Twining Vines (COMPLETE)

*~*Twining Vines*~* By Echidna

Part III – Shopping

She sighed in relief as she stepped out of the DoubleMeat Palace. The greasy scent of over grilled meat and melted cheese refused to stay behind and clung to every inch of her tired body. Sluggishly, she dragged her feet and leaned on the corner, a tall, skinny brunette following her close behind.

“Thank God for these breaks. I don’t think my body could handle another second without a major dose of nicotine!”

Her trembling fingers dug anxiously into her pockets and relief washed over the girl as they found a pack of cigarettes on one side and a lighter on the other. Hastily, she opened the red and white pack and brought a perfectly cylinder fag to her deprived lips. Lighting it up, her mouth pulled at the small burning cigarette, her cheeks being pulled close to her yellowed teeth as she sucked the deadly smoke into her lungs. After what seemed like and eternity, Buffy saw two tubes of grey fog shoot out from helatelated nostrils as she exhaled noisily.

“Ah… I really needed that.” The girl’s eyes finally opened to look at the frowning blond that stared at her.

“You know those things will kill you, right?” Buffy asked.

All she got was a deadly look from the tall brunette. Shaking her head, Buffy’s interest returned to her white snickers.

“Just checking.”

“So, just one more hour to go and we are home free.” The brunette noted as her gaze hovered over the cars in the parking lot of the fast food establishment.

“I can’t wait to get out of here. I think I’m getting allergic to cheese.” Buffy protested under her breath.

“We all get that, honey. It’s the two month syndrome. You’ll get over it.”

Buffy simply smiled. Her hands ran through her dishevelled hair and came to rest on her face.

“I’m just really tired, Lisa.” The petite blond explained.

“I know what you mean. But it gets easier with time. Trust me.” Lisa tried to reassure her.

Buffy’s fingers rubbed her sour eyes before they fell to her sides and found their way back into her pockets. Suddenly, a strange sound, coming from the back alley, caught the taller girl’s attention. It sounded like a muffled moan.

“What was that?” Lisa asked as made her way towards the darker corner of the DoubleMeat Palace; Buffy remained in her place, shuffling her feet, uninterested in the occurrence. “Oh my God! Buffy come quickly!” the tall girl called out, her hand waving at the Slayer, trying to get her over there as fast as ibleible.

“What is it?” Buffy asked not moving an inch from her spot, simply turning to look at Lisa.

“Someone is having sex back there.” The girl giggled nervously, trying to keep her voice down so that the couple that moved sluggishly against the back wall of the DoubleMeat Palace didn’t notice her.

“What do you mean someone’s having sex back there?” Buffy asked, this time she started walking towards her friend.

She gasped and felt her stomach twist in a painful way as she recognized the long black duster that moved sensually, in the darkness, against the wall. Pale, small hands caressed his back, one tangled in his platinum hair, pulling at it vigorously, encouraging him. Over the muffled moans and cries of pleasure she was able to filter out her friend’s voice:

“I mean ‘someone’s have scorching hot, wild sex against a wall’.” A mischievous smile crawled over Lisa’s mouth, never noticing the painful look on her co-worker’s face.

Buffy felt as if the ground had been pulled out from underneath her feet. Her throat started to close off and suddenly she couldn’t breathe. She swallowed hard, trying to push down the acid vomit that now crept up from her stomach. Soon, dizziness struck her, her gaze still fixed on the passionate couple started to lose focus and, unexpectedly, the blackness that now swam in the corners of her eyes took over and she was engulfed in a total darkness.

~***************************************************************~

“Buffy… Buffy…” she heard her name being called in the distance. Slowly, she became more and more aware of her surroundings. She was laying on something hard and cold. She forced her eyelids open and was greeted buy Lisa’s skinny face. “Thank, God! Are you ok?”

“What happened?” Buffy forced the words out; the taste of acid still in her mouth.

