Chapter 3- Bad Eggs
AN: Okay, before you read on, I think I'll elaborate on what I said about this chapter at the end of last chapter. The idea came to me during the scene where the tentacle thing came out of the egg the first time, when Buffy was asleep. It looked like the tentacle was about to dip underneathe the blanket for a second, and since the whole assignment for this episode was all about the after effects of sex, my mind automatically went to the most disturbing thing possible at that moment. So, that's what this chapter is going to be. Tell me, did anyone else have this same thought when they first saw that scene, or am I really just THAT fucked up in the head? That's not a rhetorical question, I'd really like to know. Again, if the thought of Buffy and others pretty much being raped by demon eggs disturbs you too much to read this chapter, I won't blame you for skipping past this chapter.
"Come on, Mom, please?" I ask.
"I'm sorry, honey." Somehow, I'm not getting any sincerity in my mom's apology.
"But... don't you understand? This is so important!"
"It's an outfit. An outfit you may never buy."
"But... I looked good in it!"
"You looked like a streetwalker."
"But a thin streetwalker!" I protest, then backpedal at my mom's glare. "That's...probably not gonna be the winning argument, is it?"
"You're just too young to wear that."
"I'm gonna be too young to wear that 'till I'm too old to wear that!"
"That's the idea." Mom admits, and I roll my eyes. She looks at her watch, then back at me. "Oh. Stores are gonna close and I still need to order the flyers for the opening." She thinks for a minute, then digs around in her purse for a minute. "Okay, I'll go to the printers and then get our food. You go pick up my outfit from the tailors at Everyday Woman. Here's the receipt." She hands me a slip of paper and I look at it
"Everyday Woman?" I ask, looking up at her. "Why didn't you go straight to "Muumuus R Us"?"
Mom turns me so I'm facing towards my new destination.
"Do now, make fun of your mother later."
I smirk as I start off in the general direction of Everyday Woman before I turn around and face my mom again.
"You know, you're always saying that it's not what's on the outside that counts, it's what's on the inside, so it shouldn't really matter to you what I wear."
"You're not getting that outfit, Buffy." She says without looking back at me.
"Oh come on! I'm sure you used to wear things like that when you were my age, and now that I'm saying that out loud, I'm actually regretting not letting you win this one earlier."
I shudder as I turn and continue walking away.
As I walk towards Everyday Woman, I see a man dressed up like a cowboy or something hitting on a pretty girl. He's standing beside her with one foot resting up on the bench she's sitting on. He says something, and she laughs. I smile at the cuteness, then turn towards the store, but my breath catches when I catch the girl's reflection in a mirror. She's alone.
I turn back, thinking maybe the guy just left or something, but he's still there.
Crap. Vampire. I think, and I forget about my mom's outfit, and instead follow the vampire and his new date-slash-meal into an arcade.
When I get into the arcade, the vampire is already burying his face in her neck. No penetration yet, so I decide now's a good time to step in.
Um... of course, by penetration, I obviously mean his fangs penetrating her neck. Not the... other... kind of penetration.
"You know... you got about the pertiest neck I've ever seen." He says in a deep southern accent.
Wow. So he's not just dressing up like a cowboy. This guy's the real deal.
"Wow, you guys really don't ever come up with new lines, do you?" I quip, and the vampire and girl turn towards me.
He puts on his game face, and the girl, oblivious to the new change, says, "Do you mind? We were talkin' here."
Half to get the girl away from him, half for my own amusement, I say, "But you promised you'd never cheat on me again, honey..."
"Uh... I better go..." The girl says, starting to back away, not wanting to get in the way of a "lover's quarrel".
"I ain't done yet." The vampire growls at her, and she runs away, screaming in terror.
He steps up towards me, angry that I scared his meal away.
"All right then, sugarlips. I'm all yours." He jumps after me, but I punch him and push him back with a series of punches and kicks that would have totally KO'd any human.
"You're a rough one, ain't ya? I like that." He grins at me and blocks my next couple attacks, then gets inside my guard, lifts me up off the ground, then slams me into the wall.
I grunt at the impact as he leers at me. I can see him undressing me with his eyes. And that's something only Kendra's allowed to do. You know... if we ever get to that point in our relationship.
This vampire is stronger than most, and I almost wish Kendra was here to help. But, you know, if I don't get a tough fight like this one once in a while, I get rusty. And I've been getting too many easy fights recently. I just wish this could have happened on patrol or something, instead of in the middle of my mother/daughter shopping spree, if you could call this a shopping spree.
"A perty little tidbit like you, with so much kick... Have to be the Slayer I've been hearin' so much about. Lyle Gorch, pleased to meet ya."
I knee him in the face in response, then I drop to the ground and sweep his legs out from underneath him.
"Wow, I really know how to sweep a guy off his feet." I quip, before looking back at him, still on the ground. "Pleasure's mine." I say, whipping out my stake and lunging for his heart. He rolls out from under me, though, and my stake misses. We both get to our feet.
"This ain't over, girl." Lyle says just before he dashes away like the cowardly bad guy in an old western movie. Which I guess, technically, he is.
"Oh sure... They say they'll call." I quip, even though no one's here to hear it.
My mom stares at my disheveled appearance as I join her in the food court.
"Oh, bliss. Mall food." It's funny how slaying makes me hungry. REALLY hungry.
"Buffy." Mom says, and I get the feeling she isn't going to ask why I look like I've been beaten up by a hundred-year-old vampire guy from the old west.
