Summer In Neptune (5.5/?), Veronica/Buffy
Title: Summer In Neptune (5.5/?)
Author: Pat Kelly
Pairing: Veronica/Buffy
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1602
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.
Note: Yup, another half. Well actually, just a long scene. I want Chapter 6 to begin with the other Scoobies (yup, you read right), so this is all by it's lonesome.
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If there was a clock with minute and hour hands in Veronica's bedroom, you'd be able to hear ticking pretty loud. Veronica patted her hands on her knees, looking around the room and whistling Harmonica's theme from "Once Upon a Time in the West." It seemed appropriate given that they were both being inscrutable like Charles Bronson, and there was a severe lack of talk.
Buffy, for her part, was at least moving around the room keeping the blood flowing. She instigated this not-conversation without exactly knowing what she was going to say. Not one of her smarter moves, but she knew if she put it off, it would've just kept getting put off. Now she had no choice but to eventually say something constructive, or else walk out and look like a jerk.
What was that sitting at the rear of Veronica's bed?
"Isn't this how Mary Todd Lincoln went insane?" Veronica wondered as Buffy came over and grabbed what turned out to be a photo album.
"Her husband being assassinated right next to her on a balcony might've been a factor, too. Cut the woman some slack..." Buffy said in a preoccupied fashion, sitting on the bed's edge and opening up the album.
"Oh, it was just a tiny shot in the head, yeesh; over in a New York minute. Wasn't like he bled to death or anything...grow a spine, lady." Veronica declared, and when she went off like this, it meant she didn't know what to say, either.
Buffy felt less pressured. "I think New York minutes were slower in those days."
Veronica didn't let that deter her. "And I think you've got circumstantial buptkus for proof, so don't even try. Why do you always need to poke holes in my historical diatribes? Is this fun for you?"
"It's not 'need.' Or 'want,' even. But somebody eventually *has* to--why not me?" The slayer shrugged, more focused on the photos in the album she rested on her lap. "You finished?"
"I guess." Veronica moped. "Now that *it's* bleeding to death from all the poking..."
"Great, 'cause these're from when our parents took us to Six Flags, right?" Buffy asked semi-rhetorically, as she had eyes and could see the amusement park backdrop. She slid down next to Veronica. "Over Easter break in sixth grade."
"The first of many, 'If you get good grades...' payoffs. What a perfect system--we got trips, they got bragging rights that fit nicely on a bumper." Veronica smirked, staring down at the pictures with her. "I was looking at this earlier. Before I musta dozed off."
"So our memories are sleep-inducing?" Buffy questioned, sounding a step or two away from crushed.
Veronica coughed. "Yeah, since there's no way to backpedal out of this gracefully," She quickly laid a finger over a photo, "look! That Daffy Duck took this after you'd just thrown up in the trashcan by the exit to 'Goliath.' Doesn't it put you right back in the moment?" She received a dirty look. "I'm not the one who bought double prints on the way out. That's all on your mom."
"I shoulda stepped on his fat, stupid, webbed foot." Buffy grumbled, and then pointed her finger at Veronica accusingly. ""And *you*. It was your fault. Eat the corndog, you said. Let's go on the roller coaster, you said. What's the worst that could happen, you said." The dirty look returned.
"I held your hair back, didn't I?" Veronica reminded her, and switched her gaze to another picture. Then she gasped. "No. No way."
Buffy looked too. "Oh my god. That's 'The Look.' Right there."
There were two pictures of interest actually. Taken probably minutes apart. They were sitting on a bench, it looked to be dusk-ish, and they were obviously tired. One picture had Buffy staring at Veronica as Veronica was using the large, purple gorilla her dad won for her in the "Duck Shoot" game, as a pillow; the other was of Veronica staring at Buffy discreetly, when Buffy was focused on asking her own dad, why he didn't win *her* a gorilla. But you could see "the like" going on.
"Man, we were pathetic; I can't believe it was that far back." Veronica was shaking her head. "And now the question we have to ask ourselves is--how far are we talking here? I mean, when I gave you my juice box that one day because you forgot yours? *That* could've been a come-on. We don't know."
"No wonder the whole world figured it out." Buffy was finally getting it. "We should've just worn neon signs; woulda been the same thing."
