Vito Marchese (vito_marchese) wrote in btvsal, @ 2009-06-24 23:43:00 |
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Current mood: | calm |
Entry tags: | anna greene-marchese, gwen morrison, place: la, ~vito marchese |
Caffeine on tap
WHO: Vito, Anna and Gwen
WHEN: Monday night
WHERE: Chloe's Sugar Shack
Vito headed into the new coffee shop where Nica had been hired and took a quick, careful look around. It was almost too bright and cheerful to be a coffee house. Nica had painted a mural of a beach sunset on the back wall, complete with palm trees. "Not bad, not bad," he said, and got a look at the menu.
Anna was behind Vito, still quiet, but each day she was more and more social. She looked around, and it almost looked like a little smile was forming at the corners of her mouth
"So, something involving caramel and chocolate?" Vito asked her.
"Get the FUCK outta here... Anna???" Came the voice from behind them. Gwen had been helping Chloe out since Skylar was far too pregnant to be much help, and had paint and dust on her overalls and tee-shirt.
"Yea-" Anna started to say to Vito. She heard Gwen's voice and turned around. After standing there for a second, she went over and gave her old friend a big hug. She hadn't seen many of the people from Sunnydale and the sight of Gwen made her realize that maybe she really was out of there for good.
"Holy shit, Anna..." Gwen laughed and hugged her old friend. "I missed you, gorgeous!"
Vito recognized Gwen from sSunnydale, as well, and waved. "Lot of familiar faces in this town," he said.
"I missed everyone" Anna said "This is real isn't it? I'm back... and I don't have to be the slayer"
"Nope. We're ALL Slayers now, girlfriend." She grinned, and looked at Vito. "Of course, only downside is now he doesn't get to be the only guy with 'I nailed a Slayer' bragging rights."
"Much less the 'I Married a Slayer' bumper sticker," Vito added. "So, are the capuccino machines up and running yet?"
"Everything's running now... Chloe's just getting everything checked out by the safety people, and then waiting to open later in the week." Gwen jerked a thumb toward the coffee machines. "I've already had so much I think I'm gonna be bouncing off the goddamn walls."
"That's what I like to hear!" Vito said with a grin. "Are you just helping with the set-up, or are you going to work here too?"
"Work? ME?" Gwen guffawed. "Naw, I'm just helping out. My wife is rich as hell, dude. I'm perfectly content to be the good little vampire-slaying housewife who just waits to sex her up when she gets home from being with the band."
"You don't really strike me as the housewifey type, but I'll take your word for it," Vito said.
"Well, if by housewife, you mean skateboarding around the neighborhood, watching porn, and bullshitting on the phone..." Gwen admitted sheepishly.
"What am I going to do now?" asked Anna, who had been listening quietly
Vito smiled at her. "Whatever you want. Slaying's still an option, but the pressure's off. Way off. I still have a job to do, but ... it's a big city, there are colleges and offices and everything else."
"Well, Anna... it's like this: you're gonna enjoy yourself." Gwen made it sound like it was an actual plan, "You're going to calm down, knowing you're not the only one with allll the pressure."
Anna nodded, but still wasn't really sure about getting to enjoy herself. "Um... Vito said chocolate?"
"Dude, there's more chocolate, candy, coffee, everything here than I've ever SEEN." The blonde Slayer laughed giddily. "Chloe's like Willy Wonka with big tits, I swear."
"I want a mocha" proclaimed Anna "Please."
"For two," Vito said with a nod. "That sounds great."
Gwen leaned in to whisper to Anna. "He treatin' you good? No ass-kicking gonna have to take place?"
"He's... yes." Anna nodded "He's great. Patient. Everyone is."
"Good. Don't worry... I haven't said anything to anyone. Nobody knows that you haven't told. Now that Mr. Giles is running things, who knows how he'd feel, but till we know?" She zipped her lip. "Mum's the word."
"You'd think that dying would give you a way out of the rules." Anna grumbled "Giles can suck it if he's got a problem with me and V"
"I doubt he will... I mean, Vito's not even THAT old, it's not like you're some 15 year old nailing a 70 year old dude..." yes, this was Gwen being supportive. "And like you said... if he doesnt like it? Tough shit."
"Seems like everyone was pretty laid back about it, in Sunnydale. There was even ... what was his name? Some other Watcher who had married his Slayer. It's not unheard of, and we're not the first pair like that he's known." Vito grinned. "I don't think it'll be much of an issue."
"Cool." Gwen laughed, looking embarrassed now. "I just wasn't sure if it was some big 'ole secret or not. If the others knew about it there, I'm sure Giles knows about it now."
"Things are going to change," Vito said. He leaned on the counter, a thoughtful look on his face. "I don't think all the traditions that the Council clung to are even on record, anymore. Times are different, you know?"
"Yeah, I mean, if a Watcher even tried to be as fatherly as Wes is to me, I think the old Council would have shit their pants." Gwen said in her typically classy manner.
"The old council can bite slugs for all I care." Anna grumbled
Vito grinned. "And good riddance."
