Disclaimer: Don't own nothin'.

Summary: Set during 'New Moon Rising'. A shortcut in the Initiative tunnels gives Buffy and Spike a chance to get closer... Definite B/S themes. *COMPLETED, July 2002* PG13

Author's Note: Just a cute little B/S piece. Remember when Spike led Buffy, Willow, and Xander down into the Initiative to go save Oz in 'New Moon Rising'? This is a deleted scene from then. Hope you enjoy! ~Kantayra

Short Cut
by Kantayra

“There’s a nasty little jog here,” Spike commented, holding up the grate and looking into the black hole beneath it. “Could be tricky for some of you human types.”

Buffy and Xander exchanged an incredulous glance.

“You have got to be kidding!” Xander exclaimed. “Why don’t you just put a nice sign on it that reads: ‘Lethal Trap: Come On In!’?”

Spike rolled his eyes. “For the hundredth time: this isn’t a trap!”

“And you want us to climb into a dark hole instead of following this nice friendly corridor, why?” Buffy retorted sarcastically. “Are we taking the scenic route?”

The vampire cast her a disgusted look. “How about because those wankers ‘ll find us if we just wander about on all their security cameras?”

“We’re disguised!” Buffy insisted, gesturing to the military and scientific fatigues they were wearing.

“Yeah, I fit right in with all them military blokes, what with the dye job an’ all,” Spike snorted.

“Fine! Then we’ll just leave you behind,” Buffy crossed her arms.

“Oh, brilliant plan!” The sarcasm was so thick you could cut it with a knife. “And you’re going to find your way how exactly then?”

“I’ve been here before,” Buffy said assuredly. “I could do it!”

“Look,” Spike sighed in exasperation, “will you just stop being a paranoid, stuck-up little chit, and listen to me for once? It’s just a shortcut. This. Is. The. Way.”

“That. Is. A. Trap,” Xander mock-imitated his tone.

“Uh, guys…” Willow nudged Xander’s shoulder. He was too busy arguing with Spike to notice.

“Who are you calling ‘stuck-up’?!” Buffy exclaimed. “This from the most arrogant, pig-headed-”

“You are stuck-up!” Spike retorted. “Let me guess: that’s where you store your extra stakes.”

“Guys…” Willow said a little louder.

“Neutered…” Buffy picked up the intensity of her insults at her former arch-nemesis’ comment.

“That’s it!” Spike exclaimed. “No amount of money is worth this! You can run around in these tunnels all week trying to find your werewolf friend, for all I care!”

“Guys!” Willow finally screamed.

Three startled glances turned to look at her.

“Er, um…” her face reddened, “someone’s coming,” she finally finished.

The four of them listened for a second, heard the sounds of several marching soldiers, and scrambled down into the hole in seconds. Spike shut the grate above them just as the soldiers turned the corner overheard. They all tensed when the Initiative operatives walked right over their position.

“See?” Spike gloated once the danger had passed. “I told you it wasn’t a trap.”

“Oh, way to be mature!” Buffy rolled her eyes. “ ‘I told you so’? You sound like you’re six!”

“I don’t have to put up with this!” Spike growled, stepping into her personal space so that his face was only inches from hers.

“You’ll put up with it, all right,” Buffy said, not backing up an inch. “And you’ll stop complaining unless you want to get very well acquainted with Mr. Pointy here.” She raised her stake menacingly.

“You won’t do it,” he scoffed, not looking concerned in the least. “Whatsa matter, Slayer? Can’t do in one little old vampire?”

“Don’t tempt me!”

“Guys!” Willow yelled again.

“Huh?” Buffy turned to look at her.

“Oz. Danger. Hurry!” she reminded them.

“Sorry,” Buffy said sheepishly. “Lead the way,” she gave Spike a good hard shove just to be sure.

Grumbling under his breath, he made his way through the maze of dark tunnels.

“I can’t see a thing,” Xander complained. “I-ouch! Could run into a wall any second,” he finished, rubbing his nose.

“Then maybe you should’ve stayed at home with the Watcher,” Spike threw back at him.

“Oh!” Willow said, breaking up what was doomed to be another pointless argument. “Look what I brought!” She quickly fished the flashlight out of her pocket and turned it on.

