Fiction Approaching Normal- Chapter Eight

Title: Approaching Normal

Chapter Title: Falling Away

Author: Restive Nature

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to BtVS or Supernatural. They are owned respectively by Whedon & Mutant Enemy and by Eric Kripke. No infringement is intended. This fiction is intended for private enjoyment only.

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Crossover

Type: Friendship/ Romance

Pairing: Buffy/ Sam Winchester

Summary: At last they got the chance at a normal life that they thought they always wanted.

Spoilers/ Time line: Season 5 of Buffy (of sorts) and Pre Series for Supernatural.

Feedback: Always welcome!

Distribution: Ask first please.

A/N: This is written for the Jess? Who's Jess? challenge from the Twisting The Hellmouth site.

Chapter Eight

Falling Away

“You go girl!”

The screech, interrupting the flow of consciousness, or maybe it was the flow of unconsciousness, startled Buffy and the next thing she knew, she was feeling weighted and dropping fast. Instinctively she curled her body in on itself, but it wasn't enough and she landed hard on her shoulder.

“Ah,” she hissed, rolling to her back immediately, her body tensing automatically for a fight. But the bright lights glaring in her eyes and the profusion of feminine voices squawking around her brought her fully back to the moment. She was in yoga class, not on patrol. She blinked several times, squinting slightly against the halo created by the lights around the mass of bodies that were pressing in, leaning over her.

“Move back please,” the voice of the instructor was becoming strident and then Buffy winced again as the lights flared once more with her class mates moving out of the way. And then Wanda was there. Leaning over, she offered her hand to Buffy. Wary of showing off too much Slayerly-ness, Buffy reached for the proffered hand with her uninjured side. Wanda braced herself on the mat and Buffy hauled herself upright. She frowned as she took in the fanatical amazement and a not unsurprising amount of jealousy on the faces of the women around her.

“Well, I have to say, that was amazing,” Wanda smiled, as she let loose of Buffy's hand.

“The fall or the pose?” Buffy quipped immediately, glancing over her right shoulder at the supposedly injured part of her body. She very carefully began to raise her arm, assessing the feel of the major muscle group she had landed on. Wanda's tsking noise emanating from her throat gave her pause.

“Want me to check it?” she asked solicitously and Buffy shook her head in the negative.

“Should be okay,” she grinned tightly. She hated having people that she didn't know very well put their hands on her. Unfortunately they tended to get the Slay ready reaction rather than the friendly. Wanda looked skeptical and Buffy continued to gingerly raise her arm and then complete a broad spectrum of mobility movements, wincing only once as the muscles pulled when her arm was fully extended forward.

The wince however, was mostly for show. Yeah, there was a tug of a tight muscle, but with the added bonus of accelerated healing to due the package upgrade that came with her calling, it would be gone in a matter of hours. Maybe less.

“You might want to get some ice on that immediately,” Wanda advised and Buffy nodded. She knew the routine first aid treatment for bruises and muscle pulls. She'd certainly had enough of them in her life.

“Will do,” she answered absently. She could hear the murmurs of the other women, talking about her near miraculous feat and fought the flush that was rising that had nothing to do with physically exerting herself. Once again, she had nearly blown her cover.

“...and next time you want to attempt something like that,” Wanda's amused voice broke through once more, “let me know so I can spot you.”

“I will,” Buffy nodding, her mouth tight as she began to move away, finding that the crowd was parting much more slower than to her liking. She moved over to the wall where the class members had stored their bags and belongings. She located her own and hefted it with her left hand before ignoring the calls of farewell and slipped out of the room. She kept her head down, not wanting anymore attention, and knowing that if she had it, she didn't want to know it.

She made straight for the changing room, thinking about Wanda's advice. It was already too late for icing, being the minor injury that it was. But some heat would feel nice, relaxing. There had been one time that she had thought that about beer. But maybe a steam would be a good substitute instead. She knew that the gym offered segregated steam rooms, but had been informed by way of the public notice board that the men's room was out of commission at the moment. Some problem with the flooring that they were fixing. So at this point, the women's steam room was available for use by both sexes.

Buffy grinned as she ducked into the change room.

