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It’s Halloween, and what else should Buffy do but patrol.
She could be partying or hanging out with her friends. Hell, she could be escorting small children in costumes like last year, but no, here she is, patrolling Restfield with absolutely zero success. Just because Ethan Rayne thrives on chaos doesn’t mean any other demons are out and about on Halloween.
Buffy sighs, sitting on a gravestone. In the distance, “Monster Mash” plays from some party that she could’ve been at. She sighs again.
She allows herself five whole minutes of self-pity before she drags herself up, taking one more round of Restfield before calling it a night. No one’s out on Halloween, anyway, so she heads to the Bronze, only feeling slightly guilty at blowing off patrol. She’s built up a tolerance at this point.
Willow, Xander, and Cordelia are already there, watching Oz play on stage. Buffy joins them, taking a sip of Willow’s coke.
“I thought you were patrolling tonight?” Willow asks, taking the drink back with a light-hearted glare.
“No-go,” Buffy says, shrugging. “It’s Halloween. Vamps don’t like it.”
Cordelia shrugs too, thoroughly uninterested, and she changes the subject to something that Buffy quickly tunes out. Sometimes, she really wonders how Xander can stand her. Or how this whole situation happened. Is this technically her fault?
“Drinks?” Buffy asks as an excuse to get away from the table for a moment, and she heads to the bar with a sigh. She’s doing a lot of that tonight.
As she crosses the dance floor, she can’t help searching for Faith. She hadn’t realized how lonely patrol was until Faith stopped joining her every night. And maybe it’s mostly her fault for keeping secrets from the person with obvious trust issues, but it was about Angel. Everything’s different when it comes to Angel.
Alas, no Faith, so she heads to the bar, taking a sip of her drink before starting across the dance floor with the rest. She makes it halfway before her vision starts blurring, and another few steps before she staggers forward. The glasses hit the floor, shattering and spilling soda everywhere, and her head feels like someone’s poking a burning hot rod through it.
She falls to her knees, barely registering the glass shards digging into her skin, and she faintly hears Willow call her name before she slumps forward as everything goes black.
Buffy gasps, shooting to her feet as “Monster Mash” trickles into the graveyard from the distance. She raises her arm, her fingers grazing her forehead as she looks around in shock.
She’s very much back in Restfield, and the headache’s gone, her knees are intact and not bloody, and the same song is playing from the same house as it was a few hours ago. She checks her wrist, cursing under her breath as she realizes she doesn’t have a watch. So she’s either been drugged and brought back to the graveyard or she’s been drugged and time traveled. Honestly, with her luck, it could be either.
She heads to the Bronze for some investigating, and as she sits down, Willow asks, “I thought you were patrolling tonight?”
So the second one, then.
Buffy gives the same response, and Cordelia starts talking again, though Buffy actually listens this time. It’s something about a new leg wax she’s tried recently, and maybe it’s not as dull as Buffy had thought it was the first time around, but this is definitely the same conversation they’d had earlier.
So Buffy’s definitely time traveled. And it was definitely something in that drink she had, because the whole headache-collapse-reappearing-in-the-past thing happened immediately after she’d taken a sip. Is the bartender a demon or something?
She notices the drinks running low, but she doesn’t offer to get anything, choosing to wait. And of course, she couldn’t have bothered to wear a watch or check the time, so she sits there for a few more minutes before relaxing.
She relaxed too early.
There’s a sudden splitting pain in her head, and her vision fades in and out as she literally falls out of her chair. She hits the ground, clutching her head, and the pain fades faster this time as she passes out.
So, Buffy’s stuck in a time loop.
She’s back in Restfield again, sitting on that gravestone and listening to “Monster Mash.” And this time, as she bolts to her feet, she doesn’t head to the Bronze. She heads straight for the library, and she’s praying that Giles hasn’t gone home yet.
She’s lucky, and she finds him there, surrounded by a stack of books.
“Hiya, Giles,” she says, hopping up on the table, and he startles, nearly knocking the books over.
“Er, yes, hello, Buffy,” Giles steadies the books and cleans his glasses in discomfort. “Shouldn’t you be out patrolling?”
“I was,” Buffy says, kicking her legs. “And then I got stuck in a time loop.”
