Buffy Summers (watchme) wrote in beyondwonderlnd, @ 2008-09-22 15:48:00 |
|
|||
"NAAAGGGHH!" It wasn't that Xander Harris ever denied having some cowardly tendencies and a certain twitchy disposition when it came to skulking around in the dark and depending only on a pointy stick to strike fear into the unbeating hearts of the undead. He'd spelled it out, plain and clear, actually. Jestingly, but... mostly truthfully. Yeah -- well, who wouldn't be scared snotless? You go hunting around a graveyard in the middle of the night with only a tree byproduct to fend off oodles of creepies and crawlies and see how brave you are. It helped none that the scenery kept snagging up his shoes and low branches were having a good ol' time of eye-jabbing, but the great thing about dark? It made it that much harder to see just how quickly a person could go from bolting away in abject terror to remembering the idea was to bolt toward the assailant (even if still in abject terror) and jab it good in the heart. ...Or, uh, somewhere roughly in the chestal region because getting the heart? Not as easy as it looks. Much harder when blindly lashing out at nothing more than the local flora of Sunnydale's cemetery -- "WIL, GET BACK! I'VE GOT 'IM! And as for you, you nasty... thing -- I've got a stake and I'm NOT afraid to...!" -- which clicked in Xander's brain after a moment as something he was presently doing. He picked a torn shred of leaf from his nose, eyeing it balefully. "Take out a Maple. That's right," he sighed. "Trees best beware the wrath of he who champions leafy green things." Willow didn't answer, mostly because Willow was currently trying to jab her own stake into the unbeating heart of the vampire that they'd been hunting -- a task made somewhat difficult by the fact that said vampire was on top of her and trying to jab his incisors into her carotids. "Xander!" she cried out, turning her head to the side just as the fangs came down. Using the vampire's momentum, she rolled him over and scrabbled to her feet, clutching the stake. "Yeah, not so tough now, are ya?" she taunted. And then she remembered: the problem with taunting anything was that it served to make the target of the taunting more enraged and liable to come after you. Which she quickly realised, as the vampire growled and lunged for her. "Oh shoot," she said, and flung herself out of the way. Xander's vision snapped up just before Willow cried out his name, a familiar guttural growl all too telling that even though they hadn't found their target, it didn't at all rule out that their target could have found them first. "Just hang on!" he shouted back, fumbling and then reclutching the stake so that the proper stabbing position could be achieved (i. e. the pointy end facing away from him being vastly important). It was on nights like these -- and oh how frequently these types of night came up lately -- that Xander found a new appreciation for just how well Buffy was at her job. Simultaneously trying to keep up the bantering, not trip and faceplant into a tombstone, and slay only looked so easy when she did it. At least he'd gotten used to the whole act-now, think-on-the-fly aspect even if the current plan that came of that was taking a full-body rush toward the vampire to knock him off his bee-lining at Willow... with a distinct lack of direction on what to do afterward. He collided with the vampire, successfully taking it down with him, though the order of landing somehow twisted and it was Xander that hit ground first with a gritted huff. And it was Xander that found himself looking up into a very sharp arrangement of teeth lingering just above his face. "Uhm...!" His hands patted the ground, seeking out the dropped stake with desperation as he attempted to scuttle backward from underneath the hold without any dice. "Hey, Wil? Anytime you wanna tag in, just go for it!" A snarl punctured his final words as the vampire began to lower itself. "...Like right now would be good!" "I'm coming, I'm coming!" Without any thought to how the reassurance might sound out of context, Willow recovered her balance and raced over to the struggling pair. She would have liked a moment to draw up a mental diagram and figure out the best place to jab in that stake without any chances of accidentally jabbing her best friend along with it, but she didn't exactly have that luxury. So, with all her strength, Willow threw herself on top of the vampire with her stake clutched tightly in both hands. Unwilling to go down without a fight, Xander had given up the search for the lost stake, instead clutching the vampire's shoulders to hold it back from its blood-sucking mission -- though the extra weight of Willow as she joined in closed whatever distance of a gap he'd gained. And just as soon as he realized that it could be curtains there was a sharp cry from above and a blast of dust, all followed by the feeling of only air and soot in his grips. A held breath then escaped Xander's lungs, partially out of relief, but otherwise because of a simple cause and effect situation where the division of a vampire between himself and Willow had gone, leaving a space which gravity saw fit to fix. He shifted his hands just in time to stop her from falling completely on top of him (instead she only fell mostly on top of him), slightly embarrassed but grinning back all the same. "And score one for team Rosenberg-Harris! Bringing the records to... what are we on? Two us, ten them?" He swallowed, and never one