Sweet Bit
Disclaimer - Chapter 1...that's all I'm going to say. Notes - This should be fun. Just look at the title. It should expalain everything *laughs* This should be fun!
~*~*~*~
Ch 3 - Pink...Frilly...and SHOPPING!
1:28am - STILL early Friday Morning
Suddenly, there was a scream coming from upstairs. The two looked at each other, frowning. What was going on up there? The pair of adults immediately stood up and ran upstairs. Buffy was in the lead and Spike followed behind her. For some reason, seeing as how it had very much obviously been his daughter that was screaming, Spike thought that this seemed just a little backwards. Oh well, it didn't matter, right? When they reached the bedroom, Buffy was the first to speak. "What's with all the screaming?"
Lydia, who was standing in the middle of the bed, looked over at the two that were in the doorway. The child's eyes were as wide as they could be as she spoke. "Daddy! She tried to put in in pink....and frilly!" She yelled, pointing at Anya.
"Anya....this is my child. What in hell's name would make you think that she would wear pink? Or anything that was even remotely...frilly?"
"Well....she's just a little girl! I thought she would like pink!"
"Well you are very wrong!" The girl yelled.
"What's wrong with pink?" Anya asked, a hand on her hip.
"It's ugly." Lydia said simply.
"Well, we could always get something else, Lydia." Willow spoke up, "What do you want?"
"Anything that's dark. Black....or red...or both...Yeah...black and red are my favorite colors!" She grinned and jumped up and down on the bed a few times.
Willow shook her head but took the frilly, pink almost tutu-looking clothing from Anya and turned to get something else. "Buffy, did you know that your mother was a pack-rat?"
"Yeah. She's kept all my clothes that I thought had been thrown out. I found that out a few years ago."
Willow came back with a red t-shirt and a pair of black slack-like pants. "This better?"
Lydia nodded furiously. "Yeah!"
Spike, Buffy, and Anya went back downstairs and left Willow to dress Lydia. "Hey! Why do I have to do this alone?" Willow asked, but the three ignored her. She shrugged. "Oh well..."
~*~*~*~
4:07pm - Friday afternoon
It was just after four o'clock and Buffy had come to a realization of sorts. If this kid was going to be staying with them, they would need to get her some clothes. This should be fun, huh? She thought about how last night had gone. If Anya had anything to do with it, the poor child would always be clad in something of a very girly nature. For some reason, Buffy thought that this would not bode well with the child. She shook her head and started to go towards the basement. She was going to suggest clothes shopping to Spike, see what he thought of it. She heard the door shut as she made her way down the stairs. "Spike!" She shouted
"What?" He yelled back.
"We need to go shopping!"
"Why?"
Buffy rolled her eyes as she got to the last stair and walked over to stand in the middle of the basement-room. "Well, if the kid's going to be staying with us, she's going to be needing clothes, isn't she?"
"Oh...well...I guess you're right. See you, then."
Buffy raised an eyebrow at him.
"What?"
"You honestly think that Lydia is going to go if you don't?"
"Well, I can't exactaly go. Sunlight, Vampire. The two don't tend to mix very well."
Buffy sighed and shrugged, "Ok, but she is soooo your's when we get back."
"Alright..."
With that, Buffy went back upstairs to find Lydia.
~*~*~*~
4:14pm - Friday Afternoon
Buffy had gone up to her room to find Lydia jumping on the bed and up here all alone. "Why are you up here, in my room, alone?"
"Because...no one would play with me."
"Why are you jumping on my bed?"
"Because...there's nothing else to do."
"Do you want to go shopping today?"
"I dunno. Why?"
"Well, you're going to be here for awhile and, I think you might want some clothes."
"I thought your mom kept a lot of clothes and stuff."
"Don't you want new clothes? And...your own?"
Lydia stopped jumping and plopped down to sit in the middle of the bed. She seemed to think about this. Finally, she came to a conclusion. "Ok!" She bounced off the bed and landed on her feet in front of the blond. "Let's go!"
"Alright." Buffy said, allowing herself to be pulled downstairs into the living room by the girl.
"Ok! Let's go get daddy!"
