Fic: more btvs_santa bits
You know my propensity for writing tiny, bite-sized fics? Yeah, I did some of that for ladyofthelog as well. ;) To fill some of her other requests, I wrote a little S2 Whistler POV piece, a Fuffy drabble, and a linked pair Spuffy holiday drabbles. That's somewhere in the neighborhood of 7300 words for this project, which means I basically doubled my yearly output in the space of about a week and a half. That's either kinda nifty or pretty pathetic!
Title: Here’s the Thing
Rating: G
Word Count: 603
Thanks: readerjane did some beta-action on the DL to help me keep my secret. Gracias, lady!
Setting/Author’s Note: We hear Whistler talk in voice-overs about Buffy in “Becoming, Part I”; this piece is an imagining of what he might have to say about Xander, Giles, Spike, and Willow’s present and future in the closing scenes of “Becoming, Part II,” presented as a series of brief character studies. They are arranged chronologically, with Xander’s piece set after he’s lied to Buffy about Willow’s message, Spike’s as he reveals his alliance with Buffy, Giles’s as he’s led out of the mansion by Xander, and Willow’s as she finishes the re-ensoulment spell.
~Xander~
Here’s the thing about love.
Sometimes it can bring out the best in you. It’s the stuff the poets write about, like how love can make you noble and brave and true, can make you better than you are.
But it ain’t always like that.
This is the part gets left out of the fairytales: sometimes love brings out the worst in you. It can make you jealous and selfish and scared. It can drive you to do and say things you never would have thought possible. It makes you believe you know best, even when what you’ve really become is judgmental and unforgiving.
Oh, you can say you’re doing the right thing, maybe even convince yourself of that for a while. But if you look real closely, you’ll see things about yourself that maybe you’ll wish you hadn’t.
Ain’t love grand?
~Spike~
Here’s the thing about choices.
That stuff about destiny? Yeah, most of that is crap, churned out by oracles and spirit guides because they like the buzz it brings, convincing some poor slob his fate’s already decided for him. That, and the cash in the fortune-telling business ain’t bad, either.
Here’s what The Powers That Be don’t want you to know: what you do, who you are, you do that yourself. None of us is finished, not until our time here is done, and sometimes all it takes is that one choice that puts you on a path you never expected to travel.
Because one choice always leads to another, and before you know it, it seems like everything is different, that the world’s a different place. But it ain’t so much the world that’s changed - it’s you, the product of all the choices that lead you to who you’re gonna be.
~Giles~
Here’s the thing about trying to protect someone.
For the most part, you can’t. You wanna help, wanna do your best to keep the people you’re looking out for safe. But the world bein’ what it is ain’t real conducive to that. The world’s a big, bad, scary place, full of big, bad, scary things, and wishing it away ain’t gonna change it.
And when the person you’re trying to protect is a protector herself? When she’s the thing that stands between all of us and darkness? Well, then you got yourself a real problem.
Because the bad stuff is gonna come. You know that. And it’s going to hurt her, maybe even be more than she can bear.
But you can’t stop it, no matter how hard you try. And much as you might wanna shoulder the burden for her, you can’t do that, either. Sometimes you have to let her go and hope for the best.
~Willow~
Here’s the thing about power.
It can seem like a real positive thing, you know? Especially when you’ve never had any before and when you think you can use it to help, to be a force for good. ’Cuz being a force for good? It means you get to really be somebody for once. When you have power, you’re not just the one who always gets picked on or overlooked or underestimated.
It means you’re more than what everyone else always thought. It means you’re something special.
But power can change you, sometimes almost without you even knowing. You have to always be on your guard, because power’s seductive. It’s easy to lose yourself in it, to lose your way.
Power can define you. The tougher part is figuring out who you are underneath, so that you control the power, instead the power controlling you.
That’s how you change the world.
Title: Want. Take. Have.
Rating: R
Word Count: 100
Pairing request: Fuffy
Setting: Memories of “Bad Girls”
These were things Buffy would not remember.
Want.
The feeling of Faith’s warm, sweet, shallow breath on her face as she shivered in anticipation.
Take.
The feeling of her hands fluttering restlessly against the rough brick surface of the wall behind the Bronze, searching for purchase, her head lolling to the side as her back arched, Faith’s fingers moving under clothes against her skin, inside her.
Have.
The feeling that no one had touched her before with such confidence, such authority, such ownership, that no one had ever gotten her in quite the same way.
No, she could not remember…
Title: Tinsel
Rating: PG
Word Count: 200
Pairing request: Spuffy
I. Christmas Eve 2001
“Where’s the big evil?”
“You’re lookin’ at him.”
Buffy sighed. “You called me over here, in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve for, what, exactly?”
“Put up a string of Christmas lights and a bit of garland around the bed, see?” Spike gestured. “Thought maybe we could hang some tinsel from our naked bodies. Be, you know, festive.” He grinned and then faltered at her expression. “Maybe we don’t have to kill each other just this once?”
She refrained from pointing out he was already dead and she often wished she was, too. She said instead, “Tinsel, huh?”
II. Christmas Eve 2011
Dawn dropped her bag, glanced around the apartment. “Wow, it’s Christmas-tastic in here.” She stared at the heavily-decorated tree. “So why exactly did we have to stop on the way home from the airport for tinsel?”
Buffy tried to sound nonchalant. “Oh, it’s just for our bedroom.” The sudden image that popped into her head caused her cheeks to redden. Great. Super-stealthy.
Dawn grinned. “And I thought the only vampires who sparkled were the Cullens.”
