aaronlisa (aaronlisa) wrote in fadeddreaming, @ 2007-07-14 01:13:00 |
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Current mood: | tired |
Current music: | the cure - burn |
[Buffyverse] Warmth 1/1, FR13, implied A/W
Title: Warmth
Author: aaronlisa
Rating: FR13
Pairing/Characters: Willow Rosenberg/Angel, Lilah Morgan
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss Whedon and company.
Prompts: fic_variations – dark/light
Notes: Set post-Grave.
Summary: Lilah needles Angel about Willow.
They had sent her to LA to find redemption and to atone for her sins. The message hadn’t been lost on Angel, no matter what Buffy had said. Just like himself, Willow would be expected to keep out of Sunnydale unless required by the Queen Bee. It wouldn’t matter if Giles or Xander had wanted Willow to stay, it had only mattered what Buffy had wanted. And it had made Angel wonder if Buffy was even concerned if Willow actually healed from her addiction or not. All that had seemingly mattered was what Willow had done to Dawn and what she had almost done to the Slayer’s younger sister.
During the first month and a half, he had spent his time nursing her to health as her addiction almost consumed her. All thoughts of Cordelia and Connor (and what might have been) fled his mind as he attempted to care for Willow and run Wolfram and Hart at the same time. He barely had the time to ensure that his friends were all right as they took over the reigns at the law firm, much less brood over what he had lost so recently.
“The Senior Partners aren’t impressed,” Lilah’s sultry tones broke through his thoughts as she materialized in front of him.
“Are they ever impressed?” Angel dryly asked.
“Rarely, but they’re normally not this annoyed,” Lilah easily replied as she sat down on the corner of his desk.
“Now what have I done to irk them?”
“Let’s be honest Angel, they’ve given you everything that you demanded when you made your little bargain with them. And they’ve yet to seen a profit. Do you think that’s very fair of you?”
Angel sighed as he tried to remain calm and collected in front of Lilah. There was something about the lawyer, that even dead, she drove him to anger almost as soon as she opened her mouth.
“I’m still learning the ropes. This is the first time I’ve had to run something like this,” Angel said as he spread his hands.
“No you’re not. You’re wasting your time on a witch addicted to power and magic who could snap at any moment and bring about the End of Days,” Lilah snapped.
“And here I thought that’s what they really wanted.”
“You understand nothing, especially about what the Senior Partners want.”
“I just don’t walk away from my friends.”
“And they don’t expect you to do so. But you can barely help her and you’re merely pining over what could have been because she’s the girl you truly longed for in Sunnydale.”
“Willow is just a friend.”
Lilah laughed as she stood up and paced in front of him. She took her time before she turned back to face Angel again.
“Everyone else might believe the ruse about Buffy, but deep down inside you’re the classic hero doomed to the dark who falls in love with the pure girl who walks in the light. I’m sure that the Slayer is a multitude of things, but the innocent girl in the light to your tortured soul in the dark, she’s not. However, Miss. Rosenberg is quite different, isn’t she?”
“Get to your point, Lilah,” Angel demanded, ignoring her statement.
“Touched a nerve, did I?” Lilah asked with a smirk, before Angel’s answering growl motivated her to continue, “Get the girl real help. Here’s information about several covens, all good witch covens, that can help her. Protector of the hopeless and helpless you may be, but you’re not a witch.”
Lilah laid down a sheet of heavy cream paper with thick black type on his desk before vanishing. Angel growled but he knew that she had been right on several things. And the last thing that he needed to do was to give the Senior Partners another chink in his armour. He stood up and made his way to the windows that allowed him to bask in the sunlight.
The sunlight that poured into his office was lacking the warmth but it still amazed him. Just like Willow did. Buffy might be the other half of his soul, but Willow was the one that he had always longed for. She was the forbidden sun that he had craved forever since he had awoken to his new life in the night. And Buffy’s influence, and even his own, had caused her to be tainted with the dark.
Angel sighed as he realized that keeping her in her condition would only harm her more. Lilah was correct when she had told him that he wasn’t a witch. It was selfishness that had kept Willow with him. She might be recovering from her grief and addiction, but she was still the sun to his night and unlike the weak sunlight given to him by the special glass in Wolfram and Hart’s building, Willow gave him the warmth that he craved.
Tomorrow he would have Wesley look over Lilah’s list and then he’d send Willow away to a coven where she could truly heal and recover. But tonight, he would bask in her warmth one last time.
**END**