Homeward Bound
by Anne-Lise
[reviews]
Anthropomorphics. Its amazing how we can imagine a name or a face to our distress; The little green jealousy monster, the scythe of death. Yet we've never really managed to put a face or a name to our fear. So strange, for our fear can be a living entity, feeding from us, breeding anew.
*
"Dawn, listen to me. Listen!" I was never much good at this. "I love you. I will always love you... But this is the work that I have to do." Death is my gift. "Tell Giles... Tell Giles I figured it out... And I'm okay." I stroke her cheek and kiss her, and then I dive into the maelstrom.
*
"What's wrong?" Colin gave his brother the Vulcan eyebrow. "You seem concerned."
"Its the timer." Quinn held up the offending item so Colin could see. "Its flipping back and forth between two times and I don't know which one's right. If the timer screws up on this world, there's no way I can find the tools or resources to fix it."
"Bummer." Colin's grasp of technology was still shaky at best, but he understood that Quinn was worried and that was enough for him.
"Guys!" Rembrandt shouted over from their makeshift bivouac.
Quinn looked over. "How is she?"
"Not good. We need to get off this world."
"Yeah..." Quinn rubbed the back of his head. "That might be a problem."
*
This wasn't what she expected. She had no idea exactly what to expect, but this was nothing like she imagined. The sensation could almost be considered pleasant. She felt like she was moving at great speed, but all she could see was a bright light. And she wasn't alone.
"Who are you?" she called out but got no reply. The stranger glared at her... and attacked.
She was weary from the battle against Glory and she had no weapon, but that didn't matter to her anymore. She was a weapon. She was a killer. She was the Slayer, and she fought.
"Who are you?" The stranger echoed. A stranger who looked just like her, even down to the clothes she wore.
"I'm Buffy Summers." Buffy smiled and unleashed a powerful combination of punches, elbows and kicks that drove her assailant backwards. "And I'm the Slayer."
Her assailant's eyes widened and left an opening. Buffy took it, and ended the fight. Then the near-blinding light managed to get brighter, and Buffy felt herself fall.
*
The letters started three weeks after Buffy's death. I was so not coping. I tried to be the strong one, I tried so hard. I went to see Angel in LA and broke the news to him. He took it in stride, as if he'd expected the news. He just walked away to his private rooms.
Cordelia hugged me until she remembered I was a lesbian. Then she scooted away to make coffee. She mumbled something about living on a world without caffeine.
Wesley was great. I've never thought much of him. But he had some words that made sense, and I broke down in his arms. I fainted... in his arms. Cordelia told me later that some girl called Virginia had found us like that. Apparently she'd slapped him upside the head and stormed out. I wish I'd seen that... I really needed cheering up.
I got back to Sunnydale to find everything different. Giles had driven off. Its funny, but I've never thought of Giles as someone who couldn't cope. Losing Buffy... I guess that's what it took.
Tara wasn't around. She was over at Buffy's house taking care of Dawn. Poor dawn. Xander and Anya... I think they're in Vegas having a wedding... in the style of Shaft or something. Seeing Xander in a large Afro is something I can live my life without. So I'm here, all alone. With the letter and my fear.
*
"The first counter's almost at zero." Quinn stated as he watched the readout alternate between the two times.
Rembrandt nodded. "How much time do we have left?"
Quinn glanced down again. "None." Light flared and a portal breezed into existence.
"Step back!" Quinn warned as he stared at the oscillating whites and blues of a portal unlike any he'd seen before. "Something's not right." Rembrandt scooted backwards while Quinn and Colin helped pull Maggie away. She was having trouble breathing the atmosphere of this world, and was suffering terribly.
A crack, like thunder, pealed away from the portal and a young woman dropped from the balefire light and fell to the floor. The newcomer tried to stagger to her feet, but the effort proved too much for her and she slumped back onto the ground.
Behind her, the portal winked out of existence.
Quinn looked down at his timer. There was now only one time counting down.
"We've got another twelve hours and change," he said. He carefully stowed the timer and knelt beside the unconscious girl.
"She's pretty," Colin said.
*
The newspapers called him The Reaper. Another screwed up little white boy aged between twenty and thirty-five, highly educated and emotionally unstable. That was the prognosis.
Four kills so far; All the bodies found within the State of California.
All four girls had red hair, and all four were missing their little fingers.
And then the letters started.
