Categories: Alternate Reality
Characters: None
Summary:
Author's choice of title.
Buffy is nearly always portrayed in fic as being physically attracted to Spike right from the start...but what if she wasn't?
Spike can be horribly scared for whatever reason you wish (holy water burn? fire he was unable to fully recover from? Could have been intentionally done by Darla or Angelus). And he needs to be pretty bad off- most of his body. Possibly causes him lingering pain.
Spike still takes care of Dru, but she is not attracted to him and they do not have sex (or not often she can give him pity access to keep him loyal).
So how does Spuffy come about? Does Spike pull a phantom of the opera routine? Maybe helping Buffy learn to be a better fighter, but all she hears is a disembodied voice? (If you go this route Spike will have to disguise his voice when she sees him as him)
Do things proceed to much later in the series and Spike has to work even harder to prove himself to Buffy? (Harmony would have nothing to with him, he'd be so alone!) Does something happen that shows Spike's heart to Buffy prior to when she sees it in canon? How does she see past the exterior to who's inside?
The only big DON'T is that somehow Spike can't be magically healed. He's scared. Buffy's kiss or tears or whatever isn't going to fix that.
Any rating is fine (though y'all know me), if you want to address sexual dysfunction of some kind that'd be great too, but not to the point that Buffy is just fine with a sexless relationship. If the main show can't happen there's still plenty of other things that can be done 