"What do you need my boy?" And suddenly Eros was there.
"I know we just talked this morning and I said I didn't need help—"
"But you do," Eros stated with a tiny smile.
"I do," Spike nodded. "I really hate to ask this, but I don't think there's any other way because she's so damn stubborn and I'm determined to help her."
"Do you care for her?"
Spike blinked, "Well, yeah. I can't exactly do my job if I don't care, can I?"
Eros smiled, "Of course. So, what is this ‘small favor'?"
"I need you to just kind of control Buffy for me."
Eros frowned, "How so?"
"I want to take her away for a few days. Part of the problem is that the poor girl is overworked. And I know she'd never agree to it, especially not with me . . . " he paused, "not with the way we argue anyway," he muttered. Standing tall, he faced Eros. "So I just need you to work your mojo. I ask; you make it so she says yes. Please?" he ended on a plea.
Eros regarded him silently, expressionless. Finally he nodded his consent. "Ask and she'll say yes. Don't make this a habit, Spike." Then, he was gone.
"Thanks! And I won't!" Spike yelled to him. "You could have stuck around to give me a lift back to work," he muttered.
When Spike returned back to work, he found Buffy staring off into space, her uneaten pasta salad in front of her. He sat down across from her at the reception desk and she jumped a little, finally recognizing that he was there.
"Off in another world, my lioness?"
She nodded, "Yeah, I guess I was. You want this?" she asked, gesturing to the pasta salad.
"Nope. I think you should eat it."
She shrugged; "I don’t..." she trailed off and shook her head.
"Nope, you need to eat. You're all skin and bones Buffy. You can't expect to think clearly when your body is hungry."
"Spike," she sighed wearily.
Stabbing the food with the fork in the dish, he held it up to her mouth. "Eat. I'll feed you."
She blinked. "You'll what?"
"Feed you."
"Is this all part of the wanting to take care of me bit?"
He nodded, smiling. "I'll help you take care of yourself. Please? Consider a perk you don't have to pay me for."
"Well, I should hope I wouldn't have to pay you for feeding me."
"Stop yammering pet, and open up."
Buffy did so, hesitantly and Spike didn't waste a minute shoving the food in her mouth. As soon as she swallowed she opened her mouth for more.
Spike grinned, "Not hungry ay kitten?"
She stuck her tongue out at him, "Come on. Feed me."
He obliged her, taking great joy in being able to feed her and look after her. His mind was abuzz of all the different things he wanted to feed her, like strawberries with cream on them. He wanted to watch that little pink tongue worm it way out of the cavern of her mouth and lick the cream straight off . . . Oh, Zeus. He was hard. Thankfully, she was just about done because if she opened her mouth one more time, he might not be responsible for what he shoved in there.
"Mmm..." she said closing her eyes contentedly. "So this is what it feels like to be full. I want to sleep now," she giggled.
Spike's eyes widened. "You giggled," he said almost breathlessly, stunned how such an adorable noise could go straight to his cock and make it even harder. He could pound nails with it right now.
"I did. Must be the food. Or delirium." She rolled her eyes. "I have been known to laugh once in a while, ya know."
Spike smiled, "Not just a laugh Buffy. A giggle. A very cute giggle."
She smirked, "Play your cards right and it could happen again."
"I want to make that happen a lot," Spike said wistfully. He took a deep breath, "Buffy, I want to take you away for a few days on a vacation. Will you come with me?"
"Yes," was the quick reply.
Thank you, Uncle Eros.
“I can’t believe I’m going on vacation,” Buffy stated for the tenth time in an hour. She looked over at Spike’s amused and yet somewhat uncomfortable face. “With you. I mean I don’t just do things like that. And yet I am. With you.”
“Oi! Not very nice, kitten. You’re going to have a fantastic time with me. Much needed rest and . . . all that stuff.”
“Where are we going?” Buffy asked, as she pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote: ‘Things to Pack’ at the top.
Spike fidgeted. Good Goddess, why did he never think things out? Let’s go on vacation Buffy. Uncle, make her say yes...Where the bleeding hell were they going to go? He understood now what his mother meant when she called him impulsive. Impetuous. It was the whole reason why, his mother claimed, he’d rammed straight into Mt. Olympus’ pillars when he was learning how to fly still. Apparently, he’d wanted to show he didn’t need any help and that he could do it all on his own. He took off in the middle of his mother’s explanation about flight control and wham! His left wing had been sore for a week. He rubbed his left arm as Buffy looked up at him expectantly.
“Uh, it’s a surprise,” he finally answered.
“You mean you don’t know,” she said, placing her pen down.
“I mean it’s surprise,” he said huffily. “Can you just trust me?”
