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who: Buffy Summers
what: Coffee shop ,patrol, blood donation, exploration of the area
when: March 21-27
where: Perimeter, clinic, general area
warnings: TBD

Morning is spent working her shift at the coffee shop. Being a barista is something that worked out for her at home and something that she chose to do here. As far as jobs go, she likes being a barista. Once her shift is done there, she'll head out for an early afternoon patrol.

The brownouts had made Buffy a little nervous, but when the blackouts started she got even more nervous. The assurances that the perimeter fence will hold don't do much to assure Buffy. She prefers patrol as a means of assurance. Besides, it's something she knows how to do. She can be found patrolling along the fence with a stake in hand. She looks casual and relaxed. In fact, she might not look like she's paying any attention at all, but especially where Buffy is concerned, looks can be deceiving.

She'd read the announcement about needing blood donations both for injuries and for food sources. It hits close enough to home that she stops by the clinic and donates blood (but not any tissue because she's a little weirded out by that). She gives some warnings about her blood possibly being like crack to vampires and maybe stick to using it for an injury since it could also help with some speedy healing.

Between afternoon patrol and evening patrol, Buffy does some exploring around town, checking things out and not only trying to get the layout of the town, but get an idea of how people are reacting to the power issues as well.

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She can totally understand why that would be a make-or-break deal. It's hard to have any kind of relationship at all when that person is trying to kill you either actively or otherwise (trust her, there's a different between actively trying to kill you and just hoping to kill. She and Spike have run the gamut of that. Hell, she and Angel have run the gamut. Okay, maybe she has a type. Maybe it's not impossible to have a relationship. Clearly, this is why romance is difficult for Buffy). No, nothing is black and white. It's a lesson that Buffy had learned early and one she'd fought the Council over. Now, she's the council and everyone plays by her rules.

Buffy smiles at that. Yes, it is his deep South showing. "When I had all the slayers living with me in Scotland, there was one from the South, Anna Marie, she would only drink tea iced with a lot of sugar." No, she's not going to judge him.

Warm and soothing is the point, she thinks, rather than the taste. She laughs a little at that. "It's okay. Now I could actually drag you back to the house if I had to," she tells him. She's also aware that he has a hard time going to sleep, hence the tea.

Buffy is a take charge kind of woman, that's really unlike anyone he's ever been attracted to. Debbie was a follower. Sookie was stubborn as all get out and fell somewhere in the middle of take charge and not. Buffy is completely in charge of herself and Alcide is actually surprised to be attracted to that. Buffy has never needed to use him for anything. She stands on her own without needing him at all. So far, it's just that she seems to want him around and that's something Alcide thinks he needs. He needs to be wanted every bit as much as he wants.

That they've yet to define anything between them is a non-point. Alcide knows how to be patient. (No seriously, he knows.) He also knows that whether they define it or not, there's something unnamed between them that's more than friends territory. He's fine with knowing that.

He likes hearing about her life from where she's from. Each time she gives him a tiny bit of information it's like he gets to peel back another layer. The Slayers in Scotland, for instance. "You've been to Scotland? I bet that was... an adventure." He won't say it was nice because if all the Slayers were there, from what she's told him, there was probably trouble afoot.

"So how's that goin'?" He asks after a moment. "Havin' your powers back, I mean. You doin' good with it?" He just asks cause he knows Derek is struggling a bit. He has to wonder how Buffy's handling it.

She really always has been, even before she became a slayer, but being a slayer definitely amped that personality trait up. Some people would call her a control freak and lots of people have called her a bitch, but she prefers being called independent and 'take charge'. Alcide's summation of her is a good one, and she's glad for that. He's precisely right in his thinking; Buffy doesn't need him for anything, but she does want him around. She likes his company, some days more than she thinks she probably should. The nicest thing about wanting Alcide in her life is that he doesn't make her weaker by being something she wants; in fact, she's pretty sure that having him in her life makes her stronger.

His patience is charming and endearing, something she's come to appreciate about him. It's also necessary if he's interested in anything beyond friendship with her because of the relationship she's in back home, because of his romantic history, because of hers. Patience is key to it all. Hell, even if they do get together romantically, patience will probably be needed. She's incredibly aware of the fact that there's something more between them than friendship, and that's what it is: fact.

She likes hearing about his life as well. It's a world she can't even imagine, a place she's never visited even in her own world. It not only lets her see a part of the world she hasn't and a life she hasn't experienced, it lets her know someone that she's come to care a great deal about as well. "We lived there for several months in a castle," she responds. "It was very wet and cold most of the time. It did not measure up to my Californian expectations," she tells him. "Also we were pretty remote so it's not like I was experiencing the night life or the day life or any sort of---you get the point." There was definitely trouble afoot. Trouble and training and an attempt at trying to shoulder the responsibility she'd given herself when they'd made the slayers.

