Panic lanced through Buffy's newly rediscovered heart at seeing that the vodnik had found them.

"We were going to let you keep your unlife, vampire, since you're such a rare find," the Concluder said.

Spike spun around and put himself between Buffy and the vodnik at the sound of his voice, which was exactly what Buffy didn't want him to do. She looked around frantically for a weapon, her eyes coming to rest on the tin cup sitting right beside them on the floor. There was still liquid in it, and it looked like it had started to rust on the inside. Hopefully it had been soaking long enough to destroy it.

"But we need that Slayer soul," the vodnik continued. "And we can't take her heart when it's so anchored to you. Luckily, she's already revealed the only way to ruin that heart once and for all."

As the Concluder raised the stake up high, Buffy pulled every last ounce of energy she had in her exhausted body and coiled it in her leg, releasing it just before he could bring the stake down on Spike. She kicked the tin cup hard, sending it flying right into the vodnik's face, snapping his head back from the impact. The punctures weakened by rust gave way, bursting open into little holes all over the cup and letting all the liquid contained inside spill out.

"No!" the Concluder cried out, catching the ruined cup in his hands. It wasn't going to be holding anymore liquid any time soon.

Buffy instantly felt the after effects of the spell wear off, as strength surged through her body. She quickly leapt to her feet and gave the vodnik the strongest kick she had. He went flying across the restaurant and into the wall of liquor bottles behind the bar, before he fell to the floor out of sight behind the bar counter.

"Better watch your drinking problem," she said. That joke was so bad even Buffy felt the sting of it. Maybe she should give her heart more time to recover before she jumped headfirst back into the quipping game.

Spike grabbed her hand and tugged. "Come on, let's get outta here."

"No, we gotta take this guy down once and for all," Buffy said, turning on the lights in the main dining room from the switch on the wall behind her. "Or he'll never stop coming after my soul."

"Love to, pet, but we don't have the slightest idea how to deal with this tosser."

Buffy looked around the restaurant frantically, her eyes coming to rest on the hibachi stoves. She ran over to one, turning on the unit. "Help me turn on all these stovetops," she told Spike.

Spike looked from her to the other tabletop stoves in the restaurant, realization dawning on his face. "You know I burn too, love," he said, flipping the switch on the unit next to her.

"You'll just have to be very dodgy," she replied, moving from stovetop to stovetop.

Just as they had the last unit on, the Concluder stood up from behind the bar, a highball glass in each hand. His whole body was soaked, like he was leaking water from every pore.

"Breaking the cup only breaks the spell, you airhead," he said, the sound of his voice coming out almost like a gargle. "I can use any cup available for my magic, and you led me to a restaurant, of all places."

He swirled the glasses in his hand, making them somehow fill with the shimmery liquid from the bottom. Once they were full, he flung the liquid out towards Buffy and Spike, forcing them to dive behind the hibachi stove counters.

"So," Spike said to Buffy, grabbing a couple of chef's knives out from the table underneath the hibachi stove. "Should probably smash every glass we see."

Buffy opened her mouth to answer, but then stopped short when she saw that more vodniks were rising from the wet spot on the floor where the shimmery liquid had landed. Instead of all looking like the Concluder though, there were a bunch of copies of the Seeker, the Refiner, and the Joiner.

"Oh, you guys again," she said, springing up and giving an effortless kick to one of the Joiners before ducking back down. She did a double take when the Joiner didn't explode in a splash of water like they had in the battle at the Bronze. He had instead only rippled, his splashy insides protected by some sort of rubbery coating, almost like a jellyfish. "Well, darn," she said. She pushed a rolling cart full of spatulas into the open space of their table enclosure, setting them up with a nice little table fort.

Another splash landed just in front of one of the stoves, and more vodniks started to rise up out of the puddles on the floor as Buffy kicked the nearby vodniks, trying to get past the cart blocking off their little
space.

"We gotta take out the Concluder's glasses before we figure out the rest of these guys!" Buffy urged Spike.

"Can do," Spike replied. He stood up lightning fast, slicing at a vodnik's gut that was blocking his aim. The vodnik doubled over, giving Spike a clear line of sight to the Concluder. Spike held the dual chef knives up straight for about half a second, before letting them fly, smashing right into the glasses in the Concluder's hands. The Concluder hissed at the shards of glass that pierced his hands, and Spike ducked back down while he was distracted.

