yes, I'm just using this because I'm too lazy to save it to anything else. Getting people on this bus is such a pain.

Giles looked at his watch impatiently. "Granted, I've watched Buffy prepare for major outings before, so I know how she is on organization, but, really ..."

Spike was leaning against the side of the bus, one foot up and flat on the vehicle. He seemed quite calm and collected as he smoked, until one saw the way the foot against the bus was nervously tapping. "I'm not going back in there, mate. Joyce is still arguing that she should stay, Slayer keeps picking things up and wondering if she should bring them, and Niblet and Demon Girl are hiding in the corners. What's taking Red and Harris so long?"

"I don't know. Spike, one of us is just going to have to go in there, grab things, and bring them out and stow them on the bus. And you're the one with the invitation."

"Ripper, please, they're all just waiting for a common target to stick his head in there--"

They both looked over in relief as Xander's car pulled up in the driveway. "Isn't that ..." Giles started.

Spike laughed. "Good on you, Red. Leave no one behind."

Willow, climbing out of the back seat, blushed but smiled. "I was just wanting to save time. Now we can go." Tugging gently, she pulled Tara out of the car to stand beside her. Tara stared at the two vampires anxiously but cuddled into Willow's shoulder quietly.

Giles looked pointedly at Xander. "Do not give me that look, Giles," Xander snapped, pulling bags from the trunk. "Just--don't." He carried duffles and backpacks onto the bus.

"It's not his fault," Willow said firmly. "I threatened him with the resolve face. And it's too late now, anyway. Where is everybody?"

Spike and Giles looked at each other. "They're, um, still ..." Giles started.

"They're still packing," Spike finished.

"Still?" Willow protested. "But I thought we had to get going. Why haven't you gone in and hurried them along?" Spike and Giles looked each other again.

"Geez," Xander muttered as he jogged down the bus steps. "Creatures of the night, they hide. I'll go get them. If nothing else, I can haul Anya out of there bodily."

"She likes the caveman act, huh?" Spike asked. He chuckled at the evil look Xander gave him as he headed up the walk.

Still, Xander took a deep breath before opening the door of Chez Slayer. Not-quite-raised voices came from the kitchen, but Dawn was sitting on the couch, hunched together as if she didn't want to be noticed. She looked up at Xander anxiously.

"We're back," he said with as reassuring a smile as he could manage. "Time to load 'em up and head 'em out."

Dawn looked toward the kitchen nervously. "Mom's saying she shouldn't go, that she'll only slow us down."

"Well, I don't know how, it's not like we're making a run for it cross country on foot. Get on the bus, I'll make sure she comes along."

Anya came out of the kitchen. She had her arms wrapped around herself and her unhappy thinking look on her face. "You're back."

"I'm back. What's up?"

"Why is Joyce being so stubborn? She knows it's not safe if she stays. I mean, we're going to go get Tara, who will slow us down as much as a woman recovering from a stroke, but no one's suggesting Tara stay behind. Doesn't Joyce know that everybody will just worry about her if she's not with us?"

Xander hugged her. "It's something good moms do, not want to be a burden. She thinks Buffy has enough to do without worrying about protecting a sick mom."

"That's dumb. Buffy will worry anyway, she's in there saying that. But Joyce keeps being stupid and noble."

"We're not leaving her, so it's not going to be a problem."

"Well, it's not like we can just drag her out of here--" She tilted her head to study the look on Xander's face, then smiled.

"I said nothing about dragging!" Xander protested.

"Xander," Dawn gasped, "you're not going to just grab my mom and--and carry her off."

"No, I'm not. Your mom's a smart woman, she'll see the logic of our arguments."

"And if she doesn't?" Dawn sounded far less outraged than one might expect at the idea of her mother being carried out bodily.

"Hopefully it won't come to that. I mean, we've already got Tara on board, so Mrs. Summers can't really argue."

"Tara?" Anya frowned. "We have to go get Tara."