"Uh...Lydia...your dad can't come."
"Oooohhhh yeah....he's a vampire. I forgot. Can we go later?"
"Uh...why don't we go and...get over with now?" Buffy asked, hopeful.
"No." Lydia said simply. "I want my daddy to come with us! And since he can't come when it's light out, we can go later...tonight...when he can come!"
"Oh-kay...but...don't you want to just get this over with? I mean, it'd be alot easier that way, wouldn't it?" Buffy pressed going now.
"Yes...but easy isn't what I want. Daddy coming with us is what I want."
"You don't always get what you want in life."
"So? I want my dad come with us."
"You don't take authority too well, do you?"
"No. And I will get my way. I'm sooo having my daddy come with us."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "I'm seriously starting to wonder how long this is going to go on." She muttered before declaring, "We're going now and that's final."
Lydia stood there for a moment, looking up into the eyes of the woman who she had only just the night before thought would be her new mummy. After a few moments, she screamed and ran towards the basement. "Daddy!" She ran down the stairs into the basement, tripping on the last one and falling to the cold, hard basement floor. "Ow!" She declared before sitting up and looking at her knee. "That hurt!" She shouted before getting up. "Daddy!" She ran over to his bed and jumped onto him, landing on his stomach. "Daddy!"
"What is it, luv?"
"Buffy won't let me go shopping later!"
"What?"
"She said that we need to go shopping. I said ok. She said that we should go now. I said let's go get daddy. Then I remembered that you couldn't come, so I said that we could always go later, when you can come. You know what she said, daddy?"
"What did she say?"
"She looked at me and said that we were going now...and that was supposed to be the end of it!" The girl sounded absolutely shocked that Buffy would do such a thing.
"She does have the tendency to be a bit demanding."
"But daaaady! I wanna go with you and she won't let me wait 'til later when you can come!" The seven year old whined.
"Well, then, I'll just have to talk to her, won't I?"
"Uh-huh!"
"And if that doesn't work, I guess I'll have to settle for kidnaping you, won't I?"
"I don't know...I guess."
"Alright, then. You stay here, don't mess with anything, and I'll go talk to her, alright?"
"Ok!" She beamed as her father picked her up and put her down on the bed. "Good luck!"
~*~*~*~
4:23pm - Friday Afternoon
Only a few minutes had gone by and Spike was coming back down the stairs to see Lydia. He found that she was still sitting on the bed where he had left her and nothing seemed to be out of place. He raised an eyebrow at the girl, "I thought you had a problem with authority?"
"Only when the person is inconveniencing me."
"You are not seven years old. Even I don't say inconveniencing."
"Just because you don't say something, doesn't mean I can't."
"But you're supposed to be seven!"
"So?" She retaliated, sticking her tongue out at him
"Then again, maybe you are."
~*~*~*~
8:33pm - Friday Evening
Lydia was jumping up and down on the couch. "Come oooon! Let's goooo!" She yelled.
"Don't look at me, pet, it's the blond that's taking so long."
Lydia paused in her jumping. "Daddy....you are blond!"
"Not naturally." He tried to defend himself, then realized that this was a seven year old girl and continued with: "You know what I meant."
"Are you suuure?" She sing-songed.
Spike rolled his eyes and ignored her.
"I asked you a question! Are you going to answer it?"
"No."
The girl's mouth dropped open just when Buffy came in. The woman looked at the girl, then to Spike. "What's with her?"
"She finally realized that I won't be answering every damn question that pops out of her mouth."
~*~*~*~
Buffy was going through rack after rack of clothing as Spike and Lydia watched. Colors and non-colors flew off shelves. Spike was slightly afraid. Aside from the fact that the mall was not his natural habitat, he was intrigued by the Slayer in hers. The mall was obviously her natural habitat, as she knew exactly what she was doing. They were only in their first store and this much was obvious. Lydia was holding onto his index finger and spinning around in circles as Spike watched the blond woman.
"Daddy, I'm boo-reed," she sing-songed.
