Buffy woke up when a cool breath played along the flesh at the back of her neck. She sat up quickly and a flurry of feathers flew across the floor. Spike lay next to her, still sleeping. It had been his breath. Her heartbeat slowed a bit. She tilted her head and considered him, lying on the carpet, sleeping, breathing as the sun shone on his white gold hair. She screeched and jumped between him and the window before it registered that there were no flames. She felt her heart resume its normal rhythm as he sat up and looked around him for the cause of her panic. When he assured himself they were safe, he took in the ruin around them.
"You did a fine job exorcising my demons, Pet." He smiled at her seeing her outlined in the daylight with white feathers surrounding her. He glanced at his hands. "Well, look at that. The old bag did spring for the good stuff."
"Maybe we won't have to do too much." Buffy bit her lip. "Just some serious redecorating."
"It might be best to reduce the amount of smashed wood around me, yeah?" He teased her as he hopped to his feet. "We will just get rid of anything else for which you develop a hatred."
"Ha, ha." She stuck out her tongue at him. He smiled and grabbed her hand pulling her into an easy embrace. He touched her cheek gently, his thumb tracing along her cheekbone.
"Thank you for all of this, Buffy. No one else has ever taken up for me." Their gazes locked and his flickered as green and golden specks flashed in his eyes. "It's something I never expected."
Buffy blushed and turned her eyes from his. She played her fingers along his arms finding his cooler skin enticing. She took a deep breath and tried not to think about the joy she'd felt as he fed from her.
"We need to clean this mess up and go shop for furniture. I'm sure we can find some stuff for cheap." Buffy blushed. "I know this stuff was all antique and one of a kind, but I don't regret destroying it. I'll find us something. I'll be frugal. Ugh. Now I'm using mom words."
"It is a good thing we don't have to do this cheaply. I might be spared a further understanding of your maternal relationship. Besides, I know how to live in a crypt or a palace, Buffy. I'm satisfied in either, but this is our home. I want to build it together. Make it a place to enjoy our time together. The things we choose should appeal to us, should matter to us." He grinned as she blushed and glanced down again.
"Oh, crap." Buffy pulled back and looked up at him with panicked eyes. "I have to get to class, and figure out some way to explain all this to Riley."
Spike growled as he thought of the tall, blondish man-child in Buffy's memories. He knew she had never really seen the boy as a mate, but it didn't matter. The possessive surge washed through him and he dragged her back against him. He felt the crush of her breasts against his chest and slammed his lips down on hers. She opened her mouth and welcomed his invasion. Their tongues battled and she wrapped one arm around his shoulder, burying her fingers in his hair. He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around him. The heat of her womanhood seared him through two layers of denim. He broke from her lips and peppered her face with tiny kisses, fleeting brushes of his lips.
"You won't be going to class today, Buffy." He whispered against her ear. "If we had a bed, you wouldn't be leaving it."
She shivered and a tiny sound escaped her lips, something more than a sigh and less than a squeak. She tightened her arms and legs around him. A groan escaped his own lips as he pulled back to stare into her verdant gaze. She licked her lips and he pulled her close, hugging her to his chest.
"I want you, Buffy. The bond makes it inevitable, but I won't force you." He spoke as he rested his head on top of hers. "I also want to have a bed, our bed. I want this to be right for you, to begin as we mean to go on."
Buffy let her legs slide from around his waist and she leaned back to look into his earnest face. She stared at him for several breaths. His chest rose and fell with hers. She touched his cheek and he turned into her hand like a cat. She smiled, big and bold.
"They are going to take your 'I'm Evil, Ask Me How' button from you." She rubbed her body up against his enjoying the flare of awareness that sparked between them.
"Buffy, those commando types did that already. I can't feed properly, can't fight. What use am I?" He looked away and she felt his sorrow. It was a vast thing, and she remembered her own experience with being less than she needed to be. Her mind scrambled for any words of comfort.
"You bit me to form the bond, and last night you fed like a normal vamp." Buffy bit her lip struggling with an idea that part of her rebelled against and another welcomed. "Could you feed from me, and get enough to live on?"
Spike looked down at her flushed cheeks and darting eyes. The Victorian man inside him loved this strange innocence of hers, the hesitant steps toward their mutual seduction. He stared down as she nibbled on her lower lip.
