A/N: I got my 5 reviews . Go you! Anyway, yeah I'm updating, not particuarly quickly, but not as slowly as some of my other stories... So, same as usual, I need 5 reviews before I continue so I know enough people are reading this and enjoying it...

Feel free to let me know what you like about it, what you aren't so keen on, what you would like to see happen, anything you feel would improve the story!

Oh and this chapter should be longer than my normal chapters, as following areview from someone on one of my other stories about having to wait a while for an update and then just getting a short chapter, I am working on improving the length of all of my updates...

Harsh Existence - Chapter Two

Willow followed him through the large oak door and to the stairs. His pace didn't change in the slightest as he reached the stairs, however he was going down them on two feet, Willow however, had to crawl down them.

It wasn't as hard as it looked not after as much practise as she had had, though the first few times she had tried it she had fell, he would catch her if she was too high up on the stairs, but if she could fall and not do any serious damage to herself, he would let her. He would stand at the bottom of the stairs and laugh as she tumbled down them and then give her a kick until she went to the top and started all over again.

That hadn't happened recently though, something she was thankful for. When you had very little to be thankful for, the small things began to matter a lot more. He was leaning at the bottom of the stairs with a smirk on his face as he waited for her to finish the last few steps. When she had he tilted her head up to an impossible angle so he could look her in the eyes.

"Up." When she had first came here, his short one word orders had often confused her and he'd use it as an excuse to punish her for her defiance, even though he knew she wasn't defying him, just trying to puzzle out what he wanted. She'd questioned him on this once, and instead of the beating she had expected to get she'd had a simple reply of 'Because it's fun' and he had left it at that.

A raised eyebrow reminded her that she was supposed to be following orders and she promptly stood up, he didn't say anything about her making him wait, he knew how she would occasionally get lost in her own thoughts, she was normally thinking about the past when she did, of her friends.

Once she had stood up he turned around and walked into the living room and she followed him. He sat himself down on the nearest chair and nodded to the floor next to his leg where she sat herself down without the slightest hint of defiance, she knew which battles she would never win.

Once she was seated at his feet she took the chance to look around the room. Drusilla gave her a childish wave when she looked at her and Angelus spared no more than a flicker of his eyes from William to her and then back to William again. Darla wasn't there, though Darla wasn't around that often she was always busy sorting out vampire 'stuff' as William often put it. She wasn't exactly sure what this meant, but she had grasped onto the fact that baisically Darla had to make sure everyone else within the Order of Aurilius was doing what they were meant to be and was content that Angelus would keep London under control.

She felt a hand against her shoulder as William applied some 'gentle' pressure against it making her lean on him. William certainly had a different definition of the word gentle than she did, but when she had pointed this out he had shown her what his version of not gentle was. That was the only time she ever brought that conversation topic up.

"So, why does she have to be down here?"

"You don't think she has the right to know?"

"She has whatever rights I choose to give her."

That was mostly William's opinion on everything to do with her, she couldn't however work out why Angelus was disagreeing with him on this, he normally left any decisions that were made about her to the younger vampire. Whatever was going on, appeared to be about her though, only she had no idea what was going on, and if it had been planned the vampire's had managed to keep quiet about it around her, not that that was exactly hard, if they just wanted to say something they didn't want her to hear she would just be sent away.

They were both looking at her as if she should have some sort of a response, when they all fully knew that both of them would get angry if she spoke without being invited to... It was a lose-lose situation for her.

"We're moving." Moving? That was unexpected, though not the first time they had since she had been here. And they had of course moved before, when Giles had set fire to the old factory. So, not particuarly surprising, the one thing that was however, was the fact that they were bothering to inform her, as oppose to just telling her to pack her bags, not that there was anything she actually wanted to pack.

"Again." It took her a moment to realise that the slightly annoyed comment was added onto the end of William's comment by Angelus. Last time they had moved it had been from Ireland where William had managed to cause something along the lines of a riot.

"And we're moving to California. Sunnydale, to be precise." There it was, the reason. But Sunnydale? She didn't honestly know if she would be able to cope with that, so close, yet so far. Not that, she supposed, being on the opposite side of the world was any better either.

"So, how do you feel about that Pet?" Willow froze. He had asked her opinion. Just when she thought her life had become mostly manageable, and she generally knew what to expect, he jumped this on her. She had no idea. She had voiced several opinions since living with them, but generally not without consequences. He occasionally asked her opinions on little things, but asking her how she felt about something? That was a new one.

She felt two pairs of enhanced eyes staring at her and she pushed herself further back to the chair and towards William's leg, she curled herself up slightly tighter trying to escape their silent looks. She jumped slightly when she felt William lift her up and sit her on his lap. He pulled her head towards him and rested his chin on top of it. Willow realised that they were still waiting for an answer, only problem was she didn't have one. How was she supposed to tell them what she felt about moving back to Sunnydale when she herself didn't know?

