A/N: So sorry this one took so long. I'm kinda getting stumped on where to go. I may wrap this up soon if the lack of ideas keeps. But another chapter of this up. Short, but here. I'm sad cuz I didn't get too many reviews last chappie. But I still have this one for anyone who's reading! Just if you are, pretty please review for me? They make me feel all special-like.

Summary of last chapter: Joyce happened upon finding Spike and Buffy together, and everything was explained to her before the pair left for the library. The gang still believes it's a spell, except for a few. Buffy and Spike left, with Buffy making a decision they would soon be finding a new place to live.

Chapter 12: Home, Sweet Home

Buffy enthusiastically went from room to room, unable to contain her excitement. It was three days since she and Spike had gone to the library and now they were looking at houses. This one seemed perfect. It was everything Buffy had ever dreamed of. She grinned. Yup, no more hotel home for her! She had a real house again, one with the man she loved.

Spike had seen how much she obviously loved the house, and how much happier she was just being back in Sunnydale, though even she may not realize it. For these reasons he was talking over the condition of the house and such with the realtor while Buffy rushed around looking at rooms.

She stepped out onto the balcony of the master bedroom, which she loved, and gasped. She raced back inside and down the staircase out to the backyard. It was like an island paradise. Greenery was everywhere. There was a pool in the ground that looked more natural than a pond in the woods. She began to walk around, and went up a few steps to find a Jacuzzi hidden in a small alcove. The waters in the pool and the Jacuzzi were as clear as possible.

Spike slipped his arms around her waist from behind, resting his head on her shoulder.

"You like?"

"I love."

"Good. 'Cause it's ours," he kissed her neck. Buffy turned around in his arms.

"Ours?" she asked, disbelieving they could have such a house.

"Ours," Spike nodded. Buffy squealed and jumped on Spike, hugging him tightly as he spun her in a little circle, laughing and glad that she was so happy.

It was a few days later when Buffy came down the staircase to see Spike sprawled across the couch watching TV in her mother's living room. They had decided to stay with Joyce for a short while longer whilst finalizing buying the house and moving in. She smiled as she walked over to him.

"Hey," she greeted, leaning over and giving him a kiss.

"Hey yourself." He tried to pull her onto the couch with him, but she danced out of his reach. Spike pouted, and she giggled.

"I'm going shopping with Faith. I'll be back later." She gave him another, quick kiss before leaving the house. Faith was just walking to the door.

"Holy shit!" she yelled as she saw Buffy in the sunlight. "But I thought you were a vamp, B?! I coulda sworn--"

Buffy cut her off. "I am. Just… special," she grinned.

Faith stared at her, then slowly started to grin as well.

"So this is why it was all right for us to go shopping now. Well then B, let's go."

Buffy and Faith came through the font door six hours later, almost 7 o'clock, laughing and with armloads of shopping bags. Buffy had used Spike's money to pay for everything the girls bought.

"Did you see that guy's face?" Faith said between laughter.

"Well, if he's gunna be suck a prick, then I'm gunna vamp out on him," Buffy grinned. "Being a vampire does have its advantages you know." She laughed some more.

They collapsed together onto the couch, their bags scattered all over the room. Just then, Spike came out of the kitchen.

"You stayin' for dinner, Faith?" he asked. She sat up straight.

"Is that what smells so good?" Spike nodded. "Well, if you're offering… I don't mind taking!" She and Buffy jumped up from the couch and followed Spike into the kitchen. Joyce was all ready at the table as Spike began serving food, all ready having set a place for Faith earlier.

"You cook?" Faith asked in disbelief.

"Well, yeah. You learn a lot in a hundred plus years. Not like we sleep all day, so need somethin' to do," Spike shrugged.

"How come I never knew you cooked?" Buffy pouted.

"You never asked," Spike threw over his shoulder. Buffy stared at his back for a moment, then huffed and took her seat, as did Faith. Spike and Joyce exchanged a look, smiling at Buffy's actions.

"Ahhh!!!!" Buffy screamed as she ran from Spike.

"I'll get you, slayer!" he yelled after her. Buffy stumbled in her hurry to escape, and Spike managed to catch up before tackling her and pinning her to the ground.

"Now… you'll give it to me, or die."

Buffy stared at him defiantly. "Never!" She struggled to get from under him.

"Tiger! Give me back the bloody remote," Spike growled.

Buffy just stared back.

"Don't make me, pet…" he said warningly.

Buffy looked up at him in horror. "You wouldn't…" she started shaking her head. "No!" she shouted as Spike began tickling her.

Spike and Buffy had settled into their new place a few days ago and just finished unpacking that morning. They were both loving having their own home. Suddenly, the doorbell rang, stopping their activities.

"I'll get you later, tiger…" Spike warned, getting up to answer the door. Buffy giggled as she got up and followed behind him.

When Spike pulled open the door, Buffy was standing on her toes to see over his arm. When she saw who it was, she lightly shoved him out of the way and stood in front of Willow.

"Hi, Willow," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Hey, Buffy. We just… I just… It's been a few weeks since anyone's seen you, and we were worried…"

"I've seen Faith almost every day," Buffy said casually.

"What?" Willow stared in disbelief.

"Yeah. We've been hanging a lot."

"She never said anything…"

"Did you ask?"

"Well, no… But Buffy, what about us? Your friends?"

"So Faith can't be my friend?" Buffy shot.

"That's not what I meant!" Willow struggled to correct herself. "I meant-"

Spike sighed and interrupted. "Red, why don't you come on in, and we can all talk about this in the living room?"

Buffy sighed as well, moving aside to let Willow enter. Willow looked tentative, but went in nonetheless. Spike shut and locked the door before leading the way to the living room. The girls took seats before Spike left the room. He came back in a few minutes with three mugs of hot cocoa. While he was gone, Willow had been taking in the place. It really was very nice. And the décor was gorgeous.

