Who: Buffy & Superboy What: Surprise birthday stuffs When: January Where: Her place Rating: Lowish Status: Closed: Completed Gdoc
Superboy shot through the air toward Buffy’s house, smiling as he went. He had a small box cradled in his arms, and he was wearing a casual suit as he darted through the air. It was her birthday, and he wanted to surprise her.
He had not known it was her birthday and thus it had taken until now to get everything together.
But he had presents and a plan, and he hoped she would like it all.
With a gentle landing, he stepped to the ground and then walked to her door, to knock, lightly.
***
Buffy had pretty much figured her birthday would be on the quiet side. Considering how some of her birthdays went, she was looking forward to the quiet time at home, maybe with Dawn and Will. Anything else did not really occur to her since not many people knew about her birthday even if she had posted on the network and despite being here for a while, she hadn’t made many friends. She was a little surprised that Superboy hadn’t said anything on the post, but he was probably too busy. He had a life too and even if they worked together and it didn’t always involve Buffy despite how they always did seem to run into each other.
The sound of a knock at the door surprised Buffy and she looked up from her magazine, eying it curiously before padding over. She was dressed in simple skinny jeans and a tank top with her hair loose around her shoulders and limited make-up. She wasn’t expecting company so she was definitely on the casual side. Peeking through the peephole, the blond arched a brow at the sight of a familiar face. Well, color her surprised. Buffy unlocked the door and stepped aside, a surprise, but happy smile upon her face. “Hey,” the blond greeted, waving him inside. Oh, Buffy noticed the box, but again, she was not expecting presents. It was something from an earlier, more innocent smile.
***
“Hello, birthday lady. Got time for presents and lunch?” He wiggled the box, the contents hidden yet. He grinned at her. “I’m sorry I didn’t comment on your post, but I thought you would appreciate actions louder than words.’
He nibbled one lip nervously.
***
Well, for Superboy, Buffy obviously found the ability to make and exception especially since she really did have all the time in the world. “Well, I do. It’s easy to say something and much harder to act on it,” Buffy affirmed with a nod. “It shows something about you when you take the initiative.” This was mostly Buffy’s philosophy because it was the way she handled daily life. If you didn’t say something or take the world on, it would walk all over you. Not that it hadn’t in Buffy’s case because fate had run over her many times no matter how tough she was, but it still helped to be the first one to make a move.
“Come on in,” she added after a moment, waving him inside before shutting the door. “Plus, you bought presents and that’s always a plus in my book. If you can cook, you have bonus points.” Buffy severely lacked any cooking skill.
***
Superboy stepped in and smiled at her. “I bring food, presents, and a cookbook, and yes, I can, actually, some. I had to do my share of cooking duties at Titans Tower.” He chuckled. “Tim taught me a few dishes. I could make a hot dish if you are hungry?”
He wanted to make her day a good one, so, really, anything he could do was good.
***
Well, he was a regular Prince Charming wasn’t he? Still, at the motion of a hot dish, Buffy’s stomach growled. She hadn’t made anything yet, but that was mostly because she was lucky if she could make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If anything, it would have been a frozen meal and those often lacked the kind of flavor that came from a cooked meal. When he offered to cook, Buffy was certainly not about to turn him down. Anything he made was bound to top something she had crammed in the freezer.
“Well, then have at it,” Buffy replied, gesturing towards the kitchen. “It’s all yours. I have faith.” She couldn’t help, but joke lightly. “And Titans Tower?” It sounded foreboding and like some villain fortress.
***
He smiled at her as he started toward the kitchen, and extended a hand toward her, not so sneakily taking one of hers in his.
“Thank you. I’ll do my best not to let you down.” In the kitchen, he unpacked the ingredients to hot dish, and he moved around, preparing it as he answered her query.
“Yeah. I was part of a team of superheroes called the Teen Titans. We worked together regularly and eventually had a headquarters built called the Titans tower.” he chuckled. “It was fun while it lasted.”
*** Buffy could count on one hand the men she’d been involved with and none of them were quite up to the caliber that was Superboy. Mostly because her choice in men tended to lean on the supernatural side of things being that the most meaningful relationships she’d partook in were with vampires. The ironies of ironies being that these were the beings she was made to kill to protect innocents. The beginning of neither of those relationships were nothing like what Buffy felt might be happening between her and Superboy. For one, there was a severe lack of wanting to kill her occurring in this one, but being that this was Madison Valley, she was not about to think that was a complete impossibility. Regardless, it was different than anything she knew back in Sunnydale, but maybe that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The not so subtle taking of her hand was not lost on Buffy, but she didn’t pull back from the gesture and even allowed their hands to linger touching before he moved away to start cooking. “I’m sure anything you make will be better than having me attempt to cook,” Buffy assured him, folding her arms upon her chest. “I burn like frozen pizza.” It was sad...very sad.
