FF: Sacrifices: Chapter One B

[aerisjade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

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" Willow?" 

She glanced up from her seat against the large oak tree. She had heard the slayer approaching 
a couple of minutes earlier, but figured that running was pointless. Especially considering how 
tansies Buffy could be. 

" About earlier..." 

" You don't have to explain." Buffy moved to sit next to her, " Just try to refrain from taking 
my wallet. I need that."' 

" I'll do my best." 

" I want you to move in with me." 

Now that was surprise, even she hadn't been expecting that one. " I appreciate the offer 
but...." 

" I'm not asking you." Buffy looked over at her with her own version of a resolve face. " I've 
been talking it over with my mother for a couple of weeks now, and we both agreed that when 
you got back that you would stay in the guest room." 

" I'm fine Buffy." 

" No you're not, and don't try telling me you are. Right now, I don't want you staying by 
yourself, and we both know that your parents haven't even noticed you were missing." 

Oh, this was bad, this was very bad. She couldn't do it, nope, it was to dangerous not to 
mention bad. Very very bad. There was no way she'd let her friend talk her into this, nope 
never. She would not give in. 

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" Willow!!" 

" Eep." She tried to fight her way out of the restraining hug that Buffy's mother seemed to 
have gotten her in when she wasn't paying attention. Something that was the blonde's fault. 
Why the hell did she have to look so enticing in a pair of old.....tight....low cut.....jeans? 
" Breathing becoming an issue..." 

" I'm sorry. It's just such a relief to see you. We were all so worried about you." The older 
woman stepped away, looking her over critically with a motherly cluck. " What have you been 
eating? Your practically skin and bones. Well, we'll just have to fix that. You girls go get 
settled and I'll fix a snack..." 

" But..." 

She glared over at Buffy as the slayer dragged her bodily up the stairs with her other suitcase 
firmly in hand. 

" Trust me, it doesn't do any good. When she's like that, she's worse than Snyder." Buffy 
grinned back at her. " Besides, you could use some mothering." 

She growled at the slayer pushing her into the guest room, ready to make a break for it. All 
she wanted to do was to crawl into bed, and try to get some semblance of sleep before she 
passed out from exhaustion. 

" Look, why don't you try to take a nap? I can have mom save you a plate for later." 

She smiled for the first time all day and nodded. " Thanks." 

" Hey, Willow?" 

She glanced over at her friend. " Yeah." 

" About what you said earlier. About you're..." 

" Being in love with you?" 

Buffy nodded, " Did....did you mean that?" 

She shrugged nonchalantly, " I wouldn't have said it if I hadn't." 

" I...." 

" Don't." She swallowed hard under the look of love in the slayers eyes. " I can't handle that 
right now." Turning from the hurt in her friends eyes, she began unpacking. 

She didn't stop until she heard the soft click of the door closing.. She hated herself for 
hurting the woman she loved but she couldn't bare to let her get close enough to her for them 
to be anything other than friends. Not now, and not ever. 

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" How is she?" 

" She decided to take a nap." 

Her mother nodded, keeping her hands busy with the stack of sandwiches she was making. 
Every once in a while the older woman would look over at her with a calculating expression 
that would normally worry her. 

" Did something happen?" 

" I..." She had told her mother about what her friend has said before she died. About what 
she felt for the babbling red head that seemed to always know what to say to make things seem 
less horrible. " She admitted her feelings for me." 

" That's wonderful." Joyce beamed at her before getting a confused look on her face. " Isn't 
it?" 

" She wouldn't let me say it back. She said she couldn't deal with my feelings right now." 

" Well, honey, she did just get back from hell. You can't possibly expect things to go back to 
normal." Joyce came over to sit next to her. " I'm sure that she just needs some time to heal." 

" Yeah, I guess I was just so caught up in the idea of being able to be with her, that I forgot 
that there were issues." She sighed heavily. She was such a ditz. 

" I'm sure that everything will work out in the end. Just give her some time to adjust." Joyce 
patted her hand, standing up to go back to work. " In the mean time, why don't you help me 
get dinner ready?" 

She nodded, casting a futile glance towards the living room. All she really wanted to do was 
go upstairs and hold the red head in her arms, to make sure that she never lost her again 

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The sweat streamed into her eyes, burning horribly mixed with the foul breath of the 
toothless old man. She shut her eyes against the sight of the face twisted in concentration with 
each invading thrust. The gasping grunts drowned out by the sounds of the alley. Strays 
fighting over spoiled garbage. Other women working for enough money to feed themselves, 
and their families. The loud clanking of the hoofs against the littered wet streets. 

The wall behind her scrapped at her barely covered back. Catching her hair in tangles of 
nests. She winced at the clawed hands scraped and pulled at her bare hips, giving him the added 
friction needed to grind painfully against her one last time. The nauseating explosion making it 
even harder to remain calm. 

She watched as he clumsily refastened his pants, finding the act just as disgusting as the 
other. The deformed, arthritic fingers curled into talons, yanked out a small wad of bills and 
pressed them into her hand. His crooked, overly wide black silver eyes winking lidlessly at her, 
before sauntering off. 

She shook her head at the strange man's behavior wondering briefly if their really was such a 
thing as demons after all, but quickly dismissing it for the bloody legends they were. ' I'd better 
stop working night's, 'fore that ripper nonsense starts ta gat ta me. ' 

" Excuse me." 

She faltered at the mouth of the alley at the musical lint that floated towards her. The 
sudden fear of the shadowed man, made no sense to her, other than the fact that he was a 
stranger around those parts. Then again, he might have been hiring other women, and with the 
shorting supply of working girls, the one's that were still able to work were in higher demand. 