“Sodding Stephenie Meyer,” Spike grumbled. “At least I only sparkle on Christmas Eve.”
“It’s tradition.” Buffy smiled. “Reminds me things can shine even in darkness.”
Title: Here’s the Thing
Rating: G
Word Count: 603
Thanks: readerjane did some beta-action on the DL to help me keep my secret. Gracias, lady!
Setting/Author’s Note: We hear Whistler talk in voice-overs about Buffy in “Becoming, Part I”; this piece is an imagining of what he might have to say about Xander, Giles, Spike, and Willow’s present and future in the closing scenes of “Becoming, Part II,” presented as a series of brief character studies. They are arranged chronologically, with Xander’s piece set after he’s lied to Buffy about Willow’s message, Spike’s as he reveals his alliance with Buffy, Giles’s as he’s led out of the mansion by Xander, and Willow’s as she finishes the re-ensoulment spell.
~Xander~
Here’s the thing about love.
Sometimes it can bring out the best in you. It’s the stuff the poets write about, like how love can make you noble and brave and true, can make you better than you are.
But it ain’t always like that.
This is the part gets left out of the fairytales: sometimes love brings out the worst in you. It can make you jealous and selfish and scared. It can drive you to do and say things you never would have thought possible. It makes you believe you know best, even when what you’ve really become is judgmental and unforgiving.
Oh, you can say you’re doing the right thing, maybe even convince yourself of that for a while. But if you look real closely, you’ll see things about yourself that maybe you’ll wish you hadn’t.
Ain’t love grand?
~Spike~
Here’s the thing about choices.
That stuff about destiny? Yeah, most of that is crap, churned out by oracles and spirit guides because they like the buzz it brings, convincing some poor slob his fate’s already decided for him. That, and the cash in the fortune-telling business ain’t bad, either.
Here’s what The Powers That Be don’t want you to know: what you do, who you are, you do that yourself. None of us is finished, not until our time here is done, and sometimes all it takes is that one choice that puts you on a path you never expected to travel.
Because one choice always leads to another, and before you know it, it seems like everything is different, that the world’s a different place. But it ain’t so much the world that’s changed - it’s you, the product of all the choices that lead you to who you’re gonna be.
~Giles~
Here’s the thing about trying to protect someone.
For the most part, you can’t. You wanna help, wanna do your best to keep the people you’re looking out for safe. But the world bein’ what it is ain’t real conducive to that. The world’s a big, bad, scary place, full of big, bad, scary things, and wishing it away ain’t gonna change it.
And when the person you’re trying to protect is a protector herself? When she’s the thing that stands between all of us and darkness? Well, then you got yourself a real problem.
Because the bad stuff is gonna come. You know that. And it’s going to hurt her, maybe even be more than she can bear.
But you can’t stop it, no matter how hard you try. And much as you might wanna shoulder the burden for her, you can’t do that, either. Sometimes you have to let her go and hope for the best.
~Willow~
Here’s the thing about power.
It can seem like a real positive thing, you know? Especially when you’ve never had any before and when you think you can use it to help, to be a force for good. ’Cuz being a force for good? It means you get to really be somebody for once. When you have power, you’re not just the one who always gets picked on or overlooked or underestimated.
It means you’re more than what everyone else always thought. It means you’re something special.
But power can change you, sometimes almost without you even knowing. You have to always be on your guard, because power’s seductive. It’s easy to lose yourself in it, to lose your way.
Power can define you. The tougher part is figuring out who you are underneath, so that you control the power, instead the power controlling you.
That’s how you change the world.
Title: Want. Take. Have.
Rating: R
Word Count: 100
Pairing request: Fuffy
Setting: Memories of “Bad Girls”
These were things Buffy would not remember.
Want.
The feeling of Faith’s warm, sweet, shallow breath on her face as she shivered in anticipation.
Take.
The feeling of her hands fluttering restlessly against the rough brick surface of the wall behind the Bronze, searching for purchase, her head lolling to the side as her back arched, Faith’s fingers moving under clothes against her skin, inside her.
Have.
The feeling that no one had touched her before with such confidence, such authority, such ownership, that no one had ever gotten her in quite the same way.
No, she could not remember…
Title: Tinsel
Rating: PG
Word Count: 200
Pairing request: Spuffy
I. Christmas Eve 2001
“Where’s the big evil?”
“You’re lookin’ at him.”
Buffy sighed. “You called me over here, in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve for, what, exactly?”
“Put up a string of Christmas lights and a bit of garland around the bed, see?” Spike gestured. “Thought maybe we could hang some tinsel from our naked bodies. Be, you know, festive.” He grinned and then faltered at her expression. “Maybe we don’t have to kill each other just this once?”
She refrained from pointing out he was already dead and she often wished she was, too. She said instead, “Tinsel, huh?”
II. Christmas Eve 2011
Dawn dropped her bag, glanced around the apartment. “Wow, it’s Christmas-tastic in here.” She stared at the heavily-decorated tree. “So why exactly did we have to stop on the way home from the airport for tinsel?”
Buffy tried to sound nonchalant. “Oh, it’s just for our bedroom.” The sudden image that popped into her head caused her cheeks to redden. Great. Super-stealthy.
Dawn grinned. “And I thought the only vampires who sparkled were the Cullens.”
“Sodding Stephenie Meyer,” Spike grumbled. “At least I only sparkle on Christmas Eve.”
“It’s tradition.” Buffy smiled. “Reminds me things can shine even in darkness.”