She started to laugh. That didn’t bode well. He glared at her and she stopped. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I don’t trust easily.” To, what he supposed was supposed to be to herself, she muttered, “At least not anymore.”
Spike cocked his head to the side. “What happened?”
“What?” she looked up.
“What happened that you don’t trust anymore?”
She shrugged, “Life. So, if this is a sur—“
“Like what happened?” Spike asked and sat down across from her.
She blinked at him. “Huh?”
“What happened to make you not trust,” he urged.
“Just let it go Spike,” she said with a wave of her hand and started to doodle on the paper before her.
“You’ll go on vacation with but won’t tell me why you don’t trust anyone?” Even if it wasn’t you that actually agreed, he thought. So much guilt for that.
“Yeah, I’m still trying to figure that one out.” She frowned, sighed and looked back up at him. “It’s not that I won’t trust anyone, I just have a hard time doing so. They pretty much have to earn it.”
Spike nodded slowly. “I can understand that. Did you trust easily before?”
“Yeah, I’ve known a lot of liars that made me a little…wary.”
“Were these liars ex boyfriends?”
“Of course.”
“Did you love them?
“What a ridiculous question,” she waved her hand at him, as if dismissing him.
“Not really. You could have been in lust with them. You could have just cared for them. You didn’t have to be in love with them.”
She studied him for a long time. “Well, I was,” she said finally, quietly.
“What did they lie about?”
“One lied about being married. Another about getting a job. One told me he never loved me at all.”
“Do you believe he did?”
“Sometimes I thought he did.”
“Only sometimes?”
“You can feel it ya know? You can tell when someone is really with you and only half with you.” She sounded almost wistful.
“Why was he with you if he--? I’m sorry Buffy,” Spike said, shaking his head.
“What are you sorry for? You asked.” The hardness in her tone made him wince.
“Because I hate to think of you in pain,” he told her honestly. “And I don’t understand how someone, anyone, could not love you.”
Her eyes widened at that and he swore he saw tears welling before she stood abruptly. “Don’t,” she said firmly.
“Don’t what?”
“Lie to me. Butter me up to suit your purposes.”
Now his eyes grew large and he stood to face her. “I would never lie to you Buffy. I told you I never would and I never have.” Except that I’m immortal and my Uncle is Eros, the God of Love, and I have wings and I had my uncle work magick on you so you’d go away with me. Other than that, I wouldn’t lie to you, Spike thought sarcastically in his mind, wanting to kick himself for his duplicity.
“You just don’t want me to leave here,” she told him and stalked off.
He went after her; grabbing her arm and making her face him. He was pissed. Pissed at himself for the deceptions that kept growing, pissed for feeling guilty even though he knew she would never have agreed to go away without some outside assistance, pissed that he cared more than he should have, pissed that she invoked feelings in him that he knew he wasn’t supposed to be feeling for any mortal—and least of all the one he’d been sent on a mission to help. He was also pissed that he’d been denied his hug that morning!
“Now you listen to me Buffy Summers,” he demanded, his voice shaking with anger. “I do not lie to you. I never have and I never will. I care about you, dammit. I care about you and this place most of all. I’d rather see you happy and see this place burn if that’s what it took to put a smile on your beautiful face. I’m tired of you running away from me and thinking I have some other motive under my sleeve. I don’t. It’s for you that I put up with your attitude; it’s for you that I care. I want to help you. I’m not like them Buffy so don’t lump me in there with them. Maybe they had motives and ulterior motives, but I don’t. When I say I want to take care of you, I mean it. When I say that. . . “ he softened and wrapped his arms around her, “that my new favorite thing is to hold you, I mean it. I do. I really, really do.” He brushed his fingers through her hair and froze when he felt her body rock with a sob. No, this was a good thing. It needed to be done and she needed to know that she could let that side of her show with him and he’d accept it, he’d take all of her just as she was. No brave fronts were needed.
It only made him care for her more.
“You need to be held like this,” he whispered soothingly, rocking her slightly in his arms. “You need to know that you’re not alone. At least not while I’m here.” And please, don’t take me from her now or . . . possibly ever. “Let me take care of you Buffy. Let me show you that I want to be here because of you and no other reason. Let me hold you, and cook for you, and make you laugh. Will you let me do that?”
“I’m scared,” she whimpered through her tears against his chest.
“So am I, my lioness.”
“Of what? You’re never afraid.”
“I’m afraid you won’t let me in. I’m afraid you’ll give up on everything. There is so much life in you, Buffy. You just don’t see it. I want you to see it.”
She didn’t answer and instead buried herself deeper in his embrace and he nestled his head against hers, whispering nonsensical words of comfort.
It was funny how all felt right with the world just by holding Buffy Summers in his arms.