Inevitable
By:
Jennifer-Oksana (jenniferoksana@yahoo.com
)
Inevitable
by Jennifer-Oksana (jenniferoksana@yahoo.com)
website: http://www.imjustsayin.net/jennyo
rating: PG-13
spoilers: Fredless
summary: Moments of realization. (Wesley/Fred)
archives: list archives, others ask
disclaimer: Not mine. Not asking for money.
Wesley can't escape his father.
He realizes this, quite often, and then promptly forgets that it's so.
Like every forgetful student of history, he is doomed to repeat this
revelation until it sticks--and so far, it's shown no signs of
sticking. This may be because every time his father looms large in his
memory, Wesley has taken to heavy amounts of alcohol, research, or
obsessive attentions to a lover to forget.
To forget that he'll never escape. Not until he confronts and destroys
the monster in the closet--but Wesley's a coward. He can't imagine
surviving the confrontation and so he avoids it completely.
This time, he's using Fred to forget.
Fred is unaware of the obvious; Fred is lovely and young and
sympathetic. By the time he's through with her, she will probably
loathe him the way Cordelia secretly loathes him.
He doesn't do this consciously. He's not aware how seductive he can be,
a puddle of wasted potential looking to be something more. Even Angel
couldn't resist that seduction.
"Your parents were lovely," he says to her as they sit alone in the
hotel, waiting for everyone else to come back from some mission or
other. "I really liked them."
She smiles at him, a shy grin that screams something he can't hear.
"They liked you, too," she replies, playing with a new gadget. "Do you
think Angel will be back soon?"
"Maybe," he says whimsically. "Then again, maybe not."
She suddenly thinks she's offended him. Maybe it's the sad look on his
face--and she realizes that Wesley is actually pretty cute. He's not
Angel, but he's nice and cute and listens when she talks.
"Not that I don't like hanging around with you," she says. "I just got
so used to asking about Angel that it's a bad habit now. And besides,
I'm kinda hungry for ice cream and he always offers to take me. For ice
cream."
"It's all right," he says generously. "Though if you want ice cream,
I'm certainly not averse to going for some."
Wesley, at heart, is an opportunist.
Ice cream becomes a tradition. Fred sometimes waits for Angel at first,
but Angel's not nearly as interested in ice cream now that Fred's
gotten sane. Angel's interested in the way Cordelia's skirts have
shrunk to roughly the size of beer cozies. Gunn sulks for a while, but
something about the way Fred's started beaming and humming happily
seems to be enough for him. Either that or he really doesn't want to
lose his job.
One day, Fred walks into Wesley's office wearing a cute flowered dress
and a grin bright enough to light a block of downtown Los Angeles.
"Wesley," she says nervously. "Do you think instead of ice cream, we
could go out for dinner tonight?"
"Dinner?"
"Dinner," she says firmly. "I could go for--"
"Tacos?"
"Sushi."
Fred hasn't had the same lust for tacos since her parents visited, he
realizes. He also realizes that he's going to kiss her after dinner, a
slow, sweet kiss that's only a shade more than friendly. And she will
kiss him back.
They go out for dinner and drink a lot of green tea. The sushi is good.
They do not go out for ice cream afterward.
Wesley kisses Fred good night in the hotel courtyard and she wraps her
arms around him and kisses back. Time seems to stand still and they
kiss for a very long time.
"See you tomorrow," she whispers as a good bye and runs into the hotel
as gracefully as a bird in flight.
Inside the hotel, Fred touches her kissed lips and smiles, knowing that
in another week--or two--or three--it will be more than kissing. Angel
will be surprised and jealous enough that he'll forget to notice that
Cordelia's not wearing much more than underwear to work anymore. She
also thinks that Wesley's a damn good kisser. So much for listening to
Cordelia.
Soon, everyone realizes that Wesley and Fred are doing more than going
out for ice cream around lunchtime. Gunn teases Wes mercilessly about
the way he sits around with a goofy grin on his face. Cordelia starts
wearing longer skirts and tripping over Fred's latest inventions. Angel
stolidly ignores all the evidence that his two most devoted servants
are spending a lot of time grinning at each other suggestively. But
that is very much like Angel.
One afternoon, while Wesley is reading some ancient manuscript or other
about demons, he looks over at Fred. Fred looks up from fine-tuning a
catapult or maybe a travelling battle-axe and sees him. She waves,
suddenly shy. He waves back. They go back to what they're doing.
Wesley suddenly knows he's going to ask Fred to stay the night with him
tonight.
Fred knows it, too. She also knows she's going to say yes.
The whole evening is charged with energy. Before, neither of them
thought of the dinners out, the movies, the walks on Third Street
Promenade as dates. Now, they're painfully aware of the obvious truth.
Everything is awkward, but not an uncomfortable kind of awkward.
There's a strange sort of expectation between them that feels like
electrical sparks every time they touch.
The moment comes while they're browsing in the Tower Records on Santa
Monica Boulevard after dinner. She's talking about how she can't
believe how all these bands she's never heard of are super-famous now.
"I don't know what to do," Fred says, looking at three or four CDs
fanned out under her hands. "Which one should I get?"
When she looks over at him to see what he thinks, she realizes that all
of the music she's chosen is mood music. Fred realizes that she's
played the game to perfection, and now all he has to do is point to a
CD, ask if she wants to go home, and they will make love. With a
strange little thump in her chest, she knows she wants that, not to
make Angel jealous, but because she wants Wesley. She may even be in
love with Wesley.
Wesley picks a CD. The look in Fred's eyes either breaks his heart or
makes it do somersaults. He's not sure.
"I like this one," he says, handing her the slim square. "Fred?"
"Yes?"
"Come home with me."
"Yes."
He takes her back to his apartment. They're kissing before he opens the
door. Fred's taking off Wesley's shirt before he can get the CD into
the player. By the time they reach his couch, they're both almost
naked.
"Make love to me," she says.
"Yes."
When he enters her, Wesley realizes he loves Fred. And that he will
break her heart.
Is this a love story?
The End