Spike sat in the lounge watching a muted game of soccer on cable and tapping his foot. He’d been waiting for his dinner partner for more than twenty minutes.

“Bloody hell Harris, how long does it take you to put on a shirt?!!”

His partner answered from the en suite, “It’s alright for you and the not worrying about the reflection! But these are my colleagues and I kinda need to…”

“Oh Please! You sound like me bloody sire! Just get your cute derrière out here and let me fix the rest!”

Xander appeared at the door, a shirt in either hand and a sheepish look on his face.

Spike didn’t even look up. “The Mambo button down.”

“Wha..?? How did you..??  OK. Stop right there – How did you…..?”

“Just put it on, you know I’m right.” Spike stood and stalked toward the door.

Xander could not help but admire his partner’s penchant for seeming ‘larger than life’ regardless of his attire. Spike was effortlessly beautiful. He was dressed in a black ruffled shirt, obviously expensive dark grey pants and an almost knee length matching jacket. He had tied back his blonde curls with a simple black strip of leather, and the one or two escaping curls gave him a less formal, deliberately roguish, twenty something appearance. *(Gay) Xander and (the apparently younger and extremely attractive) friend.* He groaned, buttoned down the suggested shirt, tied the arms of cream colored sweater around his neck and grabbed the birthday gift from the kitchen bench. He trusted Spike enough to know that there was little need for a ‘cover story’ and yet Xander suddenly felt even less confident of what the coming evening might hold given his friend’s poster boy appearance.

The drive to the party was somewhat tense. He knew they were a little later than planned but figured the celebrations would be in full swing, somewhat taking the focus off their entrance. Xander attempted to calm his own nerves by pointing out a few of the company projects as they drove through downtown. Spike tried to look vaguely interested, smiled, then put his hand on Xander’s thigh and caressed his partner lightly.

“Stop worrying pet. I’ll be good, until I get you back home that is – then I promise to be bloody marvelous.” Xander caught the trade mark smirk out of the corner of his eye, sighed and focused on trying to keep his arousal at bay, an increasingly difficult task given the hand by now stroking perilously close to his groin and now accompanied by his own visuals of just how Spike might be ‘bloody marvelous’ later. By the time they pulled up outside the party, he was contemplating multiple chaos demons and accompanied slime. That and the rekindling of his extreme nervousness as they got out of the car finally seemed to do the trick.

Just before they walked up the drive, Spike grabbed his partner’s hand, brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it firmly. An almost shy smile and the low “That’ll have to last you ‘til later, luv,” had Xander back thinking of slime.

The doorbell was answered by his boss’s fourteen year old daughter, Janine. Xander noted her wide eyed stare and slightly nervous giggle as he introduced his friend William. Spike had nodded politely but stood well back and made no attempt to enter the house. Xander suddenly realizing that the invitation clause still applied to the vampire.

“So are we…?” Xander gestured toward the hallway and finally Janine, who was still staring at Spike, grinned with embarrassment and gave the obligatory “Oh, yeah come in, gahh sorry please, come in.”

They were led through a large hallway with a broad staircase and white marble floor, past a formal lounge then the dining room and out to a large entertaining area that opened onto a deck. The hostess of the evening rushed over as she saw Xander, dragging two female companions with her.

“Alexander, how lovely to see you, Jim said you were coming but I didn’t realize you were bringing company.”

“Um, gosh, sorry, I did let him know but…” Xander nervousness began to show.

“Oh you naughty boy, don’t you apologize,” she slapped him on the wrist playfully and batted her eyelashes at Spike, “It’s wonderful to have another attractive single male around. I was just saying to Cheryl and Em that all the good ones here tonight are already taken.”

She smiled brightly at Spike and held out her hand, “Hi, I’m Sandy, and this is Cheryl, she’s my husband’s PA.” The woman on Sandy’s left gave a shy smile and dropped her eyes to the floor, reminding Spike of a certain blonde witch from Sunnydale. “And this Emma, my tennis partner, and they’re both single so you two could be in luck tonight.” Assumptions had been made but Xander still tried not to look at his vampire for fear of laughing at the last statement, he somehow hoped luck would have nothing to do with it.

Spike took Sandy’s proffered hand but instead of simply shaking it as the woman expected, he kissed the back, and in the quiet tones Xander remembered from breakfast in Boston, said, “Charmed I’m sure, William Aurelius at your service.” Xander could barely contain a giggle as Sandy squealed “Oooh you’re English”, grabbed Spike by the arm, signaled to her friends to follow, and started to show William around her home. As they left the room and headed back toward the lounge, Xander heard her gushing enthusiastically about the various pieces of art, her pet Siamese cat and the general design details of the house.

