Cordelia had liked surprises once upon a time too. Surprise, daddy bought you a pony for your twelth birthday. Surprise, three different boys want to take you to the Valentine's Day Dance. But once Buffy Summers entered her life, surprises began to change.
Surprise, your boyfriend is cheating on you. Surprise, your father is a crook. Surprise, the visions are killing you. Surprise, you're being taken over by a demonic being.
Or there was the newest one. Surprise, you get to go back to earth, but not to your Champion. Nope, they wanted her to help the Slayer. Why Buffy needed her help, she couldn't quite figure it out. Didn't she have more than enough with the slayerettes and all that? Not to mention her precious Scooby Gang. But who did Angel have left, these days? If there was anyone she should be helping again, it was him.
But life doesn't work out the way it's supposed to, it was a lesson Cordelia had learned first hand time and time again.
Still, that she had been sent to help Buffy of all people seemed like some kind of cosmic joke. Her friendship (if you could even call it that, Cordelia probably wouldn't) had always been complicated at best. And even though they hadn't seen each other in five years, Cordelia's thoughts on Buffy had only become more resentful over the years as she began to develop feelings for Angel. Because no matter what, Buffy would always be first. She had his heart first, and she couldn't help but resent the other girl for it a bit. Especially because theoretically, Buffy might get another chance with him someday. But herself? She apparently was needed elsewhere, so she never got the chance.
Sometimes, destiny really sucked.
But soon enough, she heard the familiar voice, a voice she hadn't hear since the last time Buffy showed up in L.A. (which was years ago, it seemed like another time now). She rolled her eyes at the comment, despite the pang she felt at the mention of Angel, she hadn't seen him since that day when she was allowed to set him back on track.
"Nope. I'm working for something much bigger than Angel these days."
That's right Buffy, you might be the Slayer but she was a direct link to the Higher Powers these days. Suck on that.
"I'm guessing you don't mean that in the broader-shouldered department," Buffy replied, trying to think of exactly what Cordelia could be talking about. She knew the other was probably waiting for her to ask right now, but it she wasn't going to give her the direct satisfaction. It put the balance of the conversation in Cordelia's hands if she did that, and she couldn't help but look at even simple interactions like this tactically these days. When she didn't know what to expect, at least.
She was glad there were still some people she could just be herself around. But the list seemed to only shrink as time went by. She was 'ma'am' to way too many people now, and 'The Buffy' to far too many others. She'd never really intended to be the anything, but there it was. It tended to be more exhausting than exhilarating, but she couldn't take the time to think about it.
There wasn't a lot of time for contemplation in the middle of operations.
"No, not quite." She couldn't even think of someone with broader shoulders than Angel. Maybe Groo? It had been a long time since she had seen the Pylean warrior though, so she couldn't swear to it.
Not that that mattered. She was getting off track. And who knew how much time she would have? One never knew when the Powers That Be would decide to snatch her back again. She had done a few of these missions now, but usually with people she didn't know. Why she had been sent to Buffy of all people was still a mystery to her. Angel needed her more, she was sure of it. Buffy still had Xander, Willow, Dawn, and all these other people who cared about her. What did Angel have left? Not much of their team was left anymore.
"I have a feeling that even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me, so why bother?" After all, she had known she had changed since she left Sunnydale, but somehow she didn't doubt that the Scooby Gang still saw her as the stuck up teen queen she had once been, assuming any of them ever gave her much thought at all.
Besides, being a sort of higher power herself? Involved a lot of explanation. Stuff she'd rather not rehash right now. "Ding ding ding, we have a winner." Sarcasm was something that still came naturally to Cordelia, and it seemed even easier to slip back into the old catty persona of hers with Buffy around.
Something that would stretch the limits of Buffy's credulity? She knew Cordelia had been away from Sunnydale and the Slayer scene for awhile, and doing her own supernatural detective work or whatnot, but had she forgotten how much Buffy's life was an adventure in 'things that no one would believe'? She could have pressed, but there were bigger issues at hand. And she wasn't talking about Dawn this time.
