Hey Kittens
- here it is.
Hopefully, I will be able to update more regularly from here on. Btw, Macbeth appreciates all the good wishes.
Rating - G/PG
Angst level 3-5
Have fun.
****
“Hey.”
Jo turned, a smile painting her lips. “Hi there.” Her arms wanted to reach out and pull Dani into a warm embrace. She settled for a light but lingering touch on her girlfriend’s nearer elbow as they stood in the warm sunlight on the edge of the quad.
Such a small thing, a nearly negligible contact, and a wave of desire heated her body to a far higher temperature than could possibly be good for a girl from Wisconsin. It was only March, after all; she shouldn’t feel heat like this until August … if then.
Who knew that elbows were so sexy? Her mouth dry, Jo swallowed, the lump in the back of her throat making that and controlled breathing nearly impossible. Somehow she resisted the impulse to fan herself. What would have happened if she had given Dani a big hug? Would her primal urges have been overwhelming? ’Cause what she wanted to do right now was slide to the ground with her – the two of them, rolling around on the grass like a pair of minks.
For that matter, what was Dani thinking right now? The girl’s posture gave nothing away – or maybe she just didn’t know her well enough yet to read her. Her lips were usually in a slight curve, unless she was angry; then they were in a hard flat line. But the small smile was there now. That was good, but it was still damned near impossible to tell what was going on in that lovely head with those mirrored sunglasses shielding her eyes.
The smile broadened to a grin as Dani pushed her shades up and onto the top of her head. “Hungry?”
“Huh? No, I just ha…..”
“Not for food,” Dani clarified with a chuckle as she reached for her hand.
Her girlfriend’s warm hand surrounded her own, fingers slipping between hers – oh god, how she loved Dani’s hands!
“Ah, I think I’ll take that as a yes.”
Jo, her lips parted, simply stared at her. She finally managed a response. “Uh-huh.”
Great, she couldn’t even form words – way to impress a date – or a girlfriend – or whatever Dani now was. But at least Dani’s eyes echoed the passion she was feeling. It wasn’t just one-way this time. It wasn’t just one night and then nothing. Even though she’d had Dani’s verbal reassurances, she’d still doubted – she hadn’t been really certain. Now she was, and her eyes filled with tears as she felt a wave of relief wash through her.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Dani gave her hand a squeeze, a look of concern replacing the grin.
“Just … stuff. Just leftover stuff that I thought didn’t matter anymore.” She blinked the tears away, amazed at how much she still hurt.
“Want to talk about it?” Brown eyes studied her, offering her what she’d given Dani just a few nights ago. Someone to listen, a sounding board, another opinion. A friend.
“No.” Jo shook her head, then amended, “or at least not now. We’ve got to hook up with Tara ….”
Dani nodded and gave her hand another squeeze before releasing it. “Okay. But – Jo,” the lips curved up again, “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know.” She smiled back at the other girl and they started across the grass. She didn’t know precisely yet what Dani was, or what Dani meant to her. But at least one thing had become completely clear.
Dani wasn’t Parker Abrams.
****
“Wait – that wasn’t real either?”
Riley’s words were an echo of the fears she’d had at Giles’ apartment last night. She’d been so terrified that her girlfriend was going to disappear, but that had turned out to be a needless fear. Willow glanced at Tara, just confirming – again – that Tara was there. Tara loved her – had loved her through much of the night and into the morning. She leaned back onto her elbows, basking in the sunshine, secure in the knowledge that the most important thing in her life WAS real.
She gave her head a little shake. “No, Jonathan wasn’t in The Matrix. I don’t remember who was right now, but wasn’t it cool? With the computers and all?”
“Uh, actually, the whole thing was really freaky.” Xander shuddered expressively. “Love you to pieces, Will, but this is where you’re definitely a geek. I mean, computers harvesting energy from humans and giving them nice, little dreams to keep ’em happy – not my idea of cool at all.”
“Well, okay, maybe not cool exactly, what with the whole sucking-the-life-out-you thing, and the conspiracy, and the false lives ….” Willow trailed off. Okay, Xander was right – it wasn’t cool. She gestured at Buffy and Jonathan. “Y’know, if you think about it, the false memories Jonathan’s spell created were right out of The Matrix.”
“But without the life-sucking. And the action sequences were great.” Anya pointed out then clarified, “The ones in The Matrix. I mean, I’ve seen Buffy fight; she’s good, but not that good.”
