Disclaimer: The pixies tell me that I don’t own the BTVS and ATS characters. However I had a nice little shouting match with them about who owned Ariel and Cat.
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Chapter 27: Kissmas

By the time Buffy was able to coax Ariel back to the house, another shouting match was on in the upstairs hallway.

Valery and Hank were having a spat.

And Spike was livid.

“You can bloody take your soddin’ bickering elsewhere!” steamed Spike.

“Oh excuse me if I don’t get all flustered by a man who thinks he’s a vampire, living with a little girl who has delusions of being a super hero,” taunted Valery.

“Valery,” warned Hank.

“No! I’ve had it! She lets them get away with murder! They need discipline, they need a mother’s love, not some teenager who can’t take care of herself!”

Dawn snorted loudly.

“That is such a crock!” muttered the teenager. “For one, Buffy’s not a teenager, she’s all discipline, and Buffy loves us to death, and I mean literally,” countered Dawn.

Willow hitched Cat further up her hip, and moved to Dawn’s side.

“You can’t blame her for thinking this Dawnie, Valery’s not a Scooby and for all her visions, and the fact that she once told me she knew about Slayers and Vampires, she’s a big faker.”

“Harsh!” said Dawn with a smile.

“Valery?” asked Hank. “Is it true, you knew about all this and you didn’t tell me?”

Valery looked slightly revolted. “Of course not Hank! You’d believe these crazy people or your wife, whom you love?” she said with puppy dog eyes.

“A couple of those crazy people are his daughters and granddaughters, Val,” said Buffy coming up the stairs with Ariel in tow. She and Ariel had been listening downstairs for a few moments.

“You let my baby die!” screamed Valery, sinking to the floor.

The house and all the occupants in it stood still and silent.

After a moment Buffy crouched down on the floor beside her step mother.

“And so your revenge is to take my babies away from me?” asked Buffy.

“It’s been done before of course,” said Anya knowingly, “I’ve done it myself once or twice, the desired results never come though, the children resent you, you don’t love them, it’s a vicious circle really.”

Everyone stared at the Vengeance Demon for a moment.

“What?” begged Anya.

“Perhaps, Anya, we should take a walk,” said Giles, taking Anya’s hand behind him, and leading her down the stairs.

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief when the Vengeance Demon she called a friend left the house.

Hank gathered up his wife and brought her back to their assigned room. And with some pause, the rest of the house hold resumed their holiday activities. Willow and Cat went back to cookie making, Ariel and Oz decorated the tree, Xander and Andrew had never left the basement or the Playstation, but Buffy found herself locked in an embrace by Spike’s strong arms, his soft lips kissing away the tears that she didn’t know had fallen.
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Hank and Valery took a hotel room for the rest of the holiday. Ariel was delighted to get her room back. Valery couldn’t bear to be back in the house again. Her embarrassment was too great. It was Hank alone that returned for Holiday festivities.

And Buffy was just fine with that. She didn’t want anything or anyone to ruin her Christmas with her family. They were happy and healthy, no one was dead, and there was no imminent apocalypse looming.

Plus, Buffy had the dread, that soon, and much sooner than she actually thought, Ariel and Cat were going to have to return to the future. She didn’t want them to go, but if she could just have a Christmas with them, take lots of pictures, maybe the parting would be a little more bearable.

The house smelled like Willow’s cookies, it was decorated with magic lights and mistletoe, leading to much smooching in hallways and doorframes. Buffy had even caught Anya and Giles going at it in the upstairs hallway. It was what Buffy dreamed for her first Christmas away from Sunnydale. Not Giles and Anya smooching, but the closeness of family. Cleveland was home now, and would be for a long time, according to Ariel.

Buffy woke up on Christmas morning to see Spike smiling down at her.

“Happy Christmas, Love.”

Buffy moaned happily.

“Do I get my Christmas present now?” she asked coyly.

