FIC: Segue 6b/?: Three's a Company (continued) (C/X)
Title: Segue
Part: 6b/?
Summary: Cordelia and Xander talk a lot. Giles and Cordelia talk a little. Willow and Cordelia talk some. Tara and Buffy talk. Xander, Cordelia, Willow and a vampire talk too. Even Glory talks. Basically, there's just a whole heck of a lot of talking going on. And one fight (and almost another).
Rating: safe for all
Warnings: none
Pairing: Xander/Cordelia
Spoilers: BtVS:Triangle
Acknowledgment: As always, my thanks and appreciation to Theo for his many helpful suggestions.
All other chapters can be found here
Part 6b/?: Three's a Company (continued)
The spell was still missing something and Willow was darned if she wouldn't figure out what it was.
She really wanted to show Tara how good she was at the magic. She flipped through several more pages of the book in front of her, mumbling some of the passages. Her eyes widened when she found one which seemed particularly relevant, describing an event from hundreds of years ago when a Spanish conquistador seemed to achieve a result very much like what they were trying for.
Willow re-read the passage, translating the mixed Spanish and Latin in her head, softly speaking it aloud. "... sword of iron ... casting upon the flame ... gathering ashes ... to add ..." Willow sat back, her forehead wrinkling in concentration as she tried to decipher the meaning.
"Iron. Flame. Ashes. Hmmm." She repeated the words to herself like a mantra, sitting back and closing her eyes.
She tried to apply the techniques Giles had been teaching her about divining the meanings of ancient texts, how to tease out the inner nuggets of useful truth buried within the chaff of falsehoods, self-serving exaggeration, and useless tripe. She quickly ran through several ways to think about the semantics and context of the words and soon hit upon needing ashes of burnt iron.
She smiled beatifically when she suddenly understood what the confusing words were saying to her, what key item might have been missing from the original brew she and Tara had started with.
"Ah, Cordy?" she called out, "Do you have any ferric oxide?"
"Farrah-what-side??" Cordelia answered from the counter. She got up and came around to the table Willow was working at.
"Ferric oxide. You know? Rust. Do you have any rust in the shop?"
Cordelia looked offended. "Willow, look around you. Does it look like I'd allow any rust in my place of business?" Cordelia glared her challenge, hands on planted on her hips.
"Hmmph." Willow tapped her finger on her chin as she thought about sources of rust. "Can I check out the basement storage area?"
Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Be my guest."
Several minutes later a triumphant Willow returned, carrying an envelope full of reddish-brownish-orangish flakes and powder. "Iron sewer piping and brackets." She gave Cordelia a smug smile and hurried over to the table to pick up her casting and concocting from where she left off.
"Whatever," Cordelia sniffed. "What exactly am I letting you use our valuable inventory for, anyway?"
Willow looked up at Cordelia's question. "It's an idea I--we, that is Tara and I had. To help fight vampires. You know they burn up in the sunshine, right?" She dumped the old contents of the small clay bowl they were using as a crucible into the small trash can under the table and began carefully cleaning it out with sassafras leaves and holy water, getting it ready for another try.
Cordelia impatiently nodded. "Yeah yeah: direct sunlight, wooden stake to the heart, cut off the head, fire," she said as she ticked off the points on her fingers. "Got it all. Crosses and holy water hurt but don't kill. Willow, I've been doing this nearly as long as you have. And I worked for Angel."
"Sorry." Willow shrugged. "So anyway, we were thinking what if we could create some sunlight of our own whenever we needed it? We could just like, say 'Cheese!' and Poof! Break out the brooms time!"
Cordelia cocked her head thoughtfully. She didn't know if Willow could actually pull it off. It seemed like such an obvious idea that someone must have tried it before. But even if Willow was never going to be a good friend, she had to admit Willow was one of the smartest people she ever knew. "Okay, sounds good so far. What's the hang-up? Why hasn't anybody else abra-cadabra'd a sun before?"
Willow started re-arranging and re-mixing the extra material she and Tara had collected, keeping the small pile of rust separate until it was needed. She answered as she worked. "Well, partly I think it's so obvious that it just never crossed anybody's mind to try it. Y'know 'sunshine' and 'daytime' go together, but not 'sunshine' and 'nighttime' and--"
"Okay, enough word association games, Miss Freud."
"Ah, yes. Okay. Mostly, sunshine is just pretty complicated stuff. We don't know which part of it, or what combination of parts, actually does the trick of making the un-dead become dead-dead. So a big flashlight might make them blink, but no flamy-ness."
Despite herself Cordelia was actually curious about Willow's notions. "And that's what you're doing here? Trying to figure out how to make the right pieces of the sun?" She puzzled over it for a moment, but something still didn't sound quite right. "I don't know, still seems there must be a catch there somewhere."
"Well not the whole Sun, but maybe just a small piece of it. And just for a moment. Because, I mean, if we really brought the sun here, then WOAH!! We'd melt everything, including ourselves, and then what would be the point?
"So Tara and I got some ideas," Willow explained, indicating the books and journals and hand-written notes in front of her, "But mostly we're working from first principles of physics and magic and primal forces and kind of blazing a new trail on our own. It's really kind of exciting! I mean, who knows, maybe someday there'll be a book of magic and spells by Tara and me. We can't always rely on the ancients, right? We're smart too."
As she stirred in each of the new items with a twig from a pine tree, she said, "And then we'll have to test it at full scale, I guess." Willow frowned slightly then beamed. "Oooh, that might get interesting! Probably have to go out into the desert so nobody gets hurt if, well, if there were too much sun. Hey, road trip!!" Willow said brightly.
Cordelia pointed at what Willow was working with. Willow laughed "Oh, no this is just a tiny itty-bitty bit. It won't be any more than a match. If my calculations are correct." Willow's enthusiastic smile fell, returning full force with false bravado.
"You're just a wild and crazy fun machine, Willow. Make sure to forget me when you guys go tripping."
Willow made an exaggerated and mocking pout. "I'm sorry Cordelia, there won't be any malls for, oh, maybe 25 or even 50 miles. We'll miss you.
"Any way, even after today there's still some help we need from the coven. Once Tara's done with her class we'll be heading out there. So far everything is too slow, we'd be dead by the time we got everything put together just right. And it's not stable. Once things are set we'll have only a few seconds to say the final words and--"
Cordelia was already bored by Willow's enthusiastic nattering. "Okay, fine, Willow, great. Go for it. But you break it you buy it." She flipped her hand and went back to far more interesting things, such as inventorying the vulture warts.
Willow returned to carefully comparing the two texts before her, one a high-level academic journal article on precise historical changes in the sun's emission spectrum over the last several sun-spot cycles, and the other an ancient book with a chapter devoted to conjuring up light in a time of dark. There was a third book on chemical compounds and signature spectra, and a fourth very large compendium of ingredients for potions, spells, glamours, poisons, etc. Willow was taking each step very carefully, she wanted to get this right.
---
"Xander!"
Xander whipped around, sloshing mocha on his boots. He didn't really like the coffee part all that much, he just wanted the hot chocolate-y goodness part (and the whipped cream topping), but a mocha no-whip sounded somewhat more manly than just hot chocolate, or so he thought. He was keenly aware of the importance of manliness with all these hot young co-eds about, even if he was much better on the theory than the actual practice of said theory.
Buffy laughed as she snatched some napkins on her way past the counter and began dabbing at him. Xander's keen manliness sense was telling him this also was not too macho but at least no one knew the Buffster wasn't his girlfriend. He tried to smile in a knowing leer, hoping to make the guys around him jealous. Still, he did his best to get the napkins from her.
"What are doing here?" asked Buffy, finally letting Xander do his own clean-up. She stood on her tip-toes and tried to scan the whole room over everybody's heads. "Where's Willow?"
Still dabbing at himself, Xander answered, "I was supposed to meet her here. I guess I'm playing chauffeur for some little jaunt?" He glanced at the mantle clock over the fake gas fireplace still burning despite an unseasonably warm day outside. "Guess I'm a little early." He smiled sheepishly.
"And that has nothing to do with extra time to check out the girls in shorts and tanks, does it?" Buffy knew her Xander well.
Xander looked hurt even as he took one last perusal of all the long tanned legs everywhere. Southern California in the winter could not be beat! "Moi? I'm far too gentlemanly than that!"
"Uh huh. A horny unattached gentleman." She laughed to take the sting out of her comment.
"Maybe she's still at the Magic Box? Seemed like she and Tara were neck deep in some pretty complicated voodoo-hoodoo or something."
"Willow's still at the Magic Box?"
Xander took the time for a noisy slurp of his now tolerably cool drink. "Yuh huh, I guess."
Now Buffy looked a little worried. "You left Cordelia and Willow alone?"
"No, Tara was with--"
"No she isn't," announced Tara from behind him his right ear, arriving from her side trip to the bathroom.
"Tara!" Xander took a moment for his heart to calm down as both girls laughed at him. "Tara, it's you! And you're here. And not there," observed Xander most intelligently, waving vaguely somewhere off-campus, "with Willow."
Buffy leaned toward Tara conspiratorially. "What do you think? He's smart enough for college now?"
"With honors!" agreed Tara.
Xander ignored that. "Well okay, so maybe they're alone. What's the dire? C'mon Buff, you don't think...I mean, it's been a long time and..."
Buffy grabbed Xander's hand. "Let's go!"
"Yeah!"
Tara didn't understand why they seemed in such a hurry but she ran after them as they headed for Xander's car way off in the visitor's parking area.
---
Willow sat back in her chair, closed her eyes and stretched her arms way above her head. Looking at her watch she decided it was a good time for a short break from the ancient texts and modern formula. Stretching her neck by rolling her head about she spotted Cordelia fussing around the shop. It suddenly occurred to her this was the first time she and Cordelia had ever been alone together since the cheating incident. It also reminded her Cordelia was now actually living with her best friend and she frowned at the thought of that particular pair of roommates.
"So, how are things going with you and Xander?"