“Yeah, I liked those … and the special effects,” Riley agreed, then frowned. “But if you think about it…. That whole thing with Agent Smith – why is it that the agents always have to be the bad guys? Why do you suppose that happens? It’s kind of depressing. I mean we … they’re not evil. They’re just human.”
“It doesn’t always happen that way, Riley. Take “Men in Black”, for instance. Agents K and J … and L, those were good guys,” Willow offered as she bit back a giggle and smiled at him sympathetically. He really was sooo bad at undercover! She didn’t plan on telling him that Anya was a former demon or anything – she didn’t think that would go over very well – but she should probably let him know that Tara and Anya were on the list of people it was okay to talk in front of.
“Yeah,” he concurred reluctantly, his forehead still furrowed, “but it was still a conspiracy.”
Xander got a faraway look in his eyes. “Not to knock L, but in The Matrix, that one girl ….”
“The w-woman in leather ….” Tara interrupted as Willow glanced at her in surprise.
“Yes! Trinity.” Xander grinned at Riley, who grinned back.
“Carrie-Anne Moss,” Tara supplied quietly. “That was the actress wh-whoo played her.”
Willow sat up, lounging forgotten.
“She was a hottie,” Riley mused, still grinning, but then eyed Tara curiously. “Somehow I wouldn’t have expected you to have liked The Matrix. You seem more the chick-flick type….”
Tara glanced down at the cloth and then up again, smiling her soft smile. “I l-liked parts of it. L-Like wh-when she was floating in midair, with her arms out like w-wings.”
It was kind of like watching a tennis match, Willow thought, except this tennis ball had more to it than roundness and bounciness. This tennis ball was wrapped around with her secrets and each bounce threatened to unravel them. She glanced at Tara and bit her lip. She wanted Tara to feel comfortable enough with her friends to chat like this, but did Tara realize she might be giving away too much?
“That was cool,” Xander agreed with a nod.
“And the way she looked with those dark glasses,” Riley added, to enthusiastic nods of agreement from Xander … and Tara.
Willow began to fidget nervously. It had been so much easier when it was just her and Tara – and no Scoobies. She frowned slightly, remembering how she’d loved having something that was just hers, when she’d had Tara here – and Scoobies there. Was wanting that … was she being selfish? All she wanted really was security. Was that so wrong?
“You know what I liked most? I liked how the leath … ow!” Xander glared at Anya. “Why’d you pinch me?”
The ex-demon shrugged unapologetically. “I can wear leather, if you want to see a woman in leather.”
There was a moment of stunned silence.
“Now there’s an offer that’s hard to top,” Riley murmured finally.
Willow slowly began to relax. You could always count on Anya ….
“For that matter, Willow looks pretty good in leather,” Anya continued.
****
“Leather?”
The voice was feminine and unfamiliar. Anya turned her head. No, she didn’t know either of those girls – pretty girls, one of them wearing knee-length khaki shorts and a plain white t-shirt emblazoned with “Just Do It”. The other had wavy brown hair that flowed over her shoulders and probably halfway down her back, and was dressed more appropriately for winter – light blue turtleneck and jeans. Pretty. She frowned and eyed Xander, who was checking them out. Very obviously Checking Them Out.
“Who looks good in leather?” The one in shorts expanded her one-word question with a glance around the group of Scoobies.
“Willow does,” Anya answered. She thought she heard the redhead whimper softly.
“Hey, Jo … Dani.” Tara greeted the new arrivals.
“You’re friends of Tara’s?” Xander asked, with a definite note of interest in his voice.
Anya’s fingers twitched on his thigh as she prepared to give him a second – harder – pinch, but he captured her hand in his, imprisoning it. She tugged against his grip a few times.
The two girls exchanged a look as Tara spoke, indicating who was who as she identified them. “J-Jo is my n-neighbor a-and Dani is in m-my Wicca group.”
“So … you do spells, too?” Xander asked the brunette, his interest increasing – Anya could tell.
The brown-haired girl, Dani, raked him with her eyes, once, all over, and then glanced at her companion. “You might say that.”
“Was that what that was?” Jo asked, an impish grin on her lips.
Willow moaned softly.
Tara shot her a concerned look, started to reach out and then stopped, slowly returning her hand to her lap.
Anya looked intently at the newcomers – oh! – and stopped pulling at her hand, much to Xander’s surprise. She relaxed and smiled pleasantly at the two girls. “You’d be surprised, but she,” she gestured at Willow, “really does look good in leather.”
