College Girl (Book Four, BTVS)

chapter 2 - Living Conditions

Buffy and I were walking along a wooded path of the campus at night. Buffy was telling me about her roommate.

"So you had trouble getting past Kathy?" I asked.

"Yep," Buffy answered. "She made big with the questions."

"And you thought your days of sneaking out of your room were over," I told her.

"No such luck," Buffy told me. "Kathy's nice and all, but, she's... she's sort of... I don't know, like 'mini-mom of Momdonia'." I chuckled. "You know, at least in a few days, I'll be out of that room, and into yours, with you and Willow. Who knew that doing things official-like could take so long?"

I raised my hand. "Uh, I did."

Buffy stopped, looking around. "Wait. Did you just hear something?"

"No," I answered.

We started to walk again.

"Darn, I could use a little play tonight," Buffy told me. "Listening to the best of VH-1 all day sort of put me on edge."

"Oh, Kathy's still spinning the divas?" I asked.

Buffy used a perky-Kathy voice. 'Cause it's the fun-est!' And when she sharpens her pencils, she measures them with a ruler to make sure they're all the same size."

"Well, no big," I told her. "You'll be rooming with me and Will in no time."

"Right," Buffy agreed.

"Come on, hunting," I told her. "Bring us some monsters."

Buffy chuckled. "I know. What are they waiting for?"

I shrugged. "Well, maybe they're not stupid and don't want fight us because they know they're gonna die."

Buffy sighed. "Yeah."

Buffy and I exchanged a smile, continuing on, coming up dry.

  ••••

Buffy and I walked along a path.

"Maybe we should split up?" Buffy suggested.

"You remember what happened last time we split up?" I asked.

"Right," Buffy agreed. "Don't want to get caught in a nest all by our lonesome." I looked away, nodding. Buffy turned to face me. "I know you're still pretty hard on yourself for that, but..."

"But I'm still learning and moving on," I finished. "Yeah, I get it, Buff. Besides, how many times have you gotten caught in something like that?"

"A lot, actually," Buffy answered. "Remember, I had to burn down a school gym just to take down a nest. And that's what sent me here."

I smiled. "Yeah, I guess you could say that I got off lucky."

"No, see, I call that skill," Buffy told me.

I nodded. "Oh, yeah. We're skillful."

"And don't you forget it," Buffy told me. We smiled, hearing a noise further off, looking around. "All right, why don't you quit hiding and come out and face us like a... thing?"

Two orange skinned, black robed, green-glowing eyed demons ran closer.

Demon 1 swung a club at Buffy. Buffy caught its arm, breaking its hold, using it to hit him in the head and flip backward to the ground.

Demon 2 tried to punch me twice. I blocked both times, punching him three times in the face. Demon 2 tried to punch me. I ducked, leg sweeping his legs out from under him, making him fall to the ground.