Buffy/Gunn: Regular Joe
Aug. 31st, 2005 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doyleUnbeta'd and horribly late, my ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
nevermet entry:
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marenfic
Characters: Cordelia/Riley (paired) or Buffy/Gunn (paired or friendship)
Three requirements OR a prompt: sailboat, sunscreen, hat
What don't you want?: high school setting, AU (although I love AR futurefic if you want to resurrect someone or pretend they didn't die), no marriage/kids/pure fluff.
Acceptable range of ratings: All
Title: Regular Joe
Author: Doyle
Pairing: Buffy/Gunn
Rating: PG
Summary: Boats, castles and mystical panthers. Normal's okay.
Halfway to Malcesine Buffy gave up on glaring at the guy's back and dug a fifty-cent coin from her purse. Map of Italy, she'd pretend he didn’t exist; statue of horse, he was going overboard.
As she flipped for it he moved, turning halfway in her direction. She hadn’t gotten a good look at his face before, and she realized he was a few years younger and a few thousand degrees hotter than she’d thought. He was leaning on the rail and before she could stop she was checking out his arms. Mm, a little shiny with sunscreen, nicely muscled but not steroid-boy, build that reminded her of Riley, and as she thought it she sighed and put the coin away. Even if it came up horse (would that be heads or tails?) she knew she wouldn’t be pushing him over the side. Anyway, she didn’t know if he could swim, and Giles would be mad if she got arrested for murder. With Angel’s evil demon law firm gone – she’d have to ask him about that, once he or Spike could say two words to her without making some stupid crack about the Immortal - the new Council would have to spring for a lawyer, and he hated when she tried to claim that kind of stuff as expenses.
Ignoring the guy was better. She could do ignoring. She let her eyes wander over the rows of plastic chairs, the other people on the ferry, beyond them to the grey mountains rising like walls out of the water; and then she was somehow turned around and looking at her maybe-stalker again.
She failed at pretend non-existence.
This time, he was looking back.
**
The boat’s lower deck was deserted. People only came down here when it was raining, or they were seasick, or they needed to talk about vampires and hellbeasts without scaring the other passengers.
“What, you thought I was stalking you?” He grinned, eyebrows up, and he didn’t exactly say she was an egotistical brat who thought the world spun around her, but she could hear him thinking it. In her head, he was thinking it with affection, though, and maybe some intrigue, and since this was a fictional Gunn and didn’t have to bear a resemblance to the real deal, he was admiring her strappy sandals at the same time. “I’ve seen you for what, five seconds last night while you and Angel had your this-town-ain’t-big-enough thing, and you think I’m so obsessed I’m following you around?”
She faked a pout, stretching her arms along the back of the long couch. “Me on ferry, plus you on ferry, plus sunshine, minus two vampires who’ve been tailing me since I got into town…”
“Oh, so I’m not even stalking you for myself.”
“It could be your job,” she said. “By night, mild-mannered professional demon hunter, by day, follower of people Angel can’t follow himself with the sun out.”
He laughed. It made his eyes even warmer. “Nah. Another day in a hotel room with Spike and Angel and Illyria and I woulda gone Jack Torrence. Checked the guidebook, saw this place had a castle. Figured I’d check it out.”
“There’s a cable car,” she volunteered. “It goes all the way to the top of the mountain.”
“Yeah, but did anybody ever get boiled in oil for trying to storm it?”
“Oh, if you’re a boiling-oil fan it’s got to be the castle, no question.”
This was nice, she thought. She hadn’t been attracted to a normal, human guy since the non-date with Robin, and the thought brought her back to earth. Back to lake? She struggled with the semantics for a second before remembering what was important; Gunn, normalness of, verifying. She could be subtle about this, get to know him, steer the conversation to places where she could plant leading questions…
The horn sounded on the deck above. The boat veered, the water piling up against the window behind her. Gunn crossed to her side of the table, kneeled on the couch to look out at the dock.
“Guess we’re here,” he said. “You got any idea where the castle’s at?
“Listen,” she said in a hurry, “was your mom a Slayer, or are you in some kind of government organization that tried to turn you into a super soldier, or are you a demon or an ex-demon or anything? I mean, it doesn’t matter, really, it doesn’t, I’d just like to know in advance for once.”
He stared.
Oh, great job, Buffy. You scare the normal ones away and then you wonder why you end up dating demons.
“My last girlfriend died and a god took her body,” he said slowly. “And another girl – not my girlfriend, but the last girl I was with – was an art thief with an Electro thing going. Oh, yeah, and I had a panther in my head.”
Okay. “Panther.”
“Not a real panther.”
“Mystical panthers? They can be hard to deal with.”
His mouth lifted at the corner. “Thought I was normal, huh?”
She reached out, caught his wrist between her fingers. It was warm, pulse beating steadily under the skin, and she smiled as she felt it speed up. Fast. All of this was pretty fast. She decided her life could use a little speed. “Gods, electric girls, magic panthers? Sounds pretty normal to me.”
Above, the captain was making the last call for passengers to disembark.
