Story: Walking After Midnight (chapter 2)

Part One

The school year had ended, the birds were chirping, pretty much everyone made it through graduation alive, and the demons seemed to be on vacation-at least for the time being. After the ascension fiasco Wesley was summoned back to England, Cordelia and her family were getting ready to move, Oz and the band were heading down to L.A to try and get some exposure, and…well, I'm not really sure where Anya went.

Basically what was left of the gang and I had a summer of bumming around, and loitering to look forward to, and to me, that was okay. Giles however had other ideas.

"We're going where?" I asked aghast. I couldn't have heard that right, which is to say that I must not have heard that right.

"Camp," Giles responded calmly, as if he hadn't heard the tone of voice I had used. But he had heard it, I knew it. "The council feels…"

"I thought that I said I wasn't working for them anymore," I started. "I clearly remember stating that I wasn't working for them anymore. I spoke from the diaphragm, and there was discussion that ended in me stating that I was not working for them anymore. Has everyone forgotten this?" I continued looking around at my peeps for support.

"Did I mention that the camp was in Bermuda?" Giles asked conversationally. "It must have slipped my mind. But, if you're absolutely certain that you don't want to accept the councils offer then…"

"When do we leave?" I asked cutting off his response.

"The tickets are for Saturday morning at 9:00am, but the time can be changed if that poses a problem for any of you," Giles answered semi-smugly. He knew I would cave and cave I did.

"Padres?" I asked turning to look at the assembled Scoobs. I was greeted by four wiggling thumbs pointed in the direction of up. "Saturday is fine," I responded. How could I say no to such cute hope filled faces? "I assume this includes rooms, and board…and petty cash?" I asked. If they wanted to buy me back I could as well make them work for it.

"Certainly," Giles responded. I knew that he was going to go into office immediately after and check out the petty cash thing. The council would probably say no at first-like they always did-but I was sure Giles would get us some moola.

"I would just like to note, that I recognize this for what it is," I responded pointing at Giles.

"And what might that be?"

"Absentee Council Syndrome," I responded. "It's a new spin on the classic 'Absentee Parent Syndrome'. When the parent, or in this case 'council', realizes that they have been neglecting their child, or in this case 'Slayer', they lavish them with gifts, and trips to tropical islands…and cars," I added the 'cars' part in at the end. It was worth a shot, fighting evil would be easier with wheels. I mean, every superhero had wheels, or the ability to fly, or something equally as cool. All I had was a BMX…and it was rusting.

"Does this mean you don't want to go?" Giles asked tilting his head to side in that way dogs do when they're curious.

"Yeah…right," I responded guffawing. I always wanted to go to Bermuda, it reminded me of the Beach Boys. Bermuda, and Cocco.

"Very well then," Giles responded. "I suggest the two of you," he continued looking at Xander and Willow, "try to fabricate some suitable tale to tell your parents," he finished then headed into his office.

"So we're going to Bermuda?" Xander asked once Giles was out of hearing range.

"Looks that way my friend," I responded.

"Ha, and to think they laughed and scoffed at the 'Jean Machine' when I bought that blue and purple Haiiwian shirt. For you see, they doubted me and my choice in clothing, but now, now they'll be chew, chew, chewing on that, 'cause every shirt has it's day and mine has arrived," Xander said dreamily. I could almost hear him mentally mocking the sales people.

"Xander that's not why they were laughing at you at the Jean Machine," Willow started to say before Xander interrupted her.

"Yes it was Willow. Yes it was," he said suddenly serious, as he looked directly into her eyes.

"Righhhhttttt," Willow said drawing out the word. "My bad," she continued. Xander nodded seemingly pleased with that response and headed over to where he had left the homework he wasn't going to do.

"Did I miss something?" I asked leaning over and whispering in Willow's ear.

"Yeah," Willow said smiling. "When we went shopping Xander…"

"Hey, what's going on over there?" Xander asked suspiciously looking up. "How many times do I have to tell you," he said whining, "it was the shirt! The shirt!"

"Yes, Xander. It was the shirt," Willow responded soothingly.

"It was the shirt," he muttered turning back to whatever it was he was doing.

"I'll tell you later," Willow whispered back deviously a moment later as she leaned back into me. Once again Xander looked back at us skeptically and glared for a moment.

"It was the shirt and nothing but the shirt," I said putting my hands up. Apparently, we had hit a nerve with the accuracy of a surgeon, and it was kinda fun playing with it.

