Somewhere Else Drabbles

[cornerofmadness]

I tried something a little different with this one and I'm not entirely sure it worked. I  set the drabbles within the stories I've already done set in other places. I had no idea I had this many stories set outside of Sunnydale and L.A. Each drabble has when/where they're set and any pertinent info and their titles are the titles of the stories whose alternate universe they're from. If you get curious about the longer works, I've included a link to one of my autoarchive pages.

Connor & Buffy –Post NFA (where Spike/Angel were severely injured)- Cleveland, Ohio  - The Thin Spun Life
 
“Dad dumped Spike out of his wheelchair again,” Connor said cheerily, sitting next to Buffy.
 
She rolled her eyes. “Again?”
 
“Spike just can’t keep from taunting Angel.”
 
“Can’t you take your dad out patrolling so we can have some peace in the house.” Buffy sighed. “Go save Cleveland.”
 
“I was about to ask you to take Dad out on a date so Faith and I can have the house to ourselves,” Connor replied.

”Last time, you two got drunk and trashed the place.”
 
“And you and Angel broke the backseat of his car,” Connor retorted.
 
Buffy blushed. “Don’t remind me.”

 

 

Dawn/Connor – Post Chosen/Home (AR of S5) – Devil’s Lake, Wisconsin – Blood Drops on Rose Petals
 
The embers crackled softly. Dawn sifted on the blanket she was stretched out on next to Connor. Everyone was camped out around the fire, watching the Persaid meteor shower but it felt like she and Connor were alone in the Wisconsin woods. Thanks to him she was no longer Lilah’s captive, saving her from being used to open yet another dimension. Who knew that she would fall in love with him?
 
He looked over at her, smiling. Dawn smiled back, tucking against him. Cushioning her head on his chest, she looked toward the heavens to wish on a falling star.
 

 

Buffy & Connor – Post NFA – Florence Italy  (She’s stationed in Rome, he’s there for a summer semester aboard) – Built on Lies
 
“Is this room better?” Buffy asked as she strolled through the Uffizi museum in Florence with Connor.
 
“Sorry, hermaphrodite hall was making me nervous. I don’t care if that makes me insecure,” Connor replied.
 
“Tempura on wood,” Buffy said, reading the self-guided tour book then glanced up the Michelangelo’s  Holy Family  “Is it me, or could they paint nothing but religious themes.”
 
“I think to do otherwise might have been a killable offense.” Connor grinned.
 
Buffy lost her smile when it suddenly hit her how much her mother would have loved this. Buffy felt Joyce’s death as keenly.
 

 

Faith – Post Chosen – Cleveland, Ohio – Finding Faith
 
If she were going to be assigned to a frigid Hellmouth, why couldn’t it have been in Boston. Better the devil you know and all that junk, Faith thought as she patrolled the Flats. The long strip of nightclubs along the Cuyahoga River was icy and deserted. Even the vampires were smart enough to be inside on a night like this.
 
Freezing rains or not, Faith couldn’t suppress the pride she felt in being Cleveland’s Slayer. The others trusted her with this. No one had ever really trusted her before. It felt good. She wouldn’t let them down.

 

Angel – Post Home (AR, Connor blew himself in the Mall)  Galway Ireland – Here At Life’s End
 
Angel’s hand shook as he reached for his ale, so drunk he could barely see. He came back to the King’s Head Pub ever night, trying to drink his pain away. The pub had been a pub nearly a hundred years before he was born. He drank in it as a teen and now he came here to forget his son was in a coma hovering near death.
 
Coming back to Galway, nursing Connor back to health after the bomb he had made had devastated him, it was all supposed to be curative, body and soul. It hadn’t helped.

 

 

 

Buffy/Angel – Post NFA – Las Vegas, Nevada – Just  a Devil with Love to Spare
 
Bells, whistles, blinking lights, Angel loved everything about Las Vegas. Maybe he should think about moving here. He watched Buffy plugging nickels into the machine with the same determination she fought demons with. Her eyes lit up as the slot machine rewarded her with one of the little video games it played.
 
“I won.” She beamed. “I’m a wealthy woman. Run away with me and live on my bounty of a thousand nickels.”
 
