Xander growled to himself as he walked slowly back to town in the dying gloom of the overcast day.

It had been such a simple plan, three days without any demons, monsters or world ending events.

Three days with nothing but him, a boat and the wide blue ocean.

Xander grumbled as he continued with his burden.

Three days, two hundred and eighty dollars and all he had to show for it is a small three foot tuna, a bucket of bait, a half empty bottle of motion sickness pills and a dead battery on his car back at the docks.

A splatter on his head made him to look up just as the rain started to pour.

"Great. Just perfect. I could have bought the same amount of fish for seven bucks at the supermarket, I'm gonna smell like fish the entire way home and now I'm gonna chafe." He grouched as the water soaked into his clothes, continuing down the road in silence before being interrupted by a sound he had never heard before.

"MeeeeeeeYAP"

Turning around quickly Xander stared in shock at the small… whatever.

It took him a few moments to recognize it before he bent down to look at it closer.

"Hey there, you're the little guy I gave some of the fish to back on the docks." Xander said before realizing exactly how much the little fellow had grown. "You're not a demon are you?" Xander said as he stepped back in concern.

"Why yes, how ever did you guess?"

Startled by the sudden voice behind him Xander spun around and stared at the tall grey demon.

"Let me guess… it's the horns isn't it, it's always the horns." It said with a grin as Xander backed away and started looking around desperately.

"Hey, how'd you like some fish? Free of charge, just caught it today." Xander offered as the demon continued towards him at an unhurried pace.

Shrugging its shoulder, the demon looked at the fish before looking back to Xander. "No thanks, I prefer the 'Catch of the Day' myself."

Cursing his luck, Xander flipped the fish around and held it by the tail pointing the nose towards the demon. "Don't make me use this." He bluffed he threatened as the demon stared at Xander for a moment before shaking off the challenge.

"Look kid, you have guts." He said before smiling at Xander again. "I'm probably going to pull them out of you, but you do have them, and that's something I respect in this day and age. I mean most of the people you get whine FAR too much. Don't eat meat, don't kill, save the trees, ooh god you're eating my spleen. It gets old." The demon said as he looked back at Xander with a grin. "So why don't you drop the flounder and just let me eat you, I promise I'll kill you quick." The demon offered as Xander stared in shock.

Finally finding his voice Xander looked around to make sure he wasn't on camera or anything before looking back at the demon. "Has anyone ever just dropped their weapons 'feeble as they are' and just let you eat them?" Xander asked as the demon nodded.

"Oh more than you'd guess will just give up." He said before thinking on it a second, "Well, there was this one yahoo up in Tennessee, ran over me nine times with a big rig before I got to him and even then he kicked and clawed the entire way down." He said with a chuckle as he shook his head at the memory. "I'm telling you, you just can't find spirit like that anymore." He said with a sigh before looking back at Xander. "So how about it? You gonna give up or what." The demon asked as he started to advance again.

"How about a counter offer, you let me walk away and I won't have to fish-slap you into next week."

The demon thought about it a second before shaking his head. "Tempting, but… no." he said as he started forward again. This time it was a snarling hiss that brought him to a stop as the two foot long lizard stepped out of the underbrush and advanced on the demon.

Blinking at the small 'lizard' in shock the demon took a step back from Xander as it shook its head in confusion sending a shower of water about. "Hey, I've seen one of you before." He finally said as the lizard's growl started to climb in pitch.

Xander stared as the large demon continued to retreat from the small lizard.

Finally snapping his fingers as he placed where he had seen it before he pointed at it with a smile. "That's right, I saw one of you down in-- ummm… why are you glowing."

Any further comment was cut off as the pitch hit its final note.

Xander remembered a strange popping sound before waking up looking at the broad flat face of the lizard.

Moving it carefully Xander sat up and looked around in shock before noticing the still smoking form of the demon several feet away.

Standing up slowly as his muscles continued to twitch Xander looked from the corpse to the lizard, ransacking his bait bucket and back at the demon.

As the lizard finished Xander reached down and picked it up before heading back to town throwing occasional looks back over his shoulder until the demon was well out of sight.

Looking down at the sleepy lizard, Xander carefully used one hand to scratch under its chin. "I think I'll call you Sparky."

--

I Don't own nothin

Surface belongs to... whoever, just not me.