Xander flopped onto his back, his breath coming in great shuddering gasps and his body feeling nicely worn out and sore in places he would never have known existed before if he hadn't spent one boring afternoon in high school re-shelving the anatomy section of the library.

"Well, that was... unexpected," he said, brushing his sweat-dampened hair off of his face. "Not bad, 'cause it so wasn't bad, just... when you offered to come home with me after the meeting, I thought you'd be walking me back and not... uh... coming... in my home... with me."

"Couldn't help myself." Spike stretched languidly before pressing himself against Xander's side and draping an arm over him. "The way you were moving under me, it would've taken a lot more self-control than I have not to come."

"That's not what I meant." Xander shouldn't have been surprised that post-orgasmic Spike was pretty much as annoying as pre-orgasmic Spike, only with more cuddling. Not that he minded the cuddling. Or the annoyingness, though he'd never admit to that part.

"It's true, though. All that moaning and clenching. The way you moved your hips. You're a natural."

Xander's cheeks went hot as he blushed. "That's not what I meant," he repeated.

"You mean you didn't think once we got here I'd pin you against the wall and kiss you 'til you almost passed out from lack of air?"

"Well, yeah, and the throwing me down on the bed and pulling my clothes off was kind of a surprise, too." The memory elicited a shiver from Xander, which made Spike curl closer.

"Wasn't what I had planned, either," Spike admitted. "But I had to."

Xander smiled for a second before his stomach lurched at the phrasing. "You had to? Was there a dare or something? Oh, god, there was a spell. Another demon-magnety spell. It must've been Willow."

"No, no," Spike said, running his hand soothingly over Xander's chest and keeping him from reaching for the phone. "No dare. No spell."

"How do you know?" Xander asked. "It's not like you've been lusting after me for months, secretly pining away for my attention until you finally snapped and pushed me against a handy wall." He remembered how Spike had been when he'd had that brief infatuation with Buffy, and he looked over at him in horror. "Please tell me there isn't a shrine at your crypt with my clothes and pictures and my remote and stuff."

Spike shook his head. "Nothing like that."

"Are you sure? I haven't been able to find my remote in a week."

"What would I do with your sodding remote? The telly's still here, isn't it? I'm not stalking you."

"I guess you're right," Xander said, relaxing a bit before he remembered how the whole topic had started. "Wait, how do you know this wasn't a spell?" He turned his head to fix Spike with a stern glare. "You know what's going on."

Spike looked slightly sheepish and uncomfortable, which Xander would have thought was either hysterically funny or oddly endearing if the conversation had been about something else. "It's kind of a vampire thing."

"What kind of a 'kind of a vampire thing'?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"My brain might've just melted out of my ears thanks to you -" Spike's expression turned smug at that statement, and Xander's tone grew sharper. "- but I'm not stupid. Try me."

Spike appeared to think for a moment and then acquiesced. "Remember the other night when we were fighting those big green demons with the sharp spines coming out of their elbows?"

"You mean the ones you charged yelling something about making them wish they'd never crawled out of their caves and come to your town?"

"Yeah."

"The ones who knocked you out by throwing you into a wall the second you got close to them?"

"They didn't knock me out," Spike protested. "I was just pretending they did so I could get around behind them."

"Oh, right. Good plan. I nearly needed stitches for the cut on my arm I got while I was trying to keep them from stomping on you while you lay there doing your masterful imitation of being unconscious, complete with not moving when being kicked and the amazingly realistic trickle of drool coming from the corner of your mouth."

Spike poked him in the stomach. "Can you try to focus for a minute, Harris? That part's not important. Well, except for the cut."

"Saving your life or unlife or whatever you have that keeps you walking around and talking and doing other things I'm not discussing right now isn't worth a minute of your time? 'Cause you still haven't thanked me for it."

"Fine. Thank you," Spike ground out. "Now would you like to hear about the other stuff, or shall we keep prattling on about what a big hero you are for waving your ax about while the Slayer did most of the work?"

When Spike put it like that, the hero option didn't look all that appealing. "Go ahead."

"After we got back to Buffy's house you lot went to your corners to bind your wounds, right?"

Xander nodded. "Right."

"So, uh, when you were done, I went into the kitchen to get one of those radioactive green popsicles for Dawn, and there were a couple of drops of blood on the counter."

Xander had a sinking feeling that he knew where Spike was headed. "Maybe I don't want to hear this."

"All I did was clean them up."

"You licked the counter?"

"I did not!" Spike said, obviously offended. "I used my finger."

Given where Spike's fingers had recently been, Xander really didn't want to think about that, but then Spike's mouth had been places, too, and he drank blood, and Xander moved on before serious wigging could occur. "Okay. Are you telling me this for some reason other than that you want to gross me out?"

"Look. I'm a vampire -"

"Yeah, we've noticed."

Spike glared at him. "I'm a vampire," he repeated, "and vampires have got a special relationship with blood."

"If this should be made into an after-school special for demons, I really don't want to hear about it."

