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Sunshine and Shadows by slaymesoftly
 
Chapter Thirty-five
 
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 CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
 
 
Buffy brushed her hand against Spike’s, saying, “Do you mind if I do a short patrol first?”
 
“Don’t mind, love, but chances that we left any vampires standing in this town after last night are pretty slim, don’t you think?”
 
“I’m counting on that,” she replied. “That's why a said a ‘short’ patrol. Whatever we run across in cemeteries between here and the house is what I get.”
 
“Sounds like a plan, Slayer. You might want to start with that git. Looks like he didn’t get the memo that his boss lost the war.” Spike gestured with his chin toward an approaching vampire that he recognized as the one that had taken him to meet Mayor Wilkins only a short time ago. The vamp halted when he saw that Buffy and Spike were together.
 
“Uh… Spike? You do know that’s the Slayer, don’t you?”
 
“Do know that. The question is, why are you surprised to see her with me?”
 
“I…uh… I thought you were supposed to be killing her for the boss. Or keeping her too busy to bother him, anyway.”
 
Spike laughed, earning a glare from Buffy when he said, “Well, I’ve been doing my best to keep her busy, but sometimes I have to let her go home to see her mum and her watcher.”
 
“So, you’ve got her under control then? Is that why I heard you were hanging out with her before I left?”
 
“Where’ve you been?” Spike didn’t answer the question, just touched Buffy’s arm when she visibly bristled at the idea that she was under his control.
 
“I just got back in town from picking up some stuff for the boss. I dropped his packages off at the office, but it’s all dark and nobody’s around. Do you know what’s going on?” The vamp kept a wary eye on Buffy, obviously trying to keep Spike between himself and the Slayer. 
 
“More’n you do, I’ll wager.” Spike was grinning as Buffy moved to the side so she could see the nervous vampire.  “See, here’s the thing. While you were gone, there was a bit of a dustup about some piece of jewelry Hiz Honor wanted for something. And the Slayer here had it. Most of the other vamps you’re lookin’ for are being swept out of the high school by now. And the amulet is just as much dust as they are, so your boss hasn’t had a good day and he’s decided to go off and be a demon somewhere else.”
 
“Finch is in charge,” Buffy said. “But I’m not sure how much use he’s going to have for vampires. You probably shouldn’t plan on a long future with him. Or a long future at all….” she added as she stepped forward and ran a stake through his chest before he’d even absorbed Spike’s words.
 
She glanced at Spike, who was staring at her. “Did you know him? I mean, he wasn’t like a friend or something, was he?”
 
He shook his head and put his arm around her. “No, just one of the Mayor’s minions sent to fetch me a while ago. And wouldn’t have mattered if we were mates. You do what you were chosen to do, yeah? If there’s anybody I feel strongly about saving, I’ll tell you and we can talk it out.”
 
“You mean like Clem? Or Joey?”
 
“Exactly. Clem’s a mate. And he’s harmless… more or less. No reason for you to slay him, and I’d be a lot happier if you didn’t.” He gave her shoulders a squeeze, then took his arm away. Without responding to the rest of her question, he said, “Don’t you have some dustin’ to do before I take you home and show you what was delivered today?”
 
Her expression made it obvious she wasn’t forgetting about Joey, but she just said, “Should I be disappointed that you’re so willing to spend time watching me slay?”
 
“You know how turned on I get watching you fight,” he said with a leer. “Trust me, it’s totally related to my new purchase.”
 
xxx
 
Thirty minutes and three slain fledglings later, they entered the old mansion. Just inside the door were several large cartons, their contents spread around the middle of the foyer.
 
“Seriously? You want to put our new bed in the front hall?”
 
Instead of answering her, Spike pulled her close and nuzzled her neck. “Say that again, love.”
 
Buffy frowned. “Say what again? That I don’t want the bed in front of the door?”
 
He sighed. “No. The part about whose bed it is.”
 
“Our bed? It is, isn’t it? Our bed?”
 
“That’s how I’ll always think of it, sweetheart. Just makes my old heart try to beat to hear you call it that, is all.”
 
