Buffy Summers (![]() ![]() @ 2009-06-18 21:15:00 |
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Current location: | Eden |
Current mood: | ![]() |
Entry tags: | buffy summers, kevin van warren, place: la |
Getting Her Groove Back a Little
Who: Kevin and Buffy
Where: Eden
When: Wednesday Night
Buffy decided that she needed to branch out a little. The only club that she had ever gone to was Avarice. While it wasn't a bad club, it definitely catered to people that she probably didn't need to be around right now. If she was going to be happy, shiny Buffy, then she really needed to get her head on right. While a part of that was happening with the Slayer bit, she wanted to get some social life going as well, which meant going out and, well, socializing. Tonight she went to a club called Eden. It had sounded like a decent enough club, so she paid her cover, went inside, and made her way to the bar to order herself a coke to drink.
And at that moment, who was at the bar, enjoying a similarly nonalcoholic beverage, but Kevin Van Warren. He'd really come here to scope the place out, as a possible venue to play at once he and his sisters started playing together again. Also... while he didn't admit it, now that he'd been told that Meredith was a vampire, he was avoiding Avarice a little. Back in more... normal days, he'd had quite the crush on the girl he knew back then as merely 'Chloe's friend'. Knowing she was a vampire now... threw him off big time. So, looking like he was completely in his element in black leather pants, a matching shirt with leather straps going around it like some fashionable, black straitjacket, and heavy black eyeliner and nail polish to finish it off, he was all smiles as he looked around at all the people dancing and cavorting.
Buffy sipped at her drink for a second as she looked up and down the bar. When she saw Kevin from the one night she stepped in Avarice on her own, she gave him a smile and a wave. "So, it's starting to look like that we're both club hoppers," she said, smiling at him.
"Hey, how's it going?" He asked sweetly. His voice was far kinder and more gentle than you would expect from someone so big and gothy. "What can I say? With all due respect to Chloe's hangout... I think I found my paradise!"
She laughed. "Hey, not everyone can hang out at the same club," she told him. "Besides, this is LA. It's not like we're in a town with only one place to go, right?"
"A very, very good point." He seemed much more happy, more at home, than he had the last time they met. "Buffy, right?" He was only occasionally good with names, and was trying to remember the few interesting people he'd met so far.
"Yep, that would be me," she said, grateful that he remembered her name. At least she wouldn't look like a total fool just moving up and talking to him. She seemed like she was more at ease here as well, as if Avarice itself seemed to make her feel off. However, right now, she was just glad that her mother gave her a memorable name.
"Gotta admit, didn't take you for the type I'd find in a goth club, but color me pleasantly surprised." He said, those bright eyes twinkling with playfulness.
"Let's just say that I'm trying to try new things," she said. Buffy had on a little bit of black eyeliner and was wearing a black dress to sort of fit in, but even she knew that she wasn't goth.
"Well, you look good. So maybe trying new things isn't all bad, hm?" He closed his eyes and nodded with the music as a particularly good solo was playing. "Damn... to have even an OUNCE of that kind of talent."
"No, I don't think so at all," she said. She paused and listened to the music as well for a moment. "Music isn't wear my talents really lay at all," she admitted. Technically, her talent was killing vampires, but she really couldn't tell this guy that, could she?
"Yeah, but seriously... I'm a decent singer, but I have NO musical ability. I wish I could do even a fraction of what either of my sisters can do." he wasn't complaining though... more like admiring what they could do. "So, you'll be happy to know my Corvette has yet to receive a blood-colored paintjob..."
It took Buffy a moment to remember what he was talking about. "Oh, well I'm glad to hear that," she said, still smiling at him. "Then you might have an irate sister to deal with. Trust me, you want to keep that to as much of a minimum as possible."
"Trust me, I know. Lucy's tantrums are rare, but scary enough that I like to KEEP them rare." Kevin laughed, comically enough almost a giggle, and shook his head. "Besides... unless he really does something bad to her, I really don't want to hurt my car."
