FIC; Scheherezade (1/2)

["JDMeans" <Jim_D_Means@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's my answer to the Mental Training challenge. I borrowed some of Willow's dialogue from Tim's description of the challenge.

Disclaimer;
Buffy, Willow and anyone else that gets mention in this story is the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox(which should change their name, really, it's the Twenty-first century already!).

Author's note;
This is in response to Tim's Mental Training challenge. I came up with thisidea at work today, and couldn't wait to tell it. I took a few liberties with his ground rules, but the main gist of his idea is still there. This will be a little weirder, and a lot more sensual than my usual work. Here's hoping it works out.

Rating; NC-17(to be on the safe side)

Spoilers; Fifth season. This story takes place just before Buffy's twenty-first birthday, almost a year after "The Body".

Summary;
Willow takes extreme measures to protect Buffy from the Council and prepareher for the next stage in her development as this generation's Slayer.



Scheherezade

By Kirayoshi



"Buffy?"

"Willow!" I was half-asleep when I fumbled with the receiver to answer the phone and heard the sweet, sunny voice of my best-friend. <A lot sunnier than she had been a couple of months ago,> I recalled, thinking of how Tara'sdeparture had hurt Willow. The red-haired Wiccan had claimed that their decision to break up their relationship had been mutually arrived at, but I knew that it still hurt her. I remembered all too well how my relationships had ended, first with Angel, then with Riley. Looking back, I realized thatI was better off without either of them, but I still remembered the pain.

"Hey, Wills," I shook off my memories and concentrated on her friend on theother end of the line. "What's the up?"

"I need to see you tonight," Willow said simply. "It's important."

I paused to consider Willow's words. Her tone of voice seemed serious, but not grave, not like someone who was in danger, or in fear of some great evil. "How serious, Willow?" I asked her. "We talking 'Slayer' serious or 'best friend' serious?"

"Slayer serious," she answered. "Don't worry, not 'end of the world' serious or anything like that, but we really need to talk."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Sure, Willow. You want me over at your dorm, or should you come here?"

"I'd better come over," Willow explained. "It'll be an all-niter, so would Dawn mind if I slept over there?"

"No problem," I said, "Dawn's staying with a friend for the weekend, so it'll be just us girls. Maybe we can make it a movie night after patrol."

"Maybe," Willow said, "but I cleared it with Giles. You're off patrol for tonight."

"I can't tell you how not disappointed I am to hear that," I joked. But somehow I felt a little troubled by that announcement. Giles giving me a "Get Out of Patrol Free" card? That doesn't happen very often, and usually only in the case of the gang needing to take down the latest Big Bad. "Okay, Wills, you sure there's no big threat to the world on the horizon?"

"Nothing that I know about," she said calmly. "Oh, and since it's a sleepover, I hope you have some night clothes ready to wear."

"Oh? Like my sushi pajamas?" 

"Uh," she demurred slightly, "if you have that green teddy you were modeling for me that night you were going to surprise Riley on his birthday. I'd really like to see that one." 

Suddenly I was concerned. Since Willow came out of the closet a couple of years ago, it never occurred to me that she might be warm for my form, but Iwas starting to wonder. Nah, I dismissed the thought almost instantly. We were friends, she knew that I was straight, and we respected each other's preferences. I was worrying about nothing. "Sure, why not?" 

"Great," she answered. "It's a date. Not date, as in you and me in a possible romantic thing, 'cause you'd be uncomfortable, and I'd be too stunned byyour beauty, and we'd not get anything done. Not that I think of you that way, but well, you do look hot in a pair of blue jeans, and if you did giveme any hint that you did lean that way I'd be over you like a wet T-shirt and I'm babbling, aren't I?"

"Don't sweat it, Wills," I smiled at her embarrassment, picturing how red her face must be right about now. So she did find me attractive, but still respected me too much to try anything. Somehow the fact that she found me desirable made me feel good. At least someone still did. "I can never get tired of Willow-babble. Is seven good for you?"

"I'll be there at seven, and I'll bring the pizza," she promised. She hung up, and I got ready for a fun evening with my best friend.

In a way, I was glad that she would be coming over. Maybe I could approach the topic of her break-up with Tara. She had been so good to me and Dawn after Mom died, I was hoping for the chance to make it up to her. Knowing hershe'd just shy away from my efforts and say something like, 'Hey, friends don't keep count.' Thank God for that, because she's so far ahead of me on points in the best-friend department I don't have a chance of catching up.

Not that I wasn't going to try. Willow was worth it.

I had no idea how worth it until that night.