"It would mean a small amount everyday, Buffy." He pulled her chin up with the side of his index finger. "Your blood is stronger than most. It might work."
"Even if it isn't enough, you could supplement your diet with the…" she blushed red and her fingers traced against her healing bite mark.
"You want this?" He looked at her in wonder. She was so giving. Dru had frequently fed from him, but she had rarely allowed him to feed from her. Yet, here in the golden sunlight of morning, stood a sylph of a girl offering him the richest nectar to be found for no other reason than a bond they'd been forced into by cosmic mischance.
"I like giving you what you need. It doesn't hurt, not even a bit." Buffy blushed and the sweet scent of her arousal wafted around them.
He fought the urge to slam her against the wall and rip her clothes free from her body. It was not the initiation he wanted for her. He stared down at her, his golden goddess, his huntress, his mate. He had pursued a dark princess, but never truly held her. Now, through the caprice of fate, a true partner stood before him. He closed his eyes and pulled back from her. This needed to be perfect, he needed to give her what others had denied her, the give and the take, the glory and the surrender, the everyday together. It might never grow into love, but he knew love didn't always make for the best relationships.
"I think we might get on after all, Pet." He smiled when her eyes darted to his face. She smiled shyly at him. She was such a mass of contradictions.
"So, Giles will be here soon. He'll want to check on me. Willow will be here next, with some sort of food. We need to either clean this mess up or close the door and not let them see it. His lenses wouldn't hold up to that amount of polishing."
Spike smiled and rocked back on his heels. He looked at her, standing there, half expecting him to reject her. Dru started singing and he watched Buffy roll her eyes. He smiled. There had seemed to be so many lemons just yesterday. Perhaps the lemonade would be sweet after all.
Buffy was dragging the last bag of feather laced kindling from the room when Giles arrived. He opened the door at her welcoming call just in time to see Spike carrying the torture cross thing out, having unbolted it from the wall. The lens polishing commenced as he stared around the generously proportioned room.
"We are throwing it out, Giles. Not setting up a playroom." She smiled and trotted over to him. "It's a big place. I haven't even looked in all the rooms. I don't think Spike has either."
"So, you two are getting on?" Giles stared at a spot just beyond her head, trying to avoid thinking about all the information his research had yielded. It was unseemly to think of her in such a manner.
"We seem to rub together quite nicely." Spike smiled sardonically as he entered the room. Another flurry of polishing began and Buffy turned to glare at her mate.
"What's behind those double doors?" She pointed at a set of doors they had ignored the night before. Spike shrugged.
"Haven't left your side for more than a moment in quite a while, Pet. Your guess is as good as mine." He strode across the room with slayer and watcher in tow. He pondered the oddity as he turned the levers down and pushed the pocket doors into their bays. A room with floor to ceiling bookcases and a fireplace greeted their eyes.
"It's bigger than the library was in high school." Buffy spun and goggled up at two stories of empty bookshelves. "The ceiling has pictures on it. Why would anyone do that? It hurts your neck to look at them."
She spun in a circle as the two Englishmen exchanged glances. Spike nodded toward the crates piled in one corner. One was busted open, its contents haphazardly spilled across the floor.
"Shall we start cataloging the books?" Giles asked eagerly. Buffy groaned.
"I haven't even had a bite to eat, and you expect me to handle shelving all of those?' Buffy tossed her hands in the air and leaned back against a long table. "So far the only good things about this place are the windows, the leather couch, and the pool we have to fix."
Spike buried his head in the opened box and caught Angelus' scent. He had been here, had pried open this crate, for a reason. Spike looked at the assortment of texts, puzzled.
"What's up, Spike? You're thinking way too hard." Buffy pressed two fingers to her head.
"Peaches was here. Not recently, but he broke this box and the manifest is missing. I'm wondering what he took." Spike looked at her, but Giles was pulling the precious books out of the box and stacking them on the table.
"The Pergamum Codex was here." Giles said quietly.
"How can you know?" Spike asked
"He got it for us." Buffy said and rubbed her face. "I really hate that book."
"It's useful, Buffy." Giles took on his didactic tone. "There may be other treasures here. Things to help us."
