Chapter 5

Willow welcomed back them back, her face the color of her flaming red hair. Her lover had been very quiet and only nodded a few times before leaving. Buffy had also excused herself shortly after, claiming to be sleepy.

“I’ve traumatized her!” Willow squeaked.

“Somehow I think she’s seen worse, Red, but I bet she’ll never sit in that chair ever again—hell, neither will I. ”

“Well, I know that I’m traumatized. Kill me now please.”

“Nope, you’re not taking the easy way out. Tell me about him.”

“His name is Oz.”

“Oz, huh? So, he’s the little man behind that bloody curtain?”

“He’s not that short,” Willow insisted, blushing. “He’s in a band. Lead guitar.”

He smirked hearing her sight dreamily. “That explains the blue hair and black nails. Where’d you find him?”

“At work.”

“He sounds like a keeper,” William chuckled.

“Oh, I know you’ve got that stupid musician theory, but he’s different.”

“Hey, ‘players only love you when they’re playing.’”

“Bah, if you don’t be nice, you’re going to have to put on your own sheets.” She pouted, tucking in blankets making his makeshift bed out of the sofa.

“Red, I thought you were...you know?”

“Kinda gay? Yeah, there’s been a slight change in that theory.”

“I see. Well as long as you’re happy, pet.”

“I am.”

“It least one of us is getting some.”

“Ah poor Will.”

“I know.”

“Well on the brighter side, the house sold last week.”

“Oh that’s great. I wasn’t ready to sell another fucking house.”

Willow had been left in charge of the house on Revello Drive. Neither Buffy nor William wanted to keep the house where Joyce had taken her final breaths. All of the Summers’ belongings had been packed by movers and put into storage. “I made a list of places you can check out too.”

He started his new job in a few weeks. His company had been very understanding about his situation and transferred him to the Los Angeles branch. It would only be an hour drive without traffic to Sunndydale and to Buffy. He wanted to stay as close to her as possible and be there when she needed him. “Thanks, pet. You’re a lifesaver.”

“I know. Goodnight.” Willow kissed the top of his head before leaving the living room.
***

Buffy came out of her room and inhaled deeply. “Mmmm, cookies.”

“Hi, Buffy, I made you some, ‘I’m so sorry that you saw me naked and doing nasty things, please forgive me,’ cookies. Want one?”

“No, I want two.” She sat at the kitchen table and hummed. “Everyday should start with cookies…I forgive you, Willow, but God, keep that funny business in your bedroom, okay? I’m so afraid to sit down on any of your furniture.”

Willow blushed.

“Willow, why are you looking like that—eww! I eat on this table!”
***

“What are your plans for today?”

Buffy was sprawled out on Willow’s sofa, staring out into space.

“I didn’t know. Willow mentioned if I got too bored I could go to work with her. Somehow I doubt I’ll ever get that bored.”

“Do you wanna look at the things in storage with me?”

“Storage? Have you decided on a house?”

“Not telling.”

“Spikey’s keeping secrets.”

“Yup. You coming?”

“Of course.”
***

"You have a ton of junk."

"It's not junk." Buffy opened a box and closed it quickly. "Okay, now this is junk.”

"What's in there?" He smirked, trying to look in the box. “You poked in my things, it’s only fair, love.”

“Alright,” she grumbled, crossing her arms. “I wanted to be an ice skater when I was little.”

William picked through the glittery costumes and smiled at the photo albums of Buffy on the ice. “Is this a big secret, you wanting to be a mini Tonya Harding?”

“I don’t tell people now and if they know for some reason, I say that they’re talking about some other Buffy.”

“I heard stories about a certain Buffy...she who had so many trophies and such that her mom feared the shelf in her room would bust.”

“Mom said that?”

“Oh yeah, I know more than you’d think. I know Joyce thought the world of you, even if you frustrated her and weren’t exactly the perfect daughter all the time.” He moved to a new box and ripped off the tape. “She talked about you a lot. I couldn’t shut her up when you got on the honor roll for the first time, it was last year, yeah?”

“Second semester, junior year.”

“Did she tell you about me?”

“Kinda...to be honest, I didn’t listen much. I’d gag after she said most of the things about you.”

“I guess that’s understandable,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “I was the same way when dad tried to date.”

“I wish I would’ve listened, I like learning about you...now.”

“I like learning about you too, kitten.”

“I feel like I’m bugging you, since I’m around you all the time.”

