Under the Sun
Author: enigmaticblue
Rating: PG-13
Archive: Sure, if you already have my stuff. If not, just ask.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters herein; Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and other lucky folks do. Of course, I'm not the one making money off of them.
Summary: Set after Avocation in an alternate S4 where many events of canon get thrown out the window. This one won't make any sense if you haven't read the previous story.
A/N: The title comes from Ecclesiastes, which most people know from the phrase, "A time for everything, and a season for everything under heaven." Really, this story is based on the entire book, which is probably my favorite in the Bible. It talks about making the most of what one has now, and while some find it depressing, I love it. If you've got the time, I'd really recommend you read the whole thing.
Chapter 4
"It is enough for me by day/To walk the same bright earth with him;/Enough that over us by night/The same great roof of stars is dim./I do not hope to bind the wind/Or set a fetter on the sea—/It is enough to feel his love/Blow by like music over me." ~Sara Teasdale, "Enough"
"Get back," Oz said, thrusting the music stand between
Harmony and
"Fine. Hide behind your boyfriend," Harmony replied. "But you just wait. I have a boyfriend, too, and he's going to be mad that you were mean to me." She ran off down the alley.
Oz came up beside
"I think so."
"I know." Oz put a tender hand to her cheek. "We should get you cleaned up, and then we should probably find Buffy."
"I think they'll understand," Oz said. "Harmony said she had a boyfriend. It might be a concern."
"Still," Oz said.
She sighed. "Okay, but I'm making you ring Spike's doorbell."
~~~~~
"Don't answer it," Buffy ordered as the doorbell sounded. Spike's shirt was off, as was hers, although neither one of them was in a hurry to get to the main event. "They can take care of their own damn problems for once."
Spike groaned. "Luv, the only people who know we're here and
would just drop in are
"Damn." Buffy rested her head on Spike's bare shoulder. "Double damn."
When the doorbell sounded again, she pulled back, reaching for her shirt. "If this isn't end of the world, I'm going to kill them."
"You'll have to stand in line," Spike remarked, heading for
the front door, without bothering to put his shirt back on. His tune changed as
soon as he smelled the blood on
"Harmony attacked
"Wait. Harmony's a vampire?" Buffy asked, coming out of the bedroom. "When did that happen?"
"She was there at graduation," Oz commented. "I remember seeing her."
Buffy grimaced. "So she got turned sometime during the fight? Crap. I hate having to stake people I used to know."
"Why don't you let me do it?" Spike asked. "I'll take Wes, and we'll track her down. If she's still in town, we'll find her."
"Do you really have to?"
Buffy sank down on the couch. "I don't know, Will. Harmony might not be much of a threat, but she's still a vampire. If she's attacking people, it's my job to stop her."
"I doubt you'd have to do it tonight," Oz said.
Buffy sighed, then nodded. "Okay, we'll wait and see what happens. I don't think it'll take much to track her down either way."
"You sure you don't want me to handle it?" Spike asked. "I don't mind."
"I know you don't," Buffy replied. "But I want you to myself tonight."
"Which is our cue to leave,"
Buffy shrugged. "It's part of the job. I'll see you sometime
tomorrow probably,
Spike saw them to the door, and then came back into the living room. "A hero's work is never done."
"I'm tired of being a hero," Buffy said. "I want to be a normal college student for a change."
"You'd get bored."
"Probably." Buffy flopped down onto her back on the couch. "Sometimes I really do hate this job, though. I don't like having to stake people I know."
Spike prodded Buffy to lift her head a bit so he could sit down, and then he pulled her down to lay with her head in his lap. "No one does."
"Did you ever have to stake someone you knew before?"
"Yes."
That one word was laden with so much emotion, Buffy had no idea how to respond. "Will you tell me about it?"
"It's not a topic conducive to what we were planning."
She grabbed onto his hand. "Plans change." Feeling his tension, she placed a kiss on his palm. "You don't have to tell me."
"It was my mum." Spike waited to see how Buffy would react, if she would pull away from him. It was one of the many things he had never told her, although to be fair, he'd never told anyone what had transpired between him and his mother.
She frowned. "Your mom got turned?" Her green eyes widened in understanding. "You turned her."
"Yeah, that's right."
He tried to pull away, but Buffy kept a tight grip on him. "You never told me about your mom before."
Spike relaxed ever-so-slightly as he realized that she wasn't angry. "No, I suppose not." He was silent for a moment, remembering. "She was sick, yeah? And she wasn't going to get better. When I was turned, it was—it was the biggest rush. I was powerful for the first time in my life."
"You wanted to save her." Buffy thought she could understand. It made a perverted kind of sense. "Then what?"
"She wasn't my mum," Spike said simply. "She just looked like her."
Buffy closed her eyes. "Oh, Spike."
"Didn't tell you that to get your pity," he said, sounding almost angry. "It was over and done with a long time ago."
Buffy reached up to caress his face. "It doesn't mean that the hurt is gone."
"No, it doesn't," he agreed.
