Title: Popcorn and a Movie

Author: S J Smith

Rating: Gen

Summary: Spike and Dawn are watching a movie together.

Disclaimer: I seriously make no money in regard to this.

He slunk carefully into the house. Darkness ruled; no lights on in the kitchen or even the dining room but the familiar blue glare of the telly brightened the living room. Spike adjusted the collar of his jacket, stalking towards the couch and the lone person sitting on it. Smiling to himself, he sneaked closer, laying a hand on the back of the couch and vaulting over it. He landed next to Dawn, bouncing her and the bowl of popcorn in her lap.

Dawn shrieked, batting at him. "Don't you ever do that!" she shouted.

Spike fended off her hands, laughing. "What? It's not like yer watchin' a scary movie." Hearing a roar, he turned towards the screen, enthralled with the fight scene. "Hey, that bloke's got claws in his hands."

"That's Wol-ver-eeeeeene," Dawn said with an accompanying eyeroll. Yeah, Spike could definitely see the resemblance to her big sis when she did that.

"He some sorta demon?" he asked, reaching for the popcorn.

Dawn grunted in protest but didn't move fast enough to keep her treat out of Spike's hands. "No, dummy," she said, "he's a mutant."

"A mutant what? Enemy?"

"No! He's…well, he's gonna be an X-Man."

Spike draped an arm around Dawn's shoulders. "A what?"

"An X-Man. They're a bunch of mutants who fight to keep normal people safe."

"Oh." He thought about it. "So, yer sis is an X-Man?"

Dawn shoved a handful of popcorn into his mouth. "Shut up. Like Buffy's cool enough to be an X-Man." A pause. "I don't disagree with the mutant part, though."

He grinned cockily, hooking a thumb at his chest. "What about me? 'M I cool enough?"

She glared at him. "They probably don't take vampires."

Swiping another handful of popcorn, Spike said, "You don't know that, pet."

"Just shut up and watch the movie."

For a while, he was obedient but, getting bored, he started playing with her hair. Dawn didn't let on that she noticed, no, but she was concentrating a little too hard on the movie. Spike smirked, wondering if she hadda clue that her scent was giving her away. Well, that and her kinda leaning into him.

"What's with the girl?" he asked, just to see what Dawn would do.

"That's Rogue. She's cool. Xander says she's a lot different in the comic books, not so shy."

"She's goin' into his bedroom," Spike said. Hmmm, didn't think the niblet was into that kinda movie.

"Shh." Dawn elbowed him. "This is one of the good parts."

The hairy guy woke up out of a nightmare with a roar and stabbed the girl through the chest. "Whoa," Spike said. He hadn't expected that. The girl started choking and claw guy took back his claws, yelling for someone to help him. Then the girl reached out and touched his face. "What's she doin'?"

"It's her mutant power," Dawn said, frowning slightly in concentration over the scene. "She absorbs other people's powers." She reached into the popcorn bowl, finding Spike's hand and shoved it aside to get some of the kernals. He laughed and pushed her hand back. "See? Now she's healed."

They fought more over the remaining popcorn than they actually watched the movie for a little while, then Dawn batted at him again. "This is my favorite scene."

"Thought you said that about the last one," Spike groused.

"Shut up," Dawn warned him, shaking a finger at him for good measure.

He rolled his eyes, the same way she did. She didn't notice and he turned his attention to the TV, where Rogue was sitting on some train and Wolverine sat down next to her and tried to get her to go back to the geeks. "C'mon," he said, "I'll take care of you." Spike stopped chewing his popcorn, glancing from the TV to Dawn.

"What," she asked, irritated.

"Nothin'," Spike said.

They watched the rest of the movie in relative silence; some old guy wearing a purple helmet taking Rogue and some other guy turning into water and another old guy (whom Spike recognized from Star Trek: The Next Generation but he wasn't about to tell Dawn that) getting knocked out and then everybody who was left put on leather suits and flew to the Statue of Liberty to rescue Rogue. Spike didn't really like that part, kinda reminded him of Dawn bein' on top of Glory's tower. Dawn didn't seem to notice though, and did that squinty-frowny thing when Wolverine was holding Rogue up against him.

"He gonna cry?" Spike asked and dodged when Dawn backhanded him in the stomach without even turning away from the TV. "Ow, pet! That hurt!" He caught her hand before she could pull it away, loosely lacing his fingers through hers. "So you won't try it again," he told her when she glanced at him.

Again with the eye roll but Rogue came back to life and the old guy in the helmet got sent to jail and Captain Picard woke up and Wolverine left on some red-eyed guy's motorcycle. And Dawn sighed.

"Is that it?" Spike asked.

She rummaged on the table next to her and held up a DVD case. "X-Men United," she said.

Spike suddenly remembered a poster he'd seen, must've been thirty years ago or more, of two ducks doin'…things, with the logo, "Fly United". He decided to keep that to himself, 'cause Dawn probably'd hit him again. "So, we gonna watch it?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

She squeezed his hand. "I need this to change the discs."

"Oh." Spike released her and Dawn changed out the discs, sitting back down on the couch with him as the credits started rolling. She snuggled in against Spike, who draped his arm around her again.

"So," she said, fiddling with the cuff of her sleeve, not looking away from the screen, "would you promise to take care of me?"

He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "Already did, niblet. I already did."

- end -