Chapter Thirty-Eight
"Shut up, Buffy!" Dawn yelled from the backseat. "It's not funny!"
But all Buffy could do was shake her head, because she was laughing too hard to draw in any breath to answer.
"I swear to everything that's holy I will climb over this seat and kick your ass if you don't stop laughing at me."
"It's your ginormous feet," Buffy finally managed to gasp. "And those heels! I told you not to buy them - they make you, like, seven feet tall…"
Then she couldn't speak anymore, because the outraged look on her sister's face when the transvestite started quizzing her about how she fought the battle against beard stubble suddenly popped back into her head and she bent double in her seat again, her eyes watering from the laughter.
There was a yelped, "Dawn!" from Willow, then her sister was suddenly climbing over the middle console from the back, swatting, pinching and hair pulling.
"I think we should stop for drinks," Pam suggested mildly from the driver's seat while Buffy easily fended off her sister's attack.
"We already did that, remember?" Sookie grunted, trying, along with Willow, to grab Dawn's kicking feet and drag her into the backseat.
"And that means we can't do it again?" Pam asked while moving her head slightly to avoid one of Dawn's flying elbows. "Besides, Dawn looks a little… stressed. I think she could use another drink."
"You were the one that got us kicked out of the last store," Dawn was bitching, ignoring the conversation going on around her as she went after Buffy. "We would've still been there shopping, but nooooo, you had to go and start in on how the Jimmy Choos could puncture a lung."
"It's not my fault the sales girl was overly sensitive, Danny- I mean, Dawnie," she snickered, making Dawn squeak in outrage. Dawn the transvestite - that was seriously never going to get old.
"Dawn, I think you're beautiful," Pam said, laying a hand on top of Dawn's head and making her go still. "And you absolutely don't look like a man - if you did, I wouldn't be so attracted to you."
That put a stop to Buffy from laughing, but on the up side, it also stopped Dawn from trying to pinch her to death.
"Really?" Dawn asked in an almost hopeful tone.
"Really," Pam nodded. "Now why don't you get back in your seat and we'll get on with our evening. I'm sure Buffy is done with her inappropriate teasing."
Pam gave her a narrowed eyed look, making Buffy roll her eyes and give a shrug. She would agree to stop - for now. There was just too much material there for her to let go of it forever.
Dawn gave Buffy one more lingering dirty look, then let Willow and Sookie pull her back into her seat.
"So, where to next?" Willow asked, obviously trying to smooth things over.
"Well, I was thinking another bar, but first, we need to take care of something else…" Pam said, looking in her rear view mirror.
"Something more important than drinking and shopping?" Dawn asked.
"We're being followed."
Everyone went quiet for a beat.
"For how long," Buffy asked seriously, looking in the side mirror but getting nothing back but the glare from other headlights.
"All night," Pam shrugged. "But with the way things are going, I think it's best we lose Bobby."
"Bobby?"
"Bobby Burnham, Eric's daytime assistant."
"Does he know it's not daytime?" Dawn snorted.
"Observant," Buffy muttered, earning a kick to the back of her seat. "Eric had us followed?"
And actually, when she thought about it, it wasn't really a surprise at all.
"Eric's probably just worried," Willow put in diplomatically.
"Or he's being a controlling ass," Sookie suggested just as calmly.
"Either way, I don't think we need an escort for tonight's festivities," Pam said, turning into a parking garage next to a mall. They watched Bobby drive by and park further down. Stealth definitely wasn't Mr. Burnham's strong suite.
"You can stay here," Pam said, getting out. "I'll be right back."
They watched Pam disappear behind a column and then zip up around another row of cars to where Bobby was parked. Well, Buffy watched anyway, given the way the other three were looking around, they hadn't been able to follow Pam's speed with their eyes.
"She's not going to kill him, right?" Willow asked sounding a little nervous.
"Nah," Buffy said, feeling almost eighty-five percent sure of that answer. She nodded to where Bobby was getting out of his car. "Watch."
Suddenly Pam was right there behind him, plucking his phone from his jacket pocket before he even knew what was happening. It only took her a few seconds to wrestle him into the trunk of his car, throw his phone in the front seat and then start back toward them with a smug smile on her face.
"Subtlety, thy name is not Pam," Dawn giggled.
