Disclaimer: I own nothing but Cupid. Joss is the man!
Summary: It's almost Valentine's Day in Sunnydale. Will Buffy finally realize her feelings for a certain someone?
Pairings: B/S, W/T, X/A
Rating: PG
Spoilers: As You Were, AU after that
Distribution: Fanfiction.net. Anyone else, if you want it, let me know.
A/N: I do believe this story has come to a close. I hope you've all enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it. Thanks for all of the kind and helpful reviews, and thank you to those who have repeatedly reviewed. Oh, and if you thought I forgot about the card… well, just read on.
Valentines
Buffy had just reached the gate of the cemetery when her cell phone rang. It had been one of the few luxury/emergency purchases that she had made when she had started working at the Doublemeat Palace. It allowed her to let everyone know where she was if she was going to be late, well it had most of the time anyways, and it also allowed the Scoobies and Dawn to get in touch with her when they needed to.
"Hello?" Buffy said.
"Hey! It's me, Dawn."
"Hey, Dawnie. Was the Bronze fun? Are you on your way home?" Buffy asked.
"Well, that was why I was calling you. Janice asked if I could spend the night at her house tonight. She asked her mom before we went out tonight, and she said it was okay, but I forgot to ask you after Anya did the whole talking about sex thing. So can I?" Dawn said in a rush.
"Have you finished your homework for the weekend?"
"Yep, and I even cleaned my room today! Please can't I? Pretty please with sugar on top?" Dawn pleaded.
"I guess you may. Just be sure to remember that you are a guest in Janice's home, and help out, okay?" Buffy said.
"Cool! I'll see you tomorrow! Oh, and don't count on seeing Willow tonight. After you left, she and Tara started making out! They got back together! Isn't that just the best news? I am so excited for them! They decided to go back to Tara's because they said they didn't know what you would be up to and they didn't want to disturb you. Are you going to be up to anything? Because as your sister, I have a right to know!"
"Nope," Buffy replied with a sigh. "I won't be up to anything. I'm just going to go home, put on my pj's and go to bed. I'm pretty beat from work today."
"Huh, I wonder why they thought you would be doing something? Anyways, I gotta go! Janice's curfew is midnight, and we only have 10 minutes left to get to her house! Bye!"
"Bye," Buffy said, and put her phone away. "I didn't really want to see anyone anyways," she told herself.
"Only 10 minutes left of Valentine's Day, I hope everyone else had a good day, cuz mine was no shining example. At least I got one card though, that's better than nothing," she said thinking of the card she had found the day before, the card she hadn't worked up the courage to read. "Well, I only have 10 minutes left, and it is a Valentine's Day card, so it should be read on Valentine's Day. I'd better go and get it over with and see how bad it is, because my day can't get any worse." With that, she took off in a dash towards home.
"I think I must have set a world record!" Buffy said, looking at her watch. "Only 5 minutes to get from the cemetery to the house, how come it always seemed to take so much longer?"
Buffy opened the door and walked into the house. Immediately the scent of vanilla assailed her nose, and she could see a faint flickering light coming from upstairs.
"If Dawn left candles burning when she left for the Bronze, she's going to be grounded for another week! It's a good thing I got here when I did, otherwise the house could have burnt down!"
Buffy hung up her coat, checked on Cupid, who was snuggled up in her bed sound asleep, and made her way upstairs to extinguish the candles, read her card, and get ready for bed. But when she opened the partially closed door to her bedroom, she was not ready for the sight that greeted her.
Candles were everywhere, their flames making waves of light dance on the walls and ceiling. It was the only light in the room, as her curtains had been tightly closed against the moonlight outside. There were red, white, and pink roses everywhere covering almost every possible flat surface. She could hear "Lieberstraum" playing softly in the background, and with wide eyes she slowly moved into her room. The door slowly shut behind her. She closed her eyes and prayed.
A hand touched her shoulder and a soft voice said in her ear, "Buffy, turn around."
