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“OOOH, I hate Paris!” Buffy said loudly as she crossed her arms over her chest and flopped down on a bench, despite the evening chill.
Unable to help himself, Spike watched the lovely blonde, who was his mortal enemy, while she struggled to rein in her obviously raging anger. Until his final break with Dru he had never realized how much he had just enjoyed watching Buffy and now that he had cast Dru out of his heart, for what he hoped would be for good, maybe it was time to see if her words about him being covered in the Slayer were more than just insane ramblings. “Paris is too full of Parisians, pet. Even the French don't like Paris, so you are in good company.”
If she hadn’t been so pissed off she wouldn’t have missed the big throbbing roll of power that was her blond nemesis but since it had been a while since she‘d seen a familiar face, she didn’t treat him like a threat. “What is it with this place?” She asked, motioning for him to sit down and doing her best not to laugh at his look of complete and utter shock. “Everyone acts like they’re the superior fucking species just because they speak the language and I don’t. Hello, I’ve been all over Europe and everyone else were really nice and friendly despite the language barrier, but all the people I’ve met since I got off the plane have been complete and total assholes. The guy at the hotel gave me crap because I didn’t have a reservation but when I asked if they had any rooms available he said yes. So since they have rooms to rent, why in the hell does it matter if I didn’t reserve one in advance, as long as my money is good? Then the waiter nearly had a stroke when I asked for ketchup during my dinner and spent five minutes lecturing me about why one does not put ketchup on Steak Diane. But all of that I could deal with, I simply smiled and let it go but then the sales bitch from hell went to damn far!”
Knowing she wouldn’t be amused if he chuckled he schooled his face into serious lines and asked her calmly. “What exactly did the clerk do to convince you to hate such a lovely city?”
Buffy turned to him, her face completely serious. “I found a pair of strappy stilettos I absolutely fell head over heels in love with but when I asked how much they were, she very snottily informed me that if I had to ask I couldn’t afford them. Then she had the nerve to ask me to leave! I may not be a fricking billionaire but I can afford to splurge on a damn pair of heels that looked like they were created with me in mind, especially since I already bought the perfect dress in Milan to go with them!”
Acting on instinct, Spike took her hand and pulled her to her feet. He had no idea why she was treating him like this but he wasn’t about to question it. Not when his entire body hummed just sitting beside her. “I can’t have you thinking that my one of my favorite places is such a cruel city, so I think I show you the real Paris in all it‘s splendor.”
“Just what do you have in mind?” Buffy asked cautiously but not bothering to pull her hand away. There were worse things than being shown Paris by a devastatingly attractive man, but since said man was also a very powerful vampire who had tried to kill her a few times, a girl couldn’t be to careful.
“First of all we go back to the shop and get those shoes; while at the same time you learn how to deal with all the arrogance you will encounter in this fair city. The trick to making it here, is to act like royalty luv, even if your lineage says otherwise.” Spike told her with a devilish smile. “This is the city of love but also one built on pretences and vanity. So to conquer this city and force it to expose its secrets and treasures, you have to show no fear in the face of adversity. Seein’ as how you‘re the sodden Slayer, that should be easy enough.”
“Is this some plot to led me into a trap?” Buffy asked pulling her hand away. “If you just want to hang out, I’d really like that but I’m not in the mood for Slayer/vampire games.”
That had Spike stopping in his tracks. He could hear the yearning, bittersweet and poignant in her voice and that was something he’d never heard before. “What happened to you luv, why aren‘t you riskin’ your pretty neck on the hellmouth and snogging with my pouf of a grandsire?”
“Why aren‘t you being Dru‘s boy-toy?” Buffy shot back, wanting to make it clear she didn’t want to talk about Sunnydale and Angel.
Understanding what she was trying to tell him, he decided to just live in the moment. After all, it wasn’t like he was getting any older. “Right then luv, let’s just pretend we just met and that you’re not the Slayer and I’m not William the Bloody, slayer of Slayers.”
“Alright, my name is Buffy Summers nice to meet you.” She said giving him a gentle smile as she offered him her hand.
“Pleased to meet you Buffy, you can call me William.” Spike said playing his part to the hilt by gentling his purposely roughed accent. “I happen to be taking a holiday but I have always loved it here. I’d be pleased to show you around if you’re looking for a new acquaintance to pass the time with?”