“Oh.” Buffy flushed and leaned into him. “Well, it is ourbed. You got it for me, right? So we can have more room. So that makes it ours.” She straightened and turned to stare at the pile of wooden parts.  “I’m not sure it’s going to be very comfy like that, though.”
 
“I didn’t have time to put it together before I left, and anyway, I wanted you to help me decide where to put it.”
 
“What are my options?”
 
In spite of having lived in the mansion for as long as she had, Buffy really hadn’t explored much of it beyond the main open areas and the two bedrooms she and Spike used. She avoided the room Angel and Dru had spent their time in just as Spike did, and wasn’t really interested in what else might be in the other parts of the building.
 
“Well, there’s the room I’m usin’, but it’s a bit small for such a big bed. There’s your old room, which lets in a lot of bright sunlight. Not my favorite thing to wake up to…”
 
“We’re not putting it in… that other room,” she said, unwilling to mention who’d been the last occupants.
 
“Nor that,” he agreed. “But there are more rooms in the back. One of them is right good sized and has its own bathroom. I expect it was the actual master bedroom and the ones we’ve been using out here probably aren’t even intended to be bedrooms.” He pointed at the one Angel had taken for himself. “Maybe that one,” he said. “But I’ll wager the others were a library or a game room or something.”
 
Buffy narrowed her eyes. “Tell me again how poor you were growing up…. Library, game room? What the hell are those?”
 
“Just things big houses used to have in my day,” he said quickly. “Lets go take a look at the other bedroom and see what you think.”
 
Buffy followed him down the hall and past the never-used dining room, muttering to herself, “Regular people don’t have ‘game rooms’ or ‘libraries’ in their houses. Only rich people have stuff like that.”
 
 
xxx
 
Once they’d settled on the big bedroom Spike had found on the sheltered side of the house, they carried all the bed parts including the mattress, which took them both to move due to its size, to the room. It took them only a short while to put the bed together and put linens on it.
 
Buffy stood back and admired their handwork, then stared around the otherwise empty room. Spike was busying himself moving the lamp they’d used for light closer to the bed.
 
“Kinda bare, isn’t it?”
 
“Won’t be. I’ll move my bookcases and stuff in tomorrow. Let me know what you want and I’ll bring that in too.”
 
She shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t think I left much here, did I?”
 
“Don’t think you’ll be spending enough time here to want some of your own things?” Spike cocked his head and tried to keep his voice calm and casual, but his clenched fists had obviously not escaped Buffy’s notice. 
 
She sighed, and gestured for him to sit down. When he had gingerly perched on the side of the bed, his back stiff, she kicked off her shoes and jumped onto it, landing cross-legged and facing him.
 
“Oi! That’s no way to treat our—my—new mattress!”
 
Buffy sighed again.
 
“Okay, first of all, it’s our mattress. So if I wanna bounce on it, I will.  And second of all… what the hell is wrong with you?”  She didn’t wait for him to reply, ignoring the growl building in his throat and continuing, “I can’t live here, Spike. You know that perfectly well. For crap’s sake, last night it was your idea for me to sleep at home. All I’m saying is that is my home. For right now it is. So that’s where my stuff is. You helped me carry it all out of here, remember? And that’s where my mother, who would like to think she’s part of my life, lives and expects me to live too.”
 
“What do you mean ‘for right now it is’? Does that mean you might…? Not that I'm asking, mind you, but if I did—”
 
“Out of all I just said, that’s what you heard?”
 
“It’s the important part,” he said, peering hopefully at her from the corners of his eyes. “What did you mean?”
 
“I mean, I’ll be out of high school in a few months, and if I do decide to try college here in Sunnydale, I’d be moving out anyway to live in a dorm, so if Mom gets used to the idea that I don’t live with her anymore—except maybe on vacations….”
 
“Well, alright then.” Spike turned around and flopped down on his back, reaching for the hand that she snatched away. He twitched when Buffy untied his boots and pulled them off. When she tickled his feet, he growled but it quickly turned into a smothered giggle as he tried to keep them away from her. He kicked feebly, but Buffy’s grip on one leg was too firm for him to pull it away while laughing so hard. She slid her hand up his leg and began pulling the hairs on it.
 
“Stop that!  I mean it! I’ll…. Oh, that’s it, missy….”
 
