Chapter 10 –  A Nighttime Walk

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                "It's you again." Spike took a puff of his cigarette. "Another bloody dream, I suppose?"

                "You're getting smart, Spike." The Chinese Slayer was back again, and was looking him over. "You still think you can get Buffy to love you?"

                "Not that it's your business, but yes, I do." He smirked.

                "To repeat a phrase from all your past lovers, you're beneath her." Spike twitched at those harsh, harsh words. "She would never love a monster like you."

                "You hold grudges, don't you?" he asked, trying to control his anger.

                "I'm speaking the truth." She replied. "No matter what you do, what you say—you could never be the man someone like her could love."

                "I thought I did a pretty good job tonight." He shrugged.

                "Even so, let's say you did somehow manage to get her to like you—" she stared at him with narrowed eyes. "You'll only end up hurting her in the end."

                "How so?" he asked, raising a brow.

                "She's going to be in big trouble unless you end this soon." The Slayer replied. "The things he's going to throw at you are going to be harder and harder to control."

                "Buffy said there might be another way." Spike countered.

                "There is no other way. Face it, Spike, you're not meant to be alive. Your wish has disrupted the entire fabric of every dimension known, and probably even the ones we don't know of yet." She shook her head. "You have to fix this soon or there could be catastrophic events, never mind the fact your 'love' will most likely die."

                "Why do you keep coming to me?" he asked, looking at her.

                "Because I know one day you'll figure out I'm not lying. I'm sending you back now. Why don't you think about others instead of yourself for once?"

                And then suddenly she ran at him and threw a stake into him. He gasped out in shock, and suddenly found himself sitting up in his bed, shivering slightly, but still completely alive and stake-free. It was definitely one of those times where he could really use a smoke, which he had actually quit the minute he became alive again. Nasty habit, it was. Instead, he got up and decided that he could really use some air at that moment.

                He pulled on a shirt, his duster, and his shoes and walked down the stairs and quietly out the front door. He glanced around, looking up and down the silent street, before walking off the porch and onto the sidewalk. He put his hands in his pocket and idly looked up at the clear night sky. What was he going to do? The dreams weren't just dreams, he knew at least that. Was he putting Buffy into danger senselessly? He never wanted to do that, but it seemed that he was doing that all ready—

                "What are you doing out here?" The voice made him jump, his heart along with it. He turned around and saw Buffy standing behind him, looking at him curiously.

                "B-buffy!" he stammered, surprised. "Why aren't you sleepin, luv?"

                "I heard you leaving." She replied. "Thought you were—"

                "Sneaking out to have a bit of fun?" He asked quietly.

                "I didn't say that—"

                "You were thinking it." He didn't mean to, but he found himself having a colder tone in his voice. The dream really had affected him. He sighed loudly. She raised a brow.

                "Are you all right?" she asked. He looked down silently. "William?"

                "I'm fine." He lied, shaking his head. "I'm gonna take a walk, all right?" He noticed the look she was giving him. "You could come if you want."

                She thought about this, then nodded. "Could use a walk." He shrugged at this, and they both just sort of started walking. Spike kept thinking back to that stupid dream.

                And he knew Buffy realized something was wrong. He didn't actually know what was bothering him more, the fact that he might be putting her into danger or the whole 'Buffy will never love a monster like you' speech. He wasn't a monster, right? He thought having a soul made him not so monster-like. But what did that stupid Slayer know? Still, perhaps she was right—

                "I'm still a monster." He mumbled to himself. He thought he said it lowly, but it seemed that Buffy had picked up what he had said.

                "Did you just say you're a monster?" she asked. He didn't answer, actually didn't even care she heard him. "You're not." He continued walking until his arm was grabbed. He let her turn him around to face him. "I mean it."

                "Why the sudden change of mind?" he asked, peering at her. "I mean, permit me if I'm wrong, but you couldn't even stand me a few weeks ago."

                "I—" she paused, thinking about it.

                "Well, I don't know anymore how to prove how much I love you, Slayer." He frowned slightly. "I'm a bloody poof jes like Angel now, even more human then him—with every excuse to have feelings now. You don't have that excuse anymore, and I think you know that. You keep wishing you did, but you know you don't. I'm actually thinking right now the only reason why you're being nice to me is that somewhere inside you you're feeling pretty bad for treating me like garbage you can kick around. You saw how much your comments have stung me since I fell for you and you feel like it's your duty to make yourself feel better about it by letting me get a few good moments with you. Thought maybe you could get rid of me that way."

                "It's not like that." She defended quickly. "Granted, it might have started like that, but—well, what do you expect me to think? Let me remind you how our little relationship started. It was me and you and we were trying to kill each other. You were a soulless demon with a human body. It was a bit hard to believe that you didn't have an ulterior motive, you know?"

                "But you can't say that now." He pointed out. "Yet I see the same look you've always given me. Like I'm the biggest thorn in your side. Well, guess what, Buff—I'm starting to realize you have it backwards. I don't know why I keep trying. You'll never see me as anything but a nice little toy for you to play with."

                She looked dumbfounded by his sudden outburst of emotions. He was, too, but for different reasons. He turned to stalk off, sick of all the emotions running through his head, wishing he could kill the two dead Slayers all over again for disturbing him, making him almost sorry he wished anything at all. He was sorry he even met this girl he loved so much now. She was just going to keep using him over and over again—get his hopes up only to laugh in his face in the end.

