Author's Note: I'm tired, so none.

Spike squeezed his eyes shut tight, waiting for the killing blow. It didn't come. He cautiously opened one eye to see Buffy staring down at him, hands on hips. Not good. He shut his eye once more and winced inwardly.

Things were silent for a second.

And then Dawn let out a delighted squeal. "You're you again!" she exclaimed, wrapping Buffy up in a bone-crushing bear hug.

Buffy made an 'oof' sound as the overly-excited teen tackled her to the floor. "Yup," she said with a small laugh. "All normal again."

Spike ventured to open his eyes again. Buffy was smiling. And not looking at him. Both of these were good things.

She and Dawn managed to get up to their feet with much giggling and tripping each other up. It was only after Buffy had given Dawn a proper hug that she turned back to Spike again.

"You gonna get up off that scrumptious, skinny white ass of your anytime soon, Spikey?" she asked, mirth in her eyes.

He sat there an extra second, trying to absorb the fact that she'd just called his ass "scrumptious".

"Finally," Dawn sighed in relief. "I thought I was the only one who'd noticed how cute his butt was."

"One of those advantages to being a vampire," Buffy tried not to laugh at the confused expression on Spike's face. Why had she never noticed how much fun it was to tease him before? "All that exercise on the hunt...better than an Ass-Master."

Spike seemed to figure out what was going on right about then and leapt up to his feet. "Oi, now!" he exclaimed, getting right in Buffy's face...and then backing down the instant he remembered what he'd done. "Sorry 'bout that," he muttered under his breath, staring intently at his boots.

Dawn gave him a curious look and then raised an eyebrow at Buffy, demanding an explanation.

Buffy gestured for Dawn to hold it off for a minute and then turned back to the shame-faced vampire. "Spikey," she said softly.

He gulped. This was it. She never used that soft voice with him unless she was really pissed. "Y-Yes?" he asked nervously.

"Can you do me a favor?" she asked.

He looked her right in the eye. "Anything," he said sincerely. "I meant what I said before."

"Can you give Dawnie and me a minute alone together?"

This had been the last thing he'd expected her to ask, but he nodded apologetically and headed down into the basement without another word.

"Okaaay..." Dawn began, "I'll bite. What the hell is going on?"

Buffy let out a deep breath. "The usual strangeness that is my life, combined with the misplaced guilt of contorted Spike logic to make it extra fun."

"Huh?" Dawn demanded clarification.

Buffy grimaced. "Spike thinks he raped me," she finally confessed.

It took Dawn a minute to catch on. "Oh...Oh! When you were...you and he..." she trailed off, biting her lip nervously.

"Pretty much," Buffy agreed, her head in her hands.

"That...bastard?" Dawn was having a difficult time judging Buffy's reaction.

"He didn't do anything wrong," she quickly jumped to Spike's defense. Off of Dawn's baffled look, she sighed again. "Slave-Buffy practically forced herself upon him, and even if she hadn't..." Her face flushed a bright red.

Dawn gaped in amazement. "Y-You..." she began, pointing at Buffy. "You're got a crush on him!" she finally accused.

"A bit more than a crush, actually," Buffy whimpered slightly.

"Oh my god!" Dawn squealed. "This is so, so cool! You've got to tell him quick! He's been moping around ever since..." She got a thoughtful expression on her face as the missing pieces to the puzzle of Spike's latest depression clicked into place.

"I know," Buffy agreed, eyeing the basement door warily, "I have to tell him and... I'm sure the two of us can come up with something to talk about to put this off longer," she pleaded.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "It's just Spike. You already know he loves you, so it's not like there's any danger of rejection. So, what are you so scared of?"

"Pizza!" Buffy's eyes lit up when she came up with a distracting topic.

"You're scared of pizza?" Dawn was completely baffled.

"No," Buffy shook her head, "Spike's been feeding you nothing but pizza since—"

"Buffy!" Dawn exclaimed in exasperation.

"Anything else," Buffy begged.

Dawn got a wicked smile on her face. "How was he?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You know, when you and Spike..."

"I'm not telling you that!" Buffy gasped in embarrassment.

"Well, it's either that or basement time," Dawn insisted, arms crossed in front of her chest in a no-nonsense manner.

"But—" Buffy began.

"That good, huh?" Dawn said with an evil grin.

Buffy gulped once and decided to take her chances in the basement, slamming the door behind her to escape Dawn's not-so-innocent and inquiring eyes. She winced when Spike's flinch reminded her that he was deathly – or undeathly – afraid that she was about to stake him.

She gave him a small smile to indicate that it was okay.

He gulped in response.

She didn't know what she could do to signal to him that she wasn't mad, so she walked down to him and sat down on the mattress beside him. The same mattress where they had...

He looked at her resignedly, and she slowly reached over and took his hand. Now he was really baffled...

