- 3 -


Buffy was happy—really happy. She was happy like she hadn’t been since before she had been called as the Slayer, which was insane really, especially since she was effectively making a home with a vampire who had been trying to kill her for months before the final battle with Angel and Drusilla. Yet despite that and everything else that had happened recently, she couldn’t keep the smile from her face or her body from bopping to the music Spike had blaring from their new sound system in the next room as she pranced around what would be their new living room once the furniture they had ordered was delivered.

Buffy let out a sigh of contentment as she looked around the room. It would be exactly what she had always imagined she would want her home to be. Open and spacious, yet still warm and inviting and the furniture they had chosen was simple and comfortable, rather than works of art you weren’t sure if you could sit on. Everything was clean and modern, but with a Tuscan feel to it, the colours keeping it from looking plain.

Buffy began to hum along brightly to the music as she turned to look at the samples of curtain material they had chosen. She tilted her head to the side as she held them up to the freshly painted walls trying to match the best colour. She needed something that would not only look good, but also keep enough sunlight out so Spike could frequent the room during the day. At the same time, she didn’t want to make the room too dark by choosing a colour that completely obliterated the light altogether. Biting her lip unconsciously, she switched the samples around trying to get a feel for how they would look once they were up.

“What do you think?” She asked suddenly, without turning away from the sample.

The quiet demon who was fixing the glass in the living room doors that led out to the small courtyard startled at being addressed by the Slayer. “Sorry?” he asked unsurely.

Buffy turned to face him with a friendly smile. “I asked which colour you think suits the walls best?” she repeated as she held out the samples so he could see them. “I want something dark enough to keep out the sun without completely darkening the room. I was thinking this one, what do you think?”

“This so Spike can walk around during the day?” the demon asked. Buffy nodded.

The demon frowned as he contemplated the oddity of the situation for a moment. The Slayer asking a demon for an opinion on which curtains he thought likely to best protect her vampire companion from dusting. “I’d probably go with the cream. It’s dark enough, plus it’s a neutral colour so it’s more likely to match everything else in the room.”

Buffy looked down at the cream coloured sample in her hands before holding it up to the walls again. “Yeah, I think you’re right. Thanks,” she said with a smile.

“No problem. It’s Clem, by the way,” Clem replied with his own frightening version of a smile.

“Buffy,” Buffy returned, cheerfully unperturbed by his show of teeth.

Clem nodded. “I know, you’re the Slayer,” he said as he watched her flit around the room in a deliriously happy state. It was an odd sight to witness.

“You know,” he slowly began, unsure whether he was crossing some invisible line, “there is this glass you can get now which is vamp safe. Spike could walk around with the curtains open and not get fried to a crisp. It’s pretty expensive, but if you’re interested I could cut you a pretty good deal and install it for you. That way you wouldn’t have to worry about which curtains you put in, right?”

Buffy turned to face the baggy skinned demon completely. “What do you mean vamp safe glass? Are you sure it works?”

Clem nodded. “I’ve seen the stuff in action. It looks like normal glass but it has a coating over it that protects vamps from the sunlight during the day.”

Buffy chewed on her lip as she thought of Spike being able to stand in the sunlight, even if it was behind protective glass. She could just imagine what he would look like standing in the sunlight again. When had he last had the chance to feel the warmth of the sun on his face? Plus it would mean they could have the curtains open during the day, which would keep the house warmer, seeing as the whole structure was made from stone.

Buffy frowned contemplatively. “How much are we talking? It sounds expensive.”

“It is,” Clem agreed. “But I’ll do the whole house for a grand if I get the added bonus that if we ever cross paths again after this, I get your word that you won’t slay first and ask questions later,” Clem said holding out his hand.

“One thousand? For the whole house?” She clarified. Clem nodded. “As long as you’re not attacking or killing an innocent being at the time, then you’ve got yourself a deal,” Buffy said as she clasped his hand in her own and shook firmly.

Buffy looked back down at the curtain samples in her hands again. “Well in that case, I think I like the one with the gold trim along the bottom better. What do you think?”

“It looks great, pet” Spike said as he entered the room. He nodded in Clem’s direction as he crossed to Buffy’s side.

“So you like it then?” She said holding the pattern out to him.

“I told you, pet, it looks wonderful,” he said, returning her bright smile.

“Well it’s your house too, I want you to feel comfortable in it,” Buffy said truthfully. After all, she’s just agreed to pay a demon an extra grand so that Spike could walk around in his own home without having to worry about danger from the sun.

Spike smiled at her. “I will, I promise.”

“How is the bathroom coming along?” Buffy said as she extracted herself and moved to set the samples down, separating her chosen pattern from the rest.

“Not bad,” Spike replied as he watched her sort through colours and patterns. “I recon it will be done in a day or two. The plumber is finished and the last of the tiles are being laid. They’ll take a few days to dry, but once that’s done then it will be ready for use.”

“Oh, yes! No more sneaking into smelly school locker rooms to shower,” she breathed with a sigh of relief.

