A/N: Okay, a big sorry for not in well ages, I've had like writer's block or whatever I just haven't been focussed for writing, and you can probably tell that from this chapter, but hey, I tried. Hopefully I've made up for it by having a logner chapter this time round. Oh and just to let you know first time I wrote this chapter it was a club scene with Will and Alex that really, really didn't work out so I switched onto this instead.

Disclaimer etc. - See chapter 1

Rating - pg-15

Ooooh and on a very happy note I now have a beta! Maikafuiniel, so hopefully this chapter should be easier to read!

And another change to the general storyline, just for the sake of it Xander is staying at Buffy's as his and Anya's flat is being painted or something, use your imagination! Oh and Giles is around not in England.

"Oi, Whelp!"

Xander spun around just in time to see a large claw come flying into his face and knock him onto the ground. The evening had been a busy one to say the least and they had eventually split up into groups to cover more ground. Three guesses who he had ended up with.

Spike, who was currently on the back of the tall scaly demon, had yet to call him on his weird behaviour, but he knew it was only a matter of time; however idiotic and childish Spike acted most of the time, he was always very aware of what was going on around him.

Xander didn't bother getting back up. Spike was handling the demon fine at the moment, and even if there was trouble it was very unlikely that he would be able to help at all. In the end of all things, if the demon managed to take out a master vampire, what would he, the carpenter, be able to do about it?

From his place on the ground he compared Spike to William; he was still unsure about what was going on, the last he remembered was William telling him a story about Alex and Will, then waking up in Sunnydale feeling refreshed as if he had been asleep the whole time.

At first glance William and Spike looked identical, which did make sense he supposed, but the more you looked, the more they looked like complete opposites. When Will smiled he got these little crinkles in the corner of his eyes; when Spike smiled it was more of a smirk, and he got an evil glint in his eyes. When Will looked at him he seemed to look into every corner of Xander's soul, but when Spike looked at him he just raised an eyebrow, kind of like he was doing right now...

"See something you like, pet?" Spike held out a hand, which Xander ignored as he pushed himself up of the grass. Spike didn't seem offended in the least and instead put his hand to good use by taking a cigarette out of the crumpled pack he had in his pocket. "Well?"

Xander gave him a confused look before realising that Spike was actually waiting for an answer, not something that usually happened, and when the rare occasion happened and Xander did give him an answer it was normally cut of with one of Spike's infamous witty comebacks.

"Shut up Spike, we came here to patrol, not to have tea and cakes" Xander walked ahead of Spike through the park, forgetting about the demon body they had left on display, right by the children's soft play area.

"Oooh, what got your knickers in a twist? Was it that demon? Heard about that, got your ass kicked a bit didn't you? Made you feel like less of a man than you are, if that's actually possibly"

Xander span around as quickly as his body would let him and glared at Spike, what the hell did he know about anything?

"Shut up Spike, why don't you just shut the hell up?" And just as he had suspected an eyebrow was raised and a pair of cool blue eyes calmly evaluated him, annoying him even more that he was the only one that was angry here.

"You know mate, you really should work on your witty comebacks, they're lacking something. Like, maybe, wit?"

"Whatever Spike, come on lets go and find Buffy"

"Buffy? Why do we need to find that bint?" Spike hated being around Buffy even more than usual after his brief insane phase when he thought he loved Buffy, he knew now it was nothing like that, she was hot and ready, he was a vampire and he had certain needs that hadn't been taken care of since Harmony, not that she really counted. But the truth was he hadn't had a decent fuck for well over 100 years, before a certain vampire they all knew and hated had gone and eaten a gypsy.

Despite his reluctance he followed Xander towards the slayer's house, he was curious as to what was up with the boy. Ever since that knock on the head he had been watching Spike closely, seemingly looking for something that he obviously couldn't find because he kept looking again and again.

As Xander opened the door with a spare key Spike followed in, not greeted with any barrier since he had received yet another invite, after being uninvited from the house yet again. He never walked into the house very quickly any more though he had learnt his lesson before. It seemed that whatever mood Buffy had been in the night before affected whether or not he would face a barrier when he walked through the door.

The pair walked into the living room to find everyone else already there. Buffy glanced up when they walked in and her eyes briefly met with Spike's before darting to Xander's, however this small action didn't remain unnoticed by Xander.

"Find anything on patrol?"

"One big scaly demon, about this high," Xander held his hand up about a foot over his head before continuing, "It's currently in the middle of the park, we kind of forget to clear it up." He sent his best glare at Spike, who would have remembered it was meant to be cleared up but didn't bother to remind him.

"The middle of the park?" Willow gave him a look and he knew what was coming next.

"Uh huh."

"Oh Xander, how could you? That's the children's play area, what's going to happen if they find it now?"

"They'll get a bit of a shock, it was an ugly blighter, packed quite a punch as well." Just then Giles walked into the room, carrying yet another of his books.

"Do you know what demon it was Spike? Or can you give me a bit of a better description than being an 'ugly blighter'?"

"'Fraid not, it had scales but that's about all I got."

"Oh well. You might as well go home now, the sun will be coming up shortly, the rest of you might as well get some sleep; the demon's dead so we aren't in any immediate danger for the time being, I'll come around tomorrow and we can see if we can work out why there's been a sudden increase in demonic activity in Sunnydale."

Xander thankfully climbed the stairs as Giles and Spike left and he stripped off and sank into his comfy bed. It was only as he closed his eyes that he had realised he had actually been looking to go back to sleep all through patrol, and only a tiny part of him admitted that the reason he had been looking forward to going to sleep was the fact that he would most likely be seeing Will. His brain shut off before he could begin to ponder why that was a good thing.