Title: Tomorrow 6/?
Author: Madsdog
Disclaimer: If I just owned Willow's body, Dawn's hair and Giles' voice to sing me to sleep... okay... none of it's mine- those bits belong to the actors and the rest is Joss' and Marti's (Tara-killers) and Love Letter #1 belongs to Red
SPOILERS: UP UNTIL THE END OF 'TWO TO GO'
***
SEASON 6
***
“I don’t get it.” Willow looked over to Anya in a sort of disbelief.
“Too veiled for you? We. Had. Sex.”
“How long for?”
“Anya! I don’t know, I wasn’t timing.”
“How many orgasms?”
“Ahn!”
“Ooo, that means he was good. Experience pay off?” The ex-demon looked at the glaring girl in front of her with amusement. If there was one thing she loved about her life post- being sacked, it was human reactions to her unsubtle questions and comments. Although it made her mad that Xander was constantly trying to ‘teach’ her social niceties, it also gave her those funny fuzzy feelings she got when she made him happy, because she now made less of said comments around the other Scoobies. Of course, he thought it was because she was becoming more “civilized,” when in actual fact, she’d just learnt most of their reactions and they were less easy to shock. Willow’s secret, however, she felt could give her a whole new world of facial expressions- such as the pink- tinged glare she was receiving now. Deciding to put the redhead out of her misery, she continued her questioning.
“Anyway, that’s not what I don’t get- you keep making allusions to The Watchers’ Council. Why would you two bother them so much?” A heavy sigh was emitted for Willow’s general vicinity and Anya sensed she’d touched on a fragile subject.
“The Council weren’t originally set up to aid The Slayer- they were founded to kill her-” Willow’s explanation was cut off by a squeak.
“Kill her!”
“Yes. The founders believed that if they could control such a supernatural force as The Slayer, then her energy could be used to close portals such as The Hellmouth or those to other dimensions- kind of like The Key.”
“So they were trying to use The Slayer like Glory wanted to use Dawn- but in reverse.”
“Yeah. The Founders selected trustworthy men and women, and sent them throughout the globe to find the best humans they could: warriors, astrologists, astronomists, witches- anyone with power and/or knowledge. These people became The Council. A complex- breeding programme. For millennia they’ve bee trying to breed the ultimate watcher. Intelligent, powerful, adaptable. Compliant. Somewhere along the way they adopted The Slayer- at first to control her, then to include her-”
“In the breeding?”
“Yeah. And of course- their original goal was also lost someplace- now they just keep on with the unnatural selection. Their best are chosen to do tasks such as lead, train future slayers, watch the present slayer and, for some reason, look after their main library in London.”
“So Giles is one of the best?” A sad sort of pride crossed Willow’s face.
“You ever doubted it?”
“Well-”
“Of course he’s not anymore. He may have been smart, brave, strong, skilled, and definitely not too bad to look at… but- he wasn’t conformist, wouldn’t follow orders. And he’s been made to pay.”
“Does The Council know about you?”
“They do now. They found out in September.”
“When R-er-Giles was in England?”
“Yeah.”
“Why’d he go over there?” Anya watched the Willowy, but bitter smile cross the girl’s face with a kind of dread, knowing that each memory she recounted was leaving her with the pain of fresh wounds.
“We were going to live there. We were going to get some finality at last. You know it’s two years since he asked me to marry him-”
“He proposed? You were going to run off to live happily ever after in England and leave Xander and Dawn and Spike and I to look after The Hellmouth?”
“Well-”
“You were, weren’t you. Is that why you brought Buffy back?”
“Partly.”
“You selfish little-”
“Hey! Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same with Xander if given half a-”
“So was it romantic?”
“What?”
“The proposal? ‘Cause Xander only proposed because he thought we were going to die.”
“He’s Rupert. Of course it was romantic… there was salmon and melon and chocolate lime cheesecake and a violin, candles. The works…”
“And the ring?”
“The single most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen- except for him of course.”
“And after?”
“One of the most beautiful nights of my life…”
***
Buffy looked at the few pages she'd just found. They were pages from her best friend's diary. Willow had torn up and stopped keeping her diary at the same time as Dawn; when they'd discovered it was all a lie. But for some reason these pages had remained. As she began to read, she realised why.
'I fell in love tonight. Don't get me wrong, I've been in love with Rupert for months, loved him for longer, but tonight, as he knelt in front of me and asked me to marry him... I felt like I was actually falling into him. What I feel for him is so intense, he pulls me into him, and I fall into his soul as he does mine.
The ring's gorgeous; I really don't want to know what it cost. It's a diamond eternity ring: I just wish I could wear it all the time, Rupert's also bought me a long thin platinum chain to wear around my neck though- I can put the ring on that. I feel so guilty sometimes, he spends so much money on me, and I know he must get questions from his dad and brother, if not from Mr Travers himself: He's going to get into trouble because of me and I want to help him, but I can's because I'll make it infinitely worse.
But happy thoughts...
After dinner we went back to his apartment and made love- really made *love*- for hours. It was so intense that every time I looked into his eyes I started crying. And the best thing was: he cried too. I love him so much it hurts; and every time I look at him, I fall deeper and deeper.
I hate when I'm not with him. The reason I'm here now is because Buffy showed up on his doorstep at 2am, just after we'd nodded off. He waited until I'd dressed and made my usual escape from his balcony to the one next door before letting her in. It's an improvement on last week when she stormed straight in and immediately made her way upstairs. I'm not mad at her. I'm not. I used to be sort of jealous of the relationship they have. Now I'm just jealous of the time it takes up. There's never a time that I know she's not going to show. This is the third time in the past ten days she's shown up like this in the middle of the night. And it's difficult. But doable.
What with Buffy, The Council, and everything else, I don't know when we'll be able to get married, so tomorrow I'm going out and I'm going to find him an engagement ring too. That way we both have something.
I'm going to sign off how. I'd better get to sleep before tomorrow. I have to face Percy in the again in the morning. I'm not quite sure I can cope with him on less than four hours' sleep. But we'll see.
Willow'
Buffy felt a single tear roll down her cheek. Her best friend had been through so much and she'd never brought it up, never even tried to seek comfort through metaphors or her relationship with Oz. Willow'd been the perfect best friend while she, Buffy Summers, had failed to see any of it. Where had her infamous sixth sense been for the past three years?
As she assembled the story from the letters, diary entries and other assorted pieces of paper in front of her, her heart wept for what her best friend had done for love. And now... now she was having to deal with even more. Someone with a soul as beautiful as Willow's shouldn't have to deal with this much.
It was 4am when Buffy finally went to bed, but she was raging so much she didn't sleep for over an hour. She was so angry: at Willow for having put herself here, at Giles for loving Willow so much and then moving back to England... no matter what his reasons, at Angel and Riley for never crying as they loved her, at Spike for messing up her head. But mostly at herself: for never seeing through the Oz facade, for never being a proper best friend, for relying on Spike instead of facing the world, and so much more. From now on Buffy was going to be the best friend ever; whether Willow realised or wanted it or not.