Veronica looked up from the album. "Who's 'the whole world'?" Did Dick Casablancas give her his insight, too?
Buffy looked up as well, realizing she may have overstated. "Um, Weevil. You may not think so, but he's got the whole wide world in his hands. There's even a song about it."
"You talked to Weevil? Today?" Veronica asked, her mind going to Logan and the bridge as Buffy nodded. "How is he?"
"Like he always is. Tattooed and Mexican." Buffy said, because, what else could she have said? "Except with a bruise." Then she anticipated Veronica's next question. "He wouldn't talk about it; but he did say Lilly knew too, though. About our repressed attraction."
"I know, she told me." Veronica came out with, without going over it in her head first. It earned her a strange look from Buffy. "She may or may not be a ghost who haunts me in my dreams, all right?"
"A real one? 'Cause, you know, I've met some. Well, a poltergeist, more specifically. And one wasn't so much a ghost as just invisible."
"Must've been special--did you call Zelda Rubinstein or Dan Aykroyd?" Buffy childishly stuck out her tongue, and Veronica tried not to misinterpret that. "Sorry, but unless they're ghosts with the most played by Michael Keaton, how is this helping us?"
"Right, you're right." Buffy had learned to accepted sense when she heard it. Hey, wait a second... "We've acknowledged the mutual attraction. Out loud. To each other. Am I the only one who realizes that?"
"Huh." No, Veronica now realized it, too. "Well that went well. This is how everyone should have their awkward, relationship-changing conversations from now on."
"By not knowing they're having 'em?" Setting the album to the side, Buffy wanted to be clear.
"S'just smoother sailing." Veronica believed. She waited a beat, then, "So...we're okay with this attraction? I'm a girl, you're a girl, best friends, yadda yadda yadda?"
"It was never really the 'girl' thing that worried; more the 'best friend' thing. Once you date a vampire, other taboos kinda pale." Buffy told her. "But yeah, I'm okay with it. I mean, you're with Logan--"
"--and you're with your issues--"
"--so, it's not exactly the best timing, but in the future, or near future, I think it'd be nice to try. Not that I'm saying you're gonna break up with Logan, or that I want you to..." Buffy was babbling, but hopefully not as bad as Willow. "...okay, maybe I do a little, but I'd never ask. And I don't know how we'd manage the 'long distance' aspect after the summer, but I seriously doubt, if we didn't work out, that that would suddenly implode seventeen years of friendship."
Veronica waited until she was sure Buffy was out of steam. "I'm with ya. There was a kiss, a great kiss, and with our current situations it can't happen again right away, but I'd also like to keep the door of possibilities open. For later. I'm already out on the fringes socially, so it only means they'd have a new word to write on my locker every day." She tacked on that "later" for herself. "And you'd think, a seventeen-year foundation would be beneficial to the future relationship."
"Excellent point." Buffy was proud of this logical behavior they were exhibiting. "'Course, it isn't that we *can't* kiss."
"It's that we shouldn't."
"Just thought I'd make that distinction."
"No, it's an important one." Veronica agreed. "But I'd be cheating--and you'd feel like you were--if we, as an example, kissed right now. We could explain the kitchen, but--"
Buffy's head tilted in question. "We could?"
Veronica gave her an "Of course" look. "Given enough time, you can explain anything." She resumed her original sentence, then. "But if we let it happen a second time, it just gets grayer and murkier. And very much like a 90210 plot development. Or, to a lesser extent, an 'O.C.' plot development."
"And our relationship should get off on the right foot. Something like, 'Say Anything,' where you hold a stereo outside my window that's playing that Peter Gabriel song?"
"I get to be Cusack?" Veronica said with a grin. "I gotta say, I like where your head's at, J.F.F.N."
"'Just Friend For Now'?" Buffy guessed. Maybe they did share the same brain. "That works. We can do this."
"Feel like we've accomplished something, don't you?" Veronica stuck her hand out. "Shall we shake on it?"
"Yes, yes we shall." Buffy put her hand in Veronica's, and they shook firmly.
But the entire agreement was sort of negated. Their faces somehow kept getting closer and closer together, and just like that, they were connected by the mouth area. Which forced them to re-agree, but this time with a slight addendum that said the agreement would be in effect, once they left the bedroom.
