[Reviews - 96]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 1831 times

- Text Size +




Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks to Ali my beta!
CHAPTER -- 13

A/N: I know this chapter’s flashback isn’t in chronological order like the others, but I needed it in here and couldn’t work it in earlier.



For so long I thought I was asylum bound,
But just seeing you makes me think twice.
And being with you here makes me sane,
I fear I'll go crazy if you leave my side.
You've got wits...you've got looks,
You've got passion but are you brave enough to leave with me tonight?

I'll be true, I'll be useful...
I'll be cavalier...I'll be yours my dear.
And I'll belong to you...
If you'll just let me through.
This is easy as lovers go,
So don't complicate it by hesitating.
And this is wonderful as loving goes,
This is tailor-made, what’s the sense in waiting?
- “As Lovers Go” Dashboard Confessional


Every year around Christmastime, the main streets of Sunnydale are blocked off for the annual Winter Festival. Rainbow paper lanterns stretch across the sky above the hoards of townies that come out in droves to enjoy the small town charm. Rows of independent shops extend their hours and close neighbors open their doors to the community to mingle.

Spike strolled among the crowd, attempting to be only a spectator to the festivities. Smoke billowed up from grills around him and the delectable scents of burgers and corn on the cob assaulted his senses. He wasn’t going to come. He had promised himself he wasn’t. He had even gone so far as to tell Dawn that he wouldn’t be able to see her dance group perform because he’d already be miles away. But he couldn’t stay in the house anymore and the deserted streets weren’t bringing him the comfort he expected and before he knew it he had wandered into a solid wall of people.

Hands shoved in his pockets, Spike glanced in store windows, all decorated for the competition for the best holiday display that the mayor judged every year. If he remembered correctly, it was Mrs. Ragby’s chocolate shop that always won. So much so, in fact, that town gossip was that the widowed mayor was having a little affair with the candy matron.

Further down the street he could hear the local cover band playing on the stage set up at the far end of the fair. After each song a crowd of people, a throng of which were dancing, clapped and yelled out requests. Spike grinned when he heard an inebriated man holler “Freebird” and laugh uproariously when the band humored him and the opening strings of the tune began to play. He wandered to the edge of the makeshift dance floor.

“Hey,” a voice came softly in front of him. He looked down to see Buffy standing in front of him. “I thought I saw you.”

“Buffy,” he sputtered. “Hi.” Oh God, what to say to her to make up for the last time they talked, well, argued. He was pretty hazy on the details of that whole day. When he wasn’t consumed with grief he had been with alcohol.

But she seemed forgiving as she smiled into his face. “I’ve missed those,” she said, gesturing towards the wire-rimmed spectacles on his nose.

Realizing he had forgotten he had put them on to better see the window displays, he hastily ripped them off his face, moving to shove them deep into his pocket.

She caught his arm, “No,” she said, extracting the glasses on of his grip. She moved them up towards his face, replacing them, “Don’t hide from me.” Her hands lingered on his face a bit too long, a thing she must have noticed for she blushed and quickly went to move them. But he caught her hands in his and lifting them to his mouth, placed chaste kisses on each of them. Lowering their hands, he kept hers in his.

“I’m sorry,” he began. “Buffy if I could go back . . .”

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t William Giles. You’re a big city boy now, aren’t you?” Spike closed his eyes and let out a breath before turning around to find Principal Snyder staring the two of them down like he found them making out in the hallway. “So you made something of yourself did you?”

As much as he hated him in high school, the amount of contempt he held for his principal had never been higher than at this moment. The number of make-out sessions and conversations he had broken up over the years did nothing to rival this one – the one he was currently trying to have with Buffy.

In the end, he just had to laugh, good God some things never did change. Spike sighed, pivoting to face the rat, “Principal Snyder, as much as I’d love to not continue this little chat, I’m afraid we have to go.” He ignored the confused look in Buffy’s face and grabbed her hand and whipped her into the crowd of dancers.

“What? Will!” she objected. He took both her hands in his and spun them until she was dizzy, then pulled her flush against him, one arm around her waist. He rotated his hips, forcing hers to swivel against him and before she could even protest, he dipped her in time with the crescendo of the music. The ridiculousness of his antics forced laughter from her lips. “Everyone’s staring at us!” she hissed.

