Title: Stoop Sitter
Author: Christine, Acidical@aol.com
Rating: PG
Feedback: Always wanted.
Distribution: Anywhere, everywhere, keep my name with it, though.
Side Notes: Spoilers for season five up to Crush. Characters aren't mine.
Parts: 1/1

Spike took a deep breath, glanced at the closed door which was slammed in his face as the final blow to his already shattered ego. He crouched down and sat on the steps, looking aimlessly into the darkness. He was waiting for the glorious warmth of the sun to come and burn him to the end of his immortality.

"I'm a bloody coward, that's what I am," he yelled randomly to the unwavering silence. "So the Slayer doesn't love me, I don't have to be a soddin' poofter!"

And still he didn't make an effort to move from the stoop. He merely sat, biding his time, watching the leaves fall to the ground, intrigued with the movements, so graceful without trying, so slow and beautiful. When a harsh gush of wind roared through, they would all flutter a few feet from their resting places and then settle on the grass again. It was an endless pattern, one he watched over and over again until he forced himself to look back at her house. At the door.

The door that told him that he was unwanted completely. He wasn't her friend, he would never be her friend. They would always be mortal enemies. "What was I thinking? Why did I tell her? As if she couldn't have seen for herself!"

Buffy watched the vampire seated in front of her house. She saw his face contort to different expressions, one of utter hatred, one of pity, one of fear, and one of sadness. She grinned as she heard him mumble and chat with himself, but then she hardened her face, making it cool to the touch. It was his own fault, she didn't care. She *never* cared.

"Buffy, is Spike still there?"

"Yeah, Mom."

"Shouldn't you tell him that he should go home before sunrise?"

"Why?"

"Buffy!"

"What?"

"You may not return his feelings, but to let him die?"

"I don't care, Mom."

"Well I do."

"And why?"

"Spike is a wonderful man. He truly loved Drusilla in the ways that make other women green with envy. I don't know why I reacted the way I did, at first all I saw was red. Vampire, vampire, vampire. But then I remembered, the conversations we've had in the past, him protecting us from Glory, and I even remember a few times where he's saved your hide."

"So what?"

"I can't believe I raised you to act so harshly to those who love you deeply. Maybe Spike's intentions to begin with weren't pure, and I know some of his motives are completely selfish but some of your own in the past weren't any different. You either tell him to come in and take refuge in our basement or I'll do it."

"I'm not going to do anything for his sorry ass. If he wants to die, let him do it."

"Then I will."

Buffy gasped as her mother stormed to the foyer. The door swung on its hinges as it opened. "Spike, come in, please. My daughter may not know how to act, so I apologize for her extreme rudeness and my own reaction to the matter."

"Joyce, if I leave now, I may never have the courage to let my dust fly in the wind."

"Mom! What are you doing! I'll have Willow cast the spell again!"

"Buffy, this isn't about you anymore. I'm giving you an invitation Spike, one that I will not tolerate being revoked." She turned and glared at Buffy for a minute. "C'mon, I'll make you some of that hot chocolate with those little marshmallows that you love so much." She persuaded, looking earnestly at him.

"Okay, okay, the marshmallows did it. Thanks, luv, I owe you one."