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Willow showed up at seven, as promised, with a pizza box in one hand and a tote bag in the other. "Here we are, Buffy," she announced brightly, "one half pepperoni-sausage, one half bell pepper and extra cheese."

"Sounds good," I accepted the box and ushered her in. I noticed that she had done something with her hair, kind of different from the perm she had sported a year or so before, and her face seemed more made up than I was used to from her. Plus there was something strange, something I couldn't put my finger on. There was a gleam in her eyes I never saw before. Some strange knowing power lay dormant in her eyes. She seemed to scan me with her glance, to memorize me, to lay claim to me. I shuddered slightly and ignored these thoughts.

"So, Wills," I sat down on the sofa while she sat in a nearby chair. "What's up with your bad Wiccan self?"

"Well," she started, her shyness suddenly emerging. "I wanted to work with you on something. Kind of a witchy thing."

"Hey, I'm up for that," I admitted. "But why not call on Tara? I mean, she's a qualified card-carrying wiccan, I'm only the Slayer."

Willow chuckled as she shook her head. "Believe me, Buffy, there's nothing 'only' about you. And this project involves the Slayer. Giles and I dug it out of one of his Watcher books, it's a special ritual. Only the Slayer anda practiced mage can perform it."

I took her words at face value, and accepted them. "Okay, I'm game. What dowe do?"

"First," she opened the lid on the pizza box, "we pig out. I just can't do magic on an empty stomach." I agreed with her wholeheartedly on that score,and soon we were scarfing pizza and drinking diet soda.

After the pizza was effectively demolished, Willow turned to me, saying, "Now, Buffy, I want you to put on that green teddy of yours. We must dress simply for the ritual. I brought my own slip with me, and some candles and incense to work with. I'll set up while you slip into your teddy."

"Okay," I said dubiously. Why the green teddy, she wouldn't say clearly, but I figured that Willow was the one person in this world I could trust unconditionally. I left for my bedroom and located the garment in question. I didn't really want to wear the teddy; I wore it for Riley the last night we made love. Not the highlight of my sexual history, considering that he was more interested in getting himself off at the time. Two days later, I saw him board a helicopter with some other soldiers, and never heard from him again. He went back to his life, and I knew now that I didn't want him in mine anymore. Oh well, life goes on. And maybe wearing the teddy for Willow may give it a happy memory after all.

A few minutes later, I stepped into the living room, feeling a slight chillfrom the air ducts. The lights were out, but I saw a faint glow ahead of me. "Willow?" I asked. "You set up those candles, I see."

Willow sat in the center of the floor, inside a ring of candles, their flames leaping brightly, dispelling the gloom from the circle. She wore a simple cream-colored robe, sheer silk, that accented her subtle curves quite nicely. <Tara was a fool for dumping her> I found myself thinking. She indeed looked both sensual and ethereal, like some incarnation of Venus. Her delicate skin seemed to take the candles' glow into it, shining brightly in the flickering flames.

"Buffy," she instructed me, "sit here, in front of me. Before this night isover, much will be made clear." I did as she bade me, sitting in lotus in front of Willow. I felt my heart race, my pulse quicken, as it often did whenever Willow had me participate in her magic. The tension was delicious, like opening a birthday gift from a favorite friend.

"May the Goddess bless us this night," Willow chanted, her eyes closed, as she lit the first stick of incense in front of her. "May she smile on our efforts, as we seek to further the mind and body of her servant, the Slayer.Let the bond be formed, let the covenant be fulfilled. So mote it be." Theincense wafted into the air around us, giving the living room the smell ofapple pies baking. Cinnamon, cardamom, and something resembling nutmeg. Smells designed to soothe, to put me at ease. My shoulders dropped, any tension I felt dissipated.

Willow handed me a metal goblet, filled with red wine. "Drink," she instructed. I took the goblet in my hands, and sipped the wine. It tasted a littletart, a bit acidic, but still sweet and warming. "You must drink deeply, Buffy," Willow answered. 

"You mean 'chug it'?" I ventured. Willow nodded, so I took a good swig of the wine. Too much too fast, because I started to feel vertigo. The last time I felt this strange wave of nausea was when I went to a frat party, and the bartender gave us spiked beer, beer that turned me into a Neanderthal, the Cave Slayer. Willow carefully brought me to my feet, walked me over to the couch, and sat me down. "Oh dear, it's a good thing I was here to catch you, Buffy," she insisted, calming me as I tried to regain my equilibrium.

I shook off the last lingering effects of the wine, and looked around the room. Something had changed, imperceptibly, but still changed. "Okay, Wills," I insisted, "game over. What's really going on?" 