"No offense to you and whatever beyond-belief head honcho sent you here," Buffy countered, "but I'm sort of up to my ears in help."
It sounded harsher than she'd meant it to. It wasn't like she wanted to turn away assistance, and for all she knew, maybe Cordelia didn't have somewhere to go right now. But there was something in her stature that was different, that made what she said seem like more than just a bid to save her own pride.
Like she really was here to do something.
"So I'm guessing this is help of a more specific variety." She didn't budge from her place on the stairs, keeping the high ground. She felt the niggling sensation at the back of her mind that there was something beyond the obvious that didn't fit about Cordelia being here, but her tabs on Angel and company over the years had been minimal, to say the least. And his connection to Wolfram and Hart didn't do a lot to make her want to change that.
It was something she still tried not to think about too hard. Giles had had a lot of not so appetizing things to say about those guys, and the thought that Angel could have fallen in with them didn't bode well on any front. She wanted to trust him, wanted to trust his judgment, but she couldn't endanger everyone in her own operation by doing so blindly. Especially considering the clientele of Wolfram and Hart.
She wondered briefly if everyone at Angel's company was driving sports cars these days, ones that ran on infernal fumes or something. She wondered if Cordelia had a sports car.
Some day, Buffy pledged to herself, she'd simply have a car of her own.
"I'm guessing no one sent you the memo when I died, otherwise I'm guessing you'd realize that it's actually sort of a big deal that I'm here at all." She wasn't surprised to hear that the Slayer didn't know, she doubted Angel had time to inform anyone outside of their little circle after he got the call about her death. At least she had been able to set him back on track, for that much Cordelia was grateful.
She hadn't been any happier than Buffy to find out Angel was working at Wolfram and Hart, the same group of evil lawyers that they had struggled against for years. But she understood his reasoning too, even if it had been flawed and wrong. He had done it to save Connor. And she knew better than anyone else just how broken Connor had ended up after everything with Jasmine.
Her stomach turned a little at the thought, and she tried not to focus on it. The less she thought about that tenure in her life, the better. Being taken over by an evil demonic goddess thing was definitely not on the list of things Cordelia wanted to talk about, especially with Buffy of all people.
Still, she wasn't going to let the other woman intimidate her. She was still Cordelia Chase, no matter what plane she normally resided on now. "So considering that the Powers That Be decided that you were worth me being sent back here on earth to help, I'd say me being here is sort of a big deal. And I somehow think I'll manage to be more help then some of those hero-worshipping Slayerettes."
Her words were a little more bitter than intended, but she couldn't help it. It still didn't seem fair that she had been sent to Buffy of all people. They weren't even friends.
What exactly did you say to that? 'Sorry to hear you died'? 'Oh, hey, join the recently resurrected club'? There really wasn't much of anything she could say, though she did feel a blip of guilt that somehow that had never even registered on her radar. She wondered how it had happened, but given Cordelia's line of work, she figured it probably hadn't been something pretty.
"You're right, no one forwarded that one along," was what she finally said, expression careful, but obviously not pleased with the news. She figured Cordelia didn't want her pity though: she knew she hadn't when she'd come back around. And who knew what Cordelia's whole after-life experience had been like.
Considering the acidic edge to Cordy's words, she had a feeling it wasn't something she'd want to discuss over ice cream sundaes.
"Did they give you any kind of hint-shaped indicators as to what you'd be helping me with?" she asked, sounding more receptive to the idea now.
"Figured. Angel was too busy running Evil Incorporated to really send out funeral invitations." Assuming they even had a funeral for her at all. She shrugged off that thought, choosing not to linger on it. Though she had been able to see bits and pieces of what happened in Los Angeles from the higher realm, there was a lot she didn't see, and that was some of it.
But her death, and the events leading up to it wasn't something Cordelia liked thinking a lot about. Even though she hadn't been in control of herself during that period, she couldn't help but feel guilty for some of the things Jasmine had done in her body, in her form. It definitely wasn't something she'd want to get into.
