by inlerf » Wed Jul 19, 2006 5:55 am
Chapter 2: Bonding Times
At the bar in the Bronze sat Anya and a brunette sylph whose black singlet and jeans supposed her to be in college. Like an exhausted worker at the end of the day or a spurned lover, she leaned wearily against the counter, her hands wrapped loosely around the whisky tumbler, her shoulders slumped, as her long, chocolate hair hid her features.
“I know,” Anya said. “It’s always the, ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ line. But guess what? the caption says, ‘I’m tired of the same, monotonous sex. I want fresh vagina.’ So don’t you wish Alan will be hit by a car as he crosses the road? Or that his penis grows a thousand warts?”
“I just don’t care anymore,” the girl sighed.
“But you do. I know you’re in so much pain and I know that the only way to go is to let it all out. I can help you. I’m a great listener.”
When the girl gave no indication of a rant, Anya continued, “You must have wished Alan be skinned alive? How about getting anally raped in a dark alley? By five big--and I mean big--men?”
The girl remained unaffected.
“Or, just listen,” Anya whispered. “Imagine what he’s doing now: having sex with some girl; using the penis he used on you thrusting in her; touching her the way he touched you; whispering in her ear the sweet nothings he--”
The girl snapped her head to her--ebony eyes flashed with a furious fire. “I wish his dick was an inch long, that he could never have sex with anyone again, that a thousand warts torture him every day and for him to know how much I love him, but never able to speak to me again because his tongue is ripped out and his mouth sewn shut!”
“Wish: granted,” Anya proclaimed with a smile.
* * *
“Are you done?” Tara asked, peering over Dawn’s shoulder who was writing on a notepad.
“No. Still got this synopsis to finish. Thanks for all the history help though.”
“Call me if you need anything; I’ll be downstairs,” Tara said before closing the door.
Dawn leaned down on her inner arm, sighing wistfully as she doodled the word ‘James’ randomly on the page. She closed her eyes, her pencil still poised, and the beginning of a longing smile slowly unveiled itself—when suddenly she disappeared in the green hues of a concentrically winding mist.
* * *
Amber lights and merriment escaped the plain window sills and into the small but Stepford worthy garden, before entering Dawn’s sensory field as she stood bewildered with the tiled path leading to the average-looking suburban house.
With an expression of incredulity mixed with condescension that only teenagers are capable of, Dawn muttered, “Okay, what the hell’s going on? Why am I standing here?” She swiveled around; and frowned. “Okay, don’t panic. Not panicking,” she said to herself as she left the yard. “What would Buffy do?” Pausing before the empty road, she answered, “Trek her way home while killing demons and making puns.” Dawn glanced to both ends of the street which perpendicular roads intersect. “Okay, five by five; this is like a multiple choice question.”
Dawn chose the path to her right.
* * *
Anya’s apartment, situated a short walk from the Magic Box, was modest. Although sparsely furnished—the only obvious decoration being a birthday card by the television, scribbled with several elegant handwritings wishes of “Happy Birthday, Anyanka!”-- it was meticulously maintained.
“What are you doing here, D’Hoffryn?” Anya asked as she took a white mug--with the imprinted black words Vengeance Will Never Desert You on a big, red, broken heart-- from the overhead cupboard.
“Oh, nothing. Just dropping by on my most talented employee.” He smiled. “Seems like our beloved Patron Saint of Scorned Women is back.” He sat on a barstool at the unburdened counter, facing Anya who was pouring boiling water from a kettle into the porcelain container. “I must say, that girl, I have high hopes for her. And you, my precious Anyanka, utterly inspired; your twist to her exacting wish! It gladdens me to see you as your former glorious self.”
Dipping the teabag, she remained fixated on the motion. “Want a cup?”
“Of?”
“Tea.”
“Ah, no thanks. I have seen how those tea plantation owners treat their workers and it disgusts me. However, those places are rich with vengeance.”
“Yeah, I know,” Anya said with a roll of her eyes. “That’s the only thing Louise ever talks about.” She paused, as if listening to something audible only to her. When it had apparently finished, she looked at D’Hoffryn.
“Oh, go, go,” he said, waving his claw; his tone tinctured with the pride of a parent. “I’ll make myself at home.”
“Just don’t mess up anything; I don’t like cleaning,” Anya warned before she vanished in brilliant light and smoke.
D’Hoffryn pulled over the mug of untouched tea, dipped the bag a few times and then carefully sipped the steaming drink.
* * *
Under the faint illumination of the crescent moon high above, tombstones lined the manicured grass. Nothing dared to disturb the imposing quietude night has, for the threat of death loomed over their heads. However, three humanoid figures were strolling in the cemetery; and silence’s eerie hold was shattered by the crumpling noise of…a bag of potato chips.
“I miss this,” Buffy said reminiscently; “us, together. Patrolling.”
“Ooh, déjà vu,” Willow said.
“What?” Buffy asked.
“Nothing,” was the sheepish reply.
“Nuh uh. You’re not getting away so easily. Best friends pact, remember?”
“I support that,” Xander said.
“It’s nothing. Just something I said to Tara.”
“There’s something more,” Buffy pressed. “I can tell a Something More from a mile away.”
“So I said it on the day we got back together,” Willow admitted.
“’The day’ was when you woke up from lots of make up sex, right?” Xander asked salaciously. “Just trying to get a mental picture, of what you’re talking about here.” He grinned.
“Yes, Xander,” Willow said, rolling her eyes. “We were naked and in bed after lots of post-argument make up sex. In fact, get this;” she looked straight at him; “we didn’t sleep the entire night. We were just being all naughty and sweaty and--”
“Whoa, whoa, okay,” Xander said as he turned away with his hands in his hair; “information overload.”
