He knew she treasured the ring more than anything else, just as the person who gave it treasured her. It was true love. And though Buffy now wore the ring with the heart facing out, she still loved him. Tomorrow was her birthday; Buffy would turn twenty-one. It would be an important day for her, and he knew that. He wanted to make it special -- a birthday she wouldn't forget. Seeing Buffy's ring gave him an idea for the perfect present.

Mrs. Summers grabbed her purse from the kitchen table. Throwing a light jacket over her shoulders, she walked to the front door. She opened the door, surprised to find a platinum blonde man standing on the front porch. Mrs. Summers smiled at him, knowing him to be one of her daughter's friends.

"Hi, Spike. How nice to see you."

"It's a pleasure as always, Mrs. Summers," he said in his thick English accent. "You are looking as lovely as ever."

"Why, thank you very much. Here to see Buffy?"

Spike nodded. "Yes, I am. Is she home?"

"Upstairs on the phone. I'm going to the store to pick up her birthday cake. Would you like to stay and have some with us?" Buffy's mother asked.

"I'd love to, but I just stopped by to drop off her present," declined the vampire.

"Okay. I guess I'll see you later."

"I guarantee it."

Mrs. Summers left the front door open for Spike when she left to pick up the cake. He entered the house, having received the invitation nearly four years earlier. He quietly made his way up the stairs to the second floor, hoping to surprise her. From the hallway, he could hear her talking on the phone.

"Willow," Spike heard Buffy say, "I am not leaving the house tonight. I explained it to Giles and he's out patrolling for me...No, I don't want you to come over. There will be no parties this year. No parties, no celebrations, nothing...No buts, Will. My birthday is curse, or have you forgotten about the past four years? I'm going to take a shower. I'll see you tomorrow at school. Bye." She hung up the phone.

Spike stood in the doorway of Buffy's bedroom and knocked on the door. She whipped her head around, her blonde hair flying around her shoulders. "Spike. What are you doing here?"

"Well, hello to you too, gorgeous. Happy birthday."

Her surprised expression softened. "Thank you, I think. You stopped by to say that?"

"I have a present for you."

Buffy was taken aback. Since his return to Sunnydale, Spike and Buffy struck a truce. He had promised to help her fight vampires if she promised to stay off his back. And for close to two years, they had kept their promises. "You bought me a present?"

"Yes, I did. Don't look so surprised, Slayer. I can be nice when I want to be."

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "All right. Have a seat."

He entered the room and sat down on the bed next to her. "It took me all day to figure out what to get you. I mean, what do you get the Slayer who has everything?"

"A bronzed stake?" joked Buffy.

"I'm a vampire, I'm not giving the Slayer a stake. It's like a death wish. Instead, I got you this." Spike reached into the pocket of his duster and pulled out a black velvet box. "Happy Birthday, Buffy."

She took the box from his hand and opened it. Inside lay a gold necklace with a skeleton key charm. Buffy picked the necklace up and held it in front of her. "Spike, you didn't have to. It's exquisite."

"Like you."

Buffy looked at him with questions in her eyes. "What?"

Spike took her hands in his, kissing them. "I love you."

"No."

"Yes," he reinforced. "I wanted to get you a ring, but I noticed you already have one." Spike tapped his finger on her claddagh ring. "So, I figured that I'd go with a necklace. They key -- the key is to my heart. Only you can open it."

She glared at him. "What are you up to?" Buffy didn't believe for a minute what he said. She thought it to be a cruel joke.

"Slayer, you really don't get it, do you? I've fallen in love with you, God how I've tried to deny it. I love you like I loved Drusilla."

She pried her hands out of his. His admission made her feel weird. "This is a sick joke."

"Is it? You tell me." Spike grabbed her head and kissed her passionately. He sincerely wanted to prove to her how much he loved her. Spike was surprised when Buffy returned the kiss. Slowly, they separated. "Well, cutie, believe that?"

"That was..."

