Life is Short
by TheBear
Chapter 1
[reviews]
BTW- Those of you that are entierly clueless, read this disclaimer- everyone else can skip it.
Disclaimer: I don't own them, Joss does. All hail the great and mighty Joss. Hey! Don't look behind that curtain!
Part 1
========== BtVS ==========
Buffy Summers was sitting in history class. The teacher was talking, but Buffy was only half (or maybe a quarter) listening. She still felt alien- new town, new house, new school, new people... "A fresh start, right?" she tried to convince herself. "Oh well, at least no creepy watchers, and no vampires!"
Whether today was a good day or a bad one was indeterminate so far. Meeting with Principle Flutie was not much fun, but, given her record, could have gone worse she supposed. Right after that she got to embarrass herself by dumping her bag all over the floor- which definitely fell into the not-so-good category. But a cute- if somewhat goofy- guy had come to her 'rescue'. "Xander... what kind of name is Xander, anyway?" she thought.
Just then the teacher's lecture filtered back into her head, "...If you'll look at the map on page sixty-three you can trace the spread of the disease into Rome, and then north..."
Buffy, not having a book, began to look around for help. The brunette sitting next to her noticed and shared hers.
Buffy whispered, "Thanks!" as she surreptitiously checked the helpful girl out. "Very nice!" Buffy thought. "Almost perfect... great body, great hair, great clothes, pretty face... probably completely homophobic, though."
That Buffy liked girls was not something new. It was, however, something she'd kept secret at her old school. Back then, she'd been among the most popular girls in the school, and being gay was not something that was socially accepted there.
Which isn't to say that Buffy was gay- she dated, and enjoyed dating guys too. Plus, she could do that publicly- in fact it was practically expected of her... Popular cheerleaders were required by the code to date football players, and she did. She also had many, many sleepovers with her 'friends' that ended up in heavy make-out sessions; these were simply never acknowledged openly. Of course, once she started slaying, she was pretty equally ostracized by both boys and girls. She became the weird loser- she who hangs out in graveyards all night; she who burned down the High School gym.
Maybe she really could have a fresh start here. Dating a girl couldn't be as weird as being the Slayer...
The bell rang and Buffy joined all the other students in getting up to leave. As they stood up, the beautiful brunette introduced herself.
"Hi! I'm Cordelia," she said, offering her hand
Buffy accepted the handshake, answering, "I'm Buffy."
Cordelia smiled and said, "If you're looking for a textbook of your very own, there's probably a few in the library."
Buffy said, "Oh, great, thanks." She paused for a moment, "Uh, where would that be?"
Cordelia said, "I'll show you, come on." As they walked out of the classroom and into the hall, She said, "So you're from Hemery, right? In L.A.?"
Buffy said, "Uh, yeah."
Cordelia joked, "Oh, I would *kill* to live in L.A. That close to that many shoes?"
Buffy laughed as they walked down the hall. "Friendly, funny, cute..." she thought. She made no immediate plans to try and go after her, after all she could be straight as and arrow- she could be dating someone already... lots of things. But, Buffy was keeping her options open. "Cordelia... Xander... Hmm, day's looking up!" she thought.
As they got a little further, Cordelia said, "Well, you'll be okay here. If you hang with me and mine, you'll be accepted in no time."
"Ok, Cordelia- obviously one of the 'popular' crowd..." Buffy thought. "No real surprise there."
Cordelia continued, "Of course, we do have to test your coolness factor. You're from L.A., so you can skip the written, but let's see. Vamp nail polish?"
"Great!" Buffy thought sarcastically. "A test on my first day!" Out loud she said, "Um, over?"
Cordelia rolled her eyes, saying, "So over! James Spader?"
Buffy thought James Spader was superfine. She gushed, "He *needs* to call me!"
Cordelia continued, "Frappaccinos?"
Buffy, warming to the test- finding it humorous rather than sadly shallow, answered, "Trendy, but tasty."