“Why didn’t it last?” Buffy asked, curiously. Of course if he didn’t want to tell her, she wouldn’t push the subject.
***
“Oh, the group fell apart. Secrets came out, and my own past kind of exploded on me. Then a planet did.” he chuckled wryly. “After that, well… can’t really belong to a group if you’re dead.”
He stretched, and checked the food, then looked at her. “I came back, but things had changed in the meantime, and it wasn’t the same.”
He had changed in the meantime, too, with memories from other Superboys. He had had an odd life.
He stepped up to her, and smiled softly. “I like you, Buffy.” he bent his head and stole a quick kiss, before smiling shyly at her and nodding.
*** And Buffy thought her own past was littered with many a pothole, but his sounded a lot worse. She was all too familiar with what secrets could do because she’d had a few of them that had nearly torn the group apart, but the planet thing? That was entirely new to her and not something she wanted to experience. After all, blowing up Sunnydale was quite enough for her. “Sounds rough,” Buffy replied. “I guess that’s putting it lightly.” Very lightly.
“The world can suck like that.” Her friends and her had changed over the years. They were hardly the same Scoobies they had been when they first started all of this. If anything, they were a much more jaded sort than before. “But it has to happen.” She guessed it was some sort of adapting feature, but Buffy found it more annoying because obviously people didn’t always change for the better, did they?
When he leaned in and stole a kiss, Buffy blushed and felt a bit of the butterflies she thought had vacated the premise a long time ago. “I like you too,” Buffy replied, feeling slightly lame as she replied with the same thing he said.
***
Superboy smiled at her,eyes warm.”It was, but… it all led me here and I think I like it here, a lot.” He smiled almost shyly at her. “There’s this girl, a woman, really, who makes me smile.”
He was grinning at her as he said it.
“The world can, true. But I am glad that this one, weird as it is, is not terrible, so far.”
He smiled again at her words. “Yeah? Good. I was hoping you might.”
***
Buffy couldn't help, but laugh when he mentioned a certain girl he happened to like. It was cute and a bit of innocence she hadn't experienced since before high school. “Well maybe there is a certain guy that does the same for me,” she replied slyly.
“Don't mind me,” Buffy replied, shaking her head. “Past experience has jaded me.” It was a consequence of being the slayer. Sadness tended to be a core part of her life. It was an unfortunate staple of sorts.
Buffy flashed him a playful grin. “Well you are cooking for me so why wouldn't I?”
***
Superboy smiled and kissed her just because. A fast there and gone kiss, with a grin, as he cooked. “Well, I happen to be glad of it anyway. And today is all for you. All about giving you neat things.”
As he cooked, he reached out with his telekinesis, and pulled the first item out of the box, a hand-knit scarf large enough to probably hang to her knees on both sides, in a yellow and green that would match her hair.
*** Coming to Madison Valley, the last thing she expected was to find someone with the potential to fall in love with her. After her whole spiel about not being “baked” yet, she wasn’t planning on engaging in anything of that sort for some time. How could you commit to someone if you weren’t sure of anything about yourself? Madison Valley, however, was a lot simpler than her life back home for the most part.
“Aw.” Buffy reached out and took the scarf. He didn’t actually have to buy her anything at all. It was sweet of him to treat her though, especially on her birthday. “I will definitely make use of it when we run into each other at another party,” she added, teasing a bit. Her cheeks were still a bit red from the quick kiss.
***
He was making good food, and it went into the oven, which gave him more time to turn to her and grin. “That is number one. I have two more presents for you.” All homemade, because he had no idea what to buy her.
“I wanted to make sure you knew you were being thought of, and by someone more than your sister, you know?” he grinned at her, eyes dancing, warmth in his smile.
“And I… am enjoying being around you.”
***
“Well, you keep this up? Dawn is going to have to meet you eventually,” Buffy replied. It felt weird for Dawn to meet anyone she was dating because the majority of those she had dated Dawn was aware of. Superboy would be a new addition and while she was sure Dawn would be cool with him, it was still a thought on her mind. She wanted her sister to be comfortable with whoever she was with.
The food smelled delicious. “You did make me feel that way,” Buffy offered after a moment. “The food smell delightful.”
***
“Yeah? I’d like that.I suppose I can introduce you to my cousins from another universe, Clark, Kara, and Alex.” he nodded, smiling warmly. “I don’t talk to them much, but they are sort of family.”