"Right, what next?" Spike asked, snatching a pair of metal spatulas from the rolling cart and turning to Buffy. For a moment she could only look at him with her mouth agape.

"God, I want you so bad right now," Buffy replied.

Spike bit his lip and grinned, lunging towards her. "Save that thought, kitten," he whispered, before nibbling on her earlobe. Buffy let out a squeak in a pitch she didn't know she was capable of, then pulled back.

"Wait, you threw the knives," she said. "We could have used those with all these vodniks."

"The spatulas don't throw as well," he replied, standing up from behind the counter. "But I bet they'll get the job done with these stir fry." He spun the spatulas on his fingers like a couple of six-shooters, before smacking a charging Seeker hard across the face with one, his face rippling from the impact.

Spike jumped up on the table, legs spread wide to avoid standing on the stovetop, and began kicking back any vodniks that charged towards them. Buffy jumped up behind him to look around the restaurant, her eyes landing on the vodnik Spike had slashed across the stomach. He had his arms wrapped tightly around his midsection, trying to hold back a torrent of water flowing from his gut. He looked like he was slowly deflating as the water poured to the floor.

"Spike!" Buffy called. "Try to cut off one of their arms or something!"

As a Refiner climbed up onto the table to try to get to them, Spike grabbed the demon's arm and brought the sharp end of the spatula down hard on his bicep, slicing the arm off entirely as it cut through the rubbery membrane. The vodnik cried out in pain as his arm landed right on the stovetop, exploding in a burst of steam as it quickly evaporated.

"Yuck," Buffy said, stepping back from the steam to avoid inhaling any. "Turn on the hood."

"Get some fresh air in here, shall we?" Spike said, flipping the switch on the range to help clear the air.

Water poured out of the injured vodnik's shoulder wound, and he seemed to melt and deflate for a couple of seconds until he just dissolved entirely in a splash to the floor.

Buffy leapt over the stovetop to an adjacent hibachi table, and grabbed a pair of spatulas herself. "Time to cut the cake," she said.

"S'more like a jello, really," Spike said, slicing off the head of another vodnik.

"Look, I'm still rusty with the quips, OK?" she said, slashing out with a spatula to catch a vodnik in the thigh, dropping him to the floor.

Spike and Buffy began slicing up vodniks, not even bothering to finish them off as the water poured out of them onto the floor. Blunt hits like punches or kicks were basically as useless as hitting a water bed, but the metal spatulas did just fine at cutting through their protective barriers.

A clinking sound got Spike's attention, and he turned to see the Concluder pulling out some more glasses from behind the bar.

"The Concluder's 'bout to make some more, babe," Spike called to Buffy. "You gotta take out the papa jellyfish while I hold off the jelly beans."

Buffy's focus zeroed in on the Concluder, the fight around her seeming to slow down as she scoped him out. He had wrapped some paper bar napkins around his hands, but they were pretty clearly leaking water. He could probably be taken out the same way as the rest of the vodniks, he would just be stronger and faster and could do who knows what with the magic juice in his cups.

Buffy was resolved to finish this. She was weaker than she'd ever been when taking on a big bad, she had been under a massively affecting spell only a few minutes before, and she only had a tiny bit of heart to give her courage. But comparing this fight to the fights in her past life was pointless, she wasn't that person anymore. This was her new life now, and she had never felt stronger since being revived. Even the tiniest splash of love that she felt was better than the emptiness that usually haunted her. And she was going to draw on the strength that love granted her for everything it was worth.

Buffy spied a decorative scroll hanging from a pole stand near the wall, so she snatched it up, tore the scroll off, and snapped the hanging bit off the pole. "Yay, new weapon," she cheered.

She approached the Concluder slowly while he was trying to get a more solid grip on the glass with napkins wrapped around his hands. He was so distracted that Buffy was able to swing the pole down and smash the glass in his hand, startling him out of his task.

"Well, that was just rude," he said, looking up at her.

"So is trying to destroy my heart and take my soul," Buffy countered, moving closer now that he didn't have any liquid to throw at her.

"You got us there," he said, holding his hands up in submission. "Listen-"

Before he could utter another word, Buffy swung the pole sideways at him as hard as he could, sending the Concluder flying out from behind the bar and away from the easy supply of glasses.

"So we guess you're not interested in talking about the nature of the human spirit anymore?" he asked, standing up.

