I Have Waited For You
Chapter One
May 2001
He watched her for some time, but didn’t dare approach. He’d never been able to talk to women, always having to admire from afar. Women never wanted to talk to him, either, dullard that he was.
Nose always stuck in a book, pen in hand, ink staining his skin, he turned out verse-after-verse of dross.
Of course they were never interested. But that didn’t stop him from hoping.
And so he watched the blond girl dance, her eyes closed, seemingly lost to the rhythm of the music.
***
Buffy sat down on the stool Xander had saved for her. He sent a hopeful glance her way, and she averted her gaze, choosing to look at the crowded dance floor, instead.
“Nice moves out there, Buff,” he said, and Buffy frowned. It seemed that his recent date with Anya hadn’t been enough to quash his longstanding crush.
“Thanks.” She took a long drink of her coke, and set the empty glass down on the table with a clunk.
The silence was slightly uncomfortable until Willow returned from the restroom, an excited bounce in her step as she neared the table.
“Buffy! Hottie on the balcony, totally checking you out.”
Buffy twisted in her seat and peered towards the upper level of the Bronze. A man—several years older than she was, by the looks of it—was indeed staring down at her. When their eyes met, he blushed and looked away.
“He’s cute,” Buffy said, noncommittally. In fact, she agreed wholeheartedly with Willow’s assessment of the man. He was thin, though his short-sleeved t-shirt afforded a glimpse of strong muscles, and he had the most defined cheekbones that Buffy had ever seen. His dark-blonde hair was adorably tousled, and the entire package deserved a very positive yum.
But she wasn’t going to go and talk to him.
“I can’t, Willow,” she said, when her friend encouraged her to approach him. Xander huffed and went to the bar for more drinks. “Not with the whole Slayer thing. I’m not going to waste my time on someone who’ll just leave me when he finds out the truth. My life is majorly weird. He’d wig out.”
“We didn’t,” Willow reminded her. “Well, okay, we kinda did, with the whole Ahh, vampires! freak out. But we got over it.”
“Forget about it.” Buffy replied. “Not happening.”
***
Fate, it seemed, had other plans. On her patrol the following evening, she was crossing through Shady Rest Cemetery when there was a loud yell, followed by a shout of terror.
Hurrying off in the direction of the sounds, she came to a stop to see the hottie from the night before holding his own pretty well against a fledgling. He threw a punch that didn’t connect, and the vampire kicked him, causing him to trip backwards over a headstone.
Buffy pulled her stake from her pocket before jumping into the fray, drawing the vampire away from its intended pray and into a fight that was more fairly matched. Moments later, it was dust, and she turned back to the man, wincing when she saw the bruises and deep gashes on his face and arms.
“What… what was that thing?” He had an English accent, and sounded cultured, upper-class.
“Uh…”
“It had fangs,” the man said. “God, I’ve only read of such things. Tell me it wasn’t a vampire.”
Buffy frowned, unsure if he was talking to her or himself.
“Are you all right?” she asked. “It got you pretty good.”
“I—” He looked up, and Buffy realised that his eyes were startlingly blue. “It’s you.”
“Me?”
He blushed. “I—my apologies. I simply meant that I have seen you before. At the dance club. I—saw you.” He looked down at his hands, and Buffy couldn’t help but smile.
“What’s your name?”
“William.”
“I’m Buffy.”
“Buffy—” He breathed her name with a reverence that made her blush. He smiled. “Hello, Buffy.”
***
September 2001
William loved moments like these; when it was just him, and her, and the silence of the night. Her head was resting on his chest, blond hair pooling on the pillow. His heart swelled with love for her, and he could hardly believe that he had only known her a few months.
He felt that it had been providence that had led them to meet, that it had been her—the girl he had admired from afar—who had found him fighting the vampire in the cemetery.
She had taken him home, cleaned his wounds and entranced him even more. When she’d shyly given him her phone number, with a delightful blush and secret smile, he had been lost. And he didn’t want to be found.
Buffy shifted in his arms, and he hugged her tighter, pressing a light kiss to the top of her head. She mumbled something incoherent, something that sounded a little like his name, and he smiled.
He didn’t think he could love her more.
But there was a shadow over their relationship, and it wasn’t the Slayer thing, like she thought. It was his secret… the one thing that he had never told her, that he couldn’t bring himself to share with her.
He lived in fear that he would slip, that she—or one of her friends—would notice. Though, the fear of Buffy finding out paled in comparison to the fear that it would happen again. Those police reports…
William shifted uncomfortably—afraid to close his eyes—and clutched Buffy to him almost desperately.
He didn’t want it to happen again, but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to stop it if it did.
***
“So, what’s the what? New evil in town?” Buffy sat down at the research table in the Magic Box, and smiled at William, who had a series of newspaper clippings spread in front of him. He didn’t smile back.
Giles peered at her from over the top of his glasses. “It would appear so. Several disappearances over the last few weeks, no apparent connection between the victims.”
“Any clues at all?” Buffy asked.
“The police and newspaper reports all agree on one thing,” William put in, voice shaking. “They all disappeared from their beds.”
Buffy stared at her boyfriend, worried when she heard the tremor in his voice. She slid her hand across the table and into his, squeezing it in a silent question. He met her eyes, and she could see fear there. She shivered.