* * * * * *

I don't know how Giles did it, but he did, and for it he received multiple huggings from all. We had gotten ourselves a petty cash budget and we were going to blow half of it at the mall buying beach wear and other vacation necessities. That was the great thing about school ending-well besides the whole not having to go to school thing-all the time, was all your time. It was noon, we were in the mall, and if all things went according to plan we wouldn't leave until they kicked us out. That, or until we found everything we needed.

"Alright," Willow said checking the list. "What's next?"

"Beach balls!" Xander piped up from behind her. "I say we get the rainbow colored kind, cause they're the prettiest."

"Pretty spherical objects coming right up," I said from my position beside him. I had been standing by Willow but I had to move when Xander came in behind or I would have been squished between them. Not that that would have been all that bad.

While we at the 'Beach Emporium', or whatever the store was called, we decided to take a look at bathing suits, and beach towels. They were after all essential elements to beach life.

"Will," I started slowly eyeing the towel she was holding critically. "Are you sure you want to buy that?"

"Yeah, look," she said pointing at it. "It's all colorful, which was part of the criteria, and it's got a guy fishing on it. Look, he's so happy because he's fishing, and he likes fishing, and he's got his rod out and he's just fishing away. See that smile? That's a fishing smile," she continued smiling. She looked so happy I didn't want to spoil it, but I couldn't let her buy that towel. It would have led to ruin.

"Will, that's not a rod he's holding. At least not a fishing rod," I said trying not to smile.

"Sure it is," she responded looking at the towel a bit more closely. "It's just a short one…Ohmygod…" she squeaked dropping the towel and jumping away from it. "That's disgusting, they can't put stuff like that on a towel and make people think that he's fishing, when he's not fishing. He was soooo not fishing!" she exclaimed. The whole display was too cute. I would never say that though cause she'd go and throw a hissy fit that I would find equally as cute and I would only end up digging myself a bigger grave.

"He was happy though," I said smiling. It always paid to look at the glass as half full.

"I'll bet," she said looking down at the towel a meter or so from her feet with contempt.

"Why don't we move on," I suggested. "Swim wear sound good?"

"Okay," she said quickly forgetting all about the towel. She started shifting her gaze between me and the change rooms and I eyed her suspiciously.

"You just want to molest me in the change rooms, don't you?" I asked smirking. I knew her so well, and I knew this.

"What if I did?" she asked giving me that sexy 'come hither' smile. I loved the sexy 'come hither' smile, I really did. I always hithered.

"I'd say, what are we waiting for?" I responded. We looked at each other for a moment then practically ran to the change rooms. I loved shopping.

* * * * * *

"What took you two so long?" Xander asked when we finally met him outside the store.

"Faulty hinge," I said shrugging. I didn't really know what that meant, but that's what came out of my mouth so I'd have to stick with it, dumb as it was.

"Faulty hinge?" he asked. He didn't seem convinced, I couldn't imagine why.

"Yep," I responded.

"Okaaayyyy," he said drawing out the word. "Where to next?" he asked a moment later.

"Uh oh," Willow said digging around in her pocket.

"What?" I asked though I could just sense where this was going.

"I left the list in the change room," she said blushing slightly obviously thinking about what we had been doing in the change room. She had actually been holding the list when we went in and we were kind of in a hurry so I doubt we would have been able to find the list anyway. I had probably chucked it somewhere…somewhere far.

"Oh," was what I said in response to her statement however. I think that it went without saying that we could not go back into that change room. "No prob, we'll just wing it. How hard could vacation shopping be?" I asked shrugging my shoulders. Theoretically the worst of it should have been over already anyway.

By the end of that day I vowed to never, ever in life, to ask how hard something could be again. Never, ever.

* * * * * *

After our interesting adventures at the mall we headed back to my house to do nothing. We figured that maybe something was on TV, but if there wasn't anything on we'd maybe play a game. Or, if we didn't feel like that we'd just look through the yearbook and make fun of people we didn't like. Or, if we didn't feel like doing that either we'd maybe just sit there. Sufficed to say, we didn't have any concrete plans.

Willow and I were on the big couch, while Xander was off to the side in the recliner. I was using Willows lap as a pillow, as we lounged in the family room watching Ally McBeal. I had never really considered myself to be a snuggler, in fact B.W (before Willow), I probably would have considered myself an anti-snuggler. What I was realizing though, was that I was a snuggler when I was with the right person, and I kinda liked it. As we lounged around we commented on how nuts all the characters on the show were until we realized that it was pretty much a given and not really worth discussion. The principle behind it was identical to the reason why we no longer discussed the oddity that was our lives.

My mom came home shortly before the episode finished and proceeded to completely ruin it by talking through the whole thing. She was trying to find out how our day had gone or something. After a series of grunts met her first query, she decided to move onto greener pastures. Basically to sum up, she ruined any chance I had of finding out if Ling won her lawsuit.