It wasn't like she was a big prude who wouldn't even contemplate sharing an enclosed, specially heated steamy room with a stranger. After all, her towel covered more skin than her bathing suit did. But, her bathing suit was also designed to stay on. Whereas her towel, one tug and... But then, if there was some guy in there, Buffy could just stay on the other side.

But when she took a quick peek inside, she found that the room was empty and her mind made up, quickly went to change. The room was still empty when she returned and she busied herself with getting the temperature and moisture level up enough so that she could work up a good steam before cooling down with a refreshing shower.

After the weekend that she had had, she needed this. And it hadn't just been the situation with Dracula, there had been the inherent stress that being around Dawn had brought on. It was almost like she'd had this great break from the annoyances that Dawn caused and now that she was back, albeit for a short time, they were all the more glaring. Flowing and feeling the muscles in her body tightening up, Buffy consciously made the effort to push those thoughts away for another time.

She was more concerned about Faith anyway.

After her hasty decision and conference with Giles, Buffy had had the difficult task of getting back to her dorm room while protecting an unsuspecting Sam while treating him like just a school mate. Well, maybe unsuspecting wasn't quite the right word. Because he had definitely looked... Buffy hadn't wanted to think too hard on that. As she had kept telling herself, a living, breathing boy turned off by her weirdness was always better than a dead hottie potential boyfriend.

That was one of the objectives that she'd sort of dealt with over the weekend. She hadn't meant to, but Sam had come up a few times. A few ways. With a few people. Giles of course, she had to explain that she had been at a class with Sam, who had interrupted her and Drac's initial conversation. She had dismissed him as just someone she had a couple classes with. To Giles anyway. Willow's eyes, when Buffy caught her gaze though, had been amused and sneaky.

The cornering she got after their Scooby meeting had been brief, since Buffy had weaseled her way out, noting that Tara didn't look to comfrotable with Faith. Willow's unconvinced resolve face told Buffy that they'd be having words later. And that had been fine with Buffy. She just wanted to have those words away from other certain people. Namely Faith, Anya and Xander. And all for very different reasons.

With Xander it was simple. Having seen her through the worst of her relationships since she had come to Sunnydale, he was naturally suspicious of all males and overly protective of his friends. And Buffy was at long last, though it had taken her a while and Willow whacking her over the head several times in the past with a spiral bound notebook, to understand the monumental crush that Xander had on her. She suspected that he sort of still had it. But it was more superhero girl fan crush, than inappropriate teenage hormone fueled fantasy...

Buffy grinned, adjusting the hem line of her towel before lying on the wooden slatted block bench. The herbs that had been available to add to the steam were light and fragrant and relaxing once more, she inhaled deeply of the woodsy, fresh scent. It occurred to her that perhaps fan crush and teenage boy crush weren't that different. But she knew she had little to worry about. Xander had Anya and as strange as that pairing might seem, it worked. She had no idea how, but it was good. For them.

If only Xander could get away with putting a gag on his girlfriend, then Buffy's friend world would be complete and blissful. But even as she thought it, she knew that she didn't really mean it. She had to fight to remember on every single occasion that Anya made some disturbing quip, complete with visuals, or a rampant insult or a memory of her good old days as a Vengeance Demon, that the woman was still relatively new to being a human. There had to be some allowances But Buffy also wondered how long that excuse would fly.

It was true that Anya had only been human for a few years, but she had been human before. And her long, very long gig as a Vengeance Demon had given her an interesting look into the scope of human vagaries. But then, Buffy mused to herself, that was the problem. Anya had been focused so long on the dregs of society that she hadn't anything to model her behavior after, as a human. And the gang as they were, were not always the best example.

And that was probably true for Faith as well, she decided with a frown. After everything they had been through in school and with Wes and the Watcher's Council, the mayor, Faith had a long road ahead of herself. The fly by the seat of her pants plan that she had come up with this past weekend was a good start. She had seen in Faith's eyes that the brunette slayer suspected that Buffy was up to something, but she hadn't quite figured out the catch yet. And wasn't it sad, that for every move, Faith's first counter was suspicion?

“Hey, is this a private steam, or do you mind some company?” a familiar voice reached her through the slight haze of steam created by the door that had opened. Buffy's eyes popped open to see a figure moving closer and when the steam cleared enough, she smiled weakly.

