Fiction Approaching Normal Twelve

Title: Approaching Normal

Chapter Title: Temperamental Discourse

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 Twelve

Temperamental Discourse

Buffy made her way down the supper line, critically eying the offerings before the student populace this evening. It actually looked fairly edible for once and deciding quickly, gestured to the chicken and rice dish. She received her plate and moved down to add some salad to her plate.

She had had a fairly quiet afternoon in the library after Sam had left. But instead of finding it calming, her mood was less calm. She had been sure that had that idiot been treating books the way they were supposed to, nicely, without slamming it and making with the big echoing banging noise, well then, she could have had Sam kisses. She could admit to herself that she'd been wanting smoochies from this guy for a little while now. After spending an hour in a sauna with him, he behaving like a perfect gentleman, how could she not? Falling asleep to thoughts of that toned, long, lean body on many a night was definitely leading to thoughts of the inappropriately naughty type.

But Sam had seemed shy and that morning, seeing how his face had lit up when they'd sat together in class, Buffy wondered if he just needed a nudge or two. She was a fairly modern woman, but in cases like these, she didn't want to be too pushy. Look where that had gotten her with Angel. Or, even worse, with Parker the jerk. But Sam wasn't just your every day ordinary guy either. He was funny, witty without being hurtful. He was quiet without being broody. He could go out in the sunlight, looked really good in the sunlight. But he was comfortable in the dark places too. Like that alley when Dracula had found her. And in the library.

She had shown him that flyer for the party at the Kappa house and his smile had grown. When she had taken his hand, a hint if there ever was one, it had felt so right that she hadn't wanted to let go and when they had taken a few steps down the aisle between the seats and then he hadn't let go either, Buffy was sure that he was finally getting the idea. Or maybe he'd had the idea and now she was giving him a green light. Oh boy did she want to give him a green light. Go, no stops, full speed ahead!

And once he'd gotten that first indication to go, he wasn't speeding, but he wasn't reversing at all. A nice steady pace and Buffy supposed that was all right too. After all, they couldn't just jump into being together. And it was nice, being in that space where everything was still new and exciting. She liked that. But she also liked the being so comfortable with one another that you could finish the others thoughts and share things about yourself that no one else could ever know. She wondered, with a small frown as she chose a seat at random, where no one else was at the moment, if she could ever really get there with Sam.

She had with Angel, but he being a vampire, kind of gave him the insight into her being the Slayer. It wasn't something that was going to go away, apparently, even if she had left it for a while. But Scott Hope, Parker Abrams, all of the guys that she had met so far in life since becoming the Slayer told her that it wasn't likely. Maybe Xander's joking suggestion, that she'd only find a guy that could accept her being a Slayer, that the world was larger, older and a little more dangerous than your average thought, would be one of those geeky role playing nerds that already lived in a delusion... she shook her head quickly to clear that thought.

But maybe he was onto something. Maybe finding a guy, she had to start somewhere adjacent to normal and supernatural. Somewhere were she'd hopefully find some normal, but open to the supernatural. She wasn't so full of herself to think that she'd never be able to keep the other part of her life away from someone who could be so important. And if she were honest with herself, she really wanted someone like that to be Sam. But she didn't know him anywhere near well enough to know...

She sighed heavily.

“Those sound like awfully heavy thoughts weighing you down there,” she heard from across the table. She glanced up quickly, her lips forming into a smile before she even fully registered who was across from her.

“Sam, hi,” she perked up immediately. He was holding a tray with his dinner and before he could say anything else, she gestured to the table. “You're welcome to join, if only to chase the deep thoughts away.”

His answering grin as he leaned over to set his tray down warmed her right to the core. “I guess it depends on where the heavy thoughts came from,” he offered as he pulled the chair out and settled into it. He slid his backpack under the table before straightening up to scoot his chair in. “Nothing bad, I hope,” he offered with a hopeful tone as he tilted his head a little.

