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Chapter 22:

 
Tuesday morning began like any other morning. Buffy woke up, showered, and dressed to head into work for the afternoon. She came out of her bedroom and could both hear and smell William preparing breakfast for the two of them. Once she was in the kitchen, the two greeted each other as usual; however, rather than a friendly hug, Buffy walked right into William's arms and soundly kissed him "good morning."

Eventually, William stepped back and looked down at the petite woman standing before him. He was still unused to such affection, to kiss the woman he loved so openly and passioinately - and yet, it was normal in 2005. He saw it happen every day when he was out and about. Other couples were able to kiss and hug in public, so why should they be any different than the rest? William's internal struggle to acclimate himself to these aspects of the 21st century continued, but the struggle was less intense these days.

"Mmm, that was a very nice 'good morning,'" Buffy said as she smiled up at him and ran her hands down his arms. Maybe she could call in sick from work today and spend the entire morning and afternoon just making out with William...

"I do believe it is our best one yet," William agreed.

"Oh you just wait, I know how to make them even better," she teased, sticking out her tongue in a playful manner.

William managed to only blush slightly this time, which surprised Buffy at first. He really is starting to get the hang of hearing how open we all are with affection and love, Buffy thought. "Not that I'm trying to rush you or anything," she said. "I just love to tease you."

The two held on to each other for a beat more before stepping away.

"So, breakfast?" Buffy asked, walking over to sit at the kitchen table and look up at him.

"Coming right up."

 
~~~

 
William walked into the gallery at 12:30 carrying a take-out bag with two sandwiches and a couple bags of chips inside.

"Good afternoon, ladies," he greeted Willow, Anya, and Buffy.

"Hi William," Anya and Willow said together.

"Hey, you," Buffy said in a blissful tone of voice. She rose from her desk with a wide smile on her features and walked up closer towards him. She took their lunch from his hands and then raised her head to kiss him hello.

"Hello," he softly replied, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear before selfishly kissing her once more. It seemed incredibly wonton to show his affection for her in front of two of her closest friends, and yet when his lips touched hers, all thoughts and worries about appearance and what was "right" dissipated from his mind and he was only filled with thoughts of his beautiful Buffy.

Willow and Anya stared on in shock. Two days ago when they were at Buffy's apartment, neither of them had seen any type of intimate contact between the two blondes. The two women had been somewhat suspicious that their relationship wasn't as perfect as Buffy had led them to believe.

How quickly things do change, Willow thought, suddenly feeling as if she shouldn't be here watching something so private happening between the two. She looked at Anya, who was looking on intently and no doubt having fun doing so, but she, on the other hand, felt as if she was acting like a voyeur.

"I'm so glad you're here," Buffy said. "Suddenly my lunch break is definitely looking up."

"I'm glad I am the cause for it," he answered. "I stopped by the deli on the way over here and picked up sandwiches for the two of us."

"Thanks," she said. "C'mon, we can eat them in the back..." she cast a look at her two employees, who were sitting on the edge of her desk trying to look as if they weren't listening in on their conversation. "Where we won't be heard."

Anya "pfft"-ed and Willow tried to get away with her "who, me?" innocent expression, but Buffy simply smirked and walked away with William following her closely behind.

 
~~~

 
"Okay, now just grip it tightly up here with both hands, and then press down on the right."

"But...will that not-"

"Just do it, William."

For the first time, William was seated in the driver's seat of Buffy's Jeep. The two were in the high school parking lot, which was empty since all of the students were on winter vacation. Buffy had suggested driving lessons earlier in the week, but it wasn't until today that William finally worked up enough courage to accept her offer.

"Are you certain that I won't run into anything?"

Buffy nodded. "Please, the first lamp post is like...all the way over there." Buffy waved with her hand and quickly pointed to the lamp post. "If anything starts to happen, I'll just shift the car into neutral." Next, she pointed down the gear shift in between their seats, hoping that hearing that would comfort him.

"Alright then. Here goes." William gently placed his foot on the right pedal and the car began in inch forward.

When the car was going almost fifteen miles-per-hour, Buffy suggested, "How about you practice some on turns?" She placed a hand on the steering wheel and lightly turned it towards her direction. The car swerved right and William tried not to panic.

Finally, as William drove the car slowly down the middle of the parking lot, he looked over at her and smiled. "This is not as intimidating as I thought it might be."

"See?" She sat back and watched him turn the wheel to the left and drive down the other side of the parking lot. "You'll be a pro in no time at the rate you're going." Although she hoped that he might learn enough about driving a car to actually do so sometime in the future, Buffy wasn't too sure how she would go about getting him a driver's liscence since he didn't have any legal documentation. Maybe that's something that Willow can help me out with, Buffy thought, since her red-headed friend was such a computer whiz.

William applied pressure to the brake and gently stopped the car. "Do you really think I might be able to fully learn how to drive?"

Buffy looked at him, thinking of everything else that he had mastered the the few weeks he had been in 2004. William could cook, could call a taxi cab, understood computers and loved his laptop, and enjoyed televisions and other entertainment technology. "Yeah," she replied honestly. "I think that you might be a great driver. Let's just take things slowly, okay?"

