Disclaimer: The pixies tell me that I don’t own the BTVS and ATS characters. However I had a nice little shouting match with them about who owned Ariel and Cat.
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Chapter 22: Academia

Buffy waved happily as a convertible, loaded up with Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Kennedy and Dru pulled away from her house.

Wesley had spent the last hour apologizing for Kennedy. Which Buffy decided that was time that could have been better spent driving Miss Kennedy Hornhouser away from Cleveland.

Buffy turned from the front door and headed upstairs to collect linen to be washed and prepared for the next time she had an army descend upon her house. It was only a month away. Christmas.

Except the next time Anya and Willow came to visit, they were coming to stay. All the scoobies, except Giles were going to be housed at her house.

Some how she expected an intervention on that alone.
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“Anya Christina Emanuella Jenkins?” called the professor from the front of the lecture hall. “Please see me after class.”

Anya nodded and returned to her lap top and her notes. Whatever could he want? Anya asked herself. Her history paper had been returned last class, the final exam was next week. She was at a loss. Anya shrugged her shoulders and waited for the end of the class.

Anya had found that these university courses of hers had been a true test of her ability to contain her need to do vengeance. There was always some poor girl in one of her classes that just had been dumped or cheated on.

At the end of the class, Anya headed down to meet the professor.

“Ah, Miss Jenkins.”

“Mr. Slattery.”

“I understand that you’ll be transferring to Ohio state next semester. Can I ask why?”

“My friend was recently separated from her partner. Let’s just say that this girl, is a vile, disrespectful brat and is making my friend feel every uncomfortable. We have other friends who live in Ohio and it will take my friend far far away from the nasty bitch,” explained Anya.

The professor had a dumbfounded look on his face.

“You could have just said, personal reasons,” he said finally.

“Right, personal reasons,” agreed Anya.

“I only asked is because you bring a refreshing view to the material. Your paper on the New Deal, pure genius, something that I would expect from a graduate student.”

“Why thank you Mr Slattery. That’s very nice of you to say. Could you write that down? So I can show my ex fiancé?”

“Huh?”
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Anya skipped with delight towards her home, or the dorm room that had served as her home since she returned from the dead.

She had never been praised for her academic achievements before and was feeling very bouncy.

Her bouncing stopped, however, when she saw her roommate from 2 doors down in tears before her ex boyfriend. The boyfriend looked directly at Anya or rather Anya’s breasts, before leering.

So she gave him the evil eye. The boyfriend walked off, leaving his distraught ex standing hunched over sobbing in the middle of the hallway.

“What did he do now?” Anya asked before she could stop herself.

“He...*hic*killed my fish.”

“What?”

“My goldfish, that were living at his house, he killed them, on purpose.”

“That’s terrible!” said a shocked demon.

“He said his new girlfriend hated them. I didn’t even know he had a new girl friend.”

“He’s a stupid man, deserves to have bad bad things happen to him.”

The girl nodded.

“Don’t you wish something terrible would happen to his pets?” asked Anya.

“Yes!” said the girl angry. “I wish...”

“Anya!” yelled Willow. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing...” said Anya innocently.
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Buffy walked into her kitchen and stared at her fridge door. Some enterprising person had put up Buffy from the future’s letter about the kids and a piece of scrap paper on which was written:

Blood of light, Blood of dark,
Blood of Blood,
Blood spilt to cover up the evils of blood’s evil,
Undercover of darkness blood is hidden,
Three times blood is split, three times evil rises,
Blood of light, Blood of dark,
Cycle begins anew.

The prophecy that Xander had found about her and her descendants. Buffy only wished she knew what it meant.
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The shipments of all the various bits of Willow and Anya’s lives started showing up at the Pinehill street house mid December.

Willow’s room was to be the attic, and Buffy had no problem enlisting Oz, Xander and Spike to carrying Willow’s stuff up to her new room.

Anya was to be housed in what was being referred to as the guest room but Buffy really wanted it to be a TV room. It wasn’t looking like it was going to be a TV room for a long time. Besides no one wanted to have bedroom on a floor where there was no bathroom.

Buffy cringed to think that she was going to have to squish even more people into her house.

Ok, so, Andrew in the office, Giles on the couch. Catherine and Ariel in Cat’s room, Dad and Valery can have Ariel’s room.

Buffy pushed the vacuum cleaner around her living room. She laughed as the scene that she was making made it’s presence on her brain. The chosen one, she who hangs out in cemeteries, was a stay at home mom at 22. Of course she still spent three hours in cemeteries every night.

It certainly wasn’t how she had expected her life to be, not at 22 anyway.

And what was Spike doing right now? Well seeing as it was 2 pm? He probably was just getting out of bed.

Buffy shut off the vacuum and sat heavily on the couch.

