Author's note: Sorry again for the big delay between chapters, this it taking forever, you're not the only ones getting annoyed, I'm annoyed with myself! If anyone is actually reading this still, please review! Thank you very much to Amandamanda3 who left me a lovely review, you gave me the motivation to write this chapter, so this is for you! It probably would have been a lot longer wait if not for you, but it would have been shorter though if I had got a few more reviews!
Chapter 10 – Perfect?….well…
Buffy slowly became conscious but kept her eyes closed, all of her senses were alert, she felt the soft cotton sheets against her bare skin, she could smell the damp of the crypt mixed with burning candle wax and she could hear nothing apart from the faint thumping of her heart. She repositioned her slightly; snuggling up to the covers and letting her head sink deeper into the pillow letting out a contented sigh as she made herself even more comfortable than she thought possible. This was also an attempt to see if she could tell whether Spike was in bed with her, at the moment she had no idea, it didn't really feel as though someone was lying beside her, she didn't want to reach a hand out and be greeted with an empty space but then she couldn't just lie there not knowing, so very slowly her eyes fluttered open. To her delight they were met with bright blue ones, softly smiling at her.
"Hello luv." He said softly, brushing a stray strand of hair back from her face. Buffy sighed deeply relief washing over her.
"Hmm..hey…how long have we been asleep?" she purred leaning into his hand.
"Only a couple of hours, I think it's about three o'clock, you sleep well?"
"Mmmmm…" Buffy let out another contented sigh. "Extremely well thank you, you?"
"I don't think I've ever slept better in my entire life and unlife." He said as he smiled at her tenderly. She had never really seen him smile this way, it was true smile not a smug smirk which he usually had on his face; she liked it.
Buffy sat up and stretched, easing her muscles, most of which had got a great deal of use a few hours ago and now needed careful attention, it had been a while since she had had such a rigorous workout. She felt Spike's eyes on her as she moved around, she turned to him and found he was watching her intently, his eyes appeared to be asking a silent question, he looked so vulnerable in that moment that it made Buffy want to hold on to him tightly and never let go so that he wouldn't ever get hurt. She moved closer to him so that their foreheads were almost touching and ran a hand down his cheek.
"I'm staying right here." She said slowly and purposefully. Spike looked at her slightly surprised for a moment, he would never have thought his face was that readable, it just went to show how well Buffy was starting to get to know him, he smiled at that revelation and ran a hand from her shoulder down her arm enjoying the feel of her warm skin. Buffy rested her head on his chest and let his arms surround her; Spike couldn't really believe that all this was happening, that so much had changed in a couple of months and now he had the girl of his dreams sitting in his lap, literally. Spike was brought out of his thoughts as he felt Buffy squirming around and let out a groan, they moved so that they were facing again and Spike was leaning over her.
"Anything you want luv?" He asked seductively. Spike was surprised by the answer when it turned to business rather than pleasure.
"I actually came here to tell you about this new demon that likes diamonds and can freeze people." Buffy said cheerfully remembering the information she had yet to relay to him.
"Mmm… sounds… interesting." Spike said in between kisses which he placed up the length of her neck. He was determined to get her mind back to pleasure. Buffy moaned losing her concentration and Spike felt extreme satisfaction run through him that he had caused it.
"Yeah…so the gang are going to be researching it… hmm… tonight and I thought…" Spike stopped the attention he was paying her neck when she trailed off, he looked up at her face to find her eyes closed and a faint smile on her lips.
"Yes?" He asked innocently.
"Uh…What?" She said suddenly, being brought out of her daze.
"You thought?" Spike prompted her.
"Oh… I thought that you could come too and help with the researching."
"You really want me there, with your friends?"
"I want you with me." She said staring into his eyes intently. "And my friends are going to have to deal with this eventually, us being together, so why not right now, plus researching is really boring so I want you there to make things more exciting." She said cheekily, obviously hinting about something far away from the world of researching.
"Oh really?" Spike said as he moved so that he was above her, holding himself up with his arms which were either side of Buffy effectively trapping her below him.
"Yes… really." She said slowly and seductively.
"Well then I'd love to come, what time do we have to be there?"
"Not until six….so…"
"We've got plenty of time to do some other things first." Spike finished her thought as he leant down to kiss her.
They made very good use of the few hours they had, both losing themselves in the other until the sun was setting.
At just a little later than planned past 6.00 p.m. Buffy and Spike walked into the Magic Box together, their hands lightly brushing against the others'. They had got a bit caught up in each other while trying to get ready to leave but their excuse was of course that Spike couldn't leave his crypt until the sun had set properly.
The gang were all sitting round the large table, Xander and Anya already looked immensely bored, Willow appeared to be in the middle of a little argument with Amy and Dawn was playing with one of the trinkets on the table.
"You said you wanted to go out! This is better than nothing right?" Willow said pleading with Amy to help.
"Fine, but next time we go out I'm picking the venue." Amy said relenting and picking up a book to look through.
"Hey guys." Buffy said as she approached the group. "Found anything?" She asked hopefully.
"Sorry, nothing yet, but we haven't been looking very long so I'm still optimistic." Willow said with a shy smile on her face as she looked to Buffy and Spike. They joined the others at the table each grabbing a book as they sat down next to one another; Spike cheekily brushed his hand over her thigh under the table causing Buffy to make a slight noise, Dawn looked up amused and Anya looked slightly jealous at the display. Soon everyone settled down to their task again and they quickly realised they were in for a long night.
After an hour of researching Buffy was extremely bored and went into the training room for a workout so she could regain her focus again, after a couple of minutes the door opened hesitantly to reveal Dawn.
"Hey Buffy, can we talk?" she asked as she approached her sister.
"Of course Dawn, what is it?" They moved over to the sofa where they sat down.