Buffy had a fleeting thought that she should have a problem with a vampire stuffing a human in a trunk, but it didn't last long and she was able to easily shrug it off. She wasn't sure if that was progress in her vampire-equality-morality-dilemma or not…
"Are you sure we should just leave him in there? Is there enough air?" Sookie asked when Pam got back in the car, getting a concerned hum of agreement from Willow.
"He'll be fine," Pam said, starting the car and shifting it into reverse. "He can put the back seat down from the trunk - I simply bent the latch a bit so it'll take some time for him to get it to move enough for him to squeeze out."
"Why would Eric want us followed anyway?" Willow asked.
Buffy fidgeted a little in her seat, not really wanting to answer that. Pam had no qualms about it though.
"Probably because when Buffy and I went out together yesterday, we killed two vampires, caught a murderer, broke into two places-"
"I only broke into one, you were on your own at Bill's," Buffy interrupted.
"-and then started a fire-"
"You started a fire."
"Plus, Buffy got shot."
"Just grazed!"
"Oh, and we also almost got arrested," Pam added, lips twitching in an obvious attempt not to laugh. "It was a very enjoyable evening."
Buffy pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Oh… well, then, I can see why he'd want you followed then," Willow said awkwardly after a beat of silence.
Suddenly Dawn was up between the front seats again, pinching her like a deranged crab.
"Shot? You got shot?"
"Yes, and luckily it's already healed or your big manly sausage fingers would've had it bleeding all over again," Buffy said, trying to shove her insane sister into the backseat. With a little help from Willow and Sookie, Dawn was eventually settled in the back with a foul look on her face.
"No wonder he has you followed. He should lock you up in a damned padded room," she sulked.
"But, Buffy's fine," Willow said, again trying to smooth things over with her optimistic tone. "She's been in way worse situations than that."
Pam raised a brow and glanced at Buffy curiously, Buffy looked out the window. It was only then she noticed they were headed for the freeway.
"Uh… Where are we going?"
"I was thinking we should go to New Orleans and finish our shopping spree there. The have exponentially more shopping choices, most open twenty-four hours given the high vampire population. Plus, Eric will be looking for us here once he finds out we ridded ourselves of Bobby…"
"You can shop twenty-four hours there?" Dawn asked, anger forgotten and replaced with awe as she leaned forward again - this time to look at Pam with wide eyes.
"Oh yes, little one. A veritable shopping Mecca," she answered with a benevolent smile.
"Don't you think you should, I don't know, ask before dragging us on a drive to the other end of the state?" Buffy asked, irritated.
Honestly, she thought her attitude had more to do with how pissed Eric was going to be than with Pam suddenly springing a road-trip on them. They'd just started to work things out…
"You can be back in Shreveport before he rises tomorrow," Pam smirked knowingly.
Dawn made a whip-crack sound, earning her a shove from Buffy.
"Fine, fine," Pam laughed. "I'll ask if it will make you feel better. Is there anyone against going to New Orleans for the rest of the night?"
"I'm fine with it," Willow shrugged.
"Um, well… I was supposed to go over to Alcide's after we finished shopping," Sookie spoke up hesitantly.
"Oh, well, we'll just leave you here then," Pam said.
"Pam!" Both Buffy and Dawn scolded at the same time.
"You have to come with us," she heard Dawn wheedling in the back seat. "Weren't you saying how awesome it was not to have your telepathy? Well, it's going to all come back when you're not around me and I'm going home tomorrow." Buffy repressed a sigh of relief at that bit of information. "So this this like a once shot deal. You really want to end it now."
"I guess not," Sookie said slowly. "But I should at least call Alcide and let him know. Can I use one of ya'll's phones?"
"Don't have one," came Dawn's reply, followed by Willow's, "Me either."
"I… don't know where mine is," Buffy admitted thoughtfully. "I think it actually might still be at your house, Sook."
They all looked to Pam. "I broke mine trying to make it so Eric couldn't track me again."
"Oh, well I guess I can just call him when we get there," Sookie said.
"How long will it take to get there, anyway?" Dawn asked
"For-freaking-ever," Buffy groaned.
"Not with the way I drive," Pam grinned, pushing down harder on the gas pedal.
They arrived in New Orleans just before two in the morning, and the first thing they did was stop at a bar - Pam insisting they were all entirely too sober after the long drive. They'd only meant to stop for a little while… That was over an hour ago.
Buffy slipped sideways on her stool slightly and wobbly righted herself, looking at the guy standing next to her like he had grown two heads.