After death hadn't been terrible, she supposed. The Powers That Be kept her busy enough. She had worked as a sort of spirit guide for a few people before she had been sent after the Original Slayer. Of course, why they had given her back her physical form for this particular mission, she wasn't certain.
"Not exactly. They tend to kind of suck when it comes to the detail oriented stuff. All I know is the first of a series of events I'm supposed to help with is going to happen here. Maybe they'll give me more details later."
It was a little jarring to hear Cordelia confess to the nature of Wolfram and Hart so readily. She was under the impression that Angel and his buddies would be trying their darnedest to deny it. It wasn't the sort of thing that was generally good practice to say to the Slayer. But Cordelia didn't sound happy about it either, which was telling. She wondered when exactly Cordelia had died, even. Had it been awhile? How long had she been stuck in the afterlife?
"Great," she sighed, "so we're stuck waiting on a memo from cosmic corporate. Just what I needed right now." Her hand moved to her forehead as she tried to think about all the operations they had planned just for this week. What was she supposed to do - just call them off on account of potential catastrophe she had to deal with? She wasn't sure she could do that - she KNEW she couldn't, actually. The world didn't stop spinning just because the powers that be threw someone on her doorstep. There were still demons that needed fighting, and she was still in charge of an army.
She could really use some Brad Pitt movie time, or maybe some Ben and Jerry's.
"Well, you're welcome to stay, seeing as how... castle, and all. Lots with the rooms. Just keep clear of operations and when whatever it is comes up? I'll take care of it."
Technically, Cordelia had been alive when Angel signed up with Wolfram and Hart...but she had also been in a coma at the time. If she had not been, she would have talked him out of it, or at least tried as hard as she could to do so. Even walking inside of the building had always given her the creeps. Nothing good ever came out of that place.
"It's not my fault they like to be vague. They said the first signs should be coming up soon. Something we need to be ready for. New variations on old stories, whatever the hell that means." Cordelia wasn't any happier about not having details, she was just used to it. Years of vague visions had made her accustomed to working off less than enough information.
As for Buffy's commands? Cordelia rolled her eyes. She wasn't one of the slayerettes, hanging on Buffy's every word. When she said jump, her response was never going to be "how high?" She was a champion in her own right, and if the other girl failed to acknowledge that, then that was her problem.
"When the problem comes up we'll handle it," She corrected. "I didn't come back to earth to just sit around and dole out good advice. If they want me to help you, then you better damn well let me help."
"Everything's a new variation on an old story, if you want to get picky about it," Buffy remarked. "Second verse, same as the first five hundred." Still, she could at least put someone on the 'figuring out what that means' end of the spectrum. There was a whole lot of delegating that went on these days, instead of so much hands on library time herself.
She wasn't really complaining about that particular arrangement.
She was a little surprised at first by Cordelia's insistence, but she had to remind herself that a lot had probably changed since then, but one thing probably hadn't: Cordelia could be just as stubborn as she could.
"Alright, fine. We'll handle it. Whatever 'it' turns out to be."
"You have a point. It's hard to come up with anything original anymore. But this seemed to be something specific, like something we would definitely be able to recognize, as opposed to a vague, commonly told in different ways sort of story."
Oddly enough, researching didn't really bother Cordelia as much as one would think. Hell, on her last day with Angel and the gang she had taken the last chance to research side by side with Wesley instead of having his workers look up things for them. And that wasn't only because she didn't trust any of the Wolfram and Hart lackeys either. There was something comforting in the process, something she had been a part of even back in her days in Sunnydale.
More and more, those days seemed like another lifetime now. Which she supposed, in a way, they kind of were.
She was glad that at the very least, Buffy didn't try to fight her about being involved with things. The two had almost always butted heads back in high school, and it really wasn't something she wanted to relive now. Especially since she was more or less Buffy's equal now, even if the Slayer never recognized her as such.
"Glad to see you see things my way." She couldn't help but sound a little smug. Some habits died harder than others, and no matter how much she changed, Cordelia would always have an ego to a certain degree. She just wouldn't be her otherwise.
