Rebound

Authors: Cyndy & Sara
[email protected]

Rating: PG-13
Status: Parts 1 & 2 (Unfinished)
Pairing: Spike/Willow 
Summary: Spike is staying the night with Willow
Spoilers: This takes place in the later part of Season Four. I have played a
little bit with the order of things.  Spoilers for "The Initiative."

Feedback: It makes us type faster.  And if you don't, you're a bloody
poofter. :)
Disclaimer: We do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (as much as we wish we did) or any of it's characters. Everything belongs to Joss Whedon. No profit was received from this work.  

Willow looked from Spike to Xander.  "Absolutely not.  Don't even think
about it."
"Willow," Xander cajoled. "it is just for one night.  One measly night.  
Look, he can stay tied up.  You can even gag him."  Spike glared at Xander
and muttered an expletive under his breath. Xander shot him a warning look.  
"Anya and I want to have a romantic evening together.  Look, I have been the
undead babysitter for over a week.  We really need some alone time. Besides,
you owe me one."
Willow read this as we would really like to have sex. Oh, gross. "For
what?," she snapped.  Ever since Oz had left, her moods had been erratic.  
From tears to anger to laughter in seconds.
" I saved you from that big ugly vampire in the graveyard last week."
Xander said with pride.
"That was Buffy. He threw you on the ground and was about to. . ."
"Well,  I distracted him after he grabbed you so that Buffy could stake
him."
Willow looked at her best friend with irritation.  That was Xander,
everything was me me me!   Never mind that her boyfriend had just left, or
that she had been attacked by Spike. She got closer to him to whisper in his
ear so Spike wouldn't hear her. "I don't want to be alone with him.  I know
he can't bite but I'm still a little scared.  He almost sired me, remember?"
Xander expelled a breath and said quietly.  "He's fangless, remember?  He
can only irritate you to death now."  He gave her his deadly lost  puppy-dog
look. " I'll even deliver him to your parent's house."
Spike finally had enough of this.  "Hey, wait a bleedin' minute here.  I
didn't agree!  I just got moved over to this dump.  And now you expect me to.
. ."  Spike thought about this a moment.  Hmm. . .an evening with the little
red-haired witch or another spent with the idiot and his girlfriend.  "Fine
with me." Willow was much better to look at than that blighter.
Willow sighed in defeat.  She was too tired to fight both of them.  
"Fine, bring him over tomorrow."
*********
The next evening, Willow watched Spike warily.  He was bound by heavy
rope to the chair at her desk. Her parents had gone to a party earlier that
evening and they had informed her that she shouldn't wait up for them.  
"Willow, could you please untie me? It hurts."
Spike looked like he was in pain. "It does?"  Willow's eyes instantly
welled with sympathy.  "Oh, I'm sorry. " She bit her lip. She couldn't stand
the thought of anyone being hurt.
She looked behind him and noticed that his wrists showed the imprint of
the ropes. "If I let you go, you wouldn't. . .um. . .do anything. . .bad?"
Spike raised an eyebrow and gave her an unholy grin.  "Like what, pet?"
Willow's hand went to her throat automatically, which was hidden from his
view by her thick turtleneck sweater.
"I knew this was a bad idea." she said and turned away from him, ready to
flee to the relative safety of the living room.
"Wait!  I'm all bark and no bite, remember? Besides, luv, seems to me you
could use a spot of company.  I know your boyfriend left." Willow glared at
him.  "I know how it feels, to be left."  He nearly choked on those words.
"What about Harmony?"
Spike rolled his eyes, insolent once more."She was a phase, luv.   The
sex wasn't even that great. Rebounding, y'know?"
Willow blushed but nodded.  She was lonely and Spike was at least someone
to talk to.  He understood, she remembered the anguish she had seen in his
eyes when he had told her about Drusilla.  Besides, everyone else was sick of
hearing about how  much she missed Oz.  
She kneeled behind him and began pulling at the heavy knots.  Soon, he
was free. "Thanks, luv," he drawled.   Spike stood up to his full height and
rubbed his wrists.  His black leather duster spread around him like the wings
of a fallen angel.  
Released from his bonds, he looked more intimidating.  She took a step
back. Willow was suddenly reminded of the lions she had seen at the zoo.  
They had been rendered helpless, temporarily, but they were still virulent,
mesmerizing in their deadly grace.  She shuddered but tried to appear calm.
He titled his head and looked at her.  "I'm thirsty."
"W-w-we have iced tea, some sodas, and milk, I think." He stepped
