Part II - Inhuman Heart

Buffy roamed the empty streets for hours and got nothing. Even after squeezing Willie’s throat and threatening to shut down his bar for good, she had absolutely no leads to go on.

As she walked, stake in hand, she decided to give another go at it and headed towards the Sunnydale Cemetery.

Two hours went by and… nothing! She sighed audibly. Just as she was about to turn on her heels and head home she heard a squeaking sound, a sound that had become familiar to her since the night before.

She silently moved in the direction the sound came from and crouched behind a small bush for cover. There it was, moving frenetically in circles while squeezing its hands together.   

“Me no bring book. Master be angry. Me dead. Me no bring book. Master angry. Me dead. Me no…” He went on and on.

Buffy smiled to herself, she had to admit that was probably the cutest little demon she had ever encountered. She didn’t know if she would ever have the heart to slay it if it ever came to that.

“What a cute little demon…” she thought, but as she realised she was actually liking a demon, she scolded herself “Demon equals bad, not cute. Specially one that is probably a minion to an evil ‘ritual performer’. Get it through your thick skull, demons are evil, not cute, not sweet, not sexy, not hot, not… Ok, now I’m not thinking of little ET anymore. Concentrate, Buffy think about slimy, don’t think about…”

“Spike!” she whispered as she noticed the crouching creature next to her. “What are you doing here?”

“I live here. You always seem to forget that.” He answered. “And why are we whispering?” he continued.

She pointed at the funny looking creature pacing around frantically.

“What’s with the scrawny slimy midget?” Spike asked, unfortunately he forgot to whisper and was heard by the demon. It immediately stopped and looked straight at Buffy’s eyes.

Instinctively she jumped towards it and was able to catch it for a few seconds, but the ooze that covered its skin made it slippery and it managed to escape.

“See what you did? Why can’t you just keep your mouth shut for one second?” Buffy yelled at Spike as the creature disappeared from their sight.

“Hey, no need to shout, Slayer. I’m sure the little bugger isn’t that dangerous.”

Buffy exhaled forcefully, as if trying to get rid of all her anger through her nostrils, and just stared at the vampire.

“You got your hands covered in that things goo.” Spike remarked.

“Really? I didn’t even notice.” She answered, sarcasm dripping off every word.

“You’re in a very healthy mood today, needing a round of kick to Spike to cheer up, is it?” he continued with a trademark smirk.

“That wouldn’t be a bad idea at all.” She threatened “But I’ve discovered that when dealing with you, the best thing is to just ignore you, so goodbye.” She started walking a way, stumbling a bit.

“You ok, Slayer?” he asked half mocking half concerned.

“I’m fine.” She continued her path, which was getting more and more wobbly.

“You don’t seem to be.” He followed her when he noticed her falter in her stride.

“Ignoring, ignoring, ignuooorin’.” She recited her mantra in a drooling tone.

“Why are you talking like that?” he asked, frowning at her as he walked beside her.

“Ignuoooorin’, ingnuo..ring” she continued, somehow it seemed harder and harder to say that word.

“Slayer?” he finally got enough of it, stopping, grabbing her arm and forcing her to face him. “What’s with you?” concern was now the dominating tone in his voice. Something was seriously wrong with her; she was acting like… like she was drunk. “Are you pissed?”

“Yes, I am. I hate youuuu.” She mumbled her lips barely able to articulate the words.

“Not pissed angry, luv, pissed as in drunk? Did you have a go at the old tequila bottle?”

“I haven’t had a go at anything and I won’t for a loooooong time.” She answered with a pout.

Spike smiled at her little innuendo. She looked so cute when she was drunk.

“Here, I’ll walk ya home, can’t have you stumble your way there, now can I?” he offered.

“No! I don’t need your help, I… I want to get this gunk out of my hands…” and right then and there she started bawling her eyes out.

“Slay-Slayer…” Spike stuttered, “Oh bugger all, she’s not gonna start crying now, is she?” he was completely lost; he never knew what to do when she cried. All of a sudden every move he made seemed out of place, awkward. He reached hesitantly to put a restless strand of her hair back in place behind her ear. “Don-don’t cry. We’ll get you cleaned up in a jiffy.”

“I smell, it smells bad, I’m all slimy and-and” she inhaled sharply as a wave of hiccups assaulted her.

“Settle down, it doesn’t smell at all.” He tried to calm her as he guided her stumbling body towards his crypt.

“And-and…” and yet another attack of the hiccups assaulted her as Spike opened the door to his crypt and made his way to the underground compartment of his home.

“Shh…”

“And it-it’s yucky…” she continued to protest as Spike turned on the faucet and helped her clean her hands, in a very similar way that Dawn had done months before, on the night of Buffy’s come back.

As she watched him carefully tending to her dirty hands, Buffy had an instant flashback of that night. She couldn’t help it and restarted her wailing.

“Wha-what did I do?” he thought out loud.

She tried to answer but the suffocating mixture of sobs and hiccups prevented her from uttering a word.

“Calm down, sit here.” He offered pointing to the edge of his new bed. “Shh, shh, shh.” He mumbled sitting next to her, his arms reaching to caress the small of her back.

“Get away!” Buffy cried out standing up. “Don’t think just because I’m a little depressed and you’re being all sweet, and-and nice and-and gentle and sweet…”

“You said sweet already.” Spike reminded her, a sly smirk back on his lips.