"I did my own homework," Buffy said, moving towards him. "And I'm sick of your spells being the price of that info."

The Concluder managed to grab the pole as Buffy got closer, yanking her forward and hitting her hard in the chest with the palm of his hand. Buffy flew back and landed on her side, the wind totally knocked out of her and the pole lost to the demon.

He hit hard. Harder than Buffy could. And there was something in her pocket poking uncomfortably up against her hip. Buffy caught her breath when she remembered Spike's gift. She could use this. But only if she could just get the Concluder over to one of those stoves...

Buffy rolled to her feet and dashed to the nearest stovetop, shoving some vodnik's out of the way in the process. The Concluder casually meandered after her as she dove towards one of the carts, snatching up a pair of spatulas.

"You know, we don't really see the point in holding on to that tiny scrap of love," the Concluder said. "You have miles to go before you can fully recover. Wouldn't it just be easier to give up now?"

"You're an idiot," Buffy said, trying to maneuver them so that he was nowhere near Spike. "Why would I give up at the start of an amazing cross-country journey right when I hit the road? If anything I would just have to backtrack to make sure I locked the front door before starting out again."

The Concluder stopped in his tracks and squinted at her in confusion. "What does that even mean?" he asked, shaking his head at her.

"I don't know..." Buffy shrugged. "I'm not good with metaphors!"

Buffy swiped out at his jugular with the spatula while he was confused, only for him to catch her by the wrist and slam her down face first on the table, inches away from the stovetop.

Apparently he was faster than her too.

"There is another way to take a person's soul, though it's fairly distasteful," he said, looming behind her as he twisted Buffy's arm up behind her back. "As the soul is leaving the body after being killed, it's up for grabs. You're not giving us a lot of choice here. We really don't like killing."

Buffy panicked, not because she was afraid that the Concluder was about to kill her, but because she saw the look on Spike's face. It was the one that told her he was about to charge over and help her, and she knew that the Concluder would rather take the option of destroying Spike instead. She had to act fast.

"Well I got no problem killing demons," Buffy said, flinging her legs up behind her. She ended up flipping both her and the Concluder onto the table, with his left arm landing right on the stovetop. He shrieked that horrible gargling sound as his arm immediately started steaming. There was a loud hissing sound, and Buffy looked up to see the left arms of all the vodniks evaporating away at the same time. Everyone in the room froze in realization, and Spike and Buffy looked at each other for the span of a single heartbeat.

Before she could react, Spike dashed towards Buffy, dodging and weaving through the horde of vodniks. Buffy could practically feel her heart seize as the Concluder sat up and faced Spike with murderous red eyes. She realized all too late that he had a pair of wooden chopsticks in his hand. She had to take this guy out now.

Buffy pulled the wood tipped spiked knuckles out of her pocket and hastily slipped them on her hand. Spike's eyes went wide at the sight of them, forcing him to change course at the last second so that he dove towards Buffy instead of the Concluder. Buffy flipped off of Spike's shoulders as he landed harmlessly on the table, and landed a spiky punch right in the Concluder's jugular. He let out a gurgling cry as water started to pour out of the side of his neck, bringing his hands up to try to stop the flow. Buffy gave him one last kick to the face while he was distracted, planting him smack in the middle of the stove.

The scream coming from his mouth sounded like a tea kettle whistle as the rest of him evaporated on the stove top, the remaining vodniks turning to steam along with him. Buffy hissed and pulled back when she realized her leg was still on top of the Concluder, and had now come into contact with the hot stove as his body disappeared into thin air. She scooted back off the table and nearly fell onto the floor butt first when her back collided with Spike.

For a very brief moment, she felt like she was back in that dream where he was there in the coffin with her, the sense of panic threatening to overwhelm her. Before she could dwell on it, Spike spun her around to wrap his arms around her in a tight embrace.

"Buffy," he breathed into her hair. "They're gone. Gone for good."

She released a heavy sigh of relief, happy to have landed in Spike's arms after the whole crazy ordeal. "I don't have to worry about drowning anymore," she said. She only just realized that in that last moment to take down the vodnik, she was more concerned with keeping Spike safe than herself. She really did love the rude punk.

"No, pet," Spike replied, shaking his head. "I'll keep you afloat. Let's get you home."

"Yeah, I'm totally beat," Buffy said. "I wouldn't mind curling up in bed for about a hundred years."

