After breakfast, Joyce walked around to admire the cleanliness of the house. Even though, Buffy knew that she and Dawn had worked very hard to clean the house, and was certain the rooms were spotless, she couldn’t help but feel nervous. She really wanted her mom to approve so she wouldn’t have to sneak out, risking getting herself into more trouble.
Sure enough, Joyce came back into the room, smiling at her two girls. Buffy felt proud that she had made her Mother so happy. She really enjoyed being in a place where her mother was alive and well. Perhaps being a daughter in a happy home wasn’t such a hard and bad thing after all.
Joyce glanced at her daughters one more time, “You both did such a wonderful job, but now I would like you to handle your sheets and blankets, as well as dust and vacuum your room,“ she paused. “That is, if you don’t mind.“
Buffy nodded and raced upstairs, with Dawn following closely behind.
“I’ll dust and vacuum if you do the laundry!” her sister shouted from behind.
Buffy agreed, and then giggled because she thought that she got the better end of the deal.
She grabbed her math homework, as well as her art, and a laundry basket, filling it with Dawn’s bed sheets and hers. She juggled the items carefully down the stairs, plopping her books and art in the corner of the room. As she put the linen in the washer, she glanced around, noticing that it was almost exactly the same. The only difference being-no chains on the wall.
She sat down in the corner of the room, opening her math book, in another attempt to figure it out. She tried her best at the math problems, but still had four questions she couldn’t manage to work out. She sighed, thinking that back home, she might have asked Spike, but in this world, no Spike existed. She wondered if William was as knowledgeable as Spike. She knew Spike had an abundance amount of information, due to the fact that he lived for over a 120 years, but William didn’t have that luxury.
She chewed on her pencil’s eraser, as she debated, whether or not she should try and get Tara or William to help her with the remaining math questions.
Throwing the thought aside for the moments, she picked up her sketches, frowning at them. Buffy was supposed to draw a fictional character that could be a superhero, but she wasn’t big on the whole ‘superhero thing’ and couldn’t think of anything to draw. She settled on drawing Spiderman, but hated the way he turned out.
Hearing the washer ding, she was surprised that half an hour at already gone by. She put the clothes from the washer into the dryer, then sat back down to continue her art project.
She had until Wednesday to turn it in, but the colored pencils that they were supposed to use were only offered during class time, so the teacher had suggested they spend their weekend creating the images.
She groaned as she reread the paper, which read:
‘You must create a fictional hero. It can be anyone you want:
dark and mysterious, or happy and superficial. Whoever you
choose, you will have to explain to the class why you chose it,
and how they are heroes. If they have any special powers, you will
have to explain those as well. Remember class, this project is
supposed to be enjoyable and entertaining, and showing me how
much your art work as progressed so far in the school year.
So no matter what, have fun! Good luck!
Buffy looked down at her Spiderman, deciding that he didn’t fit the bill. She crumbled the paper, throwing it across the room, then went back for another, hopefully not failing, attempt.
As always, her thoughts drifted back to her Sunnydale, wondering if she would ever be able to forget about that place. She remembered the way Spike felt when he kissed her, and how he had rescued her and Dawn numerous times, always being the hero. She remembered how his body felt against hers, all hard and muscular in all the right places. She remembered how her mind had gone numb the first time they kissed and he had managed to kiss every worry and fear out within a few seconds, filling her with feelings of lust passion. No other man had ever made her feel that way. She imagined that if Spike were here, he would laugh at the assignment, probably drawing a vampire.
She glanced down at her paper and realized without thinking about it, she had started to draw Spike. She had etched his hair and face, with his sharp cheekbones and piercing blue eyes, which reminded her, she needed the blue pencil from school to fill his eyes in.
She rubbed a ghostly hand over the portrait, imagining it was really him she was touching, his chest she was rubbing. It made her grin, that she had drawn his hair messy, instead of the usual slicked back look. His hair looked like it always had, after a passionate night they had together, her hand mussing through his bleached hair. He looked perfect.
She bit into the pencil’s eraser as she leaned in further towards her paper, starting to draw his torso. She drew the imprints of his muscles showing through his shirt, and then moved onto his belt. She closed her eyes for a moment, imagining how firm his legs were, the way his erection filled her as he-she quickly opened her eyes, stopping her fantasy. She needed to get her work done.
Instead she focused on drawing his legs, but covered in his jeans. She couldn’t resist the urge to touch the bulge she had drawn for him.
She heard Dawn’s voice interrupt her actions, “Buffy, are the sheets done yet? I’m ready for them.”
Buffy glanced up, noticing that the dryer was finished, but didn’t know for how long because she was so preoccupied with drawing Spike and his body.
Her cheeks reddened as she yelled upstairs, “Yeah, just give me a second to collect them!”
