FIC; Mistletoe (1/1)

[JDMeans@xxxxxxx]

Hey all;

First, a lame excuse. My computer chose to crash on me last week. I have 
most of it back up to functional status, but sadly anything I wrote over the 
last six months is inaccessable. So it's gonna be a little while before I 
can post the next part of my big Gargoyles crossover. Don't worry, that's my 
big project for the forseeable future, and I'm far from abandoning it. I 
hope to restart 'Bitter Business' chapter 2 once the holidays are finished.

Now, a little holiday cheer. Here's a little sugarplum for Christmas. 
Enjoy.

Kirayoshi
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Disclaimers;
Joss and his usual suspects own them. I don't. No money exchanged hands.

Rating; I'm aiming for a strong R.

Spoilers; general seventh season, but keep in mind that I no longer get UPN 
in Spokane (talk about your Grr, Argh!), so I'm winging it. This takes place 
in mid-December, just after Chanukah and before Christmas. It also takes 
place before episode 7-10, "Bring on the Night".

Feedback; Send candy canes or lumps of coal to JDMeans@xxxxxxx

Summary; On Christmas Eve, a little mistletoe goes a long way...


Mistletoe
By Kirayoshi


"Christmas is the time to say I love you,
Share the joy and laughter and good cheer.
Christmas is the time to say I love you, and
A feeling that will last all through the year."
--Billy Squier
"Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You"


Two ethereal figures stood watch over the beleaguered town that stood at the 
Hellmouth. They went unseen throughout the streets, within the homes and 
into the deepest recesses of the city. They observed as the denizens of 
Sunnydale prepared their homes for the coming holidays, purchasing and 
wrapping gifts, stringing lights, trimming trees. Shedding light against the 
darkness of the Hellmouth.

The two guardians smiled at these efforts and returned their concentration to 
the task at hand. They were on a mission, and failure was not an option.

"It is imperative that you understand the importance of this mission," the 
senior entity informed his subordinate. "The First Evil is about, and the 
Chosen one will face many threats. We may not interfere with her battle."

"But we can't simply let her face this evil alone, Joseph!" the subordinate 
guardian complained.

"She will not be alone," Joseph assured him. "That is why we are here 
tonight. I'm trusting you to do what is necessary to help the Slayer and her 
destined companion find each other."

"You may count on me, sir," the junior guardian answered, departing with the 
speed of thought to his destination.

<<>>

Buffy stood back and admired her work with the satisfaction of a difficult 
job finally mastered; after a half-hour of hunting, she finally found the 
dead bulb in the string of lights, the one that was causing half the lights 
on the string to blink out. Smiling, she slowly wrapped the lights around 
the tree, making sure to evenly space them so the tree didn't look lopsided 
when she was done. With the tree sufficiently lighted, she scurried to the 
basement to locate the ornament chest.

This felt good, she decided as she located the chest. After all her 
post-resurrection traumas, along with Willow's spiraling into black magic, 
the holidays had been pretty much a write-off last year. This year, however, 
things were different. There was an evil to face, true, and Spike's 
increasing erratic behavior to deal with. But she was back, and it was long 
past time for her to reconnect with her family and friends.

As she returned to the living room with the ornaments, she glanced at the 
window, remembering the menorah that had been there the week before. Willow 
had invited her to light the candle for the first night of Chanukah shortly 
after Thanksgiving, and over the following week Dawn and Xander joined the 
two of them in several spirited rounds of the Dreidel game, for stakes of red 
and green M&Ms. Buffy even managed to successfully cook potato pancakes for 
the final night. Yeah, she realized, the holidays were going to work this 
year. 