“Whatever! Don’t think that anything’s going to-to” she stuttered as her index finger alternated between pointing at him and at herself. “You know…”

“No, I don’t know.”

“This thing” the finger still dancing between them “is NOT going to happen!” she tried to turn around and leave but a sudden loss of balance made her fall flat on her behind. “Ouch!”

“You ok?” Spike was on his feet and crouching next to her in a heartbeat.

“I’m fine!” she spat as she struggled to get up.

Spike tried to help but soon all there was was a mush of limbs. Buffy’s arms were flying around, attempting to hold onto anything but the annoying vampire kneeling next to her, Spike’s hands were trying to grab her in order to help her up and the Slayer’s legs were kicking up at everything, specially Spike.

“I don’t need your help, I can get up on my own.” She said as she struggled to stand.

She finally seemed to be standing up but alas, once more, gravity won over and as she held onto Spike for support, he too came tumbling down right on top of her.

“Hey, watch it Slayer, don’t damage the crown jewels.” Spike protested as one of Buffy’s legs came too close to his groin.

“Ha! I don’t think you can call those semi-precious stones… Hick! Let alone the crown jewels.” Buffy mocked between hiccups.

“Well, that didn’t seem to be your opinion a few weeks ago when…” Spike’s voice trailed off as their proximity dawned on both of them.

They laid there for a few seconds, just staring at each other. Buffy’s hiccups subsiding and being replaced a rapid breathing. The feel of her body under his, her breath on his face, her eyes on him just made his brain switch to autopilot. Slowly, as if to give her time to back away, he let his face fall closer to hers until his lips brushed over her.

Buffy felt the oh! so familiar felling of butterflies in her stomach and a cold tingling going from her mouth directly to the warm and moist stop between her thighs. She parted her lips, inviting him in and he did.

He captured her upper lip, nipping it lightly and drawing it into his mouth. Buffy moaned in pleasure and inadvertently pushed her hips against his, feeling a familiar pressure on her stomach.

As the kiss grew in intensity, hands came into play. As Buffy rested hers on his waist, Spike’s framed her blushing face.

He broke the kiss and gazed at her intensely. All Buffy could do was stare back at him, her chest raising and falling at a frightening pace.

“God, Buffy I’ve missed you so much!” Spike confessed with an ephemeral breath. His eyes were wide and conveyed such truth to his faltering voice.

The moment was perfect in every aspect. The room seemed to fade away along with all the qualms, doubts and uncertainties of a troubling world. In that peaceful emptiness there was no vampire, no slayer, just two spirits linked together by something greater than either of them.

Yet, the instant was broken by the screeching sound of a door opening.

“Spike, you here?” a familiar male voice was heard. It was Xander.

Buffy’s body went into autopilot. As the Slayer took over her actions, she pushed Spike off her and spat out:

“Don’t EVER come close to me EVER again.” And she turned on her heels heading upstairs.

Spike just lay there on the floor. His eyes welled up with aching tears which threatened to course down his pale cheeks at any moment. But, as he had learned a long time ago, he pushed them back and swallowed hard. And with clenched teeth he replaced the hurt and humiliation with anger and hate. He stood up abruptly and followed the object of his hated affection to the upper floor of his crypt.

“Buffester! Thank God I found you!” Xander announced, but seeing Spike he added: “What are you doing her Buffy?”

Buffy exhaled sharply more annoyed than embarrassed by his question:

“I found skinny ET, tried to catch him, got slime on my hands and came here to clean up. What’s up?”

“Well, Willow found out something big and important. Seems the world’s ending again.” He said matter-of-factly.

Buffy started heading towards the door when she noticed Spike was following. She was about to say something but Xander was quicker and hissed:

“Where do YOU think you’re going? We don’t need you.”

Spike just stared, he expected Buffy to say something in his defence, but she just stood there, in silence.

“Fine, I’ll just stay here and watch telly. Don’t come crying to me when you’re at the sharp end of a demon’s enchanted sword.” Spike snarled back, obviously referring to the night the scoobies got trapped in the Summer’s residence.

Xander had no smart comeback for that one. He actually felt a bit guilty as he remembered all the times the vampire had helped out during the summer that Buffy was… gone. He had actually become one of them, but the Slayer’s return changed everything, all of a sudden it was mandatory to hate him again. He didn’t really understand why, but that just seemed to be the rule.

Without another word, Buffy and Xander stepped out and headed for the Magic Shop.

***********************************

“You’re gonna have to run that by me again Willow. What do you mean inhuman heart?” Buffy asked confused.

“That’s what it says. I’m almost positive.” Willow answered looking at her notes once more. “From what I can gather, ET’s master wants to summon the power of the first Slayer and use her as his warrior. For that he needs” she scrambled through the notepad and quoted: “an inhuman heart which has – and this I haven’t translated properly yet, but I think it means - “have” or “possess” - Slayer blood.”

Everyone looked at each other.

“So all we need to do is get our hands on this inhuman heart and the bad guy will come to us.” Xander announced with a witty grin.

“But first we have to figure out who owns this heart.” Tara pointed out.

“No need. I already know who it is.” Buffy said matter-of-factly as she made her way out of the Magic Shop.

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