Buffy turned around but kept her eyes tightly shut. The blood was roaring through her body, and her heart was beating like a drum. She didn't want to open her eyes just in case this was all a dream. The longer she kept them shut, the longer she could pretend that Spike had done all of this for her.
"Buffy, open your eyes," the voice said, but she didn't. "Please Buffy? Open your eyes," it said again.
Buffy's eyes slowly drifted open, and in front of her stood the one man who had been tormenting her thoughts of late. "Spike," she breathed. "What are you doing here? I thought you had left."
"I would never leave you, pet. I would die first," he said simply.
"But what about all of those things I said to you? And I blew up your crypt, and I did all of those horrible things to you," Buffy said, the tears starting to roll down her face.
"I love you. With love comes forgiveness, and I have forgiven you, now you have to forgive yourself," Spike said, the sight of her tears making his heart wrench.
"I don't know if I can. All of these wonderful things that you have done for me, it was you, wasn't it?" she stopped in the middle of her thought and looked at him for confirmation that it really had been he who had done everything.
"Yeah, pet. It was me. I hope you don't mind that I was in your house cleaning, but you never have enough time to do that, and Red and the Bit don't help out as much as they should."
"I don't mind," she whispered. "But how did you manage everything else? Especially these?" she said touching the beautiful earrings she wore.
"I won the kitty at a poker game, and she looked like the little kitty you described as wanting when you were a kid, so I brought her with me to the cemetery and let her find you. I also paid a little gentlemanly visit to your father. The bloke has no right to make you work a dead end, minimum wage job so that you can support yourself and your sister while he is making money hand over fist. We came to an agreement. Of course, it took a little while to make him see things my way, but he came around pretty quickly once I showed him I wouldn't take no for an answer. And as for the earrings, well… They belonged to my mother. They are the only things that I have left to remember her by, and I wanted you to have them."
"Me? You wanted me to have them? Th th thank you," she said, as the tears once again were rolling down her cheeks. "I'm honored to wear them. Your mother must have been a special lady, because she raised such a special son."
Now it was Spike's turn to stare. "You you think I'm special? Me? After all that I've done, you call me special?"
"After all that you've done? You've only done what a vampire is supposed to, and you haven't even done much of that for a very long time. You've changed, Spike, and it isn't just because you have a chip in your head. A piece of silicon and metal can't change you, only you can do that. You've gone from being the bloodthirsty vampire that I used to know to a caring, loving man who would lay down his life to protect me and my sister, and even my friends. I, on the other hand, have turned into everything I hate. I used you as a fix, a fix that would keep me going, a fix that would allow me to stay out of the real world, a fix that would allow me to ignore my feelings and my problems, but no more. From now on, you will never be that fix." Buffy said with conviction.
"Buffy? Do you want me to leave?" Spike whispered, his throat choking with emotion.
"What? No! I do not want you to leave! I want you to stay right here so I can apologize to you for everything that I've done to wrong you. And I want to thank you for every single wonderful thing that you've done for me," she said, noting that his eyes gave away none of the emotion he felt. "And… and I want to tell you that you are not a fix for me anymore. You are my life," Buffy told him, baldly. "Please don't leave me. Please," she pleaded.
Spike looked away and, for a few agonizing moments, stared at one of the candles burning on her nightstand. When he looked back he had a wicked grin on his face.
"Buffy? Did you read the card that I sent you?"
"No," she said. "I was too afraid of what it might say."
"Come here and have a seat," he said, patting the bed. "I want to read it to you. Where did you put it?"
"It's in the black bag on the floor," she said as she took as seat on her bed, her heart in her throat.
Spike dug around in the bag and pulled out the pink envelope he had placed on the porch only a little over 24 hours ago. He opened the envelope and pulled out the card with the frog on the front.
"Are you sure you want to hear this?" he asked Buffy.
"Yes, I'm sure," she answered.
