Chapter 35: Entroy (2)
Buffy first instinct was to jump from Spike’s lap, and she mentally scolded herself for that. No more secrets, no more lies. It was time to let these two know. Of course, by now, they probably had a pretty good picture of what was going on. Anya was the first to break the strained silence.
“Hi Buffy! Hi Spike! We’re back and you have to look at our pictures!”
With a huge smile on her face, she deposited on the table three enormous picture albums. She picked one and flipped it open.
“You can look too, Dawnie,” she said happily. “There’s nothing x-rated in these.”
Buffy stifled a giggle at both her sister rolling her eyes and Xander strangling himself. She beckoned him to the table, noticing how happy he looked. Apparently the wedding glow still hadn’t faded. All five of them were now around the table, watching pictures with various degrees of interest as Anya commented them. The first album was the wedding one, and she was explaining each picture as if they had not all been there. Buffy attention stopped on a particular shot, and she tapped it lightly with a finger.
“Can I have a copy of this one?”
That was the last of the formal ones, when she had asked from the happy couple a shot with all the Scoobies, Spike included. She felt Spike’s lips brush the back of her neck and she shivered. With a flick of the wrist, Anya had freed the picture from its plastic pocket and was giving it to Buffy.
“I have doubles at home,” she said brightly.
“Yeah, we have four copies of each shot,” Xander said with a grin.
For a second, Buffy started to wonder what was going on with him. He was sitting within arm reach of Spike, and he hadn’t said one bad word to him. He hadn’t even shot him one single nasty glance. She certainly had underestimated marital bliss. Or maybe, she reflected after a while, he was just happy that Anya had found someone else to torture. For two long hours, she described what seemed like thousands of pictures. After the wedding came the reception, then the honeymoon in Disneyland. Dawn looked like she was ready to fall asleep on the table, Xander was smiling apologetically, Spike was drawing sinuous little patterns on her sides, and Anya was oblivious to the fact that she was boring them to death.
Eventually, the last page of the last album was turned, and both Summers girls gave a deep sigh. Anya mistook it for regret.
“Yes, I know,” she said with a nod, “there’s never enough. But I have another roll that we need to have developed. I’ll come and show that one to you tomorrow!”
Buffy managed to make a noise that Anya interpreted as eagerness, and Dawn slipped away, mumbling something about having a life to live. The blissful Mrs. Harris then decided that Buffy had to find a frame for the picture right away, and dragged her out of the kitchen to do so, leaving the two men together. The Slayer wondered how long it would take Xander to get down from his little cloud and try to stake Spike, and whether she’d be back quick enough to stop him.
With all three girls gone, Xander finally looked at Spike, who was watching him, that infuriating smirk plastered on his face.
“You never stop trying, uh?” he asked quietly.
“Why would I stop?” the vampire replied cockily. “It worked.”
“Yeah, it sure did.”
Xander wasn’t talking only about Buffy, and Spike seemed to understand that. His grin was now oozing self-satisfaction, and Xander had the sudden urge to smack him. But that wouldn’t do.
“So, how long have you been. involved?”
Even after having seen the two of them lip locked earlier, it still was weird. Buffy and Spike. That brought back old nightmares from after Willow’s engagement wish. Yet, a lot of things had changed since that time. One of them being Spike.
The vampire was arching his scared eyebrow, apparently considering his words.
“You sure you want to know? ‘Might be kind of a nasty shock.”
Xander nodded. He had been having a few doubts for a while now, he might as well know for sure.
“Let me see,” Spike said slowly, as if trying to remember while Xander could tell he was pretending. “It became serious a bit after Red’s spell, when we all forgot who we were.”
Xander’s only reaction was to nod again, which seemed to disappoint the vampire. He had certainly expected him to faint in shock. And Xander himself was a bit surprised not to be really upset. A couple of weeks back, he would have been, certainly. He might even have tried to kill Spike. But within these two weeks, Spike had done two things. He had turned Buffy, and prevented him from making the biggest mistake of his life.
Buffy being turned had been a hard thing to accept at first. Then Xander had realized something. The vampire had just done what they had, only with his own means. The summer before, the Scoobies had used magic to bring Buffy back because living without her was too hard. Spike didn’t have magic. He just had what he was.
And then, the wedding. Xander still couldn’t understand why Spike had stopped him when he was about to run away. He wouldn’t have believed that the vampire, of all people, would care enough to try. And succeed. He would never have thought that he could actually understand love. Now he knew. He understood more than well.
“I hope you make her happy,” Xander said sincerely.
“I try my best,” Spike smirked.
A look passed between them. As unlikely as it would have seemed not that long ago, Xander had the feeling that they might become friends. He shook his head at the thought, laughing softly to himself. Xander Harris friend with a vampire. Two, actually, counting Buffy.
“What’s funny? Did you finally figure out the invisible girl stunt?”
As realization dawned on Xander, his mouth opened and his eyes widened. Spike grinned, a truly evil, Big Bad grin, and Xander amended his previous thought. They might be friends someday, but it would take a long time. A very, very long time.