for letting a silent moment pass, had been on the verge of a 'I hope those are your hands...' joke when it clicked that he was forgetting something important. "Hey, wasn't there a secon --" Too late. Seemingly having realized that his pal had literally bit the dust, goon #2 stepped out into the moonlit clearing, already lunging. "Oh no." Attention on the entwined and very human pair in front of him, the vampire with a bad case of acne and Bon Jovi hair made menacing steps forward, snarling. "Oh, look, a little snack," he laughed, and like some villain in a 1950's movie, he rubbed his hands together menacingly. One moment, he was lunging toward them, stretching his legs to gain momentum, and the next, his feet came out from under him. His balance thrown, his upper torso seemed to have a trajectory of its own, flying out in front of him and then gravity taking over from there. There was a dry crunch, and then a familiar head of blonde hair popped into their line of sight. "Didn't anyone tell you not to play with your food?" Sure it was an old line, but it still fit. With an aggressive growl, the vampire jerked to all fours, turning to face the previously unseen attacker. Buffy hurried to Willow and Xander, dropping to her haunches and holding out her hand toward Willow's stake. "May I?" The unexpected cameo had clogged up most of Xander's ability to process the words Buffy was saying, more so than the blizzard of confusion already caused by the emotions that were stirred up by Willow very nearly laying atop his chest. His train of thought had run straight off the tracks, colliding into the inner wall of his skull with an aftereffect of causing his jaw to unhinge and hang open. Willow seemed just that much more on the ball, at least enough to proffer the stake while the shifting of a now alert Xander below had caused their conjoinment to split quite hastily. He was scrambling to locate his own stake just as much as he was scrambling to cover up the pretty interesting scene Buffy had crashed in on. If nothing else, he could try to play back-up if Buffy missed... which was completely not going to happen, but it was much better than stammering like a goober on the ground. Bon Jovi lept to his feet, seeming to enjoy the sudden challenge that a Slayer posed. Granted, he probably had no clue who she was, but Buffy would give him enough hints before she staked him. In those two seconds from blood lust to dust, he'd realize that he'd bitten off more than he could chew. Pulling back into a fighting stance, she ducked a punch, straightened, blocked a blow, and managed to hit him across the face. Close enough, she side-kicked him and grabbed his arm before he could go down. Swinging him in a wide arc around her, she slammed him into a headstone. Before he could turn around, she rushed up, kicked again, and sent the stake through his back. He exploded into dust. Letting her arm go slack, she turned to Willow and Xander, nervously smiling. "Hey guys..." "He-ey..." Flicking up one hand into a small side-panning wave, Xander's eyes wandered from Buffy to Willow, sparing Willow a perplexed look, then back to Buffy with a thoughtful expression, over to the place where the vampire was with a mildly feigned interest, and then to his right sock with a furrowed brow. "Oh, lookit that. Lost my shoe. Found my stake," he remarked with his tone of voice carrying every mark of disconcertion as he bent down to pluck the discarded wood from where it was in the grass beside his foot. There was a pause. He looked back to Buffy. Then: "All right, I know I took a nice knock in the head, but... I'm not just imagining..." "Buffy?" he finally asked. "That's my name," Buffy answered, the lump in her throat plummet right down into her stomach. "How's everything?" Oh peachy with a side of keen, Buffy answered in her head. How are you, Buffy? Oh, I'm fine. I just got back from Hell. Literally. It's not as fun as it sounds. Well, maybe it is now since I sort of liberated it, but you know. Same old Buffy. Did I mention that I had to kill Angel after he'd been Cursed again, Will? Thanks for that. It took just a few seconds to file away the confirmation, and for a fleeting moment Xander might've bolted across the dewy ground for a welcome back hug or... or handshake. But he nodded in return, fixed to the ground. "Oh you know. Beautiful night out, stars're bright... and what better way to pass the time than with vamps, stakes, and all sorts of fun shakes." He jabbed a thumb over a shoulder as nonchalantly as he could. So you finally realized that running off for three months wasn't such a great idea? The words were there on his tongue, but somehow what came out sounded a lot more like: "So how's digs in Buffyville?" "Welcome back!" Willow blurted out, several exchanges too late. She inwardly cringed at her interjection at this rather inappropriate point in the conversation, but really, when a long lost friend that you've been worrying over and thinking about for the whole summer suddenly shows up and rescues you from a vampire with a really bad hairdo (and even worse breath) without even so much as a phone call or a text message beforehand and then just stands around like nothing's happened -- well, one had to give allowances for that. "I-I mean, you're back, right? This isn't just a random drop in just to say hi?" This was bad. Oh god, they were upset with her, right? Or they were freaked that she might ditch again (which was still possible, in all