This chapter leans more towards fluff, since the last was kinda sad. Enjoy!
Chapter 15
Buffy peeled off another shipping label and stuck it to a box. She was doing her job on autopilot, her mind elsewhere.
"Why so glum, Buffy?"
"Huh?" She blinked, startled. Sebastian smiled kindly.
"You were a million miles away. Is something wrong?"
"Are you this sweet to everybody?" she asked bluntly.
"Well, I…I try to treat everyone in a courteous manner…and of course, I care about my friends. Do you not enjoy working here? You've been scowling at these boxes all morning."
"Sunday's usually my day off, but Dawn was sick this morning, so Giles persuaded me to fill in for her putting labels on these boxes. It's sooo boring! I didn't know that she usually does it with headphones on," she complained. "And none of the places I've been applying at have called me, so I'm going to have to widen my search, and that makes me cranky, because it means more drive time. I was a secretary last summer, but they had cutbacks and don't need me this year. It just sucks!"
"The Council does not provide you with some kind of stipend, as the active Slayer?" He couldn't fathom an organization asking a young woman to risk her life every night and not compensating her with something.
"HA! That's funny! The Council has done nothing for me but almost get me killed, more than once. Ask Giles I about it. I'll get too worked up and have to hit something. Hey, Giles! Sebastian thinks the Council should pay me! Can you imagine the looks on their faces if we asked them?" she bellowed, almost laughing herself to tears.
"Quite. Quentin would blow a bloody gasket…Say, it is a rather good idea. The worst they could do is refuse, and the Council certainly has the resources to pay you, Buffy. Even cover the past years. With your permission, I'll submit a formal request," Giles replied.
"You're serious? How come we didn't think of this before?" She rushed around the counter, embracing the knight. "Thanks, Sebastian. You're a genius! I have to call Willow!" Buffy bounced off to use her cell phone in the training room, leaving a sputtering, blushing knight behind with an amused ex-watcher.
"She can be quite…exuberant," Giles stated.
"Yes…"
"You fancy her, don't you?"
"What? No, I…she's a friend, and I admire her skills as a warrior, and…"
"And you find her the most remarkable girl you've ever known?" Giles finished for him.
Sebastian looked down, embarrassed. "Yes," he whispered. "But I would never presume to-" Giles cut him off with a wave of his hand.
"I know. You won't interfere while she is involved with another man, and if you did, we'd have to have a very…interesting…conversation." Giles' unspoken threat was not lost on the knight, who drew himself up and looked the Watcher in the eye.
"I respect Miss Summers, and am very happy to have her friendship. If she wanted more of me, I'd be happier still, but it is not my choice," Sebastian said quietly, but intensely. Giles nodded, satisfied.
"Good, then we have an understanding. I would rather not have a reason to dislike you, Sebastian. Having a fellow countryman around, who's not an annoying vampire, has been quite refreshing. Did I show you the Dalixa statue that came in the other day?"
"No, I would have remembered that. They are quite rare."
Buffy found them huddled over some ugly piece of clay a few minutes later. She shook her head and went back to filling the shipping orders. She just didn't understand old guys.
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Tara wrapped her arms around Willow's shoulders, where she was seated in front of the computer.
"Whatcha working on, Will?"
"Just finishing a program I wrote. This has every spell we know listed in categories, then alphabetical order. The search engine will find any spell based on ingredients, results, or origin. Isn't it cool?"
"You – are amazing. When did you do all this?"
"Since school ended, while you were at work. I had that break between regular and summer sessions, so, I got bored. You know my head – always buzzing. Do we have anywhere we have to be today?" Willow asked.
"Nope," Tara replied, grinning playfully.
Willow's fingers walked up Tara's arm as she spoke. "So…if we wanted to have breakfast naked in bed…"
"We'd have plenty of time to lounge about."
"I think I like that plan."
Their kissing was just taking a heated turn, when the phone rang. Willow groaned as she parted from Tara.
"We better get that. It could be a Scooby emergency," she said responsibly. "Hello? Oh, hi, Buffy. No, it's fine. What's up?"
Tara was making it very difficult for Willow to concentrate on the conversation. She kissed along Willow's neck and shoulders as she slid her lover's robe out of the way.
"Willow, you sound distracted. Is this a bad time?" Buffy asked, over the line.
"Hmm? No, I'm fine…go ahead."
When Willow stopped answering with actual words, Buffy finally gave up trying to get a reaction from her about her news.
"I'm going to get back to work so you can focus on whatever you're doing, Wills. Call me later?"
"Mmm hmm. Bye, Buffy." She hung up before the Slayer had a chance to say goodbye in return, and tackled Tara to the bed.
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Joyce came in to The Magic Box around 1 o'clock with food. Giles greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.
"What brings you by, dear? I thought you were staying with Dawn today?"
"She's too grumpy for company, and tossed me out. She wanted a couple hours of peace and quiet, so I brought lunch," she explained. "Where's Buffy?"
