A/N I still can't believe the response these last two chapters have got. I should have put Spike and Buffy together sooner! Please keep it up, it makes my day.
SUMMARY: After two failed relationships, Tara and Willow sign a relunctant Buffy up to an online dating service. But what Buffy refuses to accept as a perfect match, may turn out to prove that this Slayer will never be able to escape a certain blonde vampire...
"OK, let's make a bet," declared Anya, suddenly, and she pulled an enormous wad of money out of her back pocket and began rifling through the notes, aware of Willow and Dawn gazing in awe. "Fifty bucks says Buffy and Spike come back here a couple."
"Seventy-five says they're not!" cried Willow, excitedly. Dawn eyed her with the same glare Willow had been employing only minutes before.
"Fine," decided Anya, laying seventy-five dollars down on the coffee table. "But if you're wrong, I get your money, I saw it on TV."
"That's generally how betting works," remarked Dawn, and Willow laughed.
"Psshft!" said Anya, waving her arms about uncontrollably. "I still get your money, yes?"
"Yes!" cried Willow and Dawn simultaenously. Willow looked at her watch. "Oh my God!" she hissed. "Its half-past three, and I have class tomorrow. Dawn, you'd better get to sleep, you have school too."
"If I have to sleep, you have to sleep too," replied Dawn, firmly.
"But what about the money?" squealed Anya. "I want my money!"
"We'll listen out for Buffy," Willow told Anya. "But I think we'd better get to sleep. I'll stay here with Dawn, and An, you can go back home to Xander."
"I'm not leaving here without my money," she insisted, and Willow sighed, surrendering.
"Fine," replied Willow. "Dawn, we'll take your mom's bed, and Anya can take Dawn's bed. I don't fancy a night alone with the crazy money-hugger," Willow added in an undertone to Dawn, which was followed by a giggle.
"OK then," said Anya. "I'll see you and my money in the morning."
"No, I'll see you and my money in the morning," retorted Willow. The three exhaled, furiously, and both bedroom doors shut with a clunk.
"Ssh!" urged Buffy, drunkenly, as both she and Spike fell through her front door an hour later. "You'll wake up D...d..."
"You mean Dawn?" Spike corrected loudly, and the pair fell into a fit of giggles on the carpet. Buffy nodded. "Uh huh," she hissed. "That's what I said."
"What am I doing here again?" asked Spike, attempting to stand up again, and having to hold onto to the stair rail. "I kind of just followed you here."
"Sleeping over," replied Buffy. "That's what boyfriends do." She burst into another round of laughter, and then hiccupped loudly. "I'm drunk," she declared, dragging herself to the bottom step and sitting upon it, miserably.
"Don't be sad, Goldilocks," said Spike, suddenly, and he reached up and scooped Buffy up like she weighed nothing. "Now... oh, bloody hell, how am I going to get you up the stairs?"
"You're a vampire!" cried Buffy, and Spike ssh-ed her urgently. "Don't you have, like, superpowers?"
"Yeah, but I'm a drunk vampire," he replied, with a wobbly nod of the head. Spike frowned. "I feel dizzy."
"Well put me down then!" she hissed, and he dropped her immediately, causing a loud crash on the stairs, and another bout of sniggering ensued. The pair crawled up the stairs, side-by-side, and reached the top... and a very annoyed Willow.
"Uh oh..." wailed Buffy, hiccupping again.
"Yeah, uh oh," replied Willow, helping Buffy up as Spike collapsed in a heap. "We're all trying to sleep, and all me and Dawn can hear is 'hee hee hee' and 'crash'. What are you doing?"
Dawn pulled the bedroom door open, and came to join them. Her mouth dropped open at the sight of a very drunk Spike and Buffy. Buffy answered Willow with a giant burp.
"She's drunk!" cried Dawn. "And he is, look!"
By this time, Anya had joined the gathering on the landing too. "What's he doing here?" she asked, pointing at Spike.
