And It Was All Very Real

Spike had to be bright red. Embarrassment was something that he rarely felt and he knew, at that moment, he was making up for that fact. Willow's hair was probably pale in comparison to his face. Where was a handy Slayer when he needed one?

Besides the one on his lap, that was.

"Er, I can...bugger." Spike blew out a quick, purposeful breath. He looked everywhere but at the woman sitting on him. Were the stars always so nice?

"Um, you don't have...," Buffy trailed off. She continued to stare at her lap, her fingers curled around the front of his shirt.

"Bloody hell, I don't know if I should apologize or not," Spike said, looking down from the sky and out over Sunnydale.

"Do you want to?" Buffy asked quietly. "Do you wish you...we...it...didn't happen?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"Cor, I would have done everything so different if I would've known you were real. Fuck, I'm such a wanker."

"You mean, you'd still want me?" Buffy asked. She raised her head to look at him with confusion.

Spike dropped his gaze to hers with astonishment that she'd ask such a thing. "Hell yes! I've wanted you for months, then I started having these bleedin' nightdreams about you and I was so bloody disappointed every time I found out you weren't real..."

He stopped speaking slowly, as if he just realized she was there. He lifted his right hand and brushed it along her cheek. "You are so very exquisite. How could I have not realized that I love you?"

She looked at him, her eyes filling with wonder. "If I'm having my own nightdream, please don't let it end."

Spike would always swear that his heart started to beat when he pressed his lips to hers. Joy filled him to the breaking point as his mind wrapped around the fact that she was real, she was in his arms, and she was kissing him back. They sat entwined together on the hilltop, and each kiss they shared grew more passionate; each sigh, more poignant; each whispered endearment, more touching.

Spike laid back on the hard ground, pulling Buffy on top of him, his hands sliding under her leather coat to encircle her waist. He held her close to him, purposely inhaling the scent of vanilla, cinnamon and power that always surrounded her. Their tongues danced together, stroking and caressing and tasting one another.

Buffy broke the kiss to stare down at him and he had to swallow heavily when he saw the emotions storming in her eyes. He didn't know when he lost control of what was happening between them. He only knew that one moment, he felt the intense necessity to breathe and the next, he wouldn't have been able to draw a purposeful breath if his unlife depended on it, when she pressed her naked body to his.

On the hilltop where they'd both suffered; in front of a mansion that held heart-wrenching memories; over-looking a small town they fought side-by-side to protect and would never escape from; they made love under the stars.

And it was all very real.

End