True Colors

By Tales Of Spike

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just play with them. Unfortunately, this is all in my head, and not literally, but it keeps me amused anyway and hopefully at least a few other people as well.

Feedback: Yes please. I'm always happy to know what you think, and especially to know someone is actually reading this stuff that I write. If the site you're using doesn't have a review function please e-mail me at Sandy.Osborne@blueyonder.co.uk.

Distribution: Currently here and at The Crypt. Use http://home.att.net/~lubakmetyk/dates.htm to access the latest updates section where you'll find a direct link to the most recent chapter, or http://crypt.fontsofwisdom.net to access the Buffy section of the main site. All the chapters will be posted at the Crypt BEFORE they go up on ff.net. This is so that (for the relevant chapters like this one) I can refer adult readers to the unedited version.

Notes: This is the heavily abridged R rated version of this chapter (by reading this you've lost about a third of the length). To read the unedited version please access the story at The Crypt. If you do, it would still be nice if you used the 'Back' button on your browser to come back here and leave a review.

Thanks go out to my two betas MadRog and t_geyer, without whom, no one other than me would be reading this. Before they came on board, this was just one chapter running to two hundred plus pages. They helped to sort out a workable structure and are currently giving me the necessary prompting to expand on certain plot lines raised within the story so far. You can find all MadRog's stories at www.sunnydale-tales.com, the site she shares with Isis and they're well worth a read.

Special thanks also, to all of you who have taken the time and made the effort to review. I would name you all personally, but at the present time I don't have access to a computer. In fact, I didn't even post this chapter, my lovely beta MadRog did it for me so that you lovely people wouldn't be kept waiting for a week between instalments.

SECTION 1 – LEAP OF FAITH

And it's a leap of faith

When you believe there's someone out there

It's a leap of faith

When you believe that

Someone cares, oh

And when I call out to you

Will you be right there

Right there

(Michelle Branch, Album Broken Bracelet)

CHAPTER 1.03

Spike pulled Buffy in close, holding her as her tremors stilled to nothing, watching her as she pulled her head back to search his face.

"What's up, pet?"

"Just wanted to make sure you were okay…"

He smiled down at her. "I kinda thought the two of us together have always been nearer unbelievable than okay."

"Sp- Will, I'm serious. We've got quite a few memories between us and a lot of them… It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they could be better. There are going to be times when we're reminded of the bad things. As long as we can move past them we'll be okay but if there's a problem we need to deal with it. So… are you okay?"

He gave her a reassuring squeeze. "For a minute there it was like I was right back in that house, but this time I knew what was coming the morning after. It caught me by surprise, is all. I know things have changed. I mean, to judge by the window dressing you're not planning on sending me back to the crypt before sunrise. You've told Niblet and all your mates. S'just goin' to take a little while before I stop expecting everything to fall apart.

No..." he obviously struggled to find words to express his thoughts. "I know things are different but it'll be a while before I feel things are different. It'll take time for it to sink in that you aren't… that I'm really this lucky."

"Nice save. Promise I won't be too much of a bitch in the morning, though Dawn says I only turn human once I have my first mug of coffee, so no absolute guarantees."

"Wouldn't be half as interesting if you were all sweetness and light twenty four hours a day, pet."

"Or if you ever learnt the meaning of the word tact."

"Not much of a vamp thing. Nope, that's not true. Most vamps learn how to toady good and proper to their elders even if they don't bother with it the rest of the time. I guess it's just me."

"I suppose that would explain how well you and Angel get on… That's going to be a fun part of the Christmas card list this year." She smiled. "Dear Angel, Merry Christmas, Love Buffy and Spike. He'd be on his way here before the postman got clear of his street."

"He'll be on his way sooner than that, pet." Spike said, apparently unfazed.

"Hey, he's my ex. I think I should get to decide when you tell him."

His smirk returned at her response. "Unless you decide soon, I don't think it'll be either of us telling him."

"Where else is he going to hear about it from?"

"Well there's always the demon grapevine. Even if my name isn't specifically mentioned the fact that the slayer's taken up with another vamp'll eventually get as far as LA. Personally, I'd put bets on Harris though. It's just a matter of how long he takes to think of it."

"You think Xander would tell Angel we're together?" A frown was making its presence known on Buffy's face.

"I'd say it's more a question of whether he has the guts to pick up the phone and do it himself or whether he sends an anonymous note, but it might take a day or two before he comes up with the idea," Spike confirmed.

"What do you think Angel will do?"

