"I take it you never told Tori about your cute little crypt with a view," Buffy surmised after kicking in the door to Spike's old home.

"I take it you still haven't learned to knock," he responded without giving her a backward glance. "And she does know about the crypt."

Buffy crossed her arms and watched him. He was kicked back in his comfy chair watching Passions with a bottle of bourbon nestled between his thighs.

"You sure she knows?"

"What is it of your concern, Slayer?" he asked, clearly annoyed by her presence.

"She just seemed... upset. And this is the first place I would have looked for you," she told him.

"Yeah? Well, Tori's nothing like you, Summers," he groused. "Knows when the Hell to give a bloke his space. Maybe all too well."

Buffy closed the heavy door, inviting herself into his old living area. She took a seat on the couch and watched him as he stared blankly at the TV.

"You've been gone three days," she said.

"You got a point, Slayer?"

Spike was more annoyed than she'd ever seen him.

"You know, you and me? Not exactly best friends," he said between gulps of whiskey. "As I recall there was that incident of me trying to rape you, so you might want to back slowly away from me."

Her face reddened at the harshness of his words.

"B-but... you didn't," she pointed out. "And... you're different now."

"Not going to apologize for it," he said, shooting her a dirty look.

"I didn't expect you to," she replied tightly. "I just wanted to... she was just..."

She stood up and shook her head heading back toward the door.

"I don't know why I bothered," she told him. "I just... I saw Tori and we talked. And I could tell something was off. She's not going to call you or come looking for you. I don't think she knows how. And I don't mean that in a she's too stupid to dial a phone kind of way. I don't think she knows how... to ... to give."

Spike thought about what she was saying. He knew that much about Tori. He knew her Slayer side inside and out. Want. Take. Have. She had that down pat. No. The chit was going to have to learn to give sooner or later. Sooner if she wanted him to stick around.

"Well, looks like she'll have to learn because I'm not budging," he said firmly.

"Alright," Buffy agreed. "I'll tell her--"

"You won't tell her a bloody thing," he warned her. "Don't need you sticking in your two cents worth and bollixing things up between me and my Slayer. She'll come 'round when she's ready."

Buffy was surprised by the vindiction in his words. His Slayer. Tori was his Slayer. And she had a feeling Tori felt pretty much the same when it came to Spike being her vampire.

"Fine," she ceded. "Do it your way, you stubborn old coot!"

She let herself out of the crypt and ran half-way across the cemetery before stopping to catch her breath. Stupid vampire. He seemed even more stupid with his high-and-mighty soul.

Get a grip, Buffy, she told herself. You never wanted him. Never intended on being his or on him being yours.

"Did she just call me an old coot?" Spike said aloud, wondering what had gotten into the Slayer.

He continued taking gulps of whiskey and staring at the TV. Passions wasn't even holding his interest. When had evertthing changed? He swore he wouldn't let another Slayer affect him. Swore he'd never let another human get under his skin the way Buffy had. Sworn off love entirely. Love's bitch. Wouldn't be love's bitch for another person, living or undead, ever again.

Three days. Three days since he left her standing startled in their living room. Three days since he heard her confident -- nearly cocky -- rasp of a voice. Three days since he inhaled her intoxicating scent of citrus, rosemary and Slayer's blood. Three days since he felt the warmth of her smooth, golden skin or the silkiness of her hair. Three days since he'd felt the challenge of her will beginning to disintegrate. Three days since--

His phone beeped, startling him back to the crypt. He looked down and saw that he had a text message. He scrolled down to read the message, expecting it to be Giles trying to track him down for the latest research party over hot wings and single-malt.

I miss you, Will. Please come home. -- T

He stared at the small screen until the words became a blur. He remembered his words to her... just a crumb. He blinked and re-read her simple statement. She missed him. She wanted him to come home.

Tori sat on the couch, hands shaking as she typed the message intoher phone. I miss you, Will. Please come home. -- T It was a simple statement, but it was one of the most difficult things she had ever done. To admit she missed him implied that she needed him. Needing him implied that she was weak and one thing Victoria Jamison-Smythe had never been is weak.

She waited for a moment, hoping for some sort of indication that he had received her message. Instead, her phone remained silent. The screen remained blank. He didn't want to come home. She'd ruined everything. She scanned the room nervously, eyes resting on her seabag.

I should just pack everything and disappear, she thought.

Then she remembered her duty. She wasn't there to make nice with the most frustrating vampire on earth. She was there to close the Hellmouth. She was there to rid the world of evil. Not fall in love with it.

Holy... and shit, she thought, her eyes wide in realization of what she'd just admitted to herself. Her eyes darted back to her seabag as panic flooded her mind. Pack your shit and get out, her mind screamed. Yes. Get out before you destroy what you've worked so hard to build... those walls of steel that stood ten feet high and five feet thick. Those walls that kept her heart well-guarded from any kind of human emotion.

You do realize he's a vampire, right? You called him people.

Tori heard Buffy's voice in her head. He's people. Definitely people.

She looked back down at her phone. No change. She'd done what she had inadvertently set out to do... stave him off with her state-of-the-art walls. She sank back into the couch and pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly to her the way she had as a child.

He doesn't want you. Nobody wants you. She was transported back to a jungle in South America where she struggled against chains cuffed to her wrists and ankles. She writhed against the tight metal as it cut into her soft skin.

"They don't want you," the floam-covered Fungus Demon told her. "Nobody wants you."