Once Spike had settled himself in a spot beside Buffy, he started talking.

"Now you," he pointed at Willow, "have no real right to be coming to our home and demanding Buffy tell you and your little gang everything she does. She's made it clear what she wants." Willow looked confused and appalled at the same time. Buffy had a smirk on her face. "And you," now he pointed at Buffy, "know you miss your other friends. True, they're being right pillocks, but you can't convince them any other than they think now if you won't talk to them." By now, both girls were shame-faced. They looked up and across at each other.

"I'll leave you two alone," Spike got up from his seat, taking his mug and going upstairs.

"…and their place is amazing! It's so gorgeous and you should see the backyard! Oh wow, it's just… Oh goddess," Willow gushed about her meeting with Buffy to the others.

"So, she really is ok?" Xander asked. "She didn't look beaten or something?"

"No! She's fine! And guys, I think we were wrong. It really doesn't seem like a spell. Actually, Spike made her talk to me! And he makes some really good hot cocoa."

Xander, Giles, and Angel looked at her oddly.

"So is she actually going to come talk to us sometime?" Cordelia said.

"Actually, she wanted us all to come over this weekend. Have a Scooby party. And she wanted to meet Karen. Apparently she all ready knows Faith, and they've been hanging out a lot since she didn't judge them," Willow explained.

The others looked sheepish.

"Well, I'm glad. Hopefully the party will be… nice," Giles said while all of them thought of the other, not so well-liked thought of having to spend the time with none other than Spike as well.

The next day, Willow was visiting Buffy again. When she got there after school, Faith was just leaving.

"Oh, hey," she said as she came out the door. Willow smiled back.

"Hi," she responded.

"Was just on my way to see the watcher guys. More training with Wes," Faith said. Lately, Faith had been deciding that since they were willing to work on her, she was going to work on them. More specifically Wesley. Ever since coming to Sunnydale, the man had been loosening up little by little, but Faith was trying to help the process along. So far it seemed to be working. He had given up protesting to her blaring rock music during training sessions and her calling him "Wes", which Xander had picked up on right away and Willow was catching it as well now. He also didn't seem to keen on running to the council with everything any longer. Soon enough, they just may have another watcher gone bad on their hands.

Faith turned before she shut the door.

"Hey, guys! Wills is here!" Then she turned back to Willow and walked past.

"See ya," she waved over her shoulder. Just then, Buffy opened the door more completely. Upon seeing Willow she smiled.

"Hey, Wills! Come on in. So what brings you here?"

Willow walked in, shrugging as she did so.

"Just thought I'd drop by and say hi. If that's ok…" she seemed a bit unsure.

"No! It's fine! I mean, I like Faith just fine and all, but I miss having more friends!" she laughed. Willow grinned at her.

"So, you don't sleep all day then?"

"Nope. Spike doesn't either. We sleep till about one or two, three if we're sleeping late. Hard to sleep that long," Buffy grinned.

"So… Where is Spike?" Willow looked around, only slightly nervous to her credit.

"He'd been down in the gym we set up in the basement for about an hour now. Probably gunna be there a little while longer then go take a shower upstairs. You hungry? We've got plenty to eat." Buffy led her friend to the kitchen.

"You still keep food? Not just, um, blood?" Willow was trying her hardest to act like everything was normal, but it was a bit off-kilter from what she had anticipated when they went down to LA to "rescue" Buffy, seems she hadn't needed any rescuing at all though.

"Oh yeah. We keep tons around. Spike and I love it. Seems like we've always got some of those spicy chicken wing things and onions around. Not sure why he has the onions though. Whenever I see him get them out, he just kinda stares at them for a while then growls all frustrated-y and puts them back. And wheatabix. I didn't believe him at first, but it is pretty good in the blood. And of course we've got other food. We keep a pretty much fully stocked kitchen. My choice though. If I left it to him, all we'd ever have was beer, buffalo wings, onions, wheatabix, and hot chocolate." She shook her head. Willow grinned at her babbling.

"Well, help yourself!" Buffy spread her arms. Willow nodded ad started scrounging through the fridge.

Once the girls had both settled with a couple of sandwiches and chips, they began to talk.

"I've got this huge test coming up in math," Willow said. I've been studying all week when I've had the chances."

"Yeah. That's one great perk of having Spike around. With all that money, I'll never need to learn another thing!" the girls both laughed. Just then, Spike, clad in some black sweatpants and his regular black t-shirt, came through the door in the kitchen, bare feet padding silently across the tiles..

"Talking about me, love?" he asked with a smirk, before reaching down and kissing her on the head, stealing a chip as well.

"Hey! That's mine, mister!" Buffy said. Spike popped it in his mouth and just laughed at her.

"I'm gunna go upstairs and clean up, tiger. I'll be back down later."

"Ok," she said, watching him retreat. Willow had been a bit uneasy when she first saw him, but then upon seeing the way they acted together and the obvious care he had for her, she relaxed a bit.

"So he really does care about you, huh?" she asked when he had disappeared from sight.

"He loves me," Buffy said, tone letting Willow know it was something not to be argued with. "And I love him," she said in that same tone. Willow stared at her, not sure what to do at first, then remembered the way he seemed to care about her so much, just from those few short seconds of interaction she had witnessed.

"As long as you're happy," she nodded.

"I've never been happier," Buffy stated flatly, defensively, still expecting some kind of argument.

"Good," Willow said and took another bite of her sandwich. Buffy, slightly dazed, got a confused look on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped and closed it, a smile spreading across her lips

A/N: Well, there's another Scooby, the first original Scooby, to accept the relationship. Now we just have to get the others to come around and figure out what to do with Karen! Lol. RR please!