Willow woke up slowly, her body aching deliciously from head to toe. She felt like - well, actually she felt like she had spent most of the past 12 hours having raunchy sex with her Spikebot. Stretching her still tender muscles, the redhead noticed that she was once again alone in the bed.

Her alarm clock showed it was almost 10am; [I guess I needed my rest after all that hard work] Willow thought with a smirk. She wondered where Spikebot had gone - maybe he needed to plug himself into a power point every now and then? He had certainly used up plenty of energy last night. Willow's cheeks flushed at the memory; to think she had been worried that Spikebot wouldn't be able to be "bad" enough!

He had managed to fulfill just about every Spike-centred fantasy she had ever had, and lots that she'd never even imagined. It made her pause for a moment to wonder how much of Spikebot's sexual imagination came from his programming; [maybe Warren plugged him into the Playboy channel,] Willow mused, unable to believe that Warren himself would have even heard of some of the things that Spikebot had got up to last night. [Must have some fancy programming to let him learn as fast as that. Maybe he picked up some hints when he went shopping?]

Willow's face flushed again at the thought of Spikebot's purchases, many of which had been put to good use last night. Which brought the redhead's attention back to her aching muscles and numerous tender spots. With a satisfied sigh, she eased herself from the crumpled sheets and strolled to the bathroom - a nice hot bubble bath was just what the doctor ordered.

As Willow slid into her vanilla scented bath foam, across town a very cheerful Spike was in his crypt, emptying the contents of a sack into his underground hidey hole. As he watched the various metal pieces fall into the darkness, Spike took a long drag of his cigarette, before dropping the empty sack after the remains of Spikebot and closing the hatch. [Can't have any visitors stumbling across that,] the blonde thought with a smirk. [Red might get cold feet if she ever works out what's going on.]

And the last thing he wanted was for his new playmate to get cold feet. Spike couldn't remember the last time he'd had such a great shag; maybe the early years with his beautiful sire, when her attention had been focused on her childe rather than the stars or her lost sire? But even then the sex had been very different, full of blood and pain. OK, there had been a bit of blood and pain last night, but nothing heavy. Nothing that had even managed to set the chip off, something that had been a big relief for Spike who had dreaded finding himself doomed to vanilla sex for the rest if his unnatural life - with humans, anyway.

But no, the chip had finally decided to let him have a bit of fun. And who would have thought that Willow would be such a good shag? If he were still an unchipped master vampire she would have a collar on and be chained to the end of his bed by now. Spike had to stifle a groan at the metal image; naked Willow, on all fours by a big iron bed, breasts swaying gently, bottom begging to be spanked, her slender neck encased in a metal studded, black leather collar, with a leash held firmly in his hand as he...

Spike shook his head, clearing away the image and willing down his erection. He dropped his cigarette to the ground, crushing the butt beneath his boot. He had work to do before tonight, plans to make, innocents to corrupt. And with those happy thoughts in his mind Spike lay down on the nearest sarcophagus, to get a few hours sleep. Damn if that little spitfire hadn't worn him out!

Buffy dialed - again - hoping that this time she would manage to get Willow rather than the answering machine. She heard the phone ring, then click over to the machine, but just as she was about to hang up a breathless voice came on the line.

"Hello?"

"Willow? It's me. What are you doing?"

"Doing? Nothing. I mean, why would I be doing anything? Except, you know, working, researching kind of things. Good things." Willow paused to take a breath when a thought occurred to her. "Hey, how did you know that I'd be here anyway?"

"Tara told me, last night at the Magic Box. She told me you guys broke up."

"Oh, yeah. Yep. Sure." Willow couldn't really think of anything to say, and there was no way she could sound convincingly upset. She could hardly even remember that she and Tara had been a couple. It seemed like Spikebot had erased all her memories of past lovers, leaving only him in her mind.

"Anyway, she also mentioned that you and Spike are, um, involved now."

Willow froze, her mouth hanging open as she prayed that she was just imaging this entire conversation.

"Willow? You there?"

"Yeeesss," breathed Willow in a soft voice.

"Look, I just wanted you to know that we all know about Spike and it's fine. I mean, whatever makes you happy. And if you want to talk, just give me a call, or come over, or whatever. Okay?"

"Okay," said Willow, slowly putting the phone down as she slid into a fetal position on the floor. [OH MY GODDESS!!] her brain screamed, before a sliver of ice went down her spine as she played back the conversation. ["We all know". What does that mean, "we". Who is "we"?? OH MY GODDESS!!]

Willow suddenly had a very, very bad feeling about all of this.

