SPIKE BY SNOWLIGHT
Snow Blind
She had nailed him. Completely. He had always been gifted at knowing her, reading her...now just when had she been able to read him?
He was afraid to take her out in the world. He was. In his mind, it was the world, the rules of the world, expectation, fulfillment of karma, of duty, of whatever that had separated them for so long, so yeah...a little reluctant to leave their nest. They had become the dolls of the hotel staff--after all everyone loves lovers. And they had had everything they needed...except...community. And what she had said back there...well, that proved she knew him, how his mind worked. She knew him and more...she understood him. His love, fears, his needs...he was known to someone and this connection, this understanding suddenly seemed more intimate than sex. And...comforting.
And, after all, what wouldn’t he do for her?
What was a little dress suit?
It was a very dark blue, an almost too black to be blue suit cut in the long tailed style of the day. With a crisp white shirt with a high monks, collar. His light brown hair pulled back into a pony tail that aesthetically balanced the lines of the jacket. He looked, well, presentable. He smiled wryly. Dark Blue indeed. Only Buffy could inspire him to choose color. She had never been the kind of woman to tell a man what to wear--she simply inspired his more artistic side. And...and if she wanted to...to be with him in the world, (as mate) he almost choked at the implication of what she had said, well...looking presentable was the least he could do. He had left his more extensive wardrobe in Paris and had had to avail himself of the hotel staff and shop for the evening wear. Not bad for working in close quarters.
“Buffy...its 7:00 luv...we...” His voice fell away. Just simply fell away from him at the sight of her as she strolled into the suite from the bedroom.
He had known that her health had improved over the week, that she was well on the mend and here was the evidence all at once. She was still thin to willowy but the vibrant force of Buffy glowed, spoke from inside her well groomed frame.
She glowed. Long brown hair, swept up at the crown to cascade down her back, light make up accenting her green eyes, green eyed brown haired Buffy in a very deep red to almost chocolate brown dress. The color was earthy and intoxicating, inspiring lust, a need to fertilize something...and devotion. Lust and fealty. Only Buffy.
And ringed around with brown as she was, it made her green eyes stand out like the sacred jewels of the earth.
She appraised him with equal somber wonder and respect.
“You look bloody amazing/You look great”
They said together. And then laughed and walked toward each other like children approaching a new wonder, a new ‘is this mine?’
He ran gentle finger along her bare arms. The dress was gathered at the center of the throat, leaving the sides of her neck bare and when she turned around for him, he stifled a groan at the deep expanse of naked back. (What was it about seeing rich fabric, vibrant color next to a woman’s’ flesh? He had seen her all kinds of naked and now it was all new again, all mystery and what’s under there?...Let me touch...) She was turning back around she was smiling, pleased with his reaction and obvious arousal and tilted her head slightly...just slightly accentuating the side of her neck...
“You...you...” Spike babbled helplessly, “You...neck tease...” he finally finished.
“Well lucky for you--long tails are the thing right now for men. You’ll be fine.”
He smiled crookedly and smooth walked up to her and pressed himself intimately against her to confirm what she already suspected. He butterfly kissed her mouth until she was gasping and then she suddenly gripped the back of his head in frustration to hold him still as she deepened the kiss and they molded their bodies together. He waited until he felt her heat demand him; his him in her her --for a royal command performance and then he pulled away and whispered...
“Well. All right then...let’s go be fine together...”
She stared at him a little dazed and then smiled. Fine. Fine. They would draw this out over the evening; we’ll see who cracks first. Fine. Fine.
Spike crooked his arm and she entwined hers with his, which he tucked up close to his breast.
They were going out. They were going out on Christmas Eve to the theatre.
(hee, hee)
*
Snow Up
They were just...just going out (really), just going out the door when the phone rang. Spike and Buffy looked at each other, genuinely puzzled by the sound of a ringing summons and shared the simultaneous thought.
(‘Who could that be? Anyone I want to talk to is standing in front of me.’)
“The Concierge?” Spike offered as the phone continued ringing.
“Maybe...but they were on a strict ‘don’t call us we’ll call you orders and after you growled at the bellboy I don’t think they would dare...” Buffy’s voice trailed off.
“Giles?” Buffy offered as the phone rang, rang, and they stared at it.
“Giles.” Spike tested the word as if it was modern English, a new slang to wrap his 143 year mind around. A new word to incorporate into everyday conversation as a colorful expletive. “Hmm...Giles...”
“I should answer it.”
“Yes...” Spike cautioned as if she was just about to enter a den full of Drorak demons and then ended on a question.
“Yes...yes...you should?”
“I should. He was really there for me Spike. He really backed me up when everybody thought I was delusional.”
“Huh. That long?”