"Amazing is the word I'm thinking of. I've been fantasizing about that for over a year. Got to say, it was better than I imagined. No wonder Angel stayed a good guy. I'd give up feeding off humans in a second, too, if I could wake up to that everyday."

Spike saw Buffy only stare at the doorway. "Buffy, I am in love with you. I want to be with you. Do I even stand a chance?" He wore his heart on his sleeve, ready to give it to his mortal enemy. He would be an outcast in the vampire community, but he didn't care. All he wanted was Buffy.

"This is all so weird. So...sudden. I don't even know what to think," Buffy answered.

"I'll give you time. I've got all the time in the world."

She raised her eyes to meet his. "Thank you."

"I love you, Slayer," Spike said before he exited through her window.

Buffy remained on her bed, the memory of Spike's kiss still fresh in her mind.

The headlights of Mrs. Summers' Jeep caught the man sitting on their front porch off-guard. Buffy's mother stepped out of the car, carrying Buffy's birthday cake in one hand and a stake in the other. Her daughter had given it to her for protection. And Mrs. Summers felt safer carrying it.

When she approached the porch, she saw that the man sitting on the steps was Angel, her daughter's former boyfriend. She still held tightly onto the stake in case it was his evil self.

"Angel," Mrs. Summers greeted cooly. They hadn't seen or spoken to each other for close to three years.

He stood up. "Hello, Mrs. Summers."

"What are you doing here?" she asked in a skeptical tone of voice. "I thought you lived in L.A.."

"I do. I came to give Buffy her birthday present. Is she home?"

"No, she's not," lied Mrs. Summers. She didn't want Buffy having anything to do with Angel. Mrs. Summers thought she had made that clear to him.

"Do you know when she'll be home? Is she out on patrol?"

"I don't know where she is or when she'll be home. I'm sorry." She walked past him and inside the house, slamming the door behind her.

Angel sat on the front porch, intent on seeing Buffy when she returned home.

"Buffy, honey, cake's ready," Mrs. Summers told her from the doorway.

"Okay. I'll be out in a second," Buffy replied. Buffy hadn't moved since Spike left the house. So many thoughts ran through her mind. She couldn't' imagine herself with him; not like she saw herself with Angel. It had been a long road to even trust Spike, and now her feelings were all jumbled up.

Downstairs, Buffy's mother lit the candles on the birthday cake. When Buffy entered the room, Mrs. Summers grinned. "Double chocolate, your favorite."

Buffy sat down. "Thanks, Mom. But, you're not going to sing, are you?"

"No. Unless you want me to--"

"No! Please don't. I don't want this to be a big production. My birthdays have the tendency to suck beyond belief," explained Buffy.

"It's your birthday, Buffy. Whatever you want."

She blew out the candles, and mother and daughter dug into the cake. After Buffy took a bite out of her piece, she asked her mother a question. "Mom, what do you think of Spike?"

Mrs. Summers swallowed her cake before answering. "He's a nice young man."

"He's a vampire, Mom."

"I know that. But he seems different to me. Nicer than most of them."

"You don't know that many of them."

She took another forkful of cake. "And I didn't like any of them, either. But I like Spike. He has a good heart."

"Thanks. Your opinion means a lot."

"Did he give you your present?" asked Mrs. Summers.

Buffy nodded. "He sure did."

"So, have you decided yet?" a voice asked from outside Buffy's window an hour later.

She jumped from the shock. She saw Spike sitting on the landing outside her bedroom window. "God, you scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry, love." He stepped through into her bedroom. "Didn't mean to."

"Yeah, I know."

Spike couldn't wait any longer for an answer. "Well? Have you thought about what I said earlier?"

"I have thought about it."

"And?"

Buffy bit her lower lip and closed her eyes. "And...I just don't see anything happening, Spike."

"Was it me? Did I come on too strong?" Her words devastated the vampire.

"It's not you, it's the circumstances. I'm the Slayer, you are a vampire..."

"Like that has ever stopped you before," Spike pointed out.

