Summer In Neptune (2/?) Veronica/Buffy
Title: Summer In Neptune (2/?)
Author: Pat Kelly
Pairing: Veronica/Buffy
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1852
Summary: A crossover with BtVS. Buffy runs away from Sunnydale and goes to the first place she called home.
Timeline: Between S2 and S3 for BtVS. Between S1 and S2 of VM, so there be possible spoilers. Fudged with the years, so Buffy is 17 in 2005, not 1998, like in the show.
Notes: Came faster than I expected it to. :-) Yay.
-----------------------------------------------------
It was sometime in the afternoon when Veronica's cell phone woke her up to the tune of Salt'N'Peppa's, "Push It." Below her, Buffy giggled groggily and soon enough uncontrollably at the music, the ringing waking her up as well. Groaning, Veronica grabbed the phone off the bedside night table, and answered it.
['Bout time you picked up, V.] Wallace Fennel said on the other end.
"Wallace? Pal'o'mine, B.F.F, brother-in-arms against a cruel and unjust world? It's because we’re so tight that you're even receiving an advance warning--the next time our paths cross, I will shave you bald, then force you to eat your own 'rows. And we both know your shiny noggin can't be like Mike's, so just, keep that in mind, k?"
[...Woke you, didn't I?]
"What gave it away?" Veronica wondered, sarcastically. "Yes, the plan was three, solid days of deep, *deep* REMs--which would have been a better music choice, by the way--but I'm betting I fell well short of the mark."
[Sorry, my bad...just told your dad I'd check on you, 'cause my mom ain't lettin' the man move a muscle. Not even for a phone call to his baby girl. And hey, what's wrong with a couple of "old school" sistas layin' it down?]
Veronica slowly broke into a wide smile. "I have total respect for the beats of *all* 'old schoolers,' you should know that by now." He laughed. "But if I've told you once, I've told you a million times, it's 'Shoop' or nothing. Until you learn, you've never touching my ring tones again." She paused to exhale. "And I suppose, since it was a parental decree, that that means you're off the hook. Skin of your teeth though, Fennel, skin of your teeth."
[Got a generous heart, Veronica Mars. Anybody ever tell you that?]
"No, you're probably the first." She grinned. "Listen, can you tell my dad I'll stop by in a little while and have a late lunch/early dinner with him? I'm entertaining a guest at the moment, and we have errands to run."
[What kinda guest?] He asked, and she could practically hear his teenaged, male brain thinking thoughts of the naughty.
"Not *that* kind." She rolled her eyes. "Still, mum's the word until further notice. Remember, 'lying' isn't the same as 'withholding,' so hold strong, Black Stallion."
When she hung up, she leaned over to see Buffy still giggling, but muffling it with her pillow. Veronica threw hers at the slayer. "Shut up."
***
Buffy threw her duffel bag of clothes and Mr. Gordo that she took before leaving home, into the trunk of Veronica's LeBaron. It was parked in the Camelot's lot. She shut the trunk, and got in the passenger side. Veronica was already behind the wheel, turning the key.
"Cool, is that everything?" Veronica asked before she pulled away. "Because seeing the inside of that place during the harsh light of day? It's like 'Scared Straight' for hos, and I really have no desire to come back ever again."
"Yep." Buffy nodded, reaching into her pocket. "Unless you think I should give this back." Veronica glanced over at the torn, white page Buffy showed her. "Ripped it out of the phonebook at the front desk. S'how I tracked you down."
Veronica was impressed. Her hazel-eyed friend had some sleuthing ability. "You always were a better Girl Scout than I was." She smirked, reversing the car. "But I'm afraid it's too late; we're already on the move. You're just gonna hafta eat the evidence." Buffy nearly laughed, but Veronica's face was discouraging. "Seriously. Lamb's fined senior citizens for less."
Buffy balked at this tidbit. "No way can he still be sheriff."
Veronica looked both ways before turning onto the street, and tried to suppress the angry tick she developed whenever Lamb was a topic of conversation. "Don't get me started." At the red light, while impatiently tapping her fingers on the wheel, she said, "Am I the only who needs a coffee?"