"Dunno if I can keep away from you that long."

"Well, you could curl up with me," Buffy offered, sensing her adrenaline starting to fade. "I could use a big spoon." Buffy could practically feel him smiling into her hair.

"I make a damned good spoon," Spike said. "You'd have found that out by now if you could ever sit still for half a second."

Buffy's vision started to darken again, but this wasn't like the effects of the spell earlier. She just felt like she was running on fumes and her exhaustion was starting to catch up to her.

"I hope you don't mind carrying me to bed," she slurred, right before she passed out completely.

Buffy woke up from the sun shining in through her bedroom windows again, and she was met with a pleasant lack of disappointment at having to open her eyes. Or at least, she wasn't disappointed at first, until she realized Spike wasn't in the bed with her. She was pretty sure she had felt thoroughly spooned as she slept the rest of the night away, so where had he gotten off to?

She immediately got to work getting cleaned up and dressed so she could head downstairs. She was glad that she had made some effort to make herself look presentable, because pretty much everyone was waiting for her downstairs in her living room, even Harmony and Jonathon. Everyone that is, except Spike.

"Buffy! You're awake!" Dawn cried, hopping up from her seat when she saw her sister coming down the stairs. "Spike told us about what happened with the Concluder. You're still you, right? He didn't manage to sneak away your soul without Spike noticing or anything like that?"

"Nope, still regular ensouled Buffy," she replied with a weak smile as her friends all stood up and crowded around her. "Is Spike still here?"

"You were asleep for about three days, and we ran out of blood," Xander replied. "He went to go pick up some more just before sunrise. I think he mentioned needing to check on something too, I dunno. He was doing that cagey British thing."

"Buffy, are you gonna be OK?" Willow asked, stepping closer. "Spike said the last spell was pretty rough on you."

Buffy sighed and sank down on the couch. Her friends were worried about her again, and that concern still felt like a heavy weight on her shoulders. Her first instinct was to smile and just say that everything was totally OK. But that little shred of heart she had kicking around in her chest wanted her to open up instead.

"There's... something I haven't told you guys," she began slowly, as everyone else took a seat around her. "When you brought me back from the dead, you didn't bring all of me back in one piece. I came back without a heart."

"Oh god..." Willow murmured, looking like she was about to cry. Tara took her hand and looked back at Buffy with pleading eyes, silently begging her to continue.

"So that's why..." Xander said, letting himself trail off.

"Why what?" Buffy asked.

"Why you're able to be... involved with Spike," he finished. "Your heart wasn't in it."

"No, I'm able to be with Spike because he loves me," Buffy corrected. "He's actually helped me get a little bit of my heart back. It's not much, but it's there, and that's thanks to him. All this time, he was giving me his heart without asking anything in return."

"Um hello?" Harmony interrupted. "A vampire's heart doesn't beat. You'd think the Slayer would know that."

"Harmony, why are you still here?" Buffy asked.

"Well I figured my assignment to get you information wouldn't count if you got killed," she replied.

"Well, I'm alive," Buffy said. "You can go now."

"It's daylight outside," Harmony complained.

"Fine, whatever," Buffy replied. "Just stop talking."

"We weren't asking anything of you Buff," Xander insisted, getting back on track. "No more than Spike was."

"You sorta were," Buffy replied. "You wanted assurances that I wasn't different," she said to Xander. "Peace of mind that I was OK," she continued, looking at Willow. "And inclusion in what I was going through," she finished, turning to Dawn.

"I just wanted my sister back," Dawn said. "You were acting so different."

"Because I am different," Buffy said. "My heart was missing. I was filled with this... crushing emptiness, and most days I felt like I was drowning. At first I thought I was just broken from dying a second time, but the Joiner at the Bronze told me my heart was gone, and his spell let me feel Spike's heart for proof of what it felt like to have a heart back. All the research we did the other day just clarified stuff."

"Buffy... I'm so sorry," Willow said, the tears flowing freely now.

"It's OK, I'm getting better. Tara, you were right," Buffy said, turning to her. "The heart is kinda like a cup. Mine had been emptied and punched full of holes, so it couldn't hold anything in, didn't want to let anyone in. Spike kinda snuck in when I wasn't looking and had been helping me patch those holes up until I could hold a little bit of love."

"But why Spike?" Willow asked. "Why couldn't it have been us you let sneak in?"

