Spike woke up when he sensed something in his room, an unfamiliar smell attacked his nose. He instantly became tensed and on high alert, as quick as lightening, he jumped off his coffin and pounced on the unsuspecting intruder "Ah!" a feminine yelp broke through his predatory haze, when he focused on the intruder, he noticed it was none other than Eris,"Hi," she squeaked
Spike glared at her, now realising the smell was chemicals from cleaning products, "sneaking into a vampire's home whilst he is asleep is not a good idea," he stepped back and allowed her to collect her bearings, "what are you doing in here?"
"I…" she cleared her throat "when I apologized to you when Buffy punched you it was short and rushed, I felt bad and thought I would make it up to you by cleaning your…house?" she gestured to the webless room, the dust was gone and the floor was swept and cleaned of sticks and leaves, the holes in his couch were sewed and she even managed to put curtain over the windows "I also bought you some blood mixed in with wine as an added apology. I'm also doing this because I hang out here a lot and would rather not deal with sneezing every five seconds," she really hated that she cleaned but guilt ate at her and she didn't want dust getting on her tits.
Spike was looking at her in shock, and a little confused. She was usually so vein and selfish, so seeing that she had cleaned his crypt was out of character, "this is kind of weird to me," he commented, his eyes still roaming around his clean house, he liked it, he was too lazy to clean it himself.
"Weird for me too, I'm going to have to shower for 3 hours to get off all this dirt," she shook her head, "look, you don't need to say anything, It's already done so no going back now, and I am apologizing on Buffy's behalf because I know she won't."
"You are a strange one, you are surrounded by the Scooby Gang daily yet they haven't made you hate me, you must be incredibly stubborn or I'm really good at sex."
She smirked, "oh it's definitely the sex, though your company is a bonus. Plus, I'm older than all of them so I have to be the mature one blah blah blah."
"Huh, I thought you were the same age."
"Nope I'm 23, they're 4 years younger than me, except Anya…she's the oldest...and Giles too, I guess," she shrugged and went over to her cleaning supplies "keep these, I want you to clean otherwise I'm never coming over again."
"Enough with the whining, its just dust."
"Yea, gross dust that I don't want all over me when you rip my clothes off."
"Fine, I'll do some cleaning, happy?"
"I am," She looked at him with a smile as she grabbed her bag and walked over to him, "well I have to go, its movie night at Xander's."
"You don't want to stay, make use of the new clean tomb?"
"Very tempting but I desperately want a shower."
"You better come over tomorrow then."
"Yea yea, I will, you needy baby."
"I am not needy!"
"Yes you are!"
"Am not!"
Only five members of the Scooby gang ending up coming to Movie night, Riley, Buffy, Anya, Eris and Xander, two of them lived there so they did not really count and now Eris was a weird fifth wheel, "I wish I had something food wise to offer you guys, but the hotplate is out of commission," Xander said, trying to break the awkward silence.
"We think the cat peed on it," Anya said on the floor, her arm in a sling due to the attack that happened when Dawn was kidnapped.
"I do have SpaghettiOs, set 'em on top of the dryer and you're a fluff cycle away from lukewarm goodness."
"That doesn't sound appetizing at all Xander," Eris said dryly, wishing she bought food on the way over, or just stayed at Spikes.
Riley spoke once he finished his drink, "I, uh, had dryer food for lunch."
The group looked up when they heard a door slam up above followed by loud shouting "huh, guess the folks are back," glass shattering could be heard, "no, no, I was wrong, just incompetent burglars," the room suddenly became awkward and uncomfortable, "yeah, maybe its time to look for a new place."
"What kind of place would you want?" Eris asked.
Xander looked over to her and Riley, thinking it over for a few seconds before replying, "something a little nicer," he turned to Buffy who was reading a book, "Buffy, you've been to hell, they have one-bedrooms, right?" they all looked down and noticed the blonde wasn't paying attention.
"Hey Buffy," Riley called down to her, "how's the book? Full of zippy dates and Zesty names?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she replied distractedly, Riley sighed lightly and placed his hand over the words, "hey! I'm enjoying the studying."
"Who are you lately? Give it up and watch the movie."
"I guess it has been a long day with the Crusades, I could take a break from the violence for some…Oh! Fighting," she saw that they were watching a horribly dubbed Japanese Kung Fu Movie.
"Incompetently-dubbed kung fu, our most valuable Chinese import," Xander commented.
"Much more durable than their hotplates," Anya continued.
"I should bring over a Bruce Lee, enter the Dragon next time," Eris said to Xander who yes brightened at the prospect.
"Ooooh you would? I love the opening music. I never knew you liked those movies," he was like a child in the candy store.
"They're not mine, they're Aunt Joyces, I've just seen them in a cupboard," Eris shrugged at Xander's pout before turning her attention to Buffy who started to criticise Bruce Lee's fighting technique "Buff, you should enjoy the movie not criticise it."
