The soft tinkle of background music from the relocated grand piano greeted Buffy's ears as she stepped into the freshly decorated ballroom. She bit back a whistle of appreciation at the obvious effort that had gone into transforming the room into the site of such a formal occasion.

Pale rose and blue light sparkled off of the iridescent streamers that circled the walls, making it look as through the entire room were encased in icicles. At the center of the room, a huge glass chandelier cast crystalline shadows down on the crowd below.

The music was slow and elegant, causing the dancers who accompanied it to appear to be gliding on marble. The clink of champagne glasses sounded throughout the room, and Buffy could almost imagine the ice cubes in the glasses tinkling gently against the sides. She couldn't decide whether the sound made her thirsty or cold, but she headed over to the long table boasting dozens of glasses nonetheless.

She could certainly see why this was the event of the year in the small-town community. Locals and visitors from nearby inns alike had ventured into the otherwise shunned lodge just for this special occasion. It was quite a crowd.

Buffy remained beside the champagne table, sipping her champagne in what she hoped was an elegant manner, and turned her attention back to the job at hand. Everyone seemed lamentably peaceful, however, leaving Buffy with little to do besides envy the dresses of the other women present. She knew her own spaghetti-strapped emerald green dress looked wonderful on her, but the lighting her did particularly unflattering things to the color.

The women who had worn cream-colored dresses, on the other hand, now appeared to be wearing swirling rainbows of pastels. Somewhat self-consciously, Buffy crossed her arms over her chest and took another drink of champagne.

She spotted Xel and Lena – in human guise – off in one corner arguing. It took no stretch of imagination to figure out what had happened. Inevitably, one had been flirting horribly, and World War III had broken out. Or was it World War LXXXV now?

However, they had all long since learned that the D'vorak pair needed no supernatural assistance to argue. Buffy scanned right past them, searching for her fellow demon hunters.

She knew Tucker was stationed outside, not that she had any desire to see him whatsoever. Dawn had quite cleverly shoved him out of the festivities and instructed him to make sure none of the guests wandered off to their deaths. Given that he hadn't wanted to attend the "damn party" anyway, this worked out admirably for all—

Buffy's train of thought completely derailed at the sight that had caught her eye. Gorgeous, delectable, sexy, handsome... Her mind leapt from once adjective to the next, stunned completely speechless.

OK, so she'd never seen Spike in a tuxedo before, but it wasn't like the pleasant thought had never occurred to her before. But not even she could have imagined he would look that...perfect...

"Have you seen Dawn anywhere?"

The soft-spoken tone interrupted her blatant vampire ogling. Buffy shook off her Spike-induced stupor and turned to find Rick standing beside her.

"Haven't seen her," she managed to say in a voice almost entirely free of squeaks. "Spike's here, though." Her face flamed a bright red just at the mere mention of the object of her desires.

"Yes, they are rather difficult to miss, are they not?" Rick commented, one eyebrow raised above the frame of his blackened sunglasses.

At that point Buffy noticed for the first time that Spike was not alone. In fact, Veronica had managed to wrap her body all around his as they swayed together on the dance floor, looking for all the world like an over-eager octopus. As Buffy watched, Veronica whispered something into Spike's ear that was evidently quite amusing because he flashed her that kissable dimpled smile of his in response. Buffy began to contemplate the pros and cons of homicide.

"We are supposed to be preventing deaths," Rick provided, "not causing them."

Buffy shook off her murderous urges. "I can't make an exception for Veronica?" she joked lightly.

Rick cracked a small smile. "Only if I can make one for Lena," he countered.

As if on cue, a trilled "Rrrrricarrdo!" sounded through the crowd.

Rick flinched visibly and instantly looked around furtively for some place to hide. "Help," he pleaded.

Buffy couldn't help but laugh behind her hand at his predicament. However, she quickly conceded the gravity of his situation and stepped in to his rescue. "Wanna dance?" she offered.

Rick snatched her hand and fled from the approaching demon. Only when they were safely on the dance floor did he breathe a sigh of relief. "You have saved my life," he informed her with a small smile.

She managed to flash a quick smile back before she caught sight of Spike and Veronica across the floor, and the glare returned.

A one-sided awkward silence followed until Rick finally dared to ask, "You are fond of Spike, perhaps?"

Buffy's attention turned abruptly to her dancing partner at that. He was generally too polite to ask, but she knew he had to have caught her longing looks in the vampire's direction. "W-We have a bit of a history," she finally admitted, her cheeks reddening, "and, yes, I am still fond of him."

"But he does not feel for you?" Rick guessed.

She let out a weary sigh. "Your guess is as good as mine," she admitted. "I mean, back then he loved me, but now..." She shrugged. "He's a complete mystery to me now."

"I can sympathize," Rick nodded.

Buffy gave him a quizzical look.

"Your sister is just as much a mystery to me," he provided somewhat nervously.

A sly smile crept across Buffy's features. "I knew it!" she proclaimed triumphantly. "'Cause, y'know, it was sooo obvious you have a thing for her."

