FIC: Almost A Whisper (2/2)

["hd_genscher" <HD.Genscher@xxxxxx>]

Thanks to all who gave me feedback so far and have fun with the second
part.


TITLE: Almost A Whisper (2/2)
AUTHOR: HD_Genscher (hd.genscher@xxxxxx)
RATING: PG
PAIRING: B/W
SPOILERS: 3rd season
DISCLAIMER: All characters and places belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant
Enemy, et al.
ARCHIVE: Sure. Just let me know.
FEEDBACK: Please. 
DEDICATED TO: Kris. Thanks a lot!
SUMMARY: It's Buffy's 18th birthday and someone makes sure she'll
never forget it.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the prequel to my story "Forever" and the
sequel to "Letter To Your Heart". It takes place in the 3rd season,
instead of "Helpless". There'll be no Cruciamentum in this Buffyverse.



THE CHASE

'This would be even nicer if Willow would be with me,' Buffy mused as
she trudged through the snow; and thinking of her red-headed friend
made her scowl. But this was her birthday and she decided that there
would be no place for gloomy thoughts today.

She walked around another corner, turning into Torrance Street. She
had passed by two other paper notes pinned to trees on her way so far.
Someone was really trying to make sure that she followed his or her
plan, whatever that was. She had picked each note up and both were
identical in telling her to go to "where the books lived." Buffy
wondered at the strange phrasing. 

Finally, she approached her high school.

In contrast to normal weekdays, Sunnydale High's surroundings were
deserted. Usually hundreds of pupils were walking around at this time
of the day; there were just some large snow piles now. Obviously, the
janitor had tried to master the snow masses that had fallen down from
the sky last night.

Buffy slowly climbed the large steps leading up to the entrance.

As she had suspected, the front doors were closed, but not locked. She
hesitated for a moment, wondering what Principal Snyder would come up
with if she was caught in school on a day off.

Buffy discarded her worried thoughts and entered the building. The
hallways were empty and the girl walked towards her destination
determinedly.

She entered the library, like she'd done countless times before. She
really was expecting Giles to be here, like he always was, but the
library was only dimly lit and empty. Maybe the librarian was enjoying
a day off as well, sitting at home with a good book and a mug of tea.

She smiled at the thought and suspiciously scanned the large room for
something unusual. But she couldn't pick out anything. The many rows
of bookshelves -- bowed down with the weight of hundreds, if not
thousands of schoolbooks, but also containing Giles' small but
exquisite collection of books on the dark and mysterious -- were just
as they always were. No stranger had tampered with Giles' treasures.

Suddenly, her supernatural hearing picked up a rustling sound from
somewhere, breaking the eerie silence.

"Hello?" she asked into the semidarkness. "Is anybody here?"

An even more oppressive silence was the answer.

She listened into the room closely, then shrugged. 'Maybe my senses
are playing tricks on me,' she thought. She was quite sure that there
wasn't a dangerous creature lurking somewhere. First of all, it was
broad daylight outside. And her sixth sense, the Slayer sense, would
be tickling if an enemy was close and that one never failed her.

Her eye fell on a large volume that was lying on the counter.
Curiously, she stepped closer. It was an ancient book, one that Giles
certainly wouldn't have left there. She picked up the leather-bound
volume and opened it. If she was lucky she wouldn't have to search all
the pages, or, even worse, all the books.

After leafing aimlessly through the book, she put it down onto the
counter frustratedly. It was hopeless. She almost missed the small
leaflet that had fallen out of the book. It was the borrowing slip,
and it was lying on the floor flipped. Even if no ordinary student
would hardly ever lend any of these old books, Giles had equipped each
with such a slip; he had to if he wanted to pass as a serious
librarian, Buffy assumed.

She could see that someone had written something on the borrowing
slip's back. She picked it up and read:

"You can drink me pure.
You can drink me with milk and sugar.
You can drink me with whipped cream.
You can drink me strong and dark.
Where do you find me?"

