Son of Spike and Buffy (rewritten)

Part 3

One evening, Buffy came back from patrol, Spike walking alongside her, hand in hand. The graveyard was at the other side of the city and so the nights were longer than they were back in Sunnydale but it didn't matter anyway. Ever since Willow had done the spell to make all girls, everywhere, Slayers, Buffy was pretty much no longer fully in charge of defending against evil. Girls from all over the city banded together for vampire slaying fun so the days were better, significantly better. Willow had specially handcrafted another Gem of Amara using her newfound powers, summoning higher beings to bless the ring. It took some time and persuasion but eventually she had been accepted. Spike was now able to do what the others did in broad daylight, making him feel more human and more alive than ever. He never took the ring off. Ever.
Buffy laid her head on Spike's shoulder as they walked, smiling as she reminisced about old feelings between her and the vampire "do you remember the old days?" Buffy asked "all those times you tried to kill me? I'm glad you began that obsession...we wouldn't be here now" Spike smiled, purring softly and kissing Buffy on the head "course I remember. You were always on my mind, pet. In the way of adding to my Slayer kill count...and then some" the slayer rolled her eyes "tell me about it.." Spike smiled again, a softer smile, and gazed up at the night sky, breathing out softly, a cloud of frosted air shooting from his mouth. Buffy stared at him, confused "hang on. I didn't think vampires could breathe?" Her boyfriend frowned at her "yeah. We can. It's to make us feel that little bit closer to humans than zombies. We don't need oxygen and we don't need to breathe but it's an instinctual trap for hunting" Buffy nodded "I see. How did I not realise that?" "Did Giles ever teach you that?" She shook her head "only that vampires couldn't breathe. Guess he was reading a bunch of lies the whole time". Spike pouted and there was a long pause. Finally he looked around "beautiful night. Cold out. But beautiful" he peered down at Buffy "just like you". She put her arms around Spike's neck and nuzzled into him "not as beautiful as you are handsome" Spike chuckled "thanks pet..hey we should be getting back to the crib. Don't want to keep the scoobies and the scoobettes waiting now, do we?" Buffy nodded. As they were walking back the way they had come, Spike noticed Buffy wrap her arms around herself in an effort to keep warm. She wore the leather jacket that Angel had given her many years before but it was only thin. Spike stopped walking "here, love" he took off his own leather duster and wrapped it around his lover. Spike's duster was worn from many claws, kicks, dirt, blood and wall throws as well as time, his jacket being over 30 years old, possibly more and prised from the corpse of a slayer he had killed. The duster was as much a part of him as the scar on his left eyebrow, another trophy from the first ever slayer he'd bested, more than 70 years before his second. Buffy shivered, not from the chilly night air but from the thought of 1. The dead slayer whom the jacket belonged to until Spike broke her neck and 2. Spike suffering the cold, now wearing just a plain black shirt. "I know you're a vampire so the cold doesn't bother you. But the thought of you being a human and exposing your bare skin to the night air makes me cringe. You sure you'll be ok?" Spike nodded "it really doesn't bother me, don't worry, I'll be fine. It just bothers me that I can't warm it up for you" they kept walking again "I can't help thinking about Nikki either" "what do you mean?" "I mean....whenever you wear this duster...since you got your soul...do you ever..you know...feel guilty for what you did to her?" Spike paused but this time his expression had completely dropped "believe it or not.......yeah...I do. The fact that she was a single mother with a young son sickens my guilt. And that I orphaned her son who grew up to avenge her before eventually getting friendly with his mum's killer? You have no idea"