“I’d like that William. I just wanted to get away for awhile and part of that means making new friends.” Buffy said giving him a warm smile. If anyone back home saw her acting like this, they’d rush for the straight jackets but she could see pieces of herself inside Spike...er...William. They were natural enemies but they had both been badly scarred by love and that kind of pain was universal and able to transcend all other differences between them. Besides a big part of this trip was taking control of her own life without having to worry about what her friends would think and since she wasn’t technically the Slayer anymore, that meant there was no rule in some handbook saying they couldn’t be around each other unless it was a fight to the death.
He could see the innocence all but shimmering around her like a golden cloud but he saw something else, something even more enticing within her deep green eyes. The Buffy he knew always had a warriness in her eyes, a persona of constant alertness and a burden that weighed heavily on her soul but this woman before him was free. More than that, it was clear she had proved him wrong and parted from Angel while still finding some measure of peace. He believed what they had, just like what he had with Dru, would be apart of them until it drove them all insane but somehow Buffy had broken the bonds of her love and her destiny and emerged a wholly different being. This woman knew the absolute freedom that Dru had promised; the reality of that choice had damned him forever while Buffy was still untainted. More than anything he wished he could say the same thing about himself, because despite his bluster and deeds, the man he had once been was still inside him, still yearning for the confidence he could see in every line of Buffy’s classically beautiful face.
“I could always use a new American friend since I travel there often.” He said giving her a genuine smile as he decided to see where this unexpected path led. For all their acts of abandon, vampires imposed just as many rules and restrictions on their kind just like humans did. You weren’t a real vampire if you weren’t painting the town red with blood and drinking deeply from the innocent but even as a vampire Spike had never cared to much for the darker aspects of his demons desires. But because of his love for Dru, he had embraced her way and submitted himself to Angelus’s cruel tutelage burying William and his humanity, to make his demon become worthy for his dark Princess. Now he’d live for himself first...he’d earned that much after letting himself be molded into what was expected of him. He was a vampire after all, they were suppose to defy the rules.
“That’s something we have in common. I’m taking a extended tour of Europe and I find myself making friends all over. It helps me remember I’m not as alone as I think.” Buffy said softly as she saw some unreadable emotion fill his eyes. Assuming he was thinking of Dru and whatever reason he was here without her, she wanted to stick to the plan of pretending they were without shadows of the past hanging over them. “I’ve been traveling for a year now and while I have met tons of not so nice people, I’ve also made friends with some wonderful ones.”
Picking up on the sadness in her words, he couldn’t help wondering why such an alluring young woman would think she was alone in a world that revered beauty. “Where is home luv?” He asked, knowing that the question fit the rules to this new game they were playing but also knowing that it wasn’t Sunnydale any longer.
“I don’t know yet, I guess you could say I’m a wandering spirit trying to find where I can rest.” Buffy said with a wistful smile. “Life has a way of changing unexpectedly and the only thing that anyone can fall back on is themselves. So I’m kinda relearning how to be me and when I figure myself out, maybe I’ll find my way home.”
“If you don’t mind me saying this Buffy, you look like you‘re already found yourself.” Spike said lightly as he realized she hadn‘t even noticed the changes in herself. Changes that pulled at him like a siren’s song so that he was helplessly lost in it’s thrall.
“Some people lose their childhood before they’re ready, others cling to it long after it’s time to put away childish things. While a precious few somehow manage to keep the same childlike naivety that allows them to believe the world is a wonderful place and always will be.” Buffy paused for a moment to pull her thick wool coat tighter around her tiny frame, while the gentle evening breeze sent the snowflakes swirling around her like she was in the center of a snow-globe. “But then there’s people like me that had no other choice but to grow up and face the darkness of this world. I’ve had to face the things others would fear or hide from and while I can still see the beauty of this world, I also know what’s beneath the shining surface. I‘ve learned to accept the good and bad, because I have both those things inside me and while it‘s a bitch to balance it all out, I‘ve made my peace with what and who I am. That‘s not something many people can say in this day and age of mass confusion so I consider myself pretty lucky in the grand scheme of things. So in a way you’re right William, I found myself but I still want to grow into who I’ve become. ”
“In a city full of lauded trendsetters, you’ve an incomparable original.” Spike said giving her a saucy wink as he found her words applied to himself as well. “I guess we both are pet, besides normal is overrated. Which is why I chose to come here. No matter how jaded and cynical I become, something always comes along and surprises me. Take our meeting for example, definitely an unexpected surprise but a good one.”
“You’re a nice surprise too William. The last time an obviously older man in a billowy coat walked into my life, I was the one who became jaded a cynical but unlike him, I can tell that you still know how to dream.” Buffy said pulling open the door to the shop before he could reply.
