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This page was last updated: September 25, 1998
(c)September 1998
URL: willow15.htmlThe following is a bit of alternative fiction based on certain characters from the Xenaverse It is not meant to infringe on anyone else's rights. If you don't agree or disapprove, please go read something else.
This story is part of an Altaverse based on Bite Me and the Fonder Heart. It can be found, along with other such stories, at The Realms of the Xenaverse, under Blood and Roses. Xena is Ares' Daughter and Gabrielle is Bacchus' Daughter
Characters from Buffy: Vampire Slayer have also been borrowed for the purposes of this story. All of this is written with the utmost affection and the no desire for renumeration (except for possible emails). The same above disclaimer is in effect. There are certain changes that have been made to accomadate this particular Xenaverse. Buffy's Vampires are really part of the Kin, renamed for purposes of this story
Xex Alert: Yes, there definitely will be, between two consenting immortal women even. Maybe even more
Violence Alert: Yes, probably, given that this is a story involving slayage and Xena.
"Are you out of your mind, Xander?!?!" A Willow that her friends had never seen before yelled at the lanky youth. She glared at the once-love-of-her-life-or-so-she-thought and shook her head angrily. "I can't believe you did that."
Xander glared right back at her, arms folded tightly. "Excuse me? Are we watching the same channel here?" His eyes darted to the calm immortal-- who didn't seem winded at all by her confrontation with Buffy's ex. "Am I the only one who saw him try to kill your Aunt? Did you miss that whole 'I'm gonna watch you die, Sunwalker' part?" He appealed to Gabrielle. "You were gonna take him out yourself."
"Oh and you were so eager to help, weren't you?" Willow sneered, turning her back to him and staring out into the darkness where Angel had fled. "You just want him out of the way because Buffy loves him."
"I want him out of the way because he killed Miss Calendar!" the youth objected. "You seem to forget that."
Willow whirled on him, a small hand uncoiling and striking her oldest friend sharply across the face. The three mortals and the Sunwalker stood in a shocked and frozen tableau as the noise of the slap echoed in the small backyard. The color drained from Xander's face, highlighting the red mark on his cheek. "How can you say that?" Willow hissed between clenched teeth. "How can you think that I can forget for one minute what happened to her? I'm the one who had to go through her files. I'm the one who had to read her journals. I'm the one who had to teach her classes. She was my friend, Xander--" The tears streaked freely down her cheeks now; and as Gabrielle reached out for her, the girl waved her away and wiped angrily at her eyes with the back of her hand.
Xander couldn't meet anyone's glance. He felt bad for upsetting Willow, yeah, but he'd do it all over again. Nothing was going to convince him that the best thing for everybody wouldn't be to put that out-of-control-vamp down. "He was... Look, I know Buffy loves him and all, but face it, Wills-- the guy Buffy fell for is gone... That... thing that tried to take a bite out of your Aunt ain't him." He looked beseechingly at the Sunwalker. "I was just trying to help."
"I know," Gabrielle assured him, not adding that she believed his motives to be slightly more than mixed. Xander had a good-- if troubled-- heart. It wouldn't do any good to berate him now. Let his own conscience work on him. If Gabrielle was still any judge of human nature, that would be far more effective than anything she might say.
Xander tried once more. "Wills--"
"Just get out, Xander." Willow's voice was cold, and her hazel eyes had taken on a hardened cast. "I don't want to see you right now. Okay?"
"Wills--"
The teenager refused to look at him, turning her back once more and gazing sightlessly out into the distance. "Cordelia, get him out of here. Please."
Cordelia, knowing better than anyone when it was time to cut and run, put a prodding hand on her boyfriend's arm. Just now she had seen a strength of resolve in the small redhead that she had never imagined possible. This was a Willow she would hesitate to cross. "Come on, Xander," she murmured in a low tone. "I'll drive you home."
The youth seemed about to protest, but Cordelia silenced him with a searing look that made him blanch. The fight went out of him, and he acquiesced with a barely perceptible nod.
Turning to go, their progress was halted by a bloody apparition dressed in black and identifiable only by the gleaming light in her eyes.
"Hi, Honey, I'm home," Xena intoned with a smirk. Taking in the downcast faces of the mortals and smelling the rising scent of the Blood on her mate, an inquiring brow arched on the warrior's face. "What did I miss?"
She never mentioned how hard it was to get blood out of your hair... Buffy fumed silently, standing in the steaming spray of hot water. Let's hear it for good water pressure. Her body still hummed with the energy of the fight, even while her muscles quivered in exhaustion. As she enjoyed the warm rush of the water nearly scalding her skin, her mind drifted back to a couple of days ago when Willow had been watching her work out. Disturbed by the intensity on her friend's face, she had asked Willow if something was wrong.