"Did you just say your name was Hymen?" She asked.
"Herman," he corrected, his face souring from the fake smile he'd had seconds before.
"There's actually people named Herman?" Dawn asked from a few seats down. "People that aren't, like, ninety or a serial killer?"
"He could be a serial killer," Pam noted, looking at Herman with renewed interest.
Herman looked like he was about to deny that, but they were distracted from his rebuttal by Sookie.
"How many times do I have to tell you - I'm not interested," she was saying to a bulky blond guy who was totally up in her personal bubble.
"Come on, sweetie-"
"We need an order of steel wool pubes over here," Buffy called out with a wave at the skeevy guy hitting on Sookie.
"Coming right up," a cheerfully drunk Willow answered from a few seats down.
There was a beat of silence, then Buffy watched in amusement as the guy's eyes went wide and he choked out an "Excuse me" before shuffling away.
"You have to teach me how to do that," Dawn said in awe, turning to Willow.
"Did she really just…" Sookie asked, still watching the blond moving awkwardly through the crowd.
"Yep," Buffy grinned. "Don't worry it's not permanent."
Probably…
Sookie laughed and shook her head. "This night has just been insane."
"Uh, yeah, sorry about that," Buffy said. "I wanted you to have a normal girl's night out since your brain mojo was on the fritz. I should've known that was impossible with this group. We haven't even done any actual shopping yet…"
"I don't think I'd know what to do with normal anyway," Sookie laughed. "And I don't really have any money for shopping, so that doesn't bother me - I just wanted to hang out with you guys."
"Now isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever heard," Pam said, sidling up next to them and slipping an arm around Sookie. "Did she ever tell you about the time we went to an orgy together?"
Buffy sprayed half her shot on the bar and coughed as some of it went down the wrong pipe.
"Please don't," she rasped before Pam could divulge any details.
"-make me a ring like Buffy's?" She heard from her sister on her other side, catching her attention and sending her spinning on her stool, still coughing slightly.
"Um, well, see… I could, but-"
"Rubber nurses uniform," Buffy coughed out with a glare at Willow, making her eyes go wide.
"-but it would cause one of the worlds to end," Willow blurted. "There has to be a certain balance and Buffy's sucked up all the… balancing… energy…"
God, it was a good thing her sister was drunk, Buffy thought as she watched Dawn nod her head in apparent understanding.
A half an hour later they'd left the bar and actually got to a store - one they actually bought things in and didn't get kicked out of. Buffy was lugging three bags toward the car with no memory of what she'd bought except for a dress for Sookie.
"Think of it as rent," she'd slurred as she paid for it over Sookie's objections.
"You were only there a day," Sookie had answered, her swaying taking away from the reasonable point she was trying to make.
Other than that, she wasn't sure what the hell she'd bought - but she was drunk enough that she didn't care. Dawn, on the other hand, was rambling on about every purchase she'd made a few steps behind Buffy - showing her purchases to random people passing by.
"Nobody wants to see what underwear you bought," Buffy said, shaking her head as she heard her sister going on about pink lace.
"That homeless guy looked pretty interested," Willow laughed.
"Dawn! Don't show your undies to hobos!" Buffy scolded, shooting her sister a look she'd learned from their mother.
"I'd like to see your 'undies'," Pam purred to Dawn.
Buffy blocked out the rest of that conversation.
They made it back to the car with only a few drunken mishaps - Dawn tripping on her heels and Willow running into a light pole. Sookie managed not to hurt herself, but she couldn't seem to stop laughing. Pam… Pam was annoyingly sober, even though Buffy'd seen her down just as many shots as Buffy herself had. Apparently vampires had a higher tolerance for alcohol than Slayers - how unfair was that?
After stuffing their purchases in the back of the SUV, they all clamored inside (Dawn hitting her shin and bitching up a storm) with Pam driving. When Buffy asked if she was okay to drive, the look Pam gave her could've stripped paint - like she was insulted that anyone would think that little bit of alcohol would somehow impair her. Buffy stuck her tongue out.
"Where to now?" Sookie asked as Buffy snapped on her seatbelt and Pam pulled out of the parking space.
"No more bars," Buffy said.
"No, no more bars," Pam agreed, glancing in the rearview mirror at the three drunkenly half-lidded faces back there. "There are a few more stores we can fit in before the sun rises."
