rahirah: bo the wonder dog (bo)
[personal profile] rahirah
Grass-Fed Is Always Greener
By Barb C

Prompt: Spike turns vegetarian
Characters: Buffy/Spike
Rating: G
Words: 549
Notes: Barbverse, set several months after the end of POM.


Spike had never expected that working for the white hats would be a stroll among the tombstones. If treading the narrow, stony path of virtue were easy, it'd hardly be a fit gift to lay at the feet of his lady-love, would it? Giving up killing, living on pig's blood, daily defying his very nature for her sake – a struggle, but worth it, no question. But this particular sacrifice was one he'd never signed up for.

The aforementioned lady-love plunked a casserole dish full of something resembling boiled hedge clippings down on the table, and spooned a heaping helping onto his plate, right next to the pale, soggy slab of... what the hell was that, anyway? Spike took a sniff, which proved less than informative, and stared at it in dismay. He prodded the quivering hunk of goo with the tip of his knife, hoping it would take the hint and, properly chastened, transform itself into a rare steak. When that failed to produce the desired results, he turned a reproachful look on Buffy instead. "And what is this, exactly?"

"Tofurkey and three-bean salad with steamed kale," she replied brightly. "I'm trying out your idea."

Dragging wodges of kale around on his plate didn't make it look any more appetizing. "My idea?"

"Yeah, like you said the other day." Buffy beamed at him. "The Meq'onith are herbivores. They won't even talk to us if we quote, 'smell like death,' unquote. If the Meq'onith won't talk to us, then the deal with the Fyarls will go south. And if the deal with the Fyarls goes south, we have to start all over." She popped a forkful of rabbit fodder into her mouth, assuming a determined-to-love-it expression. "Hence, my brilliant plan. We do a meat detox for a few days, and then the Meq'onith will welcome us with open, uh, hooves."

He had got to stop blithely spouting off about demon cultural eccentricities, that much was obvious. "In case it's slipped your mind, I'm an obligate bloody carnivore, emphasis on the bloody. Might as well be eating cardboard for all the good this will do me."

"Not so! I checked with Fred. With your shiny new Mohra-blood-enhanced metabolism, you can get by on solid food for a few days, as long as it's high-protein. " Buffy's tone was all innocence, but there was a wicked sparkle in her eyes. "And tofu is really high-protein."

With a curl of his lip, Spike impaled the tofurkey on his fork. "I'll give you solid, but the food part is debatable. You're going to owe me for this one, love."

"Poor baby. If we manage to pull this off, I will treat you to the biggest, greasiest cheeseburger in existence. And an otter's blood smoothie to go with it."

Sodding hell. "I miss the days when making peaceful overtures to demons meant hitting 'em with a slightly smaller axe. Real otter?"

"Real otter. Cross my heart." Buffy looked thoughtful. "In fact, I was thinking – if this helps with that little blood breath problem of yours, we could make it a regular – "

"Don't push it, Slayer." No sense putting off the inevitable; with glum resignation, Spike took a bite of tofurkey. It tasted about as you'd expect something called 'tofurkey' to taste.

The things he did for love.


End

Full Fathom Five

Monday, March 25th, 2013 05:54 pm
rahirah: (fsm)
[personal profile] rahirah
Title: Full Fathom Five
Creator: Barb C/Rahirah
Prompt: Charlotte Corday After the Murder of Marat by Paul Jacques Aimé Baudry
Setting: Post-Gift AU (Barbverse)
Warnings: None

There's a body in the bath.

Pale, limp, muscular. Sea-cliff cheekbones, hair curling like seaweed, the occasional bubble drifting up from chiseled lips. Arms crossed, half-floating, over the underwater plateau of his chest. Knees wreathed in archipelagos of soapsuds. Not dead - there are eyes behind those ivory lids, not pearls - but unnerving. Even post-Mohra blood, Spike can hold his breath for a long time. And like any (relatively) coldblooded creature, he loves warmth. If you let him, he'll lounge in there for hours, submerged in steamy volcanic heat.

If you let him.

Buffy reaches for the cold water tap.

End

Divergence

Monday, March 25th, 2013 02:53 pm
rahirah: (crimson)
[personal profile] rahirah
Title: Divergence (Intersection remix)
Prompt: Go back to something you've already made and mess it up.
Setting: Post-Gift AU (Barbverse)
Warnings: None

The sun's an old enemy, and familiarity breeds contempt, they say. But no amount of contempt will speed the healing if you charbroil the top layer of skin showing off. So Spike crouches in the shadow of the rock, littering the beach with cigarette butts, watching as his golden girl worships his old foe.

He could suggest a beach umbrella, perhaps - and wouldn't he look a silly git then? Chalky white legs protruding from black trunks, nose covered with zinc oxide? Shaking his head, he lights another cig and resigns himself to the shade. Some victories are worse than defeat.

End

Chicken Meta

Monday, March 25th, 2013 02:24 pm
rahirah: (evilthings)
[personal profile] rahirah
Prompt: Spike/Buffy: What makes an OTP?

