A/N: A ones hot I wrote for EF's Secret Santa. Enjoy!
Buffy landed, disoriented for a few seconds. She guessed it was to be expected, it's not like time travel was something people did every day. Looking around, she knew exactly where she was, she didn't think she'd ever forget it, even though she hadn't been here in two years. Sunnydale, the only place in the world that really felt like home, she'd think about how wiggy that was later, the fact that on top of the actual mouth of hell was the only place she actually felt like she had a place to call home. She shook her head, 'later Buffy', she chided herself, she had a mission. For once, this mission was about her and her happiness, and yeah, it'd probably save the world too while she was at it but that's not what was most important to her right now. She'd already given her happiness, her love, and even her life too many times to save the world. This time, she was going to focus on taking a little happiness and love for herself.
She knew where she was—the Bronze was two blocks away—but she didn't know exactly when she was. Willow told her time travel was hard and it was almost impossible to get the exact timing right. She knew she was within the span of five years, so she didn't know if Spike loved her yet, if he was even chipped, or if he left to get the soul already. No, it was probably not that last one, that would make the whole trip not really worth it since she was supposed to avoid her death, or at least her resurrection. She decided there was no point in overthinking this, she was going to go to the crypt, Spike lived there for a lot of the time he was in Sunnydale, and there was a good chance he was there.
She couldn't help but smile at all the pretty Christmas lights on her way over, when she left it was September of 2005, so this was a nice change. Maybe she'd get a Christmas miracle and everything would work out. She rolled her eyes as if anything ever worked out that easily for her, as if this was just as simple as giving Santa her Christmas list and getting all the prezzies she asked for prettily wrapped under her tree.
When she made it to Restfield, she knew he was in there, she could feel the tingles on the back of her neck that meant 'Spike'. He was aware of her too, she knew that. She also knew that he was probably expecting her to kick the door open to get what she wanted out of him before leaving, no matter what year it currently was. Throughout their whole relationship, from enemies, to allies, to kinda friends, to violent lovers, to finally starting to understand each other, she never treated him that well. She'd had the last two years to think over every painful interaction that she could remember, and hate herself for each one. She'd spent the time thinking about how she'd do it differently, how if she had shown a little kindness that he might still be alive. Because she realized, after it was too late of course, that he never needed his soul. He had the ability to be good without it, he tried so hard, and if she'd just given him a little bit of encouragement, he could have been so much more.
She must have been standing outside too long because Spike opened the door and looked at her with a quirked brow. "Waiting for an engraved invitation, Slayer?"
Seeing him was more jarring than the actual time travel. She'd heard he'd come back to life after Sunnydale. He had been with Angel, he was a ghost at first then when he got his body back he stayed with Angel to try to save the world again, but died in the process. She'd hoped that he believed her final words to him, she convinced herself that he just said what he did to get her out of there, so that she didn't feel like another man she loved had left her. When she found out he didn't come to her, she knew that wasn't true, that he really didn't believe her.
He took a few steps towards her and reached his hand out as if to rest it on her shoulder but thought better of it. From the look in his eyes, she could tell that he was in love with her, so that gave her a little better of an idea of what time she was in. Accounting for that and the pretty lights she saw on her walk, if she had to guess, it was Christmas time when her mom was just getting sick, or was about to be, and he still hadn't admitted his feelings to her. She breathed a sigh of relief, she was happy she didn't go so far back that she had to make him fall in love with her or something. This is good, she had the opportunity to undo a lot of the damage she'd done in her first run-through of this year. "Buffy?"
Impulsively she reached out and grabbed the hand that was just reaching to her. "Hey, Spike."
She knew her tone was different than what he was used to by the look of surprise on his face. "Lo Slayer, what are you doing in my neck of the woods?"
"I just wanted to see you."
She was pretty sure if he was a human, he'd be blushing right now. Wow, if this wasn't such a serious situation she might have laughed, in fact, a giggle or two did slip out. The giggles must have snapped him back to reality because the blushing look of astonishment turned into a cocky leer in less than a second, "That right, Slayer? And why would that be? Missed ogling my tight, hot, body?"
It just took that second of Spike being Spike for the reality of the situation to come crashing down on her and she couldn't help it, she started to cry. Not just a tear or two either, a full-blown Slayer meltdown. Spike looked panicked for a few seconds before going with his gut, he walked over to her to wrap her into his arms, and she sank in gratefully. When she finally calmed down, which to her embarrassment took much longer than she'd have liked, he pulled back enough to look her in her eyes. "You gonna tell me what that was about, pet?"