"Alright."

"Let's try to work on reversing, okay?" Buffy suggested. She shifted the gear to the "R" second from the top, and let William experiment with driving backwards.

"Everything is reversed, which I guess is a fairly obvious statement," William remarked aloud. "I turn the wheel left and the car goes right."

"Exactly," she said. "Backing up was one of the things I had the most trouble with. I definitely hit a few posts while I was learning. We'll try to avoid that happening with you this time, okay?"

William fiddled around with straightening out the car, beginning to get a bit frustrated.

"Try to park in the actual parking space behind you," she suggested after seeing his aggravated look on his face.

"Now I am beginning to suspect that driving is not a possibility," William began. "I do not think that I am cut out for something so technologically advanced."

"C'mon," she said, nudging him in the arm. "You can do it, just give it a try."

William looked behind him at the solid white lines and slowly straighened the car and backed it up until he felt he was solidly between the two lines. "How did I do?" he asked at the end.

Buffy looked out the window at how centered he was in the parking space. It wasn't one hundred percent perfect, but for a first-time driver from 1882, it could have been much worse. "Looks great," she said cheerfully. She turned back around and leaned over, tenderly kissing him and surprising him at the same time.

She began to pull away, but William's hand darted out and pulled her shoulder back towards him, kissing her with more forcefulness than Buffy could ever recall - not that she was complaining, or anything. Buffy loved it when William took control; it made her feel like he was really catching on to everything.

"What was that for?" William asked when they finally broke for air.

"Let's just call it your reward for doing so well on your first day of driving," she answered. "How about every time you do something well, we get to make out for five minutes straight?" Buffy couldn't help but give an evil yet adorable grin at her suggestion and she wondered what William's reaction would be.

"Make out, huh?" William asked. He had only heard that term a few times since his first kiss with Buffy the other day, and it was quickly becoming one of his favorite things to do with the woman he loved. The fact that when Buffy kissed him, he didn't want to stop - in fact, he wanted to go even further as long as it was with her - was becoming harder to ignore. In fact, just seconds ago he had actually reached out to kiss her again, and William could feel his 1882 ideals actually slipping away.

"Yeah," Buffy said. "So...you want to work on driving some more? Or are you really ready to give up?"

William sat up and put the car in the "drive" position, placed his hands on the steering wheel and looked straight ahead. "Just tell me what to do," he said.

Buffy sat back in her seat with a smug smile on her face. I knew that would get him, she thought. Although, neither one was really loosing on the deal.

"Okay, so how about we work a bit more on backing up?"

 
~~~

 
After that day, William visited Buffy at the gallery every afternoon. He usually brought lunch for the two of them, which they ate in her back office while Willow or Anya watched the front desk. The two women were no doubt dying of curiosity to know about how their relationship was progressing, but Buffy was keeping quiet about most of what went on between William and herself.

Although Christmas had come and gone, the group of friends still had the New Year's Eve celebration to look forward to at the end of the week. Buffy had explained the typical traditions of New Year's Eve to William and told him that the Bronze always hosted a yearly New Year's Eve party, where TVs were installed around the room tuned to Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve Ball. William was intrigiued that the beginning of a new year was suddenly held with such anticipation and high regard; nonetheless, when he discovered that one of the traditions was to kiss the one you love at midnight, William had few objections to the celebration, no matter how over the top it seemed otherwise.

Friday came around all too quickly for the couple. Dawn would be coming back home Sunday evening, and although she only had two more weeks left to her winter break before returning to college for her spring semester, Buffy found herself suddenly wishing that the next semester would be starting the following Monday.

"Are you all set?" Buffy asked, walking out to the living room. She was fiddling with the backing of one of her earrings, and dropped her arms to her side when she was finished. She quickly spun around, giving William a quick modeling of her dress.

"Wow..." William muttered, his mouth dropping open at the sight of her evening attire. "Buffy...you - you look beautiful."

"Thank you," she said, walking up to him and kissing him on the lips. Buffy had decided to go all out for the evening. It would be the first time since William had first appeared that she had worn something so revealing, but she decided that it was about time for him to get used to it. If William was going to be a permanent addition to her life - which she prayed every night that he would be - then he would have to get used to seeing her in less-covering clothing than jeans and sweaters.

Buffy was dressed in a knee-length, satin, black dress with red, glitterly flowers flowing down the side and the bottom hem. It v-necked in the front and dipped low enough just to show a hint of what was underneath. The back of the dress dipped to her mid-back and then laced down even further. Strappy black sandals and an elegant drop-necklace completed the outfit, as well as an elegant up-do that had taken her the better portion of an hour to complete.

"You don't look so bad yourself," she whispered before returning to her previous task.

William was dressed in black slacks with a dark blue shirt that brought out the color of his eyes. Buffy had picked out the shirt earlier in the week, saying that when she saw the color she knew that it would look great on him.

"Mmm...thank - thank you," he answered. William wrapped his hands around her waist and could feel the bare skin of her back against his fingertips. A chill raced through him at the warm touch of her skin, and he sent a silent prayer above that this gorgeous woman was his.

William rested his forehead against hers and gently ran his fingers down her cheeks. "Do you think we ought to be leaving now? Surely the others will be expecting us."

Buffy hesistated. Even though she had put a lot of effort into dressing up for the evening, a part of her wanted to say that they should just skip it. A part of her just wanted to curl up next to William on the couch and watch the celebration in New York from their living room. More than anything else, she just wanted to be with him in private, even more than showing him off to her friends or making an appearance to the party at the Bronze.

Finally, she shook her head, and with one more lingering kiss, she stepped back. "No, we really should go," she said. "It'll be okay," she said. "We still have tomorrow before Dawn gets back. One more day of peace."

"I shall be looking forward to seeing Dawn and hearing of her trip," William said. "However, I too will miss the..."

"Alone time?"

William nodded.

"Yeah, me too."