"Oh, fine, fine." Cordelia answered absently, not really hearing Willow's too clever, inquisitive tone.
"Yeah, with all his messy habits and stuff, it must be really annoying I would think?"
"No, not at all," Cordelia said, now giving more attention to the topic. "He's actually grown quite nicely." She smiled slightly to herself.
She'd initially answered that way just to disagree with Willow because, well, why the hell not? With a bit more thought she realized it to be the truth. He was still an annoying goofball at times, and the humor was as lame, ill-timed and inappropriate as ever, but the last couple of years had smoothed off the worst of it. He was actually quite pleasant and fun to be around, even in public, and she generally enjoyed his company when their schedules allowed them to be together in their apartment.
The aftermath of Xander's apology almost put a permanent crimp on that. Despite--or because of--his apology and her acceptance there had begun several days of a strained and overly polite awkwardness between them. It was obvious to her he was walking on egg shells whenever they were together, and in sensing that it thus made her likewise tense and uncertain how to act. A vicious cycle built up until they conversed in only the most polite yet minimal words possible for two people living in such close proximity.
A simple, trivial incident a few nights ago changed everything.
It had been the end of a long day on the site and she was nowhere around when Xander returned to the apartment. After grabbing a slice of cold pizza from the fridge he hauled himself over to the sofa and plopped down.
He picked up the remote and began channel-surfing, hoping to maybe find a basketball or football game he could work up a tepid interest in until he finally fell asleep. After flipping past a few annoying infomercials on music collections of the '40s or melting off 40 pounds in 40 days he landed on a presentation of Casablanca just as it was beginning.
Not a huge fan of the black-and-whites, he was about to hit the channel button again but stopped and considered before finally setting aside the remote. For all his eclectic tastes in movies, and despite having seen so many classics, he'd never seen this one.
As a matter of sheer coincidence, at the same moment Ingrid Bergman was making her on-screen appearance Cordelia also made her appearance from her room. She'd only intended to get something to drink when she saw the scene playing on the set and Xander watching avidly from the sofa. Her curiosity was piqued both because she hadn't seen the film either and that Xander seemed so engrossed in something without spaceships or death rays or Tokyo getting trampled by yet another rubber-suited monster.
Instead of heading back to her room she dropped down beside him.
"Hey," he greeted her carefully. "Change it if you want, I'm not really watching." Although he clearly was.
Cordelia waved him off. "No. No, this is good." She tucked her legs up under her as she settled in, her shoulder brushing against Xander's when she wiggled a little to get more comfortable. Except for one break when he got up to nuke some popcorn and she some peanut butter, she remained next to him, her weight gradually settling more and more against his side as the story in the hot desert city unwound.
They were very close to each other, comfortable, all tension magically melted away for the entire movie. They chatted about the characters and which ones they liked or didn't, repeating some of the lines to each other during the commercial breaks. He usually took Bogart's lines, she Ingrid's, cracking each other up with awful overdone renditions.
The easy give and take was much like old times when they were at their best together. The relaxed atmosphere continued even through the ending as Bogey sent Ingrid away and walked off into the fog with Claude Rains. They sat silently as the credits scrolled by, virtually tucked together with their stocking feet on the coffee table.
"Wow, that was... "
"Great!" she finished for him.
"Yeah! That too."
Contrary to what they both expected, the ease and comfort persisted through the following days.
Cordelia's lips turned up slightly in a wistful smile as she recalled the recent event, reliving the entire evening in just a few seconds.
"--erything has finally turned around for him. A good job, away from his parents. Not so many curves to throw him off," Willow's voice broke into Cordelia's reverie. She mentally shook off the memory.
"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" she demanded, beginning to see the direction of Willow's questions.
Willow didn't meet Cordelia's glare. "I'm just sayin' I wouldn't want anything to knock his train off the track." She started fiddling with some of the apparatus on the table.
"Such as?"
"Well, y'know, relationships? They can be complicated. Husband and wives, lovers--"
Cordelia lifted one eye-brow. Willow, having seen similar expressions, knew the meaning. It used to bother her but now she was just used to it. "Yes, even gay-type lovers," she answered curtly in a bored tone. "But friendships too; acquaintances. Roommates even..." Willow let the hook dangle for Cordelia to pick up.
"Roommates? Me and Xander?" Cordelia saw the point Willow wanted to lead up to but she had no intention of making it any easier for the redhead.
Willow waited expectantly. When Cordelia gave her nothing further, she continued. "Yes. Of all the roommates he could possibly have, he's got you. It's, um, just...an interesting dynamic."
"Interesting how?"
Willow huffed and her tone became more assertive. "I don't want to see him hurt."
"Hurt?"
"Yes."
"You think I'm going to hurt him?"
"Yes. Maybe not deliberately...but the odds are, yeah."
Cordelia laughed without humor. "Have we forgotten who cheated on who, Willow? Who got stabbed through the gut because of infidelity? Willow? Seems to me it was you two doing all the train-wrecking."
Willow stood her ground. "W-well, that's a good point, isn't it? You're not over it. You have a reason to get back at him. But that was a long time ago and things are all changed around. He's grown up a lot. And obviously I've changed. But have you? If you wanted to you could hurt him back a lot worse now. It would be your perfect moment of revenge. It's Lucy yanking the ball away just as Charlie Brown is about to kick it."
Willow paused.
"And I'm sorry about the 'fluking'. I really am. It was, it was..." Willow waved her arm as if trying to conjure up just the right words, but couldn't and gave up in frustration. "Well, I don't know what it was, but it was! And it's over and done and history and we're all adults now. And I'm still Xander's friend. And I will not let you hurt him." She crossed her arms and returned Cordelia's glare with her own.
Cordelia looked away, some of Willow's comments hitting home. She thought back over the events of her time with Xander from beginning to end. Shortly afterward she told herself it had been a huge mistake to begin with, a sickening horrible, never-ending insanity she had no control over. She'd even blamed Buffy at one point.
But she was younger then; the things that seemed so important and necessary to her then hardly registered anymore, not compared to what mattered now.
True, she could honestly tell herself and any who cared to listen she had been the loyal one in their relationship. Upon reflection Cordelia also knew she had made some mistakes as well. Her sharp tongue still got the better of her, even when speaking to Xander. She now knew what she would have proudly called the "honest truth" of her harsh comments to people was often spoken with no more than careless malicious intent, that sometimes tactlessness served no better purpose than to cut.
For a very long time she was always doing her best to hide what they had, what she had felt about him, from her friends and his, and then from herself and him. Not only had she hidden her affections and changing feelings from him but she belittled them as no more than a temporary phase to get out of her system. Too late she now realized this was a form of dishonesty she would have called out on anyone else.
Cordelia glanced at Willow. She didn't know if telling him of her feelings would have made any difference in what transpired between him and Willow, but she would never know and regretted not having said anything to him.
"Despite everything I've suffered because of you two, I really have no interest in anything so small-minded as that. It was just a stupid childish high-school romance." Cordelia stopped and scolded herself, wondering if she'd just given away more than she intended. Willow's expression didn't change and Cordelia concluded Willow probably had had some idea of the depth of Cordelia's feelings back then. Or maybe she had no clue whatsoever. Cordelia bulled ahead. "And you're right, a lot has changed."
However, Cordelia was not about to go into any of the history of the last year and a half and its dose of harsh reality (even if Willow might already know). She'd learned to at least separate the physical pain from the emotional and she didn't blame Xander for the accidental fall through the stairs. She actually could think of it in those terms now.
As for the emotional wounds, it was high-school stuff and now that Xander, unknown to Willow, had finally offered a sincere apology she could separate the two. She could honestly say to herself she didn't harbor any hatred toward Xander any more. She continued more softly, and with a gentle smile. "We have an understanding now. And I'm not the one who's going to hurt Xander. " Cordelia gave Willow an accusatory look. "On the other hand..."
"Me?!" squeaked Willow, getting the implication. "How? I'm his best friend!"
Cordelia scoffed. "Don't play dumb, Willow. You hurt him the way you coddle and mother him, like you're doing right now. And I've seen you use your magic to try and protect him. He's a grown man, capable of defending himself. Or haven't you noticed? And then there's the times when you and Buffy totally blow him off, so into your college life, like he's the townie you're too embarrassed to even slum with."
Willow, her own temper rising, stood up, knocking over the chair. "Cordelia--"
There was a time and place when Cordelia knew, with barely a raised chin and a look just so, she could have made Willow swallow her tongue and scurry away like a mouse. Either she really had grown up and was just not interested any more in putting people down in their place when she was annoyed, or Willow too had grown in self-assured confidence and Cordelia knew it wouldn't work. Probably both were true. Either way, Cordelia restrained herself from carelessly lashing out at Willow. Right now Cordelia just wanted out of this irritating conversation. The jingle of the door was a very welcome and well-timed excuse to break away.
Cordelia practically leaped up to greet her new customer, leaving Willow behind, her sentence left unfinished. To Willow, slightly exasperated, it was so typical of Cordelia to brush her off so easily and she nearly turned to follow and make a fuss. Instead she decided Cordelia was just not worth the effort and began to sit again and get back to the intricacies of her work.
"Welcome to the Magic Box! Is there anything I can do for--Oh, crap."
Willow's back had been to the door when Cordelia greeted the customer. Normally she wouldn't have given a second thought to one of Cordelia's rather abrasive greetings, but this seemed beyond the pale even for Cordelia. A tingle of icy dread clawed through her as she turned to see who Cordelia had so crudely addressed. "What is i--Oh, crap." Willow's mouth went dry.
"Oh, my dearies, are we in a bit of a tizzy? Should I come back another time? Or eat you both now?"
Cordelia was backing away slowly and couldn't speak. Willow swallowed and then giggled. "Oh, ah, hey Dru, long time, no see?" She felt like an idiot. Cordelia's sideways scowl confirmed that, yes indeed, she was an idiot.
Drusilla flowed gracefully into the main area of the shop, past Cordelia whose feet were suddenly glued to the floor.
