A: N - Set During NFA, after Spike's little poetry session. Just an idea I had whilst watching the Angel season finale. Please Review!
Spike sat in the dimly lit bar, his head dipped staring at the glass of bourbon that the waitress had placed in front of him a few minutes ago. He reached into his pocket pulling out a cigarette packet, and his trusty zippo lighter twirling it round in his fingers for a few seconds before removing a cigarette and bringing it to his lips
"You know those things will kill you" came a voice from behind him.
He turned slightly on his stool to see Buffy standing there smiling with her hands on her hips, she hadn't changed much a little curvier. The bags under her eyes that she wore for so long in Sunnydale had gone, her emerald eyes sparkled and her smile was wide and mischievous.
Spike put his cigarette out in the ashtray provided. He stared at her for a moment breathing in her scent 'yeah that's definitely Buffy' he thought to himself
"Cat got your tongue?" she chuckled
"Sorry it's just... Wow Buffy you look great"
Her smile widened for a second before she caught herself and her face hardened "so do you... Ya know for a pile of dust" she raised her eyebrow.
"Ah yeah see thing about that pet is..." he stuttered
"yeah I know ghost for a while bound to Wolfram and Hart then a package came big flash of bright light you become solid again that about right?" she snapped
"Uh well yeah that's pretty accurate" he mumbled and looked at her.
She stared at him intently and he rose from the stool and stood in front of her drinking in every detail of her
"Yeah that'll happen when you have sources... Why didn't you tell me?" she asked him with tears threatening to fall from her eyes
"I couldn't luv" he replied simply
"What! Why not? Typical vampire crap I should have known better" she yelled with her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and wipe away her tears but he knew better than that.
"What was I supposed to do, Slayer?" he snapped.
Slayer - he hadn't called her that for a while her heart sank a little
"Just call you out of the blue 'Hi Buffy its Spike, guess that whole champion thing never stuck" he sighed
"That would have been nice... Well not like that but a phone call, a letter? Hey maybe you could of done something totally crazy and I don't know visited me?" she snapped again
"You think I didn't want to? You think that you weren't my first thought when I got back? You think I didn't want to see you!" he raised his voice a little higher than usual
"183 days!" she yelled damn she had let slip
"What?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow concentrating on her face, and now the tears that fell freely from her eyes?
"183 days since you've been gone" she said softly, he approached her with caution at first but she didn't back away, that was a start he threw his arms around her and she buried her head in his chest as her body shook from her sobs. He ran his fingers through her hair just like he used to
"I'm sorry" he said softly and genuinely kissing her on the top of her head.
She slowly moved out of his embrace and looked into his ocean blue eyes, that were sparkling with tears without another word she kissed him passionately
"Come with me, come to Rome" she said breathlessly as the kiss ended.
He stared at her for a few seconds "I can't" he eventually said.
She stepped away from him and resumed her earlier stance of hands on hips "what!"
"I'm sorry luv but Angel needs me" he said softly
"Like you care about Angel" she snapped
"No I don't care too much for the old grand poof but we're in the thick of it pet something is coming down and he needs me regardless of whether we like each other" he said.
She threw her hands up in mock surrender "do you need any help I can call in some slayers get the gang here..."
she got ahead of herself and quickly doubled back on the offer when she saw the look on his face "I know something you and Angel have to do yourselves" she sighed thoughtfully "my boys have grown up" she said playfully
He shot her a look, she mouthed her apology to him and smiled and took him in her arm.
"I'll be seeing you Spike" they held each other tightly
"That you will luv"
After what seemed like half an hour which was in fact a few seconds, they parted slightly getting lost in each other they shared a smile. She turned to walk away stopping briefly
"In the hellmouth I meant it" she whispered loud enough for him to hear
"I know" he replied out loud she smiled and walked away.