"You promise you'll come back?"
"I promise I'll come back"
After the long kiss that he had shared with Buffy, Spike had – and it had taken a helluva lot of willpower and self discipline to do – pulled away and decided it best that he didn't spend the night with Buffy, much to her complaints. Eventually, after much pouting from Buffy and explaining from Spike, they had agreed not to do anything more than kissing until Spike had broken off his engagement with Kathryn- not something that he was looking forward to doing. Buffy, however, was not entirely convinced that Kathryn was going to let Spike go so easily, and had made Spike promise to be back again that same night.
"Okay good luck" she pulled him in for another brief kiss before letting him go and closing the door behind him. God, she thought, how can any straight woman not be in love with him?
She was torn from her thoughts by Dawn running down the stairs, the sixteen-year-old could tell by the look on her sister's face that something had happened between her and the blonde vampire and wanted to hear all the details…
"So? So? So?" she squealed excitedly, "What happened?" Buffy looked at Dawn and the youngest noticed that her sister's eyes were almost dancing with happiness,
"We kissed"
"And?"
"And he's gonna break up with Kathryn tonight…" she paused and grinned, "yay!" Dawn hugged her sister and smiled,
"This is so great of you guys! Oh, maybe you'll get married and Oh! Oh! I could be an Aunt…" Buffy hushed her sister's excited ramblings,
"Okay, first of all: Spike and I aren't even in a proper relationship yet so…the marriage thing? So way, way into the future and I'm not even thinking about kids yet…" It was Dawn's turn to butt in,
"So you've thought about getting married?" Buffy just smirked knowingly,
"That…is for me to know and you to never find out" Dawn chuckled but Buffy suddenly froze,
"What's wrong?" Buffy sighed,
"I just hope everything's going well over at what's left of his place…"
"So how'd you get out of the explosion then?" Spike asked Kathryn, he had all night to break up with her so why rush?
"While you were unconscious…I tried to lift you but you were too heavy and by the time I came back you were gone and…" Kathryn broke into crocodile tears, "…I just feared the worst" she began sobbing and Spike was immediately by her side, comforting her.
"There, there" he cooed, without the soul, he loved to see women and cry but now he couldn't bear it,
"I was so worried" Kathryn 'sobbed', "Don't leave me" Spike shifted uncomfortably and couldn't control what he said next,
"I won't leave you" She looked up at him and smiled wickedly.
"Good"
"Where the hell is he? It's two-thirty in the morning he should be back by now!"
"Buffy, calm down I'm sure he's just…"
"Just what?"
"Just…" Willow searched for an excuse why Spike would be so late back from breaking up with Kathryn "…on his way back now" Buffy groaned,
"Sure, Oh my God what if she's done something horrible to him?" she began pacing and Willow took the chance to take her hand and sit her on the sofa next to herself,
"Buffy, I'm sure everything's fine" The slayer looked at her friend,
"I hope so"
Spike shifted as he sensed the sun rise. The chaotic wreckage that used to be his home lay around him and Kathryn as they woke up under the dusty rug on the bit of floor space that was left in the crypt. Her eyelids fluttered open and she grinned when she saw Spike looking at her and leaned in to kiss him but he turned away, looking guilty and upset. She frowned,
"What's the matter?" she asked, he was still looking in the opposite direction as he spoke,
"I erm…I just don't like being awake during the day that's all, it's boring" she raised one of her thinly-plucked eyebrows,
"Darling, don't forget I can read you like a book…" her tone of voice darkened, "…it's her isn't it? You were thinking about the slayer" he sighed and looked at her, he could do this, he could break up with Kathryn,
"She was expecting me to go back to her last night…" Kathryn knew what he was going to say and she knew that she couldn't let that happen, if he broke up with her now, the first's plan would be ruined and it would let its Tourak-khan uber-vampire torture her. She had to do something so she did her best to flash him sad eyes, as if she had a broken heart inside, it seemed to do the trick as he chickened out,
"…to tell her how many vampires I dusted on patrol" 'Okay' Kathryn thought, 'not a nice image but I can work with that'
"Well you didn't, you came home to me and that's what really matters right?" she twiddled the engagement ring around on her finger, "Our marriage" she smiled evilly when he gently kissed the top of her head and held her in his arms.
Buffy had been awake all night, where the hell was he? 'Oh God!' she thought 'what if Kathryn really has taken it badly and staked him'
She couldn't take it anymore, she had to go and find him, maybe he was caught off guard by the sun coming up and had to run for cover, yeah that would be it.
Putting on her coat and boots, she decided that the first place she would look would be his crypt, or what was left of it. He was probably waiting for her to come and find him. She couldn't wait to see him, it had been torture not being able to feel his arms around her for so long when she loved him so much and now that he had finally broken it off with the queen of all sluts Kathryn, their relationship could finally start properly.
The slayer walked through the streets of Sunnydale until she finally reached the specific cemetery. Striding through the tombstones she finally found the wreckage of his crypt and the door creaked when she pushed it open. She was so relieved when she saw him sat up, shirtless and watching T.V.
"Spike" she said, walking over to him and he looked around at her with a shocked and a slightly…horrified look on his face.
"Buffy" he acknowledged and stood up, she frowned,
"Are you not pleased to see me?" she asked, slightly dreading the answer,
"Of course I am, come here" he held out his arms to her and she stepped inside them and kissed him tenderly on the lips. "Why didn't you come back last night?" he shifted uncomfortably,
"Breaking up with Kathryn took a lot longer than I thought, by the time it had finished, itb was almost sunrise"
"Oh" and then she spoke seductively,
"So since we're stuck here for the rest of the day, what shall we do to keep us occupied" she waggled her eyebrows and began to descend to the lower part of the crypt when he quickly stepped in front of her,
"Y'know Buffy you really don't have to stay, it's me that can't go out into the sunlight, not you"
"But I want to stay, Oh I should have brought a blanket from my house. I'll go downstairs and get one and then…" Spike almost shouted as he cut her off,
"…NO!" he hesitated as Buffy frowned, "…I mean, no I'll go and get one, there's still wreckage downstairs and I don't want you hurting yourself" Buffy didn't look convinced but let him go anyway, she would find out what he was hiding later.
About ten minutes afterwards Spike came back upstairs holding the same brown blanket that she had seen him use when he came over to her house the day she was turned invisible.
"You coming?" he asked when she hesitated to follow him, she shook her head to pull herself out of her thoughts,
"Yeah" and she took his hand, still wondering what he could be hiding from her.
Spike, on the other hand, was feeling the lowest of the low. His newly found conscience was telling him to break up with Kathryn for good and be truthful to Buffy, but the demon in him was telling him to keep seeing both women, they were both beautiful and sexy and good in bed. He didn't know what to do until he looked at Buffy and how happy she appeared when she was with him, and he knew that his choice was already made.
Kathryn watched from a distance as the slayer and vampire strolled hand in hand through the cemetery. She was shaking with anger and clenched her fists whilst snarling at them. How could Spike do this to her? Sure, she didn't actually love him but she had to admit that he was okay to be around and an expert in bed. Tomorrow, she thought, she was going to tell the slayer to stay away from Spike, and if she didn't…oh there would be consequences…