"Now that you mention it, I could get us free ones." Buffy spoke offhandedly. "Legally, even."
"Ooh, free *and* legal? Tell me more of this fairytale."
***
~Last Week of September, 2003~
"You wanted me to tell you the truth, Veronica, and even though a pretty like, gigantically-ancient rule says I shouldn't, I did. 'Cause you're my best friend." A fifteen-year-old Buffy said, pacing in her bedroom and running her hands over her face. "Why would I make *this* up? God, believe me, I so wish I was."
Veronica had just seen the contents of the top drawer of her friend's vanity. It was filled with stakes, crosses, and holy water bottles. She backed away from it and sat on the mattress, unable to really reconcile what she'd heard and seen. Two weeks ago, they'd been making spirit boxes and everything was normal. That's what she'd thought, anyhow. It all started the third day of school, according to Buffy.
Now things were bad. Beyond Duncan having broken up with her.
"Have I ever been religious?" Buffy asked her, to which Veronica shook her head. "Then why would I have those? Why can I lift up the back of my dad's Lexus with one hand? How did I catch Shelly Pomeroy's heel before it hit Dick in the back of the head during lunch that time?"
"I-I dunno." That was the best Veronica could come up with.
"And I don't know how many ways I can explain that I was 'chosen' to be a freak who has to kill vampires till she dies!" Buffy knelt in front of Veronica, her eyes starting to water. "Please, everyone else can think I'm nuts as long as you don't. I mean, our moms took turns changing our diapers, Marsipan; we've known each other forever."
It was just...it was crazy. Rationally impossible. Yet Buffy had never not told her the truth when she asked for it. Grr. There was too much pressure.
Veronica stood up and put some distance between them. "I really wasn't...I was expecting you to say you've been taking drugs or steroids or something. Like when Andrea Decker got addicted to Speed last year studying for finals." Any hope Buffy held began to deflate. "That way I'd have something to tell Lilly, and once you got out of detox--"
"Like I could care about not being allowed in Lilly's orbit anymore." Buffy brushed that aside, an edge to her tone as she stood up again. "She's been looking for any excuse to cut me out since we hit high school and she went all diva."
"That's not true!" Veronica objected, who was rather naïve for a sixteen-year-old.
"You know it is. She's always been jealous that we've been closer longer than you two have, she just didn't wanna piss you off." Buffy argued, picking up Mr. Gordo off her pillow and holding him tight. It wasn't her fault Lianne and Celeste couldn't stand one another long enough to let their girls have play dates ten years ago. "But now I'm the circle's ugly duckling, and if she doesn't dump me, she looks bad. That's how it works. Clemmons is gonna do the same; my mom's fighting it, but he's expelling me. Can't have an arsonist for a student. His gym might be next."
That's right. Just Mom. She was the straw that broke her parents' backs. Joyce and Hank Summers had officially separated last week, and when her dad left Neptune, he took the '09er lifestyle her and her mom were accustomed to, along with him. This town was practically screaming she wasn't wanted.
Veronica hadn't realized expulsion was a possibility, though she should have. Her eyes shone with a mix of sadness and fear. "Did you really do it? Burn down that school's gym in LA?"
Buffy closed her eyes and sighed. "Had to. It was full of vampires."
"Okay," Veronica was going to try this, "if vampires are real, how come there aren't any in Neptune?"
"Because they probably drive right through it. They like to stick near big cities--the reason I've had to constantly lie to my parents and get to LA--or places with Hellmouths. Maybe they run out of people to bite quicker in smaller towns."
Knitted brow. "What's a Hellmouth?"
"No idea. My...my 'Watcher' said it's some evil, mystical hoozit...that attracts evil things. Not in those words, though." She'd held that man while he died.
Buffy could see that Veronica was even less convinced than before, and that, coupled with the horrors she'd seen recently, made her want to cry.