"The Mental Training," Willow answered simply. "You have been prepared for a testing. This must take place before the Slayer turns twenty-one. Kind oflike the Cruciamentum that Giles made you undergo when you turned eighteen, but without the vampire to endanger you."

I couldn't believe what she was saying. "You--you drugged me?" My hands formed into fists, and for the very first time in my life, I wanted to plant my fist into Willow's face. I screamed at her; "I want you out of my house now! GET OUT!" 

"Sorry, Buffy," Willow said soothingly, "but that's not an option. Look foryourself." She drew the window blinds, showing me the view outside of the house. Shifting colors and patterns, with no discernible rhyme or reason. "We're outside of space and time, Buffy. No one will disturb us."

"You realize of course that our friendship is over!" I growled at her. "I can't ever forgive you for this! You remember what I went through when Gilesmade me face Kralik without my Slayer Strength!"

"I do know," Willow answered calmly. "That is why I insisted on handling this test. Giles couldn't do this, for reasons that I will explain. And he wasn't about to turn you over to the Council. He had no choice in this matter. If you don't undergo the Mental Training, the Council will have you killed and replace you with the next Slayer."

I stopped my mad tirade to listen to her words; did she do this for my sake? To protect me from the Council? The anger was still there, but less directed at her than at the council. "The Mental Training is like the Cruciamentum, a test of the Slayer's mind, to determine if her will is strong. But unlike the Cruciamentum, the test does not involve pitting you against a vampire. It will pit you against a more potent foe. Your own desires."

She stood before me, as I sat unbelieving at her. Her cream robe clung to her so smoothly that I doubted she was wearing a bra. God she was beautiful.What was I thinking?

"The wine contains a mild stimulant," Willow continued to explain, "designed to limit inhibitions. You see, the test is about your ability to resist sexual stimuli. Which I will be providing.

"You see, Buff, from the beginning of time it was known to the Watcher's Council that their warrior against the dark evil, the slayer, would eventually face warriors of darkness that were far superior than the slayer. In those battles the slayer's body would turn traitor, begging her to give up so she could die and the pain could cease. It would be a contest of wills and only the slayer's will to survive would make her victorious." As she spoke, she moved forward, slowly and sinuously.

"The task for the Council was to create a scenario that presented this contest of wills. The first scenario the Council members came up with, was likethis: They would drug the slayer and take away her slayer powers. Then make her face a vampire alone and without weapons. But in recent years, the Council ruled that test to be inhuman. Not to mention that they lost more Slayers that way. The Council members spend days figuring out a scenario in which the body would turn traitor against the mind. What could it be . then it came to them: sex."

She sat slowly on the couch next to me. Her robe fell open, and I caught a brief glimpse of her breast before looking away quickly. I was starting to understand what she was trying to do, and it scared me. And excited me as well. 

"The test is run like this; the person giving the test will try and seduce the Slayer, using only gentle caresses," she illustrated by stroking my left breast ever so slightly across the fabric of my teddy, "through blowing air," she blew gently into my ear, making me shiver deliciously, "or throughwords. Now you understand why Giles refused to give this test himself. He regards you as his foster daughter, and this would be like incest to him. And he couldn't allow a total stranger from the Council to perform the test.Angel's out of course, happiness clause and all that, and Ana would probably not approve of us using Xander. So I volunteered. It was the only way tokeep the Council out of this."

I bent my head, slowly understanding what Willow was saying. "You gave up so much for me," I admitted, "to protect me from the Council. I'm sorry I yelled at you, Wills. But I can't go through with this. I won't force you to make love to me."

"Of course not," Willow smiled. "The idea is that I force you. And I will. The test will not end until you agree to let me fuck you."

"Fine," I chirped, reluctantly seeing an out. "Let's get it over with. You want to be on top, or me on top, or..."

"Uh-uh-uh," Willow scolded me. "It doesn't work that way." Her voice took on elements of a whisper, with husky overtones. "I have to seduce you. In order to complete the test, I must bring you to such a state that you will want me to fuck you, to let me bring you to orgasm. Not to simply get out of the situation, but because it's what you truly want more than anything. AndI will do it too."

I looked at Willow, her resolve face firmly in place. She wasn't kidding.

Neither was I. "I'll fight you every step of the way, you know that, right?"

"I know," she growled at me, lustfully. "And you will fail."

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Not much sex in this part. I'll make it up to you next time. <BEG> Plus an explaination of the story's title.

Kirayoshi

"People who live in glass houses shouldn't walk around in their underwear."--Bill Cosby