Fighting For Love
Chapter 13
Pairings: Riley/Buffy; Spike/Buffy
Challenge Requirements at the end
Chapter 13
Riley took off after Buffy had left the apartment. He had to find her, there was no telling what the little bitch was up to when he wasn’t around to watch her every move. He stalked her usual haunts, like the Bronze, and even went so far as to ask her friends and watcher if they had seen her but nothing came of it.
Riley wondered were Buffy had gone in a town this size. He walked through the cemeteries with the idea that she might be patrolling but no luck there. He even looked in Spike’s crypt windows and saw nothing of interest. The fucking vampire was probably in the lower level sleeping.
Riley searched the whole town before giving up and going home around midnight. He was too tired to notice a shape in the shadows watching him as he entered the apartment for the last time. When he entered the house Angelus came out of the shadows and headed back to Spike’s crypt through the tunnels.
Angelus had taken the opportunity of Spike’s absence to do a little recon of his own. He made his way through the tunnels to the college campus. Once he went above ground, he sniffed the air until he caught on to Buffy’s scent and followed it to her apartment. He just staked it out for the moment.
It seemed to be a nice enough apartment for college students. It was a small, one-level house with brick façade and arched windows. He watched the house long enough to get a lay of it and watch Riley’s comings and goings, which were frequent for one night. He figured Riley was probably looking for Buffy and gave up around midnight when he turned in. Angelus headed for Spike’s crypt an hour or two after Riley entered the apartment for the night.
Angelus wondered why Riley had given up at midnight. In early years when Drusilla used to disappear for her nightly excursions, Angelus would seek her out until Sunrise made him run for the shadows. Finally, he got sick of chasing her down and let her either find her own way home or find shelter until night came again. It was an abomination to Angelus to stop looking for a loved one until the last vestige of the person’s scent dissipated.
Yet here Riley was giving up at midnight? Spike was right; the idiot didn’t deserve Buffy at all. She was too good for the likes of Soldier Boy. Angelus didn’t much care for anyone really, but family was another thing and if Spike wanted the Slayer and would treat the girl with better respect than Riley is doing at the moment, then more power to his grandchilde. Angelus thought back to all the things he did to torment Buffy and for some reason, Riley’s hands on approach was much worse than his own tactics. Angelus never wanted to physically hurt a girl, just drive her completely around the bend – once or twice.
On his walk back through the tunnels he wondered what Spike and Buffy had been up to while he was gone. Surely Riley didn’t find her tonight, so he was sure whatever Spike did with Buffy it was in a place Riley hadn’t thought to have looked. In his own cruel way, he wondered what Spike had done with Buffy. From what little sexual experience Angelus himself had had with the Slayer it seemed like she had great untapped potential. He wondered his grandchilde could sense it. He figured Spike was in for a surprise when he finally got between the Slayer’s creamy thighs.
Angelus only hoped Spike was smart enough to stay out of trouble; he wasn’t here to waste time helping his grandchilde if the lad decided to be bold in his pursuit of the slayer with Riley prowling around town looking for her.
Spike was still in a good mood when he returned to his crypt. Angelus was nowhere to be seen. Not that it mattered where Angelus went. Spike just hoped he wasn’t getting into too much trouble while he was at it. Angelus made it perfectly clear to Spike why he was here and what he would be staying for – at least for the time being.
Spike fixed himself a glass of blood and eased into the chair and flipped the TV on. Even as he flipped through the channels he wasn’t paying attention to the programming. His thoughts were on Buffy.
Spike thought of the past few hours with Buffy, watching her eat dinner and dessert. For the first time in the past month she was easy going. He could feel the emotions rolling through her the entire time he was in her presence, from before she realized Angelus was in town to dropping her off at her mother’s house.
Spike closed his eyes and imagined how Buffy looked tonight. She was so beautiful, soft, blond hair that framed her face, big hazel eyes, softly blushed cheekbones that got even pinker throughout the night from blushing her embarrassment. He groaned softly when his thoughts turned to the feel of her soft body against his own, her strength just underneath the surface. He was pulled from his thoughts by a scuffling sound coming from the lower level. Angelus is here.
Spike climbed down the ladder to see Angelus coming out of the tunnels. “Where did you go tonight, Angelus?”
“Just a little recon on Buffy’s apartment. Saw Riley out looking for Buffy,” angelus reported. “I hope you didn’t do anything to garner attention, my boy.”
“I was wondering the same about you,” Spike wryly.
Angelus glowered at Spike. It was a look that said “you should know better than that”.
Spike shrugged. “I just took her to eat like I promised and bought her a frozen yogurt to eat in the park and took her home to her mother’s right and proper. That’s all, ‘dad’. I swear.” He smirked at Angelus.
“Riley was out until midnight, one could only think he was out looking for Buffy, William.” Angelus tried to appeal to the man Spike had once been to be cautious.
“I hear you, Angelus. I know the risks of being seen with her at this point. I was careful,” Spike assured him, taking a sip from his glass of blood.
“Good. ‘Cause I’m not here to bail you out of every scrape you get into,” Angelus reminded him, plopping back on the bed feeling tired, missing the glower he got from Spike, but not the feeling of irritation that rolled off the younger vampire.
Spike always hated this part about Angelus. It wasn’t so much the take charge attitude as the fatherly “do as I say my way or I’ll rip your throat out and end it right here and now” attitude. It might work on Drusilla, but it chafed Spike to the bone. He watched Angelus a moment before shaking the irritation off and tried to figure out how to deal with Riley with intermittent images of Buffy dancing in his mind.
Spike thought of things he’d like to do with Buffy once she was free of Captain Cardboard. He figured he’d try a tactic that even Angelus hadn’t thought of. He would send her small gifts of affection. Nothing real fancy at first, just little sentimental things he knew girls reeled over. Spike wasn’t overly sentimental himself, but the William in him wanted to court her. For his entire Big Bad persona with the world, when it came to his vampire family and now apparently Buffy, he was still William.
Buffy quietly walked into the house smiling. It was like she had a new lease on life after spending just a few hours in Spike’s company. She went to the kitchen to fix a drink and then to the living room to watch a little TV before bed.
Joyce came down the stairs when she heard the drones from the TV and saw her daughter curled up on the couch. She entered the living room. “Buffy what are you doing here?”
“Oh. Hey, mom. Just didn’t feel like going home, it was a long night patrolling and your house was closer so I figured I’d crash here. I hope you don’t mind,” Buffy said.
“No, honey, I don’t mind. Just surprised me is all,” Joyce smiled.
Joyce sat with her daughter and watched The Heiress on AMC. It was an old movie, black and white from the forties, starring Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift.
Buffy stayed with her mother for a week, and even as she received calls from Riley asking for forgiveness for his actions, again, Spike left her gifts on her doorstep – a teddy bear with flowers, a silver chain necklace, and a small kitten she named Goldie because of its eye color. She flourished under Spike’s attention, seemingly happier and more agreeable with her friends and watcher.
Spike also left gifts that were of interest to her mother’s eye for art; rare pieces he had collected for over a century but no longer had any use for. Joyce would take them to her gallery and display them. When asked where she got them, she would smile and say they came from a valued art dealer.
Then came the night that would change Buffy’s life forever . . . .