She'll teach those hatches! [Open to Multiple]

[rae_of_sun]

Well, if there's ever been a reason for Sunshine to start pushing herself in the magic-handling department, the arrival of a mega-toxic kali nightmare goon from wherever-the-hell - and a subsequent text containing a ward symbol against said nightmare goon - definitely qualifies. Gods, has she missed wards. And, okay, she finds it a little hard to fully trust the effectiveness of a ward symbol drawn by… well, anyone aside from an accredited wardsmith (herself included)… but if there's even a slight chance that it'll work, she will gladly wallpaper the entire damn building with the thing.

Better to start small, though, especially if what she's going for is 'permanent.' Which is why she's standing outside her own apartment door with the little image of the symbol pulled up on her phone. She examines the picture with a tight little frown, memorizing the details in case intent is not enough. Then she tucks her phone into the back pocket of her shorts and braces her palms against the door.

Okay. She can do this. It's big - far bigger than anything she's attempted before - but it's only wood. Easy compared to metal or stone. And her grandmother said she could do anything in bright sunlight, and there's plenty of that shining in through the window at the end of the hall, all of two feet to her right. So.

Sunshine shuts her eyes, pictures the ward symbol as clearly as she can, and shoves.

A bolt of power runs down her arms and into her door, the recoil strong enough to force her back a pace. She opens her eyes, regains her balance, and takes in her new door.

At first, she thinks it was a bust; the change is so subtle. But then she realizes that the ward symbol is there, right in the middle of her door and as large as a dinner plate. It's visible only because the grain of the wood abruptly changes direction, like an incredibly fine inlay. She steps closer and runs her fingertips over the line where symbol ends and door begins, but she can't feel a seam.

"Gods," she breathes. Could she darken it? Probably, yes, if she tried again. Make it a bit more obvious, if that's what's needed. A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. It worked. How's that for permanent?

Okay. She'll come back to her own door later. First, she has to do Spike's. And then the main entrances. And then the windowsills. And then literally every other flat surface she can reach.


[ooc: Sunshine is gonna spend the day WARDING ALL THE THINGS, so feel free to have your character run into her in any given hallway, down by the front door, or even up on the roof. Pretty much anywhere in the rebel apartment building is fair game. And hey, she'll probably ward your door if you ask nicely.]

Comments

[erratic_hematic]

He sighs as she storms in. Not off to a great start, then. He closes and locks the door, then follows her to sit at the opposite end of the couch. He's given this a little thought, but maybe not enough. "If I'm gonna be your boyfriend," ...he still definitely needs confirmation on that too. She hadn't exactly been thinking clearly the first time he'd asked her about it. "I'd appreciate some warning before you go off warding half the building against the devil himself."

[rae_of_sun]

Sunshine flushes, less because of the 'boyfriend' comment (though it's a pretty bold opener given the circumstances, and it's probably going to require some proper acknowledgment) than because of the metaphorical slap on the wrist. He has a point, but she still doesn't appreciate how he initially expressed it, and she's not going to be the first to apologize, here.

"And if we're stuck on the same little island as the devil himself, I probably won't always be able to give you an engraved RSVP before I do some defensive magic-handling," she points out.

[erratic_hematic]

"I'm not asking for that." Defensive is different, and Spike's really never had any problems with powerful women doing powerful things. What he's worried about is Sunshine doing something like she had when she'd healed him. What happens if she overstretches her powers again and he's not there to bring her back home?

"I saw that thing on my door..." And he had been worried. "You couldn't have knocked? 'oh by the way, I'm warding up the building, see you later?' Something?"

[rae_of_sun]

But wards are defensive, too. More than that, they're a comfort. She hadn't realized how much living in an unwarded building had been wearing on her until she realized there was something she could actually do about it. It's like she's finally sealed off a persistent draught.

Sunshine sighs, unsure of what to say. She's still not willing to concede that she owed him a warning before she warded the building - preventing Lucifer from walking into Spike's apartment and putting his fist through his chest again seems like a higher priority than putting his mind at ease about her magic-handling.

