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]

"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 ..."

[bigbad]

"Let's hope we never need to save the world through video games." He flipped through the options, then paused and glanced over at her instead. "I think that's okay. Real fights are a hell of a lot more important than pretending to race on the telly."

[slay]

"Guess they are." It was inarguable, of course. But Buffy got that distant look on her face anyway. It'd be nice to be good at something other than destroying things, though. Maybe it was taking her talents for granted, but failing to help Rafael and Jade was really hammering it in.

Was she good at anything that wasn't pain and fighting? Maybe she wouldn't be as good of a knight, but maybe she'd make a better person if she had mysterious strangers meeting her in dark alleys to tell her about her destiny to fight video games instead of demons.

"We could race for real," she pointed out, looking over at him. "I don't think there's enough road to use cars and we're lacking for little blue shells, but there's plenty of land for the horses."

[bigbad]

He glanced pointedly at the window. "Gonna be a very short race unless we wait until evening." He looked back at her. "Have you ever ridden before?"

[slay]

"Not really. I mean, I went out to the stables a couple times before we left, and we saw got to see Rafael's horses." She looks at the window, getting up to go peer out where a crack of light is coming through, considering the waning afternoon. Then she pulls it more tightly closed. "We can wait."

[bigbad]

It was a nice gesture, considering what sun can do to him. It wasn't anywhere near him, but it made him smile nonetheless. "Tonight, then. Though I have no idea if I can ride or not." One of those things he didn't remember from before, maybe, though he'd had no particular interest in riding. He doubted it was something he did often, if he'd ever done it at all.

He stood up and walked over to her, standing next to her in the shadow of the curtain. "We can find out together."

[slay]

"Can't be that hard," she turned and found herself surprised to see him standing right there. Quiet bastard. But she swallowed the shock in her expression, looking up at him. "I mean, the horse does most the work." She hesitated, weight shifting, trying to figure him out and analyze the closeness. She gave up and backed off, turning to pace closer to the couch again.

"Sunset's been pretty late," she made herself comfortable on the couch. "What do you wanna do until then?" A beat. "Or -- Should I be letting you sleep. As this is definitely the hour of undead sleeping."

[bigbad]

He shook his head. "I slept enough. There are a lot of hours of daylight. Ever noticed?" He wandered over to the video game cabinet and started flipping through them, trying to see if there was another option. Then he tossed the games aside and turned back towards her. "If it doesn't gross you out too much, I do need some breakfast. We could go down to the kitchen."

[slay]

She watched with a certain fondness as he flipped through the games, but her eyes widened and she looked startled when he started to talk about breakfast. Because when a vampire says 'if it doesn't gross you out too much, I do need some breakfast,' it can easily come off as turning her into his breakfast. But her expression grows more neutral as she lets out a barely present breath of relief when he quickly follows it with the kitchen. Right.

A flicker of a smile crosses her face and she gets to her feet.

"Yeah, that's fine. I think I've seen enough blood the past six months to not be squeamish about it. Besides, I should probably eat something too. … Something less blood-like."

[bigbad]

He smiled, a bit relieved since for a moment it looked like she was going to say no. Of course, she might change her mind once she saw his food prep. He pushed himself to his feet and started towards the door. "The kitchens it is."

[slay]

Standing, she shut off the TV and followed him out the door, winding down through castle hallways to the kitchen. The castle may have been expansive, but the walk wasn't too far. As they entered the kitchen, Buffy immediately pulled open the fridge to nose through it, leaning on the opened door so there was room beside her for Spike.

[bigbad]

He reached past her, arm brushing her shoulder, to grab a thermos in the back marked "SPIKE'S BLOOD DON'T DRINK." He dropped it on the counter and started bustling about the cabinets, fetching out a mug and some wheetabix. "What're you eating?"

[slay]

Her nose crinkled, lips pursing, and Buffy shrugged her ambivalence, shutting the door and going to grab a piece of fruit off the counter, settling to just graze instead of going through the work of making something.

"Nothing sounds good." She rubbed her shirt hem over the apple, then dropped it and took a bite. Talking through the mouthful of apple, she continued, "I thought vampires just drank blood. What's with the cereal?" She raised an eyebrow and nodded to indicate the box of Weetabix.

