Chapter 4: settling down

Buffy and Lita walked into the Bronze. When the other scouts saw Lita they ran to her.

"Lita!"

"What did you do?"

"How'd you get that nasty cut on your head?!"

Lita pushed them away. She sat down at a table and began to explain.

"First of all," she said. "We need to find some place to stay."

The other scouts nodded and they looked at the scoobies.

"I could say your foreign exchange students and my mom might not be to suspicious.." said Willow.

Buffy nodded. "My mom might believe that too."

"So." said Serena. "How many do you think you guys can take?"

"I can take 2." Said Buffy and Willow in unison.

"Uh oh." Said Mina. "That's 4."

"Nooo, it's 5." Said Raye sarcastically.

"Don't be mean Raye, or we'll let you be the odd one out." Said Lita.

They all turned to Xander.

"No, no, no. I don't object to having beautiful ladies in my house, but not like this. No." he said.

"O, come on Xander. You've got that whole basement to yourself. It's not like there's not room." Said Willow. "Anyway, it's a full moon. So even if Oz had room he couldn't take one."

Xander sighed, "fine."

"I'll go!" cried Mina.

"I'll go." Said Raye. "I don't trust Mina 10 ft near any guys room. Especially if she thinks he's cute."

Raye smiled at Xander then continued. "So Mina and Serena can go with willow. Sorry Willow. Lita and Amy then can go with Buffy. It looks like Lita and Buffy have stuff to talk about anyway."

With that she stood up and offered her hand to Xander.

"Coming?" she asked.

"Uhh.." was all he could say before she pulled him up by his arm and dragged him out of the Bronze.

"I swear she just wants him for herself…" mumbled Mina as she watched them leave.

"O, get off it Mina. That's just what you want." Said Serena.

"Well," said Buffy, talking to Lita. "If any other vampires witnessed that light show you put off they won't be out again tonight. So I think it's safe to go home."

Willow nodded.

So everyone got up and left the Bronze.



Raye and Xander walked in silence. Every once in a while Raye would jump at the sound of glass smashing, or police sirens. Pretty soon the silence was thick and heavy, both were almost afraid to disturb the night.

"Do you have a fireplace?" said Raye, finally breaking the deafening silence.

"Hmm? O, no." said Xander looking at her briefly before becoming extremely interested in the ground before his feet.

"Ok." Said Raye before becoming silent again.

When they reached Xander's house he rushed her down stairs before his parents could notice he was home. They were in the middle of an argument so they didn't notice much of anything.

"Do they always fight like that?" asked Raye as he closed the door.

"No." said Xander, laughing nervously.

Raye looked like she was about to ask more, but thought better of it. She dropped down onto a chair and started rummaging through her backpack.

"Darn." She said. "I have a tank top and shorts that I was going to change into for gym today, but the weather's different here. I'd freeze in this."

She sighed and looked at Xander.

"Would you happen to have any old clothes? I'd give them back before we left."

Xander looked at her for a second then dropped his eyes again.

"Ya, sure. They might be a bit big on you, but they'll work." He said, leaving for a moment and coming back with an orange Hawaiian shirt and some plain slacks.

"You can sleep in your gym clothes tonight and wear these tomorrow." He said, lying the clothes on the arm of the chair. "The bathroom's over there, and you can change whenever you want."

As he said it her pointed and Raye nodded.

Later on, Raye was lying on the floor amongst blankets and a few pillows. Xander was on the bed trying to fall asleep and ignore the strange feeling in his stomach.



"So you're a computer wiz?" asked Buffy as Amy sat on the bed in some of her pjs punching in buttons on a small compact computer.

"M hmm." Said Amy.

"Ah, ok." Said Buffy before turning to Lita who was looking a bit awkward in Buffy's to-small clothes.

"So, let me get this straight. Your princesses reincarnated into the future? You have the powers of your planets and can fight with magic in mini skirts?" she said.

Lita nodded. "You forgot the part that we are sworn to protect the future queen of the moon kingdom."

"O, right. Well, that sounds cool. I'm just the Chosen. I fight evil and demons till I'm killed and some other slayer pops up to take my place." Buffy said while looking at her toes.

"That doesn't sound too pleasant, you sound like poor Serena. She's died about, o, 10 times. That might be an exaggeration, but she's our trusted friend and future queen."

There was a knock at the door and Mrs. Summers leaned in.

"You girls feeling hungry?" she asked, smiling at them with that motherly smile

.

"Serena! Did you bring any comics?" asked Mina as she and Serena flopped down on Willow's bed.

"Of course!! I was going to read them in English today, but I didn't even have the class!" Serena said as she laughed.

"You know guys," said Willow as she clicked the mouse. "We need to get to bed. As soon as I check out a few things online I'm getting off."

Serena and Mina stared at her. "Party pooper…" they whispered in unison.