Chapter 1

"Buffy, wake up – the plane's about to land." Buffy groaned as Willow shook her out of the deep sleep she'd been enjoying.

"What, already?"

"You call that already! I'm sure that the flight wasn't that long a few months ago!" Willow stretched, trying to get the crick out of her neck that had formed from far too many hours in the cramped coach seats of the plane.

"Will, that was because you passed out on the way back to the States due to your hangover from Drink the Bar Dry the night before." Buffy tried not to laugh at the thought of her friend's sorry state at the end of the previous year, when she had decided to make use of the English law that allowed 18 year olds to drink.

"Are you ready for a whole new year then Buff?"

"Yeah," Buffy smiled to herself, "I think I am. You know, I was really dreading this last year. I was so close to catching the same flight home, but I had fun in the end."

"Yeah, and Riley Finn has absolutely nothing to do with this?"

Buffy blushed slightly, "well, maybe a little."

She hadn't been looking for a relationship when she met Riley but somehow she found one. She'd met him during Fresher's Week looking as lost as she was, but so were most people. You could definitely spot a fresher that week, but then again there was a lot of Manchester to get lost in, and with three or four different universities in the city, then you had to learn where you were fast.

One year later and they were a definite couple. Buffy had never had a serious relationship before and this seemed to her to be everything she could ever want. Riley was an attentive, loving boyfriend and they shared everything. Whatever she wanted to do, he showed an interest in. They'd joined the same clubs and societies – not that she'd ended up going to many of them, there was so much else to do – and they seemed to spend nearly every day together. She hadn't seen him all summer though – he couldn't afford the airfare to California and she'd wanted to go home to spend the summer break seeing her mother and her friends back home – so they'd written to each other, emailed and talked on the phone, much to her mother's annoyance when she saw the phone bill.

The taxi pulled up outside the large redbrick building that was to be their home for the next year and Buffy and Willow climbed out, looking up to survey the old Victorian building.

"You know, this would be so cool if it was actually all ours," Willow mused.

"Yeah, but it's not – just the basement and the first floor – though it's as good as ours. Riley and his friends have got the second and third floors, so we'll have the run of the whole place."

"But wouldn't it have been great to actually have lived here when it was new? I mean, look at the size of this place – it's huge! I bet there would have been servants and carriages and beautiful women in long flowing dresses."

"Yeah, whose only job was to look pretty and act dumb? Sounds just great to me," Buffy said sarcastically. "Nah, I think I'll stick with what I have. Xander!" Buffy's face split into a wide grin as she beheld the guy who had just opened the front door of the house in front of them.

"Buffy, Willow – long time no see. How was summer for you guys?"

"Great, until the flight back. Now I have jetlag from hell and I know that I still have to unpack all my stuff." Willow moaned.

"Talking of which, your boxes are in your rooms. I think my parents were glad to get rid of them. I really don't think that when they agreed to store your stuff over the summer holidays they actually realised how much stuff that was! Anyway, come in, come in!"

All three went inside the house, through the wide oak door with its stained glass windows into the hallway with its stone floors. It would have been very pretty in its day, Buffy mused, but that was before inner Manchester became a slightly less desirable place to live and the stature of the outside of the house was spoiled somewhat by the bars at the ground floor windows. The inside, though, was really quite something – despite the fact that it in need of refurbishment.

"Right," Xander was saying, "you remember how this works don't you? The main staircase leads to the upstairs flat and this door here," he indicated the white glossed door to the right of the main entrance, "is our very own front door. Here's a key for you," he handed a small gold key to Willow and another to Buffy, "and one for you."

They unlocked the door and went inside their new flat. Buffy recognised it from when they'd all gone house-hunting last Easter but somehow it seemed different this time, more real, and of course fewer pictures of naked women on the walls than last time when it had been inhabited by four men.

"What about rooms? Have you chosen yours yet?" Willow was asking.

"Well, Oz has been here since yesterday and he's bagged the one downstairs next to the kitchen, which leaves the three upstairs for you, me and Buffy."

"Ooh, bedroom choices!"

Several hours later found them all collapsed in the living room that was actually in the basement of the house, all absolutely exhausted and sharing a pizza. The initial scramble over the rooms had been over fairly quickly. Buffy was happy about her room – somehow she'd landed the biggest in the house. The only downside was the glaringly bright red curtains, which didn't exactly go with the powder blue paint that was on the walls. Maybe she'd think about redecorating, but not today. Today was for pizza and gossip and sleep – much sleep. Sleep was definitely high on the agenda.