A/N : So I did good leaving the car scene in this apparently. Weird since I almost took it out and did something different. Oh well, lucky I changed my mind, I guess. Here's more for you.
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 6 - What've We Learnt So Far?

"You sure you wanna do this?" Xander said nervously as he and Andrew sat across the library, watching Spike reading another serious black-covered book, booted-feet propped up on the table despite the fact the librarian had told him not five minutes ago to put them down on the floor.

"We have to, Xand" Andrew said determinedly, "For the love of my fair Dawn" he said, slamming his fist on the table and immediately regretting it. He shook his hand, exclaiming about the pain until he was told to be quiet by a couple of students who were trying to study at the next table.

"But we're talking about Spike" the brunette boy said in an incredulous whisper, "A guy who could kill both of us with a look, and might think he should if we go bothering him after he already told us not to"

"If you're afraid, then don't come" Andrew said as he got to his feet, shaking terribly despite his brave words, "Stand back, I'm going in" he said dramatically as he strode across the library. Xander couldn't let his new best friend go to his death alone and so dutifully followed, though intentionally stayed a step or two behind.

"Er, hi" Andrew said in a little squeaky voice, offering a small wave to the punkish lad seated before him, "I was, er, I wanted to talk to you... about Buffy?"

Spike's eyes narrowed at that.

"What about her?" he asked, looking like he was quite prepared to knock Andrew into next week if he said the wrong thing.

"Well, see it's... it's actually kind of a funny story" Xander laughed nervously until the severe look he received from Spike reduced his humour to nothing, "Er, we know the Angelus guys are paying you to date the Buffster" he said all in a rush and Spike put his book down on the table, removing his feet from the top and gesturing for the two boys to sit down.

"What else do you two know?" he asked with apparent interest, head tilting to one side as he stared at them.

Seemed strange to him if they were in league with Liam Angelus, and he couldn't imagine Buffy would hang around with them either, so how they knew about this deal or why they were talking to him about it puzzled Spike exceedingly. He hated to be kept in the dark, and besides, he found he had a little respect for these geeks. There were few kids in the school that would even look at him for fear of being killed or some such. Spike liked the power, it amused him, but he'd like very much to know why these two lads were facing up to him when they were evidently terrified of what he might do.

"Well, Angel, he has a lot of cash" Xander said, leaning over the table and whispering conspiratorially, "but he's kinda lacking in the brains department"

"And I s'pose you're bleedin' Einstein then?" Spike smirked, knowing just from looking at him that Xander was unlikely to be the intellectual type.

"We're smarter than him" Andrew piped up, the little bit of confidence he'd injected into the sentence disappearing immediately when Spike's bright blue eyes shifted from Xander to him, "I..I mean, well, we are" he insisted, "We kinda set him up"

"Set him up?" Spike checked, getting more and more intrigued by this. Xander got his nerve back and continued.

"We told Angel he should pay someone to take out Buffy so that his brother, Connor, had a shot with Dawn" he explained and Spike nodded.

"I got that bit, Whelp" he told them, "Their Mum's got some whacked out ideas about fellas, doesn't like her little girls dating and what not, so it's all or nothin'. Big sis gets a date or lil sis has to stay home too, right?"

"Right" Andrew nodded, "but I want Dawnie to go out with me and when I tried to ask you if you'd take out Buffy you kinda weren't so receptive" he said quietly, shifting nervously in his seat. He was terrified Spike would take something he said the wrong way and pummel him into a bloody mess before the day was out. Thankfully he didn't.

"One thing I don't get" the bleached blond said with a shake of his head, "You got that stupid poofter Angel payin' me to take out the angry chit, so you can date the littlest Summers" he recapped, "Where's this git Connor fit in?"

"We're kinda hoping Dawn's gonna go for Andrew instead of the money guy" Xander explained, realising perhaps there was a flaw in this plan. There was a lot riding on Dawn preferring Andrew and not the younger Angelus boy, otherwise the plan meant nothing.

"Wouldn't wanna be in your shoes" Spike smirked, leaning back on his chair and repositioning his feet on the table, "Still, rather see you than that Angelus sod get the girl. Can't stand their sort, all cash and no substance, give us decent blokes a bad name" he sighed as he picked at his black nail polish.

Xander and Andrew shared a look but made no comment about the 'decent blokes' part of that sentence.

"Er, so we heard you and Buffy didn't hit it off so well" the brunette said carefully, not loving the way Spike's head shot up and he gave him a nasty look, "Not that it's your fault, I mean she is kinda difficult but..."

"...if you can't convince her to go out with you, I don't get to go out with Dawn" Andrew finished the sentence his friend had started.

Spike looked between the two of the. A right pair of losers and make no mistake, but they'd come up with a decent plan and all for the love of a for damsel. Be sort of poetic if it wasn't so pathetic.

"Right then, lads" he said, sitting up straighter and facing them again, "What's the plan then? You did have a reason for coming over her to talk to me, right?"

"Oh, right, yeah" Xander agreed readily.

"We wanna help you, with Buffy" Andrew grinned, "We're gonna get inside information"

"Inside information?" Spike echoed, trying not to laugh at how excited these kids got at playing detective. To think they were supposed to be as mature as he was, it was ridiculous.

"We already know one thing" Xander enthused, "There's this big party at the Bronze on Saturday, and everybody who's anybody is gonna be there"

"The Bronze?" Spike repeated, face wrinkling up into a frown, "Not really my kinda place, boys" he admitted. All the so-called popular kids hung out at the Bronze. With him being the apparent outsider, it was hardly a place Spike was going to feel welcome, but then Angel was paying him a lot of money and these two just looked so pathetic and needy.

