Disclaimer: Joss has finally come to his senses and decided that he can no longer handle Spike, and that he must give me complete control of all of his ...well.....assets ;) Wait a minute, who am I kidding, I couldn't handle Spike if I tried, oh well.

Authors Note: Mucho thanks to everyone who has reviewed, I really appreciate it, I do, from the bottom of my little bitty heart. I hope everyone enjoys what's next to come, and I give major kudos to those of you who continue to read and review as always!! The quote below is by the fabulous Michelle Branch. And with no further a do, I now present to you Chapter 3!!

Better Man

Chapter 3

Luminous

You're in my heart

The only light that shines

There in the dark

The light was too bright.

It felt as if it was burning his eyes from the inside out, and for a moment he feared that it was actually happening. He rubbed at his face, bringing his arm up to shield his eyes from the light that had invaded his slumber.

He waited a moment before he noticed that his eyes weren't on fire, but simply adjusting to the pure light of day. He had no clue where he was at the moment or why, and so he tried to stand up, but found very quickly that his body was weak and sore, from what he did not know.

All he could think about at the moment was the hunger that seemed to be growing like a beast from inside his stomach. Food, he thought, Must. Find. Food. Now.

He tried once again to stand, and had more success this time. Slowly he moved his legs in front of him, as he used the walls of the cave he was in as support. As he made his way to the front of the cave, he saw a tree surrounded by a bundle of bushes not too far ahead. Bound to be food around there, somewhere, he said to himself, but stopped for a moment, back tracking from the light, until he realized with amazement that he was already bathed in it.

A smile crept across his chiseled face, as he took his first steps out of the dark cave, and into the sunlight, something which he hadn't done in over one-hundred years.

**************************************

Buffy rolled over in bed, noting that she was by herself, something rare for her since usually it was Angel who slept in. She lay there for a moment, content at being right where she was.........

PSHHH,CLLANGG, BRAAMM!!

She shot up into a sitting position in , startled by the loud noise she heard down stairs. She heard some muffled voices from the kitchen through the vents, and knew something had been broken. She flopped back onto her pillow groaning at the disturbance.

No more sleep for me, ever, she thought, as she eased herself out of bed and grabbed her robe off the sofa chair nearby.

As she made her way downstairs she could hear Willow and Dawn making hushed noises in the kitchen. What the hell is going on in there? She was about to find out, but before she could make it to the door to ask them what happened, she felt an arm move around her waist, pulling her away.

"Good morning sleepy head. I thought you were never gonna get up," Angel whispered into her ear.

Buffy knew he was trying to be seductive, but at the moment she really didn't care, all she wanted to do was find out what had woken her up, from her intoxicating dream.

"I could say the same thing to you, every morning," she replied, attempting to look around him and into the kitchen.

He chuckled a little at her response, not fully realizing how serious she was being.

"Do you want to have breakfast with me, after everyone leaves for the day? I can make your favorite.......chocolate chip pancakes."

Buffy could tell he was trying to be sweet, and she didn't want to hurt his feelings, but she was beginning to get annoyed. By this point he had backed her up against the hall wall, making his best attempt to be alluring, but she just wasn't in the mood. She tried again to peer around the corner from her position, stepping up onto her tip toes.

"Those aren't my favorite, and I'm not really hungry anyway," she said nonchalantly.

He stepped back from her, a little put off by how she was ignoring him.

"What's up with you," he asked.

"What do you mean," she said finally looking at him.

"Are you mad at me or something."

"No, why would you think that," she noticed his fallen face.

"Well why are you acting like the thought of having breakfast with me is repulsive," he responded to her harshly.

"I'm not, really I'm not, I just heard a noise when I was upstairs, so I wanted to see what was going on. Besides I have some errands I have to run this morning anyway," she smiled at him charmingly.

He looked at her a little dejected, and she felt like going ahead and appeasing him with the whole breakfast fiasco, until she remembered where she was going that was so important. She could tell his mind was racing, but before she could apologize for not being able to eat with him he said," Why don't you just wait and run your errands tonight, and then we could do them together, he stated, a slightly hopeful look on his face.

She sighed, "I can't, I'm supposed to help Dawn with a class project tonight, plus I want to patrol, so that really wouldn't work." She paused for a moment watching the smile fade again.

"How about this, Friday, you, me, and Dawn will go see whatever movie you want, it'll just be the three of us?"

"Sure, sounds great," he said stepping back.

She flashed him a toothy smile, and patted his hand quickly, seeing his demeanor brighten, at her gesture.

"It's a date," she said and began to walk down the hall toward the kitchen.

He watched as she started to walk away, and asked, "So what is your favorite then?"

She didn't turn around, just simply replied, "Waffles.........waffles are my favorite," and then she disappeared into the kitchen.

Authors Note: I know this was a short chapter, but I promise that the next is going to be much longer. And much more interesting!