*********************************TRApPeD*********************************
Thirty-Five: Softly We Tread
By Annie
2003-05-26
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Day Thirty-One.
12.33 p.m.
Willow took another bite on her apple, rolling over on her stomach on the floor of the dorm room to look at Buffy - who was lying on her back beside her.
"I would love you forever if you promised me you won't tell Spike I told you," Buffy said.
"You don't love me anyway?" Willow asked, mock-hurt in her tone and Buffy gave her a small shove in the side with one hand. "Okay, so why don't you want me to tell him you told me?" the former then wondered and Buffy raised one shoulder in a shrug before she replied:
"I'm scared he'll take it as some sort of... admittance."
Willow smiled.
"That you're 'into him'?" she asked and Buffy couldn't help but giggle.
"If you're gonna act the part of teasing-best-friend-when-huge-secret-has- been-let-out I think I'm just gonna get off this floor and go sulk in some darkened corner," she then muttered, smile still on though and it was Willow's turn to chuckle.
"Sorry... It's just - the thought of you with Spike is... complex. Are you planning on telling Xander anytime soon? And Giles...?"
"Look, I just asked you not to speak of your knowledge of this whole thing loudly or even in whispers to anyone - do you think I'm thinking of telling those two? Really?" she inquired sarcastically and Willow cocked an eyebrow.
"You know, actually you only asked me not to tell Spike," she then pointed out and Buffy gave her a look before she said:
"I did say that, didn't I? Alright, I will love you even more than I already do if you promise me not to tell anyone about this - ESPECIALLY Spike."
"I promise I won't tell Spike you told me that you think he's hot," Willow assured.
"Willow!" Buffy exclaimed, sitting up. "It's weird enough as it is - you don't have to act all okay with it," she then added and Willow grinned.
"Who's acting? I understand, okay? More than you know," she then added and Buffy frowned slightly just as Willow caught eye of the clock on her bedside table and sat up.
"We really should hit the library, Saturday afternoon's seem to be the national hours of studies and there's always the Finding of a Table part that grows trickier each time," she stated, getting to her feet and Buffy did the same, smiling.
***
9.53 p.m.
Buffy stopped before the doors of his crypt with butterflies fluttering around in her stomach and she braced herself. She couldn't keep this up. This falling at his feet whenever he graced her with a look, a caress... She had to be able to be in the same room as him without losing her head, because he was going to help them now. He was going to be at the meetings. She wanted him to be included if he was going to risk his... un-life for the sake of their mission. She was going to be seen with him by the Gang. By the people who knew her the best. They would see; they were bound to notice. Just as Willow had.
She drew a breath and opened the door leading into the small foyer. Proceeding up to the other one she opened it and walked through it with her head held as high as she could and her heart beating much too hard in her chest.
The room was bursting with candles and she stopped short at the sight of them. Their dancing flames cast a beautiful and warm glow about the room and she felt her decisiveness slide off her and land at her feet, light as feathers. She buttoned up her jacket and slid it off her shoulders as she took a slow turn to look around her.
"Spike?" she then called.
She jerked when his voice came from right behind her and then she relaxed as his hands glided over her waist, his arms following as he held her to him.
"I got you something," he said and she frowned slightly as he made her walk forward, following tight on her heels as he still held her.
"What is it?" she asked and she could almost sense the smile on him as he replied:
"Patience is a virtue."
She smirked, closing her eyes at the feeling of him close.
"Okay...almost now," he stated silently, making her come to a halt and then he let her go, moving to her side instead and taking her right hand in his - making her stretch her arm out and take another small step forward.
She frowned as her fingers slid over something soft. It felt like...
She opened her eyes and had a smile spread wide on her lips before she turned her head to him with her eyes shining her delight.
"You got me a mattress?" she asked, voice full of laughter and he smirked.
"Need to spare that back of yours, don't we?" he asked in return and she let the laughter out at that, taking the step parting them and wrapping her arms around him.
He put his around her too and soon enough the tenderness of the embrace began to grow apparent. She closed her eyes a second time and relaxed into it.
"I'm sorry 'bout how we left it," he murmured and she smiled a small smile at those words. "You know I meant what I said... I just didn't mean for it to..."
She interrupted him by pulling back slightly and then joining their lips gently. Deepening the kiss slowly she didn't break it for a long while; tasting him and letting him taste her. When she ended it in the same fashion by which she had started it she did it with another smile, looking up and meeting his gaze.
