Rating: PG
Couples: Spike/Layla, some Chloe/Angel development, but nothing much yet.
Summary: Chloe deals with being the Slayer and just what she’s going to do about her living situation as a result.
Spoilers: Absolutely none.
Disclaimer: I own Chloe. Stacey owns Layla (as much as anyone can ‘own’ that girl...). Joss Whedon owns Spike and Angel. We’re just borrowing them to...well, you can use your imagination.
Author’s Note: Do I actually not have anything to say this time?
Feedback: Oh please oh please!
Lesson #3: How to live with vampires while being the Slayer
To say Chloe was having issues would be putting it mildly. She was in the midst of a dilemma that she could find no solution to.
And that was just her math homework.
Chloe dropped her head in her hands and whimpered slightly. On top of her normal school work she had a crazy British woman following her around at odd times, a destiny that would put her in direct conflict with her roommates sooner or later, two of three said roommates making her horribly uneasy (with the third making her uneasy for a completely different reason), plus absolutely horrible cramps. She couldn’t do this. It was too much to deal with right now.
Doesn’t the world know that there’s only so much a college freshman can handle?! she thought to herself. She couldn’t help but wonder if there was some force out to get her.
Huh. That’s exactly what ‘Ms. Victoria Walker’ would insist. And whatever that force is, she’d say that it’s ‘evil.’
Already Chloe had dropped a couple of minor extracurricular activities she’s been involved in. Her martial arts she’d managed to hold onto as just another aspect of her ‘training.’ Victoria had actually seemed relieved that Chloe was in fighting condition already.
“It is the duty of a Watcher to train their Slayer to face all manner of evils,” she’d said in one of their early meetings. “Attack me.”
Several seconds later Ms. Walker discovered just what martial arts training with Slayer strength behind it felt like. Chloe gaped when the Watcher fell so quickly.
“Well,” she said, shaking herself out of a daze as she stood again painfully. “Perhaps you’d better restrict your training to a gym setting. And...against inanimate objects.”
They both came out best from that situation. On the subject of knowledge and demon lore, however, they were nearly at each other’s throats.
“I was trained by the Watchers’ Council,” Ms. Walker said. “I come from a long line of Watchers. There is a great deal of myth and fiction out there, and it is hard to discover the truth within it.”
The implication, of course, was that there was no way Chloe could distinguish the truth from the fiction herself. As if such subjects hadn’t been an obsession for her since she’d survived a vampire’s attack three years ago. As if, should she ever doubt the validity of information she’d encountered, she couldn’t just go and ask her roommates.
Oh yeah, her roommates. Chloe dropped her head onto the table. Victoria didn’t know about Chloe’s roommates. Her roommates didn’t know about Chloe being destined to kill them. Chloe didn’t know-
“Chloe?”
She raised her head abruptly, surprised to no longer be alone in the library’s rare book room. “Ronya? Hey.”
Chloe’s best friend looked at her in concern, clutching her notebook to her chest. “The guy at the desk said you were in here. Are you okay?”
“You mean aside from being on a first name basis with the student in charge of the rare book room?” Chloe retorted wearily.
Ronya nodded sympathetically. “Demon problem?” she asked in a quieter tone, taking the seat across from Chloe.
“Yes. Sort of. I don’t know.” Chloe dropped her head in her hands again.
“That good, huh?” her friend said.
Chloe made a pitiful noise in response.
“Here, let me see.” Before Chloe could stop her, Ronya had taken a couple of books from the pile. Slips of paper peaked out from the tops, marking areas Chloe had found of particular interest. “’Warriors of Good and Evil: A History of an Endless Battle?’ Not your usual sort of books,” Ronya said, reading off the title of the first one.
Chloe cringed as Ronya flipped the tome open to the chapter she had marked. “’Vampires and the Slayer,’” she read. She looked up at Chloe in partial alarm thinly veiled by amusement. “Do you suddenly fancy yourself a vampire slayer?”
