Fire bad. Tree pretty.
Fire! Hospital! Will!
Will. Sex. Sex with Will. Sex with her best friend's older brother, Will. And then some more sex with Will.
Oh God, amazing sex with Will.
And that was Will's decidedly penis shaped object sticking into her butt.
If she was going to be completely honest with herself, she'd have to admit that the whole 'sex with Will' thing...it had been coming for a while. The sparks between them over the previous few weeks had been growing from innocent little sparklers, to great honking firework displays. The more time they spent together, the more she realized that he was so different to what she remembered him to be. The stick up his ass had vanished. He'd stopped treating her like a mad little hippie, and more like a...woman. And she knew he was feeling it too. She could tell by the way he looked at her that he was feeling it too.
So, it was a good thing that they'd done it, right?
Or was it?
Because it wasn't like a relationship between them would ever work. Just because he wasn't so up his own ass these days, didn't make them at all compatible. They didn't like any of the same things, or have anything in common. And their parents had never really been friends. And when her dad and Giles were out of prison, she'd be leaving Sunnydale again to travel some more. So by sleeping together, had they just made their odd little friendship a lot more uncomfortable?
Or had they just sexed their way out of each other's systems so they could carry on with their lives?
She was so darned confused.
She felt the body behind her stiffen, and knew that he'd just woken up.
Should she pretend to be asleep? No, that was dumb. Act sexy? Casual. Cheerful?
A nice, simple, “Good morning,” was what she settled on.
“Uh...morning.” His arm slowly slid off of her, and he rolled onto his back.
Buffy rolled onto hers, and pulled the sheet up self-consciously to cover her naked chest. She glanced over at him, only to look away quickly when she realized that he was doing the same thing to her. “So...” she began, keeping her eyes on the ceiling. Why was this so awkward? Surely they'd got over the strained part of their relationship already? Especially with the whole him putting his naughty naked parts inside of hers.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “So...”
“That was great. Last night I mean, it was great.” Understatement much?
She felt him nod beside her. “Better than great.”
“Amazing.”
“Bloody amazing. Should've done it ages ago.”
“Right. So it was good that we did it. Which means that we shouldn't be feeling awkward right now.”
She turned to face him as he let out a big puff of air. “No, we shouldn't.” He smiled and shook his head. “Sorry I'm being such a twat. I just never expected to do what we did last night with you. I mean, I wanted to, but I never expected to.”
“You didn't expect to boink me when you stormed in and kissed me?”
“Well...maybe then. But not before that.”
She wanted to reach out and touch him. To run her fingers through his hair or trace her nails down his chest. But she had to find out how he felt first. Was it just a one time thing for him? Or did he want more? “Me neither. And I wanted to, too. I've been going crazy thinking about you these past few weeks.”
“Same here. You're right, it was a good thing we did it. Least now we can get on with our lives and start thinking clearly again.”
Buffy swallowed. Well, there was her answer. He wanted to get on with his life. “Right,” she voiced slowly. “You're out of my system now.” Lie.
If he was disappointed by that, it didn't show on his face. “Never had a one night stand before.”
Jeez, dig the stake in deeper, why don't you. “Happy to be of service. We uh...we probably shouldn't tell anyone about this.” No need for anyone to share in her humiliation.
“Probably not. Xander would likely kill me.”
“Maybe not kill. Possibly maim.”
He chuckled. “He'd chop off all my dangly bits.”
They lay in silence for a few moments, once again staring at the ceiling. Buffy wished he'd kiss her. “I should probably go.”
Will looked surprised. “It's still early.” He checked his watch. “Only seven. Don't you want breakfast?”
“My mom will be awake soon, and she'll hear about the fire in like, five minutes flat.”
“Ah, the curse of a tiny town.”
“Yeah, so she'll be worried...”
“Right.”
She shuffled over to the edge of the bed and peered over, trying to locate her panties. She was pretty sure he'd flung them in this direction after he'd ripped them off her the night before. She looked around when he coughed, and then blushed. Her panties were dangling from his finger. “Thanks,” she said, snatching them back.
Will pulled up outside of Joyce's home less than half an hour later. She'd considered saying no to his offer of a ride, but there was just no way she could walk through town in one of his t-shirts and a pair of his sweats.
They looked at each other for a moment, smiling stupidly.
Tell him you want to see him again. “So I should go,” she announced. “Bye then.”
He nodded as she exited the car. “Seeya.” He waited until she'd entered the house before pulling away.
God, he felt great! Amazing! Sex with Buffy had been just what he needed to finally stop going absolutely crazy thinking about her all of the time. She was right, they were out of each other's systems now.
