< wilfull_dreamer@yahoo.com >
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me I'm only borrowing them. Don't sue me. I don't have any money anyway.
Ok guy's this doesn't have any spoilers that i'm aware of since I have seen very few episodes. Any spoilers are entirely unententional. I realize that the story just stops, but I wanted to have something up by the end of the weekend to see if anybody likes the story and to determine if there is any point in continuing. Please give me feedback.
One
Diana knew she should never have tried to take the shortcut back to her house after the sun had went down. Buildings rose up on either side of her as she walked down the alley that would eventually take her back to her house. Lights in the alley were few and far between, and the ones that were there were flickering, giving the appearance of going out at any moment.
The only reason she was een out here right now was because the cheerleading practice had run late and she was suppose to meet Micheal Donovan, the cute boy who had just transferred from LA, for their first date.
Diana jumped as she heard a skittering sound behind her. What was that? Ok that's it I'm running home.
With that thought and encouragement from the renewal of the sound behind her, Diana took off like the hounds of hell were chasing her.
To her horror the sounds didn't fad away as she ran, in fact they seemed to be coming quickly closer. Diana half sobbed and gasped for breath as she continued running, now stumbling over her feet every few yards.
Suddenly she felt something slam into the back of her leg and send her sprawling in a knot of painful limbs.
After finally untangliling herself Diana quickly looked down at what had hit her and let loose a scream loud enough to shade the window panes. A rat the size of a small dog sat clinging to her leg. The weight of the thing pressed down on her keeping her from crawling to far or fast and the distinct impression of claws Going through her pants nearly caused her to faint from fear. But what had truly made her scream was the glowing red embers the rat had for eyes.
Diana felt the eyes bore into her and flay her soul, pealing like an onion layer after layer. At each layer some wrong she had committed to another person was shown to her, maginified 10 fold and then seared back into her mind to cycle endlessly.
Diana screamed again as a new agony assailed her person, something akin to the feeling of two red hot pokers stabbing into her leg and being turned slowly. With the new pain came the weakness as her screams died down to gasping whimpers and the heat from her leg spread throught the rest of her body. She didn't even feel the weight of the rat dissaper as quickly as it had come and then disappear into the darkness. Then finally as a relief to the pain her mind spiraled down into a restless unconsciousness.
**************
With a smooth motion the stake went from point A to point B with a quick stop through a vampire's heart. With a groan the vampire looked down and stared at the object jutting through his chest and then promptly dissolved into dust.
Buffy let out a sigh. "Will, that's the last of them."
Willow stepped out from behind the tree and assumed a scolding expression. "Buffy, you have to be mor... uhhh."
"Hey Willow, you okay?"
Willow's sudden lack of mouth motoring came from the observation of her friend stretching. This in and of itself was not an abnormal thing but this was one of those stretches where the strechie got up on his/her tiptoes, stretched their arms over their head and let out a very contented purr.
For what seemed like forever Willow just stood their arguing with herself.
*You are NOT thinking about how those shorts show off her calves, you are NOT thinking about how those same shorts hug her butt in just the right way, you are NOT thinking about how that stretch lifts up her shirt just enough to see a tantalizing smooth expanse of midriff, and you are you are DEFINITELY NOT thinking how that stretch causes her breasts to arc out just yearning to be touched. And most of all you are not thinking about how that purr sends tingless into places probably best left unmentioned*
A few weeks ago she had started to become aware of her feelings for Buffy, ever since that fiasco with Angel. She spent one week attempting to deny the feelings for her best friend. Her desire not to ruin the friendship she and Buffy shared caused her to avoid Buffy as much as possible. Suprisingly enough it was Codelia that brought Willow out of her withdrawl...
<Flashback>
The knock at the door caused Willow to look up from the episode of Cheers she had been watching.
"Yeah, who is it?" Willow walked up to the door and opened it enough to look out.
Behind the door stood Cordelia, with a smile on her face, "Hey Willow, can I come in? I will only be a minute."
"Can you come back later Cordelia, I'm sorta busy..."
Willow stopped talking as the door opened wider as Cordelia forced her way into the howse. Willow noticed she had lost her smile and now wore a determined expression that Cordelia normally reserved for shopping. Inwardly Willow cringed in fear of things to come.
"Okay Willow, I know we haven't always had the best of relationships ,but I would like to know why you have been avoiding us this last week.."
"I haven't been..." Willow tried to say. But Cordelia just kept on talking.