"He'll probably turn up, try to speak to your mates and work out exactly what sort of thrall I have you under, or how I might have coerced you into letting me in your bed. Then as soon as he's convinced himself that it's his and Harris's opinions that count and that I've fooled everybody else, he'll set an ambush, try to get me on my own."

"Why do you think ambush?"

"It's the only way to be sure. You don't have a bicentennial by taking chances. A straight fight could go either way."

"Do you… Will he try to stake you?"

"He hasn't so far, but it probably depends on what your mates say. You've got to remember, he's known me for a hundred and twenty years. We lived together for twenty years and every day of those two decades I had to prove that I was bastard enough to belong with him and his women. He won't want to believe that I've changed. Depends whether your mates can convince him I'm not a threat to you. But on the bright side… Dru and Darla had a bit of a spree up in LA not so long ago and he didn't stake them."

"You must have heard wrong Darla died the year I came to Sunnydale."

"Yeah, and then a bunch of lawyers did some hocus-pocus and brought her back human and set her to torment the Poof into losing his soul. Except they brought her back with the same syphilitic heart condition the whore was originally dying from when she was turned. So Dru turned her again 'n' far as I know she's still around somewhere."

"He let them go?"

"After he set them on fire… yeah. But then he actually locked them in with the lawyers and he didn't know any of the others… he might be less lenient seein' as he's supposed to like you and how you wear his mark and he's a bit less fond of me than of Dru or Darla."

"How can you be so calm about it? He might kill you."

"Sufficient unto each day are the problems thereof, pet. I'm in the best fighting form I've ever been in what with patrollin' 'n' stuff. Other than that there's nothin' to be done. It's not as if the two of us fightin' is anythin' new."

"Unless we force the issue so we at least sort of know when he's coming. But what do you mean about wearing his mark? You make it sound like some sort of cattle brand or something," she had more than a hint of defiance in her tone.

"Yeah, well… You're shiverin', pet." He loosened his grip and pulled back from her, adjusting his jeans. "Get yourself under the covers and I'll get the door." He stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers and kissed her brow before pushing off the bed to finally close the bedroom door. He picked up the damp towel from on top of the covers and spread it out over the wrought iron at the top of the bed.

Buffy pulled the covers back and crawled in, then lay on her side, watching Spike as he moved around the room. She waited until he was climbing into bed after removing his jeans before she reminded him of her question. "The mark?"

Spike pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her before he replied. "The scars you have on your neck, give a warning, should we say, to any vamp that gets close enough to see them. The Master's is pretty much a non-issue what with him being gone. The other two basically tell us that Soul Boy claimed you as his property, but that Drac's made a later claim since those scars are fresher and overlay the Poof's. Assuming there's still a bit of the demon left in the old man, if he'd still been around when Drac made his appearance he would have had to defend his claim. It's kind of a dominance thing. Anyone who ignores a mark like that… it's like saying they're dominant to the one who made it in the first place."

"So you being in my bed…"

"…Defies both of them, from their point of view anyway. Way I look at it, they both gave up whatever claim they might have had when they buggered off. A claim is just as much about undertaking to protect someone as it is about saying they belong to you."

"But, your point of view won't matter when Angel hears about us. He's going to see it as you trying to take what's his?"

"It's a direct challenge as far as the demon's concerned. The question's whether the man can or would want to keep the demon in check. Which we won't find out till he gets here."

"So if you've already basically asked for an ass-kicking why didn't you just put your mark over the top? You just passed up the ideal opportunity. Doesn't your demon want that top mark to be his?"

"Buffyyy…" Her name was almost a groan. "Yeah, it does. Every time I see those marks or sense them they remind me that you're not mine. That you're his, just like Dru. I'd like nothing better than to put my mark over theirs, but if I ever claim you it'll be as my mate not as some chattel. You don't belong to me. I'm not your master and I don't want to be. So until you're ready to call me your husband I'll live with their marks. Okay?"

"Very okay. But if you're right we still have a problem."

"Unless you're planning some sort of pre-emptive action, pet, it'll keep."

"What action?"

"Acting before anyone else can. Like say I was to drive to LA tomorrow night."

"Don't you mean say we were to drive to LA?"

"Slayer, that was just an example. And the point I was trying to make is that we've got better things to do, our first night in your room, than talk about Grandpa." He leaned down to kiss her, tightening his grip to pull her flush against his body and then he rolled over onto his back bringing her with him.

