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Exhaustion dragged at her like a five-ton weight, but she couldn’t stop. It was after four in the morning, and she should have been snuggling into bed after a night of patrol. But there was no rest. Not yet. Not until she’d found what she was here for. You can do this, she told herself as she shuffled forward, carefully placing one foot in front of the other until she was close enough to reach out and open the door. Just get in and get it done, and then she could go home and finally sleep.
“Welcome to the Quick Stop Shop,” the bored college kid behind the counter muttered as Buffy plodded into the gas station.
She gave an unintelligible grunt and continued on her quest. She was too tired to care if he was in any of her classes or not. So what if he saw her in a grungy old t-shirt and sweatpants with her hair all messy? She had more important things to think about. Like the fact that she was going to be a parent soon, which was basically why she was in a gas station in the godforsaken wee hours.
She turned down the chip aisle. Pork rinds and Funyuns. Did they call them Funyuns because they were supposed to be a yun of fun? What even was a yun? Was a yun a thing? Maybe four tons, or something. Wasn’t yon a way to say four in Japanese? Why the heck did she even know that? Buffy shook away all the weird thoughts and grabbed the snacks before heading towards the holy grail of the outing. The freezer thingy where they kept the ice cream.
There was another woman there, pulling out a pint of cherry mint chocolate chunk. It was the exact flavor Buffy had been sent after. Or well, sent wasn’t exactly the right word for it. She’d gone down for a glass of water before bed to find Spike trying to sneak out for ice cream. Not a big deal, really, except he was about the equivalent of seven months pregnant, and he’d already been out with her for patrol. He needed to rest. And apparently he also needed a big hit of calcium heavily infused with mint and some cherries and chocolate bits. And as the person sort of responsible for his condition, it was her sacred duty to go fetch things for him at stupid o’clock.
She opened up the ice cream freezer, a sinking, sort of panicky feeling rising up as she looked through. The other woman had taken the last pint of cherry mint chocolate chunk.
“Hey!” she called out as the woman turned towards the checkout counter. “Look, I… really, really need that ice cream for my….” Pregnant boyfriend. But saying that would probably just get her a crazy person look. “If you could just –”
“Sorry, first come, first served.”
That bitch! Buffy forced herself to take several slow, even breaths and carefully put the Funyuns and pork rinds down on the freezer before she accidentally crushed them. Technically, the woman hadn’t done anything wrong. She had gotten to the ice cream first, but, damn it…. Buffy went out almost every night, doing her best to keep everyone in the town safe, and she couldn’t even get the damn ice cre–
Her vampire tinglies shivered down her spine a moment before a vampire burst into the gas station and flashed his bumpies at the cashier. Buffy pulled the stake out of the band of her sweatpants and lunged at the vampire while the ice cream hoarder screamed.
The vampire yelped in surprise, backing away and drawing attention to the fact that he wasn’t wearing shoes.
“Sorry, company policy. No pulse, no shoes, no service.” She kicked his feet out from under him, slamming the stake into his chest. Then she turned and snatched the pint of ice cream right out of the woman’s hand. “I just saved your life. You’re welcome.”
...
“Home is the hunter, home from the hills!” Buffy announced as she came in through the door, tiredly striking a pose. She looked a right mess and like she was about to fall over asleep at any moment, but Spike thought she was beautiful. “Though the gas station isn’t actually on a hill.”
She trudged over and sat next to him on the couch, where he’d been sitting with his feet propped up on the coffee table, watching late night/early morning telly while waiting for her to come home. With the sprog’s soul affecting him and all, he’d felt bad about her hieing off after the ice cream and junk food.
Or, well, maybe not just the soul there. He’d always been one for taking care of those he loved and not really the other way round. Hadn’t been too keen on Dru having to take care of him back when he’d been in that bloody wheelchair, after all. Partly because he’d not been exactly thrilled by being paralyzed, but also because he felt he should have been doing more to take care of her at the time.
“I had to fight for it, but here’s your ice cream,” Buffy said, handing him the pint and a plastic spoon.
His mouth started watering at the sight of it, but he didn’t immediately tear off the lid and devour it. Instead, he leaned in and captured her mouth in a kiss. “My hero,” he said with a smile, meaning it completely.