Gods, is that was this is all about? He just realized that she was up to something and got all... aggressively fretful?

"I'm fine," she says again, her tone a bit more gentle than it had been the first time she said it (though it's still not entirely devoid of exasperation). "I've been careful, and Aziraphale did…" she hesitates, a little uncertain of the technicalities, "something, gave me a sort of… magical boost. I do know how to not totally exhaust myself in that department." And she stops there, because that really does beg the question of what the hell happened two days ago, and ugh, way to just walk into it, Sunshine.

[erratic_hematic]

The softening of her tone is a little bit of a relief. Maybe he isn't completely messing this up, after all, but he's not going to let this all go quite yet. He's interested in whatever 'magical boost' Aziraphale had given her, but his mind is fixated on something else altogether. If she knows how to manage her magic enough to be safe, what happened the other day after Lucifer had attacked him? She'd stopped healing him when he'd asked, but after a while it had started up again and she hadn't been able to stop. That doesn't seem like someone in control of their magic to him.

"Then why did I have to carry you up to the roof the other day?"

He wants to lean forward an touch her as a reassurance to himself, but they're too far away from each other for that. Instead, he just grips onto the back of the couch, letting his fingers dig into the fabric nervously.

[rae_of_sun]

Yeah, there it is. Sunshine pushes her hair back, frustrated with herself for setting up that question so perfectly. Of course he bolted right through that open door. Of course.

She huffs, a cross between a sigh and a mirthless laugh. "Because…" Gods, just kill her now. "Because it was you. Because you had a massive carthaginian hole in your chest and I couldn't--" she stops abruptly, pressing her lips together, because if she keeps talking her voice is going to break and then she's just going to start crying again.

[erratic_hematic]

A paperback with a cheesy cover falls out of thin air, hits the back of the couch, and slides behind it.

"Oh." He hadn't really expected that. Because it was him? He's not even sure how to process that information, because it's shifting around all of his preconceptions about how much she really cares for him. In a good way. He still can't completely wrap his head around the idea that she might actually be attached to him, but it's still definitely good news.

He lets go of the back of the couch and scoots to sit down next to her. "Since when? I mean, I..." He's definitely had feelings for her for a while, but this is new. "That's...you'd miss me?"

[rae_of_sun]

Oh, for--was that in doubt?! Sunshine gapes at him. Has he seriously just… taken the fallout from that sunlight fiasco and their dates and her response to his grievous injury and the giant fuck-off ward she plastered on his door, added all those together, and somehow, through some truly impressive mental gymnastics, reached the conclusion that she doesn't give a shit about him? Hell, she'd be the first to admit that she's not the most verbally demonstrative person in any universe, but considering what they've been through, the fact that he apparently doesn't even know she likes him just beggars belief.

"Yes," she says, lifting her head so she can transfer that hand to his shoulder (which she squeezes, gently, in a grounding sort of way). "I'd miss you." Then, with an undercurrent of incredulous laughter: "You idiot."

[erratic_hematic]

"Oi." he says in response, a token objection to being called an idiot that doesn't have any bite behind it at all. He lifts his arm up and back to wrap around her shoulders, then dips his head to hers, briefly burying his nose in her hair before pulling back a little so she can snuggle up to him, if that's what she wants. "I'd miss you too. Y'know, for the record."

[rae_of_sun]

Hey, he's earned the insult, nice as the delivery might have been. She doesn't hesitate to take him up on that tacit invitation to snuggle, though - see, nonverbal communication isn't that goddamn difficult - and she leans forward to wrap her arms around him and tuck her head beneath his chin. The part of her that's spent the past two days monitoring his healing progress notes, with quiet satisfaction, that there's no pained hitch when she hugs him. She knows he's better, but new habits die hard, too.

"I should hope so," she murmurs, shifting a little to get more comfortable. "No one else could keep you out of trouble." Well, maybe Aziraphale could - he even has the motivation, now that Spike's his star employee - but still.

[erratic_hematic]

He tightens his arm around her a little as she settles in against him, glad that their argument seems to have worn itself out and for her reassurance that she actually wants to be here. He smirks at what she has to say. If anything, what she's been doing has been more like damage control than keeping him out of trouble. He's not sure that that's entirely possible.

