Keeper of the Stars
by Shyfox
Keeper of the Stars
[reviews]
Disclaimer: Characters of B:tVS belong to Joss whedon. The story belongs to me.
This is the sequel to Psych Ward Blues in my Sappho's spell series.:-) Enjoy
Comments, questions, criticisms are as always welcome at shyfox30@hotmail.com
Keeper of the Stars
by
Shyfox
It was no accident.
Me finding you.
Someone had a hand in it.
Long before we ever knew.
......
I tip my hand to the keeper of the stars.
He sure knew what he was doing.
When he joined these two hearts.
I hold everything when I hold you in my arms.
And I'll have all I'll ever need.
Thanks to the keeper of the stars.
--Tracy Byrd
Chapter one: You are Cordially Invited...
You are cordially invited,
to the joyous joining
of Buffy Anne Summers
and Willow Rosenberg.
Please RSVP.
Buffy and Willow lay curled up on the couch looking over their wedding invitation list, trying to figure out how they had invited so many people to the wedding. There were over a hundred names on this list, a list that had been trimmed down from an original three hundred. "I didn't think I knew this many people." Buffy said, ruefully, as she examined the list. In fact, she didn't recognize half of the names on it. Her head rested comfortably on Willow's abdomen, and she could feel the gentle curve that was gradually growing with each passing day, pressing against the back of her neck.
"Well...Joyce gave me the list of your Aunts and Uncles, as well as your cousins, and your Grandparents...do you think your dad will come?" Willow asked, pensively, stroking Buffy's arm with idle fingers.
"I don't know...I don't think so. I mean, I'll invite him, but he's always so busy with work..." The truth was, Buffy hardly ever saw her dad anymore. It was true that his business had always kept him away a lot...even when she was a child...and while it had stung then, she had grown to a certain feeling of resignation towards it.
Willow nodded, brushing the top of Buffy's head with a gentle kiss. She knew her lover's father's disappearance from her life bothered her more than she would admit...maybe even to herself. That was just one of the reasons she was confident that Buffy would make a great parent, she would never want her child to feel the devastation of having a missing parent.
"Yeah...anyway, I know Giles is looking forward to escorting me down the aisle...you should have seen his face when I asked him. First he turned red...then he started stuttering...and then he started beaming with pride and said he would be happy to escort me down the aisle."
Buffy laughed at the image, her stuffy Watcher had certainly come a long way since she had first met him. He had at one time preached at her the importance of the Slayer standing alone. Now he knew that an alone Slayer was a dead Slayer. Buffy certainly wasn't alone now.
"So, we've got my side of the family...are you sure you don't want to invite any of your family to this...I know your mom and dad probably won't show." Buffy said, feeling guilty for some unfathomable reason. There was no reason why she should feel guilty, the Rosenberg's had brought their daughter's estrangement down upon themselves, but she still felt a little guilty for being the cause of it all. Then, when she allowed herself to think about what Ira Rosenberg had done to her, the guilt was washed away in a flash of fury. She had told Willow and the gang as little as possible about what had really happened. She told them about the van, and about what had happened inside the Psych Unit, but left out a lot of the pertinent details...like the fact that Ira had been behind the whole thing. She suspected that some of them knew that she had left some of her story out...but they hadn't pressed her for the details...in which she felt extremely grateful.
Willow sighed, then shifted, pulling her lover closer to her as she wrapped her arms around her midsection. "No...things are still so messed up where they are concerned...it might be better to leave everyone else out of it. Besides, we've already got a large enough list as it is...it's almost like we've invited the whole town of Sunnydale. Course, half of the people won't show up because they have to travel in from out of town...but..."
"They why invite them?" Buffy asked, craning her neck so that she could see her lover. "I've got an even better idea. Let's just have a private ceremony. You ...me...and the preacher. What do you say?" She asked, looking at her lover hopefully. She got poked in the ribs for her trouble.
"Buffy...we only get married once...we might as well make it a memorable one. I thought you wanted this." Willow said, a quiet note slipping into her voice as insecurity started to nibble away at the red head.