His words hit Buffy like a ton of bricks. "It was different between me and Angel. We were fighting for the same things. And his soul -- it made him so much more human than other vampires."

"Wanker," muttered Spike. He knew that, once again, he was losing the woman he loved to Angel.

"You know, you could learn a lesson from him. Now get out of my bedroom before I stake you," threatened Buffy.

"All because I poked fun at Soulboy?"

Spike had succeeded in pissing her off. Buffy didn't care how much this vampire loved her. Nobody put down Angel and got away with it. "His soul makes him twice the man you are."

"So that's it," Spike said to himself once he returned to the ground. "To win Buffy, I gotta get me a soul. And I know just where to get one."

By ten o'clock, Angel had all but give up on Buffy returning home. He'd been sitting on her front porch for three hours waiting for her. He had come to two conclusions -- either Buffy wasn't coming home or her mother lied to him. Angel was more inclined to believe the latter theory.

Angel made his way to the backyard and scaled the tree he knew gave access to Buffy's bedroom. From a sturdy branch, he saw her sitting at her desk. He stealthily jumped from the branch to the roof landing, poking his head through the open window. He knocked lightly on the glass above his head.

Buffy didn't turn around. She held a stake in her right hand and raised it. "If you don't get out of here right now, Spike, I swear to God I won't hesitate to stake you. I have not changed my mind."

Angel had never heard her so upset. "Changed your mind about what?"

She spun around in her chair, surprised by Angel's voice. "Angel! What are you doing here?"

"Today's your birthday. I didn't forget."

"You drove all the way back to Sunnydale to wish me a happy birthday? Not that I'm not happy to see you, 'cause I am. But there is such a thing as a telephone." Buffy was excited to see him after two years apart.

"Can I come in?"

Buffy stood up. "Sure. You have the invitation." Angel climbed through. "I know I do, but I wanted to ask you first."

"Always the gentleman," she muttered.

He stared at her for a moment. The two years that had passed only added to her beauty. Buffy's blonde hair flowed down her back, to the same spot where it lay when he first laid eyes on her. Her green eyes remained as striking as before, though they showed hints of the horrors Buffy had lived through. But that didn't diminish her beauty at all.

"You look great," Angel commented.

"Thank you, so do you," she returned the compliment.

"Can I ask why you were threatening Spike with a stake? Not to intrude or anything."

Buffy shook her head. "It's a long, really strange story. Too long to get into right now."

Angel nodded, understanding. "How have you been?"

He didn't know how to begin what he came to tell her. He decided on the slow, subtle approach.

"I've been hanging in there. Same old, same old. You?"

The question he had been waiting for. "Things have changed a lot in the past two years."

Buffy took a seat on the bed. "Tell me."

"Not now. Maybe in a little while." Angel wasn't ready to tell Buffy after all. It would take strength he didn't have quite yet. "It is your birthday. Why aren't you out with Willow and Xander?"

"My birthday tends to suck royally. I decided it would be safer if I stayed in this year," she explained. "My birthday is cursed."

"It is not."

"It's not? Let's examine the past four years. On my twentieth birthday, a flesh-eating demon tried to kill my mother. Then, on my nineteenth birthday, my boyfriend at the time, Riley, tried to kill me with his electro-shooter gun. Number eighteen I was helpless and lost all my powers. And my seventeenth...well, you know."

Angel turned his brown eyes to the floor. "I know."

"See what I mean? Bad luck. So I didn't venture out of the house at all today and Giles patrolled for me. As long as nothing earth-shattering occurs in the next two hours, I'm home free."

"Looks like you have it all figured out."

"Humph. I wish. I've still had a weird day," said Buffy. "Spike came by earlier and professed his love for me."

Angel tried not show his shock too much. "He did WHAT?!"

"Yep. Came here and said he loves me. Scary, isn't it?"

"Scary is one way of putting it," Angel agreed. "What did you say?" He couldn't let himself believe that Buffy had those same feelings for Spike.

