I'm sure you all know that I have much love for all the BtVS/AtS characters and pairings, but that Spike/Xander is my OTP. When I started reading fanfic (back in 2002) I quickly discovered S/X and fell in love with the pairing. I recall first seeing a fic listed with that pairing and was completely intrigued because they have so much tension on the show. I could imagine them being fascinating (and hot!) together in fanfic. I really love the canon pairings, and I never expected to see S/X together on the show (eg. "Hell's Bells" always makes me sob because I want Xander/Anya to work out, and Spike's speech to Buffy in "Touched" gets me every time). What I really love about fanfic is exploring that subtext, those hidden glances, those possibilities that weren't played out on the show.

So, that recounting of my love for S/X - four years going strong! - is really a rambly preamble to celebrate my completely fabulous and wonderful new icon!!! It was made by the uber-talented and wonderfully generous earth_vexer and it makes me so happy every time I see it.

Some of my favourite S/X moments on the show are during season 5 and the scene in the icon (from "Intervention") has that awesome Spike & Xander tension. Oh! And they both look very very pretty in this scene! I just adore how earth_vexer has framed them in the shot!

I requested the text "It's all in the subtext" and earth_vexer brilliantly has "subtext" in handwriting. I love it because the handwriting suggests how as fanfic writers we're playing with the subtext when we write S/X stories (and of course other pairings as well). I'd really wanted my username on the icon and I'm enamoured with how earth_vexer has it mirroring the other text, because I'm a big fan of subtext so I like how that's linked to me.

LOTS AND LOTS OF THANKS TO earth_vexer for kindly making me my very own icon!! *dances around ecstatically*


More thanks and good news!

I was delighted to learn that a very very kind person nominated Pink, my Giles/Xander drabble, for a Bodice Ripper Award (in the Best drabble/ficlet category). Thank you soooo much! That news truly made my day! *smooches*