Chapter 1:
William Pratt missed his son.
“Can I change this?” Matthew whined as he turned to look at his father on the couch in the living room.
“What’s wrong with this?”
“It’s cartoons.” Matthew said with disgust.
“You use to like this program. Didn’t you watch this every day after school?”
“Ya right...” Matthew rolled his eyes, denying that at any point of his life he ever watched cartoons.
Yes, William has been missing the absence of his young son for a while now. The child that raved for attention and approval from his growing older father had been replaced with this boy sitting next to him—this preteen turning rebellious punk kid. It was a dangerous time in the Pratt household.
Buffy though didn’t seem too worried about the changes going through their eldest child. Maybe she didn’t even start to notice. William couldn’t really blame her too much on the issue—she already had her hands tied with Sarah going through her boy crazy phase. Being that the girl had just turned ten, William suspected that Buffy would be busy taking care of their daughter for the next…ohhh…25 years give or take.
“What do you want to watch then?”
William handed Matthew the remote and watched as the boy started channel surfing.
“You know the Comedy Central is playing Ghostbusters…”
William glanced away from the tube to see if he got his son’s approval. His eyes were starting to get dizzy from the speed Matthew was changing the channels at.
“Eww…Ghostbusters is so old and…old…of course you would like it.” Matthew muttered.
“What do you mean old? You’ve seen that for the first time last year.”
William decided to completely ignore the later comment—of Matthew voicing his opinion that he was old. Living in denial about that subject was something he needed desperately at the moment.
“Exactly…old…”
Matthew settled on MTV playing their top ten videos for the week.
“You watch MTV now?”
“Who doesn’t?”
William tapped his finger on the sofa’s arm and looked away in frustration. When he got up to leave and enter the kitchen he noticed that Matthew barely acknowledged him.
“Hey…”
Just as William was entering the kitchen, Buffy came walking through the back door with Sarah in tow.
“Hey…” William nodded at her with little enthusiasm, “How was shopping?”
“Oh you know…a little slice of fabulous with a slice of nightmare.”
“Mom bought new shoes.” Sarah announced as she leaned against the refrigerator with her arms crossed and a pout on her face.
“Hmm…” William nodded, noting his daughter’s depressed state, “What’s with the lip action huh? I see a few bags from that girly place you love to go.”
“Ya…but the stuff we got make me look like a geek.” Sarah continued to pout and look away from her parents.
“They do not.” Buffy breathed out quickly.
William could tell that just by his wife’s quick answered response that she had been fighting with their daughter all day about these ‘geeky’ clothes purchased.
“Why couldn’t I get the jeans I wanted?!” Sarah exclaimed.
“Because they were $95…you’ll grow out of them in a year or two.”
“All my friends have a pair though!”
Buffy bit her lip and turned to stare at William. She gave him a fake smile that read ‘See…see what I have to put up with!’
“Well love, you should consider yourself lucky…we love you no matter how unstylish you are.”
Sarah let out a huff in response, grabbed her bags roughly, and ran towards the stairs. But not without yelling her new trademark threat, “I’m never going to school again!”
“Then I guess we have to return all those new clothes you got…” William responded loudly.
After Buffy and William heard their sweet angel of a girl slam her door to her room, the two parents turn to each other with a smile and sigh.
“How’s it going?” Buffy asked.
“I’ve been better.”
“Me too…” Buffy sighed as she wrapped her William’s waist and gave him a much needed hug.
TBC…
Author's Chapter Notes:
Just got this idea watching the youtube video of James Marsters playing guitar with his son…it’s a sweet William/Spike dad fic that won’t be long.