The answer was quite clear: the first four lines were about her
favorite beverage, coffee. And there was just one place in Sunnydale
where you could get that many sorts of coffee: the Espresso Pump,
right on the corner between State and Main.

Buffy had a strange feeling of excitement in her stomach. 'This is a
kind of paper chase,' she thought, 'leading me from one place to the
next.' Now that was an unconventional idea for an entertaining
morning!
She was curious about why these messages were everywhere and who was
behind them, so she hurriedly left the library, the swinging doors
closing behind her.

When she was gone, a rustling sound could be heard again and a being
came out of its hiding place behind the last bookshelf. 'Two to go,'
the being thought and chuckled.

**

Buffy entered Sunnydale's most popular café. As she had expected,
almost all tables were empty. 
But the café was open, despite the circumstances. A lot of people
would be in need of a hot cup of coffee after a walk in the snow, she
guessed.

"Hi, Mario!" she greeted the owner.

"Buongiorno, bella signorina," the young Italian greeted. He always
called her that whenever she was here and he was serving her. She knew
that it meant something like 'pretty girl,' and thanked him with a
smile.

Flirting definitely was like second nature to those guys... But he was
friendly and not pushing, so it was okay.

"What can I do for you, Buffy?" Mario asked.

"I'd like a cappuccino, extra milk, low-fat," she ordered, while
sitting down at a table.

The short Italian had been running the Espresso Pump since he'd
inherited it from his father, as people had told Buffy when she had
freshly moved to Sunnydale. It was an institution, just like the
bowling alley and the cinema and some other place to hang out at. And
just like everyone else, Buffy had fallen in love with the pleasant
atmosphere.

At this time of the day, Mario was serving his customers alone. Later,
in the afternoon, two waitresses would be helping him -- students from
UC Sunnydale, Buffy assumed.

"Un cappuccino," he repeated. "Prego, signorina."

She watched as he prepared the desired beverage with a precision and
efficiency that showed years of experience. And there wasn't any other
place in the vicinity she knew of that offered such good cappuccino.

"Your drink, signorina," he said while placing the cup in front of
her. She had expected him to go back to his bar, but he remained at
her table.

"And here's something really unusual," he continued. "Someone left a
message for you." He produced a folded sheet of paper from his apron
and gave it to her.

"Do you know who gave it to you?" she asked.

"That's the strange thing, you know," he replied. "It was just lying
here on the counter, from one moment to the other. I didn't see anyone
put it there, but since your name's on it..."

Buffy looked down and saw that someone had carefully written her name
on the folded note, but she didn't recognize the handwriting.
"Thank you," she said and unfolded it. This one was short:

"Seek out a place of study,
but not of choice.
Then go to a place of rest, 
the place where we first met."

She sipped at her beverage while she considered the possible solutions
to this riddle.

The campus of UC Sunnydale was a place of study, but also one of
choice. The only other place she could think of was the one she just
had come from, Sunnydale High. They had no choice but to go there,
right? If she was guessing correctly, this was the second hint at her
High School and that confirmed her assumption that someone going there
with her was behind this.

Could it be a boy? Maybe Scott, having changed his mind? Naw... No man
could ever be that creative. And she didn't have a crush on him
anymore. If she considered it carefully, she never actually had.

But could last night's pleas have been heard? Could her favorite
redhead be the one behind all this? It would fit her mastermind, but
it would also mean that she felt the same way about Buffy.

She read the last sentence again.
"...where we first met."
If it was Willow, that would be the schoolyard of Sunnydale High. And
that was a place of rest...

Her mind started to drift. She remembered her first day like it were
yesterday. Not because of the new school. Surely not because of
Cordelia and her cordettes. Not even because of Xander. No, she
remembered that day because she had met *her* for the first time that
day. 
Willow.

"Uh, hi! Willow, right?" she had said. Willow had been sitting on a
bench next to the fountain in the schoolyard that everyone just called
fountain quad, for obvious reasons.
Willow had looked up at her, plain amazement in her eyes. "Why? I-I
mean, hi! Uh, did you want me to move?" Willow really seemed to be
assuming Buffy had made friends with Cordelia and her bunch of
admirers, who considered her unworthy of even sitting on the same
bench with her...

