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snoggedMy dear friends...it is with great pride and great pleasure that I bring you the penultimate chapter of this tale. Hope you enjoy!
Title: Mission X (13/14)
Author: snogged
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Co. own the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I don’t.
Pairing: Willow/Riley
Word Count: 1778
Overall Rating/Warnings: FRT-13/PG-13 to FRAO/NC-17; language, angst, drama, violence, het sex, sexual innuendo.
Setting: AU! Season 6. Parts of this story come from the established canon plot lines and others are my own desire to twist things my way.
Summary: When Riley comes back to Sunnydale, he stays for a reason that’s not Buffy.
Beta: the amazing Gabrielle and the awesome![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
angelskuuipo.
Previous Chapters
Banners byrua1412: One / Two
The wafting smell of the sausage and mushroom pizza that Willow had originally wanted before the sex drifted past their nostrils. If cartoons were real, Willow was quite certain that her boyfriend was seeing wavy, gray lines dancing in front of his eyes. If it wasn’t for his current state of undress, he would probably be floating out the door by now, following his hearty appetite. It was good to know that sex and serious conversation had this sort of effect on Riley. Unfortunately, she wished she could say the same for her own stomach. The prospect of having to use magic again, of keeping herself in control of her powers felt daunting and intimidating and it was tying her stomach into knots. In her experience, twisted gut feelings never yielded well to food intake.
Sure, she had done just dandy with the energy shield when the army first arrived on their doorstep. Despite feeling the familiar, intoxicating buzz of the magic coursing through her veins, she had held it together and did what she had to in order to protect Spike and Riley. But it weakened her and made her susceptible to Lazarus’s attack and the kidnapping that followed. Granted it had been nice that neither Lazarus nor General Huth held her at knife-point the way Faith had, but the experience hadn’t given her much confidence in her ability to take down the mighty sorcerer on skills alone.
But she wanted to make Riley believe his faith in her wasn’t for nothing. She wanted to make herself believe that she could do magic without falling over the edge into the dark abyss. But she couldn’t escape the lingering thoughts that had been planted in her head by Amy, the ones that had driven her to Rack, the ones that had driven her to magical madness, the ones that made her dangerous.
Except…Riley didn’t think she was dangerous. He’d just told her that not more than fifteen seconds ago and he had been so confident about his assessment.
Dag nabbit, Willow. Why can’t you just allow yourself to be pacified?
The simple answer was that she needed to be a duck. She needed to be calm, needed to breathe, needed to show Riley that he had no reason to lose faith in her. That way, he wouldn’t notice how fast her legs were paddling underneath the surface.
Riley turned his head towards her, a wisp of a smile taking over his mouth as he took in her scrunched-up facial expression. He had seen it a dozen times before and although it meant that she was still processing their intense conversation, he couldn’t help but find it endearing and adorable. He reached out to touch her hand and felt the nerves and tendons relax beneath his touch. “I’d ask what’s running through your head, but I already know the answer.” He touched his fingers to his forehead, mimicking one of those psychics that always appeared in late night infomercials. “It involves…gobs and gobs of greasy cheese…and…nutrient-lacking mushrooms.”
Willow laughed and nodded, allowing Riley to pull her off the bed so they could grab their discarded clothes from the floor. After they were both dressed, they headed out the bedroom door and down the stairs where the entire gang was waiting, including Dawn and Tara who’d come home some time after everyone had left.
From the look in their eyes, it was obvious that the time to discuss the bombshell Riley dropped prior to Willow’s rescue was going to be now. Of course, it didn’t surprise him. It wasn’t like he’d given the others time for a Q&A before they had piled into the station wagon and headed off in the direction of UC-Sunnydale. The only problem was that he had not exactly mentioned to Willow that everyone knew about them now.
Dawn flashed a wide grin at them as she bit down into a slice of pizza and glee sparkled in her eyes. Riley assumed it probably had something to do with her obtaining enough ‘big girl’ status to stay in the room for this. This was confirmed when Dawn swallowed down the chunk of food in her mouth and said: “You two are so cute together. You’re like…Willow and Tara-cute or Willow and Oz-cute. There’s a whole lot of cuteness going on.”
The sting produced by the first segment of Dawn’s off-handed comment punctured Willow’s heart. No matter how good things were with Riley, no matter how much better things with Tara were…it still hurt to be reminded of what she’d lost.
“Dawn…” Tara started, patting the teenager on the knee and offering Willow a soft, reassuring glance.
A millisecond later the lights went on in Dawn’s mind as she understood the consequences of her comments, and her lips parted slightly. “Sorry, Willow. I didn’t mean it to come out like that.”
“It’s okay, Dawnie,” Willow said. But it wasn’t enough to change the awkward silence that filled the room nor did it change her desire to have a distraction save the day. She would even be happy if Anya broke into this discussion and started talking about capitalism or boners or whatever else it was that ran through her uncensored head.