*
I know hate. I can understand hate. Hatred is an old ally of mine. Worse than hatred though is disinterest. Like the Slayer and her pals. I wanted them to see the real me. I even cast a spell so that they could... And afterward? Nothing. No recognition of what I had once been, only the antipathy that had been there before. I wanted to show them. I wanted them to see that just once... I could be somebody. And now its too late. The Slayer... Buffy... gone.
Gone before I had my chance at revenge.
The newspapers have taken to calling me The Reaper. I kinda like the name. Much cooler than Jonathan. Who would be scared of a Jonathan? But fear... I'm beginning to learn all about fear. And soon, so shall Willow Rosenberg.
Time to write another letter.
Maybe this time... I'll enclose a finger.
*
"Hi." Quinn's to-die-for eyes met Buffy's as they opened.
"Hey," she greeted and pulled herself to a sitting position. "Where am I?"
"No idea." Quinn replied with a grimace.
"You don't know?" Buffy frowned. "You don't... live here?"
Quinn raised his eyebrows as he looked around the desolate landscape. "Nope."
Buffy raised her shoulders in an infinitesimal shrug. "Okay."
"I'm Quinn. The guy behind me is my brother Colin." Colin nodded a greeting. "My friends Rembrandt and Maggie are in a shelter over there. Maggie has trouble breathing the air here. She's gotten better at Earth-standard atmosphere but this place is oxygen-rich."
"I'm Buffy," Buffy replied. She felt the vortex of conversation forcing her to say something else. "I'm from Sunnydale."
Quinn grinned. "That narrows it down."
*
"Hello?" Tara's voice called tentatively through the door. "It's m... me."
I open the door to find Tara has brought some company. "Hey Dawn," I say through my embarrassment. "I'll just... get clothes on."
Dawn nodded as I span and grabbed my bra off the bed. So much for a romantic evening. Tonight, or ever.
*
"Are you sure you should be up and about so soon?" Quinn asked. "You didn't look so good earlier. Maybe you should rest some more."
"No," Buffy replied. "I'm good. I need to know what's happened, find out where I am and what I'm doing here. I want to know why I was attacked by an evil twin. I want to know what your deal is."
"Hey!" Quinn gave her another disarming smile. "Calm down. I'll tell you my story, but be warned, we've less than twelve hours before we have to leave."
Buffy's eyes grew wide. "Less than twelve hours? Jeez, can't you just give me the digest version?"
*
"Wow." Dawn's eyes widened. "Now I see why my sister was so totally into you."
I can see the muscles in my lover's back tense. I know she's taken Buffy's death hard. I've given her the space... But I don't think things will ever be the same between us again. She's built a wall to keep us apart.
Willow turned slowly, clad only in her midnight-black panties and hands over her breasts. Her demure smile burned its way into my heart.
"She was?" Willow asked, staring curiously at Dawn.
Dawn swallowed. "Please..." she pleaded. "Put some clothes on?"
"Okay." Willow seemed to move as if covered in treacle. Well, almost. I remember how she moved when smeared with yoghurt.
"Your face has gone all red," Dawn pointed out with the tact of youth as she stared at me. "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you." Her apology extended to Willow who was rapidly fastening up her blouse. Dawn's mischievous smile resurfaced. "But you are beautiful, you know."
Willow squeaked and pelted into the bathroom. I couldn't help but join in Dawn's giggles.
*
"So you're jumping blind each time?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah, kind of." Quinn grimaced. "The Kromaggs' have a technology that can more accurately pinpoint the destination."
"Kromaggs?" Buffy giggled. "Sounds like something from The Time Machine."
Quinn sighed. "These things are no joke. They prey upon humans. They're demons."
"Demons?" Buffy's eyebrows rose. "Now we're talking shop."
*
Willow and Tara gazed at each other while I pretended not to stare.
"Hey Dawn..." I looked up. "You want to play with some of the cool things Giles would never let us touch?"
I gazed around the Magic Box and giggled. "Yeah, right. How about we summon another one of those cool troll guys?" I asked. Suddenly I couldn't help myself and the tears started to flood once more.
"Oh god, Dawn." Both Willow and Tara wrapped me in their arms as I cried. I don't know when it happened. I don't know when the hugs turned into kisses. I only knew... It was what I wanted. After all, wasn't I made from the Slayer? Summers blood... Look, we're the same.