She could not have been more wrong. Buffy had often thought about when
and where it all started, and this was the only possibility. She'd had
the hots for the hot redhead right from the beginning.

"Why don't we start with 'Hi, I'm Buffy,' and, uh, then let's segue
directly into me asking you for a favor," she had answered
reassuringly. To prove her sincere intentions, she had sat down next
to Willow. They talked, and the rest was history.

Buffy smiled at the memory. She gulped down the rest of the now tepid
liquid in front of her, stuffed the note into a pocket of her pants,
then dropped some coins on her table to pay for her cappuccino and
left the Espresso Pump. She had to go back to Sunnydale High.

**

The note was on the bench, exactly as she had expected. This was where
they first met.
Buffy picked it up and hastily read it:

"The last hint this will be:
I'm the source of all life.
I'm not a friend to the fire.
I'm coming to you from the air. 
I'm coming to you through the earth.
Through metallic darkness I'm coming.
Now, find the treasure of your heart,
Just go and follow my path."

Buffy sat down on the bench. She had to think.

The source of all life? The sun, maybe? But why would the sun be
called 'not a friend to the fire?' Its rays were coming through the
air, but not through the earth.

She looked at the fountain. 'That's it!' she thought. Water, necessary
for all life, not a friend to the fire, coming from the air when it
rained. 

But how would that hint to the last location of the chase? To the one
where she would 'find the treasure of her heart?'

"Coming through the earth, through metallic darkness," she muttered. 

The water in the fountain and the one coming out of her faucet was
coming through pipes. That qualified as 'metallic darkness', she
decided. That was the solution to the first part of the riddle, but
what about the last sentence? It was the only one left to hint at the
next station.

"Follow my path? Do I have to search through the sewers, or what?"

But she couldn't be sure that Willow meant a pipe connected with the
fountain. After all she knew, it could be any pipe.

Suddenly she had an idea. Where did all those pipes originate from?
The answer was simple. Sunnydale's water supply was provided by a
reservoir just outside of town. The water filtering plant was right
next to it, Buffy knew that for sure because they had visited it
during her first year in Sunnydale High during a chemistry field trip.
And it couldn't be the sewers. It clearly said 'coming to you' in the
riddle, and that implied fresh water.

Buffy stood up as if stung by an adder. "That's it!" she exclaimed.
She was sure. There she would find... whoever... no! It would be
Willow.

With a quick glance at the bench that was connected with so many
memories, she jogged off.



BUFFY ON ICE

About half an hour later, Buffy approached the water reservoir.
> > From here, Sunnydale was supplied with water. She stopped in her run,
amazed at the ice covering the lake. It seemed to be completely
frozen, at least to a certain depth.
A quick examination of the building that housed the filtering plant
revealed nothing unusual. All doors were locked, and no one was to be
seen. Obviously, it was operated automatically.

Buffy went back to the lake, shielded her eyes against the noon sun
and searched the shore. The lake was surrounded with bushes and trees,
all covered with snowy caps, looking beautiful and a little bit
strange. Snow was something new in Sunnydale, after all.
Suddenly something caught her eye: wasn't that something metallic
reflecting the sun near that large tree over there?
Buffy wasn't sure, but there was just one way to find out. She jogged
off to the left side of the lake. After a short while, she approached
the object that she had spotted from the distance.

She couldn't believe her eyes: There was a pair of ice skates dangling
from a shoulder-high branch of the tree! They were fastened by their
bootlaces, slowly swinging in the light breeze. One of the runners
must have reflected the sunlight, she concluded.

'They almost look like mine,' Buffy thought as she stepped towards the
tree and unfastened the bootlaces, dropping the skates to the ground.

She picked up one skate, weighing it in her hand. She then inspected
the runner, found it satisfactory, and finally looked inside the white
leather leg to check the shoe size.

And stared blankly. 

She gazed at the frozen lake.

Then she looked at the leg again.

