A/N: Well, this time the response was a little better. I'm writing an Angel fiction that coincides with this one. The first chapter of that will roughly equal this chapter in this. It will not be necessary to read that to continue to understand this, but it may explain large plot points in the not-too-distant future. Remember to keep reviewing. Oh, yeah. I'm also thinking about adding to Crushed. Instead of doing another fic, I'll just insert some chapters into the middle of that. All the extra, emotional stuff? Scrap that. People want the funny and the sexing. I did a survey. I even asked a person. And again, I am thanking my lurvely betas, Ultrawoman and Ezekeiel Rage. Just because. I didn't give this chapter to them for betaing. I'm trying to keep up with a deadline for myself, so blame the shoddy quality on my putting this off too late.
Disclaimer: So I violated some federal mail. Is that a crime? Oh. Right. Well, is it anything we haven't all done sixteen, seventeen times in our life? No?… uh oh….
XXX
Make the puppets dance
"Welcome to the Magic Bo-- oh, it's you," Anya finished glumly, the smile sliding off her face immediately.
Giles suppressed a wry smile. "Slow day?"
"Yes. It's depressing," Anya complained. "The only people who've been in all day are Will and his little friend."
"Will had a friend over?" Giles asked, pleased that the boy was finally starting to make friends on his own.
"Yes. They went out to get something to eat but Will said he'd be back in time for today's training." Anya supplied, scribbling absently in one of her large books.
"Oh. I forgot that he wanted to pick up an extra day. I've already said Buffy and Spike could use the space," Giles worried, before muttering darkly, "although Lord only knows how much training will actually get done with those two in there alone."
"Where were you today?" Anya finally asked. Clearly the boredom had made her desperate if she were inquiring after his whereabouts.
"I was actually doing a little early Christmas shopping," Giles informed her while putting away a stack of books left on the table by some customer or other. "And before you ask, no, you cannot have yours now."
Giles smiled softly as he heard Anya grumbling, thankfully too lowly to catch more than 'crotchety', 'old' and 'rabies'. After packing the books away, Giles pulled one of the larger demon anthologies down and began to browse through it. After all, it never hurt to have some idea of what was in the books as it helped speed up research parties considerably when he could find a useful book straight away.
The Watcher quickly became immersed in the book, one of the few written in English in the entire store, and he was startled out of it abruptly by a large clatter coming from the training room, followed by a mischievous giggle. Sighing, Giles put the book down and walked to the connecting door and poked his head through.
It was as he'd suspected. Taking off his glasses and cleaning the lenses, Giles just raised one eyebrow in the vicinity of the pair. He felt he was being very mature about Buffy and Spike's… relationship, especially considering how bad an idea he thought it was, but he very sincerely did not need to see Buffy straddling the vampire, who'd fallen over one of the weapon racks, with his hand both up her shirt and her hands up his.
"Uhh, we were just training?" Buffy asked hopefully, slugging her boyfriend in the arm when he sniggered. Giles shook his head and returned to his book, wincing when he heard the Slayer hiss, "How the hell did you get this undone so fast?"
"Impressed?" was the vampire's retort. He sounded insufferably smug and he didn't even have the modicum of respect that it would take to lower his voice.
Picking up his book again, Giles was unsure as to be relieved by the grunts and thuds coming from the training room or not. The phone rang shrilly, startling him again.
"Hello, the Magic Box, your one stop shop for all your magical needs. This is Anya speaking, how can I help you?" the ex-demon chirped in the background. "Hesbocupous? Yes, I think I can help you with that. Just a moment." Anya gestured sharply at Giles, managing to express disturbingly clearly her message of, 'watch for customers or else I'll be forced to wreak vengeance on you'.
Just as Anya disappeared into the stock room, discussing the sale as animatedly as she did her wedding, the door opened and in came William, chatting cheerily with a slim girl almost as tall as him.
"-it actually increases your IQ while you're listening to it. I believe it has something to do with the meter being based on the Fibonacci sequence," William was informing his rapt listener, before noting Giles. "Oh, Beth. I'd like you to meet someone."
"Hey Rupes," Spike called out as he entered he shop proper. "We've had a little accident in there and…" The vampire trailed off as he noticed William, Giles and Beth standing a little way away. Giles watched as the young woman looked at Spike, blinked, then looked at William. It was obvious why. Apart from the bleached hair, which was tousled from whatever he and Buffy had been doing in the training room, and his black clothing, he was almost exactly the same as William. Everyone froze.
"Is that…" Beth began tentatively, "your brother?"
"Uh, yeah," Spike drawled uncertainly, glancing at the other two men in the room before nodding towards the girl. "Name's Spike." Obviously believing the matter resolved he then proceeded to ignore it. "Ru- Dad…?" Spike began, slightly questioning. "The Sla- Buffy's had a bit of a tumble in there and we took out one of the… bookcases."
Giles resisted the juvenile impulse to roll his eyes at the vampire's obvious cover-up. "Which one of the bookcases, son?" Giles asked acerbically. His question was ignored in favour of all three of the British men staring meaningfully at Buffy, who was emerging from the training room looking flushed and rumpled.
"Look, love, my brother is here," Spike said pointedly with a not-so-subtle jerk of his head. Giles once again resisted the urge to roll his eyes - because really, hundreds of years as an evil demon and he couldn't lie better than this? - and William still remained wide-eyed, unmoving since Spike emerged from the back.
