Everyone Else Could See It
by TheBear
Chapter 1
[reviews]
BTW- Those of you that are entierly clueless, read this disclaimer- everyone else can skip it.
Disclaimer: I don't own them, Joss does. All hail the great and mighty Joss. Hey! Don't look behind that curtain!
Part 1
========== BtVS ==========
It was 6pm on a Friday night, and Buffy and Riley were sitting at the espresso pump waiting for her cousin Julie and her husband Jim to arrive. Buffy had been 'officially' seeing Riley for a couple weeks now and they were hooking up with Julie and Jim for a sort of dinner date.
She hadn't seen Julie since she had moved to Sunnydale, but they kept in contact with frequent letters and phone calls. Julie didn't know about the slaying, but she knew about pretty much everything else that had happened in Buffy's life. She knew about her friends, boyfriends; even her watcher- though she didn't know he was her watcher, of course. She just knew that Giles was like her surrogate father.
Buffy smiled at Riley, he, of course, stupidly smiled right back at her. Not that Buffy thought of it as stupid, more like... automatic. Anyone else would have described it as 'stupidly'. (There was an unfortunate bovine similitude to Riley's intellect and conversational ability.)
Though only 'official' for a couple of weeks now, they had spent a month getting to know one another and such, so really it was more like six weeks. Buffy thought he was a really great guy, well built, classic American good looks and totally devoted to her. She told anyone that would listen that he was pretty much the perfect boyfriend.
"So why don't I love him?" she wondered, not for the first time.
========== BtVS ==========
Willow Rosenberg was heading to the espresso pump for some much-needed caffeine. She'd had a long day of classes and homework and needed a pick-me-up. (Yes, she had her entire weekend's homework done by 6pm Friday. She was Willow Rosenberg, after all.)
She noticed Buffy and Riley sitting at one of the tables and walked over to say hi. She didn't particularly like her roommate's boyfriend. It wasn't really that she hated him... If he weren't dating Buffy, she probably wouldn't have any opinion about him at all.
Unfortunately, Willow was madly in love with her best friend. She was just too cowardly to admit it in the face of Buffy's unrelenting heterosexuality. Thus, it was pretty much a guarantee that she was not going to like anyone Buffy chose as boyfriend.
"Hey you two! Friday evening Caffeine fix, huh? Great minds must think alike!" Willow said as she bounced over to the couple. Mentally she only included Buffy in the description, but Riley would never know that.
Buffy smiled that smile that sharp observers had come to think of as her Willow Smile. "Hey Will! What's up?"
Willow grinned, "School hard, Need Caffeine." She said in a mock-imitation of Buffy's time as 'cave slayer'- always guaranteed to get a blush out of Buffy. "What's up with you guys," she added, trying not to obviously cut Riley out of the conversation. She always supported Buffy, even if she was dating a cardboard cutout.
Riley said, "Hi, Willow. We were just waiting for Buffy's cousin to get here. She and her husband are supposed to meet us for dinner." He tried not to be obvious about wanting Willow to leave, but subtlety had never been one of his strong points.
Riley didn't know why Willow bothered him. She was a nice girl, smart and a good student; she was Buffy's best friend. Maybe he was just jealous of the time Buffy spent with her, or the way Buffy went on and on, Willow this and Willow that. If Willow had been a guy, Riley would have worried about the competition.
Willow was able to see the subtext of Riley's comment- after all, it was printed in big block-style letters, how could she miss it? "Oh, ok. I'll leave you guys alone," she said brightly, as though it was no problem what so ever.
Buffy frowned slightly at her boyfriend and caught Willow's hand before she could take off. "No Will. Stay and hang out, at least till they get here."
Willow couldn't resist a smile from Buffy, especially when she didn't want to anyway. "Ok Buff."
========== BtVS ==========
Riley tried not to glower as Buffy and Willow chatted, ignoring him almost totally. Willow occasionally tried to draw him into the conversation, but Buffy had eyes for no one but Willow.
About 10 minutes later Buffy's cousin showed up.
"Buffy! God, it's been years! How are you?" Julie fairly shouted, running up and grabbing Buffy in a hug.
Willow had a momentary pang of jealousy seeing this lithe, 5' 10" blonde running up and hugging her Buffy, more so even than she felt when she saw her and Riley together. "Probably 'cause it's another woman," she thought. She realized that she was being silly. Buffy was into men, not women. And, even if she did like women, this was her cousin. Not a potential rival. "Rival?" Willow rolled her eyes at her own overactive imagination.
