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DISCLAIMER: Marianna is all mine, but then she's only an observer.
SUMMARY: PG. Dawn's 'bad habit' had to have begun somewhere, doesn't it?
Set in the interlude between 'The Gift' and S6. Dawn/Spike friendship.
WORDCOUNT: 1675
DEDICATION: to Wolf and Moon (my co-conspirator in the Pavlov
Experiment.)
The Pavlov Experiment
FAIR TRADE
by Leni
Marianna looked at the girl in the store.
She had been there for a long time, almost an hour now, fingering the various lipsticks
and trying out many of them. Marianna sighed. This girl wouldn't buy any of them, would
she?
There were few people at the store, they always seemed to leave soon after the sun went
down. Marianna didn't question it, she'd lived half her life in Sunnydale and her
instincts told her that it was the best option. Regrettably, instincts didn't feed her nor
pay her rent and the only job she'd found had a nocturnal shift.
She dusted her hands off after the last client left. "Hi."
The girl nearly jumped out of her skin. She turned around and looked up at her with big,
scared eyes. Marianna couldn't help a small chuckle from escaping. "You okay,
kid?" Immediately the kid's eyebrows furrowed in rebellion and Marianna remembered
that she hadn't liked being called a kid back then either. What age could this girl be?
Fourteen? Fifteen maybe? "Can I help you in something?"
The girl shook her head. "No. I'm okay, really. I'll just be going..."
As she moved away, Marianna noticed something glinting in her coat's pocket. Something red
and gold, the colours of the lipstick's case. Oh no, she thought in dismay, not another
one. The last shoplifter had cost almost hundred dollars out of her own pocket, the
manager had cut her no slack, maintaining that it was her fault for not spotting the
criminals.
Well, now she had spotted one, but she didn't quite know what to do with her. Back then,
the worst had been when the police trapped the shoplifter. It had been only a little boy,
barely thirteen. Marianna had felt so bad when they dragged him away, his lip broken and a
bruise on his cheek for falling when he tried to escape.
"Hey, wait!"
The girl stopped on her tracks. Marianna could see her fidgeting from one feet to another.
"Yeah?"
One last chance. It was all she would give the kid. "Aren't you forgetting
something?" She looked pointedly at the guilty pocket.
Her eyes widened in alarm. A heartfelt "Oh" was all the girl said before looking
at the ground. "I-I..." Deep breath. "I can explain. I--"
Suddenly the door rang. Both turned around to see a guy entering.
"I was waiting for him!"
Before Marianna had time to blink the girl had run towards the stranger and hooked her
arms around his neck. She seemed to be whispering fast against his ear. Marianna shook her
head, never had the saying 'saved by the bell' been so right, but she doubted the girl
could be saved at all. She knew this guy, he always came by for his cigarettes or the odd
six pack. So far he had never brought any friends along, and Marianna doubted he even knew
the girl, much less would be willing to help her. He just didn't seem the type, growly and
moody that he was.
She was right.
"You're kidding, right?" he exploded, tearing himself apart from the lithe girl.
She didn't seem defeated, Marianna noticed. She almost laughed as she saw the girl's eyes
widening and watering just slightly, taking the infamous look that any fellow female
recognised as the downfall of any red-blooded men.
"Come on!"
He shook his head emphatically, the girl's look having no effect whatsoever. "You're
out of your mind, Dawn."
Ok, so she had been wrong on one account. This man did know the girl. And
apparently he also disapproved of 'Dawn's contingency plan.
"Whatever you have in that little head of yours, I'm outta it, understood?" He
rolled his eyes and began stalking towards the back of the store, where the liquor was
stored.
Marianna took a step towards the blonde girl, intent on calling her attention again.
"Excuse me?"
The green eyes turned on her, taking a panicked hint at once. Poor girl, Marianna thought,
but it had been her mistake to begin with. She saw as the girl bit her lips nervously, her
eyes darting between her and the retreating figure. "But you promised!" Dawn
shouted suddenly.
Nothing.
"Remember? Last Thursday?"
The man stopped.
"You said 'anything you want', remember?"
He turned around and looked threateningly at the girl. Marianna almost took at step back,
she most certainly would never have placed herself in the direct course of that look, but
amazingly the little slip of a girl was standing proud, even with a little smile on her
face.
"Because you don't want the others to know about Thursday, do you?"
