Chapters are individual, unrelated stories.
A/N: The fagends Spuffy prompt community has recently shut its doors, and what with the potential upheaval of LJ communities, I decided to finally get around to archiving some of my fagends ficlets from the past five years. I don't want to post a ton of short stories, so I'll be posting a few collections (fluffy, angsty, reunion).
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UNBEARABLE
(Post-series)
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Apparently, Spike has a thing about bears. Not a good, aren't they adorable? thing, but a phobia thing.
Who knew?
Apparently, he thinks she should have.
"Well, what did you think I was going on about when that Indian fellow turned into a bear?"
"The fact that it was a bear?"
"Exactly!"
Somehow, he thinks she's made his point for him.
Buffy wants to point out that everybody present had been wigged by the sudden appearance of a giant, angry mammal in the middle of Giles' living room, not just him, and that nobody else either has had a bear phobia develop from the experience or expects her to infer a bear phobia from their (she thinks) more than reasonable wiggage at the appearance of said bear.
Still, a phobia is a phobia, and while it's kind of funny (okay, it's hilarious, not that she'll tell him that), she'll save her laughter for later. Because she loves him, and she knows he wouldn't laugh at her weird, unreasonable phobias. (Although, really, it's not so unreasonable for her to be afraid of being buried alive or vamped, but she supposes the dummy thing is a bit silly and could be cause for teasing if Spike ever found out about it. Which he won't.)
She won't even tell Dawn about his bear thing, no matter how much she wishes she had somebody else to giggle with about it later. Buffy loves him that much.
She reaches over and removes the spikey-haired, punked-out Build-A-Bear bear from its position right next to his pillow, where she'd placed it earlier in the day hoping to surprise him when he woke.
He'd been surprised, all right.
"I'll just... give it to Dawn," she says. "She thought it was cute." So had Buffy, and she really wants to keep it, but the bear has got to go. She's pretty sure this is non-negotiable after his reaction. "And um..." She surveys the panic-induced destruction of their bedroom. "I guess I'll pick up a new bedspread..." (and sheets, and pillows, and entire bed, she doesn't add) "...while I'm out."
Spike doesn't answer from his corner of the room, other than to glower at her (or, more likely the bear in her hand).
Buffy tosses the bear out of their bedroom and down the hallway (Spike's eyes follow it until it's out of sight). No matter how embarrassed he might be right now, she can't leave him like this. So she stalks over to him, putting a swing in her hips and waiting for him to watch her instead of the empty doorway. "Since the bed's already messy..." she says when he finally notices her. "Wanna make clean-up worthwhile?"
Spike's scowl deepens for a moment, and then his lumpies fade and he seems to catch her mood. "I suppose," he says, and though his tone is grudging, his body language is anything but when she tugs him over to the (already demolished) bed.
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