“Ha, bloody, ha.” She smiled. The phone rang, insisted, insisting on being heard, it rang right through calling out ‘I know...I know you are there...yoo hoo you two...’
Buffy and Spike shrugged simultaneously and Buffy picked up the phone to hear a voice ranting at her without preamble.
“...And what in the world are you doing staying at a hotel called The Overlook in Denver Colorado? Is this passive aggressively looking for trouble? What? You’ve been fighting demons for twenty five years but have never read Stephen King? He should be like...your bible of ‘bad things to do’...”
The voice paused and Buffy had a chance to slip in.
“Hello Dawnie.”
Pause.
He sister’s voice using the childhood endearment wound Dawn down to a sputter stop to speak softly.
“Hello...Hello Buffy...”
Pause. As they held each other via phone.
“So. You’re...o.k.? You’re really o.k.? Giles said he thought you would be alright.”
“Dawn, I’m better than alright. I feel good. Solid. Stronger every day and guess what? That gray hair I was starting to sprout? Gone, girly, gone...”
“Wow. Now you gotta let me in on that.”
“You don’t have gray hair Dawn...”
“Hey, those kids are gonna give me a new moniker, I’ll be Dawn the Gray and move over Gandolf. Those kids will drive me gray, you don’t know, you have no idea...” Dawns voice wound down slowly...realizing too late that she just hit Buffy’s sore spot--oh god she should apologize? Or blow over it?
Buffy winced slightly at the automatic slip...or was it a Freudian thing to state her superior position as a Mother...something non Mothers would never understand...never a full member in the club of ‘A’ list Homo Sapiens. Buffy knew she didn’t mean it and yet she did. She sighed and smiled. This is what it meant to be family, pangs and pleasures and Dawn was right, Buffy didn’t know what that meant, she had no idea...
She looked up to see Spike standing by the window looking out onto the fading light over the mountains. They had become so well connected, she knew he had felt that pang of pain in her heart at Dawns slip...but it wasn’t a slip, it wasn’t, she should be able to say her stuff without thinking Buffy lived atop a world of eggshells. Buffy, in true form, went for a frontal assault and hide no more.
“Dawn...I’m...I’m so happy...I can’t tell you...there are no words, words are too small...so, please don’t worry about me...I can’t ...I can’t imagine anything better to be happening for me than this...it’s like the world has become new for me again...it feels so new and I have no idea what’s gonna happen, but...I feel...free...”
Buffy spoke low into the phone as she stared down at the floor and then stopped speaking, suddenly fascinated by the peach colored carpet of the suite.
There was a pause.
“I’m...I’m glad. That’s good Buffy.”
Buffy laughed. Huh. Such simple words from Dawn. She must be dumbstruck.
“Couldn’t...couldn’t you have told me? Told me when you were leaving?”
“Dawn. Dawnie...you were getting ready to declare me incompetent...I had to have a couple of days to prove I was o.k..”
“You could have called.”
“And you wouldn’t have traced me?”
“Ah...”
“Ah yeah...”
“Yeah. Giles had to really tackle Angel to the ground to keep him from calling in the FBI on Spike for kidnapping.”
Buffy sighed, ah yet another reason to bless Giles. What would she ever have done if she hadn’t had Giles for a Watcher? What would her life have been like if it had been someone like Wesley or Lydia? She shook her head at strange fates.
Dawn was still talking. “Buffy you should really call Angel, you know he’s not my favorite guy, but he’s losing it.”
“I don’t see why.” Dawn started to sputter but Buffy stopped her. ‘No Dawn...listen to me...”
Silence.
“Angel knows how I feel about Spike...he’s always known. I never kept it a secret”
There was an audible bone crack as Spike’s head snapped around to her from looking out the window. He looked at her, a little puzzled. She returned his gaze steadily and still holding the phone she spoke to Dawn but she looked at Spike as she did.
“You should still call him.” Dawn said from her end.
“Don’t need to. He knows. He knows, he also knows I’ll contact when it’s time...but Dawn, if you need to, tell him this, if things have changed, it’s o.k. to let it change, just because I’m here now doesn’t make the past wrong. Oh...and I know about Cordy.”
You know about Cordy? What about Cordy?’
“Just tell him that...with a smile...tell him not to make the same mistake I almost did, I will” and then muttered to herself, “Thank god for the Slayer.” And then laughed and it was so full of genuine mirth it made Spike smile in spite of himself and his unease with this particular conversation. Dawn laughed too, Buffy’s joy was infectious.
“O.k. O.K., put the fiend on the phone, obviously I’m not going to enjoy venting on you--“
Spike was vigorously shaking his head ‘no’ at Buffy.
