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Annie
Buffy slowly woke; opening her eyes to slits she turned her head to look at her alarm clock.
“Ugh. Another happy working day awaits,” she sighed, stretching before sitting up.
“About time you woke up,” an all too familiar voice said by the door and she let out a surprised huff as she in a second became fully awake.
“Spike!” she snapped, pulling up her covers without thinking, and though she wasn’t naked in any way.
This movement received a crocked smile from the vamp and a gleam hinting in his blue eyes.
She ignored it and held on to the sheets as though her life depended on it. Maybe it did. Her legs felt like jello and once more he had managed to make her heart gallop away like a racehorse out of rhythm. Not a good sign, and NOT a good start of the morning.
“Is nothing sacred to you?” she asked, pushing the beat-beat-beating of her ticker out of her thoughts.
He simply cocked an eyebrow at that question and she shook her head a little.
“I’m just saying that YOU’RE not exactly the first thing I want to see in the morning,” she elaborated.
He looked at her. Those words stung more than she could even imagine. But he supposed that she didn’t bother with imagination, got enough of the wicked and weird in her line of work for it to be let into her head… He supposed he fit nicely into that category too. To his astonishment she now said:
“That didn’t come out right… I mean, I don’t mean that I DO want you to be the first thing I see in the morning, but you being here now is all right. Or, no, it isn’t. I mean…”
she trailed off, shaking her head a little.
Sometimes he wondered how she could ever evoke even the slightest fear when battling a monster twice her own size. He couldn’t hold back a laugh at her word struggling and the look in her eyes became indignant. He smothered the laughter quickly and simply smiled a little.
How precious the moments that lasts, he thought to himself as it took her two seconds to bounce out of her little stutter and put herself back on b.i.t.c.h mode by saying:
“You know, I would really LOVE to know what the hell you’re doing here at this time of day.”
Then she threw the sheets aside, and got out off bed.
The movement brought back a memory of not so long ago when she had done it exactly the same but in HIS bed… Of course, she’d been invisible at that particular time, but he never was too picky about the details.
She walked up to her closet, opening it and rummaging around for what to wear she tried to focus her thoughts at the task at hand: work. But the way things were between her and her ex-lover she found it hard to concentrate.
She had made up her mind, why couldn’t he accept that? Why couldn’t he just make it easier on himself and just stay away from her?
Hah! she mocked herself in her head. Have you already forgotten that he’s never been the bow-down-and-exit-silently type?
When he began answering her question she tried to hold back the much too pleasant shivers running up her spine at the sound of his voice. Her body hadn’t forgotten how that voice had made it respond not so very long ago.
“Well, I forgot something last night and I came back to fetch it…” he explained.
Annoyed with the failing of killing off the shivers once and for all she slammed the door to the closet shut with a loud bang. She could hear the quiet rattling of clothes falling off their hangers and then she met Spike’s eyes, they were looking at her calmly but quizzically.
“Well,” she said, throwing the clothes she had chosen on her bed and disregarding the questions in his gaze. “Get it and then get out, would you? I’m busy, need to get Dawn off to school and I need to get off to work …”
“No, you don’t,” Willows voice interrupted her and Buffy turned to the doorway. “Morning!” Willow added with a smile.
“Um, yeah, GOOD morning,” Buffy agreed with a glance at Spike whom returned it with a little smile.
“Sorry, pet, didn’t mean to wake you up on the wrong side,” he said with a bow, that held more sarcasm than his voice ever could, before taking a step back into the hallway outside her door. “And I would get out of your hair, I really would,” he added. “Specially since you asked so nicely. But see, I was invited to stay. Asked actually… So, I’ll meet ya downstairs, eh?”
And then he walked away, leaving Buffy to turn her questions to Willow.
“What was that all about?” Buffy asked, wanting nothing more than to just get him out of her closest vicinity, that was: her house; this seeming to all of a sudden be a ridiculously difficult task.
