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Aftermath, Chapter One
 
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Aftermath

Aftermath
Slaymesoftly
Prompt #181 Etic
wc - 1845
Summary - Buffy runs into a very reckless woman while doing some post "Something Blue" thinking.


Aftermath


Buffy strolled through Sunnydale, relieved to be away from Spike and the constant reminders of their "engagement". She shuddered as she remembered how they'd spent the day kissing and cuddling in the big chair.

Who knew Spike, of all peop-vampires, could be so sweet and affectionate. I guess that's why Drusilla stayed with him all those years. It was pretty amazing. In an 'eww, it's Spike' kind of way.

Her hand went to her coat pocket and she unconsciously started fondling the heavy silver ring she found there. She tried to tell herself she was only keeping it until she could get it safely back to its owner, but her hand tightened around it at the thought of giving it back.

He hasn't asked for it yet. Maybe he doesn't want it back? Or maybe it just isn't important to him.

Her inappropriate thoughts about the vampire came to a sudden halt as she realized that she had wandered all the way into the area of the city where most of the harmless, human-seeming demons lived. As always happened when she passed by, the streets emptied out quickly with adult demons grabbing their children and hustling them inside.

"Sheesh, you'd think I was the boogy-man," she grumbled aloud as doors slammed ahead of her path.

"To them you are the boogy-man, Slayer."

"Spike!" Buffy whirled to face him, wondering why she hadn't noticed that a vampire was sneaking up behind her.

"Where'd you come from? Why didn't I feel you?"

He frowned at her.

"You should have. I'm an old vamp. You should be able to feel me even with all the distractions here." He waved his arm around to encompass the neighborhood they were in. "You need to work on that, Slayer. Can't have any old vampire slipping in behind you like that."

"Maybe I just got used to you," she muttered, trying to ignore the concern on his face. "What with all the sitting on your lap and... stuff."

"Maybe." He perked up, taking his hands from his pockets and smiling. "We'll see once I get my head fixed. That would be a bit of all right if I could sneak up on you without you knowing I'm there."

"I'd still kick your ass," she said, smothering a tiny pang that he could still talk about killing her after all the time they'd spent together during the spell. "You're not going to kill me, Spike. Get over it."

Spike cocked his head and studied her face. She knew it had quickly hardened into a slayer's determined glare, but his perceptive eyes had apparently caught something before it did.

"Didn't say I was, luv," he responded in the soft baritone that had rumbled in her ear so often recently. "I just said I could sneak up on you. Who knows? Might have just tried to steal a kiss."

"Not funny."

"No," he sighed. "I suppose not."

He fell into step beside her.

"So, where you goin'? Not exactly your part of town, is it?"

Buffy shrugged. "I was just walking and thinking and I ended up here. Might as well hang out for a while and take a look around. See how many different kinds of demon I can remember."

"Most of these are harmless, pet." She thought she detected a trace of disappointment in his voice.

"I know that. Doesn't mean that there aren't some not-so-harmless ones hiding out here. Or some vamps, for that matter. They'd blend."

No sooner had she spoken, than Buffy spotted one of the professors from Sunnydale U sitting on a bench behind which were two drooling vampires. The woman was taking notes as various demons went by her, seemingly oblivious to the danger peering over her shoulder. When they spotted Buffy, the two vamps took off, startling the woman who'd had no idea they were even there.

"Professor Inkfell? What are you doing here?"

"Why, hello. Ms Summers, is it? I could ask you the same question."

Buffy stared back. "It's not really safe here. For hum-uh, people who don't belong in the neighborhood."

"Oh, I'll be fine. I'm just observing this neighborhood. It's quite interesting. Such a mix of cultures and...races." She looked around and sighed. "Although, I must say, there are not as many people to observe as there were a while ago. They all seem to have vanished."

Spike snorted, ducking away when Buffy swatted at him.

"Well," Buffy said brightly," since they've all gone home, I guess you can stop observing and leave now."

Before she could answer, two more vampires came down the street, halting abruptly when they saw Buffy with Spike.

"Un, Spike?" one of them called. "Do you have her, or does she have you?"

"Bit of both, mate. You'd best bugger off."

Taking him at his word, the two vamps turned and fled down the nearest alley.

Professor Inkfell's eyes narrowed as she stared from Buffy to the fleeing vampires.

"Now that was interesting. Now that I think about it, the other people began disappearing just when you showed up, Ms. Summers. Why is that?"

She stared at Buffy, just the trace of a challenge in her voice.

"I'm sure I don't know," Buffy sniffed. "But those two..." She turned to glare at Spike. "Why did you tell them to run?"