Slowly sipping her luke warm herbal tea, Willow glanced anxiously at her watch. It was already after 2; Buffy had promised to meet her at 2pm, and it was normal for the Slayer to be running a bit late. But all this waiting was wearing on willow's already irritated nerves.

She had spent most of the morning caught somewhere between hysteria and apathetic acceptance. It was all going to come out; everyone would know just what a loser geek she really was, being desperate enough to make a robot to have sex with. And not just any robot, oh no. She hadn't made one to resemble her faithless ex-boyfriend, or some movie star. No, she Willow Rosenberg, nerd extraordinaire and budding witch, had instead decided to create a carbon copy of the demon who had on many occasions tried to kill her and her friends, the soul-less Spike.

Now she was not only going to have to explain all this to her friends, but also to face real-Spike. Her mind shied away from imagining what the vampire would have to say about her actions. Bad enough to have a crush on him without being outed in front of all of her friends. She noticed her fingers were tapping uncontrollably on the sides of her rapidly cooling cup, and blinked several times as she felt tears of self-pity forming behind her lashes.

[Get a grip! Buffy will be here any minute! Time to face the music.]

Having taken quite some time to recover from Buffy's little bombshell this morning, Willow had decided there was only one thing to do; she had to meet Buffy and try to find out just what she knew - and how she knew it. Then - well, she didn't really have any plan after that, except for some major damage control. Maybe she could do a spell, to make every one forget her lapse? But reviewing her normal success with spells the witch was a little reluctant to try that course.

Instead she had straightened up the house, and hidden all of her naughty Spikebot props away from prying eyes. Then she had called Buffy and arranged to meet. Willow had declined Buffy's suggestion that the Slayer come over to her house, worrying that Spikebot might interrupt the conversation and make matters even worse than they already were. [OK, that's one positive thing - it could be even worse than this! This is not the absolute most embarrassing position I could be in. Not yet, anyway.]

She had then waited for Spikebot to come home, but to no avail. [Where the hell is he anyway?] the redhead fumed. That was just what she needed, Spikebot roaming Sunnydale. Her face blanched as she considered the possibilities. But having no way to contact him or track him down [although it will be a big clue if I see a Spike lookalike strolling in the midday sun], she had been forced to go out to meet with Buffy, leaving a note behind telling Spikebot to stay put and wait for her to return.

So here she was, waiting for the Slayer with all the enthusiasm of a lifelong candy addict going for their regular dental check-up, with the lingering worry that even if she somehow managed to worm her way out of this there was still the AWOL Spikebot to deal with. Checking her watch again [2.26] Willow was about to cut her losses and make a run for it [I hear Mexico is lovely at this time of year] when with a flurry of colour and motion Buffy deposited herself in the seat opposite the nervous witch.

"Hey, sorry I'm late. Giles, research, demons, the usual. Do you want another tea?"

As Willow shook her head Buffy placed her order with the hovering waitress, then settled herself more comfortably in her chair.

"Soooooo, you got some news?"

Horrified to feel her cheeks burning, Willow took a deep calming breath. This was it.

"Sounds like you heard already?" she said with what she hoped was a shy but happy grin.

"Well, I heard something. Would have thought my best friend would give me the news first hand, but anyway Tara bumped into Spike last night and he told her about you guys. Seems you've had an impact on the bleached wonder already," said Buffy as she struggled to maintain her friendly tone. She still couldn't believe that Willow was involved with Spike, but she was determined to maintain her supportive-friend strategy. Maybe all those psychology classes would pay off after all.

"Ahhh, what do you mean?" asked Willow, her mind trying to work out what the hell was going on.

"Oh, Tara said he seemed almost friendly, you now, a bit nicer than the Big Bad Mr Attitude we usually get to deal with."

Everything clicked in Willow's mind, although why Spikebot had been announcing their "relationship" to all and sundry was still something of a mystery.

"So now everyone knows, then?"

"Yep, Xander freaked, you can imagine! He had enough trouble dealing with Angel. Anyway Anya and I talked him around, and so when we have the research meeting tonight, you guys don't have to worry about, you know, normal Xander bad jokes or whatever. We are all absolutely cool with it."

"Research meeting?"

"Sure, you and Spike have to come, Giles has got the wiggins about some new demon or something, anyway make sure you're both there at sunset. You can pass the message to Spike, can't you?"

"Oh yeah, sure. Uh-huh."

And with that the conversation veered from the dangerously embarrassing to simply the embarrassing, with Buffy quizzing Willow on her new "man", and Willow finding that she basically just had to tell the truth when explaining why she had formed such an attachment to the Big Bad. She knew that with every word she was digging herself a deep hole that she would undoubtedly end up in, but she just couldn't help herself. She had kept her feelings about Spike secret for so long, even from herself it seemed, that she couldn't stop herself from taking advantage of this opportunity to tell all.