She gave Willow a sly, knowing wink and lecherous smile. "I see you always, precious, so dark and powerful. Mysterious. And such a nice, naughty little girl you are."
The last time Willow had seen this vampire was nearly two and a half years ago when Drusilla had killed the slayer Kendra. Willow flushed in embarrassment. She didn't know why, because everyone knew she was lesbian, and she didn't care who knew, but somehow the way the vampire picked up on it and behaved really unnerved her.
Drusilla swept on past Willow and peered about the shelves, running her fingers lightly over an item or two before moving on to the next. With the vampire further away Cordelia was able to move again and joined Willow as they cautiously watched Drusilla roam deeper into the store.
They knew better than to run since both had witnessed vampire's speed first-hand. She might be one of the most whacked vampires ever but she was astonishingly quick, even by un-dead standards. They gave each other a "what do we do now?" look, both shrugging their answer in unison.
"There's never a slayer around when you need one," groused Cordelia. "Now's the time to try that spell!" she whispered out the side of her mouth to Willow.
Willow quietly but equally fiercely replied through her teeth. "We don't even know if works. We could destroy everything!"
"Does it look like it matters right now?!"
"What's that you two darlings are whispering to each other?" Drusilla called from across the floor.
"Oh, ah, nothing important! Nothing at all!" Cordelia answered nervously.
"We were just kinda wondering why you're back here in little old, boring Sunnydale. You know, with the not so much going on, and Slayers always roaming about who knows where, and not as fun for a vampire as, oh say, Los Angeles? Where things are exciting and fun and..." babbled Willow.
Cordelia's eyes were getting wider and wider and she kept making shushing motions, but to no avail. Willow in nervous babble mode could be an unstoppable force.
"Yes, the City of Angel. I think my kitten's queen knows. Don't you?" asked Drusilla.
Willow glanced toward Cordelia. "What?" Cordelia's response was another shrug, with a gesture of twirling her finger near her ear.
With a blur and almost silent whoosh Drusilla was beside them again. "Crazy, yes. But not spinning in the head, no!" She swayed and did a light swirling dance step with an unseen partner. "Daddy wasn't very nice. And Grandmummy was all cranky-pants," she added glumly.
"Huh?"
"Angel," said Cordelia, "And Darla, I think."
"Oh."
"But the hill and the 'Dale has sparkly green fire all alive, yes, yes, yes, she's so very alive, so very young and so very old! And dust-mop repair shops, all along the boulevard like, like..." Drusilla's soliloquy stopped as she tried to think of things all lined up in a row.
Ah, so obvious! "Like dead chubby li'l children." Drusilla was looking off into the distance, waving her arms about as she continued dancing with the dust mop in need of repair.
Cordelia and Willow shared a terrified look. Drusilla waxing crazy and prophetic was always a bad sign of things to come. Could she have known what she was talking about with her reference to living green fire?
Unknown to any of the trio inside the Magic Box, Scab was sitting hunched just outside the window, his turn to keep an eye on the Slayer and her retinue. Mostly he'd been trying to keep from falling asleep from exceeding boredom. Drusilla's words carried clearly through to him and boredom was no longer a problem. Was that a reference to the Key? He debated going right to Glory or moving closer to hear if anything else was said about the Key. He decided to move closer for a few minutes before going back to report to his Goddess.
Drusilla's toe caught the edge of the rug and made her stumble. She snapped back to the here and now, eyes clear and lucid. "I'm looking for my Spike. Do you darlings happen to know where he is?"
"Spike?" Willow asked, shrugging theatrically and looked expectantly at Cordelia. "Spike?"
Cordelia made a big show of intently peering around the store. "Spikes? I'm sorry, I think we're out of spikes at the moment, but if you could wait a moment I can special-order some from our supplier."
Cordelia started stepping back toward the safety of the counter, intending to put distance and anything else she could between her and the vampire. Things would go from incredibly bad to incredibly worse if Drusilla's second sight revealed who had dusted Spike. Cordelia hadn't had much to do with Drusilla over the years, just a few encounters, mostly hearing about her from Xander after the Valentine's Day fiasco when she first dumped him, and a few more stories from Angel. She hadn't liked what she heard then and she didn't like what she was seeing now.
Run-of-the-mill vampires could be bad enough but at least were reasonably predictable. A crazy one like Drusilla, there was just no telling when and what she might do.
"Stop!" roared Drusilla.
"Absolutely." Cordelia froze right in her tracks. Leave it to slayers to provoke crazy vamps. And speaking of which, where the heck was a slayer when you really needed one?! Cordelia crossed her arms and puffed out a breath and fumed.
Drusilla focused back on Willow, who hemmed and hawed and shrugged again, flashing a little uncertain smile and then looking away from the vampire.
Drusilla growled low in her throat, causing a new stream of babble.
"Oh, that Spike! Right. Yes, yes. Well, uh, he's be--I mean I-I-I haven't seen him around lately. Cordy?"
"What? Oh yeah. Spike. We were just talking about him. He hasn't been showing up much at all the last few weeks. Perhaps Buffy might know?"
Drusilla looked at the pair queerly, then closed her eyes. Her prey didn't move an inch, barely even breathing. She slowly cocked her head this way and that, questing for guidance in the ether. She lifted her chin and her eyes snapped open, zeroing in on Willow.
"I feel power in you. Salt and pepper, sugar and spice." Drusilla smiled lewdly and strolled over to Willow, circling her, running her fingertips across the redhead's shoulders. "So different than the last time. Maybe we could play until my Spike gets here."
Willow did her best to suppress a shudder when Drusilla cackled. "A good time will be had by all! I know things. Many things your friend doesn't." Somehow Willow know Drusilla was not referring to Cordelia.
Right at that moment Xander burst through the door, already talking before seeing anything. "Hey guys, what's going on? Is everyone still alive?" he called out jokingly.
Seeing who was between Willow and Cordelia made his leg lock up mid-step as he started down the stairs, causing him to stumble and scramble wildly to keep from falling flat on his face. He ended up on his hands and knees just a few feet from a tittering Drusilla.
"Oh, my poor kitten, his feet are too large and he needs his mummy's help, doesn't he?. Come, my sweet." Drusilla casually hoisted Xander off the floor and plopped him on his feet next to her, holding him tightly by the waist. "Look at these two strumpets. I don't like them. Miss Edith doesn't like them either. That one, she's dangerous. And that one was Daddy's friend. They are bad together. The stars say Kitten must choose."
"What? Choose what?"
"Who to share our bed. Let the sky have the other."
"What?"
"My sweet kitten, my delicious kitten, which shall be dinner tonight?" asked Drusilla, swaying slightly.
"What?!"
Drusilla let go of Xander and quickly went behind the girls, placing one cold hand on the back of the neck of each, giving each a squeeze in turn. Willow yipped and suppressed a shudder, Cordelia closed her eyes and endured.
"Shall it be the Black Witch or the Queen of Diamonds?
"Hey!" each girl protested.
"What?!?!"
Xander was finally able to break loose from his panic-induced mono-verbalism. "No! No way. We're not doing this! I won't let you hurt either of them," Xander declared in a voice that rang out far more courageously than he felt.
Drusilla seemed genuinely surprised. "Why surely you must prefer one to the other? One to sup upon, the other to... " Drusilla sensuously slid her hand along Cordelia's body from the side-swell of her breast down to her thigh, with a final pat on the rear, humming serenely, then did the same to Willow. Both girls shivered, their faces twisting in revulsion. "...play with?
"Or dessert. Your choice m'dear, whichever. Mummy knows you'll choose well."
Cordelia sighed, resigned to her fate. No matter how well she and Xander had been doing since her return, they were just a "work in progress". Xander and Willow were the dorky duo, like super and glue to each other. When push came to shove with regard to Willow, Xander would never pick against his lifelong friend.
Xander's eyes darted from one girl to the other, his mouth opening and closing in indecision. Then he stopped and straightened himself. "No, you crazy mosquito! You can't make me chose between my best friend and--"
Here it comes, thought Cordelia, as Xander looked from Willow to her, seeing his determined expression change to uncertainty. It was inevitable. Really, how could Xander not choose Willow?
In these last few moments of her life Cordelia realized she fully accepted Xander's apology. Despite the inflicted hurts, she now understood, at least in some small way, whatever had happened between herself, Willow and Xander was a human thing.
After her experiences with Doyle, Wes, Angel, and even Gunn, she knew men weren't mind-readers and it was perhaps unfair to expect an 18-year old male be able to understand the cues any girl could instinctively recognize. With men you sometimes had to accept they needed a good thwacking over the head with a clue-by-four. Cordelia was also better able to tell the true bastards, the ones who really never gave a shit about her, from those who did care but were sometimes fallible.
By the calendar it was only a few short years ago, but in some ways it felt like a whole different life to her, like two completely separate Cordelia's, one so youthful and inexperienced, headstrong and proud, the other mature and understanding. The things that once seemed so important to the younger Cordelia--and she clearly remembered her priorities then--now seemed mere trivialities compared to what mattered now.
It would always hurt, what he had done. She would never forget it, probably never fully understand it. But she understood that perhaps, just possibly, it was the kind of mistake anyone, everyone actually a human being, including herself, was capable of. And human mistakes could be forgiven.
She nodded her head to Xander to let him know she understood.
"--and my other best friend! You leave my girls alone!"
Xander started forward but stopped when Drusilla growled.
"Yeah! You go, Xander!" cheered Willow.
Cordelia nearly fell from the sudden relief, knowing Xander wasn't going to let her be so easily sacrificed, that he would fight for her.
"You won't choose? Pity, I'll have to chose for you." Drusilla stepped behind the two girls and drew them close. She took a fistful of either red hair or brunette, yanking hard. Both girls unsuccessfully tried to stifle gasps of pain. Drusilla pulled the handfuls of hair in front of her nose and inhaled deeply, so deeply, one at a time from each.
"I think I chose this one. Blood and bone, flesh for flesh, an eye for an eye." She opened wide, face morphing, lips pulling back from sharp fangs to bite down on the exposed bare neck.
