Fic: Men at Work
Title: Men at Work
Creator: the_moonmoth
Rating: Not for Dawn’s eyes ;)
Setting: Alternate S6
Summary/Prompt: Temptation
Words: 666
Notes: Another scene from the universe of The Ewer of Enheduanna. Buffy didn’t die at the end of S5. This is a missing scene between the not-dying and the start of Ewer. Beta thanks to bewilde <3
Buffy arrived home from her trip to the bank with nothing more to her name than a ripped skirt and a bruise on her shoulder blade, only to find the house empty of anyone to commiserate with.
“Dawn?” she called. “Xander? Anya?”
“Down here!” Dawn yelled back, sounding strangely distant for how far her voice could usually carry.
‘Down here’ meant the basement, but the only thing down there was the laundry, and the one time Dawn had tried to do laundry since their mom… Since ever, she’d nearly blown up the washing machine and blamed it on tiny invisible demons in the drum. The big fat minus sign in front of their financial assets meant that both new clothes and a new machine were off the table, especially now that her loan application had been refused. They needed that machine! She hurried.
What she found was not the scene of mechanical carnage she’d been dreading. It was much, much worse.
But also kinda… better?
“What’s going on?” she asked, and her voice came out in hushed tones, the type that came naturally in a museum, and she totally understood why people did that now, because that right there was a work of art.
“Shh,” Dawn said. She was sitting on the top step peering avidly through the railings. “You might spook them. It took Anya twenty minutes to convince them to take their shirts off.”
“Uhhhh…” Buffy said, fairly certain her baby sister should not be watching this particular show, but unable to drag her own eyes away long enough to cover Dawn’s.
“Actually, it was only Xander who needed convincing,” Anya said, from the step below Dawn’s. “He is attractively modest about his defined and ripply muscularity.” She glanced up at Buffy. “I don’t mind you looking because I know he loves only me.”
“Uh huh,” Buffy said, but it wasn’t Xander who was making her eyes burn from the lack of blinking. “Very generous of you.”
“Thank you!” Anya said with a delighted smile, before returning to her vigil.
Beneath them, the basement appeared to be flooded with about a foot of water, but it hardly seemed important when, scuffed and rumpled and deliciously glisteny, Spike was helping Xander do something manly and practical to the pipework in only half his clothes.
She watched as Spike held a length of copper in place so that Xander could attach it. Anya made a small whimpery noise as Xander’s back moved with the motion of tightening something. At least, she hoped it was Anya. But whatever. Spike was facing her, smooth skin over chiselled muscles, everything taut and defined despite the fact that that pipe could hardly be a strain to hold up. And with his arms above his head like that, his black jeans - which had sucked up the water and were now plastered to him like a second skin - were riding low enough to provide a really nice view of that divot of muscle that pointed like a runway down to what was beneath his waistband…
“Buffy,” Dawn whispered. “Little drool.”
“Huh?”
Dawn smirked. “You gonna be able to find some words, or do I need to ask them to put the goodies away?”
Buffy’s mouth snapped shut - god, how long had it been flapping open like that? - and she glared at Dawn, hoisting her up by the arm and hauling her out into the foyer.
“You’ve got homework to do,” she said in her ‘no arguments’ voice. Of course, this was Dawn, so…
“What do you mean? No I don’t!”
Buffy crossed her arms and turned the glare up a notch from ‘deadly’ to ‘violence imminent.’ “It wasn’t,” she bit out, “a question.” Then she went back through the basement door and held it shut for a minute or so until Dawn gave up on her futile tantrum.
Satisfied that she wasn’t going to be interrupted again, Buffy took up her sister’s place on the steps and settled in for the show.
Creator: the_moonmoth
Rating: Not for Dawn’s eyes ;)
Setting: Alternate S6
Summary/Prompt: Temptation
Words: 666
Notes: Another scene from the universe of The Ewer of Enheduanna. Buffy didn’t die at the end of S5. This is a missing scene between the not-dying and the start of Ewer. Beta thanks to bewilde <3
Buffy arrived home from her trip to the bank with nothing more to her name than a ripped skirt and a bruise on her shoulder blade, only to find the house empty of anyone to commiserate with.
“Dawn?” she called. “Xander? Anya?”
“Down here!” Dawn yelled back, sounding strangely distant for how far her voice could usually carry.
‘Down here’ meant the basement, but the only thing down there was the laundry, and the one time Dawn had tried to do laundry since their mom… Since ever, she’d nearly blown up the washing machine and blamed it on tiny invisible demons in the drum. The big fat minus sign in front of their financial assets meant that both new clothes and a new machine were off the table, especially now that her loan application had been refused. They needed that machine! She hurried.
What she found was not the scene of mechanical carnage she’d been dreading. It was much, much worse.
But also kinda… better?
“What’s going on?” she asked, and her voice came out in hushed tones, the type that came naturally in a museum, and she totally understood why people did that now, because that right there was a work of art.
“Shh,” Dawn said. She was sitting on the top step peering avidly through the railings. “You might spook them. It took Anya twenty minutes to convince them to take their shirts off.”
“Uhhhh…” Buffy said, fairly certain her baby sister should not be watching this particular show, but unable to drag her own eyes away long enough to cover Dawn’s.
“Actually, it was only Xander who needed convincing,” Anya said, from the step below Dawn’s. “He is attractively modest about his defined and ripply muscularity.” She glanced up at Buffy. “I don’t mind you looking because I know he loves only me.”
“Uh huh,” Buffy said, but it wasn’t Xander who was making her eyes burn from the lack of blinking. “Very generous of you.”
“Thank you!” Anya said with a delighted smile, before returning to her vigil.
Beneath them, the basement appeared to be flooded with about a foot of water, but it hardly seemed important when, scuffed and rumpled and deliciously glisteny, Spike was helping Xander do something manly and practical to the pipework in only half his clothes.
She watched as Spike held a length of copper in place so that Xander could attach it. Anya made a small whimpery noise as Xander’s back moved with the motion of tightening something. At least, she hoped it was Anya. But whatever. Spike was facing her, smooth skin over chiselled muscles, everything taut and defined despite the fact that that pipe could hardly be a strain to hold up. And with his arms above his head like that, his black jeans - which had sucked up the water and were now plastered to him like a second skin - were riding low enough to provide a really nice view of that divot of muscle that pointed like a runway down to what was beneath his waistband…
“Buffy,” Dawn whispered. “Little drool.”
“Huh?”
Dawn smirked. “You gonna be able to find some words, or do I need to ask them to put the goodies away?”
Buffy’s mouth snapped shut - god, how long had it been flapping open like that? - and she glared at Dawn, hoisting her up by the arm and hauling her out into the foyer.
“You’ve got homework to do,” she said in her ‘no arguments’ voice. Of course, this was Dawn, so…
“What do you mean? No I don’t!”
Buffy crossed her arms and turned the glare up a notch from ‘deadly’ to ‘violence imminent.’ “It wasn’t,” she bit out, “a question.” Then she went back through the basement door and held it shut for a minute or so until Dawn gave up on her futile tantrum.
Satisfied that she wasn’t going to be interrupted again, Buffy took up her sister’s place on the steps and settled in for the show.