Part 21
Alice shivered as she crossed the room, rushes crackling under her bare feet.
She dove onto the bed and quickly pulled the linens up to her chin.
"Hurry
up, Bella! I'm cold!"
Isabella rolled her eyes, but made short work of putting on her dressing
gown. She snuffed out the candles in the room, then joined her sister in
bed. The two girls lay comfortably together, sighing happily as their bodies
slowly warmed.
Giggling softly, Alice pulled the coverings over her head. With a smile,
Isabella ducked under as well. "Guess what?" Alice asked in a whisper.
"What?"
"Father says I have a suitor."
Isabella made noises of appropriate awe. "Who is it?"
"I'm not sure, but I overheard Father telling Mother that if things go well,
I might be married by summer. Oh Bella, isn't it ever so exciting? I'll
finally get to leave this musty, draughty old castle." Alice sighed
dreamily. "I'm sure he'll be handsome, and charming, and absolutely
wonderful!"
"Oh, I hope so." Isabella sniffled almost inaudibly.
"Bella? What is it? Why are you crying?"
"I don't want you to go, Alice," Isabella confessed. "If you get married and
go away, I'll never see you again!"
Alice pulled her sister into a fierce hug. "Of course you'll see me, silly.
Why, maybe my suitor will have a brother or cousin who's looking for a wife
too, and then we can both get married and still be together."
"Really?"
"Well, why not? We've always been together." Isabella's voice was
determined. "We were born together, and grew up together, and I'm sure that
someday we'll even die together."
"You promise?"
"Of course I promise. We're twins. That means we were meant to be together
forever. Never, ever parted"
Isabella smiled and gave Alice a gentle kiss on the cheek. "I love you,
Alice."
"Love you too, Isabella."
*****
Alex opened his eyes to smothering darkness. His hands clawed out, pulling
the clinging material away from his face. Beside him, Wil sat up with a
distressed sound and began patting himself. After a reassuring glance down
at his own body -- masculine, thank whomever -- he sat up as well, reaching
out for Wil.
"I was a girl!" Wil exclaimed with something akin to horror. He turned on
the lamp and twisted around to stare at Alex. "*You* were a girl!"
Alex shuddered. "I know. It was just another dream...memory. Whatever.
We're still us."
"Yeah." Wil heaved a sigh of relief. Then he snickered.
"What?"
"You were *such* a girl!" He clasped his hands over his heart and feigned
swooning. "'Oh, he'll be so handsome, and charming, and come sweep me off my
feet!' Bloody hell, what would you have done if he'd been an old, balding,
toothless git?"
Alex glared. "Easy. I'd have tricked you into trading places with me. You
always fell for stuff like that."
"I never! Besides, *you* were the one who got blamed for nicking Mother's
embroidery needles when I was the one who lost them. Shows *you* who's
dumber."
Alex's jaw dropped. "I *knew* that was you! Mother made me stand in the
solar for *hours* and recite Bible pasages because of that. You little
bastard!" He yanked a pillow off the bed and whacked Wil over the head with
it.
"Ow! Oh, like you never made me take the fall for *your* stuff. Leave off!"
He rolled to the side, misjudging the distance and crashing to the floor.
Alex dropped his pillow. "Wil? Are you ok?" He leaned over the edge of the
bed to find Wil rubbing his hip with a grimace. He grinned. "I like you
like that."
Wil glared up at him. "What, wounded? Pillock."
"No. Naked. And on the floor."
Wil flushed.
Alex watched, groaning, as the faint tinge of color crept up Wil's entire
body. Licking his lips, he reached down and hauled Wil back up onto the bed.
Wil blinked as he abruptly found himself sprawled halfway on top of Alex.
Then, he flushed even harder. "Um..." He swallowed, his eyes darting around.
"What, bashful *now*? Little late for that, isn't it?" Alex smiled as he
ran his fingers through Wil's tousled hair.
"S'pose so." Wil settled against Alex, listening to the soft thumping of his
heartbeat.
"You realize what we were doing, don't you?"
Wil snorted. "I may not remember having sex, but yeah, I do think that what
we did qualifies."
Alex's body shook as he laughed silently. "No, you idiot! Not *that*!
The...just now. We were acting like that dream about us was real."
Wil thought about that. "Well, it was, wasn't it? Maybe a long time ago,
but it *did* happen."
"Yeah, but we were being...almost comfortable with it. Like it was no big
deal."
"Oh." Wil tilted his head to look at the innocuous little bundle that still
hung from the headboard. "So...you think we should keep it? Let our
memories come back?"
With a sigh, Alex hugged Wil close. "Can it hurt? I mean, we can always
take it down later if we change our minds."
"Yeah."
They lay quietly for a while, neither wanting to disturb this newfound
intimacy. Then Alex gave a grunt and shifted away from Wil, scratching his
stomach with a frown. He grimaced at the flaky bits of dried fluids that
came off. "I need a shower," he told Wil curtly.
"Hmmm." Wil let a hand play over his own stomach. "So do I."
"I call it first!" Alex wiggled away from Wil and out of bed.
