Chapter Seven
A/N: For my purposes the Hyperion does not have a paranoia demon living it nor does it have an old lady from the 50's living in it. However the history is still the same. Angel was still there in the 50's and the events that occurred in the 50's still happened.
Buffy paused on the sidewalk. The world rushed around her and it struck her how much she wasn't a part of it.
"Hey, you okay?" Brandon asked tugging on her hand, tugging her back to the world. She smiled slightly at him, grateful for it. She nodded.
"Just really tired, the last two days...not of the good. I want to get somewhere and get some more stuff. It's too crowded up here," Buffy tapped her temple.
Brandon pulled her close a moment and kissed her temple. The world rushed around them but they remained still at the center of it, like the eye of storm. That's what Brandon was to her, her eye of the storm, the calm center in a world that was beyond crazy, a world that was killing her a little more every day.
"Come on, this way," Buffy said and begin to work her way toward an alley.
She circumvented the alleys and streets as if a thread pulled her along. They had just slipped into another alley when Buffy heard a scuffle up ahead. Dread filled her. She knew what it was.
"Brandon stay here, I'll be right back," Buffy dropped her bag and shot down the alley. She broke off an old wooden chair leg as she ran. She rounded a corner. There was one lone vamp feeding on a girl.
"Good God, its all suck all the time with you guys," Buffy said.
The vamp retracted his fangs and turned with an angry growl. He shoved the girl he'd been feeding off to the ground. She was sobbing and bleeding from the neck but she'd live. The vamp snarled again and charged her. Buffy caught him with a flying roundhouse kick in the chin. The vamp stumbled back but shook it off and rushed her. Buffy flipped the vamp over her shoulder using his own momentum against him. She jumped in for the kill but the vamp was already up. He swung at her and she was already committed. He caught her in the nose. Blood spurted over her lips and chin.
There was a feral scream and out of no where Brandon attacked the vamp. He locked his arms around the vampire's neck from behind and struggled with him.
"Brandon, no!" Buffy yelled.
The vamp slammed him back into the brick wall. Brandon let go and slumped to the ground, all the air knocked out of him.
"That wasn't very nice," Buffy said and smashed the vampire in the solar plexus with a side kick. He slammed up against the wall and Buffy begin pummeling his face and ribs. The demon caught her wrist and twisted. She let out a shriek of pain and ended up flush against the vamp's body, her arm twisted up behind her back. She willed herself to relax. She could see Brandon struggling to his feet a couple of yards away. She tried to catch his eye, tried to tell him not to try anything.
"Get the girl out of here," Buffy shouted at him. That would keep him busy and out of her way for a little while at least. She waited until the vamp lowered his head a little bit to get to her neck.
"Nice little girly girl," the vamp purred.
Buffy slammed her head back into his. He screamed in pain and stumbled back holding his head.
"That's Slayer to you, Fang face," Buffy quipped as she slammed a stake into the vamp's heart. He turned to dust before he could even stop screaming over the pain in his head.
Brandon cocked an eyebrow at her. "Okay, so that was a vampire."
Buffy looked at him surprised. "Yeah, how'd-"
"The rest of Sunnydale may be deeply stupid but even stoned out of my mind I knew what the hell was going on. You notice Derek and I don't go out at night, I don't take short cuts across the park and Derek doesn't conduct business after dark. If it can't be done in the light of day then they don't need it. One question, how the hell did you do that?"
"Come on, let's go in here and get settled. Then we can have story time," Buffy said.
"In here" turned out to be a grand, old, abandoned hotel. Every thing was covered in a thick layer of dust, but even through the dust and grime it was obvious it had once been a show place. Buffy ran her hand over the curved reception desk and plopped down on the funny round couch with a giggle. This place felt right. It felt like hers.
"The Hyperion Hotel," Brandon read from the worn and yellowed guest book on the reception desk.
"I like it," Buffy said.
Brandon looked around. "Kind of spooky this big old place abandoned like this, isn't it?"
Buffy shrugged. "I dunno, it feels...homey."