"Well, no. Willow talked me into going and getting her just now. Tara's on the bus."

Dawn squeaked and looked towards the door, then, guiltily, towards the kitchen.

"Go on," Xander said. "The more people already on the bus, the more argument we have for getting a move on."

Anya leaned up to kiss him. "You're a brave man, Xander Harris. I like that about you. Come on, Dawn." She took Dawn's arm and led her out the door.

Xander squared his shoulders and headed for the kitchen, trying not to wonder why Anya considered arguing with Buffy and Dawn's Mom something requiring courage.

CONNIE! YES! Xander is so very brave and he doesn't even realise it.

My drabbles as posted to the Sunday100, for those who don't feel like visiting there...

Faith: Three Reflections

I. Sunnydale 2001

i got everything that i want how come this doesn’t feel great

Faith stared at Buffy’s face in the bathroom mirror, tilted her head, widened her eyes. The face was skinnier, not mine now, never again paler, more fragile. Blue eyes not brown, crinkly hair dyed blonde, more point to the chin, thinner cheekbones….

mine now this is my face my body my life

She tried out the traitor lungs, the traitor vocal cords, the traitor tongue: “You can’t do that, it’s wrong.”

i’m stuck i’m caught

She couldn’t go back. She couldn’t get out. She could, maybe, get away.

II. Los Angeles 2001

lots of torture toys in a bathroom

Faith scored the plunger right away, short blunt handle, oh yeah! Spray air-freshener for a nice flashy torch, lit. Dran-O under the sink, all right! Maybe pour it on Wesley’s skin, watch it bubble. Maybe for the big finish, she’d pour it down his throat. maybe not kill him maybe not She turned to the medicine cabinet, considered the contents – pills, Pepto, thermometer, Band-Aids… nothing fun in there.

She closed the mirror, caught sight of her not buffy face flushed, manic, remembered how Buffy’s eyes had stared back at her in Joyce’s bathroom.

III Los Angeles 2003

god my ass is so kicked

Faith braced herself on Wesley’s bathroom sink to wait for the dizziness to pass. a nice hot shower, that will help She’d die before she failed Wes, failed Angel. Today had been at best ‘not failed’– Angelus had killed the Beast, brought back the sun, yay for our side, but Angelus was still free.

She caught sight of her bruised face in the mirror: puffy, discolored, bloody. For once, she didn’t think of Buffy looking back at her.

at last a face i’ve earned

In a way, it was the best she’d ever looked.

at last a face i’ve earned

That is sooooo cool.

Dead on, Theo. All three.

She shoots ... she drains the three pointer!

I loved Plei's glass drabble, both of ita's left me a little breathless and Deb's and Deena's--each one a perfect snapshot.

Dana's Wes and Buffy are just as right and "of course" as Plei's darker OTP. Elena's "Spiral" S/X, so. hot. SA nailed Anya and early Tara. And connie's Vamp!Giles story, even if he isn't the crux of this one--wow.

Theo, the only thing I'd change is... Buffy's eyes aren't blue. They're a light, hard to determine hazel.

Other than that, LOVELY!!!

They're a light, hard to determine hazel.

Eeeek!

In order to show that we all have days of acute CRAPGASMS.

My flashfic. 1000 words, no more, no less. Spoilers only for what's aired.

Interlude

He'd expected more of a reaction.

After all, throwing it in the poof's face that he wasn't the only vamp man enough to get the Slayer wet and beggin' for it should get something more than a shrug.

"Takes more than that to bother me now, Spike. Where've you been the last few years?" Angel stared at him, unblinking, until Spike was forced to look away. "So you slept with my ex. Big deal. My son sent me to the bottom of the ocean, slept with the woman I'd fallen for, and damn near brought about the end of the world. You've gotta have perspective."

Angel tossed him the bottle. Daylight had forced them to take shelter in an abandoned building mid-battle. The former home of the Magic Box, as a matter of fact. Last time Spike had got himself good and pissed within these walls, he'd wound up on top of the table instead of under it. Not bloody likely that history'd repeat itself. Wasn't a table left in the place, for starters.

