Angel awoke, and listened for whatever had woken him up. Then he heard
it,
giggling coming from Willow's room at the end of the hall. Softly spoken
words and more laughter reached his ears and he smiled. 'I wonder what
they're talking about?'
Rolling over, Angel glanced at the clock. 3:47pm. He hadn't slept that
late
in ages! Staring blankly at the ceiling, he weighed his options. Warm,
comfy bed or cold, hard floor. Damn. 'Floor it is.'
Angel slid out of bed, flinching slightly when his sensitive feet met
the
cold floor. As he moved closer to the door, Angel could make out bits
and
pieces of the conversation between Willow and Sydney.
"...is Xander...so cute...a goof..."
"Here's a picture of...mom always said...good memories..."
"Who's that? Looks...you."
"Oh that's...we're twins. That's...six years old. Isn't it odd...blonde
and...not?"
"They must be looking at pictures," Angel murmured, smiling, and went
to
take a shower.
*****
Willow was laughing so hard she was nearly in tears, "Are you serious?
You
guys _actually_ did that to your science teacher? That's so cruel!"
Sydney grinned evilly, "Yeah, we were evil little kids! Me and my brother
were so close."
"What happened?"
"We...well, we grew apart after our parents died. He moved to Europe
for
school and I moved to LA." Sydney smiled sadly, "I miss him."
"Were you close with your parents?"
"Not really. They kinda left us alone a lot, so we never really knew them."
Willow raised her eyebrows, "Another thing in common! My parents are
never
here, they're always off somewhere for conferences, etc. But, I also
never
had a sibling to spend the lonely hours with. The closest people I
had were
Xander and Jesse."
"Jesse? Who's Jesse?"
"Oh, he died a long time ago. He was mine and Xander's best friend since
I
can remember. We all grew up in Sunnydale together." Willow sighed.
"Gee, this conversation has gotten depressing. Let's go make something
really chocolatey!" Sydney bounced off Willow's bed and dragged the
redhead
out of the room.
*****
"So, Sydney, what other special abilities do you possess?" Willow asked,
her mouth full of double-chocolate-fudge brownie.
Sydney gave a crooked smile and shrugged, "I haven't really discovered
all
of them yet, and the only way that happens is by accident. Like the
magic
signature thing? I came across that ability while chasing you."
Willow's eyebrows rose, "Weird. But, last night you said something about
my
signature being almost Sentra...what did you mean by that?"
Sydney shrugged again, uncomfortably this time, "The patterns in your
signature were unique, like a Sentra's. Every other magical being has
a
signature that relates to all other signatures. Sentras are the only
ones
who don't relate to any other being, not even other Sentras."
"So are you saying I'm a Sentra?"
"No, but it is possible," Sydney cast a glance at Willow, who had turned
pale, "I'm sorry, I didn't want to even go there but you have a right
to
know who and what you are, right?"
Willow swallowed, "Yeah, you're right. But there's the chance I'm not
right?"
"It's definitely a possibility."
"Is there any way to be sure of it? How did you know you were a Sentra?"
Willow asked.
"I just knew. My mother was one and so was my grandmother, so it was
natural that I'd be one." Sydney grabbed another brownie and sat down
at
the table across from Willow.
"Does it only run in women?"
"No, but it runs in one gender for every family that it affects. Did
that
make sense?"
"Not really but I understand, sort of. I wonder if there's a spell or
something to find out if I'm a Sentra or not...we could look?" Willow
jumped up from the table.
"So, you'd be okay if you were?" Sydney asked carefully, "Not everyone
would be so easygoing about finding out they're a demon."
"Well, as long as I'm not evil. Am I evil? Are you evil?" Willow bit
her
lip.
Sydney giggled, "Not as far as I know."
Willow relaxed slightly, "Well, that's good." She frowned, "Where's Angel?"
"Sleeping?"
"I heard him get up, so he must still be in the shower. Geez, waste
all the
water much?" Willow smirked.
"Hey! I needed to take a shower!" Sydney made a face. Willow's giggles
turned into laughter as Sydney ran down the hall to bang on the bathroom
door.