If anyone had cared to walk though LA’s oldest cemetery in late August 1998 they would have seen two perfectly matched blondes fighting in hand to hand combat; luckily no one cared to. The moves were quick and practiced both knowing there was no room for error. They seemed to anticipate each others movements, they moved with a natural grace, advantage switching back and forth almost faster then the human eye could follow. Just as well because neither was completely human.
Suddenly the male used a split second opening to his advantage tossing the female on to her back and pressing his mouth to an odd circular scar on her neck. Gloating, the vampire named Spike stood, offering a hand to help up his partner, while smirking down at the slightly smaller blond.
“I win again, Slayer.”
The female named Buffy snorted softly, “Took you long enough we’ve been out here for almost two hours!”
“You see Slayer that was all part of my master plan, to wear you down.”
Buffy rolled her eyes; “I’m so sure.”
Surprisingly none of this was said aloud, but though the telepathic bond that was a side affect of their claim. Claiming is a vampiric mating ritual involving bloodletting and a possessive phrase such as ‘mine’. A claim between two sublevel vampires will result in empathetic feelings, allowing one to experience the others emotions on a low level. Only claims between master vampires result in such advanced telepathy as seen in this couple. The difference being that Buffy was human, or at least not a master vampire. Buffy is the Vampire Slayer. The one girl in all the world whose job it is to kill the vampires and stop the apocalypses.
The couple had met the year pervious, when they had banded together to stop the world from getting sucked into hell. When they had last seen each other Spike had been running off with his ‘true love’ Drusilla, who had walked out into the sun upon learning of her sire, Angelus’, death at Buffy’s hands. Buffy had been fighting Angelus who had been the love of her life before he lost his soul. Buffy had ran south instead of facing her feelings about killing the thing she swore to love. She was aghast at how easy it was to kill a man – vampire – that she had had such a meaningful relationship with, she was afraid her calling as the slayer was slowly changing her; that she was turning into some killing machine without a thought to the lives she ended or irrevocably changed. So she ran to rediscover herself and her views on life and death.
Spike and Buffy ran into each other in a different dimension, a parallel dimension, where it was possible to talk to loved ones, soul mates, that were lost. Surprisingly for both of them they were unable to find there lost partners but oddly found each other. Buffy couldn’t find it in her to kill the clearly broken hearted vamp and two small apocalypses later they were fast comrades. In time they both came to accept the fact that there was still hope for love, for both of them. In this other dimension time ran faster so although they had both left Sunnydale barely three months ago they had been a couple for almost a year and friends even longer. The claim had only been in affect for about a week of regular time, established after they exited the other dimension. They had accepted that the claim was not their relationship and that ending it once Buffy went back to Sunnydale did not mean that their relationship was over. They understood that keeping something like this hidden would be a problem and an even bigger problem if someone were to find out. So in respect to both their careers the claim was entirely optional.
The two months between school years was finally coming to an end and Buffy knew that she had to go back to Sunnydale, her mother and friends would be out of their minds with worry. It was the thought of her departure that keep her silent on the way back to her apartment. Spike knew her well enough to know what she was thinking without reading her mind and looking down at her shuttered face her asked,
“Worried about their reactions pet?”
Startled out of her thoughts she looked up, “Theirs’ and Snyder’s and my Mom’s and . . .” she trailed of, realizing that she was actually going to have to face them, and maybe reintegrate herself into their lives, what if they had moved on without her? Knowing Spike was waiting patently for her to finish her sentence she continued, “I bought a bus ticket, I leave at nine tomorrow night.” She felt the sadness flash through Spike even though he tried to hide it from her. “I didn’t tell you because it’s the eighth ticket I’ve bought in the last week, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to actually leave this time, but now I’m sure. I have to go now, school starts soon and maybe with Snyder being turned – I’m still not totally sure you didn’t have anything to do with that – I could somehow get back into school. I really have to sort things out with my mom I just told her I was the Slayer and left.” Spike looked down into her eyes, “If you only have until tomorrow Slayer we should make the most of our time.” Comfortable with each other they quickly switched to super speed and ran to Buffy’s apartment, barley remembering to close the door before tumbling into bed.
XXxxXXxxXXxxXXxxXX
Hours later long ingrained reflexes had Buffy rolling out of bed into the dark room, the sun kept away by boards tacked up in the windows long ago. Yawning she looked around the room that she had stayed in for two months or two years depending on your dimension. She grabbed the duffel bag off the top shelf of her closest and slowly began to pack up her clothes. Not ten minutes later Spike sat straight up as though waking from a nightmare. A low growl came from his throat as he asked,
“If you insist of getting up at the crack of dawn could you at least keep your emotions down a few decibels?”
Lack of a snappy comeback told the vampire more than any emotions could that the Slayer was worried about something. Keeling down next to her he asked,
“What’s wrong pet?”