"NO!"
In the brief moments when Drusilla was not paying full attention to Xander he had been edging closer. He dived at Cordelia when he saw Drusilla behind her start to lean forward, knocking Cordelia out of Drusilla's grasp.
Drusilla, her face quickly returning to human-like form, looked childishly surprised, like a little girl who had just been bumped and dropped her lolly-pop in the dirt. Disappointment marred her delicate features as if she were were about to cry. Then she noticed the perpetrator and quickly became consumed by rage, forgetting and letting go of Willow. Instead of going after Cordelia on the floor several yards away, still gasping painfully from the body blow Xander had delivered, Drusilla reached for Xander sprawled at her feet.
"Naughty kittens have to be punished."
Willow slid sideways to the table where she had been working, scooped up a handful of rust and dumped it into the crucible of potion she had been working on before Drusilla's appearance. Quickly, Willow dipped her hands into the muck and pulled them out together with only her finger tips touching, leaving a spherical volume between her coated palms, and muttered, "Solaria!"
When she spread her palms open a brilliant burst of sunlight filled the room, blinding everyone who was looking anywhere near, casting sharp shadows against the walls.
Drusilla screamed in agony. She let go of Xander and threw up her arms in front of her face, feeling a dry burning sear through her skin, smelling the sulfurous odor of smoke curling up from herself.
The brilliance was gone as suddenly as it came. The humans had not felt any heat but the room now seemed black as night, with blue after-images whenever they blinked. Drusilla had stumbled back from the blast of sunlight and was also blinded in addition to the slight charring on any exposed patch of skin, but she was otherwise unhurt.
Drusilla looked around, blinking rapidly, and saw only the blurry shape of a cringing Willow standing not far from her. She completely missed Xander rising from the floor.
Xander, recognizing an opportunity, hauled off and hit Drusilla as hard as he could, flush on her temple. He cried in pain as it felt like he'd busted some fingers.
Drusilla was stunned for a moment as she staggered a few steps but there was no other obvious damage. Xander got ready to strike with his other hand but Drusilla recovered quickly and leaned out of the way.
"Bad kitty!" she scolded, before giving him a casual swipe that sent him flying.
With bad kitty out of the way she spotted Cordelia and started toward her. She's done with the playing and now just wanted to feed.
Xander once more gathered himself off the floor--something he's become quite good at after all his fights with vampires--and charged again. He knew enough not to fight Drusilla directly and tried to tackle her at the knees, hoping to knock her off balance.
It was like running into a tree-trunk and he bounced off, pain lancing from his shoulder down to his groin.
However Xander's tactic was effective enough to knock Drusilla several steps away from Cordelia. The vampire stood and looked confused by the total lack of co-operation from her pet, her dinner, and her play-thing.
Drusilla wanted to pout and maybe even cry a little when the little bell chime on the shop's front door dinged loudly. Buffy burst through, followed by a frightened Tara behind.
"This is not a good day," whined Drusilla as she prepared to fight off the Slayer. She first slashed at Buffy, who ducked out of the way of razor-sharp nails, countering with a kick to Drusilla's midriff.
As the fight continued around the shop, Xander crawled over to Cordelia to make sure she was shielded from flying debris. Once he verified Cordelia was only winded but otherwise unhurt he got himself ready to rejoin the fray, if only to distract Drusilla.
Buffy fumbled to find a stake and Drusilla took the opportunity to break off and escape through the same door Buffy entered. She might be a crazy vampire but was never stupid. She'd learned when running from the Slayer was the better part of self-preservation.
Wincing from one of Drusilla's kicks Buffy leaned against the nearby wall and looked around, instinctively making sure there was no more danger. Sensing none, Buffy relaxed and walked over to her friends where an injured Xander was already helping Willow and Cordelia back to their feet. "You guys okay?"
Willow threw her arms around Xander's neck, "You idiot, we had it all under control!" she said, giving a wink to Cordelia. Cordelia returned an almost imperceptible nod and conspiratorial smile of her own. No sense making a big deal of it.
Cordelia came up to Xander and gave him a light smack on the shoulder, being careful to target the uninjured one. "What took you so long?"
Despite his pain Xander answered Cordelia enthusiastically. "Well it's been quite a day, let me tell you! We're coming through town on our way here to keep you guys from--" Xander paused to rethink the reason they had been rushing back from campus, and coughed. "That is, come see you guys, when you just wouldn't believe what we ran into."
Fortunately Olaf had merely sneered at them when Xander ran into the troll's rather large rear after he unexpectedly stepped off the curb. When they all got out to see if he was injured Olaf laughed heartily and continued on his merry rampaging way. Xander left Buffy and Tara to deal while he checked to see if the car was badly damaged. Not wanting to take chances he had pulled into a parking spot and went on foot the rest of the way.
"And then Buffy took off after him. And I came here."
"Yeah, she saved a dumpster from oblivion," chirped Tara, bouncing happily on her toes.
"And baby food!" Everyone turned and stared at Buffy. "I mean babies as food! He wanted to eat babies."
"Ewww, yuch much?"
"I think things are settled down for now. Are you guys okay now?" Buffy asked of Xander and Cordelia, Willow and Tara. When she got nods from all around she started for the door. "There's this big hammer thing Olaf left behind," she explained, "Wicked heavy and I should get it before any bad guy starts getting notions. Besides, Giles would love it, it's got all kinds of weird writing on it."
Everyone waved their assent for to go do her slayer due diligence. She stopped halfway out the door and leaned back in. "Are you sure you guys are going to be okay?"
"Yeah, go on Buffy, we're good here," Xander spoke for the four of them.
"We'll be fine. We can stop by tomorrow and take a look at the writing, maybe get a head start on Giles," Willow added.
"If anything attacks I'll just throw him in front. He's useful that way. Sometimes."
Buffy looked a little dubious and was about to make an argument but relented and hurried off.
The four of them shuffled around a little in the wake of Buffy's drop-in arrival, quick inconclusive fight, and quicker departure.
"I should get Willow home," said Tara. She looked around at the wrecked shop. "We'll come by early to help clean up."
Cordelia nodded her thanks.
"Cordelia, about what we were discussing--"
Cordelia held up her hand. "No worries, Willow. We're good."
"We are?" Willow seemed genuinely surprised, both by the words and the sincerity with which Cordelia said them.
Cordelia smiled. "Yeah."
"Okay. See you guys tomorrow." She and Tara left, both talking over each other about their evening's adventures and the success of the Solaria spell.
As their babbling faded down the street it became very quiet again and Xander slumped down onto one of the few undamaged stools. Cordelia stood uncertainly, gazing forlornly at the mess of the Magic Box.
Extreme disaster area would have been a more accurate term, a place worthy of federal cleanup funds. Tired to the bone, she pushed some of the mess around with her toe before giving up even that much effort. The debris and clutter weren't going anywhere and she was too tired to even work up the proper righteous indignation that someone, no matter how evil, would dare mess up her store.
"I guess I'd better get you home, too, before you do something even more stupid to get yourself killed."
Xander's pain was beginning to wear and he could barely keep himself from sagging off the stool that propped him up. He grunted his agreement.
The walk back began in silence. She immediately pulled his arm over and around her shoulders when she noticed him beginning to weave slightly. He looked down at her in surprise but she was concentrating on guiding them down the middle of the sidewalk.
"So," she said after a time, glancing sideways and up at Xander's profile, "best friend?"
"Ah." Xander gulped. "You heard that part, huh?" He waited and became apprehensive at the lack of her response. It had come almost without thought and now that he had some time to think about it, to sound out the words, he desperately wanted it to be so. He wanted Cordelia to want it too.
"Loud and clear. Seems like a bit of progress."
"Yeah. Uh, well y'know Cordy, the thing is--"
"That works for me," Cordelia gave him a playful hip bump then cleared her throat, and in her best attempted Bogey imitation began, "Louis, I think this is the beginning--"
The sound of their laughter and giggles echoed off the buildings of the nearly deserted downtown. His pain suddenly felt far away and there was a new energy in his step.
---
Unknown to the Scoobies, Drusilla had run into and was almost immediately entangled by a flexible wire net when she escaped the Magic Box in such a hurry. Every thrashing motion just got her more and more caught up in the mesh. Eventually a dozen ugly little scuttling (but stronger than they looked) gnomes approached, poking at her to test if she could get out.
As they carefully untwisted the net from her limbs they also quickly and expertly pinned her arms behind her back. She was securely bound before being picked up and carried off. She snarled and tried to bite at one of the little scabby demons surrounding her. taking away her freedom to roam and hunt as she pleased. They batted her hard with a club, making her dizzy and unable to follow the course of events as she was carried away.
"I don't like today," she moaned. Except for a few brief moments with Spike, unlife had not been good for her since her illness, nor had they improved when Spike brought her to these American shores. Europe was where she needed to be, prowling among a civilized population where a little demonic death and mayhem was a natural part of the culture.
Eventually she was dragged into the foyer of a large and brightly lit penthouse apartment and dropped like a bag of potatoes onto the marble floor. Drusilla struggled to her feet and once again tried to bite a captor. The demon jumped back out of reach but seemed otherwise unafraid. At that moment Glory stepped out from behind the vampire, flicked her wrist and easily swatted the vampire down. "Behave yourself or I'll squash you like a bug, you annoying little tick."
When Drusilla's vision cleared again and she was able to see Glory, she dropped to her knees. "Oooh, Red emeralds, ice and lilac! I see you're locked out, locked away, far far from home and time. I know what that's like." Drusilla drifted off into a high-pitched hum.
Glory smiled indulgently. The crazy vampire might just be the key, or rather the key to the Key, if Scab's information was to be believed.
Glory laughed at her own little joke, not noticing the minions scuttling back nervously. Glory knew she would have to keep Dru on a short leash to properly use her, and carelessly smacked Dru against the brick wall, stunning her into unconsciousness.