“Well,” Willow said, taking a step inside and closing the door behind her, noticing that her friend wanted to get dressed. She walked up to the bed and sat down at the edge of it as Buffy started to change. “See, Dawn woke me up really early this morning, she was babbling about some kind of mirror and I don’t know what… I was kinda groggy. Anyways, I went with her downstairs and she told me the whole story over breakfast. Well, she didn’t wanna make you all mad, so we didn’t go down to take a look in the basement, but she was really excited… Really, REALLY excited… And she really insisted that we’d get started with researching the thing right now so that we’re… hopefully… done when she gets back from Lisa,” Willow finished just as Buffy pulled a sweater over her head.
Right, Buffy thought. It’s Saturday, no school…
And the promise Dawn had made to help paint one of her few friends’ room over the weekend slowly came back to her.
“Okay, Dawn not wanting to make me mad, that’s a first…” she then mumbled. “Guess she really liked that mirror,” she added, shrugging thoughtfully. “Ah well. I still don’t see what that has to do with me not having to get off to work? I can’t stay home just ‘cause of that, Will.”
Willow was looking at her with a slightly furrowed brow as she replied:
“No, I know. There was a message on the machine saying you have the day off, they are, um, sanitizing the whole restaurant or something… Okay, I HAVE to ask, are you dipping seriously into the sea of making a fashion statement or are you actually just planning to wear that?”
Buffy looked at her, wondering, then turned to the mirror.
She let out a low “agh!” as she laid eyes on the horrid combination of black leather pants and one of her cozy sweaters, which she hadn’t even known still existed in her wardrobe, it being a weird shade of brown and all, reflecting back at her.
“’Agh!’ is really not too strong an expression here,” Willow agreed as Buffy pulled the sweater over her head, tossing it towards the garbage bin and missing it terribly.
She opened the door to her closet again, a heap of clothes falling out at her feet. She laughed a little.
“I don’t know where my head is at today,” she mumbled as she bent down and picked up the clothes to put them back on their hangers.
***
“Why did you ask Spike to stay?” Buffy asked as they approached the stairs, her now in a little nicer attire of a cream white shirt. “What can he do? The mirror isn’t alive is it?”
Willow smiled and shook her head.
“Not as far as I know, I haven’t seen it yet though, Spike and Xander are bringing it up as we speak.”
Buffy rolled her eyes.
“Great, another let’s-fight-with-words bravado from those two is JUST what I need to make this morning complete,” she remarked as they descended the stairs into the hall.
Willow looked empathetically at her as they entered the living room where the sound of Xander’s voice met them.
“If you put it down a little more over here then the effect of it will be much better… but on the other hand…”
“Oh, just cut to the bloody chase, monkey boy, so I can put the thing down!” Spike cut in, sounding more than a little annoyed.
“Okay, right there is perfect. Now, maybe you should just make like a tree and leave,” Xander pointed out, almost immediately regretting his kind of childish choice of words and even more so when the bleached set of fangs set the mirror down and turned to him, the smirk on his face completing the sinking feeling in Xander’s stomach.
Idiot! I’m an idiot! he lashed out at himself in his head, meeting the vamp’s gaze as steady as he thought a rock might be.
“Well, maybe you should just act like a good little human and drop dead,” Spike retorted and turned his head to see Willow and Buffy, both of them with a sour expression on their faces.
He looked at Buffy. Damn, why did she have to do that to him? His defenses were nothing when it came to her, nor were his supernatural powers, that was for sure. She was simply irresistible. Especially with her hair not really brushed through and traces of sleep still evident in her eyes. He tilted his head to one side, eyeing her absorbedly.
Buffy felt tingles start spreading in her stomach under his gaze but she violently pushed them aside. Sure, she wanted him, but in the wrong way. In- the-wrong-way!
She broke eye contact, man, was she doing that a lot lately, and turned to the mirror.
“Look,” Willow suddenly spoke up. “We need all the help we can get if we’re going to figure out where this mirror come from, or from WHO! I mean, both. And so I suggest you boys kiss and make up.”
Xander stared at her with an Excuse Me?-look slammed into every feature of his face and Spike snorted, shaking his head.
“Look, Red, I would love to, really,” he said. “But I can’t, buggering chip’ll smoke my brain if I bite him,” he said, pointing to the back of his head.
