A/N: The usual apologies for the time in updating. RL is just crazy lately. Hope you enjoy this new chapter.
Chapter 12 Never Kill A Boy On The First Date Pt 2
"Wow," Willow said to Buffy as they headed to the lunch room table Xander and Jesse were sitting at. Santana usually ate with them, but, since her "break up" with Buffy, she had been eating by herself. Buffy had just told Willow about her earlier conversation with Owen. "He hardly talks to anyone. He's solitary, mysterious... He can brood for forty minutes straight, I've clocked him."
Buffy chuckled. Of COURSE she had! "He was so nice," she said. "It was actually kinda eerie."
"What'd you guys talk about?" asked Willow.
"Emily Dickinson," answered Buffy as they approached the table.
"Emily Dickinson?" repeated Willow. "He's sensitive, yet manly! Well, wait, you've never even read her." She gave Buffy a sly smile as Buffy held up a book of Emily's poetry. "You VIXEN!"
As they sat, they saw that Xander and Jesse seemed to be examining their lunches both speculatively and apprehensively.
"Has anybody given any thought to what this green...stuff is?" asked Xander holding up a forkful of said green stuff.
"I try NOT to," said Buffy with a grimace. "It's hard enough to make myself eat it as it is."
"We have kind of a bet going," said Jesse. "I say kale, Xander says string cheese."
"He would," said Willow with a smirk.
"So, Buffy," said Xander. "How'd the slaying go last night?"
"Xander!" scolded Buffy, slapping his arm and looking around. Luckily, nobody had noticed. Xander hung his head sheepishly. "It went ok. Looks like there's some hoidy toidy new vampire sect in town."
"Well, that's less than good, but, it brings in the all important tourist dollar," Jesse quipped. "Don't worry about it. Between you, me and Santana we can deal with them." Buffy smiled at her friends enthusiasm.
"Hey, check it out, Jess," said Xander pointing to another table where Owen was sitting. "Mr. Excitement himself!"
Willow rolled her eyes at both Xander and Jesse. What was it about a quiet, sensitive boy that threatened others. She nudged Buffy. "Oh look. Owen, sitting all by his lonesome." she said.
"Well," said Buffy with a coy smile. "perhaps I should go and sit with him. Just to be polite."
Jesse indicated Santana. "Well, if you're being polite somebody else is sitting by HERself.," he said.
Buffy scowled at him. "Santana made her feelings VERY clear, thank you very much," she snarked at him as she turned on her heel and started towards Owen. Jesse just sighed and excused himself and walked over to join Santana.
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Cordelia was FUMING!
She and Jesse were supposed to "get together" tonight, (Niether had used the word "date" yet) but, once again, he had to cancel for a training session with Santana. It was SO not fair. Jesse might be a huge dork, but, she was finding she really liked the huge dork and she was sick of this latina tramp interfering with her time with him.
Cordy sighed to herself. She knew the tramp thing was unfair. She really did like Santana. She was just frustrated. She shook her head at herself as she paid for her lunch and started towards a table. Then she saw Owen Thurman, cute, broody guy, sitting all by himself. She got a sly smile. She wasn't really interested in Owen, but, maybe she could make Jesse jealous.
Cordy rolled her eyes as she saw Buffy heading over to Owens table. There was no way that little pipsqueak was going to horn in on her "make him jealous" guy! Without looking like she was hurrying, Cordy hurried over to sit down before Buffy could.
"Oh, look, and empty seat!" Said Cordy, sliding into the seat mere seconds before Buffy could, bumping hips with Buffy and knocking her to the floor and making her spill her tray in the process.
As Buffy glared at Cordelia and crouched down to clean up the mess, Owen was out of his own seat and crouched down next to her. "Here," he said. "Let me get that."
"Thanks," said Buffy, giving Cordy a smirk over Owens shoulder. "Wow. Cordelia's hips are wider than I thought!"
"Well, at least you don't have to eat your soylent green," said Owen as the two girls exchanged death glares.
"Owen," said Cordy, putting on her best flirty smile as Owen and Buffy stood. "A bunch of us are loitering at the Bronze tonight. You should come."