“C’mon,” she said, sliding her hand down to his. “You wanna check out that castle?”
nevermet entry:For
marenficCharacters: Cordelia/Riley (paired) or Buffy/Gunn (paired or friendship)
Three requirements OR a prompt: sailboat, sunscreen, hat
What don't you want?: high school setting, AU (although I love AR futurefic if you want to resurrect someone or pretend they didn't die), no marriage/kids/pure fluff.
Acceptable range of ratings: All
Title: Regular Joe
Author: Doyle
Pairing: Buffy/Gunn
Rating: PG
Summary: Boats, castles and mystical panthers. Normal's okay.
Halfway to Malcesine Buffy gave up on glaring at the guy's back and dug a fifty-cent coin from her purse. Map of Italy, she'd pretend he didn’t exist; statue of horse, he was going overboard.
As she flipped for it he moved, turning halfway in her direction. She hadn’t gotten a good look at his face before, and she realized he was a few years younger and a few thousand degrees hotter than she’d thought. He was leaning on the rail and before she could stop she was checking out his arms. Mm, a little shiny with sunscreen, nicely muscled but not steroid-boy, build that reminded her of Riley, and as she thought it she sighed and put the coin away. Even if it came up horse (would that be heads or tails?) she knew she wouldn’t be pushing him over the side. Anyway, she didn’t know if he could swim, and Giles would be mad if she got arrested for murder. With Angel’s evil demon law firm gone – she’d have to ask him about that, once he or Spike could say two words to her without making some stupid crack about the Immortal - the new Council would have to spring for a lawyer, and he hated when she tried to claim that kind of stuff as expenses.
Ignoring the guy was better. She could do ignoring. She let her eyes wander over the rows of plastic chairs, the other people on the ferry, beyond them to the grey mountains rising like walls out of the water; and then she was somehow turned around and looking at her maybe-stalker again.
She failed at pretend non-existence.
This time, he was looking back.
**
The boat’s lower deck was deserted. People only came down here when it was raining, or they were seasick, or they needed to talk about vampires and hellbeasts without scaring the other passengers.
“What, you thought I was stalking you?” He grinned, eyebrows up, and he didn’t exactly say she was an egotistical brat who thought the world spun around her, but she could hear him thinking it. In her head, he was thinking it with affection, though, and maybe some intrigue, and since this was a fictional Gunn and didn’t have to bear a resemblance to the real deal, he was admiring her strappy sandals at the same time. “I’ve seen you for what, five seconds last night while you and Angel had your this-town-ain’t-big-enough thing, and you think I’m so obsessed I’m following you around?”
She faked a pout, stretching her arms along the back of the long couch. “Me on ferry, plus you on ferry, plus sunshine, minus two vampires who’ve been tailing me since I got into town…”
“Oh, so I’m not even stalking you for myself.”
“It could be your job,” she said. “By night, mild-mannered professional demon hunter, by day, follower of people Angel can’t follow himself with the sun out.”
He laughed. It made his eyes even warmer. “Nah. Another day in a hotel room with Spike and Angel and Illyria and I woulda gone Jack Torrence. Checked the guidebook, saw this place had a castle. Figured I’d check it out.”
“There’s a cable car,” she volunteered. “It goes all the way to the top of the mountain.”
“Yeah, but did anybody ever get boiled in oil for trying to storm it?”
“Oh, if you’re a boiling-oil fan it’s got to be the castle, no question.”
This was nice, she thought. She hadn’t been attracted to a normal, human guy since the non-date with Robin, and the thought brought her back to earth. Back to lake? She struggled with the semantics for a second before remembering what was important; Gunn, normalness of, verifying. She could be subtle about this, get to know him, steer the conversation to places where she could plant leading questions…
The horn sounded on the deck above. The boat veered, the water piling up against the window behind her. Gunn crossed to her side of the table, kneeled on the couch to look out at the dock.
“Guess we’re here,” he said. “You got any idea where the castle’s at?
“Listen,” she said in a hurry, “was your mom a Slayer, or are you in some kind of government organization that tried to turn you into a super soldier, or are you a demon or an ex-demon or anything? I mean, it doesn’t matter, really, it doesn’t, I’d just like to know in advance for once.”
He stared.
Oh, great job, Buffy. You scare the normal ones away and then you wonder why you end up dating demons.
“My last girlfriend died and a god took her body,” he said slowly. “And another girl – not my girlfriend, but the last girl I was with – was an art thief with an Electro thing going. Oh, yeah, and I had a panther in my head.”
Okay. “Panther.”
“Not a real panther.”
“Mystical panthers? They can be hard to deal with.”
His mouth lifted at the corner. “Thought I was normal, huh?”
She reached out, caught his wrist between her fingers. It was warm, pulse beating steadily under the skin, and she smiled as she felt it speed up. Fast. All of this was pretty fast. She decided her life could use a little speed. “Gods, electric girls, magic panthers? Sounds pretty normal to me.”
Above, the captain was making the last call for passengers to disembark.
“C’mon,” she said, sliding her hand down to his. “You wanna check out that castle?”