A/N: The song in this chapter is "No Blue Sky" by the Thorns. Thanks to UB for the beta!

Chapter 8: Sunset

Cold outside
But I don't blame the weather
No one's calling
No one's at the door
But I can't stay
Inside all day
Blinds pulled to the floor

“This is nice.” Buffy gazed at the sunset as the music of the Thorns emanated softly from the speakers positioned around the restaurant’s outside seating area. “I mean, really nice. I don’t do this often.”

“What?” Jacob smiled. “Eat dinner? Or watch the sunset?”

“Date.”

“I don’t see why. You could probably have any guy you wanted.” He lowered his head a little and glanced up at her through thick lashes in a slightly embarrassed way that Buffy thought made him look vulnerable and cute.

Buffy blushed at the compliment, nervously wiping the condensation from her water glass with one finger. “Guess I’ve just had other things on my mind lately.” Like demons and vampires and saving the world for the 18th time, she thought. Not to mention a lovesick vampire who, at that moment, was baby-sitting her defunct Key of a sister. She was going to have to do something about that. Make him not in love with her or something. She couldn’t have him just hanging around like a ticking time bomb, waiting for him to explode in some freak display of obsession and lust like the cattle prod and chains episode last year.

God, her life was complicated.

But not tonight. Tonight, she was just a normal girl on a normal date, with a nice, upstanding, normal American boy. She looked up at him, and she seemed almost determined. “But tonight I’m all yours.”

The restaurant was a tiny place, located just off the PCH a little ways outside Sunnydale, an oasis that served Cuban cuisine. Inside, the atmosphere was cloudy with cigar smoke and dim candlelight, but Jacob had requested a table on the outside deck, overlooking the ocean and offering a perfect view of the setting sun. The light danced on the waves, shimmering in a trail of orange and gold towards the horizon.

“This place really feels authentic,” said Buffy. “Not that I’ve, you know, ever been to Cuba or anything.” She shrugged. “But as a faux-Cuban motif, I’m convinced.”

Jacob chuckled. “On Saturdays, they have live Habanera music.”

Buffy wrinkled her nose. “Is that like a mariachi band? I’m so uncultured.” She took a sip of water. “Anyway, it’s a nice change from the Bronze.”

“I guess you go there a lot, huh? Growing up here and all.” Jacob started to feel a little silly for thinking that taking her to the Bronze was a good first date. Willow had suggested it, as a low-pressure kind of thing, but still, he was glad he’d picked something really different for date number two.

“Oh, yeah,” said Buffy, with a wave of her hand. “All the time in high school. Willow’s boyfriend, Oz, used to play there with his band.”

Jacob furrowed his brow. “Willow’s… boyfriend?”

“Oh… ex-boyfriend. He, uh, left awhile ago.” Because he was a werewolf. No, don’t tell him that. “Something about needing to find himself.”

“And Willow was so traumatized by the whole experience she swore off guys entirely?”

Buffy smiled. “Nah, if that was all it took, every girl would be a lesbian.”

“Even you?”

“Guilty as charged.” Buffy tried to maintain the smile on her face, but that was hard when she had not one, but two exes who’d left town. Stellar record, that. Jacob should be packing his bags the minute he dropped her off at home.

Jacob sensed the change in her demeanor, however subtle. “He was an idiot,” he told her, hoping it was the right thing to say. “He’d have to be, to leave someone like you behind.” He watched her turn an adorable shade of pink and breathed a sigh of relief.

“So, you’re originally from Chicago, right? How’d you end up at UC Sunnydale?” She said it lightly, but Buffy was always wary of newcomers who showed up for no apparent reason. Most often, anytime someone new came to Sunnydale, it was because the Hellmouth had attracted them.

“I wanted to be close to my dad.” Jacob accepted the change of subject without question. “I didn’t see him much after my parents got divorced.”

Buffy nodded in commiseration. “I never see my dad. Last I heard, he was in Spain or something.”