Willow chuckled and told Buffy, “I thought I’d never say this, but I broke Xander the Porn King with my sex life. Go me!”
“Hey!” he exclaimed. “I was just being all best friendy there! Don’t go ruining my reputation!”
The girls laughed—suddenly, Buffy whipped out a stake and with its sharp end directed backward, she shoved it without looking into a vampire behind her. The dust was still settling when they continued their ramble without having missed a beat. “So you two seem really happy,” Buffy said.
“Yeah, we are,” Willow replied, smiling. “What about you two? I mean, I was Queen of Self Involvedness before, what with the whole magick issue and all.”
“Xander and I never really were together. Although I love him as a brother.” Buffy grinned at him.
“Ditto,” Xander interrupted Willow before she could say anything; “although, in my younger days I have fantasized about having Buffy as my girlfriend…until I realized that with her Slayer strength, she’ll probably fracture little Xander down there. So nope.” Smiling at Buffy, he added, “Love ya like a sister too.”
“Hey, I do not crush…things down there! I have delicacy! I am the Mistress of Relaxing Your Muscles!”
“She does have a point you know,” Willow said sagaciously. “Parker survived her and so did Riley. Although we don’t really know when Ry was buffed up. Oh, buffed up.” Willow snorted lightly in laughter at her own pun.
“What do you mean ‘survive’?” Buffy asked in indignation. “So, true,” she continued in a quieter voice, “I never really…really…you know, ‘cause…‘cause you know.”
“I know, I know, what?” Xander asked.
“That you’ve never…never?” Willow questioned; her tone rising in amazement. “Really never?”
“Never what?!” Xander asked exasperatedly. “That you know and you know that I don’t know?!”
“Wow, so that’s why Slayers live a lonely life,” Willow commiserated.
“Oh my God, if you two don’t tell me what it is this instant, I swear to this plastic bag I’m carrying I will…I will do something really horrible!”
Willow turned to him and revealed, “Buffy’s never had a happy.”
“Oh my God,” Xander said in shock.
“It’s-it’s not that. I mean, I’ve had a, a…happy before. Happies. Just not with…normal people.”
“So you mean...only with guys who’s got super strength?” Xander asked.
Buffy sighed. “Kind of.”
“Then all that banging and--oops, no pun intended--uhhh, stuff,” Xander said, “with Riley, were just bluffs?”
Staring down, Buffy answered, “Yeah.”
“Ouch,” he remarked.
Buffy faced him and warned, “just don’t ever, ever tell him, okay? Or I swear I will crush little Xander.”
His hand instinctively covered his crotch while he made a zipping motion across his mouth.
“You said ‘people’,” Willow noted, “and ‘Kinda’. So that means…” she looked at Buffy, “Faith?”
Buffy glanced at her--green eyes widened slightly--and then quickly away, shaking her head. “I never said that. And why is the spotlight on me anyway? I think it’s time for Xander to get shined on.”
“Nuh uh. Nope dandy no,” he insisted. “I wanna hear about you and Faith. When? Where? How? Especially the How. Did you do it before or after we did it?”
Buffy chanced to see Willow staring at the grass as they sauntered on. “I neither deny nor accept these claims. It’s a quiet night,” she commented, scanning around. “So you, Xander, you and Anya.”
“We’ve got zilch,” he replied, seeing how Buffy was resolute in her decision and the uneasy silence Willow was in. “Our relationship is probably in the hall of fame of Top Ten Worst Ever Relationships in the History of Man and Demon Kind.” Then somberly, he added, “We aren’t on talking terms.”
“You miss her?” Willow asked, out of her reverie.
He clasped his hands together; the crisp noise made by the bag stark in the solemn atmosphere. “Not when I think of what she’s done.”
“Still hurts?” Buffy asked softly.
“It’s a slow healing scar,” Xander replied.
* * *
“Buffy’s so going to kill me,” Dawn muttered as she trotted up her house’s driveway quietly. “But not before Tara gives me the guilt treatment, Willow freaking out and….” She stopped at the front door, took in a deep breath, wiped off the perspiration on her forehead with her hands, practised a big smile and then opened the door to her fate.
No one was in.
With exaggerated movements, like the dramatic stealthy creep of burglars in comedies, Dawn silently ascended the stairs when Tara suddenly questioned from behind her, “Where did you go? I was bringing you cookies and milk and you weren’t in.”
Dawn turned around and with a placating smile, answered meekly, “Nowhere?”
Tara folded her arms. “Really? Not out sneaking kisses with boys? Or some vampire?” She tried to hide the rise of a corner of her lips.
“Hey, that was a long time ago! And I’ve learned to tell the difference: body temperature equals good.” Dawn sighed. “I climbed out of my bedroom window ‘cause I was bored. And I wasn’t sneaking anything with anyone.”
“Have you finished your homework?”
“Um, kind of? I just have another hundred words to go. I’ll do them--” At Tara’s rising eyebrow, she quickly amended, “I’m gonna go do them right now.” She hurried up the stairs.
Last edited by
inlerf on Sat Jul 22, 2006 8:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Willow: [pouty] Everyone's getting spanked but me.
"The I in Team"
for the title!!
you want to do a naughty dance for me to get me jump started on growth? why dont ya send me a private message. What kind of dance are we talking anyways?
you're here! you whose stories i...hush. i shan't sound like a groupie.
Very funny update, I can't wait to see what tara and dawn reaction will be.
willohand!! i love the dance! *gives a score of 10.1* 
Akyire