"Hey" Buffy turned to the ravenette "You took fighting lessons since you were young, shouldn't you be angry at this?"
"I try not to think about it," she replied.
The crashing and shouting from upstairs made the room fall silent once more, "and anyway you can't blame me for being critical," Buffy continued after a short silence "Willow's the same way when we watch a movie about witches, right, Xander?"
"What? Oh yeah she's all like 'what's that, a cauldron? Who uses a cauldron anymore?"
"She would if she could afford one, a proper cauldron is super expensive," Eris shot back, "you need to pay better attention Xand," the man in question pouted once more.
They returned to watching the cheesy fighting movie, ignoring the fighting upstairs that went on until the movie ended.
Several weeks went by, and Eris started going over to Spike for more than just sex. She enjoyed listening to all his adventures, even about the horrible, gruesome ones where he laid waste to towns with Dru. She would tell him some of the adventures she had, and when she told him that she knew Angel she would join him in insulting the souled vampire. Other times they would sit in front of the Tv and watch Passions, she didn't like it at first but as she continued she started to enjoy it and promised Spike that she would not watch any of the show without him. He didn't mind starting from the beginning as Passions wasn't on Tv now, he was happy that she bought him a Vcr and all the Passion seasons, it felt like his birthday.
It was weird for him to be so friendly with a human. Sex was normal but friendship? That was just unnatural for him. But it felt nice, she gave him entertainment, a person that interrupted his lonely, empty filled days and brought him a source of amusement and excitement. She seemed to enjoy chaos almost as much as he did, and they sometimes went out and baited vampires and demons out before staking them. She was a fiery woman with so much uncontrolled adrenaline which he took full advantage of.
Tonight, Spike was patrolling the cemetary when he saw Buffy and Eris patrolling themselves, they were fighting when Buffy's boyfriend, captain cardboard suddenly appeared, they seemed surprised, even more so when the bleach blonde vampire appeared shortly after, "Why do I even bother to show up," he heard Buffy say in an annoyed tone.
"Why do we do this again?" Eris asked.
"Spike, what are you doing here?" Buffy demanded.
"Same thing as you and your cub scout I wager," he turned back to the vampire and broke his arm, "Just a spot of violence before bedtime," he got distracted whilst sending a smirk to Eris, this caused him to not see the vampire who then punched him in the nose which made him fall to the floor, he smelt his blood before he felt it.
"You should probably kill it," Eris said to Buffy, the Slayer nodded and raced forward, pushing Spike out of the way, she stabbed the vampire and turned back to the bleach blonde with Eris walking up beside her.
"What? I softened him up," he wiped his nose, looking at the blood on his hand.
Buffy was not happy, a glare set on her face, "Better keep out of my way, Spike, I'm not gonna take this much longer."
"And do what with my spare time? Sit at home knitting cunning sweater sets?" Riley walked up and stood beside his woman, trying to intimidate the master vampire.
"Would it keep you out of my way?" Buffy asked.
"She's right," said Riley "you shouldn't be out here when she's patrolling," Buffy turned to Riley and Spike instantly saw the look she gave him.
"Oh! I saw that," he said teasingly as he pointed at her, "Looks like neither boy's entirely welcome, you should take him home, Slayer, make him stay there," he then looked at Riley, "I've got knitting needles he can borrow."
Buffy glared at him in response, she really did not want to deal with either male tonight, "Spike, I just saw you taste your own nose blood, you know what? I'm too grossed out to hear anything you have to say, go home," she stormed off with Riley trailing behind her.
Spike was offended at her judgement, "It's blood, it's what I do" he turned to Eris who didn't move from her spot, "what? It's true."
"I didn't say anything, does it taste like snot?" she asked with a smirk.
"No, it doesn't…not like I know what snot tastes like," he saw her smirk widen, "shut up!" he began to walk away, only to fall into a shallow grave, "Ow!"
"You suck," Eris shuffled over and squatted down, looking at the fallen vamp, "need help?"
"I got it," he took a moment to get to his feet before he jumped out of the grave and glared at the ravenette, "you know I hate your Slayer cousin."
"Don't worry, she hates you too," she said with a shrug, "she will probably scold me for hanging out with you, again, and Riley will give me his disapproving glare and Xander will go on his I hate Spike speech."
"Tell me again why you hang out with me when no one approves of it?" Spike asked as they began walking to his mausoleum.
"Cause you're sexy and interesting," she smirked and nudged him with her hip. It was a regular back and forth between them now, less jabs and more flirts. They both try to make the other flush, he had years on her but she never flushed, which was surprising because he was the symbol of sex - well at least that's what he said - so he knew every trick in the book yet they never seemed to work.
"So, Passions is finally back on the telly, and we managed to catch you up."
Eris did a little skip, "Ooh yes, can we stop off at a 24 hour petrol station so I can get some munchies?" he nodded and walked with her.