honesty). "No. Random mode is off. Here to stay." Under her breath and out of earshot, she mumbled, "I hope." She glanced between them, taking a step forward and stopping. "Just got back about an hour ago. Had to... see my mom." Her fingers smoothed down the nap of her neck, clearly nervous about this meeting. "So you guys are slaying?" Well, someone had to, was Willow's first, uncharitable thought. And then she chastised herself for it. Her best friend had just come back, and she probably had reasons for just up and leaving without so much as a goodbye or a "I'll be fine" and making everyone worry about her, so Willow really shouldn't be getting upset or saying anything that'd make her want to go away again. "Yeah, you know me and Xander. It's how we like to spend a Thursday night." "Yeah," Buffy answered with chagrin, glancing down at her hands and noting that she was plucking splinters from the stake. No hugs, no It's good to see you. She didn't know what she was expecting, but this luke-warm response was almost worse than an earful of Xander's accusations. It felt a little like they didn't care. Maybe she should have stayed gone. She couldn't blame them if they were angry with her. They had no idea what she'd gone through, and it was probably best not to burden them with it. "I saw. Not too shabby. That little leap was pretty resourceful. And all." "And one day with a little hard work and determination, we might just get promoted to assistant regional slayers of the Sunnydale branch, huh?" Xander cut in, looking along to Willow for a little help as was indicated with a raise of both brows. "Just plugging in the overtime here for brownie points because y'know that Giles drives a hard ship -- read this, chase that, stop..." Noticing that he was in full-on ramble mode where the other two had gone silent, Xander cleared his throat and quickly added: "Playing with the swivel chair." "So hey, speaking of our friendly neighborhood librarian," he began again, voice louder to emphasis the topic change before it delved into just how far from the pro leagues Nighthawk and his Furies (the unofficial... and unannounced name, natch) were, "Bet you've been in to see the old codger himself already." As he finished, Xander allowed himself to direct a pointed look toward Buffy, waiting for a reaction. Sure, her mom would be the first stop, but Giles had to be second. Leave the man alone to his fretful ways and soon enough he'd be drowning himself in tea or something. Buffy looked around her with shifty eyes. She hadn't been by to see him yet, but that was because she wanted to find Willow and Xander first. And behold, her success! "Not yet. I came to find you two first, actually." Though Buffy notoriously never wore a watch, she looked down her wrist anyway. "It's a little late for house calls, though, don't you think? He's probably knee-deep in books and tea and scones. I'd hate to interrupt..." "Oh, no!" Willow quickly assured. She couldn't imagine Buffy coming back and not seeing Giles, even though a small part of her thrilled at the idea that Buffy would want to see her and Xander first. "Giles would want to see you! I mean, if-if you want to see him, which I don't know why you wouldn't, unless something happened that you wouldn't. It didn't, did it?" Xander gave a nod of agreement, chiming in with a: "What Will means is that you'd be doing him a favor pulling the stereotypical British man away from his stereotypical British ways. Odds are knee-deep-in-scone's out the window and he's up to his eyeballs in stuff. In other words?" He stepped away from where he was standing beside Willow, momentary making a more even triangle of the three of them before extending both arms to clasp Buffy gently around the shoulders, effectually joining Buffy's side. "Him miss Buffy big heap. Him worry many, many moons. Him want see Buffy," Xander continued, putting his best rendition of a Tanto-esque accent into the act and playing at keeping a straight face. Buffy couldn't help it; she smiled despite herself at Xander's reply. She really did love her friends so much. "No, nothing happened, Will." Except the whole running away from Sunnydale without even telling anyone what happened after my boyfriend tortured him... "I mean, I want to see him. I just thought it might be too late." Yeah, that excuse was lame, considering all of the times they stayed up for apocalypses. "We could check," Willow suggested, because the issue of whether Giles would or would not be up at this hour was a much easier one to solve than the one of Buffy coming back after a two month absence without any word to anyone. "We could just stop by and see if the lights are on, and it wouldn't be like stalking at all, because if he's up we can stop by!" It sounded like a good call to Xander, who pivoted around to reopen the circle of conversation and to send Willow a grin. "This being the part where we all link arms and skip off with a musical number a la Wizard of Oz...?" he asked. Because somewhere along the lines, general conversation would fall off as the jokes ran out and down that road were many things that Xander was doing his best to sit on and hoped would dissipate. Good manners seemed to suggest that the grilling over rash behavior could wait a few days, at least. He nodded toward the graveyard's exit, slinging and arm around Buffy in a friendly capacity (and before she could think up another reason Why Not), and holding out his other for Willow to join them. "And away we go?" |