 
~~~

 
"10!"

"9!"

"8!"

Buffy hugged William tightly, watching him as he looked at the TV screens with interest, watching the flashing, glowing, lit up ball drop down the pole on the roof of One Times Square.

"7!"

She moved in front of him and pulled his head down towards hers, kissing him with all she had in her, trying to let him know...to let him know everything.

"6!"

William pulled back a second later, breathing heavily and desperate for more. "I thought that you were not suppose to kiss until it is after midnight!"

"5!"

Buffy shrugged and kissed him again, tasting sweat and the lemon-lime from his Sprite earlier in the evening. God, William... she thought, feeling something inside of her begin to spiral out of control - her wanting for this beautiful man in front of her, was beginning to get out of control.

"4!"

"What can I say?" she asked loudly to be heard over all of the other voices and yelling. "I was never one to procrastinate!"

"Buffy," William began, moving closer so he could speak into her ear without having to yell. "You know how I feel..."

"3!"

"I know," she answered truthfully. And she really did - she had known for weeks...but a part of her inside was still too weak and not ready to give that one last part of her heart to another man so soon. "And - and I...and when I can say the words, I will...I will scream them aloud for everyone to hear!"

And having said that, she pressed against him, wanting to melt into him, and kissed him.

The two were so lost within each other that they never even heard the crowd reach "1" or sing "Auld Ayne Zyne."

 
~~~

 
It was almost 2:00 AM when Buffy and William arrived back at her apartment. Both were exhausted from being up on their feet for so long as well as the excitement back at the Bronze. After the clock had hit midnight, the partying had only increased and everyone had enjoyed themselves immensely.

Buffy headed back to her room to change for the evening while William went into the guest room - which he shoul really start thinking of as his bedroom - to do the same.

After a quick trip to the bathroom to complete his nightly routine, William climbed into bed, thinking that tomorrow might very well be the first morning that he did not wake with the sun rising. True to her word, Buffy was going to break that habit no matter what.

He turned off the light and pulled the covers up, turning on his side in hopes of falling asleep quickly.

A light knock on the door rose him from his attempted sleep, and he called out, "Buffy?"

She slowly opened the door but remained standing where she was in the doorway. The open window behind her let in enough moonlight to silhouette her outline, and William took a second to privately look at her.

"Yeah, it's me," she said. "Obviously."

"Is there something you needed?"

"Yeah, um...I was - I was wondering if I could stay with you tonight?" she softly asked. "We...y'know, not to do anything, but..." She looked around the dark room, trying to look anywhere but his eyes. "I'm just not ready to be away from you quite yet."

William froze, unsure of what to say. More than anything, he would love to fall asleep holding the woman he loved.

"Of - of course," he said, pulling the covers back to let her know that he did welcome her. William was grateful the lights were already turned out; Buffy couldn't see how bright he was blushing.

"Thank you," she said, walking inside and closing the door behind her. Buffy used what little light was in the room to navigate to his bed and slowly lowered herself to the mattress, lying down and moving closer to William.

She was dressed in one of her most conservative nightgowns, but knew that this was most likely very embaressing or strange for William. He lay on his side and she pressed a light kiss to his nose before turning around and laying on her other side, moving to be as close to him as possible.

"William..." she began softly. "I...I-"

William wrapped his arm around her waist, bringing her flush against his body. Although it was new and different, it was also wonderful - as if they were fit to rest this way together. A small part of him hoped that this might be a permanent change.

"When you are ready," he said. "Tell me then. I will wait forever if I must."

And that was the truth; William would gladly wait to hear the words from her lips, as long as they were able to be as close as this in the mean time.

"Thank you," she said. Buffy's hands rest against his and she squeezed it lightly in response. "Good night, William."

"Good night, my heart."

 
TBC...



I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out - with finals and moving out of my dorm room, things have been absolutely insane lately. Anyway, I'd like to think that I'm back on track and updates will become more regular.

I hoped everyone enjoyed the chapter - please leave a message saying what you thought, no matter how long or short you'd like to make it. I always love reading what people think of my story.

And in case I don't have another update until this, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my friends and readers out there - I hope everyone has a fun, relaxing, safe, joyous holiday.





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