Thanks again, Madiya! :D
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the translation to the subtitle underneath the story's name is: "'Is it possible to forget something that has not happened yet?" ;)
Chapter IV
Buffy was so not happy with the most recent developments. It seemed that her mother and her Watcher had decided to turn her life into a living hell. How else could anyone explain what had happened? It was like she’d stepped right into one of those Twilight Zone episodes.
First her mother had all but ordered her to make sure Spike was released from his house arrest, with the threat that if she didn’t she would take away her beloved desk. And then after Giles agreed to let Spike move into a crypt, he had turned the tables on her when he added that since they still needed Spike for information on the commando guys, she had to turn into some sort of vamp-sitter for him. As if she didn’t have enough in her plate already!
And to top it all, now she had to patrol with him. Spend time with the vampire, especially after… ‘No, better not go there again, Buffy, she berated herself when her thoughts kept straying to that fateful day. She simply didn’t want to spend time with Spike and that was it, no other reason attached. ‘Yeah, right,’ a little voice within her answered, sarcasm dripping in its tone. ‘It has nothing to do with the fact that you can’t forget anything related to that day, not his kisses, not the look in his bluer than blue eyes whenever he’d posed them upon you and how your body melted with each of those looks, not the way his body felt pressed to yours as he kissed you to oblivion...’
She squirmed a little as her panties seemed to get more than a bit uncomfortably wet as she recalled those memories. Oh God, just what I need, to get aroused around the bleached menace! Very embarrassed by her body’s reaction, she looked through the corner of her eye at the vampire walking next to her, hoping that he hadn’t noticed. She kinda expected to find him looking at her with that gorgeous… ‘No, not gorgeous; where the hell had that come from?’ With that damned (yes, that was so much better) smirk drawn in his face, but he didn’t look any happier than she was. That had to count for something, didn’t it?
Alright, so he was quite thankful with Joyce that he finally was out of that hell…er, the Watcher’s house and he was being allowed to move into a crypt. That was good, but what he didn’t like at all was the fact that Rupert considered it convenient to saddle him a vamp-sitter, even if said vamp-sitter was as pretty as the Slayer. ‘And there I go again with the pretty,’ he rolled his eyes, angry with himself of not being able to shake all these feelings the girl had brought out of him after the sodding spell.
He’d fought all of his un-life to try and suppress his geeky William side and he generally managed just fine, but after that day in which he’d had the chance of having her in his arms, to feel how it could be to be loved by her, after feeling the sweet way she clung to him as she returned his kisses and caresses, he hadn’t been able to suppress the damned bloody awful poet in him any longer and when he looked at her, and as long as he was being honest with himself, he truly wasn’t too sure if he wanted to suppress him anymore. He wanted to write sonnets about her beauty, about how graceful and powerful she was when she fought. ‘Dammit! As if I didn’t have more than enough problems with having this damned chip in my brain, now I’m having all these mushy feelings for the one girl I shouldn’t.’
And if that wasn’t more than enough, all these thoughts of the Slayer seemed to be awakening little Spike. ‘Oh, bloody hell! Just what I need!’ He gazed at the girl walking by his side through the corner of his eye, noticing that she seemed to be lost in her own thoughts and he exhaled a relieved sigh as he surreptitiously moved a hand to his pants and shifted himself to be a little more comfortable, but it turned out to be the worst thing he could have done, as his cock seemed to swell further at the touch of his hand. ‘Oh, fuck! Look what you’ve done now,’ he scolded himself, putting his hands inside the pockets of his duster to cover himself further. It really wouldn’t do that the Slayer noticed his body’s reaction to her or rather his thoughts of a much sweeter and pliant Buffy or he’d be dust in the wind.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
London, December 5th, 1880
William entered his bedchamber and reclined on the door, closing his eyes. He was so perplexed. He hadn’t been able to forget about the poem all day long, thinking of how he’d like to give it to someone special to him, but even as besotted as he was with Cecily Addams, he just knew he hadn’t written it for her. It had been about someone else, someone he probably hadn’t met yet, but oh how he wished he would meet soon.
Everything that had happened since he owned the desk had been shrouded in mystery. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something monumental was about to happen and that it would be because of that piece of furniture. Maybe it was his imagination—his mother always said that his imagination was quite vivid after all—or it could have something to do with the strange gust of wind that had entered his room after reading the poem he’d written. Whether it was one or the other, or neither, he felt the need to read the poem again, although he had hereby promised to himself that he wouldn’t do that anymore. So he pushed himself away from the door and advanced into his room towards the desk, pulling the chair out and sitting on it.
He opened the secret panel on the desk and then the second drawer. He did a double take when instead of the blank envelope he’d left there the night before, he found a similar envelope but with his name written on it.
