Thanks for this chapter go to the awesome Disregard for her eyes and depravity counseling. ;)
"Um…hi." Buffy put her hands on the counter and looked up at Nigel. She'd only been in the library three or four times since she'd first joined the Academy, but then, she wasn't a watcher. Or even a casual reader. So she'd never had much reason to do so. She wasn't sure if she had much reason now. "I'm looking for something?"
"What can I do for you?" Nigel wasn't actually the librarian, she knew. The original watcher who'd worked in the library had been conspicuously missing lately. Cordy said that it was vampires, and that was why one of Quentin Travers's lackies from the Council had arrived to take her place, and Buffy believed her. Cordy may have been many things, but she definitely wasn't a liar.
Nigel himself didn't seem as unpleasant as Travers always did when he came visiting, so she smiled tentatively. "I'm, um…I'm looking for information on Spike?" she tried, hoping that he wouldn't ask her why. She still had no response to that question.
But Nigel just nodded knowingly. "New senior potential?" he asked, smiling faintly.
"Senior slayer," she corrected him. "Why?"
Nigel moved from behind the desk and set a brisk pace through the stacks, Buffy behind him. "Well, it's only natural that you'd want to find out more about William the Bloody. He is widely considered to be the greatest fighter we have in custody, after all." He stopped abruptly, and Buffy nearly crashed into him. "I am impressed, though. It's rare to see a potential so responsible, and it's quite refreshing. Here we are!" He nodded to the long bookcase in front of them. "The third and fourth rows likely contain many references to William the Bloody. And this-" He pulled out a small, bound sheaf of papers from the third shelf from the bottom. "-Is Miss Chalmers's thesis, focusing only on William the Bloody."
Buffy took it gingerly, giving Nigel a thankful smile. "Can I just stay here and read it?" she asked hopefully. She didn't want to bring it back to the dorm. That seemed too…real, somehow. And until she'd figured out what she was looking for, she wasn't willing to explain herself to Faith or anyone else who saw the thesis.
"Certainly." Nigel gestured to the other side of the bookcase. "Behind that shelf is a small reading room. As long as you're quiet and respectful of the library's rules, you may stay here for as long as you'd like."
But as soon as he was gone, she sank to the floor against the bookcase, flipping rapidly through the thesis to find images. She stopped at the appendices, inhaling sharply at the clear photo she'd stumbled upon.
She didn't know what exactly had prompted this fixation, and she had no idea why she was so fascinated. It had started several days before when they'd first studied William the Bloody in class. His face had seemed…familiar, somehow, and even though she knew that it was impossible that she'd known him, not when he'd been a captive of the Watchers Academy for so long, she couldn't shake the familiarity.
Maybe he has some long-lost descendant I knew back in LA? she wondered, tracing the sharp lines of his face and the long, honeyed locks of hair that were loosely tied up and hanging against his shoulder. Why else could she be so drawn to him? The laughing blue eyes were nearly staring directly at her, the mouth tilted in a handsome smile that made her shiver, the outstretched hand bent almost invitingly toward the photographer, and she pulled the booklet a bit closer instinctively.
"Who are you?" she whispered, stroking the image of his face. When can I see you? Her class of senior slayers would hardly be fighting Spike anytime soon. Instead, they practiced sharpshooting and staking with young minions and the occasional older fledgling. The two times so far that they'd been called in to witness more advanced battles, Buffy had held her breath, hoping that she'd finally be able to see the strange vampire who puzzled her so. But they had been the two new ones, Angelus and Darla, and she'd sunk to the bottom of her seat in disappointment and watched the fights almost grudgingly.
She needed to see Spike. She needed to understand.
"Buffy?" The curious voice came from the other side of the stack, and she hastily closed the booklet when she heard it. "Is that you? What brings you to the library?" Willow stood with a quiet Tara Maclay, the sun shining directly behind her to frame her red hair in a halo of scarlet.
Buffy laughed nervously. "Just some research on what we've been studying lately. Nothing much."
"William the Bloody?" Willow asked, her sharp eyes catching the title of the thesis before Buffy could conceal it. "Oh, he's really interesting! I've read up on him before, especially since he's considered top dog of the Academy vampires, and his life could be a movie! Especially in the early years of the Scourge of Europe, when…"
Buffy tuned Willow out, clutching the thesis and feeling a wave of possessiveness toward it and its subject.
"If you're interested, I think that there are some video documentaries on it," Willow said suddenly, and Buffy perked up.
"On William the Bloody?"
"On the Boxer Rebellion," Willow corrected, frowning at her. "I'm sure that they have information on Bloody, too, and tapes of his fights with slayers, but we're not allowed to see them without permission."
"We should study," Tara said suddenly, but her eyes were probing into Buffy so deeply that Buffy was sure that she'd picked up on something beyond even what Buffy knew. It was disconcerting, to say the least.