"I told him that I don't feel the same way and to get out of my room. Which is why I threatened you with a stake before. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, I understand." He looked at Buffy for close to a minute without saying anything. She felt a bit uncomfortable.

"What is it? Do I have cake on my face still?"

Buffy jumped off the bed to check in the mirror. As she looked in the mirror, she noticed that hers wasn't the only reflection. Buffy gasped. "Angel, I can see your reflection!" She turned to him.

Angel stood up and walked over to her. "That's why I came back here; to tell you, Buffy. I'm human again."

The knocking at her outside doors interrupted Willow's train of thought. She was in the middle of sending an email to Amy in San Francisco when she heard the knocking. She got up to answer the door. A look of shock fell upon her face.

"Spike, what are you doing here?" asked Willow.

"Hello, red. I need something from you."

"If it's blood, forget it. The bank is closed." Spike shook his head and sighed. "I don't want to eat you. I need your help. You're a witch and I want a spell cast."

Willow shot the vampire a suspicious look. "What kind of spell?"

"Restoration. You remember how to do it, right?" he demanded urgently.

"Yeah, but--"

"But what? You did it for Poof-boy Angel, you can do it for me, too."

She narrowed her green eyes. "For you?"

"Yes, for me. I want a soul, I wanna be housebroken, yada yada yada. Just do it, Willow."

"I still don't understand why." Willow could not understand why Spike would want a soul. Then it came to her. "Oh my god, you're in love!"

"Just give me a soul, dammit!"

Willow thought for a moment about who Spike might be willing to do this for. Obviously, it was someone who knew him well, but didn't necessarily approve of his actions. Her gut told her who it was that Spike had fallen in love with. "This is for Buffy, isn't it? You are in love with her!"

"Bloody hell, woman, just curse me already." Spike felt too ashamed to look her in the eyes.

"It is! And you're too ashamed to admit it," accused Willow.

"Fine. Ace in the hole, dearie, you're right. I'm in love with the Slayer. And since she prefers a vampire with a soul, I've come to you get one. Now, are you going to help me?"

"Yeah, I will help you. I just wanted to hear you say it first. Give me a half-hour to set everything up. You might as well come in, Spike."

As Spike entered her bedroom, Willow searched for her Orb of Thessula.

With everything set up, and Spike sitting on the floor a few feet away from her, Willow began the ritual of restoration. With a roll of the makeshift dice, she said, "Not dead, nor not of the living. Spirits of the interregnum, I call. Let him know the pain of humanity, gods. Bind him, cast his heart from the demon realm."

Spike sat patiently, awaiting the return of his soul. He knew that there was no turning back, that there was no happiness clause in this curse, unlike Angel's original curse. What was to be done could not be reversed.

"I call on you, gods, do not ignore this supplication! Let the orb be the vessel to carry his soul to him! It is written, this power is my people's right to wield. Let it be so! Now!"

When she finished chanting the spell, Spike felt his soul return to his body. Willow saw the glow pass through his eyes, and knew that the restoration was a success.

Buffy stared in shock at Angel. "Human? How?" She suddenly felt faint. Her knees threatened to crumble underneath her weight.

Angel, sensing her condition, ran to her side, helping her back on the bed. He waited a minute for Buffy to compose herself before beginning his explanation.

"It happened a few weeks ago. I won't go into the boring details of it for you, but there was an ancient prophecy that was to come to pass. The apocalypse, and so on and so forth. Something similar to the Mayor's Ascension, but slightly different. Like I said, I won't bore you with the details. I averted it and the Oracles summoned me. The Powers That Be felt that I had atoned for my sins, and made me mortal again." Buffy said nothing. "Buffy?"

"Human," she repeated. "You're mortal, like me."

"One hundred percent mortal. I am a normal man now."

She shook her head gently. "This is so...What does this mean, Angel? For us."

"It means whatever you want it to mean." Angel paused for a moment to take a breath. "I love you, Buffy. And I want nothing more than to share this with you. To be with you until I die."

