Oooo
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Oooo
Buffy was pacing nervously in the living room. It was now 6:22, she’d dropped off the children back at school ten minutes ago and arrived home, before seriously starting to rethink her costume. At Xander’s advise she’d put a thin band around her head to let Snyder think she actually had dressed up as a hippie, so he wouldn’t bug her about not wearing a costume. Of course he had bugged her about her costume being exactly right for her because according to him, she was the same kind of anti-social, good for nothing bum as those hippies.
But what if Spike wouldn’t even notice just what she’d dressed up as? Or what if he’d be mad that she stole his picture, or he’d be upset because she looked like this? She was already halfway up the stairs when there was a knock on the door. “Damn!” She softly cursed. Well, too late now, he’d see her either way.
Walking up to the door she ran a hand over her wig to see if it was still on correctly. With a swing she opened the door.
Spike, who had been about to say something, froze the second he caught sight of her. For a long moment he really thought it was her; his Buffy. The one who, despite the presence of the younger version, he’d been dreaming about every night. But then he came to his senses and actually saw the differences. She had done an amazing job at looking almost exactly like her older version, and the clothes, he noticed, were just like the ones on the picture he carried around. He felt his pocket, and indeed, it was gone.
“Buffy,” he breathed out, “you look…it’s exactly…” Then he exhaled and a wide smile spread his lips. “Amazing Slayer costume you got there, kitten.”
Buffy smiled in relieve. “You like? I uh, stole your picture, couldn’t resist,” She said sheepishly. “Surprise.”
“I am, love, very pleasantly surprised. Not that you don’t look just as gorgeous as your present self.”
She blushed. “Well, shall we?” She asked with a motion to the outside.
“We shall,” he held out his arm for her to take when she closed the door behind her.
“Though I should probably scold you for not wearing a costume,” Buffy added as an afterthought.
Oooooooo
The walk over to the Bronze was filled with comfortable chit-chat and just a dash of playful banter. Spike was happy to conclude that talking to Buffy still went as easily as it had with her more mature counterpart. That is, before the badness had started and they could barely speak to each other without her punching him or it being very awkward.
He sighed. Really gotta stop comparing the young one with the older one. He was really trying to get in the right mindset here, and get acquainted with this sweet, sixteen year old Buffy, but it was getting to be really hard on him. Especially now, with her looking the way she did.
They were about two blocks away when Spike noticed a change in the air. Magic. As soon as he had smelled it, Buffy faltered in her steps, pressing her hand to her head. “You alright, love?”
“Yeah, I…” She trailed off. Then, right before Spike’s very eyes, she changed. It wasn’t a monumental change, it was more subtle. She suddenly got slightly thinner, the tiniest of lines appeared in her face and her hair looked a lot more real. When she looked up, he gasped. It was her eyes that gave it away the most, that showed years of experience and knowledge that hadn’t been there before. And he knew. “Spike? W-what happened?”
Buffy took in her surroundings and realised they were in a street close to the Bronze. When did we get here? The last thing she remembered was Dawn making funny faces at her behind her camera, trying to get her to laugh for the picture and then…blankness. And now she was suddenly here. She looked at Spike, who was staring at her oddly, like he couldn’t believe she was standing there. He looked different. Younger somehow. But that’s crazy, vampires don’t get older…But still, he seemed thinner and his hair was shorter. His scar was a lot more prominent. “Spike?” She repeated when he didn’t say anything.
He blinked a few times, as if in a daze. “You’re…Buffy – you…” He stumbled over his words, for once unable to form a coherent sentence. This was the Buffy from the future, he was sure of it. But then, it wasn’t really her, was it? It was because she’d dressed up like that, and then the spell had transformed her into…what was he supposed to do now?
“Spike, are you okay? What happened, did I black out somewhere? I don’t actually remember getting here…” He kept staring at her, and it was getting kinda weird. Unless…she narrowed her eyes, “You’re not the First, are you? Coz – “
Just then someone came running past them and bumped against Buffy, sending her crashing into Spike’s arms with and ‘oompf’. He still has that nice Spike smell…suddenly she realised she’d lingered in his arms and awkwardly stepped away. “So…I guess, uhm, you’re not the First then, with the touching and the…Okay Spike, please say something, this is getting weird!”
