InsaneJournal

One of the pumpkin spice lattes Nikolai was carrying was set down in front of Buffy, who, by the look of it, was so buried in papers at her desk that he wondered if she wasn’t just building a fort out of them all. He hooked one of the chairs behind him to tug closer, then seated himself and fairly beamed over at her, waiting for her to look up.

“I heard you were busy, so I thought I would provide you an excuse to stop working for at least ten minutes,” he offered, holding up his own drink towards the wall clock with one gloved hand. 12:07. He took a quick note of the numbers. Punctuality was ingrained in him from years of service in Ravka’s First Army. It was impossible to shake that much off.

“Also, I thought I would make certain that you haven’t been kidnapped by paperwork or otherwise buried beneath an avalanche of it. I suppose it’s more the papercuts, though, where the real danger lies. So, how are you doing?”

"You... " Surprised, but not unhappy about the surprise, Buffy's smile came easily. She shouldn't be surprised. When you dated someone, they tended to notice things like what coffee you liked and how you liked your pillow. She just didn't expect coffee since most of her boyfriends would, you know, burst into flames if they set foot outside in daylight. She took the coffee, noting that it was already cooled enough to drink and finished, "...are the best. Seriously. I'm never going home as long as you're here."

The gloves were typical when they were in public, so Buffy thought nothing of them. The papers on her desk were not. She wouldn't be surprised to find a gremlin or a mogwai hiding in them at this point. Still holding her coffee, she leaned across the desk to give an appreciative peck before settling back down. "I'm practicing for Jenga. See. Take this paper from here and replace it here? And hope the whole stack doesn't fall over."

She smiled and added, "How are you?"

Nikolai bowed his head in return to the gratitude, still holding a steady smile. He wasn’t a stranger to using people’s little tics and habits to his advantage, but with Buffy it came from a place of earnesty. She wasn’t a means to an end. She was a standalone bright spot in his life, really. And when she leaned over, he instinctively raised his still-gloved hand to touch the side of her face.

“Me? Oh, more than content that paperwork is not part of my job.” He prodded a stack of papers, which teetered a bit on the spot. “Precarious. One good sneeze, and you’re doomed to an hour of organizing it all again.”

He sobered up a bit, then, relaxing back into the chair and frowning mildly. “Are the students holding up decently?”

She raised one single eyebrow at him before watching the wobbling papers. Though she had her usually mirthy tone, there might just be some truth to: "Just know that I know several ways of evisceration that is not in the current curriculum and would not be fun if this stack topples over."

"Some more than others," she answered. Which made sense, a lot of the students here were used to odd things or having to fight. "Beginning to wonder if there isn't a Hellmouth under here after all."

Nikolai’s brows lifted at the threat. He put his hands up in a feigned plea for forgiveness, and then leaned back into his chair a little more before dropping them again. He carefully settled his own coffee cup on a bare spot at the corner of the desk.

“In addition to the portal? A bit overkill, isn’t it?” He gave it a second thought, then asked, “Do you really think so? We did run into those vampires that one time.”

"I honestly don't know, but I think it's probably a good idea to check out for one. Weird things always happened here, and sometimes they showed up out of nowhere. Like the cursed funhouse. Or the mogwai presents. Or any other random thing that happens. Those were all caused by the Hellmouth in my world." But they weren't in her world, and she'd taken things like Hellmouths for granted. This world had a Magic Box and a Bronze, and she still didn't put any of that together over a year later. It all seemed the work of the Pod God.

What if the world bouncing wasn't the same entity anymore?

"My money's on those vampires coming before my show aired, so they had no idea what to look for. And there's nothing keeping us in Tumbleweed, like a spell or the end of the world."

There was a spare thought given to how nice it must be to recognize places from home, but if the presence of some of Sunnydale’s shops and clubs meant there could be something more ominous just out of view, then perhaps envy wasn’t the proper emotion for it. Nikolai set his gaze on his gloved hands, then gave a nod. It seemed to make sense. Between the two of them, chasing blindly into danger was nearly a hobby.

“I --” He faltered for a brief second. A small flex of his gloved hands was given, as if working out a cramp, then Nikolai started again, as if nothing had happened. “I would love nothing more than the troll the depths of Tumbleweed at night with you, if that’s what you’re proposing.”

Buffy was hidden behind her coffee cup as she took that first delicious sip from it. Despite the downer of a topic, her expression was bordering on I need a moment alone with my coffee. She stayed put, however, and stayed on topic. "Yeah, I'm thinking it's probably a good thing to try and check out." She wished Giles was there; he'd be able to help them figure out where it was.

She paused. "We ought to create a new perfume. Eau de Tumbleweed. We could do a whole line. The Sewers. The Alleys. The Cemeteries."

“For those moments when you want to vacate the room quickly?” Nikolai asked, one brow raising over the rim of his own coffee cup as he took another sip. “You do know how to stage a romantic night, Buffy.”

Still, the new angle was spinning ideas in his head. They would need maps. Historic maps, likely. He could probably scour the local library, maybe the military base’s records…

“All kidding aside, however, this does sound like we might have some planning to do tonight,” Nikolai continued, sparing a glance over his shoulder to make sure no one else was waiting to speak to Buffy.

"Hot chocolate, candle light, maps, and strategy. Oh baby."

It wasn't quite as sarcastic as all that. The couple that potential Slays together stays together, after all. At least in Buffy's case. Nice, normal was never going to be her thing, and it had been years since she'd realized that. It was just nice to be able to see her boyfriend in daylight without worrying about him bursting into flames.

There was a slight worry though. Nikolai had disappeared once, and there was always a chance he could disappear again. It was the nature of this place, after all, but there'd been some part of her that she'd been trying to keep tucked away in case he did go away. The tiny fear that somehow she was causing all of this heartbreak in this dimension hopping because of her bad luck. Willow, Tara were here now, and damned if they hadn't come and gone a whole bunch of times that Buffy found herself easing away from them as much as she wanted to smother them in attention and affection.

"I may be late. A lot of students at the bonfire who don't know how to cope, but as soon as I'm done, we can meet at my place? Will and Tara will probably want to get in on the Hellmouth action."

“The more, the merrier,” Nikolai assured her, brandishing his best smile as he nudged his chair backwards to stand. The time was going quick, and he knew she -- unlike himself -- had a mountain of paperwork to sort through. His presence was more distracting than useful on that front.

He made his way around Buffy’s desk and leaned down to wrap his arms around her from behind. “And don’t worry. I can wait up,” he softly told her. A quick kiss was pressed to her temple before he straightened up to make his exit.