Buffy walked into Spike's crypt without knocking. Man, that felt sleazy.
Why did that feel sleazy now? She used to just kick the damn door in.
She shook her head. Spike was out, getting her little buddy Harm
dewormed. She knew he took the sewer, because his appointment was for
2:30. And, his VCR was set to record. Passions, she assumed. She pulled
the small notebook out of her purse, scribbled a quick note. She looked
around for tape. She smiled, and walked to the first aid kit, tearing
off a small piece of medical tape. Buffy taped the note to the TV
screen, knowing for sure that Spike would get it. She scurried out as
quickly as she had come, making her way home. 'Should have woken him
before you left,' she said to herself. She shrugged. He'd understand.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------
Spike walked slowly back into the crypt. He was depressed. The vet had wanted to keep Harm overnight, because of a reaction to the worming medication. He was nervous, and worried, and .... What was that on the telly?
He walked over, and pulled the piece of paper off the screen. "Spike, meet me at the park tonight at eight thirty. Don't worry. Not a date. -Buffy" He gave a small smile. Eight was in two hours. Date or not, he wanted to take a shower, wash the sewer/vet smell out of his hair and skin. He laid the note on top of the TV, his tape of Passions forgotten for the moment, and headed for the bathroom.
-========================================================================= ===========
'Drive or walk, drive or walk..', the vampire though to himself an hour and a half later. It was a cool night, so he decided to walk.
Buffy smoothed the blanket over the sandbox one more time. Then she sat on the blanket tucking her legs under herself. She hoped he liked the shirt. It was red. The pants were black. She went over the plates spread in front of her. Hotwings, normal wings. Bloomin' onion, beer, plastic champagne glasses, and votive candles leading from the path to the sandbox and all around it. Apple lipgloss!!!! She knew she forgot something! She pulled it out of her purse quickly, smoothed it on. She pulled out the sparkling grape juice she had gotten, and waited very, very nervously.
There was a strange glow coming from part of the park. If Spike had been human, he wouldn't have even seen it, but his vampire eyes were so sensitive that he could detect anything that wasn't normal night light. He walked cautiously toward the glow, relaxing when he saw the candles, and smelled Buffy nearby. He caught sight of her in the sandbox near the see-saws. "Hey," he called quietly, not wanting to surprise her.
Her head jerked up, and she gave a big smile, slightly nervous.
He approached slowly, taking in the picnic she'd laid out. His mouth watered involuntarily at the hotwings. "Dinner, I'm guessing?"
She nodded, smiled again, biting her bottom lip the whole time.
He sat on the edge of the sandbox, grinning at her. "I thought I told you not to bite your lip, luv."
She let it go, patted the blanket that covered the whole sandbox, preventing that yucky- sand-sticky-feeling, and giving it a more sweet overtone, if she did say so herself.
He took the hint and moved onto the blanket. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this impromptu meeting?" Chuckled at his own wordiness.
She gave another uneasy grin. "Dunno."
He chuckled again. "Didn't you write in your note for *me* not to be nervous? Don't you think that should go for you, too? I mean, 'not a date', right?"
'Big smile. "Right. Just.. dinner." With candles, and beer, and bubbly fake champagne, you idiot,' she derided herself. 'Way to make the comfy mood.'
"Yeah. Dinner." Picked up a hotwing, then handed it to her. "And at dinner, what is it you usually do at dinner? I think it's called... what was it? Oh! Eating." Upon hearing her thoughts, he was trying to make her feel better.
She gave a laugh, and took the hotwing from his hands, took a bite. "You're right. I forgot!"
He chuckled and took a piece of the bloomin' onion and bit into it. "And you just felt like having a picnic all of the sudden, huh?"
"Shut up." She grinned and pulled off a piece of the onion.
He laughed and ate a hotwing, liberally dipped in the ranch sauce. Reclined against a see-saw. "This is... nice. Fun. Great idea, luv."
She gave a big smile. "Thank you. How's my handsome man?"
His eyes clouded slightly. "Harmon, you mean?" He stared at the food. "He, uh, he had to stay overnight at the vet. Had a mild reaction to the deworming. Threw up. Scared me half to death. The vet's gonna keep him till tomorrow afternoon. Three pm is when I can go get him."
