To Conquer Death
by Rainne
Interlude: Buffy
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We went to the Bronze last night as a trio for the first time. Dakota had the idea to show up in nearly identical outfits, and we went shopping for them together yesterday afternoon. We ended up in black jeans and black Doc Marten boots — her present to us — and skintight midriff shirts in different colors. I got green, to match my eyes. Willow chose blue, because it looks so good with her hair and gives her eyes a distinctly bluish look. Dakota, no surprise, chose black. When I saw her in her outfit for the first time, I told her she looked dangerous, and I meant it.
Then I decided to play on that. I convinced her to wear makeup, just for the night, and when she consented, I did her eyes in slate grey and her lipstick in the deepest blackberry I could find. When I was done, she looked almost like Faith. Willow allowed me to make her up as well, and I did her eyes in blue to bring out the color in her irises, and her lips in cotton-candy pink. For me, I wore earth tones because I didn't want to steal the others' thunder. But when we stood together in front of the huge mirror in the master bath at Dakota's house, I realized that we were all three stunning. All three of us had grown our hair long and were wearing it tied back in ponytails with wisps at the temples, and if it hadn't been for the differences in coloring and height, we could have been triplets. It was definitely going to be an interesting night.
Every eye was on us when we walked into the club that night. As a last minute touch, Dakota had unearthed a navel ring that had a blinking blue-and-red light in it, which turned even more heads our direction. We strolled up to the table the rest of the Scoobs had appropriated, and I watched with some amusement as Xander's jaw dropped to about the level of his knees. Anya turned to see what he was staring at, saw us, and smirked. She made what was probably an inappropriate sexual comment, judging by the expression that crossed Giles's face, and I was glad we weren't close enough to hear her. Spike, whom Willow had invited rather against my better judgment, was drooling all over himself in typical Spikely fashion. And Tara, our newest little head case, just kind of smiled to herself.
Tara was an interesting situation, and I was actually kind of glad she had joined the Scoobies. She and Willow had bonded over a campus Wicca group in which they were the only two people who knew anything about real magic, and she had begun hanging out with the three of us and, by extension, the other Scoobs, socially. Then, late one night shortly before her twentieth birthday, she had come to the three of us for help. I remembered it clearly and, looking at her little grin as we approached the table, I was glad we'd been there to help her.
I saw again in my memory the scared little girl who had come to my house begging for help, and I contrasted her with the self-confident young woman who met us at the Bronze with some satisfaction. Tara was an awesome person and I was glad she was with us. She had also proved very valuable with the magic thing, actually knowing more about it than Willow and being able to tutor and, to some extent, temper Willow. Dakota and I had gotten a little concerned about Willow's thirst for magical power, but Tara seemed to be able to exert a sort of controlling influence on her for which we were both grateful.
She continued to smile that little half-grin as we strolled up to the table, hand in hand. Everyone stared at us, but Giles was the first to speak. He didn't even bother to clean his glasses. "I suppose this is your elaborate way of demonstrating to us that you're... er... all together?"
Dakota grinned evilly at him. "I suppose so, British dude. You cool with that?"
He smiled tiredly. "Has anything I've ever not been 'cool' with ever stopped anyone at this table from doing anything that they wanted to do?"
I just laughed. "We're going to go dance," I announced to everyone and no one, and dragged my girlfriends out on the floor to make all the boys jealous.