"I think... it's because I had never let Spike in before," Buffy said. "I had always seen him as this monster that wasn't capable of loving me, that I was safe from loving him. It made me let a little bit of that guard down, and by the time I realized his love was real he was already in."

"So how do you get the rest back?" Anya asked. "You just... hang around Spike a lot?"

Buffy was quiet, unsure of any answer other than what that little bit of feeling in her heart was guiding her to. "Sifting through all these clues about what it means to be human, to have a heart, a soul, and memories... I realized something," she began. "I'm not defined by what's wrong with me. There's more to me than the pieces that I'm missing, so I still have a lot left to give. And just because I've been damaged, doesn't mean I can't try to heal, to get my heart back."

"We want you to get your heart back," Tara encouraged.

"And I will," Buffy said. "By giving it away."

"How does that work exactly?" Xander asked.

Buffy shrugged. "I have to be willing to love again. Even when I can't. Even when I want to hold on to my bitterness, I just have to stop and let everything in. I have to be willing to feel. To not hide from you all anymore. Because I can't heal if I'm internalizing."

Buff stood up from the couch, and spread her arms out wide. "So this is me, reaching out. Asking for your love again. To make up for the lack of mine, until I can give it back."

"Oh Buffy," Willow sobbed, before flinging herself into Buffy's open arms. Everyone else followed suit, surrounding Buffy in a giant group hug.

"Do I get love too?" Jonathan asked, standing tentatively outside the circle of hugs.

"No," Buffy, Willow, and Xander all said in unison.

"In fact Jonathon, now that the vodnik is gone, you don't really need to hang out here anymore," Buffy replied. "You should probably think about leaving once you have all your things in order."

"I like straightforward Buffy," Xander said, his voice muffled from the middle of the group hug.

Though Buffy wasn't exactly comfortable, for the first time in a long time she didn't feel suffocated by her friends. And that was a step in the right direction.

Buffy couldn't find Spike anywhere. She had dressed up in her gingham red dress and cape and added some sexy lingerie and white thigh length garter stockings, intending to see if she could thank him in a very special way for helping her take out the vodniks. All she had found in the graveyard were a couple snarky vampires that were promptly staked for their inappropriate comments.

He wasn't in his crypt, he wasn't hanging around the graveyard, and he wasn't anywhere around the Bronze.

Buffy had actually given up and plowed through the back door of the Magic Box to take out her frustration on the punching bag. Except that Spike was there, his duster tossed aside, currently wailing away on said punching bag.

"There you are!" Buffy exclaimed, throwing her hands up in frustration.

Spike released a heavy sigh and put his hands on the bag to stop it from swinging. He turned to face her with a look of resignation. That is until he saw what she was wearing. His hands tightened on the punching bag. His jaw dropped and his eyes went wide, while his eyebrows drew down to appear deathly serious. He looked like she just told him he had gotten her pregnant.

"What-" he paused to clear his throat. "What ya wearin' there, pet?" he asked.

Buffy gave him a coy smile. "This old thing?" she asked with a cutesy shrug. "Just my little red riding hood Halloween costume from a couple years back. I wondered if you might want to play the Big Bad one last time before I make you serve the side of good forever."

Spike's hands tightened on the punching bag so much that the chain snapped, and the bag hung loosely in his hands. He looked back at the bag in embarrassment before tossing it aside, and turned back to Buffy.

"I, uh... I thought you were with your friends," he said. He looked like he was straining to stand still.

"I was," Buffy said, taking a step forward.

"And... And it seemed like a good time to tell them everything," Spike continued.

"It was," Buffy replied, taking another step. "I did."

Spike broke eye contact to look at the floor, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Figured the only way you would tell them about your heart was if I wasn't there for you to lean on," he said quietly. "Sorry 'bout not being there when you woke up."

Buffy stopped advancing on him. "Ooh, that's a dirty trick," she said, crossing her arms. "But I guess it worked. You were definitely the first thing on my mind when I woke up and I wasn't looking forward to seeing my friends."

"So how'd it go?" he asked, looking back up at her.

"Good. Great," Buffy said. "We're all gonna heal together now," she added with a shrug.

"I'm glad Buffy," Spike replied with a casual nod of the head. "You should probably go back to being with them."

"OK, what's the deal?" Buffy asked. "I thought you wanted me to open up to them."

