Buffy leaned against the railing as she surveyed the throng of Bronze-goers below her. She had already spotted and dispatched two vampires tonight and was considering heading out soon. Sunnydale had an excessive amount of cemeteries, and she hoped to patrol at least two or three each night. It was going to be very difficult to keep up with patrolling while keeping her secret identity under wraps from her mother.
As she ruminated on how difficult it would be to keep Sunnydale safe, her eyes swept over to the bar where Willow was sitting by herself. Briefly, she considered going over to say hi, but something was telling her not to.
She had been incensed when Cordelia had been so casually cruel to the redhead earlier today. Confronting her hadn't worked out at all. Cordelia just rolled her eyes and walked away. Buffy had instantly lost any perceived coolness along with her chance to get in with the "right" crowd.
Joining that crowd wasn't really on her agenda, so not much of a loss. Willow had potential, she was kind and funny, but she was friends with Xander. Undoubtedly, any friendship she formed with Willow would include the obnoxious boy she had run into in the hallway earlier that day. And Buffy wasn't sure it was worth it. She had encountered him twice, and he had hit on her both times. It was clear that he was the type that couldn't take 'no' for an answer.
She had considered outing herself but had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn't deter him. Besides, that was the last thing she needed at her new school. Her plan was to wait until college to truly be herself. That plan was developed before she became the slayer. She hadn't yet adjusted it for the idea that she might not live long enough to experience love.
Buffy sighed and prepared for finishing her last two years of high school as a loner. It worked better for slaying anyway. At least that's what her watcher always tried to tell her. Of course, he was dead now. So what did he know? Her new watcher would probably tell her the same thing just as soon as she was willing to spend more than a few minutes with him.
Buffy's internal musings were disrupted when her eyes landed on someone new. A blond girl is standing on the edge of the dance floor. She looked very much like she wanted to dance but was too shy to try. Buffy watched her for several minutes longer than she should have, but she was entranced.
The girl was scanning the crowd as if she was looking for something or someone. She must have spotted whoever it was because Buffy could see her posture change, and she stopped swaying to the music. The disappointment was evident on her face, and Buffy wanted nothing more than to hurt whoever had caused it.
Buffy did her best to figure out who the blond might have been looking at. When Buffy was confident of what she saw, she decided it was time to make a move.
"Hi." Buffy slipped into the other blonde's eye-line to get her attention.
The girl blinked a few times and looked at Buffy with a frown. "You're pretty." Then she was horrified by that and clasped her hands over her mouth and backed up a few steps.
Buffy couldn't help but grin as she stayed close. Her reaction made Buffy even more confident that she was someone that Buffy wanted to get to know better.
"I didn't mean that!" The stranger's eyes were wide, and her hand was still covering her mouth.
"You didn't?" Buffy feigned hurt as she watched her hopefully new friend try to find a way to recover from what she had said.
"I meant you're too pretty." She looked even more horrified by her clarification.
Buffy chuckled now, "too pretty for...?"
The girl's eyes darted around nervously. "For talking to me." She finally said and dropped her chin to let her straight-blond hair fall in her face.
"Oh, that's too bad." The girl started to turn away, but Buffy kept up with her. "I don't suppose you would make an exception? Just this once?"
"It's not my rule." The girl shook her head, but a slight grin started to form, and Buffy had hope that she could get this conversation moving in the right direction.
"Whose is it? Do I need to file a formal request? I don't mind. I'm great at filling out forms. I've got my own pens and everything." Buffy joked with a grin, hoping to disarm and relax the other girl.
The girl laughed now and looked up and met Buffy's eyes. "I think it will be OK for now."
"That is excellent news." Buffy was stuck staring into crystal blue eyes. She wasn't sure how long they were staring at each other before she was bumped from behind. It was just enough to bring her out of her stupor. "Buffy." She held out her hand and knew she must have the biggest smile on her face as the girl gently shook it. That brief handshake was enough to change Buffy's mind about waiting another minute to find love. Sure, she might have to deal with ridicule, but she could definitely deal with that.
"Tara."
"It is really nice to meet you, Tara." Buffy was beyond smitten. She had never met anyone that she was so drawn to before—especially not someone who might actually be inclined to return her feelings.
Tara blushed and looked away under Buffy's intense stare.
"Do you go to school here? Today was my first day, and I know I didn't meet everyone, but I'm sure I would have noticed you." The pickup line was cheesy, but Buffy really didn't care. Life was short, and she didn't have time to be coy.
