A/N: This is one of the first one shots I ever wrote before I knew what a one shot should really entail. At the time, I was loving this crossover pairing. Supposed to take place at the beginning of Season 3 of Buffy and after Eclipse. Sorry for the crappy writing.
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Stephenie Meyer, the creator of Twilight.
A new student arrives at Sunnydale High. He's 6' 7", towering over every person in the building, built up with muscle like no normal teenager should ever be, exuding almost a don't-mess-with-me kind of attitude, it's no wonder he seems to attract a ton of attention, including the attention of one very small, very cute blonde girl. And although the new student never looks at anyone, keeping to himself, being ever so silent, just going about his routine everyday, he notices the blonde girl as well. And he can't help but stare right back.
The new student is Jacob Black of the Quileute Tribe from La Push, Washington. Realizing that the girl he loves is marrying that filthy bloodsucker, Edward, and choosing a life of immortal damnation over him, he has chosen to move on, quit her "cold turkey", hence the new location. There he meets Sunnydale's star slayer, albeit the only Slayer, and from the first meeting, he feels inexplicably drawn to her. Sort of the way he used to feel towards Bella but there's no way he can feel that way towards this new "peculiar" girl. He hears rumors about her. Being a werewolf with super-hearing does have its advantages. She always seems to show up when something bad is happening. She went whacko for a while and left town, only to come back and start school a few weeks after the semester had begun. Snyder, the short miserable little principal, among a few other choice words, has it in for her. She got kicked out of her last school for fighting. She had been dating some guy who left her and funnily enough, that's right before she "lost it" and left her hometown, her mother in pieces. The night she left, the neighbors had heard the girl and her mother screaming at each other and then Buffy had left with some guy with bleached blonde hair and a leather jacket. Jacob tried to sift through all these tall tales and make some sense about the girl who he couldn't seem to get off his mind. He wants to know everything about her, never take his eyes off of her. He shakes his head at this thought. For the first time in months since he left La Push, his pack and Billy behind, he allows his thoughts to wander to what sent him running in the first place. Bella. He closes his eyes briefly which has every student in the hallway staring at him, wondering why he's stopped in the middle of the floor, eyes closed, not breathing it almost seems. He tries to recall her scent, once so potent to him it was like a drug he could never get enough of. Strawberries. At one point, he had to stop buying strawberries from the store when he would do the weekly grocery shopping for Billy. If even one made it to the fruit bowl on the small wooden table in the kitchen, he'd sit there for hours thinking about her. Forgetting everyone and everything else. Normally, he wouldn't have cared and wouldn't have even considered this a bad thing. After all, he had loved her. But, the times when he would try to forget her. When she would keep calling and he would ignore the phone or have Billy tell her whatever lie the old man could come up with on the fly. After she had left him alone in the trees outside of Charlie's house after she and Edw-that bloodsucker had returned from Italy. It became increasingly unbearable to have any reminders. So being that her scent had such a strong effect on him, he should have been able to recall, his synapses firing in his brain, connecting to an image of Bella. But, the memories wouldn't come. Not that he didn't remember her, he did. He remembered her face so vividly, her chocolate brown eyes staring into his own black ones. He remembered her laugh, her hair flowing around her shoulders, her blushes. But, the memories also seemed to have changed. He no longer looked at the girl he had so desperately loved and felt pain. He had been ready to face the onslaught. To feel the gaping hole in his heart burn to the point where he would be holding his arms across his chest just as Bella did all those months ago when she had tried to keep herself together after she had been broken. But nothing came. And as he played each memory, the garage, the bikes, the beach, the Rabbit, he found that he was not in love with her anymore. Yes, he loved her still, but not the same as before. She was his best friend, but nothing more now. What?! he screamed to himself inside his head. How is that even possible? He had left La Push because Bella didn't choose him! He had left his family, his brothers behind because of her.
