A young woman was walking through the dark and dangerous streets of Sunnydale without a care in the word, she was looking at a magazine she held in one hand whilst the other dragged her red suitcase behind her. The only sound you could hear was her high heels clicking against the hard cement.

"Well looky here, a little girl walking all alone," a gravelly man's voice said to her left, shortly after, a tall man appeared from the shadows. His body was covered in dirt and blood-stained clothes, but that wasn't what truly set this man apart from the normal day to day humans. No, it was the pure monstrous face with bumpy ridges, golden eyes, and animalistic fangs that looked as though it could tear the young woman's throat out with just one bite that set him apart.

"Really? Now? I mean, come on, I wasn't finished reading this fashion section yet. They have the cutest shoes!" The woman said in a somewhat whiney voice as she looked to him from her magazine. Once she saw him and truly took in his appearance, she scrunched up her face in a disgusted look, "When was the last time you washed your clothes? Ugh, eww, just because you're a vamp doesn't mean you have to forget personal hygiene."

The vampire looked at her like she had 2 heads, "Are you crazy? I look like a monster, and I'm gonna eat you, yet you're more concerned that I interrupted your reading?"

"Duhh, you could have waited like, 3 minutes before you did the whole spooky emergence from the shadows vampire trope thingy" the woman sighed deeply in annoyance and dropped her suitcase before bringing her hands up in a defensive position "come on then, you haven't got all night and I have somewhere to be, which I am very late to" the vampire growled and lunged towards the young woman, very much wanting to shut up her incessant whining.

As this was happening, Spike was heading to his hideout to go deal with an annoying Harmony when a familiar and utterly tantalizing smell of blood hit his nose, taking a deep breath in with his nose that made him almost salivate, he changed directions and casually walked over to where he heard the grunts and growls of his fellow vampire.

"Well, well, what a pretty thing." his baby blue eyes looked at the new arrival intensely. This girl was a skilled fighter for a human, she was dodging some of the vampires attacks and hitting him back with her own, she looked to be a young adult, older than the slayer as her hips were wider and her breasts were larger as well, the slayers body only just began growing into a more womanly figure- yes he looked at her, he may be a vampire but he was still a man- hence why he noticed how more well-endowed in the woman department this woman was. The girl had stark black hair tied into a high ponytail and a fringe that framed her face nicely, her skin was pale but not inhumanly so and her eyes were a deep wine colour, something that wasn't common in humans yet something that was somewhat common for him. Her clothes showed that she wasn't actively hunting vampires, and neither did it look like she had any business fighting them to begin with. She was wearing some pretty high-end looking clothes, not your typical fashion you'd find in Sunnydale, and the heels, by God they were pointy, if they were made of wood she could step on a vampire and stake them. The Bleach Blonde Vampire had no idea how anyone could walk in such high heels, let alone fight in them. But judging by her ease of combat, she seemed to have been doing so for quite a while, which made him slightly impressed.

"I really need to get to my Aunts place before she gets super pissed at me for being late, so can we speed this up already?" the woman drawled, her tone showed boredom that she should not have whilst fighting a blood sucker. The woman pulled out a stake and kicked the vampires shin hard so he would topple over, with a grunt she rammed her stake into the vamps heart and watched as he turned to dust "the vamps here are so easy to kill" she blew a strand away from her face and walked over to her suitcase, with a deep breath to calm her racing heart, she walked on as if she never fought in the first place. "That made my feet hurt, I regret wearing these heels…"

"What a strange woman" he shook his head and reached into his pockets to pull out a cigarette and lighter.

"You know smoking is bad for you, even if you're a vampire" Spike jerked his head up to see the strange woman looking at him with a smirk. "What? Didn't think I would notice you?"

"Thought you'd be sufficiently distracted to have noticed me" he had to resist the urge to take in another deep breath now that the smell of her blood was closer, the small bleeding cuts she had gotten from the fight was not helping. "How'd you know I'm a vampire?"

"Your bleached blonde hair is hard to miss, that and your clothes suggest vamp" she crossed her arms over her chest "So you gonna tell me why you're standing there watching me all broody and sexy like?"

"I do not brood" He shot back, ignoring the sexy comment "I heard fighting and came to check it out, you're pretty good at dusting vamps."

"I'd rather not be dinner for a vampire if I can help it, though I probably taste really good"

Oh, how right she was with that comment, though Spike decided to focus more on her skills than to respond to her strange words "So you trained in fighting, like martial arts?"

"Yeah, it's a great feeling to be able to kick ass" Spike chuckled deeply at that "anyway, I need to head to my aunts place before she blows her top, see ya around vamp."

"Oi, what's your name?" Spike called to her when she turned to leave.

"Eris, you?"

"Spike."

"Well Spike, I hope I see you around" she waved to him with a flirtatious expression as she grabbed her suitcase once more and walked away.

He watched her go intently, allowing himself a moment to take in her scent before she got too far. He could have killed her right then and there, drained her dry and savoured that delicious blood that he so rarely got to gorge on. He never knew why such blood called to him, only that in all his immortal life a women would come along with the same heavenly tasting blood and he got the honour of killing her for it. Though this time was different, time had changed his perspective on life and made him curious why such women exist and what made them taste the way they did.

So no, this time, he would let his dinner live, if only for a little while, to know who she was and what other pleasures that body could give him, "You certainly will pet."

