Chapter 8: The Festivities

*****Gala Night*****

Buffy looked down at her very dark green dress—it was almost black, which fit her mood. She tried to buy a black dress, but Pepper wouldn't let her. Instead, she had on a very expensive dark green dress with a V-neckline and no sleeves. The skirt was long with a slit that would allow her to fight if she needed it. Her hair was pulled up in a French twist that Pepper's personal stylist had done. Pepper had even loaned her jewelry to go with the dress—a beautiful emerald necklace with matching tear drop earrings that had a ring of tiny diamonds around them. It'd been a long time since she'd been around anything remotely this expensive, and she didn't dare ask what it was worth. Her mother would die if she knew Buffy had even agreed to wear the jewelry set, but she smiled and allowed Pepper to snap a photo while they waited for Cordelia.

The girls had all agreed to wear different colors. Willow was in a beautiful blue dress with a bell like skirt that swished when she moved. "I feel like a princess!" she gushed. Her hair was done up similar to Buffy's, but there were diamonds in her hair and around her neck and ears. Pepper had gifted her with her very first adult jewelry—not counting the string of pearls her dad got her for her sweet sixteen.

Cordelia had on a red dress, of course, and she was stunning. Her dress was short, so her very long legs were on prime display as were the girls in the strapless dress. Her hair was long and flowing down her back. Xander about swallowed his tongue when he saw her all dressed up.

"Am I still standing up?" he asked. "'Cause I can't feel my tongue."

Cordelia gave him her megawatt smile. "Don't I look amazing?"

"You are beautiful beyond measure," Xander said, meaning it.

"You all look so grown up," Pepper said, flashing pictures of all of them un-posed. Then she had them pose as a group and then as couples.

The two boys had on tuxedos. Xander was doing his best James Bond impression while Oz's had a touch of blue that matched Willow's dress.

Tony made his appearance, whistling at the group. "Wow, my money looks good on all of you," he said with a grin. He kissed Pepper, leering at her. "You are still going to be the belle of the ball."

"Sure," she said dryly. She gave Willow a concerned glance. "There will be a lot of attention, Willow, on you because you'll be out officially as my daughter. And due to your entrance in the Expo tomorrow, you'll get even more attention. People will insist that you must be Tony and I's secret love child."

"Really?" Willow asked in dismay.

"Don't worry, I get accused of having lots of love childs," Tony said with a smirk.

"Didn't we already debunk that theory?" Xander asked.

"People have short attention spans," Tony said with a shrug. "Let's get this show on the road."

"What about my date?" Buffy asked.

Tony looked at his watch. "Happy should be pulling up with them right now, so let's head down," he said.

"Them?" Buffy asked.

"Well, I decided you deserved to have two men escorting you," Tony said with a wink.

"Double the pleasure—nice," Xander said, grinning.

Buffy found herself feeling a bit excited. Not so much about a hot date kind of excitement, but she felt normal for the first time since Angel had woken up as Angelus.

Angel was gone, but she was alive. It was time for her to find a way to live in the moment.

Downstairs, Happy was holding the front door for Foggy and Matt. He wasn't sure what to think about the boss having a blind guy and a way too jolly guy escort one of his chickadees.

Buffy saw two men with Happy, and she wondered why one of them had round tinted glasses inside when it was night. As she approached, the slightly heavy set one looked at them with a wide grin.

"Buffy Summers, meet your dates—two highly intelligent and ambitious undergraduates at Columbia, who both hope to go onto law school. That one is Foggy Nelson, and his visually impaired but more brilliant friend and roommate is Matt Murdock."

Buffy smiled and held out her hand to Foggy, who said, "She is a very beautiful blonde—a bit petite."

Buffy realized the guy was completely blind when he held out his hand, but it wasn't exactly in front of her. She moved to take it. "It's nice to meet you. Thanks for agreeing to be my date. I'm the fifth wheel with my friends here," she said.

"It's our pleasure," Matt assured her, smiling at her.

Buffy thought he was really cute, but she felt uncomfortable with his blindness. She didn't know anyone who was blind—she'd never even met a blind person. How was this going to work?

Foggy easily stepped in. "Who are your friends?" he asked.

"That's Xander with his girlfriend Cordelia. Willow is Pepper's daughter, and that's her boyfriend Oz," Buffy introduced.

Greetings were exchanged.

"So, Willow, you and Oz are going to ride with me and Pepper," Tony told her. "I have a second limo that will take your friends. It will help deflect some of the attention off them."

"Of course, we'll get even more as this is the first public event you've been to with us," Pepper said.

"Okay," Willow said, feeling nervous. She reached for Oz's hand.

"It'll be okay," he said.