His voice is full of amusement when he answers, "Is that what you're doing, keeping me out of trouble?"

[rae_of_sun]

"Well." She smiles wryly against the fabric of his shirt and strokes a hand down his side. "It's more of a solid attempt." Her smile fades a little as she remembers the way he just brushed aside her warning and ran right towards the monster in the park. "You don't exactly make it easy."

[erratic_hematic]

"True." He rubs his hand at her back a little, hoping to reassure her that he's safe now. She's been more than a little disturbed by the severity of his injuries...with good reason. They had been disturbing. But he supposes now that it's more than that. She's concerned for him. Because she likes...whatever this is.

He relaxes a little more, but there's still a lot that he's curious about and he doesn't want to wait until she's not here to answer him. Foremost being that he really would like to know what this is.

"...Am I your boyfriend? You said so the other night, but you were pretty gone by then." Maybe she was just delirious and couldn't think of another word.

[rae_of_sun]

Gods, she dates a guy for a week and then this happens. Okay, so it was a pretty eventful week, and it's not as if they were indifferent strangers beforehand, but there's still something faintly ridiculous about the question - or about the fact that he feels the need to voice it. Does she really have to spell it out for him? More importantly: is she going to have to keep spelling it out for him? Gods and frigging angels, she's not sure she has the patience.

Well. She considers the possibilities, her hand drifting over his chest and stopping - of its own accord - right above his heart, setting off a faint, internal ping: there.

"Yeah," she finally says. "I guess you are."

But she's not fully satisfied here, either, and she pulls back a little - enough so that she can look at him properly. "But if I'm your girlfriend," she says sternly, "you're going to have to find a way of expressing concern that doesn't involve yelling at me in public." Because that was pretty asinine, Spike.

[erratic_hematic]

"Okay. I can do that." Or, at least, he hopes that he can do that. Next time he'll probably be able to realize that he's just worried and not actually angry in enough time to stop himself from being an arse about it.

He's not entirely sure what being a boyfriend entails, at least to someone that doesn't kill people in their spare time, but he's assuming just more of what they've been doing up till now. He'll like that, he thinks, even with the inevitable fighting.

Spike's serious expression breaks into a smirk. "So did I get the fanciest ward because you like me the best?" He had noticed, even through his worry, that the work on his door looks almost ornate next to some of the others that she'd done.

[rae_of_sun]

Sunshine gives him a searching look. Then, satisfied that he means it (whether he'll manage it is another matter, but at least she believes he'll try), she relaxes.

"Well," she says, shifting a bit closer and casually looping her arms around his neck, "I still need to redo mine, so it might not hold the title for long." Honestly, she doesn't plan on doing much to hers aside from darkening it and correcting the bits that aren't quite right, but she doesn't want Spike to get smug.

[erratic_hematic]

Too late, because Spike is totally smug about it. He dips his head down to kiss her, and lingers at her lips for a moment before pulling back with a smile on his face. "You definitely like me the best. Did you actually try to do all that, or did it just happen?"

[rae_of_sun]

Too late, indeed. Sunshine rolls her eyes and pushes him playfully back onto the couch. "The inlay, you mean?" She asks as she makes herself comfortable, settling into the gap between him and the back of the couch and resting her head on his chest. "I just knew I wanted it to… stand out. Visually speaking. So it would work," she adds, lest he think she was trying make it pretty as opposed to functional. "I didn't know exactly how it was going to turn out until it was done."

[erratic_hematic]

Spike is more that willing to let her push him back into the couch. He falls back easily and once she settles in against him, he wraps his arm around her again, settling in himself. "So why do you have to redo yours?"

[rae_of_sun]

"It was my first attempt, so it turned out a bit too subtle," she says, idly skating her fingertips over the fabric of his shirt. First attempts aren't supposed to go smoothly, in her general experience, so it's not a particularly shameful admission. Besides, the fact that she can make a functioning ward at all is a thrilling novelty that won't be wearing out its welcome anytime soon.

