Seven Year Slayer Chapter 9
Story outline: Seven years is a long time to slay. Something's gotta change!
Timeline: Some months into an imaginary season 7; Spike is back with a soul; Willow learning to be a good witch; Giles in Sunnydale
Spoilers: Rumors about season 7
Summary: Giles and Buffy are trying hard to persuade Spike
Disclaimer: All ME, not me
A few nights later, Spike was sitting in his chair, well into the second bottle, staring at nothing, when there was a hesitant knock on the door.
"Sod off! " he slurred, and stumbled to the door. It was Giles.
Spike stood blinking. "Not selling info tonight, thank you" and made to close the door.
Giles didn't budge. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you."
"Well, that changes everything of course. Do come in and make yourself at home, " Spike said with heavy sarcasm, gesturing at the bare basement. Giles gingerly sat down on an empty packing crate. He took his glasses off and started to polish them.
"So, " Spike said, and leaned back in his chair, "what does the Watcher want from me this time? "
Giles looked up sharply, and then laughed ruefully. "Fair enough, I suppose. We never do visit you except when we want something from you, do we? And I admit, in a way this time is no different. I'll just skip the preliminaries then."
He looked at Spike, seeing a lonely man, who was having trouble fighting his demons – his past. He actually felt a bit guilty laying more on him. Well. Better get started.
"A few weeks ago, Buffy came to me for advice. She'd just had something of a painful revelation. I couldn't really help her, of course; but I did give her some counsel. I said to her, that in matters of the heart, honesty was the best device. What I wanted to ask you: did Buffy, in fact, come to you and tell you what she felt?"
Spike sighed. "Is nothing private anymore? Yes, she did."
"But it hasn't seemed to change your relationship, has it."
Spike leaned his forehead in his hands. "No, it hasn't."
"Spike, I'm sorry to be poking and prying into something this personal, but I feel it's important. I think that whatever there is or isn't between you, it pertains to Buffy's Ascension. To be precise, it's about the Eternal Champion."
"Well, what about the bleeding bastard? I didn't take Buffy up on her offer, so the way's clear for 'im!"
"The point is, Spike, that I think you are most likely the Eternal Champion, " Giles said gravely.
"What?! You're out of your sodding mind, Watcher! I'm a vampire remember! Grr! Aaargh! We're evil! Not lily-white Holy Grail material! " Spike retorted vehemently.
"Certainly, that is how you started out! But I think that over the last few years you've shown yourself redeemable. At first, you merely refrained from doing evil due to the influence of the chip. Then. Mostly out of love for Buffy, you actively joined the side of the Good. You've acted selflessly not only for the sake of Buffy, but also for Dawn and the other Scoobies, whom you had no such feeling for. And lastly, you loved her so much that you got a soul to be truly worthy of her. Not something to make your life easier, but to be a better… creature."
Spike sat motionless. Giles continued after a few moments.
"You yourself have given me a few remarkable pointers on the connection between the Slayers and vampires. Eros and Thanatos, sex and death. Well, you two have been, er, intimate, and are attracted or condemned to death and violence. And in spite of what you did not tell me, I suspect something more happened in that battle at the cemetery than just brilliant cooperation between two co-workers. There is some magical connection between you even now, isn't there? That is not random magic, Spike. It's a result of the Ascension Spell, slotting the two main players together, even before the ritual."
No reaction from Spike.
"Now, Buffy loves you very much, for some reason. I think that being the Slayers loved one is even more important than all the other reasons I've given you just now. All these factors lead to the inevitable conclusion that you are the designated Eternal Champion."
Still Spike didn't answer.
"My god, man, what are you waiting for? Don't you love her anymore? " Giles cried out, clearly not believing this.
Spike raised his eyes to Giles.
"I don't know. I hardly feel anything except guilt these days. Yeah. Buffy came to me. Loves me, she said. Ready to give up Eternal Prat and stay with me in Sunnydale. Should have made me the happiest vamp on earth, right? But it didn't. Couldn't feel it. Can't accept it. I could feel what she felt, of course, I always did. I just can't react to it. The soul and the memories get in the way."
Spike fell silent again, not looking at Giles.
Giles lost his temper. "It makes me sick to see you wallow in guilt like that. Snap out of it! We have no time for this nonsense!"
"Don't you know what I've done?"
"I think I've a pretty good idea. What's the guilt trip about, the thousands you've brutally murdered or the one attempted rape on Buffy? "
"Buffy," Spike mumbled nearly inaudibly.
"Well, I know you've got many years on me, but grow up! Apparently she's forgiven you, so move on and forgive yourself!"
"That's what she said", Spike said with a ghost of a laugh.
Giles looked surprised. "Good for Buffy. And now I'll make it crystal clear to you: I'll be expecting you at the Ascension ritual. As a participant!"
The door slammed shut.
*******
Someone was banging on his door again.
Bloody hell! thought Spike. That makes three nights in a row!
"Can't a bloke have a quiet moment around here? " he yelled, hoping to scare the visitor away.
"I'm thinking, no!" Buffy said, and walked right over to him. Something in her face made him start to rise out of his chair and get out of her path, but he was too late.
Buffy punched Spike right on the nose. He toppled over, chair and all.
"What the hell did you do that for! " Spike said in an injured tone. "Thought you were too mature for violence!"
Buffy hauled him upright, mashed her mouth to his in a hard kiss, and then threw him across the room on to his bed. In one leap, she sat astride him and clicked his hands in a pair of handcuffs she must have brought. She went on to shackle his ankles and fastened both cuffs to the bed, leaving Spike stretched tight and pretty much helpless.