She nodded. "Well, we'll go get him. He'll be fine, Spike."
"I hope so." Took a bite of onion. Chewed slowly. "I'm scared for him. He's... he's never been away from me since he was small enough to fit in my hand. What if he thinks I've abandoned him? Betrayed him?" Swallowed the onion, picked up a hotwing, stared at it, then up at the stars. "Sorry. I'm not being much fun tonight."
Buffy shrugged. "You don't have to be. He doesn't. He knows he's sick, cuz if he's got worms, the worms get most of his food, not him. He knows you're taking care of him, the best way you know how."
Spike gave her a shaky smile. "Thanks, luv. You seem to be able to make me feel better about anything." He ate the hotwing in his hand. "Do you have any other plans for tonight, or is the picnic it?"
She shrugged. "My evening is clear. Well, I figure, whenever this is done, I'll do a quick sweep, but that's it."
"Actually, I've already done a sweep around Oak Park cemetery, and around my crypt. Had to do somethin' while I waited for time to meet you." Took a sip of beer.
"Oh. Then no plans."
"Good. Maybe you could come back with me? Keep me company? The crypt isn't the same without Harm."
She nodded. "Sure. I told Dawn I might not come home."
"You can still call her. In fact..." He rummaged around in his pocket for a moment, came up with a pure black cell phone. "Ta da. Like it? It's new. Some guy outside the vet's office was doing a special demonstration, and I signed up. I don't even have to pay for three months!"
She gave a small laugh. "Very cool. Very small." She took it out of his hands, and started to play with it.
"Hey! Don't hurt it, Slayer. It's delicate. You can call Dawn though. Oh, and here..." He pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket. "As of right now, you are the only one with this number. I might give it to Rupert, later. But for now, you're the only one. And don't tell Dawn I have it. I don't want her borrowing it and calling... China, or something."
She saluted. "Aye, aye." She put the slip of paper in her purse. She handed him back his phone. "I'll call her later. She's not even home yet."
He rolled his eyes, snorted, placing the phone back in his pocket. "Another 'date'? That Andrew wa- guy again?"
She smiled approvingly. "Good boy. And yeah. He's really nice." She leaned on her side, took his can and drank a small sip, and started eating the normal wings.
He grinned. "Thanks. I know. It's just... she's *my* Lil' Bit, ya know?" Tried a normal wing, made a face, ate a hotwing quickly.
She smiled. "I know she's yours. And so does Andrew. And the normal wings did NOT deserve that mean face."
He chuckled. "Thank you. I know, and I'm just not used to them, you know? Non spicy stuff, I can't really taste. Tastes like dust with texture."
"Well, some of us just can't handle the spicy-ness."
He chuckled again. "Not me. I can't taste stuff unless the main flavor is greatly exaggerated. Super sweet, super spicy, that sort of thing. Salty, like popcorn. It's the vamp tastebuds, you see. Blood is our chocolate, so regular chocolate is supposed to be boring. But, I don't know. I've always been able to taste human food. Must be another quirk." He eyed the grape juice. "Luv? Are we celebratin' something?"
Buffy ducked her head. Tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear, and said softly, "You've been back three months."
He grinned hugely, then tamped it down. "An anniversary? Really? All this for me?" He almost looked like he was blushing, but that wasn't possible, was it?
She gave a small shrug. "Well..."
He stared at the hotwing. Must be the spiciness getting to him, cause his cheeks felt hot....
She looked up at Spike shyly. The candles had to be casting a glare, because his cheeks were the lightest shade of pink.
He looked away, the annoying warm feeling embarrassing him even more. 'Look at the stars, anything...'
"Um... so... well, ya know... happy.. being back-ness?"
He let out a small laugh. "I guess 'Many Happy Returns' would sound corny, huh?" Still looking up.
She was looking down. "Yeah. Really corny."
He shook his head, looked at her, the warmth going from the outside in as he gazed at the woman he loved more than anything he'd ever known. "How do you do that?"