He opened the card and started to read:
My dearest Buffy,
No matter near or far, I will be where you are. You may not always see me, but forever I will be with you. When life threatens to overwhelm you with its harshness, you have but to think of me, and I will take away your pain. When you find joy, I will add to it, when you find sorrow, you can take comfort in me. I will be all that you have ever wanted me to be if you let me.
I love you. Please be my valentine.
Yours forever,
Spike
Spike was fighting the nerves that were cramping his stomach as he forced himself to look up from the card. The last time he had read something he had written to a woman, he had been horribly rejected. He sincerely hoped that Buffy would be a better critic than Cecily, but then again, he thought, Buffy had always been better than Cecily.
His gaze fell upon Buffy who had her head buried in her hands.
"Pet?" he said. "Love?" he tried again when she didn't respond. "Buffy, are you okay?"
Buffy looked up with a tremulous smile on her face and wiped away the tears that had fallen from her eyes. "Okay?" she said. "Okay? I'm better than okay. The man I love just told me that he loves me and will never leave me, and he asked me to be his valentine. I don't think life can get much better than that, do you?"
Buffy giggled as she watched Spike's eyes widen to the point where they actually looked like saucers. "Um, are you okay?" she asked. "And isn't this the part where you kiss me?"
"You love me? You really truly love me? Am I dreaming? I wanted to make all of your dreams come true, but I never believed that all of mine would come true as well," Spike said as he crossed the room to Buffy.
"Are you sure you want me to kiss you? Because you know where that leads, and have I made you feel like a princess? If I haven't, tell me what I need to do!" Spike told her as he cupped her head in his hands.
"I really do truly love you, and honey, once you kiss me, I'll feel just like the princess who found her prince after kissing the frog. And, mister," she said and paused.
"Yeah?"
"We will not be leaving this bedroom until we take a foray, rather several forays, into what kissing leads to!"
Spike smiled, his heart bursting with love, and said, "Yes, ma'am!" And he leaned down to show her just how much he loved her, and would love her, forever.
A/N2: The End? Tell me what you think!
Summary: It's almost Valentine's Day in Sunnydale. Will Buffy finally realize her feelings for a certain someone?
Pairings: B/S, W/T, X/A
Rating: PG
Spoilers: As You Were, AU after that
Distribution: Fanfiction.net. Anyone else, if you want it, let me know.
A/N: I do believe this story has come to a close. I hope you've all enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it. Thanks for all of the kind and helpful reviews, and thank you to those who have repeatedly reviewed. Oh, and if you thought I forgot about the card… well, just read on.
Valentines
Buffy had just reached the gate of the cemetery when her cell phone rang. It had been one of the few luxury/emergency purchases that she had made when she had started working at the Doublemeat Palace. It allowed her to let everyone know where she was if she was going to be late, well it had most of the time anyways, and it also allowed the Scoobies and Dawn to get in touch with her when they needed to.
"Hello?" Buffy said.
"Hey! It's me, Dawn."
"Hey, Dawnie. Was the Bronze fun? Are you on your way home?" Buffy asked.
"Well, that was why I was calling you. Janice asked if I could spend the night at her house tonight. She asked her mom before we went out tonight, and she said it was okay, but I forgot to ask you after Anya did the whole talking about sex thing. So can I?" Dawn said in a rush.
"Have you finished your homework for the weekend?"
"Yep, and I even cleaned my room today! Please can't I? Pretty please with sugar on top?" Dawn pleaded.
"I guess you may. Just be sure to remember that you are a guest in Janice's home, and help out, okay?" Buffy said.
"Cool! I'll see you tomorrow! Oh, and don't count on seeing Willow tonight. After you left, she and Tara started making out! They got back together! Isn't that just the best news? I am so excited for them! They decided to go back to Tara's because they said they didn't know what you would be up to and they didn't want to disturb you. Are you going to be up to anything? Because as your sister, I have a right to know!"