Buffy smiled. “Uh...he’s shaking his head.”
“What a ya mean he’s shaking his head?”
“You know, the universally accepted signal for negative, negatory, shake, shake, shake any more and he’ll loose his mind, it’ll pop right out--“
“Well turn on the video phone monitor so I can at least see you...”
“Uh...Spike is shaking his head...”
Dawn was sputtering...”What? What? You have couple of orgasms and you do anything he says?”
“Dawn! I’m. Shocked. Just shocked and maybe a little pink and besides we take turns being right; he gets to be right for another...oh, two and a half hours and then oh boy look out for ‘Buffy knows best.’
Pause.
“You do, don’t you Buffy?” Dawn asked sincerely. “You were right about everything, and oh my god does this mean that all those times when I was a kid and ‘Buffy knows Best’ was actually right? Does this mean I should have taken English lit 105--the romantic poets? Oh man. And how do I go back now?”
“Can’t baby cakes.”
‘Right, so put Spike on the phone or you on the monitor or I’m coming over there and make him do it.”
“Uh...now he’s nodding his head.”
“He’s nodding? He wants me to come over and beat him up?”
“He’s nodding...” Buffy looked at Spike with a question in her eyes that said something like ‘really?’
He nodded his eyes warm and steady. How she loved this man. He smiled gently and spoke softly.
“Tell her to come here, come here tomorrow or for New Years and tell me off in person. The phone is just too impersonal for a through thrashing. Giles, too. Everybody, I’ll put everybody up. Here. The kids will love it. Pool, snow and everything.
Buffy had to bite back a tear and a choky throat and she held her hand out to him. He was standing by the window as if he was already preparing a safe distance from her family and friends. Oh forget it. Don’t wait for him. Sometimes the ocean had to go to the shore. (What? huh?) His aloneness was so plain to her through his cool calm.
She walked over to him took his hand and kissed it and then wrapped an arm around his waist. He kissed her head and sighed.
In laws. A whole new world indeed. Thank goodness he loved Dawn, and the others weren’t too bad and just how mad was she?
Buffy was talking into the phone.
“It seems Spike wants a thrashing for Christmas.”
“Huh?”
“Come on Dawn...come out to the crazy mock Overlook but it isn’t really because it’s in Denver proper and not the actual hotel and the kids will love it too--tell 'em it’s haunted.”
“Is it?”
Spike muttered low in the background.
“Well, they may hear screaming in the night but it won’t be ghosts, it’ll just be their crazy Auntie Buffy having a ‘couple of orgasms.’ Pfft!” Then Spike muttered as if insulted at the paltry sum of a ‘couple of orgasms‘ “Pffft!”
“Ew...I heard that...”
“Was supposed to...” Muttered a misaligned Spike.
Buffy continued selling the idea to Dawn.
“And...and...there is this whole parade and a Santa with a sleigh thing...except...you know with horses...”
“Clydesdales...” Spike offered
“Big horses. So not exactly reindeer...but hey! Big, and alive and furry. The kids will love it.”
“Snow.” Spike offered.
“Oh YEAH! Snow. Come see the snow.”
“Oh my god they would love it, oh god could we?”
“Please come...we’re...we’re not going back to California for a while. We’re leaving for Europe a week after New Years. Spike wants to get as far away from the Hellmouth as possible...and...and I agree. Giles told you right? Seems the Hellmouth was killing me after all. Slowly but surely, like that long Star Wars episode ‘Attack of the Clones.’ Whew. Slow toxin. So, we may not see each other for a while...” Buffy wound down.
“O.K. O.K. I’ll talk to John; he wants to thrash Spike too.”
“Well then, come on over, last chance to thrash Spike.”
They laughed and Spike chuckled. Well? What could he say? He always loved a rumble.
They were laughing and all were suddenly, so suddenly...quiet.
Quiet.
“O.K.”
“O.K.?”
“O.K.”
“Get the rest of the info from Giles and bring him too. Please. Please bring him, don’t take no.”
“O.K.”
“Dawn?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you crying?”
“Maybe...but you’d have to TURN ON THE VIDEO MONITAR to find out for sure.”
Beat.
“Love you Dawnie...”
“Love you too...oh yeah and that goes for the anarchist too. Bye.”
“Bye.”
The phone clicked and she hung up. Spike was scratching his head and said: “Did she say anarchist...or antichrist? Cuz from my point of view...bloody big difference between the two.”
Buffy hugged him, pushing her face into his chest murmuring “oh my little dissembler...”
Well...that wasn’t an answer. Just how mad was Dawn and just what had he gotten himself into?
He smiled at the thought of having difficulties with the in-laws, it did--it made him smile.
It made it, everything; feel so...real, so permanent...
Back...