PART: Story 5 in the series.
RATING: R
DISCLAIMER: Joss, not I. No infringement implied.
DISTRIBUTION: Charity, FoF, MY WEBSITE!!
FEEDBACK: If you love me.
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"Well, it's better," Willow said to Xander on the phone. Cordelia and Doyle stopped chatting and started eavesdropping and Angel leaned towards the open door to hear every word. She'd been home from what Cordelia delicately called the "looney bin" for three days and this was the first time she'd placed a call to Sunnydale.
"Yeah, I have a real bed now, and Angel isn't mean to me on the outside anymore… yeah, he still hates the bond, and can you blame him?… no, I'm fine. No more death stuff… school is fine. I only missed a few weeks and it won't take me long to catch up 'cause I have a lot of free time… New? Well, Doyle had a Vision about a water buffalo, but it turned out to be nothing… now we're trying to locate a Fear demon. Pretty nasty stuff. Hey, that reminds me, does Giles have a copy of the Mew files? No, no rush. But Angel has to be the one to stop the guy and it sounds really creepy… yeah, just have him send it along… no, I'm not trying to avoid the subject, Xander, I'm okay, really… I love you too… thanks for the twinkies, they sped up my recovery, I swear. Hug Buffy for me, okay? Okay. Bye!"
Willow sighed when the phone rested in the cradle and looked up at her new community with watery eyes.
"I miss him," she confessed. "I might cry."
"That would be just fine," Cordelia said a little too brightly. "I bought a box of kleenex for every room."
Willow laughed instead and wiped the traces of tears away with her hand. They still walked on eggshells and spouted off textbook encouraging things. She thought she might have spotted a copy of a "chicken soup" book in Cordelia's carry-all.
"Giles will fax any pertinent information over to us," Willow informed Angel, who hovered in the doorway with the rest of them. He nodded by way of thanks and sipped his mug of blood.
Then the day continued, following a predictable pattern. Doyle procrastinated and then left in search of a good wager while Cordelia did everything but file the new case folders. Willow worked on a paper on her laptop while Angel handled phones and researched the latest evil they had to face. Just a normal day at the office.
"Here's something," he announced after dinner, Chinese take out with an extra order of crab rangoon. "The creatures of Fear have many different manifestations. They're also cousin to the race of demon called "Mora," a fierce mercenary race who stay close to salt water."
"Hey, isn't that the demon you killed that time you slept with Buffy and then turned back time so the day never happened?" Cordelia pointed out, then opened her fortune cookie. "You will receive an unexpected financial windfall. Neat! Willow, what did you get?"
"The day you what?!" Willow said to Angel.
"Oops. Is that not a sharing thing?" Cordelia asked. "'Cause Doyle didn't mention that part."
"No, it's all right," Angel said, and opened his fortune cookie but left the powdery slip of paper unread. Willow folded her hands and waited for the story. "I fought with a demon and absorbed some of his regenerative blood, which made me human, a gift from the PTB. Buffy and I… we shared a whole day together but in order to keep her safe and thwart an upcoming evil, I went to the Oracles and made them turn the clock back. Only I kept the memories."
"And now you're sometimes human. I guess that's a recurring theme with the PTB, huh."
"I have no idea how they work, "Angel said, exasperated. "If I'm human, why can't it be with Buffy? At least then I'd be able to-never mind. Sorry."
"No, say it, it's okay. I want to know what you're thinking. I can handle it."
"At least I'd be able to fully be with her, sexually, emotionally, and spiritually. I can't stand the fact that she's in Sunnydale moving on with her life while I sit in LA refusing to move on with mine."
"Well, Mr. Pity, you can start moving on by reading your fortune. How can you just let it sit there?!" Cordelia whined. She tossed her curls over her shoulder and reached for his fortune. "'You will face a challenge.' Oh, that's nice and specific."
"Mine says, 'Make every romantic effort this week.'" Willow batted her eyelashes at Angel and pretended to look at him adoringly. He smiled and started to clear the table.
"Ever add the phrase "in bed" to the end of your fortune cookie?" Cordelia whispered conspiratorially to Willow once Angel was out of earshot. Willow grinned and nodded. "Maybe Angel will face a challenge "in bed." Maybe it'll be you!"
"Oh, for goodness sakes, Cordelia, the man barely tolerates me and is in love with my best friend. Besides, your theory has you gaining money in bed. Pretty unlikely."