Eris stepped onto a porch and huffed. Of course her extended family lived in a suburban home. It was nice, not your average lower-class home, but certainly not something she wanted to stay in, but it would have to do. Finishing her inner judgment of the house, she knocked on the door and heard a not so happy voice behind the door. After waiting for a few minutes, the door opened to a not so happy older woman, "You are very late," the woman said in a stern voice, her brows furrowing to show her displeasure. "You were meant to be here by lunch today,

Eris shoulders slumped as she spoke, "I'm sorry, Aunt Joyce, I lost track of time saying goodbye to all my friends in LA."

Joyce motioned her to come inside, "we made arrangements with your mother for you to come straight here. She's going to be very cross with you when she finds out."

Eris had stepped in and rolled her eyes at her Aunts words, "Come on, Aunt Joyce, it's really not that bad, I promise!"

"Really, not that bad" Joyce stepped closer and poked the bruise forming on Eris' bare shoulder, which said woman gave a loud ouch in response "you have bruises forming all over, you got into a fight didn't you?"

"Yes, but I didn't have a choice," She responded as she rubbed her now aching bruise, "it was a vamp, and it was going to kill me."

"No excuses, if you had been on time then a vampire would not have been able to kill you" Joyce was clearly not budging on this so Eris let out a big sigh which made the older woman stop her parental scolding, "we worry is all Eris, you're here to stop getting in to so much danger"

"But I've been sent to the Hellmouth, not really safe,"

"Yes, but you forget, your cousin is the Slayer. It's a lot safer here with her than with that vampire you hung around."

"Someone mention Slayer?" A voice cut in from up the stairs. Looking up, both women saw a blonde woman coming down, "am I in trouble?"

"No, Buffy," Joyce responded, "Just scolding your cousin here for being out so late, alone."

"If we knew you were going to be so late, I would have met you at the airport" Buffy said to Eris as she came over to give the older girl a hug, "saved you from all the big baddies out there."

Eris hugged back whilst letting out a chuckle, "would have saved me from getting these bruises, I did not think about slaying when I picked my outfit today."

Buffy looked at her outfit and then let out a snort as she saw the heels, "Yeah, I may wear heels, but not stiletto types. How did you not break your ankles?"

"Pure luck, honestly, but I am paying for it with how achy my feet are."

"Is she good now, mom?" Buffy asked as she looked to Joyce, "has she been scolded enough? Because I want to go set up her room and talk teenager stuff. "

"But I'm not a teen -"

"-shh, you're close enough," Buffy interjected before going back to sending her mother a pleading gaze.

"Fine," Joyce said in a resigned voice, "I've done enough parenting for one night, though expect a call from your mother tomorrow, Eris."

That caused a groan from the ravenette, "oh boy, that's going to be fun" with a roll of her eyes she looked back to Buffy "well, lead the way oh mighty vampire slayer"

"Yes, mam!" Buffy replied as she started heading up the stairs to the spare room. It was mostly used for Joyce's art supplies and other things that didn't really have a specific place to be, but they had moved a bed into the room so Eris could have somewhere to sleep until they could turn it into her room for the duration of her stay.

"As much as I missed you and Joyce, I miss LA so much more!" Eris whined after she threw herself onto her single mattress bed. She hated singles. There wasn't ever any space for her to sprawl out, and certainly not enough space to have someone over for bedtime fun.

"It's your own fault Eris," Buffy replied as she shuffled some stuff around in the room so Eris could unpack her suitcase "you're the one who got too into the deep supernatural stuff and pissed off your mom."

"Come on! It's LA! You can't go five seconds without bumping into something supernatural. Of course, I'd find myself in the deep stuff. " Eris huffed. She really hated her mother sometimes. "And I was fine, I had your ex keeping me out of trouble,"

Buffy had tensed for a second at the mention of her ex before relaxing, "Angel wouldn't have needed to keep you out of trouble if he didn't find you being an assistant to a demon for hire company when he first met you".

Eris crossed her arms over her chest defensively, "it was a good paying job, and gave me underworld connections, I don't regret it."

"And that's why Aunt Julie sent you here" Buffy sighed and moved over to sit with her cousin, "I know it's hard, being sent here and being forced to change but it's not all bad" Buffy recalled her own time going through the same thing when she was in LA, "I was in the same boat as you. Miss popular, loved her fashion and boys, hell the slaying only made that worse. Your mom had to pay the school so they could rebuild the gym I set fire to and so they wouldn't press charges against me."

Eris snorted, "I remember that."

"Yea, wasn't fun, and I had to move here because of it, which I so did not want to do" Buffy stopped for a second to let out a sigh, "but honestly, it's been the best thing that's ever happened to me. I've got friends, real friends, not like Jennifer or Kimberly, and even though I'm still in the slaying business, I've really grown as a person, and I think you will too"

"If anyone else said that then I would tell them to fuck off, but since it's you I'll 'try' to give this place a chance" Eris said as she uncrossed her arms to give Buffy a smile, "but I'm not stopping my love of fashion and men, just the looking for danger stuff…maybe, we'll see"

"I wouldn't expect you too, though it's gonna be hard to do that since Aunt Julie doesn't send you as big as an allowance anymore."

"Yea, I know, that mostly all goes to Joyce so she can afford to keep me here and feed me, but I will find a way."

"Yea, if you get a job, and not one that's involved in underworld stuff,"

"…fine"