Inhuman Hearts

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~*Inhuman
Hearts*~

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 abo 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?”
“YI amI 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 thisk ouk out of my hands…” and right then and there she started
bawling her eyes out.
“Slay-Slayer…” Spike stutd, d,
“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.
“ dow 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 caoo coo 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 Burestrested 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.
momemoment 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.