Except now he knew what it felt like to be inside her – paradise – and what she looked like when she was naked – a kinky goddess. And he was still thinking about her.
Joyce was only just getting up when Buffy let herself in the front door. She stopped on the stairs where she'd been descending in her gigantic robe and blinked sleepily. “Hello, honey. Did you know it's only,” She checked her watch. “seven thirty?”
Buffy sat her mother down on the sofa and explained about the fire. Joyce gasped and hugged Buffy close with shaking hands.
“Thank goodness no one was hurt! Why on earth didn't you call me the minute you arrived in hospital? Where did you stay last night? Tell me you didn't stay at a hotel all by yourself! How are you feeling now? Is Luke okay? Oh, I could just swat that boy on the behind, the daft alligator! You never ever go to sleep with candles burning!” She winced as she remembered the whole 'incense burning down her bed' incident. “And what about your friend, Willow? Where is she now? Oh, I should make you some breakfast, you must be starving...”
Dru's hand was clutched over her heart as Will relayed the events of the fire over lunch at his parent's house. “Oh my dear, I must call Buffy at once and make sure she's okay!”
“Finish your food first,” Anne instructed.
Will rolled his eyes. Their mother had a bad habit of treating them like they were still naughty twelve year olds. “She's fine,” he told Dru. “They checked her over in hospital and let her out an hour later.”
“Did she go home to Joyce's after that?”
“Uh, no.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably and looked down at his food. This would be awkward. “She came home with me.”
Both Anne and Tor stopped eating to frown at him.
“Buffy Summers spent the entire night in your flat?” Anne demanded. Will sighed at her attitude – his parents had never been overly big fans of Buffy and her family.
“I slept on the couch,” he lied, sticking to the story he and Buffy had decided on in the car.
“Oh, how chivalrous of him!” Joyce exclaimed, beaming.
Xander, who had heard about the fire from his girlfriend, Marcie – apparently things with Joy hadn't worked out after she'd farted one time during dinner – and had come to see if Buffy was okay, snorted. “It's Will we're talking about here, Mom, of course he was chivalrous. It's not like he would've made her sleep on the sofa after she'd just been in a fire.”
“They could have both slept in the bed,” Marcie suggested.
He looked horrified at her words. “No way, that would be...weird. It'd be like Will was putting the moves on my baby sister. He knows I'd pound him into next week if he ever did anything like that.”
“I'm not a baby, Xan,” Buffy protested, elbowing him in the ribs and trying oh so very hard not to blush.
Drusilla joined Will where he'd been sitting on the porch and handed him a cup of coffee. She splayed a hand across her stomach as she sat down next to him. “I feel like a big whale.”
He rolled his eyes. “You're barely even showing yet. Your tum's just a little bit padded. Looks like you ate too much pudding.”
She looked down fondly. “Do you think so?”
“Yeah. Don't worry, you'll look like a big pumpkin soon.”
“Is it daft that I can't wait?”
Will looked his sister over. She was positively glowing. “No, it's nice.”
“It is nice. Especially now all that nasty morning sickness has passed.” She scooted closer, and lay her head on his shoulder. “You've been so good to Buffy, Willy. I really do appreciate it as I know you haven't gotten along easily in the past.”
He bit his cheek as he remembered the night before. “We're doing okay now, though.”
“Yes, I've noticed. You seem to be getting along very well.”
There was something in her tone of voice, and...yes, she had that twinkle in her eye. It meant she was up to mischief. “Not that close. Don't get any ideas. We're just friends. Sort of.”
“Hmm.” She didn't sound very much like she believed him. “I don't know how many 'sort of' friends would wait at a hospital until three in the morning to take their 'sort of' friend home with them.”
Pointing out that it hadn't been his intention would be lost on her, he knew. She was already romanticizing the whole thing, and she didn't even know the complete story. “Don't be daft, Dru. She's...Buffy. Me and her are too different.”
“Oh, I understand. Same old prejudices as mother and father.”
“Dru-”
She halted him with a hand and stood up. “Just don't pass by something precious because of silly differences.”
Will frowned to himself as Drusilla left him to go back inside the house. Last night had been great, there was no denying it, but they'd been right to make it just a one time thing. Because he and Buffy were from two completely different worlds.
Just because she was beautiful, and funny, and smart, and playful, and liked him for just being him, and accepted all his worse traits, and was pretty much the perfect girl, didn't mean he should be with her, right?
He dropped his head into his hands and groaned. He'd made a stupid mistake letting Buffy leave that morning. He should've gone with his first instinct and told her to stop talking nonsense with the ridiculous 'out of each other's systems' thing, and then rolled on top of her and persuaded her in very physical terms to stay.
And now it was too late.