He chuckled. "I'm gonna quote a song here. Not mine, don't worry. Bryan Adams, actually." He stared up at the stars again, singing softly, "Nothing I have ever known, has made me feel this way, nothing I have ever seen, has made me want to stay. Here I am, ready for you, I'm torn and, I'm fallin', I hear my home callin'. Hey. I've never felt something so strong, oh no, it's like nothing I've ever known."
Her eyes burned, and she trained them steadily on his chest, not trusting to look up yet. "It's a pretty song."
"Sums up the way you make me feel, I think. Heard it in a movie a few weeks ago. Got stuck in my head till I went out and bought the soundtrack." He looked at her, then ate the last hotwing.
She tucked her hair behind her ear again. "Oh."
He leaned against the see saw again. "Would you like to talk about something, luv? Maybe you like my shirt, since you can't seem to take your eyes off it."
She slowly looked up at his blue eyes. Ones she had blackened on more than one occasion. Ones she had stared into while she made love with him, ones she had refused to look into when she did the same thing. Made a smile turn the corners of her lips. "It's a nice shirt."
Disbelieving. "Uh-huh. Want to go for a walk?"
"Yeah." She stood quickly.
He climbed to his feet. "Want to clean this up first? I'll do it for you. Since you went to all the trouble of setting it up."
She knelt again, started cleaning. "No. It's for you. I got it."
"Can't I at least help?"
She was putting things, containers, plates back into the basket. "Sure."
He began gathering up the bones from the wings, put them into a plastic bag, and stuffed them in the trash can, burying them beneath some plates and other garbage. "Don't want stray animals, dogs, cats, squirrels, finding the bones and choking on them."
She nodded. "Right." The basket was packed, and she stood, folding the blanket. "Wanna blow out the candles? You can shove them into the basket when we come back, let the wax get hard again."
He grinned, then gave her a look. "Luv, vampire. I don't breathe. What am I gonna do, stare them out?"
She gave him a look. "You do, too breathe. Nevermind, you don't. I'll get em."
He chuckled. "When do I breathe?"
She walked down her impromptu path, blowing out the candles, deciding to come back after the walk before she even touched them. She stood upright again, and crossed to him. "When you sleep, or talk, or smoke. After we tickle you..."
"I breathe in my sleep?"
"Yeah, you do. Deep and steady. Well, not when you were sick, but every other time."
He chuckled. "Ok. You've got me. And I have a pulse, too. But only when something scares the shit out of me."
She laughed. "Yeah, I know. So... Walk?"
He grinned, and offered her an elbow. "Where do you want to go, luv? Round the track?"
She hooked her arm through his. "Sure." She leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked. "Sorry."
"For what, luv?"
"I get uncomfortable when you talk about me like that."
"Like what?" He brought his other hand up and grasped her hand that was hooked through his arm.
With her free hand, she gestured behind her, to the sandbox. "Like... back there."
"Oh. You mean the song?"
She gave a shrug/nod.
"I won't do it again, if you don't want me to. I'll keep to my notebooks."
She shook her head, knowing she wasn't vocalizing right. "Sometimes... you just... look at me, like you've never seen me before, and I'm this... beautiful, new, perfect thing, and you don't know how've you've missed me." She sighed. "And sometimes, at the same time, even, you look at me, and know everything. The worst, the best, and it's still incredible and beautiful. I'm not used to that."
He smiled at her. "That's what love is. For me, anyway. What do you see, when you look at me?"
She focused intently inward, and let the words fall out of her as they came to her. "Beautiful, hard, careful, possessive. Fun, mean, tough, sweet. And new things, all the time. Things I didn't know... didn't want to know. Loving. Respectful. Guarded. Hurt. Sensitive."
He smiled again. "Thank you. But don't tell anyone, or it's just the tough and mean parts you'll see for awhile."
She smiled. "Yeah yeah... It's like... Having an old painting, you know? And... then, one day, looking at it again, more closely, and seeing that it's not at all what you thought it was. It's got all these details you never even looked for, and it changes the picture entirely." She looked up at him shyly. "Does... does that make sense?"