He looked quite wondering, as well as glad. She kind of liked that expression on him.
"I was barely annoyed over that," she then remarked about the slight argument they had had that morning.
"So... where've you been? Patrolling?" he wondered and her smile widened.
"Missed me bad?" she asked teasingly and he gave her a look which merely made her giggle. "I was studying," she then answered his question, "with Willow."
"Studying, eh?" he asked, kissing her on the mouth and she smirked. "I hate that..." he then mumbled, kissing her again, a second longer this time and she slid her hands into his hair as he made her walk backwards until her legs were against the now mattress-covered sarcophagus. "Except when it comes to my favorite subject," he added and once again he kissed her, this time deepening it as he had her lay back down, him following to place himself between her thighs.
"Me?" she asked and he pulled up to look down at her with a mischievous grin spreading over his mouth before he shook his head a little, saying:
"Sex ed."
Her own smile broadened before she giggled.
"You fiend," she grumbled right before their lips met harshly and the world slipped away - for another night.
***
Day Thirty-Two.
10.45 a.m.
The smell of food woke her and she opened her eyes, looking up at the rough stone ceiling above before she sat up and directed her gaze toward the so- called kitchen. She furrowed her brow, grabbing the sheet which covered her as she moved to the edge of the mattress and stood on the floor, wrapping the piece of fabric around her as she started toward the space where she could hear sounds of frying and silverware against plates.
She stopped a few feet behind the noisemaker, observing the muscles of his back move beneath his smooth skin as his right arm lifted the frying pan off the small stove - which was of the portable variety. She smiled a little.
"Did you get that for me as well?" she then asked and he didn't turn his head to her as he merely huffed.
Her smile widened and she took the few steps up to him, wrapping her arms around him from behind in the fashion he had her the night prior and resting her cheek against the place of his spine. Her hands slid up his torso and he stopped his movements at her touches.
"You're gonna make me burn the sodding eggs, love," he murmured and she chuckled at that, moving herself around him so that she could face him and he smiled a small smile when he met her eyes.
"Don't try to," she mumbled and he arched one eyebrow quizzically. "Make me all comfortable," she elaborated. "I'm not gonna stay here every night, you know?"
He merely smirked at that, bending down and kissing her, deepening it before he pulled away again and made her step aside.
"Go back to bed," he instructed. "I planned this to be breakfast in that very furniture and I'm bloody sticking to that."
"Don't need any help?" she asked and he gave her a look which made her back off with another smile spreading over her lips and then she did as he asked, going back up to the sarcophagus and climbing up on it. "This thing is comfortable," she stated, throwing herself carelessly down on her back on the mattress and he smirked, hoisting some eggs and a load of bacon over onto a plate.
"Sorry to be a bother then," he replied and she raised her eyebrows, still lying down.
"Bother?" she wondered and he grabbed a few pieces of toast in one hand, the plate in the other and then he walked in her footsteps up to where she now lay.
"I wasn't supposed to try and make you 'comfortable'," he reminded and she looked sheepish.
"My memory's not what it used to be," she muttered and he kept the smirk on as he set the plate down before her. "Or so it would seem," she added, her eyes staring at the mountain of food before her. "Am I supposed to eat all of that all by my 'itsy-bitsy' self?" she inquired and he laughed.
"I think your memory is more or less intact, pet," he remarked and she smiled at that, then shrugged.
"Still, are you trying to fatten me up, honey - should I be offended?" she asked, her tone only half sarcastic and he smiled with his eyes twinkling warmth before he leaned his upper body forward and kissed her gently.
"You're perfect," he stated, voice lowered and she felt shivers of well- being hurry through her. "You're gorgeous," he mumbled, letting his mouth journey down the side of her neck and she leaned her cheek against his. "You're drop-dead beautiful," he said and she laughed softly.
"I'm glad this isn't beating then," she replied, putting one hand over the place of his heart as he pulled back to look at her, "I wouldn't wanna..." she began, pausing as she suddenly grew self-conscious beneath his gaze and then she finished silently: "lose you."
He eyed her so closely at that small disclosure that she had to remove her gaze from his and then she stuttered:
"Lose you 'cause of the you dropping dead, I mean... I'm glad that... that isn't..."
Trailing off she shook her head at the idiot that she was and then forced herself to look back at him. He observed her for another moment and then he reached out one hand and let it glide down her locks before stopping by her cheek.