“C’mon, luv, we gotta give these old biddies a show,” he winked in the direction of a group of older townspeople. “Most excitement they’ve gotten in a bloody month.”

“Excitement, huh?” the impish tone of her voice, one he hadn’t heard in years, startled him. “I think we can give them a little better than that.” She hitched up her skirt and hoisted her leg up to his hip. “Now dip me,” she commanded in a womanly confident quality he was sure he never heard from her. And who was he to disobey?






Laughter echoed down the vacant Revello Drive as Spike and Buffy strolled back towards her home. Intermittently they could still hear drifts of the music, and every once in a while, Spike would take her hand and spin her and they’d waltz down the street.

When they reached the steps of her porch, he playfully lifted her onto the second step while his one sneaker rested on the first step and the other on the ground. They caught their breaths and she smiled at him.

“That was fun,” she conceded finally.

“Yeah,” he agreed, distractedly studying her face. Her cheeks were flushed and there was a gleam in her eyes reflected by the moonlight.

She giggled at the curious look on his face, “What?”

He lifted himself up onto the first step and kissed her. It didn’t last nearly as long as he would have liked. Too soon he felt her hands, one on each shoulder, press against him and push. The words were already on her lips,

“No,” she stated forcefully, “you are not playing this game with me again.”

“Game? What game?”

“The game where you make me fall in love with you and then leave. Just because you are now regretting some of your life choices does not mean you can just swoop in here and pick up where we left off.”

“Buffy, that’s not what I’m doing,” he laughed at the notion.

She shook her head, “You used to try harder,” she spoke quietly, closing the door in his face.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Buffy hadn’t been talking to him for a week and William had no idea why.

They had broken up only once, when Will had forgotten their anniversary -- but that had only lasted half a lunch period. He stared at Buffy across from their 5th grade group on the playground, willing her to look at him. Frustratingly, she ignored him.

“Hey guys, check these out,” Xander made a show of revealing the treasure behind his back. Whipping them out with a “Ta-Da!” he showed the group a pair of shiny handcuffs. “They’re from The Magic Shop, aren’t they cool!”

Willow studied them warily, “Ah, Xander, do you know how to use those things?”

“Sure I do! I mean, how hard could it be? You just stick ‘em on a willing assistant, put their hands under this purple cloth,” he waved the cloth at them, “and use this key . . . .” He trailed off, patting down his pockets.

“Xander,” Willow began, “You DO have the keys, don’t you?”

“Sure I do,” his voice wavering. “Wait, here,” he pushed the handcuffs on William, “Hold on to these for me, I have to go find the key for them. Man, I sure hope Mrs. Fitzgerald’s dog didn’t eat it!” Xander sprinted back towards the classroom to check his desk.

Buffy sighed, glancing disinterestedly at Xander’s toy, “Come on, Will, let’s go play with the jump ropes.”

William, slightly panicked at Buffy’s retreating form, made a split-second decision, nervously fingering the cool metal.

“Hey Buffy!” he yelled.

She reflexively stopped at the sound of her name, realized who it was that called her, remembered her vow of silence, and kept walking.

William let out a frustrated growl, “Buffy!” he yelled again, running after her. Reaching her, he grabbed her arm and whipped her around. She glared at him. “Talk to me!”

“No!” she screamed to his face.

Spike grimaced. Stubborn chit. “Fine. You won’t talk to me? Fine!” he seized her arm again, snapping one end of the handcuffs around her tiny wrist, the other around his own.

If looks could kill. “You did NOT just do that!” Buffy huffed while Willow looked at them, utterly shocked. Well, at least she was talking to him. “Willow!” she ordered, “Go get a teacher!”

Twenty minutes later they sat, still handcuffed together, in the principal’s office. Every once in a while one of them would tug on the metal chain, jerking the other one. Seconds later the other would retaliate.

Finally Buffy spoke, albeit quietly, her little lips forming a pout, “I really hate you sometimes, you know.” She spared a glance at him. He even thought he saw a hint of a smile in her petulant look.

He smirked, “I know.”

He never did find out why she had been mad at him.

TBC





You must login (register) to review.