Chloe laughed nervously. “Fancy? No. Not at all. Of course not.”
Ronya was obviously less than convinced. “Chloe,” she asked earnestly, “are you the Slayer?”
Chloe sank lower in her chair. “I didn’t want this, you know,” she muttered. “I wish I’d never even heard of vampires.”
“Oh, Chloe,” Ronya said in sympathy. “When...?”
“Friday night,” Chloe answered. She raised her head to look seriously at her friend at last. “How do you... How do you know about this stuff?”
Ronya looked uncomfortable and did not answer immediately.
“No one’s supposed to know I’m the Slayer,” Chloe pointed out. “You know my secret. I know you’ve been keeping one from me.”
Ronya chewed her lip as her hesitated for a moment. “I’m a quarter demon,” she said at last. “My father is half Rindyom demon.”
“Oh,” Chloe replied, her eyes wide. She was rather sorry she’d asked.
“Hey!” Ronya said, quick to defend herself and her family. “He’s a good guy!”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t,” Chloe tried to placate her.
Still Ronya was scowling. “The Watchers like to ignore one major thing. No matter how easy they’d like to make it, how black and white, not all demons are evil.”
“I was starting to get that,” Chloe said, thinking about the degrees of good and evil in her apartment alone.
Ronya nodded in understanding. “What are you doing about your roommate situation, by the way?”
Chloe sighed. “I don’t know. When I took you up on the whole apartment thing I wasn’t expecting it to be my duty to slay two of the three of them.”
“And the third? Let me guess – Angel.” Ronya’s lips twitched as she tried not to smile.
“I’m still trying to figure him out,” Chloe replied, ignoring her best friend’s teasing implication. “Right now I’m just hoping my Watcher doesn’t find out about my roommates and that my roommates...”
“Don’t find out about the whole Slayer thing?” Ronya suggested.
“Exactly,” Chloe agreed. Then she changed the topic. “What’s it mean to be a quarter demon?”
“Not much,” Ronya replied with a chuckle. “I’m a bit more sensitive to emotions, I think. Very slightly better senses. That’s it.”
“No slime or horns?” Chloe asked, half teasing.
“Nah, though those would be great for Halloween,” Ronya said with a smile. “Are you okay with this?”
“Are you okay with me being the Slayer?” Chloe retorted.
“As long as you stick to vampires and not good hybrid demons,” Ronya said with a grin to lighten her statement.
Chloe smiled back. “As long as you’re not evil,” she said with a laugh.
Ronya laughed with her, and it was like that Ms. Walker found them.
“Chloe, why aren’t...” The Watcher cut off upon seeing that her charge was not alone. “I’m sorry. We...had a meeting?”
Chloe smirked and glanced at Ronya. “Ah, yes. My meeting.”
Ronya turned in her chair to look at the woman in the doorway. “This your Watcher?”
Victoria Walker’s face went visibly red. “Chloe Greenberg!” she said in a dangerous and shocked tone of voice. “Do you have no understanding of the concept of secret identity?”
Chloe frowned. “Victoria. I told you about my friend Ronya, the one I study vampires with?”
Ms. Walker was not appeased, especially not with Chloe’s use of her first name. “That is no reason...”
“She figured it out by herself,” Chloe interrupted.
Ronya was grinning from ear to ear, obviously trying not to laugh. “I’ll leave you two alone,” she said calmly, rising from her chair. Still smiling, she whispered to Chloe in closing, “Remember, she’s not evil. Don’t kill her.”
“I’ll try my hardest,” Chloe muttered back, and grinning from ear to ear Ronya left Slayer and Watcher alone.
There was something in the air tonight. Angel didn’t know what it was, but it had him decidedly uneasy. For that matter, he’d been feeling uneasy for the last couple of days now.