"Labeling boxes. I'll go tell her you're here." Giles went back to the storeroom to find his employee.
"Hello, Sebastian. What brings you by today?" Joyce started setting the food out of the table before taking a seat.
"Just visiting, Mrs. Summers. Rupert was just showing me some of his latest acquisitions for the shop. How is Miss Dawn?"
"How many times do I have to remind you to call me Joyce?" she teased. "Dawn is fine, she just has a case of stomach flu, so she's grouchy and irritable. Neither of my girls deal with being sick very well. It was a scary two weeks when they both had the chicken pox," she explained with a shudder, causing the knight to laugh.
"I can imagine so." He stood in preparation to leave. "Well, I don't want to intrude on your family luncheon…"
"Nonsense! There's enough for you, too. I had a feeling you would be here today, as well. Rupert has mentioned that you come in almost every day. We really should do more to show you around while you're on vacation! Perhaps Buffy has some ideas."
"Ideas for what?" the Slayer asked, coming in on the tail of her mother's conversation.
"Entertaining Sebastian. He's on vacation, yet the poor man is spending all his time in a stuffy magic shop…" "Hey!" "Well, it is, Rupert. This is a perfectly fine store, but there's nothing fun in here that won't get someone turned into a toad, or something. So Buffy, maybe you can take him to the beach, or somewhere in L.A. tomorrow."
"Mom, I'm supposed to work-"
"Rupert can spare you for a day, can't you, dear? Tara will be here, and I doubt it will be all that busy on a Monday. Think of something fun. Now, I brought a few kinds of sandwiches, so just take your pick. There's a diet Coke for Buffy, iced tea for Rupert, and I wasn't sure what you'd like, Sebastian, so there's one for you, too," said Joyce.
"That's fine, Joyce, thank you," he replied.
Giles sat down next to Joyce, so the only other free chair for Buffy was next to Sebastian. Books waiting to be shelved were stacked on the other two. If she didn't know better, she'd swear that her mother was trying to play matchmaker, but Buffy had a boyfriend. There was no reason to do that, unless she really disliked Will, but if she did, then her mother would say so, like she'd said about Angel…wouldn't she? 'Who could she get to come with her?' Buffy pondered. She didn't want it to look like a date, and she was sure her mother would make her go tomorrow. Tara was working, Dawn had school – if she was feeling better, and Willow had classes, too. She thought of Kara, then remembered Kara's friend would still be in town, so she was unavailable, too. Her only other choice was to call Anya and have her meet them somewhere. Buffy glared at her mother whenJoyce wasn't looking.
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"Hey, Anya. How are you?" Buffy asked, when her friend answered the phone.
"Just fine, Buffy. What do you need?" Anya cut right to the chase, as always.
"Can't I just call a friend to say 'hi'?"
"You could, but we're not that kind of friends. You call Xander just to say 'hi'. So, what can I do for you?"
"Well, my mom's insisting that I take Sebastian some place fun tomorrow, and since you know him, I thought of you to come along, that you might have some free time. I don't know where we'll be going, yet, but I thought you could meet up with us?"
"I'm guessing everyone else is busy, but no matter. I enjoy Sebastian's company. I'll do it for his sake, and Buffy?"
"Yeah?"
"Just be honest to begin with. I know we don't have much in common, so you don't have to pretend like we do. Maybe we'd relate better if you'd just relax?"
"Yeah, okay. I can do that. Thanks, Anya, I mean it. I'll give you a call later tonight once I figure out where he wants to go."
"Alright. If it's after 6, just leave a message. Xander and I will probably be having sex after he gets home from work."
"Uh, right. Bye."
"Goodbye, Buffy," Anya added cheerfully.
Anya resumed her housework, humming to the radio. She thought Buffy was a nice girl, when she wasn't in Slayer mode; she just really needed to loosen up a bit. Like herself. As long as she had somebody, Anya didn't care what anyone else thought of her. She'd always spoken her mind, feeling that honesty really was the best policy. So many problems could be avoided just by saying exactly what you meant. Anya promised herself that she would help Buffy with this tomorrow. It was her responsibility as the older, married friend to help the single younger girls along in life, was it not?
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Spike was awakened mid-morning by the zealous mewing of a very hungry kitten.
"Alright, I'm up!" he bellowed. "Shut your gob for two bleedin' minutes!"
He pulled on a pair of sweatpants, then strode over to the bathtub to retrieve the little pest making his ears bleed. The kitten silenced once he picked her up.
"About bloody time," he growled. Spike threw open the bedroom door and took the stairs at a gallop to the kitchen.
He dropped the kitten in the sink so she couldn't run off, and began rummaging in the pantry for something to feed the tiny feline. The noise brought a curious Melissa into the room.
"Oh, hi! I thought you might be Kara. I didn't expect you awake, yet."
"Kara's not down here?"
