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Gunpowder, Treason and Spike by Alexannah
 
Gunpowder, Treason and Spike
 
Remember, remember, the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot
- Traditional English rhyme


Buffy was out patrolling just after dark when a foul smell caught her nostrils.

“Ugh,” she muttered. “Who’s idiotic enough to have a bonfire this late?”

As she rounded a corner, her question was answered. Just beyond Spike’s crypt was the vampire himself, tending to a large bonfire that was trying to go out. Perched on top of this was some kind of dummy.

“What the hell are you up to now?” Buffy announced her presence. “Got into voodoo or something?”

“Oh, it’s you, Slayer. Bugger this,” Spike muttered. He strode forward, snatched the stake from Buffy’s hands and set it alight with his lighter.

“HEY! Spike! What was that for?”

He tossed it onto the bonfire and the dead tree branches it landed on started to flare up. “Ah, that’s better. Sorry, Slayer. I’ll make you a new one.”

Buffy glared at him. “The question still remains. What are you doing?”

Spike pointed about twenty feet away, where a row of things sticking out of the ground had passed by Buffy’s attention. “It’s the fifth of November.”

She drew a blank. “So?”

“British national holiday. Fella named Guy Fawkes tried to blow the government up but failed, and we celebrate by letting off a load of fireworks and burning a ‘Guy’ figure on a bonfire.”

Buffy studied the ‘Guy’. To her it looked suspiciously like a cross between Xander and Angel, but she decided not to comment. Spike threw an extra piece of wood on the fire and stood back to admire it.

“Aren’t you a vampire?” Buffy reminded him. “Don’t you hate all good celebrations, like Christmas and November fifth and -”

“You know me, pet. Any excuse to make a few loud bangs. Fancy staying for the fireworks? I got some good ones.”

Buffy hesitated. It wasn’t like she was going to get much done tonight without a stake.

“All right. Let them off.”

Spike grinned and strode towards the fireworks with his lighter at the ready. Buffy wondered if she was signing her own death sentence. Did Spike know anything about firework safety? But she needn’t have worried. He came hurrying back after lighting them, and they just stood side by side as they went off. Spike was right, he had picked some good ones.

The show went on for quite a while. All the fireworks were connected so they went off one after the other with no need for Spike to go back towards them. As the last round of rockets lit up the sky in bright red, green and gold, Buffy suddenly realised that she and Spike were holding hands.

When did that happen?

Perhaps it was the fumes from the bonfire talking, but she found she didn’t care.

The End