But instead of Anya, it was Spike who jumped in to redirect them, to shift their focus back to what was more important: General Huth and Lazarus.
“So we’ve got more fighting to do, yeah? Take down General Wanker once and for all?”
Buffy frowned, as if Spike had just done her a great disservice by forgetting that she’d literally pummeled the General’s face with her feet and fists a few hours ago. “Do I have to remind you of the exact way I kicked his ass three ways from Sunday?”
Spike smirked, his lips parting as if some snappy comeback was about to be unleashed from them.
“I think our bigger concern is the wizard,” Riley interrupted, not particularly interested in hearing what his nemesis had to say.
“I agree,” Buffy said. “He’s the big bad here. The one we have to worry about the most. The way I see it, though, we have our own secret weapon. We’ve got Willow.”
Despite the confidence lacing Buffy’s tone, Willow couldn’t help but feel like she’d just received a death sentence. Pitting her against Lazarus was Buffy’s way of getting back at her for dating Riley.
“Buffy, I…”
Once again, Riley interrupted, stepping in with the assist. “Buffy, while I won’t disagree with you that Willow is a powerful Wicca who’s capable of this type of mission, I do need to ensure that you’re not just saying this because we’re dating now and you’re uncomfortable with it.”
“I am not uncomfortable with it,” Buffy protested. “I am merely stating the truth. Without Willow’s witchy powers, we never would have properly defeated Adam, I never would have come back from the magical sleepy land of Catatonia, and…Angel never would have gotten his soul back.”
That was what did it. That was the proof that sealed the deal for Riley. As much as Buffy had loved him during their time together, there would always be Angel. There would always be Spike. And now, instead of running off to ease his pain in a vampire brothel, he had Willow to turn to.
Spike snorted, muttering “fuck this shit” under his breath before storming out the front door. Riley could tell Spike hadn’t gone far as the door was still propped open and the glowing red ember of Spike’s cigarette butt was well within his line of sight.
“So, are you willing to do this now?” Buffy asked, directing her penetrating stare at Willow. “You know darn well I would never send you to your death. You’re my best friend. Besides, we’re all going to help you through this.”
“If you want me to…” Tara said softly, her soft blonde locks falling in front of her eyes. “I could pop into the magic shop and pick up the ingredients.”
“And I can totally help Tara,” Dawn replied. “I’m a pro at identifying eye of newt.”
Anya, the current proprietor of the Magic Box while Giles was busy doing British-y things in England, harrumphed and folded her arms in front of her chest. “Excuse me, but you’ll both be paying me in cold, hard cash for this. I will not be giving out free samples of newt’s eye just because you’re my friends.”
“Anya,” Xander replied as he squeezed her thigh. “It’s for the good of the team.”
Anya pursed her lips, obviously frustrated by the choice being presented to her. Willow imagined that Anya was torn between the following options: forfeit and have happy but resentful sex with Xander or bicker endlessly and hopefully get angry sex later.
But whatever alternative Anya ended up picking mattered far less to her when she considered how they’d gotten to this point. In an unexpected turn of events, Tara had shown that she was okay with Willow trying magic again, which made her the first person, besides Buffy and Riley, to demonstrate her belief that Willow could, in fact, take down Lazarus. After their disheartening conversation at Xander’s wedding and the confrontation when Tara had found her canoodling with Riley, Willow never would have guessed that this was how it would go down. It meant the world to her to have Tara as a friend again.
“You think you can get us back into their headquarters? Or do you think they’ve changed the locks?” Buffy asked, bringing the conversation back to its original point.
“I think I can,” Riley said. “But I’m betting their forces will be doubled or tripled. It’s going to be a lot harder to get in.”
“Good,” Buffy replied, before turning back to Willow. “You never answered my question, Will. Are you ready for this or do you need to be reminded again of why you’re currently not baking cookies on the dark side?”
Willow inhaled sharply, allowing herself a smile at Buffy’s amusing quip as she finished processing her final thoughts on the matter. For the first time in a long time, she felt buoyed by her entire circle of friends made her think she could do this. It made her think she could beat her own insecurities right alongside her takedown of Lazarus. And in a world where they’d faced so many apocalypses and won, she imagined for one moment that the odds might even be in their favor.
“Let’s do this.”
But the moment those words were spoken; she prayed to the highest goddess in the realm that she hadn’t just agreed to back the wrong horse.
Title: Mission X (13/14)
Author: snogged
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Co. own the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I don’t.
Pairing: Willow/Riley
Word Count: 1778
Overall Rating/Warnings: FRT-13/PG-13 to FRAO/NC-17; language, angst, drama, violence, het sex, sexual innuendo.