"Damn straight," Cordelia announced as Angel came back into the room.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Oh, just that Cordelia's not a prostitute," Willow said matter-of-factly. Angel let that absurd change in conversation go. The path of logic twisted frequently with Willow in the room.
Their happy dinner party was interrupted by Doyle, who rushed into the room and skidded to a stop in front of Angel, gasping for breath. The air became immediately charged with tension and Willow could feel the adrenaline start to rush through Angel's veins. They shared a glance. It wasn't easy knowing the other's feelings, but the nicer he was to her, the more the bond grew and took shape into something alive and real.
Doyle caught his breath and managed to blurt out his news.
"I saw the demon."
End Part 1
"The Fear Demon?" Angel asked, in full business mode. Doyle nodded and slammed the rickety door shut behind him, locking it against the world and dragging a chair in front of it.
"Scariest bugger this side of Sunset. Looks like a human, casual dress, but he has red eyes. Glowing, pulsating, beady little red eyes." Cordelia made a note of the observation on a post-it and patiently waited for other instructions involving slime or pustules or other distinctive marks, but Doyle had already moved on. She sighed, patience evaporated. They'd never get a database of monsters completed if every week brought a new hairy evil to slay and the men couldn't be more specific!
"Did you see how he works? Where were you?" Angel was putting on his long, flowing black coat and trying to get information out of his seriously spooked friend.
"Yeah, down the pub. I think he's tracking ya. He looked into a guy's eyes and the man starts screaming like a little girl, then runs outside and throws himself in front of a pickup truck. Man, that was gory."
"Why would he be tracking Angel?" Cordelia wanted to know.
"Because Angel has something the Fear demon wants. He's acting out of jealousy," Doyle explained.
"Acting out?" Willow scoffed. "What is he, thirteen?"
"Uh, yeah, actually. Maybe a little older. Definitely adolescent and definitely pissed off."
"Okay, hold on," Cordelia said, holding up one perfectly manicured hand for emphasis. "Angel's going to go off and kill some snot-nosed little brat? Can he do that?"
"Cordelia, a Fear demon isn't a human, he's a- a demon and this one is particularly nasty. I don't even know how he got into the bar in the first place. I ducked out the back and ran all the way home." Doyle ducked his head, a little ashamed of his cowardice, but Angel saw that and shook his head, spoke quietly.
"You did the right thing, Doyle. What do you think he wants?"
"He wants Willow. Immortal girl with red hair? Very precious stuff in the demon realm. Might fetch a pretty price in the Orient."
"Oh, please, it's not even her real hair color!"
"He's killing innocent people because he has a crush on me? I have a stalker?!" Willow screeched.
"Not all it's cracked up to be, is it?" Cordelia pointed out.
"Look, Doyle, how does it know about Willow in the first place? She hasn't done anything except go to school and come right back home." Angel paced the floor, ran a hand through his spiky dark hair, and avoided looking at Willow. He could sense her fear and knew with a sinking feeling of dread that the demon would sniff it out sooner or later and their sanctuary would be violated.
"Yeah, except for that brief interlude where she wanted to kill herself and stayed in the hospital for two weeks while y'went out every night and killed more demons in a 20 mile radius than a Gremlin on crack," Doyle said. Willow caught Angel's eyes this time. She hadn't known about that. "Word got out a crazed vamp was roaming the streets on a rampage. Everyone thought it was Richard the Fine, but..."
"Ha! Richard the Fine was dusted twelve years ago in a strip club outside Tucson. Don't tell me his rep is still alive!" Angel said, sounding a little put out.
"Okay, uh, can we get back to the Angel wreaking havoc part? What?" Willow finally spoke.
"Anyway, teenagers sometimes have a better sense of motives than we give them credit for and a Fear demon did his homework and decided he'd relieve you of your life partner."
"Still not getting the havoc thing," Willow repeated.
Angel moved the chair out of the way and opened the door. He held out his hand to her and beckoned with his fingers a little when she didn't automatically take his hand.
"Where are you going?!" Cordelia demanded. "Doyle, he's crazy again."
"We're gonna find him before he finds us. There's only one way to stop a Fear demon and that is to look him in the eye and not be afraid of what you see. If he comes here, the whole world will know where I live and work and have my being and I'm not giving up my privacy."
"You're gonna sacrifice Willow to keep your stupid privacy?"
