Her face lit up when she saw him and she jumped up, rushing over to him and throwing herself in his arms. “Hi, baby! I missed you.” She tugged on his hand and started pulling him towards the couch, a wide grin on her face. “Okay, you have to tell me everything! How was your first day working with my mom?”
“Was all right. Your mum’s pretty cool.” He raised a brow as he sat down next to her. “Been here all day?”
Buffy bit her lip, suddenly looking a little nervous. “You don’t mind, do you? I just...” She hesitated. “I was really tired. Didn’t really feel like going anywhere today.”
“Course I don’t mind, you know that. Gave you a key, didn’t I? You can come here any time you want.” He leaned in to give her a soft peck on the cheek, not missing the relieved look on her face. As he cast a discrete look at his watch, a part of him was starting to feel uncomfortable. For one thing, he didn’t like keeping things from Buffy. Not to mention the fact that he now had less than two hours to convince her to go back to her house – alone.
She snuggled closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Mom didn’t make you work too hard on your first day, did she?”
He shook his head, putting his arms around her and hugging her close. “Not at all.”
“That’s good.” Buffy smiled as his fingers started playing with her hair. “You know, I’ve been thinking about tonight. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a quiet night in, doing absolutely nothing? We could just stay here, maybe watch a couple of movies and eat a lot of ice-cream? I’m always in a mood for some chocolaty goodness.” She gave him a hopeful look.
Spike immediately felt guilt welling up inside him, knowing that he would have to turn her down. It was becoming painfully obvious to him that if it was up to Buffy to decide, this was how she really wanted to celebrate her birthday – alone with him, whether he knew what day it really was or not. Suddenly he couldn’t help but think that maybe a surprise party wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Still, he kept hearing Joyce’s words, playing up over and over again in his head like a broken record. I know how Buffy feels about her birthdays, but I wanna change that. I wanna make sure she gets a wonderful day she will remember for the rest of her life.
She had been so excited about this party, wanting everything to be absolutely perfect. Then again, Spike supposed it wasn’t even really about the party in the first place; the woman just wanted to do something nice for her daughter, trying to give Buffy some happy memories of her birthday like she had always deserved. And how could he deny her that? How could he possibly deny any of them that?
“Sounds really tempting, pet. But your mum asked me to tell you she wanted you to come home tonight. Maybe tomorrow?” He swallowed, avoiding Buffy’s eyes.
“What?” Buffy’s face fell and she suddenly looked alarmed. “Why?”
Shrugging, Spike kept his eyes straight ahead, feeling like a real jerk. “Dunno. Said something ‘bout dinner. Guess she just wants to spend some time with you. You know, with her being away a lot and all.” Inwards, his words made him cringe. He really hated lying to her, even if it was in fact for a good cause.
Buffy looked at him for a moment, suddenly feeling like her head was spinning. For some reason, Spike didn’t seem to want to look directly at her, and she couldn’t help but wonder what that was about. And secondly; her mom wanted her to come home for dinner? On her birthday? What a coincidence! And here she had been hoping that just this once, this dreadful day would simply pass unnoticed.
Thankfully, Spike seemed to be oblivious, though. She had feared that her mother would tell him about her birthday before she got the chance, but if that was the case, surely he would have said something by now. Thinking about it, dinner with her mom didn’t sound too bad, but she would much rather spend the night alone with Spike. Then again, her mom would hopefully understand if she wanted to leave early and get back to her boyfriend. And then she could tell Spike what day it was and explain why she hadn’t said anything sooner.
“All right.” She held back a sigh, deciding to ignore Spike’s strange behavior for now and just ask him about it later. “What time did she want me to be there?”
“Hi, Mom!” Buffy called out as she stepped through the door and closed it behind her. “I’m home.”
“Oh, hi, sweetie!” Joyce greeted her with a smile, stepping out of the kitchen with a pair of red oven mitts on her hands. “Happy birthday.”
Don’t know about that, Buffy thought, although she didn’t speak the words out loud. Instead she forced a smile. “Really, Mom, you shouldn’t say that. Now you’ll just jinx us. The house will probably catch fire or something.”
Joyce’s smile faltered a little and she gave her daughter a look of concern. “Honey, is something wrong?”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “I’m kidding, Mom. Everything’s just peachy.”
Not looking totally convinced, Joyce nodded. “Good. Dinner’s almost ready. Why don’t you go wait in the dining room?”
“Sure.” Buffy dropped her jacket on a chair. Then she looked at her mother, a teasing note in her voice as she went on; “Guess I should be grateful you didn’t force me to invite everyone I know this year.”
Joyce smiled. “Oh, I would never do that.”
“Thank God for that!” Buffy shuddered as she headed towards the dining room. “Have to admit, I was kinda hoping you’d forgotten what day it is. This is all right, though, I guess. Kinda nice with just the two of us for a change.” She stopped in the doorway and glanced at Joyce over her shoulder. “’Cause honestly, so not in a mood for being social tonight.” Then she stepped through the door, only to stop dead in her tracks on the other side.
Willow and Xander were sitting by the table, smiling at her somewhat uncertainly. “Um, happy birthday?” they mumbled in unison.
Buffy stared at her friends in shock, then turned towards Joyce who had followed her into the room, looking at her mother with a bewildered expression on her face. “Huh?”
Xander was the first to break the silence, letting out a nervous laugh. “Hey, Buff! Good to see you. We were gonna hide before you came in and then jump out and yell ‘surprise!’, but then we figured it might be a bit too much.” Willow giggled nervously, waiting for Buffy’s reaction.
“Um...” Once she had snapped out of the shock, Buffy shook her head, as if to clear it. “You’re probably right about that.” She put on a strained smile as she turned to her mother again, understanding finally dawning on her. “So, you didn’t make me invite my friends over, because you had already done it for me. Clever, Mom. You shouldn’t have.”
Joyce walked over to Buffy and gave her a hug. “Don’t be ridiculous, honey. I know you’re not much for celebrating, but I’m sure you understand I just couldn’t let this day pass unnoticed. It was no big deal.”
“No, I mean, you really shouldn’t have.” Buffy sighed as she returned her mother’s hug, then pulled back and glanced at her friends. Great, now they would think she didn’t want them here. This was exactly the reason why she hated surprises. At least it was just Willow and Xander; she should be grateful for small favors. With her luck, she might as well have stepped into a room full of people she hardly knew.
“Happy birthday, B!”
Buffy spun around at the sound of a familiar voice behind her. “Faith?”
“Don’t tell me you’re surprised to see me.” The dark-haired girl had a cocky expression on her face. “It’s my cousin’s birthday; I wouldn’t miss it for anything.” She raised a brow as she looked at Joyce. “As long as there’s cake, of course,” she joked.
Closing her eyes and then silently counting to ten, Buffy turned to Joyce. “Mom? Can I talk to you for a moment, please? Alone?”
TBC