"Bathroom's all yours," Buffy said as she came back into the bedroom, wearing green flannel pajamas with what appeared to be horses on them. She pulled another pair of pajamas out of a drawer and handed them to Kendra, who creased her brows as she made out a yellow rubber ducky pattern. "I left you a brand new toothbrush on the counter, and I've got this new face wash that's gone all nuclear warfare on my zits, except your skin looks flawless. What do you use?"
"Use?" Kendra asked, as she took the pajamas.
"Yeah, like on your face, to give you that great complexion?"
"I use the soap that Mr. Zabuto buys. It's whatever's on sale. I don't even notice the brand, usually."
"Wow, are you sure you're really a teenage girl and not a little old lady?" Buffy did a quick check of her room, and made sure her window was closed and locked. Kendra just rolled her eyes and headed to the bathroom.
Kendra finished in the bathroom, bewildered by all the bottles and tubes that Buffy and her mother used on a regular basis, and padded back into the bedroom in the borrowed yellow duckie pajamas to find Buffy laying in bed cuddling a stuffed… pig? Kendra put her clothes down on a chair, but held onto Mr. Pointy and searched the room for a cot or a sleeping bag.
"Can you please turn the light off when you get into bed? Also, my startle reflex is on a hair trigger, so you probably don't want to get too close to me while you're asleep," Buffy murmured sleepily.
"You mean to tell me I'm to share a bed with you?"
"Huh? Yes, where did you expect to sleep? Don't tell me your Watcher has you sleep in a closet or something, because that would be just too sad," Buffy's eyes blinked open and she looked over at the other Slayer.
"What? No, I have my own bed and my own room, but I did not think you'd want to share your bed with me. I can sleep on the floor, there's room," Kendra gestured at the carpet.
"That's crazy talk. I have a double bed. Willow and I have sleepovers all the time. Which reminds me, do you talk in your sleep? Because I love Willow, but god does she like to talk about reptiles in her sleep," Buffy pulled back the blankets on the side of the bed near Kendra.
"Reptiles?"
"Yeah, she always starts mumbling about frogs and stuff."
"Frogs are amphibians," Kendra responded, as she climbed into the bed next to Buffy.
"Is that something that you learned from all your Slayer study sessions?" Buffy snarked.
"No, it is something I learned from watching nature shows on television. I do have some time to myself you know. It isn't all training and studying," Kendra very carefully laid down, making sure to leave Buffy the majority of the bed.
"And you chose to use that time to explore the Wild World of Amphibians?"
"I don't date, remember?"
"Ah, right. well Cordelia and I once almost wound up dating an actual reptile boy, so I guess we have something we can bond over. What are you doing? You're about to fall off the bed."
"I don't want to crowd you, because of your reflexes," Kendra tucked Mr. Pointy under her pillow.
"I just meant that I don't cuddle. Along with being a talker, Willow's a cuddler. It's cute, but I'm claustrophobic."
"Don't worry, I don't cuddle either. I sleep on my back, so that my enemies don't have an advantage. By the way, where do you keep your weapon while you sleep? Is it hidden in the pig?"
"Mr. Gordo?! No, I would never do that! I have a stake over there on the desk, and there's a crossbow by the window," Buffy replied, squeezing the stuffed pig to her chest and gesturing with her chin toward the weapons.
"You don't sleep with one in your bed? What if a bad guy gets in your room before you wake up?"
"Vampires can't get in the house, not even Angel… since he became Angelus again. And I think that if another demon got in, my mom would go full wig before it even had a chance to get in here. Besides, Slayer reflexes." At that, she rolled out of the bed toward the window and had the crossbow and was in full stance in less than a second.
Kendra rolled her eyes at the display, but she didn't complain further. Buffy got back into bed and Kendra turned off the lamp. Within minutes of her head hitting the pillow, Buffy was out cold.
Kendra didn't fare so well. She'd never been a quick sleeper. She'd use the time laying in bed after Mr. Zabuto had declared lights out to go over new moves or to mull over the latest readings she'd done in demonology. It had never occurred to her as she cradled Mr. Pointy close to her, reciting the thirteen genuses of Rehanish demon and their differing claw types, that perhaps she'd sleep more soundly if she didn't spend the hours before bed (and to be honest, many hours in bed as well) learning about the worst types of evil she was expected to protect the world from.
Interestingly, rather than it disturbing her, she found Buffy's quiet snoring comforting. There were vague memories, barely accessible in the far reaches of her brain, of sharing a bed with another girl, slightly older. Kendra remembered the other girl kicking in her sleep, and having to push her toes out of her face, which caused a giggle to emanate from her bedmate's mouth. There wasn't much else to the memory, no hours of lying awake next to the barely remembered child, wishing for relief from the heavy burden of protecting humankind so that she could get some rest. In fact, the next thing Kendra remembered was slumber.
Kendra could feel her own breaths deepening and evening out. Without realizing, they had begun to match the other girl's. It wasn't that there wasn't anything for Kendra to worry about. If anything, there were more concerns than she usually had in her little room back home, where the threats were vague and only creepy names in dusty books. Now, those creepy names had physical embodiments, and the threats were all too real. If Buffy and her friends weren't able to stop Angelus from awakening Acathla and triggering the end of the world, everyone would die, including that barely remembered girl with the restless legs and the bright laugh. This brought her more sadness than she cared to think about.
Yet Buffy slept like Mr. Zabuto's lazy dog did in the sun every afternoon. Kendra looked over at her, cuddling Mr. Gordo, and wondered if that was her secret. Perhaps when she returned to Jamaica, she would take the spending money that Mr. Zabuto gave her when she excelled at her training, and instead of spending it on a compendium or a fighting stick, she'd use it to buy a stuffed animal. She'd seen some of the local children with colorful plush turtles that could retract the head and limbs back into the shell. She liked the idea of an animal carrying its protection with them.
Kendra rolled over, tucking her entire body under the blankets, as if she were a turtle herself, and drifted off into sleep, taking advantage of her relatively peaceful mind, not knowing when she'd actually sleep this easily and soundly again. Tomorrow was going to be a lot of hard work, and the stakes were high, but the quiet, determined presence of the girl sleeping beside her reassured her more than all the training, and all the knowledge she had amassed. Someone was trying to end the world tomorrow, but there would be a day after, if Buffy Summers and her Scooby Gang had anything to do with it. And Kendra wanted to be well-rested when they saved the world.