Spike Thornley's Arc

Chapter 7 of 9

Five months after that first kiss, Spike finished building his home. He shaped it from earth and mounded leaves over the round door. It sat close to Scarlett's tunnel, near enough to walk between them before dawn. He wanted her to see it before she said anything about the stone or the road ahead. Tonight he invited her over. Scarlett stepped through the low entrance and stopped. She touched the packed dirt wall with careful fingers. "You made this," she said softly. "For yourself." "For us, maybe." Spike watched her face. She was timid still, even now. He had learned to move slow with her, the way he moved slow around his own spines. "I stopped drifting. This is the first thing I've built to stay in." Her red eyes shone. "I spent two hundred years never staying anywhere." She laughed, small and surprised at herself. "I didn't think I'd want to." He took her cool hand. The blanket bed sat against the far wall, warm under a lantern's light. She let him lead her to it. When he sat, she sat beside him, close, her shoulder against his jacket. "I'm bound to this now," she said. "To you. It scares me how much I want it." She met his eyes. "But I feel finished. Whole. I haven't felt that in longer than I can count." Spike pulled her into his arms. His spine caught her curls and tugged. She winced, then smiled and freed the strands with her fingers, the way she always did. "You'll shred me the way you shred jackets," she teased. "I'll be careful," he said. He kissed her. She kissed him back, sure this time, no fear in it. They stayed tangled together on the blanket a long while, trading kisses until the lantern burned low. At last she pulled back and pressed her palm to his chest. "I'm home," she whispered. "After all this time, this is home." The word stopped him. Home. He had chased that word across three regions, hunting a stone that pointed to a place he'd never seen. He held her tighter and said nothing. But Scarlett felt him go still. She sat up. "What is it?" "You said home." He looked at the dirt ceiling. "I built this to stay. And I mean it.“ She smiled softly and touched his face, “I know. And I want to stay with you in time. Fully.” They kissed again and again. Their love glowing more intense as the lantern that was flickering.