***
"I'm sorry I doubted you, Wise One; I beg forgiveness." Veronica apologized to Buffy when they were sitting in the back corner of Java the Hut drinking lattes free of charge. In back of her mind, she wondered if Logan was out on bail yet. "The caffeine high just feels purer, don't you think? All upper and nary a trace of downer. Plus, the adrenaline rush?"
"Rushes to the max." They echoed the same thought aloud, and chuckled.
Rough-edged, kick ass, independent females they might've become, but they were also still dorks. Especially together.
"Like I was saying," Buffy continued the previous line of conversation, "you oughta get a job here. I'd put in a good word, but I only started yesterday, my pull's less than zero. And the fact that I missed my shift today probably isn't helping in that department, either." She looked ashamed. "But the manager's nice."
"Hey, if sampling the product is a perk, that's all the incentive I need." Veronica wasn't opposed to the idea one iota. "Besides, Dad would love if I got a 'joe' job like the rest of our generation, y'know?"
"Oh yeah. My mom, too."
That surprised Veronica. "She knows about...?" Buffy cast her eyes downward. "Took it as well as I did, huh?"
"More or less threw me out. Hence the 'homeless.'"
"Oh..." Veronica's heart broke for the girl across from her, whose hand she took in hers. "Offer's still on the table. I'll listen, if you want. I promise."
Buffy looked up again, staring her friend right in the eyes. "What's gonna make it any different than last time?"
"For starters? I saw those puncture marks on your neck last night, and I can't figure why you'd voluntarily stab yourself there with a barbeque fork, leaving us with a single option, as far as I can tell. Lot more open-minded than I used to be." Veronica squeezed her hand now. "And if hindsight's taught me anything? It's that you're the one person from this town, who I should've believed without question. I won't squander a second chance; I'm not stupid."
You know what? Buffy believed she wouldn't. Flashing Veronica half a smile, she pushed aside her cup and decided where to begin. "Well, the bite was from this Master vampire who drowned me, but things started going downhill when I had a boyfriend who--"
"Wait. You *drowned*?"
"Ssh!" Buffy admonished. "You're failing to listen. No squandering now."
Never again--she had a rapt and attentive audience.
Author: Pat Kelly
Pairing: Veronica/Buffy
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1852
Summary: A crossover with BtVS. Buffy runs away from Sunnydale and goes to the first place she called home.
Timeline: Between S2 and S3 for BtVS. Between S1 and S2 of VM, so there be possible spoilers. Fudged with the years, so Buffy is 17 in 2005, not 1998, like in the show.
Notes: Came faster than I expected it to. :-) Yay.
-----------------------------------------------------
It was sometime in the afternoon when Veronica's cell phone woke her up to the tune of Salt'N'Peppa's, "Push It." Below her, Buffy giggled groggily and soon enough uncontrollably at the music, the ringing waking her up as well. Groaning, Veronica grabbed the phone off the bedside night table, and answered it.
['Bout time you picked up, V.] Wallace Fennel said on the other end.
"Wallace? Pal'o'mine, B.F.F, brother-in-arms against a cruel and unjust world? It's because we’re so tight that you're even receiving an advance warning--the next time our paths cross, I will shave you bald, then force you to eat your own 'rows. And we both know your shiny noggin can't be like Mike's, so just, keep that in mind, k?"
[...Woke you, didn't I?]
"What gave it away?" Veronica wondered, sarcastically. "Yes, the plan was three, solid days of deep, *deep* REMs--which would have been a better music choice, by the way--but I'm betting I fell well short of the mark."
[Sorry, my bad...just told your dad I'd check on you, 'cause my mom ain't lettin' the man move a muscle. Not even for a phone call to his baby girl. And hey, what's wrong with a couple of "old school" sistas layin' it down?]
Veronica slowly broke into a wide smile. "I have total respect for the beats of *all* 'old schoolers,' you should know that by now." He laughed. "But if I've told you once, I've told you a million times, it's 'Shoop' or nothing. Until you learn, you've never touching my ring tones again." She paused to exhale. "And I suppose, since it was a parental decree, that that means you're off the hook. Skin of your teeth though, Fennel, skin of your teeth."
