"And the weirdest part of that is that you had a personal decorator," Buffy quipped without pause.

She looked over at him when he protested that the scratches were nothing. "Getting them cleaned up and bandaged won't hurt. I promise, no Hello Kitty band-aids." She hesitated, watching him from beneath her lashes a moment. "You're going to have to take your shirt off."

This felt an awful lot like that first night she invited him into her house and she didn't entirely hate it, which she probably should have. She knew that, and yet...