The sound of a door latch opening caught Buffy's attention. She tensed 
slightly, before remembering that no vampire could enter her house without 
her invitation, and the one vamp that had permission to enter her house was a 
minimal threat. The door opened, and a tall stack of packages wandered in, 
carried by a short redhead who could barely see over the top of the stack. 
"A little assist here, Buffy," Willow called out from behind the pile, and 
Buffy gladly rushed to her friend's aid. She lifted the top package, and was 
greeted by a weary but happy expression on Willow's face. "Thanks, Buffy," 
she answered as she maneuvered her parcels into the living room and placed 
them on the coffee table. "Got my Christmas shopping done today, and I also 
picked up some chocolate chips for cookies today."

"Oh goody," Buffy smiled with anticipation; she could already taste Willow's 
cookies. "Too bad Dawnie's over at Janice's for a sleepover. She could have 
helped me."

"Yeah," Buffy chided, "we'll have to eat all the cookies ourselves!"

"We'll save her some," Willow promised. As she made her way to the kitchen 
with the chips, she stopped suddenly at the doorframe. "Hey, Buff, where'd 
this come from?"

Buffy glanced at Willow, who was pointing above her head. She followed 
Willow's finger and noticed a sprig of greenery hanging from the doorframe. 
She walked over toward Willow, her eyes fixed on the small smooth leaves and 
white berries. "Hmm," Buffy mused, her voice taking on a teasing tone, 
"looks like mistletoe to me."

Willow immediately flinched, ducking to the side to avoid standing directly 
under the diabolical sprig. Buffy caught sight of Willow's slightly 
embarrassed blush and smiled hugely. "Too late, Will," she purred as she 
leaned in forward and kissed her best friend gently on the lips. A mere 
peck, but still warmly affectionate.

"Hmm," Willow purred slightly as she reluctantly pulled away from Buffy, 
"that was nice." Very nice, she mentally amended. "But, uh, did you put up 
that mistletoe?"

"Not me," Buffy insisted, "I thought you put it up."

"Wasn't me, Buffy," Willow answered. A moment later she started to chuckle. 
"I know what it is. Dawn must have set up the mistletoe, to trap Xander when 
we have him over for 'Charlie Brown Christmas'."

"That'll put a hitch in his Snoopy Dance," Buffy mused, an amused smile 
lighting upon her face. "Let's just hope that Anya doesn't find out." She 
glanced away from the figure of her best friend standing before her, taking 
in her warmly expressive features, the clear jade eyes that sparkled with a 
warm fire. She gazed at Willow's hair, and wondered why she never realized 
that her hair was the exact same color of oak leaves in the autumn, a deep 
burnished russet.

"Uh," Buffy stammered slightly, "maybe we'd better get out of this doorway." 
Reluctantly, she left Willow's side and made her way toward the kitchen. "Do 
you need any help with the cookies?"

"Wanna lick the spatula?" Willow teased in chiming tones, flashing Buffy an 
elfin grin. When Buffy returned the smile, Willow found her eyes locking 
again with Buffy's. The faded gray-hazel irises were flecked with dark 
brown, and infused with a magnetic quality. Willow could imagine herself 
falling into those eyes, into the infinite depths of Buffy's soul...

Willow shook her head, wrenching her gaze away from Buffy's. The Slayer 
turned away, opening one of the lower cupboard doors in search of her 
mother's cookie sheets. Willow felt vaguely grateful that Buffy wasn't 
looking at her now, as her cheeks were positively flushed and she started to 
feel much warmer. Lick the spatula, she had said. The moment she uttered 
those words, a vision flashed in Willow's mind, of Buffy laying Willow out 
naked on her bed, her eyes hooded with lust, her tongue darting and probing 
over her neck, her shoulders, her breasts, licking down her belly...

Willow forced herself to pry her eyes away from Buffy, a more difficult task 
than before, considering that Buffy was now bending down to locate the cookie 
sheets, providing Willow with an excellent view of her denim-clad posterior. 
With a supreme effort, Willow yanked her head upward, intent on staring at 
the ceiling until these lusty-Buffy thoughts dissipated. She held her head 
up, fixing her eyes directly above Buffy...