She stood up, tucking the picture into her folder and moved to the dryer to remove the sheets putting them into basket. She then placed her homework and folder on top and carried it upstairs to finish her drawing, and maybe go back to her math.
The family, minus Hank because he was at the office, settled down to have a chicken and potato dinner.
Joyce and Buffy continued eating as Dawn prattled on about one of her ‘amazing’ stories.
“-and Janice thought it would be funny to walk up to the guy and announce, ‘Dawn likes you even though she’s dating Justin.’ I was horrified!”
Buffy brunched her brows together as she wondered outloud, “Sometimes I wonder if Janice is really that good of a friend. Did you really like the boy?”
Dawn shrugged but looked embarrassed, “He wasn’t that bad looking.” She looked down to focuse on eating her chicken and potatoes.
Joyce spoke up to the girls, “I have more chores for you girls to do tomorrow,“ she paused, listening to her children groan their disapproval “Tomorrow I need you, Buffy, to cut the grass. Dawn you need to do the trimming, and I’ll do some gardening. It should give us the evening free if we all work together on the yard. Your father is at the office again tomorrow.”
Buffy nodded dutifully, watching as Dawn caught her eye, hoping the chores would be the last, and they do the trick in getting Buffy out of her grounding. Buffy could sense another 5 am wakeup call coming in place, and part of her found she didn’t dread it as much as she should. She was really enjoying spending time with Dawn. She loved her sister, but the memories she had of her, from the past, were made up, she was making real memories now.
She realized she had been neglecting Dawn, so she would remedy that in any way she could, if she ever returned home.
After dinner, the house of girls all settled down to watch old movies, which were Joyce’s choice for entertainment. Joyce sat in the middle while Dawn laid her head on her lap, and Buffy rested her head on her mom’s shoulder. Buffy found herself enjoying the scene and finding it so familiar her chest ached. She even found the movie not as bad and it reminded her of her 17th birthday. Although that wasn’t the best of memories, the closeness she felt to her mom definitely made up for it all.
Sunday morning came quickly, especially since Dawn was excitedly an early riser again. Buffy had ended up staying up late, reading, since she couldn’t sleep. She was still used to physical activity before bed and despite the amount of chores she had done, her sleeping schedule was still affected by it. She knew in time it would get better, but for now, reading and doing homework was a great way to spend those wee hours into the night, that she was unfortunately still awake for.
It only felt like a few short minutes ago she fell asleep, but opened her eyes to a bouncing Dawn, who yet again was hopping on her bed on her knees.
“C‘mon. If we do all the yard work, including the gardening mom wanted to do, then maybe the plan will finally work. You can take me to Janice’s because she invited me over for dinner and to hang out! I’m dying to go! So come on already, “ Dawn jumped off the bed and started to yank her arm, urging Buffy to get out of bed.
Buffy dragged herself out of bed, wishing she could have done the work at 11 pm instead of 5 am, but hopped into the shower to wake herself up so she could get to work.
Emerging all clean and much more awake, she pulled on some jean cut offs and a bright yellow tank top. She pulled her hair back and went about the job of cutting the grass.
In Sunnydale, back home, Xander used to cut the grass for them because he was nice like that sometimes. Buffy had to sometimes pick up the slack though, because he spent so much time with Anya. Just thinking of Anya and Xander made her heart ache since they were no longer together. Xander didn’t seem to be with Anya in this world either. Were they destined to not be together in any world, she pondered. She frowned as her arms began to hurt from cutting the grass. It seemed that her strength and healing abilities were non-existent.
She was so used to having it; she wasn’t even sure what to do with that knowledge. She wasn’t sure how to be a normal girl. She did finish the grass in great timing though and was able to move on to the gardening while Dawn used the weed-whacker.
Gardening was hard work. It was covering Buffy in weeds, and she found herself pulling muscles as she pulled the various weeds out of the ground. Some weeds took all her strength she could muster to pull, causing her to miss her Slayer strength so much. She would have had the gardening done ages ago if she had her strength. She now understood how normal people felt when they couldn’t do the simplest task of open jars, which she bet she couldn’t do anymore.
She heard her mom yell, “Buffy, Dawn, come in for breakfast,” Joyce smiled as she watched her children run up to the house. “I made you breakfast since you did the yard like the wonderful children I know you to be.“ Her mother kissed the top of her head, followed by Dawn as they went to wash up.
Breakfast was a sunny-side egg with bacon and toast. Buffy was in heaven. Usually her breakfast back home was pop-tarts.
Buffy sighed, realizing she would eventually have to stop calling it ‘back home‘. This was her home now and she needed to make the best of it and stop thinking she had somewhere else to be. This was it, her future and her present.
After breakfast, Dawn and her followed Joyce out the door to continue the weeding. Both children frowned, slouching their heads to the ground, as they listened to their Mother ramble on about painting the shed since they had such an early start.