Spike chuckled. “Smelly to say the least.”

Everything about her had him absolutely smitten. From the way her nose scrunched as she talked about having to shower in her school locker rooms, down to her near incessant nesting since they had had started work on the mansion or the cute way she had tied her hair back in a head scarf to keep it off her face while she worked. They had gone clothes shopping, while they had been out shopping for furniture and she had taken delight in dragging him from store to store in search of the necessities she should need in so far as clothes since she wasn’t going to be going home to pick her old clothes up. In the end, they’d practically purchased a whole new wardrobe, including the tiny denim shorts she was currently wearing and the plain white tank top that clung loosely to her figure.

“The very least,” she said as she straightened up again. She smiled brightly at Spike who still stood staring at her. “Anybody home in there?”

Spike smiled and slipped an arm around her waist. “I came in to tell you I’d ordered Chinese for dinner. You hungry?”

“Ravenous,” she replied as her stomach seemed to growl on cue. “What did you get?” she asked as they made their way out to the kitchen where he had laid their food out along the counter top.

“A bit of everything; I wasn’t sure what you liked,” he said as he pulled out a pair of wooden chopsticks and unsnapped them.

“You know how to eat with those things?” Buffy asked as she lifted a piece of sweet and sour pork into her mouth. He moaned as the flavour seemed to explode in her mouth. “Yummy.”

Spike smirked at her indulgently. “They’re easy to use once you know how. I spent some time in China over the years and seemed to pick up the talent pretty quickly.”

Buffy nodded as she bounced around the counter to pull out a fork and dig into the fried rice. “You know I never asked how come you still eat human food. I can’t say for certain since Angel didn’t like to eat in front of me, but I don’t think he ever ate human food aside from a coffee now and then.”

Spike snorted. “I like the taste is all. It tastes different to when you’re a human, but the taste is still there. Angelus was all about being the respectable vampire and respectable vampires didn’t eat a diet that included human food.”

“But vampires do usually?” Buffy continued.

Spike shrugged. “Some I guess, but I’ve always been a little bit different. Probably due to the fact that my sire was a few sheep short of a flock.”

Buffy went quiet at the mention of Drusilla. It had been a few weeks since their demise, and Spike rarely talked about her. She didn’t know how to react when he mentioned Drusilla’s name, but it made something inside her coil up tightly as if ready to strike. If she thought about it rationally, she’d say it was jealousy, but then she had no right to be jealous of Dru. She had no claim over Spike. They were friends, nothing more. Not to mention the fact that it was stupid being jealous over someone who was dead.

“Yeah, maybe,” she said finally as she kept her gaze firmly trained on her meal. “You know what, I’m kind of tired and the furniture is arriving in the morning. I might head off to bed and get an early night.”

Spike frowned at her sudden change in mood. “Yeah, okay, pet. Are you all right?”

Buffy looked up at him with big eyes. “Me? Yeah, of course. I’m just feeling tired all of a sudden. Did you need some blood before I go?”

Spike shook his head. “I’ll be alright until tomorrow.”

“Okay, then. Night,” she said as Spike watched her turn and practically run from the room. He was contemplating going after her and finding out what was wrong when the demon that had been working in the same room as Buffy walked into the kitchen.

“Trouble with the Slayer?” Clem asked.

Spike sighed and pushed himself up onto the counter top. “Who knows. She was fine one minute and gone the next. You finished?”

Clem nodded. “I’m done for the night. I’ll be back again tomorrow morning to look things over once more.”

“Alright,” Spike said as picked at the left over food on the counter, ignoring the demon standing before him.

“She cares for you, you know,” Clem said eventually. “It wasn’t so much the colour of the curtains she was concerned with earlier, but whether they’d provide enough protection for you. Doesn’t matter now though, she wants me to install Necroglass throughout the place so you can walk around during the day without going up in flames.”

“Necroglass?” Spike asked in confusion.

Clem nodded. “It’s special stuff. Like normal glass but it protects guys like you from burning into a crisp during the day. It’ll save you from having to draw the curtains all day long too. Anyway, I’ll see you folks again tomorrow,” Clem said as he nodded to the blonde vampire sitting stunned on the counter top and made his way out of the mansion.

Spike barely noticed the demon leave. His thoughts were with the petite Slayer who was sleeping peacefully in their bed somewhere above him. He was indescribably touched at the knowledge that she cared enough to want to protect him. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been protected by anyone.

Absently, he cleaned up the mess in the kitchen and put the left overs from their meal in the fridge, before swiftly making his way up the stairs. He could tell she was sleeping when he entered the bedroom from her deep even breaths so he stripped quietly and slipped into the bed behind her, moving close enough to wrap his arm around her middle. He drifted to sleep happy, with the familiar feel of the heat from her body warming his own.


AN: I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Thanks to Slackerace for the beta, as always. My work would be a nightmare without you to tidy it up :D. And thank you to everyone who has commented so far *hugs you all*