Scars: All That London Has To Offer
by littlewiccan
Note: In this chapter Buffy and William go to London. I’ve never been so forgive me if its not described exactly as it should be or if I say things are near each other when they’re not. All the places they go are real though I looked them up on the net.
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William looked over at Buffy when they had reached the outer city limits of London. He found her staring out the window in awe of everything that surrounded her. He couldn’t help but fall in love with her at that moment. It was amazing how she could look at everything with such innocence yet still be able to understand pain.
“So how do you like London, love?”
In response Buffy just turned to him and smiled, “I want to see more.”
They drove on and began to enter the city.
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They walked out of the parking garage that William had placed the car in for the day.
“So what would you like to do?” he asked Buffy.
“I don’t what can we do?”
“Well, there’s the museum, actually there’s more then one. Ummm…..shopping, St. James Park, London Glassblowing in Camden Lock, the London Eye…”
“What do you recommend?”
“Well, Pollock’s Toy Museum isn’t very far from here. I haven’t been there in years though the last time I went was when I was about 5-6 with my mother before…..” he said as his voice trailed off.
“That sounds fun,” Buffy said. She decided that it would mean a lot to William if they went and she wanted him to be happy. They began to walk down the street towards the museum.
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When the got to the museum William paid the cover charge for both of them and they got a map of the museum. They walked around for awhile staring at the various old toys.
“This was her favorite,” William said. He was standing in front of a large glass case full of dolls. He pointed to the one in the middle. It was a china doll the size of a small baby. The doll had jet black hair that framed her face in curls and she wore a blue dress with a matching white pinafore.
“Who?” Buffy dared to ask.
“Drusilla,” he answered. Buffy looked confused but he didn’t elaborate so she decided not to ask more. She wanted today to be fun. She didn’t feel like talking about her past and she figured William felt the same way.
They continued to walk along admiring all the pretty toys; there were dolls, tops, board games, martinets, and antique dollhouses.
It was the large antique dollhouse that caught Buffy’s eye. It was cream colored with pink trim and shutters. It was modeled after an old two-story Victorian. It was beautiful. It was even decorated with various miniature pieces of furniture. Buffy had had one just like when she was younger until it had broken.
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Buffy’s flashback:
Buffy was a little girl, about 4 years old. She was sitting in her room playing with her favorite stuffed animal, Mr. Gordo (it had been a birthday gift from Giles); when her mother came into her room. She was carrying a large object covered with a piece of cloth to hide what it was.
“Hello sweetheart,” Joyce said to her daughter as she placed the object on the floor.
“Mommy,” Buffy yelled happily, running over to hug her mom, “Mommy, what’s that?” the toddler asked, indicating the large object now sitting on the floor.
“That’s a present for you,” Joyce said, smiling, “Someone I work with at the gallery found it in her attic and thought you might like it. It’s very old though so you must promise to take good care of it.”
“I will. I promise.”
“Well then here it is,” Joyce said as she removed the piece of cloth to reveal a two-story Victorian dollhouse.
Buffy’s eyes lit up at the sight of it. “Thank you,” she said to her mother a big smile on her face as she sat down to inspect the dollhouse.
“Oh I almost forgot,” Joyce said as she took out a brown box and place it next to Buffy, “Go on open it.” Buffy opened the box and found small pieces of furniture, the perfect size for her new dollhouse. “Every house needs furniture,” Joyce said, kissing her daughter on the head, watching her arrange the furniture in her dollhouse.
A few years later:
A slightly older Buffy sat on the floor of her room crying. In front of her were the remains of what had been her beautiful dollhouse. Now it was smashed to pieces.
Her father had come back from work in another one of his drunken stupors. Buffy and Joyce were sleeping. He had come into Buffy’s room and in a fit of rage, the cause unknown he picked up her dollhouse and through it against the wall, destroying it. Buffy woke with a start.
“That’s for being a selfish little brat,” Hanks yelled as Joyce quickly ran into the room switching on the light.
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Buffy looked at the dollhouse in front of her, her eyes full of sorrow. Maybe the toy museum wasn’t such a good idea William thought. It seems to only have brought back painful memories for both of us. He looked at her, his face etched with concern.
Buffy noticed and quickly replied, “I had a dollhouse like this when I was little but it broke.”