"Mom." I say back, in the same tone of voice she's using. I find it helps delay stern talking-to's for a few seconds.
"Where's my dress?" Ah, the few seconds of delay are now over.
"Your-?" Then, I remember that I was supposed to pick up my mom's dress for the opening at her gallery. "Oh. Oh my god."
"Buffy, what were you- No, let me guess. You were distracted by a b-... a girl."
"Technically..." I say, noting my mom having to remind herself that I'm into girls now.
"Buffy..." She groans.
"Well, I'll get it-" I say, standing up.
"They're closed. I'll have to fit it in tomorrow." She sighs. She's upset, but luckily, she's not really mad.
"Sorry." I say, and Mom stares at me.
"A little responsibility, Buffy, that's all I ask. Honestly, don't you ever think about anything besides girls and clothes?"
"Saving the world from vampires." I suggest.
Mom rolls her eyes at me. "I swear, sometimes I have no idea what goes on in your head."
"Buffy. How come you weren't in class?" Willow asks me when she and Xander walk into the library, where I'm filling Giles in on what happened at the mall. Kendra's sitting at our usual table, her feet propped up, sharpening a few stakes.
"Vampire issues." I explain. "Did Mr. Whitmore notice that I was tardy?"
"I think the word you're searching for is "absent"." Xander points out.
"Tardy people show." Willow agrees.
"Oh. Right." I say.
"And yes, he noticed. So he wanted me to give you this." Willow hands me a small white egg.
"As punishments go, this is fairly abstract." I say, confused.
"No, it's your baby." Willow says, losing me even more.
"Okay, I get it even less." I say.
Xander explains it a little better. "You know, it's the whole "sex leads to responsibility" thing, which I really don't get. YOu gotta take care of the egg, it's a baby. Gotta keep it safe and teach it Christian values."
"My egg is Jewish." Willow corrects.
"Then teach it that dreidel song." Xander suggests.
"God, I can't do this!" I exclaim. "I can't take care of stuff! I killed my gigapet! Literally! I sat on it and broke it!" I set the egg down on the counter carefully, then take a step back. I can feel Kendra's laughing eyes on me, even though my back is turned towards her, and we're at least five feet away from each other.
"You'll do fine." Willow says encouragingly.
"The only thing that stresses me is, when do we tell them they're adopted?" Xander jokes.
"I'll just lay it all off on my partner. Who'd I get?" I ask.
"Well... There was an uneven number of kids... and you didn't show... so..." Willow shrinks nervously.
"I'm a single mother?" I whine. Great, I'm already my mother.
"It's okay, Buffy." Kendra says, stepping up behind me and wrapping her arms around me. "I'll help ya raise de egg. So what are we goin' ta name it?" She jokes, and I smile, holding her arms closer.
"I don't know. You know, shouldn't lesbians be exempt from this kind of assignment? I mean, it's not like we're going to get each other pregnant or anything."
"True." Kendra agree, and we look over at Xander, who's now daydreaming. Willow notices, too, and she leans in to whisper something in Xander's ear that automatically snaps him out of his fantasy.
"Willow!" Xander screeches, his voice hitting a note previously unknown to mankind. Then he starts trying to gouge his eyes out with his fingers, and Willow smiles at us.
"What'd you say to him?" I ask Willow, and she locks her lips.
"Trust me, you don't want to know."
"I'll take your word for it." I agree, and I turn my head enough to kiss my girlfriend, and the adopted mother of my new baby.
"Success at last." Giles says, coming out from behind a bookcase with a dusty old book. He almost puts the book down on Buffy Jr., but I snatch him-slash-her out of the way before he-slash-she met a very early death. Which is likely enough, living on a Hellmouth. Don't need books from the heavens adding to the dangers. "Your new playmate is a fellow of some repute, it seems." Giles says, turning the pages in the book until he gets to a picture of the vampire I'd fought in the mall.
There's another guy by Lyle, kind of smaller.
"Lyle Gorch." Giles says. "The other is his brother Tector. They're from Abeline. Made their reputation massacring a Mexican village in 1886."
"Friendly little demons." I say.
"No, that was before they became vampires." Giles corrects, and we all look at him incredulously. "The good news is they're not among the great thinkers of our time. I doubt they're up to much. They were probably just down here by the Hellmouth's energy."
"Enough said." Xander says suddenly. "I propose that Buffy and Kendra slay them. All in favor?"
"Aye." Willow says, raising her hand.
"Great. Now I just have to worry about Butch and Sundance while I'm taking care of Buffy Junior here." I say, then look back at Kendra again. "Or should we name her after her other mom?"
"Perhaps we could give her both of our names." Kendra replies with a smile.
"Hey. There's an idea."
"You might need help with these two." Giles points out. "They are pretty-... Why do you all have eggs?" he asks suddenly.
"I'm sure you two can handle two vampires by yourselves." Willow says, a gleam in her eyes. I look at her in confusion.
"Oh right. I see a lot of "hunting" getting done in that scenario. Kendra and Buffy. Alone. Late at night." Xander adds, teasing, and Willow nods, indicating that's wha she was talking about. I blush and look back at Kendra, relieved to see she's talking to Giles about the Gorches, and both of them are oblivious.
"Please." I whisper. "Like she and I are just helpless slaves to passion. Grow up."
I rescind my earlier sarcasm towards Will and Xander. Now I have to agree with them. They're right. Not much hunting is getting done when I keep yanking Kendra over to me and kissing her passionately, or vice versa.
Finally, I pull away, gasping for air, and she does the same.
