“Spike, we just had sex eight times in a row. If you’re still ‘randy,’ I think you should consult a doctor.”
“But I had Slayer’s blood,” Spike replied with a pout.
“Oh dear god,” Buffy said, rolling her eyes. “I’ll bang you again tonight after patrol, okay?”
“Can there be another blowjob?”
“Yes, honey, there can be another blowjob.” Buffy kissed the top of his head. “You’re so cute.”
Spike arched an eyebrow and started to comment, but then decided if she found his requests for oral sex “cute,” who was he to complain?
“I want to go home and talk to Dawn, tell her we’re good to go on money,” Buffy said. “I’ll come back here later and we can meet Edmund and Isobel.” He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, she said, “And then we’ll go back to my house and have more sex.”
“That… Wait, your house?”
Buffy shrugged. “I thought it would be easier since that way I could be there if Dawn needed me, but I wouldn’t have to leave you either.” She looked down, suddenly feeling nervous. “Unless you don’t want to… I mean, I guess my bedroom is kinda girly, and…”
Spike grabbed her by the arm and pulled her down into his lap. “Sweetheart, nothing would make me happier than sharing your bed.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah,” Spike assured her. He wondered how long it would take her to notice if he secretly moved in…
“I’ve always kinda wanted you to,” Buffy admitted, looking up at him shyly. “I used to lay awake and night all alone and wish you were there, with your arms wrapped around me real tight.”
“Oh, baby…” Spike moaned, having to kiss her. How could he not when she told him something like that?
“I love you,” Buffy whispered against his lips, reveling in the unexpected sense of peace she felt from saying those words to him.
“Please, let me shag you one more time,” Spike pleaded with her. “I’ll be quick, I promise.”
Buffy broke away from his lips and gently smacked him on the side of the head. “Oh, there’s some incentive. Save it for tonight, big bad.”
Spike pouted, but let Buffy slide out of his lap. “One of these days I’m chaining you up again and not letting you go until I’m completely spent.”
“Yeah, and by that point, I’ll be dead from starvation,” Buffy replied with a snort. She kissed him lightly, then moved away from the bed. “Look, I’ll let you come in my mouth tonight to make it up to you, deal?”
Spike’s eyes lit up. She’d given him blowjobs, but so far, that had been off limits. “Promise?” he asked, his expression one of pure hopeful glee.
“Yes,” Buffy told him with a gentle laugh. “Just be good until then.”
“For that, I’ll be a bloody saint.”
Buffy snorted. “Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it. Just be marginally well behaved, and we’ll take it from there.”
Spike looked at her so sweetly, that for a moment, he almost had her convinced that he could, in fact, be downright angelic.
That mischievous glint in his eye gave him away, however, and Buffy shook her head. “You know, I really don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”
“I liked this morning. You could do more of that.”
Buffy knew he didn’t mean the sex. He meant the way she’d treated him – and it broke her heart now to think of how she had in the past. “I will, Spike,” she promised him. “This is how it’s going to be for us from here on out.”
It seemed too good to be true, but the way she was looking at him now…
Her eyes made Spike believe.
“Dawn?” Buffy called as she walked into her house. “Dawnie, are you home? I’ve got some good news.”
She turned the corner, then stopped short when she saw Willow and Xander sitting in the living room with their intervention faces on. What the hell?
“What now?” Buffy asked, her hands on her hips. “I know what that look means, so go ahead, hit me. How am I failing this week?”
“You’re not failing at anything, Buffy!” Willow said quickly. “It’s just, well, Anya said something really interesting today, and we’re…um…worried.”
“What, did she tell you about Isobel and now you’re pissed off I made a new friend?” Buffy asked, arching her eyebrow. “Because, really, I am allowed to do that.”
“It’s not that at all!” Willow insisted. “We think it’s great if you make new friends. New friends are wonderful! It’s just, well…”
“We think Isobel’s full of crap,” Xander said bluntly, making Buffy’s eyes widen and a sharp intake of breath hiss over her teeth.
“What?” Buffy asked, feeling decidedly insulted on behalf of the other Slayer.
“She’s a Slayer from the 1300’s? Come on, Buff, you can’t actually believe that. It’s insane. And she’s been involved with a vampire this whole time? I think it’s pretty obvious what’s really going on.”
“Oh, is it?” Buffy asked tersely, her arms crossing over her chest. “Then why don’t you enlighten me, Xander?”
“She’s someone Spike’s got to play you. He’s probably thinking if he can convince you it’s not completely unheard of for an evil vampire and a Slayer to get groiny, then you’ll finally give him the time of day. But there’s no way that woman is who she claims to be.”
“You think Spike is…” Buffy couldn’t help her response.
She burst into laughter.
“Oh, wow,” Buffy said, wiping her eyes. “That may be the most illogical thing that has ever come out of your mouth, and you’ve had some real doozies over the years.”
“Spike is pretty desperate to get you, Buffy,” Willow said.
“You’re believing this, too, Willow?” Buffy asked. “Damn. You’re both just… Wow. Waaay off base.”
“You can’t just dismiss this, Buffy! Spike would do anything to get you!” Xander argued.
“No, he wouldn’t,” Buffy replied. “He doesn’t have to.”
