Will you stay awake for me? [I don't wanna miss a thing]

[Awake]

Co-written with stillacrime and whattingawhat

Buffy was lying on her back, hands folded across her stomach, staring up at the ceiling. There was a cricket somewhere out in the alley and she was pretty sure their neighbors were fighting. She was trying to sleep. In fact she even wanted to sleep but wanting and doing were two entirely different things at the moment. Finally she loudly blew out her breath, not at all afraid she'd wake up Danny and turned on her side. Danny was still soundly asleep. She dipped her head and kissed his shoulder.

"Hey, Boyfriend, wake up," she told him. He grunted and mumbled something but didn't wake. Buffy laughed and nudged his hip with her knee as she rolled over to sit straddle on top of him. "Come on, I have a plan, Stan. And it includes you waking up. I promise it'll be fuuuuun."

His hand fell deftly to her hip and thigh and a corner of his lips moved just barely but he didn't open his eyes. "What time is it, Sunshine?" He mumbled.

"Hmmm 2:45," Buffy answered with a glance to the clock on the nightstand. She pressed a kiss to his jaw. "I can't sleep and you don't have to get up in the morning for work so..I wanna go ice skating. Wake up and come with."

At the kiss, he tilted his head back into the pillow to lean his jaw into it. He finally opened his eyes, blinking through sleep to look up to her shadowed form on top of him. "Ice skatin' at two in the mornin'? You gotta be kiddin' me. Really? Where?"

"There's a rink in Harlem that's twenty-four hours and I know it's not a good neighborhood but I think I can handle it," Buffy teased him. "It'll be fun and we'll get hot chocolate afterwards and cuddle. I insist on post ice skating cuddling."

For a long moment he remained silent, thinking it through and convincing himself that he could get out of bed without the necessity of work making him do it at two in the morning. Finally, he nodded and patted her thigh. "Alright, you got it. But tomorrow I get to sleep and watch football. Lemme get dressed."

"Tomorrow will be full of sleeping, eating and football watching," Buffy promised as she rolled off Danny and padded barefoot and naked across the room. She grabbed clothes out of the dresser; underwear, a pair of black leggings and a pink sweater.

Danny got out of bed in the same state as Buffy did and lazily pulled on a pair of old jeans, a worn olive hued tee shirt and some boots. He simply added some deodorant and ran his hand back and forth through his hair to 'fix' it. It didn't take him much and he was still ready before Buffy was. He grabbed his leather coat and then went to sit on the couch to wait. Being a girl, she naturally took longer. It didn't help that ice-skating was a 'pretty' sport and being pretty on the ice was sorta important. She finally emerged with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, black leggings, knee-high black boots and the pink sweater hitting just at her hips. She smiled at him and grabbed a white pea coat from the closet as well as her ice skates which she slung over her shoulder. When she was ready, he took her hand and she suffered through the elevator for him since too much strain was still hurting his torso. Her heart was still pounding from the elevator but she fared it as well as could be expected. She kept her eyes closed the whole time, not opening them until he tugged on her hand, elevator doors wide open. Once they were in the open air, she tried not to gulp it like she'd been suffocating; because she hadn't and it just made her feel ridiculous. They got on the bike and he moved through traffic towards Harlem. He found the rink and parked the bike.

Buffy got off the bike first and handed Danny her helmet. Once he'd locked both of them up, she took his hand and led him inside. The rink was reasonably empty. Just them and some insomniac working on a sit spin. She glanced over at him and smiled. "Okay, Boyfriend, moment of truth. Are you skating or walking?"

"I haven't skated at a rink in... a long time, Summers. Plus I'm normally a soled feet on solid and dry ground kinda guy. That on top of it bein' past three in the mornin' now..." Squeezing her hand, he shrugged and shoved his other hand in his jeans pocket. "Tell you what, you don't mind dealin' with a rusty skater, you got it."

"I don't mind," Buffy assured him, a smile spreading over her face. She had the guy at the desk get Danny a pair of skates and they went over to the bench to sit down and put on their skates. "Just stick with me. I'll take care of you," she told him once she had her skates on. She stretched up, going up on the toe picks of the skates and then back down to the blades. "It's been...wow a long time since I've skated too but it's like tricycles and riding...or cars and driving? Maybe it's cars and riding but that doesn't make sense. Anyway we'll have fun."

"You'll have fun when you get tired of me and boot me off of the rink." Danny glanced around, kind of glad that there weren't any crowds here to see his soon-to-be failure at ice skating. He stood up, a bit wobbly even on the regular floor before he got his balance. "So what're you gonna do? Lead me around the rink?" He asked.

"Sure, if you want me too," Buffy told him as she held a hand out to him. "And I won't get tired of you or boot you off the ice but when you do get tired, I probably will goof around a little while longer before we go home. Right now, I want to skate with you." When Danny put his hand in hers, she stepped backwards over the threshold onto the ice and held out her other hand.

Both hands placed in Buffy's, Danny held on almost too tight. As his skates slid out onto the ice, he was a little wobbly at first. "I'm gonna fall on my ass."

"Have a little faith in me, Boyfriend. I'll keep you upright," she assured him as she skated backwards. She moved her hands so she was holding onto his upper arms instead of his hands, giving her better leverage. She was probably one of the few people in the world with the strength, coordination and balance to keep him on his feet if she were so inclined.

And she did make him feel steadier. Her grip held him upright for the first few minutes until he got his bearings. And then he loosened his hold on her just a little. He didn't let go. He wasn't ready for that. "Alright. Alright so faith in you works out for me. You got it, Summers."

She loosened her hold slightly when he did, a smile sliding over her lips as they both relaxed a bit. She swiveled on her skates, letting go of his left side and dipping under his arm on his right side so that they could skate side by side. "See, awake in the middle of the night isn't so bad."

"Middle of the night, middle of the mornin'..." Casting Buffy a crooked grin, Danny shrugged. He really didn't mind what they did as long as it was together. "Nah, I'm not complainin'."