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Chapter 31: Thnks Fr th Mmrs
Months later...
'Thnks Fr th Mmrs' by Fallout Boys blasted through the air at my house as I moved from drawer to drawer, looking for my new shirt, but I couldn't find it. I slid on a zip-up hoodie with dark jeans and headed to the kitchen, flipping pancakes and swirling sausages on a different pan.
In her apartment, Kelly looked in her mirror, applying her make-up and smiling to herself, then went to the kitchen and started sliding bread into the toaster.
In his apartment, Doug placed his magical items, then rearranged them, trying to get the right feng sui. He hurried to the kitchen to fry hashbrowns.
And Oz cooked breakfast burritos, placing them in a container.
Just when I finished cooking, I walked over and turned the stereo off and I heard a car pull up. I heard the doors open and shut and then there was a knock on the backdoor and I walked over and opened it to see Kelly, Oz, and Doug, " Hey guys." I smiled to my friends, ushering them in.
Kelly, Doug, and I sat at a table while Oz sang onstage with the Dingoes. The Dingoes had come to our new town, Vengeance. They had another name, but I guess someone thought that building a Sunnydale-esque town would get revenge on someone. But my mind wandered back to the Dingoes. I loved watching them perform. They were the best. Oz looked right at me and smiled. I smiled back.
"Does he know?" Kelly asked.
"What?" I asked, looking at her.
"Oz, does he know?" she asked.
"I'm way sure I have no idea what you're talking about." I smiled.
"Do I look like Doug?" Kelly chuckled, " We've been here for how long and you haven't dated anyone and now you're making googly eyes at Oz, which isn't really surprising."
"I'm not...really? Why isn't it surprising?" I asked.
"No reason." Kelly smirked as Doug came back, " But yeah, I think vampire activity has died down, don't you?"
"Yeah, it's just been to complicated to find..." I looked at Doug, then back at Kelly, " Vampires."
"No there isn't, I'll bet there are a bunch in here." Doug said, looking around, " God, they made this place just like the Bronze."
"Yeah. This is just shameful. They're calling it 'Copper' so..." Kelly laughed.
"Maybe. But it feels like I'm home again. It's comforting." I said happily, " I mean, I know it's not Sunnydale. Well, not entirely, but it feels..."
"Like you know what to expect?" Doug asked.
I thought about it, " Yep." I smirked.
"How about vampire lady?" Doug asked, looking behind me.
I took a sip of my drink, " Really tight red dress? Blonde? Really big boobs?" I asked, not looking.
"How'd you know?" Kelly asked.
I pulled out my stake, " I know what to expect. I'll be back." I said, getting up and walking outside. She had some poor guy against the wall. I walked over and threw her backwards off him and was surprised to see a familiar face, " RJ?!" I asked.
"Austin!" RJ said, feeling his neck.
I turned in time to see the vampire turn to dust and Buffy standing behind the dust. Willow, Xander, Faith, Giles, Andrew, Doug, and Kelly stood behind her.
"Buffy?!" I said, happily running over and hugging her.
"Austin!" she said, huggin me tight, then looking past me, " RJ?" she asked.
"RJ?" Willow said, blushing and looking, " Hey RJ."
RJ peeled himself from the wall and looked at us.
"That's RJ that..." Kelly started.
"YES!" Willow, Buffy, and I shouted in unison.
"Hey Xand. Giles. Andy." I smiled, " Holy Crap! Faith!"
"Hey, kid, didn't we leave you in L.A.?" Faith asked.
I looked at Kelly and Doug, who both shared the same expression.
"I...um...well, would you say this is way creepier than L.A.? I mean, doesn't it give you the creeps just being here?" I asked.
Buffy looked around, " Yeah, but that is totally beside the point." she said.
"Did something happen?" I asked.
"Well no." Giles said, cleaning his glasses, " But with L.A. and Wolfram and Hart free, I'm sure something will happen."
"Umm..." RJ said.
"Oh, you can leave now." I said, causing him to walk away.
Before he completely left, he turned to me, " Isn't that Dawn Summer's...entire family?" he asked.
"Go!" I said impatiently.
"Call me." he said, walking away.
I turned back to the group, " You don't have to worry about L.A., I'm sure that Spike and Angel and the gang'll..."
"Angel? Spike?" Buffy asked.
"Hey, I saw wolfie onstage, where's Angel Jr." Faith asked, looking around.
I stared at her for a minute, but ultimately decided to ignore it, " How's Dawn?" I asked.
"She's good. Extra big." Buffy said.
"Wish I could see her." Willow said, " I haven't seen her. Me and Kennedy were in Brazil, next we're going to this another really cool, unreachable plane. It's sorta like a..." Willow looked from me to the rest of the group, " Nevermind."
"We should get Oz and go back to my place." I smiled.
"Already here." Oz said, walking into sight.
"Hey Oz." Willow said quickly.
"Hey Willow." Oz said back.
