Summer Time Easy
Summer in Sunnydale was peaceful. It was a time when most of the vampires laid low and other demons disappeared altogether. No one tried to end the world during summer; it was like, some sort of unspoken rule.
Summer in Sunnydale was also really boring. Sure, it was nice to have quiet days, and nights where you could take a walk without becoming terrified every time the breeze ruffled the bushes. It was great, for about a week.
Then you started to miss that surge of adrenaline you got when a vampire rushed at you, and you end up barely escaping death by barbecue fork. There was just nothing to do with your time when all of a sudden the forces of evil were nowhere to be found, seemingly off taking a nap. Which, really, was just rude.
After all, here Xander was, ready with his cross and his stake and even a dagger strapped to his leg with sunrise hours away. Walking around town after dark, by himself because no one else saw the point in patrolling when there weren’t any bad guys. He was so ready to kick some demon ass, if he could only find some demons to kick. The only demon he’d seen since the end of May was Clem, who didn’t really deserve to be kicked, even if he did eat kittens.
After patrolling, he went back to his luxurious basement apartment, which finally didn’t smell like rotting demon snot anymore thanks to a bottle of bleach and a whole thing of Febreeze. The demon snot had been courtesy of his unwelcome roommate Spike, who just wouldn’t leave when Xander told him to. And since even chipped, Spike was still just a bit stronger than Xander (insert self-depreciating laughter here) it wasn’t something he felt he could push the issue on.
Spike, for his part, seemed to be doing the summer thing too, and only left the basement to get his blood and cigarettes. He would be buying alcohol too, but Xander told him he could just steal from his parents stash upstairs. They had plenty, and were always too drunk the next day to remember how much they drank, and that it may be disappearing faster than made sense.
So after Xander came back from patrol, frustrated and bored, he and Spike would watch movies together. Or really, Xander would put on a movie, and Spike would steal the remote and switch it to something else. Then, depending on how tired and/or frustrated he was that night, Xander would either sigh, yell, or just launch a full body tackle at the stupid remote stealing vampire. If the resulting wrestling match seemed more buddy-buddy than mortal enemies, he tried not to notice.
Finally, after another fruitless patrol, he asked Spike. “What’s with the disappearing act, huh? Where do you all go during the summer?”
Spike just looked at him and smirked as he said, “everyone needs a vacation.”