"Well, I don't think that he'll end up being car hurting worthy," Buffy said. She couldn't believe she was saying this about ASH of all people, but it just shows how much people really can change and grow, both herself and him.
"How's things on the little sister front with you? Is she readjusting ok to being back?" Where this great memory was coming from, he had no clue.
Wow, so he actually did remember what they talked about. Color her impressed. "She seems to be doing OK. It's summer, though. The real test will be school next year." Her senior year, no less. Buffy just hoped that she made it memorable, but in a good way.
"I know that feeling. I've been done with school for a couple years now, and Chloe just finished... Lucy's all on her own now next year." He paused to laugh and throw a wink back to someone or other who'd done so to him, then looked back to Buffy. "So many damned things to worry about these days, too." And of course, he didn't just mean drugs.
Oh yeah, Buffy knew all about the worrying. She had done a ton of that while Dawn was off in Europe. Now she was glad to have her home, but having her here set off all sorts of other worries as well. "There are so many things to worry about," she mused. "Who knows? Maybe we can get Lucy and Dawn to watch out for each other. It would take a bit off of my mind."
"That would be a huge load off my mind, for real." He looked around, to make sure nobody was listening, just so he wouldn't ruin anyone's privacy here. "I just worry, because Chloe started hanging out with an old friend of hers again. Girl's awesome, gorgeous, all that... but she's been into drugs off and on for years. I don't wanna see either of my sisters fall into that crap."
Buffy made a face at the mention of drugs. She never did see the point in them herself, but that was her own business. "Well, I hope that she doesn't. Chloe seems like she'd do the right thing when it comes down to it, though."
"Yeah, my main worry there is that Chloe is too trusting. Hitler could come back to life, say 'hey, sorry about all those Jews', and Chloe would say 'OH, OK! LET'S HAVE DESSERT!'." His impression of her was downright hilarious, as he made his voice go high-pitched and feminine.
Buffy had to laugh, both at his impression and just the thought of Chloe being that forgiving. "It's hard to give little sisters credit for being able to take care of themselves, isn't it? I still want to beat up any guy that does so much as look Dawn's way."
"You know, you're really very easy to talk to." He noted, his eyes focusing on hers. "I feel like I've known you far longer than I have." Then to add levity, he added. "I mean, it feels like I've known you at least 5, maybe even 6 days."
She smiled. "Maybe a whole week even," she joked back. "I kind of feel the same way, too, about the easy to talk to you thing." It had been forever since she had someone to really talk to, except maybe Ash and Dawn, although she only got them back recently as well.
"Well, look at it this way: I came here without ONE single friend here that I wasn't already related to." He laughed again, his eyes sparkling. "And now? I have at least one."
“Yep, you definitely have one," she agreed with him. A friend that wasn't related to her or her 'work?' She was definitely making a step in the right direction as well.
"Seeing as how I usually get along much better with girls than guys, at least things are staying the same." He said with a giggle, reminding her and himself of how... almost feminine he could be at times for such a tall, sometimes imposing young man.
"Well, sameness can be good sometimes," Buffy said with a slight smile on her face. "As long as it is of the good, anyway. Bad sameness could be really...bad." Ugh, open mouth, insert foot right there.
Luckily, having a sister like Chloe? That all made perfect sense. "Well, I like when things stay the same. Lots of changes tend to make me kind of antsy." He looked at her, and, due mostly to his talent for reading people, frowned a little. "Wanna tell me what's bothering you? No offense, but I can tell when someone's trying to seem happier than they are."
Was she that see through? Well, Ash saw right through her, so why not? "Sameness for me kind of means continuing in the rut that I'm stuck in right now," she admitted to him. "I've just been in a rut of...of suck for a while, I guess. Not sure if I want to be the same anymore."