That's why he was here in Sunnydale, going to a crap high school, trying to have a somewhat normal life, as normal as can be for a werewolf anyway. He was surrounded daily by vampires. And he had thought he had it bad with the Cullens in Forks. Ha! Hell, he'd even prefer to have Blondie around each day then deal with what he's been dealing with. These vamps were different than the Cullens. Not only because of the bloodsucking family's "vegetarian" habits. Jake immediately felt like gagging upon the nonchalant use of the term the golden-eyed leeches had adopted, as if to excuse their behavior. These Sunnydale vampires were more animalistic, more primal. Even Victoria seemed more sophisticated and intelligent than the lot running around here. Yes, these vampires were easier to kill, they weren't made of stone. Apparently, Hollywood's version did get it right in this town. Well, he was in California. Typical. A stake to the heart. Not the usual tearing and burning he was used to. But just because they were easier to kill did not make them easier to spot. One thing, their eyes didn't change color regardless of whether they had fed or not. Their scent was not the same at all. It didn't burn his nose, one of the only reasons besides the mystery blonde girl for him staying around as long as he had. This scent was again more primal. Like smelling another animal. When they attacked, the only thing that changed was their faces. They became all-lumpy. The only similiarities between them and the Cullens' kind was the pale milk-white skin and the perfect rows of human teeth before they attacked. They were everywhere in this town. But as a werewolf, he still felt compelled to destroy his mortal enemies whether they turned to ash by fire or by stake. Didn't matter to him. The stakings were just a bit more on the trying side for him, being a huge wolf and all, in a very populated suburb with hardly any tree cover, but he was getting the job done. A small voice breaks him out of his reverie. His eyes pop open to reveal a petite little redhead looking up at him shyly. "Hi."
Normally, he would have just nodded his head in politeness and continued on his way. But he recalled seeing this girl at the blonde's side when he first saw her. They seemed to be friends. The blonde's smile filled his head and suddenly he had to know more about her. Even if it was only what class she had next.
"Hey."
"So, um, I see that you're new here. Well, I mean, of course you are and I mean I saw that when you started a few weeks ago and-um..."
He smirked. This redhead was actually kind of cute in her nervousness. Maybe if he had met her back when he was just Jacob. Back before Bella. Not that he would have had the guts to talk to this girl but when he started to phase, had Bella not been in the picture, he could definitely see himself talking to this girl and maybe asking her to go to a movie or something. Then he noticed the redhead turn to the blondish haired boy next to her, pleading with him to help her in her awkwardness. The boy stuck out his hand. "What's she's trying to say is welcome. I'm Oz and this is Willow. Nice to meet you, man." Jake took the offered hand and shook it firmly. "Jacob." If this Oz felt the heat from the handshake, he didn't betray the fact by any reaction, verbally or facially. As Jake pulled his hand away, his eyes shifted to the redhead whose face seemed to turn down just a bit, as if she could avoid his gaze. "Hi Willow." She blushed! This of course brought back even more fleeting memories of Bella but again all changed. On his face appeared what could only be described as a wolfish grin as he looked at her. As he enjoyed this moment, he noticed the boy's hand snaking around Willow's waist. Protectively. Assertively. A message sent to and received by Jacob. Inside, he was snorting with laughter. So this must be the boyfriend. But as soon as this thought hit him, it came back to him as to why he even began to converse with these two at all. He tried very hard throughout his last few weeks here to keep a distance, stay somewhat detached. Not that he wasn't going to enjoy himself from time to time but he wasn't looking to get in deep. Anywhere. Again.
"So, how do you like it here so far? How are your classes? I heard Snyder's been giving you a rough time. Don't worry about him, he's-"
But before Willow could finish her speel of questions that all the students were shocked to witness since he had not spoken one word since enrolling here, a cute perky voice appeared alongside the redhead.
