to her, and Buffy looked to Spike for help.

"She wants to know if you need help dressing, luv," he told her.

"Oh." Buffy's could feel her cheeks heating. "No, but thank you."

Rolling his eyes, Spike told the girl, "Minime, sed gratias tibi ago." The girl smiled and nodded before padding off silently.

As they entered their small room, Spike pulled his black t-shirt over his head, revealing a pale chest. He stopped and looked over. "What?"

"Never seen you in the sun before," she quickly covered.

"Right. We need to figure that out, too." He gave her a knowing grin. She looked away as he continued to strip down.

The room was quite simple, very cube-like in shape. It's walls were covered in red and golden hued frescoes of Diana, the virgin huntress, goddess of the moon, and Apollo, archer god as well as patron of musicians. The room provided a warm glow from the translucent curtains strung across the single window. There was a single torch in one wall as well as a candle on a small table near the door. Then, she looked down in dismay at her clothes. Placing the material on the trunk, she put the shoes on the floor. She picked up one garment, and turned it over in her hands, dreading more and more.

Buffy looked back up as soon as Spike had finished belting the dagger around his waist. The tunica stopped just above his knees, and he sat down on the bed to tie his sandals before noticing Buffy standing there. "Are you gonna change or what? Do you want me to turn around now, Slayer?"

She shifted uncomfortably before muttering. "I don't know how."

"What's that, luv?"

Oh, so they were back to pet names, she thought wryly. "I don't know how," she said again louder. "I looked at them, and they confuse me. There's so many layers."

Spike chuckled to himself. "Here. I'll help." He took the material from her. "Take your clothes off."

"What?!"

"So you can change, Buffy. I don't think you can wear this over your jeans." He rolled his eyes.

"Oh." Shyly, she pulled her shirt off followed by her shoes and pants.

"You can keep your bra and knickers on," he told her, giving himself a mental kick. "Now, come here." She approached timidly, and he pulled a dress over her head, closing it at her shoulders with two gold pins and belting it around her waist with a thin rope. Then, he pulled another dress over her head, but this on was rather frumpy and looked like a tanktop that was twenty sizes too large for her.

"I really don't like this," Buffy said to break the silence. "It's too hot."

"Well," Spike answered. "You really don't have a choice but to wear the tunica, but I don't think you have to wear the stola around the house." He pulled the ugly tanktop dress off, mussing her hair. Then, taking her hand, he set her down on the bed, kneeling before her. He took one of her feet and placed it in a soft leather sandal, lacing it up around her ankles. He repeated the process with the other foot before grabbing his own sandals and putting them on. He reached over to the trunk, folding their clothes silently and making some room for them. Then, he pulled out a smaller box, pulling out a hair pin and handed it to her. "Put your hair up," he ordered her.

"Why?" she asked even as she pulled her hair back.

"You wear your hair up when you're married." He glanced down at her with cerulean eyes. "Some people couldn't afford rings." He grabbed his duster off the end of the bed, searching the inside pockets. He pulled out a rather old ring. It was an antique by the looks of it, a ruby flanked on either side by small diamonds. "But here. To make it more believable."

"You steal that?" Buffy asked, teasing as she slipped the ring on.

He flinced involuntarily. "That was my mother's, Slayer. Always carry it around with me," he ground out.

"Oh, Spike ..." Buffy began, reaching a hand out to him.

He abruptly stood. "Let's go." She reluctantly followed him out into the hallway to meet with the others.

***

That's it for now. I was planning on making it longer, but I figured it was long enough. More installments will come quickly depending on reviews. They're my fuel. :)

Evangeline

Nos: In response to your review, all the times I've heard this saying used, it was never "ad astra per aspera" although that would make just as much sense. "To the stars by the hard ways" would also work as a loose translation for the saying you heard, but it isn't as correct as the one I'm using.
If you're curious, I'll break the quote I'm using down for you (Per aspera ad astra, through the thorns to the stars.) I'm almost finished with my fourth year of Latin, and I'm pretty positive that my translation is correct.
"per aspera:"
First of all, per means "through," not "by." The only way this could be translated as "by" is if the form aspero (the ablative form) was used. However, aspero is not a possibility because per takes the accusative case (this case means that the word is the direct object).
Aspera is the accusative plural form of the word asperum, -i. Asperum is most commonly used as a rough place (which is probably the translation you heard), but Livy once used asperum as a thorn, and it is most likely that this saying comes comes from poetry seeing how Livy was a poet. More proof is the "a" sound alliteration with aspera and astra used often in poetry.
"ad astra:"
Second, ad does mean "to," and it also takes the accusative case. Astra is the accusative plural form of astrum, -i, and as you know, it means "stars."
So, if you used your saying "Ad astra per aspera" with your meaning of asperum, it should be translated "To the stars through the rough places."
Hope this answers your question. :)