strangetrip | [For Carlos] Happy Anniversary

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[For Carlos] Happy Anniversary

Time always seemed to get away from Buffy, especially when days flowed into months and months flowed into a year. It didn’t seem possible that she had been in the Inn for a little over a year. A year without her friends. A year without her mom. A year without Giles. She wondered what they were all doing. She still missed them, a lot, but it was also a year of new friends. A year of Carlos.

The year had been eventful to put it mildly, but she wanted to do something special with Carlos. Buffy hadn’t wanted to do it Valentine’s Day, there was too much complex feels about that and the Cupid magical whammy of last year. The day after was perfect. It was like an anniversary of actual feels rather than of manufactured ones.

Because she liked Carlos, Buffy didn’t offer to cook and because he cooked, she didn’t want to go to the restaurant. It would be too much like a busman’s holiday for him. Instead, they’d agreed on a picnic under the stars. Nice, romantic and neither one had to cook. When she’d gone to get a bottle of wine for them, she’d heard the news that Wyatt had left, which only confirmed that life was short. Something Buffy and Carlos were well aware of in their lives back home. Carpe diem.

She shifted the basket to her other hand as she knocked on Carlos’ door. Buffy planned to seize the day or at least as many opportunities as possible before Fate stepped in and kicked her in the teeth like with Kitty and Wyatt.

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"So you're saying you come by it naturally?" Buffy teased as she sat up, "and yeah it's probably a good idea to head back. Not that I haven't been out here when the sun went down, but I'd rather not fight off predators."

Mostly because they'd probably smell the food that they'd eaten.

"I'm saying nothing," he said as he stood up, offering a hand to Buffy to help her back up. "Yeah, I've been out after sundown, but I'm not going to spoil tonight if I don't have to." It wasn't that kind of date.

"I'm all for not spoiling tonight." Buffy smiled and slipped her hand in his to stand, even though she didn't need to. She didn't release it when she'd stood either. "Feel like finishing this back in my room?" Buffy realized how that sounded and blushed. "I mean the conversation and company."

"I'd like that," Carlos said, interrupting her. "Conversation, company... whatever." He liked spending time with her, in whatever form.

Buffy relaxed a lot more after that. Not that she was nervous, but that he'd understood what she'd meant.

"Great." She grinned at him as she picked up the last of picnic and headed toward the lobby. Buffy might have meandered a bit on the way back, enjoying just being able to walk hand in hand with someone and not be on the lookout for dangers.

Once they reached the lobby, she hit the elevator button to take them to her floor.

He couldn't help himself, and while they were waiting for the lift, he leaned in and kissed her.

Buffy was pleasantly surprised and returned the kiss. It took a few seconds for her to realize that the noise she heard was the ping of the doors opening. She ignored it in favor of continuing to kiss Carlos.

The second time it pinged, Buffy reluctantly broke the kiss. "As much as I'd like to keep doing this, we should probably go."

"Hmmmm," Carlos murmured somewhat reluctantly in return, before stepping back and taking her hand and walking into the lift. "I suppose." Or it could get embarrassing in the lobby.

Buffy glanced around and didn't see anyone getting ready to join them so she quickly hit the close door button before anyone else could. She grinned at Carlos as she dropped the picnic stuff on the floor. The better to wrap her arms around his waist.

"Ready to continue that conversation?" She didn't give him time to answer the question before she kissed him.

He chuckled as she dragged him close to her. "What conversation was that?" he asked, teasing her by moving close, but stopping short of kissing her. "It was about the mentors, wasn't it..."

He relented, mostly because he didn't want to wait any longer, and he closed the distance, kissing her thoroughly, not noticing that the lift wasn't moving anymore.

In the back of Buffy's mind she knew that they should have reached her floor by now, but her brain was preoccupied with more pleasant things. Like the feel of Carlos' body against hers and his lips. When she raised her head slightly to change the angle of the kiss that was when her gaze hit on the panel. None of the numbers were lit and they weren't moving.

"Uh." Buffy eloquently said, with a husky breath as she tried to clear her aroused brain.

Carlos hadn't taken any notice of the fact that they had stopped. He'd simply been too focused on Buffy. It was only when she made a noise that he frowned, realizing they had stopped.

"Well... fuck." He knew exactly what had happened, and frankly it was annoying, but if he thought about it, not really surprising. What was mostly surprising was that it hadn't happened before now. "We could be here a while."

It took a few seconds for her brain to catch up to her eyes, but Buffy finally understood they were stuck between floors. "Good thing I'm not claustrophobic." She smiled at Carlos, then wondered at his reaction. "You okay?"

She hadn't connected what had happened to his magic.

"Occupational hazard," he said, waggling his fingers slightly. "I got a little distracted, and... yeah we could be here for a while." He'd managed not to blow any tech around Buffy so far, so it was an unfortunate lesson in what could actually happen.

"Oh, right. You magic does the wonky with techy stuff. God, Willow would have hated having that kind of magic." Buffy said with a half grin, but reached over to slip her arm through his. "I distracted you, huh?"

She focused on that bit instead of they were stuck in an elevator part.

"Newer the tech, bigger the chances of it going wrong," he said, leaning against her, before smirking. "Yes you did, and you know damn well you did." Not that he was complaining, really. "Normally I'm good at using it very deliberately, but not today it seems."

Buffy kissed the underside of his chin and then stepped back. "Now I can brag I kissed a boy and made an elevator stop." She grinned and turned in a circle to look at what was available to them. Buffy wasn't going to wait to be rescued by Daryl or someone else of the robotic staff.

"I can probably push that open easily enough." She pointed to the hatch in the ceiling. "if I grew another foot."

"As long as you don't have to explain it," Carlos said with a laugh.

He looked up at the hatch thoughtfully. "Well, it wouldn't be difficult to get you up there," he pointed out. He wasn't the tallest of people, but he wasn't short, and he had a lot of muscle backing him up. "I could boost you up."

Buffy loved that he didn't have a problem at all with her being stronger than he was. "That can work. I'm not sure what to do from there, but at least we can see how close we are to the next floor or if it's stuck on a floor, we can try to open the doors."

She wasn't sure with the combination of his magic and her strength if they could open the doors but it was worth a try.

What could he say? Carlos was comfortable enough in his own skin that he could recognize when someone could do something else better than him. He had enough of his own skills that it meant that he could find his own niche easily. "If it's close, the doors could open - we can probably manage to prize them apart a little, and hell, if the worst comes to it, I can get us out." Probably a lot of collateral damage, but they could do it.

"Sounds like a plan." Buffy nodded and motioned for him to lift her up. "I'll raise the hatch door and take a peak out to see where we are."

Carlos braced himself, ready to help her up to the hatch.

Buffy easily went up to the hatch and pushed. It was stubborn and it took a second hit before it finally popped open. With Carlos' help, she pulled herself to sit in the opening with her legs dangling down.

"Well good news, bad news. We're definitely stuck between floors but we are close to the floor above us. If I stood up, the bottom of the door would be at my knees."

Carlos had to brace himself when Buffy pushed the hatch, but it was only for a short period of time.

"I guessed we would be," he said with a sigh. "Is there any way to pry the doors open if we tried to open them?"

"Hmm." Buffy looked at the doors. "I might be able to get an opening started by pulling on it, but I don't think I'm strong enough to pull it open enough to squeeze through."

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