TITLE: A Trip to Remember

AUTHOR: Finngrrpuppet

CATEGORY: FANTASY

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything at all. Not even the head attached to my body if that's what yer pissed about!

FEEDBACK: finngrrpuppet@hotmail.com

RATING: R

SUMMARY: Buffy, having saved for long enough, decides to take a year off and travel the world. The first month, she goes on a quick all-round-the-world tour to decide where she'll spend the rest of the year. The only downfall is the annoying bleached blond that is also on the trip…

Sipping her frappucino, Buffy glanced at the empty chairs spreading around her. Having shown up almost an hour early, she was now waiting in the departure lounge for 'Sunnydale World Tours'.

After saving for a long, long time, Buffy could finally afford to live her dream. She had wanted to take a year off before going to college but money, or rather – the lack of money, had stopped the journey. Now able to finance it, Buffy was jetting off to travel the world for a year. Of course, she'd have to work wherever she went, but she had no problem working in the back-alley café's of Italy or the bustling bazaars of Asia. The first month however, was work-free. The first month was a 'Sunnydale World Tour'. The tour would allow the blonde a chance to briefly visit a lot of different places, allowing her to choose which few she would divide her time between in the remaining eleven months.

She had been a tad too enthusiastic, she supposed.

Sighing, she put her now empty cup in the seat beside her and flipped through the magazine she'd bought at the duty-free. The petite woman's mind wandered to the amazing job opportunity she'd left behind. In her early twenties, she was fresh on the work scene. Having completed an in-depth degree in History, dipping into archaeology, Greek, Latin and Politics, the eager young woman had quite the set of qualifications to her name and a job dating and researching items found at dig sites had seemed too close to perfect to give up. She'd had images of late nights filtering through carbon-dated samples and researching into colonies and cultures that could have lived in the very places she would have been standing in. The whole project seemed almost like time travelling to the blonde and it had been a very hard decision to turn them down, despite her dream travelling adventure.

"Sorry luv, is this seat taken?"

Jolted out of her thoughts she looked up and frowned. "Uhm…"

"Only kiddin' pet, you early too then?"

The voice's thick layer of British slang was teasing her ears and she found herself smiling as he indicated the empty seats around them. Realising that the voice had probably asked her something due to its lack of continuation, she replied,

"Huh?"

*Real smooth Buffy*

"Sunnydale World Tours…"

"Oh, yeah. That's me too. We're really early. I was just so excited."

He grinned and took a seat opposite her. The man was lean, but muscled, wearing khakis and a dark black t-shirt. A watch seemed almost to be slipping off his wrist; he kept twisting his wrist to pull it up every few seconds. Rumpled, bleached hair gave him a creative aura and his eyes had that rare sort of glint that made them convey his emotions. Right now, they were laughing, comfortable eyes that traced her body with no embarrassment or restraint. Realising that she had been following suit, Buffy snapped her eyes back to his face, blushing that she had been so obvious in her attraction.

"I'm Buffy."

"Spike."

They smiled and Spike sat up and leaned forward.

"So, Buffy, why have you decided to take a Sunnydale World Tour? Could it be because of the thousands of previous travellers who have had the most memorable time of their lives?"

"Hmm, that was a major plus point, but personally, I was lured by the impossibly low prices that couldn't be found anywhere else in the market."

They laughed to each other, making odd comments about the painfully peppy staff that organised the holidays.

"Almost put me right off the idea." Spike said, grinning.

"Well, it's only a month."

"A month can be a long time, pet."

Slightly irritated by the apparently derogatory term, Buffy shrugged.

"Well, it seems that year won't nearly be long enough to me. I know time will fly and I doubt I'll be able to do anything like this for awhile."

"A year, ducks?"

Again, irritated by the term, Buffy answered curtly, "Yes, I'm using this as a way to choose where I'll go for the rest of the year."

"Well, if you don't mind me saying, luv – If you keep up that attitude, you'll be so depressed about it ending that you won't enjoy it while it's happening."

"I'm sure that won't happen, I was just making a flippant comment." Buffy snapped, quite annoyed that this stranger had managed to comment on something that she hadn't realised was a part of her attitude.

"Ah, well then I'm sorry. I tend to assume people can hold a conversation."

Spike answered.

"I can hold a conversation, but I'm currently in the middle of reading a very interesting article."

"About?"

"A site in Colchester where they've fond some very interesting Viking road samples."

"Historian?"

"Yes."

"Its quite an interesting past time." Spike nodded in a way that seemed to Buffy as if he were giving his consent.

Snotty Bastard.

~~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~~

Truly curious, Spike began talking about how he felt that knowing about the past was very important, but only for the purposes of interest or politics. High achievers would never be happy as simply historians because they would see the power of their knowledge and want to apply it. He kept changing words and phrases he'd said, his thought process slipping past his mouth in a blur of words.

The Brit had gotten so involved in his thoughts he'd forgotten that he was in fact talking aloud, to a perfect stranger, who appeared to be a historian.

"Not that you aren't a high achiever, luv…." He began; trying to sort out the mess his over-active mind had created.

"Don't bother. You're the exact type of person that could never understand anything beyond the economics and politics of the world. You're a portly old businessman in a younger man's body. I'm sure all forms of creativity aren't even concepts in your materialistic world so I don't expect you to understand the enormity of the world before us."

He tried to explain that he had just been thinking things through and all that he'd meant was for the two of them to have a discussion to pass the time, but being

very irritated by her bratty behaviour he stopped and simply picked up his small carry-on bag and went to visit the duty-free.

~~~~~~~******~~~~~~~*******~~~~~~~~~