Rick seemed thoroughly baffled as to how to deal with a Summers in gossip mode, but fortunately Buffy was now able to maintain enough conversation for the two of them. If nothing else, Rick had at least distracted her from moping about Spike for the time being.

Buffy frowned. "Is it just me or has Dawn been acting a bit stand-offish around you lately?"

"It isn't just you," Rick breathed a sigh of relief. "For a while, I thought that I was imagining it."

"What did you do to piss her off, then?" Buffy demanded.

"Nothing!" Rick insisted defensively.

Buffy rolled her eyes at him in a gesture that clearly said, Men! "You did something," she informed him matter-of-factly. "Now, think. What was it?"

"I have no clue," he shook his head.

Buffy sighed. "You'll just have to go for the general, all-encompassing apology then and hope that she drops a hint before you have to clarify what you're apologizing for," she decided.

"But I did not do anything," Rick repeated, somewhat puzzled now.

She gave him a quizzical look. "You haven't dated a lot of women, have you?" she countered.

"Well, not as such—" he began.

"It shows," she informed him. "Just trust me about this one."

He gave her a skeptical look. "And you are helping me to court your sister because...?" he demanded.

"Because you use quaint words like 'court'," she informed him. "Plus, you so desperately need the help that—" She stopped abruptly and turned in surprise at the tap on her shoulder...

Dawn had retired to the far back corner of the room to study the festivities in peace. She frowned as she caught sight of her allies. Most were too caught up in the celebration to really be paying attention to much else. The sole exception was Spike, who at least seemed wary of where Buffy was dancing with Rick.

Dawn's frown deepened at the thought of the young man.

She had seen all the evidence against him, of course. The suspicious secrecy, Spike's spidey-sense going haywire, not to mention his increasingly suspicious interest in her. Most damning of all was the disappearance of the book from her room. She was confident that only Rick and Buffy had been in the room since the last time she'd seen the tome, and she was confident that her sister was innocent of the theft.

However, somewhere deep inside, she fervently wanted to believe that Rick was innocent. It was a selfish motive, and she knew it, but she had been growing quite fond of the soft-spoken man and his quirky sense of humor. In fact, he was the first man that had seriously caught her eye in a very long time.

Buffy and Rick's conversation seemed to have turned serious now. Dawn would've given just about anything at that moment to be a fly on the wall. Spike also seemed to have caught the change in the pair's mood and was angling the overly-amorous Veronica over in their direction.

Dawn couldn't help but giggle at the other woman's antics. She certainly had unsubtlety down to an art. Dawn was actually sort of proud of Spike for not caving in. She'd certainly seen him have flings with equally irritating women over the years. A brief shudder passed through her at the memory of Buni, and she decided that maybe Veronica wasn't so flaky after all.

Her eyes inevitably turned back to Rick, and she sighed wearily. Why are the cute ones always evil? She suddenly felt great sympathy for all the difficulties Buffy had had in her own romantic life. She felt bad about keeping the distance between her and Rick, especially since she could see how it hurt him, but it was a risk she just couldn't take.

"Now, what is a beautiful woman such as yourself doing all alone?"

Dawn cast unimpressed eyes in Xel's direction. Somehow, he'd managed to escape Lena and now appeared to be playing up the women along the back wall in sequence.

"My job," she reminded him. "Which is what you should be doing."

"Exactly," he agreed with a smile and an arm around her shoulder, "and here I am, mingling with the guests and making sure no disruptions break out."

She looked at the hand on her shoulder pointedly until he finally removed it with a sigh.

"Nothing's happening," he finally pointed out.

"Yet," she agreed.

Even as she said it, an apparent scuffle broke out on the dance floor. The two of them both took a step forward...and then back again when they saw that it was just Spike and Veronica cutting into Buffy and Rick.

"Sometimes I think we create more problems than we help solve," Xel commented with an astuteness Dawn found surprising.

"Yeah, well, all we can do for now is try to keep the peace," Dawn agreed, leaning back against the wall once more.

"Whatever you say...boss," he added with a grin before running off to rescue Lena's latest hapless victim.

"'m cuttin' in," Spike informed Rick with a slight curl to his lips. He practically dropped Veronica into the other man's lap and whisked Buffy away before she even had a chance to register what had happened.

Buffy's normally lightning-quick Slayer reflexes were momentarily dulled by the drool-worthy sight of Spike in a tux, and she half-danced, half-staggered along with him, colliding with his body and causing both of them to hold on tight to keep from toppling over.

"Klutzy much?" he inquired, unknowingly emulating her own bizarre speech patterns.

"W-Well, what do you expect?" she countered, forcibly ignoring the wonderful feel of his hardened chest beneath her cheek and his silken hair at her fingertips. "I mean, you practically abducted me..." Jealous? A hopeful voice in the back of her mind inquired.

"What did the wanker want?" he demanded instead of responding to her. Almost unconsciously, the hand at the back of her waist gave her a little squeeze.

Sounds jealous to me, the eternal optimist in her insisted. "We were just chatting," she stated, "mostly about Dawn."

Spike's wandering eyes instantly met hers in a mixture of concern and suspicion. "What about?"

