The Spike thing actually hit me last night in my feverish fugue. I seriously sat up in bed and thought...if Angel sired Spike that would make him less than two-hundred! (some English Majors sadly have no math skills to speak of)
As for the Music Box.... Freudian slip. My bad. I used to work in a shop called the Music Box... I guess in some ways it will never leave me.
Feel free to bring up any discrepancies you find... I take crits pretty well. I'll fix the mentions you made.
Take Care and Enjoy
Wicchi
Chapter Thirteen: As the World Churns…
Buffy comes back into the shop looking a little frazzled. I figure the whole thing had been triggered when Willow and I exchanged that little bit of high-octane eye contact a little bit ago.
Buffy casts a look my way now as though thinking that it’s too bad I’d end up a Cajun entrée.. or she’d take me out there for a good talking to as well.
…What did I do?
Almost a forever later, Willow comes back in to the shop. She sets a box of donuts down on the table with a slightly manic-looking dog on the lid. She and Buffy fix each other with knowing expressions. For a brief moment I get a very distinct pod-people vibe off the two girls. They gaze almost lovingly at the cartoon dog. Buffy even looks a little tempted to run her fingers reverently over the cardboard.
" As if things could NOT get any worse, Will." Xander says from his chair, staring in ardent fear at the box as though it’s full of glazed puppies and not pastries.
" It’s Kinda cute." Dawn says, and he looks at her as though she’s gone insane.
" I used to have nightmares about that dog when I was a kid. The tongue… the back…and forth thing…like a slathering metronome, counting off the moments before his jaws of death opened to devour me….."
" Now you’re talking, Honey." Anya says, patting his Willow knee and casting wary glances at the smiling dog on the box.
Spike opens the box and looks a little disappointed.
" No Spike…there aren’t actually puppies in the BOX." Buffy says disgustedly. He makes my face all innocence, which should make me happy, but unnerves me instead.
" I was just hoping for a few maple bars. I like maple bars." He pouts, closing the lid.
" I tried to get an assortment." Willow says, hands on hips, looking like she has more to say… " So you want to hear the strange part?"
" There’s a strange part to donut purchase?" I prompt her. She beams at me for giving her the much needed set up for a Willow story.
" So I go into the Happy Puppy Donut Palace and order a dozen and some coffees….."
" And where’s the Java, Will? I’m not seeing the Java-like drinks…." Xander interrupts. Willow throws a great Buffy version of the Willow-Resolve-Face at him.
" Listen to my story, Xander, and you might find out." She says slowly, between teeth.
" Okay…okay…" He says. Willow pissed in a Slayer’s body…not a safe combo and he knows it.
" So he hands me the donuts… and starts to pour the coffee…when the donut shop just…disappears. Well not so much disappears as turns into something completely else. I’m standing there…my box of donuts and me…and the store is just….changing… "
" What did it change into to?" Spike asks. I’m watching him as he reaches back into the box for a donut. Nicotine, deep fried pastries… he’s having a ball with my body. Where will it end???
Buffy moves to the front window to look out at the stores across the way.
" Okay…remember after the Happy Puppy burnt down and they rebuilt and put in new stores…?" Willow asks Xander.
" Of course…the old post office became a music store and the Donut shop became a…." Xander’s expression brightens Willow’s face. He’s grinning from ear to ear…wanting to hear her say it. Waiting for the words to come from Willow herself.
" Tell em where you were. Willster." He says.
" So I’m standing there with my hands full of donuts in Doug’s Adult Book and Toy Emporium, circa 1992. A very strange and seedy experience if there ever was one, I tell you."
" Wait. The store just morphed around you? You didn’t feel anything?" I ask.
" The only thing I felt was that I was suddenly standing next to the two dollar bargain bin in a scary porn shop, Tare." Willow says. " Poof….like that." I’m thinking I would have paid good money to see the look on her face when it happened.
" So not only is Sunnydale all Wonky-like…but it’s still wonking as we speak? Right under our noses?" Spike asks.
" Does this make our situation worse or better?" Dawn asks hopefully, starting to bring a fingernail to her mouth…Anya bats it down.
" Depends on how you look at it." I say.
" Or if you keep your eyes closed." Spike adds, always the cheerleader.
" So basically we’re in a great big karmic slot machine, and what we have to figure out is who’s pulling the handle." Anya says from her chair. Buffy continues to peek out at the street.
" Easy enough," Xander says, dripping sarcasm. " I’m going to take a whack at it and say it was Miss Scarlet in the Porn Shop with the….. candelabra."
" Xander…" Willow chides him. I’m glad she does. Now is certainly not the time to be cracking jokes…This is a serious….
" Okay…then the fuzzy hand-cuffs and the whip…." He offers…watching Willow turn Buffy’s face three shades of red. I’m sure if I could…I’d be hitting the same colours over here.
Okay…maybe he was slightly off-based with the whole whip thing…but how in the Sam Hill did he know about the fuzzy hand cuffs….?
" Um…guys….?" Buffy says from the window. From the tone in her voice I’m guessing that what she’s seeing out there is so very much NOT what we want to hear about in here.
I’m suddenly thinking the cracking of jokes is a very good think indeed….
TBC…
