Portal

"You ok, B?" asked Joe as she walked back through the bar with a case of beer and set it on top of the bar.

"What is up with all the smoking pot and drinking and fu...er, fun," Buffy sighed not understanding how or why her mother was acting the way she did. She was still so reliant to the notion that her Mom had ever been anything else except her Mom.

"Hey, it's just a bunch of kids trying to enjoy themselves," Joe tried to cheer the girl.

"But it's dangerous out there."

"What the hell is going to hurt them out there?"

"Vam...er, vans," she feebly adjusted having forgotten that demons even existed but as her world had been submerged in such a lifestyle for so long it was second, almost first nature to her to think about the presence of the undead.

"Vans?"

"Yeah, they might get all wasted and stoned and get themselves run over."

"By vans," Joe deadpanned as she opened the shutters on the blinds with two fingers. "Yeah, it's a real rat race out there, Buffy. How many cars have you seen today? Two, maybe three? What's got you all worked up anyway? Is this about Joyce?"

"Kind of, the party tonight, she's going there...a-and I think she wants to...you know...with Danny."

"It's her life B, let her learn from her mistakes," Joe said as she lined up the beer along the top of the bar trying not to think about Joyce.

"It's just I think Joyce and Hank would make a great couple."

"Why?"

"I just do, I've got to get them together."

"What if someone else wants a chance?"

"What like Danny? Pfft. Joyce deserves someone better than some random nobody from out here in Shitsville."

"Yeah, she does," Joe said mournfully mainly to herself.

"I hear there's a party tonight."

"Yeah, at the old well."

"You know it?"

"Yeah, every Friday the kids go up there to party. They tune in, drop out and hook up. I sell them their kegs, but they only get two what with all the extracurriculars they got going on up there, they don't need more."

"Extracurriculars?"

"Yeah," Joe said as she made the smoking mime.

"What like a pot party or something?" Buffy said as panic began to pool. She sprang up from the couch making Archie stare at her in confusion at this sudden change of pace in the atmosphere of his home.

"That...and everything else you need really. I used to go up there, but I think I'm getting a bit old for keggers with kids, especially when I have my own bar."

"Does Danny go up there?"

"Uh-huh, he likes the fresh meat."

"Oh God, I've got to get up there before he does anything to Mom," she said.

'There she goes again, jeez, and I thought I had mother issues," Joe thought to herself.

"What if he slips something in her drink? What if he...I've got to get up there," Buffy said as she rushed out the door into the approaching twilight.

A minute later the slayer re-emerged in the bar looking a little flustered as well as sheepish.

"Er, where is the old well?" she asked with a blush.

"Go that way until you hear a lot of laughter and Sabbath....or sirens," Joe half joked as she pointed to the east.

"Thanks," and rushed out once more.

'Shit, what if Mom gets arrested and looses her place at college? She'll never hook up with Dad and I'll never be born. Or what if Danny gets to her first and knocks her up, then she'll have to drop out and never get together with Dad. This is so not of the good,' Buffy thought as she ran up the dusty road and cut across the field.

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'Is the moon waxing...or is it waning, no wait it's weeping isn't it? Damn it, I should listen to Willow more often when she talks about lunar cycles, but then Faith pulls her pants down and does her own moon gag. What I wouldn't give to hear Willow going on about something boring again...or to see Faith's ass once more...GOD what am I thinking?'' the blonde chastised her mental meanderings as she hurried along under the blanket of stars that had rapidly assembled above her.

Hearing the faint ring of seventies rock, the slayer made her way stealthily through the trees until she came to a clearing and just watched the hedonistic scene unfold. 'Tuesdays Gone' by Lynyrd Skynyrd seeped through the quivering sweetened fogbank from the camaros and pick-ups parked haphazardly in between the trees as the gaggle of teens fired up their home made pipes and tried to drum up enough cash for a baggie of grass. As water bongs bubbled and narghiles flamed, the assembled throng relaxed and set off on a journey that would no doubt lead to lethargy and demand for pie.

"There ya go," came a voice from besides her that made Buffy jump.

Instinctively finding herself in a fighting position, she blushed hard when a swaying young man held out a cup of beer for her, which she obligingly took. She had no plans on drinking it, but it would allow her to mingle with the group without too many suspicions being raised.

