Fic: Crazy random happenstance 1/2 --- Fred/Kennedy
Title: Crazy random happenstance.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and his associates own the characters; I’m just playing with them.
Rating: Pg-15
Pairing: Fred/Kennedy
Length: ~5500
Summary: Do you believe in kyrumption?
Fred sighed with relief when the night bus finally arrived. She’d been waiting a while, having planned to get a much later bus than this. She had only been at the bar for an hour in the end but as soon as Harmony had started talking about Gunn and Knox and Wes it had started to feel like a long night already.
She had kind of thought - not that she really wanted to get into something with a vampire or that Harmony was even her type but - she’d thought Harmony was asking her out, as in, you know, out. And with the long hours they worked now - well always really, she supposed, but she’d had Charles then and that seemed like a long time ago and it was just real nice to think that someone wanted to spend time with her like that; even if it was a vampire.
She’d been wrong though, obviously, and once she’d realised that, it had been a relief to lose Harmony’s attention to the man at the bar and make her escape from the embarrassment.
She paid the driver and turned to look for a seat. Unfortunately the bus was busy for the time of night. There must have been a party somewhere; the first dozen seats or so were filled with college kids dressed up for a night of drinking too much and going home with the first member of the opposite sex who looked at them right. If they even made it home, that was. Fred’s own college days weren’t that far in the past that she couldn’t remember the occasional ill-advised hook up, usually after the Quantum Physics Department quiz team had won another little silver trophy.
She felt slightly envious of them going out and having a great night while she was going home to bed at barely nine 'o' clock. At the same time, as she pushed through the raucous crowd, she felt uneasy as a few of the guys gave her appreciative looks. She had always been taught to sit at the front of the bus at night, for safety, but there was no way she was sitting amongst them.
So she made her way nearer the back, putting a few empty seats between her and the large group. There was only one other passenger sitting down here, almost opposite her, leaning against the window with her feet up. Fred gave her a polite smile as she sat down, received a nod from the girl in return and then she turned to look out of the window.
She wished she had her iTouch to listen to, or even a book. It was silly but she felt sorta exposed sitting here with so many empty seats around her, and although she was keeping her own eyes turned away she could see the reflection of the other girl in the dark window and knew she was being watched.
To take her mind off of her discomfort she opened her handbag and pretended to search through it for something. It wasn’t really big enough to warrant staring into for this long though, so she pulled out the first thing that wouldn’t look odd. The bag of hard candy crackled in her hand and the girl, who had actually looked away for the first time, instantly turned to her again. Fred caught her eye just as she was about to pop the candy into her mouth and froze with it resting against her lips. She felt even more uncomfortable now and looked away again before pushing the cherry flavoured treat into her mouth; trying to suck on it as quietly as possible.
“Can I have one?”
Fred nearly choked on the candy as the question surprised her. “I’m sorry?”
“A Jolly Rancher. I know you’re not supposed to take candy from strangers, but I’ve been on buses for days with no decent food and you smell really good.”
Fred finally took a good look at her. She was petite-ish, able to sit comfortably curled up on the two seats but she could see how toned her upper body was through her tight t-shirt and her shorts showed off strong, tanned legs. Her dark hair was pulled up into a simple tidy ponytail. The thing that most caught her attention though, other than the t-shirt she was wearing that declared she was the World’s Sexiest Slayer, were her sensuous lips and dark, beautiful eyes. Fred’s breath caught, and while she didn’t know that many slayers, she had a feeling the t-shirt wasn’t lying.
Her inappropriate thoughts ground to halt. This girl was a slayer?
The stranger mistook her expression for bemusement and looked down at the shirt herself, smirking a little.
“Break-up present from my ex. She probably thought it would soften the blow.”
Fred’s eyes widened at the feminine pronoun. “Oh. I’m sorry. Recent?”
“About…” The girl put her head to one side as she thought. “…seventy-two hours ago.”
“Oh, that’s too bad.”
A shrug. “Just inevitable. I’m over it.”
Fred nodded. “Are you sure it’s wise, though? To advertise it, I mean.”
“That I’m single? Sure, why not. Be a little wrong to chat you up if I didn’t.”
Fred missed that last bit, maybe because she wasn’t ready to admit her own attraction to the complete stranger yet, but mostly because she had been thinking of something else entirely.
“No, the fact that you’re a… you know?”
The girl cocked an eyebrow. “Lesbian?”
“Slayer!” Fred hissed.
She shrugged. “Nobody knows what it means.” Then she paused as it sunk in that Fred obviously knew what it meant. “You know about us?”
It was Fred’s turn to shrug. “Sort of, but not really. I only met one once. And my boss is kinda in love with one, but I never met her.”
The girl nodded slowly, scrutinising her even more. “So, about that Jolly Rancher?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure.” Fred shifted over a seat and leaned into the aisle to offer the bag. “Take a handful if you’re hungry.”
The girl only took one: watermelon.
“Wait, you meant the candy, right?”
“What?”
“You said I smelled good, but you meant the candy.”
The girl smirked. “Sure, if that makes you feel more comfortable.”
