A/N: Here's where the story earns its M rating. And if you have to ask why, then you clearly haven't seen the episode. ;-)
(Note: Some dialog taken directly from the episode.)
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its characters are the property of Joss Whedon.
A moment of passion is like a drug,
It takes me so high.
Needing to get another fix,
A moment of passion can never lie.
A moment of passion when we are alone,
You desire it, too.
Unable to control it,
A moment of passion shared with you.
--A Moment Of Passion, by Kev Elmer
Two burly men with knives herded an average-looking middle-aged couple into an alley.
"I-I'm sure we can work something out," the husband stammered.
"A deal of some sort," the wife pleaded, "Anything you want!"
"I always wanted a pony."
All eyes turned to the petite blonde woman standing at the mouth of the alley. She was dressed in a severe black turtleneck sweater and her hair was parted into two braids.
"Oh, you weren't really speaking to me, were you?" she laughed in feigned embarrassment, "My bad. Well, as long as I'm here..." She leapt forward and kicked one of the attackers in the stomach. He fell back with a cry, bumping into his partner in the process, knocking them both into the light of a streetlamp. Surprised, Buffy laughed at the two very ordinary human men before her. "Wow. A mugging! Haven't gotten one of those in a while. Usually it's blood and with the horror," she shrugged, "Just a good old-fashioned mugging. Kinda sweet, actually."
She bent down to pick up the woman's dropped purse, noticed the couple's incredulous stares. "Oh, well, probably not for you. Here," she handed over the purse, "Go. Now."
The couple didn't need any further encouragement. As they ran off, one of the muggers tried to jump Buffy. She easily overpowered the much larger man and twisted his arm behind him. "Not too sweet for you, either, huh?" She looked at the other mugger, who was obviously trying to decide whether to help his friend or make a break for it. "C'mon, rush me," Buffy dared him with a grin, "It'll be funny."
A blur of platinum hair and black leather suddenly flew out of the darkness and slammed into the other man.
"No!" Buffy shouted, too late. The first mugger broke free of her grasp and ran off. The second scrambled up from the toppled packing crates where he and Spike had landed and took off as well. Buffy groaned in frustration and hurried over to where the vampire had fallen, found him sitting up and cradling his aching head in both hands. "What the hell are you doing?" Buffy snapped.
"I thought they were demons." Spike grudgingly accepted her help as he struggled to his feet.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Way to go with the keen observy-ness, Jessica Fletcher."
"Hey, a little sympathy for the man with the migraine here, can we?" Spike groaned. Hadn't had a wallop this bad from the chip in a long time.
Buffy felt a stab of sympathy and put her hands on the vampire's head, fingertips gently massaging his scalp. "Well, that's what you get for attacking a human," she chided.
"Yeah." Spike sighed at her soothing touch. Almost made the headache worth it. "You'd think if the government was gonna put a chip in my head they'd at least make it so I could attack criminals and that sort."
"Yes, because muggers deserve to be eaten," Buffy's tone dripped with sarcasm. Satisfied his immediate pain was eased, she let her hands drop to her sides and took a step back. "You'll just have to get your rocks off fighting demons."
Spike looked at her, his characteristic smirk sliding into place. "There are other ways," he drawled suggestively, sliding his arms around her waist and pulling her flush against him.
Buffy tried to look annoyed, but a smile kept tugging at the corners of her mouth. "You have got a one track mind."
"Not my fault you're such a temptress." He nuzzled the side of her face.
"What're you talking about? I'm practically dressed like a nun!" She indicated her overly modest clothes.
One of Spike's hands left her waist to toy with one of her braids. "I dunno. I'm rather liking this whole Swiss Miss thing you've got going."
Buffy snickered. "Sounds like a fetish. Should I yodel?"
Spike grinned. "I can think of something better you can do with your mouth." He leaned in and captured her lips with his. The kiss started as soft and languid and quickly grew in intensity. Spike's arms tightened around her waist while Buffy's slid around his neck. Her faint moan sent a jolt of pleasure straight to Spike's groin. When they finally drew apart, they were both panting as if they'd run a marathon.
