FIC:...Moving In 1/2

["Selenay" <selenay@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Sequel to Conversations part 3: ...Moving In 1/2
Author: Selenay
E-mail: selenay@xxxxxxxxxx
Summary: Finally, Willow and Buffy move into their own place. But there are
a few complications...
Spoilers: A few for 'Real Me' and huge, enourmous ones for 'The
Replacement'. It seemed appropriate.
Distribution: My site, http://www.selenayhaven.com. and 'A Slayer A Hacker.
Anyone else please ask first.
Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy and her friends. It all belongs to Joss
Whedon, Mutant Enemy et al. I'm only playing, and sadly make nothing from
this.
Feedback: Gratefully received

**Sometimes having a Slayer for your older sister sucks big time. Like, last
week she sort of saved me from this blonde vampire that she used to go to
school with, which I admit might have been slightly my fault, and now she
has this big hold over me. "If you don't do as I tell you, I'll tell mom you
let a vampire in the house and got yourself kidnapped."

It's not fair. I mean, it's not like mom hasn't done exactly the same thing
before. If they knew . . .

There's one good thing though. Buffy moves out today. She's going back to
college so she's moving onto the campus with Willow. She's really cool.
Willow can do spells, and hack into FBI files and all sorts of really neat
stuff. And she actually likes books. How did she get to be friends with
Buffy if she's so smart? Last night I told mom that I wished I had a friend
like Willow, but she got really quiet and make me go to bed. Guess it's the
whole witch thing. Her generation isn't cool with that stuff.**

Buffy put the last box down with a groan and straightened up, massaging her
aching back, to survey the mess. "Why is it, Will," she asked, "that every
time we move we have more stuff?"

The redheaded witch looked up from the box she was pulling books out of and
winced at the jumble of stuff everywhere. "I think we just naturally
accumulate stuff. We're hoarders."

"Ok, that didn't make me feel like a hamster," Buffy muttered, pouting.

Grinning, Willow stood and walked over to her girlfriend. "I meant that in a
good way."

She cupped Buffy's face in her both her hands and pulled her into a
leisurely kiss. As soon as Willow's soft lips touched hers, Buffy sighed and
surrendered to it. For a while she just enjoyed the sensation of being so
close to the redhead, feeling the warmth radiating off her and the soft
curves that pressed up against hers. Buffy closed her eyes and returned the
kiss gently, nibbling at one full lip before soothing it with her lips and
moaning gently when she felt Willow's arms move from her face to her
shoulders. She rested her hands on the witch's waist and pulled her closer,
hooking her fingers into the convenient belt loops she found to hold her
there.

Too soon, Willow was pulling back and smiling shakily, her face flushed and
looking, to Buffy, more beautiful than she could ever remember.

"Mm, I've missed this," the redhead sighed.

"Uh-huh," Buffy agreed, her mind not yet processing higher thought
processes.

"Guess we should get back to work then."

"Mm-hmm."

Willow started to pull away but Buffy tightened her arms around her
girlfriend's waist.

"Don't you want to unpack?" she pouted, and Buffy decided then and there
that taking things slowly was not going to be easy.

She reached forward and lightly nipped Willow's sticking out lip before
reluctantly releasing her. "I guess we should try and get stuff organized."

"Good Buffy," Willow said absently, already heading towards an open box of
books on slightly wobbly legs.

Huffing, Buffy looked down at the box she had put down a few minutes ago. It
was large, cardboardy and full, she was sure, of non-thrilling bathroom
equipment. Certainly nothing she could get waylaid by and accidentally not
do any unpacking. Very, very unlikely to be weapons, or even one of the
Slaying books Giles had given her to read. Glaring at it, she reluctantly
took it into the bathroom and began putting things away.

Classes were due to begin in a couple of days so they would not have long to
get settled before the drudgery of college restarted. The dorm room had
actually been available for a month, but Joyce was still not happy about
their new relationship so she had put a strict veto on the idea of them
moving in any sooner. The small fact that it was one room, with a bathroom
and a small kitchen area, but still essentially only one room probably had a
lot to do with it, Buffy reflected as she put toothpaste and toothbrushes
into the medicine cabinet. By the time they started looking around Sunnydale
for somewhere to live, all the good places were gone and the rest of the
apartments were of the 'would not house Spike in them' league of general
icky-ness. There was definitely nothing available that had two rooms so that
Joyce could happily pretend that there was nothing going on.

