...It's been a week since I've updated... Sorry about that... Here's the longest chapter yet to make up for it!

Chapter 4

Buffy snuck along the hallway with Liam. If there was a vampire in the hotel, it probably wouldn't matter how loud they were, considering they could hear heartbeats, but it felt wrong not to tip-toe. Liam was surprisingly good at sneaking. Passing one of the rooms, they heard music. Buffy opened the door and saw a radio on. Liam walked over to it.

"Minstrels," he said. He poked it with a sword.

Buffy gave a small, confused smile before going over and pressing the power button. He was, well, cute. In more ways than one.

"How did - You stopped the tiny men from singing."

"You really are far from home," Buffy stated.

"I tell ya," Liam said, going over to sit on the bed, "I get through this, I'm gonna have a great cup of ale - I don't care what father says it does to you."

"Well, too much makes you act weird, feel funny, and gives you a horrible hangover the next day. Plus, it makes you an easy target for vampires," Buffy replied off-offhandedly. She sat down next to him.

"You sure know a lot about this 'vampire' thing."

"I'm the slayer," she answered.

"What does that mean?"

"That I have a duty to 'fight the forces of darkness', aka vampires and demons, have super-strength, and an early death."

Liam looked at her. "That sounds harsh."

She shrugged. "Yeah." Buffy stood up. "Come on, we've still got rooms to search, even though I'm pretty sure the vamp would have attacked by now if there was one." She was really thinking they should have gone with Willow's plan. I mean, she thought. What could happen in the ten seconds it took to open a door?

BtVS - A:ts - Sw9

Fred looked over at Wesley and smiled. He was pretty cute. Especially when they were being sneaky looking for a vampire. Vampire. Who would have thought those would be real.

"Are ya sure it wasn't the government? 'Cause my friend Levon told me the government takes kids and experiments on them all the time."

Wesley looked over at Fred. "It's possible, I suppose, but seeing as I'm British…"

Fred giggled. "Oh, yeah. I forgot."

Wesley rested his arm against the wall. As he was about to speak, he noticed something about his arm. "Wait a minute… There's something here…" Wesley waved his arm around. "Ah ha!" A sword came out a contraption in his shirt. They jumped back and Wesley stifled a scream.

"Cool!" Fred said. She looked down her sleeves before crazily shaking her arms around like Wes. "I don't think I got one."

"Another clue to add to the list," Wesley said. "Come on, we've got a vampire to hunt."

Fred nodded, then asked, "You got any weed?"

BtVS - A:ts - Sw9

"What do you think about this vampire thing?" Xander asked.

"What?"

"Do you believe it, or do you think it's some big prank?"

"No," Willow responded. "If it was a prank, Jesse would be here."

Xander nodded. "Yeah, he would have to see our reactions on a prank this huge."

"Also, there's the hair thing," Willow added.

Xander nodded. "That's just weird. But it looks good on you."

Willow blushed. I might just have to thank whoever cut my hair, Willow thought. I mean, as long as they're not a vampire. I mean, who would have thought vampires were real? Well... there are a lot of weird occurrences in history; weird deaths and murders and weird looking people and events aaand I'm babbling. I'm literally babbling in my head. How do I do that! I mean… Her thoughts were cut off by Xander.

"Do you think we'll get in trouble for turning in late math homework? I mean, I actually did it this time."

Willow looked at him, confused. "There wasn't any math homework."

"Really?" Xander said. "You mean I did work I didn't have to? That's a first."

"Well," Willow responded, "At least you'll know the lesson better."

"Still sucks I spent all that time on nothing."

A horrible thought struck Willow. "Or maybe there was math homework, and I just forgot to do it, and now I'm going to have a zero! A zero! I can't have zero! Then my grade will go down, and I'll flunk math, won't get into any colleges, have to stay with my parents working at the pizza place!"

Xander looked at her. "Willow, you're fine. I mean, you don't forget about homework. Me, all the time. You… never."

Willow looked at him, hand on the refrigerator door. "You're sure?"

"Positive."

Willow gave him a hug. "Thanks, Xand."

"What are friends for?"

Pulling away from Xander, Willow opened up the fridge in the kitchen of the Hyperion.

The best friends looked in.

BtVS - A:ts - Sw9

Cordelia sighed. She couldn't believe she was stuck hunting vampires with some annoying guy who couldn't even appreciate how pretty she was. Gunn seemed to find her annoying somehow.

"So, what's this thing with vampires?"

Gunn looked at her.

"Are they like, blood suckers, turning into bats? That stuff."

"Yes on the blood. No on the bats."

"Well that's gross," Cordelia said. Gunn shushed her.

Cordelia ignored him. "I mean, that would be horrible for your teeth. How would that even taste good anyway?"

Gunn whirled around. "Do you ever stop talking?"

Cordelia looked offended. "Excuse me? Just because you can't appreciate a good conversation doesn't mean I have to, too."

"We are possibly stuck in a hotel with a vicious creature that wants to kill us! Do ya want to be dead?"

"Oh come on!" Cordelia raised her voice. "Like it wouldn't already know where we are!"

"So we want to attract it to us and have it jump out and kill us?"

"It's better than being stuck in a basement with you!"

"I'm about two seconds from agreeing to that."

Cordelia glared at Gunn. "Well, I'm gonna go look over on the other side of the basement."

Gunn shook his head. "You want to be killed, don't you?"

"You're more annoying than Xander!"