forward,  she stepped back.
"Something wrong, pet?" She shook her head.  He stepped forward, she
stepped back. Until she was against the wall.
He caged her in with his hands and inhaled deeply.  "Yes, I'm very
thirsty." Willow slid a hand behind her back, into her jeans pocket.  She
uncorked the small, perfume-sized  bottle easily and was about to throw it on
his face when he seized her wrist and pulled it from her grasp.  In the
process, his hand was splashed with the holy water.
"Ouch. Bloody hell, Red.  That hurt! I was only playing with you.  I
can't really bite, just wanted to tease you a little."  He poured the liquid
into a nearby household plant and  put the offending bottle into his coat
pocket for safekeeping.  He glanced around the room.  "Got any other weapons?
 Stakes, swords, a slayer in the closet?"
"Serves you right!" She said.  Her lips compressed into a tight line and
she stalked to the kitchen downstairs.  Spike followed her, penitent now.
He hoisted himself onto the breakfast bar beside her as she went to the
fridge and pulled out a half-eaten cheesecake.  "What's that, luv?"
"Therapy." she mumbled as she put a generous slice on her plate.
"I want some, too." She frowned up at him but took down another plate and
put a slice on it for him.  If his mouth was full, at least he couldn't talk.
 She took out two forks and they ate in silence.  Spike groaned in pleasure
as he ate the last bite.  Her lips twitched.  She put both of their plates in
the sink and opened the fridge to put the remnants of the cheesecake away.  
She indicated the blood packets in the crisper section.
"Want some blood?"
"Cow blood is disgusting." He made a face. "Unless you'd like to give me
a donation, Red?"
"Let's watch some videos." She suggested cooly.   Ten minutes later,
Spike had sorted through her collection of videos with apparent disdain.
"No action movies, at all? Look at this drivel. " he indicated the large
stack of romantic comedies she owned.  Spike picked up a copy of Interview
With The Vampire. It was given to her by Xander as a gag gift.  "Heard about
this one, never saw it though. Let's watch it. Least it isn't about the
Dracula blighter."  He slid the video into the machine.  He tossed his duster
over the arm of the couch before he settled down uncomfortably close to her.  
She moved down a little, he moved a little closer.   She grimaced, he gave
her an innocent expression. She moved down, he moved closer.  She pulled an
accent pillow from the end of the couch and shoved it in between them.  He
smirked.
After they had been watching a few moments, Spike gestured to the
chain-smoking, wise-cracking Christian Slater character and asked hopefully.  
"Is that bloke the vampire?"
"Aren't you paying attention?  He's the interviewer.  Louis is the
vampire."
"The one who's whining?  And why doesn't he cut his bloody fingernails?  
We don't have claws, we're not cats.  Bloody poof!"
Willow gave him a quelling look.  "Do you always talk through movies?"
Spike crossed his arms and sat back further on the couch to watch the
rest of the movie unfold. When it was over, Spike sat with a stunned
expression on his face. "I liked that blond one.  Had style, y'know.  Kind of
like me.  But, that other one!" He rolled his eyes. "Just like Angel."  He
made is voice deeper and melodramatic.  "Woe is me, I have a soul. I am a
bad, bad vampire.  I am so wretched, somebody should stake me."
Willow laughed, his disregard for the other vampire was evident.  She had
to admit that even she found the tormented,  guilt-ridden Angel aggravating
at times. On more than one occasion she had wanted to scream when he would
launch into a detailed account of his unlife as Angelus.
"I mean, pet, if he hates himself so much why doesn't he do us all a
bloody favor and end it. Save us from hearing him bitch all the time." He was
warming to his topic. "Bloody sod.  At least when he's got a soul he's not so
nasty.  Just sulks a bit and reads bloody poetry. " Willow's eyes widened.  
"He's just like that sniveling fool, Louis."
"Did you completely miss the point of this movie?" She said, tiredly.
"No!  But it is misrepresentation.  I mean, We don't sit around
graveyards moping.  I have never eaten a rat. We don't make children into
vampires.   I also bloody well enjoy being a vampire!  It's a lot of fun."  
He gave her a meaningful look, "  Didn't The Witches of Eastwick piss you
off, Red? Gave you a bad name, didn't it?"
"You actually watched that?"
"Had Jack in it, right?" She nodded, he gave her a shining grin.  "Huge
Nicholson fan."
"Yes, that movie irritated me.  Witches are not servants of the Devil."  
She thought a moment, " I guess I can see where it would get on your nerves."
 
