3 December 2003
BtVS
Vaguely follows Sweet You Rock

Hail Joss.



Once, when Andrew was a kid, his parents took him and Tucker to Puerto Vallarta for a holiday, and they went snorkelling.  One of the first things anybody taught them was how to spit out seawater.  There was a technique to it, but Andrew never quite got it, mostly because watching somebody else spitting made him slightly nauseous and he had to keep turning away.

Tucker was good at it.  Tucker spit seawater in Andrew's face, making that particular point.  He also got to see the sea turtles, whereas Andrew had to go back to the boat because he'd swallowed a bunch of water and was pretty much throwing up by the time the dive instructor caught him by the back of his safety vest and hauled him in.

He's learned to spit now because it's necessary.  Just once, he wound up with a mouthful of dust during a summoning, and because he screwed it up, the demon (Shakreth, only maybe three or four months old, but already ugly and sticky and sharp) tore through most of a farmstead.  The farmer was long gone, but there were animals left, and by the time Andrew pulled himself together, the sheep didn't look like they'd ever been alive.  Or even like they'd ever been sheep.  Just.  Bloody, lumpy mud.

He may have cried over that for a while.  Maybe for a long while.  He likes sheep.  He used to sleep with a stuffed Lamb Chop doll. 

(He remembers Tucker standing in his bedroom door, teasing him.  Because, yeah, maybe he was twelve when their aunt sent Lamb Chop to him, but he loved his woolly girl.  And he learned to create wards so Tucker couldn't get at her while he was out.)

After that, he learned to spit properly.  He's not, like, skilled at it, but he can get some pretty horrible things out of his mouth, very, very fast.

He was on his knees in a motel room in Reno the first time Xander saw him do it.  Pretty much also the first time he didn't choke in the process of giving Xander a blow job, so, hey, go him!  The spitting thing, he thinks, might be just a little bit manly.  Xander didn't take it personally.  He teased Andrew about his technique exactly once, then let it go. 

Though he did bring Andrew this big bag of Spitz sunflower seeds the next time he went out for supplies.  It's the wrong time of year for watermelon, but at least this way while they're sitting and waiting (they do a lot of sitting and waiting), they can spit the shells.  Even a little competitively.

Once, Andrew landed a shell perfectly in his grade soda can.  He remembers Xander kissing him after, this really great congratulations.  How he tasted like grape and salt.


jane
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