"Great, so maybe we can expect gingerbread houses."
With a sigh, she finally made her way down the steps to the same level as Cordelia, waving a hand around.
"I'd give you the 'it's not much but it's home' spiel, but it's kinda... much. Castle and all. Not that I even get to spend much time in it. It just seems a lot more practical than trying to rent out twenty adjacent apartments and train Slayers in them." She wondered briefly, what Cordelia had made of the destruction of Sunnydale. After all, it had been where she was from. Or had she even been still alive then?
Surely Angel would have mentioned it when he showed up. ... Not that he wasn't distracted by helping her save the world or whatever.
"Either way, I can give you the quick tour."
She tried not to let Cordelia's smugness grate on her. She could tell, however, that that was going to be an uphill battle.
Cordelia had been in a coma when the whole end of Sunnydale thing happened. Not that that had been important enough for Angel to explain or anything. Though how would he have explained that easily during the middle of the end of the world? The whole Jasmine situation had been more than just a little complicated. Not to mention his whole deal with the devil, aka Wolfram and Hart. Couldn't tell his precious Buffy about that one.
Okay, so maybe she was a little bitter. But didn't she have a right to be?
"As long as we don't have to deal with any Big Bad Wolves, I think I'll be okay with whatever they threw at us." Unless it was like..a werewolf, that would be normal enough, she supposed.
...When did that become something normal to her? She couldn't even remember anymore. A long, long, long time ago, to say the very least.
Cordelia shook off that thought, pausing to look around the place. Back when she was kid, when her parents took her to different parts of Europe she had fancied being a princess in a castle. Of course...living out that reality in Pylea had caused it to loose some of it's charm. So did the whole family losing all their money and learning how the rest of the world lived thing.
"Sure, might as well see the grand tour, that way I don't have to wander forever in the middle of the night to find the bathroom or kitchen or something."
It still seemed almost strange to be in a position again where she could sleep. And eat. And she got to do this all..with Buffy.
For not the first time in her life, Cordelia had to wonder if the Powers were punishing her for something.
"You know, wolves sound pretty easy compared to six headed Grogloth demons, so I might not complain," Buffy said, her first attempt to try and lighten things up, since it seemed like she was stuck with Cordelia for now. And she didn't want to be a total bitch, given what the other woman had been through, but it sort of went against her instincts to be too nice to her.
They just had too much history.
And there was that whole thing where Cordelia had spent years working intimately with Angel after he left Sunnydale, where there was a chance she'd learned more about him than Buffy ever knew.
Not that that bothered her.
Nope.
Not. One. Bit.
"Let's hit the ground floor first. Doesn't look like you have any bags to drop off anyways." She whisked her way through the archway down the hall, figuring Cordelia would follow.
"Yeah, but knowing our luck, it'd probably be some weird six headed wolf demon or something," Cordelia pointed out, trying to keep with the lighter tone the other woman had set. She was glad Buffy wasn't being too nice though, it just didn't fit their style. If she had been too nice it would have just been a sign of pity, and Cordelia didn't want anyone's pity, especially Buffy's of all people.
So what if everyone loved Buffy (Especially the people Cordelia tended to care about. First Xander, and then Angel)? Just because she was Little Miss Likes To Kill didn't make her any better than her. Maybe it had once, but things had changed. Cordelia herself had changed. And sure, maybe Buffy was Angel's ~one true love~ or whatever, but that didn't mean she knew him, or understood him. Not the way Cordelia did.
"Nope. I'll probably have to pick up some stuff later. Apparently the Powers aren't so good at packing for people." Oddly, the idea of shopping didn't excite her the way it once did. She just wanted to get this whole ordeal done with already. The sooner she could leave, the better.
"I'm sure for now some of the girls would be willing to share," Buffy said, trying so very hard to keep any hint of amusement out of her voice at Cordelia Chase having to second hand clothes off a bunch of Slayers. She was pretty sure that one would grate on multiple levels, and she really -did- mean it as a token of good faith. "We'll find someone in your size."