"No... no... it's just... the way..." Her best friend had uncharacteristically struggled for words. "I didn't think a spinning back-kick could be beautiful..."
But-- Buffy realized now-- when done by the right person at the right time, it was absolutely gorgeous. Xena had moved with an intensity and speed that rivaled any demon's... but the way in which she moved...
The slayer shook her head in frustration, scattering droplets all over the shower's walls. She didn't have a lot of words in her vocabulary for beauty. Things were cool, or cute, or-- if you lived in Xander's world-- bodacious... but true beauty?
Well... Buffy thought, stepping out of the shower and wrapping herself in a thick towel. I guess I know it when I see it...
Xena.
Still burning both from the fight and the hot water, Buffy threw open the second story window to her bedroom. The faint breeze tickled her skin, raising goosebumps along the length of her bare arms. She breathed deeply for a few minutes, feeling her chest rise against the pleasantly rough nubs of the terrycloth towel. The scents of the night surrounded her-- the faint crispness of the mown grass, the dampness of the dew that had just fallen-- and Buffy had the dizzying thought that if she concentrated hard enough, she could smell the stars themselves.
Where the hell did that come from?
Shaking her head to clear the unsteady thoughts roiling through her mind, she crossed the room and dug haphazardly through a pile of tapes beside her stereo. Pulling out a cassette that Willow had made for her a few weeks back, she shoved it into the stereo and pressed "Play." Wills had called it "Aural Sounds to Meditate By" which-- Willow had offered helpfully-- could also double as make out-music.
She and Angel had never had a chance to try it out.
The songs were soothing enough, Buffy considered, as the first strains of music started playing. Willow was going through a stage where she liked all these chick singers-- reading through the list of songs, the slayer recognized several of the names, but others weren't as familiar. Must be Miss Calendar's influence... The computer wiz/practicing pagan had been closer to Willow than any of them-- except Giles... and that was someplace Buffy really didn't want to go right now. It was bad enough that her boyfriend had reverted to his natural-demonness and that he killed a teacher, but to think that he might have killed Giles' chance at true love. Buffy shuddered involuntarily as she tossed her towel over the foot of the bed and sprawled backwards on the mattress, sighing when her back hit the cool sheets.
She was the Slayer. Why did her friends have to keep getting hurt because of that?
Because they love you... came the answer. And because they're not equipped to deal with what you have to spend the rest of your life facing...
Her restless musings returned to the scene at the graveyard that evening, and the sleek figure of the warrior who had fought beside her. She saw the waves of ghouls and demons reaching out for her... and always Xena's sword was one step ahead of them, slashing downwards, hurling them out of her way. In the middle of the biggest battle of her young life, Buffy had never felt safer. Nowhere-- not in her bed, not in the middle of the day when the demons couldn't get to her-- nowhere else had she ever known without a doubt that she was protected. Not even in Angel's arms.
"She knows..." Buffy murmured drowsily, thinking of all the unlikely allies she had found during her time as the slayer, when all the shit finally came down-- Xena was the one she wanted at her back...
At her side...
She was waiting in the graveyard like she always did. She was early; the last drops of light had yet to be leached from the sky-- and it wasn't safe for her love to appear until then. Petty tortures like these made the intense pleasure she got from seeing him even more enjoyable. Sometimes she wondered what his face would look like in the light... how the sun would warm the cold planes of his cheeks and turn his brown eyes to liquid gold...
"Buffy..."
Her name coming from behind her. Like it always did. But the voice was different, more musical, a deeply sensual contralto that rippled through her nerves with shuddering grace... Not her lover's voice at all.
Someone else.
She turned and somehow wasn't surprised to see another dark figure emerge from the shadows and beckon to her.
"You..." she whispered.
"Who else?"
"I was waiting..." Her eyes were everywhere at once, caressing the dark figure's shape, lingering over the way the leather clung to slender hips and supple thighs. Dark silk draped over broad shoulders.. .and the slash of skin visible at the neck was warm and bronze in the moonlight. Her mouth went dry at the sight of an elegantly long hand held out to her. A hand that she had last seen gripping a sword with negligent ease... so much power in those fingers... and a harrowing question occurred to her. Could they be tender? She swallowed convulsively. "I was waiting..." she repeated.
"I know," the figure replied softly. "Who were you waiting for?"
"My lover."
An eternal pause... in which Buffy felt like she was alternately drowning and being brought back to life. The pulse hammering behind her eyes testified to life... but her lungs screamed for breath as she was tossed in the darkling eddies of this woman's eyes.
A ghost of a smile on astonishingly full lips. "Here I am, Buffy."