"I'm just glad you're back." Gwen said with obvious relief on her face. "I'd heard, well... all kinds of rumors. And between you and Tina both being back, my life is all kinds of ROCK right now. I cant wait to see her again."
"Don't know if I ever met her," Vito said.
"What rumors?" asked Anna
Gwen sighed. "I'd heard you died. Nobody knew for sure, but then when they made us ALL Slayers, well... I started to wonder."
"I did" Anna said "I... they sent me to hell"
"You were dead? Sweet, dude, me too!" God help her, she meant well enough, as Anna would know by now. "And we both came back. Heaven doesn't want us, hell's afraid we'll take over."
Anna smiled at Gwen, nodding in agreement
"Some of my favorite people have been dead," Vito added.
Gwen laughed, hearing Vito. "You know, come to think of it, it's kinda weird that while me and Anna used to hang, I never really got to know you."
"Not sure why. I wasn't spending much time socializing, then, I guess. I'm trying to make more of an effort, now."
"You had a lot of stuff to do too." Anna noted "They made you do pretty much everything"
"And now, well ... I'm still going to have a lot to do, there's a shortage of Watchers. There's Giles, and that Ash kid ... did you know he's Buffy's Watcher now?"
"Yeah, but you guys, seriously... I know Ash got a bad rep from the stuff that happened in Sunnydale, but I've known him and his sister for a long time. He's a good guy. He just... he has his own inner demons, just like all of us." Gwen gave them a pleading look.
Vito shrugged. "I had a pretty rough period when I was a teenager, it happens. As long as he's moving past it ... I can't imagine Mr. Giles would have given him the position if he had any doubts about him."
"Exactly. Plus, I blame Wilkins for a lot of what happened to Ash. He played him like a violin." Gwen muttered, still angry that none of them, including herself, noticed until it was too late. "But Mr. Giles and Wesley, my watcher, are really putting things together well. They're getting more watchers, and starting up that academy thing to train new ones."
Anna looked at her hands before talking. "Do I have to go back to school?" She'd never graduated- she hadn't even started her senior year
"Uh ... you should," Vito said, knowing that Anna didn't want to go. "You could pass the GED just fine. I'm guessing this means you don't want to go to college, either?"
"I'll take the GED" Anna said
"Okay, fair enough," Vito said.
"Hell yeah, dude!" Gwen grinned. "Go for the Good Enough Diploma! We're superheroes, for fuck's sake!"
"I'm nineteen. That's way the hell too old for high school," Anna said.
"You and a roomful of fifteen years olds sounds like trouble waiting to happen,' Vito said.
"Although, it also sounds pretty funny." Gwen chimed in. "All those people for you to corrupt..."
"You mean more like punch." Anna said
"'Beat to death with a chair' was what I had in mind,' Vito added.
"Ok, but... call me rotten? Still sounds funny." Gwen said with a smirk. "Vito, you should go talk with Wesley. He's been awesome with helping Mr. Giles set this shit up. He can probably help you get more situated, help you keep things less stressful."
"I'll talk to him, then. Help would be a good thing. I hadn't really gotten to know him in Sunnydale, either."
"He's the best. Seriously. I give him shit constantly, and he still treats me like I'm his daughter or something." Gwen said, obviously impressed.
"I don't think I knew him that well either." Anna said "I'm going to meet more people and... socialize. Or something"
"Anna? Sweetie?" Gwen said, draping an arm around her shoulders. "You are gonna meet TONS of peeps. You're gonna get to know my wife, my friends, your fellow Slayers... we're gonna make you a whoooole new you."
"She already is a whole new her," Vito said.
Gwen grinned and stifled a giggle. "Wow. You guys are so in love, I never really realized it. But when I see your faces, the way you look at each other...." she smiled sweetly there, a rarity for her. "It's like how me and Skylar look at each other."
"Yeah we are." Anna smiled
"And to think she started out by asking me for spare change," Vito said.
"For real?" Gwen asked, blinking a little.
"No. I asked him for money to help me find my brother, then for a meal"
"Ok, now, that sounds better." gwen said with a nod. "I mean, you made it sound like she was on the corner with a cup or something."
"So I bought her lunch, and the rest is history. It could be worse. I think MJ and Morrigan had a one-night stand before they found out he was a Watcher, she was a Slayer, and they were assigned to each other."
"You don't make a lot of money standing on a corner with a cup" Anna said
"You do if you're not afraid to flash your tits." Gwen blurted out, before sheepishly grinning. "Don't judge me! People take strange dares when they're drunk!"
"I'd charge a lot more for flashing my tits" Anna said
"The Mardi Gras approach to ... yeah, she would," Vito cut himself off.
"And dude? I WOULD SO LOOK." Gwen said unflinchingly at Anna. Hey. Subtlety was never her strong point.
Anna raised an eyebrow. "Um. Heh. They're nice." She wasn't quite her normal self yet, but this was the closest she'd been in a while
"So... just outta curiosity..." the blonde finally asked, wincing a little. "Do you actually remember being dead? Or was it like, you're just missing time? Because me? I remember every moment."
"Every moment." Anna said, quietly "It was longer than a year for me."