"I'm sorry Sweet Bit, but I'm not any good at this shopping thing, why don't you go help Buffy?" he asked, looking down at her. In truth, he was becoming annoyed with the looks he was getting from some of the occupants of the mall. Friday night had been a bad idea. Friday night the mall was highly populated by teenagers. Teenage girls to be precise. He could feel, and see, the girls giving him lustful looks. Had they no shame? He was here with his daughter.
"All right, but you have to see them when I try them on," she said as she stopped spinning.
"Can do, Poppet." Then the little girl skipped off to Buffy, who slowed down slightly when Lydia handed her a blue jean jacket.
"Hi!" Spike suppressed his rage and turned to the blond girl who stood next to him. She wasn't pretty blond like the Slayer, she was the ugly blond that came out of a bottle and was emphasized by too much make-up and a bad tan.
"Hullo," he said gruffly.
"That was so sweet of you, helping that little girl find her mom." Spike forced himself not to roll his eyes.
"She's my daughter."
"Oh," the minor smiles faintly and brushed badly manicured hands up the sleeves of his duster. Buffy must have sensed his distress, because suddenly she and Lydia were beside him.
"Darling, we're going to the dressing rooms now," Buffy said, turning his face to her with her hand and then pulling him down as she went up. And then she was kissing him. Bloody fucking hell. The Slayer was kissing him and he was standing their like a fish on dry land. But before he had a chance to respond the kiss was over and the annoying blond girl was gone.
"Agh... uh.." Spike the mute said.
"Don't make a big deal out of it. I just wanted her gone." And then she turned away, taking Lydia's hand and leading her back to the changing rooms. Lydia was looking at him with wide eyes and then a big grin spread across her face.
It wasn't until Lydia complained she was hungry that they stopped in the food court. Spike had never been in a food court, he'd never had a reason to before today, so he was slightly annoyed that there were even more teenagers here. Teenagers bugged the hell out of him. In fact, the only teenager that didn't bug the hell out of him was at the mall at this very moment, looking highly confused to see her sister and the vampire who hung around her house far too often there with a little girl.
"Dawn's coming," Spike said as he stood in the line with Lydia and Buffy for pizza.
"Oh," Buffy glanced behind her. "You get to explain Lydia."
"Can't Lydia explain herself?" Spike asked as Dawn slid in-between two tables full of loud teenage boys. Damned, obnoxious teenagers.
"Buffy, what are you doing here?" Dawn asked as she pushed past a group of mumbling young girls. "Better yet, why is Spike here and why is that little girl holding his hand?"
"Long story Little Bit," Spike said, running a hand through his hair. Just then Dawn's companions, who had followed her about three seconds after she had left them, arrived.
"Spike, who is she?"
"My daughter," Spike said, narrowing his eyes at the girl who was quickly slipping from her position as the only teenager he could stand.
Dawn stared. Then she turned and looked at her sister. Buffy shrugged. "Don't ask me, I didn't think he could have kids either."
"Oh, she's adorable!" Oh, god. It was the bottled blond from the department store again. "So I guess Buffy isn't your wife," she said silkily.
"No, Buffy--" a few sputters came out as Buffy slapped her hand over her younger sister's mouth.
"He's my boyfriend. Very long time. That was nearly my daughter," Buffy rambled off. Dawn and Lydia gave the older girl a strange look, but wisely refrained from speaking.
"Oh," the bottled blond said, removing her hand from Spike's bicep.
"Dawn, you're curfew is eleven, you should get going," Buffy said, releasing her younger sister from her hold. The group left and Spike let out a mental breath.
"Thank god you know how to think on your feet, Slayer. That bloody," this time his mouth was the one to have a hand slammed over it.
"You can't talk like that in front of Lydia. She's going to be learning from you." Spike rolled his eyes and nodded reluctantly and then the hand was removed.
"You're a very demanding person," Lydia said with a solemn face. Spike snickered as they moved up in the pizza line.
~*~*~*~
Spike was watching as his daughter and the woman he was thoroughly infatuated with stared one another down. If there had been a moment's doubt in Spike's mind that Lydia was not in fact his daughter, it was crushed beneath what had happened ten minutes before. They had been walking down one of the mall corridors when Lydia spotted a picture of a man on a motorcycle in a shop window.
