The ground beneath her feet was soaking from last night's rain, so that each of her steps caused a smackink noise.
"Let's go home, Xander. Seems like nothing's going on tonight at all. No vampires, no demons..." Buffy sighed and whirled the stake in her hand lost in thought while she looked over the fields of the cemetery.
Xander nodded and put a biscuit into his mouth.
"Any other plans for tonight? What about the Bronze?" he asked.
"I dunno...I'd rather stay at home."
They had hardly made a couple of steps when they heard a loud noise behind them.

"You heard this, too?" Buffy asked and stopped.
"MMMMHHHHLLLP" This time the noise was even louder and with some imagination it could be recognized as a cry for help, which made Buffy and Xander run again in the direction of the cemetery.
After a few metres they immediately noticed the shape which lay motionlessly on the ground and from which the calls for help had apparently come.
While getting closer they soon recognized that they knew this person very well, even if they had never seen him in such position.
He lay face down on the ground, both arms widely outstretched - and he didn't move at all.

"Spike?" Buffy asked in a mixture of irritation and surprise.
"Not that I seriously care, but what are you doin' there?
"What does it look like? I press my face into the mud!" it vaguely came from him. Oddly enough, he still didn't move.
"Oh, okay then... keep on enjoyin'... whatever you're doin' there," Buffy replied and intended to pass him by.
"Wait! I'm injured... turn me around." An imploring undertone had inferred his sarcasm-dripping voice so that Buffy kneeled beside him and rolled him on his back.

"Ever thought about joining the Alcoholics Anonymous, Spike?" Xander grinned.
"I'm not drunk, you idiot!" the vampire hissed.
"I've been attacked!"

"What do you mean by 'attacked'?" Buffy asked and slowly rose while she offered Spike her hand to help him to get up on his feet.
"I came out of my crypt and walked over the cemetery when I heard something behind me. Sort of whistles, sounded as if someone would let air from a balloon. And when I was about to turn round something bit me into the shoulder. I fell face first and now I can´t move..."
"You can't move?" Buffy slowly lowered her outstretched hand and looked at him unbelievingly.
"Did you think I'm lying here and eatin' mud 'cause it's that funny?" he growled furiously.

"Well... however. I'm sure you'll manage this!" Xander said and patted Spike's shoulder before he did some steps into the direction of the cemetery exit.

"Hey... wait! You can't just leave me here like this."
They could hear obvious panic in his voice. Buffy bent down to him, not trying to hide her amusement, as she asked:
"Oh, can't we? And why not?"
"What if I still can't move when the sun rises later?"
Xander came back and shot him a look that said: So what?

Spike understood the expression on his face and continued hastily:
"I'll burn miserably! You guys can't do that to me... Come on..."
Xander still didn't seem to be convinced by this argumentation and Spike exploded:
"Damn!You gotta help me!"
"Oh, do we?" Xander replied, smiling evily.

"Come on, don't be that cruel... Remember, Buffy, I always looked after Dawn. And you, Xander... I've helped you before, too, I'm quite sure it was when...Well, please."
They looked down to him as he started panicking more and more and at the same time both thought that he'd probably have been sweating terribly in this moment, if he had been a human.
"Okay then" Buffy finally mumbled.
"We take you to you crypt and..."

"No, not my crypt!" The blond vampire interrupted her hastily.
"I'm still in debt with a few guys...Kittens and stuff...and if they show up in my crypt and I'm still just as helpless as now... You have to take me with you!"
Buffy rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Alright, Xan, we take him, I hope that Willow knows what to do."

"Does that mean that we give up the option of leaving him here?" Xander mumbled, then, however, bent down and grabbed Spike's ankles, while Buffy reached under his arms to raise him with Xander's help.
And so the strange trio left the cemetery, while Spike babbled incomprehensible stuff which sounded like: Oh hell, no.. I am handicapped … again!

When they arrived at the crossroads, Buffy turned left while Xander exactly headed into the opposite direction.
"Damn! I'm not an accordion," Spike protested.
"We take him to your apartment , Xander!" Buffy decided vigorously.
"Absolutely NO CHANCE! He already lived at my place, I know what it is like and I couldn't stand him once again."

"However, I can't take him," Buffy started but Xander immediately interrupted her.
"Why not? You've got much more space than Anya and me."
"Xander, please..." Buffy now tried the guileless look and the pout, which had always worked when she had wanted to convince him, but this time her friend simply refused to give in.
"NO!" he shouted energetically and simply dropped Spike's feet, which hit the ground with a loud bang, so that Buffy lost the balance and almost fell.