*
"Its almost time to slide," Quinn reported. Buffy and Colin helped support Maggie. Rembrandt stood off to one side, tired from his ceaseless care for his charge.
"Kinda like Quantum Leap." Buffy mused. "Each leap... could be the leap back home."
"I loved that show." Quinn said.
"Me too," Buffy agreed. "Willow used to come over and watch it with me on Thursday nights. Good times had by all."
"Willow?" Quinn shared a glance with Rembrandt. "From Sunnydale? That would be Willow Rosenberg?"
"You know her?" Buffy's mouth dropped open.
Quinn nodded. "We met a Willow Rosenberg. She was a demon hunter on this weird vampire-infested alternate earth. She had this creepy librarian guy with her all the time... Really spooked us out. That, and she was really into leather. She got killed helping us fight the Kromaggs. That was a... long time ago. It couldn't have been your friend."
Buffy nodded, spooked.
"Its time!" Quinn pressed a button on the timer and the portal burst into existence. "Let's slide."
*
The Reaper watched them from across the street. His interest and libido piqued by the strange twist in events. In his twisted world he was punishing Willow by hurting redheads and cutting off their fingers... But here was a more pertinent happiness he could destroy... And one closer to his victim's heart.
Fear... he must engender more fear... She must feel afraid. Afraid for herself, and for her friends.
The Reaper smiled.
*
"Are you okay now?" Willow asks, shifting uncomfortably.
"Sure," I reply. "I'm okay."
Tara's eyes drill into mine. I've never before noticed how caring those eyes can be. Sometimes... I feel like she can see into my soul. "Are y...you sure?"
I kiss her. Not passionately, but with a soulful need that draws me to her. I can see Willow's frown in the corner of my eye.
"I'm... sorry." I pull away. "This must be really weird for you guys."
"We're more worried about you," Willow states.
There's nothing I can say so I stare dumbly at the floor.
"I..." A pressure stops me from speaking further. Everything seems to run slowly. Tara's scream, Willow's shocked expression. I can't make any sense of the arrowhead jutting out from my blouse. The trail of crimson spattered on Tara's cheek is the last thing I see before darkness claims me.
*
Buffy exited the portal followed by her scream. The scream died with her impact into the frigid water. She surfaced and pulled herself out of the stream to sit beside Maggie, who was howling in laughter.
"I'm so sorry," Maggie said. "It's just... This must be so tough for you." She collapsed into a further fit of the giggles.
"Gee thanks," Buffy replied with a trace of a smile. "I'm glad my misfortune has brightened up your day!"
"I'm sorry," Maggie calmed herself down. "It feels so good to be able to breathe normally again. We tried to warn you, but you'd already dived into the portal. Don't jump in head first!"
"Everyone okay?" Rembrandt asked as he sidled over to join them. "You should never jump headlong into those things unless you've got no other choice," he remonstrated.
Buffy nodded. "I'm getting the picture," she said, running her fingers through her wet hair. "Where's Quinn?"
"Over here," Quinn replied as he walked over to them, Colin in tow. "I see you got the stream and not the sandbar. You were lucky, diving in like that. You could have landed on rock."
"Check," Buffy agreed. "Rocks are bad."
Quinn unexpected kissed her cheek. "Its good to see you're okay."
"Thanks."
*
"Dawn?" Willow's angelic voice calls out to me as I open my eyes. "Oh god, Dawn! I'll just go and get the doctor."
My vision swims wildly but soon a balding lab-coat bustles in and puts his gnarled hand on my forehead. I half expect him to give me a lollipop.
"Good to see you back with us again, Miss Summers," the doctor states, flatly.
"My chest... hurts." So does trying to speak. Agony, in fact.
"You shouldn't try to talk, Miss Summers." There's that Miss Summers again. That's not my name, that's my moth... I'm Dawn. Dawn. "D..." before I can explain, I pass out once more.
*
"So where are we?" Buffy looked around her at the rolling green hillside. Small slate walls separated the fields.
"You're really not getting the gist of the whole 'jumping blind' thing are you?" Quinn asked with wry humour.
Buffy crossed her arms and glared. "I'm with it. I just thought you, with your vast experience in all of this, might at least have some clue."
Quinn nodded and glanced behind Buffy. "We're in Wales."