Three turns later, Buffy realized she recognized the area.
"Hey! That's where I first came into this world," Buffy said, pointing at the familiar cemetery.
Dawn giggled. "You sound like you were born there."
"Let's stop and look," Willow said.
"What for?" Dawn asked.
"Because I think I need some fresh air," Willow said in a stilted way that made Buffy whip around in her seat.
"You had so better not puke on me," Dawn said seriously, eyeing the green tinged Willow warily.
"Right, a walk in the cemetery is a great idea," Buffy nodded quickly. Her stomach was starting to feel sloshy just thinking about being stuck in there with a puking Willow. "Pam. Park. Now."
Pam pulled over by the back entrance to the cemetery and Willow scrambled out. She stood with one hand braced against the entrance to the cemetery, taking deep breaths while the rest of them got out.
"Okay?" Buffy asked, putting a hand on Willow's shoulder.
"Think so," Willow nodded, straightening up. "I feel better now that we're out of the car."
"Let's take that walk then. I think we could all use the fresh air," Sookie said joining them with Dawn and Pam following.
"Good idea," Buffy agreed, leading the way through the gate.
Honestly, they all needed to sober up. The rational part of her was whispering in the back of her mind about how eventually things would get ugly with them all being drunk and wandering the city. Pam was the only one whose judgment wasn't soaked in alcohol and her judgment was sketchy anyway.
The night was nice, warmer here than it had been in Shreveport, with a light breeze. Dawn was laughing at something behind her, crickets were chirping merrily, the chanting on the wind was-
Wait… chanting?
"Oh hell no," Buffy muttered, déjà vu washing over her.
Her head jerked toward the sound, the direction it was coming from painfully familiar. She took off at a run, hearing and ignoring Dawn's startled, "Buffy?" and Pam's unconcerned "I think she'd about to ruin someone's night."
At the top of the little crest overlooking Marie Laveau's tomb, Buffy's drunken brain struggled to put the scene in front of her together. It took her longer than it should have to recognize the players she was rushing toward, or one of them at least.
Standing in front of the crypt, reading the chant off of a piece of paper, was the dark haired girl with the bad attitude that had burst into the meeting between her and Sophie-Anne all that time ago. Buffy couldn't remember her name, but it hardly mattered at the moment because there was the freakiest looking vamp behind her pulling a stake from his pocket.
Tall, wrinkly and such a pale white it bordered on gray, he invoked long buried memories of The Master. She'd been more concerned with stopping whatever magic they were trying to work when she'd first heard the chanting, but she found herself veering toward the creepier of the two out of instinct, pulling Mr. Pointy out as she went.
She was too far away, any element of surprise was totally lost. The vampires noticed her well before she reached them - the girls chanting cutting off and the other one crouching and giving a low, deadly hiss. He was more than ready for her by the time she reached him - deflecting her blow and flipping her over his shoulder. She managed to actually land on her feet (which was more luck than skill seeing as the world was dipping and swaying around her) and turned in time to block his stake with her own as he swung it toward her, sending both pieces of wood flying out of their hands. She didn't waste time trying to go after it, instead opting to punch him in the face. His head snapped back and he stumbled away, but sprang back at her a second later, knocking her to the ground and pouncing on top. She jammed her forearm into his neck to keep his snapping teeth from her face, and then shoved, trying to get a little space between them.
There was a sudden familiar squelching sound and the vamps eyes went wide. He opened his mouth and gave a breathy grunt, then vomited blood and nastiness all over Buffy's chest and neck.
Buffy just blinked in shock for a moment before gagging and shoving the convulsing body off of her, leaving her a clear view of her sister backing away from the mess with Mr. Pointy in her hand.
"What the hell, Dawn?" Buffy snapped, gesturing at the slimy mess.
"How was I supposed to know vamps here barf before they die? You're welcome by the way."
"Oh yes, thanks for covering me in gooey liquefied vamp insides."
"Oh god-" She heard Willow begin, then there was a heave and a splash.
Buffy's stomach rolled as she got to her feet and stomped over to Dawn, snatching away Mr. Pointy and shoving him back in her pocket.
"You were taking too long," Dawn shrugged. "If you'd just killed him instead of playing around-"
There was a sudden whoosh and a blast of heat, making them whip around. The vampire had become an inferno and next to him stood Pam with a box of matches and a little can of lighter fluid.