It had occurred to Buffy before that her mother preferred denial to
knowledge, but this was getting ridiculous. Joyce did not want Dawn knowing
what was going on, probably thinking that the younger girl might get ideas,
and did her best to make sure that Buffy and Willow were never alone
together. Being back in the dorm was the best thing to happen in a long
time.

Buffy had emptied her box so she went back into the main room for another.
Only to find Willow with her nose in a book, the box she was supposedly
working on abandoned on the floor next to her.

"Uh, Will?" Buffy said, grinning as the witch jumped guiltily.

"I wasn't reading!" she exclaimed, hiding the book behind her back.

"Of course you weren't." Somehow, Buffy managed to keep a straight face.
"How do you feel about pizza? Followed by ice-cream sundaes."

Moving with astonishing speed, Willow was at Buffy's side tugging on her
hand. "You mean it?"

"Will, do I ever joke about pizza?"

***

Replete, and relaxed at having put the unpacking off for a few more hours,
Buffy and Willow walked up the hall to their room hand in hand.

"Ampata," Buffy said.

"Bezoar."

"Catherine the Witch."

"Der Kindestod."

"El Eliminate."

"Fyarl demon."

Buffy snorted. "Not allowed. I didn't actually defeat that one."

"You made it go away," Willow protested, unlocking their door.

"Yeah, because I made Ethan turn it back into Giles. Doesn't count."

Willow pouted. "You did stab it-"

"Give it up, Will. It was 'The Alphabet of Defeated Monsters', not 'The
Alphabet of Monsters Buffy made go away'. That doesn't count."

"Spoil sport."

The two girls looked hopelessly at the scene of destruction that was their
new home.

Buffy peaked hopefully at her partner. "We could..."

"Clear everything onto the floor and unpack tomorrow?"

The blonde grinned. "You read my mind."

"I'm a witch. It's what we do."

Buffy paused with a box suspended part way between the bed and the floor,
feeling a chill pass over her at a horrifying thought. "You didn't..."

Willow rolled her eyes. "Buff, I was kidding. I can't read your mind."

"Phew." Buffy sighed and put the box down, wincing when she saw the
speculative look in her love's eyes.

"Why? Is there something I should know? Or not know?" Willow asked.

"Nope, nothing. Absolutely nothing."

One red eyebrow lifted.

"I mean it, Will. There's nothing." Thinking quickly, Buffy grinned. "My
mind is a place that no one in their right mind would want to visit."

She did not wait for Willow to process that, instead throwing the pillow she
conveniently found in her hand directly at the redhead. That earned her a
mock growl and the pillow returned quickly, straight into her face. For a
while afterwards nothing was heard apart from muffled thuds and giggles.

***

"If you get the apartment this'll be your hallway," Willow said excitedly.

She was walking down the aforementioned hallway hand in hand with Buffy,
grinning happily. Xander and Anya walked a little ahead of the couple, the
former demon's arm still in a sling, and the witch was slightly stunned that
things were actually starting to turn out well for a change. She and Buffy
had finally been able to move in together, despite Joyce's objections, their
room was starting to look more homey and less like and bombsite and Xander
had sprung the apartment hunting on them early that morning. Xander was
actually going to get an apartment of his own. This was a day she never
thought would come.

"We'll walk down this hall, and we'll say 'la la, I'm on my way to Xander's'
," she continued, grinning.

"Just warning you, Xander, I probably won't be doing that," Buffy told him,
grinning almost as widely as her redheaded partner.

"Hey, we're just looking," Xander said. "Rent's way high, so don't get your
hopes all carbonated."

"But you have references," Anya protested.

"No, I have Albert, which is just me doing an important voice." Xander put
on an 'important' voice. "Xander Harris? An excellent tenant, and a very
fine-looking fellow."

The couple stopped and Anya opened the door in front of her, Willow and
Buffy following her into the apartment. Willow's eyes bugged out a little as
she saw it.

"Whoa! Big!" she said, trying to keep the awe out of her voice. Why was
there nothing like this when they were looking for a place to live?

"It's nice," Buffy said uncertainly. "And not subterranean. It's very, uh,
above-terrenean."

