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Choco_cherries: Puzzles
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choco_cherries !Title: Puzzles
Fandoms: Buffyverse/Firefly
Characters/Pairing: Spike/River Tam
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 300
Prompt: Game
Summary: It's always Slayers.
It’s always Slayers. Wandering centuries, continents, then planets, and after Buffy, it’s always got to be Slayers. He never thought he’d go on after she died for the (third) last time: he always thought he’d greet the sun after the night stole her away. But here he is, still wandering, still looking.
He finds pieces of her in her sister-Slayers, like he’s assembling a puzzle: this one has golden hair, this one her roundhouse kick, this one eyes of steel and sorrow. He trains them, protects them, fights by their sides (but despite his strength, his centuries of experience, they still die violently, young). He doesn’t seduce them, though sometimes he lets them seduce him. There’s always something lacking. He moves on.
After a while (time lost meaning when it lost her), all the vampires are gone. He alone remains. But just because there isn’t any need for a Slayer doesn’t mean there isn’t one. The Watchers are long gone, and the girls who are called don’t understand what’s wrong. He seeks out tales of young women accomplishing impossible feats.
This tale, though, is more than any he’s heard before: soldiers whispering of a tiny girl slaughtering hundreds of Reavers. He grins, flips a coin to the bartender, and sets out to find her.
She’s Buffy’s strength and unbreakable spirit mixed with Dru’s madness, with Fred’s vulnerability and brilliant mind tossed in. Add Dawn’s “you’re dumber than a rock” look, and she’s the reincarnation of the women he’s cared about in the course of his unlife.
She dances with him as no one has since Buffy, each blow and kick graceful as a dancer’s. Her words are a puzzle to assemble, a game only she knows the rules to. For the first time since his Slayer, he finds himself enchanted.
no subject
The whole thing is just utterly brilliant. I love your Spike voice, it's so in character and all of those thoughts are things I can actually see him thinking.
I love the way you don't go into detail about how exactly Buffy died and that Spike has always associated her death with his. I totally believe he would want to kill himself without her around. And him finding pieces of her in all the other slayers is also something I see him doing.
I also think Spike is definitely one to process things by comparison so the way he thinks of River as all these bits of people he's familiar with is very fitting.
Overall, I just love it. You always write great fics but this is definitely one of my favorites.
no subject
I love your Spike voice, it's so in character and all of those thoughts are things I can actually see him thinking. That's maybe the best compliment ever. I love to write him--he's so distinctive, and he can be anywhere from hopelessly obtuse to scarily insightful. So I'm thrilled that you thought I got him right.
I really can't see Spike wanting to live after all the Summers women are dead. He'd stay alive after Buffy's death for Dawn's sake quite easily, I think, but Spike is so all about relationships that unless he felt that, say, Angel really needed him, I don't think he would get much joy out of being alive anymore. So I can see him planning to walk out into the sun when Buffy dies.
Again, thank you so much. I really am thrilled that you enjoyed it.
Also, I don't know if I've ever really thanked you for starting this challenge community. I love it so much--even when I can't write anything else, I can usually come up with something for choco_cherries and it makes me feel so much better. So thanks!