Okay, it wasn't that he didn't appreciate that Angel had told his friends not to be mean to him. And yes, he liked that he told them to go out of their way and spend a little time with him. Be nice to him. He knew that Angel was just trying to help. But this!

This was just ridiculous!

He couldn't find one moment to himself! He was once in the bathroom and Cordelia had had Gunn knock down the door. She really had herself in a tizzy. Convinced that he was trying to do himself in or something.

When he had first got there, he spent a lot of time by himself, merely by habit. Then Angel and Fred encouraged him to spend more time with them. No big deal. So he did.

Then, it became too much time. Every where he turned, there was another one of them! Lorne had ambushed him while he was sleeping. Bursting into the room and singing loudly, piercing through even the silence that Spike had resigned himself to. He almost preferred being back in Sunnydale.

Even Wesley had gotten in on the game, jumping out at Spike whenever he seemed to be alone and requesting his assistance in translating a language. He seemed to be running out of excuses to keep the vampire busy because at one point Spike had had to inform him that the language that he wanted him to translate was not a demonic language, but merely a messily written note from Gunn saying he would be by later on.

At the moment, he had crammed himself under a bed in one of the hotel's many rooms. He'd been found twice already and had had to use his vampiric speed to lose Gunn and Fred. He had no idea what they wanted to do with him, but he was quite finished with quality time and had no qualms with hiding out for the rest of the day. Only problem was, they were slowly driving him towards the top floor and he was running out of places to hide.

And the dust was driving him crazy. No, seriously, hadn't they ever heard of a vacuum?

He heard footsteps coming down the hallway and pulled himself further under the bed, causing a big cloud of dust to kick up. He fought to hold it in but he couldn't. Possibly at the worst moment, he let out a big sneeze. The owner of the footsteps shot into the room just as Spike was pulling himself out from underneath the bed. "Fred! Fred, I've found him!"

Spike held his hands up in an effort to keep him at a distance. "Streets, if you come any closer and I swear I'll jump out the bloody window!"

Gunn grinned at him. "Man, don't be like that," he said, taking a step closer. Spike immediately backed up.

"I'm serious Streets, I'll do it! The fall won't kill me!"

Fred suddenly skidded into the room, smiling broadly. "Spike!"

"Fred, you're a sweet girl, but I mean it! Right out the bloody window!"

There was a time when he would have killed to be in the place that he was in now. Now, he wonders if he has to kill to get out of it.

When the two humans kept advancing and grinning like idiots, Spike turned toward the window, seriously starting to consider jumping. He took one step towards the window and froze when he heard the boards creak. It wasn't just a normal creak either, for Gunn and Fred had stopped too. It was more of a keerrraaassshhhhh, with a little hissing noise at the end just for effect. Before Spike could change his mind and back up, the floor gave away and he disappeared below the decrepit surface.

The old building gave away for six floors before he stopped, crashing into an old dusty armoire. He was lucky that it wasn't made of wood, although the iron made him rethink his luckiness. He wasted no time in worrying about his injuries because he knew without a doubt that Fred and Gunn would be down at any moment, so he was up as soon as he could and bolting out the door, heading for the stairs and running down them as fast as he could.

"AAANNNGGGEEELLL!"

The blonde reached the lobby in record time and spotted his Grandsire sitting at the desk that Cordelia usually occupied. Not hesitating in the least, he continued running across the lobby and dove over the desk, crawling underneath and gripping Angel's pant leg in one hand. "Spike?" Angel leaned down and peered at the terrified vampire. "Spike, what happened?" he asked, concern lacing through his voice.

Spike's eyes snapped to his, suddenly golden and glinting in the darkness underneath the desk. He released Angel's pant leg and grabbed a fistful of his shirt, pulling him down off the chair and to his level. "If you don't tell the brat pack to leave me the bloody hell alone then I swear I'll offer you up as a sacrifice to some bloody god somewhere and end the world!"

Angel's eyes softened and he lifted a hand and placed it to the side of Spike's face. "Oh, William-"

Spike snarled and cut Angel off. "Don't you William me! I'm not being bloody crazy! Tell them to leave me alone! I don't want 'Have A Nice Day' spelt out in Alphabits in my blood anymore, I would like the lock put back on my bedroom door, I want Fred to stop bloody knitting me clothes, and I want to go beat some demons bloody without you lot thinking I'm trying to off myself!" He shook Angel angrily when he saw the amused smile on his face. "My chip might not let me attack humans, but you're a vampire, Princess is half demon, and Green is about one more serenade away from having the ever loving crap beat out of him!"

Angel smiled cautiously and pried Spike's hand off of his shirt, cringing at the wrinkles that it left. He was bout to reprimand Spike on his manhandling of his clothing but caught the blonde's murderous glare in time. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll talk to-"

"Sweet dreams! They are your melody to me!" Lorne slid into the lobby, singing as loud as his voice would let him.

"Angel?" Gunn called from the top of the stairs, "No need to worry, but Spike just fell through a helluva lotta floors, so, uh, yeah, but we'll fix it!"

"Angel? Oh, there you are." Cordelia came striding in the front doors, a leather bundle in her arms. "Where's Spike? I don't want to run into him when I put his coat back. And if he asks, no, you don't see anything different or wrong with it. Got it? There's nothing wrong with it. It does not look a shade greener than usual."

Angel didn't even have enough time to anticipate Spike's next move, with all the people talking to him at once, so he had no time to grab Spike as he jumped out from underneath the desk, screaming hysterically, and charged Cordelia. Cordelia shrieked in surprise and dropped the coat on the ground. She threw her arms over head and waited for Spike to hit her, peeking around her arms several seconds later when nothing had happened.