"Y'know, my crypt isn't that far..."
Buffy pressed her forehead to his. "I can't. It's late, and I promised Willow I'd be home before she went to sleep." She winced in regret. "She's been having a hard time since Tara moved out. Dawn, too. They need me."
"I need you," Spike all but whined. It had been over a week since the incident with the forgetting spell—and subsequent deepening of their relationship—and since then they'd hardly done more than some intense, heavy makeout sessions before Buffy's sense of obligation sent her back home to her heartbroken friend and younger sister. Spike wasn't sure how much more of this he could take.
Buffy gently disentangled herself from his embrace. "I'm sorry. I really don't wanna go—"
"Then don't."
"I have to." She planted one last, brief kiss on his lips before walking away.
"You're a tease, you know that, Slayer?" Spike called after her, only half joking, "Get a fella's motor revvin', let the tension marinate a couple of days, then bam! Crown yourself the ice queen."
"Need a few more metaphors for that little mix?" Buffy tossed over her shoulder.
Spike growled.
"See ya tomorrow night for patrol," Buffy called back, "I love you."
Spike watched her disappear around the corner, then muttered solemnly, "Love you more, pet."
He shoved his hands into his duster pockets and made his way towards Restfield. Since the first time Buffy declared her love for him he'd been living in a state of euphoric dread. The dread part was due mostly to the suspicion that Buffy's sudden change of heart might be nothing more than her mind's way of trying to deal with yet another traumatic event in her life, i.e. the sudden loss and then regaining of all her memories at once. She'd told him that she was now able to remember her time in Heaven, and how she'd been able to witness and even experience his entire life. That she fell in love with him and chose to leave Heaven to be with him. It was a romantic notion that appealed to the William part of him, and more than a little bolstering to the ego, but Spike couldn't ignore the doubts that continued to gnaw at him. If all this was just some psychological defense mechanism for her, then it was only a matter of time before she recovered her senses and fled from him in disgust. Probably with a hard kick to the bollocks for good measure.
Spike uttered a self-deprecating snort. He finally got what he wanted, the Slayer's heart, and all he could think about was how he was going to lose her. Bloody idiot. Don't think about it. Just focus on now. Right now, she's all yours. He would try to focus on that, hold on to every moment, so the memories would sustain him in the future, when memories were all he'd have left.
Buffy had expected to find Willow moping in front of the TV like she had every night since Tara left. Instead, Buffy was shocked to discover that her friend had finally managed to change Amy the rat back into Amy the girl. It was so weird seeing their old classmate as a human once again. Though not half as weird as it was for Amy.
"Hey." Buffy entered the living room, finding Amy sitting on the couch with a plate of cookies on her lap and the TV on. "How you doin'? You need anything?"
Amy hit the mute button on the TV remote. "No, thanks. Good cookies." She smiled. An awkward silence fell between them for a moment. "Um, sorry about your mom."
"Thanks."
Amy shook her head in dismay. "It's crazy, all the things that have happened since I went away."
"No kidding," Buffy snorted. Just listing the things that happened in the last few months was enough to make her head spin, and she'd been there for it!
"Snyder got eaten by a snake," Amy recited, "the high school got destroyed."
"Oh, Gatorade has a new flavor. Blue."
"See? Head spinning." Amy shook her head again. "People getting frozen, Willow's dating girls, and did you hear about Tom and Nicole?"
Buffy frowned. "People getting frozen?"
Amy picked up the remote and turned the volume up again on the TV. A nondescript reporter was shown standing in front of a building surrounded by flashing police lights. "—in critical, yet stable, condition as local authorities continue their investigation into the robbery that left one man frozen solid. Live from the museum, Brian Morris, K-OUS."
Buffy's eyes widened in astonishment.
"Weird," Amy muttered.
There was quite a crowd gathered in front of the museum. And for whatever reason, they all seemed to be within the six-foot height range. Buffy hopped up and down a couple of times, trying to see over their shoulders, before she gave up and squeezed her way through the crowd of onlookers. Sometimes, she really wished becoming the Slayer had included gaining a couple more inches of height along with the super strength and healing.