At his prodding, she smiles. "Good. It's--I feel more like myself, you know? I mean...I spent years fighting what I was and who I was, but not that long ago I just accepted it, and not having it made me feel...less." She knows that Alcide gets it because they'd discussed how they felt less back in the complex. "What about you? I know you're doing the wolfy thing a lot at night. Which, by the way, if you get the urge to play fetch or snuggle, I'm totally down with it. I've never had a dog," she teases him, but she's also serious about that. The wolf part of him doesn't bother her and she really likes that he's still him when he's a wolf.

It's interesting, because Alcide isn't that good with people - at least not until he's had some time to know them. He can both scent and sense certain emotions, a talent his wolf has given him. But analyzing and understanding people, it's not his strong suit. With Buffy, he does think he has a pretty good read on her, which is different for him. He can't explain why it is, but it just is. He hopes he can maintain that.

He understands that sometimes you just can't control how you feel about someone or who you feel those things about. He'll never understand why Sookie could never fully get over Bill and Eric, both vampires, even while she was with him. Neither of them were good people. He knows nothing about the guy Buffy is with back home - except that he's a Fanger. Alcide isn't sure he wants to know, because his experience with Vampers isn't all that good and he doesn't want to imagine Buffy with someone like that. Also, it's such a close parallel to his last relationship that he can easily get things all twisted up in his head. He doesn't want that. He knows what he feels and who he feels it for. He can wait.

"So it's not like you were sight-seein' or anything. I get it." As he suspected, trouble. Sometimes as much as you might try to avoid it, it's unavoidable. And that's from his end of things. Buffy, it sounds like she couldn't avoid it even if she wanted to.

Alcide watches her in profile as she talks about her powers. He knows what a relief it is for him to have his wolf. He'd fought so hard for it in the Complex. He nods at her and then busts out laughing when she mentions playing fetch and compares him to a dog. There are only very few who could get away with that. She's one of them. "Just stay away from collars and leashes and we're good."

He shrugs and nods. "Yeah, I feel like me again. Being able to shift is... everything. You know I used to hate the wolf parts of me. I thought it was a curse. Never wanted to have kids or anything cause it's passed down through the bloodline. It's different now. It was different even before I got here. Grew to accept that I'm not like other wolves and that it's okay to be me. So I get it. Bein' without it was... hard."

Buffy is complicated, at least she thinks she is. She's been told she's complicated, but she's also upfront. What you see is what you get with her and she's reached an age and confidence level where she refuses to apologize for herself (except for the foot-in-the-mouth thing that she still does, and really she thinks that deserves an apology). On top of that, she wants Alcide to know her, she wants to know him. Maybe that's why Alcide gets a good read on her.

Assuming that Buffy stays here (and she's got no reason to think that whomever or whatever brought her here will send her away), she knows that one of these days Spike will become someone that she loves the way she loves Angel, someone that she will always love, but not someone she's in love with anymore. It's pretty clear to Buffy that if Alcide continues to be patient, continues to be Alcide, he's the person she's going to be in love with and when she's in love with him, she won't want anyone else but him. It's the way that her heart works.

"Nope," Buffy admits, her voice drops a little as she continues to speak, "we were kind of staying on the downlow. I sort of ended up wanted by the FBI, but Willow fixed that," she assures him, her voice going back up to a normal speaking level. Buffy would love to be able to avoid trouble, but it finds her.

The laughter is a good reaction; it's the one she'd been going for. "Got it. No collars. No leashes. It's okay, I don't like to be tied up either." A split second later, she realizes what she just confessed and blushes scarlet. Well, there's really no fumbling her way out of that one, is there? She's just going to stew in her embarrassment and wish a hole would form in the ground to swallow her up.

She watches him, a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she listens to him. "And now you want to have kids? Eventually, I mean."

Alcide would say that people are complicated in general. He's always thought so anyway. It's probably why he always ends up with the wrong ones - why he keeps thinking he can help them, fix them, be good enough for them, etc. Alcide has a lot of issues when it comes to being good enough for other people.

Sometimes, not very often, but sometimes, he wonders if that's why Buffy isn't with him yet - or if maybe he's a bad person for already being there, for falling so hard so quick. Then he reminds himself of the glaring differences between their situations. Sookie had run off with Bill after lying to him. Buffy is happy with whoever she's with back home. Spike, Alcide thinks his name is. Yes, very different circumstances. Apples and oranges.

"The FBI? That bad, huh?" She's alluded to it before but now that it's out there so plainly, he puts it all together pretty quickly. "People are afraid of what they don't understand, what they can't control. It's why shifters have stayed hidden for so long. People wouldn't understand." Except now everyone knows about them back home and those concerns have been proven true. "They don't understand."