Spike shook himself, “Right, yeh, no ‘m not the First. Actually, Buffy, somethin’s goin’ on that – “
Suddenly a car alarm went off and two girls in costumes came running by screaming, followed by a large, hairy sasquatch-like-being. Buffy was about to run after it when she was held back by Spike. “Better not kill it, Slayer, that’s not really a demon in there.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” She asked him with a confused frown.
“Well see, pet, ‘s like this: Whole bunch of kids dressed in Halloween costumes actually got turned into their costume, but as soon as the spell or whatnot is over, they turn right back into little kiddies.”
“What? No way, that happened again? When did this happen?” Buffy looked at him in bewilderment. “I didn’t even know it was Halloween.”
“Buffy!” Both of them turned to the voice and saw Willow dressed in ‘slutty’ attire and Xander holding a very real rifle running towards them. “Buffy, are you okay?”
“Willow!?” Buffy looked in amazement at both her very young looking friends, then at Spike. “Okay, what the…?”
“Did you get turned into your costume too?” Willow asked, her face full of worry.
“I...” She looked down at herself but she was just wearing the clothes she had on before. She turned pleading eyes at Spike, “What’s going on, how did I end up in the past? Or you, for that matter?”
Willows eyes grew even more, “Oh! Oh you were wearing older-Buffy costume! So – so you’re like…Buffy, only older!”
“Who’s Buffy?” Asked Xander, but he was ignored by the rest.
Oooooooo
“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Buffy said as she opened the door to her house and entered, followed by Spike, soldier-Xander and ghost-Willow. She turned around and crossed her arms, while Xander went to look out the window of the door. “My sixteen-year-old self was somehow dressed up in a costume of me, and now with this spell going on, she turned into me, making me …me, only in the past…for me? And Spike’s here because, the Powers that Be thought it was fun to make him relive the past six years and see if they could do better?”
“In a nutshell – or, well, a very compact and confusing nutshell.” Spike said and shrugged apologetically at her confused expression. “’s a very long story, an’ there’s not really time to tell it now.”
Buffy sighed and then shrugged, deciding just to go along with it all. “Well I guess it’s a nice change from dealing with the First all the time. Wait, but – you’re still Spike, right? Er, my Spike? What happened, did the world end? Is that why you’re here?”
Ignoring Willow who was yelling at Xander not to shoot at the people-demons, Spike tried not to smile at the ‘my Spike’ comment. “No the world didn’t end, it’s uhm…I tell you what, if there’s some more time before the spell ends, I’ll tell you, alright?”
Buffy frowned. He knew what had happened, obviously, and if the world hadn’t ended they must have defeated the First. Shouldn’t she know this stuff? But she supposed he was right, this wasn’t really the time.
Xander came crashing back inside with Cordelia in tow after having run out to rescue the cheerleader from the same Sasquatch as before.
“Cordelia!” Willow exclaimed.
“Wait a…what’s going on?” Cordelia asked in bewilderment.
“Okay, your name is Cordelia, you’re not a cat, you’re in high school and we’re your friends. Well, sort of…”
“That’s nice Willow, and you went mental when?”
“You know us?”
“Yeah, lucky me. What’s with the name game?”
“A lot’s going on.”
“No kidding. I was just attacked by Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy. Look at my costume!” She cried, gesturing at the torn sleeve of her cat-suit. “Do you really think that Partytown’s gonna give me my deposit back? Not on the likely.”
Xander took off his over-shirt and put it around her shoulders, “Here.”
“Thanks.” Cordelia said with a surprised frown.
Willow rolled her eyes at the display and turned to Buffy who was looking very amused at Cordelia. “Buffy, since I guess you’re from the future – sort of – and already know what happened, maybe you could, like, tell us what to do?”
Buffy shrugged. “Yeah, it’s this weasel called Ethan that did the spell. Go to Giles, he goes all Ripper-mode when you mention his name, I’m sure he’d want to take care of this by himself.”
Willow frowned. “You’re not going to help him?”
