"What the hell does 'snarky' mean, anyway?" Spike propped his feet on the sofa, looking at Xander upside down from his reclining position on the floor.

"Sarcastic and funny and kinda snotty all rolled up together. In short: you." Xander didn't look up from the computer monitor.

"I don't think that it's a real word. You on eBay again?"

"Is, too. And yeah, a little." Xander minimized the window and opened a new one.

"No more collector's plates," Spike admonished.

"Here we go," Xander said. "' Snarky: irritable or short-tempered; irascible.' That's from dictionary.com."

"Is it in the OED?" Spike asked, rolling his head against the floor and pointedly ignoring the massive dust bunnies under the couch.

"Hang on," Xander said, searching. "Dunno - oed.com requires a subscription, and there's no way in hell I'm subscribing to a dictionary."

"I still don't think it's a real word."

"You're a snob, Spike. You know, 'one who affects an offensive air of self-satisfied superiority in matters of taste or intellect.'"

They got an entry for 'pillock' in there?" Spike asked, quietly scooting across the floor.

"Hang on," Xander said, typing. "Hey!" he exclaimed, when the word flashed on the screen. "That's not very nice." He typed in another word. "Here we go - 'evil: morally bad or wrong; wicked; causing ruin, injury, or pain; harmful; bad or blameworthy by report; infamous.'"

A hand snaked up the leg of his jeans, stroking the back of his knee. He looked down to see a happy smile.

"Sweet talker," Spike said.