CHAPTER 13 - SPIKE GETS LUCKY

Tuesday Afternoon

Spike was masterful, original and innovative. Maximum pleasure delivered with minimum permanent injury. Then somewhere in the process the bloody poet escaped. The next thing he knew he was babbling sweet nothings and they were making tender love.

A century of sophistication and they ended up loving like two giddy teenagers rolling on the grass.

* * *

It felt strange when Buffy woke up. She felt relaxed and lazy and very, very satiated. And, how interesting, there was an arm around her and a pale hand cupping her breast. In fact, she woke up thoroughly cuddled with a warm delicious man spooned against her back. It took her a moment to get oriented. She was in the clearing in the woods with Spike.

She was cuddling with Spike! How's that for amazing! She snuggled closer. Here he was, human instead of vampire, but he still smelled delicious. And, her hand moved backwards, he had those lovely lean muscles. He was sleeping next to her but certain portions of his anatomy woke up.

She rolled over so that she could watch him sleep. Her movement must have wakened him up. His poor battered face was finally starting to heal, most of the swelling had gone done except for the new bruise on his jaw he had gotten from "male-bonding." As she watched, his eyes began to open and she was once again struck by how impossibly blue they were.

He looked shy, almost hesitant. She suddenly realized that he was expecting her "kick him in the head and run out, virtue fluttering."

It hurt thinking she had treated him like that. He had been a monster but somewhere in the monster had been this man that she was with. So she smiled at him, "Wow!"

Spike started to relax, at least, as much as any man could with a beautiful naked Slayer stretched full length alongside his body. "Wow yourself, luv." OK, not great pillow talk, but it beat " I knew the only thing better than killing a slayer would be f-."

She smiled at him. God, she was glowing. She was so incredibly beautiful in the sunlight. She leaned forward and kissed him. Not a passionate kiss. It was a tender loving kiss, the type that would have put old William the Poet into cardiac arrest. He kissed back and let his hand play interesting games with her breast. She reached over to hug him and . . .

"Bloody Hell, woman!!" He flinched away, his back on fire. "What the bleeding, bloody, soddin' . . ?" It didn't help that the love of his existence started to laugh her head off.

"Oh, Spike! Oh my God, Spike! I'm so sorry." The sincerity of that last comment was blunted when she started to laugh.

He twisted back and saw his glowing red posterior.

"Oh Spike, you are so sunburned!"

"What the buggering hell did you expect, Slayer! I haven't been in the soddin' sun in a century. God, this hurts!!"

Buffy tried to look sympathetic, but cruel woman that she was, was unable to keep a straight face. "At least we made it hurt in all the right places!"

Spike proved that you didn't have to be a vampire to growl.

So much for sympathetic, the Slayer was laughing at him. "I can't wait to see if you freckle."

" I am a pasty pale Englishman. I do not freckle. My skin is going to fall off in sheets. What ever made you want to make love in the burning sun, Buffy?"

He probably should have been furious at her laughter, but she looked so damn pretty. He had seen so little laughter lately. Then she wiped her eyes and sighed. "Oh God, Spike. It is such a relief to be able to love you." She hugged him and it was (almost) worth the pain.

He wanted to say something, probably babble something stupid that would ruin everything. But Buffy's face had become serious, as if she realized what she had said. She kissed him quickly. "I think we have something at home that might help the sunburn. Oh, and for the future, Spike, try and find sunscreen 5000+. You'll need it."

They dressed, with only minor groaning from Spike, and walked back to Revello Drive. Buffy was happy and the conversation was light, with jokes, snarky remarks and lots of laughter. There were moments when Spike found himself unable to believe that this was really happening. I'm walking in the sunlight, holding hands with Buffy. She said she's able to love me. This is so bloody unreal. He had lived over a century and experienced many pleasures, but this moment of pure joy was unlike anything he had ever known.

Back at the house, Buffy cheerfully got into her role as nurse. He stripped off and let her rub ointment on all the right places and kiss where it hurt. Her version of nursing didn't match anything he had noticed going on at the Los Angeles hospital, but it certainly made the patient feel better.

It was only when she realized that she was going to be late for work, that they finally got out of bed. He offered to walk her to the Doublemeat Palace, but she had him stay for Dawn.

If Buffy's slayer dream was right, Dawn would probably be safe until Friday, but he didn't want to take chances. He had to see Clem and took her with him. Clem lived in the good part of town, but he wanted to avoid having her out after dark.

It was still daylight, so Clem looked sleepy when they arrived. Still he tried to be a gracious host. He wasn't terribly familiar with the teen set, but he brought out some videos for Dawn to look at while he and Spike were transacting business. "I have Titanic. I heard teenaged girls like Leo."

Spike raised an eyebrow, and the droopy-skinned demon got slightly defensive. "Sophie likes it. Besides everyone dies at the end, so it's not too bad."

Dawn had been looking through the other tapes. "Attack of the Clones? It's not even out yet!"

Clem had the grace to look chagrinned. "Actually it's a bootlegged version. I have connections."

With Dawn cheerfully ensconced in front of the television, Spike and Clem got down to business. Clem was a bit startled about his buddy becoming human, but was too easygoing to ask many questions. Getting false IDs through the demon connection was much quicker and cheaper than depending on human sources. With vengeance (er . . . justice) demons and other denizens infiltrating human society, there was always a vast supply of counterfeited records available.

In about ninety minutes, Spike was the proud owner of a birth certificate, passport, social security card, and driver's license. When he decided what job he would apply for, they could come up with some fake college and job experience documents. It was all a bit pricey and would have been cheaper if he could have paid in kittens, but he had figured it would have been hard to explain the mewing to Dawn.

Dawn was disappointed that they had to leave. She asked Clem if he would let her borrow the tape to finish it. Clem looked over at Spike, Spike nodded and Clem agreed. "Just don't let anyone see it. It would tick off George."

"You know George Lucas?"

Clem shrugged. "Well you know, it wasn't really all computer graphics. Check out the bar scene in Star Wars, you can see me a couple of times in that dark corner."

The two of them stopped by the grocery and picked up the night's dinner. Willow was home from college when they arrived and she and Dawn fixed up spaghetti and a salad. Spike had a second helping of garlic bread.

After dinner, the girls worked on their studies and Spike went out into the back yard. He had picked up a pack a pack of cigarettes at the store and was determined to relearn how to smoke. He was slightly amazed how bad the tobacco tasted to his new human taste buds but some vices were worth keeping.

He stared into the night sky and tried to figure out what he had ever done in his century of existence to deserve a day like today.

* * *

Spike tried to stay up until the Slayer returned from patrolling. Unfortunately the past three nights of nightmares were catching up with him and he didn't even realize she had arrived. He woke up as she was pulling off his boots.

"Slayer?"

"Shhh. Let's get these boots off and you can lay down."

He reached lazily up and tried to pull her down for a kiss. "You're beautiful, Slayer."

"I'm greasy and I have dust all over me. I need a shower."

"Want me to wash your back?"

She smiled slightly. "We'd have to be quiet. I don't want to wake Dawn."

Part of him watched the smile, wondering why all this was happening. In the past, using him had been a convenient way for her to escape her problems. Why had the Slayer agreed to so much, so fast?

The other part of him reacted like any other male on earth would when offered a chance to share a shower with the beautiful naked woman he loved. Grinning like an idiot, he allowed the Slayer to take his hand and lead him upstairs.

Sometimes even the best days can be followed by better nights.

TBC

I should be able to get the next chapter posted sometime Sunday evening. It'll be less fluffy, more violent. But I thought after Seeing Red we could all use a light chapter.