" Ok, Mr. Donut's has really gone downhill," Xander said, engaging the Scoobs in his patented dry, low-key humour. " The bad news is, they were out of everything but Raspberry Tulls and Sugar POWdER Custard Dollops-" Andrew, Giles, and Dawn, who were at the kitchen table, eating chips all looked up in horror. Everyone had tried the dollops. They tasted like plastic, and unbeknownst to everyone but Andrew, were Xander's favourite place to insert small amounts of urine. Having been holed up in the Summers home for the entire weekend (excluding Buffy's brief night rounds of patrol), grocery shopping had been forgotten. Down to a half eaten, semi-stale bag of chips, the gang had sent Xander, errand boy, out to get some fat and carb fuel. Andrew silently prepared himself for the battle of hands, determined not to get stuck with a dollop one more fucking time. "The good news," Xander said, knowing that the whole gang (including Andrew), would be cheered, "is we've got Raspberry Tulls!"
The expressions of horror on their faces quickly melted into a collective sigh of relief. Anything, ANYTHING, they all thought separately, was better than those goddamned dollops. They tasted like piss flavored plastic, thought Giles. He stepped forth and hugged Xander, saying nothing more but , "Thank you." The custard dollops had been banned from the Scooby mix weeks ago.
The kitchen's swing door opened and Anya, Buffy, Spike, and Willow entered. The two surviving SIT's had reached exhaustion hours ago, and were fast asleep in Dawn's room. "Mmm, healthy fruit goodness," Buffy said with sarcasm. The gang had been eating rather poorly in the past weeks. Lately, it seemed they had had so little time to shop, shower, sleep. Battles against The First's agents were so frequent that it often seemed a waste to wash the sweat, blood and dirt off one's body between slayings.Mr. Donut's was becoming a quick fix solution that was making everyone cranky, irritable, ill-clothed sugar junkies. But it was close, open 24/7, and Xander didn't seem to mind the frequent trips; Buffy felt for him. She knew that despite the brave face he put on, he must be hurting like a wounded animal inside. She'd never guessed that he did, indeed, have a bit of wounded animal inside of him ( he had scarfed a Tull on the way back to headquarters).
"At least they're raspberry!", Andrew chimed in. Willow shot him a look that could wither the flowers by the gates of heaven, but no one noticed. She couldn't control herself. She knew that Andrew had not murdered Tara. That although he had, in fact, murdered Johnathan, his best friend, he had done so under mental attack of The First. When he and Xander had fallen in love, she had been confused. Part of her had been greatful to have a friend who would not just be superficially accepting of her, who would really understand what it was like to love a person who the world said you couldn't unless you were doing it on the pages of Hustler to entertain 'the others'. Part of her knew that something was up. It wasn't right, Andrew was a killer, no matter what he had been urged to do, he was a psychopath who was incapable of seeing the consequences of his actions. How many times had he used magic or other methods on people to turn them into his sexual and emotional pawns? She knew she was no Strawberry Shortcake herself. But she felt something deep down that let her know he was simply incapable of knowing the actual meaning of the Wiccan rede, "and ye harm none, do what thou will".
Nonetheless, when Buffy and Xander had come to her and played tag-team, asking her to do the spell to Andrew that would remove all susceptibility to evil within him, she had agreed. She had done it not for Xander, but for Tara. If something could come out of her death, perhaps this was it.
If only Andrew didn't get to her all the time. He still made Willow's skin crawl, no matter how much his 'child of god' countenance would show in his desire to fight evil, and the left-over glow around his head that would appear around full moons. Full moons. A time when Oz had changed. Oz. It was too much for Willow. She was starved, but she wouldn't eat, instead leaving the kitchen and determined to lose her stomach cramps in research.
"Mmm!!", said Buffy, quickly grabbing two doughnuts in one grasp before heading out the kitchen door. To the aggravated looks she simply said, "I'm a slayer. We need lots of food!" , before hastily ducking out of the kitchen and into the living room where Willow was now seated, and thinking to herself ~and don't forget the vampire sex~. "Willow", Buffy began, only to be interrupted by the redhead. "I'm fine.", said Willow, devoid of all but stoic expression. " It bothers me, ok, it does. But, I know... Andrew's 'good" now' ", she continued, raising her index and third fingers of each hand to make the quotation visually," whatever that means. But I don't have to like him."
"Willow," Buffy began again, only to be interupted again. "No", Willow countered, " you were the one that asked me to do the spell. He's here, we need him, I'm happy for Xander. But don't try and turn this around. When this is over, when The First is defeated, I'm leaving. I just can't stay here."
Buffy looked into Willow's eyes, tears beginning to form. She had known this would come. Buffy had been torn when she'd realized that Andrew and Xander had fallen in love. She knew, firsthand, what it was like to love someone who wanted to do right, but couldn't seem to get it together. She had asked Willow to do the spell, thinking that if Willow could just see them being happy together, she would cease to be upset about it. Of course, it had been unfair, she'd tagteamed with Xander to talk her into it, she had actually brought up Tara in the discussion. And now once again, she was facing the consequences of her unnerving habit of being oblivious to the reality and importance of anyone's pain and emotion but her own. She was not surprised by Willow's declaration. She knew, deep down; she had expected it. The funny thing with magic was, once it was done, even if you could take it back, you couldn't really just take it back. Xander and Andrew were happy, and even Willow would not try and take back the spell that had helped Andrew overcome his baser instincts.
