North and South...and West
by Rin
Olde School Bachelor Party
[reviews]
A/n: This idea has been in my head for months now...and it decided that it was time to come out. LOL. Thanks everybody for reading and reviewing! Oh, and many, many thanks to those who voted for my stories in the SunnyD awards!! I was so proud, I showed my mom! LOL...who had no idea what fanfiction was...lol...
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"Mmm...I don't think I've ever felt so relaxed..." Buffy draped her arm over Willow's stomach, and laid her head on her shoulder, cuddling closer to the redhead's mutually sticky and sweaty body. Placing random kisses along the shoulder beneath her, Buffy just continued to hum her approval, snuggled into her lover's body. "You're being awfully quiet...was it not..."
"Oh! Oh, my...it was...I'm just..." Willow continued stroking the sweaty blonde locks, and relayed Buffy's panic. "It was the most amazing thing...and...and we'll never get to do it again...I just don't...I hate it...not the actual thing because...yeah, wow...I mean...I hate that we can't ever...ya know...again..."
"I love when you babble." Buffy traced an invisible outline across the top of Willow's chest. "And look...your blush goes all over your body...not just your cheeks."
"I hate to ruin the moment...but we've been...uh...here...for quite some time, and I'm sure that people in the house are wondering where you are..." Willow didn't want Buffy to move from her spot.
"Can't I just stay here...with you? We can still leave in the morning...just the two of us. This doesn't have to be the only time. I want more times..." Buffy brought out the pout.
"Buffy...you're making this so much more difficult than it already is..."
"That's the point." Buffy deepened the pout, and was about to bring puppy eyes into play when she heard voices outside the slavehouse. "Oh, no! It's Xander!!!"
"Here...hurry...you can crawl out the window...sneak back into the house, get cleaned up..." Willow helped Buffy pick up here clothes, pulling on her pants and shirt, and loosely tying Buffy's undergarments in the process. "You'll have to put your gown on out there...they sound like they're almost here..."
"I don't wanna go..." Buffy raised pleading eyes to Willow.
"Buffy, imagine what would happen if Xander, and it sounds like Forrest even...imagine what would happen if they found us alone together out here, you half naked, and me in a state of undress." Willow feverishly buttoned up her shirt. "Good enough...you can't see anything..."
"I love you...this may be the last time I see you...and I can't stand it." Buffy started to cry again. The sex was already emotional...and it didn't help matters that their after-session snuggles were rudely interrupted. She thought she could fall asleep in Willow's arms, and have the best sleep she's ever had. "Please don't leave without sayin' goodbye...at least say goodbye..."
"Buffy, please...hurry, go..." The voices were too close, as Willow helped Buffy crawl out the window. "I'll try...I can't make any promises...but I'll try...now go...please?"
"Oh, Will..." Buffy leaned over the windowsill, and gave Willow one last lingering, clinging kiss before the door to the quarters began to open, and she snuck off back to the house.
"Will! Why are you leaving tomorrow?" Xander had just gotten news from Forrest that Will was relieved from work and paid that morning, so she was asked to leave. "You can't leave me...my wedding is this Saturday."
"I can't be there..." Willow tried to take deep breaths, her body still humming, hair still tousled, and face still flushed from her previous activities with Buffy.
"Of course you can. You're my best friend...you have to be there. We've always done everything together. You have to be at my wedding." Xander took a look around the room. "And why did you say you wanted to stay out here anyways? Afraid the others would find out about your...womanly attributes?"
"You really have no idea what's been going on..." Willow mumbled under her breath, as Xander continued to survey the room.
"It's a lot nicer than I expected. That's for sure...though I couldn't imagine you giving up that nice comfortable bed upstairs." As far as Xander knew, Willow had decided to stay out here on her own, and spent time with Forrest more these days because they would work together in the fields. "I feel like I haven't talked to you in months."
"That's probably because you haven't." Willow wasn't even allowed to eat dinner at the table with the others. Forrest was always sent to take her a plate of food and water or milk. She noticed them eating one night through the window, and saw how Xander sat beside Buffy now. That was her chair, not his...he didn't belong there, and Buffy didn't look like she wanted him there, either...which she didn't.
