Disclaimer: They aren't mine, they aren't Joss'. They belong to the little pixie who whispers the secrets of the universe in my ear. The answer to the question of life is Salted peanuts, you know.
Last time, on Crushed: Willow woke up from her spell and found out about William. William woke up and thought Giles was crazy. Then Buffy showed up. That whole sequence of events involved chains and ice cream and prostitution, Oh My! Now that my Wizard of Oz moment is over, we can move on. Buffy and William had called a truce as we last left off, Spike was bitter that he had nothing and no-one, Giles was frustrated with Buffy and William, Willow was confusticated, let's see what happens next...
Don't judge a past by it's present...
Alexander Lavelle Harris, Xander to his friends [none of whom knew about the Lavelle section of is name] was absolutely confused. He had come to the emergency Scooby meeting fully expecting some new creature feature, and what does he get? Pretty much nothing. No bad guy's, other than Glory. Who they can't fight. Heaving out a sigh, Xander asked the inevitable question.
"So why are we here? I mean, I love the wacky, insane research as much as the next guy - well, unless that guy happens to be Giles who seems to have a relationship with his books that is a little too happy, if you ask me - but if there's nothing to research..." Xander trailed off quietly as none of the other Scooby's shared his confusion.
That was just great. He was the last one in on the know again. Here he is, working his butt off in the construction business and his girlfriend, Anya, doesn't even bother to inform him that there was news. Not that Xander felt inadequate at all. A carpenter is a fine thing to be. Just because he was friends with two witches, an ex-demon, a Watcher with a vast knowledge of demonology and a Slayer didn't mean he was worried about his own usefulness. Not at all.
Just as Giles, Anya, Buffy and Willow all opened their mouth to give Xander some warning about the reason for the unscheduled meeting, the reason wandered out of the back room. He was a young man, maybe only a little older than Xander himself. He was just on the short side of average, unremarkable hair, dinky little glasses. But there was something about his face that made Xander squint until...
"Spike? What the hell happened to you?" Xander asked, stifling a giggle. He looked around quickly to gauge the awareness of the others to Spike's new appearance. He saw a slight grin on Buffy's face, a twinned look of embarrassment on Willow and Tara's, a look of resigned indignity on Giles -Xander only recognised this from repeated exposure- and one of confused outrage on Spike's.
"Why does everyone insist on calling me Spike?" Spike asked. Xander blinked. Actually, come to think of it, Spike seemed an awful lot like Giles. He sounded more like him too. Looking more closely at the vampire, the carpenter noticed several things. Outside of the overall body language that just screamed nerd, the only visible thing different about him was the scar that was usually in his eyebrow was missing. Giving the world his 'huh?' face, Xander waited for the obviously Hellmouthy explanation. This time it was Giles who did the honours.
"Xander, this is not Spike. At Buffy's insistence, I'll make this short. A spell went wrong, William was brought to the future. William is Spike one week before he was turned. History will not be effected in any way." Giles recited monotonously. Xander just stared at this almost Spike. "William, this is Xander, a friend of ours."
Xander nodded amiably, if cautiously -after all, this guy did turn into Spike- and offered his hand for the other man to shake. William just looked at his hand, shocked, for about a second before smiling hesitantly and shaking his hand tentatively. Xander was utterly shocked.
This was Spike? This depressingly nerdy guy in the severely outdated clothes, who looked amazed that someone would offer to shake his hands? He made Xander and Willow's nerd days in high school appear to be the glamorous life of rockstars. And he turned into the brash, arrogant, smart-assed vampire that is Spike?
"Um, I'm terribly sorry but I only came out to see if there's any more of that delightful melted chocolate. I- if that doesn't put anybody out. I don't want to be a bother. I'm watching the most fabulous program on the television, and it was a... commercial break, did you call them? That Passions is the most amazing show. They have this little guy called Timmy..."
William was thoroughly confused. After meeting Xander, who seemed an exceedingly odd fellow even in his new world of strange things, he had grabbed another hot chocolate and almost sprinted back to the television so he didn't miss Passions. If even half the shows on the television were anywhere near that entertaining, then it was quite possibly the greatest invention ever.
