Chance Meeting
Chapter 3: Integration
Buffy flew her hand out of the covers and crashed it down on the buzzing alarm clock. 'I hate mornings.' She took a glance at the clock that was surprisingly still intact. 'I hate afternoons.'
Not yet fully awake, Buffy seemed to drift through her morning (or more accurately – afternoon) routine. Stretch, workout, shower, relax, food. Sitting at the counter in her apartment nibbling on a sandwich, she noticed the clock again. 7 o'clock. That was enough time for her to do some walking around before going to Mark's place. With that thought, she grabbed her coat and left.
It was already dark by the time she stepped outside. She decided to do a quick sweep around the back alleys. 'Another uneventful day.' It was around 8:30 when she decided to give up and head for Mark's. She reached the building beside her destination when she heard whimpering.
Turning the corner into another alley to investigate, she saw a young girl surrounded by a group of men. She held her purse out in front of her mumbling different variations of "Just take it" and "Please don't hurt me." Probably just a mugging, but Buffy figured she might as well help out anyways.
"Why don't you guys just scamper off now and I'll reconsider the kicking your ass part of this." When the group turned around, her spidey senses began to go off. Her hand was behind her back, gripping her stake, in an instant.
"Look at this boys. We got ourselves a downright feast tonight." The leader walked right up to Buffy and put on his vamp face. Obviously he was going for the scare as well. She wanted to laugh when his face fell with the realization that fear was not the reaction being given (more like annoyance), but she wanted to get into this fight more. "Well, that was just pathetic."
With that comment, she whirled the stake out from behind her and landed it in his heart. He flew into dust before her, and she caught a glimpse of the rest of the gang coming her way. 'Only 3 of them, this shouldn't be too challenging.' She kicked out her leg towards the knee of the closest vampire. He went down while another charged. 'And so it begins…'
When it was over, a dust cloud surrounded Buffy. She looked over at the girl, now standing, mouth agape, by the dumpster. As Buffy began to reassure her that it was going to be ok, the lady took off without so much of a thank you. "You're welcome." She was used to this response, as it was quite common. 'Talk about thankless jobs.'
The exhilaration from the fight lingered however, and Buffy found herself practically skipping over to what she hoped was the door to Mark's apartment. She knocked and then looked at her watch. 9:15. 'That's fashionably late, right? I never understood all that. More for Cordellia.'
Her thoughts were interrupted by the door sliding open. She stood there looking at a very handsome guy with shaggy blonde hair. "Hi, I was looking for Mark –"
"So, you're Mark's friend he was talking so much about. I'm Roger, his roommate." His voice barely hid the surprise laced in his words. She took a mental note to bring this up if she got a chance to have a conversation with him later. "Hey Marky, your friend…" He looked at her expectantly waiting for her name. She replied and he turned back around. "Hey, Buffy's here. Better hurry your ass up."
He gave her a charming smile and led her in the room to the couch. "I guess I'm left to do introductions until he gets out here." He pointed out Collins and Mimi, who were lounging on the couch, and Maureen and Joanne, who chose to share the chair off to the side. Everyone appeared to have a welcoming look for her. Well everyone but Maureen. That was another thing she would need to address later.
Just as Roger finished his introductions, Mark came bouncing out of his room with a film reel. His cheeks were flushed red. Buffy wasn't exactly sure if it was from running out there so quickly, or from blushing. 'It's really quite an endearing look on him.'
"I wasn't sure if you'd make it or not." He walked over to her, handing the film to Roger, who in turn, just set it on the floor and joined Mimi. There was a brief, awkward moment where Mark contemplated what the appropriate 'hello' gesture would be for their situation. He seemed to be torn, so Buffy decided to take the initiative. She closed the gap between them, and gave him a friendly hug. "I was just a little held up with something. I tried to get here as fast as I could."
After a moment, she broke away from him and took a seat on the floor by the rest of the group. As she did, she caught a glimpse of Maureen, who was currently sizing her up. 'This should be amazing fun.'
Mark glared at Roger, who just shrugged, as he picked the reel off the floor. He shook his head and began fixing it to the projector. "Well, since you couldn't meet Angel, I thought it would be a good idea to show you a little bit about him. It's just a film I made, but he's in it, as well as the rest of us."
He turned off the lights and started up the projector. The title popped up, and she felt his presence next to her. After finishing reading 'A Mark Cohen film', she felt a hand over her own. His hand. A small smile crept on her face as she began to take in the images on the screen.
A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. It really means a lot to me. Feel free to keep on reviewing! ;-) The next chapter will probably be up sometime next week. I have a stage combat course in Virginia Beach Fri-Sun, so it might be a little before or little after the weekend. But just check around that time.
And I feel it's only fair to mention Captain Insomnia's story "Anyday But Yesterday". It is amazingly well constructed, and makes for a great read. I really suggest that you all go check it out if you haven't already. You won't be sorry.
Disclaimer: If I owned any of this, would I be spending my time writing FanFiction? Exactly.