"We'll find a way to use you," Glory informed the supine Drusilla.
previous -- to be continued
Part: 6b/?
Summary: Cordelia and Xander talk a lot. Giles and Cordelia talk a little. Willow and Cordelia talk some. Tara and Buffy talk. Xander, Cordelia, Willow and a vampire talk too. Even Glory talks. Basically, there's just a whole heck of a lot of talking going on. And one fight (and almost another).
Rating: safe for all
Warnings: none
Pairing: Xander/Cordelia
Spoilers: BtVS:Triangle
Acknowledgment: As always, my thanks and appreciation to Theo for his many helpful suggestions.
All other chapters can be found here
Part 6b/?: Three's a Company (continued)
The spell was still missing something and Willow was darned if she wouldn't figure out what it was.
She really wanted to show Tara how good she was at the magic. She flipped through several more pages of the book in front of her, mumbling some of the passages. Her eyes widened when she found one which seemed particularly relevant, describing an event from hundreds of years ago when a Spanish conquistador seemed to achieve a result very much like what they were trying for.
Willow re-read the passage, translating the mixed Spanish and Latin in her head, softly speaking it aloud. "... sword of iron ... casting upon the flame ... gathering ashes ... to add ..." Willow sat back, her forehead wrinkling in concentration as she tried to decipher the meaning.
"Iron. Flame. Ashes. Hmmm." She repeated the words to herself like a mantra, sitting back and closing her eyes.
She tried to apply the techniques Giles had been teaching her about divining the meanings of ancient texts, how to tease out the inner nuggets of useful truth buried within the chaff of falsehoods, self-serving exaggeration, and useless tripe. She quickly ran through several ways to think about the semantics and context of the words and soon hit upon needing ashes of burnt iron.
She smiled beatifically when she suddenly understood what the confusing words were saying to her, what key item might have been missing from the original brew she and Tara had started with.
"Ah, Cordy?" she called out, "Do you have any ferric oxide?"
"Farrah-what-side??" Cordelia answered from the counter. She got up and came around to the table Willow was working at.
"Ferric oxide. You know? Rust. Do you have any rust in the shop?"
Cordelia looked offended. "Willow, look around you. Does it look like I'd allow any rust in my place of business?" Cordelia glared her challenge, hands on planted on her hips.
"Hmmph." Willow tapped her finger on her chin as she thought about sources of rust. "Can I check out the basement storage area?"
Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Be my guest."
Several minutes later a triumphant Willow returned, carrying an envelope full of reddish-brownish-orangish flakes and powder. "Iron sewer piping and brackets." She gave Cordelia a smug smile and hurried over to the table to pick up her casting and concocting from where she left off.
"Whatever," Cordelia sniffed. "What exactly am I letting you use our valuable inventory for, anyway?"
Willow looked up at Cordelia's question. "It's an idea I--we, that is Tara and I had. To help fight vampires. You know they burn up in the sunshine, right?" She dumped the old contents of the small clay bowl they were using as a crucible into the small trash can under the table and began carefully cleaning it out with sassafras leaves and holy water, getting it ready for another try.
Cordelia impatiently nodded. "Yeah yeah: direct sunlight, wooden stake to the heart, cut off the head, fire," she said as she ticked off the points on her fingers. "Got it all. Crosses and holy water hurt but don't kill. Willow, I've been doing this nearly as long as you have. And I worked for Angel."
"Sorry." Willow shrugged. "So anyway, we were thinking what if we could create some sunlight of our own whenever we needed it? We could just like, say 'Cheese!' and Poof! Break out the brooms time!"
Cordelia cocked her head thoughtfully. She didn't know if Willow could actually pull it off. It seemed like such an obvious idea that someone must have tried it before. But even if Willow was never going to be a good friend, she had to admit Willow was one of the smartest people she ever knew. "Okay, sounds good so far. What's the hang-up? Why hasn't anybody else abra-cadabra'd a sun before?"
Willow started re-arranging and re-mixing the extra material she and Tara had collected, keeping the small pile of rust separate until it was needed. She answered as she worked. "Well, partly I think it's so obvious that it just never crossed anybody's mind to try it. Y'know 'sunshine' and 'daytime' go together, but not 'sunshine' and 'nighttime' and--"
"Okay, enough word association games, Miss Freud."
"Ah, yes. Okay. Mostly, sunshine is just pretty complicated stuff. We don't know which part of it, or what combination of parts, actually does the trick of making the un-dead become dead-dead. So a big flashlight might make them blink, but no flamy-ness."
Despite herself Cordelia was actually curious about Willow's notions. "And that's what you're doing here? Trying to figure out how to make the right pieces of the sun?" She puzzled over it for a moment, but something still didn't sound quite right. "I don't know, still seems there must be a catch there somewhere."
"Well not the whole Sun, but maybe just a small piece of it. And just for a moment. Because, I mean, if we really brought the sun here, then WOAH!! We'd melt everything, including ourselves, and then what would be the point?
"So Tara and I got some ideas," Willow explained, indicating the books and journals and hand-written notes in front of her, "But mostly we're working from first principles of physics and magic and primal forces and kind of blazing a new trail on our own. It's really kind of exciting! I mean, who knows, maybe someday there'll be a book of magic and spells by Tara and me. We can't always rely on the ancients, right? We're smart too."
As she stirred in each of the new items with a twig from a pine tree, she said, "And then we'll have to test it at full scale, I guess." Willow frowned slightly then beamed. "Oooh, that might get interesting! Probably have to go out into the desert so nobody gets hurt if, well, if there were too much sun. Hey, road trip!!" Willow said brightly.
Cordelia pointed at what Willow was working with. Willow laughed "Oh, no this is just a tiny itty-bitty bit. It won't be any more than a match. If my calculations are correct." Willow's enthusiastic smile fell, returning full force with false bravado.
"You're just a wild and crazy fun machine, Willow. Make sure to forget me when you guys go tripping."
Willow made an exaggerated and mocking pout. "I'm sorry Cordelia, there won't be any malls for, oh, maybe 25 or even 50 miles. We'll miss you.
"Any way, even after today there's still some help we need from the coven. Once Tara's done with her class we'll be heading out there. So far everything is too slow, we'd be dead by the time we got everything put together just right. And it's not stable. Once things are set we'll have only a few seconds to say the final words and--"
Cordelia was already bored by Willow's enthusiastic nattering. "Okay, fine, Willow, great. Go for it. But you break it you buy it." She flipped her hand and went back to far more interesting things, such as inventorying the vulture warts.
Willow returned to carefully comparing the two texts before her, one a high-level academic journal article on precise historical changes in the sun's emission spectrum over the last several sun-spot cycles, and the other an ancient book with a chapter devoted to conjuring up light in a time of dark. There was a third book on chemical compounds and signature spectra, and a fourth very large compendium of ingredients for potions, spells, glamours, poisons, etc. Willow was taking each step very carefully, she wanted to get this right.
---
"Xander!"
Xander whipped around, sloshing mocha on his boots. He didn't really like the coffee part all that much, he just wanted the hot chocolate-y goodness part (and the whipped cream topping), but a mocha no-whip sounded somewhat more manly than just hot chocolate, or so he thought. He was keenly aware of the importance of manliness with all these hot young co-eds about, even if he was much better on the theory than the actual practice of said theory.
Buffy laughed as she snatched some napkins on her way past the counter and began dabbing at him. Xander's keen manliness sense was telling him this also was not too macho but at least no one knew the Buffster wasn't his girlfriend. He tried to smile in a knowing leer, hoping to make the guys around him jealous. Still, he did his best to get the napkins from her.
"What are doing here?" asked Buffy, finally letting Xander do his own clean-up. She stood on her tip-toes and tried to scan the whole room over everybody's heads. "Where's Willow?"
Still dabbing at himself, Xander answered, "I was supposed to meet her here. I guess I'm playing chauffeur for some little jaunt?" He glanced at the mantle clock over the fake gas fireplace still burning despite an unseasonably warm day outside. "Guess I'm a little early." He smiled sheepishly.
"And that has nothing to do with extra time to check out the girls in shorts and tanks, does it?" Buffy knew her Xander well.
Xander looked hurt even as he took one last perusal of all the long tanned legs everywhere. Southern California in the winter could not be beat! "Moi? I'm far too gentlemanly than that!"
"Uh huh. A horny unattached gentleman." She laughed to take the sting out of her comment.
"Maybe she's still at the Magic Box? Seemed like she and Tara were neck deep in some pretty complicated voodoo-hoodoo or something."
"Willow's still at the Magic Box?"
Xander took the time for a noisy slurp of his now tolerably cool drink. "Yuh huh, I guess."
Now Buffy looked a little worried. "You left Cordelia and Willow alone?"
"No, Tara was with--"
"No she isn't," announced Tara from behind him his right ear, arriving from her side trip to the bathroom.
"Tara!" Xander took a moment for his heart to calm down as both girls laughed at him. "Tara, it's you! And you're here. And not there," observed Xander most intelligently, waving vaguely somewhere off-campus, "with Willow."
Buffy leaned toward Tara conspiratorially. "What do you think? He's smart enough for college now?"
"With honors!" agreed Tara.
Xander ignored that. "Well okay, so maybe they're alone. What's the dire? C'mon Buff, you don't think...I mean, it's been a long time and..."
Buffy grabbed Xander's hand. "Let's go!"
"Yeah!"
Tara didn't understand why they seemed in such a hurry but she ran after them as they headed for Xander's car way off in the visitor's parking area.
---
Willow sat back in her chair, closed her eyes and stretched her arms way above her head. Looking at her watch she decided it was a good time for a short break from the ancient texts and modern formula. Stretching her neck by rolling her head about she spotted Cordelia fussing around the shop. It suddenly occurred to her this was the first time she and Cordelia had ever been alone together since the cheating incident. It also reminded her Cordelia was now actually living with her best friend and she frowned at the thought of that particular pair of roommates.
"So, how are things going with you and Xander?"
"Oh, fine, fine." Cordelia answered absently, not really hearing Willow's too clever, inquisitive tone.