Buffy reached the front row just as the paramedics were wheeling the frozen security guard out on a dolly. It looked comical, like something out of a cheesy movie. The poor guy was like a statue. It was a wonder he was still alive.
Realizing she wouldn't get anything more out of the scene while it was so busy, Buffy left the museum grounds and headed back for home. Just as the flashing lights were fading behind her, Spike suddenly appeared in her path.
"Well, well, well," the vampire drawled, "Look who decided to show up."
"What're you doing here?"
Spike schooled his features into an innocent expression. "Well, y'know a man was frozen alive in there." He pointed towards the museum. "A little compassion, luv."
Buffy smirked. "So, you're here out of the goodness of your heart."
"Sure. Why else would I show up?" Spike gave her a sly look.
Buffy smiled and looped her arm with his. "Since you're here, walk me home?"
"Wouldn't be much of a gentleman if I didn't give my lady an escort."
They strolled in comfortable silence together, neither one of them in a hurry to reach their destination.
"Any ideas what kind of demon could've done it?" Buffy finally asked.
Spike shook his head. "Not a clue. But there's a lot of demons out there I don't know about. Can't rule out witches or sorcerers, either."
"Right," Buffy sighed. Looked like a long day of research was ahead of her. Joy.
"How's the Little Bit?" Spike asked.
"Fine. Been keeping to herself lately, since Tara left." She perked up a little. "Oh! Willow fixed Amy."
The vampire frowned in confusion. "You mean that pet rat of hers?"
Oh, right. Spike never met Amy when she was a human. Buffy ran through the story of how Amy dabbled in magic when they were in high school, and when the Hansel-and-Gretel demon brainwashed all the parents into staging a witch hunt, Amy turned herself into a rat to avoid getting burned at the stake. "And she's been stuck like that ever since. 'Til now, anyway."
Spike shook his head, chuckling. "Trapped in a rodent's body. Daft bint."
"It was either that or wind up as barbecue," Buffy argued.
"'S what happens when you play around with magic," Spike warned, "There's always consequences."
Buffy pursed her lips, thinking of Willow's growing obsession with the dark arts.
A sudden blow to her back sent Buffy sprawling on the pavement. She rolled and leapt to her feet to find a fledgeling vampire charging towards her. Spike was busy fending off a couple of others. Buffy grabbed her stake from its sheath at the small of her back and quickly dispatched the vamp attacking her. She then ran over and staked another while Spike wrestled with the last one. Buffy tried to rush in and help, only to get an elbow to the face for her trouble.
"Sorry!" Spike yelled, driving a stake he'd retrieved from his coat pocket into the last vamp's chest. As the creature disintegrated, he hurried over to Buffy's side. "You alright?"
"Yeah. Nose is intact." She grinned ruefully. "How's your head?"
Spike blinked in surprise. "Uh...fine."
"Good." Buffy glanced behind her. "We're just a block from my house. Why don't you go ahead and head back to your crypt? I'll try to see you tomorrow, if I don't get swamped researching this new big bad." She stood up on tiptoe and planted a quick kiss on his lips. "Bye."
"Yeah," Spike replied vaguely. He was hardly aware of the Slayer's departure, too distracted by this shocking new revelation. The chip hadn't fired when he accidentally hit Buffy. Not even a tingle. How the bloody hell was that possible? Was it broken? He needed to find out for sure.
Spike made his way downtown. Even this late at night, in this moderate-sized town, the place was bustling. For the first time in quite a while, Spike gazed at the people around him with a predator's eye. "Look at all the goodies."
When was the last time he even felt the urge to kill? He couldn't remember. Truth was, he didn't really want to now, even with the possibility that he actually could. Buffy wouldn't like it. Didn't matter that there were ways to ensure she never found out. Just the thought doing something that would upset Buffy was enough to quell any killer urges. Was this what having a conscience was like? Bloody hell, it was annoying!