"Nope," Buffy replied with a sigh. "I won't be up to anything. I'm just going to go home, put on my pj's and go to bed. I'm pretty beat from work today."
"Huh, I wonder why they thought you would be doing something? Anyways, I gotta go! Janice's curfew is midnight, and we only have 10 minutes left to get to her house! Bye!"
"Bye," Buffy said, and put her phone away. "I didn't really want to see anyone anyways," she told herself.
"Only 10 minutes left of Valentine's Day, I hope everyone else had a good day, cuz mine was no shining example. At least I got one card though, that's better than nothing," she said thinking of the card she had found the day before, the card she hadn't worked up the courage to read. "Well, I only have 10 minutes left, and it is a Valentine's Day card, so it should be read on Valentine's Day. I'd better go and get it over with and see how bad it is, because my day can't get any worse." With that, she took off in a dash towards home.
"I think I must have set a world record!" Buffy said, looking at her watch. "Only 5 minutes to get from the cemetery to the house, how come it always seemed to take so much longer?"
Buffy opened the door and walked into the house. Immediately the scent of vanilla assailed her nose, and she could see a faint flickering light coming from upstairs.
"If Dawn left candles burning when she left for the Bronze, she's going to be grounded for another week! It's a good thing I got here when I did, otherwise the house could have burnt down!"
Buffy hung up her coat, checked on Cupid, who was snuggled up in her bed sound asleep, and made her way upstairs to extinguish the candles, read her card, and get ready for bed. But when she opened the partially closed door to her bedroom, she was not ready for the sight that greeted her.
Candles were everywhere, their flames making waves of light dance on the walls and ceiling. It was the only light in the room, as her curtains had been tightly closed against the moonlight outside. There were red, white, and pink roses everywhere covering almost every possible flat surface. She could hear "Lieberstraum" playing softly in the background, and with wide eyes she slowly moved into her room. The door slowly shut behind her. She closed her eyes and prayed.
A hand touched her shoulder and a soft voice said in her ear, "Buffy, turn around."
Buffy turned around but kept her eyes tightly shut. The blood was roaring through her body, and her heart was beating like a drum. She didn't want to open her eyes just in case this was all a dream. The longer she kept them shut, the longer she could pretend that Spike had done all of this for her.
"Buffy, open your eyes," the voice said, but she didn't. "Please Buffy? Open your eyes," it said again.
Buffy's eyes slowly drifted open, and in front of her stood the one man who had been tormenting her thoughts of late. "Spike," she breathed. "What are you doing here? I thought you had left."
"I would never leave you, pet. I would die first," he said simply.
"But what about all of those things I said to you? And I blew up your crypt, and I did all of those horrible things to you," Buffy said, the tears starting to roll down her face.
"I love you. With love comes forgiveness, and I have forgiven you, now you have to forgive yourself," Spike said, the sight of her tears making his heart wrench.
"I don't know if I can. All of these wonderful things that you have done for me, it was you, wasn't it?" she stopped in the middle of her thought and looked at him for confirmation that it really had been he who had done everything.
"Yeah, pet. It was me. I hope you don't mind that I was in your house cleaning, but you never have enough time to do that, and Red and the Bit don't help out as much as they should."
"I don't mind," she whispered. "But how did you manage everything else? Especially these?" she said touching the beautiful earrings she wore.
"I won the kitty at a poker game, and she looked like the little kitty you described as wanting when you were a kid, so I brought her with me to the cemetery and let her find you. I also paid a little gentlemanly visit to your father. The bloke has no right to make you work a dead end, minimum wage job so that you can support yourself and your sister while he is making money hand over fist. We came to an agreement. Of course, it took a little while to make him see things my way, but he came around pretty quickly once I showed him I wouldn't take no for an answer. And as for the earrings, well… They belonged to my mother. They are the only things that I have left to remember her by, and I wanted you to have them."
"Me? You wanted me to have them? Th th thank you," she said, as the tears once again were rolling down her cheeks. "I'm honored to wear them. Your mother must have been a special lady, because she raised such a special son."