He grinned. "Luv, are you sure that you aren't a poet? Because that was most definitely poetic. Beautiful. Painted a picture in my mind as you said it. It makes perfect sense. To me, anyway. It was the same thing with you. I just woke up one morning, and boom. There were all these things that I'd never noticed about you, and suddenly, they were all I saw. Grace, beauty, poise, all those I'd seen before. Ferocity, pain. But then there were the new things. Happiness. I can't tell you how it makes me feel inside to hear you laugh, really laugh. Love, the way you are with your family. Brings tears to my eyes to see how good you are with Lil' Bit. All those things that I just started noticing. You know?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
He chuckled to himself. "Pretty soon, I'm gonna be back to carrying my notebook around again, so I don't forget anything about you. Painting your portrait with words, if only so that I can keep finding new things to love about you." He gazed up at the stars. "Even if I wasn't a vampire, knowing you, I'd have to believe in God. There's no way that something as magnificent as you could happen by chance."
She flushed, and looked at their touching hands. Found them suddenly interesting beyond words.
"I'm embarrassing you again."
She gave a small smile. "It's ok. Every girl likes to hear she's the sun, moon, and stars. And sometimes even a solar eclipse."
"Planet, molecules, and the occasional black hole," he said with a chuckle.
She punched his arm playfully. "Black hole, huh?? Harsh much?"
"When you ignore me. It fits."
She snorted. "I don't ignore. I freeze out, or blow up."
"So a supernova, or space itself, huh?", he joked. Then continued seriously. "Supernova, nebula. Death, life. Hate, love. Everything. That's what you are to me."
She felt very beautiful, very conflicted, and her claim was demanding she touch him. She stopped walking so she could wrap her arms around his middle.
He paused, turned to face her, his arms loosely around her neck. "I'm still embarrassing you, aren't I?"
She gave a half-smile. "Yeah. Guess I'm gonna have to shut you up." She stood on her toes, kissed him.
He leaned into the kiss, making her sink back onto her feet. He pulled back slightly, and playfully nuzzled their noses together. "I love you."
She smiled, nuzzled him back. She let herself gather the words in her mouth, praying for a graceful, easy delivery, as his words always were. He deserved to hear it like this, she just needed to coach herself a little as to how. "I love you, too."
He grinned. "I know. Want to get the candles and stuff and head back to the crypt?"
She smiled back, thinking her delivery was quite good. "Yeah. Sounds great."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------
Spike walked slowly back into the crypt. He was depressed. The vet had wanted to keep Harm overnight, because of a reaction to the worming medication. He was nervous, and worried, and .... What was that on the telly?
He walked over, and pulled the piece of paper off the screen. "Spike, meet me at the park tonight at eight thirty. Don't worry. Not a date. -Buffy" He gave a small smile. Eight was in two hours. Date or not, he wanted to take a shower, wash the sewer/vet smell out of his hair and skin. He laid the note on top of the TV, his tape of Passions forgotten for the moment, and headed for the bathroom.
-========================================================================= ===========
'Drive or walk, drive or walk..', the vampire though to himself an hour and a half later. It was a cool night, so he decided to walk.
Buffy smoothed the blanket over the sandbox one more time. Then she sat on the blanket tucking her legs under herself. She hoped he liked the shirt. It was red. The pants were black. She went over the plates spread in front of her. Hotwings, normal wings. Bloomin' onion, beer, plastic champagne glasses, and votive candles leading from the path to the sandbox and all around it. Apple lipgloss!!!! She knew she forgot something! She pulled it out of her purse quickly, smoothed it on. She pulled out the sparkling grape juice she had gotten, and waited very, very nervously.
There was a strange glow coming from part of the park. If Spike had been human, he wouldn't have even seen it, but his vampire eyes were so sensitive that he could detect anything that wasn't normal night light. He walked cautiously toward the glow, relaxing when he saw the candles, and smelled Buffy nearby. He caught sight of her in the sandbox near the see-saws. "Hey," he called quietly, not wanting to surprise her.
Her head jerked up, and she gave a big smile, slightly nervous.