[Got a generous heart, Veronica Mars. Anybody ever tell you that?]
"No, you're probably the first." She grinned. "Listen, can you tell my dad I'll stop by in a little while and have a late lunch/early dinner with him? I'm entertaining a guest at the moment, and we have errands to run."
[What kinda guest?] He asked, and she could practically hear his teenaged, male brain thinking thoughts of the naughty.
"Not *that* kind." She rolled her eyes. "Still, mum's the word until further notice. Remember, 'lying' isn't the same as 'withholding,' so hold strong, Black Stallion."
When she hung up, she leaned over to see Buffy still giggling, but muffling it with her pillow. Veronica threw hers at the slayer. "Shut up."
***
Buffy threw her duffel bag of clothes and Mr. Gordo that she took before leaving home, into the trunk of Veronica's LeBaron. It was parked in the Camelot's lot. She shut the trunk, and got in the passenger side. Veronica was already behind the wheel, turning the key.
"Cool, is that everything?" Veronica asked before she pulled away. "Because seeing the inside of that place during the harsh light of day? It's like 'Scared Straight' for hos, and I really have no desire to come back ever again."
"Yep." Buffy nodded, reaching into her pocket. "Unless you think I should give this back." Veronica glanced over at the torn, white page Buffy showed her. "Ripped it out of the phonebook at the front desk. S'how I tracked you down."
Veronica was impressed. Her hazel-eyed friend had some sleuthing ability. "You always were a better Girl Scout than I was." She smirked, reversing the car. "But I'm afraid it's too late; we're already on the move. You're just gonna hafta eat the evidence." Buffy nearly laughed, but Veronica's face was discouraging. "Seriously. Lamb's fined senior citizens for less."
Buffy balked at this tidbit. "No way can he still be sheriff."
Veronica looked both ways before turning onto the street, and tried to suppress the angry tick she developed whenever Lamb was a topic of conversation. "Don't get me started." At the red light, while impatiently tapping her fingers on the wheel, she said, "Am I the only who needs a coffee?"
"Now that you mention it, I could get us free ones." Buffy spoke offhandedly. "Legally, even."
"Ooh, free *and* legal? Tell me more of this fairytale."
***
~Last Week of September, 2003~
"You wanted me to tell you the truth, Veronica, and even though a pretty like, gigantically-ancient rule says I shouldn't, I did. 'Cause you're my best friend." A fifteen-year-old Buffy said, pacing in her bedroom and running her hands over her face. "Why would I make *this* up? God, believe me, I so wish I was."
Veronica had just seen the contents of the top drawer of her friend's vanity. It was filled with stakes, crosses, and holy water bottles. She backed away from it and sat on the mattress, unable to really reconcile what she'd heard and seen. Two weeks ago, they'd been making spirit boxes and everything was normal. That's what she'd thought, anyhow. It all started the third day of school, according to Buffy.
Now things were bad. Beyond Duncan having broken up with her.
"Have I ever been religious?" Buffy asked her, to which Veronica shook her head. "Then why would I have those? Why can I lift up the back of my dad's Lexus with one hand? How did I catch Shelly Pomeroy's heel before it hit Dick in the back of the head during lunch that time?"
"I-I dunno." That was the best Veronica could come up with.
"And I don't know how many ways I can explain that I was 'chosen' to be a freak who has to kill vampires till she dies!" Buffy knelt in front of Veronica, her eyes starting to water. "Please, everyone else can think I'm nuts as long as you don't. I mean, our moms took turns changing our diapers, Marsipan; we've known each other forever."
It was just...it was crazy. Rationally impossible. Yet Buffy had never not told her the truth when she asked for it. Grr. There was too much pressure.
Veronica stood up and put some distance between them. "I really wasn't...I was expecting you to say you've been taking drugs or steroids or something. Like when Andrea Decker got addicted to Speed last year studying for finals." Any hope Buffy held began to deflate. "That way I'd have something to tell Lilly, and once you got out of detox--"
"Like I could care about not being allowed in Lilly's orbit anymore." Buffy brushed that aside, an edge to her tone as she stood up again. "She's been looking for any excuse to cut me out since we hit high school and she went all diva."