Owen looked thoughtful. "Who all is going?" he asked, looking at Buffy.
Cordy stood, and sort of stepped between them. "Well,," she said, tossing her hair over her shoulder, right into Buffy's face. "I'M gonna be there."
Owen looked around Cordy to Buffy. "How about you?" he asked.
Cordy panicked. "Oh, no no no no no," she said quickly. "Buffy is a special case. She doesn't like fun."
"How 'bout we meet there at eight?" Owen asked Buffy, continuing to ignore Cordelia.
Cordelia turned to see Buffy brighten. "Yeah!" said Buffy. "Eight it is!" She gave Cordy a smirk as Owen excused himself, then Buffy went over to rejoin Willow and Xander.
"What the Hell just happened here?" asked Cordy to no one in particular.
Neither Cordy nor Buffy noticed that Jesse and Santana had witnessed the whole exchange and that both had hurt looks on their faces.
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As lunch ended, Xander went off in one direction to join up with Jesse as Buffy and Willow went in another, still talking about Buffy's date.
"It's really not that big of a deal," said Buffy, totally unconvincingly. "It's just the Bronze."
"It's TOTALLY a big deal!" argued Willow. The two went into a round of "is not" "Is too" for a few when Willow saw Giles coming towards them. "Tell her, Giles!"
"I'm afraid it's very big," said Giles grimly.
"Thank you," said Willow, smiling victoriously. Then she stopped. "Wait, what?"she said. Giles turned towards the library, the girls following him.
"What are you talking about?" asked Willow, pretty sure Giles had been referring to something completely different.
Giles looked at her, frowning. "What are YOU talking about?" he asked.
"Buffy's date," said Willow in a "duh" tone of voice.
"Giles rolled his eyes. "Well, I'M talking about trouble," he said. "A violent and disturbing prophecy is about to be fulfilled."
"The Order Of Aurelius," concluded Buffy.
Giles nodded. "You were spot on about the connection," he said walking over towards a table. "I've looked at the writings of Aurelius himself, and he, he prophesied that the brethren of his order would come to the Master and bring him the Annointed."
Buffy frowned. "And who's THAT?" she asked.
Giles looked stumped. Well, I-I don't know, exactly. A-a-a-a-a warrior, but-but it says he will arise from the ashes of the Seven, on the evening of thousandth day after the Advent of Septus."
"Well," said Buffy. "We'll be ready. Whenever that is."
"Which is tonight," concluded Giles.
Buffy nodded. "Ok, tonight," she said, then her eyes went wide as she realized what they were saying. "NO! Not okay! It CAN'T be tonight!"
Giles looked a little affronted. "I assure you, my calculations are precise."
Buffy continued to argue. "Nuh! They're bad calculations Bad!"
"Buffy has a date," said Willow.
"With OWEN!" said Buffy imploringly.
Giles rolled his eyes. "Ok," he said. "I'll just jump in my time machine and go back to the twelfth century and ask the nice vampires to postpone their prophecy for a few days while you take in dinner and a show."
"Ok," Buffy grumped. "At THIS point you're abusing sarcasm!"
Giles took a breath. "Buffy," he said. "this is no ordinary vampire. We HAVE to stop him before he reaches The Master."
Buffy continued to protest. "But... Cute guy! Teenager! Post-pubescent fantasies!"
"Which will just have to be put on hold!" said Giles. "The dark forces are aligning against us and we have a chance to beat them back! In fact, this is important enough, we probably need to call Santana in." He didn't notice the scowl on Buffy's face as he continued.
"Tonight, we go into battle!"
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Santana was growing irritated. Earlier, as they were getting ready to leave school for the day, Jesse had come up to her with a message from Buffy. Santana's hurt that the petite Slayer had not come herself quickly gave way to alarm as Jesse explained the situation with the rising of the Annointed. She had quickly agreed that she and Buffy needed to put aside their differences and deal with this new threat.
Now, she Jesse Buffy and Giles were all sitting in a graveyard, bored almost to tears. Buffy was sitting on a large tombstone, drinking from a 7-11 leaned against another one, next to Jesse who was sharpening his sword on a whetstone as Giles paced.