"I just missed you, is all."
"I'm right here whenever you need me, Slayer. I-I hope you know you can come to me when you need help with Slayer stuff, I'm on your side now."
She looked at him long and hard, she never knew exactly when he switched sides but she could see he really was with her. "You are, aren't you?"
He pulled on all the bravado he had, "Course, how else would I get my spot o' violence in? Don't think this goes and makes us bosom buddies though, soon as I get this chip out, you and me, we'll make a right fine go of it."
She laughed again and he looked insulted. "No, we won't. Well, not unless it's sparing. Then, I'll 'have a go' with you any day." She said, poorly imitating his accent, then added more softly. "We don't want to hurt each other anymore though."
"We… we don't?"
"Of course not, we're friends, right?" What she wanted to say was 'Of course not, we love each other' but she figured they should take this slow, she still hadn't decided if she was going to tell him about the time travel yet or not.
He stared at her doing that thing he always does, seeing past all her walls and lies and almost seeing into her soul. "Yeah, kitten, we are."
She shivered, she hadn't heard him call her that in a really long time. Apparently, Spike thought she was cold because he pulled her close and rubbed her shoulders, hoping to conduct some heat even though his body temperature was lower than hers. She turned her head to look at him and almost without her conscious consent, she leaned in for a kiss. When her lips met his, Spike froze for a second but once he realized it was really happening he let out a groan, so visceral, filled with so much want, lust, and disbelief, it surprised her, and he joined in eagerly.
She almost let herself get lost in it but she couldn't. She had things to do and she had to make a decision on if she was going to tell him who she was or not. So, regretfully, after way too short of a time, she pulled back. He looked at her almost scared and she understood why, at this point, their relationship included her punching him to get information and them just snarking back and forth. If she remembered correctly he hadn't even been taken by Glory yet and hopefully, she'd stop that from ever happening. Hoping to calm him down she smiled softly at him, which seemed to put him more on edge. He stood up, took out a cigarette, lit it, and started pacing.
"What was that, Slayer?"
"A kiss?"
"Don't play bloody daft with me, I'm not your soddin' pals, I know it's just an act. We're not kissing buddies and I'm pretty sure your soldier boy wouldn't be too happy with you rolling around in the dirt with me."
Wow, she totally forgot about Riley, not that he existed, just that they were still dating. She wondered if he was already visiting the bite houses. She shook her head, it didn't really matter to her. Of course, she didn't want him to die, and she still had every intention of burning them down, but it didn't cause her pain anymore. She must have been thinking too long because she jumped when the next thing she knew, Spike was in her face looking at her speculatively.
"Something's different about you. Red been working her mojo again?"
Of course, he'd know something had changed with her, he always knew and read her better than anyone else, even when she wished he didn't. "No, Willow hasn't worked any spells on me, this is a completely magic-free Buffy you're talking to. Well, that's not true, there was a lot of magic that was used to get me here, and Willow was part of it but I'm free of anyone else's will. Buffy is of her own will, so no need to worry… That didn't make a lot of sense, did it?" She stopped her babble when she noticed Spike looking at her like she might have lost her marbles.
"I think I can suss it out. You're not under a spell, but a spell was used to get you here. Where were you?"
She smiled widely at him and suppressed the urge to reach for him again. "Got it in one. Would you believe me if I said the future?"
"Oh yeah? How far from the future would you be from?" He asked, not sounding like he believed her or disbelieved her.
"Honestly, I'm not really sure, I'm still trying to figure out when is right now. You're in the crypt so you're already chipped. I don't feel another vampire around so you already kicked Harmony out. I guess I'm still dating Riley, and it's around Christmas time, so I think I'm about four years ahead of this. Let me ask you this, have I come to you and asked you about how you killed the other Slayers yet?"
"Yeah, you took me out on a date, nice and proper," he said with his cocky smile.
Buffy laughed but quickly sobered up. "So Mom is already sick."
"You don't know that, it might not be anything serious." Buffy just looked at him until his shoulders sagged. "Oh, right. Suppose you would know, being from the future and all. Will she be alright?"
"She wasn't but I'll do what I have to, to make sure she is."
He nodded his head, "I'll help however you need, Slayer. Suppose you already know that too though, don't you?"
