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Different Then -- by Echo
Rating: PG-13
Description: More people show up in Sunnydale and find out about Spike and Willow, sequel to Troubled by the Way.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Don't sue me. Please.
She was running. It was very bright outside. Please let him still be there. When Willow had told her that he said to tell her good-bye, she just freaked out. She didn't want to leave it like it was. Angel was still a part of her. He had to be. She didn't want it like it was. He had to be there.
Angel was amused. Xander was attempting to apologize. It was so obvious he didn't mean a word of it, and Anya, who was standing behind him with her arms folded across her chest, was making him do it. For some reason it really amused him.
"...........So, um, I'm sorry. I guess." Xander rolled his eyes. Angel laughed.
"Is he making a face?"
"He is."
Anya took her foot and kicked Xander in his butt making him stumble forward. "Do it again. And this time you will mean it. No faces, Xander Harris." Angel grinned widely. This was very enjoyable for some reason. Anya was even more relentless than Cordelia.
Xander opened his mouth to speak when the door crashed open banging against the wall. Angel scrambled away from the light that flooded into the room. Buffy stood in the doorway. "Out."
"Xander was apologizing to Angel for being rude, Buffy."
"How nice. Angel forgives you, Xander. Bye now." She shoved both of them out the door and shut it.
He just stared at her. She put her hands on her hips. "Tell Buffy I said good-bye?"
"I thought it would be best that way."
"Well, it's not."
"You know it can't ever and there's this Riley guy now and-"
"Also, how could you say we're friends?"
"We're not friends?"
"No."
"Oh."
"Angel, we're a lot more than friends. We always will be."
"But-"
"No. I always care for you. No matter what. Don't hide from me when you come to town. You know how pissed off I get about that."
"Ok, but-"
"No. I saw you here - not in LA like you're supposed to be. I saw you with Willow and I totally wigged out. I ran off and nearly got myself in some trouble. If Spike hadn't shown up..."
"Spike?"
"Yes, Spike. He's totally trustworthy now, as strange as that sounds coming out of my mouth."
"I was just......."
"Worried."
She walked over and put her arms around him. "Buffy-"
"Shhhhhh. Don't. Just let me be here. I know it's breaking the staying away rule."
"Spike says I put you off your game."
"I don't care. I just want this. Right here. Just a minute of time."
"It won't be enough."
"What's enough with us?"
He put his arms around her. This had to be a dream, and he never wanted to wake up.
Willow was sitting in one of the chairs in Giles' apartment watching him sleep on the couch. Giles watched her watching the vampire. It was obvious Spike cared about Willow, and Willow cared for Spike. He just wondered how far it had gotten. Things hadn't exactly worked out for Buffy in this area. He didn't know if he could survive helping another girl through a failed vampire relationship. Spike didn't even have a soul.
"You have worried face." He looked at her.
"Did you lie to me before?"
"When you asked if we were involved? No. It was truth then. That was actually the day that got me thinking of Spike as anything other than Spike."
"How so?"
"Anya and I were talking about him, and I just started to wonder. I'd only ever seen him as one thing. That day I realized he was not just that one thing. I don't even know if he's that thing anymore. I can't find it in him."
"What thing?"
"A killer. A monster." Willow looked down. Giles rushed over and put his arm around her.
"Oh, Willow."
She looked at him. There were tears in her eyes. "I've been looking. I can't find it."
"Can't find what? The murderer in him?"
"Yes."
"Willow-"
"No, when he kidnapped me and Xander last year, I looked him in the eye all of once. He would have killed me then. When he attacked me in my room all those months ago, he would have done it then, too, but there was something else with the killer in his eyes that night. Now it's just the something else. He told me I was very bitable. I didn't REALLY get it then."
"He was attracted to you?"
"I think so. I thought he was just trying to make me feel better, but then I was like, why would he do that? He's Spike. He must really think a little something about me."
"You've given this an enormous amount of thought."
"Lately, yes."
"Be careful, Willow."
"I want to be logical about this, but he makes me lose all reason."
"I know those feelings."