"I'm not expecting happily ever after," he stated and for some reason those words filled her with quiet discomfort. "But you make me believe in it. In something like that happening... even for two messed up beings like you and me," he added and she merely stared at him, very taken by those words and feeling the wanting to say something with equal serenity back.
However, she was stumped, though it wasn't the first time - was it?
"Stop," was all she could finally murmur, moving away from his touch and turning herself so that she dangled her legs over the edge of the mattress, closing her eyes and shaking her head a little.
She opened them again when he moved as well, only he got off the sarcophagus all together and came to kneel down before her, taking her hands in his and looking up and into her face - catching her gaze and refusing to release it. She swallowed. Waited. Observed him back and felt something tentative scratch the edge of her heart. And he was right. It DID scare her.
"I'm not ready," she whispered and he nodded, letting her hands go for moving his own to her waist - pulling her down to straddle him before he wrapped his arms around her and held her to him.
"I love you," he mumbled and she put her arms around him as well, nestling her face against his throat and feeling the net of sanctuary carefully entangle her.
"When I'm in your arms," she said, voice lowered, "I feel completely... safe. Like nothing in this world can ever touch me... Why is that?"
He smiled at the question, making her look up at him.
Then he tenderly kissed her, deepening it as she returned it and the sensation of his feelings for her as he needed to make them clear was all that filled her.
"Oh," he suddenly grumbled, pulling away and she opened her eyes with her eyebrows rising. "Bloody hell," he added and she couldn't help but smirk.
"You're sucha romantic, sweetie," she teased and he chuckled.
"Your food!" he replied. "It'll be all cold and nasty," he muttered. "Come on, love. I'll make you something else..."
"Hey," she stopped him as he was about to rise, smiling a small smile she added: "What's to say I don't like cold-and-nasty?"
He met her gaze and then smiled widely in return before he kissed her again. After a few minutes he did rise - with her legs still around his waist - and sat her down on the mattress before he slowly ended the kiss.
"I want you to enjoy that," he stated with a nod to the plate. "What's to drink? Water, juice... water?"
She sighed when he straightened his back, she was pouting and he smiled again.
"Juice will be fine," she then grumbled as he removed himself from her immediate presence. "Orange?" she wondered and he nodded, strolling over the floor of the crypt and up to the fridge. "I don't like orange," she stated, stretching out on her stomach across the mattress and watching him as he turned partially to her. "I only like grape," she added and he cocked an eyebrow.
"If you're suggesting I go get you some, milady, I have but one sodding thing to say: the-sun's-up," he remarked and she merely shrugged.
"I don't HAVE to have anything to drink," she said, picking up a piece of bacon from the plate and taking a small bite before she continued: "It's just that it'd be more like a real breakfast... WITH juice, I mean."
He blinked. Then he gave her a dark look which had a smile spread like a forest fire across her lips and he shook his head at her.
"Don't push me," he warned and she giggled, throwing the piece of bacon his way and when he ran up to her she was already ready for him as she had gotten to her knees.
He threw himself on her, making her fall backwards and wrestling her down as he grabbed her wrists and fitted himself between her thighs.
"Wouldn't dream of it," she assured; the smile still on and he had to return it. "Spike," she then mumbled and he raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Would you really have gone?" she asked and he hesitated a moment before he smirked.
"Would you have for me?" he retorted and she looked at him; then smirked as well.
"I really love my breakfast in bed," she said sweetly and he snickered. "Or - on mattress," she corrected. "Where did you get it, anyway?" she inquired as he rolled off her and sat up.
He turned his head to look at her and then tilted it a little to one side. The meaningful arching of one eyebrow had her huff as she sat up as well.
"Of course," she then muttered. "I forget - you're my Clyde."
"Clyde was human," Spike pointed out and she huffed again. "Clyde was psychotic," he added.
"He was a homicidal maniac," she stated. "And he was a bank robber, which was the parallel I was aiming for."
"Well, I don't mean to be picky, 'Bonnie' darlin'," he replied, "but comparing me with Clyde is lacking good sodding imagination. It's just sloppy, pet."
"Really?" she asked, mock-intrigue in her voice and he nodded.
"Hell yeah. I've never robbed a bank, for one. And you'd better bloody believe that I've never fired a gun or a rifle in my whole existence. And thirdly - he was a bum. He just chose the easy way out, didn't he?" Spike stated and Buffy giggled at that. "What's so bloody funny?" he murmured.
