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"He Met My Eyes Across An Empty Room..."
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*********

"Um, Dawn, are you reading this?"

"Yeah. They really expect us to sign this shit?"

"Dawnie, language," Buffy muttered, following a footnote to section 38aII.

"Buffy, I'm nineteen years old. You don't get to say that anymore." She flipped ahead to page 31, and scanned it. "...Are you reading this??"

The door burst open. "Don't sign!"

"No kidding." Buffy looked up. Xander, the semi~normal one, was back, this time with...

...He looked exactly like all the posters. The hair, the clothes, it was like he'd stepped off an album cover. Oh God oh God. "Spike," she identified.

"Vocalist," he replied, eying her slim form up and down. To bad she was still seated.

"Buffy Summers," she corrected him, cocking her head slightly to take in the red t-shirt and black jeans. Oh wow. I want that coat. She stood up and reached over to do the traditional hand-shaking ritual one generaally follows in such a situation as this.

He reciprocated the handshake automatically, while his eyes followed a path similar to her own, taking in her designated black/leather 'audition outfit.'

"...righ'." There was a moment full of nothing but slowly bobbing hands. "...Buffy, you said?"

"Yeah..."

"And I'm Dawn."

The two simultaneously realised they were still holding hands, and broke apart with an embarrassed cough. Spike shook himself and redirected his attention to the other gorgeous woman in the room, who was now standing at his side.

"Dawn?" he repeated intelligently. "So you'll be the drummer, then?"

She nodded to confirm his uncanny skills of deductive reasoning. "Buffy's boyfriend taught me how," she elaborated, ignoring the perplexed look the blonde shot her behind Spike's back.

A bit of the glaze faded from Spike's expression. "Oh. That was certainly nice of him."

Xander clapped. Again. "Okeydokey, glad we're all aquainted now. Girls, I'm gonna see if I can get the photographer lined up for tomorrow morning-ish. We need to get some shots done, for t-shirts and the web page and whatnot, so it looks like we planned this thing. Schedule's gonna be downright wacky the next few days. That work for you two?"

Buffy nodded.

Dawn snapped her fingers. "I have a thing." --Buffy elbowed her, as discreetly as possible.-- "But I can cancel," she amended quickly

"Great. I'll see what I can do about that." he surveyed their outfits. "I dunno if she'll want you to have a change, or what. It should be only a few shots, but you never know how long that could last. Also," he said, just remembering. "We had a rehearsal scheduled for the day after tomorrow, so you'll need to show for that. Dawn, we'll get you a set list so ou can find your parts on the cds, but you can probably fake it until you get it figured out." The girl nodded.

Xander turned to her sister. "Buffy, you said you knew most of the songs on the set; you'll be able to perform it by Thursday?"

"Absolutely," she said. "As long as it hasn't changed."

"It probably will," he admitted. "There's a couple we'll have to pull and replace, because it's no good for you to sing about beautiful women making your heart ache. Not that there's anything wrong with that," he hastily amended. "Just, it's a good thing most of our songs are about how much we hate society, or we'd be in some trouble."

There were nods pretty much all around. The silence stretched on. Xander glanced at Spike, who had gone a bit slack and glaze-eyed. He followed his line of sight, then beat him on the back.

"Okay, well, just wanted to bring Spike by to meet you, and ...keep you from signing our insurance contract. We'll have a better one by the rehearsal, and you can get your lawyers or whatever to go over it, as long as they have it done by tour time. Oh! Since you're still here--"

Spike stopped paying attention to the conversation and attempted to discreetly ogle the blonde before him. So. Much. Leather...

Dawn smiled, glanced at her sister's slightly glazed expression, and answered for both of them. "Great! Should we wander around until we find them, or what? And what time tomorrow?"

Buffy tuned out as Xander and Dawn worked out the details. She was probably staring, but... She was almost positive that he was, too. Maybe she should smi--Did he just wink at me?

Spike panicked when he saw Buffy shake herself. Did I actually wink at her? Oh, shit. He abrupty turned to pay careful attention to the scheduling process.

Which had just ended.

Dawn grabbed her sister's arm. "Okay, Buffy. Let's go."

The older girl allowed herself to be pulled from the room. Just as the door shut behind them, the two men heard, "Where are we going?"

Spike started to the door. "We should walk them out."

His brown-haired friend put out an arm to stop him. "Ah, let's be wacky and not." He raised an eyebrow. "What're you doing, Spike?"

"'S polite. Don't wan'em to get lost in 'ere."

"Really." Xander did the manly hand on each shoulder thing. "Spike, I'm saying this once. Well, if I have to, I'll repeat it, but for now, just the once, so listen: Band members are off limits. If a doomed relationship between you and one of the oh-so-tempting new additions to the group leads to tensions, nay, unto the break-up of the band, which provides us all with the monies which pay for things like food and rent... That will be a bad day. Don't do it. Besides. It's not like you don't have a girlfriend already."

** ** **
More hallways. More walking.

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"You know what."

"I don't know what!"

"The 'oh, take me now, you sexy, sexy rocker' what."

"I was not!"

"Don't give me that Libra bullshit, Buffy. How could you even think about it??"

"I wasn't thinking about it," Buffy lied.

Dawn favored her with a look that hadn't changed in five years.

Buffy squirmed in her seat. "I wasn't!"

Dawn sighed. "Buffy, do you remember what it was like when we couldn't find jobs?"

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah? It was yesterday?"

"Do you want to go back there?"

"No..."

"So don't make puppy eyes at our new boss!"

"I wasn't--!"

"Buffy, if you break his heart, we'll be out. If he breaks your heart, I know you'll run and hide, and I'll have to quit too, on principle. Either way, we'll be out on the street again." She thought for a second. "But not in the hooker sense."

"Dawn, don't you think you're being a little premature? I just met him!"

"Yeah, but I know you've been fantasizing --turn here-- about him for three years, and oh, by the way, he's taken. Now's the time to nip the spark in the bud, before it has time to really ...blossom. Or flame, or whatever," Dawn trailed off, having confused herself with her own mixed metaphor.

"No spark!" Buffy protesred

There was that look again.

"You know, when you turn twenty next month, you won't be able to use that sarcastic-teenager look on me anymore."

"Wanna bet?"

**** ****

Cantaloupe don't bounce.

~Star Mouse

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