Buffy shifted so that kissing him wasn't so awkward. They weren't exactly picking up where they'd left off. Everything this time was slower, a little gentler, with an edge of wistfulness to it.
Everything slipped away so quickly. No matter what she'd told Spike about savoring their time together, all she really wanted was more of it. They had so little as it was.
~~~~~
Giles looked around the interior of the small shop with a feeling of satisfaction. There was work to be done, including quite a bit of cleaning before he was ready to do business, but it was serviceable. In time, it might even be profitable.
"You moved on this quickly," Joyce said from behind him.
He turned. "You came. I didn't think you'd be able to get away."
"That's what assistants are for," she replied. "I take it you got a good deal on this place."
Giles shrugged. "There seems to be a rather high turnover of shopkeepers in the area. Something about owners going missing or being killed rather frequently." His smile was ironic. "I think I might be able to prevent the same from happening to me."
"I sincerely hope so," Joyce replied fervently, although with plenty of humor in her voice. "I really don't think I can do without you."
Giles bent to steal a quick, heartfelt kiss. "We'll have to see what we can do about that."
"What exactly are you planning on selling?" Joyce asked.
"Books, mainly," Giles replied. "I do have a number of contacts who will most likely pay me to locate and acquire rare volumes, and the more sensitive material I can no doubt entrust to Spike. Otherwise, I plan on selling your typical kinds of stock, possibly some other odds and ends."
Joyce hesitated, and then asked, "Have you spoken to the bank about a loan, or..." She trailed off, wondering if she was crossing some unspoken boundary. They had never really spoken about finances. Joyce didn't think that Giles was hurting for money, but the issue had never come up before.
Giles chuckled. "I have enough capital to set myself up."
Joyce's eyes widened. She'd been in business long enough to know what kind of money that required. "Oh."
"I probably haven't been as forthcoming about that as I should have been," Giles admitted slowly. "While I am not rich, my family has a certain amount of money. It's not an inexhaustible source, but I don't have expensive tastes."
"So what you're telling me is that you wouldn't have to work again," Joyce commented.
Giles shrugged. "Perhaps, but I've found myself rather bored with that prospect." He looked over at her sheepishly. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner, but I believe you'll find that most of the old Council families have a great deal of money, and also a great deal of snobbery. I've managed to distance myself from both."
Joyce laughed. "You surprise me," she admitted. "I was wondering how you were going to manage to take a year off, but I suppose I shouldn't have worried."
"Were you really worried?" Giles asked.
"Mildly concerned," she admitted. Then, softly, "You're on my mind a lot, Rupert."
"Not all worry, I hope," he replied, brushing her hair back from her face with a gentle hand.
"Not all."
The corners of his lips lifted. "You did realize that the gallery is only a couple of blocks away?"
Joyce returned the smile. "I did notice that as I was walking over."
"You know, I was thinking," he said quietly.
"Thinking about what?"
"About spending more time with you," Giles replied.
Joyce pulled back slightly. "What were you thinking?"
Seeing her sudden distancing, he shook his head. "Never mind. It's nothing important."
She frowned. "Were you thinking about moving in together?"
"I would still keep my apartment," Giles said quickly. "But I was just thinking..." He stopped. "It was a bad idea."
"It wasn't a bad idea," Joyce said. "It just surprised me, that's all. I haven't lived with a man in a very long time, and I hadn't really given it much thought."
"Will you think about it?" Giles asked softly. "There's no rush, of course, but I find myself unwilling to spend anymore time apart from you than I have to."
When he put it that way, Joyce had a hard time saying no. In truth, she wasn't even sure why she was hesitating. If Giles kept his apartment, it wouldn't be like they couldn't get some time away from each other. Besides, this relationship was very nearly everything she could have ever wanted.
Giles made her feel alive again—like a sexy, desirable woman—in a way she hadn't experienced since early in her marriage, perhaps since before Buffy was born. Not that her relationship with Hank had been horrible, except for those last couple of years, but before that they had simply been drifting apart. There had been no fire.
If Joyce was to be perfectly honest with herself, she knew that part of her hesitation to take the next step was fear that she would lose that spark. That things would become stale. It was an unjustified concern, but it was there all the same.
"I don't have to think about it," she replied. At the disappointment that flashed across his face, she added, "Because I don't want to spend anymore time away from you than I have to."
~~~~~~
"So what do you think?"
"I don't know," Buffy admitted.
Spike sighed. "I haven't decided what I'm going to do about it yet. Wesley thinks it might take a weekend, or more to get to it. I'm inclined to say that it's probably going to take a week or more."
She looked out into the night. They had taken a break from patrolling, stopping to sit in a deserted park. Buffy had her head on Spike's shoulder, his voice hardly more than a whisper as he told her what he knew about the Gem of Amara. "Part of me would love to walk in the sunlight with you," she said quietly. "The thought of going to the beach, or...anything really. But what happens when the other vampires figure it out and come after you, Spike?"