What am I doing?

“Mummy?” came Cat’s voice from the hallway.

Buffy exhaled and turned to look at her daughter and smiled.

“Hey kitty Cat, what’s up?”

“Sad Mummy?”

“Little bit.”

“Why?”

Buffy reached out and Cat walked towards her. Buffy gathered Cat up in her arms.

“Mummy’s unhappy staying at home all the time.”

“Go out!” she said happily.

“Ya I wish it could be as easy as that Kitty Cat.”

“Love you Mummy,”

“Love you too baby.”

While Cat was napping Buffy stole into the office and to the computer that Oz had set up for the household.

With little difficulty Buffy found herself perusing the sites for the local colleges and universities.
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On December 20th Buffy rolled over in bed and held Spike tighter than usual. She didn’t want this day to start.

Today her father was coming.

Today the step thing was coming.

Spike could tell she was nervous. She had had the threat of her father and Valery taking Dawn away for months now. Now they were on their way and the day that Buffy and Dawn had dreaded was upon them.

“Is it wrong to just wish that Christmas was over and that I didn’t have to see my Dad and the step thing again?” Buffy asked clinging tight to him.

“No, just don’t be wishin’ that in front of demon girl when she gets here.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “And pull a Kennedy? Never!”

Oz had been delegated to retrieve Giles and Andrew from the airport early that morning. In fact Buffy thought she had already heard them arrive. Andrew was probably snoring away in the office as she lay there.

She had to go to the airport to retrieve her dad and Valery at 2:24pm.

Buffy snuggled closer to Spike and planted little kisses along his collar bone.

“Keep me in bed as long as possible?” she whined.

Spike smiled.

Spike’s hand travelled down Buffy’s arm and along her naked hip.

“I think that can be arranged pet,” he said in a deep tone.

Buffy smiled and rolled on to her back, giving him more access.

“Mmm, show me,” she whispered.

Spike whipped off the covers, revealing her naked form. It seemed regardless of what she decided to wear to bed, she always ended up naked in the morning.

Not that he minded at all.

Spike leaned over and began planting whisper kisses along her chin, neck, collarbone, down her shoulders and over her pert breasts. Spike’s tongue crept out of this cool mouth and began to circle her nipple on her right breast. At the same time his right hand crept further down her body, tracing a path down her chest, between her breasts, circling her navel and still lower.

Buffy bent her head to graze her teeth against Spike’s neck, the stuck out her tongue to lick a slick trail up his neck to just behind his ear.

Spike turned his head to look at her and smiled. “You know what that will do to me.”

“You bet I do,” said Buffy with a smile. “I was hoping you’d take the hint.”

Buffy clasped his head in her hands and titled his neck a little giving her better access to his neck

Deliberately she bit down on his neck with blunt human teeth.

“Mine,” she whispered.

Spike stiffened beside her.

“Mine,” she said again more forcefully.

He disengaged from her hands and rolled to the side of the bed.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to ask me to do that, that you would let me decide when and where.”

Buffy exhaled a loud sigh. “I didn’t ask you to do anything Spike. I didn’t ask you to claim me Spike. I wanted to claim you. Very different things.”

“No it’s not Buffy.”

“I don’t understand Spike! Why are you not happy about this? I want to be yours. And for all intents and purposes, I just made you mine. True there’s supposed to be a little bit of an acceptance thing, and ...”

“Just leave it alone pet.”

“No. I won’t leave it alone Spike. I know Dru told you it was ok to claim me. She told me herself.”

“What did you do?”

“Trying to make things easier for us Spike.”

Spike sat up and looked hard at the woman who just tried to make him her mate.

“It’s not supposed to be easy for us Buffy!”

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” yelled Buffy bitterly sitting up to face him.

Spike jumped out of the bed and threw on his clothes.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Away.”

Buffy gulped, clutching the sheets to her naked body.

“Will you be back?” she said in a very small voice.

“Don’t know.”

“No.” Buffy leapt out of the bed and blocked his path to the door.

Spike threw his duster over his shoulders and stepped towards the naked Slayer blocking his path.

“Out of the way Slayer.”

“Not until you promise me that you are coming back.”

Spike stared at her for a moment.

“Promise me!” she cried.

Spike watched a lone tear trickle down her left cheek. Before he knew what he was doing, Spike reached out and wiped the tear away. Stepping towards her, Spike gathered her into his arms.

“Don’t leave me,” she sobbed into his tee shirt clad chest. “I need you.”

Spike planted a kiss on the slayer’s blond tresses.

“I love you,” she whimpered.

“I know pet,” he mumbled.

He took a step back from her and raised her chin with his thumb and forefinger. “I love you too, but I can’t stay here right now.”

A loud sob echoed through the room as the door closed behind him.
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tbc...