“No need really. Ethan may know some nifty black-magic, but Giles always easily kicks his ass. I think he might actually get off on it or something.” She scrunched up her nose at that thought.
“Alright, so I’ll go to the library to get Giles.” Willow said with a frown at the careless attitude this older Buffy was showing. She disappeared through the wall.
“What’s that riff?” Cordelia asked with a frown at Buffy. “Since when did you become the all-knowing?”
“I’m from the future.” Buffy said with a grin. She actually still didn’t understand what in the hell was going on here, but it was kind of funny to see all these younger versions of her friends.
“Oh no not another one of those, ‘from the future’ stories! Hello, in case you hadn’t noticed, this isn’t a movie, and you’re not Michael J. Fox. And you,” She said, turning to Spike, “Are way too young- and hot-looking to be as old as that Doc guy, so just save it.”
Spike and Buffy shared an amused look at this.
Then Angel came from the kitchen, “Oh good! You guys are alright. It’s total chaos out there.”
Xander stepped forward, his rifle ready. “Who are you?” He demanded.
“Okay.” Angel drawled with a frown. “Somebody wanna fill me in?”
Buffy smiled widely, “Aww he’s so cute.” She cooed. For some reason Angel seemed absolutely adorable to her; she guessed it was because to her it was like he was sort of a ‘teenage’ version of himself just as everyone else.
Angel looked at her surprised, and Spike tried to keep from laughing. “Okay, uhm, Buffy I’m kinda lost here. You…what’s up with your hair?” Angel asked. He looked her over, and everything about her was slightly different. She didn’t look like the teenage girl he knew, but like a woman.
“Well they both think they’re from the future, Xander doesn’t know who he is, everyone’s turned into a monster. It’s a whole big thing.” Cordelia said and then put on a flirty smile and hooked her arm through Angel’s. “How are you?”
The vampire looked at Buffy with question in his eyes. “The future?” Just then the lights went off.
Xander stepped forward, and motioned to Angel and Spike, “You two take blondie and secure the kitchen. Catwoman, you’re with me.” He then took off with Cordelia following.
“No, wait, I like the man with the musket!” Buffy said with a laugh as she remembered how she’d acted when she’d turned into the 18th century girl. They went to the kitchen, where the door stood open.
“I didn’t leave that open.” Angel said suspiciously.
“No that’s because a vampire came in.” Buffy said. Angel turned to her in confusion. “Yeah, without an invitation, because he’s not really a vampire, but a regular guy.” Said regular guy in vampire guise came from the basement door and attacked her. She punched him and sent him flying towards Angel who then went to fight him. “Don’t stake him!” Buffy said, “he’ll turn back to normal after the spell.”
With Spike’s help, they held the ‘vampire’ down and continued to tie him up outside against a tree. “He’ll be kinda confused when he changes back, but it’s better than being dead.” Buffy said with a shrug. She turned to Angel. “Uhm, could you hit the streets and do damage control? Make sure no one actually gets killed and all that?”
Angel nodded and after giving her a last once over he took off.
“Well that got rid o’ him.” Spike said from behind her with a slightly teasing tone.
She turned around to him with a shrug. “Hey it’s a legitimate reason to send him off. Besides, I figured we should talk about this here, while we still have time. I figure once the spell ends I’ll be young-me again, so…” Spike nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. “So what happened. Did we win?” She asked hopefully.
Spike gave another nod. “We won.” He frowned. “Or, at least, I think we did. Wasn’t exactly able to see the end result.”
Buffy looked at him in alarm. “W-what do you mean, you weren’t able?” She was afraid she already knew the answer.
He sighed, reluctant to tell her this part. “I won’t go in details, since even if I told you now, it wouldn’t matter in the outcome. But I had a device that worked through m’ soul and eventually burned me from the inside out. So I s’pose I died, but since right after that those wanker Powers decided it wasn’t time yet, I didn’t exactly feel the effects apart from the pain of burning.” He gave the horrified looking Buffy a small smile. “But I know you came out alive, which is the important part, yeh?”