Willow admired how nothing seemed to faze Oz, and she was grateful he was there to lend her his strength. "Thanks for doing this," she said to him.

"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," Oz assured her.

"I will probably make a brief statement because once the press realizes you are in the Expo tomorrow, they'll start again accusing you of being Tony's daughter," Pepper said.

"I'd claim you in a heartbeat, of course," Tony told her, grinning.

Willow blushed. "Thanks," she said. "I'll be okay."

"We'll see you there," Xander said.

When they loaded into the vehicles, Buffy found herself in the unusual position of being in between two guys who were both her dates.

Matt decided to address the elephant. "I know you're all probably wondering about me. No, I wasn't born blind. I was twelve when I was blinded by a chemical spill."

"A chemical spill? That's crazy," Xander said. "I hope you sued the company at least."

"I was in too much pain to say exactly what happened, but my hospital bills were paid," he said.

"I couldn't imagine being blind," Cordelia said.

"Yea, it would be traumatic not being able to look in the mirror every day, right?" Buffy said with a smirk.

"At least I bother to look in a mirror," Cordelia sniped.

Foggy laughed. He'd forgotten how snarky teenager girls could be. He looked at Matt to see how he was holding up. Matt seemed, okay, so he relaxed. Their date was as cute as a button, so the night was going to be fun.

When Tony's limo arrived, he got out first and held out his hand to help Pepper. Willow came next with Oz right behind her.

Immediately, cameras flashed, and reporters bombarded them with questions.

"Mr. Stark, is Willow Rosenberg your child?"

"Ms. Potts, when did you have the affair with Mr. Stark?"

"How did you find your adopted daughter?"

"Did Tony help her with her entry into the Expo?"

Tony held up his hand and faced the throng, flashing a smile. "I can see it's time to feed the beast," he said. "As we've stated before, I, sadly, am not the father of this brilliant and beautiful teenager." He reached for Willow's hand and brought it to his mouth for a kiss. "I think it's a matter of public record that Pepper and I didn't meet until she became employed at my company."

"Willow's father was someone from my hometown," Pepper said. "Her intelligence has nothing to do with Tony. Her boyfriend, Daniel Osborne, has a genius IQ as well, and they worked without assistance from Tony on their Expo entry. Of course, they showed it to him, but they planned it, gathered the materials, and did all the work without Tony's help."

"Miss Rosenberg, will you give us a statement?" a reporter asked, shoving the mic into her face.

Willow's eyes widened as panic filled her. She finally eked out, "I'm happy to be here."

"That's enough," Tony said. "We have a party to get to." He pushed through the reporters, leading his rather large group as Buffy's limo had unloaded, and the entire gang was now on the red carpet.

Matt didn't like all the people pressing in, but Buffy had looped her hand through his arm, making it less difficult for him.

The Scoobies were a bit star struck by all the guests, but there was dancing. As there weren't any clubs like the Bronze in the area that allowed teenagers, they had missed being able to dance. Both couples went out to the dance floor immediately while Buffy led Matt to one of the tables scattered about.

"May I have this dance?" Foggy asked her, holding out his hand.

Buffy glanced at Matt, and Foggy said, "Don't worry about him. He'll be fine. You can dance with him next."

"Yes, I can dance," Matt said, anticipating her question.

"Okay—if you're sure it's okay," Buffy said. "I've never had two dates at the same time before."

"Well, we've never shared a date, so it's a first for us, too," Foggy said with wink.

Matt sat at the table, not sure how he felt about being there. However, he knew Foggy would have a good time. Foggy was a good friend to him, so he didn't want to let him down.

Willow felt like the night was a dream. She and Oz danced for a half hour before other people started asking her for a dance. Of course, she knew that most of them hoped to curry favor with Tony. It didn't stop her, though, from feeling like the popular girl for once.

She never noticed that both Buffy and Cordelia were having the same thing happen as more and more knew that they were staying at Tony's for the summer.

Buffy, however, only danced a few times as she felt having two dates was enough to occupy her. She found the two men fun, and it was clear that they were good friends. Foggy reminded her a bit of Xander with the jokes, and Matt had a dry sense of humor that never failed to entertain.

Eventually, Foggy had the nerve to ask Pepper to dance, and Buffy decided to sit it out with Matt. She had danced with him twice—both slow dances. Somehow, he knew how to move without sight.

He was a puzzle, and she couldn't help but stare at him in contemplation.

"I can feel your gaze on me," Matt said. "What's up?"

"I'm sorry," Buffy said. "I don't mean to stare. I just can't help but think about how hard life is without losing a major sense. You are incredibly brave."

"I'm not sure I'd call it brave so much as a surviving and adapting," Matt said. "Sometimes, you get dealt a crap hand, and you got to play the cards you have."

