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DISCLAIMER: Not mine and never will be.
SUMMARY: G. Willow/Spike. She is trying to run and he is too stubborn to let her.
WORDCOUNT: 802
NOTES: Written for Anne, in her birthday. Happy birthday!
UNEXPECTED
by Leni
Willow would have never thought it would happen like this. Not here, in this forgotten
corner of the world. Not now, when it was so close to that date her whole mind shied from
remembering. Certainly not with him. Never with him.
And her friends had dared say she was the stubborn one? She chuckles, looking at the head
resting on her chest. Her friends had obviously known nothing. Not a big surprise,
actually.
Willow can still remember how she systematically abandoned them. They still don't suspect
a thing, the dearest owners of her heart. They think that a random letter every couple of
months and a quick phone call for birthdays and Christmas is normal. But then, it was
Willow who made sure they wouldn't think her behaviour odd. She knows them enough to
realise that if they had suspected, they would have pulled back between them. And she
can't go back. Never again. Enough of those lost years saving an ungrateful world; enough
of their half-pitying half-awed stares. Enough of being the only girl in the world. Ironic
that, she liberated Buffy from her burden just to take it herself. If she remembered how
to, Willow would laugh at the thought.
Her escape had been so gradual, so careful. She loved her friends too much to leave them
hurting and missing her. But escaped she had. On her own the world was so much bigger, the
days so much longer. Too long unless she choked them with chores. Willow had decided to
learn everything that magic books and sacred duties left aside. The exact shade of pink at
dawn, the smell of a prairie in autumn. She looked at the sky and paused enough to make
money until the next stop. Life was so peaceful, so easy.
Of course Willow should have known something would happen. That something turned out to be
a blonde vampire who recognised her hair from three blocks away and was bored enough to
run down the street screaming her name. Willow still chastises herself for not
disappearing in a flash, fragile passer-by's minds be damned.
But Spike is nothing if not lucky. He has two centuries, a mad sire and a Slayer's
complete entourage to prove it. He finally caught her and was so smooth in his greetings
that before Willow could blink, she was sitting in front of him at a coffee shop. Yes, a
coffee shop. They talked about the others and he was his blunt self exactly fourteen and a
quarter minutes into the conversation.
"What are you running from, witch?"
Willow did disappear in a flash then, let Spike take care of the tab. But apparently she
didn't cover enough space for him not to track her. Stubborn Spike, she had thought
shaking her head, he'd have to be much too bored if he decided to become her shadow.
Always trust Spike to do exactly what you don't want him to do.
Stubborn Spike, she thinks again, now threading her fingers through his short hair. It
took him three months and half a world to get her to sit down and chat again. A complete
year to keep her there until dessert. And... she tries to remember... another four months,
eight days and hundred twenty-three minutes to convince her that she was too tired from
all that running, and had he mentioned he had the perfect place for a quick crash?
Now, two years and one hour later, that perfect place has become her perfect house. She
still travels when the whim comes, swearing up and down that this quiet life is not what
she left the safety of her friends for. But she always returns. She’s been here long
enough to add an address to those scarce letters, enough to be unable to avoid her
friends’ surprise visit on her birthday. Dawn had hugged her before presenting her
with the fragile vase Giles had sent, then proceeded to needle Spike into showing her
around. Xander had admired the structure of her house, and then his jaw had promptly hit
the floor when he realised that there was only one guest room and Spike wasn't occupying
it. Buffy had just laughed and gotten her drunk enough to spill the details. Spike had
been grinning smugly for the next twenty-four hours. Stupid vampiric hearing.
Willow knows this isn't the right place, an ocean and several countries away from the
place where she'd grown up. Not the right timing either, but there will never be one. For
her it's always six months after that terrible date and then six months before it. As for
him... well, four years and counting after that coffee shop Spike still seems bored enough
to stay.
Stubborn Spike, he just won't give up until she stops running away.
The End
09/10/04
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