Just so that Cordelia wouldn't get the wrong idea, she offered a slightly apologetic glance over her shoulder. "It's not like we have a mall up the road."
Surprise, your boyfriend is cheating on you. Surprise, your father is a crook. Surprise, the visions are killing you. Surprise, you're being taken over by a demonic being.
Or there was the newest one. Surprise, you get to go back to earth, but not to your Champion. Nope, they wanted her to help the Slayer. Why Buffy needed her help, she couldn't quite figure it out. Didn't she have more than enough with the slayerettes and all that? Not to mention her precious Scooby Gang. But who did Angel have left, these days? If there was anyone she should be helping again, it was him.
But life doesn't work out the way it's supposed to, it was a lesson Cordelia had learned first hand time and time again.
Still, that she had been sent to help Buffy of all people seemed like some kind of cosmic joke. Her friendship (if you could even call it that, Cordelia probably wouldn't) had always been complicated at best. And even though they hadn't seen each other in five years, Cordelia's thoughts on Buffy had only become more resentful over the years as she began to develop feelings for Angel. Because no matter what, Buffy would always be first. She had his heart first, and she couldn't help but resent the other girl for it a bit. Especially because theoretically, Buffy might get another chance with him someday. But herself? She apparently was needed elsewhere, so she never got the chance.
Sometimes, destiny really sucked.
But soon enough, she heard the familiar voice, a voice she hadn't hear since the last time Buffy showed up in L.A. (which was years ago, it seemed like another time now). She rolled her eyes at the comment, despite the pang she felt at the mention of Angel, she hadn't seen him since that day when she was allowed to set him back on track.
"Nope. I'm working for something much bigger than Angel these days."
That's right Buffy, you might be the Slayer but she was a direct link to the Higher Powers these days. Suck on that.
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She was glad there were still some people she could just be herself around. But the list seemed to only shrink as time went by. She was 'ma'am' to way too many people now, and 'The Buffy' to far too many others. She'd never really intended to be the anything, but there it was. It tended to be more exhausting than exhilarating, but she couldn't take the time to think about it.
There wasn't a lot of time for contemplation in the middle of operations.
"So that's why you're here."
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Not that that mattered. She was getting off track. And who knew how much time she would have? One never knew when the Powers That Be would decide to snatch her back again. She had done a few of these missions now, but usually with people she didn't know. Why she had been sent to Buffy of all people was still a mystery to her. Angel needed her more, she was sure of it. Buffy still had Xander, Willow, Dawn, and all these other people who cared about her. What did Angel have left? Not much of their team was left anymore.
"I have a feeling that even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me, so why bother?" After all, she had known she had changed since she left Sunnydale, but somehow she didn't doubt that the Scooby Gang still saw her as the stuck up teen queen she had once been, assuming any of them ever gave her much thought at all.
Besides, being a sort of higher power herself? Involved a lot of explanation. Stuff she'd rather not rehash right now. "Ding ding ding, we have a winner." Sarcasm was something that still came naturally to Cordelia, and it seemed even easier to slip back into the old catty persona of hers with Buffy around.
"Apparently, you need my help."
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"No offense to you and whatever beyond-belief head honcho sent you here," Buffy countered, "but I'm sort of up to my ears in help."
It sounded harsher than she'd meant it to. It wasn't like she wanted to turn away assistance, and for all she knew, maybe Cordelia didn't have somewhere to go right now. But there was something in her stature that was different, that made what she said seem like more than just a bid to save her own pride.
Like she really was here to do something.
"So I'm guessing this is help of a more specific variety." She didn't budge from her place on the stairs, keeping the high ground. She felt the niggling sensation at the back of her mind that there was something beyond the obvious that didn't fit about Cordelia being here, but her tabs on Angel and company over the years had been minimal, to say the least. And his connection to Wolfram and Hart didn't do a lot to make her want to change that.
