Buffy passed through the massive doors, pausing for a moment to look around the opulent foyer before walking quickly towards the bank of elevators.

She stepped from the elevator to the sound of raised voices as the two vampires stood almost nose to nose in mid disagreement.

At the sound of the elevator doors opening they looked up. A slow, happy smile spread across Angel’s face, but Buffy didn’t see it as her eyes honed in on the slighter man at his side. Her breath caught as shocked blue eyes fastened on hers. She forced her gaze away from his. Her eyes devoured his face, quickly raking over every feature, from the knife-blade cheekbones, the soft swell of his oh-so-kissable bottom lip to the firm stubborn set of his jaw. She swallowed hard. ‘Had he always been so beautiful?’ she wondered.

Before she realised her feet were moving, she was across the room and her arms were sliding around his waist. She felt him stiffen for a moment before he relaxed in her embrace and wrapped his own arms hesitantly around her. She nuzzled briefly into his chest, inhaling his scent and savouring the familiar feel of soft cotton beneath her cheek. Her eyes drifted closed, the desolation that had been her constant companion since the fall of Sunnydale dissipating as she finally allowed herself to believe that he really was here. Doubt had set in as she was boarding the plane, and the entire flight from Rome she had been more than half-convinced that the Immortal’s words had been nothing more than a cruel, heartless stab designed to wound her in ways far more lethal than any sword.

Pulling back suddenly from the comfort of his arms, she looked up and met his gaze once more. Tears gathered unheeded in tired, bruised green eyes as she tilted her chin stubbornly. “Yes I do,” she stated firmly.

Spike stared at her in confusion for a moment before a soft, tender smile curved his lips. “Love you too,” he whispered reverently, wiping the moisture from her cheek before drawing her close once more and gently claiming her lips.

the end