Flashback, 12 years ago at 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale
At the sound of the doorbell, 33-year old Joyce Summers hurriedly came down the stairs to open door for their expected guests.
“Hi I’m Joyce! “ Joyce greeted the couple at her doorstep. “Please come in!”
“Thanks.” They told her as they went inside. “I’m Rupert Giles but you can just call me Giles and this is my wife, Jenny.”
“Well, I’m so glad to finally meet you. ” She told them as she gave them both a warm hug. “ Please have a seat. Hank will be right down in sec.”
*****************
”You have a lovely home, Joyce.” Jenny complimented. “I like what you did with it, especially the paintings. You must tell which store you got them from. They’re so beautiful.”
”Why thank you.” Joyce grinned. “ Well actually, I own a gallery not far from here and most of these paintings you see are my personal work.”
“Really?” Giles’ said as he went to examine the two paintings right next to Joyce. It was a painting of a backyard much similar to theirs, only this one has a tree house. “You got some real good talent there, Joyce. You’ve done a great job with it.”
“I agree.” Jenny joined in, noticing at the same time that both of the pictures had the same little girl and the same tree house in it. While the first one showed the girl, looking down from the window, the other showed her sitting on the tire swing below it, smiling widely. “This must be your daughter.”
“Yes.” Joyce replied. “ How did you-“
“Hank told us that you have kid who has the same age as ours.” Jenny intercepted, never taking her eyes away from the painting.
She really appears to like the painting so much, Joyce thought to herself before she took one of the two paintings off the wall and handed it to them.
“Here. Call it our welcoming present.”
“B-but this has a picture of your daughter. We couldn’t possibly- “ Giles stammered.
“Well almost all of my paintings have my daughter in it anyway. Honestly, this one falls under the list of my favorite ones, but I would still love for you to have it. ”
The couple looked at each other, practically stunned at her kind gesture.
“Are you sure?” Jenny asked.
“Yes, I’m really sure.” Joyce told them happily as they all sat together on the couch.
“Thanks. This is erm… too much but we’re honored to have it. We promise to take really good care of it.” Giles assured their neighbor.
" You know, "Joyce started to change the subject in attempt to ease the building awkwardness. " I noticed that you sounded a bit-"
"British?" Giles continued for her.
" Well I was going to say different but yeah. You guys didn't move all the way from Europe, did you?"
Jenny sighed. " Well as matter of fact, we did."
**************
Minutes later, a man with bigger built than Giles, joined them in the living room.
“Wonderful! We’re so glad that you could join us for dinner. How’s the unpacking coming along?”
Hank Summers had stumbled upon them when he came home from work the day before. He had offered his help when it came to his attention that the family is seriously lacking in the muscles department.
“I hear you Hank,” Jenny joined in. “ I look at all those boxes and I could tell it’s going to take us a lot more than just a few days to take them all out.”
“Well, just say the word, Jenny and I’ll be happy to lend you a hand.” Joyce offered amicably.
“Why thanks, Joyce! We’re so lucky to have moved to such a nice neighborhood.”
“Very nice indeed.” Giles added. “ Just look at what Joyce gave us a welcoming present.” He told Hank. “We love it but we told her that we’re not really sure if we should take since this one got an image of your daughter-“
“Nonsense!” Hank protested. “ We actually have more than a dozen of that all around the house. Joyce love making our daughter as the subject of most of her paintings.”
The rest of them chuckled.
“Well speaking of our daughter. Hank told me that you have son named William. Where is he by the way?”
******************
William Giles hated that they had to move.
When he first received the news that they were moving to another country, he’d been devastated. Mostly, for the reason that he didn’t want to leave his friends behind. Not that there were many of them but they were still his friends and the thought that he had to start anew and make new friends again completely bothered him.
He was told then that they were moving to another country but it had never once occurred to him that they had to take an airplane in order to get there. With a 24 time zone differential from his old place… whatever that means.
After his daddy lost his job at a university in London 3 months ago, life had been really tough. His parents however had tried all they could to protect him from knowing the extent of their family’s financial struggle. What they didn't know then was that William could very well sense that his family was far from being okay. There were more than several occasions where he'd accidentally overheard his parents arguing. He couldn't actually make out what they have been about but he had definitely heard some yelling in the mix particularly at night when they’d thought that he’d already fallen asleep.
He heard from kids he knew about parents who lived separately due to problems his 6-year old mind couldn’t fully understand. He just assumed it has something to do with money but whatever the real reason was, the thought of losing either of his parents terrifies him to the core.
And so, he’d been elated to find out later that his mom and dad had managed to get a job in a local school in Sunnydale, California. At first he was happy. But when found out that California happens to be halfway across the world, he got furious.
Although he was still feeling a little angry right after the move, he couldn’t help but feel a little relieved. His two parents were going to stay together and to William’s young and innocent mind, nothing else in the world mattered.
When William met the head of the Summers’ household the day before, he had overheard him mentioning it to his parents that they also have a kid almost his age.
If it wasn’t for his incessant brooding that day, he could have had at least asked for the kid’s name or let alone his gender. But noooo, instead he had chosen to keep his tiny mouth shut and went on with his task of pretending to be an inanimate object, which he probably did a very good job of doing since no one bothered to talk him after that.
