You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
You make me happy, when skies are gray.
You'll never know, dear, how much I love you,
Please don't take my sunshine away.
"Lilac? Lace?" Willow's eyes were as round as saucers.
"Uh-huh." Buffy's eyes weren't round that morning...instead, they were puffy and red from where she'd cried herself to sleep. Even though she was enraged at herself for acting so silly.
"After all," she said carefully, "Spike is...entitled. Only, why'd he lie? Because he told me Sunshine was the only female who'd been in his apartment."
Willow looked at her friend shrewdly. "So you're only upset 'cause Spike lied?"
Buffy glanced away. "Uh-huh. Like I said, he can do what he wants; I don't care! I don't even mind if he's sleeping with Emily!"
She caught Willow's skeptical expression, and sighed loudly. "I'm a bad liar, huh?"
"The worst," Willow agreed. "Look...maybe that bra in Spike's bedroom belonged to Drusilla. And Spike still has it as a kind of...keepsake."
"It didn't seem like her style," Buffy said doubtfully. "It seemed more like...somebody else's style."
"You think...Emily?" Willow asked delicately.
"What else could it be?" Buffy was glum. "Unless...." she brightened suddenly, "You think Spike is into cross-dressing?"
"I THINK, Willow emphasized, "that you should ask him."
Buffy resolved to do just that...in the right setting.
"No patrol tonight," she told her vampire partner. "It's twofer night at the Bronze, and Giles is giving me...US...the night off!"
"You're asking me out?" Spike raised a dark eyebrow.
To his secret delight, she blushed crimson. "No!" she spluttered. "I just thought...if you wanted to go, then maybe we could go together! Not together...but at the same time!"
"I got it," he said wryly. He told himself not to be so disappointed. Had he really expected, after the awkwardness of their previous encounter, that she would ask him out? That she would say, "Spike, please take me to the Bronze, because I want to dance with you...I long to be in your arms?"
Was he as much of a mug as that?
Well, yeah, poor sod, he probably was!
The Bronze was crammed to the rafters. Spike trailed after the Slayer disconsolately, but cheered when he saw that the witch and her werewolf boyfriend had saved them seats. It sometimes surprised him how well he got along with Buffy's friends...he'd thought at first there might be trouble with Xander, but he'd reckoned without their mutual dislike of Angel, which created an instant bond. They'd all gradually accepted him, and he had a promising friendship with Oz.
So he sat down to relax; and that's when the Slayer removed her coat.
Spike's throat constricted; he felt an incredible urge to gasp for breath as he stared at Buffy like a starving man would gaze at a banquet.
She was wearing a tiny black slip dress, her golden hair shining on her shoulders...
"You look awesome, Buffy," Willow praised her.
Others thought so too; one male after another approached to ask the Slayer to dance. And she did, growing increasingly flirtatious while Spike became ever more depressed.
Finally Oz decided to take a hand when Willow and Buffy went off to the Ladies' room. "Devon! Get some coffees for us, will you? I don't want to lose the table."
"Here mate," Spike protested as Devon took off. "I'm feeling like so much excess baggage here; maybe I'd better..."
Oz shook his head. "Stay."
"But I can't take much more of this," groaned the unhappy vampire. "Watching her dancing with other men..."
"That's all for your benefit, you know," the werewolf explained calmly.
"Using these chairs?" A young couple looked hopefully at Oz.
"Take them," Oz said generously.
Before Spike could intervene, the chairs were whisked away. "But where are the girls going to sit?" he objected, as Devon handed over the cafe lattes.
"Hey," Willow wondered, coming up to the table, "where're we supposed to sit?"
Oz chuckled, and pulled her onto his knees. "Right here!"
His girlfriend smiled happily. "And you ordered for us, too."
Buffy hesitated; while Spike watched her hopefully, scarcely daring to move a muscle.
"Okay?" she asked at last.
At his emphatic nod, she gave him a slight smile, and climbed slowly onto his lap. Unlike Willow, who sat like a rock, she seemed ill-at-ease, squirming around to get comfortable.
Which managed to make Spike extremely UNcomfortable. Closing his eyes, he prayed the Slayer wouldn't notice his...embarrassing reaction.
When she stiffened, he knew his hopes were in vain. She turned her head slowly, to look in his eyes...then deliberately leaned back against him, clasping his neck.
Spike drew a deep, unneeded breath, wrapping both arms around her, effectively prisoning her on his lap. They sat like that through three songs; and Spike gave Oz a speaking look of gratitude.