“You didn’t get enough Christmas presents last night?” he asked with a grin.

“Well....”

Buffy shifted in bed, and pressed herself up against the naked torso of her lover and mate.

“I want you to bite me,” she whispered against his skin.

With a smile Spike leaned down towards her neck and nuzzled his marks there.

Buffy let her eyes roll back into her head as she gave in to the pleasant sensations coming from her neck. Yes, she wanted him to bite her, she wanted him to mark her, like she had marked herself that he was hers and she his when he was gone.

The thing was that even after all this time, of them sleeping together, sharing the same bed, exploring each other’s bodies, he had never mentioned her tattoos.

Earlier that morning, just as the sun was coming up, she had woken up with her tattoos on her mind. Why hadn’t he said anything? She had pulled back the covers from her nude form and convinced herself that, yes, they were still there.

The railroad spike was still prominently adorning her bikini line, and around her ankle was still written “Spike’s Girl.”

“Spike?” she moaned as his hands spread out over her breasts, pinching just in the right spots.

“Ya, love?” he asked between kisses.

“I love you,” she whispered. She could feel her tears edging over her lashes.

“I know, pet.” Spike stopped his attentions to her lips.

“But how do you know?” she asked very seriously.

“I do know pet, I can feel it through the claim.” Spike looked into her eyes, which were glistening with tears. “Buffy, I know that you love me, I‘ve known since you those words that I thought I’d never hear in the hellmouth. I know because I’m not getting punched in the nose on a regular basis.”

Spike grabbed her wrists and pressed them to the mattress.

“I know because of the way you look at me, the way you defend me to your friends and father, I know because you are you, Buffy.”

“But then... Why aren’t you all observey? You can’t honestly say you haven’t...I mean they are right there...”

Spike smiled smugly. “You mean your tats?” he asked.

Buffy nodded. “You didn’t say anything.”

“The spike? It’s inspired love, and the fact that you’ve got ‘Spike’s Girl’ on your body. Was honoured when I first saw it love.”

“But you didn’t say anything!”

Spike flopped back on the bed.

“Didn’t know I was expected to.”

“Well I expected you to, at some point.”

Spike pounced back onto Buffy’s prone form on the bed.

“You belong to me, Buffy, Slayer. Long after I’m dust and trapped in some hell dimension for all my crimes, I’ll still have your body memorized to distract my tortured mind.”

Buffy tried to smile.

“Cause that makes me feel so much better,” she said. “Kiss me,” she begged.

Spike leaned down and pressed his cool lips to her hot ones, only to interrupted from going any further by a screaming toddler in the next room.

“Kissmas!” screamed Cat, her clapping could be heard as well.

Buffy sighed. “Rain check?” she asked.

“You know it,” responded her mate.
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It wasn’t a bad ‘Kissmas’ after all, despite the serious twinge of guilt Buffy felt for Valery who was sadly spending Christmas morning by herself in a hotel room. Ariel and Cat were spoiled beyond all expectations.

Buffy had come to the conclusion that she was old now, and couldn’t really expect spectacular things from gift giving occasions. Clothes and appliances seemed to be the theme of the holiday. But the present that she got from Giles was freaking her out. It was a small box, didn’t make any noise when she shook it, and Xander, who had been donning the Santa cap and passing out the presents refused to give her that one until the very end.

Sitting on the floor of her living room, with her fifth appliance, a juicer, piled at her side, at last Xander passed her the illusive present. The card was slightly cryptic too.

Buffy,
This little gift is really from the Watcher’s Council, of course being the head of the Council, and honoured as I am to be considered your surrogate father, I’m, pleased to be able to buy my Slayer this particular gift. I’m just glad that you’ll have professional instruction on how to use it.

Buffy raised an eyebrow at Giles who was looking on from Spike’s lazy boy.

After a moment Buffy ripped into the package, drawing out a cleverly wrapped set of keys.

“Keys?” asked Buffy curiously.