“Anya!” Willow exclaimed, clearly appalled.
“I can imagine,” Jo grinned at the redhead, who seemed to want to be somewhere – anywhere – else.
Which was okay with Anya. If Willow was elsewhere, then she’d feel a lot safer about Xander. Anya cocked her head, looking up at the girls. “Not that you’ll ever see her that way again; she likes those fuzzy sweaters.
“Anya, will you just drop it?!” the redhead hissed. The ex-demon shrugged as Xander chuckled nervously.
“Well, since introductions seem to be in order, and we now know who you are ... hi, I’m Riley Finn.” Riley verbally stepped into the fray. “This guy here is Xander Harris, and,” he pointed at her, “that’s Anya …, uh ….” He frowned slightly, confused.
“Anya Jenkins.” She supplied the girls with a name she’d used in the past and gave them a little wave.
“Hi.” “Hello.”
“Oh, hey. We doing the meet and greet thing?” Buffy asked as she rejoined them. “I think we met in the hall yesterday. Jo and … Dani, right?”
“Right.”
Anya absently noted that the girl looked a little startled that Buffy knew their names. She sighed, once again missing her demon powers. Slayer hearing – that would be a neat thing to have. She could find out so much stuff ….
“Buffy Summers.” The Slayer gave the two girls a slight nod and sank back down to the ground beside Riley.
“Is he okay?” Riley gestured back at towards the walk.
“Yeah, he’ll be fine. He’ll probably head out of town for awhile just to be safe. He made a lot of enemies this time.” She glanced at the two strangers, before continuing, “I don’t know if he gets it, though.” Buffy slipped under Riley’s arm, and snuggled into his embrace.
Anya grimaced inwardly. It would be nice if Xander would hold her more in public sometimes. She edged a bit close to him encouragingly, but he shifted a little farther away.
“Who?” Dani asked, puzzled.
“Jonathan,” Willow answered. “I thought that he understood last year. He really seemed to have it together at the prom and at graduation. Guess I was wrong.”
“So that’s it? He gets a ‘Get out of jail free’ card?” Jo seemed disturbed by the thought.
The Slayer looked at the two girls and then at Willow, “Uh-huh.” Her eyes narrowed slightly as she gazed at her best friend, then she turned her attention back to the newcomers. “How much do you, uh …, remember?”
“He did some sort of spell so that we’d think he was some rich, all-powerful hotshot and somehow created a monster that hurt Tara,” Jo explained. Very succinct, Anya thought approvingly.
“Yes,” she confirmed, beaming at the girl.
“An….” Xander started to say something in his lecture voice.
“What? That’s it exactly,” she interrupted, confused that she was going to be lectured.
“But she shouldn’t know it, or at least not all of it.” Her boyfriend’s voice took on a note of tired patience.
It was irritating, but out of politeness she decided to ignore it. “Xander … she’s Tara’s friend. She’s the one who found her in the closet. Of course she knows.”
“Well, I could have hoped she knew or remembered less,” Buffy muttered.
“She’s standing right here, you know – and she has ears,” Dani interjected, her voice slightly clipped, “and so do I.”
Buffy wasn’t challenged very often. Anya wriggled a little. This could get interesting – and she had a front row seat.
“Hey, it’s okay.” Dani’s friend turned toward her.
“W-W-We should go.” Tara’s voice overlapped Jo’s as she stood, slowly and carefully, favoring her knee, and moved off slightly. Willow scrambled upright beside her.
“He goes free?” Dani repeated her friend’s question, ignoring Tara’s attempts to move things along. “He hurts a friend of yours, and he goes free?”
Anya looked back and forth between Buffy and Dani, curious as to who was going to blink first.
Buffy looked up at the brown-haired girl steadily, letting the silence stretch.
“Buffy ….” Willow tried to deflect the Slayer.
Buffy made one short sharp gesture with her hand, cutting her best friend off before delivering her answer. “Yes.”
“Good to know.” Dani nodded once, seemingly to herself; slipping her glasses back down, she glanced at Tara. “Ready?”
Obviously uncomfortable with the tension, the blonde nodded woodenly, cradling her shoulder bag to her chest.
“Tara?” Willow touched her friend on the elbow lightly. “Wanna have dinner before your evening class?”
“S-S-Sure.” Tara nodded. “I’d l-like that.”
