we have found our solace here in this unexpected place

[herotypical]

Who: slaying & lists_to_port
What: there is a tradition that needs to be upheld on the eves of horrors.
When: sunday night.
Where: good spirits, at first. then elsewhere.
Summary: debriefing and de-traumaing and all kinds of good stuff.
Rating: danger danger high voltage -- things get r-ratedish. fair warning!

Back on Friday, Buffy had scribbled a tense little note to Captain Jack Sparrow:

Need some time. Don't worry. Mission accomplished -- no deaths. Just gotta look after me for a bit. Good Spirits on Sunday night?

-- Buffy

After returning to the village, Buffy had wanted nothing more than to find the pirate and curl up next to him. But the fight with Derek had been harder than she would care to admit and she wanted to scrub as much of that from herself before rejoining the rest of Luceti. She had Giles to look after and she had her own mind to tend to and she spent hours focusing on those meditation crystals -- begging for peace. Peace was so far away.

But on Sunday, Buffy took a long long bath. She put loose, fashionable curls in her hair and she took the luxury of all the time in the world to dip into her make-up drawer and line her eyes and mascara her lashes and pick a natural, light lip gloss. The aim was to look healthy if she couldn't look happy.

She walked into Good Spirits with apprehension in her step and looked around for the man she had asked to meet with her there.

Comments

[all7seas]

"Oi---Buffy. THAT wasn't very nice, was it." He made a swipe to get that hat back.

[herotypical]

She stepped quickly backwards and held the hat out to the side -- brim up and fully intending to wear it after her fair round of winding. Buffy was riding the high of Jack's pout and had no intention of giving in. If she was going to deliver him to Cullen House then she would do it in good, harmless spirits. She was beginning to realize that she owed him that much; after all, she had made him wait four days.

[all7seas]

"And this is her game, is it? Steal the pirate's hat? Make him try to retrieve it?" Jack grinned. Then he dove for her.

[herotypical]

"I'm just playing his own game back at him. Sunglasses. Stilettos. I'm pretty sure I'm missing a few other things, too."

Buffy hadn't used her speed since the fight -- it was freeing to use it so non-violently, ducking to the left and snapping the hat lightly against the back of his head as he passed her.

[all7seas]

"And if you think THIS is going to work to get those treasures back? You're wrong, Annie." He dived toward her again, aiming to tackle her around the knees.

[herotypical]

"What? No -- not at all. This is just fun. Remember? That think you didn't believe I could have?"

This time? After Buffy avoided his tackle, she nudged him lightly with her knee. And she waited for him to look at her once again before settling the hat smugly onto her head.

I should not be watching Hush right before bed. : |

[all7seas]

"Fun."

Oh, God; she was wearing it.

gav and i just watched potc numero one. /quietly enables him

[herotypical]

"Fun," she confirmed with a smile not too far off from the one that had turned up somewhere around him realizing that the dragon had been Giles.

HA.

[all7seas]

He took a few very slow, measured steps toward her. "I like fun. Very much. Very much like it, me. I do. Fun."

[herotypical]

"How incredibly borderline incoherent of you."

Buffy still held onto a corner of the hat -- the only outward sign of tension and preparedness. Otherwise, her opposite hand was perched nonchalantly on her hip.

[all7seas]

Jack tried to get close enough to grab not the hat, but the girl---or at least to thread his arms around her waist. Because...hat.

"Hat."

[herotypical]

It wasn't all that tough to wait until the last second and knock his arms aside, grabbing onto his elbows and holding him just that much away from her.

"Mine, now. See? I'm wearing it. Possession is nine tenths of the law, apparently. Did you know that?"

[all7seas]

"But I'm a pirate, love; and pirates, we like to take." Said pirate made absolutely no effort to take, however; in fact, he wasn't struggling at all. He was very placidly being held and just drinking her in. "And we think nothing of the law."

[herotypical]

She was surprised to realize how gratified she felt -- hearing him own that occupation like that. Pirate. Things had seemed a little touch-and-go after he had revealed his penalty to her; however, Buffy wasn't taken in to the extent of feeling no conflict over it. Pirates, as he said, thought nothing of the law and she frequently considered herself to be the law. It was a conflict she was keeping carefully under wraps because she didn't want it to interfere with how good the most of this felt.

"And I'm a Slayer, love; we're a whole different kind of law." It was heady to parrot him like this -- that l word sneaking its way onto her voice in a way that felt just about kosher.

[all7seas]

"You are, aren't you. But all laws were meant to be broken." This time, he did try to break free of her grip and get a hold of her, but not very ambitiously.

[herotypical]

"Except for those pesky unbreakable ones."

One of Buffy's feet slipped backwards just enough to solidify her position, angling away from her and just slightly bending at the knee. At the same time, the strength in her arms worked to keep his arms as still as possible. She was still smiling.

[all7seas]

"That's the funny thing about laws, isn't it. Personally? Personally I like the bendy ones best." Now the struggle to break free was definitely more pronounced. Jack? Jack liked games. He liked seeing Buffy in his hat. He was enjoying himself immensely.

[herotypical]

"Might be one of those. Maybe." Bendy. Cheerleader or Slayer -- they both applied; however, it was definitely the Slayer that was more at play as Buffy made a point not to give any ground to Captain Jack Sparrow. Usually and even out in the woods on that day when he had carried, Buffy kept most of her capped strength to herself. There was no reason to go around making the matches unmatchable. But right now she wanted to keep that hat from the pirate and so she aimed to simply stalemate him.

And she made it look very, very easy.

[all7seas]

"You know you're making this very difficult for me, don't you. And you like it."

[herotypical]

"There's a certain amount of like happening, yeah."

Buffy tried to push Jack's arms back to his sides.

[all7seas]

His arms were pushed with no resistance at all, although there was a slight groan of impatience. "How much of an amount of like?"

Because Buffy in that hat was beginning to make his knees feel a little shaky.

[herotypical]

Buffy never liked questions like that. Her responses tended to scuttle any attempts at true clarity. "Amount? Hah." She stepped closer -- fingers still on his arms.

"Fifteen. Like to the amount of fifteen."

[all7seas]

"Now that doesn't seem like such a very high amount of like at all, to my ears." He edged closer as well; his arms might be under her control, but the rest of him wasn't. "Seems rather low on the like scale. A poor showing indeed."

[herotypical]

"Depends. You don't know what the scale is -- it could stop at seventeen. Heck, it could stop at fourteen!"

[all7seas]

"Woe to the man whose woman understands the power she wields when she wears his hat, is all I have to say about it." It probably wouldn't work, but he was trying to draw her closer to him, levering his arms backward. She did have a very strong grip.