Buffy tried to blink away her tears of joy. It did not work, and a single tear escaped. "You want to be with me?"

"Always have and always will. That is, if you want to be with me."

She wrapped herself in his embrace, holding on as if she'd never let go. "Of course I do. And I love you, too, Angel."

They kissed passionately, sealing their future.

Buffy nuzzled her head in the crook of Angel's neck. "Mmm...this is the best birthday ever. And it's all because of you."

"I can't take all the credit."

"Okay, so The Powers That Be might have had something to do with it, but you're still being here, that's what makes it so special. I don't want this day to end, Angel."

Angel ran his hand through her hair. "It doesn't have to."

Buffy sat up to look at him. "What do you mean?"

He reached into the pocket of his black duster, which lay in a heap on the floor near the bed. Angel handed her a gray velvet box. "Open it."

She opened the lid slowly, gasping when she saw what was inside. "Oh my god, Angel. It's beautiful." Buffy removed the diamond ring from the box.

"Happy Birthday, Buffy. Will you marry me?" he asked her.

They were the four words Buffy always dreamed Angel would say to her. And there was nothing more she wanted to do. "Yes," she whispered. "Yes, I'll marry you."

Angel placed the ring on her finger and kissed her again.

Spike walked around to the back of the Summers' yard. The lights weren't on inside the house, so he figured that he would climb up to Buffy's room and enter through the window rather than through the front the door. He did not want to wake Mrs. Summers.

As he scaled the tree near her window, Spike tried to rehearse what he would say to Buffy. "Hello, Slayer. I've got myself a soul. Do you want me now?" NO, THAT WON'T WORK. DAMMIT, SPIKE, THINK! he thought to himself.

Her bedroom was dark, but that posed no problem for him; he could see everything clear as day. He gazed around the room, thinking perhaps she was sitting alone in the dark. When his eyes fell upon the bed, Spike saw that Buffy wasn't alone.

"No. That can't be," he muttered, seeing Buffy and Angel lying next to each other on the bed. It was obvious to him what had occurred.

"Every time I fall in love, he ruins it. Always has to have my beloved for himself. First Dru, now Buffy. It isn't fair."

Spike considered entering the bedroom and snapping Angel's neck, but immediately felt guilty for even thinking about it. He looked at Buffy again, noticing the smile she wore on her lips, much like the smile he'd seen on her last night. He understood that she was truly happy. That it was Angel, not him, who brought her that happiness.

He wanted for Buffy to be happy. And if Angel made her happy, then he would have to learn to accept it.

"Happy Birthday, Buffy," Spike said as he climbed back down the tree.

Eight years later

"They're here, they're here!" six-year-old Carrie shouted from the window of the mansion.

Her father walked up behind her, ruffled her long, dark brown hair, and moved the curtains aside to see. "Right you are, Carrie. Why don't you go into the playroom and tell Jason and Alicia?"

"Okay, Daddy." Carrie ran from the window to the playroom to fetch her younger brother and sister. In the process, she nearly ran into her mother, who was leaving the kitchen.

"Whoa. Where's Carrie off to in such a hurry?" Buffy asked her husband.

Angel turned to her, smiling. After seven years of marriage, he loved Buffy more and more with each passing day. She continued to amaze him. He loved his life with her, their three children, and the next one due in five months.

"She's getting Jason and Alicia."

Buffy's eyes widened. "They're here? Already? Dinner's not ready yet!"

He put his arms around her and kissed her gently.

"Calm down, Buffy. I'm sure they won't mind."

The front door opened and the couple stood at the threshold. "We're here."

The three children bolted into the room and made a beeline for the newly-arrived couple. "Aunt Willow! Uncle Spike!" they yelled.

Buffy and Angel watched as their three children rained kissed onto Willow and Spike. They laughed when Alicia, the youngest at age three, refused to let go of Spike's legs.

"Welcome back," Angel greeted. "How was the honeymoon?"

The End

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