Chapter 24: Coming Home At Last

Angel sat on the back stoop of the Summers home in shade the next day, quietly reflecting on the events of the past couple days. He had come to a realization when he finally saw Spike and Buffy, crying in each other's arms. For some reason, it was both a discomfort and a relief. He now knew that Spike loved Buffy with all of his being and would have given up everything for her. He knew that Spike would take care of her, and more importantly, that Buffy wanted, needed him to. It was slightly painful of course, to see his first love with his old nemesis, but deep down, he was happy that Buffy was happy. And she was. He knew it.

"Sitting out here brooding, or just catchin' some rays?" A voice asked playfully behind him. Turning around, he saw Buffy, leaning against the doorframe. Smiling softly, he adjusted himself as a silent invitation for Buffy to join him on the stoop.

"Not brooding. I don't think I do that much anymore." He awkwardly glanced slightly towards Buffy, who nodded knowingly.

"I understand. You've got a good life going for you now Angel."

"You do too, Buffy. I mean that." They exchanged looks and both honest and genuine. They stared at each other, not uncomfortably, but smilingly as a silent sort of agreement passed between them.

"Yeah. I do, don't I?" Buffy smiled.

"You do. Well, maybe not the calmest, considering the routine of these past few days, but when has life in Sunnydale ever been calm?"

Buffy cleared her throat and stopped smiling. "I . . . just wanted to thank you for coming back to Sunnydale, Angel. It was good to see you again."

"You too Buffy." Then both of them fell silent again, but this time, the silence resumed its awkwardness.

"So . . ." Buffy leaned slightly towards him uncomfortably. "You and Cordelia?" She shot a glance at Angel, who shifted uncomfortably before breaking out into a small chuckle.

"So . . ." he mimicked. "You and Spike."

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "I asked first."

Angel continued to grin, rubbing his hands gingerly back and forth. "We're just friends," he said slowly.

"Ahh," Buffy nodded. "Yes, I remember our totally platonic-slash-illicit-just-friends-kisses. You seem to be doing repeats with Cordelia."

Angel shook his head amused. "We're just friends, Buffy." Buffy shot him a pointed glare. "Okay, maybe not," he agreed. "But the thing is . . . she is. She's my best friend. Maybe that's why it feels so right." He gazed back at Buffy, who cocked her head. She couldn't deny the prick of hurt that his words invoked in her, but she knew them to be true. She had never been friends with Angel. They were lovers, awkward partners, later, mortal enemies, but never friends. Cordelia was, and hence, was good for him. Trying to break her intense glance, Angel nodded again towards her.

"Your turn. You and Spike."

Buffy sighed, but retained her smile. "He makes me crazy . . .and he is officially the biggest pain in my ass ever . . . but I need him, you know?"

Angel nodded as he contemplated this. "Yeah."

"What's going on out 'ere?" Spike swaggered through the back door and cocked his head at the two.

Buffy stood up and wrapped her arms around Spike's waist before placing a small kiss on his cheek. "We're not digging up the past, if that's what you're worried about." Spike relaxed a little in her arms. Angel looked towards Spike.

"I hope you take good care of her, man," Angel said, with a threatening gleam in his eyes. "If you don't I'll come down from L.A. and stake you myself."

Spike nodded seriously. "I will, Poof. You can be guaranteed that." Then, slightly distressed at this new-founded neutralism between himself and his grand-sire, he added, "Here now, just so we're straight----you and I? We still hate each other right?"

Angel nodded. " Ummm . . . hell yes." Buffy rolled her eyes.

They all walked into the house and into the living room where the rest of the gang sat. Dawn, still possessively grasping Conner, rocked him back and forth in adoration. Xander nervously had his arm around Anya who was pointing out wedding dresses in a thick bridal magazine. Cordy was engaged in a conversation with Tara and Willow, both of who looked slightly uncomfortable with Cordy's efforts to understand their lifestyle.

"So ummm, gay . . . huh? It's so weird, because you both are so not butch girls. I mean, I don't really know many . . .alternatives . . . I myself have no problem with it at all . . . well . . . I kind of always figured about you Willow . . . I mean you were in love with Xander, and well, Xander's nearly female anyway."

"HEY!" Willow, Xander and Anya all yelled simultaneously.