Buffy noticed it right away and kicked herself, figuratively, in the head for being insensitive. "I do. I'm sorry. I guess I'm a little nervous. I've never gotten married before." Her blue eyes pleaded with her lover's for understanding, while she entwined her fingers with her lover's. She brought Willow's left hand up and kissed the engagement ring that lay possessively on her ring finger. "I do know I've never wanted anything more."
The doorbell rang before Willow could answer, and Buffy sent a glowering look towards the door. "Oops. I kind of forgot Cordelia and Anya were coming over today to take me to my fitting." Willow said, looking apologetically at her lover, who looked like she wanted to curse a blue streak.
"I'd rather take you to your fitting." Buffy replied, grinning lasciviously.
"Uh...I think not. You know, it's bad luck to see me in my dress before the wedding." Willow said, her green eyes blinking wide.
"You don't really believe that, do you?" Buffy raised a startled blonde eyebrow in question.
"We live on top of the Hellmouth...I'd rather not take any chances where bad luck is concerned, thank you very much." Willow insisted. "Besides, aren't Oz and Xander coming to get you soon, anyway?"
Buffy winced as she stood moving over to answer the door. "Yeah, we have to go pick up the tuxes today." She said, right before she answered the door. "Morning, Cordy."
Cordelia glanced over Buffy, then looked at Willow. "Let's shop...we only have thirty shopping days left."
*****
Buffy stared at her reflection in the full framed mirror that stood in the rental shop. "I feel like a waiter." She said, as she adjusted the suspenders on her suit, then played with the cuff link on her right sleeve.
"You look like a waiter." Xander said, giving her a once over as he came out of the changing room behind her, dressed in his monkey suit.
Buffy shot him an offended look and Xander smiled awkwardly. "Heh. Just kidding. Come on, you have to admit we clean up very nice." He said, admiring himself in the mirror. Buffy nodded, a wry look gracing her bright blue eyes as she stared at herself in the mirror.
"Tell me again why I'm wearing a tux?" Oz asked, as he came out, adjusting his jacket. 'Dingoes Ate my baby' was playing back up for Joyce who was going to be singing at the wedding, though she had yet to tell anybody exactly what she was singing. They were also going to be playing at the reception.
Buffy looked at the guitar player, an amused smirk playing over her lips. "Because Willow insisted that you guys look good, and whatever Willow wants, Willow gets."
"How'd Giles luck out of this little field trip, anyway?" Xander asked, noticing the absence of the vaunted Watcher.
"He already owns a tux. Though, I can't imagine why." Buffy shook her head, still not able to comprehend that one.
Xander contemplated that for all the time it took him to get his bow tie straight then shook it off. He examined himself and Buffy in the mirror, then nodded his head. "I think we're about done here, what do you say we go find the ladies?" He asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipatory glee. That was, before he saw a blonde head shaking at him. "Why not?" He asked, sounding pretty whiny.
"Can't...Willow made me promise. Said something about it being bad luck...or something like that."
"Oh come on Buffster. You know that's just superstition." Xander said, sounding desperate, even to his own ears.
"You just want to see Anya and Cordy in their bridesmaid dresses. Forget about it Xander." The Slayer ordered. It was then that she noticed some Cowboy hick giving her strange looks out of the corner of her eye. She watched him surreptitiously, noticing his looks of disgust in her direction. She turned around to stare at him, her blue eyes boring into him as she met his stare.
Xander noticed the stare off and turned his head to see what the trouble was. "Hey. What's that guy's problem?" He asked, giving the guy a dirty look.
"Beats me." Buffy murmured, not dropping the intense glare. The cowboy must have taken it as a challenge, because he stepped across the room, avoiding the dressed up mannequins that littered the room, in convenient places, until he stood right in front of them.
"Ya playin' dress up, girlie?" The cowboy asked in a slow drawl, while slowly chewing on the tobacco that stained the side of his mouth, and Buffy wondered idly where he had teleported in from.
Buffy's eyes raked over the cowboys form, from the light blue tuxedo to the cowboy hat tucked haphazardly on his head. "Funny...I could ask you the same question." She said, sardonically, letting a wry grin grace her lips.