Buffy giggled like a little girl. "He's sleeping over," she told them. "He's my boyfriend now!"
"Pay up," Anya ordered Willow, who folded her arms over her chest and spoke gently to Buffy.
"Uh, Buffy?" she asked. "Are you, um, sure you thought this through? You know, before the booze?"
Buffy hiccupped again. "Booze," she said, with a laugh.
"We were kissing before the beer," Spike said, suddenly, hoisting himself up on his elbows. "In fact, the beer was because of the kissing." Willow, Dawn and Anya looked at Buffy in surprise.
"Buffy?" Dawn tried this time. "Is this true?" Buffy simply nodded.
"Fine," said Willow, who was again surrendering. "Buffy, get to bed. But you-" She stopped Spike, who had been crawling after her. "You can sleep on the sofa."
"So they're really... an item?" asked Giles, the following afternoon, eyeing Spike with disgust.
"Are you sure you haven't been at the 'Let My Will Be Done' spells again, Wil?" Xander asked, almost hopefully.
"I swear I haven't!" Willow cried, and Tara looked impressed.
"You did a spell to have your will be done?" she asked. "Wow, that must have been great!"
"It wasn't," Giles and Xander assured her, together.
"Its her own choice, I suppose," said Giles, finally, looking over to the candle stand, where Buffy and Spike were restocking and chatting happily. "I'm not her Watcher formally, anymore, so I can't tell her what to do. And even if I could, it's never a given that Buffy does what she's told anyway."
"Well I think it's neat," decided Dawn, cheerfully. "Spike and Buffy are two of my favourite people, and it's nice to have them together."
"I think its fabulous!" cried Anya, excitedly pulling out her money and displaying it on the table. "It got me seventy-five dollars!"
"Bah," spat Willow. "I should have stuck at fifty."
"Buffy?" Spike asked softly, as they had laid the last slug candle on the stand. "Can I talk to you in the training room for a second?"
"Sure," she repied with a smile. She took Spike's hand and called out to the others, "We'll be back in a minute!"
Spike pulled Buffy by her fingers into the training-area, where Buffy rested against the horse nonchalantly. "So," she said. "What's up?"
Spike took both of Buffy's hands in his and stared into her eyes. "Buffy," he began, slowly. "Today has been like another person's life - being with you, talking to you, not being kicked in-" He froze, as if he suddenly expected Buffy to throw a punch. "But, I think we'd better stop it, whatever we're doing."
Buffy frowned. "What?" she asked, suddenly dropping Spike's hand - which she had been squeezing. "Why?"
"Think about it," he replied. "I'm a vampire. Sure, we'd have a few months, years maybe. But what about after that? What about when you want to get married? What if you want to have children? What if you want to buy a house of your own, after Dawn grows up and moves out?"
Buffy laughed, and took Spike's hand again. "You think I hadn't thought of that before?" she queried, raising an eyebrow. "Of course I've thought about it. And I don't want to get married. It's too much hassle, too much money - and it tears the couple apart."
Buffy stopped, as she heard Xander coughing loudly from the other room. Spike suddenly realised the door was open -and all the Scoobies could hear them - and he shut it immediately.
"And if I want children, I'll adopt," she continued. "I mean, childbirth? Yuck. I get all the pain I want from Slaying, thankyou very much. And I like my mom's house. It holds memories of her, and memories of me since I lived here. I think I'll always want to live there." She draped her arms around Spike's neck, and shot him a dazzling smile. "I want to be with you, Spike. I love you. After all the fights we've had, I love y-"
But Buffy hadn't time to finish her sentence, as Spike had seized her waist, and pulled her in for a long, romantic kiss against the horse, putting one hand in her shiny, golden hair, and another one holding her down at her hip-bones.
"Right," he said, laughingly, his lips moving against hers. "It's settled. Now you're never, ever, getting away from me."