Fred felt herself redden and looked at the window again, but apparently she was invested in this conversation now because she soon looked back again.
The girl found this encouraging. “So what’s your name?”
“Fred… Winifred... Burkle,” she said shyly.
“Fred Winifred? It’s got a nice ring to it but I’m guessing your parents were expecting twins, a boy and a girl maybe.”
“No, Fred is actually short for…” The stranger grinned and Fred belatedly realised she was being teased. “Funny. So what’s your name?”
“Kennedy.” The girl scooted off of her double seat and stood to shake her hand.
Fred startled a little and had to shift over in a hurry when instead of going back Kennedy slid into the seat next to her.
“So what, your parents thought they were having a president?” she shot back, trying to cover the fact that the closeness of this girl was flustering her.
“Maybe.” Kennedy stretched and when she settled she was sitting casually at an angle, her right shoulder pressing against the fuzzy back of her seat, but her dark eyes were intense, never leaving Fred’s face. “And who knows, maybe they did.”
“You want to run for presidency?”
“I want to change the world. Don’t you?”
“I suppose so.”
Wasn’t that why they were at Wolfram and Hart; to change the evil in the world into something good?
“Awesome conviction,” Kennedy said, deadpan.
“I have conviction,” Fred defended herself. “I’m just not used to talking about it to a stranger on public transp…”
Kennedy kissed her, not caring that Fred was mid-sentence or that there were other people on the bus or about anything much at all it seemed.
It didn’t last nearly long enough. By the time Fred had summoned the nerve to participate Kennedy was already pulling back.
“We’ve exchanged names, kissed, even shared a meal.” Kennedy indicated the bag of candy held tightly in Fred’s hot palm. “Doesn’t feel like we’re strangers anymore.”
They held each others eyes. Fred’s breathing grew even more erratic, which wasn’t fair because Kennedy seemed perfectly at ease.
“I’m not sure what you’re asking.”
Kennedy chuckled. “I wasn’t asking anything, but seeing as you brought it up, I want a bunch of numbers.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Yeah, about seven of them, single digits.”
Fred leaned forward in surprise, her voice just above a whisper. “You’re asking for my phone number?”
“I’m going to be in town for a couple of months and I honestly don’t know a single person around here except you. It’d be a good to have a friend in the area.”
“Oh, so it’s just, oh…I thought... I mean, sure, of course.”
Fred was glad to duck her head as she went back into her bag for her cell phone. She was zero for two on romantic assumptions tonight. Although this misunderstanding could hardly be blamed on her. She wasn’t the one going around randomly kissing women on buses.
Still, maybe all these misjudgements were an omen that it was time to do a u-turn of sorts. Knox was okay. Kinda handsome and he had his really funny moments and he seemed to genuinely like her. Yet it had been months and she was still waiting for that initial spark of attraction to flare into something more. And as much as she was trying to ignore it, sitting this close to Kennedy had her body flaring all over.
She had to hand the bag of candy to Kennedy so she could root through her little bag with both hands, more to keep her eyes averted while her disappointment calmed down than because she couldn’t find her phone.
As her fingers closed around it, Kennedy leaned into her, placing a soft kiss on her temple and another high on her cheek. Fred looked up quizzically, their mouths were just an inch away but she tried to not to think of that.
“I never said we had to be platonic friends,” Kennedy breathed. “Unless that’s all you want.”
Fred just held her gaze. She didn’t want to say no but it felt too forward to say yes. She didn’t know this girl. This girl who had only broken up with her ex a few days ago. Suddenly the answer seemed unfortunately too simple.
“Maybe just friends is better. If you’re only going to be in town for a while and all.”
There was no harm in still exchanging numbers, though, was there? It wouldn’t do her any harm to extend her limited social circle a little.
Kennedy put her hand in the pocket of her shorts to get her own cell phone but as she was pulling it out she took Fred by surprise by kissing her again. This was no short kiss either, Fred realised as she opened her mouth to a flick of Kennedy’s tongue against her lips. It had been a while since she’d felt a soft, inviting tongue against her own. She melted half into the seat, half into Kennedy as the deep kiss lingered. Her eyes were closed but she felt Kennedy’s hand press to her thigh and she raised her own, cupping Kennedy’s cheek.
It was the bus pulling to a stop that made them break apart.
“Oh!” Fred’s eyes darted around the bus as she realised they’d been kissing for a few minutes.
Kennedy chuckled. “Sorry. Just wanted to do that in case I never get another chance.”
Fred smiled. “It’s okay. I liked it.” Feeling herself begin to blush she looked out of the window again and realised where they were. “Darn, my stops next.”
“Numbers then?”
“Okay.”
They exchanged them and were putting their phones away just as the bus stopped again.
Kennedy stood to let Fred out. “So I’ll give you a call when I’m settled.”
Fred smiled. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
Kennedy shrugged. “No worries. If I don’t want to, I won’t.”
“Oh. Okay.” Kennedy’s smirk stopped her from reading too much into it. “So…bye.”
