"Two sundaes of, uh... Pet?" Spike looked down at Willow as they stood at the counter at the Ice-Cream Shoppe.

Willow looked up. "What do you want?" She pointed to the ice-cream. "I'll have the same."

"You trust me that much?" He asked with a grin. Willow rolled her eyes. Spike turned back to the man behind the counter. "Something with a lot of chocolate in it." He told the man.

The guy nodded, got out two ice-cream bowls and started to scoop out the richest chocolate ice-cream they had. Willow gave a small smile as she watched the man scoop it in. Spike paid for the ice-creams and took them over to a booth in the shop as they sat down to eat. Willow poked and prodded at the ice-cream, eating a little every now and again. "Thank you." She said softly before taking another scoop.

"How long?"

"What?" The red head looked up.

"How long's 'e been gone?"

"8 and a half days. 6 hours, 33 minutes." She sighed.

Spike grinned at her. "Got you beat there. 2 months, 12 days, 4 hours," He looked at his watch, "27 minutes."

Willow rolled her eyes. "You're making that up." The vampire shook his head, pulling a tiny book from his coat, opening it to a page and turning it to show her. "You keep a diary?" She looked up at him with shock.

"Journal, Luv. Journal. Diaries are for girls and I'm not a girl." The witch went to speak. "Don't say I am or I'll have to prove you otherwise." She gave another small smile as she looked at her slowly melting chocolate ice-cream. "Going eat that or are you going wait for it to melt away?"

She put some more in her mouth. "Does it get easier?"

"'Course. Once it's been going on a while it does. Not like you'll wake up tomorrow and everything'll be peachy."

"Not like I'm going to wake up tomorrow *period*."

"You are."

"What?"

"Going wake up tomorrow."

She snorted. "Right, I'll wake up as a vampire. Just great."

The blond sighed. "Do I have to spell it out?! You're going to wake up tomorrow *with* a heartbeat. I've already fed tonight." He finished his ice-cream. "Who lives closest to 'ere?"

"Xander." She replied without thinking.

"I'll walk you there." The girl quickly finished her ice-cream and pinched the bridge of her nose. "What?"

"Ice-cream headache." She said as she slowly got out of the booth with him. "Why won't you eat me?"

"Never eat more if I'm full. I'll kill ya and string you up for tomorrow but I'll never eat extra." He looked down at her shaking form as she looked up at him with fright. "I won't though. If I'm going kill ya, Bitchy's going be watchin'. Right?" He looked straight ahead as they continued walking. They stopped outside the basement access of Xander's house. "Now, make it sound urgent. There's some vampires after you, you need help."

Spike stepped back into the bushes, leaving a shocked Willow standing there. "Xander! Help! Vampires!" She banged on the door and practically fell through when Xander opened the door, pulling her inside.

The vampire standing outside smiled. <See you tomorrow night, Red.> He thought before walking away.

*****

"Bait?" Spike asked as he walked out of the bushes to the park where he saw Willow sitting on a swing once again.

"What?" She asked, looking up.

"Are. You. Bait?" He asked slowly with a smirk.

"Oh, no. Not bait."

Spike sighed, sitting down on the other swing. "She's shaggin' that toff again 'eh? That wasn't in the handbook."

"Handbook? Oh, Buffy never got it." Willow frowned. "How'd you get it?"

The vampire rolled his eyes. "Are you kiddin' me? Bloody hell, Pet. The slayers carry that book everywhere with 'em. Took the books from the ones I killed."

The girl gave him a scared look. "You've fed tonight, haven't you?" She asked.

"No."

Willow went to get up to run but he caught her hand and brought her back down onto his lap. She stiffened, her body trembling. "So, wanna come get something to eat with me?" He nibble on her neck. "Hmm, Pet?" He asked softly near her ear.

"Spike." She whimpered in fright.

"I won't kill you tonight." He stood, making her stand also. "But, we're going to go out and have some of that thing people are having lately. You know... what Slutty's 'aving." He started pulling her along behind him.

"S-s-s..." She stammered with shock.

"Fun, Pet. Fun." He turned to smile at her. "After all, if you have fun with me that'll just give me one more thing to shove in the slayer's face when we're fighting."

<No, not a friend. Just wants Buffy mad. Hey! *I* want Buffy mad! She's-she's not even here for me! I have to rely on *Spike*, evil undead guy to have fun. What am I saying? Run, Rosenberg! Even Oz isn't worth your life!> She pulled back on her arm, trying to get him to release her.

He turned to look at her sternly. "Pet, what do you think is better? Me walking down main-street holding your hand or me walking down main-street with you over my shoulder?"

Willow promptly stopped her struggle. Showing what was under her skirt to everyone on the street wasn't her idea of a fun night. Hanging around with Spike wasn't either but there was no choice in that. She could tell there'd be bruises on her wrists in the morning. Just another mark on her, at least this was only on her body and it could fade. <Oh goddess, I hope he doesn't do other stuff to me! Oh no.> Tears started to run down her face.

The blond looked down at her, seeing the tears running down her face and stopped walking, making her do the same. "What's wrong now?" He asked with a sigh.

"You're going to-to rape me and kill me, aren't you?"

"Bloody hell, no!" He countered as he started walking again. He grinned evilly. "At least not yet." He added, feeling Willow stiffen again. With a chuckle he started walking a little faster, pulling her along behind him. "We're going see a movie." The vampire stated.