"Nope. She left a note saying she had some errands to run. What are you looking for?"
"Something to feed that!" he said, pointing at the sink. Spike turned back to the pantry while Melissa looked to see what he had referred to.
"Ohhhh, how cute! I didn't know you guys had a new kitten! Come here, kitty. How about we find you some milk, hmm?" she cooed, picking her up. The kitten purred and nuzzled Mel's neck.
"We didn't. Found it last night when I was out for a smoke." He'd turned up a can of kitten food left from Scrapper's baby days in the back of the pantry.
"Has Kara seen her, yet?"
"I don' think so. It's a girl, then?"
"Yep. There'd be little bumps on her behind, otherwise. My kids would be going nuts right now. They keep begging for a pet. Well, Kallie does, and that just gets the boys to join in, too."
"Well, if Kara doesn't think she'll get along with our boys, then take 'er home. They take lots of supervision when they're that young, right?"
"Yeah. They have to be trained what they can and cannot touch, or pee on, and they need to be socialized. Pets are like kids. There's lots of telling them 'no' in the beginning. She's awfully hungry."
"As long as she stops crying…'M going back to bed, pet. Tell Kara to wake me when she gets home."
"Will do. Sweet dreams, Spike."
He mumbled some response and staggered sleepily back up to the bedroom.
"Well, little one, it looks like we'll be entertaining ourselves for a while. Let's find you a toy, maybe?" The kitten licked her lips clean and started rubbing against Melissa's ankles.
Melissa found a bit of yarn in Kara's sewing box and waved it in front of the kitten, sitting on the floor in the living room. They played for 10 minutes, or so, until the kitten got sleepy and curled up in Mel's lap. Fine with letting her stay there, Mel turned on the DVD player with the remote and cycled through the movies in the changer until she found one she liked.
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Kara came back through the portal, into the basement, and hid the books she'd brought with her. When the time was right, she'd let Giles have a look at them, but right now, she had a couple phone calls to make. The first was to Caritas.
"Hey, Lorne. Guess you're not in, yet. Give me a call when you get this message. It's not urgent, though, so don't panic. Bye."
"Yavanna, pick up your cell. I know you're probably still at Brian's, so when you finally pry yourself out of bed, give me a call. Later."
"Tara? Hey, I'm not interrupting, am I?"
"No, sweetie. We've just been having a lazy day in. What's up?"
"I was wondering if we could meet up tomorrow when you get off work, to talk."
"Uh, sure. I'm off at 3, I think. Are you coming up here?"
"Um, how about we meet halfway? There's a diner right by the beach that's visible from the highway. I can't remember the name, but it has a red sign."
"Okay, I think I can find that. Is everything okay?" Tara asked.
"Yeah, pretty much. I just have something I figured out that I want to tell you." Kara was purposefully vague, just in case she might be overheard in the basement.
"Alright…you know you can tell me anything…" "I do." "And I'm getting the feeling this is something serious…"
"I guess it is, in a way. You'll get all the details tomorrow, I promise. I should go, Tara. I've been out all morning, so I should spend time with Mel."
"Okay, have fun, and tell her 'hi' from us. Bye, Kara."
Kara checked her watch – quarter to noon. Spike would still be sound asleep. She teleported to the front yard so she could come in through the front door. Melissa expected her to be out, so it wouldn't do to be seen coming up from the basement. She shut the door just loud enough to be obvious.
"Hey, you're back! Get everything done you wanted to?"
"Yep, found what I needed. What have you been up to?" Kara asked as she walked into the kitchen to get a bottle of water.
"Watched a movie, played with the kitten Spike found last night…"
"Spike found a kitten? Where, in the backyard?"
"I guess. He said it was when he was outside for a smoke. The kitten woke him up because she was hungry, and he didn't appreciate it much. He came down here cursing and muttering to himself. It was pretty funny," Melissa relayed.
"Sorry I missed it. Where is the little alarm clock now?"
"Asleep on the couch. The full tummy did her in. She's so cute! If you don't want her, I do."
"Aww, has my best friend fallen in love?" Kara cooed.
"Shut up…you're just as bad. At least my babies are actual babies." Melissa gasped as soon as the words were out of her mouth. "Oh, god, Kara. I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that. That was so insensitive of me."
"It's okay, Mel," she replied softly. "I've had a long time to deal with it. I love my nieces and nephews, and don't you dare feel guilty for having them."
Her friend tried to lighten the mood. "And hey, maybe you and Spike can adopt someday, or something. You'll be an awesome mom no matter where the child comes from."
Kara snorted in amusement. "Yeah. You're kids mind me better than they do you!"
"Hey! Nah, I can't argue – you're right. Why is that?"
"It's probably because they don't see me very often, so I'm a treat to them. Wanna get Baskin Robbins for lunch?"
Melissa laughed. "Okay, but you're buying."
"Yeah, yeah."
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So, a little more info given. A lot of questions will be answered soon.