Left to his own devices Xander wandered outside to greet is work mates. There were only about twenty people present all standing around relaxed with drinks in hand. He shook hands with a number of the men and simply nodded to others, “Adam, Mike…Jim”. Passing the bottle of port he had been holding over to the host, he gave a smile “Many Happy Returns”.

“Xander, much appreciated.” Putting the gift on the top of the small bar fridge, the guest of honour leaned down, took out a beer and handed it to Xander. The conversation amongst the small group of his colleagues’ gathered around the fridge, reverted back to what it was before Xander joined them - one of work issues, fishing, and Jim and Adam’s recent golfing exploits.

Some half hour or so later, Xander found himself standing next to the barbeque chatting to civil engineer and work friend, Andy, while the other man prodded the thick steaks and salmon slices with a fork.

“I thought you were going to bring that friend from Boston with you. What’s his name again?”

“S..William – yeah he came. Jim’s wife is showing him around the house.”

“Trying to match-make for that friend of hers more like.” Andy grinned and as he looked over to the patio doors Spike and entourage came through to join the others.

“Will was telling me that you two met at a poetry reading in Boston?” Sandy released Spike’s arm and wandered over to inspect the meat.

“Thought you said you knew each other for a while.” Andy put down the fork, wiped his hand on the barbeque apron, and took up his beer as he held out the wiped hand to Spike “Andy by the way.”

“William” Spike shook the man’s hand, “And yeah we worked together a while back. Certainly didn’t expect to find Xan in Boston.” Andy looked from Spike to Xander and back again. He saw the look of real affection in Xander’s eye and wondered if there was more to it. This William certainly was a good looking guy in an androgynous sort of a way, and by the looks of it, a fair bit younger. Knowing his work colleague was gay was one thing but possibly meeting Xander’s lover over a beer and a chat seemed, oddly, much more of a challenge. He frowned a little at that thought but continued to converse pleasantly.

“So what do you do William?”

“Investing mostly.”

“Oh you’re broker?”

“No client.”

Andy looked puzzled as Jim joined the group, handed Spike a beer and nodded his welcome.

“Ever considered West Coast property?” the host asked.

“Sold out of LA when we went to Boston.”

“We?”

“My Da and I. Was just the two of us left so we ah... He died a while back.” Spike’s look of pain had Xander wanting to pull him into a tight hug and away from the interrogation. He tried to will his support instead.

“Sorry to hear that, he elderly?” Jim looked genuinely concerned.

“Not old enough.” Recognizing grief and hurt in the young man’s eyes, Jim immediately shifted to fatherly mode and worked to change the conversation.

“They never are son…. So, while you’re out here guess you’re going to do a bit of sightseeing. What’s Xander got planned for you boys on the weekend?” Jim looked expectantly at the Xander.

Hardly able to say “pounding my undead lover into the mattress, sleep, then let him do me.”, the brunette said the first thing that came to mind, “Um, I think we’re planning on working out aren’t we Will?” He looked to his lover for help, not initially aware of his unintentional double entendre.

Spike raised an eyebrow and began to smile, but saw the look of panic on his lover’s face and took the hint, “Um yeah, like to keep in shape, bit of martial arts and so forth…”

Andy, who was now piling the cooked meat onto a platter, piped up, “You should try the racket club near my place, open 24 hours – that way you two could go later and use your day for other things. Hey, how about I meet you there tomorrow night and we can have a few rounds of tennis.”

“Not sure Xander is much for tennis mate – leastways not at night.”

Andy looked over at the eye patch and recognized his error, “Oh, sorry man, how about racketball then?”

Xander, not realizing Spike’s displeasure at the prospect of ball sports, was actually warming to the idea, “If we can do basketball you’re on.”

“Done, time?”

“Round eight work for you?”

“You’re on – I’ll see if anyone else wants to come too.” He turned to find if there were some other similarly minded workmates and wandered inside with the meat. A short time later, Jim invited them all inside to start the meal.

As soon as everyone else was out of ear shot Spike looked at his friend and growled quietly, “What did you bloody well go and do that for Harris! I had us out of trouble there ‘til you opened your trap. Now we’re gonna be playing sodding ball games instead of having games with each other’s balls!”

“Cmon Spike, it’ll only be a couple of hours.”

“Yeah, couple of hours less of shagging my boy,” Spike’s voice was getting louder.

“Shhh Spike! OK look sorry OK didn’t realize you weren’t keen? But it will be fine you’ll see.”

Spike gave Xander a look of disbelieving annoyance and spun away from the conversation to stalk inside.