Buffy frowned, put off by his odd manner. "What is it with you and her, anyway?" she finally blurted out in frustration.

A quirked eyebrow was her only response. At least she knew she had his attention now, though.

With nowhere else to go, she plunged onward. "I mean, half the time I can't tell whether you're just being protective or whether the two of you are together and you're just leading everyone else on, which, I've got to say, is—"

"Buffy," he cut her off with a chuckle.

She frowned at his amusement, and then smiled inwardly at the unusual use of her name. "What?" she demanded, determined to play the angry part. It was rather difficult when she, to all intents and purposes, was wrapped in an intimate embrace with him.

"The Bit's like my own li'l sis, maybe even a daughter at times," he informed her matter-of-factly, "so, yeah, 'm concerned when our primary suspect in this hauntin's got his eyes on her."

"Really?" Buffy breathed out in relief before the entire meaning of his sentence dawned on her. "Wait, whatta you mean 'primary suspect'? Rick?" she asked in disbelief.

"Kid hasn't been straight with us from the beginning," Spike provided. "Been tryin' to get in close, insinuate himself among us... Sets off the tinglies at the back of m'neck, he does. That, and the soddin' shades he wears everywhere."

"Oh yeah, the persistent clothing oddity's a definite clue," she managed to get out with a straight face. "By the way, where's your duster?"

"I left it with Dawn when—" He caught her meaning and scowled at her. "Ha bloody ha, Slayer," he retorted humorlessly.

"Oh, lighten up," she shot back before frowning. "Rick? Really? He seems so...shy and inoffensive."

Spike snorted. "Women!" he rolled his eyes heavenward.

She gave him an annoyed scowl, while secretly delighting in the exchange. This was the Spike she remembered – stubborn, argumentative, obnoxious...her perfect match. "If you think he's so dangerous, then why did you offer Veronica up like a sacrificial lamb?" she countered.

"Yeah well, better her 'n you," he shrugged.

She smiled at that. "You didn't seem to mind when she was all over you," she shot back nonetheless.

An evil smirk lit up his face. "Someone's jealous," he sing-songed.

"I'm jealous?" she demanded incredulously. "I'm not the one who went all Neanderthal to get a new dance partner. If anything, you're jealous." She prodded his chest with her index finger in accusation.

For an instant they froze on the dance floor, eyes narrowed and glaring, breathing quickened, passions burning. In that moment, all the past seemed to be erased, and they were just the Slayer and her Vampire once more – adversaries and destined lovers.

Then, unfortunately, the world zoomed back into focus, the soft music and conversation around them sounding cacophonous compared to the peace that had just encased them. It was an awkward moment to top all other awkward moments, and they did the only thing they could to alleviate it and began dancing once more.

"He wanted to know why Dawn has been acting so distant lately," Buffy provided, hoping to break the uncomfortable silence between them.

"Mmm," Spike nodded, staring off into the distance. "Not a good sign. He knows we're suspicious. 'Course, he'd hafta after the incident with the book..."

"Book?" she asked confusedly.

Spike groaned. "Wasn't s'posed to tell you 'bout that," he provided at her look.

"Well, you're so spilling now," she informed him, looking right up into his eyes and tightening her grip on the back of his neck so that he couldn't escape.

He let out a resigned sigh. "Someone nabbed our spell book," he informed her, "and unless it was you, your dear Rrrricardo's the only one that could've taken it."

Buffy frowned. "But we need that book to—"

"Yeah," he agreed, cutting her off.

She let out a little groan and buried her face in his chest once more. "This thing is evil," she declared. "Why won't it just die, dammit?"

He chuckled at that. "There's the Slayer I remember."

A flush lit up her cheeks at that and his as well. The comment had obviously slipped out unintentionally.

"I-I'm a big fan of the tux," she decided to take advantage of the fact that her face was already red to complement him. And the award for Understatement of the Year goes to...

He smiled at her at that. "'ll pass the complement along to the Platelet. She deserves it after all the effort of tryin' to force me into this thing."

"It's not just that," she insisted with a laugh. "It's you. You're..." The heat rose in her cheeks once more.

Spike wasn't any better off and ducked his head bashfully before finally meeting her eyes.

"...very handsome," she finally finished breathlessly.

"You're lookin' quite lovely yourself," he countered with a nervous smile.

"Yeah, what with my dress the color of fertilizer in this light," she joked lightly.

He grinned. "You'll note that the comment was cleverly directed at you and not the dress," he agreed.

She smiled and let her eyes fall to his lips, allowing herself to ponder their fullness. Her mouth practically watered at the memory of the taste of him, and unconsciously she began to gauge the distance between them. It suddenly felt as though the lights above were burning into her, not the pale rose of before but a brilliant red now.

Too mesmerized by the man before her to let the phenomenon register, she allowed her eyelashes to flutter closed, standing up on her tiptoes to close the gap in between them...

And, naturally, someone chose that moment to let out an ear-piercing scream that shook the entire ballroom.

Yes, that was intentionally evil. Thank you so much for noticing. ~_^ Until next time...