He teased at her lower lip, capturing it between his and pulling at it, nibbling at it with a delighted smile. She realised, she'd been pouting and her brain supplied the soundtrack. 'Gonna get it… Gonna get it.' Suddenly it hit home. She knew in her head, knew in her heart that what they had really could work. When she came out of Willow's spell she'd been grossed out about how she could love someone she didn't even like. Since then he'd become her confidant, her partner and companion on her nightly patrols and her shaggin' partner (as Spike had once described them) but she'd never seen that happy teasing side again until earlier tonight. She hoped she would see it more often now that they were really a couple.

She grinned widely, effectively ending Spike's play.

"Wha' so funny, love?"

"Us. You. Good memories. Do you have any idea how cute you are when you get all… like you just were?"

She screeched before she could stop herself. His hands seemed to be all over her tickling in all her most sensitive spots. His voice resonant with barely contained laughter. "The. Big. Bad. Does. Not. Do. Cute." She squirmed all over his body, trying to evade his teasing fingers but not trying so hard as to move away from him. Her response coming out between her gasps for air.

"No… but you do… cute and… you… do the… Big Bad."

Spike, perhaps, would have spent some time wondering when he stopped being the Big Bad and started playing him were it not for the fact that the woman he loved was moving around on top of him in a way that made him want to pound her into the mattress. All at once he was sitting upright with Buffy straddling his lap. One hand was tangled in her hair and the other was pulling her close, grinding his lower body against her. His sudden kiss was deep and hard. Instead of resisting she gave herself up to it, only pulling back when lack of oxygen had her gasping to draw breath.

"Change," she managed in a hoarse whisper and then she reclaimed his mouth without waiting to see if he would comply with her request. She felt his bones move under her tongue, heard all the cracking and grinding sounds clearer than ever before, transmitted through her jaw bone instead of across still air.

Kissing a vampire in game face was something that required a great deal of delicacy if no blood was to be spilled. Instead Buffy deliberately ran her tongue over the sharp edges of Spike's upper teeth, opening free-flowing cuts. She brushed her tongue against his letting him savour the aphrodisiac. At the first taste he froze in her embrace his increased arousal immediately apparent. When he resumed his oral exploration his efforts were equally passionate, but more tender, careful not to cause her further injury.

When the bleeding had slowed she drew back from his kiss, taking the time to look into his golden eyes. Seeing his discomfort under her gaze she knelt to place a kiss on his ridged brow, following up with a multitude more all over the altered planes of his face. Her fingers traced the contours of his demon countenance ensuring their likeness was committed to memory, along with those of the face he wore almost constantly now.

"You about finished yet, pet? Just there's some things I'm wanting to do and if I stay looking like this they might hurt. Besides, didn't you tell me only one vampire got you hot?"

"Yeah, well that's true. Only I was kinda economical with the truth about the rest of it. See I thought Angel got me hot until this other vamp showed me what hot really was. An-"

She didn't get any further, Spike pushing her over onto her back and fiercely claiming her mouth, the grinding of bone presaging his return to human form even as he did so. One hand moved to fondle her breasts. He had folded his legs under as he tipped her over, so whilst he leant forward from a kneeling position, Buffy was lying with her hips on top of his thighs and her legs either side of his waist. She reached behind his head entwining her fingers in his hair and just when she was in need of breath she pulled his mouth away and rolled them over onto their sides freeing her legs.

Even though Spike had no need for breath, both of them were panting when they pulled apart. A layer of sweat coated Buffy's body and those parts of his where they had been in contact.

Spike swiped along the hollow above her collar-bone with his tongue, savouring her salt taste. "So this one vamp… must be a lucky guy. Anyone I know?"

Buffy swung her legs around so that they were once more lower down the bed than her head her shins resting against the wrought iron at the bottom of the bed. She began kissing, licking and nibbling her way down Spike's contoured chest and abdomen, breaking off occasionally to answer her lover's question. "Well, I could tell you that it was you… but what if I was lying… there's really only one way to be sure."

It took some time before the matter was conclusively proven to Buffy's evident satisfaction.

"Well, pet, I think we can safely say that that question's been settled," he whispered not bothering to hide his amusement, but still falling far short of his smug tone.

Buffy gave a gentle snort. "I guess it is." She considered the indications of his continued arousal, "but I think we need one more round, at least, to be sure."

"That sounds like a good idea from here, love." He captured her lips in a tender kiss. "Did you have anything in particular in mind?"

"Mmmh, something slow and hard and so deep that it hurts…"

"Oh yeah, I like it when naughty Buffy comes out to play. Think we can manage that."

To be continued in chapter 1.04