Unfortunately, it was pointed right at Spike’s face.

“Bloody hell, woman!” he shielded his yellowed eyes. “Watch where you point that thing!”

“Sorry!” Willow turned bright red and instantly moved the beam to the ceiling.

“Can’t see a bloody thing now,” Spike complained.

“Ha!” Xander said triumphantly. “Now you get to felt what it’s like!”

“’Cept that you need me to see where we’re going,” Spike retorted.

“Oh…er, yeah,” Xander’s elation fell rapidly.

“C’mon,” Buffy gave Spike another prodding shove. “You’re better now.”

“Vision’s all blurry,” he insisted.

“Yeah, yeah,” Buffy kept her hand pressed into the center of his back to keep him moving. “Quit complaining already.”

“I really am sorry,” Willow said from the rear of their procession.

“’S OK, Red,” he shrugged. “Not your fault.” He stumbled on a rock and came to a halt, causing Buffy to crash into his back.

“Quit goofing off,” she pressed her fist into him painfully.

“Ouch! Knock it off,” he said, jumping forward…and not finding ground under his feet.

He flailed widely, grabbing the closest thing to him. Unfortunately, that thing happened to be Buffy, and she fell over the edge as well.

To make matters worse, Willow squealed in horror and dropped the flashlight. It promptly went out, and the underground tunnel was plunged into blackness.

“Oh shit,” said Xander, not wanting to move an inch lest he fall over the edge too. “Are you guys all right?”

At the bottom of the small pit, Buffy groaned and roughly pushed Spike off of her. “We’re alive,” she called back, coughing slightly at the dust their fall had stirred up. “Or…I am, at least. And Spike still appears to be among the undead.”

“Not for long the way you keep manhandling me,” he leapt up from the sharp rock Buffy had thrown him onto. “What is your problem anyway, Summers?”

Willow breathed a sigh of relief as echoes of their argument once again filled the tunnel. “I’m going to try to find the flashlight.”

“I’ll help,” Xander said, kneeling down beside her and feeling around on the ground.

“How are we supposed to get out of here now?” Buffy sighed in frustration, batting aside the hand Spike offered to her and getting to her feet herself. “This is all your fault, you know.”

“My fault?!”

“Yeah, Mr. ‘oh yeah, this is right bloody way’, ‘I know where ‘m going’,” she did an absolutely horrible imitation of his accent.

“I ask again,” Spike rolled his eyes, “what is your problem?”

“My problem?!” she yelled. “My problem is that because of you I fell down a ravine!” And then you were on top of me, her mind added, all hard and strong and male… Her eyes widened comically. Woah! She reprimanded herself. Where on earth did that thought come from?

“You OK?” he asked, and she abruptly realized that he could probably see her facial expressions despite the dark.

“Yeah,” she said too quickly, blushing bright red. She hoped to god that he couldn’t make out the color of her face in the darkness.

“Edge ‘s only about ten feet up,” he looked upward. “Give me a boost, will ya?”

“Me?!” Buffy exclaimed, her ordinary annoyance quickly overcoming whatever the hell it had been that had come across her earlier. “You’re the heaviest! You boost me up!”

Spike threw his head back in exasperation. “I’ll pull you right out after me,” he insisted. “I just don’t have room to jump for the edge.”

“No way,” Buffy shook her head defiantly. “I don’t trust you. I go first. I promise I’ll help you get out then.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t trust you, and since ‘m the only one that can see where the edge is,” he gave her a triumphant grin when she sulked in acknowledgment of this fact, “it makes more sense for me to go first.”

“Oh fine!” Buffy decided she was sick of arguing with him.

She held her hands in a stirrup, and he stepped lightly onto them and caught hold of the ledge. She gave him a helping push as he pulled himself up, and soon he’d made it to the top.

While her enhanced Slayer vision was nowhere near as good in the dark as a vampire’s, she could make out the white of his head and arm when he leaned back over the edge.

“C’mon, grab my hand,” he instructed her.

She grudgingly accepted, and he pulled her up with strength that she sometimes forgot that he even possessed given his handicap.

As she neared the top, her other arm caught hold of his neck, and she wrapped herself around him. He pulled her out the rest of the way, and they both fell back to the tunnel floor, still locked in their impromptu embrace.

