A/N: This took a long time to write. Well, actually it didn't. It just took me a long time to get motivated to write it. I need your reviews!

When Spike awoke he felt oddly like him self. He hadn't felt that for a while now. It was comforting and as he stretched to keep his muscles from seizing up he felt his skin brush over sand. And soft, warm skin.

Spike turned his head to the side. Buffy slept next to him on the beach absolutely starkers. It was a beautiful sight. And immediately it knocked his number one moment off the list and replaced it at the top. 1. Buffy – beach – asleep – naked and glowing.

He sighed. Surely he didn't deserve this? After all of the terrible things he had done did he really deserve to bear witness to this effulgent woman? Effulgent. Oh Bugger, Spike thought, Slipping into old ways at the very glance of the Slayer. Yet he couldn't find it in him enough to care for his goofy nature. Because she was here. With him. And that was all that mattered.

If Spike had ever for one moment regretted being pulled back to Earth after he saved the world, then that moment was demolished now. Buffy Summers was lying next to him as if she hadn't a care in the world. She was truly relaxed and, dare he say it, even content to have him near her. There had always been an underlying tension between them – sexual, emotional, and, though it shamed him to admit it, just plain fear.

But not any more. She slept and she even snored. One of those girly snores that was threatening to turn into a full blown honker. Spike pursed his lips together to stop from laughing. He didn't want to wake her.

Spike wondered how it was he had even fallen asleep and missed the chance to stare at Buffy for hours. But, in truth, he knew why. She had exhausted him. As usual. Spike's lips formed a crooked grin as he remembered last night.

Making love to Buffy was the opposite of that bus on Speed. If you go below 50 mph she won't "explode".

He chuckled. Comparing Buffy to a bus – she'd love that.

"What's so funny, Mister Fishy?" Buffy spoke suddenly.

He blinked, looked into her green eyes "Mr. Fishy?"

She shrugged "All I could think of. I'm getting old. The quips are drying up, my vision isn't what it used to be, my knees are all wobbly...although that might have something to do with last night"

Spike grinned "Yeah" His grin dropped "About last night –"

"Don't" She placed her fingers over his lips "Don't ruin it. I so do not want to go all Dawson's Creek and overanalyze this right now"

"I was always Pacey you know"

Buffy frowned "What?"

"Well – you were that Joey girl, Peaches was that wanker Dawson and I was Pacey" Spike smiled a little then grew sad "And look how well that turned out"

Buffy rolled her eyes "Spike did you even see the ending?"

"Well, no. Little busy being fighting an apocalypse but everyone knows it was always gonna be Joey and that poof Dawson"

"I caught it on reruns," Buffy smiled slowly "Pacey got the girl"

Spike raised his eyebrows "Well, who'd have thought it?"

"I would have" She leaned across and kissed him lightly on the lips, pulled back "Took me a little while to see the real appeal of...Pacey but I got there in the end"

"Glad to hear it"

Buffy ran her hands up his face to his eyebrow, trailing her finger along the scar tissue that split the hair apart "I like scars. Oh! Not in like a self-harm way! I just mean...they're kind of, well, sexy"

"Oh really?" He smirked, reached over and touched his hand to the base of her neck, swept it up in an arc to the nape of her neck "I like that line of skin"

"I wonder why" Buffy rolled her eyes "Vampires"

Spike shook his head "That's not why. Even when I was human...in the old days the neck and the collarbone were mostly all that the women could show off. Even that was considered risqué"

"Ah, so it's a result of stuffy Britishness?"

"It was like that all over the world," Spike looked at her, arched an eyebrow "At least in refined circles it was"

Buffy put a hand to her chest in a sign of Victorian distress "Are you saying I'm not refined? I am so refined, I could refine your...ass!"

"Sounds promising" Spike leered at her.

She shoved him in the shoulder "You are so gross"

"Well, you've always known that"

Buffy smiled slowly as if she really didn't want to be smiling at something he said. She turned to look away, embarrassed at her show of girlishness. Spike reached over, took her chin in-between his fingers and turned her face back to him. Her green eyes flickered down to look at the sand then back up at his face.

"So," She said slowly "How come Mr. Fishy hasn't reared its scary head again?"

Spike shrugged "I...don't know. It just...seems to have subsided. For a little while. Maybe last night you pounded it into submission, literally"

Spike grinned and Buffy pulled a disapproving face.

"But" His face turned serious "You're right. It'll probably show again soon. So, you should leave. Get back to safety"

"Not without you"

"Buffy –"

"No, Spike. No" She sat up "You think I'm gonna let last night mean nothing by letting you slip away into the blue yonder? I don't think so. So, shove that up your English Channel!"

Spike's eyes widened comically.

"You're right. You've very refined" Spike nodded "I see that now"

She grinned and shoved him back down to the sand from his partial sitting position "Aw. I've got sand stuck in places I didn't even know existed..."

Spike smiled and sat back up, so close that their things brushed against one another. She was indeed covered in sand. Considering the beach last night had been rained upon the particles had stuck to them even more so then they usually would have. Buffy was dusted in tiny little crystals, making her skin seems to shimmer and shine. Well, more so then usual. She had an unmistakable glow about her too. Spike was proud to think that that had come from him.

Until he realized it was the reflection of the sun's rays on her skin.

His eyes widened as his skin began to feel aflame.

"Spike, what's wrong?" Buffy asked, oblivious.

He was about to be burned alive.

A/N: This chap would have been longer but you know how I like a good cliffhanger. And, her Dawson's Creek mentioned in this chap, Backstreet Boys in the last one...what is this world coming to? Ah, I love DC. Oh and the bit where Buffy says she likes scars and Spike likes that part of the neck – I got this from SMG and JM's personal body likes. So there ya have it!