"I don't know what I'm going to do, Giles, But I plan on doing something. And I will be careful. At this point I can't be anything but." He smiled at her and walked upstairs. He trusted her to know her own heart.
Cordelia Chase was mad as hell. He'd been gone for two weeks. TWO WEEKS! Wesley shifted uncomfortably in the seat next to her. She'd done ninety all the way to Sunnydale. She screeched into the parking area of Giles' apartment and slammed out of the car with out even waiting for Wesley.
As soon as Giles left Willow looked down at Spike. She jumped because he was staring at her.
"You were looking for the killer?"
Willow became uncomfortable. "Y-y-yes."
"Find him, Pet?" Spike was more than a little mad. He couldn't believe THAT was what she'd been looking for.
"Not when you look at me." She smiled at him. Then she leaned down and kissed him lightly. He pulled her on top of him. She squealed. He started kissing her neck. He expected her to flinch or something. She didn't flinch - she moaned. And Spike wanted her more than he could stand. He pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it away. She giggled and pulled his black t shirt off with a vicious yank. Then she leaned down and started placing little bites on his chest. Spike swore he started sweating. Then he heard the door to the apartment swing open and crash into the wall.
Cordelia didn't even knock. She just threw open the door. "Giles!" Willow and Spike shot up. Cordelia screamed. "Oh my GOD!" Spike had no shirt on, and Willow only had on a bra that was falling off her shoulders. She turned bright red. Wesley's mouth was opening and closing, but no sound came out. Giles came running down the stairs in his robe.
"Cordelia? Wesley? What are you do ....." His words trailed off when he saw Willow and Spike. He threw Willow a very disapproving look. "Would you two care to step outside for a minute?" He shoved Cordelia and Wesley out onto the porch.
When the door shut, Willow looked at Spike. She buried her face in her hands and started making this squeaky noise. He thought she was crying until she looked at him. She was laughing so hard her face turned even redder. Spike lost it. He wrapped his arms around her and started laughing.
"Did you see her face?"
"What about the face on the bloke with her? He looked just like a goldfish."
"Well, the last you saw Cordelia you were evil, right?"
"Yeah, Love. I'd been having the poof tortured."
"Oh. I'm sure Giles is explaining about you."
"I'm not sure it will matter, Love. The princess, there, she cares about my bloody sire. You should have seen her face when she saw him with all those hot pokers sticking out of him. She would have killed if she could have."
"Hot pokers?"
He looked at the worry on her face. "Nevermind." He turned away.
She turned his head back. "No, it was different then, Spike."
"Then wasn't so long ago, Pet. You can't expect all you friends to like me right off."
"It was long ago in hellmouth terms. This time last year, give or take a month, you were threatening me with a bottle." He stiffened. She noticed. "Hey, I don't worry about it. Don't you go and worry. It was different then." She leaned in and kissed him. He put his arms around her. She put a hand behind his head and pulled him closer. He pulled away.
"Doesn't this hurt that busted lip of yours?"
"What busted lip? Everything hurts less with you touching me." He kissed her again.
The door opened. Giles glared at them. "The point in our going outside was for the two of you to get dressed, not to continue groping each other on my bloody sofa!"
Willow giggled as Giles slammed the door. Spike looked at her. He suddenly flashed back to her standing in front of him in her fuzzy pink sweater with the lilac underneath telling him there would be 'no having of any kind' with her. She'd sparked his interest . She was very unspoiled back then. And when he escaped the Initiative and found her instead of Buffy, he was shocked that he hadn't been disappointed. He was even more shocked when he offered to turn her instead of just killing her, and then he physically couldn't do it. She thought it was her. It surprised him how much the pain in her voice had reached him. He'd assured her she was bitable. She was such a little mystery to him. Yes, he'd been a little more interested then, but it was even more so now. She hadn't let him kill himself. She hadn't let Xander do it. She was always polite to him and treated him like he was a part of them. She was the only one besides Anya who had done that. Her gazes held heat for him now, not fear. She wanted him now. It was different then. She was right. When he thought about it, 'then' was a long time ago on the hellmouth.
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