"OUCH!" Spike squealed furiously. "That hurt! And by the way, the fact that I can't move doesn't mean that I can't hear!"
They both simply ignored him, however, and continued to argue.
"Buffy, this time it's your turn, I won't take him with me. Never. Ever. Again."
Xander didn't give way and Buffy knew that she could do nothing else but accept it.

When they arrived at Buffy's house, they laid Spike on the couch in the living room.
Xander called Willow and while he explained to her what had happened, Spike asked quietly: "Why don't you want me to be here?"
Buffy looked at him silently for a while, then, however, hissed: "´Cause it pisses me off to have you around. You're goin'on my nerves."
Why the hell did her voice sound so, so dreadfully shaky?

Spike had noticed the undertone in her voice, too.
"Oh yeah? Is it that? Or are you maybe afraid of me, luv? You know that I can't do anything to you right now..."
The way his eyes sparkled clearly showed that he would have enjoyed changing this fact and Buffy didn't dare to think about what exactly he would do to her, if he only could.

"Wills is goin' to come round in a few minutes." Xander obviously hadn´t heard a single word of her conversation and Buffy was honestly glad that her thoughts were turned away by him. However, her relief didn't last because after few moments Xander announced that he would go home.

"Stay," Buffy tried to persuade him, suddenly confronted with the thought that she would remain alone with Spike.
Xander said goodbye before Buffy had a chance to coax him into staying.
With a quiet clicking the door shut behind Xander and Buffy forced herself to look at Spike, who watched her attentively.

"Now we're alone," he murmured and a light smile appeared on his face.
"So what? Did you think that I'm gonna jump on you?" she replied, trying to sound as mocking as possible, although she notice that she didn't succeeded at all.
"Oh, if you insist on doing so... I won't fight you off, strictly speaking, I couldn't, even if I wanted to."
He leered and Buffy cursed herself for noticing how attractive he was looking.

Giving herself an imaginary firm kick into her bottom she said condescendingly:
"Spike, how often did I tell you? A hundred times, a thousand times? You. Disgust. Me."
"Sure..." he said, while she could read his thoughts in his eyes:
You little liar.
"Can you wipe the dirt from my face at least?"
"No", she immediately answered.
"Come on, Slayer, don't be ridiculous. All you have to do is wipe over my face with a piece of cloth. Or are you maybe afraid to get too close to my lips?"
With the last sentence he had almost lowered his voice into a whisper, while he shot her a provocative look.

Buffy didn't reply, because on the one hand she didn't want to get involved in his little game, on the other a prickling feeling in her stomach told her that her voice could sound terribly squeaky again.
And so she went to the bathroom without saying a word only to come back with a wet washcloth a few moments later.
Pretending to be easy and cool at all she bent down to him and started to to wipe his face with the cloth.

She intended to do it roughly and ruthlessly, but then she surprised herself by carefully, almost softly gliding over his cheeks to remove the mud.
Fascinated she looked at his pale, flawless skin, the straight nose and his distinctive cheek bones.
She didn't know exactly what she had expected, maybe that he would smell musty or yucky, but instead a smell which somehow reminded her of sandalwood got in into her nose.
A pleasant, manly smell.

For strange reasons she couldn't bring herself to look into his eyes, not even as she noticed that he breathed in audibly.
Her eyes reached his mouth, which was opened a little.
His finely curved, sensuous lips shone damply and she caught herself staring at them while wondering how these lips would feel on hers.
Completely forgetting about the cloth she looked at his mouth and licked over her own lips unconsciously.
She didn't know how many seconds or minutes had passed until she managed to stop staring at his lips and to look into his eyes instead.
That it was a mistake she knew the moment she remarked that the blue of his eyes had darkened, resembling a nightly ocean now, which invited her to want to dive into its depths.

Tiny, sharp needles seemed to stimulate her skin when she saw how Spike watched her, with such an intensive look that made her feel dazed.
He slowly closed, as if in slow motion, his eyes and moistened his half open lips with his tongue.
Buffy didn't know how it could happen but she suddenly found herself so near to his face that she could feel his cool breath on her cheek.
Her chest lifted and sank intensely when she closed her eyes and bent her head.
It happened without her being able to fight against it, without listening to her inner voice that told her not to do so.
And just in the moment, when her lips touched his, a loud bang startled her and she stood up hastily.

"Buffy, I'm home!" Dawn shouted as she came in.