A/N: This chapter follows on directly from where the last left off.
Routine
Spike pulled Buffy aside and made firm love to her against a wall before they had even made it half way home. She gasped as she came, and clutched him tightly – trembling.
"'M sorry," he muttered into her hair. "Had to work off the tension."
"M'yeh," the Slayer replied - wholly unable to form a coherent sentence.
The vampire carried on talking, regardless.
"Don' want you stretching yourself too far," he said, as his fingers idly skated across her goose pimpled flesh, and he breathed in her scent. "Don' think they believe I really mean that. That 'm trying to think of yer best interests."
"Sshhh," Buffy whispered, before kissing him deeply. While her lips danced with his she reassured him through the bond that she understood his motives, and that that was all that really mattered. "They'll come around," she said, out loud, when their mouths finally parted. "Think you've finally gotten through to Xander."
"Yeah," Spike agreed. "Boy jus' needs a couple days to chew on that, I reckon."
Buffy smiled and pulled away, before pulling down her clothes and taking Spike's hand to continue their walk.
The next day Buffy and Giles tried to train together. He was very impressed with how her skills had developed, but had to admit the session felt stilted.
"Are you feeling alright?" he asked.
"Yeah," she answered. "Little awkward. But it's fine."
"Awkward?"
"Yeah, I… Giles, don't take this the wrong way, because I love you, but I found my flow with Spike, and it's weird not fighting alongside him. Kinda feels wrong, actually."
"Well, you do need to prepare for situations in which he may not be available," Giles reasoned.
"I know. I know. You're right. It… it's just-"
"Not working."
"Not really," she admitted. "I'm sorry."
The watcher hung his head a little – he had expected the outcome. Luckily, though, he had a backup plan for where to direct his time and efforts - to help his surrogate daughter in another way.
"What do you think of this training room?" he asked.
"It's great!" said Buffy, with genuine enthusiasm.
Giles brow furrowed in response, as a thought struck him. He had rented the back room in the Magic Box for the evening, as he realized his place wasn't suitable, and there was nowhere else aside from one of the graveyards.
"Where do you and Spike train?"
"Oh, we do it everywhere," the Slayer replied. Again, the response came with enthusiasm, and then a blush, followed by swift back peddling. "I… I mean, work. We work out lots of places. Totally professional, all of the time."
"Quite," replied Giles, refusing to let himself think about the truth behind her initial response. "This… uh, this training room. It would be useful for you, if you had permanent access to it?"
"Sure, but how are we gonna get that?"
Giles smiled, then let her in on his plans to buy the entire store.
"That's wonderful!" she beamed back at him.
The watcher was struck once again at just how much happier she'd become since uniting with Spike. More youthful, almost, but no less mature. Musings about how unlikely their relationship had initially been, and how good a match it had turned out to be, where interrupted by Buffy's latest brainwave.
"Hey, maybe you could let him help out?" she said. "Lift boxes or something. Sort inventory. Anything?"
Picking up on her badly veiled desperation, Giles asked what the matter was.
"Nothing," she insisted. "He just gets bored, now that I'm at college… and he can't be evil."
The Slayer hung her head at the last part, which made her watcher smile again.
"Buffy, there's really no need to be bashful. I suppose it rather makes sense that he would feel at a loose end. And you shouldn't feel shame for his past deeds. Hmm… the words 'his' and 'past' sum it up quite nicely, don't you think?" he shook his head, as if to clear it, then continued saying, "If anything I'm impressed that he was able to stop his ah… activities, for you with such ease."
Buffy's shoulders visibly relaxed. She grinned at her father figure's excess use of language, and waved off his words saying, "Spike stopped killing long before he came back."
"Oh?" Giles was genuinely shocked. "Why?"
She gave a shrug, and a wistful smile. "He didn't think I'd find out, or that I'd believe him, but he did it anyway. Because I wouldn't approve."
"Extraordinary!" the watcher exclaimed.
"Not really," Spike drawled, as he walked in the door – having caught the end of the conversation.
The vampire turned to Buffy and lightly chastised her, saying, "That was supposed to be private."
"Oops?" she said, with a guilty smirk.
"S'okay," he said, dropping a heavy kiss against her mouth. "So why am I up for discussion?"
"Giles is gonna buy the Magic Box. I was thinking maybe you could help him."
"Wanna keep be occupied," he said with a bob of his head. "Tough luck, kitten. Missed yer chance. Already got it covered."
Buffy balked, "Don't tell me you got a job?!"
"'S that so surprising?"
"I… No. Well, yeah. Kinda, actually."
Giles watched the exchange with interest. He was all too aware that from the moment the vampire had walked in the room his presence was no longer on the Slayer's mental register. He could be dancing the jive in a tutu not five feet away, and he was sure she wouldn't notice. Filtering out his thoughts, and listening again to the conversation playing out before him, he was able to gather that Spike had agreed to be a roadie for Oz's band.
"Wolf's got an amp shoved in the witch's place, said I'd help him move it round to ours later. We can store other equipment there too, for a fee."
"How much?"
The vampire shrugged, admitting, "Not a lot."
"Well, I think it's great," Buffy decided.
Suddenly they were kissing again, and before Giles knew it the vampire – who was also seemingly unaware or uncaring of his presence – had backed Buffy up against the pommel horse and was eagerly groping at her. Cleaning his glasses, the watcher made a swift exit to the main store, to examine the accounts.
Later, when Spike and Oz did go to Willow's, they walked in on her kissing her roommate.
To be continued...