Supernatural /BtVS- To Live the Lie (1/1) - Sam/Buffy - epsilon set
Title: To Live the Lie (1/1)
Author: Tonya (_fullofgrace)
Rating: PG
Genre: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supernatural, Sam/Buffy
Disclaimer: The usuals. No own, no sue.
A/N: Written for the epsilon theme at 1sentence. These are fifty snippets that form a story. Dedicated to ficbitch82, my partner in crime who wanted to see some more Sam/Buffy in the world.
Word count: 2657
Summary: AU. This is the story of a hunter and a slayer, and the way their lives interact.
#01 - Motion
Sam spends his first week at Stanford trying to believe his own lie, trying to move away from his past and just be the normal college kid with a military dad and a slacker big brother, but then one night on his way back to campus, he sees a blonde dispatch of a vampire and he knows that his lies to himself can only run so deep.
#02 - Cool
Dean would think it cool, a female hunter, but Sam really can’t find the words for the situation, especially when she turns her stake on him; but he’s no vampire and she’s no hunter, and all those self-made lies disappear.
#03 - Young
He’s heard the lore of Slayers, but he never expects to meet one in person, never expects to meet one and see that she is just like him, barely more than a kid; and when he tells her one night that she’s the first he’s seen, she simply shrugs and says, “we tend to die young.”
#04 - Last
Buffy isn’t like any other girl he knows, or has known for that matter, and it’s not just because she can best him in hand to hand; she’s like him, both thrown into this life, both a bit resentful, but Sam knows that she’ll be the last girl to ever know the real him if he ever wants to break free of his dad’s life.
#05 - Wrong
He has his friends and she has hers, and every time they meet to get some coffee and talk, she rolls her eyes at the way he clings to being normal because it’s “been there, done that, failed miserably” for her; but she never really crushes his spirit, just lets him continue living the lie, and he knows it’s wrong but the more time he spends with her, the more he wishes she would live the lie with him.
#06 - Gentle
Their first kiss is their last kiss; it’s two years coming, and it’s soft and gentle and she tastes like the cinnamon that flavors her drink, but when she pulls away, her sad smile says everything he already knows-- “Sam, I like you and all, but if you can’t accept yourself, how are you gonna accept me, the queen of freaks?”
#07 - One
Jessica is pretty, blonde, funny, sweet, and normal, and she accepts his mysterious ways and his lack of talk about his family and his past; he never really tells Buffy about her but he’s sure she knows because she always seems to know everything about him, and she never chastises him for trying to be something he’s not even though he almost expects it; and one night when he finally tells her that Jess is the one, she simply offers a small smile and congratulates him.
#08 - Thousand
He’s a thousand miles away from campus, head resting against the passenger window of the Impala, when his phone vibrates in his pocket; he knows it’s her before he even checks; it’s a simple text--Heard about Jessica, I’m sorry, call if you need anything--but he never calls.
#09 - King
Over two weeks pass before he returns her call, and he’s ready to apologize when in one breath she calls him the king of assholes for worrying her then asks if he’s actually in one Sam-shaped piece in the next; so he talks to her until his battery dies.
#10 - Learn
Sam tries to keep his contact with Buffy secret from Dean, knowing that he wouldn’t approve of a civilian knowing about what they do, but he can only hide so much; and when he comes out of the bathroom one night after a shower and sees his brother with his cell phone, he already knows the question before Dean even asks.
#11 - Blur
Sometimes the line between reality and dream blurs, and he wakes in a cold sweat; he expects the nightmares about Jess, the ones that used to haunt him almost every night, but it’s when Buffy starts entering his night terrors that he worries.
#12 - Wait
He sits on the hood of the Impala, waiting, and he’s sure that if Dean wakes up and finds out that Sam has borrowed his car to drive two and a half hours to meet a girl, he’s a dead man; but he stops caring about his imminent death when she walks up to him and smiles, “it’s been a while, Winchester.”
#13 - Change
He almost expects things to be different--they haven’t seen each other in almost eight months--but sitting together, sharing coffee and talking, everything is the same; and he’s glad that she somehow remains one of the few constants in his life.
#14 - Command
It’s not an order, not a command, more like a request when she says they need to keep in touch better, and he agrees because he misses her; he misses her bluntness and her sarcasm and her infectious grin, having spent two years of college life with only her knowing the real him; sometimes he wishes they could go back.
