Chapter Nine

Buffy and Spike continued their embrace until she suddenly pulled herself away. Both were panting because seconds ago, kissing was more important then breathing. "Okay, well… that just happened," Buffy stated in shock, not looking Spike in the face.

"Yeah, it kinda did," he agreed with just as much bewilderment. "We just-"

"Uh huh. And your tongue was-"

"Yup. And your tongue was-"

"Oh yea."

"But it was-"

"Very," Buffy said with a hint of longing.

"So technically it would be 'very' again," Spike suggested. He took a step towards her, which Buffy reciprocated. Finally they were only an inch apart and their lips grew closer. As they were about to touch the bell rang and they both sprung back. "Gotta get to class," Spike said, welcoming the intermission from the supernatural occurrence.

"I should go see Giles."

"Right because you have that whole…" Spike swallowed loudly not finding anything good to say, "Giles thing. But I'll see you later."

"You will?" Buffy questioned. She sounded a bit freaked, assuming he meant they would meet up somewhere.

"Well, no. I…," the blonde teenager was flustered. "I mean, if I see you, ya know, walking the halls, then I'll see you later. Otherwise I'll see you at rehearsal tomorrow."

"Right. Okay then." They stood there in silence, trying not to look at each other. "I better go."

"Me too. Still got class."

"Still got a Watcher." They shared an awkward chuckle and tried heading in the respected directions, however they kept crashing into each other. When one moved to walk right, the other went right. On went left, the other moved left. "Wow, this really does happen." Buffy held Spike in place as she walked around his left. They didn't say anything as they walked away but each took a secret glance at the other when they weren't looking.

"Buffy," Giles said in usual surprised-to-see-you-but-not-really tone.

"Giles. Well now that the introductions are over, let's get down to business." Buffy walked over to the table and sat down with her hands folded.

"What business?" he asked as he glanced at the covers of the books on the table.

"The business of Slayer stuff. Is there anything on the horizon? Anything? A blip on the radar screen?"

"No, why have you heard anything."

"Actually now that you mentioned it, I overheard the jocks saying a horde of something was going to rise at eight and destroy all the vending machines."

"You're joking," the Watcher observed.

"Of course not. Those jocks love their sugary goodness." Giles just let out a sigh and continued filing away his books in the steel cage Oz used three days of the month. "I'm merely just checking in like the good little Slayer that I am, to see if you have any possible 'death and destruction' events on your hell creature schedule."

"Well I haven't heard-"

"And then she said, 'last I checked I didn't see talking to a loser on my schedule.' And ya know what I said back? Come on, guess." Xander and Willow interrupted Giles as they walked through the swinging doors. Xander was describing his latest Cordelia encounter.

"I don't care," Willow said in a suggestive tone when really it was a statement.

"'Be sure not to miss your spade appointment.' Huh? Am I crafty or am I geniousity?"

"Definitely not the latter," Willow said to herself. "Hey Buffy. Hey Giles."

"Buffster. G-man."

"Please don't ever call me that again," the Englishman asked in his typical Giles tone.

"What's with the meeting of the round table?" Xander sat down and put his feet on the tabletop. "What do we got? Demons, vampires, or my personal favorite, a good ol' apocalypse?"

Giles tapped on Xander's shoes, non-verbally telling him to remove them from his spotless surface. "Nothing actually. As in there's nothing going on."

"Uh, Buffy, you left your book bag in the auditorium."

"Great. Now I get to go inhale some more paint fumes. Lucky me," she said as she headed for the door.

"Actually it's in my locker."

"Way to go Will. Then let's venture to the non-smelliness of your locker." Buffy grabbed the hand of her red headed friend and lead her through the doorway. "Slayer out."

Willow turned the dial to the right combination of numbers that would open her locker. "This day is just all kinds of interesting so far. And it's not even lunch yet. Who knows, maybe there'll be a food fight. Or a mob of hungry students- wait, that happens everyday," Buffy spoke. Willow lifted the latch and the door opened. "Yey, my lack of books bag. Thanks Will."

"Uh, Buffy. Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Willow you're my best friend. I'll give you a minute," she said in her happy voice.

"Thanks. Uh, well… when you were gone for so long we all went looking for you. In a way. But when I was in the back hallway I saw you. With Spike."

Buffy's eyes widened. "Oh."

"Has he possessed you or something, 'cause last I checked you guys weren't exactly on kissing terms. You were barely even on arguing terms considering you always avoided each other."

"No, I'm not possessed. If only it were that easy." Buffy rested her back against the lockers and looked straight ahead. "I don't even really know what happened. One minute I was defending myself and the next we were kissing."

"A confusion spell?" Willow suggested.

"No. No spell of any name, form or whatever else kind of spell term there is. It was just a freak thing that happened."

"Well I'm not expecting you to defend yourself. I was just making sure you weren't-"

"Crazy?" she suggested.

"Not the word I was going for but we'll use it."

Buffy smiled and pushed herself off the lockers. "Let's head back to the board room."