Setting: AU! Season 6. Parts of this story come from the established canon plot lines and others are my own desire to twist things my way.
Summary: When Riley comes back to Sunnydale, he stays for a reason that’s not Buffy.
Beta: the amazing Gabrielle and the awesome
angelskuuipo.Previous Chapters
Banners by
rua1412: One / Two The wafting smell of the sausage and mushroom pizza that Willow had originally wanted before the sex drifted past their nostrils. If cartoons were real, Willow was quite certain that her boyfriend was seeing wavy, gray lines dancing in front of his eyes. If it wasn’t for his current state of undress, he would probably be floating out the door by now, following his hearty appetite. It was good to know that sex and serious conversation had this sort of effect on Riley. Unfortunately, she wished she could say the same for her own stomach. The prospect of having to use magic again, of keeping herself in control of her powers felt daunting and intimidating and it was tying her stomach into knots. In her experience, twisted gut feelings never yielded well to food intake.
Sure, she had done just dandy with the energy shield when the army first arrived on their doorstep. Despite feeling the familiar, intoxicating buzz of the magic coursing through her veins, she had held it together and did what she had to in order to protect Spike and Riley. But it weakened her and made her susceptible to Lazarus’s attack and the kidnapping that followed. Granted it had been nice that neither Lazarus nor General Huth held her at knife-point the way Faith had, but the experience hadn’t given her much confidence in her ability to take down the mighty sorcerer on skills alone.
But she wanted to make Riley believe his faith in her wasn’t for nothing. She wanted to make herself believe that she could do magic without falling over the edge into the dark abyss. But she couldn’t escape the lingering thoughts that had been planted in her head by Amy, the ones that had driven her to Rack, the ones that had driven her to magical madness, the ones that made her dangerous.
Except…Riley didn’t think she was dangerous. He’d just told her that not more than fifteen seconds ago and he had been so confident about his assessment.
Dag nabbit, Willow. Why can’t you just allow yourself to be pacified?
The simple answer was that she needed to be a duck. She needed to be calm, needed to breathe, needed to show Riley that he had no reason to lose faith in her. That way, he wouldn’t notice how fast her legs were paddling underneath the surface.
Riley turned his head towards her, a wisp of a smile taking over his mouth as he took in her scrunched-up facial expression. He had seen it a dozen times before and although it meant that she was still processing their intense conversation, he couldn’t help but find it endearing and adorable. He reached out to touch her hand and felt the nerves and tendons relax beneath his touch. “I’d ask what’s running through your head, but I already know the answer.” He touched his fingers to his forehead, mimicking one of those psychics that always appeared in late night infomercials. “It involves…gobs and gobs of greasy cheese…and…nutrient-lacking mushrooms.”
Willow laughed and nodded, allowing Riley to pull her off the bed so they could grab their discarded clothes from the floor. After they were both dressed, they headed out the bedroom door and down the stairs where the entire gang was waiting, including Dawn and Tara who’d come home some time after everyone had left.
From the look in their eyes, it was obvious that the time to discuss the bombshell Riley dropped prior to Willow’s rescue was going to be now. Of course, it didn’t surprise him. It wasn’t like he’d given the others time for a Q&A before they had piled into the station wagon and headed off in the direction of UC-Sunnydale. The only problem was that he had not exactly mentioned to Willow that everyone knew about them now.
Dawn flashed a wide grin at them as she bit down into a slice of pizza and glee sparkled in her eyes. Riley assumed it probably had something to do with her obtaining enough ‘big girl’ status to stay in the room for this. This was confirmed when Dawn swallowed down the chunk of food in her mouth and said: “You two are so cute together. You’re like…Willow and Tara-cute or Willow and Oz-cute. There’s a whole lot of cuteness going on.”
The sting produced by the first segment of Dawn’s off-handed comment punctured Willow’s heart. No matter how good things were with Riley, no matter how much better things with Tara were…it still hurt to be reminded of what she’d lost.
“Dawn…” Tara started, patting the teenager on the knee and offering Willow a soft, reassuring glance.
A millisecond later the lights went on in Dawn’s mind as she understood the consequences of her comments, and her lips parted slightly. “Sorry, Willow. I didn’t mean it to come out like that.”
“It’s okay, Dawnie,” Willow said. But it wasn’t enough to change the awkward silence that filled the room nor did it change her desire to have a distraction save the day. She would even be happy if Anya broke into this discussion and started talking about capitalism or boners or whatever else it was that ran through her uncensored head.
But instead of Anya, it was Spike who jumped in to redirect them, to shift their focus back to what was more important: General Huth and Lazarus.
“So we’ve got more fighting to do, yeah? Take down General Wanker once and for all?”
