Part XVII

A few minutes later, they were walking up the slushy street in the cold darkness.

"Do you think...you could...slow down...a bit?" he breathed irritably.  His full belly was bouncing up and down heavily with the pace Cee had set, making it hard for him to keep up.

"Oh, sorry, Pudge," she said, looking over her shoulder at him.  She stopped and waited for him to catch his breath for a few seconds.  "I'm not used to having someone with me when I'm out walking."

"It's...okay," he coughed.

"Geez, are you alright?"

"Fine," he said grimly.  "You know, I would have driven..."

"It's only six more blocks, no use wasting the gas," she told him airily.  "Besides, I'm used to walking everywhere."

"Six more blocks?"

"Yeah."  She looked at him.  "Oh.  I guess you're not used to walking that far."  She bit her lip as she eyed his gut.

He clenched his teeth.  "I'm fine," he repeated.  "Just because I'm fat doesn't mean I can't walk."

"But -"

"At a reasonable speed," he amended.  "So just...go slower.  Please."

"Sorry.  So what kind of ice cream are you going to get?"

She chattered at him the rest of the way, but she did walk more slowly.  Soon, Xander saw the ice cream shop glowing ahead and sighed with relief.  It was embarrassing, having to ask her to slow down for him and his huge body.  Yeah, and now you're going to feed that huge body even more, he thought ruefully.  Good job.

The bell on the handle of the old-fashioned door jangled as Cee opened it and walked inside, alerting the person behind the counter to the fact that she had new customers.  The place was empty except for them, for which Xander was thankful.  He surreptitiously eyed the seating and, to his dismay, realized that there was no way the tiny chairs would hold his weight and there was even less of a chance he'd fit into the small booths lining the walls.  He hoped he could easily persuade Cee to get their ice cream to go.

"Hi," Cee said cheerfully.  "How are you tonight?"

"I'm great, thanks," the girl behind the counter said.  "How are you?"

"I'm good!"

"What can I get for you?"

"Hmm, I think I'd like a scoop of strawberry in a waffle cone."

The girl busied herself with getting Cee's ice cream as Xander looked over the flavors, his mouth watering.  Never mind that he'd just eaten enough for four people; he felt his stomach grumbling in anticipation of the creamy deliciousness.

The girl handed Cee her cone and turned to Xander, her smile slightly forced.  "And what can I get for you?"

"Um, I'd like two scoops of peppermint and two scoops of fudge brownie in a dish, please."

"Okay, I'll have it ready for you in a sec."

"Mmm, peppermint and chocolate, that sounds good, Pudge," Cee told him between licks of her cone.  "Let's sit down and eat for a while."

"I'd rather if we didn't..." he trailed off, looking at the chairs again.

"Why n-" she stopped herself, obviously reading his mind.  "Ohhhh.  Okay, we can walk."

Xander felt himself blush, and swallowed hard.  As much as he hated the fact that she could tell what he was thinking, at least he didn't have to say such embarrassing things as "I won't fit in the seats" out loud.

The bell on the door handle jingled again just as the girl behind the counter handed Xander his ice cream, and Xander was hit by the stink of rotten meat.  He nearly gagged as he handed the girl his money, and did when she held out his change and said, "Here you go, fatass."

He froze, his hand held out underneath hers to accept the coins.  They plopped into his palm one by one.

"Excuse me?" Cee said indignantly.

Without a word, Xander turned to the door and saw a young, blonde, black-eyed man standing behind him, grinning wickedly.  "Well, if it isn't the whale," he said conversationally.  "Gonna stuff your face some more, you obese fuck?"

Cee caught on immediately.  She reached down and pulled a long knife from her boot and handed Xander her ice cream cone.  "You take that back, you piece of shit," she spat.

He growled at her, and Xander heard the girl behind the counter run for the back room.  Cee advanced on the man, her knife glimmering in her hand.  He charged at her in a blur, moving faster than Xander thought possible.  They met in the middle of the shop, Cee punching with her left hand and stabbing at him with her right while the demon ducked and punched back at her.  She kicked him in the head, and he went down, crashing into a table and chairs, but immediately popped back up and countered with a jab to Cee's midsection.  She grabbed his arm and yanked, and the next thing Xander knew, the knife was sticking out of the demon's chest.  He let out an unearthly howl and scrambled for the door, but Cee was fast.  She pulled another knife out of nowhere and hurled it at his back, then took a flying leap and tackled him to the ground.

"Who sent you?" she hissed at him, grabbing a handful of his blonde hair and pulling his head back.

He laughed at her.  "You think it matters, pretty?  More will come.  Many more.  We know what you've found!"

She wrenched his head back.  "Which one sent you?" she yelled.  With her free hand, she swirled a ball of energy into existence, which turned a glowing emerald as she spoke.

"You think I'm afraid of you?  She'll just raise me again if you kill me."

"So it's Megaera."

The demon laughed, his black eyes crinkling jovially.

"Enough."  Cee slammed the ball of energy into his face, and before Xander's eyes, the demon shriveled up with a "pop!" and turned to a pile of dust on the floor.  She stood up and wiped her hands on her pants and picked up her knives from amidst the filth, then walked casually back over to Xander and took her ice cream cone from his grasp and gave it a lick.

He gaped at her.  "You just...you..."

"What?"

"You just annihilated that demon.  That was...that was awesome!"

She grinned at him.  "Thanks, Pudge.  All in a day's work, y'know.  Come on, we'd better get out of here before the cops show up.  She probably called them when I whipped out my dagger.  Hurry up and eat that, it's melting."