It was something she still tried not to think about too hard. Giles had had a lot of not so appetizing things to say about those guys, and the thought that Angel could have fallen in with them didn't bode well on any front. She wanted to trust him, wanted to trust his judgment, but she couldn't endanger everyone in her own operation by doing so blindly. Especially considering the clientele of Wolfram and Hart.
She wondered briefly if everyone at Angel's company was driving sports cars these days, ones that ran on infernal fumes or something. She wondered if Cordelia had a sports car.
Some day, Buffy pledged to herself, she'd simply have a car of her own.
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She hadn't been any happier than Buffy to find out Angel was working at Wolfram and Hart, the same group of evil lawyers that they had struggled against for years. But she understood his reasoning too, even if it had been flawed and wrong. He had done it to save Connor. And she knew better than anyone else just how broken Connor had ended up after everything with Jasmine.
Her stomach turned a little at the thought, and she tried not to focus on it. The less she thought about that tenure in her life, the better. Being taken over by an evil demonic goddess thing was definitely not on the list of things Cordelia wanted to talk about, especially with Buffy of all people.
Still, she wasn't going to let the other woman intimidate her. She was still Cordelia Chase, no matter what plane she normally resided on now. "So considering that the Powers That Be decided that you were worth me being sent back here on earth to help, I'd say me being here is sort of a big deal. And I somehow think I'll manage to be more help then some of those hero-worshipping Slayerettes."
Her words were a little more bitter than intended, but she couldn't help it. It still didn't seem fair that she had been sent to Buffy of all people. They weren't even friends.
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"You're right, no one forwarded that one along," was what she finally said, expression careful, but obviously not pleased with the news. She figured Cordelia didn't want her pity though: she knew she hadn't when she'd come back around. And who knew what Cordelia's whole after-life experience had been like.
Considering the acidic edge to Cordy's words, she had a feeling it wasn't something she'd want to discuss over ice cream sundaes.
"Did they give you any kind of hint-shaped indicators as to what you'd be helping me with?" she asked, sounding more receptive to the idea now.
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But her death, and the events leading up to it wasn't something Cordelia liked thinking a lot about. Even though she hadn't been in control of herself during that period, she couldn't help but feel guilty for some of the things Jasmine had done in her body, in her form. It definitely wasn't something she'd want to get into.
After death hadn't been terrible, she supposed. The Powers That Be kept her busy enough. She had worked as a sort of spirit guide for a few people before she had been sent after the Original Slayer. Of course, why they had given her back her physical form for this particular mission, she wasn't certain.
"Not exactly. They tend to kind of suck when it comes to the detail oriented stuff. All I know is the first of a series of events I'm supposed to help with is going to happen here. Maybe they'll give me more details later."
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"Great," she sighed, "so we're stuck waiting on a memo from cosmic corporate. Just what I needed right now." Her hand moved to her forehead as she tried to think about all the operations they had planned just for this week. What was she supposed to do - just call them off on account of potential catastrophe she had to deal with? She wasn't sure she could do that - she KNEW she couldn't, actually. The world didn't stop spinning just because the powers that be threw someone on her doorstep. There were still demons that needed fighting, and she was still in charge of an army.
She could really use some Brad Pitt movie time, or maybe some Ben and Jerry's.
"Well, you're welcome to stay, seeing as how... castle, and all. Lots with the rooms. Just keep clear of operations and when whatever it is comes up? I'll take care of it."
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"It's not my fault they like to be vague. They said the first signs should be coming up soon. Something we need to be ready for. New variations on old stories, whatever the hell that means." Cordelia wasn't any happier about not having details, she was just used to it. Years of vague visions had made her accustomed to working off less than enough information.
As for Buffy's commands? Cordelia rolled her eyes. She wasn't one of the slayerettes, hanging on Buffy's every word. When she said jump, her response was never going to be "how high?" She was a champion in her own right, and if the other girl failed to acknowledge that, then that was her problem.
"When the problem comes up we'll handle it," She corrected. "I didn't come back to earth to just sit around and dole out good advice. If they want me to help you, then you better damn well let me help."