The whole room looked at her waiting for her to clue in.

“Car keys!” she finally said bouncing up off the floor and whipping open the front door. There in her driveway was a black convertible.

“I love it!” Buffy gushed, running to hug her watcher.
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Buffy was truly sad when Christmas was over. Hank and Valery left, Valery without any intention of coming back and Hank with a promise of frequent phone calls and invites for the summer holidays. Buffy just smiled sadly. She had a feeling that Hank would never see his grandchildren again. They left the city taking with them their white sedan, heading for California, but it didn’t seem to phase Buffy, or anyone living at the Pinehill street house much. Buffy had a fun new car to drive around, well as soon as Spike taught her how to drive without taking the side view mirrors off the car. She didn’t want this car to meet an untimely fate.


Giles and Andrew left for England just before New Year’s. Apparently the Watcher’s Council had a big formal to do every New Year’s Eve. Anya was in a big huff that she couldn’t go, she had become quite attached to Giles since he had come back to the States. Sure, it had started because she was mad at Xander, and a little because of the Grannie Anya thing, but now it seemed that Anya was in definite ‘like’ with Giles, as Dawn so charmingly put it.

So Anya pouted, until Willow reminded her that she was a Vengeance Demon and could teleport anywhere she wanted.

Without Anya, New Year’s was dull. Buffy, Spike, Oz and Willow went out to a posh club, leaving Xander at home to baby sit. Dawn went to a party with some friends from school.

Xander intended to use this alone time with Ariel to find out exactly what it was that Ariel was keeping from him. Like all the others in the house Xander had asked her not so subtle questions about who he ended up with in the end, how many kids he had, how he died, etc. But every time that he had asked her, she had simply responded that she wasn’t going to tell him, and that he wouldn’t believe her even if she did.

Xander had already surmised that Anya ended up with Giles, and he was ok about it. He was convinced that somewhere out there, there was the perfect woman out there for him, and he would find her eventually, it was just that he wanted to find her first, so that he could make a good impression instead of subjecting her to the spazmoidal first impression that he knew he was going to make.

In the end though, the evening was a bust. Ariel kissed Uncle Xander on the cheek at midnight and headed off to bed, without telling her secret.
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Walking home, little bit drunk, Buffy and Spike held hands in the biting cold wind.

“I miss California,” Buffy complained.

Spike sighed. “We can take the bits and go back, Goldilocks, if that’s what you want.”

Buffy shook her head. “No, Cleveland is home now. I just don’t like the cold.”

“From what it sounds like, love, we are going to be here for a long time.”

“A long time and a lot of children from now.”

Spike nodded.

“Eleven little half slayer half vampires,” continued Buffy with a smile.

“Two of which get turned.”

Buffy’s smile disappeared. “I was hoping that I hadn’t actually heard that,” she said defeated.

Spike sighed and wrapped an arm around his mate’s shoulder. “Love we have to let our lives be our lives. If we start second guessing everything, we’ll end up keeping the lot of them at home.”

“I know, it’s just that, I don’t want my children to be vamps.”

Spike frowned.

“I mean it’s not like I’ve even had these children we are talking about but, I don’t want them to die Spike. I want to be able to have my children and grandchildren around me went I die.”

“Right now it seems that the only what that’s going to happy, Slayer, is if your children achieve immortality like yourself. Being vamped isn’t so bad, if you got the right Sire.”

“Oh like you had the best siring. Drusilla’s a loon and you know it. I’m sure that Angelus wasn’t the caring Grandpa that Giles is looking forward to being. Do you honestly want what you had for our kids Spike?”

Spike knew when he was defeated. “No, I suppose not, Love.”

Buffy smiled. She squeezed his arm. “I know what you mean, all vampires aren’t evil, but what if they end up like Angelus? Or Dru? Or Darla? I don’t think I could dust my kid Spike. Do you?”

Spike shook his head.

“I didn’t think so.”
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tbc...

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