Mprov fic number 1
Nov. 15th, 2005 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deathpixieFor [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com], who gave me "diet, rotund, parental" as the prompt. Hope it's okay, I'm a bit rusty.
Fandom: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer
Season: Five, same day as "The Body".
Rating: G.
Summary: After her surgery, Joyce takes comfort in the small things.
***
Cold, air-conditioned air swallows her and the automatic doors slide shut behind her, shutting out the gritty stickiness of California. Joyce smiles - most people hate grocery shopping and really, after a full day of work she just wants to put her feet up, but she has two teenage girls to feed and really? Shopping is reassuringly normal, a kind of therapy against the insanity that is life in Sunnydale.
Well, if you discount bumping into Clem in the snack food section. But that too, is strangely normal. And if her time in the hospital taught her anything, it's to value the small things, the little comforts.
Fresh vegetables first - Joyce has Rules about cooking things from scratch as much as is feasible. Proper meals, instead of fast food or instant dinners loaded with salt and sugar and additives. The time it takes to prepare is time Joyce uses to think her own thoughts, go over the day, plan for tomorrow. She reaches for a bag of oranges for juice - she's made her own since Buffy was small - and places them in the cart before pausing at a display of eggplants. They're so shiny and purple, shaped like the bellies of little rotund Buddhas, but neither of the girls like them and they're time consuming to cook. Instead Joyce fills up her cart with familiar staples; baby carrots for Dawn who insists that she needs to diet and who only seems to eat breakfast if Joyce makes it for her. Potatoes and broccoli and salad in a bag. Apples and bananas for Buffy's post-patrol fridge raids. There's peas in the pod and Joyce buys them on impulse, thinking perhaps that they could maybe invite Mr. Giles over for dinner again. She refuses to make them mushy, but she knows he likes fresh peas with just a dab of butter and mashed potato. English style roast dinners, only with flavour and no Yorkshire pudding - she's never gotten the hang of those.
Joyce continues through the grocery store in this vein, letting her mind run almost on autopilot, picking and selecting items for each member of her family. Popcorn for those evenings the gang is there, either to watch movies or to figure out how to kill the latest demon threat. Cookie dough for Willow, who likes to bake almost as much as she likes to eat, particularly when she's stressed. Fruit punch for Anya, Oreo ice cream for Xander. Nothing with shrimp in case Tara is having dinner with them. Little marshmallows for Spike's hot chocolate. Disinfectant and more bandages for Buffy, who's been coming home much more battered than usual with this Glory person... Joyce frowns at that. It goes against every parental instinct she has, standing back and letting Buffy take on this threat, but she knows she is human. Merely human, at that. She can't do magic or research or use a weapon to help her daughter in her calling and it rankles, frustrates.
Still, there are some things she can do. Joyce loosens her grip on the cart, continues on her way down the aisles. She can make sure Buffy has dinner to come home to, a retreat, a haven, a home. A family.
Just as she's almost done, Joyce feels the first familiar twinges of a headache and picks up some Tylenol. The doctors have said the headaches will end, it's just another sign of recovery from the surgery. She'll go home, unload the groceries and maybe have a rest before starting dinner. Watch "Passions" on the couch so she and Spike can gossip about it later over hot chocolate. Just to be sure, she dry-swallows a couple of Tylenol on the way out to the car and by the time she's done loading the back, the headache has receded, although it's not entirely gone. Still, it's at manageable levels and Buffy will be home early this afternoon. She'll be able to pick up Dawn from school.
Pot roast, Joyce decides as she carefully reverses out of the parking space. She'll make pot roast tonight. It's Buffy's favourite.
Fandom: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer
Season: Five, same day as "The Body".
Rating: G.
Summary: After her surgery, Joyce takes comfort in the small things.
***
Cold, air-conditioned air swallows her and the automatic doors slide shut behind her, shutting out the gritty stickiness of California. Joyce smiles - most people hate grocery shopping and really, after a full day of work she just wants to put her feet up, but she has two teenage girls to feed and really? Shopping is reassuringly normal, a kind of therapy against the insanity that is life in Sunnydale.
Well, if you discount bumping into Clem in the snack food section. But that too, is strangely normal. And if her time in the hospital taught her anything, it's to value the small things, the little comforts.
Fresh vegetables first - Joyce has Rules about cooking things from scratch as much as is feasible. Proper meals, instead of fast food or instant dinners loaded with salt and sugar and additives. The time it takes to prepare is time Joyce uses to think her own thoughts, go over the day, plan for tomorrow. She reaches for a bag of oranges for juice - she's made her own since Buffy was small - and places them in the cart before pausing at a display of eggplants. They're so shiny and purple, shaped like the bellies of little rotund Buddhas, but neither of the girls like them and they're time consuming to cook. Instead Joyce fills up her cart with familiar staples; baby carrots for Dawn who insists that she needs to diet and who only seems to eat breakfast if Joyce makes it for her. Potatoes and broccoli and salad in a bag. Apples and bananas for Buffy's post-patrol fridge raids. There's peas in the pod and Joyce buys them on impulse, thinking perhaps that they could maybe invite Mr. Giles over for dinner again. She refuses to make them mushy, but she knows he likes fresh peas with just a dab of butter and mashed potato. English style roast dinners, only with flavour and no Yorkshire pudding - she's never gotten the hang of those.
Joyce continues through the grocery store in this vein, letting her mind run almost on autopilot, picking and selecting items for each member of her family. Popcorn for those evenings the gang is there, either to watch movies or to figure out how to kill the latest demon threat. Cookie dough for Willow, who likes to bake almost as much as she likes to eat, particularly when she's stressed. Fruit punch for Anya, Oreo ice cream for Xander. Nothing with shrimp in case Tara is having dinner with them. Little marshmallows for Spike's hot chocolate. Disinfectant and more bandages for Buffy, who's been coming home much more battered than usual with this Glory person... Joyce frowns at that. It goes against every parental instinct she has, standing back and letting Buffy take on this threat, but she knows she is human. Merely human, at that. She can't do magic or research or use a weapon to help her daughter in her calling and it rankles, frustrates.
Still, there are some things she can do. Joyce loosens her grip on the cart, continues on her way down the aisles. She can make sure Buffy has dinner to come home to, a retreat, a haven, a home. A family.
Just as she's almost done, Joyce feels the first familiar twinges of a headache and picks up some Tylenol. The doctors have said the headaches will end, it's just another sign of recovery from the surgery. She'll go home, unload the groceries and maybe have a rest before starting dinner. Watch "Passions" on the couch so she and Spike can gossip about it later over hot chocolate. Just to be sure, she dry-swallows a couple of Tylenol on the way out to the car and by the time she's done loading the back, the headache has receded, although it's not entirely gone. Still, it's at manageable levels and Buffy will be home early this afternoon. She'll be able to pick up Dawn from school.
Pot roast, Joyce decides as she carefully reverses out of the parking space. She'll make pot roast tonight. It's Buffy's favourite.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-15 09:19 pm (UTC)