"I came prepared this time," she said with a fangy grin.
Willow groaned and threw up again just as the smell of burning skin and hair reached Buffy.
Her stomach clenched and her throat worked. "Oh crap…"
Buffy had no idea how long she heaved, it seemed like it went on forever. She knew that the other vamp, the one that had been doing the chanting, was still there somewhere, but that seemed secondary to the fact she was puking her stomach inside out. Every time she'd thought it was over something would set her off again - she'd hear Willow, her fellow vomit-victim; get a whiff of her own puke; feel a line of vampire slime sliding down her shirt; hear the snap and pop of burning fat. She was weak and shaky by the time she was done. No more drinking. Ever.
She slowly got to her feet and looked around, eyes barely skimming over the smoldering corpse of the wrinkled vamp and finding the group had relocated further into the cemetery. Pam and Dawn were sitting on a tombstone and the vamp girl whose name she didn't know and Sookie were a ways off talking - or more accurately arguing, judging from the hand waving and finger pointing. She didn't see Willow until she'd almost reached Pam and Dawn - she was lying on the ground behind the stone.
"What's the what with that?" She rasped, plopping down near them and gesturing toward Sookie and familiar vampire chick.
Dawn tossed her a piece of gum while not taking her eyes off the two in the distance. "Guess they're cousins or something. Hadley, that's her name, bailed on the family a while back and they hadn't heard from her in years. Pam's been giving me the play by play since I can't hear them."
"Cousins, huh? Small world," Buffy said, popping the gum in her mouth. "What was up with the chanting?"
"Waldo, the crispy vamp, convinced her that she was related to Marie Laveau and could raise her ghost to ask her questions. But he was lying, it was just a trick to get her out here and kill her," Dawn answered like she was watching a soap opera and needed some popcorn.
Buffy opened her mouth to ask more, but then decided she really didn't care. Instead, she turned her gaze on Willow's prone form.
"How ya feeling, Will?"
"Urgggg," Willow groaned from her place on the grass, an arm flung over her eyes.
"I hear ya'," Buffy said, looking down at herself and curling up her lip in disgust.
"Hey, Sook," she called loudly. "Sorry to interrupt the family reunion, but I really need a shower and a change of clothes."
Sookie looked over and then exchanged a few more quiet words with Hadley before the two made their way back to the group.
"So, uh, I think I'm going to go with Hadley," Sookie said.
"Are you sure that's safe?" Buffy asked bluntly, eying the vampire suspiciously.
"Safer than running around with Sophie's errand girl," Hadley bit out. "Couldn't even take out Waldo, for fucks sake. Should stick to getting coffee or whatever the hell it is you do around there."
"Getting- I kept him from staking you in the back!"
Jeez, she'd saved her life. Or her un-life. Whatever. Was it too much to ask for a little civility?
Hadley just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms like Buffy's words weren't even worth the effort to form a reply.
"Sookie will be fine," Pam said, standing up and brushing out the nonexistent wrinkles from her clothes. "Hadley's not stupid enough to allow any harm to come to her."
There was no mistaking the threat in Pam's words or in the feral smile she shot at Hadley.
"I'll be fine," Sookie said quickly over Hadley's forming snarl. "I'll call you in the morning."
"Except none of us have phones," Willow said from her place on the ground, her logical brain apparently still functioning despite her imitation of a corpse.
"We'll go to my apartment," Buffy said. "You know the number there right?"
"I can get the damn number," Hadley huffed out. "Let's go already."
"Uh, right," Sookie said, then rushed forward and hugged Dawn of all people. "It was really nice meeting you. Look me up the next time you come visit, we'll go out again."
"Sure," Dawn said, looking ridiculously pleased with herself.
"See ya', Buffy," Sookie called, waving as she trotted after Hadley's retreating figure.
Buffy just threw her arms out and shook her head. Was it too much to ask for a little appreciation? She'd had a heroic few days!
"Knowing your actions saved lives should be more than enough thanks, Buffy," Pam snickered, apparently knowing what was running through Buffy's mind.
"Bite me," Buffy snarled.
"Gladly," Pam purred.
"Quit flirting," Dawn said. "Let's go already. I wanna see your place."