I looked at Kelly, who was already staring at me and smiled weakly, " Let's go." I said, leading the group back to my new house.
"Oh my gosh." Buffy said, looking around at my house, " It's...This is...It looks just like my house in Sunnydale."
Buffy and I had deviated from the group to get drinks from the kitchen. She was looking and I was getting things from the fridge.
"I know, all the more reason I should stay here. Something creepy is going on. It's like Sunnydale didn't swallow us before, so it came back for more." I said, fixing drinks.
"So, how are you?" Buffy asked, leaning on the counter.
I looked up at her, " What? I'm fine. Good." I smiled.
"Yeah." she said skeptically, " How's Connor?"
"I wouldn't know." I said, walking to the fridge.
"He didn't come?" she asked, still leaning on the counter.
"Nope. We just had some irreconcilible difference." I said.
"I kinda got that when we called the Hyperion and he told us you were not there and that you hadn't called." Buffy said.
"Yeah, so how's life as the 'Queen'?" I chuckled.
"Exhausting. I miss mom, home, the gang, churros, and...sex." Buffy laughed.
"Yeah, I think the high part of my year was when I had to face you in an alternate dimension, then come back and lost two people from my slayer circle." I frowned.
Buffy walked over and hugged me, " Wait, you faced me?!" she asked.
In the living room, a party was going on.
"So, how's the thousands of slayers?" Oz asked.
"Annoying." Faith said, causing everyone to look at her, " What? Look, I'm all for training the next generation, but sometimes I wanna lay the smackdown on some of those girls, yo."
"Though Faith is...freaking awesome, she's right." Andrew said quickly, " These Vampyre Slayers are major bey-ot..."
"ANDREW! FAITH!" Giles frowned, " They are not, they are, they are the world's last hope."
"God, they sound annoying." Kelly said thoughtfully.
"That's all I'm sayin'." Faith smirked, leaning back.
"Unreachable plane, huh?" Doug said, looking at Willow.
"Well, it's sort of..." Willow started, " I've just been mainly recruiting slayers and things."
"So, why can't anybody in this burb tell me why Connr's not here?" Faith asked.
They all looked at Doug, Kelly, and Oz.
"Well, it's really not our..." Doug started.
"Connor and Austin got into a fight. Connor didn't want to move, Austin did. Thus a fight was born. Irreconcilible differences." Kelly explained.
"Seriously? That's been going around lately." Faith said.
"What is?" Oz asked.
"The break-up bug." Faith said, " How's he taking it?"
Kelly shrugged, " He wasn't good last time we saw him. Very sad..." she said.
"I think she meant Austin." Willow suggested.
"Oh, well, he's...Doug, how's he?" Kelly asked.
Doug looked at her, " He's...um, Oz..." he said.
"Dealing." Oz said simply.
"Poor kid." Willow frowned, " Maybe I could conjure him a cake or something."
"Maybe you should conjure him a guy." Faith chuckled.
Oz's expression changed for a split second just before he went back to normal, " I don't think he'd like that." he said.
"Well, then you could you conjure me one?" Faith joked.
"Imagine. Saving the world, saving everyone and everything around and not being able to save one measly relationship...the irony. What does that make him?" Andrew asked.
"Buffy." Xander joked.
Before there could be anymore to the discussion, Buffy and I walked into the living room as I was showing her my new double sided axy-thingy.
"What about saving the world?" I asked.
They were all quiet.
"Oh...kay." I said, sitting beside Oz, " What were you guys talking about?" I asked.
"Nothing. Just catching up on old time." he smiled, " How about you, you feeling okay? You look wiped."
"Thanks." I said.
"So, how do you think the Dingoes sounded?" Oz asked.
"Great. Like old times." I smiled at him.
"So, would it be cool if we stayed here?" Willow asked.
"Huh?" I asked.
"Well, since me andn red ain't going back with the rest of the group to Scotland or Rome, we figured...." Faith said, stopping when Giles started at her, " Or England, we figured we'd stay with you for a while."
I nodded quickly, " Duh, of course!" I said, " You could all stay."
"No can do." Xander said, " We have to get back to the slayers."
"Of course, what was I thinking?" I joked.
"It was nice." Buffy smiled.
"Yeah, very nice. I would say you have a lovely home, but I think I've said it before." Giles chuckled, " We have to get going to catch our respective flights." he said as they got ready to leave.
"Well, tell Dawn to call more often, I've still got my cell...and I have a house phone now and then there's always the internet, they've got this quirky little thing called IM, but that'd be more difficult with the whole BIG thing, but, ummm, I'd say we could stream video." I said breathlessly.
"Ok, I'll tell her." Buffy smiled, hugging me, " Be safe, k."
"Always." I smiled, hugging her back, then Xander, then Giles, then Andrew. After they left, my friends left and I turned to Faith and Willow, " Let's get you guys settled in." I said, heading to the guest rooms.
Thank you for reading. If you have thoughts, suggestions, comments, just E-Mail me.