“Me too.” Willow’s shoulders lifted once in an almost-wriggle, then settled. “I’ll see you there.” Tara nodded again before heading off with her two friends.
Anya thought they were amazingly obvious, and from the guilty look on Willow’s face she thought they were, too. But neither of the guys seemed to have noticed and Buffy …. Buffy was completely oblivious.
****
Buffy’s eyes tracked the three girls as they headed down the walk, leaving them only when they turned the corner – to look sternly at Willow.
“Buffy, it’s okay. They’re cool.” Her voice held a hint of pleading.
“Will, how much do they know?” the Slayer asked.
“Not much – that I’m a witch, and that Tara’s a witch, and about Jonathan, and that you’re the one responsible for breaking the spell – oh, and that Spike’s a vampire, although I think only Jo knows that part.” Willow nodded reassuringly. “That’s all, really.”
“Why’d you tell her about Spike? No, never mind.” Buffy waved that whole issue away. “In other words, they know everything.”
“Well, uh, mostly, I guess.” She fidgeted, glancing at Anya and Riley. They didn’t know about the Initiative, or that Anya was an ex-demon – she was pretty sure Riley didn’t know that part, either. “Not exactly everything.”
“How did they find out?”
“Well, it sort of slipped out with Jo. She found one of your stakes in my bag and I couldn’t think of any good explanations ….”
Riley interrupted, “Somehow I’m pleased to know that I’m not the only one bad at un….” His voice trailed off as he looked at Anya.
“What?” Anya asked. “Why do people start a sentence and then look at me and stop?”
“It’s just that stuff I told you about last week,” Xander explained. Buffy glared at him.
Willow bent over and began packing stuff into her pack as unobtrusively as possible. Maybe she could just slip away ….
“Oh, that! That military conspiracy that Riley’s part of!” Anya exclaimed.
Xander looked at Buffy and shrugged sheepishly. “It was just easier that she know.”
Riley shifted uneasily. “It is not a military conspiracy.”
She zipped her pack and looked up into piercing blue eyes. Buffy’s gaze seemed locked with hers forever before a voice registered.
“Buffy.” Xander spoke softly. The Slayer shifted her gaze to him as he continued, “I seem to recall a time when a new student dropped a stake on the floor and I picked it up.”
“I was just a kid then.” Buffy sounded defensive.
Xander shook his head. “So what? You didn’t have a good explanation for it, either.”
Buffy sighed in acknowledgement. “But that still doesn’t explain Dani.”
“Buff, I have to get to class.” Willow made a half-hearted attempt to beg off before surrendering to that sharp blue gaze. She took a deep breath. “Okay, but this is the quick version. Jo asked for my help ’cause Dani had been attacked by a vampire. My guess is they’ve retained some memories of Jonathan’s spell just like us – because of our contact with the supernatural.”
“But … ” Riley gestured at the sunny sky, apparently confused about how Dani could be out in daylight.
“She’s not a vampire, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“But Dani is alive and walking around, Will,” Xander tried. “Vampires eat and kill. They don’t usually let their dinners just walk away.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said – but I’ve seen the scars.” Willow shuddered. “It was definitely a vampire attack, and she didn’t escape; she was let go.” Willow looked around at her friends’ stunned faces – surprised to note that Anya was nodding knowingly. Huh. Wonder what the ex-demon knew? “I can tell you more later if you want, but now I really do have to get to class.” She hitched the pack into a more comfortable position and headed off to calculus.
As picnics went, she’d had better.
.
I just love spending my day off working (last Sunday). Then I get to help with an inventory at a nearby store on Wednesday night. Add in that our most senior cat, Macbeth, was really sick this week, so that I “slept” on the floor with him on Tuesday night, and you get one really, really tired Triscuit. 
Macbeth is feeling better now - breathing better and eating like a little gray pig 
I had today off, and thought, okay, this is good, I can write now – but nooooo. Too much to do, too little time. But there will be an update. Soon. I promise. Thank you all for reading.
Amber and Aly both felt that the Willow/Tara relationship was “the real deal”. Keeping that in mind helps me write the behind-the-scenes thoughts and motivations, and it keeps me on track with a logical progression of their relationship as well as their interactions with others. Thanks for reading. 
) and at home (sick kitty), but I should have an update this weekend. Just hang in there and thanks for wanting to read more.
their way as others have before me.
Foreshadowing gives me the chills...even if it's only in my imagination.
Pax! -Bev