Wrote new Buffyverse fic. It's Not, for the five things challenge.

Very nice SA

Thanks, P! I got the tiara today. It's beautiful! Thank you! I think I'm going to wear it tomorrow.

Tiaras are wonderful to write in. I'm wearing one of mine now, as I work on V!Giles.

I'm so glad you like it! A couple of people said you would.

Picture?

Not yet. Likely in February, when I have money to rent a camera.

yeah- I know the feeling. I'd have to scrounge around for a digital camera myself. We can just be unvisually together, if you want.

Or we could imagine real hard.

That works too.

Okay, here it is. Kill me, please? I have too many WIPs.

[author points upwards to hook on ceiling, which she is thoughtfully providing for you to hang that heavy lump of disbelief on]

The bar was crowded, smoky, and it was on the edge of being painful to the ears.

“I’m still not sure why we’re here, Spike,” Angel said to the younger vampire, who was sitting next to him and chain-smoking. “I think we should go home.”

“We’re gonna meet an old friend of mine. A double date. You’d enjoy it if you’d just relax a bit.”

“A double date? Spike, I know you. You’re thinking of a foursome, aren’t you?”

Spike didn’t reply to that. He hadn’t expected Angel to see through his plan so quickly. “Here they come.”

The other side of the room, Angel and Spike watched as Han Solo opened the door, and practically dragged Luke through. “Come on, kid. It’s not that bad.”

“This isn’t a nice part of town, Han.”

“When was that ever a problem? I told you, I know this guy.”

“You knew Lando Calrissian too. Leia told me all about that.”

“Oh, let’s just meet him, shall we? Over there.” Han nodded to the far corner, where a bleached blond head could just be seen. “Not scared, are you?”

Luke decided that the shouting needed to argue in here wasn’t worth it, and followed Han to the back of the room, where his lover was greeting Spike more enthusiastically than might be thought strictly necessary.

Watching them, alert to the movement of the Force for fear of an attack, Luke realised that it was only be a great effort that they refrained from kissing, or something even worse. They’d been lovers in the past, he was sure of that.

Eventually, Han broke away from the manly hugging and minor petting that he and Spike had indulged in, to grin rakishly at Luke- who broke off mid-‘why do I put up with him?’ as his knees felt weak and his brain tried to explode, or implode, or something. Force, but Han was better looking than anyone had a right to be.

“Well, are you going to introduce me to tall, dark and broody in the corner there, or not?”

“Only if you’ll introduce me to that nummy treat,” Spike grinned back, a match for Han’s. “Guess I can, yeah. Angel, meet Han Solo, smuggler; Han, meet Angel, the current boyfriend.”

Angel stood up to shake hands, assessing this man who treated Spike with such physical familiarity. He was tall, though no taller than Angel himself, with a handsome mouth and eyes that had seen a lot of life, but were still laughing about it. Clearly, Spike had good reason to be attracted, and that made him even more of a threat.

“Han and I once smuggled eight casks of Romulan ale right under the nose of a Jedi,” Spike was saying. “Stupid religious types, they never know what’s going on.”

Luke didn’t reach for his lightsabre, but it wasn’t easy.

“Don’t be too sure of that, Spike old buddy. This nummy treat is Luke Skywalker, Jedi knight.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Spike said, blithely ignoring the fact that he’d just roundly insulted everything this man believed in. “So you’re another of these hero types?”

“A lot of people insist on saying that,” Luke answered, meeting Spike’s eyes and suddenly seeing what Han found attractive in that face, with its clear cheekbones and grin as attractive as Han’s. His Jedi training did- luckily, or so it seemed- prevent him thinking that more than once.

“Heroic and good-looking, huh? Quite a catch you’ve netted there, Han.” Han simply took Luke’s hand and sat down with him at the grimy table. “Though not a patch on my Angel, ‘course.”

“So, Spike, what’re we doing tonight?”

“Depends, Han. Same old, same old?”

Luke and Angel, aware that there was somehow more to this than they knew, exchanged a slightly nervous glance.”

“Missed me, did you? Or is it the nummy treat you’re after?”

Hearing that, Angel realised that he’d been all too right about Spike’s plan earlier. This wasn’t a night out with friends, this was a one-night stand. For four.

In his years as Angelus he’d done many things. There had been more than two in bed, normally at Darla’s prompting; but since that night when, on some strange planet in the Outer Rim, his soul had been returned to him, there’d only been Buffy and Spike.

The brief visual of those two together was one he’d had before, and he squashed it fast, no matter how close to the truth it may have been once. Spike was his now, all his, and he was Spike’s.

Spike, apparently, wanted Han and Luke as well.

“Could be. Who wants a drink?” Spike asked, standing up.

They ordered, and Spike disappeared into the crush of bodies around the bar.

“What do you do for a living, Angel?” Han enquired of the vampire.

Angel thought briefly about lying, and then figured that Spike would only ruin it if he did. “I’m a private detective, I help people who need it- especially people who find things happening that they can’t explain.”

Judging by the sudden interest on Luke’s face, that was a good thing to say. “Have you ever met a Force sensitive?”

“I’ve met some people with strange abilities- telepathy, telekinetics- but nothing I’d have said was the Force. You never know, though- what’s the difference between the Force and magic?”

“Magic doesn’t exist,” Luke shrugged. “Anyone with telekinetic powers is a Force sensitive.”

“I’d always assumed that the Force didn’t exist, until the New Republic came about,” Angel said, aware that this was dangerous ground but wanting to explore it. “Granted, a lot of the things that on my homeworld we’d have called demons turn out to be aliens with the advent of hyperspace travel, but I don’t accept that all magic is the Force. Can the Force create tears between dimensions?”

“Yes,” Luke answered confidently. “I’ve met a few people who claimed to be using magic, and all they were doing was using herbs and special words to focus their Force abilities.”