Finally drawing to a close after extolling Spike's many attractions, Willow found her new-found good mood shattered as Buffy stood up, saying "I'd better get back to Giles. Are you going to see Spike now?"

"Oh yes. Yes, definitely, I'll go over now and let him know about tonight."

"Alright, see you there" said Buffy with a cheerful wave as she walked out of the coffee shop, leaving behind a very tense Willow.

Half an hour later the redhead was standing outside a crypt. And not just any crypt. No, this was the home of Spike, her supposed boyfriend, whom she was expected to be producing tonight for inspection by her friends. Willow stood there waiting for inspiration to strike. There were still a few hours before sunset. Maybe she could convince Spike to leave Sunnydale? Or lock him up in a dungeon somewhere? Or pay him a lot of money to keep quiet?

None of these options really struck Willow as very good ideas. [Right, like making a robot was a good idea to start with!] she berated herself before deciding she would just go with the flow. Pushing open the crypt door carefully, she made sure she blocked the sunlight with her body as she went inside. [Don't want to vaporise the vamp. Although that would solve my problem - oh, bad Willow!]

She could see Spike lying on one of the tombs, apparently asleep. Willow fidgeted, unsure of the etiquette of breaking into a vampire's tomb. It seemed to her that waking a sleeping Spike would probably guarantee a pissed-off vampire, which was definitely not going to help her prospects of success.

Walking as quietly as possible, she moved closer to the sleeping form, ending up close enough to touch him. She cleared her throat softly, and waited with bated breath, but there was no sign from the still body that he had been roused by the sound. [Wouldn't have thought a vampire would be a heavy sleeper,] Willow mused as she studied his face. [What with the supernatural hearing thing.]

As she gained confidence that Spike was really deeply asleep, she took the opportunity to examine his face in detail, trying to compare it to her SpikeBot. The features were definitely the same, but even the texture of the skin looked identical. It was uncanny.

Leaning a little closer, Willow focused on the scar on his eyebrow. So intent was she that the sensation of a hand suddenly squeezing her wrist resulted in her emitting an ear-splitting screech, as she jumped back and tried to free herself from an irritated looking Spike.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he growled, keeping a firm hold on her wrist. "Got a stake tucked away somewhere have you?" he asked as his free hand started to skim over her body in an apparent search for weapons.

Willow was caught between apologising for her invasion of his crypt and protesting at the way his free hand was feeling her up. As his fingers squeezed her bottom, she yelped and indignation got the better of her.

"I'm hardly going to have a stake there," she shouted, trying to twist her wrist free.

"Better safe than sorry" Spike replied with a leer as he suddenly released her, letting Willow scramble back a few steps to put some space between them.

Willow took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. This was not an auspicious start. Gathering her courage, she finally made eye contact with Spike again to see that he was now sitting casually on the edge of the crypt, cigarette in hand and "Big Bad" attitude on display. [Oh dear,] thought Willow.

As Spike showed no inclination to ask her why she was in his crypt, Willow decided she might as well just jump right in. "So, I suppose you're wondering why I'm here," she said in what she intended to be a calm voice, but it came out with a wavering tone that had Spike's mouth twisting in a sarcastic smile.

"I couldn't care less actually," was the cool reply. "Unless you've got some more of that whisky with you."

"Ah, no, no whisky. But I have a proposition for you."

"I'm listening," was the only reply she got, and Willow had to fight her impulse to start babbling. There was just something about taciturn men, the less they said the stronger her impulse to fill the conversational void with a stream of sound. But not this time. No. This time she was going to be focused. OK, she had no plan, but hey - she could improvise.

"Well, I have been thinking about your, ah, you know, the Buffy situation, and I am also having some problems of my own, and I thought we could, you know, help each other out."

Spike just stared at her, and Willow swallowed to clear her suddenly dry throat. "And of course, there's something in it for you."

"Money?" Spike asked with a glimmer of interest.

Suddenly, inspiration struck. "Blood", was Willow's reply, and she smiled inwardly at the glint of gold in Spike's eyes as he tried to hide his sudden interest.

"Let's hear it then," was his only response.

"OK, well, I know that Buffy is not really, you know, showing an interest in you in a, um, a boyfriend kind of way, or even a friend way, or even in an I-can-only just-stand-you kind of way..." Willow hurried on as she saw Spike's expression darken. "Right! OK, well I have a plan. Um, it's a classic, and it will also help me with some problems I have, and it's so simple, ha, you know, you and I pretend that we are, you know, involved, then Buffy will realise that you are actually great boyfriend material, despite the whole evil undead killer thing, and there you go! Oh, and I will give you blood. Yep, I will get you a bag a day while the, um, the deal is going."