"Hey, Will. Oz. Ugh, that test from Mr. Stein just about killed me. It almost makes me glad that I face death on a daily basis and that it only happened once until Xander-"
Suddenly her eyes went wide as she took in the tall boy standing in front of her two friends. Oops. You'd think with his height difference from the rest of the student body, well everyone, that she would have seen him towering above Will and Oz. She had just been so glad to get out of that hellish classroom, she just couldn't contain her relief. That was her sixth make-up test in 48 hours and Snyder still wasn't done making her pay for her "leave of abscence" as her mother mercifully referred to it. Wait. This had been the boy who had seen her that day in the hallway and had looked up at her. He had never made conversation or looked at anyone else, or so she heard, but he had looked at her. Her heart had fluttered at that moment which soon gave way to the guilt and grief felt by the hole inside her soul. The hole called Angel. So she had kept her distance and if she happened to see him coming down the hallway, she would duck into an open classroom until he had passed. The way he had looked at her seemed to make her think he would try to talk to her eventually, get to know her, even ask her out one day and she just couldn't handle that right now. But, as she stood next to her two friends, staring slack-jawed at the boy she had been avoiding for weeks, she couldn't help but worry about bigger things right now. He had heard every word that had come out of her mouth. And he stared at her. How he stared.
Before she could worry what the implications of her thoughtless statement had made, Willow saved her.
"Buffy, this is Jacob. Jacob, this is our friend, Buffy, another one of Snyder's unfortunate victims for long and slow torture."
Buffy snapped out of the worry loop in her head and stuck out her hand. "Nice to meet you."
At that, Jake stared at her hand, almost appearing dumbfounded. Here was the girl he felt a drawing to and he had wanted to know all about her two minutes ago but now he couldn't make his brain work with his mouth. Instead, he found himself giving a short nod in her direction and then her friends' and then sauntering off, past them. He continued down the hall, never turning to look back, until he was out of sight. Once he turned the corner, he snuck into the boys' bathroom and after seeing no one was in there, braced his back against the wall, laying his head back with his eyes closed. What the hell was he doing?
Buffy just looked at Willow and Oz completely taken aback. She retrieved her rejected hand and just shook her head. That was odd. It must've been something to do with what she said. It had to be. He was just shocked as anyone would've been hearing such morbid words come out of a girl's mouth. As always, Willow seemed to read her mind.
"I think he's just really shy. Don't worry. I don't even think he heard you before."
Buffy offered a small smile in return but her eyes soon flickered over to Oz. His gaze had never left the spot where Jacob had disappeared. And his face was tilted up a bit, almost as if he were sniffing something.
"Oz. You okay?"
Willow, unbeknownst to her boyfriend's strange behavior, snapped her head around.
"What's wrong?"
"Something about his scent. I can't place it. Something's not right with him."
"Okay, normally, I would be freaked out because you were smelling another boy right here in front of me but I'll bite. Vampire maybe? He is way too tan to be. And minus the lumpies, that's a plus." Buffy looked at him expectantly as if to see if she could sway him over to the side of common sense here.
"No. Something different. It's almost familiar. Like I've smelled it before. But it doesn't seem-solid. I don't know." He turns towards the two girls staring at him as if he had two heads.
"Demon?"
Oz shakes his head.
"Hmmm." Buffy knows that this is important. "Well, we'll talk to Giles about it. Right now, I get about ten minutes to grab a bottle of water for lunch if I'm lucky. Then I get to go do another make-up test. English. I am overloaded with the yays for that one."
Willow looks at her in sympathy. "You better make that one big bottle of water." The three continue making their way down the hall.
Jacob can't seem to help himself and he begins to find reasons to be around her, even if only from a distance, watching. Buffy. Buffy Summers. Almost like Embry Call. But he would never imagine her name to be one to make fun of. Especially since he's pretty sure that he's falling hard for her. How did this happen? He's so disturbed by this new direction his life has taken that he considers leaving Sunnydale. Hell, he'd rather go back to La Push than be here with things spinning so wildly out of control. Even though he phases night after night and continues to talk to Sam and the pack, he wills himself not to share this information just yet. He doesn't know why but he feels he has to. At least for now. Not until he figures some things out on his own at least. After all, that was part of the reason why he had left in the first place. To figure things out. He knows Sam is concerned because Bella doesn't occupy his thoughts anymore. Normally, this would have made the pack completely jovial but Sam knows better. He knew how deeply Jake felt for Bella and only a few weeks time can't really change that. So, for now, Jacob settles on being high school student by day, hunting werewolf at night. All the meanwhile, watching Buffy from a distance.