“Sam, hey,” she greeted him. He was similarly attired, in a towel, though it was wrapped much lower on the hips than hers, that covered her upper torso as well. He was barefoot, the towel reaching to just below his knees. But from what she could see of his body from her sideways angle, it was a very nice body... realizing her position, she snatched at the ends of her towel to make sure they were still together and levered herself to an upright position. “I didn't realize you came to this gym.”

“Uh, first time, actually,” he admitted and then gestured with his thumb over his shoulder. “If you'd rather not share, I can wait.”

“Oh no!” she protested immediately, trying to scoff. “Don't be silly. We're both grown ups here and it's not fair to make you wait just 'cause the men's steam room is out of order.”

“Okay,” he grinned, moving carefully as he seemed to be debating the seating options. Finally, his hand gripping where his towel was folded in at the waistline, he chose the bench adjacent to hers. Buffy, while he was taking a seat, swung her legs off of the bench so that she could sit upright and still face him. The spot Sam had chosen put the hot rocks between them and it was kind of nice to have that barrier there.

“So your first time here?” she prompted. “Did you have a good work out?”

“Pretty good,” he confirmed. “Worked up a bit of a sweat. Though it wasn't as spectacular as yours,” he teased, his lips stretching into a wide smile and Buffy gaped at him for a moment. Then she buried her face in her hands.

“Oh God,” she groaned. “Please tell me that no one else but you, the instructor and the rest of the yoga class saw that!”

“Um,” he pressed his lips together, looking a little amused and more than a little contrite. “I really couldn't say...”

“Lovely,” Buffy snorted gently. “Typical. Everyone saw Buffy take a nosedive. Or well, shoulder dive. That's what I get for zoning out. That's it!” she declared swiping her hands in a move reminiscent of a football referee. “No more zone out zone for me. It's a little too dangerous.”

“Well, I can agree with that,” Sam chuckled. “I can see in certain circumstances, zoning out isn't a good thing. But actually, I think more people were just... well, amazed at that pose. Have you been doing yoga long?”

“Uh,” Buffy pulled her mind from the acute embarrassment she felt at being the center of unwanted attention and shrugged her shoulders, eliciting a soft grunt as she felt the pull of that muscle in her back. “Not long. Just naturally athletic, I guess.”

“You know,” Sam winced in sympathy, “you really should be putting ice on your shoulder.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, relieved to get on a better topic that she could handle. “And normally I would, but it wasn't that bad of a fall. Barely gonna bruise. If it's still sore after I get out of here, then I'll do that.”

“Okay,” Sam nodded slowly, “well, you know your own body better than I...” he trailed off and Buffy noted the sudden flush that rose in his face. It had nothing to do with the steam being produced, because neither of them had added more water to the rocks. Thinking of her own embarrassment and just feeling bad for the guy, because she'd had more than her share of verbal gaffes spill out of her mouth, she leaned forward to busy herself. Sam could have a generous moment to collect himself. The hiss and curl of steam that flew up from the tepid water on the hot rocks hid Sam's face for a moment and she smirked to herself as she heard his sound of relief.

“So, how was your weekend?” she asked after a moment.

“Pretty quiet,” he answered immediately. “Got some work done. Visited with a few new friends from my classes. How was yours? Is your friend doing any better?”

“She is actually,” Buffy spoke, considering that very topic. She knew he was referring to her cover story about why she had to go home. But it was still the truth. Faith, after Buffy's few attempts seemed to be feeling more confident and surer of her place among the Scoobies. “I mean, she's not a hundred percent through things, but...”

“But what?” he prompted gently. Buffy studied what she could see of his face through the haze and then sighed. He seemed to genuinely want to know.

“Okay, without betraying any confidences,” she began and suddenly felt proud of herself. There were a lot of things she could hide from telling people, if she didn't end up blurting things out, under that heading. Other people's secrets. “Faith didn't have an easy life. And it still isn't. But we've really tried to help her, support her.”

“Which only works as long as the other person lets you,” Sam pointed out reasonably. Buffy grinned at that.

“Exactly! Thank you,” she crowed. Sam ducked his head, but she could see the smile there. “Okay, so this weekend, or before, but anyway, her confidence in herself took a major hit. And it was already so... I mean, she's one of those brash kind of people, that, well...” she trailed off, having trouble trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for Faith without bringing the Slaying into it.