The cowboy looked down at his suit, then back up at her a scowl furrowing his brow. "You makin' fun of me, girlie?"
"Boy...you catch on fast. I bet you went all the way through high school." The sarcastic edge to the Slayer's voice hit the cowboy like a brick, causing his face to turn an interesting shade of red.
"Why you...if you weren't a girl...and I wasn't a gentleman I'd..."
"You'd what...haul me behind your Jeep Cherokee Ranger?" Humor danced in the Slayer's blue eyes. She had to admit, she was having fun. "I didn't ask you to come over here and stick your nose where it doesn't belong...really doesn't belong...so why don't you go buy your cotton candy suit so you can get out of here and run to complain to your DixieMart girlfriend how some girlie in a tux offended your manhood."
The red faced cowboy took a menacing step towards Buffy, before he managed to look around and notice Oz and the rest of 'Dingoes ate my baby' standing around with their arms crossed, watching him closely. He gulped at the menacing looks they sent in his direction, then looked back at the infuriating blonde. "Dyke." He spat at her, before he turned on one cowboy boot, and walked away, cursing her out all the way.
Buffy absorbed the word like a bullet. She stared somberly at the doorway the cowboy had disappeared through, while she felt her worried friends circling around her.
"Buffy...you all right?" Oz asked, looking at the distant Slayer.
She nodded, looking around at her friends. "Yeah...I'm okay. I'm sorry about that guys."
"I would have paid good money to see you wipe the floor with that guy." Xander said, still fuming. What right did that guy have to make comments like that anyway? "Why didn't you..."
"Beat him up?" Buffy asked him, a wry look filling the stormy blue eyes. "What am I supposed to do, Xander? Beat up every bigoted jerk that crosses my path? I'd be beating up jerks all day...and what with my night job, even Slayer's get tired of beating up on people." Besides the fact that as a Slayer she was supposed to protect people, not beat up on them, even bigoted jerks.
"Come on guys, let's just pay for our tuxes and get out of here." Suddenly, it felt like the four walls were closing in on her, and she had an overwhelming urge to leave.
*****
Cordelia let out a low whistle as Willow emerged from the changing room in a haze of white silk, catching the former fashion queen breathless. Her eyes traveled up and down Willow's beautifully bedecked form, shaking her head in wonder. She had come a long way from the class geek, to utterly chic. "Willow...you look..."
Green eyes met the hazel eyes apprehensively, obviously remembering Cordelia's old habit of putting down her fashion sense. Cordelia saw the look and smiled in a self-deprecatory manner.
"Stunning." She answered honestly, admiring the satin filled form with admiring eyes. "Buffy's going to die and go to Slayer heaven when she sees you." Willow beamed at Cordy's compliment, then looked herself over appraisingly in the full length mirror. She had to admit, she didn't look half bad.
"She'll probably have an instant orgasm." Anya piped in, ignoring the shocked looks she received as she examined a fingernail intently.
"Does she always talk like that?" Cordelia asked in a hushed whisper, glancing around the nearly empty shop, hoping their conversation hadn't been overheard. There was just one other woman, besides the salesperson, in the store who was trying on a very unflattering bridal gown. The bleached blonde Kewpie doll was trying on an ugly cream colored lacy wedding dress that was way too small for her, and trying to make herself fit.
"Uh...yeah. Xander's trying to break her of the habit but he hasn't been very successful so far." Willow said, smiling as Cordelia snorted, no doubt amused at the thought of Xander breaking anybody of a habit like that.
It took a great deal of convincing to get Anya into the sapphire blue bridesmaid dress Willow had picked out, Cordelia hadn't been much of a problem, but Anya kept arguing, saying she didn't know why she had to wear a special dress...she wasn't the one getting married. Willow told her about weddings in painstaking detail, hoping that some of her words would get through to the ex-vengeance demon, and finally, with a slight huff, Anya got up and went to put on her dress.
Willow wondered what kind of a world she lived in where an ex-vengeance demon was one of her bridesmaid's and a person who used to ridicule her in high school was another. Yup, she definitely lived on the hellmouth. She grinned to herself ruefully at the thought, then sat down beside Cordelia who was already dressed in her dress.
