Work Text:
eschew \es-CHOO\, transitive verb:
To shun; to avoid (as something wrong or distasteful).
Eschew comes from Old French eschiver, ultimately of Germanic origin.
***
Spike had done his best to eschew the comfort of the bottle for some time now; vampires could consume prodigious amounts of alcohol before being visibly drunk, but the dulling of the reflexes and senses started almost immediately. That particular brand of self-pity had no place in his new life, busy as he was with degree work and the Council. He simply didn't have the time to curl up inside a bottle and hope the pain went away.
Besides, Anya always seemed to know when he tried and gave him hell for it.
Tonight, though, he didn't refuse Harry and Mike's offer of a pint. A simple pint couldn't hurt, especially since it was being applied medicinally after a shock. Well, not a shock, but running into Harmony had been bad. He hadn't seen her since his incredibly stupid idea of chaining Buffy up to convince her they were meant for one another -- and hadn't that parting been a barrel of laughs?
After the three men had silently stared into the depths of their beer for a while, Mike said, "Please tell me you only dated her as a rebound girl."
Spike couldn't help a short laugh. "That's Harm in a nutshell; always the rebound girl and never the main squeeze. I've been told it was the same thing when she was in high school."
It was clear from the confusion on their faces that Harry and Mike didn't get the reference and Spike didn't particularly feel like explaining. Save for Mike's initial outburst when he'd learned Giles had assigned them to "supervise" the field time Spike needed to log, the two men had been reasonably polite in their dealings with him. It didn't mean, though, that they'd been friendly and neither side had done much in the way of sharing.
They consumed their drinks in silence and Harry fetched another round. It was then he asked, "So, was she the rebound from the Slayer?"
Officially, the Council pretended Spike's relationship with Buffy didn't exist. Officially, he'd been brought into their fold because of the Shanshu prophecy; there were a number who were convinced he was the vampire with a soul spoken of and they wanted to have him on their side when the time came. Unofficially, he knew the rumors ran like wildfire, though most people just whispered behind his back. He was tempted to tell Harry to shove it, that it wasn't any of his business, but they'd just bought him a pint -- two, to be precise -- and seemed to be making some type of effort of offering support; it wouldn't hurt him to be friendly in return. "God, no. Took up with her after Drusilla left me for a chaos demon."
Mike winced. "That must have hurt."
"Oh, it did. You should have seen him -- wasn't just the slime and antlers; he wore polyester. Pale blue polyester leisure suit. Now, Dru might be crazy as a loon, but I always thought she had taste."
That provoked sympathetic noises -- and another pint.
"So, how long did you two date?" Mike asked. "Given the way she was carrying on, sounds like she though you two were serious."
"Couldn't you tell that by the way she slapped him on her way out?" Harry chuckled. "Reminds me of a certain girl you dated once."
"We weren't dating. Went out a couple of times, shagged -- and suddenly she's talking shoes and rice. We were at the Academy," Mike told Spike by way of explanation. "Never gave her any hint that I was looking for anything more than a good time. But she got it into her head that we were 'soul mates' or some such crap like that."
"What happened to her?" Spike found himself curious to hear the end of the story, which was a little surprising since he hadn't felt much interest in anyone's problems but his own for several months. The beer was warming him, though, and the story would prolong their stay at the pub, which he found a pleasant prospect.
Mike shrugged. "Stalked me for a while, tried to get her friends to intercede for her. Blew over after a couple of months when she decided someone else was her new 'soul mate', but it was definitely not fun while it lasted."
"She washed out of the Academy," Harry added. "Much to her family's embarrassment, she's written several best-sellers about paranormal phenomena and lectured extensively."
"Doesn't mean she isn't psycho," Mike grumbled. "This Harmony character anything like that?"
Spike assured Mike that as strange, annoying and flaky as Harmony was, she wasn't the psycho in the deck. More beer, more talk and he expounded on Harmony's penchant for unicorns and self-help books, all of whose philosophy she happily embraced for at least five minutes -- or until something shinier came along. Somewhere along the line, while discovering that Mike had dated a string of truly strange women, he found himself talking about Dru and Cecily. Even Buffy's name came up. Maybe it was the beer talking, but by the time closing was called, he felt as if he'd acquired some new mates, something that hadn't really happened in over a century.
As they made their way out on to the street, not walking completely straight, Harry pointed out a fact none of them had considered. "You realize we're going to have to make a report to Mr. Giles in the morning that we let a notorious vampire get away."
Mike looked panicked, but Spike couldn't help sniggering. "Harmony? Notorious? Hardly."
"But we let her get away. With the exception of you, they don't like it when we let them get away."
Spike shook his head. "Trust me on this one, boys. We explain exactly what happened, Giles will understand that the cosmic practical joke that is Harmony Kendall has struck again."
It was the way Harry and Mike slapped him on the back after Giles had dismissed them the next morning, shaking his head and cursing the vampire who'd stopped to snack during the Sunnydale High graduation, that told Spike his circle of friends had indeed grown larger.