Chapter 31 - Picture Memories
“Oh, my god! Look at that!”
“I know. Isn’t it just adorable?”
Buffy giggled and put a hand to her mouth as she glanced down at the pictures in front of her. “Adorable isn’t enough for this pic, Chelsea.”
Chelsea laughed and turned to the next page in the worn out photo album they were currently looking through. Spike had practice and when Giles called Buffy to invite her over for lunch she hadn’t hesitated for a second. Now, she was sitting here with Chelsea and looking at old memories.
It had been almost two weeks since Lily moved in with Spike and the girl was still enjoying it. The past week they’d spent a lot of time with each other, watching movies, going to the beach, hanging out with Willow and Tara…
Buffy was still surprised that she hadn’t gotten tired of this, this life here. These people, the places… Everything! And to know that she had a little more than a week left was just terrible… But she often shook off that feeling. She and Spike had decided to live in the moment and that was exactly what she was going to do. The future problems would be taken care of later.
“Look here, do you see who that is?”
Buffy shook her head slightly as if to clear it and concentrated on the pictures of the family instead which did wonders to make her forget about the going home thing.
Buffy leant a little closer to the book and narrowed her eyes as if she wanted to see the picture clearer. A frown appeared on her face. “No… Who’s that?”
Chelsea smiled vigorously and pointed at the picture. “You don’t see it? It’s Spike!”
Buffy’s eyes widened as she snapped the album from the girl’s hands to take a closer look. “Oh my god, it is!”
She couldn’t believe that the little boy, wearing a pink and white colored rabbit suit was in fact Spike as a six year old. Under the long pink ears, soft, curly brown hair was sticking out and he was wearing thin glasses. Looking closer, Buffy wondered how she could’ve missed that this was the Spike she knew, especially when she saw the boy’s smile. It was just screaming Spike about it.
“Dad has to hide this album when Spike comes over. He’s told Spike that he has burnt it up, he hates this picture. But I had to show you,” she added.
A devilish smile tugged on her lips as she handed the album back to Spike’s sister. “Oh, I’ll make sure to remind him of that sweet little event.”
“Do that, but don’t tell him who showed it to you. I’m a dead man – woman – if he finds out I’m the responsible one.”
“He would have to hear about it to hurt you,” Buffy smiled and gestured for her to go on. “Come on, I wanna see more.”
Chelsea turned the page and a sad smile appeared on her face as she studied the picture of four people, standing close to each other. “This was twelve years ago,” she told Buffy and let a finger gently trace the edges of a beautiful woman with brown curly hair and kind eyes. It didn’t take Buffy a long time to figure out that the woman holding onto a much younger Giles and the two small kids were Chelsea and Spike’s mother.
“She’s beautiful,” Buffy softly said. She tilted her head to the side and then looked from the picture to Chelsea. “You got her eyes and smile.”
Chelsea gave her a smile. “People keep saying that.”
“What was her name?”
“Ann,” Chelsea said with a dreamy look on her face and Buffy suddenly felt bad for bringing it up. She knew how hard it must be for the young girl to look at the pictures of her mother. But then, sometimes talking made the pain easier to bear, it really depended on the person and she didn’t know how Chelsea felt exactly.
Buffy let her eyes fall on Spike. Now, without the long slack ears, she got a full view of his natural hair. She didn’t really understand why he insisted on bleaching it, he had a wonderful light brown color in his hair and she’d die for those curls of his.
But then, he really did look great in that blonde hair. Pretty sexy, she added for herself.
Already as a child, his cheekbones made him recognizable at once. “When did Spike start bleaching his hair?” Buffy asked, wanting to get Chelsea on other thoughts.
“Around the time he met Drusilla. I think he was sixteen or something.” She scoffed and shook her head in disbelief. “I remember when he came home from the saloon that day. I think he gave mom a heart attack.”
“What did Giles say?” Buffy smiled, thinking that his father probably reacted the same way.
“I remember him staring at Spike for hours the first days. Then he started making fun of it, but Spike didn’t really care about Dad’s lame jokes about getting dazzled by the bright color of his hair, he was feeling comfortable with it and well. He still has it.”
“I noticed that Giles hasn’t called him Spike even once during the time I’ve spent here,” Buffy noted and Chelsea nodded as she closed the album and put it on the table in front of the sofa.
“Yeah, dad refuses to call him that ‘bloody poncy name’ as he so nicely describes it. He’s pretty much the only one still calling him William. Well, I do it sometimes but not that often anymore. Spike just got stuck.”
“I see what you mean,” Buffy said.
Chelsea glanced at the clock and let out a sigh as her stomach let out a hungry growl. “I wonder when Dad decides to get home. I’m starving…”
Buffy got up from the sofa and looked out the window, down towards the porch. “I don’t think we’ll have to wait long,” she told her when she saw Giles park his old car. She turned back to Chelsea and clasped her hands together. “So, what do you say about setting the table?”
“So what have you girls been up to this evening?” Spike asked later while digging in on the lasagna Chelsea had fixed. Buffy sent her a knowing smile and Chelsea smirked in response.
“Nothing much. Watched some TV and cooked, what do you say about it?”
“Best lasagna I’ve ever had.”
Chelsea scoffed at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re just saying that ‘cus Buffy was with me.”