Cordelia said, "John Tesh?"
Buffy quickly answered, "The Devil!"
"That was pretty much a gimme, but... you passed!" Cordelia said in all seriousness.
Buffy said, "Oh, goody!"
They turned toward a drinking fountain where a girl with long auburn hair- wearing a rather unflattering dress- was drinking. She straightened up and froze as she saw them coming.
Cordelia said, "Willow! Nice dress! Good to know you've seen the softer side of Sears."
"Ouch!" Buffy thought of Cordelia's comment as she stared at the redhead in wonder.
Willow said, "Uh, oh, well, my mom picked it out.
Buffy was captivated by the girl's innocent beauty. Clearly, she was nervous and uncomfortable around Cordelia, and she was wearing an extremely unflattering outfit, but...
Cordelia said, "No wonder you're such a guy magnet. Are you done?"
Willow looked at the fountain, then back at Cordelia as if she wasn't sure what she was asking. Then she got it, saying, "Oh!" Without another word, she turned and walked away.
Buffy watched her go for a moment, then looked back at Cordelia as she started talking again.
Cordelia said, "You wanna fit in here, the first rule is: know your losers. Once you can identify them all by sight..." she glanced after Willow, "...they're a lot easier to avoid."
Buffy let out a nervous laugh and nodded, but she was thinking, "God, how cruel!" She looked at Willow again, who had gone through the door at the end of the hall.
Willow looked back at them, mostly at Buffy, before continuing away.
Buffy felt bad. Even though she hadn't said anything herself... well that was kinda the problem- Cordelia, who's attractiveness was rapidly slipping in Buffy's estimation, had just viciously flayed the hapless redhead, while Buffy had stood silently.
She had been the shallow, abusive, popular cheerleader once upon a time- interested only in boys (and girls, but that was kept mostly secret) and clothes, and gossip... and making fun of the unpopular. She didn't really very much like the person she'd been back then anymore.
========== BtVS ==========
It was lunchtime, and Buffy walked out onto the quad at school. She'd avoided Cordelia, and she was still dealing with that weird librarian who somehow knew about her and vampires. She *so* did not want to get into anything involving the undead in any way- not ever again.
She was looking for Willow Rosenberg- the redhead from the fountain incident earlier. She'd asked around in her last couple of classes about who could help her catch up, and Willow's name had been one of those brought up. Well, that dovetailed nicely with Buffy's desires- she wanted to, well not really apologize, 'cause she hadn't actually said anything, but to let Willow know she wasn't the cruel bitch-type just because she happened to be with Cordelia at that moment.
She didn't kid herself that catching up and not being lumped into the bitch category were her only motivations. There was something about Willow Rosenberg that made her feel warm and tingly down deep in her belly from the moment she'd laid eyes on her face. Any thoughts of Xander or Cordelia as potential dating interests had flown out the window the moment that she saw Willow. She really, really wanted to get to know her.
Willow was sitting on a bench taking her lunch out when Buffy saw her.
Buffy approached her, saying, "Uh, Hi! Willow, right?"
Willow looked up and said, "Why? I- I mean, hi! Uh, did you want me to move?"
"Oh my God! She's adorable!" Buffy thought, instantly smitten with the self-conscious girl. She said, "Why don't we start with, 'Hi, I'm Buffy,' and then let's segue directly into me asking you for a favor."
Willow was shocked that this girl was even talking to her. She stared at her as she sat down next to her. "Wow! She's pretty!" Willow thought, somewhat enviously- remembering Xander's being instantly smitten with the blond.
Buffy continued talking, "It doesn't involve moving, but it does involve hanging out with me for a while..." she added in her thoughts, "Oh-please-oh-please!"
Willow was tempted to look around to see if anyone was watching as she said, "But aren't you hanging out with Cordelia?"
Buffy frowned, once again embarrassed by Cordelia's unprovoked attack on the apparently shy girl. She asked- somewhat jokingly, "I can't do both?
