Seasick: Toughen up, kid
by adraztea
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Life on the Mary wasn’t that much different than the life on The Belle. By the time they reached Cadiz to refill their supplies, Buffy had found her place on the ship, and even made a few friends. In Cadiz, she was allowed to accompany Giles to the docks. She remembered the year before, when she had been forced to stay on board, and took the chance to really explore the town.

When they made their way back to the ship, she stopped and looked up at it, Giles continuing aboard the ship without her. It was much larger than The Belle, and loading fresh supplies took a lot longer than it had with the other ship. They even had cattle on board, so they we’re able to have fresh meat sometimes.
“Watch out!”
She didn’t even have time to react before she was pushed aside, falling to her knees. A large barrel crashed to the ground where she had stood only moments before, splashing water all around.
“Oh, that’s just great!” the person who had pushed her aside said. “The captain won’t be happy about this. It’s your fault, boy, for standing in the way!”
Buffy felt cold inside. If the captain got mad at her, her future on the ship could be in danger. She looked up at them man who had pushed her. She’d seen him before, of course, because with his bright blond, almost white hair he was easily spotted when he climbed the rig. She had never seen him up close before, though, and it was downright frightening. His blue eyes were dark with anger. She stood up, her legs feeling shaky.
“I didn’t mean to,” she said. “I’m really sorry.”
“Yeah, well, sorry doesn’t cut it.” He gave her a hard shove that sent her down to the ground again, almost making her lose her breath.
“Now we have to get a new barrel,” he continued, “and refill it, and that will delay us!”
“No, it won’t,” Giles said, reappearing at her side. “There’s plenty of time left before we have to ship out. How could it be the boy’s fault, anyway, that your grip on the barrel slipped?”
“If he hadn’t just stood there, right in my way, I wouldn’t have slipped,” the man spat.
“Right, of course,” Giles said. “It’s always someone else’s fault, isn’t it, Spike? Not your fault you fell asleep on your guard the other night, either.”
For a couple of seconds, the man stared at Giles, eyes narrowing as he tried to come up with some smart remark. Then he shrugged, and started to collect the pieces of the broken barrel.
“Fine, I won’t tell the captain. Just stay out of my way from now on,” he added with an angry last look at Buffy. She nodded and quickly got up and turned around, moving up the gangway to the ship.

“You have to learn how to stand up for yourself,” Giles told her that night. “You can’t let people like Spike kick you around.”
“He was going to complain to the captain.”
“Then you better make sure that the captain believes you instead of the other person. This whole ‘staying-away-from-everyone’-thing you’re doing is fine, but it won’t work in the long run.”
“What am I going to do then?” she asked sulkily.
“Well, stop acting like a girl could be a good idea,” Giles answered, and Buffy blushed. “And don’t pout. It’s not a very manly thing to do.”
That made her blush even worse. At that moment, she felt a lot younger than her thirteen years. She felt like she had when her mother had caught her climbing trees instead of doing her chores when she was a little girl.
“I… I don’t know how to behave,” she said in a low voice.
“Of course you do,” he corrected her. “You have been on the sea for two years, surrounded by boys and men, and you’re not blind. Look at them, and do what they do. Like you did on The Belle. No-one suspected anything then.”
“Do they now?” she asked, the thought making her just as cold as Spike’s voice had done on the docks. Giles looked at her, and even though she wouldn’t meet his eyes, he seemed to sense her fear.
“No, they don’t,” he said. “But they will, if you don’t toughen up. Look, I’ll teach you how to fight, because you are going to need it, but the rest is up to you.”
She nodded, still not looking up. This journey didn’t seem to turn out as good as her last.

Giles kept to his promise. As soon as they were out on the open sea again, and the routines of every day life was back, he started giving her lessons in how to defend herself. She had never fought before and at first it felt awkward, but she soon got the hang of it. It was almost like dancing, and she had had endless dancing lessons growing up. Pretty soon, she could avoid Giles’s punches, and even get one or two in herself. They would practise out on the deck, circling each other as they tried to take the other one down. At times, some of the other men on the crew would hang out together with them, commenting on her fighting style.
“Too bad your so old, Giles,” one of them taunted, “or you might had stood a chance against the boy.”
“What?” Giles exclaimed. “I’m not old! I clearly have the upper hand in this.”
If he hadn’t been panting frantically the whole time he spoke, maybe it would have been more believable. Buffy laughed.
“Give up, old man,” she teased. “Even the blind can see you’re in way over your head.”
“True,” one of the sailors, Tim, said. “I lost an eye twenty years ago, and even that eye agrees.”
The others laughed, and despite himself Giles smiled too. He stood down, marking that their exercise was over for the day.
“Fine, then. You’re getting good, kid.”
His appraisal made Buffy smile even wider.
“Yeah, real good.”
Buffy turned around, frowning at the evident sarcasm in the voice. Spike was leaning against the railing not far from them, and he looked at her with contempt written all over his face.
“You want to give it a shot with some real competition, not just that old man?” he asked with a nod in Giles’s direction.
“Fine,” Buffy answered with a shrug. “Where’s the competition?”
The others laughed behind her, but Spike didn’t seem to enjoy her joke. He pushed himself away from the railing, and walked up to her. He looked down at her, and suddenly she wished she was taller.
“Right here, kid. But you’re right; it won’t be much of a competition.”
His blue eyes flashed with anger, and Buffy felt her mouth go dry. He would take her down, she knew it. Still, she couldn’t back out now.
“Probably not,” she agreed. “Tell me, how do you want your ass kicked?”
With that, they were at it. Circling, just as she had done with Giles, but endlessly more serious this time. He punched, and she blocked. She tried a kick, and he caught her foot, tipping her over. She tried to trip him while she was getting up, but he avoided her easily. After a while, she realized she was smiling; and that there was a smile on Spike’s face as well. He got a hit at her, and she backed away, jaw hurting.
“See? Not much competition,” he growled, attacking again.
She tried another kick, and this time she connected perfectly with his stomach, sending him flying into the railing, coughing and swearing.
“Yeah, really not much of a competition at all,” she agreed sweetly, head to the side.
His eyes gleamed dark blue as he went after her again. It was as if he had decided to stop playing, and it didn’t even take him a minute to have her pinned to the deck. If Giles and Tim hadn’t both taken a hold of his shoulders and dragged him off her, Buffy wasn’t entirely sure she would have lived to tell the story. Spike shrugged both men off him, standing tall and looking down at her.
“Sure as hell wasn’t any competition,” he said fiercely. “As I said before: stay out of my way.”
She didn’t feel up for telling him that, technically, he had been the one that stepped in her way. He stormed off, and she got up from the deck. There was a metallic taste in her mouth, and she leaned over the railing to spit the blood out. At least all of her teeth seemed to be in place.
“Are you all right?” Giles asked, and she shrugged him off. No one was laughing anymore.
“I’m fine,” she said. “That guy sure is full of himself.”
Buffy looked over at the rig, where Spike had just started climbing his way up. He really was annoying.


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