"The thing is big enough to have wings, Buffy. How can a place this big feel homey?" Brandon asked.
"I don't know. Somehow it feels like mine," Buffy said in a hushed voice. She stood up and swept up the curved staircase. She paused in front of the door to room 217. She traced her fingers over the numbers on the brass plaque. A slight smile graced her lips.
"Brandon, bring the bags up here," Buffy yelled down.
The inside of the room was as dusty as the rest of the hotel. She was pleased to find the water was still on. She washed the blood off her face in the bathroom, swiping a hand across the tarnished and dusty mirror. Her reflection looked shadowed, almost surreal in the dark, antique mirror. She splashed a last handful of cold water over her face and then walked back into the bedroom. Buffy pulled the spread off the bed and shook it out over the balcony that looked down onto an over grown courtyard. She threw open the windows and the balcony doors, letting the fresh, night air in.
"You aren't worried about vampires or whatever getting in here?" Brandon asked as he watched her move around the room. He'd noticed she moved with a grace that few humans possessed. He had always assumed she was just graceful. After seeing her in the alley, he was beginning to wonder.
"Nope, not here, don't you feel it? It feels safe," Buffy said and wrapped her arms around herself.
Brandon shrugged and toed off his boots. He grinned at Buffy and jumped on the bed. She laughed and shrieked. "Come on, Babe," he held his hands out to her. Buffy giggled and took Brandon's hands, allowing him to pull her to her feet on the old mattress. They jumped on the bed like little kids until they both collapsed out of breath from laughing so hard.
Buffy lay propped up on the pillows. Brandon lay with his head on her stomach. He looked up at her and laughing blue eyes suddenly turned very serious. "So, are you going to tell me how you did what you did in the alley? My back is black and blue and you don't have a mark on you," He said.
Buffy bit her bottom lip and sighed. "I didn't want to bring you into this part of my life. You were my tie to the real world, the world that didn't include vampires and demons and other things that go bump in the night."
Brandon was silent. He ran his fingers up and down her forearm, tickling the bend of her elbow.
"You won't think I'm a freak?" Buffy said and it was just a whisper.
He sat up and cradled her face in his hands. "I could never, ever think you were a freak. You're the most amazing person I've ever known."
Buffy smiled sadly at him. Her eyes were unfathomably sad. "Before I tell you, can you get me some stuff? Really crowded up here and I want to chase it all away."
Brandon nodded. He dug around in his bag and came up with a bag of powder and a mirror. He laid out a couple of lines for her and held it up. Buffy sniffed the powder up and closed her eyes, waiting for it to take effect. Brandon set everything on the side table and then lay back down with his head on her stomach.
"I'm a slayer," Buffy said.
"Okay, and I'm a Scorpio," Brandon said.
Buffy smiled slightly. That was what she loved about him. He managed to make her feel completely normal in a world that wasn't at all normal. "Into each generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One. One born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of evil blah blah blah. You get the point. This generation it's me, just call me Chosen Buffy."
"Thanks, I'll stick with Buffy. What does all that mean?" Brandon asked.
"A lot of things, mostly it means I get to spend all my free time hunting down vampires, demons. It's sort of my destiny, my duty, my calling, and so on and so forth. I'm stronger then any human, I'm faster, I have great aim, I don't throw like a girl, I heal faster, I can take more damage then any human. I can jump higher, all good things except for the fact that I can't tell anyone and I have to fight vampires, demons and other things that go bump in the night. I'm the thing all the vampire mommies threaten their vampire babies with to get them to drink their plasma at night, but I am mortal, I can be killed. I can die," Buffy said.
"Okay, so that sort of explains the vampires in the alley and what you did, which was amazing by the way," Brandon said.
"Yeah, amazing," Buffy sighed.
"What does that have to do with us leaving Sunnydale?" Brandon asked.