He approached slowly, taking in the picnic she'd laid out. His mouth watered involuntarily at the hotwings. "Dinner, I'm guessing?"
She nodded, smiled again, biting her bottom lip the whole time.
He sat on the edge of the sandbox, grinning at her. "I thought I told you not to bite your lip, luv."
She let it go, patted the blanket that covered the whole sandbox, preventing that yucky- sand-sticky-feeling, and giving it a more sweet overtone, if she did say so herself.
He took the hint and moved onto the blanket. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this impromptu meeting?" Chuckled at his own wordiness.
She gave another uneasy grin. "Dunno."
He chuckled again. "Didn't you write in your note for *me* not to be nervous? Don't you think that should go for you, too? I mean, 'not a date', right?"
'Big smile. "Right. Just.. dinner." With candles, and beer, and bubbly fake champagne, you idiot,' she derided herself. 'Way to make the comfy mood.'
"Yeah. Dinner." Picked up a hotwing, then handed it to her. "And at dinner, what is it you usually do at dinner? I think it's called... what was it? Oh! Eating." Upon hearing her thoughts, he was trying to make her feel better.
She gave a laugh, and took the hotwing from his hands, took a bite. "You're right. I forgot!"
He chuckled and took a piece of the bloomin' onion and bit into it. "And you just felt like having a picnic all of the sudden, huh?"
"Shut up." She grinned and pulled off a piece of the onion.
He laughed and ate a hotwing, liberally dipped in the ranch sauce. Reclined against a see-saw. "This is... nice. Fun. Great idea, luv."
She gave a big smile. "Thank you. How's my handsome man?"
His eyes clouded slightly. "Harmon, you mean?" He stared at the food. "He, uh, he had to stay overnight at the vet. Had a mild reaction to the deworming. Threw up. Scared me half to death. The vet's gonna keep him till tomorrow afternoon. Three pm is when I can go get him."
She nodded. "Well, we'll go get him. He'll be fine, Spike."
"I hope so." Took a bite of onion. Chewed slowly. "I'm scared for him. He's... he's never been away from me since he was small enough to fit in my hand. What if he thinks I've abandoned him? Betrayed him?" Swallowed the onion, picked up a hotwing, stared at it, then up at the stars. "Sorry. I'm not being much fun tonight."
Buffy shrugged. "You don't have to be. He doesn't. He knows he's sick, cuz if he's got worms, the worms get most of his food, not him. He knows you're taking care of him, the best way you know how."
Spike gave her a shaky smile. "Thanks, luv. You seem to be able to make me feel better about anything." He ate the hotwing in his hand. "Do you have any other plans for tonight, or is the picnic it?"
She shrugged. "My evening is clear. Well, I figure, whenever this is done, I'll do a quick sweep, but that's it."
"Actually, I've already done a sweep around Oak Park cemetery, and around my crypt. Had to do somethin' while I waited for time to meet you." Took a sip of beer.
"Oh. Then no plans."
"Good. Maybe you could come back with me? Keep me company? The crypt isn't the same without Harm."
She nodded. "Sure. I told Dawn I might not come home."
"You can still call her. In fact..." He rummaged around in his pocket for a moment, came up with a pure black cell phone. "Ta da. Like it? It's new. Some guy outside the vet's office was doing a special demonstration, and I signed up. I don't even have to pay for three months!"
She gave a small laugh. "Very cool. Very small." She took it out of his hands, and started to play with it.
"Hey! Don't hurt it, Slayer. It's delicate. You can call Dawn though. Oh, and here..." He pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket. "As of right now, you are the only one with this number. I might give it to Rupert, later. But for now, you're the only one. And don't tell Dawn I have it. I don't want her borrowing it and calling... China, or something."
She saluted. "Aye, aye." She put the slip of paper in her purse. She handed him back his phone. "I'll call her later. She's not even home yet."
He rolled his eyes, snorted, placing the phone back in his pocket. "Another 'date'? That Andrew wa- guy again?"
She smiled approvingly. "Good boy. And yeah. He's really nice." She leaned on her side, took his can and drank a small sip, and started eating the normal wings.