So, Angel had returned to what had always been a sure fire way to ignore such emotions and feelings, at least for a little bit. He was almost surprised to find how much he’d missed patrolling for demons. Of course, demon fighting had been a major part of his life for...nearly fifty years now. When Spike had first taken Angel in, he had made sure Angel didn’t go out to fight...and Angel had to admit he really wasn’t in the condition to argue with him. Now, though, Angel was back in fighting form. While he wasn’t at his peak, he was better and getting better all the time. It was time to return to that familiar routine of fighting.
For the last twenty years, that routine had become something else entirely. It had been an escape, a way not to think about his emotional pain. When he was fighting, he could almost imagine that Buffy was still there beside him....
No, thinking about Buffy was probably a bad idea right now. ‘Just fight, Angel.’
Which would only work if there was something to fight. Angel opened his senses as best he could, listening and feeling for another presence on the nighttime streets. The parks and woods that bordered the college campus and adjacent housing areas were wonderful hiding places for vampires and demons. There, they could prey on those walking alone from night classes, or the young lovers and foolish kids who decided to ignore the ‘park closed at dusk’ signs.
The park next to the apartment complex was completely empty, though. Leaving the dark shadows under the trees, Angel stepped onto the small gravel path. The stones crunched under his steps.
Moments later, he heard another set of footsteps on the gravel ahead of him. He took out a stake, ready. The dark form ahead rushed at him. Angel was caught completely by surprise. There was a brief scuffle, then suddenly Angel was lying on his back, dazed. He was about to roar to his feet, but was stopped by his attacker, hovering above him and menacing him with...
A pencil?
Angel’s vision cleared. “Chloe?” He must not have recovered as much of his strength as he thought he had, because he was quite sore from her blow.
The girl grimaced. “I am so sorry,” she managed. Then under her breath and no doubt not meant for Angel’s ears, “damn it.”
Angel stood up, dusted himself off, and blinked at her. “What are you doing here?”
He could see Chloe flush even in the unlit park. “I...had a late class tonight. Drawing. I’m on my way back to the apartment. What are you doing here?”
Angel didn’t answer her question. “This isn’t on the way to the apartment,” he pointed out.
Chloe turned her back on him. “I...wanted to take a walk,” she said, gathering up her portfolio and art supply box.
“Without dropping off your books first?”
Chloe shrugged.
“And that still doesn’t explain why you attacked me.”
“I thought you were a vampire,” she said quickly. She looked up at him and chuckled slightly. “I mean, I know you’re a vampire, but I thought...you know, that you were an evil vampire.”
Angel fought a smile at her discomfort. “So you attacked me with a pencil?”
“It was easier to get to than my stake,” she said easily.
Things snapped into place quite suddenly then. The alarm bells that had gone off at her presence, coming not from the sense of a demon but his own sense of personal danger – his own demon screaming out in warning. The girl’s unusual strength, seen both when she moved in and now, fighting him so easily. “You’re the Slayer,” he said in shock. He suppressed the memory of his slayer quickly – this was not the time.
Chloe swallowed. “How does everyone keep figuring that out?” she asked a bit pitifully.
Angel looked at her sadly. The poor girl.... “Do Spike and Layla know yet?”
“No!”
Angel chuckled. “Probably a good thing,” he agreed. Then his amusement faded as quickly as it had come. She wasn’t Buffy...but he couldn’t help but be reminded of everything his love had gone through as a Slayer. Couldn’t help but think of her too short life. “Come on. Let’s go inside.”
Chloe nodded, lifting her things. She stepped out of the park and into the apartment parking lot. “Angel?” she said hesitantly.
“Yes?”
Chloe looked nervous. “Was Layla telling the truth when she said you were married to a Slayer?” she asked.
“Yes,” Angel said, and left it at that.
Chloe absolutely despised getting up in the mornings. She would lie in bed, her eyes closed, hoping that she could actually fall asleep before the next time her alarm went off. If it wasn’t for said alarm, she would lie there for nearly a half an hour upon slowly waking, then eventually roll over and read a chapter or so of a book, then get up, eventually eat breakfast...nice, leisurely mornings.