"You've not even come to my parties, or any of the other socials. My parents will be here Friday...they left last week, and should be here in a couple days. You'll never guess who they're bringing with them..." Xander sat down in the rotted wooden chair, and propped his feet up on the rotted wood table...making himself at home. "Remember that Anya girl? The shopkeeper's daughter?"
"The one you lost your virginity to?" Willow sat down on her bed, and thought better of it...moving to poke at the fire instead. The smell of Buffy and their previous lovemaking was still strong, and her senses couldn't handle it with Xander right there. She thought she might burst out in tears again, and she didn't want to explain why.
"No...that was Faith...I'm talking about Anya Jenkins. D'Hoffryn's daughter." Xander just leaned back in the chair. "Anyways...her father was killed in the mines, so my parents took her in...so she's coming with them."
"Oh...that Anya..." Willow didn't really like that girl, either. She never seemed to like the girls that Xander did...until now. "You really wanna marry Buffy?"
"Why do you sound so doubtful? I like Buffy...I mean, I know you're a girl and all but...have you SEEN Buffy? Why...I'd be the talk of everything, marrying such a beautiful woman. My dad will surely love me then." Xander stood up from the chair. Willow hadn't looked at him in over ten minutes, and just kept poking at the fire...poke, poke, poke...like she was in a daze.
"You don't even love her, then?" Willow was on the verge of tears. She thought that at least Xander loved Buffy, and would treat her good.
"Well...I just figured love would come in time. I'd be an idiot not to take this opportunity...how many women like that will you marry in your lifetime?" Xander had meant it rhetorically but then realized the crowd. "Well...not that you're going to marry them...being a girl and all...I'm just saying...I'd be a fool not to marry Buffy Summers."
"I'm a big fool..." Willow muttered under her breath again, and closed her eyes. "Look, Xan...I'm kinda tired...and want to get an early start in the morning, so how about I come say bye in the morning before I leave?"
"You're really leaving, then..." Xander stood, and embraced his dearest friend. "I wish you wouldn't. I wish you'd stay."
As Xander exited, Willow just watched him walk back to the house. One constant thought stayed in her mind from Xander's parting words. "Me, too..."
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Willow got a room at the inn that was in town, not too far from the plantation. She figured she could use a hot meal and comfy bed after the past few months of sleeping on a lumpy cot with nothing but a wool blanket and sinking feather pillow to keep her company on the cold nights. She'd been here for the last few days. Tomorrow was the wedding. She didn't know why she stayed, and didn't start to leave the town completely...but she had wishful thinking that Joyce would change her mind...or something dramatic would happen, and the wedding wouldn't happen after all, leaving Buffy free to marry her instead.
When Willow had tried sneaking into the house to say her goodbyes, Joyce had been awake...droggy from the sleeping pills and angry at being asleep so long. She took all her frustration out on Will, and the redhead's bag was tossed from the front porch down into the dirt. Not looking back, pride in tact, Willow picked up her bag, and made her way down the dirt road, leaving the plantation for good.
"Mr. Will?" Mary saw the redheaded young man sitting inside the windows at the inn, and had to stop and thank him for all his hard work.
"Mary! What are you doing here? Isn't there a house full of wedding guests at your house?" Willow stood, and hugged the former slave lady, not caring what all the people in the inn thought.
"Yessir...but I was sent after some fresh linens for a wedding present from Ms. Joyce." Mary looked at Will as though he'd lost his mind when he stood from the table, and offered her his arm to escort her. "Thank ya, Mr. Will...but dis is still the south. I may be a free woman...but that don't mean the people round here treat me no better."
"That's a shame, Mary. You're one of the finest women I've ever had the pleasure of knowing." Will relented when Mary wouldn't take the offered arm.
"Even more than Miss Buffy?" Mary smirked a knowing grin. Will just blushed and averted her sad gaze. "It's okay...I know she don' love Mr. Xander. He don' love her, neither...he just in the lust with her. Wants to bed her...but knows she won' lay with a man until she's married..."
