Switcheroony
by alicorn
chapter 2
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Chapter 2:
From her spot at their table, Buffy found herself gazing at Willow who was dancing with Xander. She wondered just how Oz could have walked out on her Will. She was an incredibly sweet woman, a fantastically loyal friend, a sympathetic shoulder to cry on and pocket fun genius. Imagining Willow the size of a pocket dictionary made her smile and Willow, of course, chose that moment to look her way and flash her a beautiful smile in response. Buffy's glowed with pride.
She was enjoying a floaty, thank the goddesses for Willowy goodness, my life's a good life feeling but it was squashed when she recognized the face that moved into her line of sight as that of Faith. Leaning across the table Faith smiled knowingly, as she blocked her view of the dance floor.
"Hey B, still checking out Red I see. What 's holding you back?" she asked with a leer. "Don't get what you see in her, myself."
"So not asking. What are you doing here, Faith? Gotta wish to die much?" Buffy asked, shooting Faith a steely gaze. "Didn't I make it clear at our last meeting that you should stay away from me?"
"I'm on a job for Angel but I thought I'd just do some catching up. Touching base with my home girl. No hug for your long lost?" she asked carelessly. Changing tack and the tone of her voice she continued "So seriously, how you doing B? Scoobies look like they're on a well-deserved break. How's Giles?"
Buffy found herself suddenly very alert. Faith being chummy set her teeth on edge and her spider senses tingling. "Yeah, right. What's with the noticing others all of a sudden?"
"B. You wanna learn to lay back, girlfriend. Go with the flow." Faith threw her shoulders back and spread her arms in a 'couldn't care less' gesture. "Just chill."
"If I go with my flow, your gonna be lying flat on your back pretty damn soon," replied Buffy through clenched teeth. This was getting unfunny real quick. Faith was making her nervous.
"Hey babe, whatever," she replied, leaning forward to smirk at Buffy. "Not really here to push your buttons, fun though that is. I have something to pass on from Cordy." With that she perched on the stool to the left of Buffy. Faith's brazen confidence in the fact that Buffy would not act on her instincts and punch her out until she knew why Angel was involved, grated on the Slayer's nerves for different reasons. "You may wanna call in the Buffettes."
As ever was the case, Willow and Xander appeared just as she thought of them. "Buff?" Xander asked, his eyes loaded with one question - what's up?
Buffy replied by moving her eyes to indicate that they sit. Xander took this as a sign to partially relax. Buffy's explanation was brief. "Faith has a message from Cordy." With that Xander sat opposite Faith and waited.
"So why not a call?" asked Willow, as she chose the stool opposite Buffy. "I mean, how do we know they sent you?"
"It's more of a hand delivery item," Faith interjected. When no one took the bait, she added "Okay. Angel said to tell Buffy that this is 'from the one freaky thing in your freaky world that makes sense'. Look really not wanting to be here B but 'Vision girl' said it had to be done now ... must be handed over to you two by midnight." Everyone checked their watch - It was ten to. "Dead Boy is otherwise engaged ... something to do with ... aww hell, who cares? Angel said I had to do the delivery ... protect it till it got to you. Got it? ... Not wanting to be here. Clear? So back off with the attitude. Just tell me, are you taking delivery?" Faith waited for a response, Buffy said nothing, while Xander and Willow just continued to stare at Faith. Taking that as backing off, Faith waited.
Xander piped up "So hand it over."
"Sorry stud," Faith said looking at Xander. "Cordy said I had to give this to Willow and Buffy. I was to tell you girlies that ... The goddess said ... Hold on. I need a mo. Lot to remember. Gouchi girl wouldn't let me write it down. So hang five."
After several minutes of Faith staring at the table in silence, Buffy was losing it. "Faith? Midnight!"
"Chill," Faith paused again. "Okay, I think I got it."
"A choice says the Goddess,
Give into nothing but temptation
Let inner passions light a fire.
