it's like a buddy movie (only without the buddy part)
Chapter Eleven: The Nice Man with a Platinum Credit Card
Xander dropped his stake and just about screamed himself. "An? Dawnie? What the hell are you doing here?"
Anya blinked at him, still a little shocked. "Xander? I... I think the more appropriate question is: what are you doing here, with Spike, and attacking us when we come in to an honest day's work?" Anya demanded. "And why didn't you ever come home last night? And why do you smell like salsa?"
"Work? This early?"
"Inventory. I told you. We have to make sure that we have enough goods in stock to sell for the back-to-school rush. Dawn agreed to help me in exchange for suitable compensation. We need to do it outside of regular business hours."
"Oh. Right."
"But, Xander, why are you here? You should have been home hours ago, sleeping or the not-sleeping kind of sleeping with me. Instead, I woke up alone. I don't like waking up alone." The pout was going full-strength. "What have you been doing all this time?"
"Y'know that demon ritual we saw? Well, that me and Spike saw, but was gone when you guys got there? We're, uh, still working on that."
"But, there was nothing to work on. We decided that you were delusional."
"You guys decided. We didn't. And I'm not delusional. There's something going on, and it's bad. But I don't know what it is except the bad part." Xander glanced at Spike. "And nobody besides Spike and me seems to know about the something except the ones doing the something."
"But Willow said that there was nothing to worry about when she got home. She said it was a false alarm," Dawn chimed in. "'Cause if there is something going on, I could help instead of counting chicken feet."
Spike shook his head. "No, platelet, you are not gettin' involved in this. Best to stay here." Dawn groaned in response. Xander couldn't blame her - he'd had to help with inventory before, and it ranked high on the boring scale.
Anya blinked at Xander. "Okay, you're hungover. This is clearly the result of dehydration. If there were demon rituals going on in town, why on earth would you two be the only ones to know about it?" She turned to Dawn. "Come on. We have to restock the mandrake root."
Dawn flashed Xander a plaintive "help me" look before Anya dragged her to the shelves.
Behind him, Xander heard Spike chuckle. "Well, looks like it's up to us to save the world, lad. 'Less you'd rather I take care of it while you go off to count pickled pigs' feet with the ladies."
Xander mulled this over. Boring inventory-ness or the potential to get killed alongside his least favorite person on earth.
"Oh, COME on."
"I'm thinking!" Xander snapped.
"While you're straining your brain, I'm going to take care of the reason I haven't sliced this fellow open yet. If you're in for this, I suggest you do the same." With that, Spike walked toward the old training room at the back of the shop.
Xander followed. "Hold on. If we're going after this guy, and I'm not saying we're not, what's the plan?"
"Killing him." Spike opened the door to the training room. "Seems like a perfectly good plan to me."
"Given. But how?" Xander stepping in the room after Spike and shut the door. "The guy's got minions, and nobody not on his team seems to know or care that he's around except us. Not even the gang. Which means there's magic badness going on here. So how do we know that it's not going to erase or brains our something?"
"Fact is, Harris, we don't know. And since sunrise is due any time now, I'm not waiting around here with you and your lady and the sweet bit until he finds us."
"Not arguing. But how do we find the yearling-reject? Before it finds us, I mean." Xander heard the front door jingle and some guy asking if the place was open. Who'd be shopping this early? He half-heard Anya’s reply. Man, nobody keeps regular hours anymore.
Spike shrugged and grabbed a mace from the wall. "Don't know, 'xactly. I figure we head back to Emilio's, see what there is to see, then go from there."
"And hope his gang isn't waiting there with flame-throwers?" Xander grabbed an axe and a couple extra stakes from the case as he spoke. He heard the cash register ringing. Sounded like Anya had already made her first sale. He grinned to himself. Good. That'll put her in a good mood all day.
"Hoping they are, since I'll have my own firepower." Spike picked up a small crossbow and stuck it under his coat. "And we'd better get a move on before daylight hits."
"Let's move, then." They left the training room... as a large, antlered thing exited the front door. No doubt who he was, since he was really well lit by the just-risen sun.
Xander ran over to the counter and grabbed the receipt Anya was about to file out of her hand. "Who was that? What did you just do?"
"I made a retail transaction. It's what I usually do here. Xander, what's wrong with you""
"With a big slimy demon? What were you thinking?" Xander stuffed the receipt in his pocket.
"No, I sold them to a nice man with a platinum credit card." Anya waved at the empty beer bottles on the nearby table. "You're drunker now, aren't you? Will I need to enroll you in a support group? Do you need to take twelve steps somewhere now?"
"An, I'm sober, and I'm telling you--"
"Give it up, man, the lass can't see 'im." Spike was staring out the window at the Chaos demon, who looked like he was trying to find his car keys. In full sunlight.
"I could see the customer - the human male customer - just fine." Anya protested. "He made a sizable purchase."
"Not human. Demon. Chaos demon. And... look, I'll fill you in later. We gotta go." He ran over to Spike, who was as close to the door as he could get without turning into a bonfire.
Spike looked at Xander accusingly. "I thought you said we had forty-five minutes until Mr. Sunshine paid a visit!"
"I was guessing! It's not like I do the sunrise thing every day!" Xander started to head outside.
Spike stopped him. "You go out there, your arms will be ripped off. Just so's you know."
"And I'm sure that'd be very entertaining for you. You got a better idea?"
Both stared out the window at the departing demon. Early morning joggers, people walking their dogs and other early-risers passed the demon while he walked out to this car - a seriously horrific light blue Oldsmobile - without a second glance. Not even at the 1970s-mobile he was about to get into. Okay, it's true that Sunnydalers have a pretty big blind spot, but this was freaky.
Spike seemed to be having the same thought - about the people not seeing the guy, not about the car. "Guess it is just us." Spike glanced at Xander.
"Guess so. And can I just say, lucky us." Xander shook his head. "It's like a buddy movie, only without the buddy part." They watched the demon unlock his car door and get in. His antlers stuck out of the sunroof. And people weren't seeing this? "Okay, so now what?"