This time she didn't fight the urge and reached over to grab his hand and squeeze it. "Yeah, I do."
"Why'd you get sent back? Seen enough movies to know that it's dangerous to mess with time travel, there had to be a good reason."
"Oh, you know, the end of the world. Nothing out of the normal in the life of Buffy Summers, Slayer comma the," she said with a smile.
"What happened?"
Buffy opened her mouth to answer but she decided that they could talk about it later. They had some time to deal with all this later. Right now she was with Spike, the man she loved, the man she realized she loved too late. She didn't want to talk anymore, she just wanted to be with him. "I love you."
He looked surprised, then his look turned weary. "You loving me brought about the end of the world?"
"What? No! I just don't want to talk about that right now, we have time before we have to worry about it, not much but some. I just love you and thought you should know."
He stared at her for a long time, in the way that Spike does, like he was reading her mind and her soul at the same time. Eventually, his look softened and turned into a look of awe. He looked like he wanted to say something, maybe question her more but he decided against it. Instead, he leaned in and kissed her again, it was passionate and she could feel the possessiveness in it. Well, she could give as good as she got, so she possessed right back.
Spike growled one of those sexy growls that she loved and missed. She realized all of a sudden that she was fighting back tears again because she missed him so much. She was able to force them back though because now wasn't the time for them, she was back with Spike and she hadn't felt this happy in a long time. She climbed on top of Spike and ground against him, they both moaned at the sensation. She went for his jeans button but he put his hand to stop her. She looked at him confused and maybe a little like she was scared of rejection.
"Might wanna take this inside, eh love? Unless you want to give the baddies of Sunny Hell a show. I've been sprucing up the place, there's a nice comfy bed in the lower level." He was talking fast, almost babbling because he was nervous, scared that she'd change her mind, so it sounded to her like he was trying to convince her.
Buffy was still panting on top of him and just nodded her head. He stood up with her still wrapped around him and made his way inside. It took a lot longer than it normally would because they were making out like teenagers. After the third time Buffy thought she might have gotten a bruise from accidentally getting bumped into a wall or the TV or the edge of a coffin, she decided they were far enough into the crypt and let go of him to sit on the coffin that just bruised her hip.
"Ow!" She yelled and reached behind her to see what she just sat on. She was surprised to see it was a little decorated Christmas tree. She looked at Spike with a brow quirked.
"What?" he asked defensively. "It's bloody Christmas!"
Buffy couldn't help but think that was adorable but she decided she'd tell him that later. For now, she wanted Spike too much to talk. She wasted no time in ripping his duster off of him and taking her shirt off. Spike wasn't idle though, he went down on his knees and growled again when he inhaled deeply. The Buffy of this time would have found that icky but this Buffy shivered in lust. He used his teeth to open her jeans button and unzip them too. She loved the show but decided it had been too long since she'd been with him and that he was taking too long so she shoved her pants the rest of the way down.
He picked her up and put her on top of the coffin then went to work between her legs. She knew he was talented with his mouth but it had been hard to remember how talented. It didn't take long for her to have her first climax. One thing she definitely did remember about sex with Spike was that he never stopped at just one, she knew she was in for a long night and she was so ready for it. She found herself a little surprised that he wasn't being rougher with her, don't get her wrong, there were nips and nibbles, he gripped her hips hard enough to leave bruises, but there was no violence. Before this, she didn't realize she brought all the violence into the sex, originally anyway.
It didn't take long for her to lose all train of coherent thought and get lost in the pleasure he was bringing her. She came back to reality after her, um, some number orgasm, she wasn't sure, she lost count. Either way, after the most recent one, she sat up to look at Spike. She realized he was fisting his cock and was pumping it in time with his fingers in her, that sight made her moan loudly. She decided she was being too passive so she used her foot to push his shoulder hard enough that he fell back on the ground. As soon as he landed she was on top of him and kissing him. She left his mouth and kissed and nibbled down his body until she was at his member, she wrapped her fingers around it and gave it a few pumps before licking him from base to tip then taking his head in her mouth and sucking it hard.
In their affair, the few months after she came back from the dead, she wasn't in it for his pleasure so didn't spend much time giving him head. Usually, only when he said he didn't want her would she use it to get him in the mood. She shoved those thoughts away for a time to feel guilty about later. She decided to try to give him the best blow job she could. She didn't have much experience in this arena, Riley was more into just getting to the main event, and it didn't happen with Angel, and she mostly just forgot that one time with Parker ever happened. But she knew enough about what Spike liked and it didn't take long for him to start moaning and talking in his pleasure. She wanted to giggle because he was babbling almost as much as she did.
