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Author's Chapter Notes:
Can I just say I loved Lorne on AtV, and was really disappointed that he didn't get, like, his own show?
“Damn, B. When did you have time to get all this stuff?” Faith grumped as she tried to life one of Buffy’s over packed boxes. Robin stuck his bald, shiny head in the door.

“Like you’re one to talk, Kettle.” Faith stuck her tongue out at her boyfriend, whose eyes glazed over in a look Buffy was quite familiar with.

“Oh, no you don’t! You two have boxes to move! No nookie! Bad Faith, bad Robin!” Buffy commanded, trying to keep the laughter out of her voice. Faith scowled at her before dumping the box in Robin’s waiting arms, smiling sweetly at his put-upon expression. The two began mock-arguing about Faith’s laziness and Robin’s heavy-lifting duty as the manly black man in their relationship. Robin finally gave up, hauling the box away and complaining about the double standards of life.

Buffy gave a little sigh at how easy they were with each other. Faith had had a hard time growing up, her parents largely absent, and those were on the good days. She’d erected a wall around herself that pushed away anyone who got too close away. She’d had a disastrous non-relationship with Xander, but after high school, with the maturity of college and time under their belts, the two had made nice. But something like that never fully went away. Then Robin had fallen into Faith’s life and refused to leave. He’d put up with a lot of shit in his efforts to prove to her that he was for real. Buffy had learned a lot from them, including how potentially harmful and detrimental it was to let the demons of your past rule your present. So she’d looked up a psychiatrist in the area and hadn’t looked back. Speaking of Lorne, he was supposed to come by and help out today. A few months after Buffy had stopped seeing him professionally, they had run into each other at the movies. They’d traded phone numbers and struck up a brilliant friendship.

“Shnookums, I’m home!” a cheery voice called out. A grin lit up her face. There was her favorite ex-shrink, fashionably late as always.

“But darling, my secret lover is still here! Come back later!” she called with a giggle. Lorne flounced in and struck a pose in the door way, his head thrown back dramatically.

“I’m ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille!” Buffy and Faith cracked up at Lorne’s antics. While he was slightly effeminate, Lorne was far from flaming; besides he was bisexual and would be terribly disappointed if all the ladies were put off by his snake, ah, man charming abilities. Robin snuck up behind the posing shrink, wrapping his arms around him and pursing his lips.

“I don’t care which side you get, honey, just as long as you get my good side,” he quipped. Faith dropped her newly packed box of clothes, doubling over at the picture the two men made. Buffy had to sit down on the bed. It had taken a while for Lorne to get Robin to loosen up, but once he had...well, it was impossible to have a bad day when the two of them were “playing.” They continued playing off each other, their conversation getting more ridiculous until the girls had tears running down their faces.

“Uncle!” Buffy yelled, her sides aching. “We have moving to do!”

“And sexy new TWIN roommates to meet,” Lorne added mischievously.

“Lorne,” Buffy warned.

“Buffykins.” She gave him a pointed look. “Oh, come on. A man can dream. I mean, two blue-eyed, high-cheeked British twins who look like Adonis at my beck-and-call? That’s the stuff wet dreams are made of, beautiful!” Buffy blushed; Lorne was a bit closer to the truth than she was willing to admit. She had a boyfriend, one she was happy and content with! She had no lusty feelings for her roommates. Nope, none at all. Lustiness factors of zero.

Lorne shared a secret smile with Faith. It was obvious Buffy was quite attracted to her reportedly bodaciously beautiful roomies. And God if he didn’t detest Riley. He was not for his Buffykins, not at all. Xander chose that moment to come back in and rally the troops.

“What are you people doing? We have things to move, trucks to pack, places to be! Let’s move people! Hey Lorne. Chop chop! Go, go, go!” Xander cried. Faith rolled her eyes and hauled her box downstairs. The others followed, Lorne and Buffy teaming up to tackle a particularly heavy box of what had to be cement blocks. They almost bit it on the stairs, but made it with only a few bumps and scrapes. They found Faith sitting on the bed of the truck, legs swinging.

“You guys know my motto, want, take, have? Well, right now I want to stop, take a break, and have a beer. Who’s with me?” A raucous chorus of agreement met her suggestion. Robin spent the entire trip back up to the apartment teasing Lorne about his lack of stamina, to which Lorne responded he’d be more than happy to give Robin an intimate display of his stamina. Robin would just need to take a week or two off of work.

The group was lazily stretched out on the barren carpeted floor, sipping cold beers and laughing at Robin and Lorne’s double entendres when Riley showed up. Buffy leapt up to greet him, oblivious to the subdued mood that fell over the rest of the group, even Xander in this mixed company.

“Hey! You’re just in time, we only have a few more boxes to clear out before we head over to the new place!” Buffy exclaimed. She wrapped her arms around him, happiness radiating from every pore of her being.

“Yeah, about that...” Riley started, avoiding Buffy’s eyes. Lorne gritted his teeth when Buffy’s face fell. Bastard. He was pretty sure Riley was cheating on the effusive blonde, but he had no proof. Only years of experience as a clinical psychologist, reading body language and hearing what wasn’t said. That and Riley had the earmarks of a self-righteously unfaithful man. Probably had twisted it in his mind that it was all Buffy’s fault for whatever her was doing. He needed to liberate his precious Buffykins ASAP.

“Something came up, babe. I’m really sorry. But hey, I’ll take you out to a house warming dinner, how’s that sound?” Buffy gave him a small smile and nodded, Riley placing a chaste kiss on her lips. He shook hands with Xander and waved to the rest of the group before leaving as quickly as he’d shown up.

It was a well known fact that Riley didn’t like Faith, Robin, or Lorne. He didn’t like Faith because she was independent and very liberated; she recounted many of her sexual pitfalls to the amusement of the group--even Robin, who has realized long ago that Faith dealt with her past by making it something she could laugh at--but such a display of blatant sexuality from a female didn’t sit well with Iowa’s most repressed son. And Riley had a very big problem with Robin and Faith’s relationship as they were not of the same race. While he claimed he’d been raised to respect black people, ‘they’ were not proper choices as significant others, and definitely not for marriage.

And Lorne. Well, Lorne was just morally corrupt and perverted. He’d had several girlfriends and boyfriends over the six months Riley had known him. Riley was trying to distance Buffy from them by introducing her to normal people, people who were worth her time and whose association wouldn’t sully her reputation. But for now, he tolerated them. And he had a meeting with a certain someone to get to. The door closed behind Riley’s hulking form, a strained silence settling between the friends. Blinking away tears, Buffy turned to face the group, her voice overly chipper.

“Let’s finish this up!” she cried, trying to cover the hurt Riley’s abrupt dismissal caused. At least he’d bothered to show up and tell her. That was something.

Lorne and Robin quickly lightened Buffy’s mood with their outrageous antics. She giggled as they discussed the benefits of ‘spooning’ food over ‘knifing’ it as they hauled her cutlery down to the moving van. Between the five of them, the old apartment was empty and completely devoid of personality, Faith having moved out a week earlier.

Buffy finished packing up the last of her knick knacks, surveying her empty room with a sense of nostalgia. She’d spent three very happy years here. She was going to miss it, but she couldn’t help but think that the move was opening up a new, profound chapter in her life. And she couldn’t wait!





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