Roomies

Awaking in a strange room disoriented Buffy for a few moments. Spending a few more seconds snuggled against Spike; she pushed herself up feeling her head in trepidation. Sure enough, it felt like she hadn’t met a hairbrush in a month. Pushing herself into a sitting position slowly so she didn’t disturb Spike, she crept out of Dawn’s room, turning the shower on as hot as it went.

Stepping under the scalding water, she sank to her knees, letting the water pound on her shoulders as she wept.

Dragging herself out of bed, Dawn spent a minute watching Spike fumble for Buffy in his sleep, his hand patting the vacant spot on the blankets beside him. Stifling a giggle, she left him to it, her belly rumblings getting the better of her.

Buffy stood and switched off the shower when she heard her name being called. Rubbing furiously at her puffy bloodshot eyes she took the phone that was held out to her and shut the door again. By the time she’d spoke to Willow about what had happened and heard all about Willow and Oz’s night, Spike was up and about. Getting dressed in some old clothes from the back of her closet she braved a look at her room in the light of day.

The room was utterly wrecked. This would take ages to fix, new carpets, paint, clothes were nothing to the memory of seeing the words of graffiti across the walls and the cold hearted act of senseless vandalism that had ruined her holiday.

The fact that her things were ruined was nothing compared to the fact that someone she thought she knew had done this in bitter spite.

She was disturbed from her thoughts by Spike. He had come to see how she was as he hadn’t had chance to speak to her that morning and wasn’t surprised to find her in the bedroom. Standing back to give her some space, he waited until she noticed him before he spoke.
“You ok pet?”

She smiled, shrugged her shoulders half heartedly. She desperately wanted to tell him. Just let it all out and explain how she was feeling but knew if she started she might not stop and didn’t want to say anything to offend him or make him feel bad about what had happened, both between them and with Riley.

Thinking back to the start of college she realised how into Riley she must have seemed, getting dressed up to go on dates and chattering non-stop to her friends. Now she was happy with Spike, she hadn’t seen her friends in days, the only communication being quick telephone calls. She hadn’t been to the rink in weeks and hadn’t done anything except lie around with Spike.

Realising that for her to have a healthy relationship with Spike, they both needed some time to themselves and private thoughts and time apart would do them no harm, she made up her mind. To cheer herself up she would get out for the day, spend quality time with Willow and Xander and get some skating practise in now that Christmas was looming closer and closer, it would soon be February.

Spike leant against the door jamb, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips as he tilted his head slightly and watched Buffy as she lost herself in her thoughts, his eyes clearly showing the emotion she was so afraid of admitting aloud. He knew she loved him, it shone clearly through every action she made, every word she uttered, yet she was sop scared of saying it that it made him wonder what had happened in her past.

Gripping the door tighter as he realised that there was probably some other wanker just as stupid as this Riley bloke in her past. Telling himself that he was her present and future he let go of the door, letting her know he would be waiting for her downstairs when she ready he left her with her thoughts.

Watching from a distance Anne was proud of the way the young couple were handling themselves. It had taken a while to convince Joyce that they needed to stay together last night but she had, in the end, relented and allowed them to stay together on Dawn’s floor. It really wasn’t as though the young girl had no idea about her elder sister’s relationship or that Buffy and William wanted anything more than just the comfort of being together after the shocking events of the evening.

It was appalling the lengths that some people would go to hurt other people she marvelled. The young man she had spied through the window only the day before had seemed brash and arrogant, but she had brushed him off as harmless, certainly not someone capable of such petty vandalism. Feeling proud of her son for helping Buffy to realise that this man was no good for her, she smiled at him as he entered the room.

“Hey.” Spike greeted casually, his hands straying to anything to keep busy. Picking up an orange and beginning to peel it, he kept his back to his mom, not wanting her to question him on anything. He had gotten the sense that Buffy wanted to be left alone with her thoughts, but he didn’t want to have to think about what that meant.
He didn’t think he could face it if she wasn’t ready to commit to him. Shaking away the thoughts he was greeted by Joyce as he left the kitchen.

“William?” Joyce called after the young man, he was apparently oblivious to her calling. Placing her hand on his shoulder he jumped defensively, “William?” She smiled as he relaxed, “Would you mind helping me today?”

Joyce’s proposal far more interesting that sitting around waiting for Buffy to be ready to talk to him, Spike jumped at the chance, grabbing his jacket and calling goodbye he followed Joyce out of the door.