“Well, yeah,” Buffy said as if he should know this already. “We’ve got things to discuss and figure out, don’t you think?”
“I didn’t think you’d want to, I mean, you were thinking I was nuts a minute ago.”
Buffy smiled. “Oh I still think your nuts. For that matter, so am I. But hey, seems I’ve just learned something new about myself: the crazier things get, the more rational I am. Go fig.”
Spike chuckled and sat down next to her on the couch. “So, we have two options.”
“One is, I become immortal and the other is that you become mortal?”
“Yes.”
“Is that something you’re willing to do?”
Spike cupped the side of her face in one hand and gazed at her tenderly. “For you, I’d do anything, Buffy. Even walk across hot coals if I knew you’d be on the other side.”
Placing her hand over his, Buffy smiled. “Thank you.”
“No, luv. Thank you.”
“I haven’t done anything.”
“You’re letting me in.”
“Finally, right?”
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Spike said, grinning.
Buffy chuckled. “So--”
“Pet, before we start, there is something I need to tell you.”
Buffy’s eyes widened. “There’s more? God, now what? You going to tell me you have puppies for cousins or something?” She paled. “A harem. You have a harem don’t you?”
“No way! You think the nephew of the God of Love is going to have a harem? True love, remember? That’s what it’s all about. You can’t have true love with a harem. Scattering your affections all about…just wouldn’t work. Plus it’d be exhausting to have to satisfy all those women. I could chafe!”
Buffy laughed out loud, not so much in reaction to what he was saying but the way he was saying it. He was truly trying to work that scenario out in his mind. The look of disgust was priceless. Now how couldn’t she hold onto him? What guy wouldn’t want a harem? And here Spike was completely put off by the idea.
“You’re pretty incredible, you know that?” Buffy told him in complete honesty and affection.
He smiled. “Funny, I think the same about you.”
“So, what is this thing you have to tell me?”
Now he appeared nervous, biting his lip and fidgeting his hands in his lap. “This trip we’re on?”
“Yeah,” Buffy said slowly.
“I kind of tricked you into coming.”
She stared at him, “Tricked me how?”
“I knew you wouldn’t come with me if I just asked so…so I had my uncle work his mojo on you so you’d agree to come.”
Buffy’s eyes widened. “Spike!” she exclaimed and jumped up.
Spike stood, “I know, luv, I know. It was wrong of me and you have no idea how much I hated having to do it and I never would have done it if I’d known you would have just come with me. You needed a break, Buffy.”
“That’s not an excuse!”
“I know, I know, I’m sorry.”
Buffy shook her head. “Have you performed any other Jedi mind tricks that I need to know about?”
“No, luv, no uh, Jedi mind tricks—what is that?”
She couldn’t help the smile that came. “So part of studying humans did not include movies?”
“Not many.”
“Oh well, not important right now. There were no other tricks?”
“No other tricks,” he held up his hands. “I swear. Buffy, you don’t know how hard it was for me to do that and to keep it from you. To keep all of this from you. I wanted to tell you so many times, but I didn’t feel I could and now that I know that it was all a set – up…it’s all truths from here on out.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Now what?”
“What would you like to do, luv?”
“I want…can we get some air? Maybe go for a walk on the beach or something and talk?”
“Yes,” Spike nodded, beaming, “Let’s.”
“What about my parents?” Buffy mused out loud to Spike as they strolled hand in hand down the beach, the waves swirling around their feet and lapping at their ankles.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean this immortality gig…say I decide to do it. What about them? I don’t know if I could watch them die knowing I have forever looming before me. And forever? I mean…that’s a long time. Do I want to live forever?”
“It’s not so bad.”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Well not for you! You’ve been doing it for—how old are you anyway?”
“One hundred and twenty.”
“Cradle robber,” and then it hit her. “My God! You’re over a century old? Could I…could I do that?”
“I wish I could answer that for you, pet, but I can’t. Only you can answer that.”
“And would you really want to be mortal? I mean…don’t you hate the taste of it you have so far?”
Spike shrugged. “It’s not such a big deal, I reckon. I’d still have my family, though I probably wouldn’t see them as much, I’d have you and the only real difference is that one day I’d die and I’d be on Earth instead of Olympus.”
Buffy stopped walking and looked up at him. “That’s what I need to do.”
“What’s that, love?”
“I need to see Olympus. I need to see it so I’d …I don’t know…know better, I guess?”
“I think that can be arranged,” Spike said smoothly.
Buffy chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. “Could my parents become immortal with me if I chose to do that?”
“Buffy.”
“Yes?”
“Do me a favor, luv. Make the choice for you not for me, okay? Do it because you feel its right and its what you want to do. You’ve done far too much for those losers in the past, I don’t want to make you do something you’re not sure of.”
“But I don’t want you to do something you’re not sure of, either.”
“Buffy, you just got all this literally dumped on you in a short amount of time. No decision has to be made right now, okay? There is no deadline we have to meet, at least none that I’m aware of. Eros wanted you with me, Buffy, and he knows that these things take time, and I’m sure he’s well aware of what you have to think about and handle.”
“Spike…do you think he shot us? I mean, I don’t want this to be fake or anything--”
“Buffy, for one thing, none of what Eros does is fake. He just makes it so that you can see clearer your true love, your soul mate in another. When your heart and your soul recognize its match in another that is what it means to be ‘shot’ by Eros’ arrow. For second…No, I don’t think he did shoot us. I think we saw it already without an aid – don’t you think?”
Buffy smiled, leaned up and kissed him. “Totally. So…when can we visit your home?”