His eyes lit on a young woman standing alone by the curb, shoulders hunched against the cold. She checked her watch with a look of frustration, then began to make her way down the street, away from the crowds. Spike followed at a distance until he saw her turn at a deserted backstreet. He closed the distance between them, his boots not making a sound.
That's right, he told himself, You remember how this goes. Creature of the night here, yeah? Some people forget that. Think you're housebroken.
His nostrils flared as he took in his prey's scent. She smelled of perfume and deodorant and flowery shampoo, and underneath all that, of warm, living blood.
I know what I am. I'm dangerous. I'm evil.
A breeze swept the woman's hair back and to the side, revealing the slope of her neck. Spike felt as if his palms were sweaty, even though as a vampire he hardly ever broke a sweat.
I am a killer. That's what I do. I kill. And yeah, maybe it's been a long time, but it's not like you forget how. You just...do it. And now I can again, all right? So...here goes.
Spike morphed into his game face.
Just do it. You don't have to drain her. Just feed. Prove you've still got teeth.
"This might hurt a little," he murmured, then lunged. The woman screamed in fear a fraction of a second before Spike yelled and reeled away, clutching his head as pain lanced through his skull. His erstwhile victim threw a terrified glance his way and took off running. Spike slumped against a nearby dumpster. "What the hell is going on?"
Nothing else for it; Spike needed to get his chip looked at. Fortunately, he happened to know a tech geek who wasn't too hard to intimidate.
Spike spent a restless day in his crypt wearing a rut in the floor with his constant pacing. The sun had barely set when he finally dashed outside and made his way to the right house. His keen ears picked up the voice of his quarry, along with a couple of others, coming from the basement. Luckily, the basement had outside access. He yanked open the doors, startling the three young men inside. As he stalked towards them, the trio hastily backed away.
"Hello? It's called knocking," the blonde of the group admonished.
Spike loomed over the tallest of the three, the man named Warren. The vampire grinned and rapped his knuckles against Warren's head. "Knock knock, robot boy. You need to look at my chip."
"Is that, like, British slang or something?" the shortest of the group asked, "'Cause, we're not—"
"In my head," Spike growled impatiently, "The chip in my head."
"We're kinda in the middle of something," Warren said.
"Well, you can play holodeck another time. Right now, I'm in charge."
"Yeah?" Warren tried his best to look assertive. "What're you gonna do if we don't especially feel like playing your— Wait, what are you doing?"
Spike had wandered over to a table displaying some of the many, many sci-fi paraphernalia to be found in this geeks' den. He picked up an action figure from its stand and held it in both hands like a twig he was about to snap in two. "Examine my chip, or else Mister..." he glanced at the nameplate on the display stand, "Fett here is the first to die."
The boys could not have looked more horrified if he'd threatened their firstborn.
"Hey! All-All right. Let's not—Let's not do anything crazy here," the short one stammered.
The blonde squeaked, "That's a limited edition 1979 mint condition Boba Fett!"
"Alright, dude, chill," Warren tried to talk the vampire down, "You can still make this right. You know you don't wanna do this."
Spike rolled his eyes at the dramatics. "What I want is answers, nimrod."
"Right. But you don't wanna hurt the Fett. Because, man, you're not comin' back from that. You know, you don't just do that and walk away!"
No wonder this idiot needed to build his own girlfriend. "That right? Let's find out." He made as if to break the toy in half.
Warren flung up both hands. "Wa-uh, one second!" He and his friends held a quick confab while Spike paced back and forth, tossing the action figure from one hand to the other as he waited. Though his vampire hearing was more than up to the task of listening in on their furtive whispers, he didn't bother. If he had, things would've gone very differently for everyone down the road.
Having apparently reached an agreement, the three nerds turned to address him. "I think we can work something out," Warren said, "I'll take a look at your chip. It'll be a deal. We'll scratch your back, you scratch—"
"I'm not scratching your anything," Spike interrupted, "You do what I tell you. That's the deal. Deal?"