Buffy had no conscious memory of moving, all she knew was that Xena's arms were folding around her and that mouth... that stunningly powerful mouth... that she had been watching since she had first seen the warrior... was closing on hers with a singular intensity of purpose.
The world exploded then... Xena's mouth was all seeking heat and aching tenderness, and Buffy felt herself unfolding... slipping into the current of the warrior's body as she reached in turn for the immortal.
Silk fell away under her hands and they were both bare from the waist up.... how did that happen... and then she didn't care... couldn't care as that mouth... that devastating mouth... found the slayer's breasts and...
"Oh God..." Buffy heard herself moan, her back arching in supplication to the woman who was now sinking to her knees, her mouth never leaving the painfully aroused centers of Buffy's breasts.
"Now this is what I call a show..."
Buffy's eyes flew open to see Angel leaning against the broad truck of an oak tree, his arms snugly folded across his chest. He was dressed like Xena... all black silk and leather... his ankles crossed in a relaxed pose.
Xena seemed oblivious to the interloper, her mouth continuing to create rivulets of desire throughout the slayer's body. Buffy made no move to stop her... in fact doubted she could even if she wanted to... The warrior's hands trailed lazily up the smaller woman's back and over her shoulders before drifting slowly back down to the swell of the girl's hips. She snugged the slayer more closely to her... her mouth roaming the length of Buffy's leanly muscled torso.
Angel nodded in appreciation. "I gotta say, Buff... I didn't think you had it in you."
In reply, Buffy slipped a hand in Xena's thick tresses, focusing the warrior's mouth over one tight nipple. Both women groaned at the sensation, steadying themselves against the pleasure coursing through their bodies. "Fuck you, Angel."
He smirked and made as if to join them. "That, my love, can be arranged."
Before he had taken a full step, Xena was on her feet blocking his path. "I don't think so," she purred.
"And you're gonna stop me?" He scoffed. "A two-bit whore to the Sunwalker?" He backhanded her sharply across the face. "You should have stayed on your knees. You looked better there."
The blow, by rights, should have at least stunned her... it was delivered with that much intensity and force. But Xena's head only snapped slightly to the side. As Angel tried to brush past her to his prize, the warrior grabbed him by the throat, easily lifting him off his feet. "Better a two-bit whore than a bastard half-breed," she replied. "I don't like being interrupted. Understand me?" She tossed him negligently to his feet and squared herself, studying him as he picked himself slowly off the ground.
Buffy watched, paralyzed, as the demon that had been her lover circled the woman who sought to take his place.
"I fucked her first, warrior..." Angel taunted. "You'll never be able to wipe me out of her mind."
Xena shrugged. "We have to have bad experiences to know what the good ones are."
"Buffy's mine," he snarled.
There was a moment of silence, and then, unbelievably, the warrior started to laugh. The rich, textured sound flowed easily into the liquid center of the slayer's desire and stayed there, unmoving. "You have no idea of what you're dealing with, do you?" Blue eyes flickered from vampire to slayer and back again. "Know this, Child... Buffy is her own creature. Make no mistake about that." She turned her back on Angel and faced the slayer as she continued to speak. "But what's between us..." A gentle hand cupped the curve of Buffy's cheek. "You cannot fathom."
Angel's enraged roar faded away until it was only the slayer and the immortal once more... and the shimmering burn of the warrior's hand on her skin.
Buffy swallowed hard, the intense light in the warrior's eyes creating new waves of desire with each passing second. "The choice is yours, Buffy. Remember that. You always have a choice. Now... Do you accept?"
Unknowing of what exactly she was accepting, but helpless to deny the power of whatever it was that thundered through her veins, she nodded mutely. Her own hand covered the warrior's, and she slid it down to press a hungry kiss into the palm.
A low sound escaped the warrior's throat at the gesture; and she reached for Buffy, wrapping powerful arms around the blonde's slender shoulders.
"Yes...." Buffy heard herself murmur, the sound waking her from a sweat-soaked sleep. "Yes..."
She sat bolt upright, her eyes darting wildly around the room. It was still her bedroom, cloaked in shadow-- but still familiar. A woman's voice crooned sensually from the corner speakers, and quiet night sounds slipped through the open windows. "Make-out music, huh Wills?" she growled irritably. Irrationally blaming the music for... whatever the hell it was she had just dreamed... she swung her legs over the side of the bed-- only to find that they weren't quite ready to hold her. Slowly, she sank back down to the mattress, bracing herself on equally unsteady arms. Her muscles shook with arousal, and she could smell its faint traces rising from her body. Running a trembling hand through her damp bangs, she shook her head slowly. She whispered to the darkness, "What the hell is happening to me?"
Blood and Roses Realm | Fan Fiction Site | Home Page
This page was last updated: September 25, 1998
(c)September 1998
URL: willow15.html