“Is she someone who covers up their emotions, especially the negative ones with bravado and aggression?” he asked carefully and Buffy sagged with relief. He had summed it up perfectly.

“You've known people like that too, huh?” she realized and Sam chuckled.

“My brother comes instantly to mind,” Sam laughed. “But with Dean, there's also the comfort eating and inappropriate sexual innuendos and sometimes not even that, just blatant hedonism.”

“Whoa,” Buffy grinned. “Sounds like he and Faith might have been twins separated at birth. 'Cause I so could have lived my life without knowing that she popped Xander's cherry.”

The shocked laugh that came out of his mouth had her clapping her hand over her eyes.

“I think I could've lived without knowing that as well,” Sam half snorted. “Just glad I don't actually know these people.”

“Just trying to say that they sound a lot alike,” Buffy mumbled.

“Got that, thanks,” Sam teased. “So you spent some time with Faith, trying to bolster her confidence in herself,” he prompted, getting them thankfully back on topic.

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed. It had been the little moments that had helped, along with a few big ones. Most notably, playing the dumb blond card so that Faith could make a few realizations on her own.

Specifically, when Faith had been the one to point out that Dracula had somehow gotten to Buffy. All of her friends had tried to explain her behavior away. But Faith hadn't toed the line on that one. And then, taking lead on heading up the gang, freeing Xander from whatever spell or most likely thrall that Dracula had put him under. The best moment though that popped immediately into Buffy's mind was after she had staked Dracula the first time. She had realized instantly that with all the years the Vamp had on him, there had to be a way he avoided getting dusted by Slayers. It seemed a little ridiculous in her head, what she was thinking and she had voiced it aloud to the group. Citing the movies based off of Stoker's novel and it had been Faith that had taken it up immediately, whirling around to run back to where they had left him, Buffy and the others hot on her heel. They had watched from the doorway as Faith got her slay on, taking him by surprise and a stake through the chest. They had all congratulated Faith, which she had tried to deflect, but Buffy had thanked her, quietly and seriously for not thinking she was flaking on the subject. The pride that had shone in Faith's eyes for just that brief moment was only matched by her bemusement as Dracula tried once more to reform.

“Dude! We're friggin' standin' right here!”

Faith's snorted words still brought a smile to her lips.

“It must have been good if it can make you smile like that,” Sam complimented, a shy smile on his own face. Buffy's grin grew and she nodded.

“It wasn't so much that we talked things out,” she explained. “Faith was never one for much talk. It was... like she knew all this stuff already and she just, I don't know, needed opportunities to realize it.”

“And you gave her those opportunities,” Sam supplied. “That's a good way of doing things I suppose. But what if she caught on?”

“Oh, I think she did, on some level,” Buffy agreed immediately. Faith after all, might be naive in some areas, but she was a street smart kid that lived with a lot of hard knocks even before the slaying gig. “And it wasn't about proving she was smart, because we all know she is.”

“So what was it about?” he asked softly, though Buffy got the sense that he already had figured it out. Why he wanted to hear it was a little bit of a puzzle, but Buffy was, well to put it bluntly, proud of herself for figuring it out.

“It was about acceptance,” she spoke slowly while Sam gestured with the water can. She nodded and he added a little more of the tepid water to keep the steam going. “She's spent too long feeling like she was being judged and found lacking. And I think, in some ways, because we were such a tight knit group before she came along, that she thought she'd never fit it, so she went too extreme the other way. Dragged me along for a bit,” she tried not to think on the death of the Deputy Mayor. But it was something she would never forget. “It's not just Faith that needed help. We all did. And hopefully we're on the right track.”

“It sounds like you might be,” Sam agreed. “Relationships, all of them are tricky things. Siblings, family, friends, all of that.”

“I guess you'd know too, huh?” Buffy chuckled. “Given what you've told me about Dean.”

“Yeah, I think I've thought enough about my brother for today,” Sam grumbled good naturedly. “There's only so much of his crazy that I can take and stay sane myself.”

