The Fallen Slayer {1}

Checkpoint

Standing with his arms crossed over his chest in the center of Buffy's living room, Damon couldn't help but groan as he took in the state of the Slayer's home. 

It was clear that Buffy was not the cleaning type, pretty much every inch of the house was covered in dirt. 

There were clothes scattered all over the floor and empty pizza boxes shoved away in the corner of the room. 

The Summers' home was more of a bachelor pad than anything.

At this rate, Damon was seriously considering compelling a cleaner for her.

"Man this place is a mess, Buff" Damon mumbled as he stared around the room in distaste, wanting nothing more than to compel The Summers Family a new maid.

Buffy sighed deeply as she ran a shaky hand through her blonde locks before picking up a pair of Jeremy's socks from behind the TV, which was currently being used by her younger cousin. 

Jeremy was so involved in his game that he didn't even notice Damon's presence in their home.

"Sorry, I haven't really been exactly 100 percent." Buffy admitted before tossing Jeremy's socks into his face drawing the teenager's attention "And someone..says playing X-Box all day is more important than picking up your two-day-old pizza off the floor."

When Jeremy quickly threw the socks back off the couch, Damon couldn't help but groan. 

The men in the Summers family were very much slobs. 

"Well, he sucks at X-box so he must need the practice."

"Dick."

Hearing the mutter leave Jeremy's lips, Giles sighed from his place sitting opposite the teenager, a small disapproving frown filling his gaze causing the teenager to wince. 

"Sorry, Giles."

Willow, who was smiling in amusement at the exchange turned to face Buffy "Buffy, really don't worry it's fine."

"Yeah, it's just us." Tara pointed out.

They all knew Buffy's plate was insanely busy right now, so she didn't really have a lot of time for cleaning.

And Jeremy clearly had no idea what a mop was.

Ever the dramatic vampire, Damon merely smirked before raising his hand innocently "Hey, germophobe here."

Xander rolled his eyes "Yes, the vampire is a germophobe, that makes complete sense." Shaking his head in annoyance at Damon's mere presence at their Scooby meeting, the human turned his attention back to Buffy only to freeze as he spotted the object in her hands. 

The sweater she had found buried behind the couch was none other than Riley's, which must have felt like a complete stab to the gut.

"That must have belonged to, uh...um, aren't we supposed to have a meeting?"


Buffy had gone deathly quiet as she clutched Riley's sweater in her hands, merely staring at it, conflicted about how to feel about it. 

Giles quickly cleared his throat attempting to draw everyone's attention off the obvious awkward tension filling the air at the mere sight of anything Riley-related.