Willow said, "Not legally."
Buffy was momentarily nonplussed at the seriousness of Willow's answer. After a moment she exhaled loudly and said, "Look, I really wanna get by here- new school, and... Cordelia's been really nice... to me... anyway," she qualified. "But, um, I kinda have this burning desire not to flunk all my classes, and I heard a rumor that you were the person to talk to if I wanted to get caught up," she finished with a hopeful look.
Ah. This was something Willow could understand. This was a situation she was comfortable handling. Willow was especially comfortable teaching and tutoring, because- in her mind- it was the only thing she was good at. She didn't think she was pretty or funny or certainly not popular; but she was definitely smart. She took great pleasure in her ability to help out others with their schoolwork, because it was the closest thing she had to a social life. She said, "Oh, I could *totally* help you out! Uh, if you have sixth period free we could meet in the library?"
Buffy had zero desire to ever set foot in the library again. She quickly answered, "Or not." Trying to backpedal, she began to babble, "Or we could meet someplace quieter. Louder." Shaking her head slightly she tried again, "Uh, that place just kinda gives me the wiggins."
Willow nodded and said, "Oh, it has that effect on most kids. I love it though, it's a great collection, and the new librarian is really cool."
"Danger, Will Robinson!" Buffy shouted in her mind. She said, "He's new?"
Willow, missing Buffy's reticence, continued to gush, "Yeah, he just started. He was a curator at some British museum, or, or The British Museum, I'm not sure. But he knows everything, and he brought all these historical volumes and biographies and..." suddenly realizing she was freely loosing her inner geek, she said, "...am I the single dullest person alive?" She mentally kicked herself for spazing out in front of the new girl.
Buffy was once again taken by this girl's sweetness and innocent beauty. She quickly reassured her, "Not at all."
Suddenly two boys invaded their space. Buffy recognized the one who jumped up onto the wall behind them, insinuating himself between her and Willow, as the guy she met earlier during the spilled-bag incident. Another, much taller boy moved to stand in front of them and dropped his bag.
The tall boy displayed his keen wit, saying, "Hey!"
Xander interjected, "You guys busy? Are we interrupting?" he looked back and forth between the two girls, then continued, "We're interrupting," as he tossed his bag to the tall boy.
"Yes! You're interrupting!" Buffy thought, annoyed. Out loud, she just responded, "Hey!"
Willow also gave the horse-trough greeting, "Hey!"
The tall one repeated himself, saying, "Hey there!" as he dropped Xander's bag next to his own.
Willow was happy to see Xander and Jesse, because they were her friends, and because she had a secret crush on Xander. She was also unhappy to see them, because they were both clearly much more interested in Buffy than they were in her- doing wonders for her already abysmal self-confidence. She put on a happy face and did the introductions, "Buffy, this is Jesse and that's Xander."
Xander said, "Oh, me and Buffy go waaay back, old friends, very close. Then there's that period of estrangement where I think we were both growing as people, but now here we are, like old times, I'm quite moved."
Everyone looked at Xander like he was an idiot. Jesse said, "Is it me, or are you turning into a bibbling idiot?"
Xander, realizing that he was indeed behaving once again in a less than suave manner, said, "No, it's, uh, it's not you."
Buffy resigned herself to the encounter, saying, "Well, it's nice to meet you guys, I think."
Suddenly Xander jumped down and grabbed his bag, retrieving something from inside.
Jesse said, "Well, you know, we wanted to welcome ya, make ya feel at home, unless you have a scary home..."
Xander added, "And to return this," as he turned around holding a wooden stake.
Buffy's eyes widened as she realize she must have dropped it in the hallway earlier.
"The only thing I can think is that you're building a really little fence," Xander joked as he handed it to her.
Buffy scrambled to come up with a plausible explanation as she took it back. "Hah, no, um, a-a-actually it was for self-defense. Everyone has them in L.A. Pepper spray is just so passé."