"Or confuse us, send us reeling towards death, and scare us silly." Buffy bounced. "I need to burn off some energy."
Spike grinned and winked at her. She rolled her eyes and bounced again. She hummed, rocking back and forth on her feet until Giles glared at her.
"Find something to do or I will have you shelving books." Giles spat at her.
"Want to spar?" Buffy looked over at Spike.
"Love to, Pet, but I'm chip impaired." He tapped the side of his head. "Won't be much use to you when I can't land a punch without falling to the ground and writhing in pain."
"Then let's go open those crates in the other rooms while he falls in love with our books." Buffy smiled and Spike watched her bounce from the room.
"I'll want some say in the arranging of this room. Buffy may not show much interest, but I need to know what's here and how to lay hand on it." Spike nodded to the shelves.
Giles tilted his head and watched the vampire closely. Willow had destroyed Buffy's dreams of a normal future, as unrealistic as they had been. Now, his slayer was tied to this creature for the rest of her life. He fought down the sense of revulsion that welled up within him.
"Were you aware this collection existed?" Giles asked him in a steady tone.
"Yes, I even added to it. Nest had a fondness for it. Angelus liked to take his things. He won it in a bet. Darla must have brought it here." Spike grimaced. "There were other things of his we discovered."
"I didn't realize vampires accumulated so many things. I was under the impression you tended to live hand to mouth." Giles looked around the large room.
"Yeah, both work. I don't like living grand like this. Don't need it, but I have a human mate now. She needs things like plumbing. Can't expect her to live off what dosh I can raise as a toothless vamp. Plus, I think she might have ideological issues with the lifestyle." He shrugged and leaned against the doorjamb.
"Yes, I can see where that might be a problem." Giles picked up a book. It was leather bound and at least two hundred years old. "Forgive the impertinence, but where does the money come from?"
"Thinking we stole all this from victim's pockets?" Spike shook his head. "Couldn't have put the Judge together on pocket change."
"No, I don't suppose you could have done." Giles didn't flinch from his cold stare.
"Some things, we stole, others we brought with us. It all went for the same. I nicked some of these books and paid for others. There should be a crate of books from my living self's library somewhere. Is giving my mate what she needs a bad thing?" Spike looked out the window. "Is giving the slayer a bit of comfort wrong? Those she avenges wouldn't begrudge her this."
Giles considered the being staring off into the distance. There was a fine brain tucked under his bleached hair.
"I need to protect her. What Willow has done here, to the both of you…" Giles shook his head.
"Yeah, well done is done." Spike smiled bitterly. "I'll care for her. Make things easier where I can."
"She has no idea of what your mating will do to her." Giles stood and paced in aggravation.
"She knew what she was doing when we did it. We were in love, both of us so wrecked by those that abandoned us that the idea of never being apart was too enticing too resist." Spike shook his head and dropped his gaze to the floor.
"So, now you are forced together with the bond pulling at you both. She might try to resist, might try to run." Giles put his hands flat on the table.
"Your girl has more sense than you realize. She's the one that came up with the pragmatic approach." Spike said with a quirk of his lips.
"She was violent and erratic. Her behavior was not what I've come to expect."
"Oh, your training has kicked in." Spike sneered. "Worried she might lose her mind, are you?"
"No," Buffy said as she slipped up next to her mate and slid her hand into his. "He's got a plan for that already. He'll dust you if I lose my mind and start hurting humans. It's kinder than what the Council would do. He's worried that I might decide to stop slaying to keep you alive."
Giles had the good grace to blush as Spike burst into laughter. Buffy clung to her mate's hand and waited out the storm of jocularity.
"There's this thing you don't get, Giles." Buffy said in a soft steady voice. She held up their joined hands. "He'd rather I fight. He joined the cause, took an oath with Angel to spend his time at the toil and service of the slayer. It was part and parcel with this. Angel would have left us with nothing without that oath."
"Buffy, demons can lie." Giles fisted his hands.
"I know that, Giles. I'm not really all that blonde." She glared at her watcher. "Angel used his status as the head of the order and the sire of Spike's line to ensure it. William the Bloody has been dragged, kicking and screaming, into the light."