“Come to dinner with me tonight.” Spike more or less demanded over the phone a week later. He had spent the night showing Buffy the city only to have her disappear from his life just as quickly as she had entered. She had placed a chaste kiss on his check and headed into the hotel with his number in her hand but she had never called. It wasn’t the first time he had been blown off, he had been dating for several centuries, but this time he couldn’t get the lady in question out of his mind. All through the night they spent exploring the city, every time he thought he had her figured out she would do or say something that sent him back to square one.
Most of the time it was easy to believe how the world could see her nothing more than the nineteen year old girl she appeared to be and at others her eyes would darken with some unknown emotion. In those moments she would appear nearly decades older and more than a little dangerous with almost feral light turning her soft green eyes to a blazing emerald. He knew it had something to do with her life in Sunnydale but also it was because she was a predator in her own way. It didn’t matter that she seemed to have surrendered her place as the Slayer to the other bird because when she had come across a pair of vamps feeding, she had never hesitated to leap into the fray. Not sure of what such a blatant reminder of his nature would do to their comfortable truce, he had held back neither helping or hindering and merely waited for her to turn back around and issue the final verdict.
Half expecting her to look at him with disgust, he was surprised to see her looking at him with genuine concern. For several long moments they had looked into each others eyes, speaking without words and he had nodded his head. After his silent promise not to feed from the living while he was William, their night had continued without any interruption.
He had no doubt she stake him in a moment if she caught him feeding but the fact she had accepted his word without hesitation meant more to him than the kill. Since Europe was part of the old world, it had it’s fair share of established demon areas and many bars catered to his kind as well as blood banks that bought human blood and sold it just like the butcher in Sunnydale sold animal blood. Vampires on this side of the globe were slightly more refined than those in the states and many of the master vampires used such a service or sent their minions out to hunt for live prey but there was also a great deal of peaceful demons who needed fresh blood to survive but had no desire to take life. It was just the way things were done and visiting demons adapted accordingly.
Just like Buffy had adapted before his very eyes. By turns she was an innocent American tourist, sophisticated woman, a philosopher, an airhead and a practiced seductress who could turn even the simplest gesture into a erotic art form.
She was a mystery hidden behind a blindingly beautiful and utterly unforgettable smile. So in the most simplest of terms, it was safe to say he wasn’t only attracted to her but also driven by some inscrutable need to uncover everything about her. It looked like Dru had been right after all, he had been drowning in Buffy all this time and never even realized it but now that he knew, he had no plan to come up for air anytime soon.
Which was why he had finally broken down and called her hotel and requested to be connected to her room.
“I gotta say William, the whole caveman routine you’ve got going right now doesn’t exactly fit the image of the suave and sophisticated man I met the other night.” Buffy chided him with a light laugh, relieved that he had called her. She had spent the last seven days going over all the reasons why she should avoid him. Not a single one of them had to do with the fact he was an incredibly powerful vampire but a great deal to do with the fact that he was the first man she had been attracted to this strongly since Angel.
She had engaged in a few harmless flirtations during the past year but other than a few kisses almost forgotten the second they ended no one had managed to get under her skin the way Spike had in a single night, with nothing but a few looks and some slow smiles. Which was bad because after the way her last relationship had gone, she wasn’t sure if she was ready to take the leap again.
“Well you little minx, if you had bothered to ring me this past week you would have found my disposition much more pleasant.” He shot back, resisting the urge to flop back onto his bed like a love sick teenager.
“Sorry, I was afraid that if I called, you’d only think I liked spending time with you because you bought me a pair of three hundred dollar shoes just to impress a bitchy sales clerk.”
“No I bought the damn shoes because of the way you looked at them like a cat staring at the canary.” Spike said repressing a slight shiver of desire as he recalled the hungry look in her eyes, she had worn in the shop. “I was afraid you’d simply attack the clerk if she continued to keep you away from your heart’s desire and I didn’t want to spend the night in jail.”
“You know me to well William. I was seriously considering that but then you pulled out the plastic and all was right in my world again.” Buffy admitted a little guiltily. She had been moments away from slapping the rude, vapid woman as she attacked not only her but her entire country with comment after sarcastic comment but when she started on her mother things got ugly. She didn’t know Spike had a credit card and at the time she didn’t care, he had saved the day and she was too grateful to ask to many questions. Questions that could shatter the illusion they had created for them to live in together.
“Actually pet I don’t, which is why I wanted to have dinner with you.”
Deciding to take a chance, she rolled the dice and prayed it didn’t come up snake-eyes. “Well since you did buy the shoes, the least I can do is let you see me wearing them. So give me an hour and I‘ll meet you in the lobby.”