And noticed the green sprig that hovered over Buffy, grazing the ceiling. 
"Hey, Buff," Willow squeaked out in surprise. "I think you're being 
followed."

"What are you talking about..." Buffy reverted to a standing position to look 
at Willow. She saw her friend pointing directly above Buffy's head, her jaw 
slack and her eyes big as tennis balls, widened in shock. She slowly craned 
her neck to discover what had Willow wound up like that.

The mistletoe sprig was suspended directly over Buffy's head, hovering in 
absolute stillness. Buffy stared hard at the small branch, then lifted her 
right hand slowly over it. With a swift motion of her wrist, she grabbed the 
mistletoe and placed it on the counter, hoping to get a closer look at the 
offending plant. The moment she released her grip on the stem, the mistletoe 
floated off the table, rapidly flying back to its position over Buffy's head.

Buffy craned her neck to look at the floating sprig. She took two steps to 
her left, observing as the mistletoe followed her almost perfectly. She 
ducked back to her original position, only to see the green leaves still over 
her head. She scowled at the floating greenery, and leaned gently to her 
left, before suddenly twisting and jumping to her right. Her efforts to fake 
out the sprig proved futile, as it nimbly followed her every movement.

"Uh, Willow?" Buffy turned toward her best friend. "What can you tell me 
about this?" She pointed toward the hovering vine.

"Don't look at me," Willow raised her voice a trifle higher than necessary. 
"I didn't do it."

"I'm not blaming you, Will," Buffy calmed herself, reining in her 
frustration. "I just figured that you know magic, so you'd know what's with 
the levitating leaves here."

"Ah, gotcha," Willow smiled, as she moved closer to Buffy. "Here, let me get 
a better look at you-IT, it--" she continued. She pursed her lips as she 
looked at the mistletoe. "Hmm, I'd say that it's enchanted."

Buffy glared at Willow, but not seriously. "The word 'duh' comes to mind at 
this point."

"But it doesn't feel like evil magic," Willow continued, ignoring Buffy's 
jibe. "After my little...dive off the deep end this year," Buffy felt a pang 
of remorse at the guilty tone that seeped into Willow's voice. She wanted 
nothing more to hold her friend, to comfort her and assure her that she was 
still loved. 

"...I've grown a little more attuned with magic signatures," Willow 
continued, her voice lightening somewhat. "This feels, well, benevolent. 
Good magic. There's a reason this mistletoe is over your head."

"Why?" Buffy asked, "to make every geek in Sunnydale want to kiss me?"

"No, don't think so," Willow answered. If they tried, I'd hit them over the 
head with a shovel! Willow paused for a second, wondering why that thought 
had suddenly entered her head. Shaking it off, she continued; "In both 
Celtic and Native American traditions, mistletoe was used as a medicinal 
plant. The Celts called it 'heal-all', and used its leaves and sap for 
medicinal puposes."

"Really," Buffy breathed, her eyes still gazing at the green twig.

"Yeah," Willow answered as she leaned in closer to Buffy. Her arm grazed 
against Buffy's for a second, sending an electric thrill through both women's 
nerve-endings. Willow leaned into Buffy's side, absently aware of Buffy's 
arm slowly moving along her back. "And in Scandinavia, the tradition was 
that--" She stopped suddenly as she felt Buffy's feather-light touches on her 
shoulder-blade through the fabric of her t-shirt. 

"Yeah, Will," Buffy urged her gently, increasingly aware of the warmth of her 
friend's body, the subtle scents of the herbal shampoo she used in her hair. 
"What was the, uh, tradition in Scandinavia?"