"Er, thanks," she mumbled as the apparently altruistic figure wandered off into the shadows of the trees.

Buffy emerged from her leafy hideout and strolled amongst the giggling and regurgitating crowd, letting the cup of warm beer hang limply between her fingers as her eyes darted everywhere for any sign of her mother.

"Hey there, lick my finger," said a strangely exuberant long-haired teen to the slayer as he ran between partygoers.

"That's a new one, I thought it was pull my finger," she said naively.

"No, lick it," he sighed as he shifted weight between his legs.

In the sharp moonlight she could see a small square of paper clinging to the end of his hygienically questionable digit.

"Um, no thanks. I'm ok," she said as she held up her cup.

"Hey Ricky, lick my finger," the unthrown man said as he scrambled off after another partygoer.

The blonde girl simply shook her head as this kind of party was a whole new vision of hell for her. But 'twas one where her inconsistent temperament and quick reactions were negated by the lack of deadly foes. Unless she found Danny, with her mother that is, as then she would relish in being able to trade soup bones with him and feel no regret.

Leaning against the trunk of a red Beetle, she listened in on the conversations but instantly wished she hadn't.

"Nah listen dude, Papa Smurf controls the whole village. Everyone has to do what he says and keeps them all in line with all his magic books and shit. Yeah he don't know magic without looking it up, he's a total fraud. AND... he keeps all his books locked away, he doesn't want the other Smurfs to become educated and then overthrow him. The only one who's educated is Brainy Smurf and he's hated by the rest of the village and beaten up quite often. Even their language is basic where everything revolves around the word 'Smurf.' Don't you see, all the kids watching it will grow up not wanting to be educated and just be told what to do like a nation of docile idiots. It's all subliminal man, the government wants us all like that and...ooh, that's quite shiny," the rant was cut off by the glint of some foil flapping in the bushes.

'Can't wait to tell Willow that she's better at magic than Papa Smurf. And this is the future of our country?' Buffy thought as she once more rolled her eyes at the stream of cannibabble, 'A kid in a straw hat who's going to grow up and blog hysterical tracts about sperm and gravity.'

Truth be told, she was a little envious of this tribe. Their laughter so genuine, their futures so unplanned. She never had this kind of freedom.

"Hey there, sweet thing," said a particularly imbibed biker as he leant his arm on Buffy's shoulder which she immediately shrugged off as flirting was not her purpose here. Not intentionally anyway.

"Wanna make out?" he continued, not put off by her obvious disinterest.

"Uugghh," she croaked out.

"Hookah?"

"What?!" she yelled back.

He silently held up a joint and placed it between his thick lips.

"Oh...er, no thanks,"

"What's your name?" he slurred.

"Buffy," she sighed.

"I'm Tom," he slurred.

"Shit off," she razzed back using one of Faith's favorite expressions.

"Huh?" he sounded back perplexed.

"Just go away would you, I'm looking for someone."

"And I'm right here, sweet cheeks," he said as he grabbed her ass.

The next thing he knew he was being hurled headlong into a bush, courtesy of one slayer-powered throw.

"Jerk," she snorted as she wandered off looking earnestly for Joyce.

A scrawny looking afro-headed teen twanged his six-string as he broke into some Dylan song. Its soft notes reverberated through the air and lingered, no doubt slowed by the rings of scented smoke that circled them all.

Wandering over to a brown pick-up where the decadent youth of yesteryear lounged back on garden furniture ,Buffy's beer spilt all over herself as she was barged into from behind.

"Hey, what the hell are...." she cut herself off as she turned,"....are you ok?"

"There's a man at the end of the desert. He's floating in gravy and selling Jesus cakes," came the fearful voice of a ragged-looking Maria whose pupils were scarily enlarged.

"Ok, girl I think you need to come down," said her equally wide eyed friend who held her by the hand anchoring her to reality as over the eight track most appros pos lyrics accompanied her slithering motions.

"With chemical deportment she slid into view

Under a narcotic veil I could tell 'cos she moved

Like Evel Knievel if you think he

Had the pins in his limbs replaced by slinkies"

Shaking her head, Buffy was tiring of this fruitless search, but her internal alarm sounded as from the corner of her eye she saw a flash of blonde hair partially covered by Danny's hulking frame as he took the stumbling girl into the bushes.