Marianna looked in fascination as the green eyes turned colder, and his lips set in a
straight line. Oh. Blackmail. If she hadn't felt the dangerous atmosphere around them,
Marianna would have laughed at the situation. What could Dawn be holding over this man's
head? As it was, the fury the stranger exuded as he walked back to the problematic girl
made her wish to be hiding behind the counter.
He approached the girl with a dark look. When he was finally close, his hand shoot into
her pocket and lifted the damning piece of make-up. His head shook in obvious disapproval.
Marianna couldn't help but be stunned as Dawn held her ground. Had it been her, right now
she'd be asking for forgiveness and swearing never to cross him again.
Instead the blonde was smiling winningly.
"All of this for a stupid lipstick?" He opened the lid and stared at the bright
orange colour. Then he stared assessingly at Dawn. "It doesn't even suit you."
Dawn shrugged. "I like it," she chirped.
"You owe me."
Her arms went akimbo and Marianna was instantly reminded of a stubborn toddler. "No.
I don't. You said anything. Now we're even."
He raised an eyebrow. "And you won't breathe a word about -" He looked back at
her, Marianna immediately turned around to check the merchandise. " - Thursday?"
Dawn run her fingertips over her mouth as if zipping it shut.
"Right." With a roll of his eyes the man walked toward the counter. "Hey
you!" he called for Marianna.
The man was furious, that much was for sure. For a moment, Marianna was unsure of what she
should do. Go and brave his dark mood? It didn't seem like a good idea. But then, the
little girl knew how to push his buttons, he could not possibly be that bad. In the
meantime, she stood behind Dawn, fiddling with the other lipsticks.
"You've distracted her with your macho behaviour," Dawn giggled.
Macho behaviour? Marianna swallowed her own laugh, this man had murder in his eyes and she
didn't want to be the one to set him off. Keeping her demeanour as calm as possible she
checked the lipstick out. "Six dollars twenty."
"She couldn't have stolen something cheap, could she?" Marianna heard him mutter
angrily.
"Hurry up, Spike. Dawson's Creek is about to begin."
"I don't care. Just stay put until I finish here," he said louder. As he pulled
out his wallet from his coat and threw a last warning look at the girl, Marianna decided
to give a little advise. "Maybe you shouldn't be protecting her. Nothing she could
say is as bad as her stealing."
Spike - and how did a guy named 'Spike' meet a girl at least ten years his junior called
'Dawn' and let himself be blackmailed by her? - gave her a little smile. He looked over
his shoulder at the girl. She was waiting obediently by the make-up stand. Both saw her
looking longingly at the eyeshadows. Marianna gasped but he only sighed. "Don't even dare,
Dawn!"
Dawn jumped away from the stand just to grin cheekily and poke her tongue out at her
friend.
He looked back at Marianna as he counted the money. "You are right. I couldn't care
less if she told everybody, but kid's got enough problems. She doesn't need the others
looking down at her for a petty lipstick." He glanced at the offending piece.
"Not even if she has bad taste."
"But this is wrong," Marianna countered, "She deserves a punishment."
Spike chuckled. "You don't know the half of it, precious. Believe me, Dawn's had
enough."
"But one day - "
"One day it'll bite her in the ass," he interrupted her. "But that's in her
blood. Same as her sister, Dawn is. She'll keep doing whatever she wants until it hurts
her." The bills passed from one hand to another. Spike looked at the girl with a
pensive expression. Surprised, Marianna realised that the anger had left his eyes. "I
can only try my best until that happens."
She wanted to say that he wouldn't be able to protect Dawn from everything, much less when
he let her walk away from situations as this.
"Spike!"
"Wait there, Nibblet!" He grabbed the tiny bag with the lipstick in it.
"You think I'm doing this wrong, don't you, precious?"
Marianna couldn't do anything but nod.
"I swore I'd take care of her, but I'm only learning how." Spike shrugged.
"If Dru survived with me, then Dawn will too," he whispered, apparently not
caring that Marianna didn't have a clue about this other girl. "Come on,
Dawnie!" he called, walking to the door. The girl quickly caught him and tugged at
his arm until he gave her the bag. "We'll arrive just in time to see if Dawson has
enough balls to finally make Joey take a damn decision."
Dawn laughed. "Spike, you know they are meant to be! Why would he want to rush
things?"
Marianna looked at them. There were still questions about the last ten minutes. Why was
she stealing? Why was he so protective? Were they siblings? Friends? Something more? She
sighed and went back to order the stands. Half an hour later she discovered that the
Sunset eyeshadow was missing. She swore loudly, Dawn had a lot to answer for the next time
she walked past the store.
The End.
06/02/04
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