"God, it's good to see you Julie!" Buffy said as she returned the hug. Breaking away, she looked at the handsome Man just over her shoulder. He was 6' 1", built like a swimmer- long and lean. Very masculine facial features and his chestnut locks were styled in a smart, short haircut.
Julie half turned and pulled the man to he side, "This is Jim!" she gushed.
Jim stuck his hand out, giving Buffy a firm shake. He didn't even raise an eyebrow when Buffy matched his strength, nor did he try to squeeze harder. This earned him several brownie points in Buffy's book- usually men were instantly threatened when she demonstrated a strong grip.
Buffy turned back to Julie and said, "Oh, this is Willow." She was going to say more, when Julie interrupted.
"Willow Rosenberg?" she said, looking at the redhead. "God, I finally get to meet the legend..."
Willow's eyebrows climbed and she turned to look at Buffy, the question clearly showing on her face.
Buffy blushed fiercely, and avoided everyone's gaze.
Willow turned back to Buffy's cousin, trying to figure out what she was talking about. "Legend?"
"Oh my God! Are you kidding me? Buffy talks incessantly about you." Julie pulled Willow into a startled hug.
"Uh, nice to meet you too?" Willow said hesitantly when Julie pulled away.
Julie laughed out loud, "She's just like you described her, cuz!" she said to Buffy, who was still not meeting Willow's eyes.
"Ok, so Buffy's cousin is a little... enthusiastic. That's ok, I guess," Willow thought.
Jim stuck his hand out to Willow and she tentatively shook it, "It's good to meet you, Willow," he said. "I get the backlash from these two's conversations as it is, are you joining us for dinner?"
Willow realized that no one had even spoken to Riley, yet. While she didn't really like him, it was rather inconsiderate of Buffy not to even introduce her boyfriend. It was also rather inconsiderate of Willow to keep intruding, so she stopped. "No, no. I've got study group tonight. I just stopped in for coffee and saw Buffy and Riley and stopped to chat for a little bit. So, it was great meeting you guys, and I hope you have a good time." Turning to Buffy, she ducked a bit, trying to catch her gaze and saying, "And when you get back to the dorm tonight, you can explain to me what your cousin was talking about!"
Buffy blushed again and said, "Uh, she's exaggerating, Will." Glancing up and seeing the clear disbelief in Willow's expression, she added, "Really!"
Willow just shook her head and, saying her goodbye's once again, bounced off to get her caffeine fix.
Jim, confused, asked, "Who's Riley?"
Buffy grabbed the aforementioned automaton, er... person and said brightly, "Oh, this is Riley. My boyfriend."
Greetings were more subdued this go-around.
As Riley was trying, and failing, to assert his Alpha status via the traditional male handshaking ritual, Julie saw Buffy watching Willow walk away. The look on her face was a combination of pleasure, desire, longing, and excitement.
"Oh girl, you've got it bad..." Julie thought.
========== BtVS ==========
By the time they got through dinner, Riley was thoroughly pissed off. He'd been humiliated by everyone fawning over Willow and completely ignoring him when Buffy's cousin first got there. Add to that the fact that Buffy and Julie spent most of the evening sharing and reminiscing over anecdotes of which he had no knowledge. Even that would have been ok, a chance to get to know a little more about his girlfriend; however, all of Buffy's stories had starred 'Guess Who?' *Willow!*
He'd tried to start a conversation a couple of times with Jim, but received only monosyllabic answers in return. Either Jim didn't like football, or he was actually captivated by the two girls discussion. Riley thought Jim was kinda boring; "What guy doesn't like football?" he thought.
========== BtVS ==========
Between the entrée and desert, Julie grabbed Buffy and dragged her to the tittle-tattle room. As Julie powdered her nose and added lipstick, she pressed Buffy on the Riley issue.
"Well, what's the deal with your boyfriend?" she asked.
"Whaddya mean?" Buffy asked, confused.
Julie looked at her like she was daft, "Well... he's kinda... boring."
"He's not boring, he's a nice, normal guy!" Buffy protested. Her objection sounded a little weak, even to herself.
Julie turned around and looked at her cousin with something akin to disdain on her face. "Yeah. Boring. I said that already."