But the werewolf suddenly looked uneasy....
"Hello, Spike!" Emily stood before them, clad in a midriff-baring top and burgundy pants so tight they looked painted on. "I was hoping to run into you...want to dance?"
"Not tonight, ducks," Spike said quickly, inwardly cursing his luck.
To his chagrin, Buffy promptly hopped off his lap. "Go ahead, Spike. You don't have to refuse because of me."
"I wasn't..." he began.
Emily cut him off. "Poor baby, your legs must be numb, having all that weight on them," she said sweetly. "Never mind, dancing will get the cramps out."
Now it was Buffy's turn to sit, fuming silently, while Emily pressed closely against Spike. Helplessly, he fell into step with her. The single glimpse he'd had of Buffy's profile did not look encouraging; and Spike wished the floor would open up and swallow him.
By the time he finally made it back to their table, the Slayer had gone- and Oz gave him a glance of commiseration.
All things considered, Spike was in a very bad mood when he at length let himself into his flat. Sunshine came to meet him, tail wagging.
"What're YOU so happy about? This is all your fault!" the vampire told her disconsolately.
Sunshine cocked her head; and gave a little bark.
"Yeah. I know. I shouldn't have done..what I did. But how do I explain it?"
Sunshine yapped again.
"I CAN'T tell her the truth. She'd...well, she'd be bloody annoyed."
Sunshine just looked at him.
"All right. But we'll do it together! I'm not facing one brassed-off Slayer on my own..."
Buffy shifted impatiently from one foot to the other. The weather had turned rather windy and cool, and she'd been in such a hurry to bicker with Spike that she had forgotten her jacket...yet another reason to be annoyed with the vampire.
So, it was irritation that made her heart beat unaccountably faster when she spotted him walking towards her.
Then, her eyes widened with indignation. "Did you have to bring your dog on patrol?"
Spike gripped Sunshine's leash firmly. "She needed the exercise."
Buffy rolled her eyes in exasperation. "If we meet any vampires, we'll tell them she's your midnight snack!"
But they saw no vampires, and as they crossed the cemetery the clouds opened up and a drenching, chilly rain streamed down.
"Ohhh!" Buffy's teeth were chattering as she raced up the steps to Spike's apartment, followed by the blond vampire and his pet. "I...I should go home!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Spike snapped as he tossed her a towel. "Better climb in a hot shower."
Too cold to argue, Buffy did as he said, emerging to find one of his silk shirts waiting for her. Thankfully she put in on and sat on the edge of the bed while Spike took his turn in the shower.
"Well?" she asked Sunshine confidentially. "Just between us girls, where'd he get that lilac lace bra?"
"I stole it." Spike stood in the doorway, wrapped in a luxurious forest-green silk dressing-gown.
"Stole it?" Buffy repeated, staring avidly at his lean, muscled torso.
Spike's mouth tightened. "That's right."
"From...where?" Buffy just managed to stop herself from asking from whom.
He sighed. "You."
"WHAT!?" Her jaw dropped. "I don't have...wait..." With blinding clarity she remembered one of her many shopping trips with Joyce to get ready for college...she'd bought a dozen lacy bras in absolutely tantalizing colors. And...one had mysteriously vanished from the laundry soon after she'd first worn it.
She gaped at him. "You...you...you've been STEALING my underwear?"
"It was only one bra!" Spike said testily. Despite his embarrassment, he grinned. "I'd have taken a full set, but Joyce nearly caught me!"
Buffy's face was scarlet. "That...is just so...perverted," she said in disbelief.
"So what's your point?" he smirked.
His hand shot out and closed around her wrist, hauling her hard against him.
"You're still shivering," he murmured in her ear. Then his eyes searched her face, and he smiled in satisfaction. "No you're not. You're trembling."
With a squeak of humiliation, she buried her head in his shoulder.
He laughed out loud, arms tightening possessively around her. "Looks like I won't need the underwear any more," he teased. "But I'd rather have you go without."
He began kissing her, stretching out on his bed with Buffy held firmly against him. After a moment he felt her arms lock around his neck; and she kissed him back enthusiastically.
Sunshine watched her companions, who seemed to be playing some sort of game.. She picked up her blue rubber ball and gave an inquiring bark, but they ignored her.
The little dog trotted to the cushioned wicker basket in the corner, and put her head down in sleepy resignation.
It was no use.
Those two only wanted to play with each other.