Buffy quickly shook her head. “Old dilemma,” she explained without explaining a thing. “Actually, I was just thinking over next semester's courses.”

“Oh?” he asked easily as he broke apart a roll and began to butter it. “Is there a conflict?”

“Maybe,” she shrugged one shoulder and went back to picking out bites of her salad. “I'm not as interested in the drama course that Willow wanted me to take. She's always been shy, stage fright, you know,” she added though of course, not knowing Willow, he wouldn't. But it was a universal ailment that everyone understood.

“That's not uncommon,” Sam nodded, giving appropriate weight to the topic, looking thoughtful. “I suppose she took the course so that she could try and get over that?”

Buffy nodded. “And her girlfriend Tara,” she kept one eye on him as she announced that, but there wasn't even the slightest flicker from him and she smiled to herself, “was supposed to take it with her, but she couldn't fit it in with her schedule.”

“Well, it's not like it would be the same course,” Sam noted, “in two different schools with two different teachers.”

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed. “I think she just wanted someone to talk to about it that was going through the same sort of thing. But if I learned anything from my high school play, I am not cut out to be an actor. Or a public speaker.”

“You were in a play in high school?” Sam chuckled.

“You weren't?” she countered, flushing slightly. Sam shook his head in the negative.

“Never had the chance,” he grunted with a frown. “What were you in?”

“Oh, it wasn't actually a play,” Buffy shook her head. “It was the talent show and our Principal decided that certain people, troubled youth,” she hinted heavily, “needed to make a mandatory appearance doing something. And since Xander, Wills and I aren't all that talented, in a way acceptable to a school related, public event, we decided to do a recital of Pygmalion.”

“Really?” Sam's grin slowly grew into a very amused smile. “How bad was it?”

“Willow ran off the stage and threw up,” Buffy smirked back. “Otherwise, stilted, uncomfortable and I never forgave that toady rat for making us miserable.” Sam laughed, like he couldn't help himself.

“A toady rat?” he repeated. “How does someone manage to be a toad and a rat at the same time?”

“It's all in the eyes,” she assured him with a slight cackle. “He was about my height, balding and slimy, but his eyes? Those beady little eyes and he had a slight twitch.”

“Okay, I can see that,” Sam nodded, still chuckling. After the merriment calmed, he looked thoughtful before asking, “so if you don't take the drama course, are you going to just leave your time free or find something else?”

“Well,” Buffy sighed and then realized that she sort of had a chance to start feeling Sam out on some other things that had just been preying on her mind. “I did have something in mind. I'm not sure how popular the class would be, but if I look into it now, I might be able to switch.”

“What's that?” Sam encouraged quickly.

“There's a myths and legends of the old world class that sounds like it would be interesting,” she offered hesitantly.

“Myths and legends?” Sam repeated slowly and Buffy felt like there was a band of apprehension tightening across her middle. She nodded.

“Well, remember,” she prompted quietly, “we ran into that role player? I mean, yes, obviously you remember. But with my psychology classes, I got really interested in the mind set. Why would someone want to live in that world. And it also got me thinking, where do these dark images come from. Vampires, werewolves, zombies. Because obviously it's not all internal,” she shrugged. She wasn't able to tell Sam the truth, about her, but there was truth in her words too, as they pertained to the non-supernatural populace of the world. “There's the cultures that we live in, but it's not just Americans. Each culture has their legends and variations on some pretty basic themes.”

“You're right about that,” Sam nodded, seemingly over his hesitation. “That does sound interesting.”

“Yeah?” Buffy smiled shyly. She felt relieved, of course she did. But if Sam knew really, he wouldn't look so amused, would he? She poked at a piece of chicken with her fork and shrugged. “I tried to introduce the topic, sort of, in my world history class, but got shut down pretty fast.”

“Really?” Sam perked up a little. “What were you talking about?”