"How did the two of you manage to convince your parents to let you go?" she asked directing her next question at Willow and Xander. I didn't bother moving off of Willow when she came into the room, there were other places for her to sit, and she was fine with Willow and I being together. In fact after the initial shock wore off she was actually pleased. She liked Willow, she thought she was a good influence on me. I wasn't so sure about that but if it made mom feel better then who was I argue. Truthfully, my mother was a pretty cool individual, which was tough on me because when people were bitching about their parents I couldn't really say anything about her.

"We told them that, ad;klv jieh!a dkjfd bobe," Willow and Xander responded together having completely deteriorated into gibberish after the word 'that'. Mom looked down at me to see if I could translate. I simply shrugged then stared back at her. That was always a wise course of action.

"Come again?" she asked once she realized that I was going to be of absolutely no use.

"We told them that *cough* it was something *cough* that had to do with *cough* *cough* thegalleryandthatyouwerepayingforusbothtogosothatwecouldactasgophers *cough* ," Xander responded looking at his hands for the entire time.

"You what?" she asked her voice squeaking a little. I was actually impressed that she had managed to decipher what he had said with all that coughing, and the highly caffinated speech patterns. Willow and Xander hung their heads slightly and turned towards me. They wanted a bail out, and it was my intrinsic duty to provide one. She was my mother after all.

"You are going out of town for the week we'll be gone," I said stressing the word 'are'. "It was the only way their parents would let them go. Not all parents are as understanding, and kind as yourself," I continued plastering a look so sweet it could rot teeth across my face.

"Buffy…" she started to say looking down at me with that mom 'I am not convinced' look.

"Please," I said. I sounded like I was begging and I was. She still looked unconvinced however.

"Please," Willow and Xander said in stereo each matching the pitiful puppy dog face I had on mine.

"Alright," she agreed a moment later. The combination of three adorable faces looking at her beseechingly was too much for her to resist. "But if you get into any trouble, I am 'so' telling your parents," she continued mocking the way myself and millions of other teenagers said the word 'so'.

"Trouble?" I asked. "I know not thy face," I continued. She looked down at me for moment and then sighed. She actually did that a lot, I guess I'm an exasperating kind of kid. Oh, well.

"The things I do for love," she muttered standing up. She walked over and gave me a kiss on the forehead before heading out of the room shaking her head. If I was a less secure individual I would have had major issues with my mother kissing me in front of a friend, not to mention my girlfriend, but since she had just saved our asses I decided I would be mature about it and not start wiping at face going 'ewwww'.

"That was…easy," Willow commented once we were sure she was gone.

"I know," I responded slowly. And we all sat there, thinking.

* * * * * *

Saturday approached quickly which was just fine with me. Everyday between the day Giles told us and Saturday had just been filler. I was ready to go. We arrived at Willow's house first around 6:00am, or at least I think it was around six, I was curled up in the front seat of the car sleeping. After we got Willow's stuff all set up in the trunk-or whatever you call them in jeeps-I went into the back with Willow and curled up and went to sleep back there. And, somewhere in between that and arriving at the airport, we picked up Xander.

We met Giles at the end of a line that had to have been started sometime in the 19th century. When we got to him I couldn't even see the beginning the line. While Giles headed over to where my mom was waiting the rest of us used the opportunity to drop our bags. Xander and Willow started fighting for leaning room on the pillar near us, while I turned to observe my mother and Giles. The two of them, together, had made me nervous since that candy incident. It was just too disturbing for thought. And finding out that they had slept together, twice, on the hood of a police car had nearly made me go loco. It had a chillingly high ick factor.

"Are they in separate rooms Mr. Giles?" my mother asked in what she assumed was a voice low enough for me not to hear. She assumed wrong, I have ears like a hawk, I heard and I glared at her.

"Yes, yes of course," Giles responded in a tone that said 'not to worry I've got it all under control'. I glared at him too after that.

Luckily, we got through the baggage check sometime before the millenium. The lady who was doing the luggage check, and ticket identification took an extra long time when it came to us because she thought Giles was cute, and that if she spent enough time telling us what the weather was like in the Bahamas (even though we were going to Bermuda) was she would get lucky. Then when Giles turned away for a moment Xander told her he was gay and we got through the rest of the process in a snap.

* * * * * *

All I have to say is that first class is a wondrous, magical place, full of chairs big enough for two, and more than enough leg room in between rows, for people who are as tall as I wished I was, to sit comfortably. It was also a place that I would never again visit in life, and I intended to make the most of while I was there.

