“Don’t I get a cookie?” Spike asked in a long suffering voice.
Buffy looked at the impossibly perfect face of the man that she had been engaged to only an hour ago. The face of her mortal enemy.
“No”
“Well I have to have something; I still have Buffy taste in my mouth.” Spike looked, and sounded, disgusted, but there was a mischievous twinkle in his deep blue eyes which Buffy didn’t miss. She grabbed a cookie off the plate Willow was passing around to ease her guilt and shoved it in Spikes mouth.
The sight of him trying to glare around the protruding confection caused something in Buffy to start bubbling. The feeling spread until a throaty and unexpected laugh erupted from her. Everyone looked at her in shock, and were then shocked further by Spike joining in with the laughter, choking on his cookie as a result. This just made Buffy laugh harder, and tears began to leak down her face.
Since she had been called Buffy hadn’t had much cause for laughter, but something about Spikes expression, and the ridiculousness of the situation they had been in made it difficult to stop.
Spike managed to get his choking under control eventually and narrowed his eyes at Buffy, even as his mouth twitched with mirth.
“Shut up your laughing Slayer, or I’ll tell your pals what you wanted for our first dance”.
"You wouldn't! And anyway, that was the spell!"
"I soddin well would, and it weren't the spell" Spike did a pretty good Buffy impression "Please honey, I've been dreaming of dancing to that song since I was a little girl!"
“You’re a pig Spike!”
Spike answered this with a surprisingly realistic and incredibly entertaining pig impression, (he even managed to twitch his ears) which had Buffy laughing again.
***
From then on things changed. Buffy and Spike still bitched at each other. A lot. But the beginnings of an understanding had been formed. Each remembered how it felt to be loved by the other, infuriating sure, but oh so comforting, safe, passionate and fun. Buffy found that she needed the fun in her life, the humour, which only Spike could provide. To Spikes shock, and initial disgust, he realised that he needed her too.
They weren’t friends at first, not by a long shot, but they weren’t enemies either. Buffy kept making excuses to go round to Giles’ apartment, offering to babysit Spike when he really didn’t need a babysitter anymore. She knew he was soulless and recently evil, but he made her laugh as no one else could do.
Buffy could be herself with him. Being with him was easy, and Buffy desperately needed something to be easy in her life.
After Riley heard her, admittedly poor, reasoning behind ‘pretending to be engaged’ he continued to pursue her, but Buffy found it hard to get excited about it. It wasn’t because he wasn’t a bad boy, there was just no spark there, no underlying passion. Though she was pretty sure he’d look good with his shirt off, she had no desire to be the one ripping it off him.
Once she found out about his affiliation with the commandos Buffy’s mind was made up and she and Riley stopped before they’d ever really started. Though she didn’t voice it aloud one of her main concerns was keeping Spike safe from them. She had always thought that if Spike was going to dust she would be the one to dust him. And for some reason she'd never actually wanted him to dust. Now she really didn't. She had also learned, after the council affair, that Buffy and demon fighting organisations were un mixy things, and despite the fact he seemed patronisingly disbelieving of her strength Riley had definitely wanted her to become involved. The whole experimenting on demons thing seemed a bit suspect, and ultimately kinda unfair, to Buffy.
Riley was really disappointed, but Buffy had already learnt the hard way that a slayers life was too short to waste. She knew now that craving normality was pointless, she wasn’t made for normal. While she was still living she wanted to feel alive, and though a guy was beginning to inspire those feelings in her it certainly wasn’t Riley.
squawks
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!