...After almost a minute, she returned sporting a dark green cardboard case in her arm. Its hops-and-aluminium contents clattered dully with each step. Buffy, on the other hand, was happier without the fight. She never minded a smackdown but she rarely went looking for one. At least not with people who weren't direct threats or enemies. For this reason, she missed Spike. And Faith. Two people she could have counted on to indulge a tangle here or there. All strictly business, of course.

"There," she said as she held the box out for the man who was (refreshingly) about her height. "Try not to burn through it too fast. We're not a bottomless pit, here."