"Tell you what" he sighed, getting up from his seat, grabbing his book as he moved to walk away, "You deliver on the info, we'll see what happens, right?"

"Cool" Andrew grinned, high-fiving with Xander as Spike walked away.

"So, Dawn" Andrew began, as casually as possible as he sat next to his dream girl in the library helping her with her latest homework assignment for algebra, "I wanted to ask you something..."

Dawn's body completely tensed up at that, she was certain he was going to ask her out on a date. To be honest she wasn't really sure what she'd say if he did. Andrew was totally sweet, but not as hot as Connor. It was such a dilemma being a sixteen year old girl, with two guys in love with you!

"What kind of things does Buffy like?" Andrew asked eventually and Dawn's pen skidded across the page as she reacted with shock.

"What!" she asked, voice going so high that only dogs could hear her til she got control of her vocal chords once again, "Why are you asking about her?" she asked with a steely tone and Andrew swallowed hard.

"I.. I'm doing it for you" he said with a nervous smile, "I know you can't date til Buffy does and there's this guy, he's willing to go out with her but she's not so much with the willing" he explained, eyes flicking between hers and the table which suddenly became very interesting.

He was looking away from her so much, Andrew almost missed the moment when Dawn's angry frown dissolved into a bright smile.

"You found a guy and you're researching... all for me?" she checked, thinking again how sweet and wonderful this guy was. Such a shame he wasn't gorgeous and rich too.

"I'd do anything for you, Dawn" he admitted shyly, "I want you to be the Jean Grey to my Scott Summers"

"That's nice" she replied uncertainly, not really certain what that meant.

"See, I wanted to take you to the Bronze on Saturday for the Grand Re-Opening and all" he explained, "I think maybe the guy I found could convince Buffy to go if you could give us some hints of stuff she likes or whatever"

"I can do better than tell you" Dawn grinned gathering up her books, "I'll show you" she announced, grabbing Andrew's hand and dragging him from the library.

Buffy wouldn't be home til late, since she'd said she was going straight to Faith's after school to hang. If she wasn't there, she couldn't yell at her sister for being in her room, or for taking Andrew in there either.

"Tell me again why we're here?" Xander said nervously, looking truly petrified as he and Andrew ducked through crowds of Hell Angel wannabes and over the top Goths, "It's like a leather convention for scary people!" he exclaimed.

"We have to find Spike, and this is where he hangs out" Andrew reminded him, "Besides it's kinda cool here" he said, trying to sound confident and failing miserably as a large hairy guy gave him look making him squeak with fear. Running away from him caused Andrew and Xander to run smack into the back of the person they were looking for, just as he was about to take his shot at pool.

"What the soddin' hell do you think you're..." Spike cursed as he spun round and grabbed both of them by the shirts, "Oh, it's you two" he sighed letting them go, "What are you doin' in the Fish Tank?" he asked with a puzzled expression as he glanced over at his pool playing partner and told him he'd just be five minutes.

"We have info" Xander explained as Andrew pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket.

"Er, yeah, so Buffy's not an easy girl to get along with, way anti-social these days but then I guess we all knew that" the boy smiled nervously, glancing at Spike and then going back to his piece of paper as the bleached blond lit a cigarette, striking the match on the edge of the table.

"Probably the first thing to mention is, she doesn't like smoking" Xander said carefully, ever mindful of Spike's temper.

"You want me to give up fags for the bint?" he asked incredulously, "Bloody hell!" he cursed as he took a long drag on what it seemed would be his final cigarette for a while, before stubbing it out, "Right, what else about this chit then?" he wanted to know.

"Er, likes, mostly black clothes, some angry girl music, way into her self defence and gymnastics classes, kind of a loner but has a best friend named Faith..."

"She's mates with Faith Lehane?" Spike checked, "Doesn't strike me as an obvious pairing"

"You know her?" Xander asked, thinking it was strange since Spike hadn't been around town for long and at school where Faith went so did Buffy.

"Find me a bloke in here that doesn't know her" Spike smirked, "By reputation at least if you know what I mean"

"Anyway, back to Buffy" Andrew pressed on, as he mentioned a few more things that Spike deemed not important. In the end he was going to win this girl same as he won all the rest, her likes and dislikes be damned, though he'd have a go and givin' up the fags for the foreseeable. His Uncle had been onto him about it too and to be honest he didn't fancy dying of lung cancer or some such before he was thirty just to be a rebel.

"Alright then, Sparky, I think I got the gist" Spike cut in when he realised Andrew was still rambling on. He downed the rest of his bourbon and moved round the pool table to re-set the balls for a new game.

"You really think you can get her to go to this party with you?" Xander asked, less worried about 'questioning Spike's rep' anymore, since it was likely he'd already caught twelve fatal diseases from the various unsavoury people that had bumped into him in this club.

"She's just a woman, boys" he told them with a smirk, "End of the day, that's all that counts" he shrugged, "Now you run along home, plan your big date with Dawnie for Saturday, Andrew. You got my word, Buffy and me'll be at that party"

Spike shook his head as the two lads picked their way carefully through the crowds and back out of the club. He wasn't sure why he was letting himself get dragged into all this. Maybe for the money Liam Angelus was paying him, maybe for the fun of getting the girl, but mostly Spike was starting to suspect he just really wanted to help Andrew out. After all, he could so easily have turned out like that, a lowly geek with just the one friend and a problem with getting the girls attention. As it was he was the school enigma, and he liked it better that way, he thought to himself as he prepared to take his shot at the pool table, already craving a cigarette he shouldn't have.

To Be Continued...