Buffy smiled. It was the most questions he'd ever asked her. He deserved answers. He'd been patient and sweet and completely and utterly undemanding. "Willow and Xander were locked in the basement of the school last night by an invisible girl, don't ask. She turned the gas on. They died. There was no one to save them and they died. I was busy watching over Cordelia, which was attacked so valid duty there but still. I should have known. They're my friends, were my friends. I should have protected them," Buffy stopped, the tears in her throat too thick to go on.
"Oh, Baby," Brandon sat up and pulled her into his arms. He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head.
She pulled away slightly. "Let me finish, cuz if I snuggle up to you right now I'm going to collapse again and I'll never get this out."
Brandon nodded and Buffy continued. "I have to do this slayer gig until the day I die, which I might have forgotten to mention will be sooner rather then later. I asked Giles once what the average age for a slayer was. He wouldn't tell me so I looked it up in all his old books. The average age a slayer dies at is 17. The oldest recorded slayer ever since the dawn of time is 21. This afternoon I walked in on Giles in the library. He was talking to someone on the phone and he mentioned a prophecy in a big fat book that was written hundreds of years ago that said tonight I was supposed to go fight this Master Vampire and he would kill me. Giles was going to send me anyway, knowing I wouldn't survive. I don't want to die, Brandon. My life may suck beyond the telling of it, but I don't want to die and Giles doesn't really care if I die because when a slayer dies another one is called. We're disposable. I'm disposable," Buffy's voice broke and the tears she'd kept back spilled forth in a rush over her cheeks.
Brandon gathered her into his arms and held her. He buried his face in her hair and when he spoke his voice swelled with a rage she had never heard. "You are not disposable. You are the most amazing creature I've ever met in my entire life and there's only one of you and there will never, ever be another person like you. "
Buffy shook her head. "That's just because I'm the only slayer you've ever met. If you had met the one before me, or the one that will come after me, you wouldn't say that."
Brandon grinned a little and pulled back so he could look down into her eyes. "Buffy, I've been in love with you for weeks now, long before I ever even had any idea what a slayer was. I thought you were the most amazing thing I'd ever seen from the moment I saw you make that face you make when you drink tequila or bite into a lime."
A/N: For my purposes the Hyperion does not have a paranoia demon living it nor does it have an old lady from the 50's living in it. However the history is still the same. Angel was still there in the 50's and the events that occurred in the 50's still happened.
Buffy paused on the sidewalk. The world rushed around her and it struck her how much she wasn't a part of it.
"Hey, you okay?" Brandon asked tugging on her hand, tugging her back to the world. She smiled slightly at him, grateful for it. She nodded.
"Just really tired, the last two days...not of the good. I want to get somewhere and get some more stuff. It's too crowded up here," Buffy tapped her temple.
Brandon pulled her close a moment and kissed her temple. The world rushed around them but they remained still at the center of it, like the eye of storm. That's what Brandon was to her, her eye of the storm, the calm center in a world that was beyond crazy, a world that was killing her a little more every day.
"Come on, this way," Buffy said and begin to work her way toward an alley.
She circumvented the alleys and streets as if a thread pulled her along. They had just slipped into another alley when Buffy heard a scuffle up ahead. Dread filled her. She knew what it was.
"Brandon stay here, I'll be right back," Buffy dropped her bag and shot down the alley. She broke off an old wooden chair leg as she ran. She rounded a corner. There was one lone vamp feeding on a girl.
"Good God, its all suck all the time with you guys," Buffy said.
The vamp retracted his fangs and turned with an angry growl. He shoved the girl he'd been feeding off to the ground. She was sobbing and bleeding from the neck but she'd live. The vamp snarled again and charged her. Buffy caught him with a flying roundhouse kick in the chin. The vamp stumbled back but shook it off and rushed her. Buffy flipped the vamp over her shoulder using his own momentum against him. She jumped in for the kill but the vamp was already up. He swung at her and she was already committed. He caught her in the nose. Blood spurted over her lips and chin.
There was a feral scream and out of no where Brandon attacked the vamp. He locked his arms around the vampire's neck from behind and struggled with him.
"Brandon, no!" Buffy yelled.