"That's not true!" Veronica objected, who was rather naïve for a sixteen-year-old.
"You know it is. She's always been jealous that we've been closer longer than you two have, she just didn't wanna piss you off." Buffy argued, picking up Mr. Gordo off her pillow and holding him tight. It wasn't her fault Lianne and Celeste couldn't stand one another long enough to let their girls have play dates ten years ago. "But now I'm the circle's ugly duckling, and if she doesn't dump me, she looks bad. That's how it works. Clemmons is gonna do the same; my mom's fighting it, but he's expelling me. Can't have an arsonist for a student. His gym might be next."
That's right. Just Mom. She was the straw that broke her parents' backs. Joyce and Hank Summers had officially separated last week, and when her dad left Neptune, he took the '09er lifestyle her and her mom were accustomed to, along with him. This town was practically screaming she wasn't wanted.
Veronica hadn't realized expulsion was a possibility, though she should have. Her eyes shone with a mix of sadness and fear. "Did you really do it? Burn down that school's gym in LA?"
Buffy closed her eyes and sighed. "Had to. It was full of vampires."
"Okay," Veronica was going to try this, "if vampires are real, how come there aren't any in Neptune?"
"Because they probably drive right through it. They like to stick near big cities--the reason I've had to constantly lie to my parents and get to LA--or places with Hellmouths. Maybe they run out of people to bite quicker in smaller towns."
Knitted brow. "What's a Hellmouth?"
"No idea. My...my 'Watcher' said it's some evil, mystical hoozit...that attracts evil things. Not in those words, though." She'd held that man while he died.
Buffy could see that Veronica was even less convinced than before, and that, coupled with the horrors she'd seen recently, made her want to cry.
***
"I'm sorry I doubted you, Wise One; I beg forgiveness." Veronica apologized to Buffy when they were sitting in the back corner of Java the Hut drinking lattes free of charge. In back of her mind, she wondered if Logan was out on bail yet. "The caffeine high just feels purer, don't you think? All upper and nary a trace of downer. Plus, the adrenaline rush?"
"Rushes to the max." They echoed the same thought aloud, and chuckled.
Rough-edged, kick ass, independent females they might've become, but they were also still dorks. Especially together.
"Like I was saying," Buffy continued the previous line of conversation, "you oughta get a job here. I'd put in a good word, but I only started yesterday, my pull's less than zero. And the fact that I missed my shift today probably isn't helping in that department, either." She looked ashamed. "But the manager's nice."
"Hey, if sampling the product is a perk, that's all the incentive I need." Veronica wasn't opposed to the idea one iota. "Besides, Dad would love if I got a 'joe' job like the rest of our generation, y'know?"
"Oh yeah. My mom, too."
That surprised Veronica. "She knows about...?" Buffy cast her eyes downward. "Took it as well as I did, huh?"
"More or less threw me out. Hence the 'homeless.'"
"Oh..." Veronica's heart broke for the girl across from her, whose hand she took in hers. "Offer's still on the table. I'll listen, if you want. I promise."
Buffy looked up again, staring her friend right in the eyes. "What's gonna make it any different than last time?"
"For starters? I saw those puncture marks on your neck last night, and I can't figure why you'd voluntarily stab yourself there with a barbeque fork, leaving us with a single option, as far as I can tell. Lot more open-minded than I used to be." Veronica squeezed her hand now. "And if hindsight's taught me anything? It's that you're the one person from this town, who I should've believed without question. I won't squander a second chance; I'm not stupid."
You know what? Buffy believed she wouldn't. Flashing Veronica half a smile, she pushed aside her cup and decided where to begin. "Well, the bite was from this Master vampire who drowned me, but things started going downhill when I had a boyfriend who--"
"Wait. You *drowned*?"
"Ssh!" Buffy admonished. "You're failing to listen. No squandering now."
Never again--she had a rapt and attentive audience.