FIC: The Space Between (1/1)

::waves:: Hey guys. Remember me? ::snicker::

Hmmm..okay...lemme know if you think I remembered how to do this, cuz it’s been a long time ya know ::wink::

TITLE: The Space Between

DISCLAIMER: All hail Joss Wedon. They’re his characters, I’m just dipping my pinky toe into the pool to play with them for a while

SUMMARY: Mush. Complete and utter mush between a slayer and her hacker. Spoiler free.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and you shall recieve.

AUTHOR’S NOTES: Hey, look at that! I remembered how to write. Yay! Feedback is of course always appreciated and welcomed. Flamers will be banished to their own private space in hell with the screaming kids on airplanes and people who talk in movie theatres.

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There are parts of her life now, that I am no longer a part of. The spaces between our coming together get bigger and wider and lonelier as the days stretch on to weeks and months. But one thing never changes.

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"Hey you."

Buffy smiles and takes a deep breath. "Hey yourself." She answers as she turns around and welcomes the redhead her arms.

Willow smiles and closes her eyes. "Goddess I've missed you." She pulls back just enough to press her forehead to Buffy's and whisper. "You always feel like home."

Buffy reaches up and cups her face gently. "You are my home."

They stand lost in the moment and in each others eyes. There's no rush tonight. There's nothing but time.

"Italy? How was it?" Willow inquires finally.

Buffy chuckles a bit and releases her. "Shop talk already, Wills?" She clasps the Wicca’s' hand and they lazily make their way down the path. "Italy was. . .big. The Vatican not surprisingly uncooperative and the Pope is a lot shorter than he looks on TV."

Willow's eyes go wide. "The Pope? You met the Pope?!"

"No, I didn't meet him, exactly." The Slayer shrugs. "I chased two vamps into a large garden one night. Had them backed into a corner and all of a sudden. . .poof."

Willow furrows her brow and stops. "Poof? As in they just. . .poofed?"

"That's what I thought." The Slayer smiles and tugs her back along their intended route. "I look behind me at the big house, well mansion actually, and there he is in the window. Apparently it was my luck to chase them through St. Peter's square right around the back to the Pope's own little garden of Eden." She laughs a bit and continues. "He gestured to the wall and when i walked up to it there were stakes. Poking out of the wall. Stakes! Had to be at least a thousand of them." Buffy shakes her head. "They all retracted back into the wall and when I turned around, he was gone."

Willow nods in appreciation. "Wow."

"Yeah, the Pope, Will. You know, the guy in charge of the Catholic Church who swears that vampires, and the creatures who run up my dry cleaning bill daily, don't exist. Did I mention that he looks shorter in person than he does on TV?" The Slayer shrugs.

"Hey you know, we could use that to our advantage." The redheads smile goes wide.

"The complete lack of honesty running riot through the Catholic Church run by a little person?"

"No silly, the whole stake thing." Willow's eyes go wide at all the possibilities. "I could make a computer program and plug in all the hot spots. You know, where the vampires like to hang out and grab a bite to eat. Then we could get Giles and Xander to make some sort of contraption or. . .Oh! I know. Sprinklers! We could put holy water in sprinkler systems and there'd be a button. . .on a wall. . .that you could push and poof!"

Buffy laughs. "You're gonna put me out of my job, Will."

They arrive at the door and Willow pulls out her keys. "It's not your job anymore, Buffy." She says seriously before unlocking the door. "There are other Slayers out there, thousands of them. Believe me, it gets a little crowded in the old noggin when they all start asking for help at once." She places her keys on the hall table and Buffy follows her quietly into the living room where a fire is already growling at the hearth. "I mean I get that you do it now because you want to, not because you have to. And I know you're always needed some place to train or help or advise or all of the above and then some." They both kick off their shoes and get comfortable on the oversized couch. "And I know. . ."

Buffy stops her mid sentence by placing her finger on the redheads lips. "And we have this talk every time I come home." She sighs and smiles a little. "I've outlived every Slayer in the world and so has Faith. Why can't we just retire someplace nice and run a Slayer training center and pass on to the girls what we've learned over the past almost ten years." She shrugs and takes Willows hands into her own. "Because it's in me, Will. Even at the hardest and most painful point in my life, it was still in me. That thing that tells me to fight, to win, that I'm not done and there's still so much more left to do."

