Wading the Waters at Senna Rock
By Nickeltaffy
Chapter 13
Xander stood stunned with the pink wildflower hanging limply between his forefinger and thumb as Holly ran toward the picnic table area. Perplexed, he twirled the flower's stem in between his fingers as he stared after the Holly's quickly disappearing form. He wondered just who the oddly insightful little girl meant with her last statement. He was caught in his thoughts until Buffy caught his eye. With an embarrassed huff and a slight smirk, he walked through the knee high weeds toward his friend.
With a flourish, he stopped in front of Buffy and held out the wilting flower. "For you, my lady."
"Oooh, gallantry! Why, thank you, kind sir" Buffy spouted as her fingers plucked the quickly fading flower from her friend's hand.
"Yeah, well." Xander responded with a shrug of the shoulders. "Don't get used to it. I just happen to be in a mood, is all."
"Right, just like I believe that Holly meant for you to give me the flower." Buffy replied as she slid the flower into the hair tucked behind her ear. "Don't feel up to giving it to someone else?"
"I just don't want to rush things." Xander stated as he stared at the ground, a hand rubbing the back of his head in consternation. "Things are going so well right now… I don't want to appear obvious."
"Yes, I can see where the exchange of a mere blossom could complicate matters." Buffy stated, pursed her lips in mock consolation. "You've gotten so smooth in your old age."
"What can I…Hey, Buffy. Spike!" Xander stage whispered, pointing back to the group beyond Buffy.
"Where!" Buffy spun around to anxiously spy a certain someone. Not locating him, she slowly turned her head to glare at a smirking Xander. "Not funny."
"Oh, I don't know, I thought it was rather smooth, if I don't say so myself. Come on. The food is going to be ready soon." Xander said as he placed a hand on Buffy's back to accompany her back to the group.
They had only gone a few steps when a voice rang out: "Come and get it!" Within a few moments, the area became alive with people from their group. The sounds of good naturedly talking mixed with laughter while they grabbed drinks from the coolers under the trees and milled around the long table made up of two wooden picnic tables that had been drug together. Anya and Ruby had covered the tables with long strips of butcher paper with strategically placed rolls of paper towels nearby on the seats.
Clay came over from where two large dented and well-used aluminum pots were boiling over open flames. He held a large strainer basket filled with brilliantly red crawfish, glowing chucks of corn on the cob and shiny petite red potatoes. He carefully poured the contents of the basket in the center of a section of the table and returned to get more from the pots. As soon as Clay turned away, a few people began to slide onto the bench. Buffy and Xander stood by, taking in the spectacle of crawfish boil. Anya's brother made a return a trip with another basket of the boil and dumped it onto the second table. Ruby was stepping over the seat and saw the pair standing to the side.
"Come on. Don't stand on ceremony. These people aren't going to save anything for you if you don't dig in." She called with a wave of her arm, dispelling any cautiousness the newcomers had about approaching the table.
Xander and Buffy walked over to the table as some of the group had already taken places around the crawfish. Ruby looked expectantly at the spot next to her which Xander took. It also just happened to be across from Anya who was sitting next to Micah. Buffy took the open seat next to Xander which left her at the end of the table. She looked over the mound of crayfish and began casting a searching glance at the parking area for Spike. As they sat there, the other people around them began to pull and pick at the largesse of the crawfish before them.
Noticing that the Xander and Buffy had not started to pick up any of the food, Ruby leaned over to them.
"Have you not eaten mud bugs before?" Seeing the puzzled looks, Ruby laughed as she added. "That is just another name for crawfish."
She went on to demonstrate the technique to pull the tail meat out of the creature. She then added that the flavor was in the head of the crawfish, so that any true connoisseur would suck the body of the crawfish. She then placed the multi legged creature's torn torso up to her lips and made a loud sucking sound. The barely restrained appalled expressions of Xander and Buffy made rest of the table titter in amusement. With resolve, Buffy and Xander gingerly reached for their first crawfish
Buffy found that despite the barbarity of tearing the body of the crawfish in half, the meat was quite tasty. She however, refused to suck the alien looking body. Meanwhile, Xander had overcome his timidity at sucking the head and was now noisily sucking the heads along with Ruby. Buffy wrinkled her face in denial despite Xander's coaxing to try the head and picked out a piece of corn from the pile in front of her. Buffy found that the Cajun spice of the crawfish made her face flush and the redness tinted her hands orange. The heat began to build up in her mouth as she smacked her lips and wiped her fingers on countless paper towels. When the heat began to be too much, she discover the cool sip of beer from the chilled glass bottleneck seemed to put out the fire.
Time passed as the adventure of eating the crawfish and the sense of camaraderie between the participants that were shoulder to shoulder at the table grew into one large conglomeration of laughter and the playful consumption of good food. The chatter and amusement as the mess and fun of the crawfish kept everyone occupied that they didn't notice the sound of an engine in the parking area. Amidst the noise, a voice with a British accent carried over the group.