"Perhaps I miscalculated," Giles reluctantly conceded.
"I'm thinking yes,"said Buffy, draining her drink, looking irritated.
"Well," said Giles. "You know what they say. Ninety percent of the vampire slaying game is waiting."
Santana rolled her eyes. "WHO says that?" she asked. " Who are these damned "they" everybody keeps quoting?" Jesse chuckled at her.
Buffy sighed. "You couldn't have told me that ninety percent ago?" she asked.
Giles sighed. "Well," he said, eager to be rid of the two bored and grumpy teenagers and one equally bored and grumpy Immortal. "We've waited around here long enough."
"Besides," said Jesse. "No fresh graves. Who's gonna rise?"
"Apparently, no one," answered Giles.
Buffy hopped off the tombstone excitedly. " Then I can bail? Go to the Bronze and find Owen?"
"Fine," said Giles. "Follow your teenage hormones if you wish."
"Yeah," snarked Santana before she could stop herself. "Go, find your little boyfriend."
Buffy stomped up to her. "He's not my boyfriend, it's just a first date!" she snapped. "Besides, it's really none of your business. YOU ended things with ME."
"Yeah," snarled Santana, getting nose to nose with the Slayer. "And YOU certainly didn't waste any time in moving on to the first guy to come along."
Buffy started to say something, but, stopped herself. "Know what?" she said. "I don't have time for this. I have a really cute guy waiting for me. I'm gone!"
"FINE!" shouted Santana, turning on her heel.
"FINE!" shouted Buffy, turning to face the other way.
As the two girls stomped away, Santana could hear Jesse quip. "Gosh, except for the lack of slamming doors, it's kinda like that old show, Moonlighting!"
She also heard Giles mumbling to himself "Seven will die, and from their ashes the Annointed shall rise. I was SURE it was tonight!"
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At that moment, a bus pulled through town, the passengers riding in silence. A small boy turned to the passenger next to him. "I went on a plane," the boy announced.
The man grunted. He was a large, scruffy, dangerous looking man. "A pale horse emerged with Death as it's rider," he said. "You will be judged. You will be judged." He stood and started walking up and down the aisle. He stopped by the boy and his mother. "That day's gonna bring fire. Fire comin' down! Judgement! Don't think you're ready. Ready to look upon him. If there's sin in there, there's sin all around. It's liquid!" All of the other passengers watched him nervously, afraid he'd pull out a gun and start shooting everybody or something. On that day,there won't be anybody tellin' us what to do, or why we're doin' it! You can't prepare. On that day..."
The bus driver, tired of his ramblings, interrupted him. "Look, Buddy," he said, you gotta sit down!"
The man looked at him, his eyes, well, crazy. "Are you willing to stand with the rightous?"
Suddenly, the driver slammed on his brakes as a man stepped out in front of the bus. The bus slammed into him, then went skidding off and ramming into a lamp post, stopping the bus and sending the crazy man flying.
"Is everybody ok?" the bus driver asked the passengers. Everybody seemed ok so he went to check on the victim. "Are you all right?" he asked, kneeling down next to the man. Suddenly, an arm grabbed him by the throat and started choking him. It was the man who'd been run down,but, something was wrong with his face.
Other men and women came towards the wrecked bus. One punched through a window and grabbed the crazy guy and pulled him out the window, and bit him on the neck. People screamed as more of the deformed men entered the bus.
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Jesse, who had decided to head to the Bronze and hopefully meet up with Cordelia, entered a moment after Buffy did. The two teens stood and scanned the room, looking for Cordy and Owen respectively.
They saw the two, dancing together, Cordelia laughing at something Owen had said. The two exchanged hurt looks and left.
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A/N2: I paraphrased it a bit, but the Moonlighting joke was ripped from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. For those who are unfamiliar with it, Moonlighting was a show that aired from 1985 to 1989. I never really watched it, but, I know enough to know that a number of arguments between the shows two leads, Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd ended with them both storming out of the room and slamming doors.
A/N3: Hope you all enjoyed the update. Sorry again for how long it has been since i updated this one. Let me know what you thought.