Willow noticed that Xander was looking a little less thrilled, and a little
green around the edges.

"I want it," Anya announced. "Pay anything."

"Xander Harris?"

The witch was startled to see someone else in the apartment that she had not
noticed before. She nearly pulled her hand out of Buffy's, before mentally
slapping herself. Sometimes, it was hard not to feel uncomfortable but this
was a public display of affection in front of someone she did not know.
Admittedly, a small PDA, possibly so small the dark haired woman walking
towards them wouldn't notice, but still...she steeled herself and smiled up
at Buffy before turning her attention back to Xander.

"Hey," he said, wiping his hard on his shirt and holding it out.

The real-estate manager shook hands gingerly.

"I brought my friends," Xander said, indicating Buffy and Willow.

"I see."

Somehow, Willow got the feeling that the manager was not impressed with them
all.

"They wouldn't always be here," added Xander.

"But we're clean and-and quiet," Willow said brightly, trying to find
something to say that would stop the manager giving her friend such odd
looks.

Meanwhile, Anya had moved into the living area and was looking around with
love in her eyes. "We can have the Scooby meetings in the living room,
and-and Giles can explain the boring things over there."

Poking around in the kitchen, Willow found and a microwave and turned to
Buffy with a smile. "Oh, there's a microwave! It would be like having our
own hot and cold running popcorn."

The manager, probably sensing that the meeting was getting out of her
control, ran through the apartment's advantages. "Phone and electricity are
hooked up, there's a private balcony, ceiling fan, closet space..."

Xander opened a door.

"...And that's the bedroom. I brought an application form for you to fill
out."

He took the piece of paper that was offered to him, eyeing it cautiously.
"An application? I can't just tell you my references. Because there's
Albert."

"We run your credit check based on the application," the manager told him.

"Oh! Credit check. Little check on the credit. See how credible my checks
are."

Willow laughed politely along with everyone else, mentally running through
her spells to see if there was one she could use to help him. Feeling a
gentle prod in her side, she turned to see Buffy's warning face. Sighing,
she let the idea go and gave her partner a reassuring smile. Sometimes,
there were disadvantages to having someone know you as well as she did.

"And we'll be asking for first, last, security and a small cleaning
deposit," the manager was saying when Willow tuned in again. "The total's
at the bottom of the sheet there."

Anya walked back over to Xander and glanced over the sheet of paper. "He'll
take it. Xander, go get the furniture, I'll wait here." She looked at the
manager. "He's been living in his parents' basement where something urinated
on the hot plate."

Xander pulled Anya aside leaving Buffy and Willow to smile nervously at the
dark-haired woman.

"It's a nice apartment," Buffy offered.

"Yeah. Really nice," Willow backed her up, wincing as she heard Anya whine.

"So, do you have any other places like this?" the Slayer asked.

Willow elbowed her in the ribs.

"What?" the blonde asked. "There's no harm in asking. It's not like I want
to pack and unpack again...although if there was some place I wouldn't...but
at the same time it is closer to classes."

Willow smiled at her. "Buff, the dorm isn't so bad. I wish we could have our
own place too, but we can make the dorm ours."

The blonde nodded and Willow squeezed her hand gently. "I already have the
most important thing in my life there."

"What is...oh. Thanks."

Blushing, Willow remembered the manager and turned to find her looking at
them with undisguised fascination.

"I-I-I-" she managed to stutter.

"She loves her computer," Buffy said, a slight flush staining her cheeks as
well.

Thankfully, Xander chose that moment to interrupt their descent into fiery,
blushing hell. "I guess I'll just start on that application. I think you'll
like it. I've been told I have lovely penmanship."

He rushed out, and the two girls realized that Anya was already gone.

"He's uh..." Willow started.

"Yeah. And we'll just be..." Buffy continued, smiling hopefully at the
manager.

Sighing, they made their escape into the hallway.

"Think they'll be ok?" Willow asked.

"They'll sort it out," Buffy reassured her, putting an arm around her
shoulders. "Thanks for what you said back there."

"It's the truth." Willow grinned mischievously. "My computer is really
great."

She wriggled out of Buffy's hold, giggling as the vengeful Slayer chased
after her.

To be continued when I've finished writing this bit (it's been a slow week,
writing-wise)...

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Ones get lonely...
AIM: selenay936