"Ohh! Daddy, Daddy, can we go in? Oh, please?" She jumped up and down, tugging on Spike's arm. "Please? Please? Please?"
"All right," Spike laughed. She jumped up and then darted into the store which Spike had smelled from the other side of the mall. A leather shop. Lydia darted around, diving into coats and smelling them rather loudly. Buffy followed in, looking slightly reluctant until she found a leather jacket that was about her size. Spike was standing beside her, watching Lydia out of the corner of his eye when she suddenly darted up. For a human child, she was awfully swift.
"Can I, Daddy? Please, please, please?"
"Can you what, Poppet?" he asked, kneeling down beside her.
She thrust the coat she was holding under his nose. "It's my size and it looks like yours!" Spike took the coat from her hands and looked up at Buffy, who was looking down at them thoughtfully.
"I don't know, Lydia," the Slayer said reluctantly. "This place is really expensive."
"Please," Lydia begged, flashing big green eyes at them.
Spike could sense Buffy stealing herself. She was going to say no to the child. He should warn her that it was no good, that she was going to give in, because he hadn't even known Lydia for a full twenty-four hours and he already couldn't say no. But he didn't. He just kneeled there and watched the two stare at one another.
"No," Buffy said carefully.
"But I want it!" Lydia cried, eyes tearing. Oh, no. Spike felt his insides collapsing at the sight of the brimming eyes. This was bad. She wasn't supposed to cry, they'd already had this talk.
"Now, Sweet Bit, what did we agree on when it came to crying?" Spike said, tilting her chin to look at him.
"Crying doesn't do anything."
"Right. There are very few occasions on which crying is acceptable. Getting what you want isn't one of them." The child nodded and wiped away the lone tear that had escaped. "Now, apologize to Buffy for making her feel bad," he said firmly.
"I'm sorry, Buffy," Lydia said, hugging the woman around her middle. Buffy returned the hug and gave Spike a small smile. If he could just keep strong, then he just might be able to pull off this dad thing.
~*~*~*~
Disclaimer - Chapter 1...that's all I'm going to say. Notes - This should be fun. Just look at the title. It should expalain everything *laughs* This should be fun!
~*~*~*~
Ch 3 - Pink...Frilly...and SHOPPING!
1:28am - STILL early Friday Morning
Suddenly, there was a scream coming from upstairs. The two looked at each other, frowning. What was going on up there? The pair of adults immediately stood up and ran upstairs. Buffy was in the lead and Spike followed behind her. For some reason, seeing as how it had very much obviously been his daughter that was screaming, Spike thought that this seemed just a little backwards. Oh well, it didn't matter, right? When they reached the bedroom, Buffy was the first to speak. "What's with all the screaming?"
Lydia, who was standing in the middle of the bed, looked over at the two that were in the doorway. The child's eyes were as wide as they could be as she spoke. "Daddy! She tried to put in in pink....and frilly!" She yelled, pointing at Anya.
"Anya....this is my child. What in hell's name would make you think that she would wear pink? Or anything that was even remotely...frilly?"
"Well....she's just a little girl! I thought she would like pink!"
"Well you are very wrong!" The girl yelled.
"What's wrong with pink?" Anya asked, a hand on her hip.
"It's ugly." Lydia said simply.
"Well, we could always get something else, Lydia." Willow spoke up, "What do you want?"
"Anything that's dark. Black....or red...or both...Yeah...black and red are my favorite colors!" She grinned and jumped up and down on the bed a few times.
Willow shook her head but took the frilly, pink almost tutu-looking clothing from Anya and turned to get something else. "Buffy, did you know that your mother was a pack-rat?"
"Yeah. She's kept all my clothes that I thought had been thrown out. I found that out a few years ago."
Willow came back with a red t-shirt and a pair of black slack-like pants. "This better?"
Lydia nodded furiously. "Yeah!"
Spike, Buffy, and Anya went back downstairs and left Willow to dress Lydia. "Hey! Why do I have to do this alone?" Willow asked, but the three ignored her. She shrugged. "Oh well..."