"It's about you and Spike." Before Buffy could say anything Dawn quickly continued. "I mean I'm like really really happy you guys got it together, because you're just perfect together and it's all great… but you haven't talked to me about it and I want us have one of those cool sister talks where you tell me everything that's happened, so spill!" Dawn said excitedly. Buffy let out a little laugh at her enthusiastic sister. The way that she was genuinely happy about her relationship with Spike somehow made her feel like her life was actually normal and she wasn't going out with a vampire at all.
"Dawn there's really not that much to tell." However much Buffy liked Dawn's eager interest there are some things in your relationships you are never going to tell your little sister about.
"Oh come on…just tell me how serious it is." Dawn pleaded.
"Well I think it's pretty serious, I mean we've both said 'I love you' to each other."
"Oh my god, you love each other, that's so cute!" Buffy laughed again at Dawn's typical teenage girl antics and let herself be pulled into a hug by her sister.
"O.k. Dawn, just don't get too excited." Buffy said trying to calm her down.
"Why not?" Dawn asked confused.
"Because were just taking things slowly at the moment."
"But you said it was serious." Dawn said still not grasping Buffy's feelings of uncertainty.
"It is serious, it's just that….we've only just started everything and… I don't want to rush into this… you know my track record with guys." Buffy said sighing.
"Yeah, but you can't base your new relationship with Spike on all your previous ones!"
"I know but I just… I don't want any pressure from you to make this work."
"What?" Dawn asked surprised.
"This has made you so happy, and now I'm just worried that if anything goes wrong, you'll be upset."
"Oh Buffy," Dawn said taken aback by how much her sister thought about her. "I'm only so happy because this is making you happy! You really have to stop thinking about everyone else and think about yourself for once." She said sincerely.
"I didn't think I'd been thinking about you enough, I mean I haven't been a very good sister since I've been back."
"You could say the same about me. I haven't exactly made it easy for you with that whole thing at Halloween and then being kidnapped by that singing demon."
"The musical wasn't your fault." Buffy said firmly.
"Yeah, I know…" Dawn said wondering whether she should tell Buffy how she had been taking things from the magic shop now that they were having such an open conversation, one of the first proper conversations they'd had since Buffy had been brought back to life. She decided against it in the end, it would just ruin the moment.
"How about from now on we are good sisters to each other!" Buffy said trying to lighten the mood again.
"Sounds great to me!" Dawn said hoping it was all going to be as simple as it sounded. They embraced each other in another hug and Buffy looked up over Dawn's shoulder to see Spike standing in the door way. As they made eye contact Spike spoke.
"Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt."
Dawn broke the hug as she heard Spike voice and turned around. "Hey Spike, don't worry about it, we were finished with the corny sister stuff."
"I just came in because this researching is getting hopeless, and I think Xander keeps giving me death stares." He said bluntly.
"I'm sure Xander's not giving you death stares." Buffy said, thinking the idea was ridiculous and then on second thought looking slightly worried.
"And even if he was, you're already dead so it wouldn't matter!" Dawn said joking with Spike.
"Very funny bit." Spike said clearly not amused as they all walked back into the main shop.
"So, we still got nothing?" Buffy said to gang, who all looked very tired and disappointed.
"Nadda, zippo, this demon does not exist!" Xander said frustrated.
"Maybe we should try phoning Giles, he should be able to find something right?" Anya suggested just wanted to be able to get home tonight.
"I don't think we need Giles guys." Buffy said uncertain of Anya's idea. "Come on we can figure this out on our own, plus with the time difference and everything isn't it really early in the morning there?"
"I don't know Buffy if anyone would know about this it would be Giles, maybe we should try ringing him." Willow said
"Yeah and then you can tell him about you and Spike." Xander said, mainly because he really wanted to hear the G-man's reaction. "Unless that's why you don't want to talk to Giles." He added partly as a joke but then as he saw Buffy's uneasy face realised he might have actually been speaking the truth. Willow picked up on it too.
"Is that why you don't want to ring Giles?" She asked confused.
Buffy glanced over at Spike who was staring at her, pure emotion on his face, he looked slightly hurt but also puzzled. She couldn't believe this was happening, why were her friends pushing into a corner with Spike standing and waiting for an answer like everyone else in the room. She guessed they didn't realise what they were doing to her and attempted to answer the question.
"No, of course not, I only thought we could do this by ourselves, I mean he did leave because he said we were all capable of living our own lives without him, that I was capable." She said with a sigh, still not really believing him but trying to get on with her life anyway. As Buffy paused she looked to Spike again and his face told her he didn't buy that as the whole truth. "I did think about how I would probably have to tell Giles if we phoned him up and that didn't seem like fun, I mean I would have rather waited till I could have done it face to face."
"I can't believe this is happening." Spike said under his breath but loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Spike this isn't-" Buffy turned to him as she tried to explain but was cut off.
"No, you're still ashamed of me, ashamed of us!" Spike said as he moved a couple of steps closer to her, raising his voice as he forgot about the other people around them.
"Of course I'm not! If you would just calm down and stop-" Buffy began to fume as Spike broke in again.
"I thought we were past all this, but now you don't want your watcher to know about us! Just when-" This time Buffy stepped in wanting to put her word in first.
"Did I say that this was about not wanting Giles to know?" Buffy couldn't believe this argument had started in a matter of seconds and was now out of control, Spike looked so hurt and angry and yet she couldn't help shouting back at him, he was making her feel so frustrated and distraught at the same time. "God you don't ever listen to me!"
"No you've got that wrong slayer, I listen a lot more closely than you think." He said harshly.
And with that Spike strode out of the Magic Box, his coat swaying behind him. The slam of the door echoed through the shop and all Buffy could do was watch as silent tears rolled down her cheeks.
TBC…