                She grabbed his arm again, trying to stop him from leaving, but he forcefully pulled it out of her grasp and kept walking. She wasn't going to get to him this time. She wasn't—he refused to be put under her spell again this time. He was going to stay mad at her for once. He was determined this time. But it seemed she had other plans in mind.

                She got him to turn around then, and before Spike could tell her to just leave him alone, his lips were suddenly assaulted by her own in a kiss he was really not ready for. He sort of staggered back after it was broken, giving her a look of utter shock. Damn she was good at figuring out how to get his temper down. He just stared at her incredulously, trying to figure out if what just happened just happened.

                "Don't go." She said softly, and he sighed loudly.

                "What do you want from me, pet? Because you're sending me a few too many signals and I'm getting' pretty confused." He shook his head. "So you explain to me this time because my head has been hurting for way too long now."

                "I'll admit it, all right? I was wrong about you." She frowned deeply, looking down. "And I'm sorry. But I can't change the past, even if I wanted too. But tonight—hell, since the minute you started helping me—I guess I just didn't want to admit to myself that you could be anything but a big jerk. Not that you aren't, of course." He rolled his eyes at this. "But—I guess—well—damn, this really sucks, you know?" He stared at her, blinking. "Not gonna make this easy on me, are you?"

                "I understand." He looked down. "Ashamed of it, eh? Don't wanna admit you could ever love me? That's fine. I don't care anymore." He started to leave again but was stopped by three words.

                "I love you." It was so soft he barely heard it, but it was there, it was out in the open. It was enough to stop him in his tracks. He turned to look at her, and she had a look of embarrassment and—and Spike never thought he'd see this—shyness. "God knows how long I've told myself how incredibly insane this is. I mean, after Angel—" she looked at him for a moment as he watched her with an intense look. "Well, you're not much like Angel, are you?"

                "Big poof, that guy is—" he trailed off.

                "Whatever." She rolled her eyes. "But, I guess—will you stop looking at me like that? God, I can't even tell you how much I love you without you annoying me!"

                "Um—oops?" he scratched his head. He couldn't help but smirk when his mind went back to that stupid dream. He wished he could tell the bloody bitch right then, laugh in her face. He moved in toward her, leaning forward, catching her unguarded lips in a sweet kiss. He had gotten what he wanted to hear out of her. At first she was a bit timid about it, like she wasn't sure how to respond to the sudden embrace, but soon she was kissing back fully, her lips meshing against his in the now quite heated kiss.

                It felt like the world was lifted off his shoulders.

                "I love you." He whispered in a husky tone as they broke away from each other, their foreheads resting against each other. She said nothing but her response was obvious when she pulled him into another kiss, shorter and less passionate then the first but was perfect in it's own way. They finally broke away completely, both sort of flushed from the sudden contact.

                "We better get back. No use givin' the neighborhood a show." He whispered. She nodded at this.

                They started walking back. Spike sort of felt like he was on cloud 9. This had better not be a dream too, that's all he kept thinking to himself. Everything was too perfect. Sadly, that made him entirely uneasy. Sad to say, his fears were answered in a not very nice way.

                "Do you hear something?" Buffy suddenly asked, Both stopped, and Spike glanced around, his uneasiness unwavering even more so now. "Hey William?"

                "Yeah?" he asked.

                "Is the sky suppose to be swirling?" he noticed she was staring up at the sky, and he did too. His mouth dropped considerably.

                "I'm taking this is one of those 'not a good sign' things." He commented tensely. A loud screeching noise echoed through the air as things started to fall out of it.

                Correction, hundreds of things were falling out of it.

                "Run." She commanded, almost eerily calm. He didn't need to be told twice as they both broke out into a sprint.

                They heard a lot of noise behind them and Spike knew they had fell to the ground all ready. It took seconds to reach the Summers household, where both basically dove into the house and closed the door behind them. There was some scratches at the door but more or less it didn't seem like a whole lot followed them.

                "I sure hope they have the vampire syndrome." Spike said, trying to catch his breath.

                "You and me both." Buffy replied. There was scratching at the window and they simutaniously looked toward it.

                "Well it's small." He said, staring at the little thing at the window. There were actually three of them, while the rest seemed to be in the street all ready creating havoc.

                It was furry, it sort of reminded him of a bat because of its thin wings. It had a humanoid body though, and it made it look like one weird looking demon. The horns just added to the effect. "It doesn't look like it can get in." She stood up. "Get Dawn down here. I'm gonna get the weapons."

                "Right." He stood up himself up and quickly made his way up the stairs. The minute he entered Dawn let out a scream. He saw it instantly, one of the things had come in through the open window. She shoved it off and he quickly jumped in and kicked it. It slammed into her wall and fell to the ground. It chattered angrily and before either of them could react it jumped out the window again. Spike made quick work to slam the window shut.

                "What the hell was that about?" Dawn demanded, looking like she was still half asleep.

                "No time to explain. Put something on and be quick about it." He said. She looked confused, but shrugged and quickly complied. She opened her closet and grabbed a sweatshirt and jeans. She just slipped them on over her usual PJs. The minute she put her shoes on he basically dragged her downstairs.

                Buffy was standing there with a nice little arsenal.

                "I just got a message from Willow." Buffy said. "We're going to the Magic Box." She glanced at Spike. "To end this."

                Spike nodded at this.