~*~*~*~
4:07pm - Friday afternoon
It was just after four o'clock and Buffy had come to a realization of sorts. If this kid was going to be staying with them, they would need to get her some clothes. This should be fun, huh? She thought about how last night had gone. If Anya had anything to do with it, the poor child would always be clad in something of a very girly nature. For some reason, Buffy thought that this would not bode well with the child. She shook her head and started to go towards the basement. She was going to suggest clothes shopping to Spike, see what he thought of it. She heard the door shut as she made her way down the stairs. "Spike!" She shouted
"What?" He yelled back.
"We need to go shopping!"
"Why?"
Buffy rolled her eyes as she got to the last stair and walked over to stand in the middle of the basement-room. "Well, if the kid's going to be staying with us, she's going to be needing clothes, isn't she?"
"Oh...well...I guess you're right. See you, then."
Buffy raised an eyebrow at him.
"What?"
"You honestly think that Lydia is going to go if you don't?"
"Well, I can't exactaly go. Sunlight, Vampire. The two don't tend to mix very well."
Buffy sighed and shrugged, "Ok, but she is soooo your's when we get back."
"Alright..."
With that, Buffy went back upstairs to find Lydia.
~*~*~*~
4:14pm - Friday Afternoon
Buffy had gone up to her room to find Lydia jumping on the bed and up here all alone. "Why are you up here, in my room, alone?"
"Because...no one would play with me."
"Why are you jumping on my bed?"
"Because...there's nothing else to do."
"Do you want to go shopping today?"
"I dunno. Why?"
"Well, you're going to be here for awhile and, I think you might want some clothes."
"I thought your mom kept a lot of clothes and stuff."
"Don't you want new clothes? And...your own?"
Lydia stopped jumping and plopped down to sit in the middle of the bed. She seemed to think about this. Finally, she came to a conclusion. "Ok!" She bounced off the bed and landed on her feet in front of the blond. "Let's go!"
"Alright." Buffy said, allowing herself to be pulled downstairs into the living room by the girl.
"Ok! Let's go get daddy!"
"Uh...Lydia...your dad can't come."
"Oooohhhh yeah....he's a vampire. I forgot. Can we go later?"
"Uh...why don't we go and...get over with now?" Buffy asked, hopeful.
"No." Lydia said simply. "I want my daddy to come with us! And since he can't come when it's light out, we can go later...tonight...when he can come!"
"Oh-kay...but...don't you want to just get this over with? I mean, it'd be alot easier that way, wouldn't it?" Buffy pressed going now.
"Yes...but easy isn't what I want. Daddy coming with us is what I want."
"You don't always get what you want in life."
"So? I want my dad come with us."
"You don't take authority too well, do you?"
"No. And I will get my way. I'm sooo having my daddy come with us."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "I'm seriously starting to wonder how long this is going to go on." She muttered before declaring, "We're going now and that's final."
Lydia stood there for a moment, looking up into the eyes of the woman who she had only just the night before thought would be her new mummy. After a few moments, she screamed and ran towards the basement. "Daddy!" She ran down the stairs into the basement, tripping on the last one and falling to the cold, hard basement floor. "Ow!" She declared before sitting up and looking at her knee. "That hurt!" She shouted before getting up. "Daddy!" She ran over to his bed and jumped onto him, landing on his stomach. "Daddy!"
"What is it, luv?"
"Buffy won't let me go shopping later!"
"What?"
"She said that we need to go shopping. I said ok. She said that we should go now. I said let's go get daddy. Then I remembered that you couldn't come, so I said that we could always go later, when you can come. You know what she said, daddy?"
"What did she say?"
"She looked at me and said that we were going now...and that was supposed to be the end of it!" The girl sounded absolutely shocked that Buffy would do such a thing.
"She does have the tendency to be a bit demanding."
"But daaaady! I wanna go with you and she won't let me wait 'til later when you can come!" The seven year old whined.
"Well, then, I'll just have to talk to her, won't I?"
"Uh-huh!"
"And if that doesn't work, I guess I'll have to settle for kidnaping you, won't I?"
"I don't know...I guess."
