CLOSED ♔ YOUR PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE

[slay]

WHO || Buffy Summers & Spike
WHAT || Buffy and Spike play more Mario Kart
WHERE || Knights HQ, Game Room
WHEN || July 30
HOW || Prose

A girl like Buffy shouldn't have been spending the sunnier part of a summer day inside. And she hadn't been -- for most of it. She'd had plenty of hang around outside and enjoy the sun time. It was just that, well, it was muggy and gross and the sun wasn't even that sunny, more of a partly cloudy, and who ever thought England was that great anyway? Even when it wasn't foggy, it was icky in one way or another.

Anyway. She'd wound up inside, pacing the halls, restless, and found her way to Spike's door. We're not discussing how she knew which bedroom was his. Theirs is a forbidden love. She hung around outside of it for what felt like a great long while, tongue pressed against the inside of her cheek, warring with herself.

He was probably sleeping was the primary excuse she used to try and convince herself not to knock. It was better than addressing the million other actual reasons she might not have wanted to, like the fact that even when they were friends it felt baggage-y. And it did nothing for the twitchy feeling in her spine and she was starting to think it was just ... Spike-sense. Which was a whole 'nother ballpark of don't wanna acknowledge.

She reached out decisively and rapped her knuckles on his door with a few hurried knocks.

Comments

[slay]

"Aren't you supposed to ask that before you make it go?" Her arched eyebrow conveyed good humor, despite the grouchiness of the words, and she turned her attention on the TV in time to get the jump as the checkered flag animation signaled the start of the race.

She moved her steering wheel with jerky, erratic movements, mashing her thumb on the 'A' button as if more force would somehow make it register more, the way an actual accelerator did. She does better than she did the last time around, though, navigating the curves a little better (though she has to lean into it to do so). On the whole, she makes a pretty good run of it, keeping well ahead of the pack and contending with the top few CPU cars.

(Computer use check 17.)

[bigbad]

Spike was distracted by Buffy's interesting technique, or how when she moved her leg bumped against him and he was a little worried she'd smack him in the face during one of her more exciting steering moments.

Either that or he was more rusty than he thought. He didn't come in dead last since it was the easiest course and how high can the dc be anyway? But he certainly didn't do well. He started by driving into the pole of the start sign and it only got worse from there. He frequently drove off the road or ran into things or got hit by flying turtles and it was just bad.

(computer use check 6)

[slay]

"Wow. Yeah. Natural talent. I am definitely amazed." This and other quips were strewn throughout the match, and when she finished (in first) she leapt of the couch with a whoop and held her steering wheel in the air like a trophy in one hand, turning her head around quickly to look at Spike for encouragement and some shared enthusiasm.

[bigbad]

Spike quipped back with grumbled comments about how she was cheating and he'd catch up and generally being grumpy about losing, but he couldn't keep it up in the face of her excitement. His scowl melted into a grin, and he inclined his head towards her.

"All right, not bad." Pretty excellent, actually. She was lucky he was a better loser than she was. "But I'm winning next round."

[slay]

The look on his face made her grin widen and she released a short breath, dropping her hands to her sides and then moving to find her seat on the couch again beside him with her shoulder bumping against his. She nudged him lightly with her elbow, amusement evident.

"You're just playing the odds, I think," she straightened up. "But, if that's the way you wanna play it … Fine. Let's try your Rainbow Bridge."

[bigbad]

"I'm just getting warmed up." He leaned his head towards her, not far enough to actually touch her, but enough that he could smell her hair for a moment before she was sitting up.

"We don't have to," he said, turning to face her more fully. "I was mostly kidding. It's the hardest level, love. There are others we could do. Like this one where you bounce on mushrooms. That one's fun."

[slay]

Wow, Spike, way to be a fucking freak.

Buffy didn't notice, but turned in kind to face him instead of the screen as he got all weird about it.

"You're coddling me. It's just a stupid game, Spike, so what if it's hard? If one of us sucks, there's zero danger. Maybe you didn't notice, but we've had the real life hard mode for a few months now. I think I can handle it in a game." Her lips were pursed in a stubborn look because wow really.

[bigbad]

He was a vampire he could be freaky if he likes. It wasn't his fault he could smell so well.

He shrugged. "Your funeral." But he turned back to the screen and started pushing buttons until they came to the courses. Then he glanced over at her and raised an eyebrow. "Last chance, pet."

[slay]

"Oh, shut up." Buffy took over and navigated, with no small amount of effort, her cursor over to select the bifrost Rainbow Bridge. The animation started, and Buffy settled in, facing the screen again with her full attention, gesturing widely and emphatically as she worked her wheel once the game was on. She threw her body into the turns, mashing buttons with a certain amount of panic involved as she tried to stagger through the course. (Computer use 16.)