"You are," she answered him without hesitation. "You're saying that you're not taking an easy way out - stealing whatever you want? I know it's part of the whole 'evil dead' image you've got going for you and all, but honestly! Can you really say that you could hack it as anything but?"
He raised his eyebrows, truly offended by that.
"I could get a job!" he burst out before the words had even slipped fully through his head and his eyes grew as he realized that he had actually just uttered them. "Not that I ever would," he hurriedly added. "I don't work well with authority, Slayer," he continued as she crossed her arms over her chest and took to observing him. "And - I'm lazy," he finished matter-of- factly and she smiled again.
"No, you're incorrigible," she disagreed. "One of your less charming traits," she added and he shook his head.
"You have no idea how much you've..." he mumbled, cutting the sentence short and holding her gaze.
Her heart was slowing rather painfully, as well as time and she thought she could have heard a drop of water hit the floor - had there been one. Then she reached out one hand and slid it over his cheek gently.
"Make love to me," she asked of him, and he grew serious before he moved forward slowly, putting one hand on either side of her hips and then stroking his nose against hers as she slid her fingers up his torso and over his shoulders before burying them in his bleached curls.
He kissed her, softly.
And obliged her with ease.
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Dear readers, you are the sunshine of my life. That's why I'll always be around. ;) Thanks a lot for wonderful reviews. I'm so so happy, as always, that you keep enjoying this! Your comments and thoughts are always so much fun to read! Hope this chapter was no disappointment. :)
Warm and special thanks to Willow :), Mer *wide smile*!, thechosen :) , Cate ;), katrinas :), Alyssa :), Von *grin* and yay!;), Bitty-Buffy *smile*!!!, qattaca *lol* :), tricia (thanks!) :), Pine (thank you and I agree!), Heather (that a hint for me to update faster or was that not sarcastic? ;) Sunscreen's in the bag!) ;), LizDarcy *oh dear* ;) and Leanne8582 *woah and wow*!!! - thank you all so very much for all your continuing support! I luv ya!!!
So sorry this chapter was so late! I wanted to post it yesterday - but life got in the way, as it does. I really hate posting with this sort of interlude! Again, hope you got to enjoy the chapter!
A.M.L, Annie.
Thirty-Five: Softly We Tread
By Annie
2003-05-26
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Day Thirty-One.
12.33 p.m.
Willow took another bite on her apple, rolling over on her stomach on the floor of the dorm room to look at Buffy - who was lying on her back beside her.
"I would love you forever if you promised me you won't tell Spike I told you," Buffy said.
"You don't love me anyway?" Willow asked, mock-hurt in her tone and Buffy gave her a small shove in the side with one hand. "Okay, so why don't you want me to tell him you told me?" the former then wondered and Buffy raised one shoulder in a shrug before she replied:
"I'm scared he'll take it as some sort of... admittance."
Willow smiled.
"That you're 'into him'?" she asked and Buffy couldn't help but giggle.
"If you're gonna act the part of teasing-best-friend-when-huge-secret-has- been-let-out I think I'm just gonna get off this floor and go sulk in some darkened corner," she then muttered, smile still on though and it was Willow's turn to chuckle.
"Sorry... It's just - the thought of you with Spike is... complex. Are you planning on telling Xander anytime soon? And Giles...?"
"Look, I just asked you not to speak of your knowledge of this whole thing loudly or even in whispers to anyone - do you think I'm thinking of telling those two? Really?" she inquired sarcastically and Willow cocked an eyebrow.
"You know, actually you only asked me not to tell Spike," she then pointed out and Buffy gave her a look before she said:
"I did say that, didn't I? Alright, I will love you even more than I already do if you promise me not to tell anyone about this - ESPECIALLY Spike."
"I promise I won't tell Spike you told me that you think he's hot," Willow assured.
"Willow!" Buffy exclaimed, sitting up. "It's weird enough as it is - you don't have to act all okay with it," she then added and Willow grinned.
"Who's acting? I understand, okay? More than you know," she then added and Buffy frowned slightly just as Willow caught eye of the clock on her bedside table and sat up.
"We really should hit the library, Saturday afternoon's seem to be the national hours of studies and there's always the Finding of a Table part that grows trickier each time," she stated, getting to her feet and Buffy did the same, smiling.
***
9.53 p.m.