"You're so annoying I can't even think of a good word to describe it!"

Cordelia groaned in frustration. "Why did I have to get stuck here? Why not Jesse? Go stick him with the loser club and I can be at home, organizing my shoes."

Gunn wondered what he could have done to deserve this.

"Come on. Let's go kill that vamp and never see each other again."

"That is the first thing you've said I agree with."

BtVS - A:ts - Sw9

Xander and Willow looked in the fridge.

"I thought there would at least be something in here." Xander said.

"At least there's not, like, fingers or something."

Xander nodded. "Come on."

The best friends continued looking around the main floor. Willow glanced at Xander. He had this look on his face that reminded her of when they were younger and she had set up a treasure hunt for him and Jesse. They had spent the entire day looking for the box she hid, and had the funniest look on their face when they opened it up and found a book. Something she noticed this time, however, was how cute he looked. His new hair worked for him. Willow wasn't completely sure her style worked, but… she kind-of liked it. She'd had the same style her entire life, so it was cool to try something new.

BtVS - A:ts - Sw9

Buffy looked over at Liam. She still couldn't figure out why he was acting so weird, but she couldn't help feel like… she knew him or something. Even though she knew she would have remembered him if they had met before. He was too hot not to remember.

"Do you have any siblings?" she asked.

He looked at her and nodded. "I've got a younger sister named Kathy. Do you have any?"

Buffy smiled. "Yeah. I've got a little sister. Her name's Dawn."

Liam paused. Dawn. What an odd name. But the girl in front of him was named 'Buffy', so he assumed the people from whatever land this was had odd tastes in names.

"How old is she?" he asked.

"She's ten. What about Kathy?"

Liam smiled, thinking about his little sister, the only one that had managed to survive infancy. "She's only four."

Buffy smiled back at him. Liam wasn't sure how he felt about her. She definitely was pretty, but there was something else he couldn't understand. He wanted to know her, a feeling he hadn't really had with women.

They stopped in front of a door. "This is the last room," Buffy said.

Liam went for the knob and slowly opened the door.

Buffy stepped in first, her stake raised, but there was nothing there. Liam made a second sweep with his eyes, but it just seemed like a dusty hotel room.

"Come on," Buffy said. "Let's head back to the lobby and see if anyone else found anything."

BtVS - A:ts - Sw9

Cordelia and Gunn were facing off against each other. That guy had some nerve if he thought he could disagree with Cordelia Chase. And he was so going to realize that.

"Ok, there is no way that statement is right."

"I could say the same thing about yours," Gunn replied.

"You wish."

Gunn snorted.

"There is No. Freaking. Way. That strawberry jelly is better than raspberry."

Gunn practically rolled his eyes. "'Cause it's got to be super expensive to taste good." He said sarcastically.

"It's not about being expensive, it's about costing more."

Gunn raised an eyebrow. What was with this girl? He was this close to...

"Besides, strawberries don't even taste good. They're all covered in tiny seeds and that gets into the jam and…" She was interrupted when Gunn suddenly pulled her into a kiss.

When he finally pulled away, Cordy was silent.

"Finally," he muttered and started walking away.

"Oh no you don't," she said before pulling him into another kiss, more passionate than the first.

Despite being super annoying, Cordy had to admit he was a pretty good kisser.

BtVS - A:ts - Sw9

Fred snuck another glance at Wesley as they reached the last door they had to check. He carefully reached for the doorknob and meticulously opened the door. He pulled out his stake and jumped into the room. He glanced around, but no vampire jumped out.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," Fred said.

Wesley sighed. "I suppose we'd be best to go back downstairs and see if the others found anything."

Fred looked at him. "Hey," she said. "Do ya think we'll… keep in touch after this whole thing-a mabob is over?"

Wesley gave her a giant grin. "I certainly hope so."

"'Cause you've been really nice and all, and I think it'd be cool to, ya know, talk, later." The two of them started gravitating close to each other.

"Yeah," Wesley said, lowering his voice. "Cool…" They stopped a couple inches from each other. Slowly, unsure of herself, Fred tilted her head up and leaned into a small kiss. Wesley let Fred take the lead, as he hadn't had much experience with kissing and was quite sure he would mess it up, but soon found himself putting a bit more pressure on her lips. The kiss stayed the same, slow and tender, until they remembered they needed to go downstairs.

"We should probably…" Wesley said after.

"Right," Fred said, slightly blushing.

"Go downstairs," they said together, still reveling in their kiss.

More talk about Jesse! Two pairs of kissage! Buffy and Angel (well, Liam) having a non-painful conversation! Attempted suspense with the fridge that probably failed! Fred asking about weed! (Is it obvious I like this chapter?) Now time of explaining. The Cordy/Gunn thing is reminding me/based on Cordy and Xander's thing in Season Two (Note the similarities from this and What's my Line Pt. 2). I also tried to put Fred in charge of her kiss, because Wesley's current kissing skills... (Graduation Day Pt. 2) not so great... Also, as friendly reminder as I doubt any of you watched the beginning of Spin the Bottle before reading this fic, Fred and Gunn are still dating. They don't know it, but still... emotional set up. And Liam is hard to write! (...That note came in randomly, but he really is!) I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Review if you like it! (I used "..." a lot in this Author's Note...) Almost forgot to mention, the movie Dawn and Connor were watching in the last chapter was Tuck Everlasting, which just happened to be a movie that came out October 2002 that I had already watched.