Now it was Spike's turn to stare. "You you think I'm special? Me? After all that I've done, you call me special?"
"After all that you've done? You've only done what a vampire is supposed to, and you haven't even done much of that for a very long time. You've changed, Spike, and it isn't just because you have a chip in your head. A piece of silicon and metal can't change you, only you can do that. You've gone from being the bloodthirsty vampire that I used to know to a caring, loving man who would lay down his life to protect me and my sister, and even my friends. I, on the other hand, have turned into everything I hate. I used you as a fix, a fix that would keep me going, a fix that would allow me to stay out of the real world, a fix that would allow me to ignore my feelings and my problems, but no more. From now on, you will never be that fix." Buffy said with conviction.
"Buffy? Do you want me to leave?" Spike whispered, his throat choking with emotion.
"What? No! I do not want you to leave! I want you to stay right here so I can apologize to you for everything that I've done to wrong you. And I want to thank you for every single wonderful thing that you've done for me," she said, noting that his eyes gave away none of the emotion he felt. "And… and I want to tell you that you are not a fix for me anymore. You are my life," Buffy told him, baldly. "Please don't leave me. Please," she pleaded.
Spike looked away and, for a few agonizing moments, stared at one of the candles burning on her nightstand. When he looked back he had a wicked grin on his face.
"Buffy? Did you read the card that I sent you?"
"No," she said. "I was too afraid of what it might say."
"Come here and have a seat," he said, patting the bed. "I want to read it to you. Where did you put it?"
"It's in the black bag on the floor," she said as she took as seat on her bed, her heart in her throat.
Spike dug around in the bag and pulled out the pink envelope he had placed on the porch only a little over 24 hours ago. He opened the envelope and pulled out the card with the frog on the front.
"Are you sure you want to hear this?" he asked Buffy.
"Yes, I'm sure," she answered.
He opened the card and started to read:
My dearest Buffy,
No matter near or far, I will be where you are. You may not always see me, but forever I will be with you. When life threatens to overwhelm you with its harshness, you have but to think of me, and I will take away your pain. When you find joy, I will add to it, when you find sorrow, you can take comfort in me. I will be all that you have ever wanted me to be if you let me.
I love you. Please be my valentine.
Yours forever,
Spike
Spike was fighting the nerves that were cramping his stomach as he forced himself to look up from the card. The last time he had read something he had written to a woman, he had been horribly rejected. He sincerely hoped that Buffy would be a better critic than Cecily, but then again, he thought, Buffy had always been better than Cecily.
His gaze fell upon Buffy who had her head buried in her hands.
"Pet?" he said. "Love?" he tried again when she didn't respond. "Buffy, are you okay?"
Buffy looked up with a tremulous smile on her face and wiped away the tears that had fallen from her eyes. "Okay?" she said. "Okay? I'm better than okay. The man I love just told me that he loves me and will never leave me, and he asked me to be his valentine. I don't think life can get much better than that, do you?"
Buffy giggled as she watched Spike's eyes widen to the point where they actually looked like saucers. "Um, are you okay?" she asked. "And isn't this the part where you kiss me?"
"You love me? You really truly love me? Am I dreaming? I wanted to make all of your dreams come true, but I never believed that all of mine would come true as well," Spike said as he crossed the room to Buffy.
"Are you sure you want me to kiss you? Because you know where that leads, and have I made you feel like a princess? If I haven't, tell me what I need to do!" Spike told her as he cupped her head in his hands.
"I really do truly love you, and honey, once you kiss me, I'll feel just like the princess who found her prince after kissing the frog. And, mister," she said and paused.
"Yeah?"
"We will not be leaving this bedroom until we take a foray, rather several forays, into what kissing leads to!"
Spike smiled, his heart bursting with love, and said, "Yes, ma'am!" And he leaned down to show her just how much he loved her, and would love her, forever.
A/N2: The End? Tell me what you think!