[bigbad]

Spike, unfortunately, fared no better than he had on the easy course (computer use 6) except on this course, that meant staggering through and driving off the edge several times with lots and lots of cursing and shouting at the screen and never... actually finishing the course. Getting an idea of why he hated this course so much, Buffy?

[slay]

Courtesy of Spike's failure, Buffy managed to come in the top five, which left her sitting back and watching his failure over and over again until everyone but him had finished the race and his place in last was secured. She gave him a slow, raised-brows look, clearly trying not to say anything that might hurt his fragile ego but overwhelmingly judge that he'd been so determined to check that she was sure about trying this course.

Finally, she opted for a delicate approach. "So about that mushroom course."

[bigbad]

Spike scowled at her. "I'm out of practise. I was better before." He could still kick ass at Angry Birds, at least.

[slay]

"I didn't even say anything!" She defended quickly, turning to face him more, pulling her legs up on the couch and resting one elbow on top of the couch's back, resting her head against her hand. "Come on, you were a total champ about losing before, where'd sore loser guy come from?" Wait. That probably didn't help. "Maybe you just need a warm-up."

[bigbad]

"I thought I'd show you up in the next round!" And she'd acted so happy about winning. She hadn't won this time. She just hadn't lost as terribly as he had. He scowled, slumping against the couch. He glanced up at her and tried to stop looking so put out. "Maybe it's cause I only just woke up. You know. Tired reflexes."

[slay]

"You just assumed you'd beat me? How totally full of yourself is that?!" Buffy scowled suddenly, straightening indignantly as he sat back. "I am perfectly capable of beating you! You can't just -- just assume--" She huffed, having nowhere to go after that. She reached out and punched him in the solar-plexus instead (atk 19).

[bigbad]

Unfortunately, with his leather coat off, his defence was only 18. At least he was fully healed from his ordeal with Lan by now. Still, no matter how much damage she ended up doing, he was taken by surprise. He grunted in surprise and pain, curling forward a little. "Hey! You did pretty thoroughly prove me wrong, didn't you?" Anyway, it had been more confidence in his abilities than lack of faith in hers.

[slay]

"And you're blaming it on being tired." She returned stubbornly, keeping her fist balled for a moment before loosening it and settling back down, grumbling. "This was your idea, you know."

[bigbad]

He rubbed at his solar plexus, massaging away the pain. It was his idea, but he'd thought he'd win. He also thought it'd be fun, and his sourness was making it less fun for Buffy. He couldn't have that. "Hey." He sat up and reached over to touch her leg, mustering up a smile. No more being a sore loser for him. He'd have fun either way. "It was my idea. And I want to try that mushroom course."

[slay]

Buffy's gaze lifted up towards him for a moment, wary and reproachful, then her eyes rolled harshly and she turned her face away, reluctant. Then her gaze, but not her face, turned back towards him, relenting.

"Fine. Mushroom course. But if I beat you, you're not allowed to whine about it." She turned to pick her controller back up, shifting on the couch to lean her back against the arm rest on one side, stretching her legs across his lap.

[bigbad]

He grinned at her and patted her leg. "I promise. So long as you can say the same, mind." He grabbed the controller and started pressing buttons until he started the mushroom course. "I'm feeling good about this round," he announced, promptly jinxing it. (computer use 5.)

[slay]

His jinx apparently applied to the both of them, because despite her impressive performance on the Rainbow Bridge, Buffy failed abominably at the talked-up mushroom course. She swerved and spun out multiple times, and crawled in at last place (computer use 4).

She shook her controller as her car idled over the finish line as if that would somehow push it forward, more or less growling her dissatisfaction with the outcome. "Stupid --" She huffed, dropping the controller back to her lap. "I'm never letting you pick the track again."

[bigbad]

Spike didn't do much better, only beating her by a few places. But he still beat her, so he looked over at her with a shit-eating grin. "What happened to no whining about losing?"

[slay]

"Hey, in case you didn't notice, you lost too." She pointed out, lightly kicking him in the thigh with her heel. "Bad course. Bad, bad course."

[bigbad]

"Not as much as you did!" Though the fact was, he didn't mind her whining nearly as much as he enjoyed giving her a hard time. "Getting the hang of bouncing from mushroom to mushroom's not as easy as I thought, I guess." He held his controller out to her. "You pick, then. Or do you want to go back to the Rainbow Bridge?"

[slay]

"I don't think your ego can take an encore." She turned her nose up at the controller, then looked at the screen. "You pick. You're still losing, in case you forgot. You're Mr. I-Need-to-Warm-Up Guy." Buffy's eyes flickered back to him before long though and she canted her head a little to the side as she admitted. "I guess neither of us are very good at this. Fighting, yes. Video games ..."