"Hey, after my last few boyfriends, nice and normal aren't such a bad thing." Buffy defended herself. If her defense against vampires had ever been that weak, she'd have been vamp-chow ages ago.
Julie rolled her eyes. "How long have you been seeing this clown anyway?"
"About a month or so... and Hey! Enough with the Riley-bashing already," Buffy whined.
"Is he at least any good in the sack?" Julie asked, looking for some reason her cousin was staying with this loser.
Buffy blushed and ducked her head, not saying anything.
Julie jumped on it, "Aha! Lemme guess, missionary only, 5 minutes of sweating and you have to fake it, 'cause he's done." Not getting any response she continued, "And, I bet he constantly asks you how good it was, am I right?"
Buffy just glared at the other blonde.
"I don't hear a denial!" Julie sing-songed.
"Can we not talk about Riley for a minute?" Buffy asked plaintively.
"You know Jim and I have been seeing Tracy." Julie said.
Confused at the non sequitor, Buffy shook her head before responding, "Yeah I still can't believe you're having a ménage a trios!" she said, acting shocked.
Julie smiled broadly, "Well, I think you should really consider hooking up with Willow," she suggested.
Buffy choked, "What! Where the heck did that come from?"
"I'm serious, Buffy," Julie said.
Buffy was stunned, "You think I should try to get Willow involved with Riley and me?" she asked, slowly, as if trying to grasp the concept. The image of Willow- naked, flushed and whimpering beneath her- popped unbidden into Buffy's mind.
Julie actually shuddered at the thought of Riley touching the physical perfection that was her cousin and the sweet redhead. "No! God, No!" she exclaimed.
Buffy was relieved and confused, "Oh, well I thought..."- the image of Willow in the throes of passion remained in her head.
Julie interrupted to clarify her advice. "No Buffy, you need to kick Bland Boy there to the curb! I think you and Willow would be very happy together."
Now Buffy was truly shocked. When she found her voice, she said "Oh my God! Julie! Neither of us is into girls! How could you even think..." Buffy almost shouted.
Julie stood there, hands on hip like she was taking to a child, "Buffy, I saw the way you looked at her when she left us earlier this evening." She pressed on, overriding Buffy's protestations of heterosexuality, "Buffy! I hear the way you talk about her, and I've read the way you write about her. I think the only reason you haven't considered it is because you are stuck on the fact that she's a woman."
"Well, of course I'm stuck on that!" Buffy almost shouted. "Julie, I'm not gay! Or bi- or whatever! I've never..."
Julie put her hands on Buffy's shoulders, interrupting her once again. "Buffy, it's not about having a preference for one gender over the other. Jim and I aren't with Tracy just for the sex. We both love her, and can't imagine being without her, or without each other. That's why we're together."
Buffy tried to interrupt, "But..."
Julie cut her off, giving her a little shake, "Who do you spend most of your free time with?" she asked.
"Well, we live together..." Buffy began.
"When you think about going out and having a great time, who do you think of?" Julie pressed, making Buffy answer without giving a lot of thought.
"But we're best friends..." Buffy started to explain.
Julie smirked. "God, she's being stubborn about this," she thought. "Think about the most fun times you have had in the last twelve months. Who were you with?"
"Well, uh..." Buffy trailed off, realizing the answer to all of the questions was the same; Willow.
Julie was relentless. She knew from letters and phone calls that Buffy loved Willow like no one else, she just had to get her cousin to see it for herself. "When you need a shoulder to cry on, or someone to talk about stuff with, or just someone to be with to cheer you up, who do you think of before anyone else?" she asked, softly.
"Willow," she whispered; almost surprised by the answer herself.
Thinking she had the last nail in the coffin, Julie asked, "How long have you been dating Riley?"
Buffy was suddenly wary, not wanting to have to defend her boyfriend against any more put-downs, no matter how accurate or well deserved they might be. "Uh, about three or four weeks..."
"In the last month you and I have talked on the phone three times, and you sent me, like ten emails, right?" Julie asked.
Thrown by the apparent change in topic, Buffy had to think about it for a moment. "Yeah, I guess so, why?"
Julie smiled warmly at her beloved cousin. "In all that you never once mentioned that you were even dating someone, let alone gave me his name. But you never failed to mention the latest thing you and Willow were doing." She gave Buffy's shoulders one last gentle squeeze and then let them go. She turned to leave the bathroom, saying, "Think about that for a minute Buffy. Just think about it."
========== BtVS ==========