"Look, no one's sacrificing anything!" Angel shouted. Cordelia fell silent and Doyle, who was about to speak, closed his mouth. "We will take the fight to him. You two stay here and keep everything locked up. Our bond is growing every day, right Willow? So we can just call his bluff and he'll slink away and none of us will suffer indigestion."
"Oh, 'cause that would be a hardship," Willow said sarcastically, putting her hand in his.
"Don't you trust me?" Angel asked as they strode towards the outside world, making her skip a little to keep up with his pace. Willow laughed bitterly in response and a little muscle moved in Angel's jaw.
That hurt.
End Part 2
Angel and Willow walked hand in hand down Carillo street past the nameless pub. They followed the screams and sirens until it was apparent that they themselves were being followed, at which point Angel stopped the harried pace he'd set and bent down to whisper in Willow's ear. His breath tickled the hair behind her ears, his voice was silky and quiet, his heart was beating a mile a minute.
"He's here."
Willow swallowed, wishing her mouth wasn't so dry, and turned to face the Fear demon that now stood two feet from her with an outstretched hand. He was a few inches taller than her with curly brown hair and a sweet face, dressed in black jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. He reminded her a little bit of Jonathon from high school, except for the evil demon part.
"It's a little late for a lover's walk, don't you think, Willow?" he said. His eyes were the red of a twitching white mouse but they did not glow and pulsate like Doyle described.
"Angel's not my lover," Willow said. Her voice echoed back to her a few seconds later, rattling around in her brain and sounding very far away.
"But he will be if you don't come with me."
"I'm not going to stand here in the middle of the street and argue with a Fear demon!" she said exasperatedly. Bracing herself, she bravely put her chin in the air. "Do your worst and let's get it over with, okay?"
Instantly, his eyes lit up and pierced her soul to the very shaky core of its existence. More probing than the maelstorm minus the pain, Willow felt his creepy little hands reaching for her most precious memories and turning them upside down like he was tearing a room apart to find a hidden stash of drugs. After a moment she let herself be drawn into his hypnotic gaze, dimly aware that Angel's arms had come around her from the back to restrain her in case she decided to choose the fate of the unfortunate man who now lay squashed underneath a truck outside the bar.
The vision the Fear demon tempted her with was wholly erotic and Willow could not understand why it would be scary. The love scene played like a movie with expert editing and a soundtrack, devoid of smells and awkward movements. She saw a bed, slippery satin sheets, and a barrage of candles to light the room. Strong hands lifted her, caressed her, stroked every inch of her body before coming to rest on either side of her head. He went slowly, taking his time to build her up to a fever pitch, making sure she would be completely satisfied.
Angel watched the Fear demon give Willow some type of scary scene he wasn't privy to and wanted to know what it was. Her heart wasn't racing as fast as he thought it would, and her breathing was shallow, more excited than scared. Underneath the confines of his embrace she writhed, gripping his forearms so tightly he felt the pain under layers of coat and clothing. The moan that escaped her lips was decidedly *not* a sound of fear or pain.
Willow saw the face of her lover was Oz and smiled, reaching up to touch the stubble on his face, only to discover that it wasn't Oz at all, it was Xander. Then the Fear Demon. Then Giles, of all people, and lastly, Angel in his vampire face. That frightened her a little, but what scared her were the words that came out of his mouth. She could barely hear him, it sounded like he was underwater, but she could still read his lips. He called out Buffy's name in the throes of passion, over and over again, purposefully doing so while looking into Willow's eyes so that there could be no doubt he knew who he was with. And when it was all over, Angel spent and Willow left wanting, he quickly got up and carelessly threw a blanket over her, laughing out his thanks and leaving a one dollar bill on the night table. Then Willow heard his next sentence a little more clearly, some nonsense about making sure she didn't forget to pay the electric bill this month since she forgot the month before, and couldn't she remember simple things after 50 years of bonded bliss?
"No!" she screamed, and started to struggle in earnest. Angel held on tightly. "No! That's not the future!"
"Yes it is," the Fear demon insisted, reaching forward to touch her hair. She kicked him in the shin and he danced away, hopping on one foot a little. "Ow! What'd you do that for?"
His plaintive whine, which sounded like a typical immature guy, wrecked her control and she broke free of Angel's hold with newfound strength and got right in the Fear demon's face. If he'd tried to hunt her down before the whole suicide thing he might have won. But what was there left for her to fear? She'd already lost her friends and her family, lost any chance to fall in love and live any semblance of the American dream, and she couldn't be more alone. Okay, she could be diseased or homeless or destitute, but those things paled in comparison to fighting a 50 foot demon snake or nearly getting sucked into a muddy grave.
