Buffy likes being taken care of and maybe it's because she knows she doesn't need it. She's strong enough on her own, but emotionally she needs him every day. She's a mess emotionally even if physically she's plenty strong. She likes that she doesn't always have to be the strong one as well. It's hard to live with the world on your shoulders, to be strong for everyone. She knows. She left that life behind.

Strange and complicated would be fine with Buffy. She's used to strange and complicated, but she also likes that things with Alcide have stayed relatively simple. This is the closest they've come to talking about a future. She's okay with that too because he reassures her in all these little ways that he's going where she goes.

She bows her head, a smile ghosting over her lips at his words. She likes knowing he'll stay and she feels like Alcide will stay even if things get weird. She knows he's no stranger to that.

While he's drawing the bath water, she strips off in the bedroom, grabbing a robe and wrapping it around her. She grabs the long lighter and takes it into the bathroom to light candles around the room. She steps over to the tub, pausing to run her hand through Alcide's hair and lean down to press a kiss to his forehead before she takes the robe off and sinks down into the water. She goes under water, lying there for a moment in the quiet that being underwater presents before she sits back up, slicking her hands over her hair.

"Dawnie died two years ago today. Tonight," she finally says. "I tried to stop her. It was my job to take care of her and I couldn't. I didn't."