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Author's Chapter Notes:
Warning: The story takes kind of a hard left turn here - but all will be explained soon. I debated about leaving a stronger warning either here or at the end. Let me know if I made the wrong decision after you've read it.
27: Who’s There?

Deciding it would probably be better if she surprised the other night wanderer rather than the other way around, Buffy tried to make it look as if she had only just woken up. Stumbling into the kitchen to see who was making this kind of racket before the sun was even up, she had no idea what to expect. Surely the staff didn’t rise this early to begin preparations for breakfast. But what did she know? She had never even been in a house that employed ‘staff’ before.

Instead of the expected Jonathan or Andrew, Buffy was stunned to find a young girl hunting through the cupboards. Relieved that she wasn’t going to be busted, Buffy watched while the indefinable mass that the girl had left sizzling on the stove began to crackle and burn. As Buffy watched, the horrible goo began to give off a foul stench. Very shortly Buffy was sure that the smoke alarms would go off, waking the entire household.

Finally noticing what was happening to the mess in the frying pan, the unknown girl let out a loud squeak. While the girl continued making noise, Buffy took a longer look at what was on the stove, and the girl who was frantically trying to put out the small grease fire. Taking pity on her (and fearing for everyone’s safety if things got out of hand) Buffy had just decided to take action when the girl finally dropped a large lid onto the pan and smothered the fire until it was extinguished.

The girl smiled with satisfaction at successfully managing to avoid a catastrophe, and apparently began looking around for a plate. The girl’s hair was straight and brown, and very nearly falling onto the burner. Buffy ached to take that hair and braid it, or confine it in ponytails, if for no other reason than the girl’s safety around the stove that she obviously had no business using.

As she watched, Buffy began to reassess her first impression. At first she had thought the girl was perhaps 11 or 12 years old, just tall for her age. But as Buffy watched the way she moved, acted, and the sounds she made, Buffy realized that she was older than that. ‘A teenager then,’ she thought. ‘A young teenager, but still, a teen. What was a teen girl doing in this house full of single men?’

At last the girl gave an even louder ‘eep’ as she finally noticed Buffy watching her. For a second she completely forgot the sizzling mess in the pan and nearly dropped it on the floor. ‘No great loss,’ Buff thought to herself. Although someone would have to clean it up, and she really didn’t want it to be her.

The glop in the pan barely looked edible, even if it hadn’t been burnt to a crisp. Up close it appeared to be a conglomeration of mismatched ingredients, possibly with an egg base, although Buffy was sure chocolate, eggs and sausages were never meant to go together – and certainly not fried to a crisp in the same frying pan. Buff knew she was no expert in the kitchen herself, but she was fairly certain that without her timely intervention the smoke alarm would haven awoken entire household. Calmly, since one of them had to be calm, she started to remove the gunk from the hot pan, but then hesitated.

“Do you really want this on a plate, or should I skip that and we’ll throw it straight in the disposal?”

The girl stopped squalling long enough to take a good sniff of the mess she had prepared. Curling her lip in distaste, she quickly agreed with Buffy. “I guess that one goes down as yet another failed recipe. I mean, it sounds good when I think these things up, but the reality never really meets my expectations, you know?”

“If this is the usual result, then I’d have to say you might want to consider dropping ‘chef’ from your list of possible careers. I’m Buffy, by the way. Who are you?”

The teen squealed again, and aside from the puzzle of who she was and just what exactly she was doing there – Buffy was beginning to wonder if she ever did anything besides squawk like a bird and try to destroy the kitchen.

Seemingly excited to meet her, the mystery girl jumped up and down waving her hands.

“I just knew that’s who you had to be! You can’t believe how glad I am to see you. I mean, Spike’s been talking about you for ages, and has been so frustrated because you broke up with him for a while, apparently because you wouldn’t sleep with him, or because he had once slept with someone you knew, he wasn’s sure which. Not that he put it quite that way, but I could tell what he meant. Now he’ll be so much easier to live with, since he won’t have you to bitch about anymore.”

Buffy didn’t know why she was shocked, it was obvious that the girl lived here; she’d known that on some level ever since she found her in the kitchen. Still, it was no reason to make assumptions.

“You live here? Is Spike your relative or something? You seem to know all about Spike and my relationship, but he hasn’t said anything to me about you.”

If the girl was going to answer Buffy’s questions, she didn’t show it. The kid just kept staring at her with this odd grin on her face, like she expected Buffy to burst into song or something. It was making her uncomfortable.

Under the girl’s scrutiny, Buffy felt compelled to clarify. “And by the way, just for the record, I did not ‘spend the night’ with Spike. Spike was upset about something, so I volunteered to stay over. In the guest room.”

Suddenly the girl looked crestfallen. Stranger and stranger. “Well, you’ll come around. I’m sure you will. And you won’t regret it. Spike’s really good in bed,” she gushed.

That couldn’t possibly mean what it sounded like, could it? Anya was one thing, but this slip of a girl couldn’t possibly be anywhere near the age of consent. And that meant statutory rape. Buffy’s face apparently spoke for itself, and the girl quickly tried to backpedal. But what had been said could never be unsaid.

A/N: Don't go postal. Leave a few reviews and I'll post the next chappie soon. It will all make sense then.





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