"That's what I said to Wesley," Spike said. "It's hard to say. Long as I don't start spreading it around, I think I might pull it off. Don't think I'd use it for business much. It would be more for here. For you."
"I don't need you to do that for me," Buffy said. "If you did, if you could be with me all times of the day and night, I would love it. I won't lie to you. But I fell in love with you knowing that I would never walk in the sunlight with you, Spike. I made my peace with that a long time ago."
Spike was quiet. "Sometimes I wonder, Buffy. Not that I doubt your word, but you've got a life at school that I can't touch. Boys that'll see you as I do."
"Boys," Buffy said, her tone taking on a scoffing tone. "What do I want with them? What we've been through...How could I ever be with anyone else, Spike?"
He kissed her then, tasting her. Spike thought that she tasted of sunlight and hope. If he was to lose her, Spike didn't know what it would do to him. He wasn't sure he could live without her at this point—losing Buffy would likely destroy him completely.
Losing Buffy would be like losing hope.
Buffy could sense his desperation, and she wondered why Spike seemed so worried about her affections lately. Possibly for the same reason that she worried about losing him. She loved him so much, and although she thought she might be able to survive it, there was a piece of her that would die.
What Spike was talking about, the Gem of Amara, it could keep him that much safer, even as it put him in more danger.
But it might be worth it.
"I think you should go for it if you want it," she said when they'd both broken off the kiss.
Spike nodded. "It won't be today, or even tomorrow, but probably soon." He raised an eyebrow. "How's the hunt for Harmony coming?"
Buffy sighed. "I haven't seen her anywhere. I have no idea where she is, and I don't know if I even care. I don't think she's public enemy number one."
"From what you've told me, I doubt it." Spike stood, holding out a hand to help her up.
Buffy took it, even though she didn't need his help. She appreciated the gesture. "When do you leave again?"
"Tomorrow evening," Spike replied. "We've got a short trip
to
"More of the fobbing?" Buffy asked with a smile.
Spike smirked. "Yeah, more of that. We should be back after that for a while, though. Don't have anything else set up until later in November."
"Oh! Then you can be my date for Halloween!" Buffy said. "You will, won't you?"
He gave her a skeptical look. "You do know that vampires don't celebrate Halloween, don't you? It's tacky."
"It's a night out with your girlfriend," Buffy responded. "In costume."
"I don't do costumes."
"Come on, Spike," Buffy pleaded. "You can protect me from all those big, bad college boys."
"I'm bigger and badder," he said, but a smile was beginning to break out on his face. "Right. What should I dress up as?"
Buffy frowned. "We should probably match." At his horrified expression, she quickly added, "I just meant that we should probably go together. Not like we have to wear the same clothes or anything."
"I know I'm going to regret this, but why don't you come up with an idea, and I promise that I'll go along with it," Spike offered. "As long as you don't make me look like a complete prat."
"I promise to pick something appropriately macho," Buffy said.
Spike hesitated, then asked, "You mind if I ask Wesley to come along?"
Her eyebrows shot up. "You're serious?"
"Buffy, I told Wesley to have some fun, and he went off and researched the history of Sunnydale. That's how we figured out the Gem of Amara was here, so I can't be disappointed, but he needs some serious help."
"I'll say," Buffy muttered. "I don't know, Spike. This is supposed to be a fun night out."
Spike gave her a look. "Let me guess.
Buffy knew exactly what he was referring to. "Yes, if I can ask my friends, you can ask yours," she conceded. "But you're going to have to figure out Wesley's costume on your own."
"Wes'll have to figure out his own costume," Spike shot back.
~~~~~
"Anya." Xander waved her into his basement. "Nice to see you again."
It wasn't nice, not really. Well, the sex had been good. Anya smelled nice, and she seemed to have a good time, and he certainly had. All in all, it was a hundred times better than his first time. What she'd said though, about being over him—Xander hadn't appreciated that much.
Not that he had much of an interest in Anya as a girlfriend. She was pretty, but he wasn't sure he could put up with her for long periods of time.
Then again, that didn't explain why she'd been on his mind the last few days.
"I wanted to talk to you," she said. "About what I said."
Xander frowned. "What you said about what?"
"About being over you," Anya replied. "I keep thinking about you, and I don't know why."
"Then we're in the same boat," Xander replied. "Because you've kinda been on my mind, too."
Her whole face lit up at that. "Really?"
"Yeah, really," Xander replied. "I have no idea why, but I can't seem to stop thinking about you."
"Then maybe we could go out sometime," Anya suggested.
Xander gave her a lop-sided grin. "I think I could be persuaded." An idea occurred to him. "Hey, you want to go to a party with me?"
"A party?" Anya asked. "Like a date?"
"Yeah, you'll need a costume, but I think it'll be fun."
"What kind of costume?" Anya asked. "I'm not sure what you mean."
Xander shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Something scary." He didn't give her a chance to reply, instead kissing her tentatively, encouraged when she returned the embrace. "I'm glad you came by."
Anya didn't reply. She was too busy kissing Xander, while a tiny corner of her brain worked on what she was going to wear for their date.