"I know them, pet. They live here because they're harmless. They live on..." He hesitated, remembering the woman watching them so intently. "They, uh, they're vegetarians," he finished. "Harmless vegetarians."

"Vegetarians? Vegetarian vam-" Buffy also remembered their audience just in time, but Professor Inkfell seized on her comment.

"Oh my god! Were they vampires? I've been sitting here all night hoping to observe some vampires. Maybe I can catch up to them..."

She got to her feet and started to walk in the direction they had taken.

"Whoa, there, professor!" Buffy stepped in front of her. "You don't want to be chasing after vamps. You should be running the other way."

All pretense gone, the woman glared at Buffy.

"I do want to chase them. That's my whole purpose. To study vampires and other alternative cultures. I'm writing a book about the vampires and demons of Sunnydale. I must study some real vampires, but I just can't seem to ever find any." She glared at Spike, who was coughing with his back to her, and obviously shaking with laughter. "What are you finding so amusing, young man? It's a legitimate research project. I just need to see some real vampires up close."

Buffy rolled her eyes and gave Spike a shove, which only served to make him laugh harder. "Not helping, Spike," she hissed before turning back to the puzzled woman.

"Look, you can't study real vampires up close. They'll eat you. It's what they do. Just stay away from them."

"I'm sure once I've explained my situation--"

"Your situation is that you're going to get yourself killed."

"Nonsense. I pose no threat to anyone. I'm simply studying their culture in order to do an etic report on them and how they relate to the culture around them."

"They feed off the 'culture around them'. What don't you get about that?"

"It's obvious that you have some sort of adversarial relationship with these people--" "Demons!" Buffy broke in. Ignoring her, Professor Inkfell continued, "Perhaps your young man could help me out. He seems to be less biased against other cultures." She beamed at Spike hopefully.

Controlling himself as best he could, Spike gave her a wink and a grin. "I think you could safely say that," he agreed. "The Sl-Buffy and I don't always see eye to eye about things."

"It's all right to call her 'The Slayer' in front of me," Professor Inkfell said with a sideways sneer at Buffy. "I know what she is. She's therefore incapable of taking a neutral position about these other cultures."

"Demons!" Buffy almost screeched. "Vampires are demons. Are you stupid?"

Ignoring her, Professor Inkfell edged closer to Spike, putting one hand on his arm as she appealed to him.

"Surely you can introduce me to some of these aboriginal creatures? You do know some of them, don't you?"

Giving her his most charming smile and allowing his eyes to gaze into hers warmly, he said, "I'm sure I could-- urk!"

Buffy's punch to his kidneys effectively cut him off before he could promise something she would have to stake him for. She fixed a steely gaze on the now-glaring professor and ordered, "Go. Back. To. Campus. Now."

Giving a wincing Spike a sympathetic look, Professor Inkfell drew herself up and said, "That was quite abusive and unnecessary, young lady. I don't care what you are, you have no right to treat your young man like that. He was only trying to help me."

Shooting a now theatrically whimpering Spike a glare that spoke volumes about the conversation they were going to have when she had chased the professor back to the relative safety of Sunnydale University's campus, Buffy pointed in that direction and said in her most authoritative "Slayer" voice: "Start now. I'm going to be watching you."

"You haven't heard the last of this," the professor huffed as she nevertheless obeyed the instructions of the suddenly intimidating young woman.

"Oh, I'm sure of that," Buffy muttered under her breath as she heard Spike start to laugh again. She watched until the woman had turned down the street that would take her out of the demon neighborhood, and then whirled on Spike, who was laughing so hard he could barely stand.

Hands on hips, Buffy did her best to glare him into silence, but she couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from twitching. Shaking her head, she tugged on his sleeve and began walking back the way they had come.

"Come on. I think the least my "young man" could do is walk me back to Giles's apartment."

Slinging his arm over her shoulders and pulling her in for a squeeze that was over before she could object to it, he nodded and agreed.

"It's the least I can do, luv. Wouldn't do to leave my fiancée out here on her own, now, would it?"

Telling herself she hadn't enjoyed the brief hug, Buffy sobered and said, "Speaking of that..." She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out the ring, holding it towards him on the flat of her hand, but keeping her thumb through it.

He stared at it for a long minute, then took her hand in his and folded her fingers over it.

"Why don't you hang on to it for me, pet? Then I'll always know where it is."

He kept his hand wrapped around hers until he felt her begin to pull away. Without a word, Buffy nodded and put her hand and the ring back in her pocket. They finished the walk back to Giles' in a comfortable silence, broken only by the swish of Spike's coat as he matched his strides to hers.








 
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