"We should-"
"Yes..." Kendra agrees, and we start to kiss again. But I pull away again after a minute, and we both try to collect ourselves.
"Yeah, this isn't "hunting" in the classical sense. We should get to work."
"You're right. Okay." We take deep breaths to calm ourselves down, then we start walking again.
We last all of about five seconds before I ask, "You see anything?"
"No." Kendra says.
"Okay. Enough hunting." We kiss again, and fall to the ground together, laughing.
Kendra's retreated to her room now, and I just got out of a nice, hot shower. Alone, of course. I had to relieve some tension from tonight's "patrol". Normally, slaying makes me hungry, and maybe a little bit tense in the sexual sense. But when it's with Kendra, (Patrolling, not the sexual sense, because we haven't gone there yet. Heck, I've never gone there!) then the tenseness is ten times worse, especially when the patrol was as hot and steamy as tonight.
I take a deep breath, finally satisfied, then put my egg in a little basket I turned into a bed for it.
"Alrighty then Buffy Summers Jr." I say. I look in a journal and turn to a check list I made.
"Feeding. Check. Burping. Check. Diapers. Check." I adjust a small towel I put around the egg in place of a diaper. "Sort of. In theory." I shrug, and put a check mark by each item on the list. "Okay, kid. Sweet dreams." I say to the egg, still not really believing that I'm actually talking to it.
I pat the egg on its "head", then climb into bed, turning the lights out.
[Omniscient POV (temporarily, of course)]
The room is dark, but for the stream of moonlight entering Buffy's bedroom from the window. A low humming can just barely be heard coming from the egg.
Suddenly, a small crack appears on the egg, and a long, white, thing tendril snakes its way out of the egg, moving towards Buffy. It touches its tip to Buffy's bed, then starts slithering its way up the bed, towards Buffy's face.
When the tip reaches the edge of the blanket, it splits into two tendrils, one of them dipping under the blanket, then retreating, bringing the blanket with it, sliding the blanket down Buffy's body. The other tendril slithers up to Buffy's chest, splitting again. One of the three tendrils slides under Buffy's shirt, almost caressing her braless breasts, and the other one continues it's way up to Buffy's face. From there, it splits into two more tendrils. They slide up to rest on top of her eyes as she slightly moans at the second tendril's touches to her nipples.
The first tendril makes its way back up Buffy's body, to her waist, then hooks under her pajama bottoms and panties, sliding them down her legs to her knees.
It slides back up her body once more, brushing its tip along her newly exposed slit.
The tendril under her shirt splits into two more tendrils, each of them slowly wrapping around and squeezing her nipples, and she arches into the touch, now having a very vivid erotic dream.
"Kendra..." Buffy moans in her dream, smiling.
The first tendril slides back down her slit one more time, then finds her entrance. It pushes on her entrance, and her breath hitches in her sleep at the feeling. The tendril manages to push just inside her before her back arches slightly, and she gasps as it continues to slide inside her.
The tendril touches her still intact hymen, then pushes just a little harder, and it breaks. Buffy whimpers, but doesn't stir otherwise. It pushes further into her, stopping when it had completely filled her. It doesn't slide out, it just starts pulsing as it starts to drain her energy.
[Buffy's POV (again)]
Kendra seems to have three hands as she tweaks my nipples and rubs me down there. I moan, showing her how much I'm enjoying what she's doing to me. Her finger brushes against my entrance, and my breath hitches as she puts a little pressure on it.
She rubs my entrance in circles, never dipping inside, just enough to drive me crazy, until I'm whimpering for more, begging.
"Please, Kendra. Stop teasing me."
"What do ya want?" Kendra asks in that exotic accent I find oh, so sexy. It turns me on even more, and I gasp as she pressed a little harder on my entrance, still tweaking my nipples with her other hand. She smiles down at me with almost black eyes.
"Everything. And nothing. I just want you." I breathe. She nods and leans down to kiss me as she slides just the tip of her finger inside me. I moan into the kiss, encouraging her to go further.
She slowly slides her middle finger inside me until she meets the resistance of my barrier, still intact at seventeen years old. She gazes into my eyes questioningly.
I know she really wants to go further, she wants to make me feel everything, she wants this, but not for her, for me. I can see no end to the love in her eyes, and I can see just how much she wants this for me. But as much as she wants it, I know she won't go any further if I'm not 100% certain that I want this, too. And she won't be disappointed if I decide I'm not certain.
But I am. I've never been more sure of anything in my life. I want this. And I want it for her, too. So instead of responding with words, I pull her back down to me for a searing kiss.
I've heard it's supposed to hurt the first time, when a girl's barrier is broken, but I feel no pain at all. The kiss numbs my entire body, and I can barely feel even a slight pinching sensation as she pushes just hard enough to break through my barrier, but not slip any further inside me.
When we pull apart, she looks down at me in wonder, and now I can feel a little bit of pain, but it's barely noticeable as I lose myself in her eyes.
When I've finally adjusted to the feeling of her being inside me, I nod to her, and she slowly slides her finger out of me to the tip, then adds a second finger as she slowly pushes back inside. I arch into her tough and moan, closing my eyes. Everything around me is sending my senses into overdrive, so I have to cut one of them off so I don't explode, though after only a few slow thrusts against a small bundle of tender nerves deep inside me, exploding is what I'm about to do.
Her hand moves away from my breasts so I can lean up enough to wrap my arms around her as an anchor, holding me down so I don't fly away.
