Epilogue

Buffy's 28th birthday; Buffy and Spike's 10 year anniversary

"No pants! No pants!" cried a curly-headed three-year-old who ran starkers out the back screen door onto the sand.

"Nooo panz…nooo panz," his little brother echoed as he ripped off his diaper and followed suit.

"Jamie… Charlie… You need to get dressed boys," Buffy sighed as she followed the boisterous pair outside.

"No pants… no pants… no pants…," they chanted, dodging their mother as she stood on the beach with a cocked eyebrow, holding the disregarded shorts and diaper in her hand.

Of course, it was only natural that Buffy and Spike's sons would be as averse to confinement as their parents, although the couple was now much more discrete about their more intimate activities. Shagging on the beach or in the kitchen, or hell, even getting felt up under the tablecloth at a restaurant was a rare event with a pair of toddlers running around. Of course, Buffy and Spike wouldn't trade them for the world, but Buffy did have plans for the night, which included their rambunctious offspring spending the night at the sitter's.

If she could manage to get them dressed again, that is.

"Where's the birthday girl?" Spike called from inside the house.

"Out here, Daddy," Buffy called from the sand.

Spike smiled at the difference in the moniker when including their young sons in the conversation.

He grinned, the pair kicking up sand as they made laps on the shore.

"Oh, you are a wily one," he scooped up their younger son, letting Buffy refasten his diaper before she took the squirming toddler from him.

"Nooo! No panz!" Charlie wailed.

"Yes pants," his mother corrected, "It's almost time to go play with your friends," she soothed. Charlie finally relented and laid his blonde head on Buffy's shoulder.

"And the other one," Spike nabbed Jamie in a football-carry, toting him back inside to get dressed, his bare bum still sandy from the beach.

Buffy latched the screen door after her family came in.

"Don't want pants, Daddy," Jamie pouted, inheriting his mother's bottom lip.

"You want to go play with Benny and Pablo like we talked about, right?" Spiked coaxed, reaching out for the discarded garment from his wife with one hand, while brushing the errant sand onto the tile with the other.

"Yeah…," Jaime conceded with his lip still pushed out, curling his nose in distaste as he stepped into his Batman underwear.

"Then you have to put on pants, little man. OK?"

"OK, Daddy," he huffed, running off for his shoes after his dad helped with the button and zip.

"You didn't need any help today?" Buffy inquired, sending their younger son off to follow his older brother.

"It was Mrs. Garcia's fifth. I was only there for the catch and clean-up," Spike grinned. "Besides you shouldn't have to work on you birthiversary…or is it anniversday…. I'm not sure which."

"Cute," Buffy replied drolly, but then she noticed the artfully wrapped presents on the kitchen table.

"Ooh, prezzies!" Buffy squealed. Spike chuckled at the fact that some things never changed, except, of course, for the fact that Buffy had finally conquered her fear of birthdays.

"Can I go ahead and open them?" Buffy batted her lashes, still using her coquettish charms after all these years.

"Of course, kitten."

Buffy ripped into the boxes, revealing a jade green silk sundress with a flirty, ruffled thigh-length hem and matching sandals.

"Ooh, so cute!" Buffy gushed as she held the dress up to herself.

"Happy birthday, baby."

"Thank you!" Buffy grinned, giving her husband a gracious kiss.

"Now for your anniversary present, Mrs. Giles…"

Buffy opened the other box that contained a sea glass necklace, bracelet and earrings that would go beautifully with her birthday dress.

"How did you know I had been looking at these?" Buffy grinned, wrapping her arms around Spike's neck.

"Keen powers of observation," Spike smirked, letting Buffy claim his mouth in a certain show of gratitude. Breaking the kiss, Spike smiled of his wife of ten years, "Why don't you get changed, we'll drop off the boys and make it to our dinner reservations."

"Won't take me a minute," Buffy predicted even as her husband cocked a brow in incredulity. Spike washed up and changed before making sure their sons were still dressed for the sitter's.

When he entered the sky-blue room, he found Charlie once again trying to rip off his diaper.

"Oh, no you don't," Spike quickly secured the fastenings once more, slipping a clean shirt and shorts on the squirming toddler.

"No, Dadddee, no panz!"

"Yes, pants, because Daddy is taking Mommy out to a nice dinner, and you are going to play with your friends tonight," he tried to explain, all the while knowing that this was a case of the universe biting him in the ass. Charlie took off through the house like a shot once he was re-dressed and released.

Though Jaime couldn't make the snug button fit back through the button-hole, he was putting his all into trying to wriggle out of the khaki shorts that had been foisted onto him.

"Son, please stay dressed," Spike tugged the waistline up to its rightful spot, even though the pre-schooler pouted as hard as his mother ever had.

"Hate pants," he huffed.

"Jaime, please…it's Mommy's birthday and anniversary, so I really want to take her out to a nice romantic dinner, and you two are staying at Benny and Pablo's tonight, remember?"

"Why din't you get Mommy a pony for her birfday?"

"Because I got Mommy what she wanted, not what you wanted, little man."

"What'd Mommy get you Daddy?" Jaime enquired, his blue eyes wide in his innocence.

"Well, I certainly know what I hope I'm getting," Spike grinned without elaboration.

"Are my boys still dressed?" Buffy called as she fastened an earring, stepping to the bedroom doorway, a tropical vision in swirling greens and blues.

"Sadly, yes," her husband teased, referring to himself, alone, after sending his oldest son to go find his baby brother. Spike moved to the doorway, wrapping his arms around Buffy's soft, silk-covered body.

"So, kitten, where's my prezzie?" he growled seductively, nipping at his wife's golden neck.

Buffy didn't bother to mention the vintage guitar she knew he'd been eyeing, tied with a big bow in the corner of their bedroom. No, she knew her husband was asking about an entirely different kind of present.

"Gee, Daddy, I know it's around here somewhere…," she grinned in mocking innocence, smug as she watched Spike's eyes darken in anticipation.

Spike grinned, playing along as he nibbled under his wife's ear. "Is it here?"

"No," she chirped sweetly, waiting for her husband to discover his surprise.

"What about here?" His thumbs rose to toy with her nipples, pleased to find them otherwise bare under the delicate silk.

Buffy had to stifle a moan, enjoying the silk as it teased her puckering flesh, but she still grinned and shook her head. "Nope."

"No?" Spike replied, incredulously as his hands skimmed down Buffy's body, finding the short, ruffled hem, his hands snaking underneath as his trousers grew obviously tight.

The realities of parenthood made it a bit more difficult to indulge in some of the wilder pursuits that typified the earlier days of their marriage. On their tenth anniversary, Buffy wanted to remind her husband that while she may now be a mommy, it was Daddy she was with tonight.

Spike grinned as his fingers met bare, warm flesh, freshly-waxed and perfectly smooth. He chuckled, stating the obvious, "No pants, kitten?"

His wife grinned smugly, knowing how much her husband would enjoy her bare pussy, wet and ready for his attentions all night long. His finger rubbed the cleft of the exposed furrow, teasing the tight pearl underneath the swirls of shimmering silk.

Buffy's smile of sweet, seductive promise was the same one she wore when Spike married her, a decade before. Feigning a playful innocence, Buffy pulled her husband even closer, his finger sliding into her ready, heated channel that promised a night of well-earned satisfaction.

Whispering into his ear, Buffy could only repeat the words she'd heard all afternoon, "No, Daddy…no pants…."