"Don't give me that, Xander and I havn't seen you more that 4 times this entire week. And poor Buffy has been worried sick about you has seen you even less than that!! Now I don't know what's going on but you are hurting yourself and the rest of us by not sharing. So out with it. I'm not leaving here till I get some answers." So saying Cordelia sat down and looked quite prepared to camp out if necessary.
"Look Cordelia, their really isn't a problem, I've just been..." Once again Willow trailed off. She found she was doing a lot of that lately and each time she did that it got harder to gather her protests.
Cordelia's expression softend at the troubled look that twisted Willow's face. Leaning over she placed a hand on Willow's shoulder.
With this latest expression of comfort and sympathy the dam holding in Willow's bottled up emotions broke and words born in misery and longing poured out.
"You really want to know Cordelia? Fine! I'm in love with Buffy! There you happy, you can leave in disgust now if you want. Now do you see why I've been avoiding everybody! I can't have anybody find out then tell Buffy. She would hate me!" Willow's voice had been steadily rising with each sentence she was now shouting loud enough to wake the dead.
Finally, all her emotions seemingly spent she collapsed on the sofa with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs and started sobbing.
Cordelia sat their with a stunned look for a moment, then wrapped her arm around Willow's shoulders and broke into gales of laughter.
Willow looked up with tears streaming down her cheeks and a combination of a puzzled and hurt expression on her face. "What are you laughing at!?"
"I'm...sorr..sorry...Will..Willow." Cordelia tried to gasp out between laughs trying to catch her breath. "Gi..Give me a min.. minute." Cordelia paused took several deep breaths and then placed another serious expression on her face.
"Willow, do you honestly think that nobody knows that you like Buffy."
"WHAT! How could they possibly know!!"
"Willow, anybody who took a second to look at your guy's face when you look at each other would know. In fact I would say the only person who doesn't know is Buffy." So saying Cordelia started laughing again, though on a lesser scale than she had before.
Willow let out a gasp of relief that at least Buffy didn't know her secret. Reaching over Willow grabbed Cordelia's shoulders "Listen to me Cordelia, you gotta promise not to tell Buffy!"
"Why Willow, don't you think Buffy deserves to know. She loves you too you stupid hacker. Why don't you give that a chance."
Willow got a angry expression on her face. "Because I value the friendship between us too mcuh to risk loosing it. I will not endanger what we already have for even the most longed for fantasy that could ruin our friendship!!"
This time it was Cordelia's turn to be angry. "Oh really? Well what do you think you have been doing for the past week. Do you think avoiding Buffy has been improving your relationship? She has been hurting so much. Giles went with her on her last patrol and he says she nearly got killed buy a vampire out of it's grave for the first time! It's your choice whether you tell her your feelings or not, but you have to at least talk to her.
Horror suffused Willow's face. "Almost died?" she whispered, quietly enough Cordelia wasn't even sure if she had heard it.
<End Flashback>
That night she had decided that while Buffy could never know how she truly felt she was going to spend as much time around Buffy as possible. Her goal was to strengthen their friendship so much that it wouldn't matter to her if Buffy didn't love her that way that Willow did. She had also decide to deny any sexual feelings she felt for the slayer.
Putting theory to practice ,however, was proving to be far more difficult than she had originally planned. Especially with Buffy stretching like that.
Buffy's hand being waved in front her face finally snapped Willow out of her daze. "Earth to Willow, come in space cadet."
Willow shook her head to gain her senses then forced on an indignant look. "Who you calling space cadet, ooh your're going to pay for that"
Willow leaped at the other girl and proceded to tickle her sides.
"Oh.. Oh.. Damn Willow sto.. stop, can't breath. Ahh!" The last came out as pained curse. Immediatly Willow stopped and looked at Buffy's side with a concerned expression. Shock consumed her as she realized her hand and Buffy's side had blood on it.
"Buffy you're bleeding!"
"Don't worry Will, it's just a scratch." Buffy said, trying to hide the pain the wound was causing her.
"Just a scratch huh, then why do you look about ready to fall down? Sit! No arguments!"
With a smile at Willow's suddenly domineering attitude Buffy sat on the ground and waited for her friend. "Okay doctor, I'm ready."
Willow reached into her backpack and pulled out a vial with a cork in it. Taking the cork out Willow handed Buffy the the vial. "Here drink all this, I'm going to try something."
"What are you planning Willow? Oh man, this stuff smells."
more to come