He smiled, she understood.
She sighed and stood up to stretch. "I'm going to take a shower and
change."  Willow handed him the remote control started toward the stairs.
"Don't suppose you want some company?  I'm good with the whole bathtub
thing.  Been spending a lot of time in them lately."  She glared back at him.
 "Guess not." He grinned sardonically at her retreating form.
*******
Willow arranged everything on the small bench in the bathroom.  She had
purchased green apple shower gel and lotion earlier in the week.  She had run
across it while at the mall and couldn't resist the sale.  She stepped in the
shower.  Spending an evening with Spike hadn't been so bad after all, the
"thirsty incident" aside.  It felt good to not be alone.  He distracted her
from thinking about Oz and lightened her mood.
She had to admit that the blond vampire was an enigma.  Demon? Yes.  
Evil? Not entirely.  Immoral? Definitely. Desirable? Woah, where did that
come from?   Willow ceased thinking in that particular direction.  She
stepped out of the shower and toweled off.  She put on her flannel pajamas
with the little kittens on them and grimaced as she observed her reflection
in the mirror.  She mentally shook herself, did she want to dress up for him?
 Of course not!   He's just a handsome man. . .well, vampire. . .and I'm
lonely. . .nothing wrong with just thinking. . .it's just some weird rebound
thing.  
*******
She found him in her bedroom.   Spike sat on her bed with a bottle of her
father's brandy and an empty pie plate.  A cigarette dangled from his lips.  
He was surrounded by her collection of sweaters.  He tossed the purple one he
had been examining over his shoulder.
"What are you doing?" She shouted.
He took a long drag of his cigarette and examined her pajamas before he
deigned to reply. No satin, no lace, no ribbons, just fuzzy animals which
regarded him with sleepy faces. . .how disappointing.  He quirked an eyebrow
at her. "Luv, that outfit is more appalling than all of these little girl
sweaters combined. Don't you have anything a little sexier?"
Willow's temper flared.  She was  stung by his comment.  Her fists were
clenched at her sides as she walked to the side of the bed to scowl at him.
"Put my clothes back, give me that bottle, take the dish downstairs, don't
ever smoke in my room, and who made you a damn fashion critic!"
Spike's eyes widened.  The little witch knew how to swear?  He set the
brandy bottle down on her night stand and set his half-smoked cigarette in
the ashtray he had found.  He wasn't even fazed by her anger.  Actually, he
was fascinated. . .her skin had taken on a rosy blush, her green eyes were
bright, and her chest was heaving from her long-winded outburst.  His eyes
assessed her, he knew what  had gotten her knickers in a bunch. "Red, I
didn't say you weren't sexy, I just said your clothes weren't."
With  an inarticulate cry of rage, Willow jumped on him.  Spike was
unprepared for the attack and she managed to punch him in the chest.   But
this wasn't Xander she was tackling.  And he wasn't all that interested in a
playful fight.  "Bloody hell!" He grabbed her wrists and rolled her over
until she was underneath him. He placed his legs on either side of her
twisting frame and leaned over to peer into her face.  She was still
seething.  "I expect this from the slayer but not you , pet.   What's wrong?"
"Nothing," she ground out at as she tried to fight her way loose.  "Why
isn't your damn chip going off?" She thought of something awful to call him.  
"$%$# leech!"
Spike blinked.  "When did you starting swearing, Red?  Been hanging out
with sailors by the docks , have we? My bloody chip is not going off because
I don't intend to hurt you, pet." He rested more of his weight against her
and put his face close to hers.  This was definitely better than staying with
the idiot.  After all,  the idiot didn't smell likes roses, didn't blush this
delightful shade of crimson, his skin wasn't soft. . .well, at least he
imagined Willow's skin was softer, not like he'd felt up the idiot.
Willow realized that he was enjoying her struggles.  The situation
quickly took on a different sort of tension. "Let me up!"
"But you were so eager to jump on me. "  He let go of her wrists and
propped himself up on his elbows.
"Spike, this isn't funny anymore."
"I'll agree with that.  I don't feel like laughing at all."He pressed his