This is a difficult question to answer, because there's not just one Spike/Buffy pairing. There are as many as there are Spike/Buffy shippers. Well, you may say, but surely we can make a few broad categories? There's the canonical version, and... oh, but wait, which canonical version? The one where Buffy was in love with him, and Spike knew it? The one where she was in love with him, and he didn't know it? The one where she was never in love with him until the last minute? The one where Spike was the manipulative abuser, or the one where Buffy was the heartless user? The one where Spike getting a soul is the only thing that makes it OK to ship Spuffy at all, or the one where the remorse which led Spike to get the soul was all he ever really needed?

And that's not even getting into fanfic, with its endless mazes of what-ifs and fill-in-the-blanks.

So what made Spike/Buffy my OTP? Most of the people I know got on the Spuffy wagon with "Fool For Love" or "Intervention." For some of the early adopters, it was "Something Blue," or even "Becoming I & II." But for me, it was five words: "I can be good too!" See, Spike was a vampire with no soul when he said those words. He wasn't supposed to be good. He wasn't supposed to be able to. He certainly wasn't supposed to want to.

A lot of people go on about the fact that since Spike wanted to be good in order to impress Buffy, it doesn't count. But I always wondered about that. I mean, Spike could have fallen in love with Anya or Willow or Faith or... well, a lot of people, any of whom might have been a little less freaked out about it and more willing to compromise. So why did he fall for Buffy? And fall for her at, it can be argued, the absolute top of her game, the point at which she was the most fulfilled and happy she was during the entire series, and everything was going right for her? Was it just Stockholm syndrome?

I don't think so. There are some obvious reasons - Buffy has a lot of traits Spike admires. But she has one thing that the others don't - or at least, she had it at this point in her life. She had that righteous fire. She was a hero. Spike may never have realized it, and Buffy would certainly never have admitted it was true, but I think Spike fell for Buffy not in spite of her being a champion of light, but because of it. Because good or evil, soul or no soul, Spike has always been drawn to effulgence. And it's to his credit that even after life quenched that fire in Buffy, he's always believed (even when she doesn't) that someday, it can burst into new life.
rahirah: (pratt)
[personal profile] rahirah
OK, I warned you I was crap at this, but here goes nothing:

I write a big ol' sprawling AU where, on the one hand, Buffy and Spike are married with children and live in domestic bliss, mostly, and on the other hand, Spike has no soul and sometimes people get dead on account of that, and the kids are literally little demons, and in order to maintain said domestic bliss, both of them have made a lot of compromises that some people might possibly describe as selling out. So this is a fanmix that reflects the domestic aspects of the Barbverse - whether you find it cute, mildly disturbing, or downright creepy.

Siouxsie & the Banshees - Happy House
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Our House
Bon Jovi - This Is Our House
Radical Face - Welcome Home
Eminem - Coming Home
Madness - Our House

Slippery Slope

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 08:49 pm
rahirah: (agenda)
[personal profile] rahirah
Title: Slippery Slope
Prompt: 29 - K'an; Dangerously Deep
Setting: Post-Gift AU (Barbverse)
Warnings: None. Well, spoilers for POM, if anyone cares - this is an excerpt from a scene from one of the later chapters.
Rating: PG13

When Faith found her again, Buffy had retreated to the Hyperion's roof. Read more... )

Intersection

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 01:05 pm
rahirah: (lovesbitch)
[personal profile] rahirah
Title: Intersection
Prompt: coastal glow
Setting: Post-Gift AU (Barbverse)
Warnings: None
Rating: G

She needs a day in the sun, sometimes. Lying on the beach, heedless, hatless, soaking up rays. Stockpiling warmth for the long cold nights ahead.

It's not till midday gold fades to blue twilight that Spike materializes, with a defiant glare at the sinking sun. He drops down beside her on the sand, beer in hand, and she leans into his side, his coolness welcome now against her hot skin. Together they sit, sand and water and sunlight lingering on the western horizon, molten gold against the green Pacific. And just for this moment, their worlds meet, and are one.


End
rahirah: (myspike)
[personal profile] rahirah
Title: If Not For You Meddling Kids
Prompt: Death Stalks the Big Top
Setting: Post-Gift AU (Barbverse)
Warnings: None
Rating: PG


"And the little lady wins again."

Read more... )
rahirah: (Default)
[personal profile] rahirah
OK, normally I don't do challenges because I suck at them, but this one, um, spoke to me. Ghod only knows what it was saying, though...


Dead Unlike Me
By Barb C
Characters/Pairing: Buffy/Spike
Rating: PG-13
Notes: This is set in the Barbverse, where... well, see below.


Mortflex stood at the peak of his fortress and cackled; lightning splitting the sky as he raised his twisted yew staff above his head. He thought of one name and bent all of his considerable will on it, calling its owner to him.

SPIKE.

Six hours later... )
rahirah: (Default)
[personal profile] rahirah
OK, normally I don't do challenges because I suck at them, but this one, um, spoke to me. Ghod only knows what it was saying, though...


Dead Unlike Me
By Barb C
Characters/Pairing: Buffy/Spike
Rating: PG-13
Notes: This is set in the Barbverse, where... well, see below.


Mortflex stood at the peak of his fortress and cackled; lightning splitting the sky as he raised his twisted yew staff above his head. He thought of one name and bent all of his considerable will on it, calling its owner to him.

SPIKE.

Six hours later... )

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