There are no candles in the room. There's no soft, slow music in the background. There's no rose petals. But all of that would have been forgotten by now, and even if I did have them right now, I probably wouldn't remember any of that in the years to come. I'd only remember being here with Kendra. I'd only remember that this is perfect. Absolutely perfect.
...
I reach over with a weak arm and shut the alarm off when it wakes me up from my very, very, very good dream. I sit up in bed, groaning.
"Oh god..." I look over at the egg. Is it just me, or is it bigger today? No, that's ridiculous.
I start to stand up, but then I realize something's different today. I don't know what it is, but I just feel different. Like something big changed last night that I should know about, but I just can't quite put my finger on it.
I walk into the kitchen, feeling extremely sluggish, carrying my backpack and egg. I plop down at the counter and take a drink of the coffee my mom just poured for herself. I knew it was for her, but I need the energy sooooo baaaaaad.
"At least eat something if you're going to drink that." Mom says.
"Not hungry." I moan.
"Did Buffy Jr. keep ya up all night?" Kendra jokes, and I roll my eyes. I'm not in the mood for humor right now.
"No." I snap, and Kendra makes a face.
"Buffy, I know you're not a morning person, but you're looking more grumpy than usual." My mom says worriedly. "Are you okay?"
"I'm just feeling really drained today. I don't know what it is, I feel like I exhausted myself last night or something, and I still haven't recovered. I feel like I'm just sleep-walking right now."
My mom gets a look in her eyes, and she smiles, like she knows what's going on. Kendra notices it, too, and we share a look.
"What?" I ask Mom.
"Nothing." She says, smirking.
"What?" I ask again, really not in the mood for avoiding answers right now.
"Look, girls, I appreciate you two being quiet last night, but next time, try not to tire each other out too much before school the next day, okay?"
I spew the drink of coffee I'd just taken, and both Kendra and I blush.
"What?!" I cry out, suddenly very awake.
"Look, I know that your situation is different from girls who are interested in boys. And Kendra, you're a very sweet, respectful young woman. So, I don't mind the two of you being intimate with each other, especially since neither of you can get the other pregnant."
"Mom!" I cry out, and if it's possible, my voice just went even higher than Xander's did yesterday.
"Ms. Summers, please-" Kendra pleads, but my mom cuts her off.
"Okay, okay, I'll drop it. I won't mention it again. I just want to assure you two that I fully support your relationship with each other, and as long as I don't have to hear it while you two are... being intimate... I really don't mind."
"Mom! It's not what it-!"
"Nothing happened!" Kendra and I both screech at the same time.
"Mom, we haven't had sex!" I shout, and Kendra shakes her head in agreement.
"Oh... Well then... forget about what I said. I mean, not about me supporting you two or anything... but about... you know what I'm talking about."
We all fall into an extremely uncomfortable silence until I decide to break it by ushering Kendra out the door for school.
Willow, Kendra, Xander and I all walk into the library, and Giles looks at us curiously.
"Why are you four about? Don't you have class?" He asks us in the British accent that I only now realize how much it has annoyed me all along.
"Teen health got canceled." Willow explains. Se's feeling as sluggish as I am now, and neither of us can understand how Kendra and Xander are feeling so chipper today.
"Mr. Whitmore's out today. Couldn't get an egg-sitter or something." Xander jokes, and Willow and I slump to the ground on the steps.
"Well then, could you give me a hand?" Giles asks.
"No." Will and I moan at the same time.
Xander and Kendra, though, get up and go help Giles.
"How did the hunt go last night, Buffy?" Giles asks. What's with all the questions? It's only... 11:30 in the morning.
"No go." I reply.
"You didn't go, or you were unsuccessful?"
"No Gorches."
Kendra smiles slightly.
"Apparently,Buffy has decided that the problem with the English language is all those pesky words." Xander jokes, and I glare at him. "You. Kendra. Big. Smoochies?" Xander continues to joke, and Kendra smacks him on the back of his head.
"Shut. Up." She says, and that actually makes me smile for a second.
"It's true." Giles says. "You and Willow do appear to be awfully sluggish. Are you quite sure you're alright?"
"Maybe it was something we ate..." Willow suggests.
"Or perhaps it's the burden of parenthood." Xander suggests. "Notice how seriously both of you have taken this egg thing. While I, in turn, chose a more balanced approach..." Xander takes his egg out of his pocket and starts tossing it in the air and catching it. Will and I watch the egg, nervous.
"Xander... Maybe you shouldn't-" Willow says, but Xander cuts her off.
"See? That's just what I'm talking about. You can't stress over every little thing. A child picks up on that, which is a one-way ticket to neurotic city."
Xander drops his egg on the ground, and the rest of us gasp as it hits the ground and bounces down the steps. Wait, bounces? The egg doesn't break, it just rolls to a stop on the ground, and we all look back at Xander with narrow eyes. He laughs nervously.
"That's the other secret to conscientious egg-care. A pot of scalding water and about eight minutes."
"YOU BOILED YOUR YOUNG?!" Willow screeches.
"I know it sounds harsh. But sometimes you have to be harsh to be kind. You can bet little Xander here is thick-skinned now."
"Technically, that would be called cheating, yes?" Giles asks.
"No! It's just like taking a shortcut, you know, if you're running a race."
"That would also be cheating." I say.
"You should be ashamed." Willow agrees.
"I suppose there is a sort of Machiavellian ingenuity to your transgression." Giles says.
"I resent that!" Xander shouts in reply. "Or possibly thank you?" He adds a second later, confused.
"Bit of both would suit."