"Christ, Slayer, so good. Love your hot little mouth, feels so good wrapped around my prick. Jus' like that. It's okay, you can squeeze harder, I can take it, oh yeah, that's right. Just look at you, sucking my cock like a pro, feels so good. Love it, love you. Fuck, gonna cum, gonna… Fuck Buffy, love you, love you so much."
Buffy sat up, used her finger to wipe the little that dribbled out from her lips, and then sucked her digit into her mouth. Spike moaned watching her and his cock twitched, already wanting to go again. He grabbed her head and pulled it to his and kissed her deeply. He enjoyed tasting himself on her and that's all he needed for his prick to be ready to go again. Buffy straddled him, grabbed his member, and slowly sank down on it. They both moaned at the feeling.
For Buffy, it had been a while since she'd been with anyone, it was the night before the final battle with The First when she and Spike finally reconnected, and then the next day he'd been dust. In the time for her since he died, she felt like her libido had closed for business, she thought that part of her life was over with. She realized she was wrong almost the second that Willow and Giles told her of their plan to send her back in time. It all came rushing back with the possibility of being able to see Spike again and do things the right way this time.
She needed a few seconds to adjust to the feeling of being so full again and it looked like Spike needed a few seconds too. It reminded her of the look on his face the first time they slept together, the 'is this really happening' face. She smiled then leaned down and kissed him again. She used her legs to lift off of him until just his tip was left inside her then came back down. He put his hands on her hips and they both started to move, she knew just how fast to move to get him to curse and she had missed that swivel he did with his hip that hit just the right spot inside her.
He broke the kiss in order to take her breast in his mouth. She loved the way he used his tongue and teeth on her nipple. It wasn't long until she felt another orgasm building and she could tell he was getting close too, all his muscles were tight, trying to hold himself off until she got off again. All it took was him rubbing his finger against her clit twice for her to fall over the edge. Spike didn't notice the wicked look that came over Buffy's face at the height of her climax, instead of yelling out her pleasure, she leaned down and bit his neck as hard as she could. It was easier than she thought it would be to get past the wiggyness of biting him and drawing blood. When she opened her mouth she yelled to the world, "Mine!"
"Christ, Slayer, yours, always." Spike responded, sounding disbelieving. She leaned down so that her neck was right at his mouth hoping to give the hint of what she wanted. He was almost positive now that he died and somehow went to vampire heaven, he asked, "You sure, luv?"
"Yes, Spike. I'm sure, I love you and I want this. I-I mean, if you do, I'm sorry, I should have asked first." Her apology turned into a moan when he growled and started thrusting harder, he moved his fingers down to her clit, playing with her the way he was learning she liked.
Right when she was about to fall over the edge again, she heard his bones shift as he changed into his game face. As he felt her start to tighten and flutter around his prick he bit her neck right over the poofters mark, he didn't feel a twinge from the chip since he had no intention to hurt her, he could tell by her loud moan he didn't either. He took a few pulls of her blood before licking his marks clean and looking at them fondly. Spike couldn't hold off any longer when he felt her tighten around him, and the thought that his slayer was giving herself to him fully, he was somehow able to thrust his hips up one, two more times before her tight cunt milked him for everything he had. In an almost disbelieving voice, he said, "Mine."
"Yes, yours." She said when she came down from her high.
They lay there, with her on top of him, her head on his chest, still intimately connected, just breathing heavily for a few minutes. Once Spike calmed down enough, he cautiously started running his fingers through her hair, he relaxed when she seemed to snuggle in closer to him and let out a sigh of contentment.
"You know what we did jus' now, right, Slayer?"
"Mhmm, we claimed each other, now you're stuck with me. Best Christmas prezzy ever."
He chuckled huskily, "You can say that again." His voice turned more serious, "Buffy, it's deeper than a human marriage, our life forces are now interconnected, not sure what that means exactly but I'm an immortal as long as nothing kills me, you might have just signed yourself up as one too."
She shrugged as much as she could while cuddled up on top of him, "I know, there's more to it too, I did some research on it before I came back here, it's different for every couple, we'll just have to see what happens."