“Oh, I know what you mean,” she nodded and then winced slightly. She could feel the band aid that she had applied to where Dracula had bit her, sliding off. She reached up with her hand, knowing that the steam had made it impossible for the glue to adhere to her skin. She pulled it away even as she swept her hair over the injured area. It wasn't like it was huge, for a bite, but she didn't want to have to explain. Sam was waiting expectantly and she recalled what she had been thinking of before the band-aid had distracted her. “This weekend of course I stayed at my mom's. And my little sister Dawn about drove me nuts.”

“How so?” Sam prompted and Buffy shrugged one shoulder. It was still difficult to pinpoint exactly what had bothered her so much about her sister, but the feelings had definitely been there.

“Well, I told them that I had come home to help Faith, just for the weekend,” Buffy recounted slowly, wondering if he'd think her whiny and paranoid, like her friends had when she had mentioned it. “And even though I just saw Dawn recently, she was hanging off me, trying to follow me everywhere, just... always around. And I love her,” she was quick to assure him, “I do, but it's not like this is the first time I've been away and then back. She was just... really clinging and annoying. I mean-!”

“I get it,” Sam chuckled, holding one hand up. “Classic younger sibling stuff. You can still love your family, even when you want to tear their heads off in frustration.”

“Exactly,” she sighed with relief. “I suppose,” she murmured, a little contemplative, “I guess there was a reason for Dawn to act the way she did, even if I can't see it.”

“And are you annoyed at that, or at her, really?” Sam wondered aloud and she could see in his eyes, his face, how he wondered if he had pushed too far. She grinned at him.

“Both,” she announced succinctly. “Definitely both.” Her vehemence made them both laugh for a moment. “Oh, it's like I can still hear her whining in my head. Do you ever have that?”

“Hearing my brother in my head?” Sam clarified, even as he was nodding his agreement. “All the time, but...”

“Mmm, we talked about it in a psych class once,” she mused. “The Jiminy Cricket thing. Mine sounds like my mom. But I thought then... those other voices, the ones not giving us the good advice? Did you ever think that maybe that we have these thoughts and impulses that we aren't quite ready to accept as not so savory facets of ourselves, so to make it bearable, we assign the blame to the other voices in our head. Like, 'oh, that's so totally what so and so would do'?”

“All the time,” Sam repeated as he nodded and then grinned impishly at her. “But then, that would make you a whiny brat desperately trying to gain someone's attention, wouldn't it?”

“Just as much as it would make you a womanizing jerk know it all,” she shot back and then widened her eyes about what she had just implied. But to her relief, Sam had started laughing.

“You've got my brother pegged all right,” he smirked, shaking his head. “But, I really hope I'm not that... all the time.” His quiet admission made her relax.

“Yeah, 'cause I can so totally admit that I can be whiny when I want to be, which thankfully, I think I've mostly grown out of,” she teased. “And the attention thing, yeah. But I am not, nor have I ever been, a brat!”

“Something tells me that you just might've been,” Sam teased again, leaning forward a little. “But then, I've had my moments too. As a mature grown up, I can admit it.”

“Well, as long as we're honest with ourselves,” Buffy murmured, feeling the attraction that she had tried to hide from Dracula last week to this man before her, growing in leaps and bounds once more.

“You know what I'm thinking?” Sam asked, his voice just slightly husky.

“What's that?” she whispered.

“I was thinking that I'm about done in for all this heat and that some cool liquid refreshment would be a good thing,” he announced, but Buffy thought that she could hear a slight tremor in his voice. “And I was thinking...” he paused and she could definitely hear that tremor growing, “that maybe you'd like to join me? If you'd like.”

She let her eyes go unfocused just slightly, as she realized... Sam was asking her out? Part of her was screaming, finally! The other was wondering if this really was a good idea. But before she could get that sorted quickly enough in her mind, Sam was stumbling over his words again.

“J-just as friends, you know,” he added hastily. “I know you said-!”

Buffy pushed off from her seat on the bench and lifted one hand to put a finger over his lips. She wanted to quiver with the feel of the soft skin of his lips, made plump by the rampant hot moisture in the air. “Sam, I'd love to go get something to drink with you,” she smiled sweetly and then, as he grinned up at her, pulling her finger away, she added under her breath. “Don't know about you, but I could really use a frozen yogurt right about now.”


Chapter Nine