Ringing in the New Year (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spike/Xander)

They’d made it through another year alive. That was something worth celebrating, even if it was just the two of them. It was a little strange how all of his friends had been miraculously busy for New Year’s. Well, not too strange on the girls’ part. They had their boyfriends, or in Willow and Tara’s case, each other, to spend the evening with. Giles had something with his books, and his buddies at work all had their families to be with. That left the list of party attendees down to a whopping two, including himself.

Still it wasn’t too bad to be left with just him and Spike. Sure, it meant that his original plan for the evening had flopped worse than the Titanic, but Xander was nothing if not the master of improvisation.

Okay, so that wasn’t quite true. His talent for improvising only went so far, but he still thought he’d managed to do a decent job. He had a whole box of microwave popcorn – the good kind, he’d splurged for the special occasion – and a stack of rentals. Tonight’s theme was the living dead.

The phrase stuck in Xander’s head and he instantly corrected himself. Zombies. The night’s theme was zombies. Thankfully, not literally, just on the TV. He already had the living dead staying in the apartment, which meant it wasn’t so much a theme as a staple.

“Stupid git.” Spike snorted at the TV and munched a handful of popcorn from his seat beside Xander. The movie playing was corny and not very interesting as far as Xander was concerned. His mind wandered.