"I did," he said. "Was bound to be the best way for you to get through all this black water. But I'm never gonna like being a part of that group."

"You don't have to," Buffy said, taking another step closer. "You just have to be with me."

"I'd like nothin' better," he said, turning away from her. "But you've got a bit of that sunshine back. I can smell it on you, this intoxicating forbidden scent that I can't have. It was never meant for me. You should be with your fellow flower children."

"You're an idiot, you know that right?" Buffy said, putting her hands on her hips.

"What-" Spike sputtered, turning back to her. "I'm trying to do right by you here!"

"Well, you're doing it wrong," she replied.

"I'm trying to let you blossom and grow and all that rot," Spike countered. "To give you your space."

"No, I want you filling my space." Buffy cringed. "That sounded way different in my head." She sighed, stepping towards him once again until she was standing right in front of him. "Look, a while ago, you said I had a dark current running beneath my surface. Which is funny because the vodniks were water demons, and filling a heart is kind of like filling a cup with water. It's like it's all connected or something."

"You've got a bright ray of sunshine piercing that water now," Spike said pointedly.

"Just... let me get this out, OK?" Buffy said. "I've had a lot of revelations over this whole thing." She took a deep breath and put her hands on his shoulders, looking him in the eyes.

"Water is life," she began. "It's movement, it's energy, it's nourishment. Maybe my stream of consciousness is a bit darker since I've come back from the dead, and I've wanted to reject that. Reject my new self because it wasn't who I was before I died. But for me to grow my heart back, for me to ever love my friends again... For me to fully love you. I have to love myself. And be OK with the fact that I'm never gonna be the old bubbly carefree Buffy ever again."

Buffy slid her hands up to his neck, relishing the feel of his skin against hers. "Even if I get the rest of my heart back, I'm always gonna be darker than before," she said. "But a dark current is still better than no current at all."

Spike took in everything she said, his face a mixture of concern and hope. "What do you mean the rest of your heart, love?" he asked.

"I think I got a little piece kicking around in there," Buffy answered with a one-shouldered shrug. "The part that loves you. It's not much, and I don't know if I'll ever get it all back. But what I have, I hope you'll accept." She smiled sweetly at him. "Because I do love you."

Buffy was yanked forwards as Spike's hands suddenly appeared on her hips, and his mouth was pressed against hers in a passionate kiss.

Holy cow was his kiss amazing when a pinch of love was added to the mix. She had felt it before, when the Joiner's spell had let her feel Spike's heart. But this time it was her own love coloring the kiss, and it made it even more incredible. There was definitely a fire cracker in there somewhere. She could only imagine the firework show that would grow into as her heart healed.

Spike pulled back, resting his forehead against hers. "Have I ever told you I love you?" he said, his voice thick with emotion.

"Only like a million times," Buffy grinned. "In a million ways. I don't think you can look at me without your eyes pouring out adoration."

"You'll never get rid of me now," he said, his lips dipping down to plant soft kisses along her jawline.

"Spike," Buffy breathed, suddenly remembering her human husband from when she was under the spell. "Can I make love to you?"

"Don't exactly need to ask, pet," he murmured against her throat. "We make love all the time."

"No, we have wild, frenzied, heat of the moment sex," Buffy corrected, pulling back to look at his face. "I want to be gentle. I want to worship your body. I want to love you."

Spike looked like he had just seen heaven. "Oh," he said simply.

"Can I?" Buffy asked again.

"Y-yeah," he replied, almost shyly.

Buffy guessed Spike didn't get a whole lot of intimacy from the heart, what with most vampires being soulless and heartless.

Buffy smiled softly at him and untucked his shirt, pulling it off over his head. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him softly just below the jaw, licking and nipping at where his pulse would be if he were alive. She moved down to his collarbone, planting kisses every inch of the way, before continuing on to the corded muscles in his chest.

Spike's chest was heaving with unneeded breaths, and his hands were gripping her hips so tightly it almost hurt. He might have been restraining himself from that wild sex frenzy she had mentioned earlier. Maybe she was asking too much of him to hold back while she was wearing the red riding hood outfit.

Except there was something really exciting about getting to torture him like this.

Buffy pushed him down slowly to the ground, letting her skirt ride up as she straddled him so he could get a peek of her sexy garter stockings. He definitely noticed, since the bulge in his pants she was sitting on twitched beneath her.