Besides, with Angel, he was more likely to find himself bent over the nonexistent piece of furniture than anything else.

"So what brings a nice boy like you to an apocalypse like this?" Spike muttered, throwing the bottle back in Angel's direction.

"Nostalgia, duty, and oh yeah--I was asked." The tone of his voice said he was done talking about the subject.

Well, someone obviously wasn't happy about this turn of events. Angel, always the big billowing hero, swooping into town to save the day, and winding up useless as tits on a board. Dull as ditchdirt and about half as chatty, too. Which wouldn't be a problem if Spike wasn't trapped in a room with him, nothing better to do than drink and talk, and not a lot of dutch courage left in the flask.

"Sun goes down in about seven hours, Angel. What do you propose we do to pass the time?"

"Rest, come up with a better strategy than hit until we're forced to retreat, and try not to kill each other in the meantime. It worked for the L.A. apocalypse, more or less."

"More or less?"

"Well, there were some deaths, and we did have a slight mole problem, but we got over it." It might have been his imagination, but Angel seemed to slump a little. "More or less."

"Been hard, then?"

"Except for a couple of weeks where it was all incredibly easy, hard's one way of putting it."

Angel stood up and wandered over to the boarded-up window, staring at it as if he could somehow see through the plywood and out to the empty street. Oh, this was wonderful; bad enough they were stuck here, now he found himself feeling sorry for Angel of all people.

"Hasn't been easy here, either," he said. "For example, I spent a few months crazy in a basement before downgrading to Xander's closet for a bit. I've been beaten, bound, bled, brainwashed, and a bunch of other things, some of which don't even start with B."

"I was turned into Angelus, had my soul stolen, was forced to relive parts of my life I'd rather forget happened, my son tried to kill me a few more times, and those were just the high points. Xander's closet?"

"Yeah, had my own cot and everything. Also had Harris watching every move I made and yammering on about my housekeeping. At least the First wanted me there. Ever listened to Xander sleep?"

"Can't say as I have."

"I've heard more mellifluous sounds come out the wrong end of a Fyarl demon. Snores something awful, that one. Almost enough to drive me back to the school basement."

Angel let out something that might have been a laugh, coming over to sit next to Spike and pass the flask back to him. Then it was quiet again, neither of them bothering to speak as they drained the rest of the whisky in turns.

"Last time we were trapped together, it was in that mineshaft, wasn't it?" Spike finally asked when the whisky was gone and the silence had turned uncomfortable again. "I always meant to ask if you enjoyed that bit."

"The part where I birched you raw? It's up there. It's one of the few things I did as Angelus that I don't feel a need to make up for."

"I was thinking more about what you did after the birching, with me bending and begging."

"I'm not going to lie and say I didn't enjoy it at the time. Then again, at the time, I enjoyed Darla's company." That slight laugh again. "Remember what I told you about perspective."

"Did you ever tell Buffy? About us, or about any of your other little perversions? I know you told her about Dru." He already knew the answer. No way Buffy would have kept a prime bit of information like that to herself, and no way Angel would have spilled it in the first place. Sympathy or no, he was just asking to watch Angel squirm.

Angel looked about as moved as your average boulder. "It's not going to work, you know?"

"What's not?"

"You trying to piss me off, make me angry. I'm not going to leave town, just because you don't want me here. Buffy tells me I'm not helping? I'll go, but I'm here for the battle. This isn't about vengeance, or vendettas, it's about doing what's right. I think you know that."

The sound of a match striking against the rubble and the hiss of a cigarette catching slid into the space between them. Yeah, he knew that. Knew they needed Angel on their side in order to win. Didn't mean he liked it, but he knew it.

Spike looked over to where Angel was sitting, hands draped loosely over his knees, his eyes closed.

Time to clear the air. "Just one more thing--I'd rather be stuck with you than Xander."