Buffy frowned, as if Spike had just done her a great disservice by forgetting that she’d literally pummeled the General’s face with her feet and fists a few hours ago. “Do I have to remind you of the exact way I kicked his ass three ways from Sunday?”
Spike smirked, his lips parting as if some snappy comeback was about to be unleashed from them.
“I think our bigger concern is the wizard,” Riley interrupted, not particularly interested in hearing what his nemesis had to say.
“I agree,” Buffy said. “He’s the big bad here. The one we have to worry about the most. The way I see it, though, we have our own secret weapon. We’ve got Willow.”
Despite the confidence lacing Buffy’s tone, Willow couldn’t help but feel like she’d just received a death sentence. Pitting her against Lazarus was Buffy’s way of getting back at her for dating Riley.
“Buffy, I…”
Once again, Riley interrupted, stepping in with the assist. “Buffy, while I won’t disagree with you that Willow is a powerful Wicca who’s capable of this type of mission, I do need to ensure that you’re not just saying this because we’re dating now and you’re uncomfortable with it.”
“I am not uncomfortable with it,” Buffy protested. “I am merely stating the truth. Without Willow’s witchy powers, we never would have properly defeated Adam, I never would have come back from the magical sleepy land of Catatonia, and…Angel never would have gotten his soul back.”
That was what did it. That was the proof that sealed the deal for Riley. As much as Buffy had loved him during their time together, there would always be Angel. There would always be Spike. And now, instead of running off to ease his pain in a vampire brothel, he had Willow to turn to.
Spike snorted, muttering “fuck this shit” under his breath before storming out the front door. Riley could tell Spike hadn’t gone far as the door was still propped open and the glowing red ember of Spike’s cigarette butt was well within his line of sight.
“So, are you willing to do this now?” Buffy asked, directing her penetrating stare at Willow. “You know darn well I would never send you to your death. You’re my best friend. Besides, we’re all going to help you through this.”
“If you want me to…” Tara said softly, her soft blonde locks falling in front of her eyes. “I could pop into the magic shop and pick up the ingredients.”
“And I can totally help Tara,” Dawn replied. “I’m a pro at identifying eye of newt.”
Anya, the current proprietor of the Magic Box while Giles was busy doing British-y things in England, harrumphed and folded her arms in front of her chest. “Excuse me, but you’ll both be paying me in cold, hard cash for this. I will not be giving out free samples of newt’s eye just because you’re my friends.”
“Anya,” Xander replied as he squeezed her thigh. “It’s for the good of the team.”
Anya pursed her lips, obviously frustrated by the choice being presented to her. Willow imagined that Anya was torn between the following options: forfeit and have happy but resentful sex with Xander or bicker endlessly and hopefully get angry sex later.
But whatever alternative Anya ended up picking mattered far less to her when she considered how they’d gotten to this point. In an unexpected turn of events, Tara had shown that she was okay with Willow trying magic again, which made her the first person, besides Buffy and Riley, to demonstrate her belief that Willow could, in fact, take down Lazarus. After their disheartening conversation at Xander’s wedding and the confrontation when Tara had found her canoodling with Riley, Willow never would have guessed that this was how it would go down. It meant the world to her to have Tara as a friend again.
“You think you can get us back into their headquarters? Or do you think they’ve changed the locks?” Buffy asked, bringing the conversation back to its original point.
“I think I can,” Riley said. “But I’m betting their forces will be doubled or tripled. It’s going to be a lot harder to get in.”
“Good,” Buffy replied, before turning back to Willow. “You never answered my question, Will. Are you ready for this or do you need to be reminded again of why you’re currently not baking cookies on the dark side?”
Willow inhaled sharply, allowing herself a smile at Buffy’s amusing quip as she finished processing her final thoughts on the matter. For the first time in a long time, she felt buoyed by her entire circle of friends made her think she could do this. It made her think she could beat her own insecurities right alongside her takedown of Lazarus. And in a world where they’d faced so many apocalypses and won, she imagined for one moment that the odds might even be in their favor.
“Let’s do this.”
But the moment those words were spoken; she prayed to the highest goddess in the realm that she hadn’t just agreed to back the wrong horse.
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no subject
on 2010-06-03 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-03 04:33 pm (UTC)I'm so glad. :)
no subject
on 2010-06-03 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-03 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-03 05:42 pm (UTC)Gabrielle
no subject
on 2010-06-04 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-03 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-04 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-04 12:51 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-04 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-04 06:20 am (UTC)Also- 'Dag, nabbit' and 'British-y things' made me laugh.
More? :)
no subject
on 2010-06-04 05:53 pm (UTC)And my plan is post the final chapter next week.
no subject
on 2010-06-04 10:16 am (UTC)I loved how you portrayed Dawn and Spike!
Willow and Buffy were just perfect too!
no subject
on 2010-06-04 05:53 pm (UTC)*hugs*