{buffyverse} awkward
Title: Awkward
Author: Aaronlisa
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Willow Rosenberg, Angel
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and company,
Prompts: Written for velvetwhip for Round Two at Buffy-Genfic. My prompts were technology, whispering to someone, something about books and a computer search gone wrong without comedy and Season Seven.
Notes: Set during Season Two, prior to the Angelus-arc.
Summary: Willow is researching late a night in the library.
Word Count: 1529
Willow shivers as she looks up at the clock on the wall. How did it get to be quite that late? Last time she looked it was closer to midnight than it was to three in the morning. The boilers have kicked off for the weekend and she's suddenly aware of how thin her clothes are. The light weight sweater and skirt had seemed appropriate when she had dressed for school, now she's certain that she should have stuffed a warmer sweater in her bag before leaving her house.
She stretches and tires to remove the stiffness in her neck by rolling it several times. For once she can relate to Giles' constant put downs of the computer. Dread machine indeed when her original intent had been to find information about a pack of chaos demons that may or may not be headed towards Sunnydale based on some loose rumours found one or two of the chat rooms that she sometimes frequents in her free time. Instead of finding out anything useful, she kept stumbling on sites that were either about computer games, mostly Doom, writing sites that tended to be about demon porn (which Willow doesn't even want to think about and she worries if she'll ever be able to get the graphic writing out of her head) and some site about other demons that's run by someone who styles himself (or herself) to be a rogue demon hunter.
When her searches kept failing, she'd hit up the chat rooms and forums. But one of two things kept happening - either the threads on the forum would suddenly become private or they participants on the chats would suddenly take their conversation to a private chat room, where she wasn't invited. It was enough to make her wonder if they participants could sense that she was a human or not.
She tires for a few more moments to half heartedly search some more, especially since it's apparent that everyone else has gone home for the night. But she keeps yawning. Finally, Willow shuts off the computer in defeat. Maybe tomorrow she might have some better luck finding what she's looking for but right now she needs to figure out what she's going to do for the remainder of the night. It's far too late to call Buffy or Xander. And she doesn't really want to call Giles and admit that everyone forgot about her. In the end, she decides to curl up on the couch in Giles' office.
She picks up her bag and starts to make her way to the office when a noise startles her. She drops her bag and for a moment she's paralysed by fear. For someone so smart, she's certainly stupid. She got herself in this predicament by being so wrapped up in her searches (including those naughty and somewhat grotesque stories that she had no business reading) and now some demon or vampire is going to kill her because of it.
"Willow?"
She breathes a sigh of relief when she realizes that it's Angel. She nods at him and tries to look like she didn't almost run away screaming in terror.
"What are you doing here?"
"I was researching and lost track of time," Willow whispers and then blushes.
Yes it's a library but it's just them in the entire building. She clears her throat.
"What are you doing here?" Willow asks him.
"Returning some books," Angel replies.
For a moment, they stand there awkwardly as if neither of them are unsure of what to say. Willow can't really think of when she and Angel have actually spoken more than two words to each, when they've been alone in a room. She can feel her blush deepen and she doesn't even like him like that. Now he's going to think that she's socially awkward, although Willow suspects that he might already think that about her. For a moment or two, she gets so wrapped up in her thoughts about how if she were Angel, or a random vampire or demon who fought on the good side, that she'd think that anyone like or Xander who didn't have any real skills were kind of awkward for teaming up with the Slayer. They might as well just paint giant targets on their clothes to make it easier for the monsters to get them.
"Willow?" Angel asks as he gently touches her arm. "Are you okay?"
"Just really tired," Willow admits.
"How are you getting home?" Angel asks.
Willow bites her lip. Again more evidence of her stupidity and now she has to tell him just how stupid she is.
"I was going to sleep on the couch in Giles' office until it was daylight."
"What happened to the others?"
"I guess everyone thought I had a ride or a way home with someone else."
Willow looks away, she doesn't think that she can handle the pity that's sure to be in Angel's eyes. Not only is she socially awkward but she's forgettable by her friends. Then again hasn't her mother warned her that too much time on a computer would be horrible for Willow's ability to interact with her peers. (Although Willow's fairly certain that the inability to interact properly with her peers came before her interest in computers.)
"Come on then, I'll walk you home," Angel tells her.
"Oh it's alright, I don't mind sleeping on the couch and I don't want to trouble you."
Angel looks at her strangely and for a moment there's a trace of a smile on his lips before he shakes his head.
"It's alright, I didn't have much of anything planned."