#15 - Hold
He holds her close when they finally say goodbye, and he’s torn between laughing and crying when she teases that they have to let go eventually; it’s been nice not living the lie for at least one night, to not have to pretend and put on false pretenses; and as she kisses his cheek and wishes him a safe drive back, he begins to wonder what was so great about the lie to begin with.
#16 - Need
Dean tells him that pining after a girl is nothing but trouble, that he just needs to go out and find a pretty little blonde and pretend for a few hours; but Sam tries to explain that it’s different because Buffy’s a friend and she’s the only person he opened up to after he left home, but Dean just rolls his eyes and mutters under his breath.
#17 - Vision
He sees her death in high definition, a broadsword through her chest, and he doesn’t wait until morning to call, desperate to hear her voice; she’s groggy but alive and reassures him that she hasn’t “met the end of anything pointy”, and it’s enough to let him sleep at least until the sun rises.
#18 - Attention
The text arrives two months later from an unknown number, and it is simple and strangles the breath out of him--”Buffy’s dead.”
#19 - Soul
He doesn’t know a single soul at her funeral, imagines their faces matching the names she always mentioned; but he doesn’t approach any of them, he hangs back with Dean at his side, watching and wishing that everyone he loved didn’t die.
#20 - Picture
He throws a fake driver’s license into the box before he buries it in the dirt, and the woman shows up in a black dress and a sly smile and offers him what he came for tonight; and Sam is just desperate enough to take the offer, to right what he thinks is a wrong, but then he knows that Buffy wouldn’t want things this way; and as much as he wants things back to the way they were, he walks away from the woman in black.
#21 - Fool
Dean calls him a fool, among other things, and threatens his life if he ever contacts a crossroads demon again, and Sam agrees to never do so again, all the time knowing that there are only two people who he would take the risk for anyway, one is threatening his life and the other is already gone.
#22 - Mad
Dean tells him not to punish himself and that he did all he could, but sometimes Sam wonders if he could have done more; and he hates that voice in the back of his mind that always responds, “yes”.
#23 - Child
Dean lets him mope around like a child for a few days, almost back to where they were a year ago when Jess died, quiet car rides and even quieter meals, but Sam tries not to let himself get swallowed down by self-pity again; he doesn’t think he could survive.
#24 - Now
It’s been a month, and he thinks he’s better now, or at least on his way to better, but then he gets a text--where are you--and the sender’s name makes his pulse stop; it’s Buffy.
#25 - Shadow
He waits in the shadows because if this is a trap, he’s going to be ready; and even as he prepares for disappointment, there’s still a small piece of him that holds out hope.
#26 - Goodbye
He sees her before she sees him, and he feels his stomach turn nervously on itself; he’s hesitant at first, suspicious, but then she sees him, grins a familiar grin, and throws herself into his arms; and as his heart beats wildly against his ribcage, she tells him that she never got the chance to say goodbye.
#27 - Hide
They sit in a diner, the lone patrons at this late hour, as she explains the magic her friends used to bring her back to life; she tells him how lost she feels, how wrong she feels, how she wants nothing more to do but to hide; and he wishes he could understand how she feels but he doesn’t so instead he just places an arm around her shoulders and lets her talk.
#28 - Fortune
It’s almost like winning the lottery when he wakes up to see her curled up beside him in his stiff motel bed, and he lets her sleep as long as she wants, lets her dream about better things than clawing her way out of her own grave.
#29 - Safe
Buffy stays with them on the road for a few days, and she feels at home, safe almost, on the few hunts she assists with; and it shocks Sam until he remembers that his world is her world and it’s always been that way, even when he tried to deny it.
#30 - Ghost
It’s not a kiss, more of just a ghost of lips on lips when they finally drop her off back home; he promises he’ll be back for their monthly meeting, and she promises not to die again if he promises the same.
#31 - Book
They don’t get to meet for his birthday, both off on their own hunts when the day passes, but he receives a package in his post office box; it’s a Where’s Waldo book, and Sam doesn’t know what makes him laugh more, the book itself or the note attached that says, “something to help you pass the time as Dean blasts crappy music in the car, love B.”