"I can understand that. Chloe and Lucy... they might be goofy, and into 'weird music', but they were always proper young girls, which made my parents happy." He smirked, looking at her as he spoke. "Having a boy who liked wearing eyeliner and nail polish? And hung around girls all the time? And didn't like sports? Yeah, that went over REAL well."
Considering that Buffy's parents had gotten a divorce in the first place because of fighting that started around all of the trouble that she was getting into, she totally knew about all sorts of strife that could go on between parents and child. "I wasn't always the star child, either," she said to him. "I tended to get in trouble in school a lot."
"Do you mind if I give you some advice? One friend to another?" He asked, and unlike most people, he actually MEANT it as a question. If she didn't want it... he wasn’t going to give it.
"Um...sure. What advice do you have?" she asked, all ears for a moment.
"The sooner you can truly stop giving a damn about what ANYONE else thinks about you, the sooner you can be really happy." He ran a hand through his short, unruly black hair. "All that should matter to you is what you think of yourself. If you're being the best person you can be, and trying your best at whatever it is you do? That's all that should ever matter."
If only he knew what she really thought of herself. Buffy, Burner Downer of School Gyms. Buffy, Breaker of Parents Marriage. Not exactly nice things to think of oneself. "That really is all that should matter," she agreed. She just wasn't sure that was how the world really worked.
"I mean, the way I see it? You're friendly, sweet, definitely easy on the eyes, and someone who's a good friend to those who need her." He shrugged, making his point. "But none of that means anything if YOU don't think it."
She nodded. He was right. Well, she wasn't thinking about all of the compliment parts because that would make her sound conceited, even if in her own head. But none of that mattered if she didn't think it was true. "You are right about that," she said.
"Exactly. If I listened to what other people thought of me? I'd think I was weird, strange, scary, even gay. But I know what I am. And because of that? Nothing anyone else says means anything."
"Well, some people call me either weak or a trouble maker, but I'm not really either of those, either," she said. Maybe this whole 'believe in yourself' idea could actually work.
"Troublemaker? I doubt that. As for weak, even *I* can see that's not the case." He smiled, patting her on the shoulder. "Besides, girls with confidence? Hottest women in the world, girl."
She giggled a little at his last statement. "I'm not *much* of a troublemaker, anyway," she said, laughing a little. "Well, not so much that people get hurt or anything." Only vampires. That gym was full of vampires, after all.
"Now, that's what I like to see. A smile." The most amazing part of this was that he wasn't flirting. Not even remotely. He was just being, well, a friend. A friend who hated seeing someone he had taken a liking to being upset.
That just made her smile bigger. She couldn't help it. Sadly, even this pretty girl hadn't gotten attention like this in quite a while. People tended to think that she was either weird or standoffish for some reason.
"You know what? You're gonna come over for dinner sometime." He said it as a fact, not even a question. "You seem like you need some REAL friends, and I know Chloe and Lucy are good friends to have too. We're gonna have you over for dinner, let you start to make friends you can count on."
"I could use some real friends," Buffy admitted. "If I include you, I've got all of...two? Well, there's also Sin and Catherine, but they're more work friends than anything," Buffy thought out loud. "Sure, I'd love to come by for dinner sometime."
"You should bring 'em all by this place sometime. We can all hang out, get to know each other." Kevin was just as excited to make new friends, seemingly, as Buffy was. "I can't lie... I hate not knowing anyone out here."
"Well, the one person I know is my friend is Ash, so he'd be around anyway. I'm sure Lucy would invite him before I could think about it," Buffy said to him. "I'll see if either Catherine or Sin want to come, though."
"Well, the one person I know is my friend is Ash, so he'd be around anyway. I'm sure Lucy would invite him before I could think about it," Buffy said to him. "I'll see if either Catherine or Sin want to come, though."
"That'd be excellent." He replied, a bright smile on his face. "Maybe we'll BOTH be able to make some new friends out of this."