Thanks for the feedback, Kittens. I hope you like this update. And I do apologize in advance for leaving it where I left it.
Chapter 10: Sunnydale PD
As the blonde Slayer and redheaded witch skulked across the graveyard with both eyes peeled, Buffy cleared her throat before attempting to broach a subject she felt mildly nervous about broaching, "So Will...how um, how have you been?"
At Willow's perplexed expression, she tried again, "How have
things been, Will?"
"What things?"
"You know Will, the
things, the things that have
been." Buffy waved her hands emphatically as if trying to make her point manifest in front of them, "The
things, Will!"
The witch stared back at her friend with a blank look in her eyes, "Okay first of all, what the frilly heck are you talking about? Second, why are you saying my name like it's a mantra, Buff...Buff...Buff?
Third, convoluted ranting is sorta my thing, y’know. And fourth,
what the frilly heck are you talking about?"
"Thi--
stuff with Tara, you know?" She turned to Willow with an expression that had grown suddenly wistful, "We haven't really had a chance to talk about it since that night at The Bronze...or about anything, really."
Willow began to wring her hands together in a nervous gesture she didn't realize was habitual, "Yeah, I guess that's sorta my fault. I-it's not that I've been trying to avoid you guys! I know I've been absentee-girl lately, and majorly neglectful as a friend but it really wasn't on purpose."
The Slayer only smirked at her friend mischievously, "Well I imagine it'd be hard talking with a blonde hottie attached to your lips all day."
"You know about that?" The words were spoken with a queer blend of pride and dread.
"Everyone knows about it, Willow. We know about it in the movie theatre, we know about it under the bleachers during lunch, we know about it at the park, at the mall, in the laundry room--"
"All right, I get it!"
"Just sayin'...it's like your hormones exploded all over the hellmouth." The ability to tease Willow mercilessly was the one bad habit she was glad she'd adopted from Faith.
"Does all the ribbing mean I'm forgiven?" She threw in a pout for emphasis.
Buffy drew her lips together as if in thought, “Under the condition that you tell me, honestly, how you’ve been after, you know…everything.”
The redhead gave it a moment’s worth of honest thought, “Well, sometimes I feel like I ought to be guilty or something, out of respect for Oz and our relationship. But then Tara looks at me and…how can I not be happy?”
“That may be the absolute corniest thing I’ve ever heard in my life, Willow.” And though it was said in her usual deadpan, sarcastic way, the Slayer’s smile betrayed the happiness she felt for her friend.
“I’d get used to the corny if I were you,” Willow said wryly. “So, conversely, how are things with you and Angel?” There was an awkward silence after the words were spoken that Willow had not been anticipating. “Buff?”
“It’s complicated.”
She frowned, “Why is it complicated?”
“It’s complicated…because of Faith.”
--
In the opposite direction of the two best friends, Tara, Xander and Faith stalked the graveyard half in search of the vamp that got away and half engaged in teenage gossip.
“So what’s Buffy mad with you about? Did she discover your personality?” Xander spoke through his patented boyish grin.
Faith grumbled with gritted teeth so her words were almost indistinguishable, “Everybody’s a fucking comedian in this town.”
“You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to, Faith,” The blonde spoke up with her most sympathetic look, “If it’s too, you know, intimate and special for us to know about it then…”
“
All right, Blondie, for Christ’s sake…you know, you hide your deviousness well, witchy girl,” She chided her, “Anyway, Buff is all mad because I took her out for a good time, and it got a little too wild I guess. I almost staked some guy I thought was vampy, and then he ran off all scared. I mean nothing happened, you know, but it could’ve easily gone the other way. Then after that whole crazy affair, when we were walking home, I sorta kissed her. Because of all the adrenaline, you know?”
There was a quiet over the group suddenly when all you could hear was the padding of sneakers on the graveyard soil. Xander couldn’t stand it for very long, “Well I can’t imagine why anyone would be upset about all that.”
“Whatever, Xander, it’s not like I see Cordelia around here anywhere. Or even at all lately. You two back in the closet?”
“Who’s Cordelia?” Tara asked.
“Xand-man’s girlfriend, incredibly.”
“
Ex-girlfriend, incredibly,” He corrected quietly.
“I’m sorry Xander…” Tara put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Everyone gets dumped sometime,” Faith told him, “And you…well, you should try to get used to it.”
“Hey!” Xander pouted, “Why does everyone think she dumped
me? I dumped
her.”
Tara and Faith let the information seep in speechlessly before Faith broke in, “Really?”
Tara elbowed the Slayer gently, “
Faith.”
“Well, you shoulda seen her, T,” The Slayer enthused, “She was
way outta Xand’s league.”