And fifteen minutes later, they were as good as their word, by golly.
Author: Pat Kelly
Pairing: Veronica/Buffy
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1602
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.
Note: Yup, another half. Well actually, just a long scene. I want Chapter 6 to begin with the other Scoobies (yup, you read right), so this is all by it's lonesome.
-----------------------------------------------------
If there was a clock with minute and hour hands in Veronica's bedroom, you'd be able to hear ticking pretty loud. Veronica patted her hands on her knees, looking around the room and whistling Harmonica's theme from "Once Upon a Time in the West." It seemed appropriate given that they were both being inscrutable like Charles Bronson, and there was a severe lack of talk.
Buffy, for her part, was at least moving around the room keeping the blood flowing. She instigated this not-conversation without exactly knowing what she was going to say. Not one of her smarter moves, but she knew if she put it off, it would've just kept getting put off. Now she had no choice but to eventually say something constructive, or else walk out and look like a jerk.
What was that sitting at the rear of Veronica's bed?
"Isn't this how Mary Todd Lincoln went insane?" Veronica wondered as Buffy came over and grabbed what turned out to be a photo album.
"Her husband being assassinated right next to her on a balcony might've been a factor, too. Cut the woman some slack..." Buffy said in a preoccupied fashion, sitting on the bed's edge and opening up the album.
"Oh, it was just a tiny shot in the head, yeesh; over in a New York minute. Wasn't like he bled to death or anything...grow a spine, lady." Veronica declared, and when she went off like this, it meant she didn't know what to say, either.
Buffy felt less pressured. "I think New York minutes were slower in those days."
Veronica didn't let that deter her. "And I think you've got circumstantial buptkus for proof, so don't even try. Why do you always need to poke holes in my historical diatribes? Is this fun for you?"
"It's not 'need.' Or 'want,' even. But somebody eventually *has* to--why not me?" The slayer shrugged, more focused on the photos in the album she rested on her lap. "You finished?"
"I guess." Veronica moped. "Now that *it's* bleeding to death from all the poking..."
"Great, 'cause these're from when our parents took us to Six Flags, right?" Buffy asked semi-rhetorically, as she had eyes and could see the amusement park backdrop. She slid down next to Veronica. "Over Easter break in sixth grade."
"The first of many, 'If you get good grades...' payoffs. What a perfect system--we got trips, they got bragging rights that fit nicely on a bumper." Veronica smirked, staring down at the pictures with her. "I was looking at this earlier. Before I musta dozed off."
"So our memories are sleep-inducing?" Buffy questioned, sounding a step or two away from crushed.
Veronica coughed. "Yeah, since there's no way to backpedal out of this gracefully," She quickly laid a finger over a photo, "look! That Daffy Duck took this after you'd just thrown up in the trashcan by the exit to 'Goliath.' Doesn't it put you right back in the moment?" She received a dirty look. "I'm not the one who bought double prints on the way out. That's all on your mom."
"I shoulda stepped on his fat, stupid, webbed foot." Buffy grumbled, and then pointed her finger at Veronica accusingly. ""And *you*. It was your fault. Eat the corndog, you said. Let's go on the roller coaster, you said. What's the worst that could happen, you said." The dirty look returned.
"I held your hair back, didn't I?" Veronica reminded her, and switched her gaze to another picture. Then she gasped. "No. No way."
Buffy looked too. "Oh my god. That's 'The Look.' Right there."
There were two pictures of interest actually. Taken probably minutes apart. They were sitting on a bench, it looked to be dusk-ish, and they were obviously tired. One picture had Buffy staring at Veronica as Veronica was using the large, purple gorilla her dad won for her in the "Duck Shoot" game, as a pillow; the other was of Veronica staring at Buffy discreetly, when Buffy was focused on asking her own dad, why he didn't win *her* a gorilla. But you could see "the like" going on.
"Man, we were pathetic; I can't believe it was that far back." Veronica was shaking her head. "And now the question we have to ask ourselves is--how far are we talking here? I mean, when I gave you my juice box that one day because you forgot yours? *That* could've been a come-on. We don't know."
"No wonder the whole world figured it out." Buffy was finally getting it. "We should've just worn neon signs; woulda been the same thing."
Veronica looked up from the album. "Who's 'the whole world'?" Did Dick Casablancas give her his insight, too?