hips against her and rotated.  "In fact, I'm taking this very seriously."
"Let me up!" She tried to sound authoritative.  
"Kiss me and I'll let you go. . .for now."
"What?!  All I have to do is pick up that phone and call Buffy and she'd
-"
"But we both know you won't, don't we? How would you explain how I got
untied?" He traced her lips with his thumb. " Anyway, I don't think that
staking is on your mind when you look at me like that.  I think you would
enjoy my kisses."
Willow tried to hide her face in the pillow.  He held her head still and
pressed his lips to hers.  His mouth was greedy, stealing the air from her
lungs and the jumbled thoughts from her mind.  There was nothing left but
Spike.
He lifted his mouth from her and put his head on her chest and with a
contented smile. She didn't know it yet but she was going to be his. This is
who he had been searching for.  Ever since he had captured the little
red-head his life had not been right. This wasn't a rebounding thing.  He
wanted no one else. . .not Harmony, not even Dru.   "My kisses are better
than that flea-bitten mongrel you dated. . .what's his name? Oz."
Willow's brow furrowed in concentration.  Oz? The Wizard of Oz? Who was
that again? Sanity returned. "Uh, well. . .it was certainly different." No
sense in inflating his already enormous ego further.
"Different?" he asked imperiously.  He made as if to kiss her again and
Willow instantly closed her eyes and held her mouth up.  Spike chuckled, he
just had his answer.
He slid off her and her eyes opened in confusion.  She quickly recovered
and glowered at him before getting up and stomping downstairs.  "Damn
vampires." he heard her mumble. Spike's laughter followed her downstairs.
*******
Xander looked at Willow.  Xander glared at Spike.  "What did you do to
her, you bloodsucker?"
Spike was once again bound to Willow's small desk chair.  Spike had
allowed her to tie him to the chair if she would start talking to him again.  
 Xander had come for Spike just before dawn. "Not my fault if Red is
sensitive about her jammies."
"You saw her pajamas?!"  Xander wasn't sure what horrified him more,
Willow's little fashion show for the undead or the fact that Spike had just
said "jammies." "Which ones?"he said, curious.
"With the fuzzy little buggers on them.  Uh, kittens I think." Willow's
face was rapidly reddening.
"Oh, the sleepy ones?  She has bunny ones too."
Willow interrupted this little discussion of her nightclothes.  "Xander,
I can see dawn's early light."
"Christ!" Spike said as he tipped his chair back and fell to the floor.  
"What do we do?" Xander asked.  "I could throw a blanket over him."
"And what if it happens to slip off when you are carting me out to the
car? I get to spend the rest of my days as fertilizer in your mum's pot of
daisies? I don't think so.    It's not like you can  do two things at once.  
The last time you tried to chew gum and walk, you tripped!  I'm staying with
Red here. " Spike said.
Willow groaned as Xander said.  "Sorry, Willow.  It looks like Spike has
to stay here for the day."
"Xander, my parents are here!  Do you know how hard it was to explain the
blood in the fridge?  Do you think they'll buy that I have a 6 foot tall
science project in the basement?"
Spike grinned.  "You can always hide me in your bedroom.  After all, I've
already been in your bed, luv."
"WHAT?!" Xander's eyes were wild.
Willow threw Spike a murderous glare.  "He was nodding off in the chair
and I took pity on him.  I let him sleep on the bed."  She lied quickly.
"He's a vampire Willow.  Nocturnal, remember?"
"Doesn't matter, mate.  She's lying anyway."  Spike grinned at him.  "She
let me on the bed, but I wasn't sleeping."
"In your dreams, Fang Boy."  Xander didn't give it a second thought.  He
knew Willow and how she felt about vampires, he told himself.
When his comment failed to provoke another rise out of him,  Spike
started  getting annoyed. "Isn't it time you were going?  Shag your
girlfriend, deliver pizzas, or whatever it is that you do?"
Willow watched Xander pull out of the driveway.  She let the shade fall
back into place and turned to stare at Spike. Willow grimaced, it was going
to be a very long day.  He had twisted out of her half-hearted knots already
and was lounging on her bed.   His hands were pulled behind his head and he
winked. "What will we do to occupy ourselves?"

