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*The Bronze, Buffy’s birthday*
Buffy walked in the door at Spike’s side. When the lights were all turned on and people yelled ‘surprise’ she jumped a little, then smiled brightly.
Of course, Spike had already warned her about the party. It made her love him just a bit more to realize he’d known she was still on edge after the whole Post/Kendra sitch.
Buffy refused to give in to bad thoughts on her birthday and stepped forward, ready to meet the party-goers.
First to greet her were her parents. They hugged her, kissed her, and behaved like a family. She couldn’t really remember the last time both her parents were together for her birthday party. Usually her dad skipped it, or he got together with some of the dads of her friends and went to his club, or something. It was one of the reasons she cherished their trips to the Ice-capades so much. It was the only time she got to spend with him.
But that was before she was Called, before Sunnydale, and before Spike. More than that, it was before their house got thrashed in the fight with the Council goons and they’d more or less moved in with her Dad. From the looks of things—and by things she mostly meant the arm her Dad had around her Mom’s waist—there would be some major changes in the future.
“Happy birthday, Buffy. We’re both so proud of you.”
“Everyone left presents for you next to the bar, but I wanted to take this opportunity and—”
“When the house is done your dad will be moving in.” Her mom was positively glowing and her cheeks were flushed. There was also a sparkle in her eyes Buffy hadn’t seen in years.
“Unless that’s something you don’t think you’re ready for. I—”
She cut her dad off by squeezing him hard. Not hard enough to bruise, but human-strength hard. She hoped. Having Spike for a boyfriend tended to make her forget how much she had to pull back with normal humans sometimes. “I’m very happy for you two. I hope we can all be a family together again.”
There were tears in her eyes and her voice sounded choked, but she didn’t care. She had her parents back.
After a few more hugs, kisses, and vows to ‘do better this time,’ her parents walked away to allow other people to get to the birthday girl.
Willow ran up to her and hugged her tight. “Happy birthday. Can you believe this? We’ve got the Bronze all to ourselves. I’ve never been to such a birthday party. Well, I almost went that one time when Cordy’s parents invited half the school, but my parents said they couldn’t take me, and Xander was grounded, so we didn’t. So I didn’t. But I am now. And wow. Did you see the band? I mean, there’s an actual live band just for us.” She finally stopped babbling and whispered in Buffy’s ear. “And the guitarist asked me out. Me. I have a date with a guy in a band. I have a date with a guy. I have a date. Me. Did I already say that?”
Buffy peeked over her friend’s shoulder to the Bronze’s stage and saw that there really was a live band playing. She remembered she’d seen them before and they called themselves something like ‘dog ate my kid’. The way a short redheaded guy looked at her friend showed definite interest. So she promised Willow some girl-chat-time and let her go only to be bear-hugged by Xander.
She returned the hug as best she could until she was saved by an unlikely source.
“Leave her alone, you dweeb, other people want to give their best wishes too.” Cordelia sounded like usual, but she was standing way too close to Xander and there was something in her eyes that—.
Xander let Buffy go, only to turn around and give Cordy a quick peck on the lips. “No reason to be jealous of the Buffinator, I’m just happy we’re all alive to celebrate her birthday.” He smiled goofily and put an arm around the brunette’s shoulders. “Not even you can rain on my parade.”
Cordelia frowned, but made no move to get away. “Remind me again why I decided to allow you to date me?”
“Must be my irresistible charm. And a probable brain tumor on my part made me agree.”
Buffy wasn’t sure how to respond. “Xand. And Cordy? There is a Xand and Codry?”
The brunette sometimes-pain-in-Buffy’s-ass raised her head in a haughty manner. “Is there a problem?”
“No, no, no problem. Just some minor wiggage. Of the good kind.” She didn’t know if she should be happy for them or stock up on Valium. “I wish you all the best.”
“Good on you, coming out in the open. Tired of snogging in supply closets and the like?”
Spike’s words were met with spluttering from Xander and a death-glare from Cordy. “That’s none of your business.” She probably thought better and decided to clarify. “And there were no supply closets.”
Spike just grinned from next to Buffy. “Can’t fool the nose, Cheerleader.”
Cordy’s only reply was a sneer and she turned her head slightly away. She’d probably pretend he didn’t exist until she needed another favor from him. Or booze. Instead she looked at down her nose at Buffy. “Happy birthday Buffy. I hope you finally develop better taste with age.” She then started walking away and when Xander wasn’t quick enough to follow snapped at him. “Come, or you’re cut off.”
He shrugged apologetically at Buffy and hurried after his girlfriend.
Xander had a girlfriend. Xander’s girlfriend was Cordelia. That was going to take some getting used to.
She glared at her nosy vampire. “You knew and didn’t tell me?”
He raised his hands. “Not my story to tell, yeah? I figured once they stopped pretending to want to kill each other they’d announce it whenever they were ready. Remind you of someone, Slayer?”
She huffed. “So not touching that one with a ten foot pole. Especially on my birthday. Speaking of which.” She decided to just ignore her two best friends’ love lives in favor of mingling among the humans and demons gathered to celebrate. And considering just how many demons there were there, it was a small miracle everyone was getting along so well. The Council really didn’t know what it was talking about.
Giles and Jenny made their way to her once some of Spike’s helpers—who’d apparently decided they didn’t want to be called ‘minions’ anymore—hugged her in one after the other.
“Giles, thank you for coming.” She hugged both him and Ms. Calendar.
“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I hope you have a very happy birthday indeed, Buffy.”
“It is. The only downer is that I still have the Council on my back. ” She pouted and Spike swooped in and gave her a quick peck.
Giles cleared his throat. “Things have changed. Travers has been suspended and is on house arrest pending investigation. His followers are being identified and stripped of all their power and titles. They are sending a team here to assess the full extent of the damage they caused and the perpetrators will be punished accordingly.”
Spike snorted. “They aren’t going down over some dead demons.”
Giles nodded once. “That may be true, but their actions also cost human lives, endangered both active Slayers, caused the life of one of them, and threatened exposure to the public.” He smirked a little. “I daresay they will not go unpunished.”
Buffy shrugged. “I dunno, Giles. The last time the Council sent a team here we almost all got killed. I won’t rest easy until… I’m not even sure when I’ll be able to stop looking over my shoulder on patrol in case some humans are gunning for me.”
Her watcher placed a hand on her shoulder in support. “I feel confident the situation will be resolved shortly. In any case, we hold all the cards, while they no longer have even a Slayer under their care for the first time in centuries. To say that it has shaken some of the watchers to the core is an understatement.”
“I know. They wanted to control me. Now that Faith is on board with the ‘Council is bad’ train, they have no power left. But as long as some of them still consider they know better, and that all demons are evil, they can still cause problems.”
“They can try, B. But nobody’s gonna use either one of us. We’re our own woman, just like Dru says.” Faith was holding a fruity drink. From what Buffy had learned about her in the month she’d been training her, the drink was probably full of booze.
The Dark haired vampire glided in behind the newest slayer. “You are right, pet. The Watchers tried and failed, and now they’ll be forced to fall in line.”
Angel and Ethan also drew closer from one side, while Dalton and Penny approached from the other.
Spike put his arms around Buffy and spoke loud enough that all the vampires were sure to hear him. “And if they try anything, we’ll turn the Council to dust.”
She turned in his arms. “I love you.” She then pressed closer to him and whispered. “And tonight I’ll show you how much.”





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