*~*~*~*
"Come on, Angel, let's go back to the table and wait for Faith and Spike."
"Sounds like a plan, Kitten," Angel said softly. She was his best friend and both the soul and the demon cared about her. The soul recognized the purity in her, while the demon saw the darkness that resided deeper within the redhead. "Don't worry, Kitten, we will figure something out so you can have them. . ." He stopped, his mouth dropping open.
Willow hadn't seen what made him stop yet. "Angel?"
He slapped his hand over her eyes. "Kitten, we need to go. Now." He frowned, seeing Faith grinding into Spike and the two whispering to each other. He knew that would crush Willow, and he didn't want that to happen.
She pulled out of his embrace. "What's going on that you don't want me to. . ." She stopped, blinking as tears filled her eyes. "Oh," she said softly. "OK. That. . .um. Yea." She was upset, understandably so, but there was a deeper feeling, a heat she didn't understand. Of course, in her jealous state, she didn't recognize the lust for what it was.
She took a deep breath. "I wonder where Cordelia and Xander are."
Angel glanced down at her. "Are you ok?"
"Fine," Willow lied. "Why wouldn't I be?" She smiled softly. "Come on, let's go say hi." She slipped her hand into Angel's and pulled him to the table. "Faith, baby, what are you doing to the big bad vampire?" Willow asked sweetly.
Faith, who had gotten herself so caught up in the moment of imagining Spikemaking love to her girlfriend, had forgotten she was in the middle of theBronze. Her eyes widened and she turned, blush staining her cheeks lightly."Red!" she exclaimed, jumping up from a protesting Spike."Slayer, damn it! Come back!" he growled, shifting in his seat to hide his *very* obvious erection. Angel smirked at his childe.
"Not now, Blondie. Baby, where you been?" Faith asked, pulling the girl into her arms, praying that she wasn't mad.
Willow smiled, kissing Faith softly. "I was dancing with Angel." Her eyes twinkled as she pushed the jealousy away. "I see you were dancing with Spike." She giggled.
Faith grinned, realizing that Willow wasn't mad. "Yea, I was. We were. . .talking."
"About shagging, thank you!" Spike growled.
Willow rose an eyebrow. "You two are going to sleep together?" < Oh, goddess, please, no, > she begged silently. She squeezed Angel's hand.
Spike got up and walked to the small group. He had thought of the most disturbing thoughts he could to will his erection away. It was finally the thought of Buffy Summers naked that did it. He threw his arm around Faith's shoulders. "If I can convince her to."
Angel squeezed Willow's hand back. "Where is Xander and Cordelia?" he askedsuddenly, changing the subject so Willow could stay strong.
"Shit!" Faith cried. "Buffy's got them! I mean, she pulled Xander off to tell him how dangerous we were, and Cordelia followed."
"We should find them," Spike said. "Come on."
Thoughts of sleeping with each other were pushed to the side as concern for their friends came forward. The four left the Bronze, in search of Xander and Cordelia.
*~*~*~*
"Ok, so how well do you know this *Slayer*," Buffy spat. She settled on a tombstone and crossed her arms.
Xander rolled his eyes. "You are one daft chit. You brought us out here, to a cemetery, to ask us how well we know Faith?"
"You spend too much time with Spike, honey," Cordelia said. She frowned, pulling out a stake. "Buffy, don't you have something better to do? In a town that isn't Sunnydale?"
"I had a dream, you guys! Willow was tied up and Spike was fucking her! And Faith was there, and she was fucking a brunette. . .I think it was Xander!" Buffy cried.
Cordelia looked at Xander. "Really?" she asked. She crossed her arms and glared at him. "Have something to tell me, Xander?" She knew that Xander would *never* cheat on her, but she still enjoyed giving him a hard time.
"Me and Faith?" Xander asked. "Eww, no. Oh! Wait, you said brunette? Must have been Angel."
"Angel? Oh, no, that's *so* not of the good! He will be Angelus again!" Buffy cried.
Xander laughed. "Deadboy? Losing the soul? Oh, that's a riot!"
Cordelia covered her mouth with her hand and giggled slightly. "Oh, no, Angel's going to lose the soul and become all Angelusy on us again." She nudged Xander.
"And Willow and Spike! How horrible!" Xander held his stomach and bent over he was laughing so hard. Cordelia patted his back lovingly.
The former May Queen looked up at the Slayer. "Buffy, go away. We know all of this, and we don't care. We know what's going to happen, and we aren't concerned."