"Can you really tell the future?" she demanded, feeling Angel's touch at the small of her back, letting her know she had back-up. He needn't have bothered. She could feel him in the back of her mind and knew he thought that challenging a Fear demon was a very, very bad idea.
He folded his arms and smiled. "Was it good for you?"
"Listen, you pimply, short, sorry excuse for a fear demon. You targeted the wrong red-head. I have nothing left to fear except what you showed me and I'd take that any day over spending eternity with the likes of you."
"Are you crazy?" the kid screeched, his voice cracking.
"No, not since last Thursday."
"You'd choose a lifetime of that over the undying love and devotion I could give you?" He didn't see the logic in that and Willow almost felt bad for him. She also sensed a little bit of danger- here she was dumping a force that could go out and kill the entire city without being caught.
"I'd rather whore myself out to Angel forever than spend one single night with you," she said clearly, hearing Angel's sharp intake of breath. A long, awkward pause fell between them and then she tried a different tactic. "Look, I'm sorry. The vision was really scary."
The kid sniffled and turned away to wipe his eyes, then slumped against a lamppost and scuffed the curb with his sneaker.
"Really?"
"Mind numbing. But you shouldn't go around with that kind of smut in your head," she scolded. "It's just not right."
"Okay, well what if Angel wasn't in the picture? Then would you go out with me?" he persisted.
Willow's smile soothed his rejected heart but she shook her head.
"Sorry, I'm a one-woman kind of PTB prisoner."
The Fear demon stood up straight and looked her right in the eye, devoid of the magic stare.
"It's not a prison, it's a gift," he said, as though he was reciting a quote drilled into him from birth. Willow and Angel groaned in unison, recalling Anya's similar insistence. "Seriously, don't let the PTB hear you say that. It's a great honor. I only thought that since it wasn't going so well, you know, with the whole bonding thing, that you might want to have an affair with a guy who actually cares about you."
"You don't even know me," Willow said gently. "Look, Fear Demon…"
"Karl."
"Karl, it's nice that you admire me, but killing innocent people is not the way to get a girls' affection. Well, mortal girls, anyway. I'm sure there are plenty of girls your age who have stuff in common with you who would love to go out with you. You just have to have confidence in yourself, not your ability to, uh, scare people out of their minds."
"I thought girls liked to be scared. You know, that Blair Witch thing and the whole 'Scream' franchise. And you had red hair and don't like your mate, so I thought I could step in and be your savior."
"That's sweet, Karl, and I'm flattered," Willow assured him, simultaneously thinking how odd it was to be having this warped conversation while the scent of smoke reached her nostrils from a fire two blocks away and sirens and screams still filled the night, all the result of the adolescent boy in front of her. "But I'm not the one for you. I promise, you'll fall in love and it will be everything you want. It just won't be with me."
He sighed and held out his hand.
"Okay, friends?"
Willow shook his hand and then stepped aside so he could shake Angel's hand as well.
"Look, Angel, no hard feelings, okay? I thought you had cast her off. My mistake."
Angel was too amused and too shocked to say anything.
"Karl, do you know the death count for tonight?" Willow asked sternly.
"I don't care. You rejected me. Now I have to back to the fifteenth dimension and show up at the dance without a mortal date. It's so not fair."
"I'm sorry you see it like that, Karl, but maybe it's just as well. You did do a lot of damage up here on earth tonight."
"Up here? Angel, you didn't explain dimensions to her? Boy, are you far behind! Well, nice not screwing with you, Willow. See you later!"
"Hopefully not!" she cheerfully called after his retreating form, relaxing against Angel in relief. "Well, that was an interesting night. And hey, at least somebody thinks I'm cute."
"Willow…"
"Okay, innocent people died and I'm getting an ego boost. Sorta tips the scales, right?"
"Just a little," Angel said, and put his arm around her as they started walking back to the apartment. After a few minutes of silence, he voiced the opinion that they got away too easy, but Willow assured him everything was fine.
"I saw this a lot in high school. Guys will do just about anything to let a girl know he wants to steal her away from her less-than-attentive guy and whisk her away to a different dimension. It's typical for that age group."
Angel just said, "Oh." And kept walking, but Willow knew that above her head, he was smiling.
That made it a good night.