"If you really wanted to help me then why the hell didn't you
ask first?" I
complained, running my hand through Willow's short red hair.
My short red
hair, now.
"Don't you think I would have tried to ask you first if I'd though
you'd
have accepted my help?" Willow replied tearfully in my deeper
baritone.
Hearing my voice coming from my mouth, saying her words was
unnerving. It
was like being in an episode of the Twilight Zone ala Sunnydale.
I exhaled in exasperation, taking pleasure in the passage of
breath through
my lungs. Despite our predicament, it felt good. Damn good.
I held door
to my office open for her. She brushed by me, leaving a trail
of water on
my new hardwood floors.
Another burst of irritation hit me. Cordelia badgered me for
months to
install new floors. It would be a perfect topper to an already
miserable
day if a weeping, sopping Willow caused them to buckle.
We took the elevator down to the lower level, where I live. Fortunately,
Cordelia was gone for the weekend, gone to visit her impoverished
parents.
And Doyle...Doyle was gone forever. We had the whole place to
ourselves,
Willow and I, which was good cause this was the most embarrassing
thing that
had ever happened to me.
Willow dripped her way across my living area and into the kitchen.
She
seemed intent upon not leaving a square inch of dry floor. In
perfect
fairness, I was soaking wet too. Both of us were. It was pouring
outside
and we had walked over two miles in the rain after Willow made
me wreck my
car.
My car. Grr... Grr...another sore spot.
"I mean, you're such an dunderhead sometimes," Willow continued.
"Who knows
what you might have done if I had explained the blessing to
you." She
turned to me, tears welling up in her--my--dark brown eyes.
She sniffled,
loudly, and wiped her runny nose on the sleeve of my expensive
black leather
trench.
"I am not a dunderhead!" I exploded. My voice rose steadily with
my new
feminine pitch. Hers, mine, mine, hers... My God, this is driving
me nuts.
"You are!" Willow stomped her foot and changed to game face.
"You are the
world's worst dunderhead in the history of the world and I am
so fed up with
your selfish, egotistical, arrogant MALE ways!"
My own eyes glared golden menace my way and a surge of panic
swept me. Her
control over my demonic half was tenacious at best. "Um, Willow,"
I said,
holding up placating hands. "Honey, please calm down."
"I'm not your honey!" she howled. I began to fear for my life.
Suddenly, I
was aware of how big and intimidating I am up close, especially
to the
slighter female form. She moved forward with a menacing threat
and I
retreated. Oh God! Was I about to be done in by my own fangs?
It would be
the ultimate irony to end this way.
"You MEN! You're all the same!" She shook her head and her eyes
glowed
fiercely. "Leaving and thinking that you know what's best and
leaving and
not caring about anyone else but yourself!" She grabbed my upper
arms.
"Willow!" I interrupted in desperation. "I'm not Oz!"
She stopped and blinked. Realization and then shame dawned in
her eyes.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, staring at her hands gripping my arms with
punishing
force. "Oh!" She let go, regarding her hands with horror, as
if they were
the possessed demon hands from the god-awful movie last year.
She moaned. I felt sorry for her. Our body switch seemed to be
harder on
her than it was on me. After all, I had gotten the better deal
by a long
shot. Tentatively, I tried putting my arms around her. It was
harder than
it sounds, considering that she now towered over me. I settled
for hugging
her waist.
"AngelIdon'tknowwhattodo.I'mSOOOOOsorry," she whimpered. Her
paw-like hands
patted my back with sad futility. Good grief but I have big
hands. Some of
my anger with her fled in the face of her obvious contrition.
"Willow, it's OK," I assured her, "Everything is gonna be fine."
I wished
that I could believe it but the platitude sounded good. "Tell
me about the
spell and maybe I can find a way to undo this."
Willow sniffled again, peering at me with red-rimmed yellow eyes.
I wished
that she would revert back to her human mask but there was no
explaining how
to undertake the transformation and I did not want to make her
self-conscious.
Without saying a word, she reached into her pocket and extracted
my half of
Mitzpah she had given me earlier as a gift. I had stuffed it
into my pocket
and promptly forgotten about it in the confusion following our
body swap and
the subsequent traffic accident.
"This was supposed to anchor your soul so you and Buffy could
be happy
together without you going bye-bye." She sniffed. "I must've
gotten the
incantation wrong."
A light went on in my head as I stared at the small gold medallion.
I
reached out and took it from her, squinting at the inscription.
It was not
the standard "friends-parted-yadayadayada".
"This is Gaelic!" I exclaimed.
"Right," Willow gave me a drunken nod. "It had to be in your
native tongue
for the spell to work."
"Souls exchanged in friendship, made permanent for all time," I read aloud.
"Oops," Willow muttered, frowning. "I must have used the wrong
verb.
That's supposed to say, 'Soul gifted in friendship, made permanent
for all
time'."
"Oops," I parroted with extreme sarcasm. It was not lost on Willow,
who
looked at me with wide, hurt eyes.
"It's the thought that counts," she defended.
I ground my teeth. Maybe later I would be able to objectively
appreciate
her charitable sentiment, but at the moment I was two stages
short of
blowing a fuse.
"Never mind that now. I'm gonna need you to show me the exact
spell you
used, including all of the components, if we're gonna find a
way to undo
this."
"OK," she agreed readily enough.
"First of all, let's get out of these wet clothes," I ordered.
In
demonstration, I began to shed my sopping socks and shoes.
"Eeeiiikkk!" Willow shrieked as I began to unbutton my blouse.
I jumped
sky-high. "Don't you dare take my clothes off!"
I stared at her shaking finger in frustration. "Willow, I'm freezing!
And
it's not like I haven't seen you naked..." I swallowed the 'before'
but it
was too late.
"Since when have you seen me naked?" She stuck her hands on her
hips and
her flat, broad chest jutted out in the silliest manner imaginable.
She
glared at me.
I opened my mouth, caught dead to rights and then shut it again.
No point
in compounding one sin with self-incrimination. If vampires
have any rights
under the Fifth, then I plead...except that I am not a vampire
anymore.
"OH!" Willow stared. My face must have been an artwork in guilt.
"You
spied on me, didn't you?"
"I was soulless at the time," I excused. Oops, Angel shut your
trap now
before... Too late!
Without another word, Willow spun on her heel and marched off
toward my
bedroom. She slammed the bedroom door shut behind her. My bedroom.
I followed her over to the door, leaving the soaking wet clothes
upon my
borrowed body. So what if I was shivering up a storm! So what
if my body
got sick! That would show her!
Ack! It had already begun! Two hours in this body and already
it was
befuddling my sense of logic! I hurried over to the kitchen
and removed my
clothes, gratefully wrapping myself in a fleece throw Cordy
gave me. She
said it was "festive".
I will admit to sneaking a quick peak. For once, I regretted
my aversion to
mirrors. Nice, very nice. Willow has great tits...soft, firm,
full. The
temptation to play with them was great but I could only imagine
her reaction
if she came out and caught me in the act.
I sat down and waited. She was in there forever. The longer I
sat there,
the more worried I got. Finally, I got up and went over to the
door. I
knocked.
"Willow?"