#32 - Eye
There’s this twinkle to her eyes that he can’t really describe, just this spark when he pulls up in the Impala and greets her at her front door; he misses that light every time he drives back to parts unknown.
#33 - Never
They never really discuss what they are, if they’re more than just friends who kiss on occasion, but when a pretty brunette in a bar tries to hit on him and fails, she smiles and finally asks, “you got someone at home, huh” and he replies “yeah” without a moment’s hesitation.
#34 - Sing
They miss their meeting on her birthday as well, and he goes outside the motel room, makes sure Dean is nowhere remotely close by, before he quietly sings an off-key rendition of happy birthday to her voicemail.
#35 - Sudden
He’s not sure why it’s such a surprise when he gets the text because they’ve been waiting for it on both their ends; but the words “the apocalypse is coming” will never sit well with him.
#36 - Stop
The stop in Sunnydale ends up longer than planned, Buffy allowing him and his brother refuge in her home while they try to get organized and ready for what’s to come; the apocalypse is coming, and they will be ready.
#37 - Time
They pass the time between strategizing and researching alone up on her roof; they talk about everything and nothing, and when she asks one night if he wishes he could change things, he turns to her and tells her no because changing things would mean they would never have met.
#38 - Wash
He feels a warmth wash over him, spread from the center of his abdomen, and he doesn’t have to look down to know it’s his own blood; he can hear her calling to him, feel her shaking him and getting him to his feet with a strength that never matches her size; and he vaguely hears her order him not to die on her or she’ll kick his ass before blacking out.
#39 - Torn
He recovers quickly from his injury, and with the apocalypse thwarted for yet another day, Dean is ready to hit the road again; Sam however is torn between two worlds; and as much as he loves his brother and has actually enjoyed their time on the road together, he also likes having roots planted somewhere.
#40 - History
He’s a witness to a historic event, Buffy’s no longer the only Slayer; she can finally choose to live her life how she sees fit, and he wonders if after everything, she’ll choose to live the lie when he’s finally ready to live the truth.
#41 - Power
She tells him that she doesn’t know what to do with this power now, this knowledge that the fate of the world doesn’t rest on just her shoulders anymore; and when she tells him that she fears she’s not important anymore, he takes her face in his hands and tells her she is.
#42 - Bother
They’re in the kitchen one night, making pasta, when he asks her if she’s ready yet to be that normal girl, she shrugs, offers up her spoon of sauce to him and says, “why bother?”
#43 - God
Sam has always been the type to pray, someone in the Winchester clan having to have some sort of faith; and when Buffy catches him praying for Dean’s safety on his latest solo hunt, she gives him a surprised, almost curious, look before sitting down and joining him.
#44 - Wall
There’s a wall in her room, which was once her mom’s room, that holds pictures of all her friends and her parents; snapshots of normal times in an abnormal world; and he’s not sure when the embarrassing picture of him asleep in a dusty book was taken, but he’s just glad to have a spot among her loved ones.
#45 - Naked
He finally tells her when they’re lying in bed together that he had always hoped her first rejection, their first kiss, had ended differently, but she smiles at his revelation and raises an eyebrow, “why, you’re still here, aren’t you?”
#46 - Drive
Sam can’t understand it; she can snap a man’s neck with a single twist of her wrist, she can kick a body into a concrete wall without breaking a sweat, but she doesn’t know the first thing about driving; he swears by next year this time, she’ll be driving all over the place; she swears he’s clinically insane.
#47 - Harm
Dean doesn’t mean any harm when he calls to check in on the “Joe Normal” life, and Sam welcomes the weekly check-ins nonetheless; and it amuses him the most when Dean spends more time on the phone with Buffy than with him.
#48 - Precious
Sam smirks from the kitchen as he hears Buffy threaten Dean for calling her “precious”, and though this happens every month when they have their catch-up dinner, Sam doesn’t tire of watching Buffy put Dean in his place.
#49 - Hunger
They both still itch to hunt, it’s what they were born to do whether they like it or not, and they can’t shake that need to be out there, catching things that go bump in the night; they start working their own cases together, sometimes teaming up with Dean, and it just feels natural.
#50 - Believe
She asks one night as they’re curled up on the couch together after dispatching of a banshee if he still ever thinks about living the lie, but he just smiles and tells her he doesn’t need to anymore.
