Bliss
Took Hold 22
by Danielle
When Spike entered the
house, he saw that their assembly was split up into little groups. Willow and
Giles were cleaning up ritual supplies in the kitchen, Dawn was giving Xander
clothes to change into, and Tara tutored the Slayer on the loveseat. Angel and
Riley were back from the basement and talking over strategies they’d used to get
information in the past.
“There’s an actual
method to it. One I didn’t really get the hang of until I started Angel
Investigations...”
Riley was listening
raptly, hazel eyes wide, “The Initiative had a Covert Behavior class, but I had
only gotten about halfway through it before the Adam
incident.”
Dawn sat beside Spike,
her eyes on his exposed chest peeking out of the wide shirt
opening.
“Well, this sucks,
huh?” The brunette leaned her head on his shoulder and
pouted.
“What does, ducks?” He
glanced down at her thoughtfully.
“I was gonna bring
someone for you guys to meet tonight but Her Bossiness said no because of what’s
going on with Ethan Rayne. Can you imagine how hard it was to cancel?”
She mimed putting a
phone to her ear and continued in a ditzy voice, ”Hi, Lance, sorry I can’t have
you over tonight because our city on the Hellmouth is in peril from a bunch of
demon lovers and a chaos magician ...you still there? Hello?” She sighed
dramatically and dropped the fake phone.
“Threat’s over, luv.
You can invite Lance tomorrow.” Spike laid his head back to look at the ceiling,
hoping his calm façade was convincing. Inside, he was beginning the slow burn of
protectiveness for the child. He had to plan this carefully, so as not to
alienate Dawn while still making sure this bloke was worth sharing the same
planet as her.
“You’re not worried
about me bringing a *guy* over?” Dawn looked truly shocked as she pulled his
chin down to study his face.
This familiarity had
grown between them, and she had more than once referred to him to her friends as
‘the hot big brother’ type. The former Big Bad would never admit that he
secretly crowed in delight at his status in her life as guiding sibling.
“Want the truth, Bit?”
He raised an eyebrow and pursed his lips, knowing he couldn’t put anything past
the sharp little girl. She solemnly nodded, and the vampire had to look down for
a second to keep from smiling. “Truth is that I don’t have much experience with
first dates as a human. Back then, courting was a formal bother, nothing like it
is today...”
“But I thought it was
more simple, you know: meet someone, club them on the back of the head, and drag
them to your cave...” The innocent look was ruined by the mischievous glint in
her green eyes.
“Brat.” He brought his
demon face forward and growled at her.
Dawn giggled.
“Blonde.”
“You know what’ll
happen if he makes a wrong move, right?”
The teenager rolled
her eyes and recited, “You’ll risk a seizure and rip off his head.”
The vampire moved in
to tickle her and she giggled wildly. Buffy and the others glanced up and then
went back to their own conversations.
“No, for real, he
can’t come over tomorrow because we’re supposed to be training,
remember?”
“That’s not a problem,
Nibblet.” Spike had been sparring with Dawn and had her on a rigorous training
schedule. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to her, but the vampire knew he
couldn’t be with her all the time. The happy side effect of their new discipline
towards fighting was that Dawn finally felt like part of the group. It showed in
how she carried herself and no longer complained about her sister being a
Slayer. Willow had confided in them that she knew of a Slayer who didn’t train
so diligently as a teenager, and the
girl glowed with pride.
“You mean you want to
cancel?” The girl’s eyebrows furrowed, tempted but a bit
disappointed.
“No. He can join us,
give me a chance to get to know the bloke.” Spike congratulated himself on his
diplomacy as Dawn smiled and nodded. This was going to be
fun.
Spike had ended up
spending the night on the Summers’ couch, something he almost always did. He
slept peacefully, Miss Edith snoring on his chest until early afternoon. Buffy
walked in on her way to class and tossed pillows at him until the irritated
vampire threatened to spill blood on the carpet.
“Glad you woke me up.”
Spike dry washed his face, trying to clear his head. ”Bit’s got a lad coming
over. Have to get ready...” He tucked a cigarette behind his ear and went to
heat up his blood.
“What? I can’t be
here, I’ve got class! I told her that she’s *way* too young to be dating and who
even knows if this Lance guy is even human...” The Slayer followed him to the
kitchen and watched him pull a bag out of the freezer. “Spike! You can find out
what’s the what with this guy...do that lurking thing and find out if he’s a
demon--”
The vampire pressed
buttons on the microwave and leaned on the counter. “Already got it worked out,
Slayer. He’s training with us and we’ll get to see what he’s made of.” The
calmness he radiated must have worn off, because she settled
down.
“Okay, you can have
the fun part of threatening this potential boyfriend,” she pouted, “but I get
the next one!” She did a slow motion high kick as Spike opened the microwave and
pulled out his breakfast.
“Sure thing,
Slayer.”
“What about that
science project? Did she turn it in on time?”
“Yeah, sodding Indian
village model. Had enough of those wankers when they attacked us last
Thanksgiving. Good thing we kept the feathers and such. She’ll probably get
extra credit.”
“Plus the arrows that
we pried out of you...” Buffy grinned and took a defensive stance, faking a
punch at the vampire.
“You sign the
permission slip to the planetarium on the table?” The vampire raised an eyebrow
at her sheepish look. He was still waking up and was ignoring her invite for an
impromptu sparring session. Spike poured the warmed blood into the flowered soup
cup that the Summers women had bought him.
“I forgot.” She
dropped her fighting move display and crossed over to the kitchen table. As she
signed it she said, “Glad you remembered. Listen, can you do me a favor
and--”
“--give you the full
report when you get back. I will.” He dismissed her with a wave of his hand as
he stepped onto the shadowed front porch.
“Thanks, Spike!” The
slayer grabbed her backpack and, with a smile at their parental afternoon
ritual, she left for school.