Title: Thanks with Tears Author: Janet Lynn (janet324@attbi.com) Rating: NC-17 Pairing: W/S/A Thoughts indicated by ~~ Chapter 12 Willow awoke slowly and moaned softly. She went to stretch and realized she still had her hand tuck into the bottoms of her pajamas. She blushed as she slowly remembered what had happened the night before. She quickly covered her mouth with both her hands to stifle the giggle that threatened to take her over. Slowly, she got control of herself and she rolled over to see how long she had slept. "Goodness," she whispered when she looked at the clock. It was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. "Looks like I'm keeping vampire hours now," she said with a sigh as she got up out of the bed and lazily got dressed. Standing at the door, Willow listened to see if she could hear anyone in the hall. ~Who am I kidding?~ she thought. ~I'm trying to avoid Angel and Spike.~ She suddenly realized she was being silly. Neither one of them knew she had seen them last night, so why should be afraid? She took a deep breath to steady her nerves and left the safety of her room to head down to the kitchen to find something to eat. Making her way down to the foyer, Willow looked around to see who has about. Cordelia was the first to notice the redhead. "Glad to see your up, Willow," the seer said with a smile. "I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to get up." "Sorry," Willow replied as she headed into the kitchen for something to eat. "Angel and Spike kind of got into a fight last night, so there was weirdness. I got to bed pretty late." "I hope everything is alright," Fred whispered. No one wanted to see the two powerful vampires in a fight, especially Fred. "Yeah," Willow replied, trying not to giggle. "I think they made up just fine." Both Cordelia and Wesley noticed the tone in the girl's voice and wondered what had actually happened the night before. Lorne walked into the kitchen behind Willow and looked at the girl trying not to giggle. "What's so funny, Strawberry?" Lorne asked. Instantly, Willow froze. Lorne immediately knew he said something wrong. "What did I say?" Willow turned and saw the horrified look on the demon's face. "Nothing, Lorne," she said with a sigh. "Just really bad memories. There was this guy, he used to call me strawberry." "I'm so sorry, Willow," Lorne cooed, putting his hands reassuringly on her shoulders. "From now on, no fruit names for you, ok?" "Ok," Willow replied with a smile on her face. She turned back to the refrigerator to finish finding something to eat when she asked, "So, anything interesting I can help with today?" "You bet," Lorne answered happily. "We had a new client come in today and Cordelia has been cursing over the computer all morning. I'm sure she'd be happy to have a little Willow help." Willow sighed inside. ~Finally~ she thought. ~Something for me to do.~ She quickly finished making herself a sandwich and a glass of milk and made her way over to where Cordelia was sitting. "Anything I can do?" she asked. "Oh god please," the former cheerleader said, exasperated. "I'm going crazy here." "Tell me what we're looking for," Willow said, plopping down in the newly vacated chair. Cordelia quickly informed Willow of the things she was looking for and what she had found so far. Willow nodded every few minutes, taking in all the information she needed to find what they were looking for. Satisfied that she had all she needed, Willow thanked Cordy for the update and quickly got to work on her own search. The group worked in silence for almost an hour. The quiet was disrupted by the sound of bare feet padding down the stairs toward the people downstairs. Willow tensed as she wondered which vampire was coming down the stairs. She looked up and realized that it was Spike. She got up from her seat and met the blonde vampire at the door to the kitchen. "Hey Spike," she whispered as she placed her hand gently on his shoulder, trying to get him to look at her. "How are you feeling today?" "Alright, I suppose," he said quietly. "Tired, mostly." "Let me fix you something," Willow said, moving the vampire toward a chair and making him sit down. She went to the refrigerator and pulled out some blood for him. Quickly heating it up in a mug, she pulled it out of the microwave and set it in front of her friend. "I take it you and Angel worked things out last night." "Yeah," Spike whispered with a small smirk on his face. "You could say that." Willow looked at the blonde and returned his smile. She was glad things were working out between the two vampires. They