The vamp slammed him back into the brick wall. Brandon let go and slumped to the ground, all the air knocked out of him.
"That wasn't very nice," Buffy said and smashed the vampire in the solar plexus with a side kick. He slammed up against the wall and Buffy begin pummeling his face and ribs. The demon caught her wrist and twisted. She let out a shriek of pain and ended up flush against the vamp's body, her arm twisted up behind her back. She willed herself to relax. She could see Brandon struggling to his feet a couple of yards away. She tried to catch his eye, tried to tell him not to try anything.
"Get the girl out of here," Buffy shouted at him. That would keep him busy and out of her way for a little while at least. She waited until the vamp lowered his head a little bit to get to her neck.
"Nice little girly girl," the vamp purred.
Buffy slammed her head back into his. He screamed in pain and stumbled back holding his head.
"That's Slayer to you, Fang face," Buffy quipped as she slammed a stake into the vamp's heart. He turned to dust before he could even stop screaming over the pain in his head.
Brandon cocked an eyebrow at her. "Okay, so that was a vampire."
Buffy looked at him surprised. "Yeah, how'd-"
"The rest of Sunnydale may be deeply stupid but even stoned out of my mind I knew what the hell was going on. You notice Derek and I don't go out at night, I don't take short cuts across the park and Derek doesn't conduct business after dark. If it can't be done in the light of day then they don't need it. One question, how the hell did you do that?"
"Come on, let's go in here and get settled. Then we can have story time," Buffy said.
"In here" turned out to be a grand, old, abandoned hotel. Every thing was covered in a thick layer of dust, but even through the dust and grime it was obvious it had once been a show place. Buffy ran her hand over the curved reception desk and plopped down on the funny round couch with a giggle. This place felt right. It felt like hers.
"The Hyperion Hotel," Brandon read from the worn and yellowed guest book on the reception desk.
"I like it," Buffy said.
Brandon looked around. "Kind of spooky this big old place abandoned like this, isn't it?"
Buffy shrugged. "I dunno, it feels...homey."
"The thing is big enough to have wings, Buffy. How can a place this big feel homey?" Brandon asked.
"I don't know. Somehow it feels like mine," Buffy said in a hushed voice. She stood up and swept up the curved staircase. She paused in front of the door to room 217. She traced her fingers over the numbers on the brass plaque. A slight smile graced her lips.
"Brandon, bring the bags up here," Buffy yelled down.
The inside of the room was as dusty as the rest of the hotel. She was pleased to find the water was still on. She washed the blood off her face in the bathroom, swiping a hand across the tarnished and dusty mirror. Her reflection looked shadowed, almost surreal in the dark, antique mirror. She splashed a last handful of cold water over her face and then walked back into the bedroom. Buffy pulled the spread off the bed and shook it out over the balcony that looked down onto an over grown courtyard. She threw open the windows and the balcony doors, letting the fresh, night air in.
"You aren't worried about vampires or whatever getting in here?" Brandon asked as he watched her move around the room. He'd noticed she moved with a grace that few humans possessed. He had always assumed she was just graceful. After seeing her in the alley, he was beginning to wonder.
"Nope, not here, don't you feel it? It feels safe," Buffy said and wrapped her arms around herself.
Brandon shrugged and toed off his boots. He grinned at Buffy and jumped on the bed. She laughed and shrieked. "Come on, Babe," he held his hands out to her. Buffy giggled and took Brandon's hands, allowing him to pull her to her feet on the old mattress. They jumped on the bed like little kids until they both collapsed out of breath from laughing so hard.
Buffy lay propped up on the pillows. Brandon lay with his head on her stomach. He looked up at her and laughing blue eyes suddenly turned very serious. "So, are you going to tell me how you did what you did in the alley? My back is black and blue and you don't have a mark on you," He said.
Buffy bit her bottom lip and sighed. "I didn't want to bring you into this part of my life. You were my tie to the real world, the world that didn't include vampires and demons and other things that go bump in the night."
Brandon was silent. He ran his fingers up and down her forearm, tickling the bend of her elbow.