"Yeah, with all his messy habits and stuff, it must be really annoying I would think?"
"No, not at all," Cordelia said, now giving more attention to the topic. "He's actually grown quite nicely." She smiled slightly to herself.
She'd initially answered that way just to disagree with Willow because, well, why the hell not? With a bit more thought she realized it to be the truth. He was still an annoying goofball at times, and the humor was as lame, ill-timed and inappropriate as ever, but the last couple of years had smoothed off the worst of it. He was actually quite pleasant and fun to be around, even in public, and she generally enjoyed his company when their schedules allowed them to be together in their apartment.
The aftermath of Xander's apology almost put a permanent crimp on that. Despite--or because of--his apology and her acceptance there had begun several days of a strained and overly polite awkwardness between them. It was obvious to her he was walking on egg shells whenever they were together, and in sensing that it thus made her likewise tense and uncertain how to act. A vicious cycle built up until they conversed in only the most polite yet minimal words possible for two people living in such close proximity.
A simple, trivial incident a few nights ago changed everything.
It had been the end of a long day on the site and she was nowhere around when Xander returned to the apartment. After grabbing a slice of cold pizza from the fridge he hauled himself over to the sofa and plopped down.
He picked up the remote and began channel-surfing, hoping to maybe find a basketball or football game he could work up a tepid interest in until he finally fell asleep. After flipping past a few annoying infomercials on music collections of the '40s or melting off 40 pounds in 40 days he landed on a presentation of Casablanca just as it was beginning.
Not a huge fan of the black-and-whites, he was about to hit the channel button again but stopped and considered before finally setting aside the remote. For all his eclectic tastes in movies, and despite having seen so many classics, he'd never seen this one.
As a matter of sheer coincidence, at the same moment Ingrid Bergman was making her on-screen appearance Cordelia also made her appearance from her room. She'd only intended to get something to drink when she saw the scene playing on the set and Xander watching avidly from the sofa. Her curiosity was piqued both because she hadn't seen the film either and that Xander seemed so engrossed in something without spaceships or death rays or Tokyo getting trampled by yet another rubber-suited monster.
Instead of heading back to her room she dropped down beside him.
"Hey," he greeted her carefully. "Change it if you want, I'm not really watching." Although he clearly was.
Cordelia waved him off. "No. No, this is good." She tucked her legs up under her as she settled in, her shoulder brushing against Xander's when she wiggled a little to get more comfortable. Except for one break when he got up to nuke some popcorn and she some peanut butter, she remained next to him, her weight gradually settling more and more against his side as the story in the hot desert city unwound.
They were very close to each other, comfortable, all tension magically melted away for the entire movie. They chatted about the characters and which ones they liked or didn't, repeating some of the lines to each other during the commercial breaks. He usually took Bogart's lines, she Ingrid's, cracking each other up with awful overdone renditions.
The easy give and take was much like old times when they were at their best together. The relaxed atmosphere continued even through the ending as Bogey sent Ingrid away and walked off into the fog with Claude Rains. They sat silently as the credits scrolled by, virtually tucked together with their stocking feet on the coffee table.
"Wow, that was... "
"Great!" she finished for him.
"Yeah! That too."
Contrary to what they both expected, the ease and comfort persisted through the following days.
Cordelia's lips turned up slightly in a wistful smile as she recalled the recent event, reliving the entire evening in just a few seconds.
"--erything has finally turned around for him. A good job, away from his parents. Not so many curves to throw him off," Willow's voice broke into Cordelia's reverie. She mentally shook off the memory.
"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" she demanded, beginning to see the direction of Willow's questions.
Willow didn't meet Cordelia's glare. "I'm just sayin' I wouldn't want anything to knock his train off the track." She started fiddling with some of the apparatus on the table.
"Such as?"
"Well, y'know, relationships? They can be complicated. Husband and wives, lovers--"
Cordelia lifted one eye-brow. Willow, having seen similar expressions, knew the meaning. It used to bother her but now she was just used to it. "Yes, even gay-type lovers," she answered curtly in a bored tone. "But friendships too; acquaintances. Roommates even..." Willow let the hook dangle for Cordelia to pick up.
"Roommates? Me and Xander?" Cordelia saw the point Willow wanted to lead up to but she had no intention of making it any easier for the redhead.
Willow waited expectantly. When Cordelia gave her nothing further, she continued. "Yes. Of all the roommates he could possibly have, he's got you. It's, um, just...an interesting dynamic."
"Interesting how?"
Willow huffed and her tone became more assertive. "I don't want to see him hurt."
"Hurt?"
"Yes."
"You think I'm going to hurt him?"
"Yes. Maybe not deliberately...but the odds are, yeah."
Cordelia laughed without humor. "Have we forgotten who cheated on who, Willow? Who got stabbed through the gut because of infidelity? Willow? Seems to me it was you two doing all the train-wrecking."
Willow stood her ground. "W-well, that's a good point, isn't it? You're not over it. You have a reason to get back at him. But that was a long time ago and things are all changed around. He's grown up a lot. And obviously I've changed. But have you? If you wanted to you could hurt him back a lot worse now. It would be your perfect moment of revenge. It's Lucy yanking the ball away just as Charlie Brown is about to kick it."
Willow paused.
"And I'm sorry about the 'fluking'. I really am. It was, it was..." Willow waved her arm as if trying to conjure up just the right words, but couldn't and gave up in frustration. "Well, I don't know what it was, but it was! And it's over and done and history and we're all adults now. And I'm still Xander's friend. And I will not let you hurt him." She crossed her arms and returned Cordelia's glare with her own.
Cordelia looked away, some of Willow's comments hitting home. She thought back over the events of her time with Xander from beginning to end. Shortly afterward she told herself it had been a huge mistake to begin with, a sickening horrible, never-ending insanity she had no control over. She'd even blamed Buffy at one point.
But she was younger then; the things that seemed so important and necessary to her then hardly registered anymore, not compared to what mattered now.
True, she could honestly tell herself and any who cared to listen she had been the loyal one in their relationship. Upon reflection Cordelia also knew she had made some mistakes as well. Her sharp tongue still got the better of her, even when speaking to Xander. She now knew what she would have proudly called the "honest truth" of her harsh comments to people was often spoken with no more than careless malicious intent, that sometimes tactlessness served no better purpose than to cut.
For a very long time she was always doing her best to hide what they had, what she had felt about him, from her friends and his, and then from herself and him. Not only had she hidden her affections and changing feelings from him but she belittled them as no more than a temporary phase to get out of her system. Too late she now realized this was a form of dishonesty she would have called out on anyone else.
Cordelia glanced at Willow. She didn't know if telling him of her feelings would have made any difference in what transpired between him and Willow, but she would never know and regretted not having said anything to him.
"Despite everything I've suffered because of you two, I really have no interest in anything so small-minded as that. It was just a stupid childish high-school romance." Cordelia stopped and scolded herself, wondering if she'd just given away more than she intended. Willow's expression didn't change and Cordelia concluded Willow probably had had some idea of the depth of Cordelia's feelings back then. Or maybe she had no clue whatsoever. Cordelia bulled ahead. "And you're right, a lot has changed."
However, Cordelia was not about to go into any of the history of the last year and a half and its dose of harsh reality (even if Willow might already know). She'd learned to at least separate the physical pain from the emotional and she didn't blame Xander for the accidental fall through the stairs. She actually could think of it in those terms now.
As for the emotional wounds, it was high-school stuff and now that Xander, unknown to Willow, had finally offered a sincere apology she could separate the two. She could honestly say to herself she didn't harbor any hatred toward Xander any more. She continued more softly, and with a gentle smile. "We have an understanding now. And I'm not the one who's going to hurt Xander. " Cordelia gave Willow an accusatory look. "On the other hand..."
"Me?!" squeaked Willow, getting the implication. "How? I'm his best friend!"
Cordelia scoffed. "Don't play dumb, Willow. You hurt him the way you coddle and mother him, like you're doing right now. And I've seen you use your magic to try and protect him. He's a grown man, capable of defending himself. Or haven't you noticed? And then there's the times when you and Buffy totally blow him off, so into your college life, like he's the townie you're too embarrassed to even slum with."
Willow, her own temper rising, stood up, knocking over the chair. "Cordelia--"
There was a time and place when Cordelia knew, with barely a raised chin and a look just so, she could have made Willow swallow her tongue and scurry away like a mouse. Either she really had grown up and was just not interested any more in putting people down in their place when she was annoyed, or Willow too had grown in self-assured confidence and Cordelia knew it wouldn't work. Probably both were true. Either way, Cordelia restrained herself from carelessly lashing out at Willow. Right now Cordelia just wanted out of this irritating conversation. The jingle of the door was a very welcome and well-timed excuse to break away.
Cordelia practically leaped up to greet her new customer, leaving Willow behind, her sentence left unfinished. To Willow, slightly exasperated, it was so typical of Cordelia to brush her off so easily and she nearly turned to follow and make a fuss. Instead she decided Cordelia was just not worth the effort and began to sit again and get back to the intricacies of her work.
"Welcome to the Magic Box! Is there anything I can do for--Oh, crap."
Willow's back had been to the door when Cordelia greeted the customer. Normally she wouldn't have given a second thought to one of Cordelia's rather abrasive greetings, but this seemed beyond the pale even for Cordelia. A tingle of icy dread clawed through her as she turned to see who Cordelia had so crudely addressed. "What is i--Oh, crap." Willow's mouth went dry.
"Oh, my dearies, are we in a bit of a tizzy? Should I come back another time? Or eat you both now?"
Cordelia was backing away slowly and couldn't speak. Willow swallowed and then giggled. "Oh, ah, hey Dru, long time, no see?" She felt like an idiot. Cordelia's sideways scowl confirmed that, yes indeed, she was an idiot.
Drusilla flowed gracefully into the main area of the shop, past Cordelia whose feet were suddenly glued to the floor.
