Title:  Sweet Sixteen
Author: Pattyanne
           snapkik@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I only own the story
Feedback: Love it!
Rating: Will vary. This chapter: PG-13

Summary: AU. (my first) Buffy and
Spike (William) are teenage neighbors
meeting for the first time a few days
before Buffy's 16th birthday.

***********************************

Part eight...

Phase two:  Young love, first love..


     ~~~~~
"Lately, all my thoughts have gone to you
You know that's true
Sometimes I feel just a word away
You'll say, oh how I miss you, too, I do"
     ~~~~~

William pulled back and stared down into Buffy's
wide eyes.  He had absolutely no idea what to do
next.  Hide under the bed?  Jump out the window?

Neither were viable choices.

"Buffy?" Joyce called again, her voice sounding a
little closer this time.

"I'm...I...Mom?"  Buffy tried to stall, as William lurched
to his feet and backed away from her.

"Of course, it's Mom,"  her mother replied. "What are you
doing in your room?"

"Oh....not much."  Buffy struggled to sit up and button
her dress at the same time.  "Why do you ask?"

William turned his back to the door.  If Joyce walked in,
he didn't want her to see anything that might get him
killed.  He winced as his stomach cramped from the
unfulfilled arousal.

"Because it's time for your birthday cake," Joyce informed
her.

"It is?  Already?"  Buffy's fingers were clumsy in her
frantic haste to refasten her clothing without accidentally
missing a button.  "What time is it?"

"It's almost 9:00, honey.  Finish what you're doing and
come downstairs."

There was a short pause.  "Uh...okay!"  She stood up and
smoothed her hair, looking helplessly at William. "I'll be
there in a minute."

Horrified at the close call they'd just had, they both
sighed with relief when Joyce went back downstairs.

"I'm...I'm sorry,"  William apologized.

Buffy shook her head. "Don't be...it was me, too."

He leaned back against the wall.  "You go down first,"
he suggested. "I'll wait a few minutes, and....follow
after."

She nodded. "Okay."  With her hand on the door knob,
she turned back to look at him. "William?"

He could see by the expression on her face just exactly
what she was wondering. "I'm not sorry that it happened,
Buffy...just that I started it here in your room, with all
those people downstairs," he said. "You DO know that
I'm falling in love with you....don't you?"

Buffy smiled, so sweetly that his heart actually swelled.

"I do now," she said softly, then disappeared out the door.

     ~~~~~
"Time is tight, I'm lost for words
That's not like me
Only your eyes could know the way that I feel
And how much I need you now with me.."
     ~~~~~

Stepping out into the hallway, William crossed over and
went in the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

He ran cold water in the sink and washed his face in
it, thinking that it was certainly getting to be a habit, him
getting aroused by Buffy and having to cool himself off in
a bathroom.

But it was worth it.

Eyeing himself in the mirror, he reached for a small hand
towel and soaked it in the water, then wrung it out and
placed it on the back of his neck.

He really should have known better than to have gone
into her bedroom with her in the first place.  Not with the
way he felt about her. He had been asking for trouble
and now he'd gotten it. The grinding discomfort between his
legs was going to plague him all evening, cold water or no
cold water.  The minute he so much as glanced at Buffy,
all those feelings that had been raging through his blood
stream like wildfire would come rushing back.

Still, he couldn't hide in the bathroom all evening. He hung the
towel over the bar on the inside of the shower door, then
took a deep breath and headed downstairs.

Most of the party guests had congregated in the dining
room, where the birthday cake was displayed. As he
approached, he heard his uncle asking Buffy if she knew
where his nephew had disappeared to.

William saw her cheeks turn bright pink, and he hurried
to help her out. "Just upstairs in the bathroom, Uncle Rupert,"
he said quietly, stepping up next to the man.

"Oh...terribly sorry."  The older man smiled and looked away,
then did a double take. "Why is your hair wet?" he asked,
indicating the overlong curls at the nape of William's neck.

He was saved from trying to come up with a plausible answer
by the arrival of Buffy's mother with a box of matches to light
the birthday candles.

Buffy was seated at the head of the table, and his gaze met
hers. They exchanged a secret smile, and when he saw the
candlelight dancing in her expressive eyes, William knew that
it was official.....he was completely and totally in love.

     ~~~~~
"Young love, so strong
Has never been a part of me
Young love, hold on
We're feeling it now
Is this the way it's meant to be?"
     ~~~~~

"Looks like the party's breaking up, my friend."