“I don’t know. One minute we were watching the x-rated movie going on in the back, the next you we’re laying flat on the floor.” Seeing the young girl’s confused expression, Lisa simplified. “You fainted.”

Slowly, Buffy pulled herself off the cement floor, into the sitting position and was greeted by a major migraine.

“Oh… I think my head’s going to explode.” Buffy moaned in pain.

“It’s ok. Let’s just get you inside. I’ll get you an aspirin.” Lisa offered as she pulled the short blond to her feet.

Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy looked towards the dark ally she had been staring into a few moments before – there was no one there.

~****************************************************************~

“Finally!!!” the auburn haired woman breathed as she stepped out of the sewer pipe. She looked down at her feet and made a painful face: “Great! Those are ruined.”

“Will you stop complaining?” Spike hissed annoyed. He was really having a really bad day and the last two hours he had just spent in the sewers with miss ‘I like to talk and bicker non stop’ hadn’t helped any. He was really beginning to hate this woman.

“Ah! Civilization!!!” the woman cried out over excitedly, running towards the large building and gluing herself against one of its tall walls, as if trying to hug it. An avalanche of small pecks over the white paint soon followed.

“Stop doing that, people are staring!” the vampire complained.

The woman let go of the object of her affection and turned to face him.

“Actually they are staring at you. They can’t see me, remember? All they see is you talking to a wall.” She said walking past him and into the department store with a triumphant smile.

Spike reluctantly followed, shoving his hands in his duster, looking around and noticing that in fact he was the object of everyone’s attention.

They walked around for what seemed like an eternity. Spike could have sworn he had never seen so many beds in one day.

“It’s just a bed, will you just pick on already?” he hissed in annoyance, anger slowly creeping up behind it.

“It’s not just a bed. You may be able to sleep on anything, but I can’t. I’m special and so too will my bed be.” She held her chin up as she resumed walking.

“What about that one?” Spike asked pointing toward a large metallic master bed.

“You’re kidding, right?” She looked at him with disbelief in her raven eyes.

“What’s wrong with it? It’s big, I thought you liked big beds.” He shrugged, confused. For the last hour, one of the many faults she found in all the beds in that store’s was its “minuscule size”, as she put it. Well, that one was probably the biggest bed he had ever seen.

“It’s a big prison, that’s what it is. I mean, I can deal with a headboard, even though I’m not really a fan, but why would anyone put this… this…” she thought of the right words as she at the panel that framed the edge of the bed. “This… metal… *wall* at the foot of the bed. Might as well put two large barred walls on each side of the bed while they were at it, make a giant cradle. Plus, my feet would constantly be hitting this… thing.” She said pointing at the offending item.

“I don’t think you’re feet would reach the edge of the bed, luv. You’re not exactly tall.” Spike jibed with a smirk.

She immediately turned on her heels and faced him.

“Are you calling me short?” she snorted with a deadly look that actually had Spike a little worried.

“Ok, I can tell height is a sensitive issue for you.” He bowed his head, to hide his smile, as he walked past her.

After another half and hour, Spike had already given up. He remained seated on a large loveseat on display, staring blindly at the ceiling, cursing under his breath. From the corner of his eyes he could see three women in uniform (obviously they worked there) staring at him as they gossiped amongst themselves. He could easily tell the topic of conversation – who was going to be the lucky one to tell the madman he couldn’t sit on the displayed items. There was no volunteer. He was snapped out of his thoughts by a light kick in the shin.

“Hey!” he protested to thin air and he was able to hear one of the ladies say:

“See! There! I told you. He’s doing it again, he’s talking to himself. I think we should call-“ She trailed off as she saw the man standing up, still talking to no one in particular. “Oh, my God, he’s coming this way!!!”

“I found the bed.” The woman who had just kicked him in the shin announced, ignoring his protest.

“Finally.” He breathed. “Well, now that you’ve found it how do you expect to pay for it.” He asked annoyed, never leaving the seat.

“With money.” She nodded with a smile, walking past him and towards the small group of women that gossiped in the corner of the store.