obviously needed each other. As she looked at the vampire, she noticed the fresh bite mark on his neck. "Spike," she gasped as she reached over to gently finger the mark. "Did Angel do that?" "Yeah, luv," he whispered, keeping his eyes on the mug in front of him. "Last night." "Restacking his claim, huh?" Spike looked up at the girl quickly. He didn't know she knew about that kind of thing. "How do you know about that?" "Spike," she giggled at the vampire. "Do you honestly think I spent all that time with Giles and didn't take a peek at the Watcher's Diaries? I know all about vampire claims and other things too." Spike wondered how much of the 'other things' she really knew about. He figured by the look on her face that she knew about the more intimate part of the claim. "Alright," he said. "You could say that the Poof and I have made up. Ok, just leave it at that, pet." "Ok, Spike," she relented. "So, tell me honestly, do you feel better?" Spike and Willow sat in the kitchen talking, not realizing that they were being watched. Angel watched the two quietly through the door waiting for a good time to interrupt them. He hated to disturb the conversation, especially when Spike was clearly enjoying himself. Willow made a joke and they were both laughing when Angel decided to make his presence known. Walking quietly into the kitchen, he said, "Now that's a sound a like to hear." Both Willow and Spike looked up suddenly and smiled at the dark vampire. He smiled at them as he walked to where they were sitting. "You're feeling better today, Will?" "Yeah," both Willow and Spike answered at the same time. Willow giggled. "Oh, you're talking to Spike, right?" She was embarrassed by the mistake. "Sorry, Xander always calls me Will." "It's alright Willow," Angel replied with a smile. "I always called Spike William or Will. I always hated the name Spike." Angel fixed himself some blood and sat at the table with his two friends. They settled into an easy conversation and simply enjoyed themselves for a while. After a while, Spike stood up and said, "I gonna grab a fag. Do you mind?" Angel looked up at his childe. "As long as you do it outside. This is a business and I have to follow the law. Or you could go upstairs to our...I mean your room if you open the window." "Alright," Spike smirked at the vampire's slip. "I think I'll head upstairs. I need a shower any way." "Ok," Angel said to the retreating form. "If you want, when you're done you can help us research on the latest case." "Yeah," Spike shot over his shoulder. "'Cause I never got enough of that in Sunnyhell." Willow giggled at the remark. "He's right you know," she said to Angel. "He did his share of research and helping out when we needed him." She sighed as she watched the blood vampire disappear up the stairs. "So everything is good between you two now, right?" She still didn't make eye contact with the dark vampire. Angel noticed that she was trying not to look at him. ~Should I have some fun with Willow, or just let it go?~ he wondered. Normally, he would have just let it go. Angel wasn't the type of person to tease someone, especially not about something like this. But the idea of finding out what Willow really thought was too much temptation for him. "I'd say things were quite well between us," Angel whispered seductively, easily slipping back into his Irish brogue. "Made him mine again, I did." Willow's eyes shot up from the spot she was staring at on the table to meet the seductive sparkle in the brown eyes looking right into her. Her mouth went dry and she tried to swallow as she remembered hearing him use that same voice the night before. "Wha...What?" she finally managed to squeak out. Angel chuckled and decided to let her off the hook, for now. She had obviously seen the two of them the night before and, unless his senses were seriously off, she liked what she saw. The scent of her arousal was quickly filling the room. "It's alright, Willow," he whispered, reaching over to take her hand reassuringly. "You were just making sure that Spike was alright. That's why you came to check on him, right?" "Yeah," the redhead whispered, suddenly feeling extremely warm at the touch of the cool vampire. She had the desire to get out of the room quickly before she said or did something she might regret. "I should get back to the research thing now, you know. Like on the computer. Doing research." Angel squeezed her hand before let it go so the girl could retreat from the room. He smiled as he watched her leave and wondered what he was going to about this new situation. Tbc...