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

[herotypical]

Only a little stupid; after all, she wouldn't play too roughly. When the first hint of unbalance arrived, Buffy went with it. She tumbled backwards but was sure to drag him with her -- raising her knee against his stomach and lifting off the ground just enough to rock their momentum into usefulness. She sacrificed one grip on his arm to catch his shoulder and try to flip him.

[all7seas]

Flipped he was; and since he was half-anticipating this type of result, Jack was prepared (somewhat) for that moment of hitting the ground. Hard.

[herotypical]

She wasted no time in getting on top of him -- a hand once again carefully keeping the hat shoved down over her hair. Her other hand presses down on his chest.

"The world's smallest violin the one that plays out of super-sarcastic sympathy."

[all7seas]

"Oh.

...

Any chance there's any real sympathy in there for a man what's in dire need of it? Hmm?"

Jack would not have taken that hat back at that moment for all the world in gold and silver.

[herotypical]

"Woeful. In dire need." She echoed his words some more. "You are so full of it."

[all7seas]

"Now that's not very nice. Here's poor Sparrow, on the ground, all broken-up and hatless and with--ouch---wings all folded at odd angles..."

[herotypical]

There was a flicker of concern at his mention of wings but she didn't allow herself to be swayed. If she gave him an opening, she fully expected him to take advantage of it.

"You don't look too broken-up to me. But -- I suppose -- if you really want your hat back...maybe I should take pity."

[all7seas]

"No... AHEM. I mean, 'No,' lovely. Anything but that."

[herotypical]

"Poor hatless Sparrow doesn't even want his hat back, hmm?"

[all7seas]

Poor Hatless Sparrow's hands inched up to rest on her hips. "Not when it looks so fetching on the girl currently astride him, no. He'd be a fool to ask it back. And he's not that sort of fool."

[herotypical]

She didn't mind the inching; however, she was sure to tug harder down on his hat and secure her position as its keeper. Her hand guarded it with dedication -- no matter what he said about foolishness and fetchingness.

"What sort of fool, then?"

[all7seas]

"The sort of fool who enjoys seeing a beautiful woman in an old leather hat, is all. Just that sort."

But his hands might be inching up her sides.

[herotypical]

"Where'd you get it, anyway?" She drew her fingers across to another corner. "Did you steal it?"

Buffy's hand slipped along his torso -- bringing her arm in closer. Just in case.

[all7seas]

Well that stopped all the inching; Sparrow held still for a moment. "No. Me dad gave it to me, actually; a long time ago, now."

[herotypical]

"And you managed to keep it? That deserves a wow."

Buffy kept things for less long and yet couldn't remember an accessory she didn't eventually end up losing or tossing out. And that was without living on the sea and having piratey adventures. She kept the important ones -- chains and pendants and rings. Kept them locked up in drawers and had rarely brought them out. Those were somewhere at the bottom of Sunnydale's crater, now.

[all7seas]

"It's a good hat. A man doesn't just give up a good hat like that, and a good hat rarely gives up a man. Comes right back to him, always."

[herotypical]

"So that's it." Buffy considered standing up -- resuming the walk. Imply as though she were planning to keep his hat indefinitely. But instead she held onto her position above him and smiled.

"Right now...you're just waiting for it to come back to you. Well, I should warn you. It's not about to just hop off my head and pull a boomerang."

[all7seas]

"But that's never how it works, Buffy." Jack took a very decisive grip on Buffy's shirt. If she did try to stand up, he wasn't going to make it easy, although this wasn't the most comfortable place to be lying flat on one's back. "Hats can't hop. No legs, for one."

[herotypical]

"Figurative hopping."

Buffy's legs tightened against Jack's sides. "A hat with legs is just weird. And unnatural. Unnatural and weird." That guard-hand dropped so she could try and run interference between his grip and her jacket. She attempted the hand-holding version of crowbarring her fingers under his.

[all7seas]

"Buffy? Sometimes, lass, I simply lose track of what you're talking about." He very willingly released her clothing to hold her hand. "And other times...you're a wonderment to me, is all."

[herotypical]

She took his hand and slowly stood up. She would haul him with her if he allowed it.

"You mean wonderment in a good way right?"

[all7seas]

"Always." Hauled back to his feet, Jack found himself standing close to her once again. "Aye."

[herotypical]

Buffy had until now mistaken all the earlier parts of the evening to what healed things. Certainly, it had helped -- but this space right now felt extra-okay. More than okay. It fills her with a great deal of self-gratitude that she ever stole the hat in the first place.

Wonderment, she presumed, could be just another way to say peculiar. And that had never been quite so poorly taken anymore. More like a badge. Proud of it. But that was a fact that might reside almost exclusively in her head and she didn't think to clarify when she spoke next. "You're pretty peculiar yourself, you know."

[all7seas]

"Never quite heard it described that way, but...aye. I suppose that's a belief held by some."

Though he probably didn't understand it quite in the way Buffy meant it, Jack took no offense from the label. It was often the reaction he tried to get from others, because it was so often to his advantage to garner that reaction. He reached out to place a light hand on her shoulder.

[herotypical]

It suited her perfectly well for Jack to not quite understand the extent of the compliment. It wasn't as though she had a hard time complimenting people -- she could lavish her best friends and her family and even her tentative acquaintances with all sorts of kind words. It became an awful lot more difficult to own up to the feel-good thoughts with someone she had spent a very long time convincing herself she didn't like. And so, the sweetest things she could say would come out sounding like reluctant concessions. You don't look half bad yourself.

At the hand on her shoulder, she tried to catch his eye. Buffy wanted to go back to guarding the hat but she decided to wait.