"As always, Cinderella is late for the party." Spike said amiably as he gazed at the active group.
Everyone turned to welcome their friend as they beckoned him over, welcoming him, offering him crawfish and beer. There was a rumble of greetings ended with the last voice was Buffy's rather tremulous and slightly too shrill "Hi..Bill." being the last. A grin appeared on Spike's face as his eyes landed on Buffy sitting at the end of the group on the far side of the table. There was an empty spot next to her and Spike began to take a step to make his way over to it. Buffy blushed as Spike settled his eyes upon her and studied her reddish spice stained hands. Realizing her face might be in the same condition, she quickly wiped at her face with a paper towel that she quickly put back in her lap. Spike smiled at the table as he slowly approached. His eyes met Buffy who smiled with a spice reddened lips as her eyes shone at the sight of him. Time seemed to slow down as he focused on her as he took a step in the direction of where Buffy was sitting on the far side. It was all that Buffy could do to remain in her seat.
Suddenly, long feminine fingers with long shiny French manicured nails wrapped itself around Spike's forearm. As Spike had neared the table, he had come closer to Serena who was not about to allow Spike to pass. She reached over and wrapped her hand like choking vine around his arm, pulling him down to bench beside her. Spike looked down to see Serena's lovely determined face upturned toward him.
"Here, Bill, sit with me." Serena stated, her light tone belying the light of determination in her eyes as she applied a strangely unyielding pressure on Spike's forearm. Her lusciously applied gloss remained on her lips as she turned her dazzling smile up at Spike. It was as if she had only stepped away from the cosmetics counter and had not been consuming the messy crawfish meal.
Spike's eyes displayed his disappointment for only a moment and they flew up to glance at Buffy's stunned face before his manners overtook his impulse to shirk the obsessive woman's hold and make his way over to Buffy. He composed his face to hide his dismay before looking down at Serena with a small resigned grin.
Serena, not letting go of her captive's arm, ordered RJ to move down the bench to make room for Spike. With a slightly disgruntled sigh, but never one to disagree with Serena, RJ leaned forward and asked everyone farther down the bench to scoot over. The people farther down the bench issued sighs of complaints as the each moved farther down the bench to make room for Spike.
Spike somewhat reluctantly slid into the space opened by Serena as she seemed to glory in her entrapment of her prey. Like a hungry snake eyeing a rat, she focused all her attention on Spike, while keeping her back to the quietly suffering RJ. Unmoved by the attention, Spike looked at the pile of crawfish and picked one out between two fingers. Buffy watched him from the opposite corner of the table. Spike's eyes looked from the crawfish that he was twisting in his fingers over to where Buffy was sitting. Serena sensing the connection, leaned forward, blocking the line of sight between the two. She leaned out on her elbow, twisting a lock of hair in her hand as she further posed for Spike's admiration. Buffy could tell by her animated movements that Serena was doing her best to engage Spike to little response. Spike responded politely but did not carry on with the conversation to Serena's disappointment
Ruby huffed a little at Serena's blatant maneuvering to block even the line of sight between her brother and the wonderful new friend who seemed to affect him so strongly. She twisted her mouth in disgust as she regarded the antics of her least favorite person at the table. She knew her brother well enough to know that he would be polite enough to quietly endure Serena's company while pining to connect with Buffy. She glanced down at Buffy, seeing her give Xander a sad smile, obviously trying to conceal her misery at her continuing separation from her brother. With a blast of inspiration, Ruby decided that Serena's ploy must be stopped.
"Hey, Bill. It seems that Buffy is too chicken to suck the head of the crawfish." Ruby announced brightly, interrupting Serena's endless monologue.
Serena's head whipped back to glare at Ruby for breaking in on her aggressively obtained interlude with Spike. At the same instant, an expression of relief appeared on Spike's face.
"Is that so?" Spike replied. Leaning forward to peer around Serena's glowering form, he looked down at Buffy. "She doesn't seem to be the timid type."
"No, she doesn't, does she? I guess she just needs some encouragement."
"Guys, It's not that I'm afraid…it's just seems kinda….icky." Buffy interjected, shifting nervously in her seat. Xander giving her a knowing smile as he watched her reaction.
"Says the girl from California." Ruby commented. "Come on, give it try."
Picking up the head of one of her discarded crawfish, Buffy looked at it with distaste. She spun the torso in her hand, so that the open end was facing her. She made a half-hearted attempt to bring it up to her lips, but lost her nerve and quickly dropped her hand.
"Aw! Come on." Ruby whined.
"Ruby, leave off." Spike scolded his little sister. Then turning his attention to Buffy and picking up a crawfish body between his fingers, he proposed the following. "Tell you what, why don't we do it together, shall we?"
Buffy allowed a gleeful smile to appear on her face as a smiling Spike held up a crawfish in a toast to her. She held up hers in response. Then with their eyes locked, not seeing anyone else at the table, they each brought their crawfish to their lips.