Buffy notices that the new boy Jacob always has his eyes on her. Instead of creeping her out by his intense stare as most other girls would be, regardless of how good looking and muscled up he is, she almost likes the attention. Which then starts her on her guilt-trip and kicking-herself rant over the thought of Angel in a Hell dimension because she put him there. Suffering eternal torment while she's here crushing on someone new and wondering what it would be like to kiss him. Well, he'd certainly have to bend down, I'm not reaching up there-okay, stop right there. As determined as she is to keep a distance, Jacob seems even more so. Yet her slayer's intuition kicks off and she knows in her gut something isn't right with him. But she's determined to find out and deal with whatever comes.
She starts becoming more and more drawn to him, something she nor Giles can figure out despite Oz's observations. It seems neck and neck, her desire to figure out the mystery of this boy while also wishing that he would move closer to her. Everywhere she turns, Jacob is there. Willow seems worried about Jacob's current stalkerish ways (funny, she wasn't thinking of that a week ago) while Xander, jealous as ever, tries to protect his friend. Giles' concern increases when he catches Jacob and Buffy staring at each other in the halls. She dismisses everyone's concerns for her safety and her infatuation/intrigue with Jake grows.
Finally, one day, Jake doesn't show up for class. Buffy looks for him everywhere yet doesn't see him. She's worried, where could he be? Her friends try to diminish her fears, which seem to be taking a turn for obsession, by claiming that maybe Jake is sick or had to do something else that day. Buffy doesn't believe them and she just knows something isn't right. "Something's wrong," is all she will keep saying whenever one of them tries to talk some sense into her. However, they're able to convince her to stay in class 'till the end of the day. After all, she just got back in and if she left school property now, who knows what Snyder would do? Maybe Jake will show up for afternoon classes.
The last bell of the day rings and Buffy runs out the door, desperate in her search for Jake. She goes everywhere she can think of, instinctively running past any hot vampire spots she's come across during her nightly patrols. Nothing. If any of these disgusting vampires have hurt Jake she'll make sure they relearn the meaning of the word pain before she stakes them. Or worse...but she can't think about that right now. She can't even let the impression of that thought seep into her brain. She runs faster, harder, in her hurry to find this boy she can't seem to stop thinking about. Time passes, eventually day turns into night. She must have covered all of this town at least twice, if not three times, nothing. Every cemetary, every vamp nest she's hit in the last year, every club (that she could get into because if she couldn't get in then there was no way Jake was, vamp or no vamp), every store, every theater (well, really just the one), every street, nothing. Hopelessness starts to set in, a scream starts building in the back of her throat. Tears welling up in her eyes, burning them as they get bigger and bigger. She doesn't know what to do. She, the Slayer, doesn't know what to do. She could go to Giles but she didn't think he was too keen on finding Jake after their last heated discussion. Willow would help but would also lecture her at the same time. And she just didn't have it in her to deal with another lecture. Willow meant well, she knew that, but she needed to find Jake and she needed to find him now. Xander, forget it, his contempt for the boy Buffy couldn't keep her eyes off of was completely transparent on his face everytime she talked to Xander. It would have to be Giles. He would still help her. She turns and starts to head in the direction of the school, breaking into a run. Suddenly, a sound catches her attention and makes her freeze. It's a growl, a long gutteral growl. Uh oh, vamp. She pulls a stake out and holds it at the ready should this vamp jump out of the darkened alley the sound came from and try to make her his next meal. As she slowly stalks towards the alley, she hears it again. The sound was louder and longer this time and then she stops short.
