See Part One for Disclaimers
Part Two
Buffy and Willow entered the room unharmed. Buffy spotted the box (well, it was kinda hard to miss) first. Willow looked at Buffy who shook her head. Nope. Not from her. Willow read the card. She got a funny (amused) look on her face and opened the box. After wading through the amber tissue paper guarding the contents, she got a really funny (confused) look on her face. She held up the top. Buffy's eyes widened.
"Wow."
"Yeah. Bad Willow."
"Yeah. Wow. Try it on?"
"Buffy!" After all, who did she have to wear it for? And, besides, Willow didn't advertise -- She frowned. Maybe that was the problem. She pulled the soft leather trousers out of the box and laid them on the bed with the tunic. It was soft. It was warmish. It was -- too big of a temptation to refuse. Feeling just a bit daring, she decided she could at least try the outfit on. It probably wouldn't fit, anyway.
"Wow," was Buffy's considered opinion.
"Yeah," Willow agreed in a sort of awestruck voice. She'd forgotten how she looked in Bad Willow's outfit. And this one wasn't quite as tight. She could breathe. It fit like it was made for her. Her big blue eyes met Buffy's bright gaze. Who in the world would know -- somehow, she didn't think even Oz could have managed this one.
There was a knock at the door. Without thinking, Willow reached over and opened it.
She giggled. Buffy's mouth dropped open. They both giggled. There was Riley, being rapidly covered in silly string. It was just too much. They both started laughing even as they tried to uncover him and figure out where it was coming from.
Riley had just enough presence of mind to manage to get his mouth closed before the silly string got into it. It really wanted to drop open. Buffy was -- well, he really liked Buffy. But Willow in leather -- wow. And Willow was so sweet -- He backed away from the doorway and the laughter. The barrage stopped.
"I'm -- sorry," Willow apologized. "I mean -- I didn't -- but -- I -- Buffy?" she squeeked slightly.
"I don't know. Wasn't me. You OK?" she directed the last to Riley.
"Yeah. I knew college was supposed to be a fun place, but -- " He held up a handful of plastic string he'd dragged out of his hair.
"Yeah. Wierd."
"Wierd," Buffy echoed her roommate and very good friend. "You were -- looking for us?"
"Yeah --" He dragged his eyes off Willow and just about melted when he looked into Buffy's blue eyes. Warning. Warning! Meltdown imminent! Warning! Warning! One of these days he would have to get that warning system fixed, it just wasn't doing its job. He smiled at Buffy. Then he looked really bemused. He knew he had a reason for stopping by, but he couldn't for the life of him remember what it was. "I suspect there's something in the string. I've forgotten what it was," he admitted with a laugh. "See you later."
He turned and walked away. Buffy and Willow looked at each other with one of those "Huh, what?" looks they were soooo good at.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Spike thought he heard smothered giggling. He whirled to look. Nothing. Silence. Trees and leaves and -- something glinting in the moonlight. He picked it up. Blood bag. Warm. He looked at the expiration date. It hadn't expired yet. It didn't smell like the one he had abstained from drinking at the installation. He popped the spiggot and drank. Yum. Not as good as taking it fresh, but not bad. He sniffed at the bag after he drained it. He might like to thank -- sea salt? Animal? Young and female. Reptile???? What the...???
From cover, the quartet of lurkers watched the emotions flit across the blond vampire's face. Grace wanted to say hi. dragon was keeping a firm grip on her catsuited cohort. "Besides, you'd ruin continuity," dragon had pointed out.
Pout.
"And Xander and Giles have yet to receive of our largesse."
Small pout.
"And they're a lot less dangerous."
Nod and pout.
"And they might catch one of us and that wouldn't be a problem for continuity."
Grin.
"Cradle robber."
Raised eyebrows. Innocent blink, blink. Gurgle of laughter.
"Shhhhh!" the seaquest addict shushed.
Fold.
Spike charged the underbrush. He was certain he'd heard laughter. Nothing. Well. At least, he wasn't as bloody empty. Grump. His ears pricked up as he heard other furtive sounds in the underbrush. Boots. Male scents. Damn. Bloody damn. Bloody hell damn. Spike retreated silently, avoiding Riley and his men as they searched for him, yet again.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"This is Xander's room?" dragon sounded some how disbelieving. For one thing, it was neat. Not a phenomenon she frequently associated with anyone under the age of 21 save under extreme duress.
"Anya," came the two syllable response.
"Bossy little snirp."
Grace raised her eyebrows and grinned. She helped the seaquest addict unload the backpack. She raised her eyebrows a little at the assortment of flavored lubricants. "I thought you said lurks were PG-13."
"Did I describe them in loving detail?"
"No."
"Did I say precisely what they were for?"
"No."
"Did I even indicate why he was getting them?"
"No."
"So, those with minds like sewers can come to their own conclusions, and the rest will wonder when 10W40 oil started coming in strawberry," dragon ended with a laugh and a fiendish grin.
"So, what explains this?" Grace held up the container with the black leather thong in it.
::Blink. Blink:: "Well, I had a problem with boxers or briefs. He wears both."
Grace wondered how she got through that one with a straight face. The seaQuest addict exploded in giggles over the next items. Icecream. Whipped cream. Strawberries. Champagne. Grace frowned at the addict. "Isn't she --"
"Yeah. But her brain's nearly 4k. Too much time with Tes."
"Too much time with dragon," the addict added sotto voce. She and Grace grinned at each other in harmonius understanding.
"Someone's coming," RevSam advised.
Fold.
Xander Harris, closely followed by his favorite ex-vengeance demon lover, entered the room. Xander missed the gifts. Anya didn't.
"Xander! You sweet thing, you," she cooed.
