BLOCKBUSTER
by perletwo
"Dawn, you're tall. Can you see how far back we are?"
Craning her long neck, Dawn counted heads. "Um, if I got who's with who right, we're four groups back from the window."
"Cool." Janice lit a cigarette, and Dawn coughed conspicuously.
"Geez, Dawn, it's just a cigarette," drawled Cannes, the hot-pink haired teen next to Janice.
"Hey, I happen to like my lungs," Dawn shot back. "Sue me." Janice giggled and gave her friend an affectionate shove, and all was right again.
"Hoooly crap, what is *that?*" Meg, a petite blonde, was hopping up and down to catch another glimpse of her latest love at first sight. "Da-awn..."
Dawn sighed. "Okay, where?" She turned in the direction of Meg's pointing finger and grinned. Meg's new crush was tall, bleached blond and wore a battered black leather duster, and was standing in a ticket line three rows over. "Ah. Too old for you, Meg. Like, major geriatric."
"For *that* I could get used to changing Depends," Meg sighed, and all four girls giggled.
"They just better get this right," Xander grumbled, "or I got an ax with Sam Raimi's name on it..."
"Don't worry, honey, I'm sure Stan-the-Man did quality control," Anya chirped. "Oh! Hey, look! Dawn's over there!" Anya waved eagerly, and Dawn gave a halfhearted wave back before turning away and hunching down.
Xander pulled her arm down. "She's out with her friends, Ahn. Trust me here, when you're 15 and out with your friends, your whole being is going into looking cool. *Anything* that throws you off stride will embarrass you..."
Anya pouted, then got the furrow that creased her brow when she was thinking hard. "Harmony. And sometimes Cordelia?" Her fiance gave her a firm nod.
"Exactly like that. They had like bat radar for any slip in the cool act they could exploit to make themselves look better when they were in high school," he said. "*IF* they did it right, you'll probably see some of that in the movie, too."
"Moving up, hon." Anya tugged at his sleeve, and they inched closer to the ticket booth.
"I, I hope you don't think this is silly," Sophie said, ducking her head shyly as she and her date moved up in the popcorn line.
"No, no, I've been looking forward to it." He chucked her under the chin, and she smiled. "I love documentary filmmaking."
"Two buttered popcorns and medium Cokes. Right?" She looked up, and her date nodded. The theater employee just stood slack-jawed, staring at them.
"Theater major," Clem said. "Came straight from dress rehearsal. We're doing Hunchback. Right, Esmeralda?"
"Right, Quasi." Sophie snuggled into the loose-skinned arm draped over her shoulder.
"Hi!" Tara looked up to find a pert redhead beaming down at her. "Here with friends?"
"I am now," she replied, patting the seat next to her with a smile. Willow settled in, hoping the happy glow she was giving off wouldn't interfere with the projector.
Spike sauntered into the theater just as the lights were going down, and studied the remaining seating choices. A low buzzing sensation formed below his shoulder blades, and his eyes narrowed, monitoring the feeling's intensity as he checked the place over.
Ah. There.
He climbed up the amphitheater seats to the very last row, passing over at least three empty short rows. "This seat taken?"
The blonde turned to look up at him with solemn gray-green eyes. Silently she waved an invitation, and he sat down on the top step, almost but not quite at her feet, to the amusement of people sitting around them.
"Okay, cool opening credit sequence, points for that," Xander said, reaching for a handful of popcorn.
"Have I seen any of these people before?" Anya asked around a mouthful of drinking straw.
Xander thought hard. "Kirsten Dunst was in Bring It On," he said finally.
Anya rolled her eyes, unnoticed by her boyfriend in the dark.
"Loo-oo-hoo-SERR," Janice sneered to Dawn, watching Tobey Maguire race after a school bus which even the driver didn't want to bother stopping for him.
Dawn glanced at her friend, knowing what she was thinking: Privately, Janice thought she'd be the one like Kirsten Dunst who guilted the driver into letting the nerd on. Privately, Dawn thought Janice would be the girl that told him 'Don't even THINK about it,' and put her books down in the empty seat beside her when he passed.
Tara sighed at the sight of Kirsten Dunst made up to resemble Mary Jane Watson. Willow looked at her. "What?"
"Gotta love a good-lookin' redhead..."
Spike blanched with remembered pain, watching Peter Parker hide behind his art - his camera - and attempt to talk to the girl of his dreams at the same time. He glanced up, wondering if the girl of his current dreams had seen.
Her eyes were soft, and a tiny smile played around her lips. She looked like she was remembering something too, watching Mary Jane preen for the camera. But he wasn't sure what.
A knowing chuckle rippled through the audience at the two sequences showing a euphoric Peter discovering his new powers.