“Well there’s more to falling in love than just a person’s looks,” Tara spoke wisely.
Faith looked at her suspiciously, “Like what?”
“Like…well like all her cute little idiosyncrasies; the quirky way she keeps everything color-coordinated and the adorable little frown she gets when she’s reading or how her eyes light up when she sees you, and the way she likes to kiss and how she always…”
Tara’s voice drifted into the air as Faith’s eyes rolled, “Well, we lost her.”
“See that’s what was missing between Cordy and me…I never got that way about her. I’d hear Will talk about Tara and it was like, I just couldn’t really relate to any of it. You know?”
Faith gave a slight nod, “Meaningless boinking isn’t for everyone.”
“Just professionals like you?” Xander asked.
“Hey now, I was being sympathetic.”
“Well sorry if I couldn’t tell.”
Tara, now free from her Willow-induced daydreaming spoke up before a serious argument could ensue, “She tries her hardest, and that’s all we can ask of her.”
Somehow Tara’s soft voice, even when she was making a joke, had a soothing effect on the two sarcastic hotheads she now called friends.
“So is Cordelia at least doing okay?” Faith twirled her stake as she spoke, now calmly.
“I’m not sure,” Xander frowned as he thought back to the last few days, “She’s been giving me the cold shoulder but all her old friends have been doing the same to her. She’s been talking to some new girl a lot, though. Some fast-talking, tactless man-hater.”
Tara looked at Faith, “Sounds a little like you. Except you hate everyone.”
--
“What do you mean Faith?” Willow gaped, half-understanding the implications, “Faith likes Angel?”
Buffy shook her head.
Willow’s face looked distinctly like a frozen computer screen that was stuck midway through computing some very elaborate code, “Faith...likes…
you.”
Buffy nodded.
“And you…like Faith?”
Before Buffy could respond, their old demonic friend leaped from the shadows in a desperate attempt at a surprise attack. Buffy had been keeping one eye on him for minutes now and staked him as he was still in mid-air.
Without missing a beat, without even the slightest hint of being fazed by the violent display, Willow continued, “Oh, Buff this is so cool! Now we can be gay together!” At the Slayer’s wide-eyed look, Willow waved her hands left and right rapidly, as if trying to dispel the thought, “Not you and I
together, but separately. Gay, separately, together.”
Buffy shook her head, “Will, it’s really not like that.”
Before the redhead could say a word she was interrupted by two successive beeps that sounded singularly authoritative. The two girls turned to see a police car parked parallel to the cemetery. Buffy quirked a brow, “Sunnydale has a police force? Well, that’s news.”
Two men in blue emerged from the vehicle and walked purposefully toward the girls. They could only stare in shock as the events unfolded, “Willow Rosenberg?” One of them spoke, clearly looking at the redhead.
Willow could only nod dumbly, as if she’d never seen a policeman in her life.
“You are under arrest, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
“Excu--” Before she could finish she felt herself pinioned by the officer and cuffs were placed around her small, pale wrists. “Sir, I think you’re making a mistake here. I’m a straight A student! I look both ways before crossing the street! I’ve never run with scissors! I’m Willow Rosenberg, damnit!”
As her friend was dragged away Buffy could only gape silently, an officer looked into her eyes with a small, bright flashlight, “Ma’am are you intoxicated?”
“What!?”
--
The scream could dimly be heard by the three oblivious Scoobies who were still in search of the straggler vampire.
“What was that?” Xander asked.
“It sounded like a wild animal,” Tara spoke, frowning.
“That was being forcibly put to sleep.” Faith added, with her usual charming grin. “Look guys if we don’t find this vamp soon, let’s just head back to home base. I bet Red and B are already there and the last thing I need is B gloating about how quickly she finished the job and all, and how much more competent she is than me ‘cause she’s been at it a few more years than I have.”
“Quitters.” A disembodied, lilting voice spoke from the shadows. They turned to see Willow clad in black, holding the vamp they’d been looking for by the wrists. “Want him?”
“Will you found him!” Faith spoke, surprised, “Well stake him for Christ’s sake.” She chucked her stake at Willow who caught it easily.
The redhead ran the stake’s pointy tip across the vampire’s chest, almost as if teasing him before she impaled him viciously. “Happy now?” She asked as the ashes circled around her before drifting into the dirt.
Tara frowned now that she had a full view of her girlfriend. The girl was clad, toe to exposed cleavage in black leather. She was wearing blood red lipstick. She had a feral grin and a devious glint in her eye as she looked Tara up and down, like she were prey. “Baby? Why are you all…leathery?”
“Baby?” The vampire asked with a smile, “Interesting.”
by TinyWillow » Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:04 pm 