Author: Tonya (_fullofgrace)
Rating: PG
Genre: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supernatural, Sam/Buffy
Disclaimer: The usuals. No own, no sue.
A/N: Written for the epsilon theme at 1sentence. These are fifty snippets that form a story. Dedicated to ficbitch82, my partner in crime who wanted to see some more Sam/Buffy in the world.
Word count: 2657
Summary: AU. This is the story of a hunter and a slayer, and the way their lives interact.
#01 - Motion
Sam spends his first week at Stanford trying to believe his own lie, trying to move away from his past and just be the normal college kid with a military dad and a slacker big brother, but then one night on his way back to campus, he sees a blonde dispatch of a vampire and he knows that his lies to himself can only run so deep.
#02 - Cool
Dean would think it cool, a female hunter, but Sam really can’t find the words for the situation, especially when she turns her stake on him; but he’s no vampire and she’s no hunter, and all those self-made lies disappear.
#03 - Young
He’s heard the lore of Slayers, but he never expects to meet one in person, never expects to meet one and see that she is just like him, barely more than a kid; and when he tells her one night that she’s the first he’s seen, she simply shrugs and says, “we tend to die young.”
#04 - Last
Buffy isn’t like any other girl he knows, or has known for that matter, and it’s not just because she can best him in hand to hand; she’s like him, both thrown into this life, both a bit resentful, but Sam knows that she’ll be the last girl to ever know the real him if he ever wants to break free of his dad’s life.
#05 - Wrong
He has his friends and she has hers, and every time they meet to get some coffee and talk, she rolls her eyes at the way he clings to being normal because it’s “been there, done that, failed miserably” for her; but she never really crushes his spirit, just lets him continue living the lie, and he knows it’s wrong but the more time he spends with her, the more he wishes she would live the lie with him.
#06 - Gentle
Their first kiss is their last kiss; it’s two years coming, and it’s soft and gentle and she tastes like the cinnamon that flavors her drink, but when she pulls away, her sad smile says everything he already knows-- “Sam, I like you and all, but if you can’t accept yourself, how are you gonna accept me, the queen of freaks?”
#07 - One
Jessica is pretty, blonde, funny, sweet, and normal, and she accepts his mysterious ways and his lack of talk about his family and his past; he never really tells Buffy about her but he’s sure she knows because she always seems to know everything about him, and she never chastises him for trying to be something he’s not even though he almost expects it; and one night when he finally tells her that Jess is the one, she simply offers a small smile and congratulates him.
#08 - Thousand
He’s a thousand miles away from campus, head resting against the passenger window of the Impala, when his phone vibrates in his pocket; he knows it’s her before he even checks; it’s a simple text--Heard about Jessica, I’m sorry, call if you need anything--but he never calls.
#09 - King
Over two weeks pass before he returns her call, and he’s ready to apologize when in one breath she calls him the king of assholes for worrying her then asks if he’s actually in one Sam-shaped piece in the next; so he talks to her until his battery dies.
#10 - Learn
Sam tries to keep his contact with Buffy secret from Dean, knowing that he wouldn’t approve of a civilian knowing about what they do, but he can only hide so much; and when he comes out of the bathroom one night after a shower and sees his brother with his cell phone, he already knows the question before Dean even asks.
#11 - Blur
Sometimes the line between reality and dream blurs, and he wakes in a cold sweat; he expects the nightmares about Jess, the ones that used to haunt him almost every night, but it’s when Buffy starts entering his night terrors that he worries.
#12 - Wait
He sits on the hood of the Impala, waiting, and he’s sure that if Dean wakes up and finds out that Sam has borrowed his car to drive two and a half hours to meet a girl, he’s a dead man; but he stops caring about his imminent death when she walks up to him and smiles, “it’s been a while, Winchester.”
#13 - Change
He almost expects things to be different--they haven’t seen each other in almost eight months--but sitting together, sharing coffee and talking, everything is the same; and he’s glad that she somehow remains one of the few constants in his life.
#14 - Command
It’s not an order, not a command, more like a request when she says they need to keep in touch better, and he agrees because he misses her; he misses her bluntness and her sarcasm and her infectious grin, having spent two years of college life with only her knowing the real him; sometimes he wishes they could go back.