"I wish I could have helped." Gwen said sadly. "I was... wow. I don't even know how to start. This girl, she came back here from the future, right? And she's me and Skylar's unborn daughter, from 18 years in the future."
"What?" Anna looked surprised
"Well, she makes too many things change, and time almost collapsed on itself. Don't ask. Basically, for some reason, I get chosen to give my own life to be this... higher being. To hold the entire timestream together. And I swear this is true, I wasnt on bad 'shrooms."
"Where were you? Heaven?"
"I have NO clue. If so? It was kinda like working in the mailroom of heaven. All secluded, never getting to mingle with your co-workers, and always getting your breaks ignored."
"Sounds kinda Purgatory-ish," Vito said.
"Maybe. All I know is I held time together, and kinda made it so that while I was gone, nobody remembered I ever existed. I didn't want anyone to hurt." She shrugged. "When Ami.. that's our daughter... found a way to bring me back, BLAMMO. All the memories came back. And it was a big-ass mess."
"I don't doubt that. Is she still around, or did she return to her own time?"
"She's still here... but I think her time, or at least, everything IN it, is gone. She's stuck here now. No home to go BACK to." Gwen sighed, shaking her head. "Like I said, a big mess. She's a good kid though. When our baby is born... is she really DOES grow up to be Ami? I'll be happy."
"That sounds confusing," Vito said. "But I'm sure she will."
"You think it's confusing? I'm the one living it!" Gwen said with a raucous laugh. "Seriously, dude. I hated READING Crisis On Infinite Earths. Living it eats a big dick, man."
"I'd like to meet her sometime. Is she Slayer-ish, too?" Vito asked.
"She is." Gwen thought, and 'hrrm'ed. "Me and Skylar are both Slayers, and she is too. That seems like a lot of Slayer blood in one family."
"Genetic basis for it? I'm sure it's been suggested before. But, umm ... for obvious reasons, no two Slayers have ever reproduced before. And, no offense, but how did you and your partner do it? Magic or tech?" Vito took out a small notebook and, yes, started taking notes.
"Neither, actually." Ladies and gentlemen? Meet the subtle class that is Gwen. "We were shacking up with a hot-ass singer for a while, and we had LOTS of hot group sex."
"Oh." Vito laughed. "The polyamory approach, of course."
Vito reminded himself of Occam's razor as he put away his notebook again.
"More like the 'Gwen and Skylar Love Each Other, But Need Some Dick Sometimes' approach." Gwen retorted.
"Yeah, that too," Vito said.
"Speaking of that shit though..." she looked at Anna and grinned. "When are YOU two gonna get to making a lil' Mini-Anna?"
"It'll happen when it happens," Vito said. "We're not really making a concerted effort to either have one or to not have one, if that makes sense."
"I don't know anything about kids" Anna said
"Pft. Neither do I! Yet, somehow Ami seems to have turned out fine." Gwen paused there. "A little prudish maybe..."
"How the hell did that happen? Is that her rebellious streak?" Vito asked.
"You know, I've often wondered." The blonde slayer said with a bit of wonder in her voice.
"Or you two did a 180 in raising her. You raised her, right?"
"Yeah... in her time, well... a lot of shit went down differently, but the three of us raised her."
"Three of you?" Vito asked.
"Me, Skylar, and her father. Apparently in THAT timeline, we stayed one happy little semi-Mormon family." Gwen said with her typical class.
"That's not happening now? My Dad would have loved living in a setup like that."
Gwen giggled there, hard. "No... we all love each other, but me and Skylar... we need to be together. Alone."
"I think that's why pairing up is more common that ... grouping-up?" Vito said. "Too much politics involved."
"Amen, my brother." She said with a snicker. "Still... I'm gonna miss the hook-ups." She looked at Anna, and with a sage nod, held her hands about a foot apart. "Fo' REAL."
"Good to know," Vito said.
Anna snickered.
Gwen snorted. "Well... I should get going. I have a very pregnant, very hormonal wife to get home to."
"Um. When's the due date?"
Gwen loved her wife, but was more like a typical man than anything. "Huh. You know, I can't remember exactly when she's supposed to pop the thing out... I know shes got about another month or two."
"Um, is she going to be around when the kid is born? Ami, I mean."
"Oh god. I hope not. That would be all KINDS of awkward." The blonde shook her head. "As it is, I already told Skylar I'll be there, and hold her hand, but if she ever wants my face down there again, I AIN'T LOOKING."
"Is she still going to be in this time period?"
"Yeah, like I said, she's kinda stuck here now."
"That'll be weird... being around yourself"
"Well, she's trying to make a new life for herself. Poor thing, her name's gonna make it hard." Even though it was a future-self, Gwen felt bad now about giving the girl a name that would make it hard for her to explain her real age.
"Cant she make one up?"
"Oh, but that would be LYING." Gwen said in a faux-concerned voice. "And that, as she put it, would be WRONG."
"No suggestions, then"
She laughed, and hopped up, giving Vito a friendly punch to the shoulder, then leaning in to hug Anna. "Keep in touch, girlie. I missed you!"
"I will"
"Good seeing you, Gwen," Vito said.