"You won't think I'm a freak?" Buffy said and it was just a whisper.
He sat up and cradled her face in his hands. "I could never, ever think you were a freak. You're the most amazing person I've ever known."
Buffy smiled sadly at him. Her eyes were unfathomably sad. "Before I tell you, can you get me some stuff? Really crowded up here and I want to chase it all away."
Brandon nodded. He dug around in his bag and came up with a bag of powder and a mirror. He laid out a couple of lines for her and held it up. Buffy sniffed the powder up and closed her eyes, waiting for it to take effect. Brandon set everything on the side table and then lay back down with his head on her stomach.
"I'm a slayer," Buffy said.
"Okay, and I'm a Scorpio," Brandon said.
Buffy smiled slightly. That was what she loved about him. He managed to make her feel completely normal in a world that wasn't at all normal. "Into each generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One. One born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of evil blah blah blah. You get the point. This generation it's me, just call me Chosen Buffy."
"Thanks, I'll stick with Buffy. What does all that mean?" Brandon asked.
"A lot of things, mostly it means I get to spend all my free time hunting down vampires, demons. It's sort of my destiny, my duty, my calling, and so on and so forth. I'm stronger then any human, I'm faster, I have great aim, I don't throw like a girl, I heal faster, I can take more damage then any human. I can jump higher, all good things except for the fact that I can't tell anyone and I have to fight vampires, demons and other things that go bump in the night. I'm the thing all the vampire mommies threaten their vampire babies with to get them to drink their plasma at night, but I am mortal, I can be killed. I can die," Buffy said.
"Okay, so that sort of explains the vampires in the alley and what you did, which was amazing by the way," Brandon said.
"Yeah, amazing," Buffy sighed.
"What does that have to do with us leaving Sunnydale?" Brandon asked.
Buffy smiled. It was the most questions he'd ever asked her. He deserved answers. He'd been patient and sweet and completely and utterly undemanding. "Willow and Xander were locked in the basement of the school last night by an invisible girl, don't ask. She turned the gas on. They died. There was no one to save them and they died. I was busy watching over Cordelia, which was attacked so valid duty there but still. I should have known. They're my friends, were my friends. I should have protected them," Buffy stopped, the tears in her throat too thick to go on.
"Oh, Baby," Brandon sat up and pulled her into his arms. He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head.
She pulled away slightly. "Let me finish, cuz if I snuggle up to you right now I'm going to collapse again and I'll never get this out."
Brandon nodded and Buffy continued. "I have to do this slayer gig until the day I die, which I might have forgotten to mention will be sooner rather then later. I asked Giles once what the average age for a slayer was. He wouldn't tell me so I looked it up in all his old books. The average age a slayer dies at is 17. The oldest recorded slayer ever since the dawn of time is 21. This afternoon I walked in on Giles in the library. He was talking to someone on the phone and he mentioned a prophecy in a big fat book that was written hundreds of years ago that said tonight I was supposed to go fight this Master Vampire and he would kill me. Giles was going to send me anyway, knowing I wouldn't survive. I don't want to die, Brandon. My life may suck beyond the telling of it, but I don't want to die and Giles doesn't really care if I die because when a slayer dies another one is called. We're disposable. I'm disposable," Buffy's voice broke and the tears she'd kept back spilled forth in a rush over her cheeks.
Brandon gathered her into his arms and held her. He buried his face in her hair and when he spoke his voice swelled with a rage she had never heard. "You are not disposable. You are the most amazing creature I've ever met in my entire life and there's only one of you and there will never, ever be another person like you. "
Buffy shook her head. "That's just because I'm the only slayer you've ever met. If you had met the one before me, or the one that will come after me, you wouldn't say that."
Brandon grinned a little and pulled back so he could look down into her eyes. "Buffy, I've been in love with you for weeks now, long before I ever even had any idea what a slayer was. I thought you were the most amazing thing I'd ever seen from the moment I saw you make that face you make when you drink tequila or bite into a lime."