DISCLAIMER: No infringement of copyright is intended. You know the drill, anyone appearing on or mentioned on BtVS are ME's.

RATING: K

PAIRING: Anya and Mr. Gordo

SUMMARY: Anya receives a little bit of much needed reassurance.

WARNINGS and or SPOILERS: None

Taming the Demon

(Anya's POV)

by Eris © 2004 — All rights reserved.

Anya grumbled and glowered as she fluffed the pillows on Buffy's bed and commenced straightening the comforter. Buffy had not asked her to make her bed, or in fact asked her do anything about the cluttered, overly person-stuffed house, but Anya was bored, and after recent events, she was full of anxious, scary-type energy in much need of release, and when she was nervous, she had a tendency to clean. For whatever reasons this seemed to soothe her savage beast. Only not today.

Pulling the comforter taut and patting out the wrinkles, she looked about for the rest of the accouterments. One by one, she piled the myriad of stuffed animals and little novelty pillows neatly back onto the bed.

Picking up the last stuffed animal, she stopped and stared at it. A little round pig. It was plump and cute and all smiles, happy as could be.

'What in the world was this little plush porker smiling about?' she wondered.

She had heard Buffy refer to it as Mister Gordo and seen Dawn and the others making a big fuss over it in the wee hours, only she didn't see it. Maybe she needed to look closer.

'What's that? Huh...'

There was an unusually clever glint to its eye that made her stop. She sat down on the bed, cocked her head and continued to stare. She didn't know why she stared at the little scrap of pink fluff. She wasn't one to form attachments to material items... well, other than a certain green papery material. No, to her stuff such as toys and flowers and candy as gifts were mere wasteful trifles. She'd rather have the hard stuff -- cash. The money, to her, showed that the giver really cared, that they were serious about her.

'This...,' she thought as she twirled the toy, '...this is silly and stupid and meaningless.'

However, slowly, lightly, she began to stroke her fingers back and forth over the soft acrylic fur.

'Yup, absurd and foolhardy... So why does it feel good to hold it?'

It was a complete mystery to her. So mysterious in fact she continued to sit there and stroke him as long moments passed, and she soon found herself cuddling him.

'I wonder if this thing comes with instructions.'

Yup, a complete mystery.

After what seemed a forever she finally stood and, with a smile, gently placed him in the center of the bed, looked, adjusted him slightly, and patted his little head. Humming now, she brushed her hand over the comforter to straighten it one last time and headed off to Dawn's nightmare of a room crammed full top to bottom with even more potential slayer belongings.