"I'm not sure."

The eyes remained on her a moment longer before they tuned out to her presence and began discussing moving plans, including what they were going to do with her, which was their main concern. Last time they had moved she had made a run for it and almost got run over by a car, the vampires had classed this an accident, but it hadn't been. She had known full well what would happen when she ran in front of the car, had William not pulled her out of the way a split second before the car had gone straight past the spot where she had been stood.

This had earned him a kind of celebrity status in the small town they had been staying in and he had been given plenty of free drinks which had made him happy. And also very drunk, which had not bode well for her when they got back to the small hotel room they were staying in on their way to London.

Eventually she tuned out to their conversation and allowed herself to close her eyes and just feel his arms around her which were strangely comforting when she managed to forget, even just for a few minutes, that she was taking comfort in the arms of a killer. She wasn't going to complain though, the days when he gave her comfort without expecting something in return were few and far between and she took the chance whenever she could.

She woke up some time later but she wasn't in her bed, this didn't really surprise her as she had grown used to waking up in different places, depending on William's mood. She opened her eyes and found a pair staring straight back at her curiously. Drusilla. She gave the insane vampire a small smile which seemed to satisfy her as she stood up and walked out of the room, giving William a small peck on the cheek before closing the door behind her. Willow watched her retreating back before looking around the rest of the room to see if she was in the company of any other vampires.

William was there, but Angelus was no where in sight. Looking around the room for vampires had become a habit she had picked up very early on, it helped her to know who she was with, and how to act. All of the vampires reacted to her in different ways and all expected different behaviour from her, which could be quite difficult when she was in a room with all four of them.

William was pacing, which usually wasn't a good sign. He looked sharply up when he felt her watching him and seemed to take in the picture she made on the bed. She was layed out naked on the bed, like some sort of virgin sacrifice. Or a sacrifice anyway. Having no clothes hardly bothered her anymore. She would still get uncomfortable in the presence of Angelus and Darla, then again she was uncomfortable around them most of the time, clothes or not. Drusilla didn't seem to notice whether or not she was wearing anything and William had beaten it into her that she shouldn't hide anything of his from him, especially her body.

His eyes travelled up and down her body slowly and the smirk graced his face once more. He wasn't wearing anything other than a pair of leather pants as he slowly crawled up the bed and her body with achingly slow movements. He finally rested lightly on top of her for a few minutes before making his move. His hand snaked around the back of her head and tangled itself in her hair, which he gave a sharp pull which made her gasp in pain.

As she opened her mouth in pain he took the chance to attack it with his and slide his tongue in, fully confident that whatever mood she was in that she wouldn't risk biting it. Not after certain lessons they had had about her biting his body parts whilst they were in her mouth, that haad been one of the fews acts of defiance that had actually caused him a deal of pain.

It wasn't love that was shared in the kiss, it wasn't even passion. Willow just lay there with her mouth open, allowing him to do what he liked, which at this precise moment seemed to be licking, kissing and biting ever corner of her mouth. It wasn't a particuarly unpleasant sensation, but it wasn't one that caused her a great deal of pleasure either. William seemed to notice this as he drew back suddenly.

"Isn't a spectator sport Luv, you're not joining in and that's no fun. Lets see what I can do about that then shall we?"

When he gave her any sort of pleasure, it wasn't for her benefit, it was because it entertained and pleased him to have her wanting and needing him, even though she still hated him. That was one of his favourite games, making her beg for him, whilst all the time he knew she wanted nothing more than to knee him in the balls.

He started kissing her again but this time the kisses were gentle. She found herself responding to them almost immediately and as his kissed travelled further down to stomach, missing her breasts completely, she lifted an arm and ran her fingers through his hair, which was soft as he had been too preoccupied with moving to gel it yet today.

He moved down furter and then bit into her thigh. It wasn't a painful experience, he wasn't trying to drain her and she knew that, but even still, she froze the moment his fangs sank into her thigh, but she started moving again when he started to lazily draw on her blood, having a few mouth fulls ebfore retracting his fangs and licking her wound clean.

He placed small kisses up and down her legs and she was soon whimpering for him, which they both knew would happen eventually, sooner rather than later.

She tried pulling his head up towards hers, but she knew it would only move if he wanted it to be moved. Luckily for her he did and she pulled his mouth in for a hungry kiss which went on for half a minute before he pulled back leaving her panting at the sensation. At some point during the kiss her legs had wrapped around his and she was now rubbing against the leather of his pants.

He pulled himself out of the hold of her legs and gave her a grin.

"See, it's so much better with audience participation."

And with that he stood up and walked out the room leaving herself in her own company, practically whimpering in her need for him, all hot and desperate, just how he liked her.