tamingthemuse | Prompt 158 Barbeque - Good Times(1/1) - spikesdeb

Title: Good Times
Fandom: BtVS
Author: spikesdeb
Prompt: #158 - Barbeque
Rating: G
Word Count: 1226
Summary: Round about Flooded and Afterlife, Buffy and Dawn muse on times past and wonder if they can recreate a good memory. And the guest of honour? Well, he doesn't have a pulse..
Authors's note : Thanks to

seductivembrace for tidying up and 'Americanising' my Buffy. I couldn't do this without her.
Disclaimer : None of the characters are mine, but I love them just the same. Thanks to Joss for letting us play with them.

GOOD TIMES

It was a balmy spring evening, a Tuesday, and things were quiet for a change. Buffy puttered about the garden, haplessly pruning things she didn't even know the name of. Her mom was the gardener. The gloves were too big and the shears were blunt, but she was trying. Oh, she was definitely trying. Dawn was a mess and her counsellor had advised that Buffy tried to make Dawn's home life as normal as possible. And normal in the Summers' household was a tidy garden.

Thing was, it was quite possible Buffy was killing off the plants she was hacking away at. She had no clue what was a genuine plant and what was a weed, but the simple act of doing something was healing her soul, so she continued. Already the compost heap was the richer by a foot, and the garden looked like an apocalypse had blown through.

Just another night in Sunnydale...

“Buffy! That's mom's prized honeysuckle!” Dawn squealed from the back porch. Buffy froze with her shears poised to trim off a substantial branch. She drew back the blades and turned to face her sister.

“Oh. Looked like something spreading. It all looks so...green. And weedy.”

Dawn rolled her eyes. Killing things was so Buffy's deal.

She missed her mom.

Buffy noticed Dawn's trembling lip and laid down the shears and gloves, moving to her sister's side as she sat on the steps. Those steps had seen so much action over the years. Her mind harked back to an incensed vampire with a cocked shotgun and hard eyes that suddenly softened and the awkward pat on the back that was strangely comforting when her mom was first diagnosed. She'd never told him, but the half hour they'd spent sitting in quite contemplation, her body heat leaching away towards his cold flesh as she inched closer to him, was what kept her going the whole time. With Spike she never had to be anything but herself. Nobody else ever let her just be Buffy.

Dawn rested her head on her sister's shoulder. “What you thinking about?”

Buffy jumped, guilty in thought if not in action. “Erm...nothing. Mom. What she'd make of my green fingers.”

Dawn smiled. Her sister really sucked at gardening. But it was nice that she was trying. “Hey Buff, you remember that night when we had a barbeque? With the bananas wrapped in aluminium foil and the whipped cream? And the skewers?”

Buffy smiled. She remembered. It was one of the happiest memories she had. Willow and Xander and Giles and even Anya, with Dawn and her mom and normal stuff.

And Spike.

Spike had been very quiet that night. He'd turned up just as they lit the coals and proffered a pack of meat that Buffy joked had very dubious origins. He'd produced the receipt to verify the sausages were made from pig and Buffy giggled at the affronted expression on his face. The self-effacing smile that crept onto his lips made her slayer heart skip a beat; he was a vampire, she was a slayer – but staking him was the last thing on her mind. Right then she wanted to hug him for making her mom laugh and her sister giggle, and Xander's huff as she rested her hand on Spike's arm and thanked him for his gift was just hysterical. For once, the banter between Spike and Xander had been only slightly acidic and Anya's propensity for inappropriate comments was doused by her never having an empty plate. Even the slightly unnerving sight of her mom and Giles sitting side by side on the garden bench and flirting – definitely flirting, despite what her mom said later – was something to smile about.

“Yeah, I remember Dawnie. I remember you ate more bananas than you should've and had to take a Tums and go lie down!”

“Oh, but they were yummy! And you ate enough yourself. Just because you've got slayer digestion. Not fair!”

The girls laughed together, enjoying the recollection. Could they have that again, that happy, carefree feeling? It was hard, without their mom, to contemplate being happy. But that was exactly what Joyce would have wanted. Buffy made a decision.

“Hey. How about another barbeque. Tonight. What do you say?”

Dawn squealed. “Really? With bananas and everything?”

“Uh huh, but I'm a bit freaked by your banana obsession.”

Dawn nudged her sister's shoulder and rolled her eyes. “Yummy, remember? Oh this is so cool! What are we gonna eat? Do we even have anything? Should we ask Spike? Maybe he’ll bring over those sausages like last time.”

Buffy froze. She hadn't gotten as far as the guest list. She just figured it would be the two of them, to be honest. Relationships with the rest of the gang weren't really what they should be, and it was mostly her fault. She was so caught up in her anguish at being ripped out of heaven that she was finding it difficult to even speak to Willow and Xander. They had no idea how hard it was just opening her eyes in the morning, and she couldn't tell them. She felt a little better, though, sharing the reason for her lack of happy with Spike outside the Magic Box a couple of days earlier. Although, she'd made him promise he wouldn't tell anyone. That news would be hers to spill if and when she felt it right. Spike would honour his promise, she was sure, he always did. He may be an evil undead thing, but he had standards, and he was rapidly becoming the one highlight in her day, surreptitiously checking up on her whilst trying to be cool about it. His quiet 'how you feelin', love' that was his initial greeting lately made her feel warm inside. He knew where she'd been, and he knew what it was like to claw your way out of a coffin. He was the only one she could talk to about things.

Wow. That had sneaked up on her. Spike had skipped right past tolerated and become welcomed, and as Buffy considered Dawn and the barbeque and what would make the whole occasion special for the two of them, she realised that the only other person she really wanted to see was Spike.

Panicked, she deflected Dawn's questions in amongst the teenager's babbling chatter, desperately trying to organise her thoughts and her feelings regarding the vampire. It was just wrong, simple as that. Her friends had brought her back because they thought she was in hell, and she should be grateful to them, misguided though they were. But a little bit of her was hurt at the thought that they would think that her sacrifice would mean nothing and that her reward for saving the world would be torture and oblivion. Willow must have considered the risks, otherwise why didn't she tell Giles and Dawn, and why did they keep it from Spike? Because Spike would have stopped them all, that's why. He had faith in her. He would have known that she was in a better place.

Pushing her maudlin thoughts aside, Buffy directed Dawn to go rustle up some burgers and buns and made her way towards the cemetery. She knew what relish would make her night complete, and she was going to get him.