With a sigh Buffy answered, “Xander, Willow, Oz and Cordelia are my only friends well Cordelia doesn’t really count as I don’t like her, and Oz is kind of new, but still they’re my friends! What if they’ve moved on? What if . . .” Upset at all the possibilities before her Buffy fell back and looks at the ceiling before sitting back up, “I don’t know what I’ll do if they’re mad at me!” Spike looked down on her and sighed,
“Hey nothing gets people to come together like apocalypses right so I’ll just come down and stage one if they’re all giving you the cold shoulder. Then in the nick of time you can run in at after an intense fight that I’ll have to let you win I run off to nurse myself back to health and you’ll all bond and crap.” Buffy smiled at his drawn out narrative. Then nodded,
“What do you mean let me win?” Falling back on a long tradition of bantering they began packing again.
XXxxXXxxXXxxXXxxXX
Minutes before her bus was supposed to leave Buffy and Spike stood in the terminal talking via the claim so as to avoid anything incriminating or suspicious in their conversation.
“Take care Slayer, make sure the whelp keeps his hands off you.”
“Ha ha. Make sure all the horny demon girls keep their hands off you. Not just the ones with horns but the ones that are . . .” she trailed off to his mental laughter, “I love you Spike.”
“Love you too Slayer.” With one last kiss she boarded the bus back to Sunnydale.
Chapter 1
Faith Hope and Trick
Spike was board. The Slayer had left so there was no one fun to spar with, and it wasn’t like he could go around killing innocents with the Slayer reading his mind. So he paced, and paced, and paced until he had an idea. Hey Slayer!
What Spike, I’m trying to study for this horrible makeup test for the new principal. Hey do you know anything about the Boxer Rebellion in China?
Ahhh, good times good times. Killed my first Slayer there you know.
Oh that’s right. What did you want?
Right, I wanted to know if you’d have a problem with me killing bad people, rapists, murderers Ect.
Sure. Wait William the Bloody is asking the Slayer for permission? What’s wrong with this picture?
Ha bloody ha Slayer. I’d rather not spend all the time we have together on my knees, begging forgiveness; I’d rather do other things on my knees. This was followed by a number of mental pictures of just what was fun to do on his knees, quickly ending the dialogue and study portion of the evening.
XXxxXXxxXXxxXXxxXX
Two days later.
As Spike sulked in an ally he could feel the Slayer’s annoyance at Willow like a loud buzz in his head. What’d Red do now Slayer?
sigh She keeps trying to set me up with this total loser guy named Scott. I’m running out of excuses for not going out with him. I can’t just say that I’m in love with the vampire that I met when I ran away from home now can I? Plus Giles keeps riding me about the whole Acathla thing. I so do not want to open that can of worms to them they’ll never understand. Anyway what’s up with you?
Not much. Oh I heard on the demonic grapevine that a new Slayer in moving west, apparently she broke free from her Watcher or something and wanted to meet you. Should be interesting shouldn’t it? Maybe I’ll come up and meet her too.
Not that I don’t want you to come up here but if she’s anything like Kendra she’ll be after me to stake you silly and that will lead to awkward questions. Questions that I’m so not ready for.
XXxxXXxxXXxxXXxxXX
Next Night.
Buffy fell on to her bed after a short patrol, ready to tell Spike about her interesting new friend Faith, and her excellent acting job, no one guessed that she knew that Faith was coming. Buffy slowly reached out the claim searching for Spike’s unmistakable signature. She found him in an ally fighting with two large men with knives. Spike gave no sign that he felt her increased presence in his head, but paid full attention to the fight ahead of him. It was a fast fight, the only trouble coming when one of the men’s cross necklaces burned Spike’s hand, causing the Slayer to feel an accompanying burn on her own hand. Looking down she saw a much fainter burn mark than the one Spike currently had, but it was still noticeable. Back in LA Spike had recovered and had finished draining both men so he turned his attention to Buffy. What’s up pet?
Deciding not to worry about the burn mark she quickly told Spike all about the new Slayer, She’s totally the exact opposite of Kendra. She’s like totally hard-assed one of those ‘don’t let them see the pain’ chicks. Xander’s in love. Willow totally digs her too. I sort of feel like yesterdays Slayer. I’m no longer shiny and new. sigh
You’ll always be my favorite Slayer love. Comforted Buffy sat and listened to Spike’s life, the death of Drusilla had left him the vampire closest related to the Master, apparently a big deal in the vampire world, he now had underlings and a legacy to continue down a line, ‘Course I never liked siring new vamps to begin with, now there’s no one I’d want to sire anyway and all these people keep harping on it. I told them I wanted it to be someone famous witch stopped questioning at least for a little while well they tried to find someone good enough. Well trying to figure out how best to help Spike with his problem Buffy suddenly sat straight up. OMG! Giles will want to know Dru’s gone and that you’re all princely now. What are we going to do? I can’t tell him!
Down Slayer. I’ll make a quick appearance in a couple weeks blaming you for her death, and maybe we can reestablish the claim, it’ll probably be a little weaker by then any way. Although this was said (thought?) casually Buffy could feel his anxiety over her answer and loved him all the more for it. That sounds great honey! Trust me You’ll love Faith everyone else seems to.
[Reviews - 5]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 3416 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
I skipped the episode Dead Man’s Party as I didn’t feel the claim would affect anything there. This is basically all the first half of Faith, Hope and Trick, before they fight the cloven hoof guy what’s his name. All claim convos are in bold italics. Enjoy and leave reviews!