“What money?” he asked confused as he followed her.

“The money you have in your pocket.” She explained never looking behind.

“What-“ he stopped in mid sentence as he shoved his hand into the pockets of his duster and found a hand full of paper. Pulling it out, he recognized it as being a large bundle of 100 dollar bills.

When he looked up at her, he found her standing next to the three, now terrified, women. She winked at him and whispered:

“I’ll tell you about it later. Just pay for it. I’m hungry.” She pouted and walked away.

She leaned on the cash register, her hands crossed over her chest. A smile crept over her lips as she saw the fear in the woman’s eyes as she received the money from Spike’s hands.

~***************************************************************************~

Dawn, Willow and Buffy walked mindlessly trough the large corridors, every once in a while picking something from off the shelves and dropping it into the cart they pushed effortlessly around.

Dawn stopped in front of a display and finally picked one she liked best and dropped it into the cart. Looking over her shoulder, Buffy turned around, picked up the box her sister had just chosen and put it back in its place.

“Buffy?” Dawn asked confused.

“You can’t have those.” Buffy said dryly, pushing the cart and leaving a stunned Willow and Dawn behind.

“But we always have Pop Tarts.” The young teenager argued.

Buffy turned around and said with a deadly look in her eyes.

“Not anymore.” Her voice was low and serious. Without another word she started walking away.

Dawn remained glued to the floor, but thought it was in her best interest not to protest.

“What happened to her?” Willow asked.

“I don’t know. But she’s been like that ever since she got back from the DoubleMeat.” Dawn explained with a pout as she followed her sister.

~************************************************************************~

A loud booming voice echoed in the building sending chills down her spine.

“Clean up on isle 3. Clean up on isle 3.”

“How many times can they call out for clean up?” the redhead asked herself out loud as she looked at the of of shelves in front of her.

“Remind me again why we are at the supermarket?” the vampire’s voice came out dry as he mindlessly pushed the metallic cart through the long corridor. “I thought we were just going to buy you a bed.”

“We were.” She quipped with a peppy grin. “But I need to get some food into my system. Oh, oh, oh, chocolate!!!!” she stared at the selection of bars in front of her with a childlike awe. “Don’t you just love chocolate? I mean look at all the choices you have. You have sweet white chocolate, bitter black chocolate, normal brown chocolate, nuts & chocolate, hazelnuts & chocolate, peanuts & chocolate, walnut & chocolate…” she went on and on naming all the varieties, when suddenly her face cringed up. “Raisins & chocolate?! Now that’st nat nasty. There should be a law against misuse of perfectly wonderful chocolate.”

“What are you talking about? It’s chocolate, for Christ sake.” Spike swore annoyed at her constant babbling. She had a knack of rambling on and on about the most mundane of issues. It was just uncanny and extremely nerve racking.

“It’s not just chocolate…” suddenly a light bulb seemed to flicker on in her mind. “You died before ever tasting real chocolate and now you can’t actually taste it because of the whole vampire thing.”

“What…? Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.

“Like what?”

“Like I’m Timmy and I’m stuck down a well.” The vampire illustrated his point by mimicking her pout and her sad frown.

“It’s just sad that’s all.” She spoke, the pout never leaving her mouth.

“Wait a second!” he closed his eyes for a second, and shook his head before looking at her. “Today you found out I was dumped by my crazy sire slash girlfriend for a chaos demon, only to fall in love with my mortal enemy, who hates me, by the way. Get tortured to death and back by a goddess with a serious Marquis de Sade complex trying to save her and even so having to watch her jump to her death and spend a whole summer driving myself crazy thinking of all the ways I could have saved the *one* which I now truly believe to be the most important person in my life. Then, I was lucky enough to have her back and actually like me, use me as her own private sex toy just to throw me away the minute her ex came poncing into town and you feel sorry for me because I can’t taste chocolate properly?” His facial expression was of total disbelief.