" H're now, wh're you t'lkin to me?" 

The tall lean man stepped from the shadows with a gentle smile on his rugged face. There was 
nothing handsome about him, but he wasn't exactly ugly either. He seemed to be a plain man 
with almost artistic characteristics.. His face was shadowed from having gone unshaven, and his 
hair was mussed, with heavy waves. The smell of turpentine stunk from his body mixed with 
the paint stains that covered his hands. 

" I was wondering if you would be willing to do one more.... job." 

" I d'n't know. I've b'n at it all night already...." 

He pulled a thick wad of bills from his pocket and handed it to her. " I promise this won't 
take long. Just a few minutes is all I want." 

" Alright then, let's get it ov'r with. I h've to be getting along." 

" Of course." 

She lead him to her small room off the alley, too tired to care about showing her home to a 
complete stranger. Besides, he seemed like a nice enough fellow. She couldn't see him trying to 
harm a living soul. He seemed more like the pansy type, always being the perfect gentleman. 

She gasped out as he yanked her tightly into his body, kissing her harshly until she felt blood 
coming from her lips. She tried to push him away, but his hands were bruisingly squeezing and 
kneading her body. 

The sudden tear of her hair as he tangled his hand through her hair, grinding her face even 
closer to his. She scratched at his face desperately, hoping to drive him away from her. Instead, 
she felt herself being forced onto the bed, his knees prying her legs open. 

She screamed into his mouth, pushing uselessly against his shoulders. She heard the man 
unfastening his pants then suddenly.... No!!!!!!!! 

She bite at his tongue and lips, beating her hands against his back, head, and back. But it only 
seemed to make him more excited, more needy, driving the sea of pain deeper into her soul. 
She whimpered at the feel of blood running freely down the insides of her thighs and pooling 
around her lower body. 

Her mind started to retreat as the long thin blade of the scalpel pressed into her throat, 
slicing back in a deep arch, cutting off her cries of mercy. Then there was nothing but pain...... 

" Willow!!!!!!!!" 

She growled at the person on her, using her strength to roll them over and pin the person's 
hands above their head. She opened her eyes to glare down at the....blonde. The demon in her 
seemed to calm some what at the loving gaze of the slayer. 

She let go of the blonde, ashamed of herself, of letting her secret out. She closed her amber 
eyes so that she wouldn't have to see the disgust and hate on her friends face. Warm lips pressed 
against her's, requesting entrance to her mouth. 

Unable to deny her friend anything, she deepened the kiss, her fangs running over the slayer's 
tongue. She slide her hands under the slayers shirt, caressing the soft skin of her sides. The slayer 
gripped her nightshirt, ripping it open, spraying buttons across the room. 

She shuddered as her nude body pressed into Buffy's thinly clad body, wrenching her mouth 
from the blondes. She latched her lips onto the slayers neck, nibbling at the pulse just below 
the skin. Her fangs sliced across the vein, burrowing them into the vein. The warm blood 
rushing into her mouth, filling her with a soothing effect that seemed to make it easier to 
think. 

Slowly she disengaged her fangs from her friends neck and stared down at the slayers body. 
Her eyes were gazing up at the ceiling lifeless. 

" Buffy?" She grabbed the slayers wrist, searching for some sign of a pulse. " Nononono, 
Buffy, come on. This isn't funny. Buffy?! BUFFY!!" 

" Willow, wake up..." 

Her eyes snapped open through the blanket of sweat covering her shaking body. " Buffy?" 

The blonde smiled down at her, " You sounded like you were having a pretty bad dream." 

" Y-yeah." She tightened her hold on the slayers shirt, dragging the petite blond closer to 
her. Loosening her grip only when the slayer wrapped her in her arms. She pressed her ear to 
Buffy's chest, listening to the gentle rhythm of her heart, reassuring her that it had only been a 
dream. 

" Memories." 

" What?" 

She turned her face into the slayers neck, pressing her lips against her pulse point in a kiss. " It 
wasn't a dream. It was a memory." 

The slayer shivered under her caresses, her breath hitching dangerously in her throat. " A-
about your time in hell?" 

She nodded silently, and looked up at her friend. " Make it go away." 

" I would if I could." 

She ground the full length of her body into Buffy's, her lips hovering over the slayer's. " You 
can." 

" I don't think......" 

" Thinking is bad." She whispered claiming her friend's lips in a penetrating kiss. 
Consequences be damned. 

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NIGHT: ONE 
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The body laying on her's seemed to keep the cold at bay, letting her find comfort in her 
being alive.. It was such a simple little thing that she'd always taken for granted. Body heat. 
What is it they say? You never know what you're missing until it's gone? 

" I lov..." 

She dived into the slayers mouth. Quieting the words that scared her more than she cared to 
admit. She just couldn't handle any mental intimacy. She just couldn't. " Promise me you won't 
ever say that unless I ask you too." 

" What? Why?" The slayer propped herself up on her elbow to look down at her. 

" When I said I needed you I meant it. I can't explain it, I just.... I need the physical closeness, 
but the emotional.... It's too much for me right now." 

The slayer nodded sadly, leaning down to chastely kiss her. " I'll wait for you as long as I have 
to. I should let you get some sleep...." 

" Stay." She held onto the other woman desperate for the safety she offered her. " Please." 

Buffy seemed to brighten slightly as she settled back down against her. " You don't need to ask 
me twice. Mmmm. Goodnight..." 

" Night." She whispered back, letting her hand run down the slayer's back. She had a feeling 
that no matter what she did, that it was going to be a long night.



Aeris Jade Orion

Grey Fox, and cause of Discord in the outback.

" Are we mice, or are we men?"
" We're mice."

- Stephan Kings IT