They walk back to the hotel in silence.

When they enter the door of their room, Buffy heads for their shower but he stops her. She doesn't turn to face him and he moves her to him slowly. He cups her face in his hands and he can see the tear tracks on her face and the ones still threatening to spill over her eyes.

He kisses her softly, "Don't listen to what that boy says."

She doesn't respond and he grips her harder, "You're perfect. In every way. Everything about you is poetry."

She smiles and then leans forwards to kiss him, "You're not a dead thing."

Her voice is fierce and he kisses her again and again and again. Their moans of pleasure fill the room and her eyes close as he kisses the base of her throat, the hollow of her neck, the space just between her breasts where her skin smells like cinnamon and clover. Her hands move over his back and shoulders and torso and they fall back on the bed, his mouth covers her body and her voice calls out his name while her hot hands wrap around him.

Skin on skin and they're both sweating as their sheets wrap around them and the head board bangs into the wall.

She's under him and around him and inside him and he's doing the same thing to her. They're panting and he's whispering against her neck, "Stay, don't listen to them, you're mine, mine, mine, mine, mine ... "

And she answers, her voice low with passion, "Yes, yes, yes, yours, only yours, you're home, don't go, don't leave, you're home, so alive ... "

[ c e n s o r e d ]

Her skin, her blood, her sweat, all flood him and he can feel her convulse into her second orgasm of the night as he drinks her, and then, before he can take too much, he pulls away and licks the wounds clean. She's peaceful now and he whispers against the flesh of her neck, "I love you."

There's silence for a while and then a whisper, so silent that they almost don't hear it, "I love you."

He squeezes her tightly and kisses her mouth tenderly, her arms and body open to him like a flower and they pass the afterglow in each other's bodies once again, and again and again into the long day.

"I love you."

'Give me

One more medicated peaceful moment

One more medicated peaceful moment'