The meal was a pleasant enough, a serve yourself affair with plenty of ‘pass the…’s, please’s and thank you’s, and a steady flow of wine. Jim had seen his wife’s enthusiasm for Xander’s slender young friend but hadn’t really taken much notice of his daughter’s until they were almost finished their main course. Under the guise of being a good hostess some very obvious teenage flirting was taking place at the opposite side of the table. Jim noticed that William, though keeping the exchange very polite was also engagingly attentive and seemed apparently oblivious to Janine’s attraction.

He noted that William excused himself from the table as dessert was served, retreating to the garden for a smoke. And that his daughter had made a flimsy excuse to leave the table shortly afterward. Not knowing William well enough he still harbored some concern, so chose to also excuse himself and observe the girl at a distance, taking care of any ‘issues’ that might emerge.

What he saw from the balcony endeared him to the young man even more. As he approached he saw William sitting on a garden wall, a deliberately large distance from Jim’s daughter, smoking a cigarette, ignoring her hair flicking and intuitively flirtatious posturing.  Personal questions were being deflected or answered succinctly and without innuendo.

“So… where did you go to school?”

“England”

“Yeah but where?”

“Reading School – boys only”

“Ooooh that’s like a private school, are your folks really rich?”

“Were.”

“Huh?”

Spike raised an eyebrow and looked at his young inquisitor, “Were – as in, they’re all dead.”

“Oh… Sorry” Janine’s face fell at that point, and Spike relented a little. The kid reminded him of the Bit in the months before Buffy’s loss.

“Don’t worry.” Silence fell and Spike flicked the butt out into the shrubbery and slid off the wall. Janine followed him.

“So do you have a girlfriend?”  At this point the youngster moved much closer to her guest, Jim was ready to intervene when he stopped to listen to the quiet exchange.

“No pet, what about you?”

“Nope but I’d like one, Dad thinks I’m too young but you know, it’s important to date don’t you think?” She looked at Spike expectantly, figuring he was the next youngest person at the party and hoping for some affirmation.

“Not so sure about that, figure it’s important to keep your distance until you know who they really are.”

Janine leaned toward him again, forcing Spike to step back.

“So, if we were at school together would you date me?” Her body language reeked of an attempt to captivate. She idled forward and to stand far closer than was the personal zone.

The double edged sword did not escape Spike’s notice, and he immediately had disturbing images of a flirting Dawn and various boys at Sunnydale High. He really was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation and despite their previous argument, was keen to locate Xander, then take his lover and himself to their apartment *alone and soon*, and participate in more preferable activities.

“Listen pet, don’t get me wrong, you are a very attractive lass, all bright and near grown up from what I’ve seen, but I really don’t think I should answer that.” He stepped well away from her, and hoped that she would take the hint.

It was obviously not the response the girl had hoped for, and she immediately switched to ‘offended mode’, turning on her unwilling companion, “Why not? You’re not that much older than me and I am *so* datable pal!” Spike took a couple more steps back and began to form a suitably placating response.  

“I’ve no doubt, no doubt at all, look I think I need to get back to the house yeah?”

The girl, obviously unimpressed, huffed her frustration and stormed off in the direction of the swimming pool.

Jim retreated, pleased that the young man had done the honorable thing and extricated himself without the need for a father to embarrass his daughter by intervening.

Sandy observed her husband and then Spike surreptitiously returning to the party, and saw the look of deep concern on Xander’s face and watched a subtle reassuring touch of hands as his friend rejoined them. It was a simple gesture but to Sandy, explained away a world of questions confirming yet again her hypothesis that ‘all the good ones were taken… or gay!’

Not long after, Xander judged it polite to leave and smiled a signal of their departure to a relieved Spike who managed to extricate himself from the in depth and rather tedious dialogue, he was by that stage enduring, regarding the merits of touring the USA versus Europe. A discussion to which, Xander noted, Spike had virtually managed to avoid contributing, somewhat of a lesson in restraint given his vast knowledge of the ‘other continent’ and his fellow party goers’ rather ill informed observations particularly regarding England.

Sandy and Jim saw them to the door.

As they watched the men walk down the drive Jim commented “He’s a nice lad, very respectable, good head on his shoulders.”

“Hmm, they do make a good couple don’t you think?”

Her husband shut the door with a bang and hurried after his retreating wife… “What do you mean ‘couple?’”

Spike heard the door shut and growled out, "Your ass is mine tonight Harris - you owe me one mighty shag for that little effort."

Xander, equally relieved, took off at a run toward the car, grinning, "Last one to the B'mer bottoms."

He was always going to lose.