3rd Person's POV

Willow and Xander walk through the cemetery on their way home. Xander has an ice cream cone and takes an occasional lick.

"Okay, um..."

Xander smiles, "It's your turn."

"I, alright, okay, uh... 'In the few hours that we had together, we loved a lifetime's worth.'"

Xander scoffs, "Terminator."

"Good! Great."

"Um, oh, okay, I got one," He stands imitating Charlton Heston, "'It's a madhouse! A mad...'"

Willow interrupts, "Planet of the Apes."

Xander frowns, "Can I finish, please?"

Willow holds up her empty hand in defense, "Oh! Sorry, go ahead."

"'...house!'" He points indicating that she may answer.

"Planet of the Apes. Okay, good... me. Uh..."

"Well?"

Willow frowns, "I'm thinking. 'Use the Force, Luke.'"

Xander grimaces, "Do I even have to dignify that with a guess?"

"I couldn't think of anything. It's a dumb game anyway."

"Well, what else do you wanna do? We already played rock, paper, scissors. My hands cramped up."

"Well, yes, if you're always scissors of course your tendons are gonna strain..."

Xander interrupts, "Y'know, I just gotta say that this has been the most boring summer ever."

Willow nods, "Yeah, but on the plus side no monsters or stuff."

She steps over to the wall and hops up to sit on it.

Xander groans, "I'm just so restless! I'm actually looking forward to school startin' up again."

"Yeah, and that wouldn't have anything to do with a certain girl we both know who is a Vampire Slayer."

"Please, I'm so over her. Did she, uh, mention when she might be gettin' back? About which I do not care."

"I haven't heard from her. I got a couple postcards when she went to L.A., but then, like, nothing."

"Well, she's probably with her dad having a good time."

Willow raises an eyebrow, "And you don't care..."

"Well, okay, there might be some interest. I'm a man. I have certain desires, certain needs..."

Willow frowns, "Uhhh! I don't wanna know."

The two sit in silence for a second. Xander glances from his ice cream to Willow then to the moon.

"Go ahead..."

He looks over at Willow in question, "What do you mean?"

Willow looks at him with a knowing stare, "I know you want to ask about her. So go ahead."

Xander clears his throat, "How is she?"

"She's actually doing well now. The first few weeks was rough. But it's like literally out of nowhere she just got out of her head and finally left her room."

"That's good."

Willow nods, "Yeah Angel has checked on her a few times-"

"Wait a second Angel has been over. Like in her room?"

"Yeah no big deal. He doesn't stay for long. Usually just checks on her and leaves. He was the first person she finally talked to. You know you really hurt her."

Xander sits in shock for a second. Then he sees a vampire standing on the other side of the wall. Willow notices his glance and looks, too. She screams and jumps off of the wall as Xander pulls her away from the vampire.

"Willow, go!"

He puts himself between her and the vampire. She doesn't go, but watches as he punches the vampire in the face. The vampire isn't fazed. He grabs Xander and tries to bite. Xander struggles with him to keep from being bitten. After a few moments of wrestling, a hand grabs the vampire by the shoulder and pulls him off of Xander. It's a girl, and she punches the vampire in the face, knees him in the crotch and flips him over onto his back.

The girl pulls out a stake but the vamp kicks it out of her hand and leaps up. He back hands her making her fall to the ground. The vamp stands over her as another set of arms holds the vamps shirt and throws him to the side.

Buffy turns to Willow and Xander then smiles.

"Hi, guys!"

The vampire gets up. Buffy turns her attention back to him and kicks him in the chest, sending him flying into a tree, where he gets impaled on a dead branch and bursts into ashes. She turns back to Willow and Xander.

"Miss me?"

Willow smiles, "Buffy!"

"Hey!" Xander pulls her into a hug.

Buffy hugs back then hugs Willow, "Hey. Hey, Will!"

Xander smiles then hugs Buffy again, "Man, your timing really doesn't suck."

Buffy laughs as Laney frowns then stands up and dusts herself off.

"You're back." She says in a monotones voice.

Buffy spins around and smiles lightly. Her eyes show intensity but her smile is friendly.

"Yep home sweet home. You're lucky I was there when I was. You got sloppy."

Laney's mouth twitches in anger. She had been vampire scoping by herself all summer. There hadn't been many but a handful. She was fine then and she didn't need help just now.

"I was fine. I had him."

"Didn't look like it from where I was standing..."

Laney opens her mouth to reply but is cut off by Willow.

"When'd you get back?"

Willow glances between the two girls. For some reason there had been an uncomfortableness between them and she could see it in their faces too.

"Uh, just now. Dad drove me down. And I figured you two losers would be getting into some kind of trouble."

Willow shrugs, "I think we had the upper hand. I-in a subtle way. Laney was very helpful."

Buffy glances at Laney then back at Willow and Xander, "Hmm... Does either of you even have a cross? Very sloppy."

Xander waves his hand as if saying nonsense, "Well, it's been a slow summer. I mean, that's the first vampire Willow and I have seen since you killed the Master."

Laney crosses her arms over her chest and taps her foot on the ground impatiently, "Yeah it's weird, I've seen a handful but no more than that."

Buffy nods, "It's like they knew I was coming back."

They start to walk through the cemetery.

"So, what about you? How was your summer? Did you slay anything?"

Buffy shakes her head at Xander's question, "No. Uh, just hung out, partied some, shopping was also a major theme."

"Well, you haven't lost your touch. That vampire..."

Buffy smiles sheepishly, "I did kinda whale on him, didn't I?"

Xander looks at her hair and notices it's different.

"I like your hair."

Buffy giggles and lightly pushes a strand behind her ear, "So, how did you guys fare? Did you have any fun without me?"

Laney rolls her eyes as Xander answers no and Willow answers yes.

"Uh, our summer was kinda yawnworthy. Our biggest excitement was burying the Master."

They stop walking and turn towards a big tree.

Willow nods finally agreeing with Xander, "That's right, you missed it." She points, "Right out by that tree."

Buffy looks.

"Giles buried the bones and we poured holy water and we got to wear robes."

"Very intense," Xander jokes, "You shoulda been there."

𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟!! 𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑑𝑜 𝑦'𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘? 𝑊ℎ𝑜 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓?? 𝐴𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙, 𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑎, 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝑉𝑎𝑚𝑝 𝑖𝑛 𝑇𝑜𝑤𝑛... 𝐿𝑒𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤!! 💛