"Alright, then. You stay here, don't mess with anything, and I'll go talk to her, alright?"
"Ok!" She beamed as her father picked her up and put her down on the bed. "Good luck!"
~*~*~*~
4:23pm - Friday Afternoon
Only a few minutes had gone by and Spike was coming back down the stairs to see Lydia. He found that she was still sitting on the bed where he had left her and nothing seemed to be out of place. He raised an eyebrow at the girl, "I thought you had a problem with authority?"
"Only when the person is inconveniencing me."
"You are not seven years old. Even I don't say inconveniencing."
"Just because you don't say something, doesn't mean I can't."
"But you're supposed to be seven!"
"So?" She retaliated, sticking her tongue out at him
"Then again, maybe you are."
~*~*~*~
8:33pm - Friday Evening
Lydia was jumping up and down on the couch. "Come oooon! Let's goooo!" She yelled.
"Don't look at me, pet, it's the blond that's taking so long."
Lydia paused in her jumping. "Daddy....you are blond!"
"Not naturally." He tried to defend himself, then realized that this was a seven year old girl and continued with: "You know what I meant."
"Are you suuure?" She sing-songed.
Spike rolled his eyes and ignored her.
"I asked you a question! Are you going to answer it?"
"No."
The girl's mouth dropped open just when Buffy came in. The woman looked at the girl, then to Spike. "What's with her?"
"She finally realized that I won't be answering every damn question that pops out of her mouth."
~*~*~*~
Buffy was going through rack after rack of clothing as Spike and Lydia watched. Colors and non-colors flew off shelves. Spike was slightly afraid. Aside from the fact that the mall was not his natural habitat, he was intrigued by the Slayer in hers. The mall was obviously her natural habitat, as she knew exactly what she was doing. They were only in their first store and this much was obvious. Lydia was holding onto his index finger and spinning around in circles as Spike watched the blond woman.
"Daddy, I'm boo-reed," she sing-songed.
"I'm sorry Sweet Bit, but I'm not any good at this shopping thing, why don't you go help Buffy?" he asked, looking down at her. In truth, he was becoming annoyed with the looks he was getting from some of the occupants of the mall. Friday night had been a bad idea. Friday night the mall was highly populated by teenagers. Teenage girls to be precise. He could feel, and see, the girls giving him lustful looks. Had they no shame? He was here with his daughter.
"All right, but you have to see them when I try them on," she said as she stopped spinning.
"Can do, Poppet." Then the little girl skipped off to Buffy, who slowed down slightly when Lydia handed her a blue jean jacket.
"Hi!" Spike suppressed his rage and turned to the blond girl who stood next to him. She wasn't pretty blond like the Slayer, she was the ugly blond that came out of a bottle and was emphasized by too much make-up and a bad tan.
"Hullo," he said gruffly.
"That was so sweet of you, helping that little girl find her mom." Spike forced himself not to roll his eyes.
"She's my daughter."
"Oh," the minor smiles faintly and brushed badly manicured hands up the sleeves of his duster. Buffy must have sensed his distress, because suddenly she and Lydia were beside him.
"Darling, we're going to the dressing rooms now," Buffy said, turning his face to her with her hand and then pulling him down as she went up. And then she was kissing him. Bloody fucking hell. The Slayer was kissing him and he was standing their like a fish on dry land. But before he had a chance to respond the kiss was over and the annoying blond girl was gone.
"Agh... uh.." Spike the mute said.
"Don't make a big deal out of it. I just wanted her gone." And then she turned away, taking Lydia's hand and leading her back to the changing rooms. Lydia was looking at him with wide eyes and then a big grin spread across her face.
It wasn't until Lydia complained she was hungry that they stopped in the food court. Spike had never been in a food court, he'd never had a reason to before today, so he was slightly annoyed that there were even more teenagers here. Teenagers bugged the hell out of him. In fact, the only teenager that didn't bug the hell out of him was at the mall at this very moment, looking highly confused to see her sister and the vampire who hung around her house far too often there with a little girl.
"Dawn's coming," Spike said as he stood in the line with Lydia and Buffy for pizza.
