Andrew
Satsu made her way through the narrow passages of the submarine, heading for her bunk--or trying to. Things were so cramped that anytime she met someone in one of the corridors, she had to plant her back up flat against the wall just to give them space to get by. Before it had been commandeered by vampires, and then retrieved by her and her team of slayers, sailors in the South Korean navy had lived in here for months at a time. She couldn't even imagine that.
Right now she mostly just wanted to get the hell out of it. Whoever was driving this thing should just step on the gas, and hurry up and get them to wherever it was that Buffy was taking them all. Because Satsu needed to get away from her. As soon as possible.
She felt like a complete fool. When Buffy had recalled her and her squad, and told them to meet up with her and the others in a secret location, Satsu had cautioned herself not to get her hopes up. It didn't mean anything for the two of them--it was just Buffy being the Slayer-General, moving her various pieces around for strategic reasons. But Satsu's hopes had ignored her warnings and gone up all on their own, and then to have Buffy flat-out ignore her like that once she'd shown up… Every time she thought this whole thing couldn't get more painful, she was proven wrong.
Maybe she should just--
A pair of hands darted out, grabbed hold of her, and pulled her into a small, darkened compartment. Satsu was too surprised to even fight back, which made her glad Buffy hadn't been there to see it. That would've gotten her to pay attention to the younger slayer again--just long enough to chew her ass out for her horrible lack of reactions.
Moist lips touched hers. She couldn't see who's they were, but they were soft, like a girl's, which could only mean one thing.
Buffy! Satsu exalted. She wants to try again! Maybe we're not doomed, after all!
With her heart swelling, she reached her hands up to rest on Buffy's shoulders, allowed her lips to part, and slipped her tongue out, looking for entrance into the older slayer's mouth--and heard a startled little, "Eep!", and the room's overhead light suddenly snapped on.
Her mysterious kisser was Andrew.
"What?!" All her so-brief hopes for a wonderful future together with Buffy came crashing down upon her. "What the hell are you doing?" she demanded, and pushed herself away from him.
He didn't answer. Just held up a finger in the universal, 'Wait one second,' gesture, and reached the other hand into his mouth. After a little digging around, he pulled out something that had been tucked between his teeth and cheek, on the upper righthand side. It was some sort of thin, wafer-ish device that looked vaguely technological, vaguely magickal. He examined it closely for a moment, then glanced at her, then back at the device, then back at her. "Okay, you're clear," he announced.
"What? What was--?"
"Oh. Right. Sorry." Now he seemed embarrassed. "I wasn't trying to lead you on with that kiss or anything, honest. I definitely wasn't expecting you to kiss me back. I mean, I didn't even know you felt that way about me. Otherwise I would have found a different way to check you out--one that didn't get your hopes all up and everything. I thought you only liked girls."
"I wasn't--"
"I mean, I think you're super-sweet, and really cute, and you have an Ami Mizuno t-shirt which I'm totally jealous of but would never ever borrow without asking, I swear, I don't know how that stain got on it--"
"What--?!"
"It would just never work between us," he said, and put a comforting hand on her arm. "I'm too engrossed in my important duties right now to have time for a relationship. But hey, maybe you should consider Xander. He's strong, and brave, and handsome…" His voice had quickly become wistful, and he seemed to realize this and hurriedly banished that tone in favor of a more businesslike one. "And, um, yeah. Plus, he's all alone now, too, just like you, after his latest girlfriend died. Wow, that's two in a row for him now, isn't it? So no, on second thought, maybe you shouldn't go out with him--not while he's on a streak like this. But I'm sure the right guy for you is out there somewhere."
"But I--"
"Hush," he said, and now placed a finger over her lips. "I've broken your heart, and that's something I'll have to carry from now 'til my dying day. Just know that I'm eternally sorry. But you're a noble slayer, and I'm an only-partially-redeemed former supervillain, and you deserve far better than I. Farewell, sweet Satsu." He slipped out of the room and into the passageway outside, leaving a stunned young woman in his wake.
"Oh, and don't tell anyone I'm doing this," he said, popping back into view and holding up the strange little device. "It'll screw up the results if they're expecting it." Then he was gone.
"That didn't just happen," Satsu whispered to herself. She resumed her walk to her bunk, half-hoping that another pair of hands (attached to a beautiful blonde slayer this time) would appear out of nowhere and drag her into the dark for some serious making out, but of course, she wasn't that lucky.
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Since I know some people will be all, "Ooh, what was Andrew doing?": I don't even know myself, actually--he didn't bother to tell me. ;) Remember that this is not long before he went to Giles and told him that they had a spy in their midst, so I'd guess maybe it's related to that somehow. Beyond that, I really don't wanna dig too deep into the inner-workings of Andrew's brain.)