Something in the back of her mind whispered that there was something at home she didn't want to deal with, but she couldn't remember what at the moment…
Her shower shared dimensional space with Heaven. It had to, there was no other way it could be this freaking amazing and only be of this world. It chased away all her worries about Eric and the Wolfram and Hart spell and whatever was bothering her about being back at her apartment. It also chased away the puke smell and all vampire nastiness clinging to her. Seriously, she loved this shower.
Deciding she'd hung out in there long enough, she gave a sad sigh and left her divine shower. Dressed in a pair of sleep shorts and a cami, she wandered back into her bedroom towel drying her hair - it was then she realized that her bed was in one piece. Now that she thought about it, the whole place had been back to normal when they walked in. No sex destroyed furniture or holes in the wall or ripped up tile that she remembered leaving behind just days ago. Eric had said he'd get someone to fix the damage, but this was just freaky.
She shook her head, relieved to have found the answer to what had been bothering her, and threw her towel into the hamper. Opening the bedroom door, she almost ran smack into Willow.
"Just for the record, I totally knew your sister was bi," she slurred, stumbling past Buffy and collapsing on her bed.
Buffy crinkled her nose at that completely random statement before shaking it off. She contemplated chasing Will into the shower, she wasn't smelling too sweet herself after her barf-fest in the cemetery, but decided it was too much trouble and left her be, heading instead to the living room to track down Dawn and Pam.
She really wished she'd stayed in her bedroom when she found her sister and the vampire tangled together on the couch making out.
For a second, she just stared in horror, desperately trying to convince herself this was just a drunken hallucination. Or maybe she'd passed out in the shower and hit her head. A kind of questioning high pitched squeak slipped from her throat.
Pam, face looking politely questioning and fangs on display, looked over at her.
"Ah, hello, Buffy. You look much better."
It took Buffy another few seconds to find her voice.
"Dawn!" She choked. "What the hell?"
"What? You're the only Summers' woman that can have a thing for blond vamps with an accent?"
"Uh, yes, actually."
Dawn snorted and wiggled against Pam spitefully.
"I can't let you take advantage of my drunken sister," Buffy said, turning her attention to Pam instead. Trying to ignore the fact that it was Dawn climbing all over Pam instead of the other way around.
"She's the one taking advantage of me," Pam said. "Me and my inability to turn down a pretty face."
"Pretty face," Dawn said, pointing at herself with a smug grin.
"Dawn, you'll hate me and yourself in the morning if you do this. You don't like vampires or women, you're just drunk."
"Jeez, lighten up, Buffy," Dawn said with an eye roll. "My first kiss was with a vampire, remember? And it's not the first time I kissed with a girl either. Hell, I made-out with Kennedy once."
"You what?" Willow's voice came from the bedroom, followed by a thump and a scramble before a mussed Willow appeared in the doorway.
"It was during Christmas last year - blame the mistletoe."
"Ah ha, that Dawn, what a kidder," Buffy fake laughed ushering Willow back into the bedroom before she tried some drunken scorned lover magic (although having Dawn turned into a newt would solve this problem pretty handily…).
"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Buffy tried reasoning. "Won't he be mad if he finds out you cheated on him?"
Dawn snorted. "The only thing Gino would be mad about was if I was too drunk to remember the details of me making out with another girl so I could tell him all about it later. And I'm not that drunk. Need I remind you I wasn't the one puking her guts out in the cemetery? Lightweights…"
With that they went back to kissing, completely dismissing Buffy. She stood there for a moment, torn between leaving them be and tearing them apart. Finally a breathy moan from Dawn freaked her into motion and she ran out the front door.
She leaned against the door for a moment and gave a full body shudder, taking a minute to try to desperately repress the memory of the last few minutes of her life. Once the horror had died down a little, she realized she was standing in the hall in her jammies with nowhere to go. She turned and grabbed the handle to her door, but stopped short of turning it. Oh god, what would she walk in on if she went back in there now? She snatched her hand back like the doorknob had burnt her. She'd sleep in the hall before she risked seeing her sister and Pam- No, no, no, repress, repress, repress.
She found herself pacing the hall, trying to think of what to do next. But instead, her still alcohol soaked brain kept finding the paintings lining the walls of more interest. She was studying one near the end of the hall, an abstract filled with red strokes that looked oddly sensual to Buffy's untrained eye, when the elevator door dinged right next to her.
She had a moment to be mortified about meeting one of her neighbors in the hall while wearing her pajamas before the door opened, revealing Rasul.