"As much as I hate to say this, we should go kill bad guys." I say to Kendra when we finally separate from the long, passionate kiss.
"It's late." She observes. "We should get home."
I smile when I realize she just called my house "home". She hasn't done that yet, so it's special to me.
"What about the Gorches?"
"Hmm... Good point. You go home, I'll hunt dem."
"You'd do that?"
"Well, I'm not technically a student at de school, so I don't exactly have an early day tomorrow."
"True. And I still have to go home and fill out my egg diary."
"Yes. You should do dat, definitely." She smiles, and I can't help but smile back. Then, I groan.
"Ugh... This faux parenting thing is getting on my last nerve. Like I'm really planning on having kids any time soon. Someday, maybe I'll adopt or something. But a kid would be too much to deal with right now."
"Well, I tink de point of dis assignment is to make you realize the responsibility you'd have to take on after sex, if you get pregnant."
I smile and pull her close. "Yeah, but I'm also not planning on having sex with anyone but you any time soon." Then, I realize what I'd just said. Kendra and I are BOTH still virgins, of course, so we've never even had sex at all before, let alone with each other. I blush furiously at the implication. "I... I mean... um... Not, of course, that I'm planning on-"
"It's okay, Buffy." Kendra stops me, smirking, and I'm grateful that she stopped my rambling. "After dis morning, I figured dis talk was coming soon, anyway."
"Oh..." I say, and we fall silent for a few minutes. Finally, I break the silence. "So... have you... um... thought about it? With me, I mean?"
"Uh... yes... I have had... thoughts... Especially since dis morning, after what your mother said... Have... Have you? Had thoughts, I mean?"
"Yes..." I respond hesitantly. Should I tell her about my dream last night? She's my girlfriend, so she might like to know about it. But this is gonna be sooooo awkward! Okay, come on, Buffy, spill.
"Buffy?" Kendra asks, and I realize I've been silent for a while.
"Sorry... Lot's of thoughts being had in my head right now." I explain. "Um... actually... about me... having thoughts... about you... Um... Last night, I... I had this dream... and... you were... kind of in it. Well, actually... you were the main part about it... and I was the other main part... And we were... you know... and I haven't... haven't been able to stop... thinking about the dream all day."
"You had a sex dream about me?" Kendra asks, a half smile/half blush appearing on her face.
"Um... yeah... Kinda..." I say nervously.
"I don't tink dat's something to be embarrassed about, Buffy. In fact, I actually like de fact dat you have dose thoughts about me. Because I do, too... about you, though."
"But... I mean, neither of us have ever... you know... before. How do we know...-?"
"I... I tink we should just... instead of actually trying to... please each other... just stop trying to avoid... sex."
"So... what you're saying is... just basically... go with the flow? Just... whatever happens, let it happen?"
"Um... yes? I guess dat's what I'm saying."
"Oh... um... okay... I guess we'll just... keep doing what we've been doing... and see where that takes us..."
"Okay." Kendra agrees. We kiss awkwardly for a minute, but let the awkwardness slip away when a pair of vampires, not the Gorches, jump out at us and attack.
I react first, knocking one of them away with a fast and well-aimed crescent kick to his head. Kendra engages the other one while I grab the one I kicked by the collar and pick him up. I slam him against a tree, and I swear I feel his fangs break under my fist when I throw a powerful right hook, then come back around with a backfist. I let him fall to the ground and whip out my stake to dust him, but he throws his head up, headbutting me, and I drop the stake in my momentary confusion. his fist slams into my head once before I react, and I catch his fist when he goes to punch me again.
My right leg strikes out in a mean roundhouse, then comes back around for another right crescent kick, and as soon as I plant my right leg, I finish with a rear side kick, knocking him back into the tree again. He's too far away for me to get to him before he can recover, so I throw my hands to the ground, kicking my feet into the air for a front handspring. My left hand closes around my stake, and my legs connect with the vampire's chest when I come back down.
I shift my center of gravity a bit so I fall down with the vampire, and when I fall on top of him, my stake plunges into his chest, and sinks into the ground when he melts into a pile of dust.
I get back up and dust myself off, watching as Kendra finishes the other vampire. I pick my stake back up and tuck it back inside my jacket pocket, watching as Kendra does the same.
Our eyes meet, and I notice that slaying seems to have the same effect on Kendra as it does on me. It makes us both unbelievably horny, and I have no idea why. It just does.
I automatically know that us not trying to not have sex anymore is about to come into play, so we grab each other's hands and start running back to my house as fast as we can.
We climb back up through my window, then immediately meet in a heated kiss that quickly escalates into much, much more.
My hands fly to her jacket, and I strip it off of her, followed by her shirt, which I accidentally ruin. I'm impatient, so my hands go down to her jeans, eager to relieve her of them. But Kendra's impatient, too, so she swats my hands away and all but rips my jacket and shirt off.
She reaches down and squeezes my thighs, pulling me up around her waist, then carries me over to my bed and almost slams us both down on it.
"Mmmmh!" I moan hungrily into her mouth as we kiss again, and were it not for our jeans and underwear, our centers would be touching right now.
But that's as far as it goes, because she pulls apart for some reason.
"What?" I ask.
"Did you not hear dat?" She whispers.
"Hear what?" I ask, but at that moment, I hear it, too.
"Dat." She says. It sounds almost like a clicking or something. She gets up off of me, and I groan at the loss of contact, but I get up, too, and we look around. Suddenly, our eyes dart to the egg on my nightstand as we hear the sound again, this time louder, and obviously coming from my homework.