Next to the stamping indicating the size (6 and a half, just one
bigger than her usual size to fit perfectly), someone had written
'Buffy Summers'. Only it wasn't someone else's handwriting. It was
hers.

These weren't ice skates that looked quite similar to hers, these
*were* hers.

She looked around suspiciously, but everything was quiet. How could
someone have managed to get her skates out of her closet? At least
that's where she had last seen them. She'd bought them when she had
been in the city before Christmas, hoping for an opportunity to use
them. And Buffy was quite sure that Willow -- whom she suspected was
responsible for this wonderful morning -- couldn't have taken them out
of her room, at least not without the help of her mother. And could
Joyce really have helped her?

She wouldn't solve this mystery by standing around, so she sat down,
removed her shoes and put on the skates.

She then stepped towards the shore and inspected the ice.
It was impossible such a thick layer of ice had formed over night...
It was never ever cold enough to even snow in California, right? Yet,
when she had opened her eyes this morning, Sunnydale had been covered
with a white layer. 'It's magic,' she thought.
She carefully stepped on the slippery, frozen liquid and tested it. It
must have been at least ten inches thick -- more than enough to carry
her weight.

She made a few skating steps and was surprised how easy it was.
She hadn't done this for a while, but once she got accustomed to the
well-known feeling of being on the ice again, it wasn't a problem.

She glided elegantly over the ice, faster and faster, then went into a
pirouette. She stretched out her arms widely, then slowly raised them
until they met over her head, thus accelerating her spin. As her spin
began to slow down due to friction, she smoothly switched into forward
gliding mode again. 

They said ice skating was like swimming: once you had learned it, you
knew how to do it for a lifetime.

She never had mastered the double Lutz, though. That was the most
difficult jump she'd tried to learn when she had been going to the
skating rink regularly with her Dad. That was back when she was nine
or ten and her parents had still been married. He had had a lot more
spare time then and they had gone to a rink in L.A. almost every
weekend.
He had always told her how proud he was when she'd mastered a new
figure and that she obviously was a natural as far as figure skating
was concerned.
But then, his job had started to keep him busy more and more, and they
couldn't go any more. Finally, they'd settled with a visit to the ice
show once a year as her birthday present.

The wind carried something to her ears. 

"...fffy!"

She looked up and saw someone at the other end of the frozen lake,
near where she had first stood, scanning the lake. She realized how
far she had skated.

The other person was waving now.

"Willow?" she asked, more to herself, and waved back.

Immediately, she accelerated toward the distant figure. Her heart
leapt when her eyes confirmed what she had hoped so deeply. It was
Willow, alright.

She accelerated even more. Then she took off, jumped a perfect double
Lutz and landed, carefully balancing out the swing and stopping right
in front of the other girl.

Willow was looking absolutely adorable, as her flaming hair peeped out
from under a wooly bobble cap. (A small part of her wondered where she
managed to get hold of that textile, since it was never cold in sunny
Sunnydale; but her major thought was just how cute she looked.)
The cold had given her rosy cheeks.

"Oh, Buffy, that was beautiful!" the redhead beamed. Buffy returned
the smile. "I had no idea you're so good at this."

"Hi, Will," Buffy replied, quickly pulling the witch into a hug.

"Why -- I mean, hi."

"I went ice skating with my Dad in the past," Buffy explained. "And
the hug is for... just being here. I was looking for you, you know,"
she told her.

"Oh... I was looking for you, too," Willow said. "And I'm so glad I
found you. I saw you... someone... at the distance and I so hoped...
that it would be you...so I took heart and started to skate towards
you and... now I'm here and I'm so not sure whether I'll be able to
get back to the shore..." she finished, babbling.

"Did anyone tell you that you're cute when you do that?" Buffy asked.

"Do what?" Willow countered, blushing, but knowing the answer.

"That babbling thing..."

"Umm, actually, no."

There was a small beat while neither girl knew what to say.

"I almost forgot... Happy Birthday, Buffy." Willow finally went on,
breaking the uneasy silence.