Part 2

"Watching you do your homework wasn't what I had in mind, pet." Spike 
grumbled as he watched Willow typing furiously at her computer. She was 
writing an English essay. It was nearly noon and she had hardly spoken to 
him.
"Oh? Maybe I should call Xander and he could come and pick you up." Her 
voice was infused with sarcasm. 
"I don't think so. In fact, I think I'll head downstairs and have a cup 
of cocoa with your mum and dad. Be sociable, y'know." He stood up and took 
off his shirt as he walked to the door. "My, it's hot in here."
"No! Sit down, Spike." Willow did not want to explain to her parents why 
there was a half naked man sitting at their dining room table. "And put your 
shirt back on!"
"What's the matter, luv? You look a little flustered." He walked over 
to stand beside her desk. Reaching out his hand, he cupped her chin to 
examine her face. "As a matter of fact, I do believe you're blushing."
"If you're craving chocolate, there's a candy bar in my backpack, okay? 
Now, be quiet so I can finish this." As he headed toward her backpack 
beside the bed, she sighed and began to breathe easier as she tried to think 
of another phrase for "unreliable narrator" to describe Holden Caulfield. 
She heard Spike rustling through various things, then heard him zip the bag 
back up, apparently having found what he wanted. 
"You always keep Dove bars in your bag, pet?"
"Shhhh." She continued typing. 

Ten minutes later, she realized that he 
was being incredibly quiet. She couldn't even hear a candy wrapper rustling. 
She turned to see what was going on. "What are you reading?" 
"A very unique volume about this cute little red head I know, who's 
really sad because she just lost her puppy." He held her diary aloft like a 
red flag, then casually settled back in to continue reading.
With a screech of pure fury, Willow launched herself across the room. 
She leaped onto the bed and grabbed at the book. 
Spike dropped the journal to grab her wrists and smirked. "You just had 
to say you were in the mood, luv. No sneak attacks, necessary." When she 
made a sound of inarticulate frustration, he blew her a kiss.
"You, you , you . . .well, if I could think of something mean and nasty, 
I'd call you that. Let me go, and give me back my diary or I'll–" Willow was 
cut off by a knock at the door.

