[action]

[slaying]

[ it is about time to try and smile on through the difficulties. there is a christmas day to be celebrated and gifts to be opened and given. so buffy puts on her bravest of brave social faces and is out making her christmas gift rounds.

at home, there will be gifts under the beautifully decorated tree for bones, willow, emony and scottyaround

Comments

action;

[univalent]

[ the gift is unmistakably from buffy, but to tell the truth, spike wasn't expecting to get anything from her. at all, let alone this and a replacement for that mug she broke. buffy broke things-- they broke things. it was a fact of life. repairing things sometimes happened, but never by them. and never replacing things. this was... new. and the vampire sat on one of the chairs, fingering the cup as he turned it around in his hands like it was made of the most precious of materials and would shatter if he didn't handle it carefully. ]

filtered voice; (later in the evening)

[slaying]

[ with all her presents delivered, buffy settles at the kitchen table with her journal. she tries (perhaps in vain?) to contact spike. ]

Hey. You 'round?

filtered voice;

[univalent]

[ spike's around, but he's not near his journal. fortunately for her, vampire hearing means he can hear her voice coming from the open journal in the next room. he sets the mug down and goes to retrieve it before settling back down in that same chair. ]

Am now.

filtered voice; (wait. what. i swear i replied to this. /blames spotty internet)

[slaying]

How about those local sports teams, huh?

[ the signal is unmistakable. aiming for casual smalltalk and expecting to fail. ]

filtered voice;

[univalent]

There are no sports teams, love. And I don't like sports.

[ he knows what she's doing and the annoyance in his voice shines through. ]

filtered voice;

[slaying]

I think someone tried to play soccer, once. [ a lame argument.

and so, she gives in: ] I just thought I should probably say merry Christmas.

[ it's what people did, after all. and what couples do. even though it feels more than a little off on them. ]

filtered voice;

[univalent]

Emphasis on tried, less on actually forming a team.

[ very lame argument, indeed. why so difficult, buffy? ]

Merry Christmas to you, too. ...uh, sorry I didn't get you anything. I didn't know we actually...you know, did that.

filtered voice;

[slaying]

We don't.

[ and because her logic works in strange ways: ] I mean, it wasn't wrapped.

filtered voice;

[univalent]

Oh. Good.

[ a neutral-toned response. he's not sure whether he's relieved or irritated that they don't do that, so it's best not to address it; as is the way with most things that pertain to one buffy summers when they're of the sticky and complicated variety. whatever they're doing together aside, spike's long past the days when he wasted more time than was needed over-contemplating her. ]

A replacement, then. 'Bout time. [ pause, and then: ] Thanks.