Flowing in the heart of a maiden,
Now arising without the dawn,
To find a home and free desire.
Walk in the shoes of another
The fate of two souls entwined
Or secrets that burden and fester.
For Luna will turn her back
Until the hidden truth is seen,
Returning to fix them forever.
Only then will there be release.
Or bind the lies like the first,
Unrequited soul mates left to die.
For if she withers from her roots
And a single season be forgotten,
Such lives will weep and cry."
Finishing, Faith slowly extracted a globe from her jacket.
Buffy and Willow immediately ignored the really bizarre fact that they had just heard Faith reciting poetry as they both became mesmerized by the soft yellow and amber light that emanated from the globe. They were drawn to it and both reached for the globe as Faith placed it on the table and removed her own hand.
Willow's hand touched it first and she smiled at Buffy, who was also reaching forward her hand. When Buffy touched the Globe, a surge of power shot between them and knocked Xander from his stool. From the floor he heard Faith say "Job done. I'm outta here." Scrambling to his feet, he saw her exit stage left. Looking back at Buffy and Willow, he saw that they were out of it, their heads resting on the table, hands still outstretched but between them there was no globe!
Torn between chasing Faith and a possible, no make that almost certain thrashing, he decided that calling Giles and staying with the girls was probably the right thing to do.
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"I want you each to write down exactly what you each recall Faith having said. Word for word, please," Giles said. "You will probably all remember it slightly differently and we need to have the exact wording if possible. So if I compare all three, I will probably be able to get as close to what was actually said as possible without having recorded it. The trick with unraveling a curse is in the wording. Deciphering the hidden meaning in words, etcetera."
Having done their scripts, they handed them into Giles and a debate ensued as the differences in their recollections were set before them. Eventually about an hour and a half later, a large white board in the training room displayed what seemed to be the collective recollection of the curse.
"Okay questions first:
Which Goddess?
What temptation?
Who's the Maiden?
What's the hidden truth?
What was the first lie?
What does it mean by fix them forever?" Giles asked as he started writing on the right side of the white board.
"Then there are the obvious things. The two souls, shoes of another, the withered roots and the single season all seem to refer to Buffy and Willow. Luna is the moon. So that's our timescale - a lunar month." Having half filled the right side of the board, Giles stepped back to stare at it in the hope more would become evident.
Buffy sat numb. In her heart she thought she knew what it was all about but her fear of being wrong prevented her from speaking. Well not only her fear of being wrong but if she was honest it was her fear of being right. Instead her mind took over. 'I'm just seeing what I want to see. There is no way that Faith could seriously have been trying to help. It wasn't in her nature despite what Angel thought, and she was probably only seeing what she wanted to see. How would Faith ever know what's best for Willow. She has never said a kind word to her. No, it can't be me!' She scanned the words, trying to find other meanings. It was referring to a big bad ... Somehow Willow and she would be fixed this way forever. 'Faith if you're still on this planet, you are so dead.'
Willow, decided to dismiss Giles' approach and was busy scribbling the sequential letters of each word, then the secondary sequences. Searching for a numeric, predictable pattern ... a code. She liked the mathematical approach. She was also busy denying all the thoughts and feelings that the verse provoked in her emotionally. This was just another puzzle.
Anya spoke "Did you say the globe had a yellow light?"
Willow and Buffy nodded.