Jacob reached across the table and put his hand over hers. It was a small, simple gesture, but it made Buffy smile. He really was very sweet. Strong – not so much physically, but emotionally, in a stabilizing kind of way. As if the world didn’t spin quite so fast when he looked at her. Her life seemed to be one crisis after another, and her friends got pulled into the frenzy; they were fighting their own battles and couldn’t help her slow down. But Jacob felt like a gentle calm, like the ocean way out beyond the breakers, when the wind stopped and the water just rolled in soft lulling motions, not in any hurry to get where the tide wanted to pull it. And that felt nice.

“Buffy, you ready to order?” Jacob asked, which made Buffy realize their waitress was hovering over the table expectantly.

“Oh, gosh, I’m so overwhelmed.” She glanced back down at the menu, which was mostly in Spanish. She was starting to regret taking French in high school.

Jacob noticed the slight panic in her eyes, and offered to choose something for her. Buffy nodded, relieved. “Surprise me,” she said, a glint in her eye. “I’m feeling adventurous.”

“So, what’s in Spain?” he asked, once the waitress had departed again.

“Huh?”

“What’s in Spain that’s more important to your dad than you?”

“Oh.” Buffy rolled her eyes. “Who knows? His job, his girlfriend… what isn’t more important?”

Jacob started to say something, and Buffy could tell by the expression on his face that it was going to be something apologetic or sympathetic, so she cut him off. “It’s okay. Some people just weren’t meant to be fathers.”

“People should have to take a test before having children or something,” Jacob joked. “So, what’s it like, raising Dawn all by yourself?”

“She’s a teenage hormone bomb, but who isn’t at that age? We get by.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“And you’re working for a temp agency?”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “I’m just working there until a good fast-food job opens up.”

Jacob’s jaw dropped in mock-surprise. “That’s so great!” he exclaimed, with false enthusiasm. “Because when I graduate with my useless history degree, I plan on working at McDonalds.”

She raised her eyebrows in amusement. “That’s very ambitious of you.”

“I’m pretty content with not having a future,” Jacob said, grinning. “Hey! You could be fry girl. I get to work the drive-thru.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Buffy, warmly returning his smile.

There's no blue sky in my town lately
Everybody looks at the ground
I've been distracted and gone half crazy
But the sun never looked so pretty
Going down

*****

Spike sat in the kitchen, polishing off the last of the pizza while Dawn scampered off to the living room again.

He sighed. As much as he enjoyed spending time with his Bit, Spike couldn’t help feeling bitter. Dawn had been right, of course. It bothered him that Buffy was on a date. It was only their second date (that he knew of) and it probably didn’t even mean anything, but it was just one more of the million tiny paper cuts she kept giving him. She wouldn’t outright say that she’d never date him – well, okay, she did say that, kind of a lot of times, but not lately, right? Not since she’d been back, at least. But there were always little things, hints. The way she ignored him if he said he loved her, or a throwaway comment about having a normal life, or leaving him behind to baby-sit her sister while she went on a date. Those kinds of things, the things that cut him down, a little at a time, made him wish he’d never come to this bloody town.

But he was nothing if not determined, and Angel was right when he said that once Spike started something, he didn’t stop until it was finished. Well, unless he got bored or his shows were on the telly. But his grandsire had taught him a little something about pain and suffering, too, and while Spike had never been quite as good as his mentor, he’d managed to find himself at the apex of self-torment, pining away while Buffy threw herself desperately into her attempt at a normal life.

But really, did that pillock have to do something quite so romantic as taking her to watch the sunset? Spike crushed the pizza box and shoved it in the trash. That thought pricked at him more than the date itself, because it was one thing he could never do with Buffy.

He was about to rummage through the freezer for some ice cream – there was something about ice cream and wallowing in self-pity that always seemed to work for girls; he figured it couldn’t hurt, and maybe the Niblet would want some – when his thoughts were rudely interrupted by a big hulking demon smashing through the kitchen door.