To Sydney (and please, leave your email address next time!): I appreciate your review because you seem to have spent quite a while thinking about my story. But please, don't take this fic too seriously, it's only meant to be entertaining.

Just some remarks:

- Anya is one of my favourite characters, I would never bash her

- As I pointed out in the first chapter, the story takes place in early Season 5, after "Buffy vs. Dracula" or even more appropriately, after "Real Me", that means: Giles has just bought the Magic Box, but Anya doesn't work there yet. I think Anya still is self-centred, shallow and sex-obsessed at this point. I agree that her character develops in S 5, but not until mid-Season or so.

- And anyway, if she weren't one-dimensional in this fic, there wouldn't even be a point to this fic, would there? I mean, the story is about her most distinctive character trait (being very frank and direct) and the way the other Scoobies behave when being "infected" with it!

But let's skip the pleasantries… on with story.

Chapter 3 – Chickens come home to roost

When Willow and Tara entered the Magic Box, they were confronted by the most unusual sight: Dawn was sitting on the floor, books strewn around her. A heavy-looking tome was lying in her lap and she seemed to be reading it very thoroughly. When Willow approached the girl, she could see that the books weren't textbooks as she had suspected.

"Dawnie, what are you doing with Giles's spell books? Some of them could be dangerous, you know!" Willow exclaimed in surprise.

But Dawn didn't even look up, but started humming some tune all of a sudden.

Tara, who had joined Willow, tried another approach to get Dawn's attention. "Sweetie, I don't think Giles and Buffy would be very happy if…," she started, but couldn't finish her sentence because Dawn's humming had reached a volume that drowned Tara's voice.

"I can't hear you, la la la, you're not even here, dumdeedum," Dawn sing-songed, putting her fingers into her ears.

Willow became angry. "Stop that!" she yelled in order to be heard over Dawn's singing. But Dawn seemed to find it very amusing to ignore the two witches. Willow sighed, and with grin, looked at Tara, who grinned back mischievously. She had immediately gotten Willow's message. There was one thing that always worked to break through Dawn's teenage stubbornness: tickling.

So they both attacked Dawn's ribcage with their hands. The girl was forced to take her fingers out of her ears to defend herself, and instead of singing, she was now giggling helplessly. But Willow and Tara hadn't quite expected her reaction as soon as they stopped tickling her. Dawn looked furious.

"That's so unfair! Isn't it enough that you can do magic and I can't? Do you also have to take advantage of my weaknesses?" she hissed. "And honestly, tickling? How lame is that?" She rolled her eyes to emphasize her point.

"O-kay", Willow said slowly, in a voice that clearly said: 'I don't know what the hell's wrong with you, but I think I'll just move away slowly and cautiously'.

Since talking to Dawn seemed to be quite the unrewarding affair, Willow whispered to Tara instead, "This is really strange. Buffy wouldn't have let Dawn alone in the Magic Box. And where's Giles anyway?"

Before Tara could say something, Dawn yelled, "He's acting like a prima donna again!" and pointed towards the counter.

And, indeed, Giles just looked like a typical sulking teenager. He had obviously taken a chair and put it behind the counter; now he sat there, his arms crossed in front of his chest and wore a very sullen expression.

They cautiously approached him.

"Er… Mr Giles?" Tara ventured.

"Would you mind? I'm having a sulk here!" Giles said angrily.

"Yeah, we guessed that much. But why?" Willow asked.

But Giles didn't seem to really answer her, but rather muttered to himself, "Nobody treats me with the respect I deserve. These bloody colonials are all ill-bred pillocks. In England, adolescents at least know to behave properly in presence of adults."

Willow tried to interrupt his rant and said, "That's not what you told us to come here for, is it? 'Cause, you know, when you called we were just…"

"No! I don't want to hear about any indecencies!" Giles said authoritatively, standing up in outrage.

"… preparing for an exam", Willow finished her sentence. "Giles, get your mind out of the gutter!" But the ex-librarian was already heading toward the bookshelves, presumably to get the bottle of Scotch he always hid behind a particularly large and uninteresting looking book.

Suddenly the door to the training room opened and Xander and Anya emerged. It was evident that they had made a temporary truce – Xander was buttoning up his shirt, while Anya was trying to straighten her dress, which looked fairly rumpled.

"What've you been doing?" Willow asked, but her expression showed quite clearly that she already knew the answer.

"We've just had sex," Anya supplied.

Xander added, "On the horse. And, you know, hon", he said proudly to Anya, "I think your sneezing in irregular intervals put a whole new dimension to it!"

"Huh?" Willow looked at Tara, hoping she might supply an explanation for Xander's weird remark.

"Maybe she's allergic to something", suggested Tara helpfully.

Willow gave her an exasperated look. "That is so not the point, sweetie! Don't you see that Xander's talking like Anya? Wait a sec… I remember something… an aspect of the demon…"

But just then, the front door was opened with a loud bang. Buffy entered, dragging a very pissed-off looking Spike after her. Both of them were soaking wet. Spike's hair had curled up from the wetness, making him look rather cute and clashing horribly with the expression of anger on his face. He was holding his nose with one hand and trying to smooth his hair with other, though without much success.

"Look what I found lurking around the corner!" Buffy announced, shoving Spike to the table and sitting him down forcefully onto one of the chairs.

"Bloody hell, woman, what did you have to hit me on the nose for? I told you I'd give you information in exchange for cash!"

"Oh come on, spoilsport, everyone deserves to have some fun during their job!" she answered, obviously incredulous that Spike grudged her one of her life's few pleasures.

Spike raised his eyebrows in surprise at Buffy's answer. It was just too… honest.

"Why did you bring the evil undead here? I thought Giles and Dawn were emitting enough bad vibrations to poison the atmosphere in this room," Xander said scathingly.

"Shut up!" Giles and Dawn yelled in unison, interrupting their respective activities: Dawn was browsing through "Darkest Magick" and evidently taking notes on a piece of paper, while Giles was sitting on the floor, leaning against one of the bookshelves and nursing his bottle of Scotch.

Ignoring their interjection, Buffy answered, "I figured if someone knew who was wreaking havoc in Sunnydale again, it would be Spike. It's always like that", she added, shrugging casually.

"Actually, Buffy, I've got a theory what could be causing this. Do you remember when…" Willow began, but the Slayer seemed to have other things on her mind.

She sat down next to the vampire and gave him an intense, scrutinizing look. "You know, Spike, there's something I've wanted to ask you for ages…"

Tbc…

What has Buffy been wondering secretly about Spike? And does Willow hold the key to all this confusion? Any guesses?

Find out next time! And *clears throat* I just want to mention that reviews turn out to be quite the inspiration for me…