Oh yeah… that was why she'd been avoiding coming back to her apartment…
He looked just as surprised as she felt before his face slipped into a blank mask and he stepped out of the elevator.
She turned to face him more fully, wobbling a bit as she did so and rubbing the back of her neck uncomfortably.
"Uh, hey there, neighbor."
He studied her for a second before raising an eyebrow.
"You're back," he said flatly. "And… drunk?"
"Very," Buffy nodded. "To both. Both very back and very drunk."
His face softened slightly. "And why are you in the hall?"
"My sister-" She shuddered. "Ugh, I can't talk about it. Let's just say there are some things sisters should see other sisters doing and me and my sister have trampled all across that line the last couple days."
"You have a sister? And she's here?" He asked in surprise, looking past her toward her apartment in curiosity.
"Yeah, I'd introduce you but… her and Pam…" She shook her head again. Thinking of little sisters and their sex lives was just… no. Just no.
Rasul broke out into his familiar mischievous grin, making something in Buffy loosen and ache at the same time. She'd really missed him…
"Well, let's go see what they're up to," he teased, grabbing her wrist and pulling her down the hall.
"You're such an ass," she laughed, pulling out of his grip. "No way am I going back in there."
"You can stay at my place," he said, his tone teasing but his voice low and eyes dark.
And there was the problem…
"So, I guess we should talk," she said stiltedly, suddenly glad for the alcohol that was making her feel slightly removed from the moment. "About, you know, before I left…"
Rasul gave a sigh and looked over her shoulder, hands sliding into his pockets.
"I was out of line," he said quietly before meeting her eyes intently. "Don't get me wrong, I don't regret it. Not a single second. But that doesn't mean I wasn't out of line."
"You're my best friend," Buffy said, looking at her feet and feeling a flash of panic at the realization that she loved him just as much as she loved Willow or Xander. "I'm not… I'm not trying to just brush off how you feel, and it wasn't that the kiss wasn't nice. It was. Really nice actually. But this whole thing with Eric is… well, I don't know what it is, but I like him. A lot. I don't want to ruin what we have and I don't want to lose him. And, damn this would be easier to explain if I wasn't wasted…"
Rasul let out a sad chuckle and rested his hand on top of her head, ruffling her damp hair slightly.
"I understand. Honestly, I understood before I even kissed you. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop wanting you or hating Northman, but I understand."
"So, where does that leave us?" She asked, looking up at him as his hand dropped from her head.
"Don't know," he shrugged. "We'll just have to see. But for now, there is a problem we can resolve."
He was smirking when he pulled her further down the hall until they were standing about ten feet from her apartment door.
"So, your apartment's been taken over by guests has it?" He asked, his voice a little louder than usual. "Well that's easily solved - you can stay with me."
She opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing, but suddenly he was in her personal space - hard body pressed up against hers, the material of his work uniform brushing against her bare arms and legs. He leaned down, lips just inches from hers. She found herself frozen and wide eyed…
"I'll make you forget all about what's going on in there. In my bed, screaming my name as I-"
The door to her apartment flew open so fast that Buffy was surprised the hinges didn't break. Pam stood there, hair wild and fangs on display, hissing at Rasul.
"Step away from her," she growled furiously.
"I was just offering some hospitality," he grinned shamelessly, not moving an inch. "Where else is she to go with you defiling her apartment?"
"I was just leaving," Pam said after a beat, tossing an apologetic look over her shoulder as Dawn yelled "What?"
"You don't have to leave," Buffy said, suddenly feeling a little bad. "The sun's almost up."
Rasul tossed her an exasperated look before rolling his eyes. "Fine, she can stay with me. I have a spare room and your place isn't exactly daytime vampire friendly."
"Oh yeah," Buffy said, remembering her huge windows and gauzy white curtains.
He walked over to his door and unlocked it.
"Ladies first," he said pushing it open with a flourish and waving Pam in.
She hesitated a second, looking like she'd swallowed something foul before giving a little growl and stalking past him into the apartment.
Buffy smothered her laughter as Rasul gave her a wink and followed Pam inside. She just hoped Pam didn't stake the sneaky bastard…
She was about to turn and go into her own apartment when his door opened again and he darted out, pulling her to him for a quick kiss that left her blinking in surprise.
"Just because I understand doesn't mean I'm going to make it easy on you," he said with an unrepentant grin before disappearing back into his apartment.