likealighthouse's museum

fandom: btvs
ship: buffy/cordelia
rating: g
words: 300
notes: for adventuring april - d8 table: 2. clash
and for equusgirl's femslash commentfic fest: any/any - sunlight

The five of them are standing, loitering practically, in the quad. Willow and Xander are completely in their own world, having one of those WillowXander convos that Buffy mostly tunes out–(Oz is trying his best to follow along, bless his heart)–and she and Cordelia are standing next to each other and zoning out in near-companionable silence.

Something zips into her field of vision, a flower floating on the breeze, breaking up the harsh light of the sun with its vivid pink.

Buffy opens her palm and catches it, thinks about making some quip regarding her lightning fast slayer reflexes, but the only one who’s noticed is Cordelia.

“Pretty,” she says quietly, absentmindedly.

Buffy looks at Cordelia looking at the flower–long lashes and red lipgloss, and her hand moves before her brain can tell it otherwise, goes to tuck it behind her ear.

“What are you doing?” Cordelia reels back, and Buffy snatches her hand away, heart in her throat and heat rising to her cheeks.

“That does not go with this outfit at all.”

“Right, stupid me, forgetting outfit color theory–sorry.”

She rushes to dispose of the evidence.

“Wait,” Cordelia catches her wrist, “I didn’t say I didn’t want it.”

Silence–from the entire group, Buffy realizes–as Cordelia plucks the flower from Buffy’s open palm and deposits it into one of her purse pockets.

“What?” Cordelia snaps, meeting the open-mouthed gapes of the others, “Did we interrupt your nerd shit?” She waves an inpatient hand, “Resume!”

And Buffy catches herself grinning like an idiot, trying not to look back at the pocket where Cordelia stowed away her flower.

Later, she'll tell herself that it was heat sickness–too much time in the sunlight–and vehemently deny the fact that she's totally and absolutely crushing on Cordelia Chase.