Author's Notes: This chapter has been slightly edited to keep the rating low. The original version can be found on my website.
Chapter 9: Vidalia, Vidalia, girl won't you tell me why, Sweet Vidalia, you always gotta make me cry.
Xander gave a mini tour in his head as he walked next to Spike. And over here is where I parked last night, and if you look to your left, boys and girls, you will see where I was pushed against the wall while Spike tried to remove my tonsils. We're walking, we're walking, and we're stopping.
"They used to have the best Onion Blossoms at this club nearby called the Bronze, but then they changed the menus and they got rid of them." Spike said, unlocking the door to his apartment. Xander followed him in, and Spike locked the door behind him, tossing the keys on a table nearby.
Xander whistled as he looked around Spike's apartment. There was a large five-person black leather couch in the living room, facing a decent sized TV with VCR and DVD players. There was a stereo against one wall with a selection of CDs, and several bookshelves longing the other wall, near to overflowing with books. "Nice place." Xander wandered over to the nearest bookshelf and browsed through the titles, noticing several of his favorite poets and writers. "I like your tastes."
"Thanks." Spike replied. He was halfway to the kitchen when there was a muffled thump coming from another room, followed by a burst of giggles.
Xander frowned, "That sounded like..."
"Buffy?" Spike called, and a door opened, revealing the girl in question. Her long blonde hair was tousled and her face was flushed bright pink.
"Hey, Spike. Xander." she greeted them with a smile.
"Thought you were gonna spend the day at Faith's." Spike said.
"We were," Faith said, coming to stand behind Buffy and wrap her arms around Buffy's waist, "But you know how little food I keep in my fridge," that was directed at Xander, before glancing at Spike, "And since we figured you'd be hanging with Xan all day, we thought we'd move the party here. More food, that sort of thing." Explanation over, she lowered her head to Buffy's neck and began nibbling at it.
"So we'll grab a few things and then we're out of here." Spike said, gesturing towards the kitchen. "We're going to try to make an onion blossom. You want us to save you some?"
"Ick, no." Buffy wrinkled her nose, "I don't like onions." She and Faith began walking backwards, back into the bedroom. "Thanks anyway though. Have a good time. Nice to see you again, Xander." The bedroom door closed and Spike and Xander exchanged amused looks before heading to the kitchen.
"You want to go to my place to try and make 'em?" Xander asked, leaning against the kitchen counter.
Spike cast him a quick grateful smile. "Sure. Thanks. Sorry about Buffy-"
"No problem." Xander replied, waving off the apology. "So, you and Buffy are roommates?"
"Yeah." Spike said, rooting through the cupboards. "We were friends online, and decided we wanted to move out of our parent's houses and rent an apartment together about two years ago. Ah hah! Found it." Spike pulled out a small box, with the words "Onion Blossom Maker" scrawled across it and a full color picture of the fried delicacy on the side, and showed it to Xander as if he was holding the holy grail.
"Cool." Xander eyed the box. "You ever try to use this thing?"
"Nope. This'll be my first time." Spike turned and opened the refrigerator, bending down to pull out a couple onions from the bottom drawer. Spike closed the fridge and put the onions and the small box in a plastic bag, before turning to Xander. "We're off?"
Xander nodded. "We're off."
Spike took a few steps towards the door, then paused. "Are you and Faith roommates?"
Xander laughed, envisioning the apartment that Spike assumed Faith and Buffy left for them. "No, I don't have any roommates. We're safe from whatever damage and debris Hurricane Baith left behind."
"Good." Xander could hear the relief in Spike's voice.
"""
Spike and Xander bustled around the small kitchen, both crying. Spike had browsed Xander's collection of music and found an alternative CD to put on while they were cooking.
"See? This is why I don't cook much, especially recipes that involve cutting onions." Xander commented, tears streaming down his face. The plastic onion-holder in the box hadn't worked very well, and he'd ended up having onion slices rather than a blossom. He tossed the cut-up onions into a bowl and washed his hands twice before grabbing a paper towel to dab at his eyes.
"Apparently we need basil. Do you have any basil?" Spike said, trying to read the tiny print on the box through watery eyes.
"Let me check." Xander said, pulling out the drawer of spices. A couple months back when Faith had been cleaning out her place, he'd ended up inheriting most of her spices, even though he rarely used them. Poultry seasoning, black pepper, cinnamon, chives, cloves, mustard seeds, dill weed, celery seed, celery salt, but "No basil. Ooo!" he grabbed one of the small plastic bottles and showed it to Spike. "Mrs. Dash! Mrs. Dash has basil in it, doesn't it?"
"I think so." Spike said. "Mrs. Dash has everything in it. Toss in a few shakes." Xander did so, and put the spice away. "We need oil to fry it in."
"Got it." Xander said, pulling out a bottle of vegetable oil and a large frying pan. Together, Spike and Xander dipped the onion slices in the egg mixture, and then in the breading bowl, and then dropped it in the hot oil. Xander poked at the bubbling mass in the pan. "I think we used too much milk."
"Why's that?" Spike said, standing behind Xander and resting his chin on Xander's shoulder.
Xander poked the frying concoctions again, stirring it here and there. "The breading isn't sticking to the onion."
"Huh." They cooked it anyway, and spooned some of the concoction into two bowls. They took it out into Xander's living room and settled on the over-stuffed loveseat, and Xander turned on the TV and started flipping though channels. "Stop! Go back, Passions is on." Spike exclaimed. Xander flipped back to the right channel, and Spike recognized the episode. "It's a rerun, but this is a good episode. Timmy's down the well. Do you watch Passions?"
"Nope, I'm usually too busy to catch the soaps." Xander replied, trying a bite of the onion-breading stuff.
Spike tasted a spoonful and then spit it back out, setting his serving on the coffee table. "I don't think we made it right." He watched Xander incredulously as he took another bite of the conglomeration, and then another.
"It's not too bad." Xander said, eating about half of his portion. "Kinda peppery." His eyes began watering from the spices and he put his bowl down as well, standing up. "I'm going to go get water. You want some?"
"Yes, please." Spike said. Xander filled two glasses, and came back in the living room to see Spike tentatively trying another spoonful, and scrunching his face up cutely in dislike.
"Here you go." Xander handed Spike one of the glasses, which Spike took and downed about half of the glass.
"Thanks." Spike said, setting the glass down and doing that looking-up-though-his-lashes thing that made Xander weak in the knees. Xander made a strangled noise deep in his throat, remembering to set his own water down before pouncing on Spike, ravishing his mouth as passionately as he had the night before. Spike kissed him back, but it felt a hell of a lot more hesitant that it had yesterday.
Cursing at himself for moving too fast, he pulled back. "I'm sorry." Xander said, one hand coming up to caress Spike's cheekbone. "You're just so fucking beautiful, I can't resist." The shy smile on Spike's face took Xander's breath away.
"It's all right. We'll just go slow, yeah?" Spike said, his voice soft.
Xander smiled. "Yeah. We'll go slow." They both leaned in slowly, lips meeting gently this time as eyes drifted closed.