Author:
For: shakegirl
Pairing: Buffy/Gunn.
Setting: Post-"Not Fade Away."
Rating: PG.
Words: 784.
Request: Buffy/Gunn and something to do with reading.
Summary: For fanfic100 077. What? Slayers usually didn't get sick as a rule, but Gunn took care of Buffy anyway.
Buffy started coughing on Tuesday and Gunn made her stay on the couch by Thursday. He smothered her with tea and chicken noodle soup. He brought her John Cusack movies and new pajamas with kittens on them. Despite all Gunn's tlc, Buffy's fever kept a consistent high.
But the couch was starting to get boring and she swore that she'd seen every Matlock episode ever made twice. Buffy frowned and looked over at Gunn who sat in the armchair, eating what she suspected was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Why aren't you getting this super strength virus?"
"Because I'm too pretty," Gunn said between bites.
"And I'm not?"
Gunn winced. "Sorry, baby, green snot doesn't say, sex me up."
"But I want it to." Buffy sighed and laid against the couch's armrest. Her head titled too far back, causing her to start coughing again, and she grabbed her pillow for support. "I'm a Slayer. I'm not supposed to get sick."
"Anything you want before I go back to work?" Gunn brushed the crumbs from his sandwich off his pants and onto the floor. "Any comfort while being sick that I'm forgetting?"
Buffy gave him a weak smile. He'd thought of everything and had been an excellent boyfriend, even if she shouldn't be sick without him coming down with it too. The times Buffy was sick were the time she missed her mother the most. "One thing." She explained to Gunn how her mother used to read to her when she was sick.
"Couldn't hurt to try." Gunn stood up and went over to their bookshelf, which overflowed with comics and law books since he moved in. "Anything special?"
"The Secret Garden." Buffy remembered wishing to find such a magical place as a child; now, she took it all back.
Gunn nodded and picked the book from the shelf. "Not one I've read. But, hey, it's illustrated, can't be all bad."
Buffy snorted. "Except Mary's boobs are proportionate to her age and size unlike Spider-Woman's," she said. She looked down at her own small chest, which was covered in blue fabric with kittens playing with balls of yarn. Yep, she was queen of sexy right now.
"Scoot." Gunn waved with his hands as Buffy sat up enough that he could squeeze in. She rather liked laying her head against his chest. Opening the book, he started to read, "'When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too.' Sucks to be her."
"Zip it, narrator." Buffy shifted under him, repositioning herself in anticipation of pictures. "Just read."
Gunn cleared his throat dramatically and started again. Soon Buffy fell into the lull of her lover's voice. She remembered why she liked watching him in court, but this was different, profoundly more intimate.
When Buffy sneezed, Gunn handed her a tissue, but didn't stop reading. He also didn't push her away, even though she was definitely wrinkling his dress shirt and suit pants. As he continued reading into chapters two and three, Buffy figured that he'd actually asked for the afternoon off before even coming home since his cell phone laid on the coffee table in the off position. Yep, she had the best boyfriend ever.
"Wait, what is this shit? You know, I think I hate this Mary girl even more," Gunn said.
"Sure, she's a little stuck up, but she gets redeemed." Truth was Buffy wasn't even paying attention to the words. Her favorite parts were later in the book, when Mary and Colin were in the garden.
"Sure after she goes on a tirade about how all black people should be her servants."
"It's period children's literature."
"Yeah, literature that still gets read to millions of little white girls from the suburbs." Gunn closed the book.
"You forgot to mention that our mothers read it to us." Buffy yanked it from his hands and searched for the title page. "See it was published in 1909. India was still under British colonialist control." She frowned when Gunn gave her a funny look. "What? I've taken a history class."
Gunn started to chuckle. "You know, this is the most worked up I've seen you all week." He kissed her forehead and handed her the thermometer. "But we're still not finishing that book."
"Yes, we are," Buffy muttered over the thermometer. She found the page where they had left off and started to silently read it. She kept Gunn pinned between her and the couch. Soon enough, she felt his eyes reading the pages too.
Gunn shook his head. "Fine." And he started to read out loud again, "'It was really this mention of Dickon...'"