However, at her response, Alcide looks at her, amused in every way, grin on his lips and eyebrows lifted. Yeah, he heard her clearly and all the innuendo sits there between them as he decides how to respond. "I mean if you're sure about that. I'll be sure to keep it less kinky, more straight and simple." Now he's just teasing her.

At the last question he shrugs. "Maybe. Maybe not. I thought maybe with Sookie... but, that's never gonna happen now and I know that. So I'll just play it by ear. Gotta have a decent place to raise kids in too. Home wasn't that... yet. Neither is here, from what I can tell so far. Plus... we don't know about the whole sterile thing from the Complex, if it carries over into here." Yeah, he's thought about it. "What about you? Eventually."

Buffy is pretty sure that he's right about that. She's still out on whether people can be fixed or not. She knows that people can change, that they can fix themselves. She's not sure it's possible for someone else to fix a person. As far as Alcide being good enough, he's as good a person as Buffy has ever met. Any girl, her included, would be lucky to have Alcide and he deserves to be treated right, to be loved. As uncertain as she is about what she wants with Alcide, she is certain of that.

He's not a bad person and the reason she's not with him right now is that she wants to be able to commit to Alcide completely. She doesn't want to be half in on their relationship and that's the only reason they aren't together right now. He's right though, her situation is very different from his situation. He can't compare the two, or at least he shouldn't.

She shrugs. "I cratered a town with help. Everyone had already evacuated but I'm still a terrorist in their eyes." Yeah, it was that bad. Willow had managed to get them out of the country. "No they don't and they don't take the time to find out," she sighs. "I mean...I get it. Vampires, werewolves...they're scary, but especially in your world where they're still people...they deserve the chance to be understood." Yeah, she's talking a little bit about herself, but most of the time humans aren't scared of her. She doesn't hurt them. In fact, as oblivious as they can be, they realize she usually protects them.

Yeah, she sees that amusement and she shakes her head at him. It's better that he be amused than other reactions, she guesses. "Oh, I wouldn't have any issues tying you up," she fires back, deciding that she's in this hole; she might as well make herself comfortable. It's a whole claustrophobia thing combined with control issues.

She's quiet for a while, considering his question. The whole sterile thing aside--and she's still upset about that--"I don't know. I thought I was pregnant once. Back home." It ended up being a robot thing but..."and I wanted it, but I don't know if I'd actually try to have kids. I'm kind of a bullseye back home for everything supernatural and evil. That's not going to change anytime soon. If the world were perfect..." she bites her bottom lip, holding her breath for a moment, "yeah. I think so."

Alcide isn't new to destruction or violence. In fact, he's seen quite a bit of it. But a whole town cratered? That's a new one. The sheer scale of that kind of destruction is just a little bit beyond him. Not to mention what it would take to evacuate a whole town. Alcide is assuming that as overpopulated as California is, towns in California, even the smaller ones, aren't like the backwater Louisiana towns he's used to.

Sometimes, when Buffy gives him these small snippets of information from her life back home, Alcide thinks she's lived more in her lifetime than most people do in half of theirs.

He shakes his head. "You know, I've seen a ton of crazy shit back home in my time. But I'm startin' to get that you've seen way more than your fair share too." Alcide shrugs. "But yeah, I don't get along with most others; Fangers, Shifters, Fae... even my own kind. It was kind of brainwashed into me back in my pack days to distrust the others. But with my own kind, that was learned over time. And then, more recently, guess I started to finally look at all of it on more of a case by case basis instead of a group. Took awhile to get there... but I mean when you grow up bein' told to hate this or hate that... you do it until you learn otherwise. Most other wolves, they don't try to think for themselves. They just do what their Pack Master tells them. Hell, I did for a long time too... until I got smart about it."

Actually, it took his dad being booted as Pack Master for being a thieving asshole for Alcide to finally start to think for himself. Fallen idols will do that to a person.

On the more lighter topic that Alcide is glad is there because it makes talking about the darker stuff easier, he smirks when she says she'd be fine with tying him up. "Or the other way around, right? Me tyin' you up?" He tosses right back at her around a boyish grin. "Seems like turnabout is fair play or somethin' like that." Of course now he's imagining both tying her up and being tied up by her. It's both terrifying and sexy as hell. A little fear in foreplay can be fun though, he thinks.

He glances over to her, sobering a bit. "But the world isn't perfect." Which is part of his problem with the idea too. "It never will be. Plus there's the fact that my kind of wolf is passed down through the bloodline, not by biting someone. So I'd be dooming someone to live with this for forever..." Not so bad without a pack. With a pack, it's just a heap of trouble.

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