Willow stopped, waiting for some response. [Hope that chip is still working], she thought nervously.

"And why exactly do you want your pathetic friends to think you are fucking the undead?" Spike asked casually.

Willow's face flamed, and she stumbled for a credible reply. "Well, actually, um, what happened is that Tara and I had a fight, and I kind of insinuated that we were involved. Yep, it just came out. And she kind of told everyone so now they already think we are, you know, um, well. And it's working! I mean, with Buffy! I spoke to her today and told her lots of good things about you and she seemed, well, OK, not actually interested, but not repulsed!"

Willow reflected that perhaps she could have put that better, but before she had a chance to rephrase Spike was off the crypt and moving steadily towards her. The redhead backed up until she felt herself hit one of the walls, and she waited nervously as the blonde approached to stand pressed against her.

"Well, normally I don't do mercy fucks, but if you want to try a ride, why don't you just ask? Or maybe you could beg?"

Willow felt her temper snap, and without thinking she slapped Spike as hard as she could, watching in horror as a red hand mark flared up on his cheek.

Spike smiled slightly, and rubbed his pelvis against her, and Willow was horrified to find that he had apparently enjoyed her attack. "Mmm, nice," Spike purred. "Nothing like a bit of spanking to get the juices flowing, is there Red?"

Willow's heart stopped. [No, no, no, he can't know about that. No, no, no.] As her mind battled to retain some sense of calm her traitorous hormones were replaying highlights of last night's SpikeBot sex romp. [Mmm, spanking. Big, strong vampire. Big, strong, naked vampire spanking me. Nice. Naked Spike. Nice, nice, nice].

Just as Willow felt her only two options were to either faint or jump at Spike and rip off his clothes, she was saved from embarrassment by the bleached wonder himself. Backing up a step or two and giving the hyperventilating redhead some much needed breathing room, Spike smirked and said, "No need to get your knickers in a twist, Red. You can slap me any time; it's practically foreplay for a vampire. Especially if you throw in a bit of blood." And with that he licked his lips in what Willow considered a very provocative manner, but she refused to give up hope of keeping the conversation on track.

"Sooo," she started again. "I'm sorry about telling everyone we were involved. It just kind of slipped out."

Spike shrugged nonchalantly.

Willow's curiosity was aroused. "I thought you'd be more, well, upset."

"Why's that?" asked Spike, hunting through his pockets for another cigarette.

"Well, you big evil vampire, me little nerdy human. You know, not good for your image."

Spike gave a surprising relaxed laugh. "Pet, how much of a reputation do you think I have left to lose? I mean, I've got a bloody chip in my head, can't even protect myself from a group of boisterous boy scouts. I'm living in a hovel, my sire dumped me for a Chaos demon, and I'm reduced to living on the Slayer's handouts. I should think it would do my reputation a bit of good if word got out I was shagging a witch, especially a cutie like you."

Willow froze. Had he just called her a cutie?

Spike's mind however was drifting in a different direction. "Hardly a vampire at all anymore. Worse than Angel. I can't even remember the last time I had human blood. Can't show my face at Willy's anymore, have to skulk around to the butchers hoping a sodding pig has died. What kind of an unlife is that?" Casting a quick glance at Willow to see if his words were having the desired effect, Spike gave a sad sigh.

Willow took the bait. "Well, I can get you blood, you know, as part of the deal."

"Well, there's blood and then there's blood," drawled Spike, putting a definite emphasis on the last word.

"What do you mean?" asked Willow, with a sinking feeling.

"The only way I am going to go along with your plan, which seems like a recipe for disaster by the way, is if you give me some of your blood."

"My blood?" Willow squeaked. Spike just stared at her. "My blood?" she repeated, turning the idea over in her mind.

"Is there a bloody echo in here? Look pet, here's the deal. Either you agree to give me a mug full of that nice red stuff every week from your own personal supply, or I'm going tonight to tell your little mates exactly what's going on."

Willow shifted nervously. Great. Either she became a walking blood bank for Spike or she got to explain to her friends what was really going on, and of course there was no way she could keep the SpikeBot out of it. At least Spike didn't know about that!

"But you can't. I mean, the chip," Willow said weakly, knowing that there was really no choice.

"Oh, a clever girl like you, I'm sure we can sort something out," Spike replied with a leer.

With the sensation of events getting well and truly out of control, Willow sighed, then said calmly, "Fine. I'll do it."