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Chapter Twelve

"Excuse me, have you seen Buffy?" Kit stood in the hallway, on the way back from the aforementioned woman's room, only to find it empty. He'd checked the dining room, kitchen, library, everywhere. Not a sign of her to be found. At present, he'd stopped one of the few servants in the home—Roman.

The man's brows rose and he frowned a little; then, rather quickly, looked to be thinking. "One of the maids said there was an awful racket coming from the basement. Perhaps there, my lord? No one made a fuss about it, so one would have to assume she's there."

"Thank you, Roman. I'll look into it." He gave his shoulder a pat and went on about his way towards the back of the house. Thankfully, the basement wasn't that far from his present location. As he came upon it he could already hear the loud noise Roman had been referring to. It wasn't that hard to imagine she'd eventually make her way here; it was where his family kept the training equipment for slayers, though it hadn't been used in… probably since his grandfather had been a watcher of a slayer.

His father had been more of a main office man and since then then it hadn't had much use.

As he stepped down into the barely illuminated room, lit by an array of candles and natural light filtering in through some smaller windows, he could see she'd cleared the space. Dressed in some tightfitting attire he couldn't name the material of, her fists were going to town on a hanging bag of sand. She'd worked up quite a sweat and still hadn't noticed him. Or, if she had, she wasn't letting on.

"You've got a solid strike. I imagine your watcher back home is quite proficient."

She stopped and glanced over at him, exhaling and wiping her brow. "Afternoon, Kit."

He reached for a towel that she'd set on a small table nearby and tossed it to her.

"Thanks," she told him as she wiped her brow. "He is, my watcher. Well, he's not so much my watcher anymore… I think, but that's another story." She shrugged and placed her hands on her hips, where were almost entirely bare, as was much of her midsection.

She smirked at his staring. "I can change, if you want. But, I did want to get more of a workout in. I know I can't slay around here… but, still need to keep up my form."

He shook his head and waved a hand. "No, your fine. Slayers certainly don't train in dresses," he told her as he took a seat on the edge of the table and she came near. He watched as she grabbed onto a glass filled with water and took a drink from it.

"On a side note, you'll be happy to know I import all of our drinking water. You didn't get that from the sink did you?"

Buffy narrowed her eyes, swallowed. "No… from one of the maids… why?"

"Good. Most water simply isn't safe to drink unless you're in the country."

"Good to know," she allowed slowly before drinking some more from her glass. "So," she went on, wiping her mouth, "Did you come down here to chat or…?"

"Conversation with you is never dull, but no. I did actually have some news. I didn't want to contact outside sources to find out about this Dijinn, but I've run through all of the relevant books I possess and otherwise. I have a man in the city; very discreet. I told him to check his sources for me, his own library, and to get back in due time. I should hear from him within a few days to week."

"That's a pretty wide gap. Are you sure it's a good idea to bring someone else in?" Her eyes narrowed slightly.

He shook his head. "No, I'm not sure. But, I didn't give him any information about you. I simply told him it was for a friend of a friend. He's done things like this for me before and I've always paid him well enough.

"He won't say a word to anyone."

"Let's hope this isn't the one time he does." She set her glass down and pushed a few errant strands of blond out of her face. "Say, do you have the time?"

He reached for his pocket watch and flipped it open, eyeing it at a glance before tucking it away once more with a soft click. "It's about four in the afternoon, why?"

She gave a soft smile. "I've got plans to meet William at the theater. Probably a play."

"More than likely. I hear they're showing Romeo and Juliet tonight."

"Oh, god, really?" she half whined.

His brows rose. "You don't like it?"

"Not really," she told him as she placed one hand on her hip, jutting it outward. The other waved sarcastically as she spoke. "Two warring families, two people fall in love—which, by the way, is a load of BS—and then they both kill themselves.

"They barely knew one another. That's not love; that's wanting to get married so you can have sex whenever you want to."

Kit blushed only slightly. "I suppose that's one way of putting it."

She sighed. "Oh well. I guess we'll have something to talk about after since I know a bit about it. High school was good for something."

"High school?"

"School, class, whatever you want to call it. All kids go to in my country in my time. Well, most of us do anyway." She shrugged as she gathered her things. "Either way, I should probably start getting ready."