"B-Buffy?" he began nervously.

"You never call me that," she commented, her thumb rubbing comforting little circles into his palm. "You always call me 'pet' or 'luv' or...something like that."

"You don't mind?" The whole situation made no sense to him whatsoever, so he just decided to go with the flow...if he could find any. One part of him was cheering that Buffy didn't seem to be all that angry with him after all; the other was waiting for the other shoe to drop...

"I don't mind," she said in a voice softer than any she'd ever used with him before. "I've never minded," she admitted, blushing slightly.

Spike instinctively reached out with his free hand to cup her chin when she ducked her head. He moved to pull his hand away when he realized what he'd done, but she stopped him, catching his hand and now trapping them both beneath small, powerful, warm fingers.

"I-I don't understand why you're being so nice to me," he finally confessed.

She placed a brief kiss on his palm, and the gesture so overwhelmed him that he almost missed her next words.

"You were kind to me...er, her when you didn't have to be. And you didn't do anything wrong," she quickly reassured him.

"How can you say that?" he bit back a sob. "I r-r..."

"You didn't," she insisted, placing her index finger over his lips to hush him. "I was there, remember? You didn't know what was happening. She took advantage, and by the time you knew what was going on, it was too late to stop it. If anything, she raped you." She raped both of us, she added in her head, took away the magic of our first time together...

He looked properly offended at the idea of being raped, of course, and she quickly had to set his male ego right.

"It wasn't your idea, there was nothing you could have done to stop it, and you felt terrible afterward," she reminded him. "That all equals 'not your fault'."

"I don't know what to say," he informed her, turning away and shaking himself free of her hands as he did so. That Buffy actually saw the hardships that he had gone through and didn't just condemn him as an evil demon who took advantage of the situation...it was more than he had ever hoped for. He still didn't quite believe this was real. "Your words," he began softly, flinching when he realized he'd accidentally slipped back into his more cultured accent, "they seem too good to be true..."

"I get that," Buffy nodded behind his back, "but they are true. I..."—love you, care about you, just want you to be happy again—"...wanted to thank you..."—Coward!—"...f-for everything you've done for me and Dawn. I know this was really hard on you, but if you hadn't saved Dawnie from those monsters, I-I don't think I could've made it. Thank you," she repeated softly.

He had turned back to face her as she made this speech, and she took advantage of the opportunity to place a short, gentle kiss on his lips.

His eyelids had fluttered shut by the time she pulled away, and she took a second to study his dark lashes. They really were quite lovely – long and slightly curled. Those and his lips softened the hard lines of his face just enough to make him beautiful and masculine all at the same time. Between her legs, her panties were becoming uncomfortably sticky.

C'mon, he mind egged her on, you can't come this close and then turn back... "Uh, yeah," Buffy's face turned bright red when he opened those beautiful blue eyes to look at her. "So, about the plan to defeat Rhitias... You got any suggestions?" Crash and burn, her mind groaned in disgust.

He gave her a small smile, grateful at least that she hadn't run away the instant she'd kissed him this time. He didn't even care that the only time she ever lowered herself to touch him was in thanks; it was enough. Wanker much? he asked rhetorically. Great. Now he was even starting to think like her...

"We need to get the master key," he said simply.

"And you've got a plan for doing this?" Buffy demanded.

Spike shrugged. "We track Rhitias down, you beat 'im bloody, we steal the key."

"That's a plan?!" Buffy laughed.

Spike couldn't help but crack a smile at that as well. "To tell the truth, luv," he admitted, "I was so worried 'bout you that din't think much beyond freein' you."

She gave his thigh a gentle squeeze in response to that.

"B-But Nibblet an' Anyanka got to conspirin' a bit," he added, desperate for any other shows of affection he could get. "Might wanna see what they've come up with. The Demon Bint even sent Bit a package. The two of 'em together," he shuddered, "hate to think 'f what mischief they could create..."

"Whereas you and Dawn are the epitome of law-abiding citizens," she teased, standing up and holding her hands out to Spike.

He eyed them warily for a second. "You're really not gonna stake me?" he finally asked.

"I don't know," Buffy said sarcastically, "I might if you don't stop acting all broody."

"Oi!" he exclaimed in complaint to being compared to Angel.

She gave him a coy little smile. "I like my vampires with a bit more..." Her eyes darted down to the crotch of his jeans for just a second. "...spunk in them," she informed him.

Had that been a double-entendre? From Buffy? Was she...flirting with them?

"Got plenty of that," he responded with a little smirk of his own, finally taking her hands.

"Mmm," she said, blushing slightly as she pulled him up to his feet as well, "I remember..."

For a second they stood like that, hands still locked together, bodies only inches apart, before Buffy pulled nervously back and went up to question Dawn, Spike right behind her...

"Ah, Spike!" Rhitias said in obvious delight. "I see you've decided to join us after all..."