Spike and Buffy had somehow managed to avoid each other for the rest of the day. Even though the moment they shared kissing was amazing, it was also creepy. They weren't sure why the other one was kissing them. Spike didn't know if Buffy had feelings for him or she just couldn't think of anything else to do. Buffy thought Spike was just confronting his feelings head on to see if she was girlfriend material, but she had no idea what his outcome was.

As the Slayer walked up the steps to her house she glanced over and saw Anne removing envelopes from her mailbox. She smiled and went to turn the doorknob.

"Buffy!" the woman exclaimed. Buffy looked over and saw her ex-second mother waving to her rapidly. "Come over, I just made some bran muffins."

Can never say no to Anne's bran muffins. "I'll be right over," she yelled back.

Inside, Joyce was just heading down the stairs. "Buffy, you're home."

"And now I'm not. I'm going over to Anne's for some bran muffins."

"Anne's? You haven't been over there in years," Joyce said, in a way reminding

her daughter.

"I know, but they're bran muffins."

"Be home for dinner."

"Got it." Buffy kissed her mother's cheek and headed out to the lawn. She opened the gate door and walked on the childhood grass that she used to play in. His grass always seemed more fluffy than hers. She almost felt like she bounced with every step.

The back door was open for her entrance and Anne had already pulled out the butter and a glass of milk. "Here you are my little Buffkin."

The smile that came to Buffy's face could light up a room. She had forgotten the pet name Anne bestowed upon her from all the muffins she ate at the house. When she was younger she liked the name because she was around enough to deserve a nickname but she also hated it because it was too "cutesy", was the term her and Spike agreed on. But now it was the sweetest thing she could hear. "Thanks Anne."

"So, how's the play coming along? Spike says you're a very good Juliet."

"He does?" She nearly lost bits of muffin that were crammed into her mouth.

"Oh yeah. We occasionally rehearse together and sometimes I think I can even see him picturing you reading lines with him."

"Anne," Buffy said in a give-me-a-break tone.

"I'm not joking. It's like he's there, but his mind isn't. I can't even tell you how many times I've told him to go next door and rehearse with you. I mean you need to learn your lines too."

"I get by."

"I'm sure you do sweetie, but it's just different when the person you'll be interacting with is there with you. Haven't you ever noticed the difference between reading with your friends or your mom and reading with Spike?"

Buffy's mouth opened, with intent to push out a sentence but her mind was too busy thinking. It never noticed a difference if there was one. Although that may have something to do with the raving hatred she had for him. Has for him.

"Hey, why don't we read lines together? It'll be fun." Anne was always so chipper about everything. You could say you're going to clean up dog poop and she'll make it sound like the most fun you could have with your time.

"I don't have my script with me."

"Well you won't be able to look at the script on the stage now will ya? Besides I have a copy of the scripts in my desk. I printed one out so I could help Spike with his lines. And this way if you get stuck I can feed you your lines." Anne had already retrieved the stapled papers from her drawer before she finished her thought. "What do ya think?"

With the big goofy smile on the woman's face, how could Buffy say no? "Sure. As long as I'm home for dinner."

"Oh, you should invite Joyce over to watch and then we can all have dinner together."

Buffy didn't know if Spike would like that very much so she lied. "Actually my mom already has food planned out and the oven's preheated. But maybe some other time."

"All right," the elderly woman said with a smile, although a hint of sadness showed. "Let's get started shall we?"

"Where do you want to start?"

"Well what speech do you need the most work on?" Anne sat down on one of the barstools as Buffy leaned against the countertop.

"All of it really. I know about half of it but sometimes the words get all jumbled up."

"How about Act I scene V. The ball when you first see Romeo."

They read through and made it to the end of the act. Where Buffy quoted:

"Go ask his name: if he be married.
My grave is like to be my wedding bed."

"His name is Romeo, and a Montague;
The only son of your great enemy."

"My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy."

"What's this? what's this?" Anne read.

"A rhyme I learn'd even-"

"I'm home!" Spike called from the doorway. "Sorry I'm late mom, but I-" when he entered the kitchen he saw the last person he would expect to see in his house reading lines with his mother.

"Hi sweetie." Anne got up and kissed Spike on the cheek. "We were just rehearsing the play together over bran muffins."

Spike's gaze was frozen on Buffy. Buffy awkwardly said, "You know I can't resist your mom's bran muffins."

"Yeah," he said slowly, still a little unsure of his vision.

Buffy pursed her lips. "Well, I should head back home. Thank you for the help Anne."

"But we haven't-"

"No, I really should get back home. I hope to see you soon though. Thanks for the muffins." Buffy quickly ran out the door and back to her house.

Anne swatted Spike with the script. "Ow!" he exclaimed. "What was that for?"

"Why'd you let her leave?"

"She said she needed to get back home."

"Only because you were looking at her like she had a horn stickin' out of her head. Honestly Spike, sometimes your manners are just atrocious." Anne got up and left.

"What did I do?" Spike asked the empty room.