"I think you'll find the Goddess is Innana. She was a Sumerian High Goddess. In the days of the Christos when the sacrificial gods Tammuz/Dumuzi were consorts of the powerful Ishtar and Innana, men seeking to honor the Goddess entered the priesthood performing self castration as an act of contrition. To become closer to the Goddess they emasculated themselves in an attempt to be more like women, having a hole, instead of a penis. Then the church fathers emulated the attire of women by adopting robes as an emblem of their "holy" office. Seeking ritual debasement and submission to purge their day-to-day guilt at being male. Ahh those were the days, devout monks beating themselves into a frenzy of zealous ecstasy. I cursed quite a few men with the worship of Innana in my time, I can tell you," Anya beamed, apparently still unrepentant. "Oh yeah. Their robes were always yellow. The same color as the hair of their Goddess"
Xander sat there too but unlike everyone else, he wasn't looking at the board. He wasn't really listening to Anya. He was looking at his two best friends. Slowly his mind dropped the pieces of another puzzle into place. Willow and Buffy were not as practiced at hiding their thoughts and feelings behind the faces they were now wearing. He had seen a few things that ... well ... didn't sit as normal.
When what Anya was saying filtered into the puzzle, it all came together in Xander's head and the light went on. He stopped breathing in a vain attempt to stop laughing. Excusing himself, he left the room and headed out into the alley. Where he laughed loud and long. Then realizing he had to say something, the funnies stopped. 'How the hell do I tell those two that they're in love?' He so did not want to be the one to have that conversation with them.
'Maybe if I just nudge them. Hold on! That's what Faith is doing! I'll be damned. She really is trying to do them a favor! She's pulling a Kiser Soseh. I need some time, thinking time. Anya, your gonna love this.'
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It was two o'clock when they finally returned to their dorm room. They were both dog-tired. Brains were pushing against skulls in protest. Buffy smiled a tired smile at Willow as she sighed before opening the main dorm door. No one greeted them. It seemed all but the twilight diehards in the TV lounge had gone to bed. That seemed the norm since at around Midnight, Xander and Anya had left Giles, Willow and Buffy to it. Anya had begun voicing needs and Xander hadn't put up much of a fight.
They climbed the stairs to their first floor room, and unlocking their door both smiled at the thought of bed as Buffy put on the light.
Their thoughts were again on bed but this time for one and only one reason. There was only one bed in the room ... one big queen size bed!! And on it was a single red rose?
They both stared at the bed, afraid to look at each other.
'And how exactly did that happen?' thought Buffy. 'Not good, not good at all.'
'It's a spell. Someone is doing a spell,' thought Willow.
"Faith!" they both said in unison.
"But why?" asked Willow, completely puzzled.
"Only she knows," answered Buffy, hoping that she was right and that Willow had no idea how she felt about her. Faith was really pushing it.
"I ... I think we should just get some sleep and tell Giles in the morning. He may find this new twist of interest. No point ringing now, though. He's had a long day just like the rest of us." Willow walked to the right hand side of the bed and started to take her shoes off. "It'll be like a sleep over ... like when we were kids."
"Yeah, cause we're so the adults now," she said grinning at Willow. "So is it Sushi pajamas tonight?"
"Of course. All the best people wear them," Willow replied grinning.
They changed with their backs to each other, which was odd as this meant they were avoiding looking at the body they knew not the one they didn't. But then again it avoided the possibility of seeing each other undressing and dressing their own body.
Willow was feeling particularly uncomfortable for all her apparent calmness. She had not shared a bed with her best friend since coming out to her. Somehow she felt she should be making this as non-sexual and innocent as possible to help Buffy over any awkwardness. Not that she was embarrassed about her sexuality but this was new territory to both of them.
"So Will, you want the left or the right?" Buffy asked, as she pulled up her pajama bottoms to leave no visible skin between the top and bottoms. "Cause I have no preference. But ... well ... when you were seeing Tara ... I'm sure you had a preference and well ..." Buffy dried up. She had mentioned Tara, something she had been trying to avoid for months now.
"I was always a right hand girl myself. If that's okay with you?" Willow replied quickly.
"Okay," Buffy replied. Quickly she changed the subject. "Have you set your alarm? Giles was pretty specific about meeting at the Magic Box by nine tomorrow. Don't wanna be late."
"Will do. How about half past seven? Give us time to shower, pick up Mochas and stroll in on time."
"Sounds great. Gotta go for the chocolaty goodness."