William thought there was more to the story but he thought the better of asking. As close as they had grown in the time they had been together; he still barely knew her.
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“So where should we go next?” Buffy asked as they walked down the street, away from the museum.
“Perhaps we should visit Camden Lock; it has shopping as well as some interesting workshops.”
“That sounds great but before we do….do you think we could….?” she asked indicating the palace guards standing near them. He immediately realized what she wanted to do and laughed.
“Whatever you want love,” he said as she began to walk over to the guards. When she realized William wasn’t following she came over grabbed his hand and dragged to him over to where the guards were standing.
“Come on.”
After 15 minutes of trying to get the guards to do something they gave up and ran off down the street towards Camden Lock.
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Camden Lock was great Buffy thought. It was full of activity and lots of shopping. They entered a small boutique and William watched as Buffy looked through the racks selecting clothes to try on.
As she walked towards the fitting room she looked at William and asked him, “Are you coming?”
“You want me to come?”
“Yeah, I need someone to tell me what looks good and stuff.”
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They left the shop a half an hour and 12 outfits later, carrying two bags of clothing. Buffy had even convinced William to but a few things.
“What’s that?” Buffy asked pointing.
“Oh it’s London Glassblowing. It’s a workshop where they have demonstrations. Would you like to go?”
“Yeah, that sounds interesting,” she said as they entered the shop and watched a man slowly heat and mold the hot glass in to a bowl.
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“That was pretty cool,” Buffy said.
“Yeah it was.”
“Hey look at that,” Buffy said dragging William over to a photo booth, “Feel like taking some pictures.”
He just smiled as they stepped into the booth and sat down, proceeding to take some silly pictures. They also took one nice normal one and in one Buffy turned to William and kissed his cheek. William was shocked when she did this to say the least but he couldn’t help but be pleased.
“I’m starving. Do you want to go get some lunch?” Buffy said when the got out of the photo booth and each grabbed their copy of the pictures.
“You read my mind. Why don’t we buy some food to go and eat it in the park?”
“That sounds great. I love picnics.”
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After got some fish and chips to go they headed to St. James Park for their picnic. There they sat down and ate their food and talked about the music they liked and what they wanted to do when they were older.
When they were finished they threw out their garbage and walked around the park.
“Feel like getting some ice cream and watching the band,” William asked.
“Yeah.”
“Alright ,what flavor would you like?”
“Cookie dough if they have it.”
“Sure,” he said going to get the ice cream as Buffy sat down on a near by bench and watched as the band tuned their instruments for their performance and began to play.
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When the band had finished playing they both got up.
“Well I guess we should get going,” Buffy said, “Especially if we want to get back to Giles’s in time for dinner.”
“Okay but first there is one more thing I want to show you. Come on,” William said taking her hand and running towards the street and then hailing a cab.
“The British Airways London Eye,” William told the driver.
“What’s that? Where are we going?” Buffy asked.
“You’ll see.”
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“Well here we are,” William said as they got out of the cab and he paid the driver.
“Where is here?” Buffy asked as she looked up at the large, she wasn’t sure what it was but it looked like the biggest Ferris she had ever seen.
“The London Eye; it’s the world’s largest observation wheel. You can see over 50 of London’s most famous landmarks. So are we going to go on it or what?”
Buffy laughed as they walked over and got on the ride.
“This is amazing,” Buffy said in awe as she stared at all the sites below.
“Yeah,” William said, “Over there is the London Bridge and the clock tower.”
“Thanks,” Buffy said turning to look at him, “I haven’t had this much fun in a really long time.”
“Your welcome, love.”
“The view is so beautiful.”
“Yeah it is,” he said but when Buffy turned to ask him which view he liked best he was staring at her. She smiled at the compliment. When William realized she had figured out that he meant she was beautiful he couldn’t help but blush a little.
Just when he was about to babble out an explanation or an excuse to try and cover up what he had said Buffy moved in closer to him. Now their faces were only centimeters apart and he could feel her breath on his face.
Buffy was pleasantly surprised when William closed the gap between them and kissed her and gently pulled away to get her reaction. She hadn’t expected him to kiss her she had thought she was going to have to kiss him. He really was full of surprises she thought as she moved forward and kissed him. This time the kiss lasted longer and was slowly deepened.
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