She shook her head, the thought of Spike actually dying terrifying her. The past few months they hadn’t really talked, apart from a few hurtful barbs and then awkward pleasantries. “B-But we talked, right? I mean we didn’t just leave it like it was, between us?” She stepped closer to him.
“Don’t worry ‘bout it, love, it’s all in the past now…or, uh, the future.”
Buffy frowned at his casualness. “How can you just say that, I-I mean isn’t it important to you? Coz it is to me, I don’t wanna go out there knowing I let you die without you even knowing…” She paused and looked down.
“Knowing…what?” Spike asked carefully reaching out and gently raising her chin up so she could meet his eyes.
“That I forgive you…for what happened, before you left.” Spike nearly jumped away from her and was about to protest, “And I’m sorry.”
At that Spike’s mouth snapped shut and he frowned. “Sorry? Love, you don’t have anythin’ to be sorry ‘bout.”
She sighed, “Don’t give me that, you know that’s not true. The way I treated you last year – no matter what happened in the…bathroom – you never deserved that. I was horrible to you and, I’m really sorry.” He looked at her in amazement, and even though he wanted to protest at what she was saying, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. She reached out and laid her hand against his cheek, much like she had right before they went down into the Hellmouth.
With love in his eyes he ran a hand over her long blond hair and gently pushed a stray lock behind her ear. “Buffy I –“ Then, much like before, he felt the tingling of magic in the air, and Buffy blinked. Just like he remembered the first time he lived this Halloween, her hair suddenly felt like thin nylon threads.
Buffy, her face now returned to it’s youthful self, blinked up at him with wide eyes. “Wow…that was weird.” She mumbled.
Spike smiled softly at her, “Honey, you’re home,” He said, much like she had, the first time around. And while she raised her eyebrows at the joke she didn’t get, all he could hear in his mind were her words. I forgive you.
Oooooooo
Later that evening Spike strolled into the library to find Giles sitting at the table, a cup of tea in his hand and a pensive expression on. “Evenin’ Rupert. How did the kicking of Ethan Rayne’s arse go?”
Giles looked up at him and stood up. “As far as things go, it went considerably well.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the edge of the table. “Might I ask how you knew about him?”
“Didn’t Red tell you? Buffy was dressed up as her future-self, ‘n just like everyone else she too turned into her costume.”
“Yes, Willow did tell me about that.”
“Oh. Well it was Buffy who knew ‘bout Ethan. I’ve never actually met the bugger, but I have been around during two of his magical splurges an’ I have to say, for someone who worships chaos, he does have a sense of humour.” Spike said with a smirk. Giles merely gave him a deadly glare. “But seriously, though, Buffy knew it was ‘im that was responsible for this whole thing, an’ she figured you might like to beat him up yourself.”
Giles blinked in surprise and removed his glasses, “Yes, erm, quite, er, quite right. Where is she now?”
“She went home to change, then she’s comin’ here.”
The doors to the library opened and the voices of Buffy and Willow drifted in, by the sound of it they were excited about something. Spike turned around and the moment he clashed eyes with Buffy she froze to the spot.
Spike frowned slightly at her appearance. “Thought you were goin’ home to change, pet?” She didn’t respond, just stood there, staring at him with wide eyes filling up with tears. His eyes flicked to Willow and was shocked at what he saw. This wasn’t the young, timid Willow, this was the mature, full-blown witch Willow. He looked at Buffy again in amazement when he started to realise what this meant. “Buffy?” He whispered.
She let out a watery laugh that was filled with her awe. “Spike.” She breathed.
Oooo
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Oooo
To be continued…
PS, the future-Buffy-but-not-really was from in between The Killer In Me and First Date. Please review and let me know what you think!!
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Okay, so...I basically realized this only a short while ago while I was making some banners for this story...I don’t know if anyone else noticed this, but Spike is pretty much unable to have pictures of future-Buffy in his pocket, because he was sent back to his younger-self-body…yah…so I hope you’ll be able to ignore this silly mistake of me, and let’s just call it a plot-device. Uhm, sorry?
Anyway, thank you guys for all your reviews! And now, on with the story…
Anyway, thank you guys for all your reviews! And now, on with the story…