Xander looked at her skeptically, her words making a kind of sense to him he didn’t want them making. “What do you mean by that, Buffy?”
“I mean Spike doesn’t have to come up with some elaborate plan – which, can I just say, is really not his style – just to try to trick me into being his girlfriend because I already am. His girlfriend.”
“Okay, Buff, that’s really not a funny joke,” Xander said.
“Yeah, not joking, Xander. Spike and I have been together since…” She stopped for a moment, trying to calculate when their relationship had started. Had it been after the “musical” when they’d first kissed? Had it been when they’d brought down the house? Had it been the night before when she’d finally professed her love? Or had it been…
“We’ve been together since I came back,” she said. “And it’s serious. Very serious. So deal.”
Xander gaped at her, his expression reminding Buffy of a guppy. She would’ve laughed again if he wasn’t pissing her off so much.
Willow was the first to speak. “Wow… I… Just wow. I knew you were having a hard time coping with everything, but I had no idea things were so bad for you that you had to turn to Spike for comfort.” She sat up a little taller. “We’ll do a better job at being here for you now. Xander and me both. You won’t have to go to Spike anymore.”
“Oh you have got to be freaking kidding me,” Buffy said. Were they always this dense?
She sighed in relief when the door opened and she was saved from the rampant stupidity by her little sister’s entrance. “Thank god, it’s Dawn,” she said, turning around.
Dawn stopped short right past the threshold. “Not that I don’t appreciate the enthusiastic greeting, but what’s up?” she asked Buffy.
“Xander and Willow are having some crazy time,” Buffy asked with an eyeroll, completely ignoring when Willow and Xander began to protest her comment. “But look at what I have.” She pulled the check from her pocket and presented it with a flourish. “I’m working for Anya now, getting nasty demon parts she can sell for money.”
“Go nasty demon parts,” Dawn said, her eyes fixated on the check.
“I know,” Buffy said. “I’m depositing this first thing Monday, and there will be more once Anya sells the stuff Isobel and I gave her this morning. Isobel’s going to help me find other sell-worthy bits as well.”
“And go Isobel, too,” Dawn said. She arched an eyebrow and looked from the check to her sister. “Although you still haven’t told me how she got from Dreamland to Sunnydale.”
“Dreamland?” Xander asked. “Where’s that? And how does Dawn know this Isobel person?”
“What’s up with him?” Dawn asked.
“He thinks Spike hired Isobel to tell me she’s a Slayer in love with a vampire so I’ll sleep with him,” Buffy replied.
Dawn had the same reaction as Buffy – hysterical laughter. “Seriously?”
“I know! Hilarious, right?”
“Totally.” Dawn sobered. “Wait, did you say Isobel’s in love with a vampire?”
“Um…yeah.”
Dawn lightly punched Buffy’s arm. “I knew you were hiding something from me there. Jerkface.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But I got the message loud and clear and worked everything out with Spike.”
Dawn’s eyes grew wide. “Worked everything out as in…”
“Yep,” Buffy said, her smile bright.
“Omigod, that’s great!” Dawn screeched, throwing her arms around Buffy. “It’s completely and totally awesome!”
Xander stormed in from the living room then, officially at his breaking point. “No, it is not awesome,” he snapped. “Dawn, what your sister is doing is very wrong. And Spike is playing her.”
“Wow, look who’s the big ol’ hypocrite,” Dawn said, stepping away from Buffy to size up Xander. “And I don’t care what you say, I totally think this is awesome. Spike loves Buffy, and he’s been a lot of help to us. He and Tara took care of me this summer more than anyone else, and he fought right by your side, Xander. And seeing as you’re engaged to an ex-vengeance demon who’s probably killed way more people than Spike, you should really just shove a donut in it.”
Xander gaped, and Buffy had to say she was quite impressed with her sister. And it was nice to have someone else on her side in all of this.
“Dawnie!” Willow exclaimed, finally getting up from her seat. “That was rude!”
Buffy turned on her heel, her glare hard enough to make the redhead shrink back. “Oh don’t you dare.” She turned to Xander. “Okay, you need to go home. I’ve put up with this crap from you for the last time. You can come back when you stop thinking you know how to run my life better than I do, but until then, stay away from me.”
Xander started to protest, but Buffy ignored him completely and faced Willow again. “Same goes for you. This is my house. You’ve never paid a penny towards rent. So if you want to keep living here, you can keep your opinions about how I choose to live my life to yourself.”
“But Buffy…” Willow said, hurt clear on her face. “We’re your friends.”
“Friends support each other,” Buffy snapped. She looked back at her sister. “Come on. I say we celebrate our upward mobility with gratuitous amounts of ice cream. With me?”
“Can we take it over to Spike’s?”
Buffy smiled, thrilled that her sister was so okay with her newly-public relationship. And if Xander and Willow weren’t…
Well, she surprised herself by discovering she didn’t actually care.
“Sure,” Buffy replied. “I’m sure he’d like that.”
“He likes rocky road,” Dawn said.
“I know that,” Buffy replied. “He is my boyfriend, after all. Gotta know what kind of ice cream he likes.” Spike…boyfriend... Wow, she liked the sound of that…
“Just making sure,” Dawn replied as they walked out together, leaving Willow and Xander behind to stare, no idea of what to make of what had just happened.