Buffy looked up as well, realizing she may have overstated. "Um, Weevil. You may not think so, but he's got the whole wide world in his hands. There's even a song about it."
"You talked to Weevil? Today?" Veronica asked, her mind going to Logan and the bridge as Buffy nodded. "How is he?"
"Like he always is. Tattooed and Mexican." Buffy said, because, what else could she have said? "Except with a bruise." Then she anticipated Veronica's next question. "He wouldn't talk about it; but he did say Lilly knew too, though. About our repressed attraction."
"I know, she told me." Veronica came out with, without going over it in her head first. It earned her a strange look from Buffy. "She may or may not be a ghost who haunts me in my dreams, all right?"
"A real one? 'Cause, you know, I've met some. Well, a poltergeist, more specifically. And one wasn't so much a ghost as just invisible."
"Must've been special--did you call Zelda Rubinstein or Dan Aykroyd?" Buffy childishly stuck out her tongue, and Veronica tried not to misinterpret that. "Sorry, but unless they're ghosts with the most played by Michael Keaton, how is this helping us?"
"Right, you're right." Buffy had learned to accepted sense when she heard it. Hey, wait a second... "We've acknowledged the mutual attraction. Out loud. To each other. Am I the only one who realizes that?"
"Huh." No, Veronica now realized it, too. "Well that went well. This is how everyone should have their awkward, relationship-changing conversations from now on."
"By not knowing they're having 'em?" Setting the album to the side, Buffy wanted to be clear.
"S'just smoother sailing." Veronica believed. She waited a beat, then, "So...we're okay with this attraction? I'm a girl, you're a girl, best friends, yadda yadda yadda?"
"It was never really the 'girl' thing that worried; more the 'best friend' thing. Once you date a vampire, other taboos kinda pale." Buffy told her. "But yeah, I'm okay with it. I mean, you're with Logan--"
"--and you're with your issues--"
"--so, it's not exactly the best timing, but in the future, or near future, I think it'd be nice to try. Not that I'm saying you're gonna break up with Logan, or that I want you to..." Buffy was babbling, but hopefully not as bad as Willow. "...okay, maybe I do a little, but I'd never ask. And I don't know how we'd manage the 'long distance' aspect after the summer, but I seriously doubt, if we didn't work out, that that would suddenly implode seventeen years of friendship."
Veronica waited until she was sure Buffy was out of steam. "I'm with ya. There was a kiss, a great kiss, and with our current situations it can't happen again right away, but I'd also like to keep the door of possibilities open. For later. I'm already out on the fringes socially, so it only means they'd have a new word to write on my locker every day." She tacked on that "later" for herself. "And you'd think, a seventeen-year foundation would be beneficial to the future relationship."
"Excellent point." Buffy was proud of this logical behavior they were exhibiting. "'Course, it isn't that we *can't* kiss."
"It's that we shouldn't."
"Just thought I'd make that distinction."
"No, it's an important one." Veronica agreed. "But I'd be cheating--and you'd feel like you were--if we, as an example, kissed right now. We could explain the kitchen, but--"
Buffy's head tilted in question. "We could?"
Veronica gave her an "Of course" look. "Given enough time, you can explain anything." She resumed her original sentence, then. "But if we let it happen a second time, it just gets grayer and murkier. And very much like a 90210 plot development. Or, to a lesser extent, an 'O.C.' plot development."
"And our relationship should get off on the right foot. Something like, 'Say Anything,' where you hold a stereo outside my window that's playing that Peter Gabriel song?"
"I get to be Cusack?" Veronica said with a grin. "I gotta say, I like where your head's at, J.F.F.N."
"'Just Friend For Now'?" Buffy guessed. Maybe they did share the same brain. "That works. We can do this."
"Feel like we've accomplished something, don't you?" Veronica stuck her hand out. "Shall we shake on it?"
"Yes, yes we shall." Buffy put her hand in Veronica's, and they shook firmly.
But the entire agreement was sort of negated. Their faces somehow kept getting closer and closer together, and just like that, they were connected by the mouth area. Which forced them to re-agree, but this time with a slight addendum that said the agreement would be in effect, once they left the bedroom.
And fifteen minutes later, they were as good as their word, by golly.