“His eyes are like starlight on a starless night,

his mouth like a apple in the garden of Eden.

His arms like my sanctuary holding me tight,

And everything he’s says is like my guiding light.”

Buffy tapped her pencil against her desk, she hated writing poetry. She was bad at it and she found it boring.

She had to write about a special person in her life but had decided to make something up. She had no idea who this was. Or did she?

Spike.

He had been there for her a lot for the past month since she was brought back. He had helped her, reassured her and practically brought her back to life. No one else understood her the way he did. It was if he could hear her every thought, see right through her soul.

“Like windows through my soul you see me,

and I feel you.

You are always there I need you.

I love it when you touch me,

When you look at me with those piercing eyes.

Like windows through my soul you see me.”

She hated those eyes, those gorgeous eyes. The ones who saw her, not the Slayer, but Buffy. The real Buffy. Her friends never saw Buffy anymore; they saw the Slayer, the fighter, the strong person whom she had to be. She tried to be that person but she was only Buffy in disguise. Buffy wasn’t strong but sensitive and delicate. Not that she wanted them to treat her like porcelain, she just didn’t want to be seen as the tough one. She wasn’t like Spike, he was strong, he was tough, he was special.

“I feel your eyes one me,

Studying me, watching me.

You know my every move,

My every breath.

You love me for me,

Not for whom I appear to be.”

She sighed and looked around her at her fellow pupils who seemed engrossed in their poetry, not like her. She was struggling. Not only with her poetry, but with her feelings for Spike. What did she feel for him?

“I see you too,

Not as tough as you want to be seen.

You are only human,

In some aspect.

You may not have a soul,

But to me you are more human than anyone else I know.

I see your soul,

Your love.

Your love for me.”

She knew he loved her, she could feel it. But he hadn’t mentioned it to her lately and she knew he was giving her time. She loved that about him. Did she just say she loved him? No, she loved that about him, there’s a difference. Or is there.

“Where are you now?

Are you asleep?

As you are supposed to be.

Or are you awake,

Because of what you have become?

If only Angel could see you now.”

Angel. He had always been the love of her life. Her true love, her soul mate. She had always thought that she could never love any one as much as she loved Angel. But that had changed. She did love him, in a way. But there was something else. An unknown love which was far greater. Unknown my ass. She knew who it was but she would never admit it.

“You were evil and cruel,

but now you love and care.

Could that be a soul?

Or just the manifestation of love?

What love does to some people.”

It was true, what love had done to her. She had sacrificed Angel for the world and she had hated herself for it. She had sacrificed herself to the world, but she loved herself for that. She had saved Dawn. Dawn. Now she loved her sister more than anything. Her sister loved Spike too, just not in the same way. He was like her big brother, keeping her safe while she was gone. He had made a promise to her that day, ‘til the end of the world’ that was what he had said and he had kept his promise. He had been there for her when she was scared, lonely and upset. Watching her, protecting her like a hawk protecting its young. He loved Dawn like a sister. Spike was even Dawn’s best friend and she was his. Strange how a little girl could be best friends with a vampire. Little Girl. She wasn’t a little girl anymore, she had grown up a lot. She was a grown up.

“’til the end of the world’

That’s what you said.

You promised that.

You did that for me.

You were there for her in the ways I couldn’t be.

You love her as I do.

But you love me in a way no one could ever understand.

The way I love you.”

Buffy’s head was jerked up at the sound of the bell telling them it was the end of the day. She loved Spike. She always had. She wanted him, needed him. She loved him.

And he loved her.

Buffy smiled as she made her way to Spike’s crypt, to show just how much she loved him.

THE END