That catches Giles’ attention, and he looks up at her, replacing his glasses. “A… a time loop, you say?” He turns to a stack, pulling out an old, musty looking book and searching the pages. “Are you quite sure?”
“Well, I was patrolling, I went to the Bronze, had a drink. Non-alcoholic!” she adds hastily. “Anyway, everything started getting blurry and my head was hurting, and then I passed out and I was back in Restfield.”
“So, you… came here after that?” Giles asks, still thumbing through his books.
“No, I went back to the Bronze. Wanted to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. Didn’t drink anything, still got a headache, still passed out, still ended up in Restfield.”
“Did you encounter any, er, demonic activity on patrol?”
“Nope,” Buffy says, and she glances at the clock. It’s nearly midnight, and she’s pretty sure she passed out around then, so she’s most likely running out of time. “Okay, do you have a time loop word?” Giles gives her a look, and she realizes she’s been spending too much time around Xander. “Like, a word that I can say so you’ll know I’m in a time loop. Though you did believe me really fast.”
“Well, it's far from the strangest thing that has happened in Sunnydale.”
“Fair,” Buffy says with a shrug, and she hits the floor before she can get another word out.
It’s getting faster now, and there’s no headache. So that either means that she’s getting more stuck or she’s getting out of the loop.
With her luck, she’s getting more stuck.
“Monster Mash” is still playing as she rushes to the library, and she barges through the doors, startling Giles enough that a stack of books actually goes flying this time. She stands at the end of the table, staring him down, and says, “I’m stuck in a time loop, this is my fourth time around, and I need you to believe me without asking whether I’m sure or not.” She sits down, and Giles is still staring at her, motionless. “I reset at midnight, so we need to hurry.”
He finally snaps out of it, gathering books with a muttered, “Of course.” They get through a whole book of possible demons before she resets this time. None of them were right.
Productive.
It’s been ten more loops, and they’ve still not figured out what’s happened. They’ve tried several spells, researched every time loop-inducing demon in existence, and nothing’s working out.
And if Buffy hears “Monster Mash” one more time, she’s going to go insane.
She heads to Giles again, updates him on the situation for what feels like the hundredth time, and they sit down, skimming through his books. And this is what Buffy’s been reduced to. The Slayer doing research. She should be out there kicking demon ass, and she’s stuck in the library reading books.
She’s about to give up and just wait for the reset when Giles stands up abruptly, rounding the table with a book in his hands. “Have we looked at solution spells?” Buffy stares blankly at him, so he takes that as a no. “Well, this might be it. A solution spell traps the victim in a… time loop, of sorts, until they are able to fix the problem that is plaguing them.”
“So… Groundhog Day?” Buffy asks, furrowing her brow. “Am I Bill Murray?”
“This spell could apply to a Groundhog Day scenario. Is there a particular issue you are dealing with? Perhaps a personal struggle, or a conflict with someone close to you?”
That’s clearly a pointed comment, so Buffy does the natural thing and ignores it. “You’ve seen Groundhog Day?”
Giles bristles. “I was born in this century, you know.”
Buffy rolls her eyes, and the library fades before she can voice her retort.
She’s already gone through this whole time loop thing fifteen times, so Buffy decides to not go to the library this time. Instead, she follows the sound of “Monster Mash” in the distance. If she’s reliving the same day over and over again, she might as well have some fun with it.
She ends up at a frat party somehow, and given how her last frat party went, this probably isn’t the best idea, but she only has until midnight anyway. She picks up a glass of what’s probably alcohol and tips it back, grimacing at the strong taste. Definitely alcohol.
So here she is, contributing to the delinquency of minors. Maybe she’ll find her inner Faith. And then she turns around and runs straight into actual Faith, and that's an unexpected twist.
“Faith,” Buffy says, stepping back in surprise and bumping into someone. She can barely hear her own voice over the booming music, so she reaches out, wincing as Faith recoils. “Can we talk outside?” she asks, trying to project her voice over the speakers, and Faith seems to get the message as she turns away and heads for the back patio. There’s no one out there but a drunk guy lying on the lawn, and Buffy doesn’t know whether that’s better or worse.
“Didn’t think this was your scene, B,” Faith says, still not quite meeting Buffy’s eyes.
