main characters: Willow, Angel
disclaimer: I do not own them
distribution: if you have permission for the previous coffee's, yes. Otherwise ask.
spoilers for S2 episode the Dark Age (with Eyghon)
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History class had left Willow full of troubled thoughts. How much of the things that she saw around her would one day be considered history, considered important? Would somebody, in the distant or not quite so distant future wish that they had been around in this time, able to live now, experience the things in her lifetime?
How much more intense would it be to have centuries to observe the changes in the world? To have seen the change from horse and carts to steam engines and cars, to have seen the beginnings of flight? To have seen how much new discoveries had changed the world? To have forever to learn and observe? Maybe Angel would know, could explain. He'd been there, had seen the world change around him.
Willow was frowning a bit as she tried to consider it. How do you ask someone what it's like to see centuries? Especially someone that's well, not quite touchy about his age, but about the reason why he could be so old? Not that Angel was old, really, but he'd been around a while, which was sort of old, but not quite the same.
"I brought you some coffee Willow."
Angel's voice dragged her back to the present, and she smiled at him. With one hand, she pulled the coffee close, the other tucking her hair behind her ear. She could feel herself blushing. "Thanks Angel."
He gave her a small smile, one that looked almost wistful. "What were you thinking about with such a serious look? This week's crisis? A crush?"
"Not exactly, although if you keep that up I will be... umm... Sort of thinking about history. Wondering what will be considered the big changes in a hundred years, and umm... I was sort of wondering what it would be like to be around for some of the major changes, like from horses to cars, and the whole flying thing, and... well, a lot of thoughts."
"Hopefully that's all hypothetical?" He looked almost as if... could Angel be worried about her?
"Promise, I wasn't planning on anything more sinister than discovering a few medical miracles to delay old age. But... we were talking today in history class about how rapidly things have changed, and it got me thinking, and... well, it would be neat to see how things changed, you know? I mean..." Her words faltered, especially since Angel did know. He'd seen things change.
"You could, if you took the time to work on it. I've seen what you can do when you have to work fast. I think you could do just about anything... Umm... maybe you'd like... I have a few... family heirlooms, we could go to my place and talk about history?"
Willow liked that idea, and so they were headed towards Angel's apartment after coffee when Buffy found them, her face pale. "We have a problem, I need you both to come to the library."
"What sort of problem?" Angel's voice was almost blank, as if all the emotions and vitality that he'd shown mere moments before were gone, banished from the presence of Buffy. It was sort of creepy.
"Giles has some sort of weird stalker, only... it seems... umm... it was a dead body." Buffy sounded very worried, and almost like she was freaking out.
Willow sighed, part of her mind feeling cheated at the chance to talk about history with Angel, someone who had actually been there, vanished. There was always some crisis thwarting plans in Sunnydale...
She found herself drafted into researching some weird tattoo from the arm of the dead man, which was just... icky. Then, she found the information at just about the time that Buffy came back all wiggy about Giles having a tattoo, the very same one that was on the dead man. And the dead man had been a college chum of their very shaken Giles. Willow had the feeling that this was awkward and only going to get worse.
Things got a bit more interesting when Xander found the picture of a younger Giles. Wearing faded jeans and a leather coat, playing a guitar in what could only be some club. Willow could almost smell the smoke in the air. "Wow... that's unexpected."
When the truth, or at least, part of the truth came tumbling out, she was shocked, but almost not surprised. Giles had a youthful rebellion... He'd played his guitar in clubs like the Beatles had done... and He'd fallen into a 'bad group' and 'dabbled in dark arts, far darker than we knew'. Giles had a few skeletons in his closets, and one of them had come out to play.
Willow just sighed, part of her thinking that it was almost predictable for the Hellmouth. Someone had something dark and spooky in their past, and it came back to try to eat them. At least it wasn't the possible end of the world... at least, she hoped not.
The idea made her shiver. What if... if Giles and Buffy had both had things from their pasts show up to cause problems, who could be next? And while she was being incredibly freaked out and nervous, how exactly did you stop a demon that had no body and could only exist on this plane if it was possessing a body? A demon that could possess a corpse if nobody alive was close enough. A demon that could possess a corpse... Hmmm.
"What made it go away before? How did you get rid of it?" Please, let there be an answer... Willow had a plan trying to take shape. If it would work, they could get rid of this Eyghon demon. And her plan hinged on Angel.