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DISCLAIMER: Well, the Weirdo Twins are mine. For better or for worse...
SUMMARY: PG. Buffy is alone at the Bronze.
WORDCOUNT: 1748
DEDICATION: To Eleni, on her birthday. I can't believe it's been a complete year
since the last one (well, duh, but... wow. a year.) I hope you're having a wonderful day,
darling
REALITY CHECK
by Leni
Buffy tapped her feet impatiently against the floor. It was futile, of course, the music
was too loud for anyone to hear it. Except maybe that thing she'd just felt
scurrying over her sandaled feet. Ew. How long until the next Fumigation Party?
Buffy sighed. She couldn't believe she was here on her own. Thank God Cordelia and her
clique weren't here to witness this; the brunette would never let her live it down. Buffy
could almost hear the words she'd say: "What? Even the nerd squad abandoned you? How
the mighty have fallen, Buffy. Or not." Buffy's grip on her Coke tightened. One of
these days she'd have a priority more important than saving Miss Bitchy-R-Us's ass. Maybe
Cordelia would learn then. Buffy snorted indelicately and automatically covered the rude
gesture sipping from her glass. No, she didn't have that much luck.
Buffy gave herself another five minutes before she left the club. She'd known that coming
alone would be a failure but she'd had this feeling. It either meant that a demon
would try to make dinner from the teenagers here, or that Angel would come. Buffy really
hoped it was the latter, she was wearing her finest shoes tonight.
"Buffy, right?" A voice at her right called her suddenly. Before she could turn
there was a new one at her left. "Why's a beautiful girl all alone?" Voice One
continued his partner's sentence smoothly. "Especially here. It isn't right."
Both boys finally decided to come into her vision. Buffy recognised one of them from her
Biology class.
"Mark?"
"Clark, actually," he answered with a grin. "Glad you remember me. And
this," He slapped his friend's arm in easy camaraderie. "Is Edward, he's a
senior at Sunnydale High."
Buffy smiled tentatively, crossing the fingers of her free hand for Clark and Edward not
to be vampires in search of an easy prey. She really wasn't in the mood for fledglings
tonight. "Hello, you seem to know my name already."
Clark laughed. "Who doesn't? You're big, Buffy. The most mysterious girl at school,
they say you escaped from the cops at L.A.."
"And that you stole Owen's heart." Edward chuckled. "That guy hasn't been
the same since he went out with you."
"Oh yeah. From heartbreaker to weirdo." Clark nudged his partner's ribs as he
laughed again. "Don't want to end like that, do we?"
The other guy tapped his chin as if immersed in thought. "For a girl as pretty as
her?" He winked at Buffy. "Sure!"
Clark nodded and advanced towards her. At his side, Edward did the same. Now Buffy didn't
know which way to look and she forced herself not to beat the chatting duo when each took
one of her arms. "Guys..."
"Can't have a lonely girl at the Bronze." In desperation, Buffy pointed at a
random girl, obviously as alone as she'd been two minutes ago. Both shook their heads in
unison. "Not one as pretty as you," Clark corrected his previous statement.
"Er..." Buffy half-heartedly tried to get her arms back. She made a mental note
to train on how not to hurt humans when using her strength, against a normal person she
was useless. She tugged a bit harder but both guys remained clueless. "I have a
boyfriend," she blurted out.
That got their attentions, but not enough to release their grasps. "You do?"
Edward looked in confusion at Clark. "You said she was single," he said in an
accusatory voice." Clark held his free hand up in defence, "Hey, Harris swore
they weren't dating."
"Not Xander," Buffy gritted out, now truly furious because their
struggle, as quiet as it was, had managed to get a splash of Coke on her skirt. The green
one which went wonderfully with this cream top and the sandals she was wearing. And Coke
was nearly impossible to get out! With an impatient movement, she loosened herself.
Stooge One and Two looked at her with wide eyes. "Wow..." One said and the other
echoed the sentiment with a "Cool!"
Buffy felt like slapping both. Whatever these boys thought, she didn't want a repeat of
the 'Owen fiasco'. "I have a boyfriend," she repeated. Their looks changed from
surprise to curiosity. Buffy sighed, this had to be the most bizarre situation during her
time in Sunnydale. Where did these weirdoes come from? "He doesn't go to
school, so stop trying to guess who he is."
"Not from school?" Clark blinked. "But everyone in Sunnydale goes to
school!"
"Unless they are at college." Edward punched his pal on the shoulder.
"Moron."
"Oh." Then Clark turned to Buffy. "Does he go to college?"
So unused she was at explaining who Angel was and what he did, that she found herself at a
loss for words. She just nodded. Then said a quick prayer of thanks when she found the
topic at hand coming into the room, just steps behind the scary boys who'd ambushed her.
