First lines from 21 stories

[dragonyphoenix]

 Cool meme, found on Gabrielle and pickamix's sites. I didn't necessarily stick to just the first line, but did keep it in the first paragraph.

1. The clown on stilts should have fallen. – Carnival (Buffy, reference to Dawn)


2. Angel pulled over at the top of the hill. – One Last Look (Angel, reference to Buffy/Riley)


3. The vampire poofed into dust. “That'll cook your goose.” – Now You’re Cooking… With Gas! (Buffybot, Xander, Willow, Anya, Dawn, Spike)


4. There's a grayish fog between Willow and the rest of the world, a distancing that makes everything seem unreal. – Moments of Happiness (Willow)


5. BE SEEING YOU... Ethan nudged one side of the card, tilting it just so. He winced as he turned but didn't let it show in his stride. He hadn't let Ripper beat him too thoroughly but still, Ethan knew he'd be aching for days. – Be Seeing You (Ethan)


6. The bones of summer cannot be seen. In summer, life feeds on life, always increasing, always taking. Summer is progress, is new and improved, is never stopping because those that stop in summer become bones, become nothing, become whatever summer wants before they even know they are dead. – The Bones of Winter (Tara)


7. Miss Calendar sure had left a lot of links. Who knew there were so many different types of magic? – First Steps (Willow)


8. Put it in the oven and mark it with 'D' and bake that cake for baby and me. The red words were so bright against the eggshell white of the walls that they almost seemed to be shouting. – Mark it With ‘D’ (Drusilla)


9. Buffy had thrown her little hissy fit in a coat that looked like it had come out of the Queen Mum's closet, as if the miss goody-two-shoes act could change anything. Not that there was anything to change, or nothing important anyway. What was one more missing person case in Sunnydale? – Wet (Faith, references Buffy)


10. Death had worn red to the Masque, and so, beneath her golden mask, Drusilla wore a gown as red as flowing blood. – Red Death’s Mask (Drusilla)


11. She'd been a girl when he'd come for her. – Unusual (Kendra)


12. After the last apocalypse Xander volunteered to patrol with Spike to give Buffy and Willow time to catch up on... well, girly stuff. He considered himself lucky when it occurred to neither girl that Xander might want to just be with Spike. Willow had actually thanked him. “I know Spike can be, well, you know, Spike-like. You really don't have to do this if you don't want to.” – The Kiss (Xander/Spike)


13. The sun is setting. You stare at the empty parking lot. Cordelia's car is gone. You'll have to walk. – Late (OC, wish-verse Willow)


14. Buffy had come straight out and told him she had a new boyfriend. She hadn't tried to sugarcoat it at all, not that he would have wanted her to, but after he'd literally gone to hell for her some consideration for his feelings wouldn't have been out of line. – With My Thoughts Wandering In The Dark (Angel, Willow, Buffy)


15. Wesley had meant to be a scholar, a Hermit whose light would illuminate the work of others. Father had other ideas. – Plummeting From the Nest (Wesley)


16. Faith stared at the corpses, waiting for just one of them to start moving again, wondering if she could get away with decking a human, when he chose to speak. “It's a shame Ripper wasn't here. Ripper always adored the classics.” – Zombies on the Beach (Faith, Ethan, OC, references Ethan/Giles)


17. Feeling a surge of Ethan's magic, Rupert stepped quickly into the darkened living room. “What are you doing?” – Lighting the Tree (Ethan/Giles)


18. Willow lay awake in Xander's bed. He was on the couch. She felt grateful. She didn't want to be where Tara had been shot. – We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us (Willow, references Willow/Tara, references Xander)


19. The circulation desk stood of to his left, stark and solid. But beyond it the office where the Slayer, no, where his Slayer, was speaking with Mr. Giles, that office seemed immeasurably distant, even though Wesley could hear each word quite distinctly. – By Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them (Wesley, references Giles, Bufy, and Faith)


20. The blizzard had buried him. Digging out of the snow had been too much like digging out of the earth. Thinking about graves, both old and new, he continued north, driving himself until his legs wouldn't hold him up any longer. – Dust Drifting Like Snowflakes in the Snowy Wastes (Spike, references Xander/Spike)


21. She filled his heart like a vast dark hole stretching across the place where his soul had been, but it wasn't hers any longer. She'd been watching for months. Something new grew in his heart, which was also in her since she was his heart. It was all very confusing. – Falling from Darkness to Light (Drusilla, references Spike/Dru, references Spike/Buffy)