He could very well be in fact a boy like him. Well, that thought certainly cheered him up a bit. Smiling to himself, a thought had suddenly occurred to him as the three of them were already standing at the front porch of Mr. Summers’ house. He realized that he should have brought his new toy truck that he got for his birthday last week. He then told his mom and dad that he needed to go back to the house. And when they agreed, he had practically ran like the wind to get it from his bedroom.
In a flash, he was back and was about to enter the Summers home when he heard an undistinguishable sound that had him stopped dead in his tracks.
He looked around but no one else was there but him. Interesting. Deciding that it was just probably his mind that was playing tricks on him, he moved to enter the opened door and just then, the sound started again only this time it was a little more audible than before. Was that a whimper he just heard?
There it goes again.
Someone was definitely crying.
Curious, he decided to follow the source of those heart-wrenching sobs.
He eventually found himself at the Summers’ backyard and almost instantly, something had caught his eye that made his young blue eyes twinkle with delight.
Well what do you know! There’s tree house in their neighbor’s backyard! It has got to be the most beautiful tree house he has ever seen! It even has its own play yard. underneath it. He couldn’t believe his luck. All at once, his vision were filled with thoughts of the faceless boy and him playing the game of Fire station for endless of hours.
There it went again. The sound. He’s most definitely sure now that it was coming from the tree house.
He fleetingly scratched his light curly brown hair and contemplated whether to just to leave the poor kid alone. On the other hand, who was he kidding? He is a seven year old boy after old after all. Not like he ever cared about invading someone else’s privacy and such!
So he slowly climbed up the ladder in the center of the log and pulled himself up through the trap door and snuck inside the playhouse. Soon enough, he already found himself face to face with his mysterious friend that he was hoping to be a boy. Only he wasn’t. William tilted his head in amusement as his eyes rested upon the helpless looking girl with long blond hair that extended beyond her shoulders.
He wished he could see here face, but it was still partially hidden by her knees that she hugged tightly to herself. For a minute, he stood not knowing what to do and just stared at her helpless tiny form.
When she sensed somebody else’s presence, she became alarmed and shot her head up to see who it was.
Blue eyes were suddenly met by teary green ones. “Wh- who are you?” She managed to ask between sniffles.
“H- Hi ! “ William moved closer and sat beside her. “I’m uh Wil-yum. I live next door.”
Buffy blinked. It took her a moment to realize what the boy was trying to say. Oh. He’s the new neighbor my mommy and daddy were talking about . “I’m Buffy. " Came her soft small voice. "Y- you sound different, Will-yum.”
“I’m English. You know erm… like James Bond.”
“Huh?”
“Ne’er mind. Why are you cryin’, pet?”
Buffy looked at him warily before she burst into another set of tears.
William began to panic when the little girl resumed with her crying. “Buffy, stop. You could tell me what’s wrong, My da tells me am a good lis-ner.” … If my ears were still working, he added mentally.” You could tell me anything.”
Despite his missing two front teeth, William Giles could be quite the little charmer if he wanted to. He then gave her his lost puppy look. It was the same look that he would often use with his mom whenever he wanted to ask for a new toy or wanted stay-up a little later than he normally should.
Amazingly, Buffy had found herself trying to control her sobs. “I did something bad.”
“What was it?” He had moved the strands that partly concealed her young face and gently tucked it behind her left ear. “ I swear on my nana’s grave that I won’t tell anybody, “
“Your granny already went to heaven?”
“Well actually no.“ William answered with a sigh. “ It’s just something I would hear grown-ups sayin’.”
Finally, Buffy brought an end to her tears and William felt himself mesmerized when he saw the tiny smile that was beginning to form on her lips. It reminded him so much of the angels that his mom would to talk to him about. They said that they were all beautiful. He wondered if they could ever be as beautiful as the girl before him. “I- I love butterflies and hearts.”
Buffy quickly continued when she saw the confused that look she got from William, “Mommy has a bracelet with hearts and butterflies. It was pretty and she told me not to play with it.”
William’s eyes went wide when he realized what she was trying to say. “You broke it?”
She nodded. “But I didn’t mean to.”
“Told your mom yet?”
“No.” She replied curtly, her tears threatening to spill again.
“S’ ok , pet. I’m pretty sure she’ll forgive you.”
Buffy’s face brightened-up. “You think so?”
“I know so.”
“Really?”
“I swear on my nana’s grave.”
Buffy grinned as she realized that his left hand was hidden behind his back the whole time. “ What do you have on your other hand, Will-yum?”
He smirked and showed her the toy truck. Buffy’s smile grew even brighter.
Angel, his mind beamed proudly.
“Let’s play, Will-yum “ she stood up and bounced happily, taking the toy truck with her.
And she plays with boys’ toys too, he thought cheerfully as he quickly followed after his angel with a goofy grin on his face.
TBC
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I know that that the tree house setting had been used so many times but I just couldn't resist. When I first heard Teddy Geiger's Song For you I will, this story just came to mind. This is my very first attempt at a Spuffy fanfic so please be kind :-)