Scavenger Hunt players PLEASE read note at bottom when you have
finished the story.
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Xander’s brown eyes widened as he saw how eagerly Giles leaped
to examine the fireplace mantle.
"Oh... Great." Xander sighed.
Cordelia glared at him.
"What’s your deal this time?"
Xander just stared at her. How could she have hung with the
Scoobies for this long, and not know?
"Research, Cordy." He nodded in the direction of the happy
Watcher. "This means big time research."
"Oh." She sat up a little straighter. "I knew that."
"Yeah. Like you knew not to wear a red shirt today... that means
that you’re gonna get eaten or zapped by the monster of the
week."
Cordy glanced down at her red top, and back up at Xander. She
narrowed her eyes. "Xander. If you think I’m spending my entire
time here, lost in Star Trek world..."
At his grin, she tossed him a long suffering look. "Besides.
Captain Kirk wasn’t what visited us in our room last night."
"Bet you wish it had been," Xander quipped.
Buffy sulked in her corner of the room. Giles was in his element
here, and she wasn’t needed until monster killing was involved,
and that wouldn’t come without mega reflection on the Watcher’s
part. No amount of research was going to help her with her own
problems.
She was careful to look at everything except Spike. It was hard
enough to try and pretend that she hadn’t slept with him.
**SLEPT with him? Oh my God. ARMS of Spike!**
Still, it wasn’t like they’d done anything but sleep. Well, at
least SHE hadn’t. From what she’d felt when she awakened, there
was no telling what that leather-shrouded pervert had been
thinking.
She glanced at Angel, and he gave her a tentative smile. It was
the usual look, which carried the promise of a huge amount of
thought process occuring before he would actually SAY anything
to her.
She threw him a weak smile, and turned away, rolling her eyes.
She risked a look Spike’s way.
She caught him completely off guard. The blonde vampire’s blue
eyes were trained on Angel, with a barely concealed emotion on
his face.
Envy? Her eyes went to the subject of his perusal, who was
oblivious to the drama.
Buffy frowned. She turned her gaze back to Spike, since he was
occupied with shooting daggers at Angel, thus giving her the
opportunity to ogle without being caught. She allowed herself to
get lost in him for a moment.
**Arms of Spike**
They were very nice arms.
And that hardness lower down hadn't been so bad, either.
Xander hadn’t missed the look on Spike‘s face. He knew that
there was no love lost between the two Vampires, but there
seemed to be more to this than simple dislike between enemies.
That was when his gaze fell on Buffy, and her own steady stare
at the blonde vampire.
Either his eyes were playing tricks on him, or she was drooling.
Unready for where his brain was taking him with that one, he
tried looking at Cordy’s chest but the brunette turned her back
on him. **The no boob worshiping rule’s still in effect, I
see**.
Then something else caught his attention, as, out of the corner
of his eye he saw Drusilla enter the room. As usual, she seemed
to float, dance, and glide, all at the same time.
"Hey, if it isn’t time for the Saturday morning cartoons.
‘Looney Tunes’, that is."
Cordelia slapped his arm and hissed. "Shhh! She can hear you!"
"Does that wacko really ever hear anything?"
Dru, in fact, did not hear the jibe. Her attention was focused
on Spike, and she suddenly seemed to transform into a sane
person. She slid to a halt in the middle of the room and studied
the blonde vampire for a few more seconds, and then all
semblance of normality fled in the face of her emotions.
Her eyes widened, and she seemed all at once to actually
breathe, as she began to suck the air in and release it in
great, heaving gasps.
Everyone in the room turned to look at her.
Everyone except Giles, who was still absorbed in the mantle and
barely glanced up, and Buffy, who was still absorbed in Spike.
"TWO!" Drusilla screamed, and then collapsed on the floor like
so much limp broccoli.
Spike raced to her side and gathered her into his arms, trying
to ignore the fact that she was pushing him away with all of her
might.
"Dru, baby, what is it Luv? Tell daddy what’s hurt you. What do
you see?"
Dru looked wildly into his eyes, as if for confirmation, just as
Buffy came and knelt beside them.
The vampiress turned her attention to Buffy, and visibly sniffed
her.
"TRUE!" she screeched, causing Spike to wince because she’d
yelled into his ear.
Xander had arrived by then, and leaned in towards Buffy. "Did
she say TWO or TRUE?"
Drusilla reached out to claw at Xander’s face, and he got out of
the way just in time. But Buffy, who was strangely unwilling to
move, was alarmed to feel her arm in the grasp of the panting
vampiress.
"YOU!" Dru panted, her eyes focused on the Slayer’s.
"I give up." Xander went and sat down across the room. **Let the
rest of them sort this one out. Stick a fork in me, I’m done.**
Buffy tried to jerk free, and was dumfounded at the strength in
the seemingly fragile hand. She stopped struggling for a moment,
and looked into Dru’s eyes.
Spike, his arms still around his lover of so many years, was
alarmed to find himself thinking of the blonde Slayer, and had
to stop himself from reaching out to her. What the bloody hell
was wrong with him?
Buffy began to tremble, as the vampiress continued to look into
her eyes, as if waiting for something.
Waiting for what? A confession? An admission that a Slayer has
the hots for the vampire who only recently tried to kill her?
That maybe the Slayer is envious of what the two vampires have
together?
Buffy twisted her arm violently, and broke Drusilla’s grasp on
it. She stood and, refusing to look at Spike, she went across
the room and sank into a chair, talking to no one on the way
there.
Willow, who’d never gotten a satisfactory answer to what
happened in the bedroom that Buffy had shared with Spike, bit
her lip and frowned. Putting on her best resolve face, she
started to rise from her seat, but was stopped by Oz’s hand on
her arm.
Looking down at him, she met his eye. He said nothing, as usual,
but slowly shook his head, ‘no’.
Willow plopped back down and sighed.
Something was definitely wonky around here.
She noticed that Giles had gone right back to examining the
entire fireplace area, seemingly unworried about anything else.
**That much is normal**
Willow laid her head on Oz’s shoulder and settled back to wait
for further developments.