“I’m glad. Twenty minutes and it will be cooked.” He reached into the box and pulled out the next item. It was a long thin box. “There’s not much use for this here, but I thought you might like it, and we could, well… “ He handed it over. Inside was a carefully handmade sword. Thin, and not too long, made for her size, and made of hardened metals forged with super strength and heat vision, with a hilt of redwood and red cord mingled.
“Its designed for you, hand made, something that could be concealed under clothing and even used on a horse.” he grinned at her,and paused. “And like you, it is pretty, and deadly, both.”
***
Buffy had never met the families of any of her other boyfriends or the people she dated. This was mostly due to the fact that they had either killed their families being evil vampires or it just didn’t occur because she was saving the world from a God. In any case, Buffy felt excitement as well as a tinge of anxiety at the thought of meeting Superboy’s family...even if they were from a different universe and it technically was related to him. Though, she imagined he feel the same way about meeting Dawn.
His words pulled Buffy from her thoughts and she watched curiously as he pulled the item from the box. It was a beautiful, handcrafted sword and Buffy took it with an obvious stunned expression on her face. No, there was no need from anything like this here, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t impressed and completely in love with the gift. It was just...her. It was strange to think she’d be more wide eyed over a sword than a new outfit, but being a slayer for seven years would do that to a person. What you valued changed and Buffy found she valued weaponry, like this, over clothes anyday. “I love it,” Buffy replied, leaning over to place a brief kiss on his cheek.
“It’s so me.”
***
“Yeah? I was hoping you would. I mean...I was hoping you would like it.” He smiled as he checked on the food, then faced her again. “I just wanted to make you smile.”
He nodded. “I dunno what this place will bring, or if anything is normal, but I know that life is pretty crazy, and you are pretty cool.” He wanted… well… he wanted to try dating people. And Buffy was nice, and pretty, and he talked to her and… yeah.
***
“Well you didn’t have to hope anything,” Buffy replied, giving the sword a swing before sheathing it once more. “Me and weaponry are like sweet and sour. We just always go together.” It hadn’t always been that way, but being the slayer, the cards had eventually fallen in that manner. She learned to wield her stake instead of fear having it in her hands.
How long had it been since someone called her “cool”? At least since high school and Buffy was pretty certain it would have been something more like “weirdo” or “freak” first. “Well, you are not so bad yourself,” Buffy teased gently. “Hey, maybe we’ll get an influx of bad guys and I can test it out sometime.”
***
“Good to know.” he smiled, watching her with admiration and warmth. Damn, but she was hot! How did she do that?
He grinned and settled back and chuckled. “I’ll be right there beside you. I go out patrolling, but there are mostly just accidents, and an occasional idiot who does something like pick pockets.” He chuckled.
***
“It’s pretty docile here,” Buffy agreed with a nod. “I never thought I would admit to missing Sunnydale and slaying, but I do.” It had become so ingrained in her life that she was unsure of what else to actually do with herself. Having employment of some kind did help tremendously, but there were days when she still felt something missing inside.She wondered if he felt the same way.
When he mentioned patrolling, Buffy smiled sheepishly. “I actually still do it too even if I don’t think there is a single supernatural we can actually do anything to in this town because no one is evil.” ***
“I patrol every day, but yeah. Its so quiet.” he shook his head. He felt sometimes like he would starve for action. Which was when something weird happened, usually. Slaying whas what you did, right, as a demon stopper?” He smiled at her.
“Iwas born to fight. I like doing other things, too, but… I do miss it.” He nodded.
He grinned at her. “Maybe sometime we can patrol together.” If nothing else, they could keep each other awake.
***
“Yes, that’s my gig or was my gig…” Buffy trailed off, unable to keep from looking longingly at the sword and sighing. “But I guess that part of my life is over for the moment,” she added, attempting a smile, but the gesture did not quite reach her eyes. “You know when I first became the slayer, I would have given anything for this kind of life. Normal, calm mostly, simple, and peaceful, but now it just feels...wrong.” Buffy knew Willow felt much the same way she did. Honestly, she did not know how Faith and Wes survived here. They were all cut from the same demon slaying mode...it was their lives.
“Hey, maybe. It might be fun,” Buffy replied. It was nice to know she was not alone in feeling this way. “It just becomes part of you.”
***
“Exactly, exactly that.” he nodded. Then he reached into the present box for another thing. Out came a tiramisu cake, wine, and forks and glasses.
“No birthday is complete without something tasty to eat.” he waggled his eyebrows at her.
“I thought we would just… you know, go low key.” He pulled out movies and pajamas and grinned at her.
*** Cake? Buffy grinned brightly. “I think that’s a great idea,” Buffy replied, snagging a pair of those pajamas and a glass. “Shall we?”