She bites her lip before she can get even more awkward and say something stupid like how a vampire with a soul must not have a lot of things to do. She does not want to give Angel the impression that she's wondered what he does when he's not fighting evil or spending time with Buffy. She doesn't think that he'd be welcome in the vampire community as it were and she doubts that there's a support group or even a club for someone like him.
Willow nods and picks up her backpack which Angel takes from her hands. Of course, he has to do something that Xander would never ever do. No wonder Buffy likes Angel a lot. He's certainly not like any teenage boy around Sunnydale. She smiles at him as they walk out of the library.
"So what were you researching?"
Willow tells him about the rumour about the chaos demons and then she starts to tell him about the troubles that she had. And everything is fine until she blurted out about the site with the made up stories about sex with demons and vampires and what not. And she blushes again. So much for proving that she's not socially awkward. However Angel just ignores the last statement and focuses on the rest of what she's said.
"I can see what I can found out around town. The last thing we need is a chaos demon or a nest of them coming to town."
"That'd be helpful," Willow says. "I just wish I knew for certain if the demons can sense that I am a human on the chat rooms/"
"What might be best is if you show me some of these rooms and how to access them. You don't want to stumble into the wrong group."
"Are you sure?" Willow asks.
All she can think of is how she offered to show Giles a few things and how he had reacted. It was almost as if she had threatened to burn down the library.
"Of course, I'd feel better if you avoided these rooms. You don't know who has a seer or mage in their pocket."
For a moment, the idea of a demon having an actual seer or mage in their pocket seems rather funny but then she remembers what she's read in some of the Watchers' Diaries about how demons and vampires will torture human seers and mages into insanity to use them for their own purposes.
They finally arrive at her front door. And Angel waits until she's unlocked the door and walked into the house before he hands over her bag.
"Thank you Angel," Willow says. "You know Buffy really likes you. I know that she was acting really mean when she came back from LA but I know that she likes you. It's just with the Master and everything, well my Mom would probably say that Buffy hast post traumatic stress disorder or something like that."
Angel looks at her and Willow decides that she's going to join a convent and take a vow of silence as her first course of action when she wakes up later.
"Thank you Willow," Angel says with a slight smile.
He looks like he's about to say something else but instead he bids her a goodnight and then instructs her to lock her door. And Willow can't help but think that unlike the others Angel might just understand who she is and that maybe he accepts her for who she is
((END))
Author: Aaronlisa
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Willow Rosenberg, Angel
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and company,
Prompts: Written for velvetwhip for Round Two at Buffy-Genfic. My prompts were technology, whispering to someone, something about books and a computer search gone wrong without comedy and Season Seven.
Notes: Set during Season Two, prior to the Angelus-arc.
Summary: Willow is researching late a night in the library.
Word Count: 1529
Willow shivers as she looks up at the clock on the wall. How did it get to be quite that late? Last time she looked it was closer to midnight than it was to three in the morning. The boilers have kicked off for the weekend and she's suddenly aware of how thin her clothes are. The light weight sweater and skirt had seemed appropriate when she had dressed for school, now she's certain that she should have stuffed a warmer sweater in her bag before leaving her house.
She stretches and tires to remove the stiffness in her neck by rolling it several times. For once she can relate to Giles' constant put downs of the computer. Dread machine indeed when her original intent had been to find information about a pack of chaos demons that may or may not be headed towards Sunnydale based on some loose rumours found one or two of the chat rooms that she sometimes frequents in her free time. Instead of finding out anything useful, she kept stumbling on sites that were either about computer games, mostly Doom, writing sites that tended to be about demon porn (which Willow doesn't even want to think about and she worries if she'll ever be able to get the graphic writing out of her head) and some site about other demons that's run by someone who styles himself (or herself) to be a rogue demon hunter.
When her searches kept failing, she'd hit up the chat rooms and forums. But one of two things kept happening - either the threads on the forum would suddenly become private or they participants on the chats would suddenly take their conversation to a private chat room, where she wasn't invited. It was enough to make her wonder if they participants could sense that she was a human or not.
She tires for a few more moments to half heartedly search some more, especially since it's apparent that everyone else has gone home for the night. But she keeps yawning. Finally, Willow shuts off the computer in defeat. Maybe tomorrow she might have some better luck finding what she's looking for but right now she needs to figure out what she's going to do for the remainder of the night. It's far too late to call Buffy or Xander. And she doesn't really want to call Giles and admit that everyone forgot about her. In the end, she decides to curl up on the couch in Giles' office.
