full 3/4 1/2   skin light dark       
 
The Bloody Awful Poet by slaymesoftly
 
One-shot
 
Title: The Bloody Awful Poet
Prompt: Greeting card
Summary: Spike has a unique way of letting Buffy know he survived NFA...

The Bloody Awful Poet


Sword in hand, although concealed behind her back – No sense ns spooking the neighbors – Buffy opened the door and stared at the empty space. Too wary to step outside into the darkness, she reached for the porch light and illuminated the small cement stoop in front of the narrow house. Something fluttered in the open door, landing at her feet. She used the point of the sword to pull it closer, then bent her knees and picked it up, never taking her eyes off the empty space outside.

Huh, a card? Buffy stepped back and turned the envelope over in her hand. The handwriting was eerily familiar, although old fashioned and not from anybody she could imagine knew where she was. She tore open the thick, lined envelope and gasped when the beautiful card fell out. Although the lovely drawing on the front of the heavy card, and the delicate lace decorations were clearly manufactured, the inside was blank except for a hand written message. She smiled when she realized it was a poem, and began to read, fully expecting something sweet and sugary to go with the beautiful handwriting and card.

"Roses are red, violets are blue,
You're lovely covered in demon goo.
You won't believe me, I've been a wanker
But for your touch, I'll always hanker.

My dead heart your beauty long since slew,
And now your favor, I needs must woo.
I'll be bearing gifts and bottled wine,
If you say you'll be my Valentine."


Buffy gaped at the card, her brain refusing to believe what she'd just seen.

"That has got to be the worst poem I have ever seen!"

"Not one of my best efforts, I'll admit. But I mean it all the same."

She whirled, the familiar voice floating in the open door making her gasp in disbelief.

"Spi... Spike?"

He stepped into view, a bottle in one hand and flowers in the other. His eyes were sunken in his head, his blade-like cheekbones in sharper relief than she'd ever seen them. Although his voice was strong, he swayed on his feet as he waited for her to recognize him.

"Buffy? Love? Much as I'd like to sweep you off your feet right now, I think I'm goin' to need to sit down first...."

He toppled forward, the flowers and wine dropping to the carpet in front him while the invisible barrier prevented him from following them to the floor. Shaking herself out of her shock, Buffy rushed to grab him under the arms, saying, "Come in, Spike."

His full weight fell onto her shoulder as the unconscious vampire tumbled through the door. Buffy dragged him to the couch and laid him down, putting a pillow under his head before going back to close the door and pick up the flowers and wine. She set them on a table, adding the card before going back to sit beside the man she'd thought had died again trying to save the world.

The reports from LA had been grim. Wesley dead. Fred long gone. Gunn dead, Angel and Spike missing and presumed dust. Only the Old One that had taken over Fred's body was unaccounted for, although stories from eye witnesses said she had opened a portal and pulled all the demons in, closing it behind her.

Buffy had searched the burned and battered alley for days, but finally had to admit that there was no way to tell if any of the dust coating the floor belonged to either of her vampires. She'd shed her tears, then gone back to her life and the small house she'd bought in Rome.

She sank down beside the still body and ghosted her hand over his thin and battered face. At her light touch to his cheek, his eyes fluttered open.

"Hello, cutie."

"Hello, yourself," she whispered back. "You're here."

"Where else would I go?"

She shook her head, unable to speak as he put his arms around her and she curled up beside him, her head on his chest.

"Where else would I go?" he repeated before lapsing into unconsciousness again. The last thing he heard was Buffy's muffled, "I love you, you stupid vampire."




The End