"What part of *Angelus* aren't you concerned about?" Buffy asked, jumping off the tombstone. "He will *kill* you!"
"Tsk, tsk, Buffy, why lie to my family like that? If I could lose the soul, I would never hurt Xander or Cordelia," a silky voice said from the shadows.
Buffy turned, cursing herself for not feeling the vampires come up on them. Angel, Spike, Faith, and Willow stood there. "Willow! They are going to hurt you!" she cried.
"I can take care of myself, Buffy. Spike and Angel would never hurt me." She glanced at Spike. "Not intentionally, anyway." She kicked at a stone.
Faith noticed the glance at Spike, and the dejected look on her girlfriend's face. "Red? Are you ok?"
Willow looked up at Faith, trying desperately hard to keep tears from falling down her face. "Yea," she said softly, "I'm fine."
Faith completely ignored Buffy, turning to Willow. "Baby, what's wrong?"
Willow hugged herself. "It's nothing. We need to deal with Buffy."
Faith scowled. "Fuck Buffy. She's a snippy Slayer that's trying to come back to Sunnydale and take back what she once had. She can't, because we don't want her to." She brushed her fingers through Willow's hair. "Do you want her to?"
Willow looked up at her girlfriend. "No, I don't. You are our Slayer now. We've done fine for three years. Hell, we've even gotten Spike wrapped up in the Scooby Gang. I just. . ."
"What?" Faith asked. "What's bothering you, baby?" She wrapped her arms around Willow, holding her tightly. "I can fix it, whatever the problem is."
"I. . .I can't explain it," Willow whispered. "I just can't. I don't want to hurt you." She pulled out of Faith's arms and turned to Angel, who picked her up. She buried her face in his neck and started to cry.
"I'm going to take her home," Angel said softly. "Will you be ok?"
"Yea," Faith said, stubbornly wiping her tears away. Something was seriously wrong with Willow, and the redhead wasn't coming forth with any explanations.
"I'll see you back home," Angel said, turning and slinking into the shadows.
Faith turned, throwing Spike a look.
Spike turned to Xander, his game face sliding on. He didn't know what was wrong with Willow, but he was going to find out, once and for all. "What'sbothering Red?" he asked angrily.
Xander crossed his arms. "You two don't get it, do you?"
"Get what, Xander?" Faith asked.
"She's falling in love with Spike," Xander said softly. "She's scared of hurting you, Faith. I don't know what she saw in the club, but. . ."
"Oh. My. God. I was on Junior's lap. . .and. . ."
Spike turned to the Slayer. "We were talking about her, though! Not us, her!" He turned back to Xander. "What about the way she feels about Peaches?"
Cordelia frowned. "She loves him like a brother, why?"
"They were pretty intimate back there," Faith grumbled.
"I'm guessing because you were practically screwing each other?" Cordelia supplied with a shrug.
"Shit!" Faith cried. "Come on, we gotta get back to the house. We have to fix this."
Spike grabbed Faith's hand. "Come on, luv, we gotta get our woman back." The two turned and left the group.
Xander's eyebrow rose. "I'm thinking that Willow will have a good time tonight," he said, chuckling. He looked up, to see Buffy crouching on thetombstone with wide eyes. "What?"
"You are just going to let them go?" she asked softly.
"Of course. They live there, Slayer. We can't stop them from going home," Xander shrugged. He sighed. "Buffy, just leave Sunnydale. There's nothing you can do here. Willow isn't in any danger. We are a family, and no one is going to let any of us get hurt."
"So it doesn't bother you that Willow is going to have sex with *Spike*?" Buffy asked, jumping off the tombstone.
"No," Xander said. "I think that it'd be very good for her. She's been with Faith for a while, they aren't going anywhere. Wills has never had sex with a man before." He wrapped his arm around Cordelia's shoulders. "We are close, all of us. They live together, the sexual tension between them has been building for a while. It's going to happen, Buffy. You can't stop it."
"And we don't want it to," Cordelia replied. "You left us, you didn't care what happened to us for three years. Now, all of the sudden, you come back because of a dream that *you* think is bad? Sorry, Buffy, but we don't play that way anymore."
"Come on, honey. We need to get home. I see some XanderLovin' in your future."
Cordelia giggled. "Come on, lover. We'll call Willow in the morning and see how she's doing."
With that, the two lovers turned and walked away, leaving a stunned Buffy in their wake.
*~*~*~*
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