Spike leaned forward to kiss her, but Buffy put her hands on his shoulders to push him back down. He hadn't made it to her lips, but he had captured the tie of her cape with his teeth, and slowly pulled it undone so that the cape slid off her bare shoulders. The look in his eyes as he undressed her with his teeth was so fiery that it drove Buffy a little crazy, and she scratched hard at his bare chest. His responding growl was pure animal.

"Sorry," Buffy breathed, leaning down to kiss his chest again.

"Don't apologize for enthusiasm, love," he replied, putting his hands on her thighs.

Buffy let her hands slide down as she kissed and licked at his chest, absolutely loving the feel of his abs against her fingers. She lifted up her hips as she moved her hands down to undo his belt, and Spike took the opportunity to sneak his hands up her thighs and tear her underwear away. He didn't waste any time in massaging her right where she needed him most.

Buffy moaned at the sensation, and instinctively bit down on his chest. Hard.

At Spike's reactionary groan, Buffy sat up. "I'm sorry," she said, breathing heavily. "I can't seem to stop myself."

"Why are you trying to?" Spike asked with an incredulous smirk.

"Because I want to be gentle," she replied. "To show you I love you."

Spike sat up with her to get closer to her face. "Love doesn't have to be gentle, Buffy," Spike said. "Love can be every bit as painful or kinky as you want it to be. Don't force yourself into a little vanilla box just because you think missionary is the most pure form there is. If you want to be an animal in the sack because that's how the Slayer shags then I'm more than willing to keep up."

"So... biting, scratching, hair pulling?" Buffy asked. "You're OK with me loving you that way?"

"Just basic foreplay," Spike said with an amused tilt of the head.

"Hmm," Buffy mused, sliding her hands behind his head to play with the hair at the nape of his neck. "What about hitting and spanking?" she asked.

Spike pulled Buffy forward and began slowly nibbling on her neck. "Just don't pop me in the nose and I'm game for anything." He found the zipper on the back of her dress and carefully pulled it down.

Buffy let her hands glide slowly down his back. "What if I put on a black latex corset and tied you up?" she asked, sneaking her hands around to his front to free him from the confines of his jeans.

"I'd kiss your feet and beg for more," he replied huskily, lifting Buffy up and slowly lowering her back down onto him until he filled her up completely.

Buffy flung her arms around his neck and began kissing him wildly. To hell with restraint. She moved up and down on him, enjoying him the way she wanted to enjoy him. Loving him the way she wanted to love him.

"Tell me more," Spike growled when she had freed his mouth to kiss near his ear. "Tell me what you'd do with me if you could live out your deepest, darkest fantasies."

"I'd..." Buffy answered between breaths as she rode him. "I'd blindfold you and handcuff you to the bed," she said.

"More," Spike urged. "Do whatever you want with me."

Buffy threw her head back. She wasn't sure there was a list long enough of the things she wanted to do with Spike, and she was so close to the edge...

"I'd torture you with feather light touches until you're quivering beneath me," she said, imagining everything she was saying as she picked up a furious pace. "I'd wrap my hands around your throat, and you won't even need to breathe. I'd try out every pose in the Kama Sutra. I'd make you my love slave..."

Buffy cried out as she felt her shattering release wash over her. She was dimly aware of Spike groaning in unison with her as the tidal wave of pleasure washed over her, before she collapsed forward onto Spike's chest and everything went dark.

When she came to a few moments later, she felt Spike stroking her back lovingly.

"I think I kinda blacked out there," Buffy muttered sheepishly. "Did you get to finish?"

"Hard not to with your muscles clampin' down on me like a vice," he replied. "You could drain me dry, Buffy."

Buffy took a deep breath and basked in the afterglow. It wasn't like how she felt in the fantasy life when she was under the spell. She didn't feel perfectly fulfilled and trouble free. But she felt amazing nevertheless. She felt different. And the first time in a long time, she felt good, physically and emotionally, without being under the effects of a spell. This was was real. And that was amazing.

She sat up on her elbows and looked Spike in the eyes. "You know, I'm not sure I'll actually like any of that stuff I mentioned. I just kinda rattled off stuff I'm curious about."

Spike leaned forward with a grin and caught her lower lip with his teeth, before giving her a soft kiss.

"And I can't wait to find out together," he said.

The End! Please review if you enjoyed it. :)