Love and everything that goes with it
by Bwriter
part seven
[reviews]
Part seven
Willow walked into the mansion, Fang at her heels.
"Where's Buffy?"
She turned towards Faith but never answered her.
"You did find her didn't you?"
Willow slowly nodded her head
"Well? What happened?"
"She kissed me." Willow was shocked, and it showed in her voice.
Faith really wasn't expecting that.
"How was it?"
Willow sat down, luckily the couch was behind her.
"That's all you have to say?"
Faith sat beside Willow and put her arm around her best friend.
"What's freaking you out here? The fact that Buffy is a girl or the fact that she's a demon?"
Willow opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. She didn't know how to answer that.
Buffy sat for a while longer before standing and walking slowly back to the mansion.
When she reached the glass doors that led in from the garden, she remember that everyone was there.
Sighing she walked in and nearly bumped into Angel.
"Where the hell have you been?"
Buffy raised her head and stared at her Sire.
Angel nearly took a step back at the sadness he could see shining through.
He pulled her to him and gave her a hug, only backing away when Faith spoke.
"Hey careful, if B here wasn't hung up on Will I could be jealous."
Buffy gave Faith a nod then walk to her room, not saying word or making eye contact with anyone. Not even caring that everyone must have known by now what had happened with Willow earlier.
Willow watched as Buffy left the room with her head down and got up, following her.
Buffy opened her bedroom door and was about to go in when she felt someone touch her shoulder.
She was so out of it she hadn't heard or sensed anyone.
Turning she saw Willow and closed her mouth, not knowing what to say.
/she tasted good/
Buffy agreed with her demon, but she doubted Willow would want to know that.
Buffy stepped aside when Willow wanted to move past her. She followed the redhead into her bedroom, but kept the door open, not wanting Willow to feel boxed in.
Willow turned to face Buffy and opened her mouth but no words came out.
Buffy saw the trouble Willow was having and feared the worst.
"Look, I'm really sorry about before. I was emotional and overly needed. I'm sorry if I offended you in any way. If you wanna just forget it happened I understand."
/LIAR/
'I know but I can't have her avoiding me because she feels awkward'
Willow walked over to Buffy and raised her hand to touch the Vampire's cheek.
Surprising the hell out of herself and the Vampire, she leaned in and pressed her lips against Buffy's.
Buffy never hesitated to kiss her back.
Buffy's hands moved to pull Willow's body closer to her own. One went to her back, the other tangled in her hair.
Her tongue came out again and Buffy hoped Willow didn't break the kiss like she had earlier.
Willow opened her mouth, letting Buffy inside. The Vampire groaned at the sensation.
Willow's head was spinning. When she had kissed Oz and Xander, she had butterflies in her tummy but kissing Buffy? She felt like the butterflies had brought an army with them.
She pulled back from the kiss but stayed within the circle of Buffy's arms.
Buffy opened her eyes, expecting to see that horrified expression again but saw one of wonder instead.
"Why did you kiss me in the cemetery?"
Buffy willed her brain to work, but having Willow so close, it wasn't cooperating.
"Huh?"
Willow smiled before leaning back in for another kiss, one which quickly grew in passion.
Buffy kicked behind her with her foot, closing the door before turning and pressing Willow against it.
"Buffy..."
Buffy broke to give Willow air and trailed her kisses over her face and neck. When she felt Willow stiffen beneath her she pulled back, afraid she'd gone too far.
Willow looked into the lust-filled eyes of the Vampire before her and a shiver racked through her body at the sight.
"We need to stop."
Buffy pulled away so quickly, Willow nearly fell, only the wall behind her kept her upright.
/NO no stopping - more kissing/
Buffy closed her eye and reigned in her lust. When she opened them again her eyes locked with Willow's.
Willow took her hand and led them over to the bed. When they were both sitting she started stoking Buffy's knuckles with her thumb.
"If we start something, I need it to go slow. This is all knew for me. I've never been with a girl before, never mind a Vampire."
Buffy's undead heart leaped at that.
"Do you want there to be an us?"
Willow nodded her head shyly.
Buffy couldn't resist leaning in a giving her a small kiss on the lips, keeping it light.
When she pulled back she had a smile on her face, before a frown set in.
"Why did you react that way earlier then?"
Willow sighed before telling Buffy the question Faith had asked her.