"You see, Spike, " she said in a conversational tone, settling herself again on his prone body, "after my last, not so pleasant talk with you, I had a good think. I noticed my tactics of honesty, crying and begging didn't work out so well. And if your plan isn't working, in love as well as in battle, go to plan B. And my plan B is based on advice a certain vampire I once knew gave. He said:
'I want her back, I just have to be the man I was. The man she loved. I'm gonna do what I shoulda done in the first place. I'll find her, wherever she is... and I'll tie her up and torture her until she likes me again.'
"Remember? "
Spike groaned. "Yeah, I do. I also remember it didn't do him much good. He got kicked out again in no time."
"Aha, true, but - " Buffy lectured with on finger in the air, "I have it on good authority that the bloke in question was already in love with a certain Slayer. Of course his ladylove didn't go for that. In my case, I'm assuming there's no other girl involved… " She looked at Spike threateningly.
Spike looked away. "'Course not, "he muttered.
"So, my love, "resumed Buffy, "you gonna say the magic word right now, or are you ready for a spot of torture?"
Spike couldn't deny that the prospect of being tortured by his Slayer seemed irresistible. Also, to be called 'my love" for the first time was doing strange things to his throat. The feeling of her warm hips on his was doing not so strange things to his cock.
Best not to give in too soon, he thought, takes all the fun away.
"Don't know what you want to hear, wouldn't say it if I did! "Spike said staunchly.
"Okay, her comes the torture! " Buffy started stripping off Spike's black T-shirt very slowly, lightly rubbing his cool white skin.
"Um, Slayer, " Spike growled, "you promised torture. You forgetting the blood and pain part? "
"There are many ways to torture a creature! Just you wait…."
Spike was slowly divested of his clothes. Buffy paused many times to kiss and fondle parts of his body, always just stopping when it started to be interesting. The slow pace was making Spike increasingly impatient. He began to get what kind of torture Buffy was inflicting.
Buffy took off her own top and bra, not hastening. She took the bra and slapped Spike's chest lightly with it. The motion made her breasts jiggle. Spike couldn't keep his eyes off them. His hands strained to touch her, but he was far too tightly cuffed.
Buffy bent forward and trailed the tips of her breasts over his chest. Her nipples became hard. Spike moaned as he felt the hot little pebbles against the coolness of his skin. Buffy crawled forward a little, her blue-jeaned butt crushing his cock in the process, not unpleasantly. Spike moaned again. Buffy offered the tip of one small breast close to his mouth.
"Say pretty please…" she whispered. Spike shook his head, incapable of speech. Buffy bumped the nipple gently against his mouth. Spike couldn't help himself. He grabbed the nipple with his lips and teeth and sucked hard.
Buffy cried out in mingled pain and pleasure.
"Come here!"
"Nope!" she said brightly, and slid off him to take off her boots.
"Slayer!" Spike growled, getting desperate.
Buffy laughed. The sound made him dizzy with longing. "You know what I want from you! "she said.
She took of her jeans and sat on top of him again, positioning herself just so his cock rubbed against her soft warm belly. The feel of her was unbearably hot. Spike moved against her as much as she could, but it wasn't enough by far. Buffy lay down on top of him. She kissed him softly on his nose and eyes, at the same time stroking his scarred eyebrow, then slid her hand around to his nape, where under all the gel there was a nest of soft hair.
"Spikey…" she crooned into his neck, and started to lick her hot tongue over his tightly corded muscles. "Spikey… just relax, and say the words, I'll make you so happy…"
Spike felt as if he was going to self-combust and burst in to tears at the same time.
"Buffy, please stop, " he said in a strangled voice. "Really can't do this, love. It was a sweet thought, really appreciate it, but this is gonna solve nothing. We're adults, Buffy. A little play-acting and some nice sex are not gonna be the answer to all the hard questions. Let's just talk."
Buffy heard the difference in his voice immediately. Her face downcast, she climbed off him, unlocked the cuffs, and dressed.
They sat down awkwardly on the bed.
"Bad plan, huh? " Buffy said, a tremor in her voice.
"Buffy, no! It was really nice… letting me know you remembered…trying to do things my style. But, see, it's the old Spike style. That Spike doesn't exist anymore. Not so much the soul as, you know, the whole of last year… I told you so many times before, but you just didn't wanna hear."
Spike looked at her. Was there even any point?
"So I did do the wrong thing again!"
"We all do, Buffy, Doesn't matter that much."
"What are we going to talk about, Spike? Is there even any point? You don't love my anymore, do you? Why not say it outright, and I won't bother you anymore. Though I might cry."
Buffy was not far from it right now. Shit. She'd been so sure that this was the brilliant tactic that was going to wake him up, right back into her arms.
Spike took her hand with a sigh. "It's not as simple as all that. Suppose I still loved you, suppose you loved me. Then what? Love is just a beginning."
"Spike, I don't know what you mean. I think we're way past beginning! You want a guarantee for eternity? I can't give you that. Nobody could. Not even Dru and you made that."
He was silent.
"You're just avoiding again, Spike. I know you still love me. For some reason you just won't give in."
A beat.
"Beginning, huh? Let's just begin again, okay. No grand talk about love, no sex. Just date, like normal people. Hold hands while we're on patrol, have dinner, go Bronzing…"
"We're already holding hands, love."
***
TBC