Spike came awake with a start and a low growl when he heard the front door open. It was mid-morning, and he had been happily and deeply asleep beneath the covers of their big bed. Xander should have been at work for hours more, and only Willow had a key to the apartment. Who the hell was this?

Footsteps too heavy to be the witches clumped into the kitchen, and Spike's game face slipped away as he recognized the sounds of Xander. But what was he doing home? Had he been hurt? What was wrong? Why hadn't he come in to say hello to Spike?

Scratching lazily across his abdomen, the vampire padded barefoot through the living room and into the kitchen. There he found Xander at the stove. He had just placed the kettle on a burner and was reaching up into one of the cabinets.

Spike didn't smell any blood, so he relaxed somewhat and leaned against the doorframe, knowing that he made quite an irresistible picture with his sleep-tousled hair and sweatpants riding low on his hips.

"What's going on?" he asked, smiling as Xander jumped about six inches off of the floor.

"God, don't do that!" said Xander, steadying himself against the counter. "Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. I was hoping that I could be quiet."

"If you're not here to see me, what are you doing home? Is everything all right?"

Xander flushed and pulled a mug from the cabinet before grabbing one of Spike's tins of loose tea.

"Well, I heard that anniesj hadn't slept very well and wanted someone to bring her tea, so I thought..."

"So you thought that you'd send over some of my very expensive imported Darjeeling?"

"Well... uh... yeah." Xander fiddled nervously with the tea ball.

"All right then. Make sure you don't steep it too long. Don't want it to get bitter," said Spike.

He earned a big smile for that response, and suddenly other parts of Spike woke up to the fact that Xander was home and standing only a few feet away.

"I can think of something else that Annie might like," he said, prowling forward.

"Crumpets?" Xander asked, putting the lid back on the tin of tea and reaching up to slide it back on its shelf. "I don't know how to make crumpets. I'm not even sure what they are. Would she like donuts instead? I could pick some up along the..."

Xander's voice cut off in a gasp as he found himself pressed up against the counter in front of him.

"Um... what are you...?"

A slender hand snaking into the front of his pants answered his question before he could finish asking it.

"Oh, god." As Spike wrapped his fingers around Xander's growing erection and began to stroke it, Xander's head fell back onto the vampire's shoulder. His own hands reached around to grip Spike's buttocks and pull him in closer.

"Do you think she'd like this?" Spike asked and licked a line from Xander's collar to behind his ear. He ground his hips against Xander as the man shuddered.

"Well, I like it," Xander said with a shaky laugh.

With only a few protests from them both at the lack of contact, Spike managed to wrestle Xander's pants to his knees and kick his own sweatpants off of his legs.

"Brace your hands on the counter, love," he murmured into Xander's ear. Xander immediately complied and spread his legs as far as the jeans trapping him would allow.

One hand still stroking Xander's erection, Spike fumbled around in their everything drawer until he found the tube of lube. He popped it open and squeezed a bit onto his fingers.

Xander shivered and pressed back against Spike's hand as he began to prepare him. Thrusting against Spike's fist and impaling himself on Spike's fingers, he was gasping with need by the time that the vampire replaced his fingers with his straining cock.

"God, Spike!" Xander's head hit the counter as he was breached, and his legs began to tremble as he pushed back hard to meet his lover.

"Can never get enough of you," Spike said roughly as he gripped Xander's hips and leaned forward to drape himself over the long expanse of shirted back. The heat rolling off of the human, even through the layer of cotton, was scorching.

Moving together, they thrust and withdrew, their words of love and lust becoming unintelligible as their pace quickened. All Spike could feel was heat, and he was burning up as he tried to get deeper inside Xander. Sharp points of pleasure spiraled through him as he gasped and snarled while Xander bucked and moaned beneath him.

Finally the flood of sensations was too much, and Xander cried out and pulsed out his orgasm over Spike's hands and the cabinets in front of him. Xander's spasms sent Spike over the edge, and his own cry of joy was wrenched from his throat.

When the ringing in his ears had all but died down, Spike found himself sprawled on the kitchen floor with Xander curled around him.

"I should come home midday more often," Xander murmured into his shoulder.

"I wouldn't complain." He pressed his lips to Xander's damp hair and wrapped his arms more tightly around him.

It was only that annoying whistling that kept him from drifting in his post-orgasmic stupor. What was that...?

"Xander, love."

"Mrrmm?"

"The tea's ready."

~end~