"Shit," the slayer said as she dropped the remainder of her beer and darted into the undergrowth. Fighting through the branches and hidden stumps that jutted from the uneven earth she quickly caught up to them and grabbed the disheveled man by the shoulder and spun him around, punching him hard in his already bruised nose.

"Owww, shiit!" he yelled.

"What the fuck is your problem?" came the startled shriek of the blonde girl.

It wasn't Joyce.

"What the...where is she?"

"Who?"

"Joyce."

"She didn't want to put out, that bitch..." Danny was cut off by yet another punch, which sent him reeling to the floor. This strike was slightly less pulled.

"Don't you dare talk that way about her!"

"Goddammit, will you stop hitting me?!" he yelled through his profusely bleeding face.

"So where is she?" Buffy growled, cracking her knuckles once more.

"That guy.... the intern with the beard....he walked her home...shit," Danny said as he spat his blood into the long grass.

"Hank?"

"Yeah, I think that was his name."

"For your sake you better be telling the truth, and if you EVER treat any other girl this way...I'll be back," the slayer threatened as she left but not before turning to the other blonde girl. "By the way, Danny has a little rot in the basement, if you get my meaning."

"Ewww," the other girl shrieked and ran off leaving Danny along, bleeding and ruing the day he met Buffy.

'So Dad took Mom back home. Coolio, I can already hear the sweet music and candles being lit. Once they get together all will be of the goodness,' she thought as she left the party to burn itself out. Though she was tempted to stay and have a drink, maybe even make a new friend, she knew it wasn't worth it once she weighed up the consequences versus the rewards. Her Mom was ok, Danny was not. And that was all that mattered to Buffy.

** MEANWHILE **

"What about him? He likes you y'know."

"He's ok, but I..I...I wanted to be with you. I wanted to see you... to touch you," Joyce whispered a little breathless after she had walked two long miles just so she could be alone to enjoy this sweet embrace she found herself in.

"I knew it, when we danced, I..I felt something between us. I'm not the kind of person to jump into bed with just anyone, but you're so beautiful, so free. There's some intangible quality about you that's drawing me to you....and I don't think I want to stop it."

"Then don't...I...I..I...just.."

"It's ok Joyce, I understand...I really do. But I'm not going to do anything you don't want me to do."

"N..n..no, I want to....please will you just kiss me?" she replied, her will floundering in the torrent of emotions coursing through her body.

Their lips met in a fervent battle for dominance as they tore each other's clothes off as they succumbed to their lust. Joyce's eyes rolled back as the kisses made their way down her neck and across her breasts making her sensitive nipples stand up rigidly.

"I could so easily fall for you, Joe."

"Let's not talk that way, not yet at least. Let's just see if this goes any further."

"Do you want it to?"

"I...I think I do," Joe said surprising herself at how easy she felt in Joyce's company and how much she wanted more.

"I...I think I could too, baby, fall for you that is, now touch me...lower...oh yes, that's it...oh please, fuck me Joe!" she breathed out hoarsely.

Their groins were locked in an arrhythmic battle, a momentum forged by requited lust as the merest touch was the most exhilarating of strokes as they both supped upon the sweet tang of illicit romance as they made the kind of love that is only dreamed of.

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The next morning the sun streamed in through the half-closed drapes and smeared its warmth over the two young women. Joyce lay her head on Joe's bare breasts and cuddled up to her as the bar owner's arms held her lover protectively.

"Morning, baby," the brunette said softly.

"Morning," Joyce replied and leaned forward as they shared a small but passionate kiss. Whilst melting into the kiss Joyce's eyes opened to catch the sight of the clock that sat idly on the dresser.

"Oh my God, is that the time? I have to go, I promised I'd be there early today," Joyce panicked as she leapt from the bed and quickly threw her clothes on.

"Please don't tell anyone," she said almost regretfully as she watched her dark haired lover ease herself from the bed and wrap a short robe around her hickey ravaged skin.

"Are you ashamed, Joy?"

"No...it was the greatest night of my life, it's just...you know," Joyce shrugged.

"Don't worry, baby, I understand," Joe said as she walked over and rubbed her lovers back comfortingly.

"I..er, I better get going...but can I have one more kiss?"

"One for the road, eh?"

They pressed their lips together and felt a surge flow through them as they intensified the kiss as their tongues snaked into each others mouths before Joyce pulled away blushing slightly.