Xander wasn't certain what it was all about, but he smiled and accepted her temperature raising thanks with aplomb.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Out in the underbrush on the campus, Grace, dragon, the seaquest addict and RevSam were trying to figure out just exactly what it was that they were leaving Giles. Actually, they were arguing about it. Grace was trying to convince them that leaving Grace as a present was a really good idea. dragon rolled her eyes at this.
"Look, you got to play with what's-his-name on Moya. I am not letting you stay behind here. Oh, shoot!"
Grace found herself gazing into a pair of bluish eyes, the only really visible item on the face of the camoflage clad gentleman who had just materialized behind dragon, who had wisely gone someplace else. Unfortunately, Grace was standing just outside the effects of the tesserect field and -- got left behind. The gentleman's companions did an equally quiet materialize out of the undergrowth.
"Uh -- hi. Nice night," she greeted them with a spritely grin that covered the incredible amount of trepidation she was feeling.
They looked her over, leaving her with a feeling she'd been peeled; which, considering the somewhat second skin fit of the catsuit she was wearing, was not exactly an out of place feeling. She tried taking a step backwards. They noticed. OK, Grace, old girl, she thought, now what? Turn to run and they zap you down and they might find out before they diddle with your brain that you're not a vampire, or a creepy crawly of any sort -- Her thought processes stopped at this point because she spotted Spike behind the trio. Oh, no. Headache time! She winced slightly in sympathy as Spike leveled one of the trio with a rock. Yep, headache time.
Grace took advantage of the disarray of the trio and dove into the bushes. She was closely followed by Spike who grabbed her arm, ignored the feeling that a railroad sized namesake was being driven through his skull, and tugged her out of harm's way. With great care, they avoided the soldier boys and -- ended up at Giles'????
Blink. Blink. Grace turned her gaze on Spike and tried very, very hard not to melt. dragon had said melting was a bad idea. Yeah. Bad idea. Grace had all kinds of bad ideas just at the moment. Especially with Giles standing there in the open doorway. Sigh. Happy sigh.
Giles took in the stunningly catsuited young woman with Spike; goggled slightly and pulled both of them into his home. "You are not, I take it --"
"Fanged? Oh, no," Grace assured him happily.
Giles didn't have the foggiest idea what was causing that wonderful smile, but it seemed to be contagious. He smiled back.
Spike looked from Grace to Giles and back again. "All right. When the mutual admiration society gives up --" A scent hit him. This was one of the -- people -- who'd gifted him with the blood. He frowned at her suspiciously. Grace turned her smile on him. His mouth twitched. He was damned if he was -- going -- to -- he lost the battle and grinned. He turned his attention back to Giles. "They're out there."
"Who's out where?"
"The soldier boys. They were within seconds of takin' her off. Missed the lot with her. How did they do that?" he demanded.
Blink. Blink. "Do what?" Spike scowled at her. She reminded herself that Spike's scowl was worse than his bite and got the giggles. "I'm sorry," she apologized for no apparent reason. "I just had a -- really silly thought," she non-explained with a grin.
Spike took her arm in a firm grip. No headache. So far, so good. "How -- did -- they -- do -- that?" he demanded slowly.
She considered the bright "do what?" again, and discarded the idea. No. Spike looked a little -- mental -- just at the moment. "Well -- I don't know, exactly," she admitted. Now that she thought about it, she really didn't know.
"Exactly?"
"Well, dragon --"
"Dragon?" Giles interjected.
"Yeah, dragon. My friend. She's -- uh -- well -- oh, dear." The whole point to lurking was *not* to get caught. Here she was, caught again. Spilling the beans about dragon seemed just a bit -- well -- not done.
Outside, dragon and friends folded in to discover they were (1) missing Grace and (2) semi-expected. dragon didn't know which was worse, Riley's squad or Spike's acquiring Grace. The trio produced large water guns and proceeded to hose the squad with paint. Water based paint, but blinding when in the eyes, nonetheless. Spike yanked open the door to demand to know what was going on and -- caught a mouthful of paint which caused him to make sputtering, spitting noises worse than the coming-back-to-himself-kissing-Buffy thing had. dragon figured the best thing to do was remove Riley and his squad. Which she did by placing them back about half an hour into their pasts, determining that there would be no blinovich effect if she was careful, and then removing Grace from Giles and Spike.
Riley was easy. Detaching Grace from Giles was not.
"Let go."
"But --" Pout.
dragon sighed. She pointed out that once they were gone, neither Giles nor Spike would recall a thing. Grace looked really upset about that.
"But --"
"Cheese?" the seaquest addict offered.
"I was not whining!"
"You were going to --" The addict ducked behind dragon for protection from the seriously flaming look Grace was giving her. She giggled.
Grace retired into a dignified attitude. "So, what are we leaving?"
RevSam produced English tea, the real thing.
dragon produced a large volume, frowned at it, set it aside and pulled out a much smaller, elegantly leather bound volume. "Poetry. Light reading for between research projects."
The seaQuest addict produced a kitten -- small, wiggly, solid black with a white star on it's chest and really big, slightly crossed blue eyes. She carefully handed it into Giles' keeping with a grin. Before he could protest, the kitten had snuggled into his hands and started purring like there was no tomorrow; or a motorboat had run amock in its innards. Giles fuzzed and melted.
"Now!" dragon grabbed Grace, who was doing her own melt, tho' it was hard to tell if it was Giles, Spike or the kitten effecting her most. Fold.
"Whew --- uh -- oh, dear," dragon said in a very small voice.
About a hundred feet away stood a tall, sword carrying, dark haired man of indeterminate age. An impressive electrical storm seemed to be raging around him. Grace blinked. The seaQuest addict shook her head in disgust. RevSam giggled.
"Here we are,
Born to be kings,
We're the Princes of the Universe ----"
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