Buffy woke up slowly, fighting wakefulness. Opening her eyes slowly, and with great reluctance, Buffy screwed her brows together as the night’s events came rushing back. Giles, her mom, the party, William—William who had spent the night in her bed and was currently not with her.
Bolting up, Buffy strained to hear voices coming from downstairs and then William’s voice, clear as day sounding just outside her door.
“I’ll get her up, Mom,” she heard him say just before her door was opened and William burst through.
Letting out an “eep!” of surprise, Buffy instinctively pulled her blanket up and backed up against the headboard.
William stared at her, grinning slowly and then pounced. After letting out a little shriek, Buffy erupted into giggles as William toppled her into the bed, nipping at her neck and bare shoulders, grinding his semi-hard cock against her.
“How’s my girl?” he asked huskily, his eyes meeting hers in a look that made Buffy weak in the knees. This man loves me, she thought, and nearly swooned.
“I’m all right. How are you?”
Grinding his cock against her, he murmured with a grin, “I’m damn good, luv.”
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she brought him down for a kiss. “You were up early?”
“I heard Mom moving around,” he explained. “Figured I should get up and go to my room before she found out I was in here with you all night.”
“Has she heard from Dad?”
“He called this morning while I was helping Mom make breakfast. He’s fine. He’s got that pericarditis thing. He’s coming home. They’re just going to monitor him to make sure he’s healing the way he’s supposed to so it doesn’t lead to further problems down the road.”
“Feel better?”
William smiled and nodded, collapsing against her and burying his face in her neck. Her scent was still so sweet and arousing, even after sleep. Rolling them to their sides, their limbs entwined, he gazed at her lovingly. “I love you,” he murmured, sweeping hair from her face.
The object of his affection smiled and cuddled up to him, tucking her head under his chin, and holding onto him tightly.
“William--” she began.
“Come and get it!” Joyce bellowed from the bottom of the stairs.
Buffy sagged in his arms.
“What is it, Buffy?”
“I’ll tell you later,” she told him, pulling herself out of his grasp and climbing out of bed.
“Buffy,” he whined good-naturedly.
She laughed, “Later, when we have privacy,” she promised.
After collecting a weary and grumbling about hospital food Giles from the hospital, the Giles’s and Summers retreated back to the house for a ‘real’ family dinner.
“Buffy would you help me carry our things to the car?” William asked while Giles rested watching TV and Joyce was preparing dinner. He looked at her, letting her know that he wanted more than just ‘help’ with the bags.
“Oh, sure, of course!” Buffy exclaimed, wincing at how fake she sounded. Thankfully, her mother was none the wiser.
“When you come back, can you two set the table, please?” Joyce called after them.
“Sure thing, Mom!” Buffy called back as William drug her out of the house.
Once outside, William tugged her to the garage, enveloped her in his arms, and kissed her hungrily, “I’ve wanted to do that all day,” he gasped when they parted for air.
“Mmmm…I know what you mean,” Buffy murmured happily and snuggled up to him.
“Buffy, baby, we need to talk,” William said seriously, pulling back and making her look at him.
“I know,” she whispered.
“I – I want to be with you--”
“I want to be with you too, Will.”
Like a moron, William wanted to cry at her words, “You do?”
Buffy rolled her eyes and smirked, “What part of last night led you to believe otherwise?”
“I just…I just wasn’t sure that you wanted to. I mean, I want to be with you in the sense that we date and you’re my girlfriend and all that stuff that couples do.”
“I knew what you meant, Will.”
Cupping the side of her face, he gazed down at her imploringly. “Then what happened? Why were we so far from each other?”
Biting her lip, Buffy stepped away, and started to pace a bit. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be with you before, Will, but I just wasn’t in a place to do so.”
“Yes, you were!”
“No,” Buffy said, shaking her head, having stopped pacing and now faced him.“I wasn’t. I was a mess. I didn’t have my own place, I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have anything of my own. I know it didn’t matter to you, but it mattered to me. I didn’t want to start off anything with you until I was in the right place to do it. How fair would it have been of me to lean on you like that?”
“I told you you could have paid me rent,” William mumbled, kicking a can across the garage floor.
“I could have, but you know as well as I do that never would have worked. I know you, William. You would have waived it and I would have let you. I never would have done anything on my own if I didn’t go. And I just…I had all these feelings for you and I didn’t know what they all were. You came at me with telling me how you loved me and wanted me, and while you had time to come to those conclusions and had felt them for a while, I needed some time to figure out my feelings for you.”
“And now?”
Taking a deep breath, Buffy said the words William had longed to hear for so long. “I love you, William.”
“You do?” he asked, emotion clogging his throat.
“I do. I know now that I’ve loved you the whole time, I was just afraid of fucking up the way I had done so many times before. And because it was you…I just couldn’t let that happen. I need you, Will. If I lost you…I wouldn’t know what to do.”
Crossing the distance between them, William gathered her up in his arms, peppering her face with kisses and then burying his face in her neck. “I’m sorry I was such an ass when you came to see me,” he whispered.
“Well, I suppose I deserved some of that. I hadn’t made things easy.”
“I’m sorry I pushed so hard and didn’t try to understand where you were coming from.”
“Well, you’ve always been kind of single-minded when it comes to what you want.”
William chuckled. “Ain’t that the truth?”
Buffy giggled, “But I could have made some kind of compromise. I should have at least let you know how I felt – fear and all.”
“So, how bout from now on, we make a pact?”
“And that is?” Buffy inquired, tracking the lines of his face with her finger.
Resting his forehead against hers, he gazed at her, “Well tell each other what we’re feeling. Often.”
“That sounds good to me. Can I add something else?”
“Please do.”
“We don’t let the other run or cower. We stick it out.”
“Sounds fair to me,” William whispered and kissed her softly. “We have to tell Mom and Dad.”
“Yes, we do,” Buffy agreed. “How do you think they’ll take it?”
William frowned thoughtfully, “Not sure. I think Mom will take it better than Dad.”
“Really? I thought Dad would take it better than Mom.”
“Well, I guess we’ll just have to see then, won’t we?”
“Oh, I wanted to tell you,” Buffy began, “Guess what I’ve got next week?”
“What?”
“A driving test.”
William pulled back slightly, his eyes widening. “You’ve been learning to drive?”
“Yep,” Buffy said, smiling broadly. “Willow and Xander have been teaching me.”
“I was supposed to do that,” William pouted.
Kissing him quickly, Buffy said softly, “Hey, it’s over now. Moving on, remember?”
“I know I just wish I hadn’t let my pride get in the way of us.”
“Well, we’re both guilty of something. We’ll just work on those things from now on, okay?”
“When did you become so wise?” William teased, nipping at her lips.
“I’ve always been wise,” Buffy grinned, “I just haven’t put it to use until now.”
“Come on, luv. The sooner we tell Mom and Dad, the sooner we can go home and the sooner I can make love to you.”
“Race you!” Buffy exclaimed and jumped out of his arms, tearing off to the house.
William chuckled. “There will never be a dull moment with her,” he muttered and tore off after her.