Buffy turned her head to follow his stare. A sign by the side of a road read 'Welcome to Wales'. Underneath the sign was a picture of a red dragon and the word 'Cymru'. Under the sign was a dead sheep.
"So," she said. "We're in Wales."
"I'm not," Rembrandt called out from the other side of the sign.
Maggie was beside him throwing stones idly into the stream. "I'm in England, land of tea and scones!"
"Yay for scones," Buffy mumbled, as she ambled over to join them.
*
This time as I awaken its Tara and not Willow whose face greets me with a smile.
"Hey you," I greet. Her smile radiates happiness and an inner peace.
I think I'm falling in love. She kisses my cheek, and the warm dampness lingers after her lips part company. I can't help my blush. She notices but says nothing. She doesn't need to... Her smile says it all. I must look hideous in all these bandages. Like some sort of mummy girl. Rarr!
"I'm glad you're okay," she says.
I am?
*
"It's almost time to slide," Quinn stated.
"But I haven't had my scone yet!" Buffy pouted.
"I don't think scones will be very forthcoming." Quinn stared out over the fields where barbarians in kilts fought hard against men in suits carrying uzis. The suits were winning bigtime.
"If I was to try and explain this to anyone," Buffy mused, "they'd lock me up and throw away the key."
Colin giggled. "You think this is strange? There was this one world where this guy was wearing cheese."
"Weird." Buffy agreed, thinking about a strange dream she'd once had. "I like cheese."
Colin stared at her.
"But I don't feel the urge to wear any," Buffy pontificated.
*
"This can't go on," Willow frowned at her lover, anger and self-recrimination written on her features.
"It was what she wanted. We d...didn't force her to make any decisions."
"We took advantage of her when she was emotionally confused. We can't just close our ears and go 'La la la, we don't care' just because she isn't complaining." Willow's mouth firmed into a straight line.
"She's in love with me."
Willow went quiet. Then, in a mouselike voice, "she is?"
Tara nodded.
"Do you... Are you..."
"I..."
*
At last! The first blow is struck. Revenge is mine! How sweet the blood brought forth by the sword of righteous indignation. Maybe now
I can pay her a visit, claim my trophy.
A finger for my collection, perhaps?
*
Buffy relaxed into the soft kiss. After their experiences together on a number of strange yet hauntingly familiar worlds, she'd finally come to know and respect her fellow sliders. She knew now what was driving her home. She missed her best friend and she needed to find her way back to her sister. however, that didn't mean she couldn't take time out to enjoy the few pleasures that dropped into her path.
"You're so..." Maggie broke off as Buffy's tongue explored her mouth.
*
Willow sat opposite Tara in the Espresso Pump.
"How?" Willow asked after an eternity. "After all we've..." She trailed off.
"It j... just happened." Tara said. "But we've been drifting apart since Buffy... died."
Willow closed her eyes yet her tears still left moist trails down her cheeks. Tara came round the table to give Willow a hug, but Willow pushed her away.
"No!" she shouted, making everyone turn to look at her. Willow glared at Tara. "Leave me alone!"
Tara fell over backwards as unseen hands pulled her away. Willow got up and left.
*
Things are finally coming together. Pain and torment, oh how I revel in such feelings... Yet the fear... Oh yes, there must be fear, there must...
"Who's there?"
Silence. Then a figure steps forth from the shadows.
"I've been watching you."
*
"So what have you learned from all these experiences?" Quinn asked.
Buffy hiccuped. "Beer. S'foamy."
"Damn right." Quinn stared morosely into his glass.
Rembrandt giggled causing Buffy to break out of her stupor.
"What's funny?" she demanded.
"I was just thinking about that world we visited, where all the buildings were made of rubber and people didn't wear clothes. Your face was a picture!" Remmie broke off into a peal of laughter.
Buffy grinned. "That didn't spook me as much as when I thought I was back home and everything seemed the same, except Cordelia was a librarian and Xander was a vampire."
"With a soul," Quinn pointed out.
"Yeah..." Buffy took a drink from her glass. "Lots of those going round."
"I don't think we're from the same Earth." Quinn said.
Buffy blinked. "No?"
"No. No vampires on my Earth. Or... At least I don't think there are."
Buffy nodded. "You're lucky." She sighed. "I wish I could get back home somehow."
"You can."