He didn't even need to make it sound all that threatening. Warren instantly caved. "Deal."
Satisfied, Spike tossed the hostage toy over to the blonde geek. The guy fawned over it, practically in tears. "Okay. It's okay. It'll be fine."
Spike rolled his eyes and followed Warren over to a makeshift lab.
"Lie down here," Warren indicated a worktable.
Spike shrugged out of his duster and lay down, hands behind his head. Warren attached a couple of electrodes to the vampire's temples, then ran some kind of hand scanner over his head. There were a lot of blinking lights and blippy noises, most of which Spike suspected were just for effect, then Warren set the scanner aside and removed the 'trodes.
"Okay, it'll take a few minutes to analyze the readings. You, uh, just make yourself comfortable." The tech wiz indicated a lounging area nearby. The other two guys were already sitting together on a couple of the chairs, the blonde one still cradling the action figure in his hands. Spike put his coat back on and seated himself in a comfortable looking chair.
After a few minutes of bored silence, the blonde guy asked, "You're English, right?"
Spike threw him a sidelong glare. "Yeah."
"I've seen every episode of Doctor Who," the geek declared proudly, "Not Red Dwarf, though, 'cause, um..."
"'Cause it's not out yet on DVD," the short one said.
The blonde nodded in agreement. "Right. It's not out yet on...DVD," his sentence trailed off feebly.
Spike stared at them for a moment, then bellowed, "Warren!"
The techie hurried over with a sheaf of papers in hand. "Here I am! Here."
"Bloody hell, get on with it, then." Spike snagged the papers from him and scrutinized the incomprehensible numbers and graphs. He sighed and handed them back. "Help me out here, Spock. I don't speak loser."
"Okay, well, um... Your chip works fine," Warren shrugged.
That certainly wasn't the answer the vampire expected. "There's gotta be something wrong—"
"No, no," Warren stated emphatically, "Listen... I don't know what that thing does. I'd like to."
Spike gave him a warning look. No way in hell was he letting these idiots know he was toothless.
"B-But whatever it is, it works fine," Warren hastened to assure him, "There's no deterioration of the signal. It's still coming through in a steady pulse, which it's supposed to..." He backed away nervously as Spike rose from his seat, looming over him.
"If you're lying to me—" the vampire growled.
"No! It's all right here," he pointed at the papers, "I mean, it is. It's really not that hard to figure out if you just... What?"
Spike's expression had taken on a faraway look as the full implications of what he'd just learned began to sink in. A slow grin made its way across his face. Warren shuddered at the sight. Spike's attention abruptly returned to him. "You tell anyone about this..."
"I-I promise. Wh-Who would I tell? I don't even know what this is about."
"It's about the rules having changed." Spike marched over to the stairs leading to the basement's exit, leaving the bewildered trio behind. "Everything's different now," he murmured to himself.
Spike was elated. With this knowledge, Buffy's change in attitude towards him, falling in love with him, finally made sense. It wasn't some temporary coping mechanism as he'd feared. Red hadn't been as successful at her resurrection spell as everyone believed; Buffy was different. "Nothing wrong with me," Spike grinned, "Something wrong with her."
Buffy's expectation of a long and boring day of research proved well founded. She, Xander, and Anya spent pretty much the entire day and a big part of the night poring through dusty, painfully dull books trying to find anything fitting the description of a diamond-stealing ice-monster. So far, the only thing remotely like that was a creature Xander discovered which turned out to be a character in a D&D manual.
This was one of those times when she felt Giles's absence the most. Buffy was sure he would've found whatever they were looking for by now and had a nice presentation ready, complete with the preferred killing methods. We suck at research, she thought despairingly.
The mood didn't improve much when, while taking a breather from the reading, the subject of Willow and her ever more disturbing reliance on magic came up. Buffy didn't like the thought of sweet, reliable, level-headed Willow becoming drunk on power and losing control of herself. It was a relief when the phone rang, interrupting the discussion. Buffy practically ran to answer it.
"Hello, Magic Box!" she chirped.