Spike was on the floor, several feet to her left, in a tangle of limbs with one Dawn Summers. The young teen squealed happily as she wrapped Spike in a hug and planted a big kiss on his cheek, leaving a faint pink lipstick mark.

Spike, once shaken from his shock at the sudden appearance, immediately returned the hug, shouting, "Thank God you're here! They're monsters! Monsters!"

Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Tara stepped in the front doors of the Hyperion, grinning at Spike and Dawn as the blonde vampire stood up and scooped Dawn into his arms, twirling her around before setting her down and waltzing her across the lobby. Angel made a noise of disbelief and made his way over to where the four Scoobies stood. Xander crossed his arms and smirked at the scene that Spike was creating, who now had Dawn over his shoulder and was spinning around the lobby while Dawn squealed happily. "Man, we always did have a knack for that impeccable timing thing, didn't we?"

Buffy nudged Angel when he sidled up beside her. "You got me thinking. After that phone call. Dawn was so happy after that phone call. And believe me; I like happy Dawn much better than mopey Dawn." Angel nodded, fully ready to accept that at the sight of Spike and Dawn, running around like two little kids that had ingested way too much sugar than should be allowed. Buffy smiled lightly at the spectacle, too. "And I realized… Spike's not that bad. Funny, even," she grinned, tilting her head to the side and turning slightly to whisper softly to Angel, "And no offense to Xander, but it's so less nerve racking with Spike as my patrol partner."

Xander suddenly appeared between them, frowning playfully at her. "You know, Buffster, learning to whisper might be a skill you'll need sometime. Preferably in situations like this-oompf!" Xander was suddenly tackled sideways by a blur of black and white.

"Xander! How is the Doughnut Boy?" Xander would have scowled, had the words not been backed up by a bone-crushing hug around his waist, so all Xander could do was laugh lightly. "God, how I've missed you!" The delirious vampire ruffled his hair, grinning inanely, and got off the floor, shooting off in the direction of Willow and Tara, who shrieked and took off running, laughing loudly.

Xander laughed, picking himself off the floor and twisting, stretching his back. "Yeah, I've got to admit, I sorta missed him, too. No one else gets my jokes. We need another guy back in Sunnydale." He frowned thoughtfully and scratched his head. "But if he's gonna act like that, with the hugging and stuff, maybe we should leave him here a little longer."

Xander was eye to eye with an angry Spike before he even finished the sentence. "You even consider leaving me with these wack jobs any longer than I have to, and I'll buggering well murder you in your sleep," he growled, poking Xander's chest. After a moment of hesitation, Xander launched into a bear hug, stunning Spike into silence.

Dawn crept up behind Spike and, taking advantage of his shocked state, jumped onto his back, ruffling his hair. Spike laughed and spun around, giving Xander a weird look before running off towards Willow, who was hiding behind the desk.

"What was that?" Buffy asked.

Xander shrugged. "It made me forget what I was talking about when he did it." Angel smiled and Buffy shook her head. "Besides," Xander said, casually smoothing his shirt out, a somewhat shocked look on his face, "Spike's pretty huggable." Buffy snorted in laughter, covering her mouth and giggling without control. "Don't tell him I said that," Xander demanded, pointing a finger at them.

Spike suddenly appeared at their sides, a bright smile on his face, looking for all the world as if Christmas had come early. "So are we going home?" he asked eagerly, looking between the three of them, "I get to go back with you, right?" He looked hesitantly at Angel. "I… I can go, right?"

Angel looked reluctant. "Where is he going to stay?" Angel asked Buffy, "He's not going to stay in that crypt again, is he?" Spike's smile drooped even more as his living situation was brought to light. It was obvious he hadn't even given it a thought.

Xander shifted uncomfortably beside Spike. "Um, no, see… you're going to be staying with me in my apartment."

Spike looked at him in surprise. "What about the demon girl?"

Xander's cheeks flushed in embarrassment. "Anya went on some sort of 'I Love Money' retreat and met a banker. Who loves money more than a banker, right? Haven't seen her since." Xander shrugged. "Whatever, that just means no more inappropriate comments about our sex life."

Spike nodded. "Also means there's no more sex life to make inappropriate comments about," he pointed out.

Xander stared at the blonde in discontent. "Thank you Spike." He turned to Buffy. "Why did I volunteer for this again?"

Buffy shrugged. "You know, Anya and Spike are basically the same person. Spike may be a little taller, but they're both fake blondes, both have the demony back round, both are totally rude and inappropriate..." she trailed off, glancing suggestively at Angel, who grinned and looked at Xander earnestly.

"Oh yeah, they both have that 'I'll have sex with anything that has genitalia' attitude going on…"

"Maybe you'll turn gay and you could have your sex life back." Buffy smiled brightly as Xander blushed furiously and took several quick steps away from Spike, who was looking wary himself and was glaring at Xander in warning.

"Don't you even think about it, Harris," Spike growled, "I may have sex with robots and cheerleader bimbos, but even I wouldn't stoop that low." Spike's eyes swiveled to a laughing Angel. "And since when have you had a sense of humor?"

"You have to have a sense of humor to live with you," Angel teased. Spike frowned lightly and Angel reached out, ruffling his hair. "Hey, I'm just kidding."

Spike looked down, smoothing down his hair. "Leave my bloody hair alone already," he mumbled.

Willow, Tara, and Dawn appeared next to them. "We've missed you, you know," Willow said, "You do know that, right?"

Spike took a moment to look from smile to smile, resting momentarily on Xander's cherry red face, which had been adorned with more of an embarrassed grin. Dawn was nearly quivering in excitement and he could hear Buffy's heartbeat quicken, anticipating his answer. As Willow's arm slid around his waist and Tara ran a soothing hand up his arm, he smiled and nodded. "Yeah," he said, nodding again, "Yeah, I do."