Buffy nodded and then realized he couldn't see that. Her face flushed in embarrassment, and she was glad he couldn't see her embarrassment. "I know what you mean," she said. "I loved a guy, who turned bad on me, and then he killed someone close to me and hurt my friends. Now he's dead. I felt so guilty for not being able to stop him. Then I felt more guilt for mourning his death."

"I'm sorry," Matt said with sympathy. "I've never lost a lover, only my parents. But I know you are only responsible for your own choices, not others."

"What if my choices caused others pain?" she asked.

"Well, then you need to make amends and make better choices," Matt said.

Buffy reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. "Thanks for that. It's hard to talk to my friends about Angel because he hurt them, and they want to be there for me. But they also think I should just get over it because he was a monster," she said. "To me, though, he wasn't just the monster. There was so much more to him."

Another slow song began to play, and Matt decided to bring her out of the morose mood that had settled on her. "Would you like to dance?" he asked, standing. "I think I can handle this song."

Buffy smiled and thought how sad it was that he couldn't see her smile, but she put her hand in his.

Foggy was dancing a second dance with Pepper when Tony cut in. "Okay, no one dances twice with my lady but me," Tony said.

Foggy grinned. "I totally understand," he said. "Looks like my date is dancing with Matt, so I'll go get something to eat."

Pepper looked and saw Buffy smiling up at Matt, very animated as she spoke to him. "It looks like your plan seems to be working," she observed.

Tony smirked. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she is drawn to the more serious one with still waters," he said.

"You wanted her to be," Pepper said knowingly. "Foggy would've been the perfect date as he's fun loving and just the distraction she needed, but you insisted on both of them. You wanted her to meet Matt."

"I have no idea why you'd say that. It's not like she lives in New York and there could ever be anything between them," Tony said. "But I figured she might be drawn to someone who does so well even though life hasn't been so easy for him."

"It's hard to feel sorry for yourself when you see someone else with possibly bigger problems," Pepper said knowingly. "You might be as smart as advertised."

Tony grinned, giving her a cheeky smile. "Don't you know that by now?" he asked.

The couple in question danced two slow dances while Buffy shared some of the tamer Sunnydale stories with Matt.

"So what do you do for fun?" Matt asked.

"Well, we go to the Bronze—that's a dance club. Oz is in a band—he plays guitar," she said. "It's like the only thing for teens to do in my town. I'm also into martial arts. Giles has me training all the time."

"Really?" Matt asked, intrigued. He'd been pleasantly surprised to find Buffy both charming and interesting. Finding out that they had something in common was not expected. Of course, he didn't know how to tell her he had begun studying martial arts himself.

"Yes, I got into it about three years ago," Buffy said. "Giles said I'm something of a savant 'cause I remember a move after being shown it only once."

"I've taken a few lessons myself, and it's not easy," he admitted.

"Not being able to see would make it really hard," Buffy said. "How do you learn?"

"By getting knocked down a lot," he said dryly.

Buffy winced. "I bet," she said. "Tony said that he was going to bring a teacher around this coming week, so I don't grow lazy over the summer. He says Willow and Cordelia should learn some basic self-defense, too."

"That's a good idea," Matt said. "The world has become a dangerous place."

The music ended, and they made their way back to the table.

"You guys seem to be having a good time," Foggy said. "Try the crab cakes." Before Matt could reply, he shoved it into Matt's mouth, making Buffy laugh.

The trio spent the last hour of the gala at the table, joined by Cordelia and Xander and eventually Oz and Willow.

Willow eventually got Matt to talking about legal contradictions while Foggy and Xander shared favorite movie scenes. Oz and Buffy provided commentary.

It was a great night—one none of them would forget.

Foggy made a point of giving Buffy his and Matt's phone number. "Call us to hang out while you're in town. Matt studies too much, so any excuse to drag him away from his books is always good," Foggy said.

"I will," Buffy said. "For sure before we go home."

Matt kissed her cheek. "Don't let your sorrow keep you from remembering the good times," he whispered.

"Thanks," Buffy said. She watched the two men go into their dorms.

"They seem to be a hit," Xander said.

"Which did you like better?" Cordelia asked.

"They're college guys, Cordy. Just new friends, not potential boyfriends," Buffy said.

"For now," Cordelia said. "But you never know what the future holds."

Buffy smiled. Suddenly, the future didn't seem nearly so grim.

*****Chapter End******

So Iron Man 2 events seemed to happen not long after Ironman 1, but I don't want to get into them while the summer is there. I hope Foggy and Matt seemed in character for those that follow Daredevil. Forgive me if I got it wrong as I tried my best. A reviews is the best thank you!