Buffy and Spike stood in Buffy’s room putting things away. Spike lifted the television out of the box and sat it on the stand Buffy had pulled out of the extra room that was filled with furniture. Spike arranged it so that it could be seen from the bed and then arranged his Playstation to be used as well. That was one of the few things he had insisted on bringing from L.A. He also had new books he had been collecting. Since he had lost everything in the Sunnydale collapse he had began collecting his favorite books again. They weren’t the ones from the 1880s or the autographed copies he originally owned but they would at least be copies he could read when he was bored. He also had started keeping journals again. Buffy had a mostly empty bookshelf in her living area and Spike went to work on arranging and adding his own items. He knew reading wasn’t Buffy’s thing but he did notice the few things she had bought since Sunnydale were things he had read to her. Luckily they were things he hadn’t gotten around to buying yet so between the two of them, they had a small collection. He frowned, noticing there would be a few items they would need to invest in. A writing desk would need to be bought for the living area because having an apartment without a desk was unacceptable. She also needed a shoe rack and a jewelry box for the new items she had bought in L.A.
Spike wandered back into the bedroom carefully unpacking his clothes and handing the ones that needed to hang to Buffy. His socks he laid in the drawer she had cleaned up for him and he started to fold up her underwear and bras into the drawer that already had some of her items in it. He found her sock drawer and started to unpack the socks from her suitcase as well. He folded up the two clean nightshirts and put them into her nightshirt drawer and glanced at his hard work. He then picked up her carryon bag and went about putting the various items away the best he could. He put her CD player next to the bed where she used to keep it in Sunnydale and put her stuffed pig on her side of the bed where she slept. He lifted the travel pillow above Buffy’s head putting it on the top of the closet so it was out of the way. He put his current journal into his nightstand and added his comb, toothbrush, and hair gel to her collection in the bathroom. He grinned noticing he had some shampoo and soap in one of his boxes and added that to her shower items.
Spike enjoyed the way their items were mixing together creating a home for a couple. He lifted out of his box the one picture he still had of them. It had been in his billfold after he died and as soon as he was made corporal, Fred had gotten it repaired and blown up into a 5 by 7. It was of Buffy, Dawn, and himself taken by Tara when she was still alive. She had wanted to capture the look that Spike and Buffy were given each other and she had done so perfectly. He set it on the nightstand reminding him of where they had started and where they had finished. He let out a gentle sigh looking around the still sort of empty room. Buffy for living here for a year, hadn’t done any decorating.
The room was a basic white that screamed at him emptiness instead of being a home. He watched as Buffy stepped back to stand in front of him and he wrapped an arm around her waist pulling her against him and she let out a gentle sigh, “Why does this room still seem empty? All the stuff we both own has been put in here.” Spike smiled getting an idea, “How about this pet? Before we leave in an hour, we have a photo shoot.” Buffy turned around and blinked trying to make sense of his comment, “A what shoot?” Spike laughed, “Photo shoot. Like we fill the walls with your friends and family. We have everyone that’s important in this place right now. Your friends, family and your job are all here right now. Why don’t we fill up the walls with photos of them? Dawn can work on fixing those up while we go on our little adventure. How’s that sound?” Buffy shrugged unsure but she figured there was no harm in it. She then looked into his eyes and saw how serious he was and nodded.
She left his arms and pulled out her camera from the top drawer of her nightstand and glanced down at the clothes she was wearing. She pulled them off, choosing a red short skirt and a white tank top. She felt Spike’s hands in her hair pulling out the barrettes and fluffing her hair and she turned around glancing at his outfit, “Aren’t you going to change?” Spike chuckled as he stated in simple terms, “Into what?” Buffy reached into the closet pulling out a blue shirt and held it up to him, “This. It brings out the blue in your eyes.” Spike shrugged off his shirt leaving it on a pile as he pulled on the blue one. He then felt Buffy pulling on his hand and she ran her fingers through his hair losing it up. He frowned, “This can’t look good.” Buffy grinned as she admired the curls, “It does. I like your curls.” He let out a loud, “Oi! Just don’t be calling me cute or adorable or any other poofter word and I’ll try to hold off the complaints.”