"I still don't see why we couldn't go to the gift shop," Xander grumbled as he stowed away his bag in the overhead compartment.

"All that was in the gift shop was five dollar gum, and ten dollar key chains," I responded slipping into the window seat. "Wouldn't you rather pay five bucks for Caribbean gum, instead of your run of the mill Yankee Bazooka Joe?"

"Ho, ho, that's very funny. Five bucks for Caribbean gum, Bazooka Joe, very droll indeedy," Xander said laughing in a sarcastically jovial way. I smiled at his response then turned to look out the window as Willow settled into the seat next to me. Xander and Giles were seated across the aisle. I knew that Giles was going to kill me for subjecting him to all of this quality time with Xander but I couldn't give up any opportunity to be alone, or slightly alone with Willow. Besides, I actually think that they were starting to bond, hopefully.

I was pretty sure that in flight attends were seriously considering asking the airline to reconsider the companies policy on the distribution of complimentary peanuts by the time we were finished with them. Our first offense was having a competition to see who could horde the most peanuts. This then branched out into seeing who could actually open the bags of peanuts they had apprehended. I'm ashamed to say that it was not I who succeeded. Neither was it Xander or Willow though, so it wasn't too bad. The three of us eventually had to hang our heads in shame as passed our bags over to Giles to open them, then thank him as he passed them back. It was really very sad, very, very sad. However, once we got over that, the peanuts then became flying projectiles to be used in the civil war launched by Willow and I against the country of Penisalvenia (otherwise known as Xander's pants). What nuts were left at the end of that were now being used by Xander to answer some question Willow had asked about four way stops that I probably failed on my written test.

"No, but you're in like a circle…" Willow had started to say.

"No, you're not in a circle, you're at a four way stop," Xander responded shaking his head as he pointed to peanuts.

"Okay, you're in a square like perimeter, but still who has the right of way, because everyone's like to the right of someone but whose more to the right then the others who are also…"

"Alright," Xander said cutting her off. "Think of it this way, four cars come to a stop at a culdasack," he continued as he moved the peanuts around on his tray table. "You're a car, and I'm a car…"

I watched the display for a few more seconds before turning my full attention to Willow gazing. It was quickly becoming one of my favorite pass times. We hadn't had much time to spend alone together since the incident with Rio and I realized that I missed just holding her, looking at her, and being alone with her as much as I missed being able to make love to her, and have her make love to me. As I sat there watching her bad poetry started to float through my head and I realized why I was a vampire slayer and not a poet. 'Roses are red, violets are blue, Willow loves me, and I love her too' was the kind of crap I was coming up with. It was almost as scary as the demons we fought!

Sometime while I was watching her I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I became aware of was being the victim of incessant pummeling. Wincing slightly I opened my eyes and turned my head to see Willow excitedly whacking me. Sometimes the girl really didn't know her own strength.

"What?" I asked moving out of range.

"Look, look, look," she said pointing at the screen. "She looks exactly like you," she continued. "Only skankier," she added as an after thought.

"Skankier?" I asked stressing the 'ier' part. "Are you implying that I have a skank quotient to be 'ier'ed?" I continued raising an eyebrow. Willow simply stared at me for a moment looking like a deer caught in headlights. I let her squirm for a few seconds before letting her off the hook. "Either way, I suppose there is a slight resemblance," I allowed.

"Slight?" Willow asked as if it was one of the most absurd things she had ever heard. "She's like your twin. If you were to be cloned it would look exactly like that, if you were suddenly to be split into two individual entities the other one would look exactly like that. If…"

"So what you're saying is that she looks like me?" I asked cutting her off.

"Yes," she responded. "Only with brown hair."

"Well, there you go. She can't be my twin. I'm a natural blond," I responded pleased with my own logic. Actually the resemblance I possessed to her did border on freaky.

"I know," she said grinning sexily. I looked over at her meeting her gaze for a moment before having the good grace to blush then look away. I knew how she knew, and she knew that I knew how she knew, and I knew that she knew that I knew how she knew and…

"Hey," Xander called in loud whisper interrupting my thoughts. "Zip it. Zip it real good," he continued. "This is the best part." Returning my gaze to the screen I watched as the brunette me leaned forward and kissed the girl opposite to her on the blanket. I watched as they kissed, while at the same time quasi-wondering if it was wrong for the display to be making me randy. It was positively Freudian, and I suddenly felt bad for teasing Willow about the situation she had been placed in with her vamp-self. When the two on the screen finally separated Xander looked back over at me and started to speak again. "Hey, Buff, not only does she look like you but she…"