Summary: Spike thinks about getting drunk with Buffy.
Spoilers: Through Life Serial.
Disclaimer: Joss made them. I just like to play with their lives.
Rating: PG
Short little five-minute fic.

Another Drink

by Amy
* * * * * *


I'd never seen her be cute before tonight. I'd seen her as damn beautiful,
when she was furious, and lovely when she was sad, but I'd never seen her
cute. Tonight, as she drank and made those faces, tonight as she yelled at
me for being drunk when in fact I'd only had two drinks to her twenty, she
was cute.

There's no other word for it.

She's the Slayer, and I know it shouldn't happen. I know it probably never
will. But at least I've stopped trying to convince myself that it's not
true. I wasted a lot of time doing that, I tell you.

But at least... At least she's coming to me, now. At least she's letting me
in her life, which is more than I could have expected if I'd lived to be a
thousand.

I tried to get her to try the dark side tonight. Didn't happen, of course,
but that isn't really the point. The point is that she let me take her to
that dive-- a place she never should've set foot in-- and she put up with my
shit and she even teased me, a very obvious tease, about staking me. And
through all of that, all of those moments where I knew that, as a demon, I
should get frustrated and want her gone because she's so pure in her
righteousness, I just wanted her there. I even got a kick out of when she
let the kittens free, because it's exactly the sort of thing she'd do under
any circumstances.

And I love her. God, I love that woman. Shameful as it is.

I keep telling her that. Not in specific words, but in the things I do. And
she lets me. She's started letting me tell her that I love her without
moving away in disgust. She let me call her my lucky charm. She didn't even
flinch when I called her 'pet' and 'luv' and 'my lady.'

Maybe it was because she was drunk.

But she was there. With me. Working out her problems, hoping I could solve
them. It's possible she came to me because no one else could, but it's not
like I care about trivialities like that. She needed me. For... Something.
Something important.

I've gotten used to her coming to my place late at night. Usually we just
talk, or even just watch the telly, but I think she likes having me around.
Knowing that I know about... where she was, and what happened to her, I think
it comforts her not to have to pretend. And I don't make her pretend. I
would never want her to.

I like that she told me. I like that I'm the only one she trusts on that.

But tonight, when she came in, I knew immediately that it was different. She
just looked at me and then hopped up on the tomb expectantly before saying,
"Got anything to drink?"

It took me a minute to say yes and fetch some shot glasses to drink from--
she's not the kind of girl who drinks from a flask. When I brought them to
her and poured her first drink, she threw it back with no hesitation, making
her first grimace of the night immediately afterwards. That cute look, the
wrinkled nose and wide mouth and glassy eyes. The shuddering sound choking
out of her throat.

That was when I fell in love with Buffy being cute.

She stayed with me for the rest of the night. Followed me, trusted me,
leaned on me, annoyed the demons I was trying to play poker with, annoyed me
even a little bit, but still I thought she was cute. And I hate that damn
word.

And even as she was yelling at me, I entertained thoughts of how it was our
first fight where she didn't hit me. How we were almost a couple, really,
because it seemed like a couple-fight-- her wanting me to change her life and
how all I want to do is play poker. Even though I always get a rush out of
physically fighting with the Slayer-- and not just the Slayer, with her-- I
had to admit that this was better. More personal.

She was cute. She rocked me back, took me off my feet with that little-known
(to me, at least) fact.

So I can't wait. I can't wait until she comes to me again, which I know she
will sooner or later.

I can't wait until she comes to me, and asks for another drink.


The End

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