Stuck in the Darkness

"Oz."

His eyes avoided hers, boring into the stained wall of the alley. She didn't want to know what stained it, but she did anyway. It was blood. He could smell it. But he didn't answer her.

"Oz...Hi." Hi? Four years and that was all she could say? She mentally cursed herself. He looked up.

"Hey."

His eyes bored into hers, now. She wished they wouldn't. They seemed brighter in the dark, where a lone streetlamp caught the light in his eyes and they shone. Luminous. It was creepy. But he talked, which was good.

She stared at her feet, at the splotches of blood on the wall, at the flickering lamp; anywhere that wasn't Oz.

"Buffy..."

She could hear the music from the club behind her, the steady thump of music and dancing.

I'm not afraid
Of anything in this world
There's nothing you can throw at me
That I haven't already heard

"Yeah?"

"What?" His voice was strong, bitter. It shook her.

She opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again. No sound came out. Damn. Why was this so hard? Taking a deep breath, the words she had been trying to avoid saying tumbled out.

"There's a spell...I mean, Willow...you see, there's this big demon-thingy and he has all those usual world domination slash destruction plans and Willow found this spell..."

"But?"

"But we need blood." Oh great, now she sounded like a vampire. "We need werewolf blood and, well, we were kinda hoping you could help us…maybe…possibly…"

"Do I have a choice?"

She fingered the sharp blade in her hands. "Yes. Yes, you do. But I'm kinda hopin' you'll go with the one that involves saving the world."

His eyes looked doubtful.

“You always have a choice, Oz.” She shrugged. “I mean, I’d rather not fight this thing, because it’s as stupid all the other demons, only twice as ugly…and sleazy. And it speaks English. Which is kinda new.” She made a face. “If I hear one more remark about a house full of teenage slayer girls then I think I’m gonna either hurl or-”

“Mime?”

She smiled faintly. “It’s a possibility.”

“I wouldn’t want to miss that,” Oz said thoughtfully.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime sort of deal.”

He locked eyes with her. She wished she could stop herself from being creeped. His eyes were dark, and empty. At least, they were empty compared to they way they were before.

I listen through your ears
Through your eyes I can see

And she knew exactly how to take the darkness away, how to bring that the spark that was so uniquely Oz. Willow may not have wanted to do this spell, but Buffy knew that Oz was the only person that could help her now. Because he knew about that dark place she went to.

I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall
It's a long way down to nothing at all

His eyes, she realised, were the exact colour of the sky. Sky blue, with green around the edges; like leaves of a tree fluttering through the breeze. With a big black hole of nothingness in the middle.

She didn’t know how long they stood there, staring him down, but finally he spoke.

“How much blood?”

“Not much. Enough to open a portal to suck the demon into.”

“Why werewolves?”

“Giles said something about him casting only on the nights of the full moon, and being controlled by animals, and something about a debt to wolves…” She trailed off uncertainly. Why hadn’t she been listening? Stupid Giles and his monotonous voice. It wouldn’t hurt to offer a little emotion into his voice every once and a while!

“Okay.”

She blinked. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

She beamed. “Great. ‘Cause you know, I had to do a lot of begging from Wesley to get your address, and Dawn told me if I didn’t come back with you, she’d both have herself legally emancipated, and come and get you herself! Neither of which I’d like to see happening, because Dawn has gotten really scary with the spooky, exorcist-style glares and threats. She scared Spike last year, I think. Which isn’t that hard actually, because of the whole soul-having kick he went on… which you knew nothing of. Anyway, he got a soul, and decided he was in love with me, and we had sex. Not that you needed to know that, I just thought you should know…that. And that Tara…she died. And Willow went kind of…insane. She tried to end the world…which probably isn’t the best way to get you to come home. Can we forget I said all that?”

Oz smiled. It didn’t reach his eyes. “Deal. I, uh, knew about it all already.”

“Oh, good. Well, then, let’s go!”

“Right.” He followed her to the car, and the drive to LA was suffered in silence.

But Buffy couldn’t expel the smile that kept returning to her face. She knew there would be hell to pay when she got back, when Willow found out that she hadn’t been gone to get Nina, Angel’s werewolf friend. But it would be worth it in the end. Those two were meant for each other, they needed each other, and one day Willow would thank her. Until then, she’d have to put on her game face and be prepared to go Slayer on her best friend.

Oh love, look at you now
You've got yourself stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it

*Song lyrics are copyright (c) U2. Song is “Stuck in a Moment”.

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