Summary: Buffy is a rich princess type, brought up by millionaire parents who care more for their reputations than for her. She meets Spike, an artist who's happy to work different jobs just to make a few bucks here and there. Of course, Buffy's parents don't exactly approve of their daughter's budding romance...How far will they go to stop them being together? And how far are Buffy and Spike prepared to go to do just that?
Buffy felt like some kind of fugitive as she crept silently into the school library. She knew she only had less than ten minutes to see Giles because she was actually supposed to be going to the bathroom. Well, she’d told her teacher that anyway.
“Pssst! Giles, are you in here?” Only God knew where that hideous little parasite Snyder hid out during the day and she wasn’t taking any chances.
Giles peeked out from behind his office door. “Buffy? Ah. I’m glad you came actually. Spike – ”
“Shhh!” She put a finger up to her lips and ran into the office, shutting the door behind her. “From this point on we don’t say his name. We will refer to him as… Alfred.”
Giles looked incredulously at the blonde who was currently peeking out through the window slats. “Buffy, I do think that you are being rather ridiculous. Sp…Alfred explained the situation to me, and while I agree that it is unfortunate, surely this level of care isn’t necessary.”
She turned an appraising eye on him. “You have no idea just how necessary it is.”
He looked slightly alarmed. “Ah, well, right then. Actually, I have something for you from…Alfred. It’s a mobile phone that he has purchased for you, apparently for secret communication. He said to tell you that he has programmed in his own mobile number already.” Giles rolled his eyes, feeling as if he were in a very bad spy movie.
“Oooh, great. I was just coming in to ask you how he was but now I can ask him myself. Thanks Giles!” She bounded out of the library, tucking the tiny phone into her skirt pocket.
***
This is just getting ridiculous, Buffy thought as she squatted on top of the toilet seat during her next class. She’d once again excused herself to go to the bathroom, not feeling guilty at all since technically she hadn’t lied. She dialed Spike’s number.
“Buffy? Pet, is that you?”
“Yeah, hi Sp…honey. Thanks for the phone, its so brilliant!”
“Well I figured if Hank didn’t know about them then he couldn’t do anything. Now we can talk whenever we want.”
“And, not only that, but I’ve come up with a plan so we can see eachother.”
“What is it?” Spike was curious as to how they’d do this.
“Okay, so I’ve already talked to Willow about what’s going on and she’s totally on our side. You go over to her house at half past two, its 126 Hawthorn Road, and walk through the side entrance. Wait at the back door. We’ll be there straight after school and she said we can use her room to talk. Brilliant, huh?”
“Sounds good. I better let you get back, huh? But I’ll be seeing you real soon, kitten. Love you,” he said huskily.
“Love you too,” she murmured before hanging up. Okay, it wasn't so bad. Just the rest of this period, lunch and two more classes before she could see him. Things could definitely be worse.
***
Buffy groaned silently to herself when she realized at lunchtime just how much worse things could really be. Riley had decided to join her at her table, which to be honest only consisted of her, Willow and Xander, but he brought several of his friends along too.
Sitting pressed up against her on the bench, he asked concernedly, “Buffy, are you avoiding me? I haven’t seen you in a while and you’re not usually here at lunch.”
Oh God. The guy just had no idea. “What? No, I’m not avoiding you. I just haven’t been feeling too good lately, spending a lot of time in the health center and stuff.”
He smiled understandingly. “Oh, I hope you feel better soon, honey.” She nearly gasped as he rubbed her thigh in an attempt at being soothing while playfully stealing some of her chips. Jesus Christ, he was acting like they were an actual couple. It was the most disturbing thing she’d ever experienced and Willow was glaring at him from across the table, having been told of all his exploits. Buffy knew she couldn’t do anything to anger him when she was so close to seeing Spike so she sat quietly, clenching her jaw in frustration. Never in the history of her schooling life had she prayed for lunch to end quickly, but really, she was quickly experiencing many firsts these days.
***
Buffy was almost bursting with excitement as she ran through Willow’s house and flung open the back door, jumping straight into Spike’s arms the moment she saw him. They kissed frantically, hungrily, while their hands feverishly explored one another in an attempt to make sure both were still intact. Buffy couldn’t believe they’d only spent one full day apart and she felt so crazy. There was no way she could be separated from him for a long period of time.
“God, I missed you,” she gasped when they finally separated, but were still holding onto each other.
“Missed you too, kitten. God, you wouldn’t believe how much. Lets get inside, yeah?” he asked, gently pushing her inside and shutting the door. She led him up to Willow’s bedroom and sat next to him on the bed.
“Is Willow here?” he asked, looking round as if he expected to see her pop out at any time.
“Nah, she’s staying at the library for an extra half hour to give us some time. When she gets back I’ll wait twenty minutes then leave, and then you give it ten minutes before you leave.” She suddenly groaned, holding her head in her hands. “God, I can’t believe we have to do this just to see each other. Its completely ridiculous.”
Spike rubbed her back softly. “Don’t worry about it, pet. I’d do a lot more than this just to see you, you know.”
She smiled up at him and they shared another tender kiss. Suddenly Spike pulled away and stared at her seriously.
“Buffy, what if you moved out of home? If you came and lived with me? Then you’d be out of his house and you wouldn’t be his responsibility anymore. We could make it work, pet.”
She shook her head sadly. “Its not that I don’t want to live with you, Spike, believe me I’d move out in a heartbeat if things were different, but it won’t work. Sunnydale is smaller than it seems – Hank’d never let it go because I’d still be here, part of his stupid reputation. I’d still be at school, the Finns would still be unhappy and Hank would still do everything in his power to ruin your family. It just won’t work.” She stopped, waiting to see if he would be angry or disappointed.
In fact, it didn’t look like he was feeling either of those emotions. He was sitting there with a pensive look on his face, apparently thinking deeply about something.
“Spike? Are you okay?” Buffy asked cautiously.
“Hmm? Oh yeah, sorry. Listen, I may have come up with an idea but I don’t want to tell you just yet. I really need to check on a few things before I get your hopes up, okay? Can we meet back here soon?”
She nodded. “Friday afternoon isn’t too soon, that’s three days away. It won’t seem so suspicious and it’ll give me a few days to act cranky around the house, which I won’t be faking ’cos I’ll be missing you anyway.”
Spike smiled. “I’ll be missing you too, pet. I just hope this thing’ll work. But, putting that aside, did you say Willow was at the library for another half an hour?” he asked, rolling his tongue up behind his teeth.
She trembled slightly and nodded.
“So I guess that means we have this room to ourselves for a little while, huh? What do you think we could do in all that spare time?” he questioned glibly, smoothing his hand up under her shirt and stroking the soft skin he found there.
Buffy didn’t even bother to answer him before she attacked, rolling on top of him aggressively and capturing his lips with her own.
Which was almost exactly how Willow found them twenty minutes later, quietly shutting the door again when they didn’t even notice her come in.