“I did wonder, at first, if this was indeed a matter for us,” Giles said, “but it does seem as though the disappearances are supernatural in nature; several of the victims went missing from within locked rooms.”
“Hmm.” Buffy looked at the newspaper cuttings and the print-outs that Willow had obtained from the police database. Her fingers were still laced with William’s. “So… I guess I should hit the demon bars, see if anyone knows anything.”
“I think that would be a good place to start,” Giles said. “I’ll have Willow scour the internet when she gets here, see if this has ever happened before.”
Neither of them noticed the widening of William’s eyes, or the way his jaw clenched at Giles’ words.
***
“Mmm… that was nice,” Buffy said, burying her face in the crook of William’s neck.
“Only nice?”
“Shut up.” She grinned, and bit him lightly on the shoulder. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah.” William’s answer was short, terse, and he rolled away slightly, moving onto his back rather than his side.
The curtains at the open window swayed in the breeze, and Buffy shivered, goosebumps erupting across her skin. “William?”
“Hm?”
“What’s wrong?” Buffy pulled the sheets up over her chest, and moved so that her elbow propped her up. “You’ve been acting weird all day. Ever since we got back from the Magic Box.”
“It’s nothing.”
She sensed that whatever it was that was bothering him, he didn’t want to talk about. She put her head back down on his shoulder. “Okay.”
They lay in silence; the only sound their breathing and the settlings and creakings of the house. Then: “I’m scared.”
Buffy had been drifting off to sleep when William spoke, but his words startled her to awareness, and she sat up. “What?”
“The—the demon, or whatever it is that’s making people disappear,” William said. “I’m scared of it.”
Buffy didn’t know what to say. In all the time she’d known him, William had never shown fear—not really. He had taken her Slayerness with a pinch of salt, and had accompanied her on patrol more times than she could count. Nothing had fazed him. “We don’t have anything to worry about, sweetie.”
“No?” William’s voice rose, and he sat up, too. “Because you’re the Slayer? We don’t know if that will stop it.”
Buffy opened her mouth to argue back, but stopped when she saw that he was shaking, and hugged him, instead. He really was scared. “We’ll find this thing, and we’ll kill it.”
William didn’t reply for a moment, but when he did his voice was quiet and deadly serious. “I don’t want to leave you, Buffy.” He brought his hand up and brushed the tips of his fingers across her cheek. “But know that if I ever did, I would do everything in my power to come back to you.”
She bit her lip, still not sure why he was so certain that this threat would come after them. She nodded, feeling her heart fill with love for him. “Same. I love you.”
He smiled, and kissed her slowly. “I love you, too.”
***
October 2001
Buffy looked up at the house, the full moon lighting up the area around it. 1280 Hollander Drive. Home to the latest disappearance.
“Anything look suspicious?” Xander had accompanied her on this reconnaissance, William having mumbled an excuse about inventory at the magic shop.
“Everything looks normal,” Buffy replied, gazing up at the very ordinary-looking house. “No slayer tinglies, no sign of any disturbance, nada.”
Xander broke the police tape, and pushed the front door open. “No lock. Huh, whoever lived here was just asking for trouble.”
Examining the house was a matter of minutes. There was nothing to see, nothing out of place. Suburban normality at its best.
“Great.” Buffy sighed. “We’re getting nowhere with this, and people keep disappearing.”
“We’ll get it Buff. Eventually,” Xander said. “We always do.”
They left the house, pulling the door shut behind them, and turned onto the street. “I guess. It’s just… this is really wigging William out; he thinks it’s going to come after him.”
“Could come after any of us.” Xander shrugged.
Buffy elbowed him. “Way to be reassuring, Xand.”
“Sorry.” He grinned. “Hey, I’m gonna head off. Anya’s waiting for me.”
“Okay. Thanks for coming with.”
He strolled off in the opposite direction, leaving Buffy alone with her frustrations. She contemplated doing a quick patrol before heading home to bed, but the thought of William waiting for her soon swayed her from that idea.
Nearing her house, she felt the telltale tingle on the back of her neck that let her know a vampire was close. She pulled out the ever-present stake from her coat pocket, and slowly turned around.
A flash of white-blonde hair caught her eye, and she gasped as she found herself staring into familiar blue eyes. Her gaze took in the long leather coat and heavy boots, before returning to his face with its razor-sharp cheekbones.
Mouthing wordlessly, she tried to take a step forward, but it was as though something had her feet pinned to the ground. She could only watch as the vampire with her lover’s face stared at her for several long moments, something akin to pain in his eyes, before turning and leaving without a word.
“Oh, God…” Heart pounding, she found that she was finally able to move, her feet pounding the pavement in the direction she’d seen him go in. “William!”
-TBC-
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Author's Chapter Notes:
This fic is set in an AU Sunnydale, where Buffy is still the Slayer. No Aurelius vampires (the Master, Darla, Angel etc.) ever came to town.
Massive thanks to Sotia for beta reading this! *hugs* I've tinkered with this a little bit since being betaed, so any mistakes are mine.
This is complete at 6,248 words, three chapters. I'll be posting daily until it's complete.
Hope you enjoy!
Massive thanks to Sotia for beta reading this! *hugs* I've tinkered with this a little bit since being betaed, so any mistakes are mine.
This is complete at 6,248 words, three chapters. I'll be posting daily until it's complete.
Hope you enjoy!
Chapter End Notes:
Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you thought in a review, it only takes a moment. :)