"Slayer."
Buffy frowned. "Spike?"
"Meet me at the cemetery. Twenty minutes. Come alone."
"Spike?" she repeated, bewildered.
An impatient sigh echoed through the receiver. "Bloody hell. Yes, it's me."
"You're...calling me on the phone?" The vampire had never bothered to do that before. He always preferred to just show up.
"Just be there," Spike snapped.
"Why? D'you have a lead on this frost-monster thingie?"
"Something like that, yeah. Thought you might be up for a little grunt work."
Buffy chewed her lip. "I dunno if I can. We still have some books we haven't looked through yet."
"I'll be waiting," Spike said, then hung up. Buffy returned the phone to its hook and walked back over to the book-laden table.
"So, what'd Captain Peroxide want?" Xander asked.
"He just wanted to see if I wanted to patrol for the monster."
"Maybe you should," her friend shrugged, "Give your brain a rest."
"And leave all the fun to you two?" Buffy snorted, "Not a chance."
By the time they finally decided to pack it in for the night, she wished she'd taken Xander's suggestion and blown off the book work. Her eyes were strained and her shoulders ached from sitting hunched over so long.
"Something about all this," she sighed, "All the things that have happened lately. The bank robbery, the jewelry heist."
"Exploding lint," Xander added.
Buffy nodded. "Is it me, or do those things seem really..."
"Lame?" Anya supplied.
"Well, I was gonna go with unusual, but yeah." She shook her head. "I dunno. I'll do a quick patrol tonight and after a good night's sleep, hopefully, we can solve this tomorrow."
The others offered their weary agreement.
"Good night, guys."
"Night," the couple echoed, and the three of them parted ways; Anya and Xander to their apartment, and Buffy towards her usual patrol route.
She was cutting through a poorly lit alley near some rundown buildings when a dark figure stepped into her path. "Slayer."
"Spike!" She jumped. It said something about her level of tiredness that she hadn't even sensed him. "What're you doing here?"
"You never showed," the vampire accused.
"Well, I told you I was still doing research. Fat lotta good that did," she muttered, "So, what about you? Hear anything about a frost-monster who eats diamonds?"
"No." There was a strange intensity to the way he was staring at her.
Buffy frowned. "You okay?"
"There's something I need to show you."
"What?"
Without warning, Spike lashed out and punched her shoulder. Buffy stumbled back, more startled than hurt. "What the hell are you—"
"Oh, the pain," Spike uttered without a trace of sincerity, "The pain...is gone. Guess what I just found out. Looks like I'm not as toothless as we thought, sweetheart."
Buffy gaped at him. "How?"
Spike grinned. "Don't you get it? Don't you see? You came back wrong."
"Th-There's gotta be something wrong with the chip—"
"No," he shook his head, "It's not me, it's you. Just you, in fact. Chip works fine with other humans. You're the one that's changed. That's why this," he punched her other shoulder, "doesn't hurt me."
Buffy started to tremble. "I...I'm not..."
Seeing how upset she was getting, Spike let his tone soften the slightest bit. "This isn't a bad thing, luv."
"How can you say that?" she all but shouted, "I could be changing into some kind of evil thing and not even know it!"
"And how's that make you feel?"
"Scared!" she cried, "And-and disgusted and—"
"Guilty?" Spike cocked an eyebrow.
Buffy opened her mouth to shout at him, then paused as she realized what he was getting at. "Y-Yeah. Guilty." Her shoulders sagged in relief. "I still have a soul."
Spike stepped closer to her, a broad grin on his shadowed face. "You're not turning evil, luv. What this does mean," he widened his stance, "is we're on equal terms, now. You hit me, I hit you back."
"I'm not gonna hit you."
"You sure about that?" He cocked his head. "You telling me you don't miss it? The fighting? I bloody well do." He grinned, tongue curled behind his teeth. "Those times we danced were some of the best fights of my life. Never knew whether I'd win or lose with you. There's no better high than that; pitting yourself against someone every bit as strong and fast as you, never knowing what the outcome'll be." His grin broadened. "Tell me you don't wish you had a sparring partner worthy of you."