They were both waiting for Anya to come out, when a surly looking cowboy walked into the store, bellowing out a woman's name. "Becky Sue! Where are you?"
The unfortunate woman in the cream colored dress looked up startled at the sound and shot a wary look to the door at the other side of the room. Willow followed her gaze to the cowboy and winced in sympathy at the deer in the headlight look coming from the poor woman.
"What are you doing here, Earl?! You're not supposed to see me like this until the wedding!" The woman called out to the man in the blue tuxedo.
"Forget about that...just get the dress so we can get out of here." The still furious man barked, before walking back out the door, clearly expecting his Becky Sue to follow.
The woman hurried back into the changing room to change out of her dress and Willow felt a great well of sympathy emerge for the poor woman. She wondered who had pissed the cowboy off so badly that he had to take it out on his fiancée, then realized that it was probably just the guy's nature. She wondered how anybody could put up with being treated like that, and thanked her lucky stars that she had fallen in love with Buffy, a person she knew would love her and take care of her and their child, and not treat them like possessions.
"Why do I get the feeling that guy ran into Buffy?" Cordelia asked, sarcastically, still staring at the door the cowboy had breezed through. Buffy had a supreme gift for infuriating people. Willow shot a worried look at her, then glanced back as the bleached blonde hurriedly paid for the dress, then ran outside.
*****
As much as her curiosity was eating at her, it wasn't until later that she found out what happened from Buffy, who admitted that she was behind the cowboy's mad outburst. She had told her as little as possible about the comments the cowboy had made, choosing to gloss over the details, though Willow could tell the confrontation had upset her lover.
Buffy was determined not to let it bother her, but it did raise serious questions in her mind about how people would react when she and Willow were married. Not to mention what would happen once the baby came. The same humans she was chosen to protect could be decidedly cruel towards anything they perceived as different. Buffy had faced this many times before, because of being the Slayer...she was used to it. But she wouldn't tolerate it if it was aimed at Willow or her child. She knew she would defend them with every fiber of her being, and whoever was foolish enough to attack them would pay a heavy price.
Willow tried to chase away Buffy's gloomy thoughts with talk about the wedding. They had mailed the invitations, bought their outfits, the flowers were being arranged, and Mario was putting on the rehearsal dinner and the reception.
When they had told him they were getting married, he had gushed on excitedly, in his thick Italian accent, congratulating them both, then insisting that he would give them a wedding feast to be proud of. Buffy had said that she couldn't allow him to do both, feeling guilty for taking advantage of his kindness so far, but he had looked so offended at the comment, that she immediately backed down, accepting his offer with a graciousness that Willow could be proud of. He beamed at them both, a great deal of love shining from the old Italian's eyes, then broadcasted the announcement to his waitstaff in a loud boisterous voice, causing them both to blush as a round of cheers filled the restaurant. Couples had looked up from their intimate dinners at the commotion and had looked at the red faced couple curiously, before returning to their dinners.
Their rings had been ordered, the storekeeper had been extremely helpful in helping them pick out their rings. They had hemmed and hawed over the selection, until the shopowner had pointed out a beautiful pair of golden rings, that were decorated with an image of two embracing turtledoves engraved on the surface. The rings were being sized now, and they had been assured that the golden symbols of their love would be ready before the wedding.
The wedding was actually shaping up quite nicely, Buffy decided, relaxing under the feel of Willow's soft hands massaging over the bare skin of her shoulders and back as she lay on her bed. The only thing that bothered her, was the fact that she had yet to come up with a feasible plan for a Honeymoon. It wasn't like she could leave Sunnydale anytime soon. They had just started their spring courses, and their wedding didn't really fall under a convenient time for getting away for a week. Then again, there was the little matter of a lack of funds. Her mother was helping them put on the wedding as it was, and she couldn't really expect her to give them a Honeymoon as well, so it was most likely that they would have to put off having one for the time being. Willow didn't seem too bothered by it, insisting that all she really wanted was to be married to the Slayer. But, she vowed silently that she would find some way to make it up to her future wife.
*****