"Thanks, Will." Buffy rewarded her with another smile.

"And... um... Could you do that again?" Willow asked.

"The double Lutz? I don't know, I never really succeeded, until today.
I mean, the figure is easy... if you're familiar with ice skating,
that is, but the landing... That's the difficult part," Buffy
explained.

"You don't have to..." the hacker started to answer, but Buffy cut her
off by moving away.
She gathered momentum by gliding away from the other girl in a large
semicircle, then jumped into the figure, landing perfectly on the
inner side of the runners.

"You're jumping like an ice princess," Willow said while her friend
approached her again.

"So, are you ready?" the Slayer asked, coming to a halt next to
Willow.

"Ready for what?"

"For your first skating lesson with your personal trainer, Buffy
Summers, the ice princess?" the blonde answered, sounding like the
text in a publicity brochure of a skating rink.

"Oh no!"

"Come on, try it."

"I can't."

"Hey, you made it here..." Buffy pointed out while skating away a few
yards. 

"Don't leave me, Buffy!" Willow cried.

"Oh, shush, scaredy-cat... Just slowly skate towards me." 

"O-okay," was the redhead's answer. She didn't sound very convinced,
though.

"I'll catch you if you fall," Buffy assured her.

Willow slowly skated forward, carefully adjusting balance with her
arms.

'It took a lot of courage to meet me here if she's that insecure on
the ice,' Buffy thought, watching the redhead's slow movements.

Willow approached her and stopped her forward motion by throwing
herself into Buffy's arms. Buffy chuckled. "That's why I like giving
ice skating lessons, you know!"

Willow rewarded her with a sweet smile.

They did the same exercise some more times -- Buffy skating ahead,
then turning around awaiting Willow. The hacker was doing better and
better each time.

Just as Willow thought she was ready to try something more advanced by
following Buffy to her target point while the blonde was still moving
away from her, she bowed over too much while trying to gain momentum.

"Buffffyyyy!" she managed to get out.

The blonde Slayer turned around just in time to see Willow lose her
balance. Mobilizing her full Slayer agility, she quickly rushed back
to the witch and caught her, grabbing her by the waist. 

"You okay?" she asked.

Willow nodded. "Thanks," she mouthed, still a little shocked at her
fall and her friend's fast reaction.

"I promised to catch you!"

Willow smiled. They were standing face to face. Very close, in fact.
And Buffy still held her by the waist. Where Buffy was touching her,
little jolts of electricity seemed to be emitted, rushing through her
whole body even though she was wearing a thick wooly sweater.
The closeness was wonderful. She looked at her friend's delicious
lips. What would it be like to kiss Buffy? she wondered. They locked
eyes.

Willow was getting lost in the hazel eyes in front of her and she felt
her breath quickening. She had waited so long for this.
No words were necessary between them, and Buffy seemed to have read
her mind as her lips slightly brushed Willow's.

She had kissed those lips a thousand times in her imagination, and
yet, not one of those daydreams could have prepared her for the real
thing.

"I think I'll fall more often in the future. It's wonderful if I'm
caught by you."

"And I'll have to make sure you're alright every time, like I did a
moment ago."

"I'm not sure if I'm really alright..." Willow answered teasingly.

"Oh, I'd better check you more carefully then."
And Buffy leaned forward and kissed Willow again. This time, she
deepened the kiss, let herself fall into it...

There was no need to talk right now. They would have plenty of time
later to talk about the young, fast-growing plant that was their love
-- a plant whose seed had been planted at a fountain almost three
years ago.

Buffy and Willow glided back to the shore silently and happily, and
Buffy noticed that her friend was really doing better from moment to
moment. She even seemed to enjoy it a little bit, so maybe they could
go to a rink together sometimes.

When they reached the shore, each girl went to retrieve their normal
shoes, then met to walk back into town together.

There was one question left, though, and Buffy was dying to know the
answer.

"Why did you come here, anyway?" she asked as they walked hand in
hand.

