"Morning, Nibblet." He grumbled as he reached for his blood cup.
"Good evening, Spike." She joked, pointing out the window and into the night. Smirking at her retreating form into the living room before opening the microwave.
"Lovely invention, blood is better warm." He spoke to himself, tapping in the minutes. Behind him he heard a chair pull out and something plopped on it. Spike got used to having no privacy, seeing as the basement was now training area, 24-hour laundry mat, and his bedroom (Xander insisted on coming back...). Mesmerized by the mug of blood spinning on the little plastic tray inside the contraption he has learned to love, he didn't care to look who was in the room with him.
Faded behind the machines slight buzzing Spike heard the patter of bare feet on the cold linoleum. Only one person walked around barefoot, and that was Charlie. The damn girl went for a run with nothing on her feet with Kennedy once. Spike had expected her back with bloody feet, which of course he would have loved to see. Although she came back from the jog around the block with not a scratch. Weird.
BEEP BEEP.
"Alright, alright I heard you." Spike mumbled to the microwave as he popped the door open and pulled out a steaming cup of blood out. Turning whilst sipping at the cup his guess was confirmed. It was Charlie.
"What are you looking for, pet?" He asked watching as her small body sat on the floor with her knees bent in front of an open bottom cupboard. Eyes searching intently for something unseen, it seemed Charlie had not heard a word he said.
"Ah ha!" She yelled happily as she jumped up from her seated position. In her hand was a medium sized purple plastic bowl. Placing that on the table she opened her messenger bag, which had made the plop. Unzipping a pouch in the back she removed a bag of toiletries that were held together in a zip lock bag. Spike's brow crumbled in confused humor. What the hell was she going to do with this stuff in the kitchen?
Walking past the feeding vampire without even glancing at him, Charlie turned the hot tap water on. Ran her hand under it a bit and frowned. Pulling the kettle from the burner to her right, she filled it with about a cup of water. She looked up at Spike,
"You want some hot water for anything?" Spike nodded in response. So she filled it a bit more and replaced it on the burner. Before turning off the tap she tested the temperature again. This time she filled the purple bowl with semi-hot water and set it aside. Turning her attention to the burner she followed the simple instructions on the knobs. Usually you would turn the handle to ignite and then the gas released would spark into a steady flame. This one didn't do that.
Spike had known the thing was broken, has been for sometime now but no one had the skill or money to fix it. He neglected to inform Charlie of this instead watched in interest as her left eyebrow went up.
Turning the broken burner to off, Charlie opened the hidden panel right below all the knobs (which no Scooby knew was there) Flicking a tiny switch, Spike heard the gas on a burner start seeping out. Quickly turning around Charlie looked around the kitchen. A short walk to the junk table by the phone, she had located a matchbox. Soon there was flame under the kettle. Spike had not stopped staring at the girl amazed.
"How resourceful you are." He joked. Charlie grinned at him without a word she picked up the purple bowl and the zip lock bag on the table.
"You have no idea." She said softly enough only his newly kicked in vampiric hearing could make out.