Xander ignored the weirdness of a girl who carried a stake for self defense, saying, "So what do you do for fun, what do you like, what do you look for in a man, let's hear it."
Jesse added, "If you have any dark, painful secrets you'd like us to publish?
Willow was torn between annoyance with her friends for interrupting her private talk with Buffy, and with hoping Buffy would answer the questions-- or at least the first couple.
Buffy said, "Gee, everyone wants to know about me. How keen."
Xander said, "Well, not much goes on in a one Starbucks town like Sunnydale. You're pretty big news."
Buffy shook her head. "I'm not. Really."
At that moment Cordelia walked up and interrupted. "Are these guys bothering you?" she asked haughtily
Buffy said, "Uh, no!"
Willow felt some strange need to protect Buffy from being associated with her and her friends. She said, "She's not hanging out with us." She fully expected that Buffy would now get up and leave with Cordelia- after all, why wouldn't she?
Jesse, obviously smitten with the dark-haired beauty moved to stand next to Cordelia. "Hey! Cordelia!"
Cordelia rolled her eyes and gave Jesse a half-glance, saying, "Oh, please!" She turned her attention back to Buffy, saying "I don't mean to interrupt your downward mobility, but I just wanted to tell you that you won't be meeting Coach Foster- the woman with the chest hair- because gym was canceled due to the *extreme* dead guy in the locker."
Buffy said, "What?"
Willow said, "What are you talking about?"
Cordelia clarified, "Some guy was stuffed in Aura's locker!"
Buffy said, "Dead."
Cordelia waved her hands dramatically as she said, "Totally dead. Way dead."
Xander quipped, "It's not just a little dead, then?"
Cordelia shot him a withering glare and said, "Don't you have an elsewhere to be?"
Jesse, sadly still trying, said, "Y'know, if you need a shoulder to cry on, or just to nibble on..."
Buffy interjected, "How did he die?"
Cordelia was surprised by the question. She said, "I don't know..."
Buffy followed up, "Well, were there any marks?"
Cordelia moved from 'surprised' to 'taken aback'. She rolled her eyes and said, "Morbid much! I didn't ask!"
Buffy nervously looked around at the others. "Um, I gotta book. I'll, I'll see you guys later," she said as she grabbed her stuff and left.
Cordelia stared after her, asking, "What's her deal?" in an annoyed voice.
========== BtVS ==========
Later that evening, Buffy was entering the Bronze. She was pissed off because she somehow was involved with vampires again, after promising herself she wouldn't be. Sure enough, that dead guy had been sucked dry- the 'new librarian' was her new Watcher, and it turned out that- instead of being a nice, small- and most importantly- vampire-free town, Sunnydale was some kind of mystical whosits just chalk full of undead.
Then she gets the lecture from her mom about staying out of trouble and they just moved to a new town, and it's hard, and basically- 'you screwed it up for us in LA; don't screw it up here too!' "Thanks, Mom. You really know how to inspire confidence!" she thought.
And, to top it off, annoying Mr. Cryptic in the alley with vague warnings about 'the harvest'... whatever *that* was; and being a friend, but not hers... whatever *that* meant. Well, it was all suited for badness. She needed a little goodness to balance things out.
She paid her cover and wandered in to the club. There was a band, and the music was pretty cool. She kinda bobbed her head to the beat and walked around for a bit. She didn't see anyone she knew... Of course she didn't really know anybody yet either.
A guy waved at her and she started to wave back when she noticed that he was waving to someone behind her. "Well that was nicely humiliating," she thought. "Helps set the tone for the rest of the night."
She had just about decided that today was going to be a firm check in the 'bad-day' column when she spotted a girl at the bar with long auburn hair. "Mmm, things may be looking up!" she thought. She hadn't been able to get the redhead out of her mind all day. Well, except for when she was thinking about vampires, yelling at watchers, listening to her mom dump on her, or fielding mysterious informants. Compared to all that crap, thoughts of Willow definitely fell into the 'good-day' column.