She gave Willow a sly, knowing wink and lecherous smile. "I see you always, precious, so dark and powerful. Mysterious. And such a nice, naughty little girl you are."
The last time Willow had seen this vampire was nearly two and a half years ago when Drusilla had killed the slayer Kendra. Willow flushed in embarrassment. She didn't know why, because everyone knew she was lesbian, and she didn't care who knew, but somehow the way the vampire picked up on it and behaved really unnerved her.
Drusilla swept on past Willow and peered about the shelves, running her fingers lightly over an item or two before moving on to the next. With the vampire further away Cordelia was able to move again and joined Willow as they cautiously watched Drusilla roam deeper into the store.
They knew better than to run since both had witnessed vampire's speed first-hand. She might be one of the most whacked vampires ever but she was astonishingly quick, even by un-dead standards. They gave each other a "what do we do now?" look, both shrugging their answer in unison.
"There's never a slayer around when you need one," groused Cordelia. "Now's the time to try that spell!" she whispered out the side of her mouth to Willow.
Willow quietly but equally fiercely replied through her teeth. "We don't even know if works. We could destroy everything!"
"Does it look like it matters right now?!"
"What's that you two darlings are whispering to each other?" Drusilla called from across the floor.
"Oh, ah, nothing important! Nothing at all!" Cordelia answered nervously.
"We were just kinda wondering why you're back here in little old, boring Sunnydale. You know, with the not so much going on, and Slayers always roaming about who knows where, and not as fun for a vampire as, oh say, Los Angeles? Where things are exciting and fun and..." babbled Willow.
Cordelia's eyes were getting wider and wider and she kept making shushing motions, but to no avail. Willow in nervous babble mode could be an unstoppable force.
"Yes, the City of Angel. I think my kitten's queen knows. Don't you?" asked Drusilla.
Willow glanced toward Cordelia. "What?" Cordelia's response was another shrug, with a gesture of twirling her finger near her ear.
With a blur and almost silent whoosh Drusilla was beside them again. "Crazy, yes. But not spinning in the head, no!" She swayed and did a light swirling dance step with an unseen partner. "Daddy wasn't very nice. And Grandmummy was all cranky-pants," she added glumly.
"Huh?"
"Angel," said Cordelia, "And Darla, I think."
"Oh."
"But the hill and the 'Dale has sparkly green fire all alive, yes, yes, yes, she's so very alive, so very young and so very old! And dust-mop repair shops, all along the boulevard like, like..." Drusilla's soliloquy stopped as she tried to think of things all lined up in a row.
Ah, so obvious! "Like dead chubby li'l children." Drusilla was looking off into the distance, waving her arms about as she continued dancing with the dust mop in need of repair.
Cordelia and Willow shared a terrified look. Drusilla waxing crazy and prophetic was always a bad sign of things to come. Could she have known what she was talking about with her reference to living green fire?
Unknown to any of the trio inside the Magic Box, Scab was sitting hunched just outside the window, his turn to keep an eye on the Slayer and her retinue. Mostly he'd been trying to keep from falling asleep from exceeding boredom. Drusilla's words carried clearly through to him and boredom was no longer a problem. Was that a reference to the Key? He debated going right to Glory or moving closer to hear if anything else was said about the Key. He decided to move closer for a few minutes before going back to report to his Goddess.
Drusilla's toe caught the edge of the rug and made her stumble. She snapped back to the here and now, eyes clear and lucid. "I'm looking for my Spike. Do you darlings happen to know where he is?"
"Spike?" Willow asked, shrugging theatrically and looked expectantly at Cordelia. "Spike?"
Cordelia made a big show of intently peering around the store. "Spikes? I'm sorry, I think we're out of spikes at the moment, but if you could wait a moment I can special-order some from our supplier."
Cordelia started stepping back toward the safety of the counter, intending to put distance and anything else she could between her and the vampire. Things would go from incredibly bad to incredibly worse if Drusilla's second sight revealed who had dusted Spike. Cordelia hadn't had much to do with Drusilla over the years, just a few encounters, mostly hearing about her from Xander after the Valentine's Day fiasco when she first dumped him, and a few more stories from Angel. She hadn't liked what she heard then and she didn't like what she was seeing now.
Run-of-the-mill vampires could be bad enough but at least were reasonably predictable. A crazy one like Drusilla, there was just no telling when and what she might do.
"Stop!" roared Drusilla.
"Absolutely." Cordelia froze right in her tracks. Leave it to slayers to provoke crazy vamps. And speaking of which, where the heck was a slayer when you really needed one?! Cordelia crossed her arms and puffed out a breath and fumed.
Drusilla focused back on Willow, who hemmed and hawed and shrugged again, flashing a little uncertain smile and then looking away from the vampire.
Drusilla growled low in her throat, causing a new stream of babble.
"Oh, that Spike! Right. Yes, yes. Well, uh, he's be--I mean I-I-I haven't seen him around lately. Cordy?"
"What? Oh yeah. Spike. We were just talking about him. He hasn't been showing up much at all the last few weeks. Perhaps Buffy might know?"
Drusilla looked at the pair queerly, then closed her eyes. Her prey didn't move an inch, barely even breathing. She slowly cocked her head this way and that, questing for guidance in the ether. She lifted her chin and her eyes snapped open, zeroing in on Willow.
"I feel power in you. Salt and pepper, sugar and spice." Drusilla smiled lewdly and strolled over to Willow, circling her, running her fingertips across the redhead's shoulders. "So different than the last time. Maybe we could play until my Spike gets here."
Willow did her best to suppress a shudder when Drusilla cackled. "A good time will be had by all! I know things. Many things your friend doesn't." Somehow Willow know Drusilla was not referring to Cordelia.
Right at that moment Xander burst through the door, already talking before seeing anything. "Hey guys, what's going on? Is everyone still alive?" he called out jokingly.
Seeing who was between Willow and Cordelia made his leg lock up mid-step as he started down the stairs, causing him to stumble and scramble wildly to keep from falling flat on his face. He ended up on his hands and knees just a few feet from a tittering Drusilla.
"Oh, my poor kitten, his feet are too large and he needs his mummy's help, doesn't he?. Come, my sweet." Drusilla casually hoisted Xander off the floor and plopped him on his feet next to her, holding him tightly by the waist. "Look at these two strumpets. I don't like them. Miss Edith doesn't like them either. That one, she's dangerous. And that one was Daddy's friend. They are bad together. The stars say Kitten must choose."
"What? Choose what?"
"Who to share our bed. Let the sky have the other."
"What?"
"My sweet kitten, my delicious kitten, which shall be dinner tonight?" asked Drusilla, swaying slightly.
"What?!"
Drusilla let go of Xander and quickly went behind the girls, placing one cold hand on the back of the neck of each, giving each a squeeze in turn. Willow yipped and suppressed a shudder, Cordelia closed her eyes and endured.
"Shall it be the Black Witch or the Queen of Diamonds?
"Hey!" each girl protested.
"What?!?!"
Xander was finally able to break loose from his panic-induced mono-verbalism. "No! No way. We're not doing this! I won't let you hurt either of them," Xander declared in a voice that rang out far more courageously than he felt.
Drusilla seemed genuinely surprised. "Why surely you must prefer one to the other? One to sup upon, the other to... " Drusilla sensuously slid her hand along Cordelia's body from the side-swell of her breast down to her thigh, with a final pat on the rear, humming serenely, then did the same to Willow. Both girls shivered, their faces twisting in revulsion. "...play with?
"Or dessert. Your choice m'dear, whichever. Mummy knows you'll choose well."
Cordelia sighed, resigned to her fate. No matter how well she and Xander had been doing since her return, they were just a "work in progress". Xander and Willow were the dorky duo, like super and glue to each other. When push came to shove with regard to Willow, Xander would never pick against his lifelong friend.
Xander's eyes darted from one girl to the other, his mouth opening and closing in indecision. Then he stopped and straightened himself. "No, you crazy mosquito! You can't make me chose between my best friend and--"
Here it comes, thought Cordelia, as Xander looked from Willow to her, seeing his determined expression change to uncertainty. It was inevitable. Really, how could Xander not choose Willow?
In these last few moments of her life Cordelia realized she fully accepted Xander's apology. Despite the inflicted hurts, she now understood, at least in some small way, whatever had happened between herself, Willow and Xander was a human thing.
After her experiences with Doyle, Wes, Angel, and even Gunn, she knew men weren't mind-readers and it was perhaps unfair to expect an 18-year old male be able to understand the cues any girl could instinctively recognize. With men you sometimes had to accept they needed a good thwacking over the head with a clue-by-four. Cordelia was also better able to tell the true bastards, the ones who really never gave a shit about her, from those who did care but were sometimes fallible.
By the calendar it was only a few short years ago, but in some ways it felt like a whole different life to her, like two completely separate Cordelia's, one so youthful and inexperienced, headstrong and proud, the other mature and understanding. The things that once seemed so important to the younger Cordelia--and she clearly remembered her priorities then--now seemed mere trivialities compared to what mattered now.
It would always hurt, what he had done. She would never forget it, probably never fully understand it. But she understood that perhaps, just possibly, it was the kind of mistake anyone, everyone actually a human being, including herself, was capable of. And human mistakes could be forgiven.
She nodded her head to Xander to let him know she understood.
"--and my other best friend! You leave my girls alone!"
Xander started forward but stopped when Drusilla growled.
"Yeah! You go, Xander!" cheered Willow.
Cordelia nearly fell from the sudden relief, knowing Xander wasn't going to let her be so easily sacrificed, that he would fight for her.
"You won't choose? Pity, I'll have to chose for you." Drusilla stepped behind the two girls and drew them close. She took a fistful of either red hair or brunette, yanking hard. Both girls unsuccessfully tried to stifle gasps of pain. Drusilla pulled the handfuls of hair in front of her nose and inhaled deeply, so deeply, one at a time from each.
"I think I chose this one. Blood and bone, flesh for flesh, an eye for an eye." She opened wide, face morphing, lips pulling back from sharp fangs to bite down on the exposed bare neck.
