Title: In concert
Author:Lore
Rating:Gen
Summary: comfort isn't always a good thing




It had been raining that day. Raining in hell, or on the Hellmouth. Same deal, right? Xander hadn't even wanted Spike along, but Dawn had insisted, so there they were. The carpenter, the teenager and the century old vampire, standing in the rain waiting for who knew what.

Spike had been gruff, complaining the entire time. Pissing Xander off with quips and sarcastic remarks and then knocking him off his feet with surprise as he thought to give Dawn his coat before Xander had even noticed she'd been shaking.

He'd made sure to get her a milkshake before Spike could offer to do so. Couldn't let a vampire out-big-brother him with her, right? Spike just threw him a look and got Dawn some crackers as well, playing a cute pantomime with them of a cook, a maid and the big bad vampire. Xander put a quick stop to the horror story, slightly creeped out by Dawn's smile, and even more so by his own urge to laugh at it.

Evil Spike, trying to corrupt them all.

Even the evil teenybopper singer with some name that Xander had never even heard of before he got the tickets, wasn't as evil as Spike. Yep, Spike was still kicking the tops of the evil charts. You could see it, as he sat there, braiding Dawn's hair while they waited for the singer to finish his preparations.

Evil. Big capital E.

The fact that Spike knew the singer's name and knew the band he'd been a part of only made it clearer.

Xander had refused to smile even as Spike insulted the guy's every hint of ability at reaching a note, while knowing the lyrics of every each one of his songs as Dawn named them. Yet more proof of the evil.

He smiled a bit as he noticed some looks from the girls around them, while pretending to ignore them. He had Anya, and was about to get married…. but even she wouldn’t mind him taking a look, would she?

A quick memory of a few of her bedtime tales later, he'd quickly forced his eyes down.
No look-sees for the old Xan-man, no sirree.

A boy looked a bit too close at Dawn. Xander glared at him, the boy took a step back, and then he ran. When Xander looked around he noticed that Spike's ridges were out. They faded just as quickly when Dawn shook her head at their antics.

She got up, Xander tried to follow, and she looked at him as if he were stupid. Toilet, girl stuff, she didn't need her chaperones for that, thank you very much. She wove off gracefully, leaving Spike and Xander alone in the middle of a mass of mostly teenage girls, both of them clueless about a thing either could say.

The silence lasted. And lasted, and took even more time, up to when the music started and neither of them had yet had a clue of what to say to one another, glad the sound was too loud for them to speak anyway.

When the sound of a fight broke out, Xander almost thanked god for something to do.

Spike started talking, telling him to sit back down, that he'd deal with it. but the hell with that. Like Xander was going to let fangless out on his own like that? The chipped wonder might not be able to hurt anyone, but that wouldn't stop him cheering from the sidelines and hell if he'd let bloodbreath get away with laughing at other people's misery.

Both of them nearly choked when they arrived at the scene to see Dawn standing over a boy that had fallen to the floor - the same boy that had approached her earlier.

"That's my itty bitty Summers." Xander could hear Spike say. One of those few rare times where hell froze over and he had to agree with him. It was not a good feeling. Not that he let Spike go on complimenting her on her skills for too long. She shouldn't have been going along with strangers in the first place, let out have them buy her a drink, when they'd specifically chased him away earlier.

Xander almost liked Spike when he could see a dark spot forming underneath the boy when he saw the vampire.

He liked him even more when he looked completely forlorn and lost as Dawn started crying. So uneasy at what to do, ending up touching her shoulder, pulled into a hug by her.
"I miss Buffy. "

Xander pulled her in a hug as well, ignoring Spike who stood there wiping his hands, as if he didn't have a clue where to keep them. Evil.

Evil Evil Evil.

And utterly irresponsible as he snorted at the boy's stench. Neither of them cared to help him up, leaving him to grab his manhood and the wet spot near to it.

He still had to be the responsible one though, getting the kids home safely; respectively to their nice suburban home and their crypt in Restfield. Xander almost froze when a wet hand touched his shoulder and patted him on the back. "Thanks for doing this, whelp. She needed it."

It was almost enough to make him like the vamp.

Almost.

If he hadn't found himself missing his wallet ten seconds later.

Thank God for that.




Name/LJname: emella
Request: Spike, Xander, & Dawn.
Alternate request: Spike & Angel
Prompts: (S,D, & X) After The Gift, before S6 or (S & A) Pre-Series. A scene in the rain. comfort from the other friend(s). Someone admitting a reason they like the other.
Please do NOT include: no Buffy scenes(she can be mentioned and referred to though) and a patched Xander (has to be pre-Dirty Girls).