"You brother?" Buffy asked, confused, and she looked at William, Spike then the new girl next to the young man. "Oh, of course! Your brother William!"
"Beth, would you mind going with Buffy for a moment? I'd like to speak to my children," Giles ground out, barely noticing the girl's nod as she and the Slayer walked to the front of the store. "What were you thinking?" Giles hissed at Spike, who looked highly affronted by this singling out.
"Me? I'm not the stupid berk who brings someone new around without giving a vamp some warning, am I?" Spike asked heatedly, albeit quietly.
"You can't blame this on Will," Giles said in a resigned tone, his anger disappearing. "It shouldn't be too much of a problem. The pair of you will just have to pretend to be brothers and my sons around outsiders from here on out."
XXX
Buffy watched the hushed argument with interest. It was always fun to watch Giles yell at someone else for a change and even if she couldn't hear what was being said there was the satisfaction of seeing the ever-cocky Spike on the stern, British end of Giles' temper. Plus, with Spike getting in trouble Buffy wasn't getting told off for the incident in the training room five minutes ago.
"…Buffy?" Beth asked quietly, causing Buffy to jump. She'd completely forgotten the slim girl was there.
"Yeah?"
"Um, Spike… that isn't… I mean, it's not… his real name… is it?" Beth asked apprehensively.
Buffy couldn't stop the giggle that slipped out at the idea of Rupert Giles naming any child of his Spike. "No, it's just a nickname," Buffy informed her.
Beth let out a little relieved sound. "What is it?"
"I'm sorry?" Buffy asked, her attention pulled back to the quiet girl from the huddled men.
"Spike's real name, what is it?"
"Uhh," the Slayer stammered, feeling like a deer in the headlights. What's an English name? "It's… Wesley"
"Hey!" Spike barked, his head snapping up to glare at the Slayer. Buffy narrowed her eyes and flicked a quick glance at Beth, noting with satisfaction Spike's look of sullen acceptance of his new name before he let himself be yelled at by Giles some more. The bell above the door let out a jingle.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Dawn asked as she ambled inside.
"Hey, Dawn," Buffy said with a warningly pointed look at Beth. "Giles is just talking to his two sons, William and Spike."
Dawn blinked twice. "Oh, right."
When Dawn continued looking at Beth, Buffy started. "Oh, right. This is William's friend, Beth." All amusement melted off her sister's face, and Dawn shot the bespectacled girl a frosty smile. "And this is my sister, Dawn," Buffy told Beth, who smiled shakily and gave a little wave which Dawn promptly ignored.
"Mom told me to remind you that dinner's going to be at seven tonight, and that Spike's welcome to meet Aunt Arlene from Illinois but he can't swear in front of her if he does stay for dinner," Dawn recited dully, clearly not impressed by being messenger girl.
"Why did mom send you with the message? She has the phone number to the Magic Box," Buffy asked.
Dawn looked a mite uncomfortable. "I was going to come up here anyway," she mumbled.
"Umm," Beth stuttered nervously, distracting Buffy from her intent to question what Dawn would be doing heading up the Magic Box so close to sunset. "I just remembered, I have to get home soon or dad'll start to worry."
"Oh, okay," Buffy said. "Hey Will, your friend's going!"
William hurried over to say his goodbyes while Giles looked daggers at the Slayer, who would almost have sworn that he was an angry parent if she hadn't known better.
Buffy wandered over to Spike who was glowering at the ground in between his feet. "Did the big mean Watcher yell at you?" she asked mockingly.
Spike snorted, then threw Buffy an injured glance. "Wesley?"
XXX
"All the cameras are operational," Jonathan said smugly.
"Even the ones in the shower?" Andrew asked.
Jonathan rolled his eyes. "I said all of the cameras, nimrod!" he snorted derisively. "Of course the ones in the shower."
"I was just checking," mumbled Andrew sullenly.
"Yeah, because you're a loser," Jonathan smirked.
"Warren, Jerk-athan's being a jerk!" Andrew wailed, shoving the shorter man as hard as he could.
"Stop being such a cry-baby!" Jonathan said, shoving back, causing an all out shoving war.
"Will you two girls stop playing with each other's hands?" Warren snapped, only a little satisfied by the mortified looks on their faces as they obeyed his command. "Now we need to come up with a plan to take over Sunnydale."
"I think I can help you with that," a mellow voice said into the silence, startling the Trio into turning around. A tall, dark-haired man, powerfully built and handsome despite the cruel sneer in his eyes, stood in the corner of their secret lair.
"W- who are you?" Warren stuttered.
"A friend," he stated with a sly grin. "A friend and I have some chores that we need done, and you boys fit the bill exactly."
"What friend?" Jonathan asked suspiciously.
"That would be me," a deep rumbling came from the top of the stairs, where a tall demon with sinister glowing eyes stood, tapping his razor sharp claws against the concrete wall. All three members of the Trio gulped.
XXX
A/N: Well, Merry Christmas to one and all. This is the first unbetad chapter of this story yet, and hopefully the last.I either put this on unbetad now or in about four, maybe five days. Considering how long this chapter has taken to pull together - I just seem to have run out of writing steam lately, which is why thisis so short- I thought I owed you all. I have a chapter for Denuo and Soul of a Demon mostly done, and will probably be posted before New Years. Also, I may have a chapter up for Monday's Child and I am working on a new fic - I know, I know. I have too many still…- but for now, this is it. Sorry about the delay, guys and gals. Maybe some reviews could get me pumped… hint hint.
