The sound of the egg hitting the floor was loud in the near
silence.
"Sorry," Buffy hopped to her feet to grab the paper towels, "I
didn't mean..."
"It's all right," Willow knelt down beside her to help with
the clean up, "the question just startled me a bit, I guess."
"Well," Buffy smiled slightly, "I did find you in that lesbian
club a few weeks ago ..."
Willow winced slightly at that.
She had stumbled upon Arisugawa's Locket by accident, and had
been mildly surprised when she wasn't turned away at the door. Instead
the bartender had poured Willow a glass of blood and rum as if it was
the most normal thing in the world to do, then left her alone to drink
it in peace. The only odd thing was that the bartender and another
lady had seemed to recognize her, holding a whispered conversation
before the lady came down the bar towards her.
She moved over to Willow's side and introduced herself as
Arisugawa Juri. Quietly she asked, "Anything I can do?"
With a surprisingly gentle smile Willow said, "Sorry, not
much." She raised her glass and slugged back the rest of the booze
before adding, "Not unless you can absolve me of more than a decade of
evil deeds."
"I can't really do that," Juri admitted quietly. She signaled
Ryouko, and Willow could tell by the scent that the drink she
delivered was just colored ginger ale. "Best thing I can suggest is to
try to balance the scales," she continued.
Willow nodded thoughtfully, "That's what she tries to tell me,
too."
"She?" Juri had asked, trying to change the topic.
Willow actually found herself smiling slightly, "Buffy. I
helped her defeat the Master a few weeks back, and we've been working
together ever since."
"Master," Juri raised a eyebrow, chuckling as a evil thought
occurred to her. Willow looked over at her curiously so she said, "I
suppose his first name wasn't Bator?"
Willow put the two words together and made a face, "That's
bad."
The two young women finished cleaning up the kitchen floor,
then Willow went back to making up an improvised omelet for her
partner. "I was a bit surprised that you followed me in there," she
pointed out.
Buffy actually blushed slightly under Willow's gaze. She still
didn't quite know why she had been shadowing Willow that night. 'Be
honest,' she thought, 'you were worried about her.' Willow had been so
depressed, she was scared she might do something rash. Buffy faced
down the bouncer and walked down a dark hallway, only to meet the most
cheerful young lady she had seen in a while.
"Welcome to Arisugawa's Locket," the girl said with a smile,
"I'm Hitomi."
"Buffy," she had answered as she looked around her curiously.
She pushed her hand through her hair nervously, "I'm looking for a
friend of mine."
Hitomi didn't say anything, just tried to look helpful.
"She's a redhead, very pale, and likes to wear leather," Buffy
actually blushed a bit as she described Willow to the girl.
"Willow, right?" Hitomi asked cheerfully. At Buffy's surprised
nod she said, "She's over at the bar, at least she was the last time I
saw her."
"Thanks," Buffy moved out into the crowd. The women all
cleared the way for her, and she soon saw Willow sitting at the bar,
talking to another woman there. She was a bit surprised to feel an odd
flash of emotion, a bit of jealousy.
'I've only know her for a few weeks,' Buffy thought to
herself, surprised. But this was the first time she had really had a
partner, someone who fought beside her, back to back. She certainly
didn't have any claim on the vampiress, so why was she standing here
wishing that the orange haired lady would just go away?
Willow noticed Juri looking out into the crowd, and then the
lady smiled slightly. She looked over at Willow, "This Buffy, is she a
really intense looking, butch blonde?"
Willow blinked, "Well, yes."
Juri discretely pointed, "I think she followed you here." She
got up and stretched, "I think I'll go call my girlfriend." With that,
she got up and left.
Buffy sighed in relief, settling down in the seat Juri had
vacated. She smiled at Willow nervously and blurted, "Who's your
friend?"
Willow looked at Buffy softly answering, "She works here, and
was making sure I wasn't going to be trouble."
Buffy puffed out a breath, feeling relieved as she said, "Oh,
good."
Willow raised her eyebrow at that.
Back in the kitchen Willow added ham, green peppers and some
grated cheese to the egg before folding it neatly over. She walked to
the fridge then stopped, "Do you mind?"
"It's fine," Buffy smiled.
Willow took one of the packets of blood from the case, then
got out a saucepan. She tore open the packet and poured it into the
pan, heating it up to body temerature. "About your question," Willow
started to answer.
"Never mind," Buffy smiled gently, "I was being rude."
"No," Willow shook her head, "it's a reasonable question." She
leaned up against the counter, "I'm just not quite sure how to answer
it."
"What do you mean?" Buffy blinked.
"I though I was in love with Xander," Willow admitted softly,
"but now that I've regained my soul, I can see that I wasn't. Then
there was my double.."
Buffy tried not to react to that. She still found it hard to
accept that there was a Sunnydale so completely different from the one
she knew. Still, Willow claimed to have seen it herself, and for now
that was good enough for her.
"I was surprised how... attracted I was to her," Willow
admitted. She smiled at Buffy wryly, "I guess I'm pretty confused
about it all."
"I guess so," Buffy agreed. Her eyes widened in alarm,
"Dinner!"
"Eep," Willow turned around and quickly got the steaming blood
and eggs off the front burners, thankfully not catching any scent of
their burning. "They both look all right," she smiled in honest
relief, "let's eat."
The table was cleared, the stakes, holy water, crosses and
garlic transfered over to the pile of stuff on the couch. "What?"
Buffy said when Willow gave her a look, "at least it's all organized."
"You are such a slob," a sighing Willow shook her head as she
sat Buffy's plate down, then poured her blood into a soup bowl and got
a spoon out. They both dug into their respective meals, Willow
spooning her blood out while Buffy ripped into her omlete.
"I guess part of why I asked," Buffy admitted, "was because
I'm a little confused myself."
Willow hesitated, "Really?"
To be continued...
Author's Notes: Part of this chapter appeared in an episode of my
fanfic Arisugawa's Locket. The characters from that series are Juri
from Revolutionary Girl Utena, Ryouko from Tenchi Muyo, and Hitomi
from Escaflowne the Movie.
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