"Willow?" Mrs. Rosenberg called. "Are you alright? I thought I heard a 
scream."
Willow looked into Spike's eyes. "If you don't let me go, I'll tell her 
to come in and you are going to have a lot of explaining to do. Outside, in 
the nice bright sunshine."
Spike smiled. Then he rolled over on top of her and pulled back to look 
down at her. "And how will you explain how I came to be here? Come on, Red. 
You know and I know that you aren't going to do anything. Anything but tell 
her to go away, that is." Willow made no move to do so. "Would you rather I 
told her you were just fine?"
"I'm fine, Mom. I just dropped a book on my foot."
"Alright. Lunch is in five minutes, sweetie." And her mother moved on.
"Now let me up!" She hissed.
He rolled over slightly to his side, his bare chest sliding over her. 
She slid out from under him, journal in hand, and went back to her desk, 
shaking with quiet outrage. She sat down and tried to go back to her essay. 
Willow had barely typed a sentence, when she peeked at Spike under her 
lashes. 

He sat on her bed with his arms crossed, sulking. "Luv, there's nothing 
to do around this place. Been ignoring me to do your homework and you're 
working on the computer so I can't use it. Won't allow me to go through your 
closet again. You don't have a bleedin' telly in your room for me to watch. 
And now, you ‘ve gone and taken my book." 
Seeing an out, Willow said. "Why don't you read one of those books, 
Spike? You know, the fictional ones?" She gestured to the large shelf of 
books which dominated one wall in her room.
She saw him stand up to peruse the selection and began to type when he 
interrupted her thoughts again. "Well, well, well. What have we here? What a 
naughty book, Red. Never knew you read this kind of thing. I'm shocked. " 
She refused to let him bait her, but she had a pretty good idea which 
book he'd found. Spike pulled out the romance novel that had been shoved 
behind some of her more respectable tomes and let out a whistle. She turned 
around to see what he was doing. Spike was eagerly reading the back cover. 

"Dark Embrace, eh? What's this? A vampire romance novel. Why, Red, I had 
no idea!" 
He examined at the cover, which featured a black-clad hunk clutching a 
woman who was nearly bursting out of the top of her dress. Spike waggled his 
eyebrows at her. "Now this should be interesting." 
"Spike, don't-"
"Shh, finish your essay. I'm just going to read this." Willow was 
loathe to try to take it from him lest she end up trapped beneath him again. 
Well, that had it's moments. Back to work! She turned her back to him so he 
couldn't see her flaming face and tried to write again. 

He had been reading several minutes when he began flipping through the 
pages. "Prattling fools! Talking themselves to death. When do we get to the 
good stuff?" He stopped. "Ah. Here it is."
Willow got up and went to the door. She just couldn't be in the room 
while Spike read through the novel's sex scenes. "Pet, would you bring me a 
cup of warm blood when you come back from lunch?" She nodded but Spike was 
not looking at her, once again absorbed in the book. Willow sighed as she 
shut the door behind her. Hopefully, she could eat lunch with her parents 
and Spike would lose interest in the novel by the time she came back. 

*******

Unfortunately, that's not what happened. Willow walked back into her 
room with a cup of blood for Spike. She had managed to convince her mother 
that it was for a spell, a good spell! Spike was still sitting on her bed. 
The book lay on her night stand. He was smoking a cigarette and watching her 
very carefully.
She strolled over casually and handed him the blood. He let his fingers 
brush her hand as he took it. "So, have a thing for vampires, Willow?"
"No, I don't. That book must have been a gift or something."
"Oh, really? From who?"
"Xander." It was the first name that popped into her head.

Willow looked off into space as if she were bored, affecting an air of nonchalance she didn't feel. She flipped the robe off her shoulders and it landed on a heap on the floor. She then fixed Spike with an statement that said well?

Spike fought to keep his statement neutral. "You'll do, pet." He suddenly wished he could smoke in her room.
Willow decided it was time to regain control of this little contest. She sat down at his feet and looked up at him as innocently as possible. She almost felt sorry for the arrogant vampire. She laughed inwardly, he wouldn't know what hit him.

To be continued