He grinned. "Thanks. I know. It's just... she's *my* Lil' Bit, ya know?" Tried a normal wing, made a face, ate a hotwing quickly.
She smiled. "I know she's yours. And so does Andrew. And the normal wings did NOT deserve that mean face."
He chuckled. "Thank you. I know, and I'm just not used to them, you know? Non spicy stuff, I can't really taste. Tastes like dust with texture."
"Well, some of us just can't handle the spicy-ness."
He chuckled again. "Not me. I can't taste stuff unless the main flavor is greatly exaggerated. Super sweet, super spicy, that sort of thing. Salty, like popcorn. It's the vamp tastebuds, you see. Blood is our chocolate, so regular chocolate is supposed to be boring. But, I don't know. I've always been able to taste human food. Must be another quirk." He eyed the grape juice. "Luv? Are we celebratin' something?"
Buffy ducked her head. Tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear, and said softly, "You've been back three months."
He grinned hugely, then tamped it down. "An anniversary? Really? All this for me?" He almost looked like he was blushing, but that wasn't possible, was it?
She gave a small shrug. "Well..."
He stared at the hotwing. Must be the spiciness getting to him, cause his cheeks felt hot....
She looked up at Spike shyly. The candles had to be casting a glare, because his cheeks were the lightest shade of pink.
He looked away, the annoying warm feeling embarrassing him even more. 'Look at the stars, anything...'
"Um... so... well, ya know... happy.. being back-ness?"
He let out a small laugh. "I guess 'Many Happy Returns' would sound corny, huh?" Still looking up.
She was looking down. "Yeah. Really corny."
He shook his head, looked at her, the warmth going from the outside in as he gazed at the woman he loved more than anything he'd ever known. "How do you do that?"
He chuckled. "I'm gonna quote a song here. Not mine, don't worry. Bryan Adams, actually." He stared up at the stars again, singing softly, "Nothing I have ever known, has made me feel this way, nothing I have ever seen, has made me want to stay. Here I am, ready for you, I'm torn and, I'm fallin', I hear my home callin'. Hey. I've never felt something so strong, oh no, it's like nothing I've ever known."
Her eyes burned, and she trained them steadily on his chest, not trusting to look up yet. "It's a pretty song."
"Sums up the way you make me feel, I think. Heard it in a movie a few weeks ago. Got stuck in my head till I went out and bought the soundtrack." He looked at her, then ate the last hotwing.
She tucked her hair behind her ear again. "Oh."
He leaned against the see saw again. "Would you like to talk about something, luv? Maybe you like my shirt, since you can't seem to take your eyes off it."
She slowly looked up at his blue eyes. Ones she had blackened on more than one occasion. Ones she had stared into while she made love with him, ones she had refused to look into when she did the same thing. Made a smile turn the corners of her lips. "It's a nice shirt."
Disbelieving. "Uh-huh. Want to go for a walk?"
"Yeah." She stood quickly.
He climbed to his feet. "Want to clean this up first? I'll do it for you. Since you went to all the trouble of setting it up."
She knelt again, started cleaning. "No. It's for you. I got it."
"Can't I at least help?"
She was putting things, containers, plates back into the basket. "Sure."
He began gathering up the bones from the wings, put them into a plastic bag, and stuffed them in the trash can, burying them beneath some plates and other garbage. "Don't want stray animals, dogs, cats, squirrels, finding the bones and choking on them."
She nodded. "Right." The basket was packed, and she stood, folding the blanket. "Wanna blow out the candles? You can shove them into the basket when we come back, let the wax get hard again."
He grinned, then gave her a look. "Luv, vampire. I don't breathe. What am I gonna do, stare them out?"
She gave him a look. "You do, too breathe. Nevermind, you don't. I'll get em."
He chuckled. "When do I breathe?"
She walked down her impromptu path, blowing out the candles, deciding to come back after the walk before she even touched them. She stood upright again, and crossed to him. "When you sleep, or talk, or smoke. After we tickle you..."
"I breathe in my sleep?"
"Yeah, you do. Deep and steady. Well, not when you were sick, but every other time."