Before we can even react, the egg explodes, and a nasty spider-looking creature jumps out at us.
We both duck out of the way, thanks to our Slayer instincts. I spin around to see the creature scamper under the bed. I point somewhere behind me for Kendra, and luckily, she gets the hint as I keep my eyes on the bed, waiting for the creature to attack again.
She hands me a book while she's holding a nail file to fight the thing off with, and we start to creep towards the bed. I drop slowly to the ground, then lift the dust ruffle on the bottom of the bed, looking under it, but there's nothing there.
I stand up and shake my head at Kendra. We both start looking around for it again, but can't find it anywhere. At least, not until it drops from the ceiling and lands on me. It feels like it's trying to snap my bra off, so I think it might be a little pervert demon or something, but I don't take the time to find out. I drop the book in my hands, then reach behind me to grab the buggy-thing. I fling it across the room and feel the wind beside my head rush as Kendra throws the nail file. It impales itself into the creature on the wall, going through to the wall as well.
The bug hangs from the nail file in the wall, lifeless.
Blue slime comes out of the dead creature, and I grimace.
"Yuck." I say out loud. I hear a knock on the door, and Kendra and I scramble to cover up the mess in here, forgetting we're missing our shirts. Kendra straightens up the room, and I take the creature off the wall, keeping the nail file inside it, and I hide them both in my dresser drawer.
My mom comes in just in time to see us both turn quickly towards the door. She blushes when she sees our state of undress, then we realize it, too, and cover ourselves up with our arms.
"I... I, um... was coming to see what the... what the commotion was... Now I guess... Now I guess I know..." She walks out slowly and closes the door softly behind her.
I look back at Kendra, and we both silently agree that nothing further is going to happen between us tonight. So, she picks up her shirt, kisses me quickly, then leaves my room, going towards hers.
I plop down on my bed and sigh. Ugh. We were so close!
Mom is driving me to school today, but we've both been silent so far. The events of last night leave us both speechless in the awkward tension in the air.
Finally, when I'm about to get out of the car, I turn to her and break the silence.
"Um... think you could pick me up at the library later today? I'm going to ask Will's help with studying for this test that's coming up."
"Okay. What time?"
"Um... better make it about 5:30, just to be safe. If we get done early, I'll just hang out there until then."
"Sure thing."
With that, we return to awkward silence, so I get out of the car and walk up the steps to my daily prison.
I look around at all the other students arriving for the day, and I suddenly wonder how many of them have evil eggs like mine.
I look over at Cordelia, who's walking around looking like a schoolgirl from a porno movie. N-n-not that I h-have any experience w-with that, of c-course.
"Nice bear." I say to Cordy as I walk up to her. "Listen, is your-"
"I'll have you know that my father brought this back for me from Gstaad years ago. Then all of a sudden these trendoids everywhere are sporting them. So I've been totally not wearing it. But then I was- "Hey! I started this whole nation-wide craze. What am I ashamed of?"."
"Okay, soliloquy girl..." I say with a smirk. "I just wanted to know about your egg."
"My egg?"
"You know, the egg that Mr. Whitmore gave to you?"
"I've got it in my bear. I'm going to ace this experiment. No sweat. You think keeping an egg intact for a week is effortful? Try not breaking a silk-wrapped nail."
"And your egg isn't acting... odd, or anything?"
Cordy look at me like I'm an idiot. "It's not "acting" anything. It's an egg, Buffy. It doesn't emote." She says with a scoff.
Willow walks up and joins us as we keep walking up towards the school.
"Hey Will, did your egg... do... anything last night?" I ask, and Cordy rolls her eyes.
"Do anything?" Willow asks.
"She's been pestering me like that all morning." Cordy explains. "It's irritating. I think she's been inhaling too much vamp dust, if you catch my drift."
Will and I ignore her, though, and I ask her again. "Did it?"
"No." Willow answers. "I put my egg in the fridge last night."
"Oh. Okay. I guess it was just me, then."
"Just you what?"
"My egg went postal last night. It hatched, and this spidery thing attacked me."
"Oh. Wow."
"Yeah. And it really had the worst timing possible." I groan.
"What do you mean?"
I blush as I remember exactly what the bug thing interrupted.
"Well... Kendra and I were getting back from patrol last night, and we crawled in through my window... and... we were..." I now have Cordy and Willow's undivided attention.
"Go on." Willow says with a gleam in her eyes.
"We were starting to..." I swallow, but they're obviously going to make me say it. "We were going to have sex. Together. Finally. I mean, we were right there! We were so close, but then that thing hatched, and we had to kill it, then my mom walked in to see what the commotion was, and she saw us without our shirts, and... ugh, it was too embarrassing! There was no way anything was going to happen after my mom walked in." I whine, and Willow pats my back.
"It's okay, Buffy." She says. "It'll happen sooner or later."
"I'm more worried about the "later" part, though. I'd rather it be the "sooner" option."
"I know." She says sympathetically. Then, we're back on the subject of Mr. Bug. "You didn't bring the thing that attacked you, did you?"
"Yeah. I called Giles and he's in research mode. Wants to see it."
"Well, take it to the science lab. I'll get Giles and we can analyze it."
"Great. I always say "a day without an autopsy is like a day without sunshine"."
Just then, we hear Xander scream, and we look over to see him holding his now cracked open egg, and a bug thing like my bug thing falls out of the hardboiled shell.
After school, both of the bug things from mine and Xander's eggs are pinned open in dissection trays in the science lab. Cordy, Xander and I are waiting for Willow to get back with Giles.