“Is this some kind of joke?” he asked himself as he turned the envelope in his hands. It seemed to be made of the same paper that he’d used, but the handwriting his name was written in seemed almost childlike. Who could have had access to the desk? His mother didn’t enter his room unless he was inside and their maid was almost like a second mother to him, she wouldn’t go about messing with his things and they were the only two persons aside from him in the house, so who could it have been?
“Hmm.” He caressed his jaw thoughtfully. “Should I open it? Then again, why shouldn’t I, after all, it’s addressed to me,” he reasoned, his fingers itching to open the envelope and see what did it hold inside.
With baited breath he took out a neatly folded piece of paper from the envelope and unfolded it. He read it once, not giving credit to what his eyes were seeing. He left the letter over the desk, as he took his spectacles off and passed one of his hands over his face. Maybe he was too tired? There was no way he read what he just had.
With shaky hands he put his eyeglasses on and took the letter again, his heart beating wildly in his chest as he read it out loud.
“Sunnydale, California, December 5, 1999.
My dear William:
You don’t know me, I just found your letter and a poem in a desk I got from my mother and after I read them I was so completely moved by your beautiful and heartfelt words that it just erased any kind of rationality in me. So, here I am, answering your letter and telling you how much I wish I could be your beloved, the lucky woman to whom you said such amazing things to and believe me, I’m aware we’ll never get the chance to meet, because space and time, a very long time, come between us; and the saddest thing about all this is that you’ll never know that so many years into the future, there’s a woman whose heart beat faster because of your words. But I want to thank you any way, for making me dream. I had almost forgotten how to do that.
Truly yours,
Elizabeth.”
Sunnydale, California? Well, that was… peculiar. California was in America if he wasn’t wrong. But the strangest thing had been the date: 1,999. But as odd as it might seem, he couldn’t stop thinking that the strange gust of wind of the day before had somehow made this happen. There was no other possible explanation, at least not for him. Although if it were true, it would be beyond cruel to discover that somewhere, many, many years into the future, there was a woman that thought his words were beautiful and not being able to ever communicate with her in any way.
Or maybe there was a way…
She’d mentioned a desk; could it be the same desk he owned? The mysterious desk that had called to him since he’d first seen it? There was no other way to find out if what he was thinking could be true but to answer her letter and wish that somehow she will get it.
He took a piece of paper and an envelope from the upper drawer, along with his quill pen and the ink bottle and began writing.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
”Just tell me, Slayer... why the hell did you bring me to patrol with you? Weren’t you supposed to just help me find a new crypt and leave me there? It’s not like I could actually help you or anything,” Spike grumbled.
“Because patrolling is first, it’s my sacred duty and all, so you’ll just have to wait your turn!” Buffy answered, as they kept walking.
“But are you aware that your bloody duty exposes me to a very big danger?” he wondered.
“The fact that I’m aware of that is the main reason why you are patrolling with me at this moment.” The blonde girl threw an evil smile to the vampire.
“You can’t, Giles said...”
“Giles wants you alive, he didn’t say anything about you being a little hurt if a demon attacks you,” she cut him off.
“I hate you!” he growled at her.
“Oh no, really?” she said pretending to be astonished.
Buffy sighed; maybe it wasn’t the right time to patrol, since so far the night seemed to be deader than the bane of her existence currently walking by her side. They hadn’t found one single demon or vampire.
The only good thing this patrol had brought was that they’d begin bantering back and forth once more; she’d almost missed that. Well, the reality was that anything that put her mind off from the awkwardness she felt because of the damned spell was of the good in her book. She pouted, life wasn’t fair.
‘Oh, bloody hell, is it too much to ask for a demon to appear, despite my own safety? The side glances and her little sighs are cute, but the pout is truly killing me.’ Spike rolled his eyes as he remembered what he’d done about that pout a few days earlier.
‘Look at that lip, gonna get it, gonna get it,’ he remembered saying before taking her lower lip between his and nibbling on it, before kissing her until she was breathless and soft and sweet and… ‘Grr! Enough with that already,’ he scolded himself as he tried to will away the erection that had came back with a vengeance at that memory. Damned pout!
Precisely in that moment, a demon appeared from out of nowhere, tackling Buffy to the ground and quickly gaining the upper hand in the fight.
Spike kept watching from the sidelines, waiting for the Slayer to show the demon what she was made of. But after a particularly hard blow that sent the girl to the ground for the third time in a row, he just couldn’t stay away from the fight anymore. His demon was begging him to let it dispose of the adversary because he’d dared hurt what he considered his. Well, not his exactly, just his to kill. So without giving it any more thought and willing to endure the headache he would surely get, he hurled over the demon’s back grabbing his neck with both hands, hanging precariously as it tried to throw him off. Until finally the vampire got enough leverage to break its neck with a vicious growl, both of them falling to the ground.