[bigbad]

"I like the texture. Makes it more interesting." He poured the blood into the mug and stuck it into the microwave, then turned back to her as she waited for it to beep. "I've only been drinking this stuff every day for a few months and already I need to spice it up and keep it interesting. No one ever talks about the monotony of the vampire diet."

He thought it might be better if it were human. If to feed you first had to hunt and kill. But he didn't want to find out. He didn't want that to be fun. And he didn't want Buffy to know it had even occurred to him.

[slay]

There was a judge way she watched him make his gross, sludgy blood concoction, and she just squeezed her eyes shut and looked away, shaking her head, as she tried to just … ignore it. She pushed down her distaste and took another bite out of her apple.

"You'd think with the world all understanding of them, they'd cater to the vamp diet better. Sell animal blood in boxes or something, flavor it. Like wine." What would the different flavors be? Additives? Or maybe different kinds of blood. "Probably cut down on how many people got eaten, too, if vampires could go pick up strawberry-flavored blood in bulk."

[bigbad]

Strawberry-flavoured blood? That sounded gross, though then again, so did strawberry-flavoured milk and people still drank that. "Seems like you've found a hole in the market, pet. Start a business. You could make a fortune."

[slay]

She couldn't help rolling her eyes at that, because for one - gross, for another - kinda busy. Besides, she didn't even know how to go about starting a business, especially a business in selling blood, and that was enough to tell her she had no sense for it.

"Yeah, I'll get right on that." Buffy took another bite out of her apple. "You can be my taste tester."

[bigbad]

"Free samples? Can think of worse deals." He hoisted himself onto the counter. The Weetabix gave his blood a nice crunch between sips. "I saw a tv show like that once. Only I think the blood was fake." He hadn't paid much attention to the parts that weren't softcore porn, but he'd remembered that bit because it seemed so unlikely to him. Like fake blood could do what real blood did for vampires. It wouldn't work.

[slay]

"Why bother making fake blood? I mean, there's enough animals slaughtered to make human food, you'd be better off just draining it from them." This is quite possibly the grossest conversation she's ever had. And it shows on her face. She takes another bite regardless, then tosses the apple core into the trash. "How does that work, anyway? 'Fake blood.' If they can make that, shouldn't they use it for transfusions?"

[bigbad]

"I don't think it's a real thing." He took another swig from his mug, chewing and swallowing the Weetabix. If he let them sit for too long, they'd get soggy. He glanced over at Buffy, frowning. "We don't have to talk about it if you don't want. It's not really polite conversation for most, I'd wager."

[slay]

"I'm not most." She replied nonchalantly, leaning against the counter. She didn't love the topic, for obvious reasons, but it was Spike. It was part of who he was, and it wasn't something she was just going to ignore. She may not have embraced the demon parts of him, but ignoring them wasn't the right answer, either.

Still. If he was gonna give her the out.

"Have you talked to Martha about the brain scan yet?"

[bigbad]

She may have accepted the subject change, but just the statement, and the way she said it, made him smile briefly. This was the girl whose friendship he'd thought he'd lost when his secret came out. Now she was chatting blood with him and hanging out with him while he ate.

"Yeah. She said she'd help."

[slay]

"Oh. Great." There wasn't particular enthusiasm in her words, mostly because she was a little uneasy with what Martha might find. With what Spike might expect out of her. But that was neither here nor there, and the questions continued, "Do you …" Or, tried to continue, anyway. She struggled with how to word it, because she (apparently) wasn't very good at this. "Do you want someone with you when she does?"

[bigbad]

Oh. He hadn't expected that offer, but it was a welcome one. "Yeah, uh. That'd be... I mean, if you don't mind. You don't have to."

[slay]

"No." Her voice was weak at first, but she gained a little resolve and continued. "No, I will. I mean, this is a big thing, you should have somebody there with you." And she was happy he'd managed to suss out that she was offering despite her usual mixed signals, avoid-y way of doing it. Her expression stilled when she realized something. "Unless -- I mean, I'm sure you and Martha are close. I-If you just want her to be there, then that's --"