*
"So you're The Reaper?" Spike smiled. He leafed through the journal avoiding Jonathan's eyes. "Pain, suffering, hatred and fear. This looks like bloody good fun!" He thought for a moment. "Yeah... Yeah! I can so enjoy doing this! Since that damn chip ran out of juice," he tapped the side of his head, "I've been looking for something to fill up my idle days. The Reaper! Yeah... That'll cause people to fear me again..."
Jonathan said nothing. His sightless dead gaze remained still; his head tilted at an impossible angle.
*
Quinn nursed his black eye while a near-sober Buffy glared at him.
"There was no need to hit me!" he exclaimed.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier there was a way I could get back home?"
Quinn winced as his fingers probed around his eye. "Because its not easy. When your portal opened, my timer scanned it and stored the n-spatial co-ordinates. But without a Director those co-ordinates are useless."
"So," Buffy stated, "we just need one of these Director things."
Quinn nodded. Rembrandt snored. "Yeah." He waited for Buffy to ask the next obvious question.
"Where do we get one from?" Buffy asked.
*
"You broke up with Willow?" Dawn's eyes seemed impossibly round. "Over me?"
Tara stared at the hospital bed. Dawn was recovering well, but she seemed gaunt. "I l...love you." Tara said.
Dawn tilted her head. "I love you too," she whispered. Tara hugged her, gingerly and awkwardly because of Dawn's wound, and they kissed.
"But what about Willow? Is she okay?" Dawn asked. She looked up and screamed.
Willow stood in the doorway. She wore gothic clothes and black mascara. her eyes were completely black.
Tara turned and felt a wall of force ram into her. She staggered, and Dawn cried out. Tara's head snapped up. "Deixe a luz do amor impedir que as coisas m·s aconteÁam neste lugar!" she cried, no trace of her usual stammer or hesitancy in her voice.
The lights went out and the room fell into darkness.
*
"Tell me more about the Kromagg," Buffy asked.
"They're evil," Colin said. The sliders sat around a makeshift table.
Maggie agreed. "They're power-mad and extremely technologically advanced."
Quinn sighed. "I know what you're thinking. You think you can just take them on and win through somehow. But you're wrong. I met a slayer once. She was beautiful, and deadly. She fought like no-one I've ever seen and she had wonderful red hair." Buffy smiled. "But I also saw her throat explode and her head severed."
Buffy swallowed.
"The only way to win against the Kromagg," Quinn said, "is by attrition. Have a goal and aim solely for that goal. If you want us to risk our lives to get a Director just so that you can get home, then I'll help you do that. But I can't speak on behalf of the others."
"Thanks Quinn," Buffy said in a small voice. "And... I'm really sorry about your eye."
"Forget about it."
*
Buffy fought hard against the Kromaggs. After spending three days in a world ruled by Lord Giles, a viciously evil vamp, she'd been so spooked that she would have happily taken on Adam and ripped him apart with her teeth if she'd had to.
In fact the Kromaggs were a bit of an anticlimax after everything she'd been through. The Sliders watched in trepidation as she whirled through an echelon of Kromagg marines armed with an axe and a spatula. (The only sharp-edged implements she could find in the Welsh cottage they'd spent the night in.)
Colin would never be able to look at eggs the same way again.
"All done!" Buffy said, wiping the dust and gore from her clothing. "Now let's get what we came for and get out of here!"
*
Quinn scanned the geometry stacks through the Director's clavicle. Myriad versions of the Earth revealed themselves to him, each slightly different to the last. He especially liked the world without shrimp.
The clavicle warmed to his touch and directed him deeper into the metamathematical realms as defined by each n-spatial geodesic probability. Through sheer willpower alone he rode the singularity that defined the quantum separations in continuum circuitry, until he could see the exact space/time location revealed in the timer's memory store for Buffy's universe. He grasped it within his thoughts and aligned the quantum flaw with the clavicle's own singularity.
A gateway formed, opaque, a glass lens separating the two disparate dimensions. Perfectly under Quinn's mental control, the gateway he held open had none of the raw lightning power of an unstable gate, despite the tremendous forces held at bay by the ion flow.
Buffy looked up from her fingernails. "Are we there yet? I'm hungry."
*
Dawn held one hand against her painful chest wound and peered out from behind the hospital bed. Emergency lighting lit up the bitch fight between Willow and Tara.
"S...so its true, hell hath..." Tara broke off as Willow blatted her on top of the head with a Lucozade bottle.