He taunted her as she tried to break free from the strong cuffs. He told her that they'd let her die alone. And then the demons would swarm upon her, fucking and feasting on her still-warm corpse. The chains echoed in her head, a haunting rattle as she realized that if she didn't break free soon, they would take what they wanted whether she was dead or alive. She decided that she'd break free, even if it meant letting the cuffs cut her hands off at the wrists.

She watched as one ofthe minions came into the cell to throw a plate of something vaguely resembling food at her.

"I -- I can't reach it," she lied, acting as though she was straining against the chains.

She saw the keys still hanging from his grubby paw and made the decision to take them or die trying.

"Can you... just push it a bit closer?" she asked. "Sure your master doesn't want to be feasting on an anorexic human. Hardly worth the effort, wouldn't you say?

He looked at her for a moment before deciding to appease her. He bent down and picked up the tray, carrying it closer to her. Tori lunged at him at lightning speed, managing to wrap the chain from her left cuff around his neck. She pulled it tight, reaching down to snatch the keys from his hand. Before he could react, she had snapped his neck and unlocked her shackles, running as fast as she could.

She let out a strangled sob at the memory as the words echoed in her head... Nobody wants you. The tears came fast and hot as she realized just how alone she was. Lonely. That was her lot in life. Having Spike around had only made her forget that for a short while.

"I don't want to be alone," she keened, rocking herself as she buried her face in her knees.

Cool hands were suddenly pulling her out of the tight ball she'd pulled herself into. She felt herself falling into his hard chest, grabbing at the soft leather lapels of his duster as she pressed her face into his body.

"Let it out, Baby," he encouraged her. "You need to let it all out."

Once the tears started, she had no idea how to stop them. His arms wrapped tightly around her, holding her in the safety of their cocoon. For the first time since he'd met her, he felt her fear. Brave girl that she was at fighting off demons and human enemies, she had no clue what to do with her own heart.

"I don't want to be alone," she whispered, looking up into his blue eyes.

Her eyes held the innocense of a child, taking him by surprise. He cupped her cheek and held her in his gaze.

"You're not alone, Love," he told her, his voice sweeping over her like a soft caress. "Not going anywhere without you."

He dipped his head down pressing his lips to hers. He waited to guage her reaction, not sure if she would pull away or punch him or both. Instead, she stayed perfectly still, seemingly startled by this act of intimacy from him. After a moment, he felt her hand on the back of his neck as she let out a shaky breath against his cool mouth. He swept his tongue lightly over her bottom lip, feeling her heart speed up at the new sensation. Her lips parted allowing him access to her heated mouth and she welcomed him with her velvety pink tongue. She sucked slowly on his tongue as it swept over the moist recesses of of her needy mouth. She relaxed against him as he deepened his kiss, his hands skimming over her ribs, grazing the sides of her breasts as they travelled up to gently cup her face. She moved into his lap, stradding his legs where he sat on the couch. He tried to will the bulge in his pants to stay down as she writhed against him.

"Promise you'll never leave me," she whispered, breathless from his kisses.

"Never leave you, Kitten," he swore. "Never again."

A fresh flood of tears coarsed down her cheeks at his vow to her. She closed her eyes as he began lapping at her hot skin, taking away her tears with his cooling tongue. She'd never felt anything so divine in her life. He was driven on by the urgent whimpers and mewls coming from her throat. He licked down her neck, stopping to suck at the spot where her blood pulsed. It called to him like a siren as he fought down the demon, determined not to scare her away after he'd made so much progress.

She seemed to sense his struggle and surprised both him and herself when she tipped her head to the side, allowing him full access to her virgin throat.

"I'm not afraid of you, Will," she told him. "I trust you."

His eyes flickered gold as he stared into her flushed face. She had no idea what she was telling the demon it could do. She looked at him, waiting for him to take her offering.

"I can't -- "

"You can," she assured him. "And you will. I need it, Will. We both need it. Please."

She watched in fascination as his fangs descended and his face changed. She could feel him hardening even more beneath her as the demon inhaled her scent.

"Tell me no, Tori," he begged, sure that he would scare her away for good if he did what she wanted. "Tell me, Kitten. Tell me to stop."

She stroked his face lovingly, her fingers tracing the ridges of his forehead before moving to ghost over a sharp incisor. She lightly stroked the point before pushing into it with the pad of her finger, allowing it to puncture the flesh. The smell of her blood caused his nostrils to flare as a low growl rumbled in his chest. She didn't pull away. Instead, she ran the digit over his lips, letting the blood bubble out as she smeared it delicately on his mouth. He licked his lips before sucking her finger greedily into his mouth. Her blood tasted like spiced honey as it dripped over his roughened tongue.

"Take more," she told him, offering her neck to him again. "I trust you, Will. I trust you to stop."

She pulled her finger out of his mouth and pressed her neck to his face. He growled again as the demonfought to come forward and tear mercilessly into her tight skin. She felt the white-hot pain of his fangs as the sliced into her flesh and let out a strangled moan. The pain subsided as he began taking deep pulls of her rich blood and she couldn't help but grind into his hard erection. She moaned as he suckled at her throat, the texture of his jeans rubbing through the thin silk of her pajama pants.

"Mmmm... Will," she moaned as his fangs left her body.

He licked the twin punctures with his coarse tongue before allowing the demon to slip away. He could smell her arousal as she continued to rub herself against him. He sucked at the punctures with his human face as his hand moved to cup her breast.

"Mine," he told her, rubbing his thumb over her sensitive nipple in the same rhythm as his tongue on her neck.

"Yours," she agreed, completing the claim.