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DISCLAIMER: Whatever. Buffy and Angel are currently on vacation in France.
They send their deepest apologies for not participating in this story.
SUMMARY: Fluff. Fluff. And midnight meetings in the kitchen. Sorta companion piece
for Hotel Kitchen (B/A).
PAIRING: Dawn/Spike. Future fic.
RATING: PG
WORDCOUNT: 1170
THANK YOU to Jordan for the beta.
NOTES: Written for Kristi
as a back-up for the Dawn/Spike
ficathon.
MIDNIGHT SNACK
by Leni
“I don’t know...” Dawn looked dubiously at the table in front of her.
“I promise it will be fun.”
“Don’t you think it’s too much?”
Spike chuckled. “I swear, Dawn, this is exactly what we need.”
“And if we wake up someone?”
“At this hour? After that close call last night everybody is sleeping like dead
logs.”
“Logs aren’t alive,” she reasoned, knowing she was stalling for time.
Spike only glared, then softened as he took her hand. “Yes or no, love?”
Dawn sighed. There was no denying him tonight. Besides, she didn’t actually want to;
her resistance was a formality and both knew it. “Okay.”
He grinned at her response and made to kiss her.
“Dawn!” A male voice came from the other room, the reprimand turned into a groan
when he caught them kissing. “Would you two stop?” A silhouette against the
doorway. "For God's sake. People eat on that table."
Spike stopped what he was doing, letting go of Dawn’s hand in his distraction. He
looked at the man who was currently glaring at them with all the anger that could be
mustered at such late hour. Giles was clearly unhappy about something..... Spike rewound
the last exchange in his head. “You old dog,” he whispered. Then he promptly
started laughing.
Dawn was surprised at the interruption. She hadn’t heard anyone coming, not even the
creak of the stairs. No big surprise, she admitted with a mental shrug. An attentive Spike
was very distracting. She looked up to see Giles watching them with a stern - and very
exasperated - expression. Oh, he couldn’t mean they’d woken him up! They had
been careful not to make unnecessary noise! And what was that about the table, anyway?
"We know that..." she began hesitantly. She considered her options quickly,
deciding for the safest in only seconds. “Would you like to join us?”
“W-What?!” Giles stuttered, his brow creasing in sudden alarm. Then, more
composed. “Beg your pardon?”
Spike’s laugh escalated in intensity. Dawn saved a quick glare for him before facing
her sister’s mentor again. “We have chocolate-mint, rocky road and
strawberry,” she told him, indicating the three containers as she spoke.
Giles blinked. Then looked towards the table, which was partially covered by her and
Spike’s latest raid. Another blink. Now he regarded the ice-cream and bowls with a
wrinkle between his eyebrows. His mouth opened and then closed again, suddenly not looking
at all like the man who'd came barging into the room.
Meanwhile, Spike was still laughing at her side, having dropped the ice-cream container
and instead taking her shoulder for equilibrium. Dawn nudged his side. "What are
you laughing about?" she asked in an irritated voice.
Spike looked at her strangely. “You really don’t know?” Dawn shook her
head. He was still chuckling when he answered. "Watcher here thought that you and I
were going to corrupt his kitchen."
"Oh?" Dawn looked between the two men. Spike's merriment and Giles' anger, which
was rapidly melting into embarrassment. The pieces fell together in quick succession.
"Oh!" She fixed her eyes on the bowls, knowing that probably her toes were
blushing by now. It wouldn't have been more embarrassing had it been her own father in
that doorway.
"Calm down, G-man," Spike said, his hold becoming a calming caress. Giles glared
at the blonde, but he just grinned irreverently, just as he'd done since he'd heard the
old nickname. He chuckled one last time. "We were just fixing ourselves a small
snack."
"I--- I can see that." A cough. It was a shame Giles didn't wear his glasses to
bed, it would have been fun to see him cleaning them nervously. "I'm, ahem. Sorry.
For intruding like that."
"'S no problem. It was a honest mistake." Spike shrugged, dropping another
spoonful of Rocky Road on their plate.
Dawn smiled, if still a little embarrassed, and nodded.
"Very well.” Giles finally stepped into the kitchen, going directly to the
cabinet where his most prized tea was hiding. Dawn knew he made a show of rummaging into
it, but everyone knew he hid the good stuff behind the extra large mugs. She only smiled
when Giles stage-whispered about the lack of order in the house; really, who did he think
would drink his tea?
Trust Spike to have discovered that. “True,” the vampire said conversationally,
“heard Andrew complaining ‘bout the same last weekend. I think he was referring
to the same place. Funny how no one else complains. Watcher thing, I take it.”
“That little....” Giles’s irate voice began before he remembered his
audience. He straightened and looked at Spike with stern eyes. “Watchers are always
careful about their surroundings. Andrew may be but an apprentice but....”
“Yada, yada, yada. Save us the lecture, dad.” Spike rolled his eyes.
Unconsciously, Dawn mimicked him. “Yeah, we have enough with Andrew telling us
himself,” she agreed, watching Giles go through the motions of tea-making. It always
amazed her greatly how little thought he put into it, making small talk with them while
mechanically putting the right amount of water to the fire and separating the portion of
tea leaves he’d use.
“Willow hasn’t mentioned anything of the sort,” Dawn was answering when
Spike poked her. She gave him a look for the rude interruption, but it softened at his
playful smile. “Time to go, precious,” he said, motioning to the three bowls on
the table and studying them seriously. He took her hand, then gave a decisive nod.
“Right what we needed.” He smiled again and winked at her. “Help me take
the goods upstairs.“
“Aren’t you going to have them here?” Giles asked, slightly bent over the
stove to keep the water from boiling for too long.
Spike shook his head, his mouth opening in an explanation. Dawn's eyes widened; she
quickly tugged his arm towards the door, pointedly looking at it. Spike grinned
unapologetically and shrugged. She took one bowl in each hand and sent one last smile at
Giles before leaving the kitchen. “'Night Giles.”
Meanwhile, Spike was fishing the entire bottle of cherries from the fridge. Giles furrowed
his brow at the action but let it go and bid Dawn a good night too. Spike and he nodded at
each other absently, the vampire leaving with a grin after his girl.
It took Giles only seconds to realise what was wrong with the picture.
---
Dawn had put her foot on the first step when Giles’ voice called from the kitchen.
"Dawn? Spike? It seems you're forgetting your spoons."
If the last minutes had lessened her embarrassment into nothing, Giles’ helpfulness
sent it skyrocketing again. Yes, her toes were definitely blushing. Dawn tightened her
grasp on the bowl and prayed that Spike wouldn’t do anything reckless. Right. Dawn
dropped her head and walker quicker, but not enough not to hear her boyfriend's reply.
"For tonight?” He chuckled. “Not gonna need them, Rupert."
The crash of a tea mug against the floor was perfectly distinguishable a second later.
The End
29/10/04
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