Rebound

“I get to push it.”

“No, I do!”

“But you drove over here.”

“Your car’s too bleedin’ broody to take around town! It’d scare the townies.”

“You are such a-“

”Stop it!” Willow was beginning to get a headache.

“How do you put up with this?” Xander asked as he stood beside her. The two vampires were fighting over a shopping cart at the local 24 hour grocery store.

They both glared over their shoulders’ at the young man. “Shut up!”

Xander did. Angel was still seething over the ‘floorboard incident’. Willow and Xander had managed to get Buffy and Riley to leave them alone. After Angel had extricated himself from the floorboard and dusted his coat off, he had growled at Xander and chased him around the yard. Luckily, Willow had intervened. They had all gone inside and when Xander mentioned baking cookies Spike had insisted that they bake them this evening.

Spike surrendered control of the cart to his sire just as the vampire gave a particularly savage tug. The result was Angel lying flat on the tiled floor, under the shiny cart. “Fine, you push the cart, mate. I’ll help Red.”

Angel rose from the floor, desperately trying to appear dignified. Two college students who were buying enough alcohol to drown a small country gave him curious looks as he started pushing the cart down the wide grocery aisle. Willow and Spike were looking at the chocolate chips when he caught up to them.

Angel smiled despite himself. He remembered how scarce food was when he was a young man. Now, one could simply walk into a store and obtain any food at all hours of the night. He voiced this to Willow, hoping to engage her in a discussion about history, only to have Spike glower at him.

“Stupid bleedin’ poof.” Spike muttered as they continued down the aisle, having picked up their chocolate chips. “Why don’t you go drool over all the potatoes in the bins? You Irish fairies like that sort of thing, don’t you?”

“Why don’t you go buy some hair dye, blondie?” Angel snarled.

“Why don’t you lead the way, Peaches? It’s probably right next to the bleedin’ hair gel.”

“Good one, Spike!” Xander said, ever one to enjoy a good put down.

“Enough!” Willow hissed. “Or I will make all of you wait in the car.”

As the entered the frozen foods section, Willow caught site of a familiar face.

Anya regarded the ice creams with rapt attention. Her cart was already filled with three varieties. She looked up as she saw them all approaching. “Willow!” The ex-demon said, it wasn’t a friendly greeting. The redheaded witch was glad she still didn’t have use of powers. Anya raised one eyebrow at Xander but said nothing to him.

“You have to let me explain-“ Willow began.

“No, I don’t. I know all about how you broke up Cordelia and Xander. You. . .you seduced him.”

Spike decided it was time to intervene. “Listen, Anya, Red isn’t involved with your little boy toy, alright? The witch is with me. She just had to lie to the Slayer so I wouldn’t be clogging up her dustbuster. Get it?”

Anya’s forehead wrinkled. “So, you’re sleeping with Spike?” Her eyes wondered over Angel appraisingly, “What about the big tall one?”

Spike rolled his eyes. “No, she’s not sleeping with him. But you could say that he’s involved with the dustbuster.”

“Spike!” Angel said angrily.

Willow gave the blond vampire an irritated look. “No, I’m not ‘sleeping’ with Spike. We’re, er. . .well, it’s complicated. Angel and I are. . .well, that’s a long story. But Xander and I are not involved. We’re just friends, like we have always been.”

Xander finally regained his ability to speak. “I’m so sorry for dragging you into this mess, Anya.” He walked over to her and held out his arms.

She looked up at him. “So, you were only playing a joke on Buffy, right?”

“Right.”

“You never had an affair with Willow.”

“No.”

She smacked his chest. Hard. “Never do that again!” Then ran into his still outstretched arms.

Xander hugged her gratefully. He smiled over the ex-demon’s head at Willow. “Thanks.”

“Sorry, Xander.” Willow said, pleased that they were back together.

Xander looked down at the ice cream in his girlfriend’s cart. “What’s with all the fat grammage, An?”

“Every time I helped a girl who’d been wronged, her friends always bought her ice cream. I thought it was what I was supposed to do.” She said into his shirt.

He chuckled, stroking her hair. “Let’s not fight again.”

“We won’t. If you stop doing stupid things.”

Sensing another argument about to erupt, Willow said. “Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you two later.”

“I think so. But I want those cookies tomorrow, Wills. Before noon.” He looked down at Anya. “Well, early afternoon.” They watched the two lovers exit the grocery store.

Willow sighed in relief, at least she hadn’t done any permanent damage to their relationship. “Well, lets get the ingredients, luv. Oh, can we can get some chicken wings and some buffalo sauce?” Spike grinned. “Don’t you like those, luv?”

“I’m sure she’d rather have filet mignon, wouldn’t you Willow?”

“Right now, I’m thinking I really want a stake.”

“Steak?” Angel repeated. “I knew you’d like my suggestion better.” He smiled smugly at Spike.

“No, a stake.” Willow repeated, pantomiming the action of staking a vampire.

Just then the college guys wandered into their aisle. They started to snicker as the saw her doing the gesture. Willow flushed when she realized that from their perspective she was doing a lewd motion with her hand. One of the young men called out. “Think you’re in the wrong area for that, sweetie. Condoms are in aisle four.”

Spike and Angel vamped out and watched the terrified kids drop their beer and run for the door. They both looked at each other grinning for a moment, the ice was melting a little. Then they scowled as they both realized they were. . . gasp. . .bonding.