Buffy unconsciously mimicked his stance, feet apart, shoulders squared. She remembered the times the two of them fought, and aside from the whole trying to kill each other part, she had to admit those fights were some of the most exciting she'd ever had. More than once, while working out in the training room, she'd wished she had somebody to spar with. Someone she didn't always have to hold herself back from damaging.
Spike heard her rising heartbeat, smelled her growing excitement. He raised both his fists. "C'mon, Slayer. You know you wanna dance."
A slow, feral smile edged its way across her face. Hands curling into hard fists, she lunged.
To an outsider, the ensuing clash would have looked incredibly brutal. They held nothing back, not because they wanted to hurt each other, but because they knew how much they could take. And they could take a lot.
For the first time since her resurrection, Buffy felt completely free. She released all her fear, aggravation, and pain in the powerful blows she rained down on her opponent. And she easily shook off the kicks and punches inflicted on her in turn. Spike was right, it was a dance. A deadly, primal, glorious dance. She didn't realize until that moment how much she'd missed it. Missed facing off with Spike as an equal. He helped her tap into the darker side of herself; the part of her she'd always been secretly ashamed of, because she enjoyed it so much. But it was where her strength came from. It was what made her the Slayer.
They fought their way further down the alley and slammed into the door of an abandoned tenement. The door splintered from the impact and the two combatants tumbled into the building. If anything, once inside, their fighting's intensity increased. A kick to Buffy's midsection sent her flying into a wall, denting it severely and sending cracks radiating from floor to ceiling. Buffy flung Spike across the room and his body collided with a fireplace, shattering bricks and sending mortar dust flying. They slammed each other against walls, into support beams. The old building groaned and shuddered as if in pain.
Spike had Buffy pinned against the half-demolished stairs, laughing wickedly. Buffy punched him in the jaw. He responded with a swift backhand, grabbed her by the collar of her denim jacket, and yanked her close. "Don't look so serious, pet. I'm not planning on hurting you...much," he taunted.
"You haven't even come close to hurting me," Buffy countered with a daring grin.
"Afraid to give me the chance?"
Buffy knocked his arms away, grabbed him, and slammed him up against a wall.
He sneered at her. "You afraid I'm gonna—"
Buffy cut him off with a hard, devouring kiss. They clutched at each other, Buffy's fist inadvertently punching through the wall. Spike spun them around, shoved Buffy against the wall. Huge cracks formed in the plaster. The building's shudders grew in violence as its aged walls began to collapse from the abuse. Buffy shoved Spike away from her, chased after him as he staggered. An overhead beam fell on the spot where they'd stood an instant before. Spike's back impacted with another crumbling wall and Buffy resumed their brutal kissing. He grabbed the backs of her thighs and lifted her up, her long skirt rucked to her hips as her legs wrapped around his waist. Even over the noise of the building demolishing itself, the sound of of Spike's fly being unzipped was almost explosive. In seconds Buffy's small hand freed him from his jeans. She pushed aside her thong underwear and impaled herself on him.
Their kiss ended with a gasp and their violent actions abruptly halted. They gazed at each other in stunned amazement, Spike's eyes blinking rapidly as his mind struggled to comprehend that this was really happening. Wordlessly, Buffy began to move, soft gasps escaping her open mouth. Spike pulled her into another kiss and turned them around until her back was pressed to the wall. He used the added leverage to thrust deeper into her. His mouth left hers to suck at her neck. Buffy groaned, one hand gripping the back of his neck, the other scrambling to find a handhold on the wall behind her. A sudden jolt of the unstable building sent Spike stumbling back, Buffy still wrapped around him. He lost his balance and fell, their joined bodies crashing through the floor and landing with a hard thud in the basement below.
They didn't feel it, didn't see the building tumbling down around them. For Spike there was only Buffy, her hands on either side of his head, leaning over him as she rode him. And for Buffy there was only Spike, his blue eyes gazing up at her in wondrous rapture.