William gave Buffy a sideways glance as she busied her hands. “I enjoy your company, Buffy. But if you have better things to do...”

“I don’t—I mean I like helping you look for a car and a house...I just want to make sure that you don’t mind. I don’t want to crowd you, you know?”

He struggled not to laugh, thinking it would be impossible for her to get too close or to be around him too much. “I’m dreading tomorrow, pet. What am I going to do when you’re playing at the university?”

There was a silence and then Buffy whispered, “I’ll miss you when I’m at the dorms, not just tomorrow, but everyday when I’m at school.”

“Pet...”

“Just say you’ll miss me too and I’ll be happy.”

“You know I’ll miss you.”
***

“You nervous, pet?”

“Very.”

“Come here.”

William hugged Buffy tightly on the morning of her orientation to college. All the freshmen were corralled together and forced to stay in the tiniest dorms overnight. She had never been to the UC Sunnydale campus, except for once on a kindergarten school field trip. All she heard were college horror stories of never finding high school friends, living on nothing but pizza, gaining at least ten pounds, and of evil, unreasonable professors.

“You’ll be great, sweets. You’ll probably just get the campus tour and set up your schedule, that’s all. It’ll be painless.” He comforted her, running his fingers through her hair and inhaling the scent of her shampoo. ‘She smells like sugar cookies. Want to eat her up.’

“Thanks.” She mumbled, pressed against his chest. “I should go, I must look like such a baby.”

“No, you look beautiful.” He spiraled a lock of her hair between two of his fingers. “Stunning...”

“So do you,” she smiled shyly and kissed his cheek.

“Ah, pet, here I’m trying to make you happy and you end up turning the tables on me. Now run along, I’ll get you tomorrow.” William watched until she was out of sight and then walked away with a bounce in his step.

‘She kissed me.’
***

“Hey, you dropped your stake.” Buffy’s victim rubbed where the pencil she’d been carrying had stabbed his hand.

“Xander!”

“Hey, Buffster, long time, no see.”
***

“…so I said, a caveman would so kick the ass of any wussy astronaut.”

Buffy just looked at Xander and smiled. She loved Xander and he’d been her best friend since they started school.

“What? Do I have ketchup on my face again?” Xander asked, his mouth full of food.

“Nope, I just really missed you, Xand.”

“And I missed you. How was the Mother Country?”

“Good. You know, rain and tea.”

“How was what’s-his-face? Do you still want me to beat him up for you?”

“Who?”

“The dreaded Captain Peroxide?”

“Oh, William... He was good, very good. We actually got along, believe it or not.”

“Cool. Have you picked your classes yet?” He pulled out the class listing and flipped through its pages. “We should take a class together like, oh, ‘Comic Books and the Human Mind,’ or maybe...”
***

“What?”

“Hey!”

“Hi, love. You miss me?”

“Yup.”

“So what’re you up to? It’s kind of late.”

“Can’t sleep. The beds are lumpy—make sure I bring my own mattress—the bathroom is big but the shower is icky and my roomies are loud.”

William laughed, “Is that so?”

“Oh, but I’ve a great schedule. I only go on Tuesdays and Thursdays—oh, and Xander’s here too.”

“Xander, he’s…?”

“My best friend, you know—Life Saving Boy?”

“That’s great, pet, that you have someone to talk to.”

“Miss me?”

“Every second and you know it.”

“Aw, my job’s complete then.”

“It is now?” he chuckled.

“Well I should let you sleep. You have a comfy bed and you should use it. Say hi to Willow for me, okay?”

“Okay, goodnight, kitten.”

“Goodnight, William.”
***

Buffy swooned, “He misses me.”

‘ Kitten,’ she died each time he called her that. ‘I miss him and it’s only been fifteen hours.’ She lay on the hard bed and thin pillow, feeling lonely.

‘Oh, my, God! I kissed him today!’ Buffy’s nerves made her forget about the kiss. ‘Sure it was tiny;’ she reasoned, ‘but it involved my lips and William’s skin. He was so sweet trying to make me feel better. I couldn’t resist. It was a nice kiss, a friendly kiss. But he didn’t push me away. A kiss is just a kiss—but I think really kissing William will definitely be a lot more.’
***

William was early because he wanted to see Buffy and take her home. He bought and signed the last of the paperwork for his new place and was excited to finally show it to her. It was in a nice neighborhood between Sunnydale and Los Angeles with a pool and huge backyard surrounded by tall shade trees. He knew Buffy would love it.

