"But surely if you've got this new teleport power-" Spike was pacing the room, his temper somewhat flared, wearing only his trousers.

"It's not my teleport power, it's a gift from Willow, not to be abused!" Buffy's voice was also raised, she was on the other side of the room, wearing her trousers and one of his shirts that hung off her shoulder in a way that mad Spike want to rip it off again.

"Well that's rich coming from her! Wasn't too long ago that Little Miss Dark & Scary was all with the veins and abuse of power."

"Oh, well if we're going down that route, it wasn't too long ago that you were a blood sucking soulless fiend."

"Exactly, soulless! What was Willow's excuse?"

"This is insane. Spike, do you even realise that we've been arguing about absolutely anything we can think of for the last hour. Giles, Sunnydale, Willow, at one point I think you were shouting at me about the colour of my top! What the hell is going on?"

"You're asking me? You're the one who won't bend, it has to be all on your terms, well I won't play like that anymore."

Buffy went silent. "I thought we were done playing."

Spike had no retort for that. He clenched his teeth, "We are. I didn't mean it like that."

Buffy sat down, resigned, exhausted, she ran her fingers through her hair. "Why are we even fighting? I come to you, you come to me, we'll make it work."

"Yeah we've got a long history of making it work." Spike murmured. Buffy smiled weakly.

How they had gone from what they just did in the bedroom for three hours, to shouting at each other like, well, a couple of old-marrieds, Spike had no clue. He smiled to himself. "Got something to share with the class there?" Buffy prodded.

Spike looked at her. Here she was, after years of lusting after her, of falling in love with her, of going from no shot, to, well, still no shot but at least there was sex, to her standing - or kneeling, he wouldn't be forgetting that image anytime soon - in front of him to tell him she wanted to be with him... it's all he'd wanted for longer than he remembered. And he was blowing it. "Well you've gotta laugh. When all is said and done Buffy, we're arguing like... well, like..."

Buffy smiled as she got the joke. "An old married couple. Funny."

Spike stood up and turned away from her, getting something out of his pocket that Buffy couldn't quite see. "I've got a bit of an idea..." He said, with his back turned to her. "Which I do with the promise from you that if you tell anyone about this, you stake me right after."

"Ok..." Buffy said warily. As Spike turned back to face her, old timey music started playing, the 1940s stuff she only ever heard in old movies or when her mum would watch the World War Two documentaries. Spike reached out his hand, and Buffy hesitantly took it. "Are you... can you dance?"

"You know, when I wasn't killing and pillaging, or in one case, eating a bunch of guys in a submarine, I would go to these dance halls during the war, and I always thought that the music wasn't half bad." He pulled her close and they started swaying to the slow rhythm, to the sound of old instruments no one seems to play anymore, which lead to the stray thought of wondering which one the trombone actually is. "Course I don't think I could fully appreciate it all til I got my soul."

Buffy smiled, feeling relaxed in Spike's arms, dancing to Billie Holiday on a rainy afternoon in London. By all accounts, this was possibly the strangest thing that'd happened to her in years. "It must be so strange for you. We didn't get to talk about it so much back in Sunnydale."

"Well we kinda had a bit of an apocalypse to avert." Spike smiled, spinning them around. Buffy laughed, surprised.

"I'm more than shocked that you know how to do this." Buffy laughed. "It certainly doesn't go with the whole bad boy image you've got going, you know."

"Which is why I'll remind you about the staking conversation we just had." Buffy smiled, and Spike dropped her gaze. "Buffy, when it comes to you... I want everything for you. I always have."

Their arms had curled into their bodies as they swayed. Buffy gently pressed her lips to his, and just relaxed back into the music, with the rain tapping at the window and the clouds obscuring the sky.

"I would love to move to London, I loved it when I was here this summer, but I can't be here everyday, not while Dawn is in school." She said gently, feeling safe to reopen the discussion. "Besides, I'm in the real world now, I've gotta earn. Find some sort of job that appreciates Vampire Slayer, Doublemeat slinger and Counsellor of destroyed school on my resume."

"I know." Spike sighed. "I don't know why I even put up such a fight. I'd follow you anywhere, love. Which, I suppose I've proven time and time again..."

Buffy took a moment for her brief psych 101 academic career to kick in. "Maybe that's why you fight it. Our relationship, I admit, has been pretty one sided for a long time."

"That's hardly your fault. I didn't have a soul." Spike sadly reminded her.

"But you do now. I know that I haven't been... clear in the past. Spike..." She took a breath. "I've had a lot of time to think about this and, well, when you take away the demons and the fighting and the hellmouths and all that other fun stuff that makes me the Slayer, when it comes right down to it, being with you... you know me, scarily well, and everything I learnt about you, the real you, the you with a soul made me, well... I know we didn't spend much time together before you, you know, died, but the time we did spend… and it took me some time to… but you're a good man, mug-theft aside, and I'm exhausted pretending like I haven't fallen completely and inconveniently... in love with you." She stopped, waiting to gauge his reaction, which he did not betray, so she continued. "I realise that may have been a lot less succinct or maybe eloquent than what you said to me before Sunnydale went kaput, and I get that you maybe are in a different place now and I know we can't just pick up where we left off, but-" Spike lowered his face to meet her lips, saving her from herself.

"It's about bloody time." Spike said, gently pulling away from her. "You don't make it easy, love."

"I was baking." Buffy smiled at Spike's quizzical look. "But now I'm done."