"Love you, too," they called simultaneously. They gave each other curious looks. She was blushing, and he knew on the inside, he was, too.
"Do you?" she asked. He nodded sheepishly. She smiled, but it faded quickly. Her head dropped but only for a second. He placed a finger under her chin and pushed it back up.
"It's okay that you don't. I've known I've loved you for a while. You've only realized you don't hate me tonight," he chuckled.
"I think I can, though. Love you, I mean. Now that I don't hate you, I can see that it wouldn't be hard to fall for you."
He grinned and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her in for a passionate kiss. "You don't mind me saying it, do you? You don't care if I say, 'I love you, Buffy Summers,'?" he asked. His eyes pleaded that she say no.
"Honestly... No, I don't mind. It's nice to hear, even if I feel like I should tell you that you don't. How am I to know how you feel when I'm not sure myself..."
He couldn't stop himself from kissing her again. He grinned, as he pulled away. She seemed too reluctant to stop. "Best be off," he said.
She frowned, but nodded. "Yeah, I need some sleep. It's been a long day, and tomorrow's only going to be worse."
"Why's that?" he asked.
"Murphy's Law. Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. It's the perfect motto for me," she chuckled.
"Well today has been pretty great. And for me, tomorrow's only going to be better."
"And why's that?"
"Because tomorrow, everyone gets to find out your my girl. Sod the world and the rest who think we're wrong or stupid. They're not us and they can't tell us how we should be."
"Fair enough. Good night, Spike."
"Good night, love." He sighed and reached into his pocket, to come out empty handed. He didn't really feel like smoking. "Well, I hope Harm finally left," he said as he walked out the front door.
"She's still at your place?" she asked, not bothering to keep the jealousy out of her voice.
"No, love. I told her to leave Sunnydale and to go bother Angel in LA. I just hope she listened to me," he explained.
They said good night again, and she locked the door, again, after watching him walk down the sidewalk.
As she walked up the stairs, she felt exhaustion creep into her system, and everything from the past 24 hours hit her like a ton of bricks. She'd been stabbed by her own stake, lived a small portion of Spike's undead life, made out with Spike, found out her mother was sick, broken up with Riley, made out with Spike some more, gotten caught by Dawn, and been told by Spike that he loved her. Damn, what a day, she thought as she stepped into her room.

Habitually, she started to undress until she remembered something Spike said. She walked over to her window and searched for some sign that Spike was watching her. Her eyes stopped on the tree he had punched earlier and smiled. She could barely see him standing there, but she knew it was him that was standing there. She turned away from the window and pulled her shirt over her head. She grinned like a Cheshire as she unhooked her bra, and lowered the blinds as she pulled it off. Served him right for watching her.

She changed into her pajamas and flicked her bedside light on, and she began searching through some of her literature books she had used for school. She found the one she thought was the right one and flipped it over to the index. "Effulgent... Effulgent... Eff... Ah ha!" she quickly flipped to the page and read the poem aloud.

"My soul is wrapped/ in harsh repose,/ midnight descends/ in raven-colored clothes/ but soft... behold!/ A sunlight beam cutting a swath of/ glimmering gleam./ My heart expands,/ 'tis grown a bulge in it,/ inspired by your beauty... effulgent." She flipped through several pages before finding the authors' name and biography.

William Pratt. 1853-1880. There is little known about Pratt. He was born in London, and it is known he studied at Oxford before coming to his untimely end at the young age of twenty-seven. This is the only poem of his ever discovered and published.

Buffy closed the book and smiled. She knew she'd read those words somewhere before. She had even written a paper on it. She smiled as she laid on her bed. For now, her worries were forgotten, and she was more content with her life than she had been in a while. Whatever happened tomorrow, would be dealt with when it happened. And it made her happy when she realized she had someone she could count on to be there when she needed him. Spike. A smile was on her face as sleep overcame her.