Fic - Conversations part 3

Buffy heard the muffled sound of the telephone ringing and look wildly around the room. Piles of clothes, books, CDs, more clothes, shoes, more clothes, stakes and crossbows, even more clothes, suitcases, posters and yet more clothes littered the room. And somewhere there was the cordless phone. After a couple of minutes of searching and flying clothes she managed to locate the missing phone.

"Hello?" she said breathlessly.

"Hi Buff!" Willow’s cheerful voice rang down the line."How are you? You sound kind of breathless – is everything ok?"

"Yeah. I just had a fight with the never ending junk mountains to find the telephone. How did all this stuff fit into our dorm?"

"I don’t know. I think unpacking is worse than packing. I actually have to find places to put all this."

"Actually, I didn’t intend to unpack. I was trying to find my black halter-neck - the unpacking is just a side-effect."

"Didn’t you put the halter-neck in the blue bag? I thought you did, but then I was so busy packing I could have . . . Buffy? Are you still there?"

Buffy, phone wedged firmly between her cheek and shoulder, was trying to dig the blue bag out from under a pile of coats. "Yeah Will, I’m still here I’m just . . . gotcha! Thanks, you are the best."

"I know," the redheaded witch said cheerfully.

"How did you know where I put it? I just spent the past hour looking."

"I, uh, have a really good memory? And-and you were putting it there when I was calling Xander and I kinda saw and . . . did you know it’s - oww!"

Buffy’s faint smile turned into a look of alarm. "Will? Are you ok? You’re not hurt, are you? What happened? Say something!"

There was a fumbling sound on the other end of the line and then Willow’s voice returned. "I’m fine. I just hit my elbow on the cupboard. It doesn’t even hurt . . . much."

"Are you sure?"

"Buff, it’s a little bruised but it’ll be fine. I’ve had worse in tickle fights with Xander, not that he hurt me because he didn’t, he just accidentally knocked me down the stairs once and . . . where was I?"

"I’m not sure," Buffy replied, not entirely convinced of Willow’s fineness and fighting the desire to go straight over and make sure she really was fine.

"Neither am I."

The blonde Slayer could imagine Willow’s confused look perfectly. "You called about something. Not that I’m not glad to hear from you, because I am, and not that I didn’t miss you, because I did, but it’s only been three hours since we left the dorm."

"I don’t know. I just . . . it’s been so long since I was in a house on my own, you know?"

"Not really." Buffy could hear Joyce clattering around downstairs. "Are your parents not there?"

"They said something about a summer conference in Munichso it’s just me. All on my lonesome."

Although Willow was putting on a brave voice Buffy couldhear the disappointment in her friend’s voice. "I have an idea."

"Uh oh."

"No, no, this is a good idea. I’ve done enough unpacking today. How about we have a sleep-over at your house."

There was silence for a moment and then Willow’s excited voice said, "Yeah, that sounds like a great idea! We could invite the whole Gang – make it kind of an end of term, ‘we defeated the bad guys’ party - onlywithout the disturbing First Slayer dreams."

"The whole Gang . . . that sounds, uh, fun," Buffy said,trying to keep the vague disappointment she now felt out of her voice.

"So we’re set?"

"Yeah." This time the happiness in her voice was much more convincing. "Yeah, we’re set. I’ll round up Giles and some food, you can get Xander to bring some videos and more food and we’ll make a night of it."

"Thanks Buffy, I feel much better. Less lonesome. You’re the best, you know that?"

"I’ve heard it said," the Slayer grinned.

"And modest too," Willow teased. "See you in a while?"

"Yeah."

As she began hunting for some sleep wear and her wash bag in the jumble of belongings a smile remained on her face. It may not be just her and Willow, but she had managed to put a smile back onto the redheaded witch’s face and that was all that really mattered.

A few miles away the redhead who occupied so many of her friend’s thoughts put the phone down and muttered "Yay!"

A vague, indefinable happiness and excitement was now lodged in her heart that she did not even bother to try to examine. It just felt too darn good to want to spoil it with unneeded analysis, so instead she hummed to herself as she began gathering together quilts, sleeping bags and pillows in the main room.