"Very well. I need to look through the list of invitations for next week."

"Weeee! More parties!" she cried out as she went up the stairs, not waiting to hear his chastisement.

At this he simply rolled his eyes.

#

William glanced down at the silver hand on his pocket watch, carefully viewing as the minute hand ticked on by. The night air was cool, but not too chilly. The coat he wore over his suit was warm enough, but he'd never been very fond of London's ever present cold when it made itself known.

He slipped the watch away and tucked himself more firmly into it, looking out as the couples, friends, and families came and went from the theater up and down the steps. His cool blues scanned for his face under all the bobbing hats of black and frilly arrays that women normally preferred.

"William!"

He turned towards the voice and almost cursed, even silently, at his bad luck. Still, he offered a tight smile as the man approached.

"Didn't fancy seeing you here. How has your mother been?"

Lord Avery, or Derick to his friends, had been the last person he wanted to ever become acquainted with. Ever. Unfortunately, they ran the same circles, came to the same events, and otherwise were almost entirely guaranteed to see each other at least three to four times a week during the London season.

It would be nice if the man were as horrid on the outside as he was on the inside, but there was really no such luck. Derick was the pinnacle of what any woman looked for in the marriage mart. Blond curls, bright green eyes, tall, and all of his teeth intact.

He'd been trying to court Cicely just as much as William; though, it gave William a secret sort of joy to see she neither catered to his attentions nor did she encourage them. If anything, she'd been just as quiet as William at most parties—very demure and soft. Which, is why he'd always thought… perhaps…

Internally, he shook it off. "Good to see you as well. My mother is fine, thank you."

"Good! Who are you here with tonight?" he looked around, digging his hands into his pockets.

"A friend, actually."

"Really?" he said it as if William having anything resembling such was newsworthy. "Well, that's something. I'm here with Lady Jane, or will be. She'll be meeting with me in my box tonight with her elder sister.

"You know her, correct? Lord Harroway's daughter."

"No, I haven't met her yet."

"Lovely girl," he continued. "Doesn't have sense God gave a goose, but she's well rounded in all the right areas." His expression appeared to only enhance what he really meant. "Not as lovely as Cicely… but, still a pretty thing."

William's eyes narrowed. And really, he didn't know where it was coming from, but something about Avery talking about a woman, any woman, as if she were piece of meat on a chopping block to examine… it bothered him. It never had before, not unless said woman was close to him, and even then he did little about it. But, this time it did. Something about anyone like him saying such things about innocent…

He realized he wanted to hit him. He also realized his fist had been balling to do just that. What was wrong with him?

And yet nothing about it felt wrong.

Instead, he took a deep inhale through his nose, relaxed his hand, and did something else.

"Avery?"

"Yes?"

"Are you permitting yourself to have a conversation with me about young women, referencing delicate matters about their person?"

At that moment Lord Avery actually looked like he didn't quite understand what William was getting at.

"You realize I have sisters, do you not? Sisters I very much love. Sisters, whom if I ever heard spoken of in such a way by anyone I would probably have to do very well to keep from making their entrails their extrails.

"Do I make myself clear?"

"What are you—."

"I don't like you, Avery. Hasten to remove yourself from my person before I decide to act on the very thing I've been considering in great detail in my mind.

"To you," he muttered the last, almost snapping.

At this Lord Avery narrowed his eyes, opened his mouth to speak as if he'd never been so insulted before, and then simply left.

The amount of tension that left William with him was immense. His blood was ringing in his ears and internally he was cheering. For himself.

Where had that come from?

"Well, I was going to step in, but I guess you had it handled."

Blue eyes darted towards the voice and then softened. "Dare."

Buffy smiled brightly and tipped her hat as she stepped further up the stairs and right next to William. "The very same." She glanced in the direction that the horrid man had run off in. "He's not a very nice fellow."

"Not at all," William agreed. "But, it's over for now. Shall we?" he asked, indicating to the theater entrance.

"Of course."

They moved into the theater and William appeared to take care of everything. The sea of people moved one way or the other, confusing Buffy only slightly, but soon enough they managed to make it to their box seats. That's what he called them anyway.

"Wow, this isn't too bad. We're just off of the stage," she said aloud.