After arguing for a while, Buffy relented and let Anya remove a picture of her holding a baby Dawn from the prettiest frame in the house and replace it with the wedding picture. She’d get a new frame for the old picture later.
Surprisingly, Xander hadn’t staked Spike. Even more surprisingly, it seemed that Spike wasn’t making his best to annoy him, as he usually did. And so, when Willow entered the house through the front door, she found two couples chatting amicably in the living room. She paused for a minute, the barest frown crossing her face. It probably looked weird to her too, Buffy thought with a quiet laugh. The redhead barely had the time to give a hug to Xander when Anya grabbed her and made her sit between them on the sofa, depositing the first picture book on her lap. Apparently, she was going to go through the whole lot again. Buffy heard Spike’s very quiet growl, and she certainly felt the same way. This was going to be a long, long afternoon.
Two pizzas, six beers, five cokes and three blood bags later, the picture marathon had ended and Willow had narrated to the returning newlyweds how Buffy had been drugged by a what’s his name demon. That had led to the announcement that Spike was now living with her. There was a very awkward pause when Anya idly commented that she was a pro at organizing weddings now, should anyone need her services. Buffy sneaked a glance at Spike next to her, finding him seemingly puzzled. They had not talked about wedding, engagement or anything of the kind. Strangely, Buffy couldn’t have told if she wished he would ask or not. It was Willow who broke the silence after that, announcing that she was moving out of Revello Drive. Before Buffy could say anything, Spike was stating quietly:
“Don’t move out because of me, Red. No grudges.”
He didn’t elaborate about why he would hold a grudge against her. No one had mentioned the Sire thing to the Harris couple, which was just fine in Buffy’s mind. They didn’t need to know about that.
“Oh, it’s not that,” Willow said, blushing. “Tara kinda asked me to move in with her.”
Proper congratulations followed, and Willow continued:
“And by the way, I called Angel to tell him he was wrong and .”
Her voice trailed as both Buffy and Spike sat up straight, glancing at each other with the same frown before looking back at Willow. This sounded bad, very bad. Whatever her good intentions had been, Buffy doubted that Angel had enjoyed Willow’s message.
“What did you tell him?” Buffy asked urgently. “Your exact words.”
Willow seemed a little worried now, probably understanding she should have told them before calling the older vampire.
“I just said he had nothing to worry about concerning Spike and you. That was all.”
“And what did he reply?” Spike asked with a soft growl.
Xander and Anya were looking at the three of them, obviously not understanding what the problem was.
“I didn’t talk to him, just left a message on his answering machine.”
Willow looked apologetic, and probably if she hadn’t already decided to move out she would be doing that right now. Buffy tried to force a smile on her face, despite the vague feeling that they would be hearing from Angel pretty soon. And it wouldn’t be pretty when he found out about her and Spike. He had almost killed the blonde when he learned that Buffy was his Childe, there was no telling what he would do when discovering that they now were a couple. She took Spike’s hand, hoping he wouldn’t say anything to Willow to make her feel even worse. She had tried to do well.
They were saved from another of these uncomfortable silences by a knock on the door. Tara had come to help Willow pack up. Of course, she couldn’t do that until she had been shown every single picture from Anya’s albums. Buffy settled down against Spike, ready to endure the commentary for the third time. But he had other ideas.
“Slayer, how about we go do that practice session we discussed earlier?”
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, wondering what in hell he was talking about.
“You need to train,” he insisted. “‘Been slipping and all, letting that demon get to you.”
She was about to protest that no, she was not slipping, when she understood his game. Get away from Anya. Get away before hearing a third time about the Horror of the Giant Bunnies.
“Uh, right. Training. Basement?”
He got to his feet and flashed her a wicked grin.
“Magic Box.”
Oh, he had more than training in mind, she was sure of it now. And she didn’t mind at all to tell the truth. As she rose to her feet, Xander reminded them of a little problem.
“You two realize there’s a nice big sun shining outside, right?”
Buffy glanced at her watch, annoyed to find that it was only a little after 5. Spike however seemed untouched.
“Sewers,” he said simply.
Ten minutes later, they were entering the training room at the Magic shop through the back door. Buffy dropped her protecting blanket on the floor, watching Spike curiously as he shed his duster before standing in front of her in a fighting stance.
“Ready, Slayer?”
She rolled her eyes at his cocky voice. Hadn’t he watched her fight often enough to know he wasn’t going to last one minute?
“You can’t be serious. I don’t want to hurt.”
Before she could finish her sentence, he had kicked her legs from under her, and she was sitting on the floor, staring up at him. Amusement and annoyance were fighting in her mind. He was going to pay for that.
“You’re slipping, Slayer,” he mocked. “Attack can come from anywhere. Didn’t your Watcher teach you that?”
She got to her feet, slowly, giving him a twisted grin. After all, maybe he did deserve to get hurt. Just a little. Teach him a lesson. Her right foot shot up, flying toward his middle.