"Angel..." she muttered, not offering an explanation or a goodbye before
stepping decidedly between her 'companions'.
Clark's and Edward's voices faded quickly into the background:
"That's him?"
"So it seems."
"He doesn't look like a college guy. Too old."
"Mmmhmmm..."
Buffy called her boyfriend's name louder. To her relief Angel heard her this time, smiling
when he discovered her among the crowd.
"Damn. Why do the prettiest chicks always go after the older ones?"
"Cordelia doesn't."
"No, she goes after the rich ones. We're screwed anyway."
"Shit."
Buffy smiled back and waved to him, aware that the wonder duo was still whispering behind
her.
"I still say he's too old."
"Cradle-robbing. He'll tire of her. Jailbait only attracts for so long. Why, my
cousin Pete said that Aura..."
Buffy tuned them out, focusing on the man in front of her. The one who saved her even when
he didn't really know it. That alone deserved the longest kiss. Buffy made sure to reward
him accordingly. "I'm so glad you're here," she confessed after the kiss was
over, hugging him for all she was worth. "Giles gave me a free night, can you believe
that? I don't know why Willow and Xander didn't want to come but I had a good feeling
about the Bronze tonight. And look, here you are." She finished her sentence with a
bright smile, but it slipped when she noticed that his attention was elsewhere. When she
followed his line of sight it fell on the same boys who'd been bothering her earlier.
"Hey." She tapped his chin lightly and tried a new smile when he immediately
turned to her. "What's going on?"
He shook his head. "Just something they said."
Her eyes narrowed. "That 'something' doesn't happen to include the word jailbait,
does it?" His sheepish look confirmed it. Buffy rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Dumb jerks," she spat, sparing the boys in question an angry glare. "As if
they knew anything."
Angel put a calming hand on her shoulder, rubbing the muscle softly. "From their
point of view, it---"
"Don't continue that sentence," she warned, still throwing daggers at the
retreating teenagers. "Besides," At her new thought, Buffy brightened
considerably and he could almost feel the tension leave her body. "It's little more
than a year for that 'jailbait' detail to fade away. After that..." She trailed off
and Angel knew she was blushing. Buffy tried to backtrack over her words without being too
obvious. "I mean, what's a year?"
Angel swallowed. What's a year? The pained look that crossed his face instantly wasn't
there by the time she had turned around fully. "I'm just saying that outside your
friends" and between them, he added to himself, remembering Xander's usual
scowls at his presence. "our relationship is frowned upon." He put a silencing
finger to her lips before she could deny it. "And they are unaware the difference is
much larger than they could imagine."
One eyebrow shot up in disbelief and Buffy determinedly bit the offending finger. She
ignored Angel's incredulous look as he examined his hurt appendage. "You do
know that the difference wouldn't be much larger even if you were dating, I don't
know," Buffy searched quickly in her memory for someone in the right age-range.
"my mother." Both their faces scrunched in distaste at the idea. "And do
never ever remind me I said that." She shuddered a bit for good measure.
He stopped a chuckle at her display. True, the thought of Joyce in that context wasn't
welcome, but Buffy's reaction was very amusing indeed. He took her hand and lead her in
the direction of recently emptied table on the edge of the dancing floor. "Believe
me," he muttered as they walked. "You're the only Summers girl I can
handle."
She frowned and roughly pulled him to her, making him almost trip against a chair.
"That was a compliment, wasn't it?" The turn of her mouth suggested he answered
in a quick affirmative and followed it with a better compliment. However, by the time that
Buffy-gesture was correctly translated into the warning it was, Buffy had decided he'd
paused for too long. "No wonder you remained cryptic at first. Had I known your mouth
ran ahead of you, I'd have thought longer about being with you."
This time his intuition was sharper and Angel could almost see the red lights flaring in
alarm. Uncaring of the teenagers sitting at the table, he stepped back until he was right
in front of her again, then circled his arms around her waist and whispered low against
her ear. "Would you?" He dropped a quick kiss there, making sure that one hand
trailed down her arm lightly until his fingers entwined with hers. "Are you thinking
about it now?"
"T-think?"
There was a fleeting thought about having to be mad when he laughed softly. But the laugh
was deceptively warm against the skin on her neck. Mad? Why would she? Buffy just
tightened her grasp on his hand and reached to thread her free arm around his neck. She
leaned against his chest and realised that this was the best part of her night. Her eyes
closed on their own volition, enjoying the rare peaceful moment, and she didn't say a word
until he tugged her chin upwards and pointed to an empty booth at the back of the Bronze.
A smile and a nod later, he disengaged from their embrace and, with his arm firm around
her, led her away.
The End
09/10/04
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