"NO!"
In the brief moments when Drusilla was not paying full attention to Xander he had been edging closer. He dived at Cordelia when he saw Drusilla behind her start to lean forward, knocking Cordelia out of Drusilla's grasp.
Drusilla, her face quickly returning to human-like form, looked childishly surprised, like a little girl who had just been bumped and dropped her lolly-pop in the dirt. Disappointment marred her delicate features as if she were were about to cry. Then she noticed the perpetrator and quickly became consumed by rage, forgetting and letting go of Willow. Instead of going after Cordelia on the floor several yards away, still gasping painfully from the body blow Xander had delivered, Drusilla reached for Xander sprawled at her feet.
"Naughty kittens have to be punished."
Willow slid sideways to the table where she had been working, scooped up a handful of rust and dumped it into the crucible of potion she had been working on before Drusilla's appearance. Quickly, Willow dipped her hands into the muck and pulled them out together with only her finger tips touching, leaving a spherical volume between her coated palms, and muttered, "Solaria!"
When she spread her palms open a brilliant burst of sunlight filled the room, blinding everyone who was looking anywhere near, casting sharp shadows against the walls.
Drusilla screamed in agony. She let go of Xander and threw up her arms in front of her face, feeling a dry burning sear through her skin, smelling the sulfurous odor of smoke curling up from herself.
The brilliance was gone as suddenly as it came. The humans had not felt any heat but the room now seemed black as night, with blue after-images whenever they blinked. Drusilla had stumbled back from the blast of sunlight and was also blinded in addition to the slight charring on any exposed patch of skin, but she was otherwise unhurt.
Drusilla looked around, blinking rapidly, and saw only the blurry shape of a cringing Willow standing not far from her. She completely missed Xander rising from the floor.
Xander, recognizing an opportunity, hauled off and hit Drusilla as hard as he could, flush on her temple. He cried in pain as it felt like he'd busted some fingers.
Drusilla was stunned for a moment as she staggered a few steps but there was no other obvious damage. Xander got ready to strike with his other hand but Drusilla recovered quickly and leaned out of the way.
"Bad kitty!" she scolded, before giving him a casual swipe that sent him flying.
With bad kitty out of the way she spotted Cordelia and started toward her. She's done with the playing and now just wanted to feed.
Xander once more gathered himself off the floor--something he's become quite good at after all his fights with vampires--and charged again. He knew enough not to fight Drusilla directly and tried to tackle her at the knees, hoping to knock her off balance.
It was like running into a tree-trunk and he bounced off, pain lancing from his shoulder down to his groin.
However Xander's tactic was effective enough to knock Drusilla several steps away from Cordelia. The vampire stood and looked confused by the total lack of co-operation from her pet, her dinner, and her play-thing.
Drusilla wanted to pout and maybe even cry a little when the little bell chime on the shop's front door dinged loudly. Buffy burst through, followed by a frightened Tara behind.
"This is not a good day," whined Drusilla as she prepared to fight off the Slayer. She first slashed at Buffy, who ducked out of the way of razor-sharp nails, countering with a kick to Drusilla's midriff.
As the fight continued around the shop, Xander crawled over to Cordelia to make sure she was shielded from flying debris. Once he verified Cordelia was only winded but otherwise unhurt he got himself ready to rejoin the fray, if only to distract Drusilla.
Buffy fumbled to find a stake and Drusilla took the opportunity to break off and escape through the same door Buffy entered. She might be a crazy vampire but was never stupid. She'd learned when running from the Slayer was the better part of self-preservation.
Wincing from one of Drusilla's kicks Buffy leaned against the nearby wall and looked around, instinctively making sure there was no more danger. Sensing none, Buffy relaxed and walked over to her friends where an injured Xander was already helping Willow and Cordelia back to their feet. "You guys okay?"
Willow threw her arms around Xander's neck, "You idiot, we had it all under control!" she said, giving a wink to Cordelia. Cordelia returned an almost imperceptible nod and conspiratorial smile of her own. No sense making a big deal of it.
Cordelia came up to Xander and gave him a light smack on the shoulder, being careful to target the uninjured one. "What took you so long?"
Despite his pain Xander answered Cordelia enthusiastically. "Well it's been quite a day, let me tell you! We're coming through town on our way here to keep you guys from--" Xander paused to rethink the reason they had been rushing back from campus, and coughed. "That is, come see you guys, when you just wouldn't believe what we ran into."
Fortunately Olaf had merely sneered at them when Xander ran into the troll's rather large rear after he unexpectedly stepped off the curb. When they all got out to see if he was injured Olaf laughed heartily and continued on his merry rampaging way. Xander left Buffy and Tara to deal while he checked to see if the car was badly damaged. Not wanting to take chances he had pulled into a parking spot and went on foot the rest of the way.
"And then Buffy took off after him. And I came here."
"Yeah, she saved a dumpster from oblivion," chirped Tara, bouncing happily on her toes.
"And baby food!" Everyone turned and stared at Buffy. "I mean babies as food! He wanted to eat babies."
"Ewww, yuch much?"
"I think things are settled down for now. Are you guys okay now?" Buffy asked of Xander and Cordelia, Willow and Tara. When she got nods from all around she started for the door. "There's this big hammer thing Olaf left behind," she explained, "Wicked heavy and I should get it before any bad guy starts getting notions. Besides, Giles would love it, it's got all kinds of weird writing on it."
Everyone waved their assent for to go do her slayer due diligence. She stopped halfway out the door and leaned back in. "Are you sure you guys are going to be okay?"
"Yeah, go on Buffy, we're good here," Xander spoke for the four of them.
"We'll be fine. We can stop by tomorrow and take a look at the writing, maybe get a head start on Giles," Willow added.
"If anything attacks I'll just throw him in front. He's useful that way. Sometimes."
Buffy looked a little dubious and was about to make an argument but relented and hurried off.
The four of them shuffled around a little in the wake of Buffy's drop-in arrival, quick inconclusive fight, and quicker departure.
"I should get Willow home," said Tara. She looked around at the wrecked shop. "We'll come by early to help clean up."
Cordelia nodded her thanks.
"Cordelia, about what we were discussing--"
Cordelia held up her hand. "No worries, Willow. We're good."
"We are?" Willow seemed genuinely surprised, both by the words and the sincerity with which Cordelia said them.
Cordelia smiled. "Yeah."
"Okay. See you guys tomorrow." She and Tara left, both talking over each other about their evening's adventures and the success of the Solaria spell.
As their babbling faded down the street it became very quiet again and Xander slumped down onto one of the few undamaged stools. Cordelia stood uncertainly, gazing forlornly at the mess of the Magic Box.
Extreme disaster area would have been a more accurate term, a place worthy of federal cleanup funds. Tired to the bone, she pushed some of the mess around with her toe before giving up even that much effort. The debris and clutter weren't going anywhere and she was too tired to even work up the proper righteous indignation that someone, no matter how evil, would dare mess up her store.
"I guess I'd better get you home, too, before you do something even more stupid to get yourself killed."
Xander's pain was beginning to wear and he could barely keep himself from sagging off the stool that propped him up. He grunted his agreement.
The walk back began in silence. She immediately pulled his arm over and around her shoulders when she noticed him beginning to weave slightly. He looked down at her in surprise but she was concentrating on guiding them down the middle of the sidewalk.
"So," she said after a time, glancing sideways and up at Xander's profile, "best friend?"
"Ah." Xander gulped. "You heard that part, huh?" He waited and became apprehensive at the lack of her response. It had come almost without thought and now that he had some time to think about it, to sound out the words, he desperately wanted it to be so. He wanted Cordelia to want it too.
"Loud and clear. Seems like a bit of progress."
"Yeah. Uh, well y'know Cordy, the thing is--"
"That works for me," Cordelia gave him a playful hip bump then cleared her throat, and in her best attempted Bogey imitation began, "Louis, I think this is the beginning--"
The sound of their laughter and giggles echoed off the buildings of the nearly deserted downtown. His pain suddenly felt far away and there was a new energy in his step.
---
Unknown to the Scoobies, Drusilla had run into and was almost immediately entangled by a flexible wire net when she escaped the Magic Box in such a hurry. Every thrashing motion just got her more and more caught up in the mesh. Eventually a dozen ugly little scuttling (but stronger than they looked) gnomes approached, poking at her to test if she could get out.
As they carefully untwisted the net from her limbs they also quickly and expertly pinned her arms behind her back. She was securely bound before being picked up and carried off. She snarled and tried to bite at one of the little scabby demons surrounding her. taking away her freedom to roam and hunt as she pleased. They batted her hard with a club, making her dizzy and unable to follow the course of events as she was carried away.
"I don't like today," she moaned. Except for a few brief moments with Spike, unlife had not been good for her since her illness, nor had they improved when Spike brought her to these American shores. Europe was where she needed to be, prowling among a civilized population where a little demonic death and mayhem was a natural part of the culture.
Eventually she was dragged into the foyer of a large and brightly lit penthouse apartment and dropped like a bag of potatoes onto the marble floor. Drusilla struggled to her feet and once again tried to bite a captor. The demon jumped back out of reach but seemed otherwise unafraid. At that moment Glory stepped out from behind the vampire, flicked her wrist and easily swatted the vampire down. "Behave yourself or I'll squash you like a bug, you annoying little tick."
When Drusilla's vision cleared again and she was able to see Glory, she dropped to her knees. "Oooh, Red emeralds, ice and lilac! I see you're locked out, locked away, far far from home and time. I know what that's like." Drusilla drifted off into a high-pitched hum.
Glory smiled indulgently. The crazy vampire might just be the key, or rather the key to the Key, if Scab's information was to be believed.
Glory laughed at her own little joke, not noticing the minions scuttling back nervously. Glory knew she would have to keep Dru on a short leash to properly use her, and carelessly smacked Dru against the brick wall, stunning her into unconsciousness.
"We'll find a way to use you," Glory informed the supine Drusilla.
previous -- to be continued