Willow ran through the cemetery, the rain pounding mercilessly upon her body. Her clothes were saturated with the pollution-tainted water. The fledglings were gaining on her They could be damn master vampires for all I care, all I know is that if I don't lose them soon, I'll be next on the menu> .
Suddenly, the panicked red-head collided into something. She looked up, and her shocked green eyes met with icy blue.
Spike looked at Willow with surprise, and took the stake she handed to him. They dispatched the vampires with relative ease.
Willow looked up at Spike shyly through her eye-lashes.
"Thanks" she murmured, the rain dripping down her drenched hair and trickling down her face.
"No problem" he replied softly. "Are you ok?"
Before Willow could reply, a certain blonde interrupted.
"Hey!" said Buffy, looking at Willow. Then her gaze fell upon Spike. "What's he doing here?" Spike looked down She still hates me >.
Willow felt anger course through her blood at Buffy's treatment of Spike What makes her better than him!> .
"Buffy, for your information, Spike just saved my life. A whole bunch of vamps came after me, I dusted a few, but I couldn't take them all. Spike helped me out."
"Oh." Said Buffy, looking put out. "Well, what where you doing out here so late? It's no wonder you where attacked. You might as well have had a neon sign over your head saying 'drain me'. You know you couldn't handle yourself if more than two vampires attacked you." Buffy lectured, her hands resting on the hips of her tan leather trousers.
Spike gazed at Buffy with pure adoration in his eyes Wow, she's gorgeous in the rain, looking for all the world like a water-nymph, only with a core of steel >.
"Yeah, Red. Gonna have to agree with the slayer here. You're lucky I was around." The British vampire added.
Willow felt like her heart was crumbling. He thinks I'm just a weak nothing No surprises there. You are.> This thought buzzed around Willow's head like a swarm of wasps, crushing her self-esteem like an aluminium can. Why do you put your hopes up like this? Why do you set yourself up for this? Guys like him don't fall for the mousy computer nerd, the wanna-be witch>.
"I-I have to go." Babbled Willow, pushing them out of the way, and towards the home she grew up in, the home where she first thought dreams wouldn't just remain hollow figments of the imagination.
Buffy looked at the lone figure of her swiftly departing friend, until it was lost amongst the rain, vanished into the swirl of nature's tears.
Spike looked up into Buffy's eyes.
"Do you want me to go after her?" he asked, hoping to show the slayer he wasn't just the monster she saw.
"No."
Spike summoned up all the courage he possessed.
"Buffy, I know you think I'm incapable of loving, of feeling, that I'm just a soulless demon, but I do love you. We match totally, we both walk in the night. I understand you, more than a human ever could." Spike spoke from the heart, letting his emotions speak for him.
Buffy looked him in the eye. "No, Spike. You are just a soulless demon. You're beneath me." With that, Buffy walked away, letting the night swallow her up.
Spike let out a heart-breaking sob, crying with only the rain to speak soothing words to him, and the cloud-covered stars to tell him he was alone.