Buffy laughs awkwardly, and the sound rings in the semi-quiet. “It’s not,” she says, her eyes darting to the ground. She falls silent, not exactly sure what to say, and Faith huffs a hollow laugh.
“Well, I’ll see you around, then,” she says, turning on her heel, and Buffy freezes, thinking back to what Giles told her. But she hits the floor before she can say anything. And the headaches are back.
Great timing.
So, Buffy’s avoiding that party now. She decides to head away from “Monster Mash,” returning to the library in the hope that there’s another solution to a solution spell. But the name kinda implies that there isn’t. It’s a stupid name, anyway. So on-the-nose. Who names these?
She spends this loop, and the next one, and the one after that desperately searching for another way to break this spell. Of course, she finds nothing.
She’s on her twentieth loop when she gives up on the research thing, and she heads back to the party. Might as well face her fears. It is Halloween, after all.
She goes in, looking for Faith, and it doesn’t take long to find her on the dance floor. She’s surrounded by a group of guys because of course she is, and Buffy doesn’t really want to dissect the feeling that shoots through her chest at that sight.
Maybe she should be, though. The time loop’s for reflection or something, right?
She heads across the dance floor, wrapping her fingers around Faith’s wrist and pointedly ignoring the weird flip her stomach does at the brush of her hand against Faith’s. Anyway, she’s more preoccupied in ducking the punch that Faith throws.
“Is that how you greet people?” Buffy asks, laughing as they go out to the patio.
“Only when they grab me outta nowhere,” Faith says, glowering, and Buffy really shouldn’t, but she laughs harder.
And somehow, that works, because Faith reluctantly cracks a smile, and soon they’re both laughing, and everything seems okay again, like it was before Angel and Gwendolyn Post and all of the crazy that’s happened lately. And maybe, Buffy dares to hope that this is the solution she needed.
This was not the solution she needed.
Buffy pushes herself off of the gravestone with a sigh, and if she never hears “Monster Mash” again in her life, it’ll be too soon. She’s well past hating that song at this point.
She gets to the party, making sure that Faith can see her as she approaches. They head out to the patio, and Giles had said that she needs to fix her problems, so maybe they just need to air out their dirty laundry.
“I’m sorry,” Buffy blurts, and Faith actually looks at her for the first time in any of these loops. “I lied to you. And then I… lied to you about lying to you. I didn’t have to lie to you, I chose to lie to you, and I’m saying ‘lie to you’ too many times.” She laughs, and it’s so awkward she half wants the loop to reset now. “Can you tell me to shut up?”
Faith smiles, and then she laughs, and it seems genuine so Buffy nervously joins in. “You surprised me,” she says, and Buffy waits for an elaboration that doesn’t come. “I appreciate it, B.”
Buffy beams, and she’s fully expecting the loop to break this time before her knees hit the ground.
What the hell does this spell want?
When Buffy finds herself on the gravestone again, her scream drowns out “Monster Mash.” And that’s the only good thing that’s come from this loop.
She has to fix her problems, right? She tried doing the talking thing, and that didn’t work. So what? Maybe she has to deal with her suppressed feelings. She doesn’t want to do that (feelings are suppressed for a reason), but as she nears the party, she doesn’t really see any other option.
So she takes Faith out on the patio, doesn’t say a word, and kisses her.
Nothing changes. There’s no feeling of the spell breaking, no sign that she’s out of the loop, and maybe there’s not supposed to be one, but she really feels that nothing happened. So she pulls away from Faith with a groan, turning away.
And then she feels bad, so she turns back to see a shell-shocked Faith standing there and staring.
“What the fuck was that?” Faith asks, and she sounds… not as angry as Buffy would’ve thought, but it’s still a not-ideal situation.
Buffy sinks into a couch, dropping her head into her hands, and she’s fully about to cry. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she says, her voice muffled by her hands. “I’m stuck in this time loop and nothing I’m doing is working.”
She feels the couch dip as Faith sits down next to her, hesitantly resting a hand on Buffy’s back. “You’re stuck in a time loop?”
“Yeah,” Buffy says, lifting her head out of her hands. “I’m supposed to, like, solve my problems to get out of it, and I think it’s with you, but I don’t know how I’m supposed to do that.”
