Title: Cookies?
Author: Ashley K
Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own them.
AN: Trite, I know.
She roams the planet, sometimes remembering to call Giles or Dawn, but normally forgetting.
She's been to Italy, Nebraska, India, New Zealand, and Ethiopia, to name a few.
She sat on Angel's, no, Liam's, cracked and faded headstone and mourned for the immature youth who had made a mistake and was still paying for it. She cried for the vicious vampire who just wanted to erase the memory of failure from his bones. She refused to think about the Champion.
She has sat with a Master vamp and shared a dinner with her, laughing and joking about other vampires. Then they had fought to the death. She walked away, only slightly bloody.
She always walks away.
Buffy once went to L.A. To see him, but not. She made it to the outside of his building before the feelings got too hard for her to ignore.
She then left.
He calls Giles for her number, for reassurance that she was still baking and not off with some Mr. Joe Normal. Giles dutifully relays messages back to her.
She ignores them.
Spike had tracked her down in Egypt. She pretended not to see him.
Spike showed up at her hotel in Greece. She pretended it wasn't him while her stake pierced his heart.
She likes to pretend that she's still Princess Buffy sometimes. Those times are when she'll hunt down Hank and apprehend his platinum credit card and shop and shop and shop until the stores close and she's exhausted.
She goes dancing in Chicago, the pounding beat reminding her of Faith, which reminds her that Faith found her other half and now has the family Faith pretended she never wanted. She dances with a sultry brunette and kisses her once, pretending that she's still the One of the Two. The girl gives her a shocked stare before leaning into the embrace.
She leaves Chicago that night.
"When are you coming home?" Dawn asks, during one of the few conversations she had with her sister. "We miss you."
"Soon," she promises. "When I'm ready," she amends. She didn't want to lie to Dawn anymore. "Maybe never."
"Fuck you," Dawn spats out. She says good-bye and gently hangs up the phone. She doesn't call there any more.
Sometimes she's in London, almost where her family is. Sometimes she thinks about going home.
Home is six feet under. Her mommy is dead. Home is raw and selfish and painful and not ready.
She will wait a little longer.
She lingers in Tokoyo. A secret smile flickers to her lips, fading as a pair of capable hands grab for her. "Took you long enough," she flippantly says
as she allows herself to be ushered away.
He just glares at her, as he leads her off to the waiting taxi, airplane, home. They crash into the door, tugging off each other's clothing, meeting in a
frantic coupling that leaves the kitchen table in pieces.
Smiling, Buffy turns her face towards the afternoon sun streaming onto the stated couple before stealing a sideways glance at her Angel. "Cookies?"
"For both of us," he agrees.
She snuggles into him. He had finally gotten It.
END