"I'm still not sure this isn't a bloody dream and I'm not knocked out somewhere out there from getting hit in the head too hard during a fight. Or I'm not just dust and someone messed up enough that I ended up in heaven." He felt Buffy stiffen and he wondered what he said until it all clicked for him. "He died, your time's version of me."
She wasn't able to stop the tears this time, they started falling in earnest. She felt Spike wrap his arms snuggly around her and heard him whispering sweet nothings in her ear trying to calm her down. When she was finally able to calm down she lifted her head to look at him and rested her chin on his chest. "Yeah, you died saving the world. It was about two years ago, or two years from now, depending on how you look at it. It won't happen this time though, if I do this right, that apocalypse won't even happen."
"What do we gotta do then? Who's the big bad we have to take out to stop whatever evil that was big enough to send you back?"
Buffy looked pained for a moment until she put on her resolve face. She didn't like what she was about to say but it was the only definite way to keep Glory from opening that portal. "Well, it's a few-step process. Actually no, it's a two-step process, I have to kill a doctor and you have to make sure if I ever die my friends don't resurrect me."
Spike stared at her so long she thought she might have been speaking gibberish. Then again, from the Buffy he knew, she probably might as well be speaking in another language. The Buffy of this year would never be okay with killing a human and would never trust Spike with something so important.
"Buffy, luv, I think I'm gonna need a little more information."
She sighed, she'd really rather be going for round two. Actually, she looked down at their naked bodies and was about to distract him but shook her head, she should probably get through this. He's gonna be the person that helps her with everything, he should know what he's in for. "Glory, do we know that's her name yet? You know that nasty demon I've been having a problem getting rid of? Well, there's a reason for that, she's not a demon, she's a god and she needs Dawn to get home."
"Over my dead bloody body…"
"Don't worry, we won't let that happen, anyway in my first run-through with her, she got Dawn and was able to open the portal, I threw myself in it to close it since we share our blood. I died, and the Scoobies resurrected me. That gave The First Evil enough power to try to take over the world. That's the apocalypse you died to win. Anyway, Glory is like, invincible, she only has one weakness, Ben. She was imprisoned by her fellow hell gods for, I don't know, being too hell-godish? Not hell-goddish enough? Either way, they imprisoned her in a human body, that's Ben the doctor, or nurse, I'm not really sure what he is if I'm being honest, he was just always around while my mom was in the hospital. Once he's dead, so is Glory, so no hell portal, no jumping to my death, no First Evil, no activating all the Slayers, no First Evil gaining even more power to attack us again."
"Woah woah, slow down there, Slayer. Did you say, activating all the Slayers?"
She laughed nervously. "Yeah, did I forget to tell you that part? That's why I came back, I'm not really sure why we thought it was a good idea at the time, the whole reason The First gained its power in the first place was because the side of good got too much of a power boost when they brought me back. Since things in the universe have to be even, the bad side got the power boost in the form of the first gaining its power. We knew that and still, we thought it'd be a good idea to give us even more power by activating all the potential Slayers in the world. The side of evil got an equal boost of power in the form of The First opening all the portals to all the hells and bringing all their demon population to take us down, by the time I left we were losing, society as we knew it was gone, it was a wasteland and there was probably only a few hundred people left. We were really starting to lose hope until Willow and Giles came up with this."
"Christ…" Was all that Spike could think to say.
"Yeah, but there's some super easy fixes, it just starts with me killing a human."
"Wish I could take that burden off your shoulders, but I can't do rot with this chip in my head."
"Shit, that reminds me, we have to get that out of there." Okay, now she was starting to get offended, he was looking at her like she was insane.
"Slayer, you're starting to sound barmier than Dru. What are you going on about? I thought you'd never want this soddin' chip outta my head."
She cupped his cheek with her hand "We have no choice, it goes bad in about a year and a half and it'll kill you if we don't. I trust you though, Spike. You don't hurt the one you love and you know it'd hurt me if you started eating and killing humans again, right?"
He stayed quiet for a long time like he was really thinking over what he'd do if the chip ever came out. Eventually, he looked at her and nodded. "Right you are, luv."
He leaned in for another kiss then froze in a way only vampires can, their whole body stills, their heart doesn't beat, their blood doesn't flow, and they don't need their lungs to breathe. "Spike, what is it?"
He gently pushed her off of him and stood up, "Captain Cardboard is making his way through the cemetery, I'd know his stomping regimented gait anywhere, don't know if he's coming to see yours truly or trying to do your job for you again, but figured you wouldn't want him to see us like this either way."
