InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Don't get all upset, sugah."

Buffy Summers (slayer_comma_b) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2013-07-01 03:26:00

Entry tags:

buffy summers, spike

WHO: Buffy and Spike
WHAT: Whatever happens.
WHERE: A street.
WHEN: Evening.

A stray cat yowling in her ear woke Buffy. Consciousness dropped on her like an anvil. She fumbled for her stake and only then registered the cat. She'd fed it a bit of tuna earlier, probably it liked her now.

Sunset painted the sky in a subtle rainbow of colors, and from the back porch of the empty house, Buffy could see it all. Both this house and its neighbor were empty, foreclosed, with long grass and for sale signs in front and a true jungle of weeds in the back yard all the way back to the scraggly woods that bordered the subdivision. She'd found them a few months ago on a restless searching walk. Even before she left the complex she'd done that: walked around the town, or out of town until she found little dirt roads that led nowhere. Sometimes she just had to move, find nowhere and see what it looked like. Look for something that didn't exist.

She'd been back a couple of times since, because except for the cats, it was a good place to be alone. Nothing had really changed by leaving the complex; she still spent lazy afternoons in places where she could be alone.

Well, no. Everything had changed.

Buffy gathered up her empty water bottle, and stuffed it and the book she'd been reading into her pack. Too dark for reading now. She'd brought one of the Watcher's diaries with her when she left, she didn't know why. She really wasn't much of a reader, and she probably wouldn't find what she was looking for anyway. There were too many diaries, and without Giles to serve as index...

She sighed.

A bit later, she realized that the sunset had faded and the sky was dark. She hefted her pack and started off for her nightly appointment with being a target. She'd be early, but she didn't think it really mattered at this point. She wasn't sure why she even did it, except that it was something to do. A gesture toward finding herself and that moment of certainty -- stupidity, everyone said -- that had led to this mess. A gesture toward fulfilling what she'd started, for another day, as long as she was still here. She wasn't sure how much longer that would be.

As she walked, she thought about the Slayer she'd been reading about in the diaries. One of the short-lived ones, with strong dreams and a strong sense of purpose, which her Watcher had tried to encourage. She probably should have spent more time on stake technique.

She'd been strong in her way. Buffy stopped, thinking about that, and then moved on to a streetlight and pulled out the book.

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notbloodycasper
2013-07-01 04:38 pm UTC (link)

Spike had a million and one things running around in his head lately. So much had happened, so quickly, and he didn't know what to do with it all. Between all that mess Jerry had caused and trying to help Peter in whatever small ways he could, he had been effectively distracted. Buffy's issues only added to his ongoing stress and he didn't even really know what to do there because she would barely even talk to him. He couldn't help her if she didn't want it, right? But he still wanted to, which was the problem. Letting go had never exactly been Spike's best skill. He clung to things, desperately, because if there was even a miniscule chance that things could change, or be fixed, he'd hold onto that hope until there was simply not a single ounce of it left. It was just the way he worked.

With everything compounding the way it had, Spike had pretty much ignored his own things he hadn't exactly dealt with. Piffy leaving was one of them. Sure, he'd drunk himself into a ridiculous stupor and he'd blocked the world out for awhile, but he hadn't dealt with it. He didn't know how, really. It wasn't as if they broke up. It wasn't even as if she'd died. She was just there. And then she was gone. And it was all because the Seal got bored with her or something. Although, personally, Spike couldn't be sure how anyone could ever get bored with her around, but then...the Seal wasn't exactly a person, but sometimes it sure as hell felt sentient.

That was what he'd hoped to do when he left his flat that night. A walk. How completely and utterly simple. But maybe it would help clear his head, make him see something differently. Or maybe he could just mull it all over and stress himself out more. He hoped that wasn't the case. He was leaving tomorrow with Dawn and the rest of whoever she had coming with her to Italy for her birthday. He felt it was kind of required. They could all use some time away from Lawrence and all it's varied brands of crazy for awhile.

Somehow, he'd managed to turn up in a part of town he never exactly frequented, but it didn't matter much. He could find his way back anyway. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and paused to light one. Pocketing the pack once again, he started walking again when he noticed a silhouette in the distance. The light from the lamppost sort of blurred out any features, but he didn't have to see her face to know who it was. He wasn't sure he should even approach her, all things considered, maybe she'd stake him on sight. But against his judgement, and their agreement which he'd broken on more than one occassion already, Spike kept on walking, just happening to continue in the direction that would take him towards her, even if he could have turned down a sidestreet. "You might get better research done in your flat instead of under a streetlamp."

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slayer_comma_b
2013-07-01 11:03 pm UTC (link)

She'd noticed him coming long before he was close enough to say anything. Vampire, hair like a beacon in the darkness, and that way he had of walking, of taking up room -- had to be Spike. But she pretended like she hadn't noticed, like there was a chance he'd walk by without saying anything, just two relative strangers with nothing to do with each other... No, of course not.

"Hi Spike," she sighed, aware that she ought to be pointing out how he was breaking their agreement yet again, or gearing up in case he was going to do one of those crazy Spikish things that he probably didn't do now that he had a soul. But she was just so tired of it all. And somehow, vampire or not, the Spike she sort of understood or not, he didn't seem like that much of a threat.

"I'm looking for streetlight runes," she said, skipping right over the whole 'your flat' issue. It had never felt like home -- or even much like hers, really. And now... "They only show up under a streetlight." Actually, she wouldn't put something like that past some of the more paranoid Watchers. Watchers were a really strange group of people when you really paid attention to what they wrote in their diaries. She'd been lucky to have Giles. She should have appreciated him more when she had him.

She sighed, then closed the book, slipped it back into her pack and turned, assuming a defensive posture and cocking her head to the side. The pose said almost as clearly as if she'd actually said it: what do you want, Spike?