"Um..." Willow blushed even further. "That's true." And it was...since Willow wasn't technically a man.
"Miss Buffy is a lady...but she is stubborn as hell. Ever since you left, all she done is mope around the house...stays up in her room, and won' take no meals most of the time. You'd think there was a funeral tomorrow, and not a weddin'." Mary stopped in front of the textile shop. "Listen, Mr. Will...you one of the finest gentleman I ever met...and what Ms. Joyce done...well, I don' think she even knows why she done it...but that don' make it right. We finally got Miss Buffy to wanna settle down...but she's not gettin' to settle with the one she wants..."
"Thanks, Mary." Willow didn't want to see the 'wedding night' sheets that Mary was obviously buying. Just the thought made her sick. "Take care...and tell Forrest and Susie I said goodbye."
"You did run off awful fast without goodbyes." Mary gave Will a mock scolding glance, and chuckled as she entered the store. "I thought for sure you woulda snuck your way to at least say goodbye to Miss Buffy...her window being open every night...and her mama sleepin' like a light after ten o'clock an' all...especially with that military sneakin' trainin' I'm sure you got..."
Mary winked at Will, and left the redhead to ponder his thoughts. It was obvious the wheels were turning. She could've just opened up a can of worms but she hated to see Miss Buffy suffer so much.
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Willow found herself putting her military stealth into practice, as she snuck onto the plantation property from the outbrush, and finding herself staring up at Buffy's window. Sure enough...the blonde's window was open...and there was a perfect climbing trellis that led up to it. It was almost like out of a Shakespearean romance...
She started to climb the trellis, and debated for the thousandth time since she'd started the trip...what in the world was she doing? There were too many people in the house...she would definitely get caught. Yet...the thought of the blonde being on the other side of the window urged her on...as she climbed up to the windowsill, and looked in. There was nobody in there...but there were voices in the hall, so she stayed out of sight, as the door opened and closed, the voices diminishing. Taking a risky look, she noticed Buffy just sitting at her vanity...staring at herself with a blank expression. She looked completely torn, and the redhead whimpered.
"Is somebody there?" Buffy heard the whimper, and made her way to the window. Looking out, she saw Willow hanging from the trellis right beside her window. "Willow! What...how...you scared me..."
"Sorry...but I had to see you. I never left town. I've been staying at the inn...I don't know why...I thought it was because I wanted a nice warm bed...but I think something else kept me here..." Willow looked up into Buffy's eyes, seeing how they sparkled, and the moonlight shone on her hair. "You're every bit as beautiful as I last saw you..."
"I'm a little embarassed...me, here in my sleepgown, and you...hanging from the side of my house. Can you climb inside?" Buffy moved back, and allowed Willow the chance to show off her climbing skills. The blonde was thoroughly impressed, since the redhead barely made a sound. "I can see why they made you a lieutenant. You could've snuck all the way in here, and I wouldn't have known..."
"Well...that's not true. You would've noticed me hanging halfway in your window...it wasn't the most comfortable climb." There were thorns from the roses on the trellis to prove that point.
"Oh! Come here, let me fix that...are you okay? Does it hurt?" Buffy pulled Will along, and sat her down on her four poster bed, canopies draping. Taking Willow's hand in hers, she kept her expression worried as she pulled the thorns out with her tweezers, and pulled the splinters out with her sewing needle. Taking a clean cloth from the water basin, she cleaned the blood and wounds on Willow's hands, keeping gentle the entire time. "All better?"
"Much better..." Willow was about to lean into kiss Buffy but there was a knock at the door. Joyce called through the door, wanting to know if Buffy was still awake, as Willow crawled under the bed to hide.
"Buffy, I just wanted to say goodnight...maybe have that talk." Joyce sat down on the bed, and didn't pay any attention to the panicked expression on her daughter's face, figuring it was just from having to talk about a wife's duties to her husband. "I know you'll grow to love Xander in time. He's a good man, and tomorrow...when he comes to you, don't push him away. When he expects you to give yourself to him, then..."