Another animal-like sound, this time from a different source in the alley. This sounds like a growl as well but different. Almost like a dog but she can't place it. Either way, it's in there with the first one. So this wasn't going to be the typical one-on-one then? Two for one type deal? Good, she felt like kicking a little ass after stressing and running around all day and coming up empty. Maybe these two knew what had happened to Jake. This thought propelled her forward, taking her last step bringing her into the alley. Being so dark, her eyes had to adjust, no flooding light from the street lamps here and she could just barely make out two shapes. She raised her stake a little higher, her muscles tensed, ready to spring and kick and punch and well, stake. As her eyes focused, she now noticed the two shapes were not facing her, ready to attack. They were facing each other, as if locked in a confrontation and they had barely noticed her. One was definitely a vamp. So she had been right on the first sound as the vamp, all lumpy and fanged, let out another growl. The second shape was a little harder to believe. It was a dog. No that wasn't right. A wolf. Wait. Buffy was by no means an honor student bound for success at Harvard but wolves shouldn't get that big, should they? This thing towered over her, which wasn't hard to do at all of her 5'2'' tallness, but still, could a wolf really be that huge? And as if that wasn't enough, this "wolf" was towering over the vampire. Only by a couple of inches, Buffy could see he was about 6' probably but still. This wolf with his head up as it was had to be around, what? 6'5'', 6'6''? Was it a mutant? Her eyes kept flashing back and forth between the two, who should she attack first? And would this dog try to eat her? She was used to almost being eaten, killed on a daily basis and she had faced bigger monsters than this but she had never seen this before. She had heard of hellhounds and well, let's face it, she was going to school on the Hellmouth which equaled gainful employment for her but from what Giles had told her, they were icky disgusting looking things. And if this wolf wasn't so huge, she'd probably think it was cute and want to pet it after it had been heavily sedated and fed a steak or twelve beforehand. Oh well, no time to debate, if she survived this, she would talk to Giles.
She readied herself, intent on kicking the back (the huge back! if it was his back) of the wolf first. The vamp she could always find later and she knew she could take care of him. Just like riding a bicycle. And she wasn't too intent on turning her attention on the vamp first so the dog could attack her from some unseen angle. That's all she would need. Bad enough that she would die a painful and-whoa! his paws were huge!-grisly death but the headline would read in tomorrow's paper "Slayer eaten by wild dog".
Okay, well maybe not that considering no one really knew she was the Slayer, secret identity and all, but The Council would most certainly think it ridiculous that in everything she would come up against, a big wild dog would be the one to get her in the end. Not the Master. Not an apocalypse. Not even a disgusting vampire. A dog. Not that she cared what the Council thought but still, Giles, Wil, Xander and Oz would be disappointed. Her long thought train was interrupted when she realized, without having a chance to act, the dog (wolf, whatever) had lunged forward at the vampire, jaws extended. However, the vamp had danced out of the way just in time and now was on the wolf's back, trying to tear into the skin. Growling and snarling ensued and Buffy, unsure of what to do really, maybe they should just kill each other, save her from having to break out into a sweat but then remembering she had a reason for wanting them alive, the vamp at least, jumped onto the wolf's back as well and kicked the vamp off. Being caught unaware (wow, they really had no idea she was there), the vamp went flying. Buffy immediately jumped off the dog, there was no way she could snap that huge neck, after all she wasn't Hercules. All the strength in the world wouldn't enable her to do that, not even a Slayer's strength, not from that angle anyway. The big dog's head immediately turned, a large growl escaping it's jaws, focused on her now. Buffy knew she only had seconds to react but as she poised herself to attack, the eyes of the dog caught hers and suddenly Buffy was frozen as if her legs had turned to ice, unable to move.
Those big black eyes, what-what was it about them that made her not want to attack? The wolf (yes it was a wolf, she could see clearly that it was by the snout and ears), once catching her eyes with its own, had immediately stopped growling and lowered its head just a little. Almost as if it was trying to figure out whether she was a friend or another one of its enemies. This happened over a matter of seconds but to Buffy it felt like a lifetime, like one of those sports replays that guys watched of a football game when they weren't too busy yelling or slapping high fives or shoving chips into their mouths by the fistfuls. In slow motion, that was it. Completely slow-mo. She stared at it and it stared back at her, both unwilling to move.