“Rasputin,” she answered succinctly. “We were talking about all the repeated assassination attempts on him and I brought up the possibility that there was something else going on there, but of course, ol' stick in the mud professor wanted us to just stick to the facts,” she grumbled. “I mean, we weren't there, how did we have all the 'facts'?” she held up her fingers to make air quotes.

“Well what do you think it was?” Sam asked curiously, leaning a little closer, his dinner apparently forgotten.

“No clue,” she chuckled. “buy you have to agree that repeated poisonings, stabbings and drowning before he finally died? Mighty strange.”

“Strange yes, but that doesn't naturally lend itself to it being a supernatural reason behind it, does it?” Sam wondered, his eyebrows drawing together.

“No, you're right and I wasn't trying to say it was,” Buffy defended herself. “Just introduce the possibility that there were facts that we didn't know and that accepted points of view on this weren't correct just because they'd been spouted so long that they are now accepted as fact instead of still a theory.”

“Oh, now I can totally get on board with that,” Sam nodded, looking very interested again. “Logical rational thinking and all that.”

“Oh, so you like thinking in the box?” she teased a little.

“Oh there's no box,” he laughed back. “There's always a reason for everything. Even if you can't see it. And it's not always the reason people think that it is. But I think you're right, that people have been saying things over and over and accepting it as the truth because there's no other explanation available to them. I mean, science is only really starting to explode now and give us the rational explanation for things that people felt instinctively was true, based on nothing much more than feelings and their own observations.”

“Like the earth being round instead of flat,” Buffy offered an old argument and even though they weren't in exactly the same place, it was kind of fun discussing this with Sam. Maybe because he hadn't just shut her down.

“Or Vampires that don't exist as creatures of the dark, but are victims of a blood disorder,” he provided helpfully. Buffy nodded. That was something that she had learned about in the course of having Giles on one of his spiels in high school.

“Exactly,” she nodded. And then blushed when she realized how loud she had been. “Sorry, it's just... a fascinating topic.”

“It definitely is,” Sam agreed quietly, his eyes intent on hers and Buffy felt herself melting a little. After a moment, he cleared his throat and looked down at his plate. “So, it sounds like switching to this myths and legends course would be an interesting parallel with your psychology courses.”

“I really think it would,” Buffy agreed happily. And now she seriously was thinking of switching. “Of course, since I didn't take it last year, it would be a beginners course.”

“It is?” Sam looked interested and almost, dare she say it, hopeful again. She nodded.

“I think I'll speak to my guidance officer on Monday about switching classes then,” she decided. “That way there'll be plenty of time to arrange it. So how about you, are you happy with next semester's offerings?”

“Pretty happy, yeah,” Sam nodded. I got everything I wanted and plenty of time to get the material accomplished, the reading, the homework and reports.”

“That's always good,” she noted. “And I hope you left room to relax too.”

“That's what weekends are for, right?” Sam chuckled. “Oh, speaking of which, there's another meeting of the fencing club tomorrow night. I just saw them putting up the flyers earlier.”

“Oh, good to know,” Buffy grinned and set her fork down. “I should probably write that in my planner so I don't forget.” She turned to reach for her bag, intending on doing so immediately. She didn't want to forgo a chance of seeing Sam getting all... sweaty. But as she reached for the opening of her bag, she heard the definitive tone of her cell phone. “Huh,” she harrumphed, recognizing the tone set to her mother's house phone. “Sorry,” she apologized, grabbing up the phone. “I should probably answer that.”

“No problem,” Sam grinned back and directed his attention to his dinner.

“Hello?” Buffy asked, fully expecting to hear her mother or Dawn's voice greeting her back. To her surprise, it was Xander.

“Buff? We got problems,” he swung right into it and Buffy frowned.

“What kind of problems?” she asked. “Is everything all right? Where's Mom and Dawn?”

“Well, your mom needed me to babysit tonight,” Xander explained quickly, sounding upset and Buffy let a small grin loose.

“Oh, I bet Dawn loved that,” she smirked, fully aware of her sister's crush on her friend.