He chuckled. "Ok. You've got me. And I have a pulse, too. But only when something scares the shit out of me."
She laughed. "Yeah, I know. So... Walk?"
He grinned, and offered her an elbow. "Where do you want to go, luv? Round the track?"
She hooked her arm through his. "Sure." She leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked. "Sorry."
"For what, luv?"
"I get uncomfortable when you talk about me like that."
"Like what?" He brought his other hand up and grasped her hand that was hooked through his arm.
With her free hand, she gestured behind her, to the sandbox. "Like... back there."
"Oh. You mean the song?"
She gave a shrug/nod.
"I won't do it again, if you don't want me to. I'll keep to my notebooks."
She shook her head, knowing she wasn't vocalizing right. "Sometimes... you just... look at me, like you've never seen me before, and I'm this... beautiful, new, perfect thing, and you don't know how've you've missed me." She sighed. "And sometimes, at the same time, even, you look at me, and know everything. The worst, the best, and it's still incredible and beautiful. I'm not used to that."
He smiled at her. "That's what love is. For me, anyway. What do you see, when you look at me?"
She focused intently inward, and let the words fall out of her as they came to her. "Beautiful, hard, careful, possessive. Fun, mean, tough, sweet. And new things, all the time. Things I didn't know... didn't want to know. Loving. Respectful. Guarded. Hurt. Sensitive."
He smiled again. "Thank you. But don't tell anyone, or it's just the tough and mean parts you'll see for awhile."
She smiled. "Yeah yeah... It's like... Having an old painting, you know? And... then, one day, looking at it again, more closely, and seeing that it's not at all what you thought it was. It's got all these details you never even looked for, and it changes the picture entirely." She looked up at him shyly. "Does... does that make sense?"
He grinned. "Luv, are you sure that you aren't a poet? Because that was most definitely poetic. Beautiful. Painted a picture in my mind as you said it. It makes perfect sense. To me, anyway. It was the same thing with you. I just woke up one morning, and boom. There were all these things that I'd never noticed about you, and suddenly, they were all I saw. Grace, beauty, poise, all those I'd seen before. Ferocity, pain. But then there were the new things. Happiness. I can't tell you how it makes me feel inside to hear you laugh, really laugh. Love, the way you are with your family. Brings tears to my eyes to see how good you are with Lil' Bit. All those things that I just started noticing. You know?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
He chuckled to himself. "Pretty soon, I'm gonna be back to carrying my notebook around again, so I don't forget anything about you. Painting your portrait with words, if only so that I can keep finding new things to love about you." He gazed up at the stars. "Even if I wasn't a vampire, knowing you, I'd have to believe in God. There's no way that something as magnificent as you could happen by chance."
She flushed, and looked at their touching hands. Found them suddenly interesting beyond words.
"I'm embarrassing you again."
She gave a small smile. "It's ok. Every girl likes to hear she's the sun, moon, and stars. And sometimes even a solar eclipse."
"Planet, molecules, and the occasional black hole," he said with a chuckle.
She punched his arm playfully. "Black hole, huh?? Harsh much?"
"When you ignore me. It fits."
She snorted. "I don't ignore. I freeze out, or blow up."
"So a supernova, or space itself, huh?", he joked. Then continued seriously. "Supernova, nebula. Death, life. Hate, love. Everything. That's what you are to me."
She felt very beautiful, very conflicted, and her claim was demanding she touch him. She stopped walking so she could wrap her arms around his middle.
He paused, turned to face her, his arms loosely around her neck. "I'm still embarrassing you, aren't I?"
She gave a half-smile. "Yeah. Guess I'm gonna have to shut you up." She stood on her toes, kissed him.
He leaned into the kiss, making her sink back onto her feet. He pulled back slightly, and playfully nuzzled their noses together. "I love you."
She smiled, nuzzled him back. She let herself gather the words in her mouth, praying for a graceful, easy delivery, as his words always were. He deserved to hear it like this, she just needed to coach herself a little as to how. "I love you, too."
He grinned. "I know. Want to get the candles and stuff and head back to the crypt?"
She smiled back, thinking her delivery was quite good. "Yeah. Sounds great."