#15 - Hold
He holds her close when they finally say goodbye, and he’s torn between laughing and crying when she teases that they have to let go eventually; it’s been nice not living the lie for at least one night, to not have to pretend and put on false pretenses; and as she kisses his cheek and wishes him a safe drive back, he begins to wonder what was so great about the lie to begin with.
#16 - Need
Dean tells him that pining after a girl is nothing but trouble, that he just needs to go out and find a pretty little blonde and pretend for a few hours; but Sam tries to explain that it’s different because Buffy’s a friend and she’s the only person he opened up to after he left home, but Dean just rolls his eyes and mutters under his breath.
#17 - Vision
He sees her death in high definition, a broadsword through her chest, and he doesn’t wait until morning to call, desperate to hear her voice; she’s groggy but alive and reassures him that she hasn’t “met the end of anything pointy”, and it’s enough to let him sleep at least until the sun rises.
#18 - Attention
The text arrives two months later from an unknown number, and it is simple and strangles the breath out of him--”Buffy’s dead.”
#19 - Soul
He doesn’t know a single soul at her funeral, imagines their faces matching the names she always mentioned; but he doesn’t approach any of them, he hangs back with Dean at his side, watching and wishing that everyone he loved didn’t die.
#20 - Picture
He throws a fake driver’s license into the box before he buries it in the dirt, and the woman shows up in a black dress and a sly smile and offers him what he came for tonight; and Sam is just desperate enough to take the offer, to right what he thinks is a wrong, but then he knows that Buffy wouldn’t want things this way; and as much as he wants things back to the way they were, he walks away from the woman in black.
#21 - Fool
Dean calls him a fool, among other things, and threatens his life if he ever contacts a crossroads demon again, and Sam agrees to never do so again, all the time knowing that there are only two people who he would take the risk for anyway, one is threatening his life and the other is already gone.
#22 - Mad
Dean tells him not to punish himself and that he did all he could, but sometimes Sam wonders if he could have done more; and he hates that voice in the back of his mind that always responds, “yes”.
#23 - Child
Dean lets him mope around like a child for a few days, almost back to where they were a year ago when Jess died, quiet car rides and even quieter meals, but Sam tries not to let himself get swallowed down by self-pity again; he doesn’t think he could survive.
#24 - Now
It’s been a month, and he thinks he’s better now, or at least on his way to better, but then he gets a text--where are you--and the sender’s name makes his pulse stop; it’s Buffy.
#25 - Shadow
He waits in the shadows because if this is a trap, he’s going to be ready; and even as he prepares for disappointment, there’s still a small piece of him that holds out hope.
#26 - Goodbye
He sees her before she sees him, and he feels his stomach turn nervously on itself; he’s hesitant at first, suspicious, but then she sees him, grins a familiar grin, and throws herself into his arms; and as his heart beats wildly against his ribcage, she tells him that she never got the chance to say goodbye.
#27 - Hide
They sit in a diner, the lone patrons at this late hour, as she explains the magic her friends used to bring her back to life; she tells him how lost she feels, how wrong she feels, how she wants nothing more to do but to hide; and he wishes he could understand how she feels but he doesn’t so instead he just places an arm around her shoulders and lets her talk.
#28 - Fortune
It’s almost like winning the lottery when he wakes up to see her curled up beside him in his stiff motel bed, and he lets her sleep as long as she wants, lets her dream about better things than clawing her way out of her own grave.
#29 - Safe
Buffy stays with them on the road for a few days, and she feels at home, safe almost, on the few hunts she assists with; and it shocks Sam until he remembers that his world is her world and it’s always been that way, even when he tried to deny it.
#30 - Ghost
It’s not a kiss, more of just a ghost of lips on lips when they finally drop her off back home; he promises he’ll be back for their monthly meeting, and she promises not to die again if he promises the same.
#31 - Book
They don’t get to meet for his birthday, both off on their own hunts when the day passes, but he receives a package in his post office box; it’s a Where’s Waldo book, and Sam doesn’t know what makes him laugh more, the book itself or the note attached that says, “something to help you pass the time as Dean blasts crappy music in the car, love B.”
