“Enemies” 9/14

[sroni]

They’d made it to Eerie in one piece. Some of the girls stayed behind in L.A., Willow and Kennedy included. He missed his redheaded witchy friend, but knew that she was needed where she was. Faith had tried dyeing her hair back to normal, and when that didn’t work, he offered to buy her a wig, but she said no, that it would be too easy to lose in a fight.

So she chopped it all off. She was trying this new thing of not pulling attention to herself, and green hair wouldn’t help with that goal. She might have been able to get away with it in L.A., but not here. Not in Indiana.

He was totally and completely willing to admit she looked hotter with short hair. Then again, she was basically just hot all the time.

A knock came at his door, and Faith’s voice sounded from the other side. “Yo, Cyclops, get downstairs. Rona just let everyone know that it’s Vi’s birthday. We’re trying to get things together short notice.”

“Okay, just a minute,” he hollered back, and grabbed one of the figurines off the shelf. When he opened the door, she look at it and nodded.

“Split the gift? I got nothing.” It wasn’t really a question, since she knew him well enough to know the answer.

“Sure.” Why not? She’d split with him … maybe. That wasn’t what mattered. The point was, his girlfriend was in a gift-bind, and he could help her out. Like he’s say no. Please, he wasn’t a jerk. At least, he liked to think he wasn’t.

It had taken him a while to figure out what to label her: friends with benefits, girlfriends, what? He’d finally settled on “Faith”. After six months, however, they were dating.

Maybe. Maybe soon to be more. Depended on if he ever got up the courage. When he ever got up the courage, he quickly amended in his head.

She sped off to round up more Slayers, while he continued downstairs. Vi was sitting in a chair, looking miserable, obviously wishing she were doing something else. Anything else. Rona was standing over her, making sure that she stayed in the chair. “Hey, Hat Girl. Happy birthday. Before anyone else gets down here, do you want to tell me why you didn’t tell anyone? We want to celebrate it with you.”

She wiggled a little and shrugged, and Rona answered the question for her. “She found out back in Sunnydale that she and Riley had the same birthday. Because he died, she didn’t want to remind anyone.”

Xander nodded. “Yeah, I can get that. But, Vi?” She looked at him in response. “We all love you, and we’re glad that you’re here, celebrating your birthday with us.” She gave a half-shrug, and he wrapped her in a hug. “I mean it. I know it’s still tough, that you miss people. We all do. I do, too. But you can’t let yourself die, too. You gotta keep living. I miss Riley a lot. He was the only other completely normal guy around, and he was a good friend. He talked me through it when I didn’t marry Anya. But as much as I miss him, I have to keep going on with my life. And so do you.” She sniffled into his shirt and nodded, When she pulled away, he handed her a paper towel. “Sorry we don’t have Kleenexes. It was either this, or the comics section of the newspaper, which is already in use: I wrapped your gift with it. Right now, at this very moment,” — he spoke dramatically with flourishes created for the purpose of making her smile — “every female in this house is raiding the bathroom for toilet paper to wrap their gifts to you.” He dropped the theatrics once he’d succeeded. “So go ahead, and cheer up. We can’t have you crying right now, or all the other girls will feel like it’s their fault because they didn’t remember your birthday.”

Just as she finished blowing her nose, it sounded like a herd of … well, Slayers, started to stampede down the stairs. He shot her a grin, and she gave him a weak smile in return. Faith and Buffy came down first, the official-unofficial leaders. “Yo, Hat-chick. Happy b-day and all. Before we go into the song and dance number, minus the dance, why don’t you tell us how old you are so Dawn can put the right number of candles on the cake. I keep telling her you’re at least 17, you just look younger, but she’s insisting that you’re younger.” Vi ducked her head and mumbled something Xander couldn’t quite hear. The girls apparently could, because the grins faltered and Buffy and Faith shared a glance, before getting their smiles back in place. Oh, how he wished he had super hearing… “All right, congratulations. Barb, why don’t you run tell Dawn, and let her know that neither of us won the bet.”

The blonde did so, shooting off at top speed. “Now, let’s get this party started.” Faith nodded at Buffy. “You pick the key, B. I’ve been told you can really sing.” Buffy gave Faith an annoyed look, but started the song anyway. Every voice joined in, and when the four lines ended, they’d somehow ended up with four different keys. Not harmonious at all, unfortunately.

And he was pretty sure that he had sung in all of them.

Still, the intent was clear. The girls surged around Vi and thrust presents at her in an organized chaotic sort of way. The gifts consisted of hats, socks, IOUs, homemade coupons, stakes, a stuffed animal, pens and pencils, and the like. The crowd favorite was from Xander. He’d carved figurines for all the girls, but this was the first one anyone but Faith had seen. It was a figure, undoubtedly Vi, crouched in a fighting stance, stake in one hand, a sword in the other, the wind catching and lifting her hair slightly. The look in her eyes reminded him a little of what had been in Buffy’s eyes when the Buffster first came to Sunnydale. That indescribable something that clearly said, “Come on, try. You’ll be dust, and I’ll be walking, but give it a try, anyway.” That look in Buffy had been replaced by, “Come on. You’ll die. You might take me with you, but you’ll die.”

The immortality that all adolescents feel doesn’t last long in a Slayer.

Previous Part          Next Part