"I do go to school here, but I don't leave my room very often," Tara said with a nervous frown. She was doing her best to relax and be receptive to Buffy, but she had never experienced anything like this before.
Buffy was a little confused by that response but decided to push forward. She didn't know how much time she had before something interrupted them, and she needed to make sure she and Tara would meet again.
"Are you a brain, by chance?"
"A brain?" Tara asked in confusion.
"I just meant…." Buffy groaned at her choice of wording. "I am like way behind in all my classes, and I have this dream of actually graduating. So, I was hoping you would be willing to help me." Buffy gave her best grin and rocked on her heels, hoping she looked as cute as she felt.
"Oh, I don't know." Tara bit her lip, she definitely wanted to offer her help, but she didn't think she was smart enough to tutor anyone. She hadn't seen Buffy on campus, so it was unlikely they were in any of the same classes. "What classes are you taking?"
"Just the regular ones - math, science, history, and PE. I think I've got that last one covered, though." Buffy shrugged, not understanding what Tara was asking her.
"Oh," Tara couldn't help but frown as she realized what Buffy was saying. "You're in high school."
"And you are in college." Buffy's frown was almost as deep as Tara's. "Damn." Buffy hissed and tried to figure out where to go from here. There was obvious interest in both directions, but now that Tara knew she was just a high school student, Buffy was sure there was no chance of them dating. It would be even worse if she had to admit she was only a junior.
"You know…" Tara couldn't believe that Buffy had come up to her so brazenly. Tara had never met anyone like Buffy before. Even though there might be a bit of an age gap - Tara knew she wanted Buffy in her life. "I'm only a Freshman... And I graduated High school early."
She let the implication of that wash over Buffy. "Is that right?" Buffy asked as hope bloomed once again. Tara would only have told her that if she didn't care that Buffy was in high school.
Tara nodded, again staring into Buffy's eyes.
"Is that your girlfriend over there?" Buffy motioned over her shoulder to a slim brunette currently draped over a rather large man. One who Buffy guessed was probably a football player. The girl's eyes kept darting in Tara's direction, and she seemed to be the source of Tara's current sadness.
Buffy really wanted to go over there and knock her out, but she kept herself in check.
"What?" Tara asked in alarm.
"Hey, relax - it's OK." Buffy gave a reassuring smile and reached for Tara's hands. "I just saw the way you were looking at her and made some assumptions."
Tara furrowed her brow and looked over at Nicole. A girl she had met in her Wicca group and had stupidly thought actually wanted to date her. They were supposed to meet here tonight for their first actual date. It appeared that her fellow Wiccan had changed her mind.
"No, she's not." Tara finally said with a sad headshake.
Buffy felt a weird and unpleasant tingle crawl up her spine. She knew what that meant. The timing was terrible. She didn't want Tara to think she was blowing her off.
"Look - I know this is going to seem kinda strange… but I have to go take care of something real quick. Will you be here when I get back?"
Tara frowned at the abruptness and started to rethink everything they had said to each other. It was late, and she had already been planning on leaving when Buffy walked up to her. "I should head back to the dorms."
Buffy hated how sad Tara suddenly looked. She couldn't stop herself as she reached up to brush Tara's hair away from her eyes. "Will you wait for me to walk you home? Please?" Buffy didn't want to point out how dangerous Sunnydale was - that would only make her seem crazy.
"I don't…." Tara didn't miss how anxious and agitated Buffy suddenly was. "I should go now."
Buffy frowned and nodded. "OK." She had to go now; there wasn't time to do anything else. "I hope I see you again." She was off and chasing after the vampire before she could hear Tara's reply.
Buffy burst out of the back door of the Bronze and into the alley. It took her longer than she would have liked to determine where the vampire had gone.
"Where are you, you little bastard?" Buffy growled before she found the vampire pressing a girl against the brick wall of the alley. Needing to get back to Tara as soon as possible, she crept up quietly and staked the vampire before he could react.
The girl shrieked when the guy she had been kissing vanished without warning.
"You're welcome?" Buffy said in annoyance as the girl ran past her, continuing to shriek.
"Maybe she didn't want to be saved." A vampire casually entered the alley from the shadows behind her. He was a little too far away for Buffy to totally make out his face. Not that she cared what he looked like.
"Could we make this quick? I have something to do." Buffy twirled her stake and wondered if she could take him out from here. She had gotten better with stake throwing, but vampires were often too quick for it to be effective. She'd have to take him by surprise.
The vampire grinned. "I bet you do. Are you sure you should, though? Don't you have more important things to worry about?"
