Underneath It All- Chapter Four "How's It Going?"
Title: Underneath It All
Chapter: Four "How's it Going?"
Chapter Prompt: Wine & Dine
Characters: Fred, Willow
Pairing: Fred/Willow in later chapters
Overall Rating: R
Chapter Rating: PG
Warnings This Chapter: None
Words: 1,068
Four nylon covered, shoeless feet dangled off the couch in Willow’s suite. The smell of food drenched in soy sauce lingered in the air and the floor demonstrated remnants of a rice fight. Willow and Fred picked at the last bits of their food as a black and white film played before them on the large TV screen, but neither girl was paying too much attention. Also failing to receive attention was the cell phone on vibrate, ringing for the eight time in one hour in Willow’s bag.
“Oh I’m stuffed!” Fred leaned back against the couch with a contented sigh before pausing to consider her sentence. “I never get stuffed.” She smirked at Willow. “How’d you get me to eat so much?”
“Witchcraft.” Willow deadpanned as she licked some sauce from her fingertips.
“So, Miss Mojo,” Fred grinned, “How’d the first day go?”
“A little overwhelming.” Willow replied. “Oh and office clothes, not comfy at all. A combination of heels and my chair nearly got me killed today.”
“Well that stuff happens around here… happened around here.”
“Killer chairs?” Willow asked with the raising of an eyebrow.
Fred suppressed a giggle. “Really possible. So… do you like it here?”
Willow cast her gaze down into her empty lo mein dish. “What’s not to like? Friends… back in California… and,” she looked back up at Fred, “Yummy Chinese food. There’s no good Chinese food in Brazil.”
“We practically have a standing order at the Chinese place!” She sat up abruptly. “Oh! And now we have to add you, cause you’re part of the family now.” Fred said as she reached out, and for the briefest of moments there was the brushing of digits.
A flush on her face, Willow turned back to the screen, only to see the credits rolling. “So… what did you think of the movie?” she squeaked. The pair turned to look at each other before simultaneously dissolving into a fit of giggles.
“We should do this again,” Fred said. “You… me… pretending to watch a movie.”
“Food.” Willow added.
Fred rolled her eyes with a smile, “Well that goes without sayin’.” She replied. Her mouth hung open, ready to start a new sentence when she was cut off by the ringing of her cell phone. With a resigned sigh, she reached for her pocket and thankfully missed the paling in Willow’s face as she searched frantically for the time.
Fred flipped open her phone. “Hello, Winifred Burk- oh, Knox… Now? … I’m in the middle of… alright, I’ll be down in a minute.” She flipped her phone closed again, and with a sigh turned back to Willow. “Sorry. I have to go.” She said, oblivious to Willow’s wringing hands. “Some mutant slime crisis in the lab. I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked, with a tinge of hope squeaking into her voice.
“Oh, heh. Yeah! Of course!” Willow’s voice escalated. “Don’t worry about it. Late. Sleepy. Yawn.” She proclaimed.
“So you’re not mad?” Fred smiled.
“Nope. A-and even if I was you know what they say! Don’t go to bed angry, go to bed… um… who is they anyways?” Willow waved her hands as she spoke, her voice trailing off as she saw Fred’s lips curl into a smile.
The brunette slid on her shoes and waved as she crossed to the door. “Good night.” She called before she disappeared into the hall. No sooner was she out of sight than Willow sprang for the door. A repetition of her previous incantation ignited a glow in the lock and frame, and a moment later she was digging for the phone in her bag, catching it, luckily, mid-ring. She brought it up to her ear.
“Where have you been?” the voice on the other end demanded. “I was beginning to fear you’d been discovered.”
“I’m so sorry!” Willow panted out. “I just got caught up with Fred…dI… mean… research! Research out the wazoo. Piles and piles of research.”
“You’ve been socializing!?”
“No… I’ve been…. Researching.” She offered, trapped in her lie like a rat.
“I can hear the television, I’m not deaf you know. So do not lie to me, Willow. This situation is both dire and sensitive. I chose you for a very specific reason, you were the only one who was close enough and powerful enough to not be suspicious, but without a personal bias of your own… or so I assumed before tonight”
“I know.” Willow said, sighing out her exasperation. “Xander hates Angel too much to be unsuspicious, Buffy loves Angel too much to get the work done, Dawn’s not powerful enough, and Faith’s about as inconspicuous as a cat in a fishbowl. I can do this. But, social stuff? Fred’s a babbler… like me. So we sit, we eat and girl talk and… who knows, she might just babble something useful at me.”
“And so far?”
“Well… nothing yet. But that’s why I need to keep spending time with her…”
“And as far as research goes?”
“Nothing just yet. I’m trying to hack through their computers the old fashioned way. See if there’s any digital trail before I try the mystical. Also working on a way to cover up my spell signature so they can’t trace it back to me, because, you know, not good. Anyways, my company access gets me through what could have been months of work, but there are still a lot of barriers to get through before I might find anything remotely useful.
“I don’t think anything is moving too quickly in the company…” Willow continued, “Angel doesn’t seem too happy about the way things are working around here… which is a good thing. I’ve talked to pretty much everyone… Angel, Wesley, Lorne, Fred… none of them are possessed or under any kind of control… they’re all here of their own free will. Which is a good.”
“Well,” came the reply. “I’m not sure if that’s something we should celebrate, or fear greatly.”
“It’s just so weird… they’re good guys… supposed to be good guys… but they’re not-”
“And that’s exactly what we need you for, Willow. We need you to fill us in on everything that’s going on. The Council needs to see Wolfram and Hart destroyed for good.”
“It will be. I promise.” She sighed, rubbing at her temples. “I’m going to bed, I’ll let you know when I have some more information, Giles.”