Twice a week, though, leisurely mornings were not an option. And how she wanted them to be, especially with her suddenly very full nights. But a 9:30 am class meant she had to be out of the apartment by nine, which meant she had to be awake by eight. Chloe grumbled to herself and rolled out of bed about 8:30.
She paused for a second at her bedroom’s single window. Brushing aside the heavy curtain, she blinked into the direct sunlight. Eastern exposure bedroom. It was bright, and gave her a teeny headache right between her eyes for a second.
Damn it, I’m starting to feel like one of the vampires.
She dressed and got her things together quietly, trying to be as silent as possible for her roommates who had likely only gone to sleep a couple of hours before. Her pencil case and spiral notebook slipped easily into her backpack. Her sketchbook was too large and had to be carried separately. A problem when it rained, but okay for the moment. For a moment she frowned at her belongings, certain she was forgetting something. She couldn’t think of anything else, though.
She couldn’t help but make a little more noise as she left her room. The hinges of the door squeaked, and Chloe winced. She didn’t hear anyone stir, though, and both other bedroom doors were closed.
Stifling a yawn, Chloe made her way to the kitchen. She almost felt as if she was sleep walking, and it was simply by habit that she grabbed for a bowl, cereal, and milk. Put down the backpack by the table, pour the cereal...
“Chloe.”
Chloe jumped, missing the bowl with her cereal box and pouring Rice Krispies all over the table. “Oh! My, uh...”
“Sorry,” Angel said calmly, stepping around the wall separating the kitchen from the living area. Chloe had not spoken to him since that disastrous night when she nearly staked him with the art pencil. That was three nights ago.
“No, it’s, uh, okay,” Chloe managed, fully awake now. She hurried to brush the spilled cereal from the table to throw it away. “I...what are you doing awake?”
The vampire stood a couple of feet away, still dressed and quite alert. “I wanted to talk to you before you left,” Angel admitted.
“Oh.” Chloe didn’t know what to make of that. Cereal cleaned up, she went back to preparing her meal. “You mind if I eat at the same time? I’m running late.”
“Sure.”
Chloe finished pouring the cereal and milk, then put the milk back in the fridge before finally sitting and looking at Angel seriously. “What’s up?”
“You’re the Slayer,” Angel said after a moment.
“So they keep telling me.”
He looked uncomfortable and a bit...sad. “I have something for you,” he said.
Chloe couldn’t help but be curious. “Oh?”
Without a word, he handed her a small box.
Chloe put down her spoon and opened it a bit hesitantly. Inside sat a choker necklace, made up of strung together crosses. However, they were strung together in such a way that they ceased to be crosses in and of themselves but instead became a pattern, and only resolved themselves if you knew what you were looking at. Chloe was at a loss for words.
“I know you said you don’t wear a cross because it’s not your religion,” Angel said after a long silent moment, “but I thought perhaps this was disguised enough.... You shouldn’t be without some...protection.”
“Thank you,” Chloe said sincerely.
Angel nodded, and went to leave her alone.
“Angel?”
He looked back at her. “Yes?”
“If I ever have any...questions...about vampires and demons, or about being a Slayer...”
“Just ask,” he said calmly.
Chloe hesitated for a second. She took a bite of her cereal as she composed her next words. She swallowed hard. “And if I ask about your wife...?”
Angel hesitated in turn. “I won’t talk about her...now. But if you ask in the future...I might tell you about her.” He started to walk away again, then stopped. “And Chloe?”
She froze with another spoonful halfway to her mouth. “Yes?”
“If...you ever need a sparring partner....”
Chloe grinned. “I know where to find you,” she said.
Angel nodded, and disappeared into his room. For a moment, Chloe just sat there, staring at the gift he’d left her. Smiling ever so slightly, she paused long enough in her breakfast to fasten it around her neck. Then, that done and her cereal eaten, she felt ready to face the day. It was the first time she’d felt that way since she’d learned of her calling.
Chloe smiled, and went to face the world.
The End...of this story
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