This was the first piece of Buffyfic I let out into the wild. Another LJ Flashfic, the pairing was chosen by the recipient. This dark tone is my favorite to write. I love reading other people's funny stories, but just don't have the hang of writing them myself. I had trouble with the pairing at first, and ended up re-watching all the Willow/Angel scenes I had on DVD. I always thought it was a shame that Vamp!Willow never got to meet Angelus, so I thought I'd explore shades of that here. Vamp!Willow doesn't acvtually show up, but I wanted Willow to be thinking about her.
It's a bit AU from Buffy Season 7, but I think it fits nicely into the Angelverse.
As part of the Flashfic Challenge, the story was limited to 1000 words. I cheated with 1030.
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Willow stands at the bottom of the stairs, knowing who she will find there,
and knowing she has nothing to offer him. The soul, after all, is for Angel,
not Angelus.
If she worries about his power, he will use it on her. So she thinks of his
weaknesses instead.
A short conversation with her evil twin had cast light on the alternate lives
of her friends and companions. Angel had been so intimidating when she first
met him; it was hard to reconcile him with the Puppy chained up in the Master's
cellar. Not so hard though, now, to understand the fun she apparently had torturing
him. Riding him. Biting him.
She never told anyone about the Puppy, it would have been rude. Besides, she
didn't like to think of him that way. Pathetic. Weak. Dominated. Buffy wouldn't
have been interested in that kind of Angel, and Willow certainly wouldn't have
wasted any nights thinking about him.
If their Angel had been weak, Willow thinks she would have kept dreaming of
Xander, instead of looking for a wicked creature of her own to tame. But Willow
couldn't tame Oz, just as Buffy didn't have what was needed to hold Angel.
Willow couldn't domesticate her beast, so she would became it instead. Let the
others worry about taming her for a change.
Now here they are. The two of them. Another cage. Another cellar. Angel(us)
is chained, and she gets to see just what she can do with him. Play with Puppy
a bit.
They certainly have him trussed up well enough; those brown eyes are glaring
at her with hate. Resentment. Hunger. You don't like to see wild things chained
up like that. Half the work already done for you. No fun there...
No weakness on the surface, she'll have to dig for it.
The cameras are rolling, but the Hyperion security system won't see anything
Willow doesn't want it to see. She smiles benevolently as she wraps her hands
around the cold metal bars on the door. Just a small clinking noise, and the
rather expensive locks that Gunn and Wesley went to so much trouble to install
fall open. There are only a few chains between them now, plus one battered soul.
His, after all, is still missing.
Angelus leans forward, as if to get a better smell of her. Here, in front of
his senses, he can tell she is somewhat dustier than when they last met. Not
so cottony-spring fresh. More autumn now. A little death in the air.
He won't worry about her weaknesses; it's her power that concerns him.
Angelus sees her potential, and her deadliness. And he would have to be brain
dead to forget the tight leather and corset she wore when her alter-ego terrorized
the Bronze not so very long ago. He sees some of that vampiric confidence in
her now, as though she will always keep part of that demon close to her heart.
He remembers one of the very few actual conversations he had with Spike at the
dusty old mansion. Willow, Spike had insisted, was one of the few Sunnyhellians
worth turning, and given the chance he would prove he was right. Angel always
wondered why he hadn't. Angelus was just glad Spike had left her for him to
taste. The shy little geekette would have been so very grateful to be delivered
from a life of the mundane.
Too late now. Shy, weak little Willow has flown the nest. Elegant and confident,
she stands before him with the indifferent manner of someone who just doesn't
care very much about his opinion. She runs her hand up the chain to his wrist,
then up his arm to his chest, touching lightly on his throat.
He isn't sure why he lets her do it. Without biting her, that is. But Angelus
won't play the victim, and he sizes her up as he makes his move.
The chains won't hold him, the door is open, and she is, after all, just a little
girl.
A little girl who can turn him back into that imbecile who wears the wrong clothes,
goes to the wrong concerts and always always makes the wrong choice about what's
for dinner. But only if she can find his soul. Wherever the hell that may be.
The move he makes is sudden, deadly, and guaranteed to best virtually anyone.
Excluding, apparently, a red-headed witch. The speed and fury of the force that
plasters him against the back wall overwhelms any brain and body control he
has.
And he finds himself on the floor. Looking up at the bitch.
"Isn't that fun, Puppy? " She stands over him, half-heartedly kicking at one
of his chains before resting a foot on his shoulder. If he still had to breathe,
he would be gasping for air right now.
"Do you know what I did last year?"
He surmises, correctly, that the question is rhetorical.
"I raised a girl from the dead. I made everyone forget who they were. I beat
the living shit out of every friend I had, and I ripped the skin off a living
man. In one piece. While I laughed. And if I decide to let you get up and play
with me, it'll be on my terms."
He's still too stunned to think of anything to say to that, and she is back
outside his cage before he can regain his footing. The locks are back on, too.
She rests her chin on one of the cross-bars.
"Angel is just no fun, you know, but I still have to bring him back." She contemplates
this for a moment, somewhat sadly. "We good guys always have to do the right
thing - shame, really."
He is intrigued now, and in that moment their eyes meet.
"..but who says I have to do it, you know - right now..."
Something crucial is still missing, after all.
His smirk is defiantly Capital E Evil. She laughs, and gives him a flash of
the old Willow grin before heading back towards the stairs. She glances back,
briefly.
There's still time, yet.
fin