Spike's glare got stronger. "Look, blood's a powerful thing, and I had a bit of yours. Tasty, too. But it can create a bond. Since then I haven't been able to stop thinking about you. Every time I see you I keep noticing how shaggable you look."

The entirety of Xander's homosexual experience, besides that one kiss with Oz that didn't really count because they had both been so drunk they'd barely been able to get their lips to meet, went from potential psychological breakthrough to weird demon thing in the blink of an eye. It suddenly made much more sense. "And tonight you couldn't stop yourself?"

"Seems like."

"So now what?" The stickiness and odd aching wasn't quite so appealing anymore.

"I don't know."

"Is your blood thing over?"

Spike propped himself up on his elbow and studied Xander carefully. "Nope," he finally said, collapsing back onto his side. "Still shaggable."

"Great," Xander said dryly. He could feel panic swirling around deep within him, but his post-orgasmic languor was keeping it nicely at bay. "How long are you going to be wanting to hump my leg every time you see me?"

"It's not your leg I want to hump, and I don't know. I've never had this happen before."

Xander rubbed his hand over his face. "You know, one of these days I'm going to exhaust the demon dating pool and find myself in bed with a nice, normal, human woman."

"Still think you swing that way?"

"Shut up," Xander said, not looking over. "You don't count, with your sexy accent and hard body and fetish for taking care of spills without cleaning products... Wait, did you say kitchen?"

"Yeah. Three drops of blood, right by the sink."

A little bell went off in the back of Xander's head, and if he wasn't mistaken it was the bell of victory. Did victory have a bell? No, that was the Liberty Bell. Well, it was a bell, anyway, and there was victory involved. "I wasn't in the kitchen."

"Sure you were. You went in there with Giles when he was clutching his handkerchief to his head like some bint having a case of the vapors and complaining about the sharpness of grave markers."

"I did get him an ice pack, but Willow helped him with the cut. I cleaned up upstairs," Xander said.

"But you were in the kitchen."

"I didn't go anywhere near the sink," Xander said firmly. "It was Giles' blood."

Spike was silent for a moment as the meaning behind Xander's words sank in. It was Giles' blood, but it was Xander's bed he was in. "Oh, bugger."

"If I understand that word right, we already did. What I don't understand is why."

"Uh.... maybe I hit my head harder than I thought."

"Nice try, but I want a real answer this time," Xander said. "There's no vampire blood bond thing, is there?"

"Guess not," Spike admitted. "I always thought Dru was off her nut about that. But you were looking so... Bugger."

"And your head's fine, or as fine as it usually is."

Looking pained, Spike nodded.

"But you still think I'm shaggable."

"Is there any point in lying and saying no?"

"Not really," Xander said, grinning, feeling much more light-hearted than he had a few minutes before. No dare, no spell, no weird demon thing. Just plain old attraction. Okay, it was still Spike being attracted to him, but he could deal with that weirdness.

"Then, yeah."

"So you kissed me just because you wanted to."

Spike looked a bit like he might bolt at the first opportunity, and his only response was a shrug.

"I think we've gotten friendly enough tonight for you to admit it," Xander said, nudging him with his shoulder.

Meeting Xander's eyes almost belligerently, Spike said, "Fine. I wanted to kiss you, all right?"

"Which doesn't explain the hasty clothing removal and enthusiastic use of lube."

"Do I have to go over the birds and the bees with you?"

"I think you did a good job with that already." Xander's grin was born from a combination of nerves and relief, but it was genuine.

Spike grinned back, though Xander could tell that it was rather more forced. "Of course I did. And you obviously wanted to kiss me, since I'm not a big pile of dust by your front door."

"I guess I did." Xander hadn't thought about it, but, yeah, he hadn't put up much - as in any - of a fight after the first jolt of surprise when Spike's lips had touched his. Not that'd he'd had an opportunity to breathe, or to think, but his instinct sure hadn't been to say no.

There was an awkward silence as they realized what had occurred and why, but they didn't look away from each other.

"So, uh..." Xander cleared his throat.

"What's next is up to you." Spike obviously wasn't trying for the double entendre, but he glanced down at Xander's groin anyway, where there most definitely was nothing up. But, and this was unquestionably going to be a big factor in Xander's plans for the future, there could be.

Xander thought for a moment about mortal enemies who were neither mortal nor really enemies and how great sex could solve a host of problems or at least push them aside. "I think I'd like to try that thing with your tongue again."

Relief was evident in Spike's voice as he said, "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Xander replied, and Spike's eyes went even softer.

"I can do that. Can show you how to do it, too."

Smiling, Xander pulled Spike back into his arms. "You know, you could've just said you wanted to kiss me."

"Where's the fun in that?" Spike asked, rubbing his palm slowly over Xander's hip.

"Besides the kissing?" Xander dipped his head to demonstrate that part. "Do I have to explain the birds and the bees?"

Spike sounded breathless when he spoke, which Xander might have thought was odd for a vampire if he had been actually able to get his brain to work around the renewed arousal growing in him. "I think you'd better show me."

~end~