Willow turned to him, frowning.
“Hey, who said anything about biting?” Xander exclaimed, aghast.
“Kiss of the vampire, there, mate,” Spike answered him coolly. “Or would you rather…”
“NO!” Xander interrupted, taking a few steps away.
“Just stop it for one moment, PLEASE!” Buffy cut in. “There will be no biting OR kissing what so ever.”
Spike was about to grab the too tempting opportunity to make a remark at that last statement. But then Buffy put a hand up to her eyes, rubbing them so tiredly and the sudden sadness in her posture made him bite his tongue. (Not literally.)
“I’ll make you some breakfast, Buffy,” Willow said with a stroke on her friends shoulder.
“That’s okay, Will,” Buffy answered her, removing her hand and in stead clasping her arms around her waist. “I’m okay. I’m not too hungry anyway.”
“You need to eat something,” Willow pressed gently. “Please, let me make you something. I’ll make something light…”
“Will, grown woman here, saved the world a few times a while back… I’m really okay. Okay?” Buffy interrupted kindly, stopping her friend as the latter moved to go into the kitchen.
Willow looked at her hesitatingly before nodding slowly. It wasn’t like she could tie Buffy down in a chair and force-feed her anyway. She’d make sure she got something in her once she asked for it.
“Let’s start up with this mirror business,” Buffy then said, trying to feel as much on the go as she sounded. “We should go to the Magic Box and do some digging. Willow, you…”
“…can do the surfing thing I do so well?” Willow filled in her sentence and Buffy smiled a grateful smile as Willow went to get her laptop from the hall.
“Xander, you come with me to the Magic Box,” Buffy said and then she realized something. “Where’s Tara?” she asked.
“She’s coming,” Willow answered her, coming back from her mission, her bag in hand. “She just had some stuff she needed to take care of first. She’ll be here.”
“Great, then could you send her over to the shop when she gets here? I’m sure we’ll need all the heads we can get,” Buffy said and Willow nodded, plugging in the computer.
Spike listened to her giving out orders even though she masked them as requests. He couldn’t help but rather admire that quality. He supposed a true leader should be able to make his subjects loyal through love…instead of how it had always been for him, through fear. He sighed a little.
“And what about me, Slayer?” he asked as Buffy seemed done with her distribution of commands.
“You should go home, and sleep. Day and night are kind of reversed with your kind, remember?” she answered him, feeling a sting near her heart as his eyes grew vulnerable with hurt for a moment before turning hard.
“No, I don’t think so, love. I wanna help, and I sure as hell ain’t gonna get any sleep lying thinking about what I…Well, if I could’ve been of help…to Dawn,” he finished. “Besides, there’s something about this thing… I’m sure I’ve seen it before somewhere, I just can’t figure it out…”
Buffy looked at him looking at the mirror. Sometimes his affection for Dawn was so clear that she thought she could touch it. She wondered if he realized that. And she couldn’t help but wonder why she couldn’t see his love for her, which he so blatantly proclaimed whenever he got the chance, in the same way.
A feeling filled her which she didn’t quite understand, and she was so sick of always having to deal with her own inner war as well as the one endlessly going on around her that she shut it out.
She just couldn’t deal with that right now.
Spike studied the mirror frame closely. If only he could place it, place where he had seen it! Then he looked at the mirror glass, it was a little darker than most he’d seen, he noticed. He looked closer. Small particles the color of gold seemed to be melted in it as well… Strange. It sure was a work of art.
Then he looked up and where he should have met his own eyes he saw nothing but the reflection of the room behind him. Nothing new, but this time it somehow felt different. He almost wished…
No. That thought had no place in his head. Though it had been there before.
Right after sunrise when he was half asleep that wish had entered his mind, and he had wished it for her sake. Wished to see the sun again, see the world in daylight, and see his reflection.
He shook the thought off, annoyed with the whelp he was becoming.
“Fine,” her voice then said, and he turned back to her. “If it’s for Dawn,” she added.
She waited for his reply and he looked at her, penetrating as always, and then he nodded slowly.
“It is,” he said.
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