Spike put his head between his hands as he pulled away from the demon, waiting for the splitting headache to appear, and when it didn’t, he thought, ‘Well, well, this certainly changes things.’ An evil smirk graced his vampiric features as he contemplated what he would do first now that the chip had stopped working. He glanced towards the girl that was still panting on the ground, trying to recover from the fight, and without thinking it twice, he threw himself at her, snarling and growling.
Buffy wasn’t sure what had happened, one moment she was fighting a demon she had never seen before and losing to it; then Spike, of all people, had come and saved her and after that said vampire had thrown himself at her. She’d never been so afraid for her life before, she’d fought him before but then she’d been in top form and now after fighting the other demon, she so wasn’t. Spike’s vicious growls and snarls froze her blood and she truly thought that this was it for her. God, her life had flashed before her eyes as she waited for the final blow. Until his growls had turned to screams as he pushed himself away from her to nurse his head in his hands.
She didn’t know what to do. One part of her was thankful to Spike for saving her ass by killing the freaky demon and the other was completely pissed off at him for daring to scare her like he had. ‘Wait a moment! Spike killed the demon and he didn’t get a headache? And then he attacked me and he did? Hmm, maybe the chip only works when he tries to hurt humans. Should I tell him?’ she asked herself. ‘Nah, let him suffer a bit, especially after trying to hurt you,’ a little voice within her answered. ‘Then again, this might be useful. If he’s able to defend himself from demons, then you won’t need to vamp-sit him, but maybe you should test it first.’ A wide smile appeared in her face, before she said, “Oh, Spikey, what happened? Did you suddenly turn impotent again?”
Spike snarled, not as viciously as before though, since he was still obviously in pain, regarding the Slayer’s overly bright smile and decided to give another try to kill her. Maybe the chip had had a little energy left in it and that was why it had tried to fry his brain again? ‘That has to be it, just one last hurrah for the damned chip. Nothing to worry about and I’m definitely not going to waste this chance of getting rid of her now the chance’s been handed to me in a silver platter,’ he thought before launching himself at Buffy once more, only to fall down in front of her, screaming in pain once more.
Buffy giggled at first, and then unable to contain herself, she exploded in full out laughter. “Oh-oh, G-god!” She panted, trying to catch her breath as she laughed. “You…you’re just too easy.”
Spike looked at her from the ground, furious because she was making fun of him. Who did the crazy little bint think she was to be making fun of him?
“Soo, what? Do you want me to spell out what just happened here or…oh, I know, maybe we could play the ‘Wheel of Fortune’? Does the wittle vampy know how to pway?” She giggled.
“Oh, God, don’t tell me you’re turning into Harmony II?” he said, trying to fight back.
She pouted. “Okay, be that way, I won’t tell you now.”
‘Oh, no, not the pout again, not now when the splitting headache is still impairing my senses!’ He exhaled heavily. “Okay, okay, you win, please, Sla—” he stopped himself at the seething look she threw him. “Please, Buffy, love, tell me?” He pouted for good measure, smiling softly when he noticed her look softened.
“’Kay, but just because you asked sort of nicely,” ‘and because it will be very helpful not to be around you all the time, especially with these damned memories coming back at the most inconvenient times,’ she added to herself. “It seems your chip only works when you want to hurt humans.”
“Come again?”
“Well, let me explain it easier. Did you have a headache when you killed the demon?” He shook his head negatively. “But you got a headache when you tried to hurt me, are you following me here?” She smiled at the slightly dazed expression in the vampire as he slowly began to understand. ‘Maybe making him try to hurt me that second time was a little too much? Nah, he totally deserved it for scaring me out of my mind!’ she decided.
“So, as long as I only fight demons and not humans, I’ll be headache free?” She nodded. “Cool! Eh, I mean, that’s great,” he corrected when Buffy arched an eyebrow at him.
“Well, now we should go back to tell Giles about the recent developments; what do you think?”
“Alright, hopefully we’ll find a lot of demons in our way. I’m up for a little slaying, what do you say, Slayer? Are you game?”
Buffy couldn’t help but find him utterly adorable, his eyes all lit up like a kid in Christmas Day when he was about to open his gifts, so she nodded.
“You know what? We can tell Giles about it tomorrow; if we go now, I’m sure he will keep us there until sunrise and, to be honest, I’m not up for his boring brainy blah, blah, blah tonight. So, we’ll just keep patrolling for a bit. What do you say? Are you game?” she repeated, winking at the vampire, already knowing what his answer would be.
“Oh, pet, you’re the best mortal enemy a Master vampire could ask for!” He smiled fondly at her, a hint of adoration in his eyes that warmed her all over.
tbc