"Whatever," Willow sighed, balefire flickering from her fingertips.
She released a stream of her power towards Tara, but it seemed to simply wither and die as an opaque barrier flickered into existence between the two battling wiccas.
Willow's eyes cleared as she stared at the lens, impressed despite her ravaged feelings. "How did you...?"
Tara shook her head. "I didn't..."
Buffy stepped through the gateway into the hospital room.
"Hi guys!" she said.
*
The scoobs all sat around the coffee table on comfortable chairs in Giles' place. Buffy seemed more than a little embarrassed by Willow's dreamy smile as it radiated up out of her lap.
"I must say," Giles said as he cleaned his glasses for the sixteenth time that hour, "I really should get used to you just turning up on my doorstep as if back from the dead."
Buffy smiled as Giles' discomfiture. "It *is* becoming a bit of a habit," she agreed.
Giles nodded, smiled, and made a break for the kitchen to de-mist his glasses.
"So... Are we good?" Dawn asked, round eyes staring at her sister.
Buffy gave Dawn a noogie that unseated Willow and made her sister squeal. "Of course. I love you, you little imp!"
Dawn smiled softly. "So you're okay with Tara being my girlfriend?"
Buffy's mouth dropped open. "Tara's your girlfriend?"
From the kitchen, they heard Giles say, "Bloody hell!"
*
Willow sat on the end of Buffy's bed, and looked at the Slayer with a demure gaze. "Are you okay?"
Buffy just shrugged as she peeled off her clothes. "I will be."
Willow's pulse quickened at once, surprised by Buffy's willingness to get undressed in front of her with the lights on. Since Buffy had returned from dimensions unknown, their relationship had altered drastically.
Willow watched, curious, as the welts and cuts on Buffy's back faded slowly. This always amazed her. "Are you going to sleep already?" she asked.
"Do you have a better idea?" Buffy countered with a serious expression.
Buffy and Willow stared at each other for the longest time, neither of them able to move and break the spell that had fallen upon them.
Their breathing became uneasy, their mouths were half-open, their lips dry, their cheeks warm... Willow shivered from the cold, realising she had nothing on except for her bra and panties. She licked her lips as she rubbed her arms warm.
"Come here," Buffy said eventually, patting her bed. "I'll warm you up."
Without hesitation, Willow slid into Buffy's bed, closing her eyes, almost not believing what was happening. She couldn't describe exactly what she felt. Her body seemed to have turned into a burning torch. She trembled uncontrollably.
"You're warm," Buffy said, stroking her hair.
Willow didn't say a word because she couldn't speak. She didn't want to think about anything, emptying her mind of all thoughts. She could feel Buffy's body cuddling up against her back, Buffy's hands taking hold of hers, warming them as she had promised. Once again Willow could feel Buffy's breasts brush against her naked back, Buffy's breathing against her neck. She wanted to turn over and face her, but she didn't dare move as she was afraid Buffy would change her mind and send her back to her own bed.
Buffy began to toy with Willow's luscious red hair. She said, "Willow?"
Willow turned round, her eyes turning toward Buffy's face, so close to hers. "Yes?"
Buffy kept stroking Willow's hair, brushing it away from her eyes and forehead. "I've been thinking..."
"About what?"
"About us."
"And?" Willow asked, her breathing coming to a complete stop.
"I can't help thinking about making love to you all the time. You're so beautiful, and I love you so much."
As Willow burst into tears, Buffy pulled her closer until they kissed, mouths thirsty for probing tongues, hands craving for soft curves, breasts yearning for patient, yielding caresses...
"Oh Willow..." Buffy gasped, feeling her sex respond instantly.
Only Willow made her feel that way. She came to realise how much she'd longed for this moment, how much she'd denied her true feelings. This crazy passion, this overwhelming lovemaking was all she wanted. Willow touching her breasts, her deft fingers grazing her nipples, was enough to make her heavy breathing stop. Her legs pressed against Willow's thigh, holding in the wave of ecstasy. Then she breathed out, covering Willow's face with kisses.
Realising what had just happened, Willow smiled. "You came?"
"Yes," Buffy said, blushing.
"But I didn't even..."
"You didn't need to. Sometimes, just your touch is enough."
*
In the darkness of the shadowy undergrowth an evil presence smoked a cigarette amongst the damp foliage.
"Bloody hell," it moaned.