Something was different about this vampire, and now that she could see his face - she was a little confused for more than one reason. It's not like Buffy hadn't been attracted to men in the past - but this was something different. She was drawn to him in a very similar way as she was to Tara. It crossed her mind that some sort of magic might be at play.
Now was not the time to be worrying about such things. She was facing a supremely confident vampire, one who appeared to know who she was. The entire thing was very unsettling.
Buffy didn't respond to his question - she would not give him the satisfaction in knowing that he had rattled her. She simply stood and waited for her opportunity to take him out. It didn't matter that something was clearly different about him.
He was a vampire, and she was a vampire slayer. She shook away her confusing thoughts and moved into a fighting stance.
"Are we doing this, or what?" She asked and prepared to launch her attack.
"Or what." He said and started to move back into the shadows.
"What the hell?" Buffy said and tried to chase after him, but no matter how fast she ran, she couldn't seem to catch up.
"I'll be seeing you." His voice called out from the darkness ahead of her, and Buffy ran faster. After five minutes of fruitlessly chasing him, she gave up and hoped she could catch up with Tara before she made it back to the dorms.
"Tara!" Buffy shouted with excitement when she finally caught up to the other girl. It had taken her a lot longer than she would have liked to figure out where the UC Sunnydale campus was.
Tara jumped in surprise, spinning around and spraying her attacker with mace. Only her attacker wasn't an attacker at all, and it wasn't mace that Buffy was sprayed with.
Buffy was startled and then confused. Her face should be burning, but it wasn't. She carefully licked her lips to try and make sense of why the liquid dripping down her face wasn't burning her skin.
Once she realized why that was, she was both disappointed and relieved. "Holy water."
"What? No! That's ridiculous… why…." Tara tried to hide the holy water canister as she stumbled over her words. The last thing she needed was Buffy thinking she was a crazy person who believed in imaginary monsters.
"Tara," Buffy grinned and reached for the other girl's shoulders, hoping to calm her. "I know about vampires."
"Vampires? That's…" Tara wasn't sure why she was continuing to pretend like she hadn't just protected herself with holy water.
"It's ridiculous, I know." Buffy grinned and dropped her hands from Tara's shoulders.
"Are you a witch?" Tara asked hopefully. If Buffy turned out to be into her and a witch - she was pretty sure she would explode from happiness.
"No, I'm not a witch." Buffy didn't like Tara's disappointment, but she hoped the truth would get Tara to like her again. She was possibly more excited than she should be that she'd be able to tell someone who she was. There was no doubt that her secret would impact any friendships or relationships she tried to have. "I'm the slayer."
Tara had never heard of that before, but slayer didn't exactly sound good to her. She took a few steps back. Buffy had no way of knowing why Tara was suddenly afraid of her, but she definitely was. It was obvious to her that Tara wasn't a demon or other being that should be afraid of the slayer, but whatever the reasoning was - Buffy knew she had to leave. The last thing she wanted was to upset Tara.
Buffy nodded in understanding and took a few steps back. She tried to hide her disappointment and keep her tears at bay. It was clear that she had read Tara wrong. Maybe Tara knew about vampires, but that didn't mean she was ready to know about everything that went bump in the night. Or maybe Tara just knew how dangerous it might be to associate with the slayer. Whatever Tara's reasoning, Buffy wasn't going to try and convince her otherwise.
"Be careful. Try not to be outside after dark." Then she turned and ran. Leaving Tara more than a little dumbfounded.
Tara could only assume that Buffy was some variety of demon that didn't approve of the type of demon Tara was. This line of thinking didn't exactly make any sense. Still, since Tara also couldn't understand why Buffy was hitting on her, it's what she decided to believe.
Buffy ran out of Tara's field of vision and then doubled back through the woods. Tara might not want to be in Buffy's life, but that didn't mean Buffy was going to risk her getting attacked by something. Every step Tara took towards her dorm building hurt Buffy just a little bit more.
It made no sense. They had only interacted for a few minutes. Buffy knew she should not be feeling this way. Once Tara was safely inside her building, Buffy turned towards home and did her best to push Tara out of her mind.
Unfortunately, doing that meant she was left wondering about the vampire she had run into in the alley. In just the few brief moments that she was able to see his face, she had memorized it, and now it was consuming her. The only logical explanation was magic. Part of her hoped magic was responsible for her reaction to Tara as well. Otherwise, she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to fill the emptiness she felt without Tara in her life.
Sighing in resignation, she decided that she'd have to ask her watcher about it. He was the only one she had to consult with, and even if he was old and British - he might be able to help.