She was laughing with a dark-haired girl when he saw her. ‘That bird doesn’t look good enough to talk to my Buffy,’ William thought, taking in the girl’s scantly dressed form and flirty strut.

‘I know those types, the kind of girls that think they’re God’s gift—sod that. I’d rather have the kind of girl that needs to be told that she’s beautiful, the kind of girl that makes even the simplest task look sexy...a girl like my Buffy.’

He smiled seeing Buffy wearing his birthday gift. To him, it meant that she was thinking of him and willing to show around her neck a symbol that she belonged to him. He was standing, propped up one leg and smoking when she saw him.

“Hey, Buffy, you know that guy? He’s totally checking you out. He looks like he’d be a wild ride, you should introduce me.”

“Ah, no, I don’t know him,” Buffy tried to gave William a little smile as she ushered Faith away.

“That’s great. I can have him all to myself.”

“Faith!” Buffy grabbed her shirt, pulling her back. ‘What a skanky ho.’ Faith had gone to many different high schools throughout California. She was a feisty girl who went after what she wanted. ‘Want. Take. Have,’ Faith said over and over.

“What’s the beef, B?”

“N-nothing, we need to go, we’ll be late.”

“B--.”

“Please, Faith?”

“Fine, fine, keep your pants on, girlfriend.”

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief as she steered her horny friend from William.

‘He’s mine.’
***

William couldn’t help but be hurt. Buffy had ignored him. He thought he’d seen her smile in his direction but dismissed it as wishful thinking, believing he was seeing things.

‘She snubbed me,’ he thought, ‘Guess I’m not good enough to meet her friends.’

His feelings were still smarting when he stood with the other parents at the official pickup time. He watched, seeing how happy Buffy looked as she said her goodbyes to the dark-haired girl and a guy he had never seen before. She gave the boy a longer hug and a kiss on the cheek, making William have to force back his growl. He was upset but his jealousy was still fully intact.

‘She’s mine.’
***

Buffy bounced over to greet William, a huge grin on her face. “Hey! I can’t wait to leave! I’ve--.”

“Let me get that.”

“O-okay,” she said, disappointed that William didn’t seem happy to see her. “Aren’t you at least going to say hi to me?”

“Hi, pet.”

She got into the passenger seat of the car and frowned. ‘Did I say something wrong? Why’s he so upset? I missed him so much. All I wanted to do was hug him and hear his voice again and now he won’t even talk to me.’

Buffy was deep in her thoughts and didn’t pay attention to where he was taking her. She was more concerned with forcing her tears to say back. William stopped the car in front of a Spanish style house. It had a tiled roof and a little courtyard surrounding the front door.

“Where are we?”

“My new house.”

“Oh,” she said, a tear sliding from her eye. ‘Not our house, his.’
***

“There are two bedrooms, a master, and a bathroom on each level…”

Buffy continued to pout. ‘He gets the master bedroom—that means no sharing a bathroom like we did at Giles’ house.’

“…office and studio upstairs--.”

“Studio?”

“Yeah, I paint sometimes. Anyways, I want to keep the room empty, a clear space. I’ve already hung some of Joyce’s paintings up there.”

“That sounds nice.”

“It is. There’s a pool out back and a big yard.”

Buffy just nodded and responded equally to his cold descriptions of the house. ‘Good thing he isn’t in real estate.’

“You can have this room.”

She peered inside the empty space. It was on the ground floor, on the opposite side of the master bedroom. ‘He wants to stay away from me.’

Her belongings that she had kept with Willow were on the floor. ‘I guess I’m not staying with Willow anymore. I should be happy; we’ll be alone again.’

Buffy tried to smile but it was too hard.
***

William walked outside to smoke, leaving Buffy alone.

She took a closer look at his decorating skills. She loved the house, especially the Spanish floral patterns of the tile that lined the pool.

‘A pool!’ she would’ve screamed if she weren’t so upset. Buffy wasn’t in the mood to show William that she adored the house and his decorating. He had done very well. The house had a nice mixture of leather and softer fabrics, black and bright colors, metal accents and rich wooden highlights. The house didn’t look like a bachelor’s pad. Looking around her she inferred that William had decorated and chosen the house with someone else’s needs in the back of his mind.

