(Untitled)

[slayersidekick]

Who: slayersidekick and slaying
What: A trip to the hot springs!
When: All day (Nov 3)
Where: up to the hot springs, so a lot of places
Summary: Willow and Buffy go for a best friend girl's day out.
Rating: PG probably

Comments

[slaying]

"Just a minute!"

She called, anxiously, through the bedroom door. It wasn't that she wasn't ready yet. Just that...there were a few last things that had to be done. Like packing. And finding shoes that were both comfy and warm enough to make the trek. And it didn't help that she had only really, truthfully woken up about a half hour ago. But give her another three (or so) minutes and Buffy was out by the front door. She was wrapped in a few sweatertastic layers and there was a nap-sack hanging from her right shoulder.

"I think my alarm clock is a little slow." She delivered the excuse with her best look, I'm charismatic and very very sorry so forgive me face.

[slayersidekick]

Well, it helped that Willow didn't have the water actually ready and she was more interested in the fact that Buffy had responded than how long she had to wait.

"Okay!"

So, instead of worrying with what Buffy was up to in there, Willow set out a plate of cookies, as promised, two for each of them to get them started for the day. The rest was in a basket she'd found the other day. It wasn't quite the perfect picnic basket, but it worked. And she didn't mind carrying it, either.

When Buffy turned up a few minutes later, Willow just grinned at her expression and offered the plate of cookies she held. "Your reward for getting up on time. Cookies, as promised."

[slaying]

"Some day? I'm gonna wake up and some kind of deity will tell me that I was way too lucky to ever have such a thoughtful pal for so much of my life."

Having Willow here in Luceti had made Buffy rather...sensitive to how freaking awesome her friends were. And how much they really had to put up with over the years. Willow and Xander had been vanilla high school kids when Buffy had blustered into their life and turned it upside down but they didn't shrink away from it. The Slayer was sure there was a gold medal in there somewhere.

But for now, she grabbed a cookie and bit into it with relish. Chew, chew. Swallow. "So someone said something about nudity being involved with the whole hot springs experience, but I've packed my cutest tankini anyway."

[slayersidekick]

As far as Willow was concerned, Buffy had put up with more than her share of trouble from the redheaded best friend and she voiced as much.

"Not unless that same deity tells me I was way too lucky to have stumbled into your path back in high school." She shrugged a little and slid the plate on top of the picnic blanket tucked around the food. "I probably wouldn't be who I am now if I hadn't."

And it was her turn to take a cookie and bite into it as she motioned towards the outside. "I've got one, too. We should probably eat on the way, though, or we might not get there til this evening!" And that would just be a waste of a perfectly good girl's day out.

[slaying]

"Well, I know that you at least wouldn't have ended up leaving the Bronze with a vamp without my very vague and probably poorly given seize the day advice." But she smiled. There was truth to what Willow was saying. Buffy had had the rare chance to affect a life not only with violence, but with actual affection. She had watched Willow change from shy and reserved to this. Outspoken. Powerful. Confident.

She gave her friend a sure-fire nod. "You're the boss, boss. Let's hit the trail." And Buffy reached for the door-knob, twisted, and held it open for Willow.

[slayersidekick]

"But then I wouldn't have been rescued by the person who changed my life and introduced me to magic." And then she wouldn't have met Tara, which was the big deal-breaker. "There are worse things that could have happened. You could have not come at all and then I would have been vampified early on. I like not having fangs or a taste for red liquid."

Willow grinned warmly in response, nodding as she stepped out of the house and paused long enough for Buffy to fall into step beside her. "Time for the hitting of the trail, then!" She was really looking forward to this.

"I tried to make all kinds of things yesterday I thought you might like. It's hard to tell if our tastes change in the future." Leave it to her to think of that.

[slaying]

"Well, there was that time that I spontaneously developed a smoking habit." Buffy gently closed to door behind her and turned her collar up against the fall morning. Her face was practically deadpan as she delivered the line. But, in a moment or two her resolved crumpled and she broke out into the kind of smirk that suggested she was--as was easily assumed--pulling Willow's leg. "Right around the same time I also became allergic to portobella mushrooms."

[slayersidekick]

Willow shot Buffy a disbelieving look. "Unless you've suddenly started joining Spike in his habit, I don't think that really counts."

Yeah, she knew that smirk well and her look dissolved into an amused, but wry, grin. "And here I was thinking you didn't know what a portobella mushroom is. Way to prove me wrong."

[slaying]

"Hey!" She lifted her eyebrows, rife with mock-hurt. "I live in Scotland now. That means I have pushed my taste boundaries way past the combo number three at Doublemeat Palace and the all-too-occasional take away pizza." She easily steered towards the path they needed.

"But they haven't been pushed as far as haggis, of course. Ew."

[slayersidekick]

"Give it time. You might enjoy it later on." Willow grinned, unable to keep up the playacting. "Scotland, huh? How is that? Is it as glorious as people keep saying it is?"

[slaying]

"Mostly? Very wet and totally chilly--especially in comparison to California. A bit more comparable to here, actually. Except minus the okay summers."

But she seemed enthusiastic about the place, at least. She knew that Willow would love it because in the future, she had been the one to show her around the place. "Me plus a slew of other Slayers live it up in this old Scottish castle in the highlands. Which is awesome except for the fact that old castles don't have near enough modernized washrooms for a squad of mostly teenage girls plus Xander."

[slayersidekick]

Well, Willow could tell the place at least makes some kind of good impact on Buffy. It was better than knowing they go somewhere none of them like. She seemed to enjoy listening to what Buffy had to say about Scotland, but one phrase in particular stuck out to her and she had to point it out.

"A slew of Slayers, huh?" Sounded like Spike had been right.

"You had a castle all to yourselves? Sounds pretty nifty, minus the cold weather and not enough washrooms. A-and why was Xander the only guy? Luck of the draw?"

And for that matter, where did Giles go? He had to be doing something important, right? Maybe he was back with the Watcher's Council in England.

[slaying]

"Well, Xander was the one male left standing after assignments were handed out. Andrew took the squad in Italy, and Mister Wood--uhm, Robin...you haven't met him yet--he took another squad back to the states. Xander didn't exactly feel the love for playing pseudo-Watcher after everything we've been through so he's my Nick Fury."

A slight shrug. There were important things that, once again, Buffy was hopping right over. Including the fact that Willow herself was only occasionally in Scotland with them and that Giles and she, in her own time, were having massive executive differences over how to run the Slayer Organization.

[slayersidekick]

Fortunately or unfortunately, Willow pretty much assumed she was with Buffy in Scotland. Also that Tara was with them. Poor girl.

"So what about Giles? Did he not like Scotland as well as England?" Even though there was like just a little bit of land between the two and not much else. The change in weather conditions and topography couldn't have been that different.

"Or did he get exiled to the States again?"

[slaying]

"He...and I kinda don't really agree on the whole Slayer Organization thing. He's around, but not really always around."

There. It was out. Admitted. Buffy delivered the line with a light wince.

[slayersidekick]

Well that was kind of sad. Willow glanced at Buffy sympathetically.

"A-at least he's not getting in your way over it? What does the Council think? Or are they staying out of your affairs like they have been for a long time?"