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She wasn't really complaining about that particular arrangement.
She was a little surprised at first by Cordelia's insistence, but she had to remind herself that a lot had probably changed since then, but one thing probably hadn't: Cordelia could be just as stubborn as she could.
"Alright, fine. We'll handle it. Whatever 'it' turns out to be."
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Oddly enough, researching didn't really bother Cordelia as much as one would think. Hell, on her last day with Angel and the gang she had taken the last chance to research side by side with Wesley instead of having his workers look up things for them. And that wasn't only because she didn't trust any of the Wolfram and Hart lackeys either. There was something comforting in the process, something she had been a part of even back in her days in Sunnydale.
More and more, those days seemed like another lifetime now. Which she supposed, in a way, they kind of were.
She was glad that at the very least, Buffy didn't try to fight her about being involved with things. The two had almost always butted heads back in high school, and it really wasn't something she wanted to relive now. Especially since she was more or less Buffy's equal now, even if the Slayer never recognized her as such.
"Glad to see you see things my way." She couldn't help but sound a little smug. Some habits died harder than others, and no matter how much she changed, Cordelia would always have an ego to a certain degree. She just wouldn't be her otherwise.
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With a sigh, she finally made her way down the steps to the same level as Cordelia, waving a hand around.
"I'd give you the 'it's not much but it's home' spiel, but it's kinda... much. Castle and all. Not that I even get to spend much time in it. It just seems a lot more practical than trying to rent out twenty adjacent apartments and train Slayers in them." She wondered briefly, what Cordelia had made of the destruction of Sunnydale. After all, it had been where she was from. Or had she even been still alive then?
Surely Angel would have mentioned it when he showed up. ... Not that he wasn't distracted by helping her save the world or whatever.
"Either way, I can give you the quick tour."
She tried not to let Cordelia's smugness grate on her. She could tell, however, that that was going to be an uphill battle.
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Okay, so maybe she was a little bitter. But didn't she have a right to be?
"As long as we don't have to deal with any Big Bad Wolves, I think I'll be okay with whatever they threw at us." Unless it was like..a werewolf, that would be normal enough, she supposed.
...When did that become something normal to her? She couldn't even remember anymore. A long, long, long time ago, to say the very least.
Cordelia shook off that thought, pausing to look around the place. Back when she was kid, when her parents took her to different parts of Europe she had fancied being a princess in a castle. Of course...living out that reality in Pylea had caused it to loose some of it's charm. So did the whole family losing all their money and learning how the rest of the world lived thing.
"Sure, might as well see the grand tour, that way I don't have to wander forever in the middle of the night to find the bathroom or kitchen or something."
It still seemed almost strange to be in a position again where she could sleep. And eat. And she got to do this all..with Buffy.
For not the first time in her life, Cordelia had to wonder if the Powers were punishing her for something.
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They just had too much history.
And there was that whole thing where Cordelia had spent years working intimately with Angel after he left Sunnydale, where there was a chance she'd learned more about him than Buffy ever knew.
Not that that bothered her.
Nope.
Not. One. Bit.
"Let's hit the ground floor first. Doesn't look like you have any bags to drop off anyways." She whisked her way through the archway down the hall, figuring Cordelia would follow.
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So what if everyone loved Buffy (Especially the people Cordelia tended to care about. First Xander, and then Angel)? Just because she was Little Miss Likes To Kill didn't make her any better than her. Maybe it had once, but things had changed. Cordelia herself had changed. And sure, maybe Buffy was Angel's ~one true love~ or whatever, but that didn't mean she knew him, or understood him. Not the way Cordelia did.
"Nope. I'll probably have to pick up some stuff later. Apparently the Powers aren't so good at packing for people." Oddly, the idea of shopping didn't excite her the way it once did. She just wanted to get this whole ordeal done with already. The sooner she could leave, the better.
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Just so that Cordelia wouldn't get the wrong idea, she offered a slightly apologetic glance over her shoulder. "It's not like we have a mall up the road."
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