Saying a quick goodbye before she could change her mind, Spike called to make reservations and hurried off to take a shower. Exactly fifty-eight minutes later he was standing in the lobby flicking his gaze over to the elevators every so often.
He had expected her to keep him waiting, it was a trait all women seemed to have so when she stepped out of the elevator seconds before the one hour mark arrived he was more than a little surprised. Before he had gotten over that, his mind processed the way she looked and the ability to think, let alone speak escaped him. Her long golden hair was pulled up in an a simple twist, with a few tendrils escaping to frame the perfection that was her face. Instead of a very Parisian black dress that left little to the imagination, she was wearing a simple silk gown the color a finely aged red wine.
It fell down to a point just above her knees and seemed to trace across the soft curves of her body with the skill of a reverent lover. He had to admit the black stilettos that added a good three inches to her 5’5 frame were the perfect compliment to the dress simply because they way her made her toned legs look like they went on forever. It didn’t help matters that those were his favorite colors, a fact he had casually mentioned and the idea that she might have dressed with him in mind was enough to make his unbeating heart quiver within his breast.
He nearly protested as she slipped on the thick black coat she had worn the other night, because it was as long as the dress itself and covered what he had been coveting only moments ago. “You look stunning tonight.” He said meeting her eyes for the first time and taking her hand to bring it to his lips. He had planned to seduce her, using his many years of courtship to bring her around to his way of thinking, only to find himself wanting to take things slow and savor their journey together.
Buffy took in the way his lean body looked in a pair of black slacks and how his rust red oxford complemented his pale alabaster skin and warmed his Nordic blue eyes. “You’re looking pretty amazing yourself William, if a girl didn’t know better she’d think this was an actual date and not just a friendly get together.”
“Would that be such an impossible dream, pet?” Spike asked misreading the anxiety in her eyes as uncertainty. He had done a lot of bad and unconscionable things in his life but the idea of pushing her before she was ready was a thought he wouldn’t consider. He knew that sooner or later they’d have to return to reality, to say all the unspoken thing they went out of their way to not talk about but if she needed to linger in their fantasy a little longer, he had all the time in the world.
“I was recently divorced.” Buffy said mustering up a smile. In Ireland she had learned the real story behind the Cladaugh rings she and Angel had worn and while hand-fasting was part of the old ways it was still recognized as a marriage by the local people, even if the laws still said it wasn’t. No one thought twice about couples who had for some reason forgone the formal ceremony and simply exchanged the rings as a sign of their devotion. And since she and Angel had consummated the relationship the same night, it was possibly the only kind of marriage a vampire and Slayer would ever get. In her heart she knew Angel had known that; meant for it to bind them together in the way of his people but she also couldn’t blame him for not telling her considering the fact it was the same night they unleashed Angelus. “But he didn’t feel as strongly as I did and chose to abandon me. So I don’t have anyone waiting for me somewhere and I‘d really like to chase after an impossible dream with someone willing to chase it with me.”
Understanding that she had taken the first trembling step out of their idyllic bubble he gave her a gentle smile to let her know he could see what she was trying to tell him. He knew by talking about her past with Angel that she was letting him know that’s exactly what it was, the past. It was clear to read between the lines!and see that Angel had planned on leaving her and she’d beat him to the punch and he couldn’t help being grateful that Peaches was such an idiot. Soul or not he was used to seeing Angel cast aside the women he claimed to love, leaving them yearning for his return but if that was his grand plan for Buffy he had misjudged her completely. She’d fight for what she wanted with her dying breath, just like she’d forced her mates and Watcher to accept Angel as part of her life but if he wasn’t willing to fight just as hard, she’d pick up the pieces and go on alone. Well she wasn’t alone anymore Spike decided, raising her hand to his lips and if she was going to give him the chance, he‘d bloody well take it. “You have me and I am waiting to escort you to our dinner date.”
“What about you William, do you have a wife or girlfriend waiting for you back at home?” Buffy asked anxiously as they headed towards the doors, needing to know she wasn’t just a stand-in for the one he’d lost.
“I spent more than a century with a woman I thought loved me but I was never what she wanted and I‘m not willing to give all myself to someone whose not willing to give me everything she is back.” Spike said passionately, vowing to never settle in the game of hearts again. It was all or nothing, loves bitch or not he’d not play the part of the fool again. “Sometimes time is not enough to fix everything and I finally realized that.”
“Ahh one of the results of being immortal...wisdom. I gotta admit right now I am just totally loving this not aging thing but I guess I’ll grow out of my superficial and vain stage eventually.” Buffy said easily, having to stifle a laugh as Spike ran into the door at her announcement.