Buffy grinned as she walked over to the door and took Spike’s hand in hers. For some reason that action felt so right and she glanced back noticing the love shining in his eyes. She hoped the camera would pick up some of that as she walked side by side with Spike to find Dawn’s room. Dawn was home and yelled, “Come on in!” She then smiled at Buffy, “So what brings you to my room sis? And with Spike and Spike you are looking mighty sexy if I do say so myself. Of course that’s in a big brother kind of sexy way…” Buffy laughed, “Put on something nice. I want to take pictures!” Dawn pushed both Buffy and Spike out of her room yelling, “I’ll be in the blue room soon. We can do it there!”
Spike didn’t ask Buffy what the blue room was and she didn’t feel like offering as she took him down the stairs and entered what was known as the green room. The room names were done by Andrew and Dawn when they first had checked out the castle. Dawn had determined it based on the base color of the paints that decorated the ceiling and the floor. Looking at this room, Buffy briefly wondered what Spike’s talent was for painting. Dawn was ok but nothing fancy. She could hold a paintbrush but not really stencil paint. She wanted stars and a night sky on her ceiling. It would make her feel more at home but that idea would have to wait, “Giles, Xander and Wills, come into the blue room and if you wish to look differently for a picture feel free to change. It’s picture taking time!”
Buffy dragged Spike back out of the room and into another further down the hallway. Buffy knew he would need a tour but for now, she was getting into the idea of pictures adorning her wall. She led Spike into the blue room and he whistled, “This is amazing. Did it come like this?” Buffy nodded as she turned around looking at the walls herself for the millionth time. This was the room she ran to when she was crying over Spike. It held memories for her but the walls and ceiling were beautiful. It was the only place she had decorated herself. She had insisted on taking a big rock home from one of her many adventures and placed it in the center of the room as a seat. The back wall was covered in a mural of a waterfall, which she had lightly touched up with a paintbrush since it was partially nicked due to whatever the castle had been before they had bought it. The ceiling was a night sky complete with stars and even a glowing moon. The floor with her specifications was covered with soft green mossy carpet that almost felt like you were walking on moss. The rest of the walls were covered with images of a forest. If you didn’t stare at it too closely, the room almost appeared to come to life. She had added in some various trees as plants for the room to add a 3-D aspect to the room. She had also added in a sound machine that allowed her to listen to the sound of running water making the waterfall come to life.
Buffy watched the emotions play across Spike’s eyes and she could tell he was in love with the room as much as she was. She had often come here to curl up in the duster and sit on her rock remembering him. The rest of the gang piled in shortly looking all neat and tidy and Buffy grinned, “Spike had an idea for how to decorate my room. I know you guys kept offering to paint the rooms and fix them up but I was mostly too depressed to settle in properly but now…now I’m ready.” She put a smile on her face as she held up the camera, “And you guys are going to help me. Thanks to Spike’s suggestion, I want images of us on the walls. I plan to eventually replace them with candid images but for now, this will have to do. Giles, can we add in cameras into our budget? I really think allowing the little slayers to take pictures of themselves so they can see how far they have come, would be a great idea.” Giles shrugged not worrying about money even though some of his money had been coming from the building that was apparently deep in the depths of Hell. Giles still had many other clients that paid the bills.
Buffy grinned and pulled Spike, Giles and Dawn in front of the wall with the waterfall. She had Dawn kneel in front of the rock while she had Spike sit on the rock and Giles stand behind it. She then handed the camera to Willow and went and sat on Spike’s lap sideways leaning her head against his shoulder. Willow grinned, “This is a great picture. You are so going to love this” as she snapped two pictures in case one didn’t turn out. She then watched Buffy move Xander in front of the trees and then pulled Willow over there too, handing Spike the camera as she stood in the middle. Both Willow and Xander wrapped their arms around her shoulders and she wrapped her arms around their waists and smiled. Spike snapped two pictures, each from a different angle.
Buffy was now excited. She grabbed Dawn and had her stand in front of the waterfall again. Dawn put her hand up in the air as though water was falling and Buffy did the same wrapping their arms around each other’s waist and Spike again snapped the picture. Meanwhile she noticed Willow and Xander were making faces at each other and she pointed towards them and Spike took the candid shot which caused everyone to laugh. Then she handed the camera to Dawn and ran up to Spike who twirled her in a circle. Both were laughing as Dawn snapped the picture. Dawn grinned, “Do I get to use these?” Buffy nodded as Dawn flicked through the digital pictures on the camera. Dawn squealed and ran upstairs and Buffy walked into the next room noticing it was dark out.