Outside

He loves her. He loves her enough to leave the dry comfortable warmth of the bar at night to brave the outdoors, bundled up in coats, so they can go outside and watch the starlight reflect off the lake's smooth surface. There's no snow right now; the ground is cold though not wet. Spike spreads one blanket out and sits, tugging Beth down in front of him, her back to his chest. He wraps his arms and legs around her. The second blanket gets wrapped around both of them because it's night, it's cold, and it's cozier wrapped up together like this.

There's a little ripple in the water. Nothing like when the giant squid used to live here, though he's heard about other creatures having taken up residence. It kind of doesn't make sense to him, but knowing they're at the end of the universe, he doesn't spend a hell of a lot of time wondering how those other creatures got here. He just knows what he's heard.

No real moon graces this sky. No real stars do either, if he wants to be honest about it, but the illusion is good enough for the moment. Looking up, Spike thinks about Mars: the desert, Laughing Bull, falling stars. Atmosphere real or manufactured. Dry red dusty soil. Home; original home.

But not any more because this is home now. Still, there are things he'd like to do on Mars. Places he'd like to take Beth, let her see.

He pulls the blanket around them a little more tightly. "Hey, Beth? Do you remember how many cameras we have left?"