Just to let everyone know, sometimes the italics are a little messed up. It's not my fault, that's just how it is. You're all smart enough to figure out what is the past and present (I hope). Basically, anything with Spike in it is the past (for now).
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
~Bertrand Russell
Buffy had barely made it through her class on sonnets without breaking into tears. She contemplated dropping the class, however, one look at the book of sonnet's Spike had gotten her, gave the slayer the strength to make it through the class. Spike never would have wanted her to give up. And anyway, he was coming for her. He had promised.
Buffy pushed thoughts of Spike from her mind as she entered the bookstore. Giles had opened the shop when he had married Jenny Calendar. They had been married for about two years and their marriage, as well as the shop flourished. A small training room in the back of the shop was where she and Giles dealt with slayer things.
A bell sounded as Buffy entered the shop and Giles looked up for a moment to see if it was a costumer. Spotting Buffy he went back to his work.
"Feeling the love in this room," The slayer said sarcastically, receiving a grunt from Giles, who seemed to be deeply immersed in his work. "I'm gonna' go in the back and start training. If Xander gets here tell him I'm waiting for him," Buffy said. Giles nodded and the slayer made her way to the training room.
Despite what she had said earlier the training room was not tiny. Though smaller than the gym that she and Spike had used in LA, it was an OK size. There was a small bathroom with a shower in the corner. Buffy kept a supply of both training clothes and street clothes in it. The actual training part of the room was a floor completely covered in mats. A chest of stakes, knives, swords, and other weaponry was in the corner, and two dummyies were set up along one of the wall. A little off center in the room was a punching bag chained to the ceiling. Off center in the other direction was a vault. Stacked in the corner were yoga mats that could be put down for extra padding if the slayer was trying something new.
Changed into training attire and ready to go the slayer began attacking the punching bag, waiting for Xander to come from his internship at the Sunnydale Times. When he finished he would get into his puffy suit and the slayer would attack him. Punching the bag Buffy thought back to her and Spike's first training session.
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"Spike!" Buffy called into the darkened gym. As the slayer had approached the gym she had remembered that it wasn't open on Tuesday's. However, upon finding the door unlocked she went inside to the darkened gym. Reaching for the stake that was tucked into the back pocket of her black sweatpants the slayer crouched down, preparing for an attack. Her heart sunk at the thought that Spike had led her here as a trick. However, she didn't have time to contemplate that as someone jumped out of the shadows and launched themselves at the slayer. Rolling with her they finally came to a stop and Buffy looked up to see Spike on top of her in game face.
"You would be dead right now," The vampire said.
"No, you would," Buffy corrected him. It was then that Spike looked down and saw a stake, pointed towards his heart, firmly clutched in the slayer's hand. If Spike's had gone for the kill he would have found a stake embedded in his heart.
"Fine," Spike said, changing out of game face and getting off the slayer. "So you have a few tricks up your sleeves. But if you want to survive you have to be aware. If I had been with more vamps you would have been dead."
"But I'm not dead," Buffy said, getting to her feet and walking at Spike did the same.
"You need to be more aware of what's going on around you, Spike said. He walked over to the light and turned it on for a moment. However, as soon as Buffy's eyes adjusted to the light he turned it off once more.
The slayer blinked several times, readjusting to the darkness before she noticed that Spike had disappeared.
"Spike…" She whispered nervously.
"Here slayer," Spike replied. Buffy whipped her head around to where she heard the sound coming from. However, Spike had already moved from that location and used that moment when the slayer wasn't concentrating to spring from behind and tackle her to the ground. Spike was thrown off and the fight began.
Buffy's punches had improved, Spike noted, pleased. And her focus was unwavering. However, if Spike were to move more that just a few steps in any direction Buffy seemed to have a hard time focusing on him.
"Use your slayer senses," Spike suggested, throwing two punches that send Buffy stumbling backwards. "Concentrate and feel them reaching out to me. You should be perfectly aware of me, and not just the fact that I'm a vampire. Every vampire has their own scent. Your slayer senses should be able to distinguish me from a random vamp you've never come across," Spike chided. Buffy took his words in and made her way to the center of the room, knowing that Spike was still on the outskirts. Taking one shoe off the slayer stood still. She could feel her sense humming, a sign that there was a vampire around. Furthering her concentration the slayer could feel herself being drawn to Spike. Usually her slayer senses warned her to get away. However, her body unconsciously reacted to Spike and she felt the need to be close to him. Honing in on that need she followed the feeling with her mind and once she had pinpointed Spike's location, as well as the direction he was traveling in she flung her shoe towards him. It landed on his forehead and the surprised vampire stumbling backwards, clutching his head and muttering obscenities under his breath.
Buffy found the light switch and turned it on, smiling at the picture the vampire made.
"See ya same time tomorrow," She said cheerfully turning and skipping out the door of the gym. She had some patrolling to do.
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Buffy had finished training and patrolling and was looking forward to climbing into her warm bed and never getting out. However, as always something got in the way. Dressed in a sports bra and Scooby Doo boxers, hair still wet from her shower, the slayer climbed into bed. This time what deterred her from sleep wasn't an apocalypse…it was worse. All she could think about was him.
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