No Rest
For Willow
By Terrina
Disclaimer: I own none of them....they belong to Joss and Fox.
Warning: The Consumption of Alcohol may lead you to believe that ex-lovers are really dying for you to telephone then at 4 in the morning
(or potential lovers)…or the friends of potential lovers… < > indicates thoughts.
"Dammit Willow," Buffy said angrily, "where could they have gone? I mean,
Xander and I kiss. I finally tell him I like him as more than a friend,
and he flakes out and disappears on me. Then you and Oz brake up cause he
wants to go on the road and have groupies, and he disappears. And Angel…,
well Angel always disappears.
<Buffy stops herself from telling Willow what Angel had revealed to her.
It had been several years since she and Angel had broken up for good. She
kept hoping Angel would move on, and he finally had. He had fallen head
over heals for Willow. The two of them had spent a lot of time together.
At first it was really hard for Buffy to be around Angel and he needed a
friend. Willow was there for him and she brought him out of his shell.
She actually made the brooding vampire happy.
"Well," Willow started, breaking Buffy out of her thoughts, "maybe the boys
needed some time to themselves. I mean, it's not like they'd go partying
or anything without us."
Meanwhile, across town… the boys were doing just that.
Angel walked into the country-western bar. <Since this is on the
outskirts of town, I won't run into anyone I know Angel walks up to the
bar and orders a double shot of SoCo. The bartender can tell he's drunk
already, but figures he can handle a few more.
"It's good to have someone who can hold their alcohol in here. Those two
over there, they've hardly been drinkin' for 3 hours, but they're already
blabbering like high school students.
Angel looks in the direction the bartended motioned to and saw two people
who were high schoolers when he met them. Angel downed his first shot and
ordered 3 more. He walked to the end of the bar and sat down next to the
taller of the two.
"Well, well, if it isn't the slayers little follower and the friendly
neighborhood werewolf. What brings you two all the way out here?"
"Music of pain," Xander mumbles. Oz just nods. Then Xander realizes who
spoke. "Dead-Boy! What are you doing here?"
"Drinking, getting drunk, then drinking some more. But I am not nearly as
drunk as you two are. So, want to tell me what's going on. Why aren't you
with Buffy and Willow?"
"No!" The two guys said in unison, actually slurring in unison.
"Okay then. Since you two obviously can't drive, why don't I see you
home." <I'll just finish getting drunk there Angel thought as he downed
his shot and the ones he had bought for Xander and Ox.
Willow jerked awake to the sound of her ringing phone. Although she was
tempted to ignore it, this was the Hellmouth and that probably wasn't such
a good idea.
"Hello"
"Willow, you awake?"
"No Oz, I'm still asleep. Yeah I'm awake. What's up? Is there evil
brewing?"
"No, you won't believe this, but I'm hanging out with Xander at Angel's.
We're drunk."
Willow could tell by the sound of his voice, as well as the fact that he
called her at 3 AM.
"No, really? Okay, two questions: why are you guys drunk without Buffy and
me, and why are you two hanging out with Angel? Xander would never just
hang out with Angel?"
"Xand and I were hanging out at a bar and Angel showed up. Walked us home,
but we decided to come back here and get more drunk."
"It was not a bar…it was a country western bar," Xander shouted from the
background.
"Okay, so why call me?"
"I just wanted to say how sorry I am that I hurt you and that I'll always
love you, but it isn't fair to have you waiting around for me while I'm on
tour."
"It's okay Oz. I think it's time we both moved on. Thanks for everything.
Be careful okay, make sure you are all secured on the full moon."
"No problem Wills. Xander wants to talk to you and I need to go pass out
now. Bye-bye."
"Bye Oz," Willow said laughing. <Oz must be really drunk to talk that
much.
Xander picks up the phone, only slightly slurring his words.
"Willow my girl," Xander shouts, "what's up? Why are you on Angel's phone?"
"Umm…Oz called me."
"Oh right, I told him I wanted to talk to you. How sweet of him to call
you for me."
Willows laughed, "He's nice like that."
"Yep. The werewolf is cool like that. Anyway, have you talked to Buffy
lately?"
"You mean the girl you bailed on after she kissed you? Yeah, I talked to
her today. By the way, WHY THE HELL DID YOU RUN OUT ON HER?" Willow
yelled into the phone causing Xander to drop his.
"Do you have any idea how that hurt her. And then you go out and get
drunk. What were you thinking?"
"I didn't know how to react. I've been crazy about her for so long, I
didn't know what to do. Willow," Xander started, finally sounding more
sober, "I am scared. I want to be with her, but I don't want to get hurt.