After Passions, he had wandered out to sit with the others. To his immense surprise, most of them just smiled at him. William had decided that, with a few exceptions, he liked this time much better. He missed exactly two things from his time. His mother, who was stuck in the past, and his love, his inspiration and his muse, Cecily. That hurt most of all. He had decided the night before he arrived in Sunnydale that he would tell Cecily how he felt at the Ashcroft party that was scheduled for next week.
But in this time, there were people other than his mother who wanted his company. William had no idea what they were saying for a large part of it, but it was nice to be included. While they had sat together around the big table in the Magic Box, Xander had looked at William and made an offhand comment about no longer being the worst dressed Scooby, but despite the mocking words, William doubted that Xander had any of the contempt he had faced from his peers at home.
Of course, this comment set the women of the group into a flurry of excitement. They had repeatedly mentioned the word 'mall', and when Xander had groaned, William had asked what the word meant.
"The greatest horror a man could possibly face." Xander had replied grimly. William was inclined to agree. He was in the middle of what seemed to be a tailor's shop, only all the clothes seemed premade. As William understood it, the clothes were made prior to being bought, and you had to find the size that fit you.
His confusion came into place as he heard three of the four women -Willow, Buffy and Anya- argue about what kind of clothes he should be wearing. Xander had begged off earlier in the day, and William was beginning to see why. To be perfectly honest, William did not understand what was so wrong with his current attire.
"I still say he should dress more like Spike. Spike is very pleasingly formed and William would be just as pleasant to stare at and fantasize about in black." That had to be Anya, William decided with a blush spreading across his cheeks. Times had certainly changed if a woman like her was so widely accepted.
"That image is wrong on so many levels Anya. First of all, Spike is not pleasing on the eyes. With his bleached hair and 'I'm a bad boy, ask me how" attitude he is very unappealing. What we should do with William is get him into some colourful clothes, maybe see if he can get a bit of a tan. I mean, I thought you were supposed to get paler when you became a vampire, not stay the same colour-"
"I think we should get him some really colourful things." Willow cut Buffy off, mercifully to William's mind. Buffy seemed a touch... shallow. "We should expose William to us many new things as possible-' William shrank into himself as the debate raged on.
Anya seemed intent on getting William into leather and silk clothing, which seemed perfectly respectable to William, on the pretence of 'it inspires sexual activity', which had William blushing redder than he had at any time except when he had first tried to speak to Cecily.
Buffy seemed equally determined to get him into clothes that were 'cool', whatever that word meant. William was quite sure she didn't mean temperature, but William could see no other meaning for the word. Her ideals seemed to involve those pants that William had seen on Rupert when he had first awoken.
Willow, just as fanatic in her standpoint as the others, seemed intent on dressing William as some sort of gypsy, with bright, garish clothes that William would never have expected to see outside of an actor's troop.
William was getting slightly worried, as the women continued to argue. The only other person still with them was Tara, who William had found to be delightful company. She was very intelligent and she had read many of the same works as William. Rupert had begged off this little excursion saying someone needed to watch the shop, and Xander had said there was an emergency at work.
"They m-might seem a bit much, but they're really very nice." The blonde stuttered. Endearingly, William thought. He had decided that Tara was the nicest of the ladies because she was both intelligent and at least what passed for modest in this terribly scandalous age. He still turned scarlet when he saw some women walking about. Their manner of dress was positively indecent!
"That is true, without a doubt. They have known me for all of a day and they are more my friends than those who knew me my entire life. It is just that I am having some trouble adjusting. The noise is... oppressive." William states quietly, afraid his admission would lose the modicum of respect he seemed to get with the others. To his immense relief, Tara just nodded in agreement and went to whisper in Willow's ear.
Buffy lead the group back to her house after their trip to the mall. They had modernised William, and he scrubbed up well. Very well. He'd almost be yummy, if not for him being Spike. Or Spike previously having been him. However that thing worked.