"Can I just say... "uugghh"!" He says and shudders.
"I see your "uugghh" and raise you a "gnyegh"!" I reply.
"What is it?" Cordelia asks.
Xander leans over. "We, um... We don't know what it is, Cordelia. That's why we're here. Capiché?" He says conspiratorially.
"Capiché? Like you're Mr. World Traveler."
Willow walks into the room that moment.
"Where's Giles? I know he'd hate to miss this." I ask her.
"He said we should get started and he'd be by as soon as possible." She says. Is it just me, or does Willow sound almost... emotionless?
Xander hands me a scalpel. "So. Okay. Get started Buffy. Dissect it or something."
"Dissect it?!" I shriek. "Why me?"
"You're the Slayer." He says, like that was grounds enough.
"I slayed! My work here is done!" I hand it back to him.
"Oh no. I almost ate one of these things. I've fulfilled my gross-out quota for the decade."
"Guys?" Willow says, then takes the scalpel away from Xander. We're both satisfied, so we let Willow do the cutting.
As soon as she cuts into the bug, some blue goop squirts out.
"Do we have any idea what to look for?" Xander asks. "I mean, how are we supposed to figure out what this thing is?"
"Turn it over. Maybe we missed its ID bracelet." I suggest.
As Willow keeps cutting, the rest of us get more and more grossed out.
"So I guess we know what happened to Mr. Whitmore." Xander says.
"He saw one of these things and ran away?"
"Try "best-case scenario"." I quip. I do that a lot, don't I?
"It's possible Mr. Whitmore wasn't harmed. Maybe the offspring simply used him to return to the Mother Bezoar."
That sends red lights flashing all over the place.
"What's a Bezo-?" I begin to ask, but then I feel something hit me in the back of the head, and my world fades to black.
I sit up and groan in pain as I feel the back of my head. I look around and see that Xander and I are locked in a supply closet, and I remember Cordelia hitting me with a lead pipe. I guess Willow's in on whatever's going on, because she's not locked up with us.
"Xander?" I ask, shaking him awake.
He groans, too, looking up from where he lays on the hard ground.
"Are you okay?"
"Man, the last time Cordy dragged me in here was a lot nicer." He groans.
"What?"
"Uh, nothing. Crazy talk. Head trauma." He backpedals.
"Yeah, I'm gonna have a bump." I let it slide, due to recent events taking priority.
"I'm gonna have a peninsula here. What the hell is going on? Cordy and Willow..."
"Something to do with our hatchlings, I'm sure of that." I say as I reach for the doorknob, not surprized to find it locked tight.
"What, are they possessed?"
"I don't know. They sure wanted us out of the way."
"Why not kill us? Why drag us in here- oh." I look back to see Xander looking at a crate on the ground.
I see the two eggs on the crate, and automatically know what the plan was.
But I don't let it come to pass. Instead, I grab something heavy, I don't really care what, then slam it down on the eggs, crushing them. Blue ooze gushes out from under the object. Apparently, it was a tool chest.
"You're scrambled." Xander says in his best impersonation of Arnold Schwartzenegger. He looks back at me and grins. "See, we make a good team. You kill, I pun."
I rear back and kick the door open, then look back at Xander.
"Come with me if you want to live." I fire back in my Arnold impression, which, surprizingly, is actually much better than Xander's.
Xander's jaw drops, then he almost laughs at my wits.
We enter the library just in time to see Giles go flying, then crash down on the table we usually hold Scooby meetings at. I look around and see Kendra brushing herself off.
"Kendra, what's going on?!" I screech.
"He's possessed, Buffy. I told your mom dat I would come and get you today, but when I got here, you weren't here."
"Yeah. Willow and Cordy gave me and Xander a time-out in a supply closet. They're possessed too."
"Anyway, I came here, den talked to Giles to find out where you were, and he tried to stick one of dose spidery tings on me back. I killed it, den trew Giles across de room, and dat's when you walked in."
I hug Kendra tightly.
"God, I'm glad you're okay."
"Me too. So, what's going on?" She asks, returning the embrace.
"I don't know." I admit, pulling away.
"Willow said something... a name... what was it?" Xander asks.
"A Bozo!" I say. Then, judging by Xander's look, I think that was wrong, so I backpedal. "Not a bozo..."
"Bezoar!" Xander exclaims.
"Yes!" I agree. "Great. Okay, so,we look it up."
"In what?" Xander asks, and I shrug.
"A book?" I suggest, and Kendra rolls her eyes.
"Is dis what you are looking for?" She asks, pointing to a book Giles already had open.
"Giles said he was gonna try to find something." I say, then walk over to his desk and look at the books he had lying open. A picture of the little bug thing jumps out at me. "I'd say he found something."
Xander starts to walk over, then steps on something crunchy. It's the egg shell from the thing that possessed Giles.
I turn back to the book.
"A prehistoric parasite... the mother hibernates underground, laying eggs. Offspring attach themselves to a host, taking control of their motor functions through neural clamping." I read.
"Neural clamping? That sounds skippable." Xander says with a grimace, wiping eggshell off his shoe.
"So our people are taking orders from the mama Bezoar. Which begs the question-"
"What does mommy want?" Kendra asks.
We hear a scream outside, then run out of the library to see Johnathan stand up, no emotions on his face. Kendra goes to rip the creature off of him, but I stop her, and she glares at me like I'm insane.
