Carefully To Tread

Epilogue

Buffy is idly tracing random patterns across his chest with her fingertips. She marvels at how smooth and flawless his skin is in most places. The porcelain expanse is marred only by a few feint scars. Spike watches her with fascination.

He doesn't really understand divine providence; doesn't necessarily believe in it. But if the miracle of having her in his arms is proof-positive, well...he's a believer.

"I should get back soon. Dawn will be worried." She sighs and her warm breath sends ripples of contentment throughout his flesh.

"Yah, she might." He pulls her closer to him, wrapping the damp sheet around their sated bodies. "Then again..."

"She might not?" She tilts her head up so that their eyes meet and smiles into him. She takes a quick, involuntary breath; something she's been apt to do all afternoon when she's found him gazing at her the way he is now. Worshiping her with his eyes. Even the tiny devilish smirk he sports doesn't diminish what his heart says.

Every. Time. He. Looks. At. Her.

"I've...I've never known anyone who loves like you do." At that, his features soften with humility.

"No? How's that, then?" He runs his fingers through her passion-tangled hair.

"You give so much...i-in everything you do, I mean..." She frowns a bit, searching for the right words. "It's...overwhelming, and more than a little intimidating the way you throw yourself into it. Give so much." She shrugs. "I don't know how to love like that."

"Oh that's bloody nonsense, Buffy. C'mon, now." He kisses the top of her head and wraps his arms even more securely around his insecure...what...girlfriend? He'll have to ask her about that one. "You are very loving, luv, very...caring and warm and beautiful and..."

"What does being beautiful have to do with it?"

"It's a perk." He chuckles and she laughs lightly against him. "Seriously, Buffy luv, you have nothing to worry about in that department. Do you think I would have fought so hard for something not worth achieving?"

She thinks on that a moment.

"No...I guess not." She sighs.

"Damn right, so..."

"Will you teach me?" She shifts again to look at him and he is astonished at the fear in her eyes.

"Ah...pet." He pulls her on top of his body, stretching underneath to give her a pillow of hardened male flesh; from now on, it's her favorite kind. She braces herself against his chest with the flat of her palms and he rests his hands lightly on her shoulders before sliding them down to her waist.

"I'm the one that bloody well needs to learn. You..." He brushes the hair back from her face to study the flicker of gold candlelight reflected in the depths of her green eyes." You're the one teaching me, luv."

"Nuh uh, Spike, I'm not buying that."

"Not tryin' to sell anything, am I? Think of Dawn."

"Dawn?"

"You love her, yeah?"

"Of course! She's my sister." She frowns in confusion.

"Ah, but she isn't in the conventional sense. When you learned the truth about...where she came from, you didn't turn her away. Didn't stop loving her, did you?"

"No, I would never...I couldn't...she's...I love her."

"Because she's your sister, right?"

"Yes." He smiled and pulled her in for a brush of a kiss.