Seven and a half months passed. Buffy had gotten used to the odd presence of the Siamese twins, had been quick to learn how to walk the tightrope, and had created several tentative friendships; she was learning to trust people.The circus had hit a new city a few weeks ago when something strange happened.
Buffy sat in the lower rafters of the big-top helping Xander tweak the trapeze mechanisms.
"Do you have any peculiar abilities that you could use in performance?" Giles' voice drifted up to them from below.
Buffy glanced down to see Giles talking to a boy with platinum blond hair, who couldn't be any older than her, and a girl with long brown hair with a couple of red streaks in it.
"Gwen here's a bit of a lightning bug," the boy said.
"I'm a freak," she said bluntly.
"Oh?" Giles asked.
Gwen peeled off one of her gloves and looked around for something to electrocute. Wary of how destructive her odd ability could be, the boy asked for a light bulb.
Giles sent Willow to get one and she returned with a tangled string of Christmas lights.
"This is the best I could do. They're Tara and Fred's," Willow said, handing them over to Gwen, who took them quickly. Not quick enough.
"Ow!" Willow yelped as she got a small shock.
Gwen unscrewed one little light and stuck her finger in the socket. Giles was stunned as the lights suddenly lit up. He double-checked that they weren't plugged in. They weren't. The only thing they were touching was Gwen.
"Oh Weird! Cool! But weird," Willow babbled.
Above them, Buffy froze. Gwen. Little Gwen Raiden, one of the only girls at the Orphanage who knew her last name. This had always given her a bit of a haughty attitude. Buffy noted that she'd gotten a lot taller in the year they'd been free, and the Crayola-red streaks in her hair were new too. She was still untouchable, though.
While all the focus was on his companion, the boy had wandered over to the lion cages and was now crouched against the bars. Surprisingly, they didn't snarl at the intruder as they usually would have.
"Boy! What are you doing!" Giles yelled when he noticed.
"My name's Spike." Was all he said before reaching a hand through the bars to stroke the nose of a lion who started nuzzling his hand like an old friend. Giles and Willow openly stared.
"Lions can sense when you're afraid. They can also sense friendship and need respect."
"Well...I guess after Buffy and Gwen and now this, we should start lowering the bar on our standards of normalcy," said Willow after a minute.
"Mysterious kid," Buffy murmured as she watched him from the rafters.
"Yeah...I don't like him," Xander said decidedly.