Faith doesn’t say anything for a while, and then she asks, “Have you tried talking to me about it?”
Buffy laughs hollowly. “We talked. I apologized, it was a whole thing, and then I reset.”
“I meant about this,” Faith says, and Buffy finally looks over at her. Faith’s staring her dead in the eyes, and Buffy almost shies away from the eye-contact. After so long of Faith avoiding looking at her at all, she feels… exposed. Vulnerable. Maybe that’s the point.
“You kissed me, B,” she continues, and Buffy winces at the reminder. “That means something. Talk to me about that.”
She falls back against the couch, and Faith disappears as she resets.
So, talking. She can totally do that.
This is the twenty-third time Buffy’s heard “Monster Mash” tonight, and if she has anything to say about it, this will be the last. She rushes to the party, full-out sprinting because she needs as much time as she can get with Faith.
She trips through the doorway, searching for Faith in the crowd, and she finds her at the bar. Faith’s eyes widen in concern as Buffy rushes up to her, and she must look like a sweaty, panicked mess as she gestures to the patio.
“Where’s the demon?” Faith asks as soon as they get outside.
Buffy takes a second to catch her breath. “No demon,” she says, pausing as Faith’s expression morphs from worry to irritation and back again. “I need to talk to you.”
Faith waits for a moment, and when it’s clear that Buffy’s not going to say anything, her brow furrows. “I’m here.”
Buffy takes another moment to collect her thoughts, and then she blurts. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied to you, and I definitely didn’t need to. It just made me feel better to pretend I couldn’t trust you. And I also really want to kiss you, and that’s really confusing, so I think I just overcompensated with the whole Angel thing? Like, I do love Angel, but I also freaked out and I didn’t want to ruin our relationship, so I just hid him, and I was also really confused, and I just-”
She gets cut off abruptly, and it takes a second to register that Faith’s kissing her. And it takes another before she realizes that Faith Lehane is kissing her. Buffy’s not sure whether it’s the kiss or the whole speech she’s just given, but she’s pretty sure that the loop just broke. And either way, this kiss is miles better than the last loop’s, and Buffy might be willing to keep looping if it means she can relive this moment.
Not really, but it’s the thought that counts.
In the distance, the clocktower strikes midnight, and Buffy pulls away with a smile. “Ha! Take that, solution spell!” The drunk guy on the lawn stirs at the exclamation, and Faith’s brow furrows in confusion.
“What?” she asks, looking like she’s about to start laughing.
Buffy shakes her head. “It’s… a long story.” Faith does laugh now, and Buffy quickly joins in, because this whole situation is so ridiculous but she’s also broken the time loop, finally, and she’s so relieved. “Sorry for the word diarrhea there,” she adds when the laughter dies down.
Faith shakes her head, smiling softly. “It was kinda cute.” She slips her hand into Buffy’s as Buffy blushes. “And I got what you meant.”
Buffy smiles at her. And then that smile rapidly drops as “Monster Mash” starts playing again from the party inside. “How many times are they going to play this stupid song?” she groans, and the drunk guy stirs again.
Faith laughs. “You wanna get out of here?”
Buffy just groans again. “Please make it stop.”
Faith’s still laughing as they leave the party, and they take the long way through the cemeteries until the music fades in the distance.
“Peace at last!” Buffy exclaims, and Faith just laughs harder. She doesn’t let go of Buffy’s hand the whole walk back, though, and Buffy’s not complaining.
Faith walks her home, and Buffy half-expects the loop to restart if she leaves Faith now. And maybe she also doesn’t want Faith to go.
“Stay?” she asks, and Faith smiles like she’s been waiting for the question. They climb through Buffy’s window and curl up in bed after Faith meets Mr. Gordo (in other words, Faith makes fun of Buffy because of Mr. Gordo. It’s fine, she’ll warm up to him.).
It’s been a few minutes when Buffy whispers Faith's name, not sure if she’s still awake. When she gets a response, she continues. “Happy late Halloween.”
Faith chuckles behind her, and she can feel the vibrations spread across her back. “Happy late Halloween to you too, B.”
Buffy closes her eyes and starts drifting off, wrapped up in Faith’s arms and feeling happier than she has in a long time.
So, solution acquired and problem solved. Only took twenty-three loops to get there.