“I promise, I’m not,” Spike said, putting his hand against his heart before leaning closer to Chelsea and mumbling into her ear, though loud enough for Giles and especially Buffy to hear. “Trust me, having Buffy in the kitchen is not a good idea.”
“Hey!” Buffy exclaimed and threw a napkin at him which only made Spike chuckle. “I can cook, just not… you know, good.”
“So you’re telling me that you did most of the job on this dinner?” Spike asked with a disbelieving look. He remembered all to well about their little talk about cooking and how Buffy very accurately described that she was a mess in the kitchen.
Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes. “All right, Chelsea did most of the job. But still,” she finished with a slight pout and Spike nearly choked on his food. He sent her a look she understood meant something like ‘you know you’re killing me here’ but that only made Buffy pout even more.
Groaning, he turned his eyes away from her and instead found the tablecloth particularly interesting.
“If you kids are done fighting,” Giles started with a sigh as he stood up from his chair, “maybe I could serve you the dessert?”
“Oh god,” Buffy let out with a heavy sigh, “is there more? I seriously don’t think I’ll be able to.”
“Peesh,” Giles waved her off and started to walk towards the kitchen. “You most definitely will.”
“I can’t even move!” Buffy exclaimed but even if Giles heard her he ignored it. Buffy sighed and slumped back in the chair. “That man’s gonna be the death of me if he makes me eat more,” she told Spike.
“Aww, poor baby. Such a hard life you’re living,” Spike consoled her and put a hand on her shoulder. “I bet you’d want to be somewhere else right now.”
Buffy slapped his hand with a smirk. “If I was able to move I’d have your head ripped off.”
“And the kitten’s got claws,” Spike teased with a raise of his eyebrows.
“You know it,” Buffy said secretly, wiggling her eyebrows and Spike felt his cheeks heat up at the thought. Oh, his kitten did most definitely have claws…
“Can I please not have to listen to your sex talk? It’s creepy,” Chelsea groaned and rolled her eyes, making Spike start to laugh and Buffy blush like a mad man. Okay, not entirely secretive.
Luckily Giles had the best timing ever as he came back into the room with big plate of apple pie on it, saving the couple from the very uncomfortable conversation. “Time to eat!”
“Time to die,” Buffy mumbled with a smile and gave Giles a wink. She was first of all the people in the room to reach for a slice of the pie.
“So you had a good night?” Spike asked, an hour later as he and Buffy were sitting in his Desoto, on their way back to Spike’s apartment. Buffy was leaning her head against the seat, feeling like it weighted tone. She slowly opened her eyes and tilted her head to look at Spike’s profile.
“The best. I love your family,” she smiled.
“Good, because they love you,” Spike smiled.
Buffy felt warm inside and turned her eyes back to the road with a content smile. “When are you picking up Lily?”
“Willow said it was okay to get her tomorrow so I think I’ll do just that. She was gonna help them out at the Wicca in the morning, apparently that’s something she really wanted to do so I won’t stop her. Come to think of it, we got the apartment all for ourselves. You wanna spend the night?” He asked with a suggestive sight.
Buffy grinned and shrugged innocently. “If you want me to.”
Spike raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “If I want you to? Is that even something you have to ask?”
“Oh, well. I just wanted to make sure,” Buffy smiled as Spike pulled into the parking lot outside his apartment. It took him one second, and then he was all over her.
He held her head in his hands, entwining his fingers in Buffy’s soft hair as he kissed her just to show her how much he wanted her to stay the night. Buffy reacted fast and banded her arms around his neck to pull him closer to her, well, as close as they could get with the gear shifter in the way.
Spike hungrily nibbled on her lips and let a hand trail down from her hair to gently trace the outlines of her thighs. Buffy let out a gasp into his mouth and pulled away from his to catch her breath, letting Spike continue to kiss along her jaw meanwhile.
“Spike…” She moaned and closed her eyes briefly, suddenly forgetting what she wanted to say.
“Hm…”
“Maybe… maybe we should get inside…”
Spike pulled away from her jaw, also in need to catch his breath. He placed a strand of hair behind her ear and tilted his head.
“Or… we could always stay here.” He raised an eyebrow and tucked his tongue behind his teeth. “The backseat is pretty big…”
Buffy playfully slapped him across the chest. “Pig.”
“You know it,” he smirked.
“Actually, I think I saw one of your neighbors looking out the window towards us so I don’t think that is a good idea… today,” she added.
“Ah,” Spike replied, “the one on the first floor? Mrs. Lockhart?”
“That’s the one.”
Spike nodded and then opened the door. “Then we better go like… right now.”
“And when we’re inside, maybe we could find that old rabbit suit…” Buffy said as she reached for the door knob. Spike froze in his movements and Buffy had to suppress the urge to laugh at the terrified look on his face until she got out of the car, before Spike could stop her.
“What the bloody hell are you… Oh god. I’m gonna kill Chelsea…”
There'll be some angst in the next chapter, and maybe you will finally find out who the mystical phone caller is... :) Thanks for reading!
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I'm so, so sorry for the late update. I just haven't had time to write and been suffering a bit of a writer's block but I think I'm back on track. Thank you for all the lovely reviews you keep sending me! You all make me so happy! And also thanks to Chriss for staying with me as my beta, you're the best!
To the people who're reading Everlasting Love, I will update later tonight. Just thought I'd update this one first :)
To the people who're reading Everlasting Love, I will update later tonight. Just thought I'd update this one first :)