Buffy decided that they must be nearing a light source since he hadn’t bothered with game face to see and - more tellingly - she could see that he wasn’t in game face. He flashed her a shy smile as he pulled them both up to a sitting position, her still clinging to him and thus settling in his lap.

At that moment, she realized just how close they really were. His face was maybe two inches from hers, and all it would take would be the slightest of movements, and their lips would brush…

Apparently, he noticed this fact at the same instant she did, because their eyes widened simultaneously.

Something about that moment seemed so secret, so forbidden, so provocative…so inevitable.

Buffy for the first time really felt the muscular body that held her so tightly, yet so gently at the same time. She was reminded again of his strength - something which Riley sadly lacked. And this was a man who knew her, who understood her, who had the power to affect her like no other - even if it usually was into rage…

Spike’s eyes shut at the feel of her warm breath against his lips. Her arms and legs still encircled him, filling him with their warmth. He let out a soft moan at the feel of her pelvis pressed firmly against his. Arousal flared up in him like nothing he had felt since he’d lost Drusilla…

Just one inch, Buffy thought as her own eyes closed. What could just one inch hurt? Apparently Spike had the same thought, since his lips moved towards hers the same instant hers did.

They were only a hair’s width apart now. An involuntary brush, and then they were almost touching…

“Found it!” Willow shouted in victory, switching the flashlight on.

Buffy and Spike leapt apart as if they had been burned.

“Oh good,” Xander commented, looking down into the pit, “it’s not too wide.”

Indeed, the chasm was only about six feet across. Willow and Xander both made the jump easily with Buffy and Spike to catch them at the other end.

The two former enemies once again took their position at the head of the line with uncharacteristic silence.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, was running through Spike’s head. What was that? You’re supposed to be setting this chit up, not groping with her! He shook his head and chalked it up to temporary insanity caused by a severe lack of sex. He’d have to remedy that situation later…

Buffy couldn’t tear her eyes off of the movement of his back as he walked. It was rare that she’d ever seen him without his duster on, and she decided the jacket was grossly unfair in covering up such a gorgeous expanse of muscle. Bad Buffy! Her mind screamed. You just tried to steal a kiss with a vampire in the dark! Bad! BAD! And it was Spike too, of all people! I mean, ugh! Unfortunately, her conscious, rational mind was the only part of her saying ‘ugh’ at the moment.

“And here we are.”

Buffy crashed into Spike’s back as he said those words.

“Finally,” Xander caught hold of the ladder and was the first to go up.

Buffy took the flashlight and watched Willow ascend as well.

She waited until Willow’s way had been lighted all the way to the top before she shut it off, stuck it in her pocket, and prepared to make the climb.

“Slayer…” Spike’s hand caught hers before she could begin her ascent.

“What?” she snapped her hand back from his touch quickly.

“About…” he gesticulated wildly, trying to avoid saying it.

“Yeah…” she sighed.

“It was…insane, right?” he said.

She nodded in relief. “And we should never, ever talk about it.”

“In fact, we should probably just forget it even happened.”

“I agree,” Buffy said.

“Good,” Spike smiled slightly.

“Good,” Buffy repeated.

“What’s taking so long?” Willow called down. “Are you guys OK?”

“Fine, Will!” Buffy shouted back up. “I’m coming now!”

“Off you go then,” Spike let her onto the ladder.

He couldn’t help but smile at what a cute ass she had as he followed her. He mentally slapped himself. Slayer equals enemy, remember?

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief when they both emerged into the cold, electric lighting that illuminated the Initiative complex. Now that the atmosphere of mystery and danger was gone, she could see he was just plain old Spike, her obnoxious former enemy…with a way too sexy body. Riley! Her mind reminded her. Remember your boyfriend? The one you’re worried crazy about? That did it. Soon all naked vampire thoughts had been banished to her subconscious.

“Let’s go find them then,” Buffy said authoritatively. “And no more shortcuts,” she added sharply for Spike’s benefit.

“No more shortcuts,” he agreed readily.

OK, admit it: it didn't have any point, but it was fun, right? And you should definitely review if you want Buffy and Spike to have further fun excursions in the future... ~_^