Buffy stopped before the doors of his crypt with butterflies fluttering around in her stomach and she braced herself. She couldn't keep this up. This falling at his feet whenever he graced her with a look, a caress... She had to be able to be in the same room as him without losing her head, because he was going to help them now. He was going to be at the meetings. She wanted him to be included if he was going to risk his... un-life for the sake of their mission. She was going to be seen with him by the Gang. By the people who knew her the best. They would see; they were bound to notice. Just as Willow had.
She drew a breath and opened the door leading into the small foyer. Proceeding up to the other one she opened it and walked through it with her head held as high as she could and her heart beating much too hard in her chest.
The room was bursting with candles and she stopped short at the sight of them. Their dancing flames cast a beautiful and warm glow about the room and she felt her decisiveness slide off her and land at her feet, light as feathers. She buttoned up her jacket and slid it off her shoulders as she took a slow turn to look around her.
"Spike?" she then called.
She jerked when his voice came from right behind her and then she relaxed as his hands glided over her waist, his arms following as he held her to him.
"I got you something," he said and she frowned slightly as he made her walk forward, following tight on her heels as he still held her.
"What is it?" she asked and she could almost sense the smile on him as he replied:
"Patience is a virtue."
She smirked, closing her eyes at the feeling of him close.
"Okay...almost now," he stated silently, making her come to a halt and then he let her go, moving to her side instead and taking her right hand in his - making her stretch her arm out and take another small step forward.
She frowned as her fingers slid over something soft. It felt like...
She opened her eyes and had a smile spread wide on her lips before she turned her head to him with her eyes shining her delight.
"You got me a mattress?" she asked, voice full of laughter and he smirked.
"Need to spare that back of yours, don't we?" he asked in return and she let the laughter out at that, taking the step parting them and wrapping her arms around him.
He put his around her too and soon enough the tenderness of the embrace began to grow apparent. She closed her eyes a second time and relaxed into it.
"I'm sorry 'bout how we left it," he murmured and she smiled a small smile at those words. "You know I meant what I said... I just didn't mean for it to..."
She interrupted him by pulling back slightly and then joining their lips gently. Deepening the kiss slowly she didn't break it for a long while; tasting him and letting him taste her. When she ended it in the same fashion by which she had started it she did it with another smile, looking up and meeting his gaze.
He looked quite wondering, as well as glad. She kind of liked that expression on him.
"I was barely annoyed over that," she then remarked about the slight argument they had had that morning.
"So... where've you been? Patrolling?" he wondered and her smile widened.
"Missed me bad?" she asked teasingly and he gave her a look which merely made her giggle. "I was studying," she then answered his question, "with Willow."
"Studying, eh?" he asked, kissing her on the mouth and she smirked. "I hate that..." he then mumbled, kissing her again, a second longer this time and she slid her hands into his hair as he made her walk backwards until her legs were against the now mattress-covered sarcophagus. "Except when it comes to my favorite subject," he added and once again he kissed her, this time deepening it as he had her lay back down, him following to place himself between her thighs.
"Me?" she asked and he pulled up to look down at her with a mischievous grin spreading over his mouth before he shook his head a little, saying:
"Sex ed."
Her own smile broadened before she giggled.
"You fiend," she grumbled right before their lips met harshly and the world slipped away - for another night.
***
Day Thirty-Two.
10.45 a.m.
The smell of food woke her and she opened her eyes, looking up at the rough stone ceiling above before she sat up and directed her gaze toward the so- called kitchen. She furrowed her brow, grabbing the sheet which covered her as she moved to the edge of the mattress and stood on the floor, wrapping the piece of fabric around her as she started toward the space where she could hear sounds of frying and silverware against plates.
She stopped a few feet behind the noisemaker, observing the muscles of his back move beneath his smooth skin as his right arm lifted the frying pan off the small stove - which was of the portable variety. She smiled a little.
"Did you get that for me as well?" she then asked and he didn't turn his head to her as he merely huffed.
Her smile widened and she took the few steps up to him, wrapping her arms around him from behind in the fashion he had her the night prior and resting her cheek against the place of his spine. Her hands slid up his torso and he stopped his movements at her touches.
"You're gonna make me burn the sodding eggs, love," he murmured and she chuckled at that, moving herself around him so that she could face him and he smiled a small smile when he met her eyes.
"Don't try to," she mumbled and he arched one eyebrow quizzically. "Make me all comfortable," she elaborated. "I'm not gonna stay here every night, you know?"
