*****

Xander was watching Spike out of the corner of his eye. He had been doing that a lot lately. Watching Spike when he thought no one would notice. Today the bleached vampire was in a sullen mood. Sulking in a corner while his drownable eyes flittered around the room, never quite landing on anyone. Buffy and Giles was having an animated discussion but for once Spike wasn't trying to make it into a full blown fight by throwing in handy comments. He was silent and watching like he was waiting for something. Xander wished he knew what it was. He moved his eyes to Willow and Tara trying to figure out if they had noticed something strange with his vampire.

Suddenly his thoughts ran into a mental wall and he fell on his mental bum. It hurt. He had just thought of Spike as *his* vampire. Spike was not his vampire, nor would he ever be Xander's vampire. He might secretly wish for him to be, but he couldn't go around thinking it in every day thoughts that might hurt his view of himself. Xander would rater throw himself on a sword than admit he was drooling over Spike like some teenage girl over her idol. He was a grown-up damnit.

Suddenly Spike leapt to his feet and Xander postponed his mental musings to admire him. Feline grace and a gorgeous appearance in a handy package, just Xander's type of vamp.

"I hate you all," Spike blurted out and stalked out of the Magic Box through the back door.

Xander stared after him and exchanged a surprised look with Willow. That Spike hated them was old news, but he usually didn't put it into words, something about not biting the hand that fed him, at least not hard enough to set of the chip.

"What crawled up his ass and died?" Xander asked the world at large, thankful that he managed to leave out the "biteable" part of that sentence.

"It's his Death-Day today." Buffy said matter-of-factly. "Kinda like a vampire birthday. He's just mad we didn't throw him a party or something. I'm telling you, that vampire has mood swings worse than a pregnant woman's. Why would we throw him a party? His "I blew out all the candles" wish would be to bathe in our blood."

"I got him a present," Xander said and blushed slightly, but only slightly, when Buffy and Giles stared at him. Willow and Tara already knew about his little insanities. There was no use in trying to keep secrets from a woman who could talk a tree into life. "I did get a present." He clarified. "I just didn't know it was today."

"Did you bake him a cake too?" Buffy asked and he couldn't decide whether she was mocking him or being polite.

"*No* I didn't bake him a cake," Xander answered. "I didn't know what day it was, remember?"

"Uhm. So what did you get him?" Buffy asked while staring at him like he had grown a second head.

"Just some CD's. It's some British Punk Collection Box that I ran into and it was really cheap and I thought since Harmony trashed all his and he never has any money." Xander trailed off realizing he sounded exactly like Willow.

"Hey, that's a great gift." Buffy smiled. "So tell me, will I get a chance to let you eat up all those *not* so polite comments about me and Angel? Huh?"

Xander shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He had grown used to his lethal attraction to Spike during the last few months, but he had never expected Buffy to accept it so calmly. She had always been more of a "stake first, ask later" kind of girl and he had been pretty sure she would find one way or another to blame it all on Spike. On the other hand Giles still looked like he had swallowed a toad. Maybe he was ready to defend Xander's honor or at least yell at him for being stupid. The Watcher finally found his tongue.

"Well, Xander. What are you waiting for? Go find him."

Okay, so who were these people and what had they done to his friends? Either they were all alien imposters or Willow had ratted on him. He glared at the red headed witch who had the decency to look ashamed. Xander turned his Death-glare into his stern "We'll talk about this later" look and got up from his chair. Since all his friends were being uber-understanding he better go fetch Spike's gift and give it to him.

*30 minutes later*

Xander knocked on the door to Spike's crypt and tried to pretend he wasn't nervous. His gift felt silly were it was lying in all its wrapped glory in a plastic bag. Spike would probably laugh at him and use his stupid gift to light a fire but either way it was too late to back out now. Suddenly the door flew open and a vampire in full game face stared him down. Luckily Spike didn't scare him. Much.

"Hi," Xander said wincing at the "I'm about to pee my pants" sound of his voice.

"What do *you* want?" Spike growled through sharp fangs.

"Uhm. I bought you a gift and since it's your Death-Day I just wanted to drop it off and say, happy Death-Day or something."

Xander suddenly found his boots very interesting, nice heavy work-boots who could take Spike's Doc Martens on, any day.

"You bought me a gift?" Spike asked, his face morphing back into its devilishly handsome human planes. "Uhm. Come in."

Xander followed Spike into the dark crypt, lit only by flickering candlelight. Spike didn't say anything about sitting so he stood awkwardly just inside the now closed door while Spike sat on the worn couch placed alongside one of the walls. The vampire was looking down on the gift in his hands, turning it over and shaking it lightly. Then he put it on the cardboard-box serving as a table and opened the card. Xander wasn't so sure about the card. There weren't many suitable card for a hundred-and-twenty-something vampires. This one had a rusty railroad spike resting on a heap of crushed rose petals on the front. Xander had been completely astonished when he found it and was quite frankly still wondering who, besides him, would ever buy one. Inside he had written: I wish you happiness/ Xander in his best actually readable handwriting. Spike was touching the picture smiling to himself, seemingly lost in his memories. Xander really hoped he wasn't going to share. Then he opened the card and read it. Shot a look at Xander and read it again. Slowly he placed the card at the table and looked at Xander yet again with an unreadable expression on his face. Breaking eye contact the vampire picked up the neatly wrapped gift and began to open it. Slowly without tearing at the shiny white, blue, red paper, it was almost like he was savoring the gift opening ceremony.

Xander was beginning to feel really stupid where he was standing, but none of the sitting alternatives was an option. Sitting next to Spike was too intimate and sitting on his unmade bad was all together out of the picture. Finally Spike managed to get the package opened and stared at the content. He turned it over, probably reading the song list printed on the back of the box. Then he gently put it down and got to his feet.

Xander briefly considered running but he didn't have time. Spike seemed to be able to move from spot A to spot B without bothering to pass the area in between. Suddenly there was a vampire nose buried in the crook of Xander's neck and vampire arms around his waist. Reluctantly Xander put his arms around vampire shoulder and hugged Spike back. They stood like that in silence for what felt like years but was probably no more than a couple of seconds, before Spike pulled away. Xander didn't want to let go but it was still a good thing that he did since his teenage hormones were getting just a tad bit too happy.

"Thanks." Spike mumbled looking suspiciously teary eyed. "No one *ever* got me a card before, not even my poof of a Sire."

"I. I wasn't sure about the CD's, you probably got all the songs... I just thought that maybe Harmony."

"I loved the gift Boy. Don't be so bleedin' insecure all the time."

"Boy?" Xander asked pointedly. "I have a name you know."

"I know, Alexander. It's just. Everybody else calls you Xander, *I* want to make a difference."

"And you choose Boy?" Xander asked incredously, while sending his internal St George to battle the Happiness Dragon residing in the pit of his stomach. Spike wanted to make a difference.

"Fine," Spike grumbled. "From now on I will call you. Nummy. But only because you brought me a gift *with* a card."

"Great." St George was losing his battle with the dragon. "Then I'll call you. Sexy." Xander was astounded with his own courage.

"Cause were both delicious," Spike snickered and Xander wondered if he wasn't insane after all. "Come on Nummy, I'll buy you a beer."

Xander followed him through the door, riding high on the Happy Dragon, but if Spike noticed his feet wasn't touching the ground he didn't comment upon it.

The end