"Oh, right." Willow shot Buffy an apologetic look. "We'll talk some other time, okay? If you have any questions…"
"I'll come to you," Buffy said, managing a smile until they'd turned away. She slumped back against the bookcase, opening the booklet again.
When she finally began to read the actual thesis, she discovered quickly that William the Bloody was a fairly normal master vampire. Carnage, a bloody trail through Europe…it was nothing she hadn't seen before in her studies. The references to Angelus were far more disturbing, as was the description of his mad companion, Drusilla, and her exploits.
In the year 1900, though, Spike had killed a slayer, and that bothered Buffy more than the normal violence and murders. One of her sisters had fallen at the hand of that…that monster, and here Buffy was, one hundred years later, just as enthralled with Spike as poor Xin Rong.
She turned to the appendices again and found the image of William the Bloody, stared into those lively blue eyes and wondered why she was so caught up in the image of a killer. What does it mean? What am I missing?
She must have dozed off at some point, because the next thing she knew, it was nearly dark out and someone was being pretty noisy in the row behind hers. No… some people.
"Do you ever shut up?" she heard a distinct, familiar voice hiss. Buffy smirked at the idea of Cordelia actually spending time in the library. The only reason any of the slayers ever came in was to-
"Are you complaining about this mouth?" someone purred, and Buffy's eyes widened. Cordy had a guy back there! Oh, Faith talked about what happened behind the stacks sometimes, and some of the older students would make crude comments about meeting in the library when they were trying to pick up girls, but none of the guys that Buffy had dated (which, granted, wasn't a very large number. Faith liked to chase them off before they got to Buffy) had mentioned it as a possible makeout center. Buffy had always assumed that girls like her didn't do things like that.
Apparently, she was wrong.
Trying to remain as silent as possible, Buffy tucked the thesis, which had been still open on her lap, between two books on the bottom shelf and rose to her knees, peeking between the books to see who was with Cordy.
She nearly laughed when she saw that it was Jesse, of all people, who professed to hate Cordy more than anything.
He was kissing a line down her neck as she arched into him, stopping to nip and suck at her pulse point midway. Cordy let out a strangled sigh and shoved him, and they crashed against the wall opposite Buffy's vantage point with a dull thud. Jesse reversed their positions so that Cordy was backed against the wall, and then his hands went- Buffy squinted, startled- down there.
Cordy had parted her legs to give him easier access, and Jesse had pushed her skirt and panties aside and was moving one finger rhythmically, making Cordy gasp and moan with each stroke. Buffy watched, fascinated, unable to look away from what was happening. The furthest she'd ever gotten with a boy was when Owen Thurman had stuck his hand up her blouse when they'd been kissing and she'd pushed him away. What Cordy was doing was so beyond anything she'd ever experienced. And it was making her feel very warm and restless as she observed…
Jesse pulled down the spaghetti straps of Cordy's tank top with his free hand, brushing kisses down her full breasts until he reached her pebbled nipples, tugging at them faintly and biting softly at the smooth, tanned skin around them until her breasts were flushed red and Cordy had thrown her head back, panting.
Suddenly, Jesse's hand moved sharply to do something Buffy couldn't quite see to Cordy, his other hand moving up to cover her mouth as she screamed in some strange combination of pain and pleasure. She bucked wildly against Jesse, eventually sinking her teeth into his palm to suppress her shout before she finally collapsed, spent, against him. He took her into his arms gently then, holding her up as she panted heavily, kissing the top of her head softly.
Cordy finally seemed to have regained the ability to stand and was now kissing Jesse with all she had, her passion and exhilaration making Buffy squirm to try to ease the sudden, strange ache between her legs. Experimentally, she reached into her jeans to try to find whatever had made Cordy crazy, letting out a gulp when she felt how wet she was.
"Cor?" Jesse was frowning, pulling away from her and looking around. "Did you hear something?"
Crap! Buffy fled through the other side of the row of books, and out of the library at top speed, completely forgetting her earlier mission and William the Bloody until it was much later at night and she was safely ensconced in her room. Even then, the image of Spike and the scene with Cordy and Jesse had become so mixed up in her mind that she dreamt that night of herself and the vampire in that corner of the stacks.
And when she awakened to Faith's knowing gaze, she was out of breath and felt even more unsatisfied than she had in the library.
----
The next time she saw Jesse and Cordelia together, they were sniping at each other as always with their groups of respective friends, but this time, Buffy spotted the little things that a casual observer might have missed- the secret smile on Cordy's face when she got in a particularly vicious jibe, the shine on Jesse's when he glanced over at her, the hunger in their eyes when their friends turned away… Buffy wondered if they were in love. Or maybe just strong like. And why hadn't they told their friends if they were together, anyway? It didn't make sense at all. Maybe it was a slayer-watcher thing.
