madimpossibledreamer

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Buffy tries to think about where Rush would hide something in this house, if he was here.
Word Count: 1126
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS

        It’s kind of a waste of time, but Buffy doesn’t feel rushed or upset for once. They’re turning up a whole lot of nothing but it doesn’t bite as much as it usually does, pun fully intended. It’s not like there’s no danger. Rush is out there, plotting, getting ready to take more from people she cares about. But there’s no vampires waiting around every corner to catch them when they’re not ready, and they’d pretty much known it was going to be a dead end going into it, so maybe that’s all she needed, matching expectations. It’s goofy fun looking for hidden spots or rooms or doors even though there wasn’t much hope of that, not in a house this small. Not unless Rush is diving into some esoteric and weird schools of magic, and fortunately that seems to be one of the few things he hasn’t dabbled in given everything else they’ve seen him do since they met.
        It makes sense. Xander had been fond of saying that Angel had been practicing brooding so long he’d become an expert on it, and he wasn’t entirely wrong, exactly, but he still shouldn’t have said it. Because it wasn’t just brooding; it was figuring out how to make the soul and past deeds get along without having it tear you apart and learning to live with yourself for future and present actions. Then again, it makes sense that Xander—or Johan, or whatever he wants them all to call him now, although he’s not going to bother telling them a preference now—wouldn’t recognize any of that if it smacked him in the face, because of all the people she knows Xander’s somehow even worse than she is at that. And, she’ll admit, taking on unwarranted guilt. Which means it only hurts worse when he digs at her, and she’s pretty sure he’s even worse on himself, even if he’d never admit it.
        Maybe, after this, she’ll drag him out here. It might be the salty air. The California kid in them unable to rest without breathing in and smelling, hearing the ocean, sometimes. Rivers aren’t the same, especially not the Thames. Giles had admitted that he’d missed it. She’d wonder how, but she misses Sunnydale at times, and that’s definitely worse than a stinky river that has sewage dumped into it, so she gets it, in a way. At least it’s not running on the streets anymore, like they apparently did way back when.
        And it’s—she would’ve liked to have been the last one to see him. To be able to say goodbye. But thinking about it now, it actually kind of settles something in her, that for all they’d been at each other’s throats up until the end, Angel and Xander had actually managed to be civil to each other there, at the very end.
        But rather than just concentrating on one thing, Rush had looked at everything and anything that interested him. He’d managed to play a paramedic well enough to fool a bunch of people who had more experience with emergencies than they’d like. He knew chemistry and janitor stuff—which honestly isn’t as easy as it looks, especially to do well and convincingly. She’d found that out quickly enough when she’d been responsible for taking care of a house that no longer exists. She’d call it ‘dabbling’, but suspects he’d find that insulting, that this particular Big Bad’s pride wouldn’t let him just try something out. No, she’s pretty sure he sets out a goal for himself, some level to accomplish, and then sets out to do exactly that. But actually using that pride against him? Not impossible, probably, but not easy either. They’re going to have to push him very, very hard to achieve that.
        It’d be easy to say Rush had never been here, or maybe that the cleaners had already done a good enough job so it’s not clear anyone was ever even here. Slayer’s instincts honed over nearly a decade say that’s wrong. That Rush had been here, at one point.
        She gets up, dusts herself off (even though it’s not necessary; the place looks nearly pristine) and gets up to go stare out at the water, almost certain that at some point Rush had been standing here, in the exact same place, staring out at the water. It’s beautiful, but it’s hard to tell if he’d care about things like that—and if she’s going to hunt him, she really has to learn him inside and out. No, there’s something else, something she’s missing. Probably he’d liked it for the same reason as Sarde—a somewhat secluded little house like this is a good place for smuggling things either in or out of a country, but what could Rush have wanted to move, and where to? What is she missing?
        Anitta finds nothing. Giorno turns a few missed hairs into flies and takes careful notes of their trajectory before turning them back and pocketing a few quietly. Others just circle like there’s a corpse beneath them. From Giorno’s expression, that’s only physically not true.
        Cleaners, who stumbled onto a scene (and associated traps) that they weren’t meant to see? Others of Rush’s acquaintances he’s removing as potential sources of knowledge? Or...maybe some of the ‘things’ smuggled were actually humans? It doesn’t even have to be recent—Anitta had mentioned historical slavery, but for something like a vampire or a demon or a Pillar Man, history is sometimes nothing but memory.
        Buffy concentrates, breathing in and out casually. Most of the life around here is exactly where she’d expect it to be, fish and other ocean creatures where they belong, tourists frolicking in the water, the occasional boat, whether fishing or trade—
        Mollusks and algae, ‘breathing’ like all other life, but while encrusting the wooden pillars of the house and the poor excuse for a dock is to be expected, that is out of place. She jumps in, diving, clothes and all. It turns out to be what looks like a glass bottle that’s been here for a while. Without the Ripple, she wouldn’t have even noticed it nestled among the rocks, but it hadn’t had the right shape to be something natural. She works it free and comes back up to the surface.
        “There’s a truck coming!” Anitta’s yelling, with Ludmilla adding to the chorus somewhere behind her, and okay, yeah, so it makes this all a little more awkward, but Buffy’s definitely not letting go of this. At least she’s a Slayer. The extra strength will help her swim back to the shore without too much delay. She could attempt to get back in the house, but...the wet footprints would be a dead giveaway.