Snippet: Second Chances

["sochankitsune <annelise@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>" <annelise@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

*hug*

Anne-Lise.

--

Sometimes I can almost believe the screams are someone else's. 
Sometimes I can almost see her face, although her features have long 
since passed into obscurity. How long has it been since I last felt 
her tacit caress, promising all the things I ever wanted and yet 
would never have?
They could never take her memory away from me. God knows they 
tried. Now though, they just seem content to let it all fade away and 
die in a time of my own choosing.
They can wait. After all, Purgatory is eternal.
And so here I lie in perdition of my own choosing; a Hell of my own 
making. Alone within crowds, shrouded in despair.
Forever in shadows.

*

"Well met, old friend." Thomas held out his hand to Gabriel, who 
shook it with a raised eyebrow.
"Still wasting time down there with your precious monkeys?" Gabriel 
asked with a sneer.
Thomas grinned. "You'll never change, I fear!"
"Fear." Gabriel mulled over the concept. "I've never had much use 
for fear. Tell me, what does our Lord think of such things?"
Thomas blinked. "Why would you ask such a thing? Surely you are as 
close to his heart as I?"
"Close?" Gabriel sighed. "We don't really talk all that much 
anymore."
Thomas firmly closed his eyes yet a trickle of blood still seeped 
from the corners of each. "I can only imagine what you may feel."
"I feel nothing!" Gabriel declared as he reached out to touch 
Thomas's blood tears. "Nothing."
Thomas opened eyes swollen with the blood of pain. "Gabriel," he 
swallowed. "My friend. The call to arms has been sounded by the 
seraphim. The Hosts are to do battle once more."
"And whose side should I be on?"
Thomas was shocked. "Gabriel! Surely you wouldn't consider 
Memnoch's Stance?"
"Sometimes..." Gabriel shook his head. "No. Memnoch is as deluded as 
He. The war's as pointless now as it was when prophesised. Think what 
it will mean!"
"An ending. Perhaps a new beginning?" Thomas' voice held a tint of 
reverie.
"An ending, yes." Gabriel put a hand down to his sword. "An ending 
to all that is, and once was. Where shall we fit in this new scheme?"
A flicker of doubt crossed Thomas's angelic face. "I... hadn't 
thought."
"An end to the Sundering! An end to Purgatory?" Gabriel's voice rose 
in fury. "The demons free to roam the Celestial court once more?"
Thomas gasped. "That cannot happen!"
"It can," Gabriel seethed. "Will you stand with me?"
"To what end?" Thomas asked.
Gabriel gripped Thomas's arm. "An End is precisely what we must 
avoid." Gabriel paced and thought. "We must remove the fulcrum," he 
proclaimed. "We must return balance. There has to remain harmony and 
discord, order and chaos."
"How?" Thomas frowned.
Gabriel shook his head. "Not how. Who!"

*

"Buffy?"
Buffy turned and saw Willow, her Willow, standing in front of her 
as though she'd never died; as though they'd never lowered into that 
earthen grave and grieved her loss. The joy was almost 
painful. "Willow?"
Buffy couldn't move, couldn't embrace this apparition. Was this 
Willow? Dare she hope? Her breath caught in her throat. She so very 
much wanted to believe. After all, she'd died herself and been 
brought back, maybe...
"Yes, its me."

*

Selfish; alone with Willow in her room, unable to call the others, 
unwilling to shed hope where there may be none.
"I want to believe." Buffy's whisper brings forth more tears from 
eyes that burn, red and raw.
Willow's smile an anodyne to pain, a beacon in the darkness that 
engulfs Buffy's heart. "Believe," she replies. "I was brought back 
for you. There's a story to tell, and a fight to prepare for; but all 
that can come later. For now, let us just be together?"
Buffy pulled Willow into her embrace, showering her with kisses 
returned.
"Oh yes, O my sweet Willow, yes."
Unable to speak, barely able to breath, Buffy's tongue sucked 
gently, hands upon her aching breasts, passion aglow at the base of 
her, release.
And then they are upon the bed, as ravenous as beasts in the wild, 
rolling, kissing, pawing. Willow's hair askew shrouds her face in 
fire, her smile the lure that forever trapped Buffy's heart. Buffy's 
arching back and cries of pleasure remain stark in the air and 
everything that Willow treasured.
"I love you, Buffy." Willow cries, needing the Slayer to hear these 
words, needing her to understand the depths of her love. "I am 
nothing without you."
Buffy's hand finds its way to Willow's sex, and Willow's cries 
become screams of abandon and lust, passion and need.
"I love you too," Buffy manages. "Forever and always."
Moans and squeals replace the words, but the feelings and meanings 
tacit remain. Willow's faint cinnamon scent hangs heavy in the air, 
rising through the perspiration and musk. Buffy shrugs herself down 
until her face presses lightly against Willow's sex, and her tongue 
pushes forcefully into the slit, circling until she finds Willow's 
clit.
This is no ghost and she no Ophelia, though madness perhaps presses 
its suit against her. Buffy's needs becomes as desire, and her heart 
relaxes its torturous pace. Willow's climax is as delectable to 
Buffy, when it comes, as it is fulfilling to Willow.

"Purgatory indeed," Willow sighs. "And Heaven's gate lies at its 
end."
Her words mean nothing to Buffy, though any words are bliss.
"My heart feels heavy," Buffy declares. "For I know that soon the 
world will come rushing back with its duties and responsibilities. 
Xander, Giles, Dawn... They will all want you to themselves for 
awhile. We've all grieved, in our own way. And there is this fight 
you mentioned."
"Yes," Willow's eyes grew sad for a moment. "There is always the 
fight."
"But tell me this; are you here to stay, to be with me?"
Willow's eyes tear, but she nods. "Unless I die as mortals may; 
I've been granted a second chance, not for myself but as a gift for 
you. And perhaps because I hold you forever in my heart as much I 
hope as I'm in yours."
"I love you, Willow." Buffy eyes are bright, happy.
Worth the terrible cost, Willow thinks, and embraces her beloved 
once more.

*

End Snippet.