Angel laughed. “Any time. It’s good to see you have fun.”
 
The warm smile on Buffy’s face, the way it touched her eyes, made it all worthwhile.

 

 

Spike/Dawn – Post NFA – Pittsburgh Pennsylvania – Silent Night
 
“I can’t believe you talking me into this,” Spike moaned shifting in his seat ath the Benadum center. “Ballet is more Peaches’ sort of thing.”
 
“You promised me another real date,” Dawn said, taking his hand. “Look how gorgeous this is. Beautiful sets, beautiful music and dance…my beautiful man.” She kissed his cool cheek.
 
Spike preened. “Okay but you owe me.”
 
“Will you take payment in kisses?” Dawn grinned.
 
“But of course…though me going without a cigarette for two hours while men in tights prance around will cost you extra.” Spike smirked.
 
Dawn leaned against him. “You are so bad.”

 

 

Lilah/Wes – Post NFA – Hell – Myself Am Hell
 
The stench of a poorly run nursing home clinging to her, Lilah headed for home. Wesley would be waiting for her, just remembering he wasn’t a small boy and his father really wasn’t there abusing him. It was part of their tailor made hell. She spent her days caring for her demented mother in hell’s own nursing home and he spent them hiding from his father.
 
She was still looking for a way around their Wolfram and Hart contracts. Barring that, she wanted to know why their souls were together here. When she learned that secret maybe they’d be free.
 

 

Angel & Connor – Post NFA – Madison, Wisconsin – Tearing the Veil
 
“Dad, are you making faces at Stephan again?” Connor asked, stumbling in after a long night at the fire station.
 
Angel looked up golden eyed and guilty, clutching his giggling grandson close. “No.” Stephan ran his tiny hand over Angel’s forehead ridges.
 
“That’s making a face.” Connor scooped his son up, kissing his forehead.
 
“It makes him laugh, just like it did you,” Angel protested.
 
“Quit reminding me. It just makes me shudder. Has he had his bottle?”
 
“Fed, bathed and freshly diapered.”
 
“Ah, see, this is why it’s good to have a grandfather.”
 
“I live to spoil,” Angel grinned.

 

 

Dawn – Post NFA/Chosen – Cassadaga, Florida – The Sound of Silence
 
Dawn sat on the veranda of the Cassadaga hotel, letting the jasmine scented air wash over her. When she had run to Florida, she wasn’t sure what she was expecting but humidity, bugs and strange, damp scents weren’t it. Even the spiritualist commune she was staying at didn’t have the exotic air she thought it would.
 
Florida held no answers, only more questions. Connor waited at home for her. Spike’s cool kisses lingered on her body. There was a choice to be made but Dawn wasn’t sure she was up to making it. She wept, wondering what was her next move.
 

Connor – in Quor-Toth – The Games of Childhood
 
Steven woke, stifling a cry. Father was gone. Panicked, he looked about and saw his father sleeping soundly. Clutching his stuffed toy to his chest, Steven slipped out of bed. Father said he was too old for nightmares and for sleeping with him when they came to torment his dreams but the five year old disagreed. Father had left him, tied him up and made him hunt him down.  Steven didn’t want Father to ever leave him again. The tracking game had been too scary. He got under the blanket with Father, just to be sure he wouldn’t be alone.

 

And if you'd like to check out any of these stories, head here and enjoy

Cross posted to open_on_sunday

Comments

[catvampcrazines.livejournal.com]

oh, I liked The Sound of Silence the most... it's an interesting choice with those two to pick from.

okay, and I live in FL.. but really, I like it without the FL info, lol.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I lived in Cassadaga when I wrote that story about 1000 feet away from that hotel as a matter of fact (I on the other hand, didn't care for FL living)

[rahirah]

Nicely creepy Wes/Lilah...

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That is one exceedingly creepy longer story as well...probably because it's so every day human, a type of horror some of us will certainly have to face

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

HEE. Love Buffy and Angel in Vegas. Buffy's line was so very much in character. *giggle*

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

thanks. Glad you liked it. Buffy in Vegas was a fun story to do