She tilted her head and with a sorry look she simply shrugged: “It’s chocolate.”

They continued to wander through the endless corridors, their cart stocked up with junk food.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… Don’t you eat anything healthy?” Spike asked as he saw her put three cups of Strawberry and Cheese ice-cream in the cart.

“It’s got cheese. It’s healthy enough.” She answered, her eyes hovering over the display of a variety of extra fattening food.

Spike eyes drifted froe sue sugar and fat packed cart to the young woman’s lean form. How could she eat like a man who weighs 1000 pounds and look like that. She wore the same baggy pants and red shirt he had seen her with the first time, they concealed the shape of her body, but he could still tell she was pretty fit.

“What are you looking at?” she asked, her eyes never leaving the shelves.

“Don’t you have any other clothes?” he questioned.

“No. But will fix that. Just as soon as we finish buying food.” She set her mouth in a straight line and picked up three large bags of fries.

She gave him a small smile and walked away leaving him to push the cart. As they came to a corner, a loud noise was heard as Spike’s cart crashed into someone else’s. His eyes widened as he recognized the blond.

~***********************************************************************************~

“Do you think something happened at the DoubleMeat?” Willow asked.

“I don’t know and I don’t think I wanna find out.” Dawn said with frightened look as she saw her sister ram into someone else’s cart.

Buffy immediately jumped to attack who ever had crashed into her, anger boiling inside of her. She came to a freezing stop as she saw him. Flashes of what she had just seen a few hours before taunting her mind as she saw the duster he was wearing. The anger grew three fold inside of her and she clenched her teeth to control herself. Her mind raced as she tried to decide between making a huge scandal or pretending she hadn’t see him hump some disgusting ho against a wall. She decided for the latter. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing she had seen that freak show.

“Spike.” She greeted tilting her head.

“Slayer.” He greeted back.

“Oh, the girlfriend’s back.” The auburn haired woman smiled, crossing her arms over her chest. “This should be interesting.”

Buffy’s gaze drifted towards the vampire’s cart.

“I seen you’ve taken up eating healthy food.” She said sarcastically.

“You know me.” He shrugged as his fingers fidgeted nervously in his pockets.

“Maybe I don’t.” She began to snap, thankfully, Willow and Dawn came up behind her and greeted the vampire.

“Spike, what are you doing here?” Dawn asked surprised, giving him a huge grin.

“Just shopping.”

The young girl looked at what he was planning on buying and saw a familiar box in the middle of all the pilled up items.

“I see you get to have Pop Tarts. Bufon’ton’t let me.” She whined as she began to look through his shopping, she frowned as she saw a pair of pantyhose. She pulled them up and dangled them in front of her face. “Hum… Spike? What do you want these for?” she asked confused.

“Hum… I-I….” the vampire stuttered incoherently.

“Try and explain that one, Toto.” The woman next to him mocked and he gave her a deadly look. “Just admit that you have a bit of a cross dresser in you.” She winked at him, but as the clear image of her being chopped into pieces flickered in her mind she decided it was best to just sit back and watch.

“I-I…” he continued.

Thankfully, Buffy came to his aid:

“You shouldn’t ask people such personal stuff. Now, go with Willow and see if you can find some milk.”

“We already have milk, Buffy.” Dawn noted, pointing at the white cartons in their cart.

“Dawn! Just go!” she ordered. In seconds the witch and the young girl were gone.

“Look, about the pantyhose, I can-“ the vampire tried to explain but was cut off.

“I don’t care what you do with your free time, or who you spent it with, just stay away form me and mine. Is that clear!” she said with an icy look.

“What did I do now?” the vampire asked confused.

“I don’t know, but I think I like her… She’s got… spunk!” the redhead said with a smirk on her face.

“I find out that you’ve been doing anything wrong? You’re dust.” She threatened before walking away and leaving him glued to the floor with his mouth gapping open.

“Oh, now I just know I like her!” the woman next to him added, but soon shut up as she saw the look on the vampire’s face.