“Fair enough,” he said in response then raised a brow at her suggestion. “As long as you don’t use salad dressing, you’ve got a deal. All the vinegar doesn’t do it for me.”
“I don’t think salad dressing was on the list anyway, but deal! - —-So what should we start with? Butter, cheese, or something WAY more out there? Oh, maybe something with a chocolate drizzle!”
“Good,” Spike leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he rubbed his hands together, “So whut’s the plan, then? Movie, snacks, poker, jewel heist?”
“Well, I’m a bit rusty on my jewel-heisting skills, but the rest sounds pretty good! - —–Ooh, wanna try making some snacks ourselves? We can test different popcorn flavors and everything!”
In truth, Buffy wanted to get out the house and be away from Dawn for a little while. Everything seemed to be closing in on her from all sides and she didn’t think she could hack it. There was just too much of it. It wasn’t just their mom dying, but now she had to worry about all the grown up things she never even considered before. How was she supposed to do all of this and not break under pressure?
Seeing the look on her sister’s face though, she hesitated. The vampires weren’t going anywhere and there was a psycho on the loose, looking for the one person who needed her most in the world right now.
“Okay, but just for tonight. You can stay at Xander’s tomorrow.”
“Yeah, but can’t you do it tomorrow? It’s not like the demons are going anywhere, right?”
She wouldn’t be surprised if Buffy wanted to get away. After everything had happened over the past few days, Dawn wished she could leave, too; she wished there was a way to just pause life and absorb that their mom was really gone. But there wasn’t, and she couldn’t do this alone– - Dawn needed her sister MORE than ever.
“No, I mean, I don’t do babysitting. Thought you might want some company though.”
She can’t help but smile at his response; of course, she’s sure that Buffy asked him to come, but at least he’s not treating her like some STUPID KID like the others do.