Buffy 'eeped' and jumped up, she hadn't been dating Riley for years and didn't like him all that much, not too long after the fall of Sunnydale she was doing research for something completely different and found out Suvolte demons don't lay eggs. After doing some digging she learned the whole thing was just a set up from Riley to get back at Spike for showing her what Riley was up to when they were together and to try to break her and Spike up. Even though she wasn't his biggest fan, in his eyes, she was his girlfriend so it probably wouldn't be fair to see her in bed with Spike, especially when he couldn't fight back. She was not positive who she'd tell about the time travel sitch, but she was sure Riley wasn't going to be one of them.
Not long after they were both dressed and Spike went to his microwave to warm up a cup of blood, Riley came in, announcing himself by kicking in the door. "Where is she, Spike?"
"What the hell, Riley? Rude much? This is his house."
"Buffy, what? You do stuff like that all the time. Come here, I'm so glad you're okay."
Buffy felt a stab of guilt at the truth in what Riley said but pushed it down to deal with later. Riley was walking to her with his hand out like he was waiting for her to run into his arms, she put her hand up to stop him. "That doesn't matter, I'm the Slayer, it's my job. You're just the guy who tortured him. You don't have a right. In fact, if you had any regret at all for doing such terrible things to sentient beings, you'd stay away from him altogether. What are you doing here anyway and why wouldn't I be okay?"
"What? Buffy, what's going on with you? I'm here looking for you, we were supposed to meet up at the Bronze, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. Must have slipped my mind. Still doesn't explain why you'd think it was Spike that took me. Or why you thought I was captured in the first place and needed you to save me." She waved her hands in the air negating what she just said. "Doesn't matter, it's good you're here."
She walked up to him and acted like she was going to hold his hand, instead, when he got close enough she grabbed his arm and pulled up his sleeve. Her hunch paid off, he was already going to the bite houses and had been for a while if his arms meant anything. There were quite a few, some scabbed over, some scarred, and some fresh. He ripped his arm away and Buffy heard Spike snarl at Riley. She was pretty sure she heard him mumble something along the lines of 'stupid git, going to whore houses when you have her waiting at home for you.' She flashed him a quick smile and then turned her attention back to Riley. He was looking at her somehow both remorsefully and angrily.
"Buffy, it's not what it looks like."
"No? You're not spending your free time in the vampire's version of whore houses?"
"What?" He looked at Spike and then started to stomp towards him before Buffy stepped in front of him and stopped him. "You! What nonsense are you putting in her head?"
"Me? I knew nothing about this. Though if I did, I woulda told her right away. Doesn't happen often but people have been drained before and more times than not, when that happens the customer gets turned. You put the Bit and Joyce in danger."
"You son of a…"
"He's right, Riley. Don't take your anger out on him, he has nothing to do with this. You're the problem in this situation."
"No, Buffy, you are. I would have never gone there if you needed me more, needed me like they do. But no, you're the Slayer, you have to do everything yourself."
"You're right, I am the Slayer, the one girl in all the world. It's been my life for the last nin-er-five years and it's going to be my life till I take my last breath. It seems like you can't handle that, and that's fine, not every man can handle a girl being stronger than them, or can handle the girl being in charge. You obviously can't, so this obviously isn't going to work. I'm glad we figured it out before we wasted any more of each other's time. Have a good life, Riley," she said as she walked to the crypt door and opened it, making it clear she expected him to leave.
"Buffy, what? No, I'm not leaving, not like this, I love you."
"You love a version of me that you made up in your mind. That person doesn't really exist. I'm never going to be the woman you want me to be and you're never going to be the man I need. Stop making this worse than it needs to be and leave."
He walked up to her and tried to take her head in his hands to kiss her but she easily moved away. "Buffy, I'm not leaving like this. Yes, I messed up, I'm sorry but we can work through it, I know we can."
"Sure, we probably could, I could probably swallow the fact that you cheated on me again but honestly, I don't want to. I don't want to be with you."
For a long time, he looked shocked and almost unbelieving. When he finally spoke, it was condescending. "You're just upset and tired, Buffy. Let me walk you home and we can talk in the morning."
Buffy was starting to lose her cool, the first time around she didn't realize how often he talked to her like he knew better and how she should just be a good girl and listen. "No, Riley. Are you not listening to me? It's over, you and I will never be together again. You should be the one to leave, I still have to talk to Spike."