"Mom...it's okay. We don't have to have the 'talk.' In fact, can we please not? The thought of Xander Harris touching me that way makes me sick to my stomach." Buffy had let her mother know her opinions on the whole thing this entire time.
"Buffy...now, I warned about comments like that. Anybody could happen by, and hear you...if people found out you were marrying him for his status, then you would be ruined."
"No, mother...you would be ruined. I'm not marrying him for his status. I'm marrying him because you promised not to kick Will out, and you did anyways. Come to think of it...that means you broke your promise, which means I shouldn't have to go through with this ridiculous wedding." Buffy crossed her arms, and huffed at her mother.
"You'll learn to love him in time. Why...I didn't love your father when your grandmother forced me to marry him."
"And you hated it...so why would you do it to me? After knowing what it was like..."
"Buffy, you have to understand that our lives are different. Our family legacy has to be upheld."
"No, I don't want to understand, mom. I'm in love with somebody who came from just as important a family as Xander Harris...but he wouldn't tell me who because he wanted to save me from him."
"Yes, I know you loved Will, Buffy..."
"Not loved...love. I still love him, mom. I always will...nothin' will change that...not even this fake weddin'."
"You shouldn't say such things about other men on the eve of your wedding. It's not proper."
"Oh, and I suppose marryin' a man I don't love is proper."
"It is while you live under my roof."
"Well, maybe I don't wanna live under your roof if those are the rules you set. You broke your promise to me. Now, I'm breaking my promise to you. I will NOT marry Xander Harris tomorrow. You want him so badly...you marry him."
"Buffy Anne Summers!!!" Joyce had found herself shouting more lately than she ever had in her life. "You WILL marry that boy tomorrow, and you will like it."
"No...I won't." Buffy crossed her arms. "And if you're going to make me, I don't have anything else to say to you."
"I can see you just need to cool off. You're just nervous before the wedding. It's a big day...one every little girl dreams of..." Joyce left her at that, and thought she was clever by locking the door, locking Buffy in so she couldn't escape.
"She's gone...you can come out from under there..." Buffy smirked as a tousled Willow crawled from underneath the bed.
"I hate that you're fighting with your mom. I never wanted that." Willow smoothed out her shirt and hair, and sat down on the bed beside Buffy.
"This feels like Romeo and Juliet...except my parents don't even know yours..." Buffy took Willow's hands in hers.
"I've been thinking...that well...maybe if you still want to...um...it'd be okay if you..." Willow was nervous. How would Buffy survive without her family? She couldn't ask her to... "Never mind."
"No...what is it?" Buffy knew Will was going to ask her to run away together, and she'd been waiting for that moment since this entire fiasco started.
"Nothing...just me being silly." Will averted her eyes, and took a deep breath. "I just...I owed you a goodbye. I couldn't leave without saying goodbye."
"Will...the other night...was the happiest night of my life..."
"Mine, too." Willow leaned forward the few inches, and stole a few kisses. "...but I should go. I just...had to see you, to say goodbye in person."
"How did you know my window would be open?" The thought occurred to Buffy that she'd never mentioned it...but it would've been clever.
"A little mama bird told me..." Willow smirked, as she made her way back to the window. Buffy just gripped her hands tighter, not letting the redhead leave her again.
"I love you...please don't leave?" Buffy had tears in her eyes again.
"I'll always be here...just like you will be in mine..." Willow placed her palm above Buffy's heartbeat, and both gasped at the contact. "I love you, Buffy Summers."
"Buffy Rosenberg...remember?" She pulled Willow in for a tight hug, and couldn't hold on tight enough.
"I remember..." Willow kissed Buffy's neck gently, eliciting a sharp gasp from the blonde. "...but tomorrow, you'll be Mrs. Buffy Harris...and the thought makes me sick."
"You and me both." Buffy just couldn't hold back the lurch in her stomach at that thought. At least the arousal from a few moments earlier was gone...