William glanced up and saw Xander hovering over his
chair. Anya was on the other side of the room, talking with
Buffy's mother.

"Hey," Xander went on, "it's early yet. Why don't we hit
the Bronze for a while?"

Looking around the room for Buffy, William considered
the offer. If her mother would let her go, he'd get a little
more time alone with her.

Xander caught him searching. "She's over there," he
said, pointing in the direction of the patio door. "Geez,
can't you take your eyes off her for a minute?"

William grinned. "I'd rather not," he said. "And why would
I want to?  Look at how beautiful she is."

Xander nodded. "Oh, she's quite the pretty young thing," he
agreed. "But she ain't the only girl in town, you know."

"She's the only one as far as I'M concerned," William
replied. "Excuse me."

He moved around Xander and started across the room,
not paying any attention when his friend asked him if he
was coming to the Bronze or not.

Moving up behind Buffy, he leaned down and whispered
in her ear. "Dance with me?"

She turned and smiled, taking the hand he held out
and letting him lead her out on to the patio.  The DJ was
playing a slow, romantic ballad, requested by one of
the adults as a reprieve from the hard rock he'd been
playing.

Placing her arms around his neck, William pulled
Buffy close and bent his head slightly. Pressing his
forehead against hers, he made eye contact with her
and stared until she giggled and pulled back.

"What's so funny?" he asked, tightening his arms
around her waist.

"I don't know...nothing," she said. "I'm just feeling silly,
I guess."

"Am I embarrassing you by staring at you?"

She shook her head. "No...not a bit."

He pressed his lips against her soft hair and said, "Happy
birthday, Buffy," then held her even more closely as they
danced, supremely unaware of the fact that there was
anyone else on earth at that moment.

     ~~~~~
"I know I'll be the one to lose
If I'm so wrong
Don't be afraid to put your heart on the line
I'll take you where I know you belong
     ~~~~~

"Xander asked if we want to go to the Bronze for a
while," he murmured in her ear. "Do you think your
mother will let you?"

Buffy pulled back and looked up into William's dark
blue eyes.  She could quite happily spend the rest of
her life right where she was now, feeling his arms around
her and his body pressed so intimately against hers.

He was so beautiful. It just wasn't right that a boy
should be beautiful like this, but he was. There was no
denying it.

The tousled mop of curls he kept shaking back out of
his face...his eyes like the sky after a summer storm...his
mouth...soft and sensual, but so lovely when it curved in
a smile that revealed his straight white teeth...and his
face, so perfect in design, marred only by.....

"How did you get this?" she asked, briefly forgetting his
question as her finger traced over a scar that cut through
his left eyebrow.

"Oh," he chuckled. "You won't believe it.  I tried to sled
down the main staircase in my grandmother's house on
a big, silver serving tray. Broke my right wrist, and needed
six stitches here," he said, pointing to the scar. "My injuries
were the only thing that kept my grandmother from swatting
the daylights out of me.  The tray was a write-off."

Buffy smiled tenderly, able to see the little boy he had
been so clearly in her minds eye. "It must have hurt,"
she said. Framing his face in her hands and pulling him
down closer, she pressed her lips against the scar. "There.
All better."

"Thank you," he said, kissing her on the lips. "Do you
think you might want to go out for a while?"

"Yes," she nodded. "I'll go ask my mother."

Before he could bring himself to let her go, he had
to kiss her again, this time letting his lips linger on hers
for a much longer moment.

When he pulled back, he left a trail of kisses along the
smooth skin of her cheek. "Hurry," he urged her, forcing
his hands to release her from their grip.

>From his vantage point on the patio, he watched as
she took her mother aside and whispered in her ear.

Joyce looked around at the dwindling number of
guests, said something to Buffy, then smiled and
waved her away.

Buffy practically ran back to the patio, and he caught
her in his arms, lifting her off the ground. "What did she
say?"

"She said in a few minutes, cause I have to say a proper
goodnight and thank you to everyone, but then I can go
and I can stay out an hour later than my usual curfew,"
she said, smiling brightly.

With her eager softness in his arms, William felt a
burst of love so strong it nearly exploded out of him. As
it was, he couldn't control his laughter as he held her
by the waist and spun her around and around.

     ~~~~~
"Take my thoughts away beyond
the things we see
Sometimes it seems just a word away
You'll say, oh how I really feel it should be.

Young love, so strong
Has never been a part of me
Young love, hold on
We're feeling it now
Is this the way it's meant to be?"
     ~~~~~

TBC.....feedback me, people!