She picks up her bag and starts to make her way to the office when a noise startles her. She drops her bag and for a moment she's paralysed by fear. For someone so smart, she's certainly stupid. She got herself in this predicament by being so wrapped up in her searches (including those naughty and somewhat grotesque stories that she had no business reading) and now some demon or vampire is going to kill her because of it.
"Willow?"
She breathes a sigh of relief when she realizes that it's Angel. She nods at him and tries to look like she didn't almost run away screaming in terror.
"What are you doing here?"
"I was researching and lost track of time," Willow whispers and then blushes.
Yes it's a library but it's just them in the entire building. She clears her throat.
"What are you doing here?" Willow asks him.
"Returning some books," Angel replies.
For a moment, they stand there awkwardly as if neither of them are unsure of what to say. Willow can't really think of when she and Angel have actually spoken more than two words to each, when they've been alone in a room. She can feel her blush deepen and she doesn't even like him like that. Now he's going to think that she's socially awkward, although Willow suspects that he might already think that about her. For a moment or two, she gets so wrapped up in her thoughts about how if she were Angel, or a random vampire or demon who fought on the good side, that she'd think that anyone like or Xander who didn't have any real skills were kind of awkward for teaming up with the Slayer. They might as well just paint giant targets on their clothes to make it easier for the monsters to get them.
"Willow?" Angel asks as he gently touches her arm. "Are you okay?"
"Just really tired," Willow admits.
"How are you getting home?" Angel asks.
Willow bites her lip. Again more evidence of her stupidity and now she has to tell him just how stupid she is.
"I was going to sleep on the couch in Giles' office until it was daylight."
"What happened to the others?"
"I guess everyone thought I had a ride or a way home with someone else."
Willow looks away, she doesn't think that she can handle the pity that's sure to be in Angel's eyes. Not only is she socially awkward but she's forgettable by her friends. Then again hasn't her mother warned her that too much time on a computer would be horrible for Willow's ability to interact with her peers. (Although Willow's fairly certain that the inability to interact properly with her peers came before her interest in computers.)
"Come on then, I'll walk you home," Angel tells her.
"Oh it's alright, I don't mind sleeping on the couch and I don't want to trouble you."
Angel looks at her strangely and for a moment there's a trace of a smile on his lips before he shakes his head.
"It's alright, I didn't have much of anything planned."
She bites her lip before she can get even more awkward and say something stupid like how a vampire with a soul must not have a lot of things to do. She does not want to give Angel the impression that she's wondered what he does when he's not fighting evil or spending time with Buffy. She doesn't think that he'd be welcome in the vampire community as it were and she doubts that there's a support group or even a club for someone like him.
Willow nods and picks up her backpack which Angel takes from her hands. Of course, he has to do something that Xander would never ever do. No wonder Buffy likes Angel a lot. He's certainly not like any teenage boy around Sunnydale. She smiles at him as they walk out of the library.
"So what were you researching?"
Willow tells him about the rumour about the chaos demons and then she starts to tell him about the troubles that she had. And everything is fine until she blurted out about the site with the made up stories about sex with demons and vampires and what not. And she blushes again. So much for proving that she's not socially awkward. However Angel just ignores the last statement and focuses on the rest of what she's said.
"I can see what I can found out around town. The last thing we need is a chaos demon or a nest of them coming to town."
"That'd be helpful," Willow says. "I just wish I knew for certain if the demons can sense that I am a human on the chat rooms/"
"What might be best is if you show me some of these rooms and how to access them. You don't want to stumble into the wrong group."
"Are you sure?" Willow asks.
All she can think of is how she offered to show Giles a few things and how he had reacted. It was almost as if she had threatened to burn down the library.
"Of course, I'd feel better if you avoided these rooms. You don't know who has a seer or mage in their pocket."
For a moment, the idea of a demon having an actual seer or mage in their pocket seems rather funny but then she remembers what she's read in some of the Watchers' Diaries about how demons and vampires will torture human seers and mages into insanity to use them for their own purposes.
They finally arrive at her front door. And Angel waits until she's unlocked the door and walked into the house before he hands over her bag.
"Thank you Angel," Willow says. "You know Buffy really likes you. I know that she was acting really mean when she came back from LA but I know that she likes you. It's just with the Master and everything, well my Mom would probably say that Buffy hast post traumatic stress disorder or something like that."
Angel looks at her and Willow decides that she's going to join a convent and take a vow of silence as her first course of action when she wakes up later.
"Thank you Willow," Angel says with a slight smile.
He looks like he's about to say something else but instead he bids her a goodnight and then instructs her to lock her door. And Willow can't help but think that unlike the others Angel might just understand who she is and that maybe he accepts her for who she is
((END))