Buffy waited for Willow to continue but she never did.
"So what'd you say?"
Willow wanted to say that it was the girl thing that was bugging her but she couldn't. Her silence gave Buffy her answer.
Buffy's shoulders slumped.
/why doesn't she like me? I'm very loveable/
Willow saw the slumped shoulders and lifted Buffy's chin up so they were eye to eye.
"Relationships are about compromising. I like you and I want to see where it goes. I'll deal with it."
Buffy had her doubts but she couldn't pass this change up, even if it ended in heart break for her.
The next night the gang was supposed to meet at the library.
So far everyone was there but Willow and Buffy was getting agitated.
"Call her house, see if she left yet."
Faith felt like hitting the Vampire.
"B I called, like five times, she's probably on her way."
Buffy started pacing again, causing the others to roll their eyes.
Giles, who didn't know about the change in relationship between Willow and Buffy was confused as to why she was acting like she was.
"Buffy, sit."
Buffy threw Angel a glare and continued pacing. It hadn't been a command, for which she was grateful, so she could refuse him.
Willow walked through the doors and came face to face with a very worried Buffy.
"Where the hell have you been? We've been waiting for over twenty minutes."
Buffy never gave Willow the chance to answer and swept her up in a kiss.
Giles eyes widened before he removed his glasses and began cleaning them.
"When did this happen?"
Everyone turned from watching the passionate kiss to look at the Watcher.
"It's a new thing." Faith was the one to answer.
The doors opened again to reveal Lou and Fang. When Giles saw the panther, he choked on the tea she had just drank.
"What... who is that and why is there a panther in my library?"
While the gang filled him in, Buffy continued to kiss Willow.
She had stiffened when Lou first arrive but Willow had felt it and wrapped her arms fully around her before increasing the pressure of the kiss.
Buffy eventually broke the kiss to let Willow breathe and led her over to the table.
Giles avoided looking at both of them, though the rest of the group had little smirks on their faces.
"Buffy you have a little..." Faith indicated to the smeared lipstick at the side of her mouth.
Buffy turned to face Willow and Willow raised her hand, wiping off the lipstick with a finger.
Buffy couldn't resist and let her tongue swipe across the top of said finger, causing Willow's eyes to widen.
"So, what's the what Giles?"
Giles, glad for the distraction, latched onto what Xander had said.
"Well the prophecy seems to have more in it than we originally thought. Another sentence appeared last night that makes reference to a scroll:
And from the depth of Hell he will come, the scroll of the dead in his hands.
I've never heard of it before, have you two?"
Buffy and Angel both hadn't and shook their heads no.
Lou locked eyes with the Watcher.
"Do you know something?" Giles had a feeling she did.
Lou looked down at Fang before raising her eyes back to Giles.
"I know something, thought I'm not sure how much will be of use."
"Anything would help us right now."
Lou sat down and motioned everyone else to, this was going to be a long story.
"You may think that this prophecy hasn't yet began, but the truth is it has been ongoing for over a century. The war has been raging in hell. The demon that shall rise, its not like any other you will have faced, but I'm getting ahead of myself here. I'll start at the beginning, I need to tell how I came to know of the prophecy, but I want no interruptions."
She threw a look at both Buffy and Angel before continuing.
"The Powers asked me to intervene in the lives of two demons. They knew that this fight would be coming and they knew that these two demons would play a pivotal part in the final battle.
I had no idea who these demons were, I was just given names and a location.
When I arrived in Italy, they were easy to find. It only took me a month. I just followed the dead bodies.
They were vicious, yet between the two they shared a bond, in fact they still do this day., though it's a little rusty.
When I caught one, the other tried to sacrifice itself to save her Sire."
All eyes turned to Buffy, then Angel. Buffy had a hold of Willow's hand and wasn't letting go anytime soon. Not that Willow minded.
Angel had a similar hold on Faith.
"She blindsided me. I may be immortal, but had I not had Fang with me, I would be surely dead, or at the very least crippled by her attack.
Her Sire tried to get her to stop so they could get away, but I had a feeling she knew that she couldn't win, that they couldn't win. Not this fight.
As she fought with me and tried to stay away from Fang's teeth, she shouted for him to leave. He refused.
This was my second clue that there was something very different about these two.
I knew that taking on both at once had been a mistake so I retreated.
