Emma had been watching Buffy and Riley react to each other during breakfast. Something was very strange here. Emma was determined to figure it out, so she decided to follow Buffy around for the day.
Nothing seemed normal to Emma. Buffy and Riley barely spoke two words to each other. Every time they were in the same room, neither could stand to look at the other. This was definitely strange, Emma thought to herself. Maybe her guess earlier had been right. Maybe Riley *had* seen Buffy naked.
That would explain everything. Buffy couldn't look at Riley because she was embarrassed, and Riley was too afraid all he would see was a naked Buffy when he looked at her.
Emma was just going to have to find out...one way or another.
Buffy knew the sun was going to set in an hour so she thought it was time to take the journey to the cave. Buffy wanted to catch them a little bit off guard.
It was so strange to find vampires out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe these vampires had stopped feeding on humans. That was actually very funny, and Buffy laughed to herself.
"What's so funny?" Riley asked a very simple question, one for which Buffy had no simple reply.
"You know, you need to stop sneaking up on people. Lurking will get you nowhere." Avoiding the question was smart, Buffy thought to herself.
"You didn't answer my question. What's so funny?"
Buffy had to stop this fast. What she said next was something she knew she was going to regret later, but she also knew it would definitely work.
"Thinking of you naked." NO, I shouldn't have said that. Stupid, Buffy, so stupid. Riley was going to be so upset with her.
"Are we even now?"
Buffy was relieved to see that Riley wasn't going to take offense to her comment.
"We aren't even close to even. Sorry, Riley." Buffy walked away from Riley. She needed to lose him fast or she was going to miss those vamps. Riley was still following her, though, so she did what she had to do.
Buffy turned round to look Riley in the eyes. It was time for her charm, and this time she was going to lay it on thick. It was for his own good, Buffy kept telling herself. "Riley, could you please milk the cows for me. I would really like to watch the sun go down today."
"Sure." Riley turned around to go milk the cows. It was the least he could do since he had made her miss the sunset yesterday. Riley got halfway to the barn when he realized Buffy had milked the cows earlier. He had watched her do it.
When Riley turned around Buffy was running off towards the woods. Riley’s first thought was that she was going to meet some guy. So Riley, who usually wasn't the jealous type, ran after her to kick the guy’s ass. It never occurred to him to wonder why he felt compelled to do so.
Emma, who had heard their whole conversation, went after them. Of course, they both ran a lot faster than Emma. She was having a hard time keeping up, but it was all going to be worth it.
Buffy knew that Riley was following her so she just ran faster. She wasn't sure what she was going to do when she got to the cave. After about ten minutes, Buffy realized she was lost. She was going to have to ask Riley for help, so she slowed down to let him catch up.
Riley finally caught up to her, but he wasn't able to talk since he was out of breath.
"Riley, I was trying to find that spot we went to earlier to watch the sun rise, but I can't seem to find it." It was getting easier and easier to lie. Buffy didn't like that one bit, but she was going to have to live with it. After all, her night job was something you just didn't mention to people.
"Then why the heck did you run away from me?" Riley knew there was something else, and he was willing to bet it was another guy. She probably didn't even look at him as a guy.
"I thought I knew where I was going, and I didn't want to miss the sunset. I am sorry about lying to you earlier. It's just, I didn't want you to make me miss the sunset again. Whenever you're around me, I can't concentrate on anything but you."
"So there's no other guy?" Riley couldn't believe his ears, but he just wanted to make sure.
Ha, Buffy thought to herself, if you consider vampires I would be saying yes right now. "Nope, no other guy. It's just you and me, Riley, so why don't we go watch the sunset."
Little did they know that Emma was right on their tails, and she was even more tired than Riley. She couldn't believe Buffy could run like that. After all, she was so fragile; or so she had seemed. Emma was thinking there was more to little miss perfect than she was letting on.
While Riley was engrossed in the sunset, Buffy snuck away. She needed to kill those vampires before Riley noticed that she was missing. Buffy ran into the cave to find nothing but a pile of dust. However, the dust pile was too little to be two vampires, so where was the other one, and why wasn't it here?
The cave was small, and there were no hidden places. How could a vampire vanish into sunlight? It just didn't make any sense to her. When Buffy explored the cave a little more, she found a cooler with blood bags that were empty. Now, normal vampires don't have blood bags.
Buffy had no idea what was going on here, and she didn't like it.
"I thought you wanted to see the sunset?" Buffy jumped a foot off the ground when she hear Riley's voice behind her.
"You really need to get over this need to sneak up on me, Riley." Buffy hoped he didn't get curious and decide he wanted to explore in here.
"Yea. Let's go before it gets dark. I don't especially like the darkness." Riley didn't like admitting to his discomfort with dark places, and he hoped Buffy wouldn’t think less of him because he wanted out of there. "Are you chick, Riley Finn?" Buffy could just see Riley as a young boy screaming because he hated the darkness. It was just too funny.
"No. I'm not afraid of the dark. I though maybe you were."
Buffy couldn't help laughing at the thought of her scared of the dark. Now, that was really funny.
"I'd like to think that you're not laughing at me." Riley wasn't a chicken. It's just…it got real dark real fast without a flashlight.
"I'm not laughing at you , Riley. Let's just say the dark is just like home to me." After all, Buffy went to work in the dark, hunting vampires and chasing demons. The night was where Buffy belonged.
"Whatever you say, Buffy. Let's just go home." Riley knew that there was something Buffy wasn’t telling him, but he let it slide.
Buffy and Riley walked home, Emma still following close behind. Emma knew that Buffy had a secret, and she wanted to find out what it was. And why had Buffy gone into that cave? Emma no longer cared about Buffy and Riley. All she was concerned about was Buffy's secret.
What Emma didn’t know was that part of Buffy’s secret was following her.
It was a good thing the creature wasn't hungry, having just emptied the blood bags. Emma didn’t know how lucky she was.