Buffy woke up with her head on Spike's chest. She rubbed her cheek against the cool smoothness and realized he was breathing. She sat up and looked at him carefully. He was asleep and breathing.

"That's new." Buffy grinned and stroked his chest with her fingers. His eyes opened and he stretched like a cat.

"Good morning, Luv." He smiled at her and reached up to pull her in for a kiss. She slid back down beside him and let her hands trace small circles on his skin as their tongues tangled. It was so easy to be with him like this. She pulled back and stared into his eyes with a smile.

"We need to make them like you. I don't want it to be a battle, but we have to make them accept you." She said.

"If the watcher doesn't gag each time I kiss you, we're doing fine, Luv." Spike pushed her hair back behind her ear. "Your mum seems to have come around a bit. The others will take a bit of time. You shouldn't fret about it."

"Your killing off your family every night. None of them get that." She ran her leg up over his so he couldn't escape the conversation.

"You're my family now."

"I know that, but you've had to kill other beings you care about to protect us. It can't be easy." She pressed her hand over his heart. "You're changing, but you've always had more heart than the others. You took care of Drusilla when she couldn't take care of herself. You were friends with others."

"I will dust everyone of them that comes against us, Buffy. Members of the order are stronger than most vampires. We can't afford to indulge my softer emotions. I never could. I had to be vicious to survive with them. I'm more than willing to be ferocious to survive them." He flipped them and stared down into her eyes intensely. "I want this life with you, and you, Dearest Heart, are worth it."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him down to her lips. The coolness of his breath across her lips was intoxicating. She paused and shivered before sealing their lips together. He ran his hands along her body, teasing her nerve endings into a frenzy. She shrugged off the blankets and kicked them away, enjoying the unfettered slide of his body against hers. He chuckled against her lips, pulled away, and settled next to her on the bed.

"I love you, Buffy. You've given me real life. I don't mean the odd heartbeat. This world passed by me, nothing but a blur. I was removed from it. I tried to stay in it, but as the time flows by you it gets harder. You've given me back my place in it. If it lasts a minute or centuries, I know where I belong."

"You know it won't be centuries, not with me." She looked down and traced her finger across the skin of his chest. "I tied you back to the world, but I don't have forever. One falls and another rises, and I've fallen once."

"Might be different with me around. You have another strong arm at your back. Might have decades and decades." He curled his finger under her chin and raised her eyes back to him. "We have a family to protect. Maybe we will get to see it grow. I'd like to be an uncle type. Get to indulge the blighters then drop them back with their parents and drag you back to bed."

"You are one freaky vampire." Buffy couldn't fight off her grin.

"Never really did fit in with the others. Had to constantly prove myself. I hated killing the weak, Luv. It made me nauseous, but the others would laugh and play." He looked away from her. "Started hunting your kind to shut them up. Kill a slayer and you are badass. In the order, brutality and ingenuity are treasured."

"They can't all be vicious. Drusilla cared for you. I saw that." Buffy bit her lip. "Angel wouldn't fight you if he could avoid it. He only killed Darla to save me. He avoided all the major players when the Master was trying to break free. He must have cared in some way. You came home beat to shit that one night because you didn't want to kill a couple of them, so I know you feel something for them."

"There are one or two that it will pain me to end, but I will do it, because protecting you is everything to me. Don't fight them and wonder if this is one I care for or not. They won't care, so you don't. Do you hear me?"

She nodded and stared into his eyes. His panic was obvious. His need to protect her was so strong. She bit her lip as he pulled her toward him in a fierce hug. Kissing the side of his neck, she licked across his scar and felt him shiver in her arms.

"I'll do what needs doing, but if you need to talk or mourn, I want to be there for you." She whispered against the delicate shell of his ear.

He shifted his body and settled between her legs. His eyes flickered for a second between colors, and she giggled as she arched her hips up to his. Wanting him to seize control and satisfy her. A decidedly wicked grin appeared on his face and he kissed the tip of her nose. She shuddered as he teased her, rubbing his cock against her but not sliding home.

"You are still evil, deliciously evil." She said against his lips. "Stop teasing me."

"Stop pouting," He grinned, and she turned her head and offered him her neck. "Bloody unfair, you know I can't resist."

She giggled as he drove his fangs and his cock into her. He stopped and released her neck to stare down into her smiling face. He looked offended.

"Am I amusing you?" He raised a single eyebrow and stared in open shock as she convulsed with laughter.

"Yeah, You amuse me, you're a clown." She chocked out as he stared down at her, completely perplexed. He tried to pull away from her and she managed to stifle the laughter. "It's from some gangster movie Xander made me watch."

"You're thinking about movies with Xander now?" He shook his head and kissed her neck. Then he slid back into her and she gasped as the pleasure took hold. "Look at me, Ma. Top of the world. Saw my own bit of gangster films."

She smiled up at him and enjoyed the moment, reveling in every touch. Soon enough they would have to deal with the world again. She arched her back and bit back a scream. Spike felt like she had given him the world, and she reveled in the times he spent making her forget about it.

"I love you, Spike." She said as he pushed her higher.

"You are my world. I love you. You are my everything."