I kept an eye on them for the next week or so, learning their routines.
When I saw an opening, I took it."
Lou paused to give Buffy and Angel a look, and they knew what was coming next. They had heard it the night before.
"The female demon had left one night to go on a hunt without her Sire and I followed with Fang.
She sensed us and turned.
I walked calmly up to her until we were within a few feet of the other, Fang at my heels.
The demon turned to the male with her and told him to warn Angelus. He took off running.
She asked me what I wanted. I couldn't answer her. What I wanted didn't matter, I worked for the Powers.
I told her of the plans the Powers had for her and her Sire.
If it were possible, she paled. I remember her words like she spoke them just yesterday
Are you mad? Do you have any idea what we've done?
I didn't but I could guess.
It didn't matter though. The Powers wanted what they wanted.
I used magic to bind her into place and then removed us from this dimension.
She struggled the entire way.
She must have realised that it was going to happen whether she wanted it to or not, because the fight went out of her.
She told me to just take her and leave Angelus alone. I was surprised by the loyalty though I shouldn't have been with having witnessed the way she protected him the week before.
I used the power the Powers had granted me to do their work for them in this case and returned her soul.
I returned her back to this dimension when it was over and she appeared in a field, Angelus stood before her.
I had stayed in-between dimensions waiting for my chance to re-soul the remaining demon.
Buffy was laying on the ground curled up into a ball, sobbing.
Angelus bent down, wondering what was wrong and when their eyes met, he knew.
I didn't know what I was expecting to happen but it wasn't for him to stand up and turn his back on her."
Angel moved over to Buffy, taking faith with him and wrapped an arm around her whispering "I'm so sorry" in her ear.
"I actually enjoyed giving him back his soul. I was enraged that he had treated her like that when she had done nothing but worry about him.
When he realised what had happened, he, like Buffy, broke down in tears, but unlike Buffy, he had someone there to help in in those first few confusing hours when all the memories of what he had done as a demon came to him.
I had done what I set out to do and reported back to the Powers via the Oracles.
I asked them why they needed these two demons.
They told me of a prophecy that had even them scared.
They said that these two were needed, but what they didn't know is that they sparked the start of the prophecy. They only found out after Buffy and Angelus had been given back their souls, their humanity.
The Powers had only known the finally prophecy, they hadn't known that to give Buffy and Angel their souls would spark the beginning of the end."
Everyone in the library was silent, even Fang.
Buffy had her head down, her hand playing with one of Willow's, who had tears in her eyes.
Angel had his head buried in Faith's neck, breathing in her comforting scent.
They both had to deal with the knowledge that the reason they were given a second chance, was the reason the world was now in danger.
"Do you know how we can beat this demon?" Giles felt the need to ask.
Lou shook her head no.
"I gave you a watered down version of what happened. The Powers refused to tell me anymore. They were pissed because they had unwittingly started what they hoped to prevent."
Buffy looked up and when she spoke, her voice was hollow.
"Why didn't you tell us, me? After that we got to know each other. You lied to us the entire time. Where you only there because of the prophecy?"
Lou shook her head no.
"The only thing I ever lied about was my connection to the Powers. My friendship to you both was very real.
Xander raised his hand.
"Wait. This doesn't make sense. You were the one to give them back their souls, how could they not know you worked for the Powers? You told Buffy it was the Powers that sent you."
It was Buffy that answered.
"She wiped our memories of who it was. Until last night, I thought it had been a demon."
Even though it wasn't needed, Lou nodded her head yes.
Faith glared daggers at Lou as did Willow.
"Do we have any idea what type of demon we're gonna be up against?" Xander wanted to focus on what mattered right this minute.
"All I know is that its old. Very very old."
Giles looked to Lou.
"You don't know anything else about it?"
Lou shook her head no.
Faith stood up.
"I have to patrol. Who's coming with?"
Angel and Buffy stood up.
Willow stood up as well causing Buffy to turn to face her.
"You aren't going."
Willow's resolve face came on.
"Out of the two of us who is the boss of me? I'm going."
They locked eyes before Buffy finally backed down.
"Fine, but you stay out of danger a take a cross for protection."
Lou stood up and offered to let her take Fang.
Willow smiled and looked at the panther that was now sitting by her side.
Xander and Cordy also wanted to go.
They all set off leaving Giles with Lou.