verucasalt123 | Jossverse fic - Beta Club Carnations

title: Beta Club Carnations
pairing: Spike, Dawn (gen)
Rating: PG-13 for cursing
W/C: ~1300
For this month’s Valentine’s Day theme over at nekid_spike

Spike could smell the angst from half a block. He straightened himself up on the sofa, turned off the telly, and waited for the inevitable.

Door – slammed.

Backpack – thrown.

Wall – kicked.

Cursing – commenced.

“God DAMN it!”

Oh, well wait just a minute, now.

“Language, Bit! What’s got into you?”

Dawn stomped into the living room, her eyes red-rimmed, mascara smeared. “Ugh, Spike, you wouldn’t understand this, okay?”

“First of all, don’t let me hear you using that kind of foul language again, pet. Secondly, I’m a hundred and twenty-odd years older than you are, so I doubt you’ve got something going on that I wouldn’t understand.”

Ah, and there it was, the angry teenage girl trifecta. Arms crossed, eyes rolled, teeth sucked; simultaneous movements that Spike had begun to believe were hard-wired into young girls.

“Do you even know that it’s Valentine’s Day, Spike? Is that, like, even something vampires do? Or, like, celebrate, or whatever?”

“No, I did not realize today was Valentine’s Day, but I do know what it is and I am well aware of how it is acknowledged, not only now, but long ago as well. I’m under the impression that today did not live up to your expectations? Maybe there’s someone you were hoping to get attention from? Someone special?”

Her face crumpled at that point and Dawn just sat down on the floor by the sofa, a rush of words tumbling out of her mouth with a speed and inflection that made Spike have to pay very close attention in order to hear everything she said. “Not even someone special, just someone. I mean, they have this whole thing, you know, where you can, like, pay a dollar to the Beta Club and have them deliver a flower with a note on it, they’ll bring it right to you, in class and everything. It’s supposed to be from your boyfriend if you’re not too lame to have one, which I obviously am, or from someone who likes you but hasn’t told you about it yet, which clearly does not apply to me, because all day there were these girls having flowers and notes brought to them in class and walking down the hallways looking all proud of themselves like they’re better than the girls who didn’t get a flower. Which I guess they are, you know, because somebody actually likes them and nobody likes me. And then I heard someone say that most of those girls, you know, the ones who got flowers and notes, that they, like, go behind the school with boys or whatever, I don’t even know what’s back there, I’ve never been behind the school but maybe I should find out and then someone would like me too, right?”

She looked up at Spike, her eyes wet with tears threatening to turn into big hysterical sobs and this was so much information for him to process all at once but he was going to turn things around before the hysterical sobbing part got underway because that would just not do.

“Dawn. Take a breath, pet. Come on now, just calm down. And I am perfectly aware that you don’t want to listen to me and you won’t like what I have to say, but I just listened to you so I want you to listen to me, all right?” He passed her a Kleenex and she blew her nose as she nodded her assent.

“Okay. First of all, Valentine’s Day is stupid, it used to be a religious holiday, I think that’s how it started out anyway, a priest who got himself killed for marrying people or some such rot. When I was a young man, it was customary to send cards to a young woman you were interested in, decorated in lace or ribbons, that kind of thing. I didn’t ever send one, I only really ever liked one girl and she didn’t like me back – I was very shy and things were much more formal then. No one would even dream of just walking up to a pretty girl they didn’t know and handing them flowers or presents.”

“You? You were shy?” Dawn asked, her eyes going wide.

“Yes, I was shy, Bit, I didn’t know the first thing about girls and was mostly afraid to even talk to them. So yeah, I’ve never really acknowledged today as a romantic holiday or anything like that. But I haven’t got to the important part yet, and what I’m about to say is exceptionally important, so don’t interrupt. I do not ever, everwant to hear you say that you’d be satisfied if you were getting attention from ‘just someone’. And I can tell you right now, if I ever find out you’ve gone behind the school with a boy to get him to like you, I’ll tear him to pieces faster than you can freshen up your lipstick, and ship you off to a convent school.”

“They don’t even have those anymore, Spike”, she responded with all the self-righteousness she could muster.

“I told you not to interrupt. You might think that what I’m telling you now is nonsense, but I promise when you’re older you’ll understand it better. You’ll meet a boy someday, or a girl, and they’ll make you all dizzy when you look at them, and they’ll treat you with respect and they’ll like you without having the expectations those boys who sneak off behind the school with girls have. They’ll like you, beautiful girl, just the way you are, and it’s worth waiting for that, I swear it is.”

“When I’m older…everything is ‘when I’m older’. And you only think I’m….you know, because you’re kind of obligated, like a much older brother or something.”

“That couldn’t be further from the truth. You’re lovely, and smart and charming and funny and you’re worth a hell of a lot more than a pink carnation carried into your math class. The sooner you realize that about yourself, the sooner you’ll start to feel confident, and things like this won’t bother you anymore. Because you will know you’re brilliant and you’ll also know that’s the only thing that matters, and anyone else who can’t see it is the one missing out.”

Well, he’d held it off for as long as he could. Her lips were trembling and her eyes were brimming again. “I hope you’re right. I really do, but still, it would have been nice if…” and that was it, she laid her cheek on his leg and the dam broke, her shoulders shook as she cried.

“There now, pet, it’s all right”, he said, ruffling her hair and leaning down to leave a kiss on the top of her head. “Even adults get knocked for a loop over all this romantic stuff, no one wants to just be who they are, always trying to prove a point or get one up on the next person so they look better to that special someone.” Okay, so maybe they weren’t talking about Dawn anymore. “But you’ll know when you meet the right person, and a silly holiday isn’t going to make a difference in the world when that happens.”

Spike was well aware of the fact that none of this meant anything to her now, but he hoped it would eventually. He hated seeing her like this and knowing there was no way for him to make her feel better. All he could do was let her cover his favorite jeans with tears and snot and try to make sure she knew that he loved her, not in that romantic kind of way, but in a very real sense of the concept.

And of course, once she got herself together again, Dawn effortlessly talked Spike into taking her out for ice cream as soon as it got dark, even though it was a school night. He’d always been a sucker for the Summers women.