"Mom had heard on the news that there would be no school today, so she
let me sleep. I've been reading 'til late, so when I finally woke up,
it was almost noon already, and I found that note instructing me to
come here as soon as possible and, well... here I am," Willow
explained.

"You didn't... but I thought..."

"Hey, Ground Control to Buffy. Incoherent thoughts here!" Willow said.

Buffy stopped and looked into the redhead's emerald eyes. She saw the
truth of the words she'd spoken in them. Obviously Willow was not
responsible for this. But who was able to... and who knew about her
feelings... The only answer she could come up with, considering the
strange circumstances like the weather change and the perfect timing,
was a supernatural one. She just hoped that there wasn't a force of
darkness behind this. But why should someone from the abyss of the
Hellmouth want to help her and Willow come together? On the other
hand, who had the power to do all this? She just couldn't find a
satisfactory answer to these questions, and that bugged her.

"Everything's ok?" Willow asked, concerned at her friend's clouded
expression.

"Yeah. If I were Faith, I'd say five by five, whatever that means,"
Buffy replied, starting to walk again. She discarded the worried
thoughts that were running through her head, replacing them with her
feelings for Willow. What they needed now was an opportunity to sort
things out, and the best solution to that was... a sleep-over.

She smiled at the thought and that reassured Willow. She caught up to
the Slayer and took her hand again.

Finally they reached the intersection where they had to part for their
homes. Buffy took both of Willow's hands into hers and faced her. They
stood silently for a moment.

"Meet at 7 at my house for a sleep-over?" Buffy finally asked.

"I'd love to!" Willow whispered with a glint in her eyes.

With a quick kiss on her forehead, Buffy let her go and went home
happily.



FINALE

They had started with a rented movie. In the midst of the movie,
Willow had put her head down into Buffy's lap, causing a strange
glance from Joyce who was checking in to make sure they had everything
they needed. Willow had blushed. Joyce didn't know about them -- or
did she? Buffy had smiled at her mother, and Joyce just returned her
daughter's smile, then went back to the kitchen to continue her
preparations for dinner.

After dinner, they retreated to Buffy's room. They had a lot to talk
about, after all.
They'd agreed to take it slow, one step at a time. There was no need
to rush things, unless the Hellmouth decided the world would be going
to end again. Their friends would have to know, and so would Joyce,
but not right now. They would have to grow into the new step in their
relationship first, and then come out. But they would do it together,
go through it together.

They had also talked about the mystery of who was responsible for all
this. Buffy had told the hacker her side of the story. Willow had
listened in amazement, as this view of things was completely new to
her.

Whoever it was, either he would reveal himself, or not, Willow had
argued. They should take it as a wonderful gift of an unknown good
power, and that would be it. Buffy had agreed.

At 1 a.m., they became too tired to talk anymore. 

Without hesitation, Willow laid down next to the Slayer on her broad
bed. Buffy grinned and put her arm around her. "Mine," she claimed and
placed a small kiss on her cheek. Willow pouted, but her eyes smiled. 

"Good night," Buffy said. 

"Good night, Buffy," she replied as she yawned heartily, then closed
her eyes, knowing she would sleep wonderfully next to the Slayer, who
would watch over her. 'I'm lovingly protected by your kisses...' was
her last thought before she fell asleep.

Buffy still lay awake for a moment. She couldn't believe how happy she
was now, especially in comparison with yesterday. 'It's true,' she
thought. 'One day can change your life.'

Her look fell on Mr. Gordo. She took the pig from the small shelf next
to her bed, then hesitated for a moment. 'Why not,' she thought. She
could as well thank him for the wonderful turn her life had taken in
the last 24 hours. She gave him a tight hug. "Thank you," she mouthed.

Buffy then carefully placed the pig next to the stuffed sheep Willow
had brought and snuggled up to the sound asleep redhead beside her.

"Happy Birthday, my girl... Hope you like my present. And now sleep
tight. We'll watch over you," Mr. Gordo said, but Buffy didn't hear
him. Even with her improved Slayer senses, the only thing she could
have heard would have been almost a whisper.


THE END