"Are you forgetting that you, yourself with Miss Harris at one point, Cordy? Cause from what I remember, I was man enough for you," Xander pointed out, but stopped abruptly when Anya elbowed him in the ribs.

Cordy shrugged. "Call it temporary insanity. No offence Anya."

"None taken. I'm not the one in love with a bloodsucking vampire."

"Hey!" Buffy glared at Anya as she entered the room, grasping onto Spike's hand. Eyebrows around the room flared up hastily. Angel stood beside them and had heard the last snippet of conversation, causing Cordy to just as soon burn a crimson shade. He tried to reassure her by giving her a blank, crooked smile as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Well are you ready to go Cordy?" he asked, reaching for the multitude of bags at her feet.

"Yeah, just about." She turned to Xander and Anya. "Well see you guys. Don't forget to mail me that invitation, I can't wait for the wedding." She smirked at Xander's pained look.

"Great!" Anya piped up cheerily. "But since you and Angel are obviously going to come together, can I just put Angel and guest? Would save a little bit of money the invitations." Cordy glared at her. Angel cleared his throat.

"Yeah, it's definitely time to go," he said. While Cordy turned to give Dawn, Tara and Willow hugs, Angel looked nervously to Buffy and Spike.

"Goodbye Buffy," he said, looking pensive, yet accepting.

Buffy smiled slightly. "Goodbye Angel." She knew what they were both doing. They were saying goodbye. For good. Something they had tried to do for so long but something they secretly never could bring themselves to do. Spike squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"Come on, it's time to let go of Conner," Willow was saying to a tearful Dawn, who still clung to his soft body.

"N-No!" she whimpered. She glanced hopefully at Buffy and Angel. "I was k-kind of h-hoping that we could keep him. C-can we?"

Angel shook his head amusedly at her as he gently took Conner from her arms. He handed him to Cordy who in turn fitted him into a pouch that rested on her chest. Smiling broadly at the scene, he offered one of his free arms to Cordy, who beamed at the offer. As they made their way out to the car in the hours of early evening, Buffy stood with Spike in the doorway, wistfully reflecting on how family-like the scene looked. "He looks happy, doesn't he, Spike?"

Spike cocked his head. "Yeah, Peaches looks un-broody enough. Suits him nicely." He turned from the departing car to Buffy as he nuzzled her neck tenderly. "But not even the happiest fool alive can even touch what I'm feelin' right now." Buffy giggled.

"Maybe this happy fool needs some rest? Or . . . non-rest, whatever, I'm just trying to be all smooth and get you to go upstairs with me."

Spike grinned, still letting his arms twine around Buffy's waist. "Smooth enough baby. Let's go."

Squealing, Buffy grabbed his wrist as he chased her through the foyer and nearly up the stairs. Stopping abruptly when they encountered the Scoobs quizzical faces, Buffy and Spike motioned uncomfortably upstairs.

"Fight demons . . ." Buffy sputtered, "Under-the-bed-type demons."

"Yeah, um . . . tough buggers they are," Spike said, trying to help her with an excuse. "Looks like the Slayer will need help, y'know? Those bed beasties are fatal." Everyone else remained relatively unconvinced, but by this time, the couple had forgone explanations and stormed up the stairs, yelping and giggling the whole time.

"Hmmm," Willow furrowed her brow as the Scoobs turned back to the Monopoly game they started. "I wonder what that was about?"

Anya, the obvious designated banker handed out the colored money in a business-like fashion. "You heard them. Bed beasties and the sort. I have some experience with them myself. I conjured up one on Attila the Hun when he was in bed, cheating on his girlfriend. Really terrible mess, lots of blood and so forth. Of course they do leave that out of the history books . . ." she said in response to the stares she was rewarded with by the rest of the group.

Xander visibly winced as images of pale legs intertwined with golden ones flashed across his mind. He nervously turned his attention back to the stairs. "M-Maybe they need some help? You know? If those bed monsters are so dangerous? I vote we go up and help them." He threw down his money and cards and headed for the stairs.

"Pssh," Dawn scoffed. "Don't bother them." She broke into a knowing smile. "That's just their lame excuse for boinking."

"Dawn!" Willow broke into a chastising glare, trying to hide a small smile. Xander stifled a sob.

"What? It's true!" Dawn stubbornly continued. "Everyone knows except you and Anya. I don't see how you can't tell, it's so obvious."