Spike nodded and forced a smile upon his face. "Jus' had some business to take care of first," he agreed.

Buffy nipped softly at his throat, and he had to bite back a groan as his erection pressed painfully against his jeans. Knowing that it was the real Buffy – even while playing a role – made this all ten-times harder.

"I can see you were pleased with the lovely creature I leant you," Rhitias said satisfactorily. He couldn't imagine what the local demons were thinking when they warned him that Spike would be trouble. He had been the highest bidder. Maybe that was it: the others worried that he had enough money to snatch the best girls all up. "She must be quite the talent. Perhaps you'll let me...borrow her once or twice?"

Spike could feel Buffy coil up to strike, and he quickly cut her off with a kiss. It was a dangerous move, he knew, but he couldn't resist just taking the slightest advantage of this situation. And Buffy didn't seem to mind. Actually, her tongue was now playing with his, and her hands were twined in his hair, and her body was pressed up tight against his, the warmth of her (mostly) bare skin against him almost too much to bear.

She sure is getting into this role, was his last coherent thought before the world dissolved around them. It felt like aeons had gone by when they finally broke apart, and it took Spike a moment to remember what was going on...

"Vampire, mate," he said simply, "don't like to share."

"Of course," agreed Rhitias. "She's your girl now, to do with as you like."

"Yeah," Spike agreed, shifting uncomfortably in his jeans, "you must've made a killin' offa this."

Rhitias smiled over the top of his drink and began a discourse on one of his favorite topics: money. He didn't even bother to look around when Dawn 'accidentally' bumped into him. Of course, her subsequent action of sidling up next to Spike was beyond suspicion. What he didn't see was Dawn dropping the pouch with the master key into Spike's duster pocket as she did so.

Phase One of the plan completed, Spike began to grow immensely bored with Rhitias' endless run-on sentence. He would have sworn the demon hadn't come to a period in over ten minutes. And could he pick a duller monotonous drone if he tried?

Spike not-so-discreetly yawned.

Rhitias remained oblivious, going on and on and on and...

Spike yawned again.

Buffy couldn't agree with his sentiments more and suddenly came up with a brilliant means of escape. "You're tired, honey," she announced. "You must be worn out from all that sex we had this afternoon. We should go home and sleep...after we have more sex." She'd quickly learned that the fastest way to fool these demons was to directly quote Anya at her most blunt. It had the added amusing side effect of causing Spike to make this entertaining little choking noise.

"Of course," Rhitias abruptly agreed, "it's been a long, busy night. By all means," he added with a wink, "enjoy."

Spike bustled Buffy and Dawn away before either could go ballistic on the sleazy demon. They quickly found a little nook off to the side of one of the main hallways leading into the ballroom, and Dawn kept watch while Buffy and Spike slipped inside.

Spike promptly removed the emerald green key from the pouch Dawn had 'acquired' and studied it for a moment before inserting it in Buffy's collar.

"You know how to work this thing, right?" she demanded impatiently when he tried to open her collar and failed.

"Trial an' error, pet," he gave her a sheepish shrug before trying to command the collar to come off...

"A lovely party, Rhitias," one of the highest paying human buyers announced, "but I should like to take the new wares home for a test run now, if you don't mind." He gestured to the three girls he'd just bought.

"Of course," Rhitias nodded, separating himself from the conversation he'd been involved in and gesturing for the buyer to enter his office, "we'll get your keys made straightaway."

In the seclusion of the office, Rhitias removed three clear keys from the stockpile and placed them in the girls' collars, ready to program.

He reached into his right pocket to retrieve the master key...and frowned.

Shaking his head at his absentmindedness, he checked the left pocket. Still nothing.

His expression turned to outright panic when he began desperately patting down all his pockets, searching for the key.

"Something wrong?" the buyer asked, concerned.

Rhitias' mouth set in a cold, grim line when he removed the tassel the key's pouch had been attached to and saw that the knots had been deliberately untied.

It didn't take him more than a second to guess who was responsible, and his eyes narrowed with rage.

"He stole it," he said in a low hiss. "That treacherous little vampire stole it!"

Dawn moved to warn Spike and Buffy when Rhitias – followed by a truly angry crowd of men – rounded the corner.

However, Rhitias spotted her before she could move a muscle. "Stop," he ordered, halting her instantly in her tracks, the glazed look overcoming her eyes once more as she fell back under his spell. "Stand aside," he ordered before pushing the curtain back to expose Buffy, the gold collar still around her neck, and Spike still fiddling with the master key.

The pair turned abruptly at the intrusion and gulped when they saw the force of their opposition.

Rhitias turned to Buffy. "Come here," he ordered.

She was at his side in an instant, leaving Spike alone to face the mob.

"Well, Mr. Spike," Rhitias said with a cold smile, "it looks like you're in a bit of trouble..."

Until next time...