“Yeah,” Xander grunted. “We were all having a merry time until a brick came crashing through the living room window.”

“Ooh,” Buffy groaned. “Don't freak too much. Mom will understand. Do you know who threw it?” She eyed Sam, who she noted, was attempting to listen, but trying to appear not to.

“It was Harmony,” Xander sighed. “And her gang.”

“Harmony?” she repeated slowly. Why was this a surprise? Harmony threw a brick through her mother's window. She couldn't help it as she startled to giggle. “Harmony? She has... a gang?” The laughter swelled and even Sam seemed affected as he smirked at her.

“Well, maybe one of her minions,” Xander grunted.

“Harmony has minions?” she shrieked softly and put her free hand over her eyes as her shoulders continued to shake with her mirth. “She came to my house with minions?”

“Yeah, she wanted to call you out,” Xander sighed. That just caused the paroxysm of laughter to bubble up out of her throat.

“Oh my God!” she cackled. “That half wit! I'm not even there. She came to... oh! Oh!” she gasped and covered the phone with her hand and glanced at Sam. “really really stupid girl from high school that we used to feud with. She's just... is it possible for people to grow stupider with age? Because really, she did.” She couldn't tell Sam of course, that Harmony was a vampire, but still, it was rude to not explain something.

“My brother comes to mind,” Sam grunted and then chuckled before shaking his head.

Buffy took several more calming breaths. “Okay, so aside from the window, how is this bad?” she wanted to know. They'd dealt with Harmony before. She was so pathetic, Buffy was pretty sure that she'd end up staking herself, or annoy another Vampire into it and then, well... problem solved.

“Well, um Dawn, totally by accident Buffy, you have to know that,” Xander hemmed and hawed and Buffy grew still.

“What did Dawn do?” she asked with laser precision cutting each word out of her mouth.

“She um, she sort of told Harmony to come in and prove herself,” Xander winced. She could hear it over the phone line.

“That little idiot!” she exploded, her hand slamming down on the table. Sam was startled, as were several other people, but Buffy could not be worried about them at the moment. Her sister had just, she'd been informed, very stupidly invited a Vampire into the house. It didn't matter how dimwitted Harmony was. She was still a Vampire and stronger than the others. She could only hope that there was a dusty end to this story, but she doubted there was. “Did you call Faith?” She demanded.

“As soon as we got Harmony out of the house,” Xander assured her. “She came and chased them off and we called Willow to do the de-invitation spell. She's on her way.”

Buffy calmed a little. At least they were thinking the right way. “Okay, good.”

“But Buff,” Xander grunted and Buffy felt the bottom of her stomach drop out.

“What?” she asked slowly, raising worried eyes that met equally worried eyes from Sam who had abandoned any pretense of eating or politely ignoring her call.

“Um, Faith was kind of yelling at Dawn for being so stupid and she got upset and ran off,” Xander hurried to get what surely had to be the worst news. “Anya tried to stop her, but they were waiting in the back yard. Ahn was hurt.”

“Oh God,” Buffy gasped. “How bad?”

“Concussion,” he friend answered and Buffy gulped, she felt something touch her hand and was startled until she realized that Sam had moved around the table to crouch next to her. She grabbed his hand and he threaded his fingers with her as his hand came up to support her back. “And her arm. We're waiting for the ambulance. Faith went after Dawn. But she was too late. One of Harmony's goons grabbed her. I'm sorry Buffy. Really.”

“No,” she whispered as fear surged through her. “No, I know,” she murmured. “I'll be there as soon as I can,” she decided. She heard her friend murmuring as she hung up the phone. It dropped from her suddenly lifeless hand, clattering on the table.

“Buffy?” Sam questioned softly from beside her and she turned a little. He was just a blurry figure before her tear filled eyes. How could this have happened?

“They took her,” she managed to get out. “Some guy took my sister, Sam,” she choked out and then collapsed in his arms.