He merely smirked at that, bending down and kissing her, deepening it before he pulled away again and made her step aside.
"Go back to bed," he instructed. "I planned this to be breakfast in that very furniture and I'm bloody sticking to that."
"Don't need any help?" she asked and he gave her a look which made her back off with another smile spreading over her lips and then she did as he asked, going back up to the sarcophagus and climbing up on it. "This thing is comfortable," she stated, throwing herself carelessly down on her back on the mattress and he smirked, hoisting some eggs and a load of bacon over onto a plate.
"Sorry to be a bother then," he replied and she raised her eyebrows, still lying down.
"Bother?" she wondered and he grabbed a few pieces of toast in one hand, the plate in the other and then he walked in her footsteps up to where she now lay.
"I wasn't supposed to try and make you 'comfortable'," he reminded and she looked sheepish.
"My memory's not what it used to be," she muttered and he kept the smirk on as he set the plate down before her. "Or so it would seem," she added, her eyes staring at the mountain of food before her. "Am I supposed to eat all of that all by my 'itsy-bitsy' self?" she inquired and he laughed.
"I think your memory is more or less intact, pet," he remarked and she smiled at that, then shrugged.
"Still, are you trying to fatten me up, honey - should I be offended?" she asked, her tone only half sarcastic and he smiled with his eyes twinkling warmth before he leaned his upper body forward and kissed her gently.
"You're perfect," he stated, voice lowered and she felt shivers of well- being hurry through her. "You're gorgeous," he mumbled, letting his mouth journey down the side of her neck and she leaned her cheek against his. "You're drop-dead beautiful," he said and she laughed softly.
"I'm glad this isn't beating then," she replied, putting one hand over the place of his heart as he pulled back to look at her, "I wouldn't wanna..." she began, pausing as she suddenly grew self-conscious beneath his gaze and then she finished silently: "lose you."
He eyed her so closely at that small disclosure that she had to remove her gaze from his and then she stuttered:
"Lose you 'cause of the you dropping dead, I mean... I'm glad that... that isn't..."
Trailing off she shook her head at the idiot that she was and then forced herself to look back at him. He observed her for another moment and then he reached out one hand and let it glide down her locks before stopping by her cheek.
"I'm not expecting happily ever after," he stated and for some reason those words filled her with quiet discomfort. "But you make me believe in it. In something like that happening... even for two messed up beings like you and me," he added and she merely stared at him, very taken by those words and feeling the wanting to say something with equal serenity back.
However, she was stumped, though it wasn't the first time - was it?
"Stop," was all she could finally murmur, moving away from his touch and turning herself so that she dangled her legs over the edge of the mattress, closing her eyes and shaking her head a little.
She opened them again when he moved as well, only he got off the sarcophagus all together and came to kneel down before her, taking her hands in his and looking up and into her face - catching her gaze and refusing to release it. She swallowed. Waited. Observed him back and felt something tentative scratch the edge of her heart. And he was right. It DID scare her.
"I'm not ready," she whispered and he nodded, letting her hands go for moving his own to her waist - pulling her down to straddle him before he wrapped his arms around her and held her to him.
"I love you," he mumbled and she put her arms around him as well, nestling her face against his throat and feeling the net of sanctuary carefully entangle her.
"When I'm in your arms," she said, voice lowered, "I feel completely... safe. Like nothing in this world can ever touch me... Why is that?"
He smiled at the question, making her look up at him.
Then he tenderly kissed her, deepening it as she returned it and the sensation of his feelings for her as he needed to make them clear was all that filled her.
"Oh," he suddenly grumbled, pulling away and she opened her eyes with her eyebrows rising. "Bloody hell," he added and she couldn't help but smirk.
"You're sucha romantic, sweetie," she teased and he chuckled.
"Your food!" he replied. "It'll be all cold and nasty," he muttered. "Come on, love. I'll make you something else..."
"Hey," she stopped him as he was about to rise, smiling a small smile she added: "What's to say I don't like cold-and-nasty?"
He met her gaze and then smiled widely in return before he kissed her again. After a few minutes he did rise - with her legs still around his waist - and sat her down on the mattress before he slowly ended the kiss.
"I want you to enjoy that," he stated with a nod to the plate. "What's to drink? Water, juice... water?"
She sighed when he straightened his back, she was pouting and he smiled again.