Spike reached up for the armrest and let his fingers brush over the back of Buffy's hand. When she didn't flinch, he tentatively rested his hand atop hers.
Engrossed in the movie now, Buffy didn't seem to notice.
Dawn, Janice, Tara and Xander all fidgeted uncomfortably at Peter watching MJ's parents scream at each other - and at her. All four scrunched a little lower in their seats.
Until MJ asked, "Did you just get taller?" and Peter replied, "Well...I *hunch*..."
"Don't," MJ said softly, and Dawn sat up straight and proud.
"Just because you *can* beat him up doesn't mean you've got the right to...With great power comes great responsibility," Uncle Ben said in Sensurround, and Spike heard a tiny sigh from above him. He looked up.
Buffy was nodding, and her eyes were closed. Just as he was about to look away, she opened them and caught his eye.
Deliberately she turned her hand over underneath his and twined their fingers together.
When Peter found Uncle Ben gunned down in the street, Spike heard a tiny sob and turned to look. Buffy's eyes were swimming with tears, lost in memories. A small helpless noise of sympathy escaped him and she jumped, realizing he'd seen her.
Before she could get her defenses up, he scooted closer on the step, so that the length of his torso pressed against her shin, and rested his head on her knee.
She tightened her grip on his hand and dashed away her tears with the other hand.
Spike nodded vigorously, watching Norman Osborn lose his sanity to the cacophany of mocking voices echoing through his vast empty house.
"Yeahr, tha's just wot it's like," he murmured, and Buffy's brow crinkled.
"Now THAT is what I'M talkin' about, Anya!" Xander whooped at the big battle sequence pitting Spidey against the Green Goblin at a parade, gesturing with his soda cup.
A chorus of "SHUSH!!!" came from all sides in response.
Dawn and her friends giggled and sighed at MJ kissing an upside-down Spider-Man in the rain. Willow and Tara stared dreamily into each other's eyes, and Clem stroked Sophie's curly hair lovingly.
Much later, Dawn waved goodbye to her friends from the stoop of the Summers house.
"You can come out now," she called once the car pulled out of sight, and Spike slipped out of the shadows. "Thanks for waiting 'til they left."
"Not a bit of it, Bit," he replied. "Ave fun tonight?"
"Yeah, the movie rocked," she said. "Wish I was as cool as Kirsten Dunst..."
"I beg y'r pardon, Niblet! In what way are you not as cool as Kirsten Dunst?" Spike's hand flew to his chest in horror.
"Well, *you* know...she's so beautiful..." His scarred eyebrow cocked up, skeptical, and she giggled. "Okay, okay, don't say it, you know I won't believe you anyway...Anyway, she's got this one thing she does really, really well, y'know? An' I, I'm just Buffy's sister. Always will be."
"Not everybody's born knowin' what they're best at, Niblet...not even your Buffy, I gather," he said, slipping a hand under her chin. "You got a lot of advantages other girls don't. You're lovely...you're brave, an' you've proven it over an' over again...you're loyal...an' you're the daughter Joyce Summers chose. Nobody else in the world can say those things, Dawn..."
She smiled, shrugged and turned toward the door. "Tuck me in for the night?"
On his way down the stairs, Spike felt the buzz beneath his shoulder blades again, and followed it through the kitchen.
Buffy was sitting on the top step of the back porch, staring blankly up at the stars. He settled down beside her, taking a moment to admire her profile. "Gettin' to be a 'abit, this," he said softly.
"Yeah. We gotta stop meeting like this," she answered with a wan smile.
"Enjoy yourself tonight?" He brushed a lock of hair off her shoulder.
"Right up until the end," she said, and turned to look at him. "That last scene..."
"Poorly edited," Spike huffed.
"Details. Listen. What Peter was saying? To Mary Jane? That he'd always be her friend, because it was all he had to give?" He nodded, dread skittering up his spine.
"That's what I've been trying to say to you, Spike. Over and over, and the words just never seem to come out right...I *can't* love you. I can't love anyone. I can't - accept love - when I know it means I'll hurt the person that loves me by dying young...again."
"I'm not exac'ly the 'elpless maiden MJ was, pet," he said, dead heart sinking. "An' it seems t'me the risk'a losin' you oughta be our lookout, the ones that love you. Not yours."
"You'd think, wouldn't you?" She smiled again, eyes closing. "Tell it to the ones that dragged me out of Heaven..."
{{They don't love you, Buffy,}} he thought bitterly. {{They just *need* you.}}
"You deserve better, pet," he said at last, and stood to leave, kissing the crown of her head before turning away.
Buffy listened to his departure until she couldn't hear his footfalls anymore.
"No," she said softly, to the night air. "I don't...."