Story Notes: Written for the April Challenge event 2024 on Elysian Fields. This was a fic that I tried to write and discussed at length with both artist and beta LAST year, and that completely did not happen, and I'm really happy I got another chance this year, haha. I'm also actually very glad I DIDN'T write it last year, because while the general idea and several snippets and thoughts in this story were from my original plan, this is not the fic I would have written last year. And I'm actually pretty pleased with how it came out AND I'm finishing a whole two days before the deadline, and I'm just very emotional that it's finally up and it's finally done and completed to satisfaction and yeah.
 
All the thanks in the WORLD to Lady Emma for creating this challenge while I had a raging fever and was therefore beyond reason and started drafting it while I was totally delirious, AND for making this banner for me LAST APRIL and tweaking it to reflect the current year, haha. And thanks to the_big_bad who has a crazy busy life right now, but still agreed to take on the longest one-shot I've ever had beta'd and put so much care into making it nicer!
 
Just because I'm feeling very defensive of Buffy lately, and always, I'm gonna ask everyone to please be nice to her in the comments, because I just don't like seeing biased negativity towards her. Thank you!
 
I'm also very pleased that, as someone who is trying to get a title with every letter of the alphabet, that I can check "J" off the list with this one, lol!
 
Enough of me babbling. On with the fic!
 
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.