Plus, the other reason for fixing it isn't even her fault. "And the picture that got sent out was a bit sloppy, so there are a few little corrections I need to make."

At the moment, though, it doesn't seem too pressing. It's nice and comfortable here, a window of calm between the anxiety their fight had spawned and the probably inevitable 'hey stupid what in the hell are you doing acquiring ANY boyfriend, let alone a vampire lite one' mental backlash. And maybe Spike doesn't have a pulse (which is more noticeable than you might think), but he still breathes normally, and her eyes drift shut to the steady rise and fall of his chest.

"But I'm gonna nap first," she informs him with drowsy dignity. "A power nap. Wake me up in like… twenty minutes. Thirty, tops."

[erratic_hematic]

"Okay. You got it." Spike grabs one of the cushions and pulls it under his head, getting himself comfortable if he's going to be lying here for half an hour. After a bit of jostling, he settles down and listens as her breathing slows. He's happy. Even with the fighting, this is more or less what he's been wanting for a long time. He only hopes that it will last.

He doesn't mean to fall asleep. Maybe it's because of the fight, or because she's here with him, but a few minutes after Sunshine falls asleep, he follows.

[rae_of_sun]

You had ONE JOB.

Aziraphale's top-off was too recent for Sunshine to really be tired on the magic-handling front, but it's been a difficult few days in general, and that spat in the hallway might have been one too many. So perhaps it's no surprise that she ends up sleeping for a little over an hour before she's hauled back into wakefulness by the vague feeling that she's forgotten something important.

Spike's breathing tells her he's dozed off before she lifts her head and her eyes confirm it. She's a little inclined towards exasperation: either he couldn't stay awake (and okay, he's nocturnal, but come on), or he elected not to wake her… probably out of some lingering belief that she needed more rest than she said she did (again: come on). But her watch tells her it hasn't been much more than an hour. There's still plenty of daylight left.

She watches him sleep for a moment, a little surprised that her moving around, slight as it's been, hasn't been enough to wake him up. Then again, her universe's vampires tend towards insensibility during the daylight hours, so maybe she should be impressed that he's capable of diurnal consciousness at all.

"Hey," she says quietly, giving his chest a pat. "You fell asleep at your post."

[erratic_hematic]

Spike wakes up quickly once she pats at his chest, his eyes scanning around blearily for a moment before focusing in on her. He fell asleep? He fell asleep. That's a little strange, given that he'd gotten a full nights sleep the night before, and he hasn't exactly been doing anything particularly strenuous since.

"Must've been tired." He cocks his head to the side and smiles. "And this is cosy."

[rae_of_sun]

There's a faint twinge of concern at the back of her mind upon hearing that 'tired' comment. She'd (finally) left him alone last night because he'd seemed to be okay - enough so that even an active attempt to heal him only resulted in her affinity's equivalent of a shrug and a 'nothing to see here.' She's pretty confident that his injuries are fully healed… but okay, maybe he was awake most of the night, or maybe he just needs a bit more rest than usual before he's officially recovered. Considering the shape he was in yesterday, she couldn't really blame him.

He's not lying about it being cosy, either. Intellectually, she knows the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing is just semantics. It doesn't really change anything. Maybe that's why it doesn't feel as weird as she thought it would. Or maybe the weird is saving itself for later.

Fine. The weird can wait. The warding, however, is just a bit more pressing. "If only we didn't have to worry about a frigging monster trying to get into our building," she says, reaching out to brush her fingertips through his hair, neatening (actually neatening) a bit that's gotten mussed just above his temple. Then, she pushes herself up into a sitting position and announces, "I'm gonna ward your window. Do you mind?"

[erratic_hematic]

Spike hums at the gentle neatening of his hair, hoping for a moment that she'll stay put, then letting out a small grunt of disappointment as she pulls away.

"Go for it." He pushes himself upright as she wanders over to the window and turns to watch, curious about the process. Still, he'd rather her not do anymore of these at all, at least for the day. She may say that it hasn't made an impact, but she'd managed to sleep for an hour, so it's obviously doing something. "How many more do you have to do?"