"Juice will be fine," she then grumbled as he removed himself from her immediate presence. "Orange?" she wondered and he nodded, strolling over the floor of the crypt and up to the fridge. "I don't like orange," she stated, stretching out on her stomach across the mattress and watching him as he turned partially to her. "I only like grape," she added and he cocked an eyebrow.
"If you're suggesting I go get you some, milady, I have but one sodding thing to say: the-sun's-up," he remarked and she merely shrugged.
"I don't HAVE to have anything to drink," she said, picking up a piece of bacon from the plate and taking a small bite before she continued: "It's just that it'd be more like a real breakfast... WITH juice, I mean."
He blinked. Then he gave her a dark look which had a smile spread like a forest fire across her lips and he shook his head at her.
"Don't push me," he warned and she giggled, throwing the piece of bacon his way and when he ran up to her she was already ready for him as she had gotten to her knees.
He threw himself on her, making her fall backwards and wrestling her down as he grabbed her wrists and fitted himself between her thighs.
"Wouldn't dream of it," she assured; the smile still on and he had to return it. "Spike," she then mumbled and he raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Would you really have gone?" she asked and he hesitated a moment before he smirked.
"Would you have for me?" he retorted and she looked at him; then smirked as well.
"I really love my breakfast in bed," she said sweetly and he snickered. "Or - on mattress," she corrected. "Where did you get it, anyway?" she inquired as he rolled off her and sat up.
He turned his head to look at her and then tilted it a little to one side. The meaningful arching of one eyebrow had her huff as she sat up as well.
"Of course," she then muttered. "I forget - you're my Clyde."
"Clyde was human," Spike pointed out and she huffed again. "Clyde was psychotic," he added.
"He was a homicidal maniac," she stated. "And he was a bank robber, which was the parallel I was aiming for."
"Well, I don't mean to be picky, 'Bonnie' darlin'," he replied, "but comparing me with Clyde is lacking good sodding imagination. It's just sloppy, pet."
"Really?" she asked, mock-intrigue in her voice and he nodded.
"Hell yeah. I've never robbed a bank, for one. And you'd better bloody believe that I've never fired a gun or a rifle in my whole existence. And thirdly - he was a bum. He just chose the easy way out, didn't he?" Spike stated and Buffy giggled at that. "What's so bloody funny?" he murmured.
"You are," she answered him without hesitation. "You're saying that you're not taking an easy way out - stealing whatever you want? I know it's part of the whole 'evil dead' image you've got going for you and all, but honestly! Can you really say that you could hack it as anything but?"
He raised his eyebrows, truly offended by that.
"I could get a job!" he burst out before the words had even slipped fully through his head and his eyes grew as he realized that he had actually just uttered them. "Not that I ever would," he hurriedly added. "I don't work well with authority, Slayer," he continued as she crossed her arms over her chest and took to observing him. "And - I'm lazy," he finished matter-of- factly and she smiled again.
"No, you're incorrigible," she disagreed. "One of your less charming traits," she added and he shook his head.
"You have no idea how much you've..." he mumbled, cutting the sentence short and holding her gaze.
Her heart was slowing rather painfully, as well as time and she thought she could have heard a drop of water hit the floor - had there been one. Then she reached out one hand and slid it over his cheek gently.
"Make love to me," she asked of him, and he grew serious before he moved forward slowly, putting one hand on either side of her hips and then stroking his nose against hers as she slid her fingers up his torso and over his shoulders before burying them in his bleached curls.
He kissed her, softly.
And obliged her with ease.
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Dear readers, you are the sunshine of my life. That's why I'll always be around. ;) Thanks a lot for wonderful reviews. I'm so so happy, as always, that you keep enjoying this! Your comments and thoughts are always so much fun to read! Hope this chapter was no disappointment. :)
Warm and special thanks to Willow :), Mer *wide smile*!, thechosen :) , Cate ;), katrinas :), Alyssa :), Von *grin* and yay!;), Bitty-Buffy *smile*!!!, qattaca *lol* :), tricia (thanks!) :), Pine (thank you and I agree!), Heather (that a hint for me to update faster or was that not sarcastic? ;) Sunscreen's in the bag!) ;), LizDarcy *oh dear* ;) and Leanne8582 *woah and wow*!!! - thank you all so very much for all your continuing support! I luv ya!!!
So sorry this chapter was so late! I wanted to post it yesterday - but life got in the way, as it does. I really hate posting with this sort of interlude! Again, hope you got to enjoy the chapter!
A.M.L, Annie.