#32 - Eye
There’s this twinkle to her eyes that he can’t really describe, just this spark when he pulls up in the Impala and greets her at her front door; he misses that light every time he drives back to parts unknown.
#33 - Never
They never really discuss what they are, if they’re more than just friends who kiss on occasion, but when a pretty brunette in a bar tries to hit on him and fails, she smiles and finally asks, “you got someone at home, huh” and he replies “yeah” without a moment’s hesitation.
#34 - Sing
They miss their meeting on her birthday as well, and he goes outside the motel room, makes sure Dean is nowhere remotely close by, before he quietly sings an off-key rendition of happy birthday to her voicemail.
#35 - Sudden
He’s not sure why it’s such a surprise when he gets the text because they’ve been waiting for it on both their ends; but the words “the apocalypse is coming” will never sit well with him.
#36 - Stop
The stop in Sunnydale ends up longer than planned, Buffy allowing him and his brother refuge in her home while they try to get organized and ready for what’s to come; the apocalypse is coming, and they will be ready.
#37 - Time
They pass the time between strategizing and researching alone up on her roof; they talk about everything and nothing, and when she asks one night if he wishes he could change things, he turns to her and tells her no because changing things would mean they would never have met.
#38 - Wash
He feels a warmth wash over him, spread from the center of his abdomen, and he doesn’t have to look down to know it’s his own blood; he can hear her calling to him, feel her shaking him and getting him to his feet with a strength that never matches her size; and he vaguely hears her order him not to die on her or she’ll kick his ass before blacking out.
#39 - Torn
He recovers quickly from his injury, and with the apocalypse thwarted for yet another day, Dean is ready to hit the road again; Sam however is torn between two worlds; and as much as he loves his brother and has actually enjoyed their time on the road together, he also likes having roots planted somewhere.
#40 - History
He’s a witness to a historic event, Buffy’s no longer the only Slayer; she can finally choose to live her life how she sees fit, and he wonders if after everything, she’ll choose to live the lie when he’s finally ready to live the truth.
#41 - Power
She tells him that she doesn’t know what to do with this power now, this knowledge that the fate of the world doesn’t rest on just her shoulders anymore; and when she tells him that she fears she’s not important anymore, he takes her face in his hands and tells her she is.
#42 - Bother
They’re in the kitchen one night, making pasta, when he asks her if she’s ready yet to be that normal girl, she shrugs, offers up her spoon of sauce to him and says, “why bother?”
#43 - God
Sam has always been the type to pray, someone in the Winchester clan having to have some sort of faith; and when Buffy catches him praying for Dean’s safety on his latest solo hunt, she gives him a surprised, almost curious, look before sitting down and joining him.
#44 - Wall
There’s a wall in her room, which was once her mom’s room, that holds pictures of all her friends and her parents; snapshots of normal times in an abnormal world; and he’s not sure when the embarrassing picture of him asleep in a dusty book was taken, but he’s just glad to have a spot among her loved ones.
#45 - Naked
He finally tells her when they’re lying in bed together that he had always hoped her first rejection, their first kiss, had ended differently, but she smiles at his revelation and raises an eyebrow, “why, you’re still here, aren’t you?”
#46 - Drive
Sam can’t understand it; she can snap a man’s neck with a single twist of her wrist, she can kick a body into a concrete wall without breaking a sweat, but she doesn’t know the first thing about driving; he swears by next year this time, she’ll be driving all over the place; she swears he’s clinically insane.
#47 - Harm
Dean doesn’t mean any harm when he calls to check in on the “Joe Normal” life, and Sam welcomes the weekly check-ins nonetheless; and it amuses him the most when Dean spends more time on the phone with Buffy than with him.
#48 - Precious
Sam smirks from the kitchen as he hears Buffy threaten Dean for calling her “precious”, and though this happens every month when they have their catch-up dinner, Sam doesn’t tire of watching Buffy put Dean in his place.
#49 - Hunger
They both still itch to hunt, it’s what they were born to do whether they like it or not, and they can’t shake that need to be out there, catching things that go bump in the night; they start working their own cases together, sometimes teaming up with Dean, and it just feels natural.
#50 - Believe
She asks one night as they’re curled up on the couch together after dispatching of a banshee if he still ever thinks about living the lie, but he just smiles and tells her he doesn’t need to anymore.