Buffy had won the debate as to which style they should dress him in, with a single concession to Anya in the form of leather pants packed in one of the bags. They had placated Willow by allowing her to pick his glasses with him. For some bizarre reason he had refused contact lenses out of hand, murmuring something in British-speak that made Giles sound positively liberal.
But now William really was almost edible. His blue jeans, white t-shirt and blue long-sleeved shirt brought out the blue in his eyes, which were framed with a tasteful pair of black-rimmed glasses. Instead of making him look geeky, they made him appear distinguished. His new hairstyle was cut short and spiked - ironically, considering the name he took only a few weeks after this William was brought to the future/present- in a very similar fashion to Angel.
They'd even convinced him to allow tips. Of course, they told him it was a very common masculine ritual that was practised by all males in today's age, but considering how 'sexually exciting', to coin a phrasing from Anya which had made him blush like a catholic schoolgirl, Buffy felt that she and the others would be allowed that little lie.
Now William was standing in the kitchen of Casa de Summers looking very nervous. But then he always looked nervous. It was really kinda cute, like a little puppy. Giving William the once-over yet again, she decided she had been right. Spike would look much better in colours.
Buffy froze, and felt her 'deer-in-headlights' impression coming on. Where had that thought come from? William was very good looking, one might go so far as to say gorgeous, but Spike? Spike was an evil, disgusting, soulless vampire who listened to punk music, bleached his hair and wore nothing but black and red! In no world do the words Spike and attractive even come close to connecting.
"W- would it be too much trouble to make some of that hot chocolate? It really is quite delightful." William asked in a hopeful tone, his faintly nervous puppy face just making Buffy want to melt and go 'awww'. Giving him a beaming smile, Buffy nodded her agreement. The tentative smile she got in return was her reward.
Busying herself in the kitchen, Buffy was almost shocked when she came out with the hot chocolates to find Anya trying to convince William to model his new leather pants and nothing else. Almost shocked; Anya is Anya after all. William had been positively mortified when he found out the nature of leather pants in this day and age.
Buffy smiled, refusing to help the young man as he stuttered and blushed his way through a conversation with Anya, his Victorian sensibilities making him turn deep crimson at almost every statement from Anya. Buffy's ears pricked up slightly when she heard the front door open.
Her fourteen-year-old sister, Dawn Summers, who was also only several months old, wandered into the kitchen. The confusing thing was that she was also the Key, mystical energy as old as time hidden in the form of a sister to the Slayer so she would protect it. Buffy wasn't sure how to take all that, but all her memories said Dawn was her sister and she felt like her sister, therefore she is her sister.
Dawn looked at William in confusion for a second, which gave way to rage, which gave way to confusion as she saw Buffy, Willow and Anya [Tara had left to go to a class] sitting with him and chatting. The conflict of emotions passing over her face was impressive for a fourteen year old. Hell, it'd be impressive on anybody.
Dawn's eyes widened as she came to the conclusion that Spike had been forgiven, seeing as she didn't know William even existed. Buffy shuddered as she remembered it was Dawn's crush on the bleached vampire that had made Buffy aware of Spike's feelings. At least, before he chained her to a wall and professed his love then threatened to feed her to Drusilla.
However, Buffy, and everyone else, were shocked at Dawn's next action, none more so than William himself. Dawn launched herself at what she thought was the vampire like a little human cannonball, her arms wrapping around his waist in a friendly hug, which Buffy suspected was a discreet attempt to cop a feel.
"Spike! It's good to see you. I've missed you."
William looked down at the girl who'd wrapped her arms around his waist with the deepest blush yet then looked up at Buffy, appealing for Buffy's aid in getting rid of the small creature attached to his hip.
A/N: I am fully aware that this seems out of character for Dawn. Wait and see, I think I have a decent explanation. If not you can alwasy abuse me by reviewing. Come on people, reviews make the world go 'round. Well, actually there's some complex maths involving gravity and mass that make the world go 'round, but other than those it is reviews.