Fighting For Love
Chapter 6
Pairings: Riley/Buffy; Spike/Buffy
Challenge Requirements at the end
Chapter 6
Buffy quietly opened the door to the apartment, walked in and closed it again. She was trying to be as quiet as a church mouse. She cringed at the loud metallic sound of the bolt of the lock sliding home. She took her coat off, and smoothed her hair out of the way. Touching her face up in the hall mirror, to make sure her eyes weren’t puffy from crying.
“Long night on patrol?” Riley’s voice broke the silence, startling her so much she nearly jumped out of her skin.
“You could say that,” Buffy replied. “Slayed a couple of fledglings. Patrolled a couple of rounds.”
Riley walked out of the dark hallway, into the glow of the nightlight in the hall. His face has a grim expression on it. He’d been waiting up for her for nearly 2 hours. She should’ve been home a while ago. He’d been on patrol with her enough before to know it didn’t take this long. Not for a couple of fledgling HST’s.
Buffy watched him carefully before walking past him into the kitchen. She poured herself an insulated mug of water and then looked for something to eat. Slaying always made her hungry because of the calories it burned up. She looked up at him when she heard his footfalls enter the kitchen.
“Why do you smell like smoke?” Riley asked; his voice colored with suspicion.
“I was –“ Buffy started to explain.
“You were with him.” Riley’s voice was eerily calm. “Even after what I told you. You were with him. Did you even patrol at all?” He advanced on her with each word until only the counter separated them.
“I ran into him while on patrol. That’s all.” Buffy said. Okay. That was another half-truth, but who was counting?
“And you just expect me to sit back and be calm and believe that?” Riley challenged.
“Yes, because it’s the truth,” Buffy snapped.
“Give me a break, Buffy. I wasn’t born yesterday. He’s been hot for you all year. What are you doing about him? Are you eventrying to get rid of him?”
"What harm could Spike do, Riley? He has a chip in his head that – I might remind you – your Initiative group put in him and flipped the switch. He’s harmless.”
“Oh so you think because that damn chip makes him harmless that he won’t hurt you? . I helped you when that vampire turned that stake around on you. And you paid me back by spending the night with Spike in a dark alley?” Riley accused.
He chuckled maniacally at her shocked look. “Yeah. He told me about the Slayer-reenactment talk. How you “danced” with him outside the Bronze,” Riley growled.
“That wasn’t hurting me. He was showing me how he killed the other Slayers. I needed to know why I let that 1 vamp best me, Riley.” Buffy explained. “He’s the only one Giles and I knew who had killed slayers and could tell me what went wrong.”
“So why haven’t you killed him yet?” Riley inquired. “You got the information you needed, why not dust him?”
“Because he’s no longer a threat. You Initiative boys made sure of that,” Buffy reminded him.
Riley shook his head adamantly. “No. No! That’s not it. He has a hold on you like Angel does. Am I correct in thinking that you’re being passed from one vampire to another? You’re the goddamn Slayer, Buffy. You’re supposed to stake the HST not date and then fuck the soul out of them!” Riley yelled, grabbing her by the arms and shaking her.
Riley was taught one thing in the Initiative anything that is a demon is evil and should be dealt with accordingly. Vampires were demons and they were to be “de-fanged” and studied and then eliminated when their corpses were of no use. Vampires were not to be made into boyfriends and sex toys. Yet, here was a vampire slayer and she not only had the vampire boyfriend but also gave her virginity up to him willingly. And now, another vampire wanted to take his place. Well that wasn’t happening. Not to his girlfriend.
It seemed the more he thought this out, the harder he tightened his hands around Buffy’s arms until she cried out. To think she had slept with a vampire and is probably leading Spike on just fueled his rage even more. God, he couldn’t even look at her without imagining Spike’s hands on her. He growled again before finally just cocking his fist back and slugging her in the eye. He was so blind with fury he didn’t realize why her eye was bruising.
“God, Buffy, it makes me sick to my stomach. You make me sick to my stomach. To know you allowed an HST to touch you. That another man’s hands, let alone that of a vampire have been on your body.”
He whirled her around and literally picked his booted foot up and pushed her ass toward the door of the kitchen. “Go take a shower. I can still smell Spike all over you. You better scrub really well because I REFUSE to sleep in a bed that smells of his rotting stench.”
He turned away from her as she ran from the room sobbing. He gripped the edge of the sink trying to calm his anger. Buffy was driving him crazy. He didn’t know whether to fuck her or beat her. She was going to be the death of him. She and that goddamn bleach blond vampire. He just knew it.
Spike was standing in the shadow of a tree in Buffy’s side yard. He couldn’t see much from his vantage point, but he heard them arguing, could sense her rising fear, and heard the punch. But couldn’t tell who hit who. He ground his teeth thinking of her with Captain Cardboard. Soldier boy didn’t even know what he had in the tight, built little package that was Buffy.
Spike smiled fondly as he remembered his first fight with the Slayer. It was magic. They were so perfectly matched in fighting skill that they danced. She was the best Slayer he’d ever met. That’s one of the reasons he couldn’t kill her. She was a great fighter. It was more fun to fight with her than to kill her.
But now, Captain Cardboard had her and she wasn’t evenly matched with him. He out-weighed her and had scientifically enhanced strength, whereas she was the Chosen One. She may have demon in her to be able to fight vampires, but Soldier Boy was created to be expendable. Spike knew Buffy wanted a normal boyfriend, but she was the Slayer, and her talents were wasted on the corn-fed Boy Wonder from Iowa.
Buffy turned on the shower and quickly undressed. Once it was hot enough, she stepped into the shower. She let the spray pelt her skin until it was as red as a lobster. She took up a sponge and lathered it in soap.
She stepped under the hot spray and scrubbed face, neck, arms, chests, breasts, and stomach. She scrubbed everywhere until her skin was raw from the roughness of the sponge. For ood measure, she washed and rinsed her hair at least 4 times.
She leaned her face into the spray and let the water wash away her tears. God, what was happening with her life? She stood under the spray letting the events of the night go through her mind, then, turned the water off.
She grabbed a towel off the door of the shower and dried off. All she wanted to do was cry herself to sleep after this harrowing day. She stepped out of the shower and went to the sink to brush out her hair and clean her teeth.
After she was finished in the bathroom, she climbed into her side of the bed and hugged the padded railing. She shuddered when she felt Riley’s side dip under his weight. She was wide awake when she felt him roll toward the center of the bed. She shrieked softly when he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her back up against him.
Riley grabbed her breast roughly in one hand and squeezed while the other wrapped tightly around her waist, his fingers shoved between her thighs to cup her mound. When she tried to squirm away from him and scoot to the safety of her side of the bed he refused to let go.
“Stop it,” Riley barked. “If you’re sharing a bed with me, then you will sleep with me. No more hiding on the other side of the bed. Don’t even think of inching away from me.”
Buffy finally gave up the fight and tried to relax as best she could and sobbed softly as she let the silent tears fall, drenching her pillow before drifting off to sleep in the steel grip of Riley’s arms.