Recombination

"Play nice." Willow reminded Buffy as they entered the lobby of the Hyperion; all they had to do was keep Connor, Fred and Gunn occupied until Xander phoned to let them know he and the others were on their way back, hopefully with Angel.

Buffy scowled slightly, she had every intention of playing nice until Angel was found, after that however…. A slow smile graced her lips. So she couldn’t kill humans, or rather wouldn’t kill them, she wouldn’t even maim or mutilate as Willow had suggested but when she was through with him Connor would be running, crying like a baby, as far away as he could.

"Buffy! Willow! Hey!" The nasally cheerful voice grated on her nerves, ruining her fantasy about introducing Connor to the joys of being a crash test dummy. She winced slightly but kept her smile, if only he was younger, she’d take great pleasure in taking him over her knee and spanking him hard. Ignoring the boy’s excited chatter and Willows forced cheery replies she wandered over to the phone, idly stroking it as if willing it to ring and thought back to their first real meeting with the LA team that had happened yesterday.

"So you’re the slayer huh? Somehow I thought you’d be…taller." Conner had grinned slightly, "And butcher." From that moment on she’d been half-annoyed, and secretly dying to kick his arse. She wasn’t short she was petite and that comment always got on her nerves, what did they expect, a 10 foot tall Amazonian queen with six breasts and muscles all over the place?

Connor had looked from her to Willow. "Oh the witch right, nice." Somehow he made the word nice seem boring as hell, which had understandably left Willow seething; fair enough she was trying to forget the bad arse witch mojo she’d been using after Tara died, but she had power. Lots of it in fact, hell she’d felt the Hellmouth stirring from across the continent.

Looking back to Buffy and then over to Fred and Gunn, Connor had been almost bouncing in enthusiasm. "Is this cool or what? So you’re here to kill vamps right? Or to take down Wolfram and Hart? Or…"

"To find Angel" Buffy had answered annoyed; even if he didn’t know of her and Angels ex-relationship, why else would she be there? There were plenty more vampires in Sunnydale.

So to sum it up, Connor had pretty much pissed the both of them off the second they’d walked through the door. Buffy sighed, he was definitely Angel’s son, yet he was more infuriating then Angel, Spike or even Dru had ever been. Even his mother hadn’t been this annoying, but then she guessed he was grating more on her nerves because she knew what he had done to Angel. Much as she wanted to justify her anger by claiming it was her emotions getting the better of her mind, it wasn’t as if she was angry because she was still in love with Angel she’d got over it. Sort of.

Truthfully she didn’t think she’d ever really be over it, he was her first love, first…her cheeks heated up. But she wasn’t in love with him anymore. She liked talking to him and being comforted by him but it was the same as being comforted by Xander, and if she was brutally honest with herself he just didn’t do it for her anymore; but then again neither had Riley. Angel had been to unavailable; Riley had been too available and eager to please.
Buffy needed excitement; she wanted a bad boy, yet not too bad but not boring. She wanted excitement and magic and the spontaneously combusting tear- your –clothes- off passion, but she also wanted to feel safe and loved.

She shook herself out of her daydream; as soon as they got back to Sunnydale she was dragging Willow and Anya out for a girls’ night. She turned back to said friend who was giving her pleading looks as Connor and Gunn enthusiastically described what sort of work they did; it was going to be a long wait.