Valentine's Day Drabbles

[deird_lj]

Happy Valentine's Day!



1992 - for crickets

This was hard.

Xander frowned at the endless row of cards on display.

Half of them said “to my wife” or “to my girlfriend”, most of them had huge “I love you!”s on the front, and all the rest had these really sappy pictures of people kissing, or puppies running around looking cute, or stuff like that.

Even worse, he kept thinking he’d found one that would work, and then opening it up to find “To My Dearest Darlingest Smoochy-Pie!” inside in huge letters.

Why wasn’t there a “to my best-friend-who’s-really-nice-and-is-probably-going-to-give-me-a-Valentine’s-card-like-she-always-does-and-I-really-like-her-but-not-like-that-but-she-should-still-have-a-great-Valentine’s-Day-because-she’s-my-best-friend” card?

That’d be perfect.

Xander sighed, and kept looking.



2000 - for debris4spike

Willow had looked kinda nervous all day.
Tara bit her lip, and hoped it wasn’t because Willow had picked up on what she’d been thinking – trying not to hope for.

She’d given herself a very stern talking-to in the mirror this morning.
“Tara Maclay, get a grip. She’s just a friend. That’s all. Don’t go ruining a perfectly nice friendship just because your imagination’s getting carried away. Okay?”

She’d tried to be nice, calm, and just-a-friend all afternoon, but maybe Willow had noticed.

She smiled tentatively. “What should we do now?”

…and that was when Willow handed her the card.



2001 - for mauvedragon

They looked kinda like those guys from Lord of the Rings.
Height-and-clothes-wise, anyway. Their faces just looked really gross.

But they were spending lots of money, and she liked making a profit, so she was going to ignore how weirdly wrong they looked, and keep smiling politely.

Really politely.

They kept buying cards, flowers, and chocolate, leaving, and coming back five minutes later to search for something “even more resplendently lovely”. So far, they’d spent over two-hundred dollars on this “Gloria” woman – and two-hundred bucks could buy a huge amount of polite smiling.

Valentine’s Day was so awesome for shopkeepers.



2001 - for birggitt

The card was anonymous – although “Slayer” narrowed the field.

Number one candidate for calling her that was… someone who wanted her dead. Yeah. Couldn’t be him.
So that left… um… Harmony? No, she’d have put glittery stickers all over it.
Glory? Could be. Although she’d probably want them to know for sure that she’d written it.

And it didn’t seem to be threatening or anything. It was actually kinda nice.
Especially with the teddy bears.
Buffy shrugged, and put the card under her mirror, with a sheepish smile.

…maybe she should get a sample of Spike’s writing. Just to check.



2001 - for rebcake

If it hadn’t been Serena, Anne would have thought it was drugs-related.

What else could the hushed voices, stopping abruptly whenever she got close, mean? They were all acting incredibly shifty, and… well if it had been anyone else…

But instead, it was Serena, Chantelle, and Malone. Three of the most reliable, well-intentioned kids the shelter had.
No way were they dealing.

They were definitely planning something. And maybe she should investigate, but… she wanted to trust them.

Anne spent her day not investigating – hoping fervently that, whatever it was, it wouldn’t end up with the whole place burning down.



2002 - for lavastar

Their mail was the same as always.
Water bill, electricity bill, credit card bill, letter about their failure to pay the last credit card bill, and… a Valentine’s Day card.

Weird.

Okay, not that weird, because hey! Valentine’s Day. The day those cards come.
But Riley was out of the picture, and with Willow and Tara’s issues, she hadn’t thought there’d be anything like this.

And even weirder… it was for her. Wow.
Dawn dropped the rest of the mail on the stairs, sat down, and read through her card.

How cool!

…she grinned, and read it three more times.



2003 - for dreamincolor

He delivered it by hand, at three in the morning. Snuck up to her apartment, and put it on the floor, outside the door.
Then he left – fast.

Afterwards, he really couldn’t explain why.

Why he’d been so worried about her seeing him deliver it.
Why he half hoped the rose would be stolen by her neighbour.
Why he bought a card at all.

Later, when Lilah showed up, tore his clothes off, and showed him why the salesman had called his table “indestructible”, he realised she must have liked it.

But she never said anything, so that was okay.

Comments

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

It was wicked! She was so surprised! She cried and laughed and everything! Then she went around and hugged everybody. Some of the guys tried to duck, but you could tell they liked it. She told us we were pretty sneaky, but she just knew we were up to something! Then she brought out her surprise: cupcakes! It felt like a real Valentines Day, you know?

Out,
Serena

[deird1]

Oh, you darling!

Thanks so much! Getting this in my inbox this morning was really fun.

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

*glompsmoochsnuggle*

OMG I FUCKING LOVE YOU SO HARD RIGHT NOW.

I got your card today and it made me smile and giggle and squeal. Actually quite similarly to the drabble you wrote with it. :D

I absolutely loved the card, and the idea, and the general thoughtiness put into it. For some reason the handwriting struck me a lot, because it felt so much like the way Tara would write.

So if I may once more revert to the capslock mode of joy? THANK YOU SO FRIGGING MUCH. IT DIDN'T JUST MAKE MY DAY, IT MADE MY LIFE.

[deird1]

Yay!
*huggles*

So very glad you liked it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

[dreamincolor.livejournal.com]

Lilah had no idea poetry could be such an aphrodisiac.

But sure enough, as much as she loved the idea of good steak and even better wine, or of taunting a domesticated and surly Wesley, scowling over the meal he’d made her, there was suddenly nothing in the world more important than getting that man out of his clothes.

And while she said a lot of things that evening - things that, in her experience, made most men blush - she never said a thing about roses or cards, or about the words she knew came before the quoted lines of a poem.

Never said a thing, but she didn’t have to.

Because she could tell, by the way he held onto her just a little bit longer in the aftermath, or the way an unshaven cheek brushed hers as he moved to kiss her forehead, that he understood.

And that, if he could, he would have said ‘you’re welcome.’


*******

Thanks again so much, sweetheart. I absolutely adored my letter, and the little drabble that goes with. Your creativity and thoughtfulness never ceases to amaze.

-smooches indecently-

[deird1]

...I can't stop grinning over this.

I could seriously read it all day.

*smishes*