"Oh, that," Willow shook her head, tearing her thoughts away from the 
steadily building erotic tension between her body and Buffy's, and focusing 
on their conversation. "Uh, in Scandinavia, whenever two soldiers from enemy 
camps--" She shuddered as she felt Buffy's breath warming her ear. "--if 
they met in a forest, under a vine of mistletoe, they--mmm---" She felt the 
gentle pressure of Buffy's lips planting soft kisses on her earlobe. "--they 
agreed to a truce for the remainder of--of the day---" She turned her head 
to face Buffy, only to find her lips next to her friend's. "Then, of 
course," she continued, her voice a husky whisper, "there's--the old 
tradition that--that calls for lovers to--to--kiss under the..."

Without another word, Willow fused her mouth to Buffy's, taking the blond by 
surprise. Within a second, however, Buffy returned the kiss with greater 
passion, encircling Willow in her arms. Willow melted into Buffy's embrace, 
her hands venturing behind Buffy's back, slowly sliding under her shirt, 
raining feather-light touches along her spine. Buffy's mouth opened in 
surprise and Willow took advantage, slipping her tongue into Buffy's waiting 
mouth. Their tongues slid together lazily, their embrace tightening as their 
hands tried to touch as much of each other's bodies as possible.

Suddenly Buffy wrenched her head away from Willow's, gasping and admiring the 
redness that suffused her friend's cheeks. "Willow..." she breathed, "are we 
making a mistake?"

"We could be," Willow admitted, leaning in closer, inhaling Buffy's perfume. 
"We really should stop now, shouldn't we?"

"That--ummm--" Buffy purred as she felt Willow's teeth gently nibbling her 
earlobe. "--that would be a good--uh, what's the word?--uh, idea. Yeah, 
good idea. We should stop now--" Willow affixed her mouth to Buffy's neck 
and started sucking on her pulse point. "OH GOD!" Buffy screamed in ecstasy.

With the last shred of her self-control cast aside, Buffy grabbed Willow by 
the waist and lifted her off her feet. Willow, reacting purely on instinct 
and desire, clamped her arms around Buffy's neck, swung her legs around the 
Slayer's midsection and locked her ankles behind her back. Buffy placed her 
hands on Willow's butt, lifted her gently and walked rapidly out of the 
kitchen.

With the redheaded weight in her arms pressing closer and raining kisses over 
her face and shoulders, Buffy stumbled up the stairs and into her bedroom. 
She managed to make her way to the bed without tripping and lowered Willow 
gently on top of her pillows. She tried to back away for a moment, but 
Willow grabbed at Buffy's t-shirt, tugging insistently. Buffy sat next to 
Willow and lifted her arms, allowing her new lover to pull the shirt off of 
her. Once the shirt was free, Buffy reached behind her back, opening the 
clasp of her bra, allowing her breasts to spill free of their confinement.

Willow admired Buffy's body for a moment, giving in to the impulse to touch 
the blond's breasts, her thumbs rubbing against the coral nipples, smiling as 
she felt them harden under her ministrations. Buffy moaned sweetly at her 
lover's touch, then looked her directly in her jade eyes. "Willow," she 
gasped breathlessly, "I really need to see you naked now!"

"I can do that," Willow grinned mischievously, her expression reminding Buffy 
of an elf. My own Christmas elf, Buffy mused. Willow promptly removed her 
hands from Buffy's breasts, and pulled her t-shirt off, scrambling to remove 
her bra. While watching this spectacle, Buffy absently unzipped her jeans, 
peeling them off of her legs with her panties. Within a minute, both women 
were completely naked, gazing in wide-eyed lust at each other's bodies.

Willow broke the expectant silence, whispering to Buffy, "Make love to me."

Buffy grinned hugely and took Willow into her arms again, her fingers almost 
hungry to touch her lover's skin. For the next hour or so, no words were 
spoken, or required. Their mouths found other things to do, as their hands 
roamed freely over each other's naked forms. 

After multiple volcanic releases, Buffy and Willow cuddled limply in each 
others arms, weak but happily sated. Finally regaining the strength, Willow 
lifted her head to gaze at her beautiful Slayer. She glanced up for a 
moment, and saw the mistletoe branch over her head. The sprig quietly faded 
from sight, and in a heartbeat, it was gone.