Kennedy nodded and Fred turned to walk down the aisle to the door. A rowdy cheer from the students went up as she made her way down the bus and she did her best not to take any notice. It was none of her business what they were getting all excited about . . . until one of the guys stood up right behind her and, taking hold of her arm, pumped it into the air.
“You’re our God, dude!”
“What?” She tried to pull her arm free and failed. “Please let go.”
He didn’t, waving her arm around like she was the winner of a boxing match, not seeming to realise she wasn’t joining in his enthusiasm.
“You rock! We’ve been trying for forty minutes to crack that ice bitch and you walk on and she’s all over you!”
A couple of his friends got down on their knees and did the Wayne’s World ‘We’re not worthy’ bowing; making the driver shout at them to stop fooling around.
Mortified now, Fred tried to pull her arm away again. “Please, just let go. I’m going to miss my stop.”
One of his friends put his head between her legs, trying to lift her on his shoulders, and, her eyes going wider than perhaps they ever had before, she slammed her free fist down. She connected hard with his nose and he fell back away from her clutching it.
Angry and embarrassed now, she brought the same fist up to punch the guy who was holding her wrist. She hit him on the nose too and while it didn’t have the same power in it, he let go and had to take a step back.
“You bitch!” He recovered immediately, raising his fist to strike back
She readied herself for it, knowing it would hurt but not as much as demons punch, and already planning her next move - a kick to his groin! - but the punch never came. She opened her eyes again to see Kennedy holding his forearm just below his elbow.
“Say sorry!”
“Fuck you!” There was a loud crunch and then the guy was howling in pain, clutching his dislocated joint.
As all of his friends, male and female, stood up for payback, Fred grabbed Kennedy’s arm.
“Let’s go.”
Kennedy was in agreement but before they could race to the door, his friends fell on her and she had no choice but to fight her way out. Fred watched in horror, but marvelled over the way Kennedy dealt with all of them, doing just enough to damage to put them down. She realised that she had been marvelling instead of backing out of the way when she was jostled badly by some of the women trying to get at Kennedy. She was knocked over, landing on her hands and knees and hitting her head on the partition between the door and the passenger seats.
It didn’t hurt, little bumps on the head were nothing in her line of work after all, but it did manage to stun her for a second or two. She was aware of Kennedy grabbing her wrist and yanking her up and it was only as they were running down the street, the warm breeze buffeting her face and making her hair stream out behind her as Kennedy urged her to greater and greater speeds, that she realised her eyes were blurry.
“Wait, wait, stop.”
Kennedy pulled her around another corner before finally letting them slow down. Fred fought the bursting feeling in her chest as she tried to get her breath back. Kennedy, who wasn’t winded at all, peered around the corner.
“Shit!” It seemed to be more of a general curse than a warning danger was coming, so Fred didn’t take much notice. “Hopefully the driver didn’t call the cops before we took off and we have a head start.” She looked back at Fred reproachfully. “You might look like a gazelle but you run like a wildebeest.”
“Actually, I’m not as fast as a wildebeest, they run at about forty miles an hour. But I do run at a perfectly respectable speed…for a human.” Compact in hand, she looked in the little mirror to check her eyes. “We can’t all have super-powered legs, you know.”
“Oh, don’t tell me you’re one of those girls?”
“Human ones?”
“Forced to run a block and you have to stop to redo your make-up?”
“Hardly. Wouldn’t get much done in a day’s work if that were true. My contact lenses must have slipped when I fell.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” Kennedy smirked at her.
Fred was trying to concentrate on what she was doing but she got little butterflies all the same. She’d only known this girl half an hour and she was already giving her the tummy-flips.
“Darn, I think I lost one.”
“That’s okay, take your time. No one’s following us.”
“You didn’t hurt any of them too bad, did you?” Fred asked as she took the other lens out and put it away in her bag.
“No, I pulled my punches. I think you did the most damage to that guy’s nose.”
“Well, that one definitely had it coming.” Fred looked in her handbag, moving things around this way and that until she remembered. “Darn, I don’t have my glasses. A Harbit demon accidentally bounced into me in the lobby yesterday and broke one of the arms clean off.”
“A Harbit demon accidentally bounced into you?” Kennedy repeated slowly.
“Uh huh,” Fred had to squint at her to stop her being blurry. “But it’s okay, he apologised and he offered to pay for a new pair. I should have them in a day or so.”
“Okay,” Kennedy said, letting the mysteries behind that one go. “So, I think we got away without trouble. No sirens. Are you going to be okay getting home?”
“Oh, sure,” Fred promised, nodding confidently to the blurry Kennedy blob.
“Good. So I’ll give you a call, maybe we can do something Friday night.”
“That sounds nice.” She nodded again, hoping Kennedy hadn’t already moved away and she was really talking to a pretty mail box in red shorts. “I’m sure I’m free.”
And then Kennedy’s face swept almost into focus and at once there were warm lips and a watermelon-tasting mouth and it startled her enough to yelp. Kennedy absorbed the noise but her tongue just seemed to create even more noises. Most of them Fred was able to keep in her head but the occasional happy whimper crept out.
Part two.