Buffy would’ve sworn it was her and only her, but after today, she wasn’t so sure.
***

“I move in on the 19th. Yeah, I know it’s late. You’d think we’d get more than just a weekend to get settled. I know, Xand, great injustice is afoot.” Buffy laughed and changed her position in her new favorite chair. “I miss that. I demand more Snoopy dancing. Good times, good times. Tomorrow, sure I have nothing better to do…”

William stood in the hallway, watching her. They hadn’t really been on good speaking terms since orientation.

‘Buffy’s doing well without me,’ he thought, ‘always on the phone with that Xander.’

William was managing by locking himself in his office all day. When he ventured out of his hiding place he’d avoid her and watch her from afar. Watching, knowing he would never have her.

‘I was a fool that morning, thinking a peck on the cheek meant something...’
***

Buffy’s sadness turned to anger quickly. She was lost and confused and she didn’t like the feeling. Every time she saw him watching her from the shadows she wanted to hit him and then kiss him. The stalker role was strange but still oddly appealing.

“Just because he’s an idiot, doesn’t mean I don’t still love him, ”Buffy smiled wickedly as she dressed in her new bedroom. “Take this William, I dare you.”

‘Showtime.’
***

William was channel surfing, finding nothing worthy to watch. ‘Need cable. Oh, or maybe a satellite; I heard they have so many bloody channels that--.’ His thoughts were smashed to pieces by Buffy as she strolled into the backyard.

‘Fuck.’

William’s pants were uncomfortable and he had only seen a few minutes of her in the bathing suit. He didn’t know where to focus his eyes, on her full chest, her legs that seemed to have grown overnight, or on her muscled behind that enticed him with its movements.

‘Fuck.’
***

Just walking through the house had made Buffy’s knees weak. She imagined what she was doing to him and the bulge that was probably growing under William’s jeans.

‘I’m bad. Go me.’
***

William sat, his head resting in his hand. He looked at the door to the backyard for minutes, the afternoon sun blinding him.

‘Hey, I’m the Big Bad. I’ve been broody and pathetic—hell, she wants to parade around in near nothing, I should take advantage of her charity.’

William got up and proudly adjusted his pants. “Now where did I put my swimming trunks?”
***

Buffy was lying on her bright pink inflatable lounge chair, eyed closed, when she felt ripples in the water.

“What do you want?” She demanded, never opening her eyes.

“You.”

“Huh?” Before Buffy could take in his bluntness, she was tipped out of her chair. “William! You, you--.”

He scooped her up in his arms with one arm under her knees and the other cradled her shoulders and keeping her above the water. “Shhh, settle down, pet, I’m not gonna drop you.”

She stopped struggling, looking up. “William?” Her mouth went dry realizing she was pushed against his chest.

“Hush.” William bent forward, his face so close to hers, but not touching. A word, a slight twitch and their lips would brush against each other. He stared into her eyes and saw exactly what he had been feeling: confusion, betrayal and hope.

‘Gonna kiss her. Been waiting so long, too bloody long.’ His arms were shaking and his heart wanted to burst out of his chest. He had to put her down in the water because he didn’t want to risk dropping her.

Buffy took the action as another rejection. “No!”

Before William could explain, she was on him. She pressed herself against him, legs wrapped around his waist. Her mouth ravished his, putting all her pent up love and lust into the kiss. She moaned, finally being able to explore his mouth, tongue and teeth.

‘Heaven. I think I am in heaven.’

He eagerly responded to the kiss, returning her moans and pants. He needed help in supporting both of their weight, so he moved to the pool’s edge, resting her back against it. Their kiss wasn’t broken with his movements; instead it was transformed, becoming slower, and deeper. He concentrated on her lower lip, biting and sucking, finally able to get retribution for her many pouts. He moved down, planting open, wet kisses on her neck.

Buffy was bursting. ‘Finally.’ Grabbing fistfuls of his hair, she quivered as he worshipped her neck and shoulders. With each moan he made, she squeezed his waist with her legs. ‘Need him.’

“Buffy!” His erection was slammed between her legs as she grinded against him, “Stop!”

“Can’t,” she whimpered. “I need you, William.”

“Please, not here, love, we need to do this right. I want to make love to you, not fuck you in the pool.”

Buffy grasped his face between the palms of her hands, “Promise you won’t chicken out on me. Promise me you won’t run away from me. Promise, William.”

“I promise, I swear it, Buffy.” He placed a kiss on her lips. “Never going back.”

“You’d better not. Race you back to the house, Spikey!”
***





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