"Hey, Buffy!" One of the younger slayers, a girl named Amanda whom Buffy had always liked, jogged over to where Buffy stood with Faith. "Looking forward to Spring Break in Hell?"
Buffy mustered up a grin at Amanda's eagerness. Slayers between fourteen and sixteen were all required to take the test, even though only one year of watchers had to do the same, and Buffy had already taken the exam once. Her partner had been a witch named Vaughne, who'd been uptight and overly dismissive to the point that Buffy had finally lost patience with her on their third day testing and rebelled against her orders. She'd been sternly reprimanded for that, reminded that the watcher was always right and that the slayer was merely an instrument, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to care, not when three-quarters of her class had been given the same speech. This year would be even worse, she was sure, now that she'd be paired up with one of her classmates. The older watchers had hated them on principle. Her year's watchers just hated them, period.
But Amanda was still young and excited, and Buffy decided not to crush her enthusiasm. "Sure," she said finally, glancing over at the watchers. Warren Mears leered at her, and she suppressed a shudder. If she was paired with him, she knew that she'd fail.
"Who do you think you'll be with?" Amanda asked, following Buffy's gaze.
Buffy shrugged. "With any luck, Tara or Jonathan or someone who won't treat me like a tool."
Faith sniggered obnoxiously. Buffy rolled her eyes at her.
"Okay, get out of here, kid," Faith ordered at Amanda, strong-arming Buffy over toward the back of the room. Amanda gave a little shrug and moved back to her group, too wise to start something with the infamous Faith.
Buffy yanked her arm from Faith's grip once she'd stopped moving. "Amanda's sweet," she protested. "You didn't need to-"
Faith smirked and laid a finger on Buffy's lips. "Shh, Buffy. You don't want to miss Gunn's announcement, do you?" she asked solemnly.
Buffy shook her head ruefully. Faith could be so possessive with her sometimes.
But before she could object, Gunn had come to the front of the room and cleared his throat until the room fell silent. "Spring Training will start tomorrow morning at five AM," he announced, waiting good-naturedly for the boos and jeers that followed. "You'll meet here with your partner at five sharp, and you will all be deployed before six. Each team can bring a total of ten items which you'll prepare tonight, and that includes both essentials and weapons."
Willow's hand shot up. "What about food and drink?"
"All your food will be considered as one item," Gunn confirmed. "Same for drinks. But keep in mind that you'll be able to get a hold of something edible, wherever you end up, and that you'll need to carry whatever you bring." He turned back to the rest of the students. "Anything else?"
Percy West put up a hand, smirking cockily. "Where are we going?"
Gunn raised his eyebrows at Percy. "Wiseassery will get you nowhere. I'm not going to tell you anything about your location, the people or things you might encounter, or what my recommendations are. You're going with the bare essentials, and you're going to have to make do for a week. Got it?" Percy nodded, moving back into his protective circle of friends.
Gunn motioned to one of his assistants, Finn, who'd worked with their class when Gunn was away on Academy business. "Finn here has the one thing that I can tell you, and that's who your partners are for this little trip. Finn?"
Buffy crossed her fingers as Finn started on the list, mentally pleading, Tara, Tara, Tara…
"Abrams, you're with Kennedy," Finn announced. A low snicker ran through the room. If they'd ever needed proof that these pairs weren't randomized, it was that the class womanizer had been put with the class lesbian. Buffy grinned. It was probably best that way, anyway.
"Blaisdell, you've got Shannon," Finn continued. "Clarner, Chloe."
Buffy was dismayed to hear Amanda be put with Nancy Doyle, who was insufferable and arrogant and would definitely give the younger slayer a hard time. But it only got worse from there on.
"Harris, Faith," Finn said, and Faith's mouth fell open in surprise.
She slammed it shut, gritting her teeth. "Oh, you've got to be kidding. I'm going to have to do all the work, aren't I?"
"Faith," Buffy said warningly, shooting a glance over at Xander to see if he'd heard. But he wasn't looking their way, just staring into space with a hopeless expression on his face.
"Levinson, Eve. Maclay, Cordelia. MacLeish, Chao-ahn," Finn went on, and Buffy winced. Tara and Jonathan had both been taken, and poor Tara was instead with Cordy, who looked just as irritated with her watcher as Faith did.
It came as a relief when "Rosenberg" was followed by Buffy's name, and a wide smile spread across her face as she glanced over at her equally beaming partner. After all, there was only one watcher who she considered something close to a friend, and she'd been fortunate enough to be paired with her.
It was a shame that none of their friends had been so lucky. And Faith looked even unhappier at the idea that Buffy would be spending a week with someone she liked than at her unfortunate pairing.
This was going to be a good thing for all of them, Buffy decided. Really.