Riley opened his mouth to say something multiple times but eventually closed it and stormed off. Buffy had to use all the will power she had not to laugh because when he was stomping off, he looked back at her and when he did, he ran right into a wheelbarrow and fell in. She didn't want to make him feel worse though, she didn't hate him, she just didn't like him very much. Spike, on the other hand, had no such compunction and laughed, loudly. Cackle might be a better word for what Spike was doing. So once she saw that he was okay and walking away again, she closed the crypt door and turned to look at Spike. Spike had what her father would call a 'shit-eating smile' on his face. She could tell he really enjoyed the show.
"I don't know how to ever repay you for letting me be here to witness that, Slayer. Though, gotta admit, wasn't easy watching the git try to touch you."
"Caveman much?"
"It's the claim, luv. My instincts will be intense for a while, you'd react the same way if a bird was here trying to put her hands on me. It won't be like that forever, so I hear, just need to stay close to each other for a while."
She smiled, walked over to Spike and rested her head on his chest. He took the hint and wrapped his arms around her. "I think I can work with that, even without the claim I don't think I'd want you out of my sight for a while anyway."
"Good then." They just enjoyed the touch and closeness for a while until she felt his chest start to rumble with his laugh, "Did you see him? It was like one of those cartoons when he flipped arse over head into the wheelbarrow."
"I'm glad one of us had a good time." She rolled her eyes but giggled too.
"You're not fooling me, Buffy. Don't know what he did in your time to make you so mad but you enjoyed every minute of it. You woulda let him down a lot easier if you didn't."
She couldn't really deny it, so she didn't try. In fact, she decided that Riley wasn't worth any more of her thoughts or words so she pulled back enough to look Spike in the face and then kissed him. "It's going to be a hard few years, Spike. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to skip town."
"You off your bird, Slayer? O' course I won't leave you to deal with it alone. You know me, a battle to the death is a right fine time," he said with a smile but then looked at her seriously. "Plus, I love you, Buffy. Not going anywhere and didn't we just talk about the claim? Even if I wanted to, which I don't, couldn't be too far from you."
"I'm sorry, Spike, I really should have talked to you about it before just biting you and taking the choice away. There I go again, just doing what I want and not giving you a choice." She looked down at the ground, sad. Then she looked at him hopefully, "Really? You wouldn't want to leave, even though it's going to be majorly of the bad when we tell the Scoobies about us?"
He scoffed, "Like I give a sod what they think about me. Plus, I got my girl to keep me safe if they come after me, right?" He meant it but it still chafed Spike the wrong way because he needed to be protected from humans but he'd deal with it for her.
Buffy got a look on her face that Spike knew well, it was the look of a Slayer getting ready for battle. "They won't like what would happen if they tried to separate us again. I've already lived too much of my life trying to make them happy with my dating choices, that's the whole reason Riley even happened. I won't do it again, they just have to deal with it. I didn't try to change Xander's mind or call him names when he started dating an ex-demon and he shouldn't do it to me either."
Buffy pouted and Spike leaned down to kiss it off her face. After a few minutes, Buffy pulled back because she still had some important stuff to do before she could get back to the smoochies. A big part of her wished she and Spike could just lock themselves away in his crypt and forget the outside world but she was the Slayer, she'd never be able to do that. At least she found someone who would be with her for everything, not just the fights, or the easy times but the times in between too. "Will you come with me?"
"Course. Where?"
She smiled, "My house."
"Wanna check on your mom?"
"Yeah, I'm a little scared actually, I haven't seen her in four years, and to know that if I can't fix it I'm just going to lose her all over again is heartbreaking."
"I know if there's a way to do it, you will. You know I'm with you Slayer."
She smiled at him and grabbed his hand, "Always."
Buffy had some things ahead of her that she wasn't looking forward to, the confrontation with the Scoobies, the whole Ben/Glory situation, she was sure at some point there was going to be a visit from her big, selfish, brooding ex who she blamed for Spike dying the second time too. Oh yeah, she also had to make sure she didn't take out her anger that she held from her last run through on the versions of those people here. It was okay though, along with all that, she also had a chance to have a lot of good. She was growing life weary before this jump back but now she felt rejuvenated, and even though it was daunting to have to relive the last four years, she was ready to do it over again, with Spike and the Scoobies by her side. But first, she was going to go do something she had only dreamed about for far too long now. She was going to go celebrate Christmas with her family, her whole family—her sister, her mom, and her vampire.
