Title: Awareness
Author: Malana
Email: Malana@mac.com
Series: Truth, Justice, and the American Way
Pairing: Willow/Clark Kent
Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville or Buffy
Note: This is modeled after the style of Jinni's many When I Woke Up series. The story is written with her permission. This is a response to a challenge by Charley. Jinni is answering the Challenge with a Lex pairing, I'm doing it with Clark.
Spoilers: Through Chosen for Buffy. In Smallville anything up to The Truth is fair game. Things go AU near the end of season 3

My head hurts so much that I don't even want to open my eyes.

I'm just going to lie here with my eyes closed, and try to remember what I did last night. From the pounding of my head and the queasy feeling in my stomach, I'm assuming I did a lot of drinking.

Drinking.

That's right. Buffy, Xander and I decided to go to Vegas. We were rewarding ourselves, after the battle with the First Evil. We decided after everything that we had been through, we deserved a vacation. Buffy was having fun playing the slot machines. And Xander had camped-out in front of the black-jack table. I'm not too into gambling. So I spent most of my time last night in the casino bar.

The bartender made a really good rum-and-coke. I must have had quite a few of them. I'm not normally a big drinker. But I was having fun. Kennedy and I had just broken up a few weeks ago, after a huge fight. I was drinking my troubles away, 'cause I'm stupid like that.

I feel movement beside me and, despite the headache, my eyes fly open. There is someone else in my hotel room. Actually, as I look around, I don't think this is my hotel room. I turn to look beside me, hoping that I just imagined the movement. No such luck. There is someone is bed beside me. A male someone.

Oh my god. I slept with a guy!

Bits of memory come flittering back in my head. Hanging out in the bar led to a lot of drinking, drinking led to dancing, and apparently dancing led to sleeping with the guy who is now sleeping next to me.

He's handsome. I have to give him that. Even with his hair mussed from sleep, he's pretty hot. But he's also a he. I haven't even been attracted to a guy in a long time, much less slept with one. Sure, since Kennedy and I broke-up I haven't been involved with any girls either, but I'm still weirded out by this whole thing.

He also looks kind of young. He must be at least 21, after all, he was having a busy time in the bar last night too. But he looks like a teenager. I wonder what his name is. As much as I try to remember, I just can't. Most of the night is a blank. Besides getting pretty cozy with this guy on the dance floor, I can't remember much at all.

Buffy and Xander are never going to forget this. I'm not the one-night stand type. I'm never going to live this down. Buffy will smirk, and Xander will make crass comments.

I just want to die.

I cover my face with my hands, and that's when I see it. There is a ring on my finger. Specifically, there is a simple gold band on the ring finger of my left hand.

This has got to be a joke. I...I can't have gotten married. I was drunk, yes. But I couldn't have been that drunk. No. It's just a ring. It doesn't mean that I actually got married. It's just some sort of weird coincidence or something.

I sit up in bed, and as I do, something on the nightstand catches my eye. There is some sort of paper with my name on it. Why is there a piece of paper with my name on it? I take a closer look, and I can't breathe.

It's a marriage certificate.

I did it. I actually was so stupidly drunk that I went and married a complete stranger. What have you gotten yourself into Willow Rosenberg? Wait, not Rosenberg anymore. I take another look at the certificate. Kent.

My name is Willow Kent.