"My mother loves the theater," he explained. "I couldn't really bear to take away the family's box seating."

She imagined it wasn't exactly cheap to have a guaranteed spot for every show, even if you didn't show up to said show. "Romeo and Juliet, huh?"

Her frowned as he looked up from the program. "You don't like it?"

She chuckled and she leaned into the railing from her seat, but only slightly. "It's not my favorite. But, I've been told every cast adds their own… flare to it."

"Indeed."

And just as he spoke the lightening began to dim, the instruments tuning stilled, and it began.

#

"You didn't like it."

"I didn't say that!" she told him as they came down the stairs.

"You didn't have to."

Buffy sighed as they stopped at the midway point, the small plateau between sets of stairs. She turned and looked at him. "It's not love. That wasn't love. The story is still the same; it's not the actors' faults."

He was frowning again. "Then try and explain it to me, hm? We'll take a walk."

"Alright," she agreed, though it came out as something of a sigh. They took to the sidewalk, heading … wherever. "Age aside, and believe me that's a big gap for them—"

"Not during the time period."

"Ok, fine. I'll give you that. But, still, they barely knew each other. Romeo came to that party in the beginning because he was in love with some other girl. And then, all of sudden, he see Juliet and falls for her? Talk about switching gears."

"You mean he was fickle."

"Yes! Fickle!" she agreed. "Completely fickle. You don't just fall in love with someone like that. It takes time. You might think its love… but it's not."

William listened carefully, wondering about that. "So, you believe that love comes slowly? It's no instant? No such thing as soul mates?"

She sighed. "You're asking me if I think God has it preplanned for us. Like, there's one person and that's it and we have to find them, right?"

"Yes."

"No, I don't. It's…. sad."

"How?"

She looked over at him as she spoke. "If soul mates existed then you're telling me you fall for someone just because someone else says so. Not because you get to know them, love them for them? And what if they die before you meet them? Is that it, or is there more than one of them?

"It just seems really sad to me. That's all. I'd rather learn to love someone for them, not because destiny says their mine." At that, she looked away, realizing perhaps all of this was a little too close to home. At one point in her life she'd thought Angel was her soul mate. That had been high school naiveté. After that, the only one worth mentioning was Riley… and that… she didn't know what to call it. Practical? Look how well that had worked out. And then there was Spike. Nothing about him had ever been practical.

"You sound like you've been through it." And then he stopped.

Buffy stopped with him and took a moment to glance around, realizing he'd led them into a park. Her eyes were anywhere but on him. "I guess you could say that. But, it doesn't matter anymore." She forced a smile as she finally met his gaze. "So, what does your sister have planned for next week to drag you along with? I'll be sure to attend."

"Last I heard it'll be a house party."

"House party?" She brow wrinkled a little.

"Indeed." He scratched the back of his head before he started to walk again. "We'll be gone for at least a week. Seems Lilith has gotten wind that a lot of matrons are taking their sons and daughters to the country for a week because of the murders that were in the papers recently.

"She doesn't want Reggie to miss out."

"Well… I hope that doesn't mean we won't see one another."

"I agree." He glanced over at Dare. "I'll be sure to send a note over letting you know which one it is. Perhaps you've got an invite as well."

All Buffy could think at that moment was, Hadn't Isabella said house parties were breeding grounds for scandal and forced marriage…? The idea bothered her, but she didn't let it show. She'd have to ask Kit more about the murders and Isabella about the party. Assuming she got an invite, at any rate.

"I think I'm going to hail a cab and head home," she told him looking up. "Feels like it might rain…"

"Come by and see me then before we go if you have time."

She smiled as him as she wandered away back towards the theater,, going backwards. "I'll try."

All in all… it hadn't been a bad night… not really.

AN :: Delays… delays. There's always something, it seems. Finally got your update out though, right? Wanted to let you know that I started school back up again and I'm all settled after the big move. Updates for this fic will happen around the start of every month until it's done. I've just got too many projects to work on.

Also, my newest book should be out this month, so please keep an eye out for it on the website and facebook page. Both are linked on my fanfiction profile. Also, my youtube channel is listed there if you feel like giving it a look; it's about writing.

Thanks for reading, faving, following, and reviewing.

—Blade