"Alex?" Wil grinned lecherously at Alex's body as the other man turned to
stare at him inquiringly. "Wouldn't you rather share?"
Alex gulped. "Oh, *hell* yeah."
~~~~~~~~~~
The door to the Magic Box jingled open, and the missing member of the merged
groups entered, still smoking faintly.
Giles looked up. "Ah, you got the message, then."
"Yeah, Cordy left a note." Angel flashed a small grin over at Cordelia, who
waggled her pen at him before turning her attention back to the book in front
of her. "Why did we decide to meet here, anyway?"
"Well, more room for one," Buffy piped up. "And there's all these useful
books, too." She thumped her book, sending a small cloud of dust up.
Gunn moved to stand behind Willow as she tapped the keys on her laptop.
"Whatcha got?"
"Well, Tara and I compiled a list of all the butchers, hospitals, clinics,
basically any place someone could get a supply of blood from. We have a
map...Tara, where's the map?"
Tara dug into her bag and pulled out a map, unfolding it and spreading it out
over the table. "The, um, the dots are all the places w-we came up with.
The colors represent the t-type of place it is."
Giles came over to look. "Good work. We can divide them all up by sections,
and everyone can take a section to check out. Excellent idea, girls."
Just then, Riley emerged from the back room. He paused, glaring hard at
Angel, who met his stare evenly. Scowling, Riley moved across the room and
sat next to Buffy, pointedly draping his arm over her shoulders.
Angel suppressed a growl at the proprietary action. He forced himself to
look away, although the tenseness in his body gave away the fact that he was
still extremely aware of every move Riley made.
Buffy glanced back and forth between the two. "Ooo-kay..." She shook her
head and stood. "Look, gimme a section now, Riley and me will head out and
see what we can find." She got their assignment and led Riley outside,
sidestepping Angel with an apologetic look.
When they had gone, Angel sat and let his head thump down on the table.
"Oh, get over it. Move on already." Cordelia rolled her eyes in disgust
"Can't you just--"
"Hey, guys? No fighting, ok? Please?" Willow gave everyone a pleading
look, waiting until everyone nodded in agreement. "Good. So, let's assign
the rest of these places." She pointed at the map.
Tara waited until everyone had gotten their own copy of the map and left the
shop before turning to Willow. "You know, I'm kinda worried about Anya, too.
I hope she's doing ok."
Willow patted her hand reassuringly. "I'm sure she's fine. She'll be back
soon to help us look for Xander. She loves him."
"I thought you didn't like her much?"
Willow shrugged. "She might not be on my 'Favoritest People' list,
but...he's happy with her. I only want him to be happy."
Tara leaned over and gave Willow a short kiss. "You're a good friend,
Willow. Xander's lucky to have you."
~~~~~~~~~~
Anya paid the cab driver, then strolled into the dingy, poorly-lit bar that
was located on the outskirts of Sunnydale. It didn't really have a name; it
was just a place where people -- and non-people -- went to unwind.
Anya *really* needed to unwind. And even more, she *really* needed to
repress the whole coming-on-to-Giles thing that she'd done.
She shuddered at the memory. Who knew that being dumped would mess with your
mind that badly? Determined to get past that incident, she sat down at the
bar. "Gimme a beer," she told the bartender curtly.
When the drink came, she drained it quickly. "Men suck," she muttered darkly.
"Yeah, tell me about it."
Anya looked at the woman who seated herself in the stool next to her. She
studied her closely. "You're a vampire," she said matter-of-factly.
"No, I'm not!" The blonde woman pouted. "Ok, well, yes I am." She shrugged.
"Ok." Anya held out her hand. "Donīt bite me, and I won't stake you. I'm
Anya."
A slim, well-manicured hand grasped hers. "Harmony."
~~~~~~~~~~
"Ow!" Alex cursed loudly as he jammed his elbow painfully against on of the
knobs.
Wil winced in sympathy and shifted around. Unfortunately, he set a foot down
on the bar of soap that had fallen earlier. With a high-pitched shriek, he
clutched at Alex as he fell, dragging them both to the floor of the shower
stall.
With pained groans, the two carefully untangled their limbs. "This...maybe
wasn't such a great idea," Alex panted as they finally managed to get upright
again.
"No," Wil ground out in determination. "It bloody well *is* a good idea! We
just...need a bit of practice, that's all."
"No offense, but I think we're more liable to kill each other off if we try
this again."
Wil pouted. "But I *like* this idea! I mean, in theory, anyway. You an'
me, all wet an' slippery. What's not to like?"
Alex grinned and carefully leaned forward to kiss Wil. "I could do without
these new bruises," he whispered.
"I think we're clean enough." Wil scrambled out of the crowded stall,
yanking Alex after him. "I should kiss those better, y'know."
"Oooh, now *that* idea I like! We can--shit!" He pulled away from Wil.
Wil blinked in consternation. "We can *what*?"
"What time is it? Oh god, work! We're late!" Alex snatched up a towel and
started drying his hair off as he raced for the bedroom. "Hurry up and get
dressed, Wil!" he called back.
Wil sighed as he trailed dejectedly after his lover. "Bloody hell."
Part 22
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