"Don't, Kendra. If it's attached to his spine, you might end up killing him if you try to take it off. We'll have to find a way to get it to let go of him first. Besides, if we follow him, he might lead us to Bugzilla." I explain, and she nods in understanding.
We follow Johnathan all the way to the boiler room, and see him disappear down a hole in the back wall.
"Do we really wanna go in there?" Xander asks.
"We really don't." I agree, but we step through the hole anyway. We follow the tunnel all the way to the end and see everyone using pickaxes and other tools to dig out a big hole in the ground.
"What are they digging up?" Xander asks. I look closely at the ground, then recoil at the sight.
"Oh boy..." I mutter. It's the mother Bezoar.
Suddenly, Xander nudges me, then points at something. I follow his line of sight and see Cordelia pick up a crate of Bezoar eggs and carry them out through another tunnel, followed closely by several other people carrying eggs.
"We can't let them spread those things." I growl. "Xander, Kendra, go stop them."
Xander nods, but Kendra shakes her head.
"No."
"What?" I ask, stunned. We don't normally disagree about this kind of thing.
"I'm not going to leave you here to fight dese zombies by yourself, Buffy. If dey notice you, dey'll be all over you, and even with Slayer strength, you can't handle them all by yourself. Not without seriously hurting someone. I'm staying here."
"Kendra, there's no time for arguing." I start, but she cuts me off.
"Den don't argue with me. I'm staying here to help keep dem off your back while you handle de big one in de middle." I sigh in defeat, then nod to Xander, who nods back then heads after Cordy.
"We're gonna need weapons." I say to Kendra. "We're gonna need big weapons."
She nods, then we head back through the tunnel to go find something, only to run into the Gorches.
"Told you it wasn't over." Lyle says, then notices Kendra beside me. "The more the merrier." He grins, baring his fangs.
"They're so cute and little. Can we keep 'em?" The other vampire, Tector, I think, asks his brother.
"Guys, this is not a great time." I say to them, and Kendra and I grab some pickaxes.
"It's gonna be." Lyle says, and he and Tector come right at us. I kick out and send Tector flying against the back wall, but Lyle tackles me and Kendra, and the three of us go rolling back down the tunnel towards the Bezoar room.
The three of us stand up and look around. The zombies have all stopped working and are looking right at us.
"What the hell is this?" Lyle asks.
"Kill them." I turn to find the source of the voice, only to see Willow pointing at us, the signature expressionless face of a zombie.
The three of us immediately spring into defensive mode, Kendra and me actually working with Lyle to beat back the zombies coming for us, though we are being a little bit more gentle with them than Lyle.
"What's goin' on?!" Lyle screams.
"Long story!" I shout back.
I grab the pickaxe out of someone's hands, then kick him away, slamming the metal part into someone else's gut simultaneously. I mean the archy part, not the pointy part. I don't want to kill anyone, of course.
I whip around and use a crescent kick to knock another zombie out, using my momentum to power a backfist into someone else's temple, rendering her unconscious, too.
I look over and see Lyle and Kendra holding their own against the zombies, too, so I whistle out, and Kendra nods at my signal. She stands up on a stack of egg crates then calls out, catching everyone's attention.
"You want it?" She asks, hefting a two-by-four like a club. "Come get it." The zombies all go for her and Tector, drawing them all away from me, so I start for the mother Bezoar, but Tector has found his way back here, and he attacks right then.
He doesn't last long, though, because I roll with his momentum and kick him off of me, only for him to land by the hole.
"What is that...?" He asks, looking down at the mother Bezoar.
An eye opens, and a tendril whips out, wrapping around his neck and pulling him in before he can even scream.
"Tector! TECTOR!" Lyle shouts, then glares at me. "This is all YOUR fault!" He screams, then jumps over the zombies and tackles me. I fall down into the hole with the mother Bezoar, and see him glaring down at me in victory. "Well how 'bout that? I just killed me a Slayer."
"BUFFY!" Kendra screams, but she can't get to me.
Tendrils wrap around my arms, legs and throat, but luckily, I still have my pickaxe.
I struggle for a few minutes, trying to get one of my arms free, but eventually, I manage to swing the pickaxe, and I break off one of the tendrils, freeing my other arm.
I start batting away the other tendrils as they come at me, then finally sink the pointy part of the pickaxe in the Bezoar's eye. It roars in pain, but I push harder, and with a satisfying crunch, I hear the pickaxe go straight into its brain. It roars one more time, then dies as blue ooze sprays all over me, and the tendrils sink down away from me.
I throw the pickaxe over the edge of the hole and slowly climb out to see the baby Bezoars falling off of everyone's backs, and the victims all sink to the ground, unconscious.
I glare at Lyle as I stand up, and I'm sure I look terrifying, but I just feel icky.
Lyle Gorch looks at me in terror. "Okay. It's over now..." He says in true cowardly bad guy fashion, grabs his hat, and runs away.
Later that night, the news is buzzing about the freak gas leak at Sunnydale High that lead to abnormal behavior from all of the students and faculty and ended with "seventeen year old Buffy Summers and Kendra Young managing to find the shut-off valve and turn off the gas before serious damage could be done". The anchorman's words, not mine.
We had to give the press some last name for Kendra, since no one would believe she was my sister, especially since someone told them she's my girlfriend. So, we came up with Young.
Kendra and I are laying on my bed, my left leg draped over her waist, my arm draped over her chest, and we're kissing. We're both still fully clothed, and after being covered in blue giant bug guts, I'm really not in the mood to actually have sex. But kissing is okay. Kissing is definitely okay.