"Spike's..." Riley trailed off. Not only was this a can of worms he did NOT want to open with Buffy, ever, in any way shape or form, he actually had no real idea how to shape the words that encapsulated all the good things Spike had done for him. "He's not so bad, once you get past the whole, oh, hi, I'm going to be an asshole just because I can bit. He kinda reminds me of Xander, in a way, because Xander and Spike both have this really uncanny knack of--when you least expect it--popping up with something useful and insightful," he finally settled on. That sounded nice and non-committal. "Go ahead, kick me across the room." He straightened and stuck his chest out like a rooster. "I'm a man. My ego can take getting beat up by a girl."