"Things with us never are," he added. If there was one word that could be used to define their relationship and lack thereof, it was complicated. In ever sense of the word. "You and Spike talk? Talk-talk?" Motivation is a go. Can't let Captain Peroxide one-up him. "That's..." Not a sentence he's going to finish with words, but a scoff and a shake of his head instead.

Her answer and the question that followed detoured him from starting again down the it's Spike train that was losing steam and going nowhere-- and really didn't have much of a point anymore, if he let himself really think about it. Which he wasn't at the moment. At least not ruminating on that particular topic.

"I do," he admits, going for this new honest route he's committed to, even if the truth hurts. "There wasn't-- A lot of the things I need to tell you about put a wedge in what we felt going anywhere or even being acknowledged. And then she died. I spent a lot of time denying it and not acting... I'm not about to make the same mistakes again."