Phone | Private to Buffy Summers

[bigbad]

[Shortly after Spike does ~SOMETHING SECRETIVE~ with Lan, he decides it's been way too long since he talked to Buffy. It's been.... several days. Which is way too many, by his reckoning. So he calls her up.

He can't help but sound pleased when she picks up. It's been a pretty good day. Sort of.]

Hello, love. How's Chicago?

Comments

[bigbad]

Girl in leather with claws for hands. That bit's important.

[slay]

You were saying? About more story? [ buffy's enjoying this far too much. she's rolled over onto her stomach because i've decided she's lying on the hotel bed in chicago. she kicks her feet up. ]

[bigbad]

[Spike's in his room in the castle, so this'll work really nicely when they segue into phone sex.]

Right. Well, they had all this stuff they were questioning me about even though as the guy with all my fingers, I had all the power then. [His voice gets a little more serious, though he's not sure how much he should be divulging, now that he knows the Forge is bugged. But this much, at least, the bad guys would already know.]

They knew me. That I was with the Knights. But they believed me when I said I was just a fan of Eterna's, so they let me leave.

[slay]

Knew you. [ she stops, growing serious. the smile cuts out of her voice. she sits up. phone sex boner killed. ] What do you mean, how could they know you?

[bigbad]

[Spike's silent for a moment, trying to find a good way to put this.] I'll tell you back at the castle.

[slay]

Spike -- [ her tone says she really doesn't like this answer, but she stops short because whatever she's gonna be there like tomorrow. ]

Fine. [ she's pouting. better find something to make it better. not your penis. ]

[bigbad]

[What are you wearing? Wait not his penis. Damn. He wants to know what happened in Chicago, but she doesn't seem happy about it. Italy, on the other hand, she'd liked.]

Tell me more about Venice. It's supposed to be beautiful there, right?

[slay]

[ that gets a lazy, nostalgic kind of smile out of her, and she lays back down, sprawling on her back. ]

Gorgeous. Rafael took me driving. We went and saw the city. The lights on the canal at night ... it was. [ there's a long exhale. ] Oh, god. And, like, the gondola guy started singing, right? Some Italian song. And then Rafael, completely insane as he is, is like "no, no, let me show you how it's done" and so he starts singing. While we're just ... floating. It was incredible.

[bigbad]

Rafael, huh? He's your famous guy? [This was what he wanted, technically, but does she have to sound so... swoony about him?] Did Myri go with you? [...to chaperone?]

[slay]

Huh? Oh, no, she and Kat and Gar stayed back at his place snooping. I was distracto-girl. With a side of interrog -- [ she gets hung up trying to turn that into like interrogal or interrogatogal or nope none of it works. ] With a side of interrogator.

Anyway. It was just me and him. I got him to take me to this cute little cafe overlooking the canal for gelato, too. Have you ever had -- What'd he call it again? It's like ... like chocolate chip, but better.

[bigbad]

[So it was a mission related date. No reason to be jealous. Even if it was a real date, no reason to be jealous. It's not like they're together, or could ever be more than friends. Which he's fine with.]

Haven't tried much, I suppose. That I remember.

[slay]

... Oh. Right. [ she sobers up a little. ] Well, if we ever get a chance to go back. You're gonna be all ... knightly, I bet you could request assignment to Italy or something. Maybe even with Rafael. Or, it's really not that far ... a long enough intermission between, er, missions, you could prolly just jet down. You know, with somebody. Not alone obviously, that'd be totally lame.

[bigbad]

...would you like to go back with me? [Is that what she's driving at? Because having gelato with Buffy sounds a lot more fun than hearing about her fancy date. He could afford a fancy date. He has the mission expenses credit card.]

[slay]

I -- [ didn't see that coming. she should have, she realizes now. she kind of walked into it. but she has to take a beat to sort through her thoughts and untangle her tongue and try not to take that the wrong way. ] Well, I'm not wildly opposed to going back. But I just meant ... you know. Someone you like. [ we're running on the middle school definition of words so this is a clear like-like and not just like. ]

[bigbad]

I like you. [Spike never went to middle school. And if they had it in England, they said fancy, not like. So he's mostly going off the normal definition even if the middle school direction just might be true too, and even if... it's actually pretty clear what like she means.]

[slay]

Not like that. [ there's an evasive sort of smile in her voice, because she appreciates him saying so all the same. ] Dumage was in the café too. I bet she'd like going back. [ because girls like dumage are girls spike likes. and buffy is in no way bitter or jealous as she says that. ] I'm sure she owns plenty of leather.

[bigbad]

[Well... Spike also does like Dumage, he supposes. And she probably does own leather.

But wait.]

Dumage crashed your date?

[slay]

What? [ oh. right. ] It wasn't -- It wasn't like that. [ primarily because rafael is in love with somebody else otherwise yeah she totally would have called it a date because uguuu and also famous. ]

More like ... we crashed hers. I crashed hers. Rafael didn't really know that -- I spotted her from the canal. And ... maybekindofstalkedher. A little. [ huff. ] She was supposed to be helping with the mission! And instead she was just ... hanging out, chatting up some ... I think it was, like, her sister.

Did you know she has a sister?

[bigbad]

[...that's a lot of information. That mostly just leads to YAY NOT A DATE and Spike's heart warming up to Buffy even more because she's cute when she's a stalker. Well, more she's cute when she's defensive about stalking. IF BUFFY AND SPIKE BOTH REMEMBERED THEIR HISTORIES THEY'D KNOW HOW LITTLE SPIKE CAN THROW STONES ABOUT STALKING.]

No, she never said. And she didn't mention it? [That's weird. He's pretty sure they're allowed to visit family, if they have any. Why would Dumage hide it?]

[slay]

Nu-uh. Never said that's where she went after, either. She was being totally shady about it. And bailing on the mission-help, and seriously, if this is what she's been doing the whole time, no wonder Wynn was like hey, let's fire them. Maybe if all our knights were actually working the mission-- [ she stops. because spike likes dumage and she's pretty sure that qualifes as like-likes and so she feels the need to add. ] Sorry. We may have entered venting.

[bigbad]

[They're not fired. But that's another conversation for not over the phone. He wishes he could tell her. But he'll just sit on it for now.]

It's all right. I don't mind the venting. Even if I personally don't think the mission thing's Dumage's fault. [But that is weird. Maybe he'll ask her about it someday. Subtly.] Guess you never told her you were spying, huh?

[slay]

Not exactly. [ beat. ] Do you think I'm a total creep?

[bigbad]

Course not. [He pauses.] Well, not a total creep. Just a little one.

[slay]

Hey! Who's little? [ it's said with an edge of teasing, and her smile reflects in her voice. she dismisses it though. w/e. dumage drama aside. ] What are you doing right now, anyway? Isn't it like crazy late there? [ duh vampire. ]

[bigbad]

Yeah. Lan held our meeting at night, when I wouldn't fry. Which would've been nicer if he hadn't also beaten me half to death when he was testing me. So I'm lying here and waiting for my cuts and bruises to heal.