"I'm sorry, Buffy." Willow sighs and looks away for a moment. "You know I've always been your biggest cheerleader. I've always understood and been there and accepted every night that it might be the night you don't come home. And it's always been your choice that if you go down, you go down fighting. I just. . ."

Buffy stops her for the second time mid sentence. This time not with her finger, but with her lips. Suddenly, all of the air goes out of the room and nothing else exists in the spaces between their heartbeats. It was by no means a passionate soul searing kiss, but a gentle caressing and coaxing of understanding and love that couldn't be conveyed with mere words.

Willow tangles her hands in soft blonde hair moments before she pulls away gently. "Buffy, I"

"Shh, Will." Buffy leans in again and dots the redheads lips with small pecks of promise for more to come. "I've missed you so much. You don't know what it takes out of me to get through every day that I'm not with you." The Slayer chances stealing one more slow and promising kiss. "You have to know you're the only one. You're the only one I would give it all up for. But for as well as you know that, you know deep down inside that Slaying, saving, hunting. . it's a part of me. It's in my blood and for me to stop would be a worse death than being drained by the things I chase and slay nightly. When you're bitten, you know. . .this is it. This is the end. But if this wasn't my life I'd die a little bit every day until in the end there was nothing left but a shell."

"I know, Buffy. I know." It was Willow this time who took the initiative and leaned in to kiss the Slayer. Her kisses weren't peppered with gentle, loving promises though. They were sprinkled with desire and passion and need. "Goddess I've missed this." The redhead whispers. "I've missed you and I miss you more and more every time you leave. Every time you leave I think to myself, 'Self, this is the worst it can possibly get because she's not here' but then we're together and you leave again and it's worse than the last time I thought it was gonna be worse than the time before that." She stops suddenly and half laughs at herself. "And there was a point in there somewhere, but I think it got lost in all the worseness."

The Slayer smiles a moment before she looks up into the redheads eyes. Her face grows serious and she pushes Willow gently to lay down onto the couch. Her body and her lips cover the Wicca. Minutes pass like sand through their fingers and Buffy breaks the kiss with a smile she's reserved only for the redhead beneath her. "Do you have any idea how much I love you?"

Willow smiles and whispers, "I love you too, Buffy. I love you when you're here, when your not here, when I watch you pummel some slimy demon. Whether you're in Italy or France or Asia or Goddess knows where kickin some demon butt."

"Why Miss Rosenberg, I think that's the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me."

Willow swats her playfully. "I'm serious, Buff. All the places we've both been, all the spaces in between our home that get filled with slayage, slayers in training, research, vampires and demons. All of it matters because of you. I don't want to even think about what would have happened if we didn't become friends in high school. If we didn't fight so hard for so many years to stay together."

Buffy smiles. "And you'll never have to think about that, Will. 'Cause here we are. Together. In our space and nothing is ever gonna keep me from coming home to you. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am." Willow mock salutes her and they both laugh. "Come here, you." She pulls the Slayer down into a kiss that was mean to be playful and sweet and full of acceptance but it quickly turns into the passionate soul searing can't-get-close-enough-to-you desperation they've both been staving off for half the night.

"Too long, Buffy." Willow whispers between the kisses and the clothing and the firm wanting touches. "It's been much to long this time."

"Need you." The Slayer manages to get out through the fabric being lifted off of her already fevered skin. "So much, Will. So much."

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We may live in a different city or town or even country. We may go months without seeing each other. It doesn’t matter and never has. I can pick her out from a crowd as she's walking toward me and I'm walking toward her and we fall into each others arms so easily. Suddenly, it all becomes familiar and safe and the space between. . .stops mattering so much.

From the moment I met her, I knew she had a warmth that could take me in and hold me until everything cold and distant and hard melted away. And for the rest of my life, I will always be grateful that Buffy Summers is a part of mine.

FINIS