Of Things Forgotten and Embellished

 

 

AN : Written for the Buffy Survivor Round 2 first challenge. The words were Cheese, fireworks and bicycles.

Spoilers: Not Really

 

 

 

            The smell of fresh baked bread, ripe fruit and pungent cheeses surrounded her. Buffy closed her eyes and let the breeze her wake caused flutter over her face. She’d made this trip a hundred times on her bicycle. It was one of her favorite things about living in Paris.  Of course there was also the Louve, which she’d come to appreciate, the shopping and the food.

 

            Buffy parked her bicycle in front of the little café. She had pastry and coffee here every afternoon. She waved at the girl behind the counter and greeted her in stilted French. She took a seat outside. It was only a few moments before her coffee and pastry was brought out.

 

            She lingered over her afternoon snack. It was a luxury she’d come to appreciate.  When she was finished she wandered around the side streets, picking up her bicycle before she headed back to her apartment.

 

            Buffy rolled her bike into her apartment and parked it out on the balcony. She hung out there for a little while. The view was the main redeeming factor of the tiny studio. It looked right onto the Eiffel Tower. Life was good now. She didn’t slay, at least not on a regular basis.  Her destiny had been deposited on other shoulders. Buffy Summers was finally getting the chance to be a girl. And something was still missing.

 

            She shook her head. She was used to that gaping hole feeling. She’d had several years to get used to it. She’d even come to accept that it was how things were. She was supposed to have this gaping hole inside.  She used to think it was part of being a slayer, now she knew it was just part of being Buffy Summers.

 

            She sighed and pushed herself away from the balcony railing. This wasn’t doing any good. She was just depressing herself. She decided to remedy that with a pint of chocolate ice cream, her favorite fuzzy pajamas and a post haste viewing of Kate and Leopold. Never mind that it made her think of another dark and handsome guy that’d come through time and shouldn’ts, couldn’ts, wouldn’ts to be with another blonde girl.

 

            Kate had just discovered the pictures of Leopold’s time, the pictures that she was in, when the gut twisting, tingling feeling hit Buffy. She furrowed her brow. She knew that feeling and yet…it couldn’t be.  A soft knock on the door and an intensification of the tingling, brought Buffy out of bed and to her feet.

 

            She didn’t ask who it was. She’d been a slayer for more years then she wanted to recount. She knew not to open the door to strangers. She also knew that the man beyond the door wasn’t a stranger. In a thousand lives, he’d never be a stranger.

 

            She smiled at the sight of him. It was a natural reaction, like catching her breath or reminding her heart to beat every time he was in the same room. He looked exactly the way he’d always looked, the way he always would look.

 

            “I was in the neighborhood…”

 

            “So you thought you’d stop by,” she finished for him.

 

            “Something like that,” he shrugged sheepishly.

 

            She took a deep breath, not pondering whether she’d let him back into her life because that was never not an option. She was pondering on how much heartache letting him in was going to cause her. She nodded, deciding that it was worth it. No matter what the pain, no matter what the cost, he was always worth it.

 

            “So are you gonna come in or are you gonna stand out there all night?”

 

            Her breath caught as he stepped inside. She’d forgotten somehow that he was so big, or that he made the lights dim and the world fade away.  “So…what brings you to Paris?”

 

            His eyes found hers and the world tilted sideways. She reached out a hand to steady herself and tumbled into his arms.

 

            “You were here,” he answered honestly, tightening his arms around her.

 

            She grabbed a fistful of his leather jacket and bit down on her bottom lip. She’d forgotten how he filled that gaping hole.  “Yeah?”

 

            “That’s what I’d heard anyway.”

 

            Breathe Buffy. In and Out, you’ve been doing this for twenty eight years now.

 

            “ Buffy, I don’t want to push. I don’t want to be that guy that hangs on when he’s not wanted, so if you need me to go…all you have to do is say so.”

 

            The realization that Angel might be leaving yet again grounded her. Buffy shook her head. “No,” she went up on tip toe wrapping her arms around his neck for support, tangling her fingers in his hair just because it’d been too long since she’d felt that sensation. Her lips were a whisper away from his.

 

            “What I need is for you to kiss me.”

 

            She’d forgotten a lot of things since Angel left. She thought she’d embellished others. The fireworks Angel’s kiss ignited inside of her, were not one of things she’d forgotten or embellished.