Will smiled at her friend. Buffy wasn't looking at her and she could hear the spooked tone in her voice. Plus she had mentioned Tara, whose name had not passed her lips in months? "Buffy, are you spooked that you're going to have to share a bed with me? You know ... what with the whole 'I'm gay now' thing."
"What, Will? No, Will. Why would I be spooked, Will?"
"Buffy, that's three Wills in as many sentences. You are spooked."
"No, Will," Buffy said, then pausing as she pulled herself together. "Trust me when I say that the thought of sleeping in the same bed with you does not freak me, spook me or otherwise cause any type of bad. You are by best friend. Okay, so you're gay ... so what? I love you and always will." She made an effort to keep eye contact as she said "We're good."
Willow rewarded her little speech with a smile. And with nothing else said on the subject they prepared for bed.
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Buffy hovered in the land of not wanting to open her eyes. She knew it was too soon. The alarm hadn't even gone off yet. Plus she felt warm and safe with her eyes shut. Slowly she began to recognize a new feeling - her rib cage felt heavy? She also felt warm all down her left side. She could feel breathing and it wasn't hers. No. There was a weight on her chest. Slowly realization dawned.
Willow's arm was across her chest and she was snuggled up to her side. It was her breathing Buffy could feel. A thousand feelings filled her - warmth, light headedness, fear, safety, rightness, wrongness, guilt, self consciousness and love among them. She had never felt so many feelings all at the same time before. Her thoughts were as conflicted and confusing as were her feelings. 'Maybe if I just stay here very still, then ... what? What do I want to happen? Do I want a sleepwalking Willow to make love to me so that only I would ever know that it had actually happened? Ok. not so crazy. That way I could keep her safe. Well, I could just maybe hold her hand ... maybe guide it ... Just how pathetic can I get? Let's face it - if she wakes up holding me, she's going to have major wiggins. I've got to move her.'
Buffy slowly tried to roll out of Willow's hold but her movements just caused the arm to tighten around her, rising to just under her breasts. She could almost feel the latent Slayer power in her old body. 'Oh, come on. Like this isn't hard enough already' her mind screamed. She tried rolling backward, in the hope that this would place Willow on her back and allow her to be released, but she found the wiccan an immovable object. Wishing for her previous Slayer strength, she cursed Faith not only for the body switch but for swapping their beds.
She sighed, frustrated. 'C'mon think. There has to be a way to ...' Then she heard Willow 'mmmm' and felt her best friend gently squeeze her. 'Oh, God. No.' Feeling a slight stretch in the body behind her, she realized that her attempts to find release had only caused Willow to wake up.
Buffy had felt the instinct to flee or fight before but this feeling — 'flee or kiss the woman holding you' ... these two choices no amount of Slayer training had ever prepared her for. Somehow she couldn't imagine the Slayer Handbook having anything useful to say on this situation.
As Willow stretched awakening from the most wonderful dream, she felt warm and content. She could hear her own heart beating. 'My goodness, it's beating fast.' Then she felt something soft brush against her face and partially opening her eyes, she saw red hair, smelled the faint scent of ... and suddenly she was awake! Opening her eyes, she thought that she would never be able to close them again. She was holding herself ... No she was holding Buffy! 'How long have I been holding her? Oh God, please let her be asleep. Maybe I could just stay here for a little while ... No. No. Bad, Willow.'
As she pulled herself away from Buffy, Willow was overcome with such guilt at her subconscious actions that it fed the speed of her now Slayer strength movement. However Buffy, still attempting to move away from that vice like arm, suddenly had nothing preventing her from rolling forward.
Two loud thumps preceded their joint babbling as they both landed on the floor on either side of the offending bed. Much apologizing, feigned surprise, cursing of Faith and blushing followed. Until they both fell into silence. As if by unspoken agreement, they rose from the floor, began to dress and prepare to leave their dorm.
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