Willow smiled as Buffy's eyes fluttered open, taking in the sweet face of her 
lover. "Hi, Buffy," she purred, kissing the tip of her nose.

"Hi yourself, Will," Buffy answered. Her eyes darted over her head, and she 
sighed with relief. "I see the mistletoe's gone."

"Yeah," Willow answered. "I think I know what it was about."

"Yeah," Buffy nodded ruefully. "A sex spell. Hey, we don't have to talk 
about this to anyone. We can forget about it if you want..."

Willow placed a finger against Buffy's lips, silencing her. "Why would I 
want to do that? Besides, it wasn't a sex spell."

"Oh?" Buffy delivered a puzzled half-smile. "One minute we're talking 
Christmas cookies, the next minute we're having sex. The best sex of my life, 
by the way."

"Thanks," Willow smirked, "you're not so bad yourself. You sure you never 
had a girl before?"

"Nope," Buffy announced, "you're my first. Okay, Faith and I necked once, 
but then she turned evil and, well, that kinda killed the romance. No, you 
took my lesbian cherry."

"Goody," Willow beamed proudly. "Anyway, the sex wasn't a direct part of the 
spell. I mean, it came out of the spell, but indirectly. The magic was a 
revelation spell. It caused us to realize and accept a truth that was hidden 
from ourselves." She gently fingered the space between Buffy's lower lip and 
her chin, her hand drifting down her cheek, softly caressing her neck. 

"And that truth is..." Buffy ventured slowly, praying that she wouldn't say 
the wrong thing, "...us? Being together?"

"Buffy," Willow rolled over so her body was on top of Buffy's, and the Slayer 
reveled in the feeling of Willow's breasts, stomach and thighs pressed 
against hers. Her voice was steeped in compassion and desire, a tone that 
Buffy knew without thinking to be one of purest love. "I always knew there 
was a bond between us, from the moment you chose my company over Cordy's. I 
never recognized it, never spoke of it even to myself. But now, I know the 
truth. I loved Xander, I loved Oz, and I loved Tara. But whatever I felt 
for them was just a rehearsal for loving you. I don't know how much clearer 
I can make it. I am in love with you, Buffy, and I have been from the first 
time we met."

Buffy nodded, her fear of losing her best friend in a mad passion draining 
away under the love Willow offered her so freely. "Well, that's convenient," 
she snickered, "because if what I feel for you isn't love, I don't know what 
is." She lifted her head up to Willow's, their lips meeting in a gentle 
kiss. Their kiss contained a pledge, a vow, a promise that the magic that 
brought them together would endure, and their bond would not be sundered.

For the rest of the night, Buffy and Willow made love with a gentleness that 
countered the frenzied passion of their first coupling. They ordered pizza 
and tipped the delivery boy generously(secretly smirking as they answered the 
door in their robes, their hands constantly touching each other as the 
delivery boy gawked in adolescent lust). They ate in bed, talking about 
their deepest hopes and dreams, feeding each other, licking pizza sauce off 
each others lips, before falling into each others arms again.

And for the first time in her young turbulent life, Buffy felt whole.

<<>>

"Enchanted mistletoe?" Joseph quizzed his subordinate. "What an odd choice?"

"You told me not to make direct contact with the Slayer and her beloved," the 
junior angel answered, his wings stretching briefly. "Besides, they had to 
know the truth for themselves. I just gave them a push, that's all."

"Don't worry," Joseph chuckled. "I'm not angry at you. In fact, it was a 
good idea."

"Thank you, Joseph," the angel answered, pleased with the praise he had 
received.

"You've again proven that you've earned your wings," Joseph nodded. 
"Congratulations, Clarence, on a job well done."

FINIS

Author's note; Clarence and Joseph, in case you couldn't guess, were lifted 
from 'It's a Wonderful Life', directed by Frank Capra, current rights owned 
by Columbia Tristar.

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