Instead, Buffy sucked it up, and tentatively asked, " Is it making more sense yet?". She was, of course, referring to the text, which spoke in very ambiguous, ancient terms of a way to confront The First. "Nope", said Willow. "From beneath you, it devours. From above you, it empties. Inside you are raped. And the seeds of the Libra shall be corrupted. And the tests of The First shall end the Heras", she concluded. " Didn't think I could say this, but I think it was funner when there was just, From beneath you, it devours... I mean who, who writes this stuff? Watch masterpiece theatre much?" Suddenly, the two women exploded into giggles.
In the kitchen, Spike took a bite out of a Tull, and an expression of surprise settled on his face. "These are...good," he said to himself, choosing not to say what he had been thinking,~I think I've gone soft. I've never in my unlife gotten it up from dougnut before.~
"Mmm", Dawn said, mimicking her sister's reactions, as "blood kin" (get it? Blood kin?) often do. "I'm, like, so glad the slayerettes are asleep."
"Yes, it would be rather, uh, disconcerting for the new girls to see their only hope of survival crammed 'round a table, dining like swine on pastries which I am fairly certain contain nothing more than sugar and yeast." Giles spoke up.
"Oh, screw that," Dawn replied, " I meant to the victor goes the spoils! Those bitches can have what's left for breakfast, cause tonight, we feast upon BERRY DELIGH!" before bursting into giggles.~Yeast? Don't go there~, Anya thought to herself, thinking about the physiological effects of sleep deprivation and a sugar diet for a woman. She itched suddenly.
Sleep deprivation was taking it's toll on the gang in various forms. Nonetheless, after Dawn's giggling had subsided, she noticed the looks Spike, Giles, and even Xander and Andrew gave her. One of the reasons Xander enjoyed using blood to spike the food supply was that it not only kept him in a state of receptivity to the first, but affected everyone the same way, clouding their judgement. This however, was not a side effect. "Um...", Dawn stammered, seeing the concerned looks aimed at her, "um, I think it's past my bed time." She didn't really want to go to sleep, but she had to admit she was bone tired. She also knew also knew that her social worker had her on probation. It was imperative that she didn't skip school just because of a little thing like impending anihilation.
"I'll help", Anya said, a little too quickly. She was tired and wanted to go to sleep also. And she didn't know much longer she could keep her nails off herself. Anya had tried several times to tactfully mention that she was tired of researching something that predated words and eating chips and dealing with slayer cubs who asked pointless questions all day. No one seemed to understand that. She had gone two days without sleeping, changing clothes or showering, and she was long past the beginning stages of that 'not so fresh feeling'. She thanked Shuvali, Goddess of luck, that at least she hadn't been that annoying when she'd become human again. "Come, Dawnie," Anya said, smiling too much as she grabbed Dawn's arm and began pulling her out of the kitchen, "We've got to get you to bed, little young'un! Nope, can't stay up tonight, you must sleep. Don't try and get out of this; as they say on that boring and historically inaccurate show Seventh Heaven, 'you'll thank me when you're older'. And I'm going to stay with you and make sure you don't pretend you're sleeping for an hour and then get up and sneak out to go make out with a nest of vampires."
"Excuse me? Are you trying to say someth-"; Dawn attempted to defend herself, but Anya, determined to get sleep, cut her off. "Hush, child. Ways of idleness and unwatchfulness can lead to sin. Let's go!" ~ What the fuck did I just say? Did I just say that?~ , the technicolor-hair Queen said to herself as she pulled Dawn away, past Buffy and Willow, who had fallen asleep at the research table. Willow's head rested snugly on the open laptop. She was so tired, she was beginning to speak like her mother had to her when she had been a tender, impressionable sixteen year old.
In the kitchen, Giles' gave a sigh. " I suppose there wouldn't be any harm in us resting for tonight. Or at least what's left of it. We can resume in the morning." With that, the watcher walked out of the kitchen, leaving Spike alone with Andrew and Johnathan.
" Right then... I'll be getting along. If I can't get in a shag, I'm not gonna stand around being in the middle of an eye snog.", Spike said, suddenly quite aware of the lusty atmosphere between Andrew and Johnathan. He and Angel had fucked like dogs back when, and he was no stranger to... what were they calling it now instead of 'Satanic lust'? Ah... homo something or other. It was just like whitebread Americans to try and get milk involved in everything. Not to say that you couldn't milk a man. Suddenly, Spike began to feel his cock harden again.
Then he realized that Xander and Andrew wanted him out of their way, so they could tear into each other like crazed nerds. His cock deflated quickly as Spike mumbled a quick, "Uh, right then... gonna go back to the... crypt. Be dawn soon", as he opened the back door and stepped into the crisp, moonlit night. The door had barely shut and his acute vampyric hearing picked up on the quick, jerky scrambling of prey in the dark. Roughly the size of one and a half adult males. He loved Buffy, but he was a flesh and blood demon.
As he headed for the cemetary, he couldn't help wondering to himself, ~Why must they make a mockery out of gay sex?