But in this time they had forgotten all about the third character in this little party, the vampire. Out of nowhere, a huge pipe came crashing down on the back of the wolf's head (it hadn't moved its gaze since it saw her) and a yowl of pain escaped from the animal followed by a sudden enraged snarling growl. The wolf turned its head and lunged for the vampire. Again, the vamp danced out of the way just in the nick of time. This didn't stop the wolf, though. It lunged and lunged and lunged at the vampire which always seemed to be just within its reach but then out of it all at the same time. Buffy didn't know what it was. She didn't know if it was a spell or she had been struck by the lightning of dumbness or what but suddenly, she felt the urge to protect the huge wolf. That yowl of pain had sliced into her like a serrated blade and had cut her heart into pieces. Before she knew it, before she could make sense of it, before she could stop herself, her feet were carrying her forward, picking up speed, her arm raised and at the ready, stake ready to pierce, and when the vamp did his last ballroom turn away from the wolf's menacing teeth, she appeared behind the vamp, stake meeting its intended target, a yell of pain, and then dust falling away to nothing. It didn't even enter her conscious mind that she had originally intended to keep the vampire alive in order to beat Jake's whereabouts out of him. And it only took Buffy a second to realize she was now too close to the wolf, way too close. If he wanted to attack her, he only had to move his head an inch to the right and she was done, nowhere to go. She immediately started to look for a way to maneuver herself from within its grasp. As she did this, she caught the huge black eyes again. And just like before, she couldn't move. Some paralyzing spell her brain told her. But unable to break it, all Buffy could do was stand and watch, wait for her horrible end. The wolf lowered his head a little, this time a little lower than before, until he was at her level, staring intently at her.
She should scream, she should run, she should stab, she should hit him with a rolled up newspaper (as if she had one and as if that would help), she should do something but she couldn't move. His nose was less than an inch from her face. Every instinct that had helped her survive as the Slayer was telling her to run, to fear this massive beast, to kill it or die trying. But she couldn't listen. The big dark eyes held her there, studying her. Suddenly, without warning, its huge tongue rolled out and licked the left side of Buffy's face. Without thinking, Buffy automatically put her hand up to her face, wiping away the wet trail with her sleeve. "Uck! Gross!" A sound came from inside the wolf, subdued, but all the same, it almost sounded like a laugh to Buffy. Was that possible? Even though she had been able to react to the lick (ugh, it wasn't like he was some small cute puppy she had picked up in a pet shop) she still could not move her legs. The black eyes studied her reaction and she found herself immobile, held fast in that gaze.
Before she knew it, the shape of the wolf began to blur and darken. Buffy thought that maybe this was it, she was about to die, something was making her go all unconsciously before the big wolf ate her. Thoughts of her mother, Willow, Oz, Xander, Giles, Angel and yes, even her father (hell, even Cordelia!), filled her head as she waited for it to end. But, she wasn't falling and the wolf (or wolf-shape) seemed to be moving, not her. It completely blurred until a naked, tall boy stood before her, staring down at her. She blinked twice, as if to clear away anything that was impeding her vision. The dark eyes were the same and yet somehow this human face was familiar. She knew her brain wasn't completely firing at this moment so she studied the face some more and then it hit her! Jake!
"Oh my God! Jake!"
Without thinking (which she seemed to be doing a lot tonight) she rushed forward and threw her arms around him. Well, his torso anyway, he was so huge. Had he always been this tall? And even more importantly, had Jake just morphed from the huge giant mutant wolf that had stood before her moments earlier? His arms hesitantly wound around Buffy, holding her close to him. This somehow felt right to Buffy. She couldn't understand it, but she felt such happiness at finding Jake and now that his arms were around her, she felt complete. Not in the clichey corny quotey type of way everyone talks about when they're in love and writing their names in with hearts around them or listening to gooey love songs but really complete. He was so warm! No. Hot! Buffy could feel her cheek burning as she kept it placed on his bare chest. None of that mattered. He was here and he was safe and he was holding her.
Wait, hadn't she felt this way about Angel? What was going on? She was having all sorts of weird feelings and thoughts lately and tonight was no different, except maybe more-intense. Jake's arms wrapped tighter around her, holding her more securely fastened to him. A sigh of contentment escaped Buffy as he did this. Whole. That's the word that popped into her head. Whole. One. Complete. Finished. At that word, her eyes popped open and she pulled away from him a little to look up at his face. He didn't fight her when she did so which was good because if he had, she might have hurt him by accident, being the Slayer and having super strength and all. His dark eyes met hers and his expression intensified as he studied hers. And then gravity shifted.