She walked up to the corner of the bar, where Willow was sitting, and said, "Hey Willow!"
Willow, surprised to have anyone- other than Xander or Jesse- actually speak to her, said, "Oh, hi!"
Buffy walked around her and sat on the stool next to her.
Willow turned to face her, and not knowing what else to say, again said, "Hi!"
Buffy thought she was brushing her off. Her stomach sank as she asked, "Oh, you're here with someone?"
Willow's mind boggled at the concept. She said, "No, I'm just here." She added disappointedly, "I thought Xander was gonna show up."
Again with the stomach sinkage. Buffy nonchalantly said, "Oh, are you guys going out?"
Willow's mind, again, boggled at the concept. "No, we're just friends. We used to go out, but we broke up."
Buffy was embarrassed at the relief she felt. She asked, "How come?"
"He stole my Barbie," Willow said seriously.
"Huh?" Buffy thought.
At Buffy's look of confusion Willow explained, "Oh, we were five."
Buffy half smiled and said, "Oh."
Willow didn't know why she felt compelled to open up to Buffy, except that she was nice, and friendly to her, and for some reason Willow felt... tingly around her. "I-I-I don't actually date a whole lot... lately," she said. "Yeah, lately as in 'ever'!" she thought.
Buffy was confused. Sure, Willow lacked confidence and was probably considered a bit of a nerd, but she was so beautiful! Didn't at least other nerds hit on her? "They must!" she thought. "I mean, look at her!" She asked, "Why not?"
Again, in all seriousness, Willow said, "Well, when I'm with a boy I like, it's hard for me to say anything cool, or, or witty, or at all. I- I can usually make a few vowel sounds, and then I have to go away."
Buffy laughed, even though she could feel the pain in those words, "It can't be *that* bad!"
Willow said, "No, i- it is. I think boys are more interested in a girl who can talk."
Buffy smiled at that thought, "You really *haven't* been dating lately."
"It's probably easy for you," Willow sighed,
There was a time when that was true. That was before she was 'chosen'. "You think so, huh?"
Willow said, "I-I mean; you're so pretty, and nice, and sweet... and you don't seem too shy."
"She thinks I'm pretty? That's a good sign!" Buffy thought. To Willow she said, "Well, my philosophy..." she paused to ask, "do you wanna hear my philosophy?"
Willow smile eagerly, "Yeah, I do!" she said.
Buffy nodded and said, "Life is short."
"Life is short!" Willow repeated.
Buffy elaborated, "Not original, I'll grant you, but it's true. You know? Why waste time being all shy and worrying about some guy, and if he's gonna laugh at you. Seize the moment, 'cause tomorrow you might be dead."
Willow said, "Oh, that's nice!"
Buffy looked around, not wanting to get caught staring into Willow's eyes. As she looked up she saw the Librarian, Mr. Giles, on the upper level. She thought about going up to see what his deal was. She said, "Um, I'll be back in a minute," as she stood up.
Willow noticed Buffy looking everywhere but at her and sadly realized that she had somehow managed to annoy or bother the girl. When Buffy said she'd be back, Willow knew she was just blowing her off. She cursed herself for being a spaz, even as she said, "Oh, tha-that's okay, you don't have to come back." She didn't want Buffy to feel bad for leaving- or somehow obligated to return. After all, surely a beautiful girl like Buffy had better things to do than to hang around with a dork like her.
"God, you are just *so* adorable!" Buffy thought. She unthinkingly reached out and covered the redhead's hand on the bar with her own for a moment. "I'll be back in a minute," she reiterated.
Willow felt a warm shiver run through her at Buffy's touch. She looked into Buffy's eyes and was lost for a moment. "O- ok," she whispered.
"Wow" she thought as she watched the blond girl walk away. She felt all warm and gushy inside. She'd never felt quite like that before. The closest she'd ever come to that feeling was... "Oh Gosh!" she whispered.
========== BtVS ==========