"Maybe because something so perverse is chosen to blocked from people's minds!" Xander exploded, his face turning into a mask of disgust.

Willow turned to her girlfriend curiously. "Spike and Buffy? W-with the d-doing? A-and the it?" She made obscure, Anya-like motions with her hands to convey what she failed to voice. Tara nodded her head solemnly.

"Yeah. I kind of knew, but Buffy made me promise not to tell." Willow sat back and processed the information. She shrugged acceptingly.

"Hmmm."

"That's all you have to say??!!!" Xander gaped at the group with melodramatic alarm. "Evil, soulless killer has shacked up with our dear, beloved Buffy and you guys have nothing to say about it?!!!"

"Well it makes sense," Anya replied, unfazed. "All that vampiric stamina and stuff. And Buffy with that super-Slayer strength. I'm not surprised that him and her would eventually became orgasm friends." Xander's face contorted further.

"Good god woman! Close your mouth before any more evil cantations come out of it!"

"I think it's nice," Willow said with a shy smile. "I always kind of hoped it would happen. He's good now. And good for her. You should have seen how they were after Rack died, he was so strong for her." Willow smiled dreamily at the memory. The rest, excluding Xander nodded in agreement. Xander to continued to stare at the girls in angry shock.

"Has the world gone mad????" He screamed. "Spike??? Evil vampire??? Murderous fiend???? Annoyingly perverted demon with an irritating accent???" Everyone ignored him, prompting Xander to collapse on the couch in despair. "Whatever," he whispered in defeat.

Spike broke into a grin as he reclined on Buffy's bed, listening to noise downstairs. "Sounds like the whelp's finally coming to terms with us." His voice dropped slightly when he said the last little word with caution, but Buffy seemed unfazed. She moved over to the bed and slowly draped one leg over his body so that she straddled him.

"Forget him," she whispered huskily dragging Spike up to meet her soft lips, and soon enough he did.

As dusk permeated the sky, they made love like they always did, tenderly, gently, but with unequivocal passion. Buffy leaned back, her long, graceful neck bared, shining in the twilight with beads of sweat, glittering like gems. Spike leaned in to kiss away the drops and whispered almost unintelligible words of love and beauty as he rocked inside her. In response, she whispered his name. Legs intertwined, arms clasping to sweat-slicked skin, lips gently brushing in soft caress. As her blistering, intensely pleasurable release began to overtake her, Buffy opened her heavily-lidded eyes and gazed directly into Spike's eyes, blue, clear as the sun's rays itself. She marveled how, for such a dark creature, he could carry the elusive light of the day in his eyes, light that shone so brightly whenever he was in her or near her. And suddenly, as if the striking clarity of those orbs had incensed new thought in her, she opened her eyes wide, brushing one hand against his cheek tenderly.

"I love you," she gasped as she came.

Spike propped his head back up, shocked and suddenly very still. As she relaxed in his arms, he continued to stare at her, as if he was trying to discern if she was really there. "Pet . . ." he said cautiously. "Don't . . . say things you don't mean."

"I don't." She smiled and brought his head back down to kiss him tenderly. She kissed him, eyes open, staring wide at the sudden tears that had sprung into his. Releasing him, she smiled again. "I love you Spike."

Spike just shook his head and kissed her again, his lips carrying equal parts devotion, passion, lust and love. "God, Buffy I love you too," he whispered. "I love you so much." Dragging him down next her, Buffy collapsed into his arms, knowing full well he was smiling in the darkness.

"Spike?" she whispered, reclining with her head against his bare chest.

"Hmmm?"

"Stay?"

"A' course I'll stay tonight Buffy."

"No. I mean stay . . . forever."

Spike gazed down at Buffy, framed in a halo of golden curls, spilling onto her full, bare breasts. How could he ever leave something so angelic? Goddamn poetry it was that the angelic slayer and the dead vampire should love each other forever.

"Forever," he agreed, and soon they both smiled, drifting off to sleep in each other's arms.

And the last sounds Buffy heard before she drifted into dreamy unconsciousness were the ones she loved the most. The sounds of Xander and Willow's laughter intermixed with Dawn's complaining and Tara's soft lyrical voice. And the sound of her lover's unnecessary breathing lying next to her. Tears lightly streaking her face, she closed her eyes and agreed that this where she wanted to make her home for the rest of her life.