With a genuine growl, he sat up, grabbed her shoulders, turned them both and pinned her to the bed. With his mouth on her neck, he began sucking as hard as he could, turning her indignant sputtering to happy murmurs as she relaxed under him. When he stopped sucking and raised his head, she opened her eyes.
 
“You stopped,” she said, a disappointed pout on her face. She wriggled against him and raised her eyebrows questioningly. He laughed and kissed her nose.
 
“I did. Just thought it might be more fun if you were naked.”
 
“Are you going to be naked too?”
 
“There’s that unnecessary question again,” he said. “One day you’ll figure out that if you’re going to be naked, I’ll be right there with you. Every time.”
 
“Always?”
 
“Always.”
 
“Well, okay. Then why do we both still have our clothes on?”
 
“Because somebody distracted me from my plans for the evening by tickling my feet,” he said, growling again. When she caught her breath at his growl, he repeated it, saying in his best bedroom voice, “Or maybe you were just tryin’ to get me to growl?” 
 
Buffy didn’t answer him verbally, only wrapping her arms and legs around him to feel the vibrations against the places she wanted them.
 
When the sounds she was making told him she was close, he latched onto her neck again and sucked in rhythm with her needy whimpers, bringing them to a quick conclusion. He kept his mouth on her, kissing and licking her throat while she regained her normal breathing.
 
“Wowie, wow,” she breathed. “If growling and sucking my neck can do that, I surprised I wasn’t dead a long time ago.” She squirmed out from under him so he could help her out of her clothes. “I’ll bet there’s nothing in the Slayer Handbook about how good that feels.”
 
“Bloody good thing there isn’t,” he chuckled, tossing her jeans and underwear on the floor and sitting her up so she could shed her shirt and bra. “There’d be new slayers popping up all the time.”
 
Buffy snorted her agreement and began pulling on his shirt.  “Off. Now.”
 
“Bossy bint,” he muttered, his smile and quick obedience making it clear he wasn’t really objecting. While he pulled his shirt over his head, Buffy was unzipping his jeans, which he quickly kicked off. He pushed her down on the bed, saying, “Now where were we?”
 
“We were here—” Buffy quickly flipped them over, and sat up on his thighs. “Except you were being all growly and sucking guy, and now it’s my turn.”
 
“You can’t gro—” Spike’s voice broke off when Buffy leaned in and fastened her mouth on his throat, just where she’d learned drove him crazy. “Bloody hell, Slayer, you know what that does to me.”
 
“Mmmmph,” Buffy said around her mouthful of Spike flesh.
 
She’d had to slide up his body to grab his throat, which put her just where Spike wanted. He grabbed her hips and lifted them, bringing her down onto his cock. Between Buffy’s sucking on his neck, and his own more than ready body, he was soon arching into her and growling again. A renewed attack on his neck, made Buffy’s appreciation for it very clear, and it wasn’t long before they were both vocalizing their pleasure. Buffy’s accidental bite as she clenched her whole body, drew blood to her lips.
 
She rolled off and sighed, raising her hand to wipe her mouth, surprised when Spike stopped her.
 
“Let me, love,” he said, leaning over her and licking his own blood off her lips.
 
“That should seem ickier than it does,” she said, sighing in happy satisfaction. “I’ll probably think it is when I’m feeling less….”
 
“Less what? Appreciative? Slayerish? Sexy?  Stop me when I get to something you aren’t feeling.”
 
“You are so full of yourself!”
 
“Know what my lady likes.”
 
“I do not like biting you!”
 
“For somebody who doesn’t like it, you do it often enough,” he said, laughing when she tried to hit him without actually sitting up.
 
“Hmph,” she snorted. “I don’t like it. It’s just a… a side effect of the things I do like. That’s all. They just kind of go together.”
 
“Like you and me, yeah? We ‘just kind of go together’ nicely.” He rolled on top of her, his renewed interest more than obvious. She opened her legs to allow him to slide in, putting her own legs around his hips and holding him in place. “You see? We fit together perfectly.”
 
“We do,” she murmured her agreement as they began to move together. “We really do.”
 
“And we always will, love. I promise you.”
 
The End
 
 
 
 
 
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