"Oh," Buffy glanced behind her. "You get to explain Lydia."
"Can't Lydia explain herself?" Spike asked as Dawn slid in-between two tables full of loud teenage boys. Damned, obnoxious teenagers.
"Buffy, what are you doing here?" Dawn asked as she pushed past a group of mumbling young girls. "Better yet, why is Spike here and why is that little girl holding his hand?"
"Long story Little Bit," Spike said, running a hand through his hair. Just then Dawn's companions, who had followed her about three seconds after she had left them, arrived.
"Spike, who is she?"
"My daughter," Spike said, narrowing his eyes at the girl who was quickly slipping from her position as the only teenager he could stand.
Dawn stared. Then she turned and looked at her sister. Buffy shrugged. "Don't ask me, I didn't think he could have kids either."
"Oh, she's adorable!" Oh, god. It was the bottled blond from the department store again. "So I guess Buffy isn't your wife," she said silkily.
"No, Buffy--" a few sputters came out as Buffy slapped her hand over her younger sister's mouth.
"He's my boyfriend. Very long time. That was nearly my daughter," Buffy rambled off. Dawn and Lydia gave the older girl a strange look, but wisely refrained from speaking.
"Oh," the bottled blond said, removing her hand from Spike's bicep.
"Dawn, you're curfew is eleven, you should get going," Buffy said, releasing her younger sister from her hold. The group left and Spike let out a mental breath.
"Thank god you know how to think on your feet, Slayer. That bloody," this time his mouth was the one to have a hand slammed over it.
"You can't talk like that in front of Lydia. She's going to be learning from you." Spike rolled his eyes and nodded reluctantly and then the hand was removed.
"You're a very demanding person," Lydia said with a solemn face. Spike snickered as they moved up in the pizza line.
~*~*~*~
Spike was watching as his daughter and the woman he was thoroughly infatuated with stared one another down. If there had been a moment's doubt in Spike's mind that Lydia was not in fact his daughter, it was crushed beneath what had happened ten minutes before. They had been walking down one of the mall corridors when Lydia spotted a picture of a man on a motorcycle in a shop window.
"Ohh! Daddy, Daddy, can we go in? Oh, please?" She jumped up and down, tugging on Spike's arm. "Please? Please? Please?"
"All right," Spike laughed. She jumped up and then darted into the store which Spike had smelled from the other side of the mall. A leather shop. Lydia darted around, diving into coats and smelling them rather loudly. Buffy followed in, looking slightly reluctant until she found a leather jacket that was about her size. Spike was standing beside her, watching Lydia out of the corner of his eye when she suddenly darted up. For a human child, she was awfully swift.
"Can I, Daddy? Please, please, please?"
"Can you what, Poppet?" he asked, kneeling down beside her.
She thrust the coat she was holding under his nose. "It's my size and it looks like yours!" Spike took the coat from her hands and looked up at Buffy, who was looking down at them thoughtfully.
"I don't know, Lydia," the Slayer said reluctantly. "This place is really expensive."
"Please," Lydia begged, flashing big green eyes at them.
Spike could sense Buffy stealing herself. She was going to say no to the child. He should warn her that it was no good, that she was going to give in, because he hadn't even known Lydia for a full twenty-four hours and he already couldn't say no. But he didn't. He just kneeled there and watched the two stare at one another.
"No," Buffy said carefully.
"But I want it!" Lydia cried, eyes tearing. Oh, no. Spike felt his insides collapsing at the sight of the brimming eyes. This was bad. She wasn't supposed to cry, they'd already had this talk.
"Now, Sweet Bit, what did we agree on when it came to crying?" Spike said, tilting her chin to look at him.
"Crying doesn't do anything."
"Right. There are very few occasions on which crying is acceptable. Getting what you want isn't one of them." The child nodded and wiped away the lone tear that had escaped. "Now, apologize to Buffy for making her feel bad," he said firmly.
"I'm sorry, Buffy," Lydia said, hugging the woman around her middle. Buffy returned the hug and gave Spike a small smile. If he could just keep strong, then he just might be able to pull off this dad thing.
~*~*~*~