Or hurt her. Do you want to know what my first thought was? Well, after
the 'oh my God, Buffy's kissing me' thought? I thought about you. What
would this do to our friendship? And I know that if Buffy and I got
together it would mean you and I never would. I guess I just needed some
time to think. Plus, there is the whole Slayer thing. I don't know what I
would do if Buffy died. Or if I died. She doesn't need to worry about
that. "
"Xander," Willow interrupted, knowing he could go on for hours. <When it
comes down to it, he could babble as much as she could . "About you and
me, we're just friends and you know it. What happened before doesn't
change that. We needed to get together, no matter how briefly to get it
out of our system. And I would be nothing but happy if you and Buffy got
together. All I want is to see you happy. I got over you a while ago
Xander. Don't use me as excuse to hide from Buffy. You need to talk to
her. Call her. Give her a chance. You have always been in love with her,
and you have to let her love you. But Xander."
"Yeah Will," Xander responded quietly.
"Wait until tomorrow to call her, she needs her sleep."
"Okay Willow. So, you and Oz broke up? Why didn't you tell me?"
Before Willow could respond she heard a voice in the background.
"Dammit Xander, it's my turn!"
"Shut up Deadboy. I am not done talking to my best friend yet!"
Willow could hear arguing in the background, but couldn't make out what
they were saying. Why was Angel so determined to talk to her?
<That could be interesting…Angel drunk. This could really be funny. I
wish Buffy were here to hear this.
"Willow! My bud. How are you? We didn't wake you up, did we?" Angel
asked, sounding only slightly more sober than Oz and Xander.
"Angel, I'm fine. And of course you guys woke me up. Only vampires and
drunk guys are awake at this ungodly time of the night. But it's okay.
You guys are entertainment enough to keep me awake."
"As long as you're not mad at us, it's okay. I was quite surprised, but I
had fun with them. I ran into them at this country bar…"
"COUNTRY-WESTERN BAR" Xander and Oz shouted in the background.
"Okay… country-western bar. Anyway, I'm going in the other room now.
They're way too loud. They were getting really drunk so I agreed to take
them home. Mind you, I was a little intoxicated myself, but they didn't
want to go home, so we came over here and drank some more. Then Ox and
Xander decided to call you, so we did and…"
"Angel," Willow interrupted, trying really hard not to laugh. "Oh goddess,
you're babbling." Then she really started laughing.
"Babbling? I am not babbling. I don't babble… Okay, I'm babbling. But so
what, " Angel was starting to sound defensive, "I'm drunk. Drunken people
do that. Besides, you babble all the time, even when you're sober."
Willow could hear the 'so there' in his voice. "True, but I'm Willow. I
do that. You're the big, bad, brooding vampire."
"Not that brooding anymore." The drunk rambling left his voice. "And
that's thank to you Willow. That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you
about. I've never properly thanked you for restoring my soul. It wasn't
until much later that I realized it was you that did that. And then, you
accepted me back and trusted me again when everyone else couldn't do it.
Even Buffy didn't trust me completely. You always stood up for me. You
were my friend. I didn't realize how much of a friend you were until Buffy
and I broke up and I realized I might never see you again. You were the
only one I could talk to. You listened about my experiences in hell.
Actually, you forced me to discus that time. And that helped me more than
you can ever know, or I can ever express to you."
"Angel, you didn't have to tell me all this. I know how you feel."
"No you don't. Not really. And I did have to tell you. I waited too long
to tell you. But that's not all…" Angel started to talk really fast, as
if forcing himself to say the next part. "I know it's too soon, but if I
don't say it now, I probably never will. Since you and Oz broke up, I
would like a chance, when you're ready, to see if we could be more that
friends. If you want to that is. Or not. It's up to you. I just wanted
you to know how I feel. I think I'm falling in love with you. I know you
could never feel the same, but I…"
"Angel." Willow said softly knowing he would go on all night, "right now I
need some time on my own. But in a few weeks, if you still want to, if you
asked me out I wouldn't say no. But right now, you're drunk and you have 2
of my best friends over there who are even more drunk. I think you guys
need to go to bed, you 3 are going to regret this tomorrow."
"Sure Willow. Good night. And thanks for listening, and everything else.
And I know I'm drunk, but I do love you. If you let yourself admit it, I
think you love me too."
Willow hung up the phone. <Did she love Angel? She was closer to him than
she was to anyone now, even Xander. Oh well, I'll worry about that later.
Now, back to sleep…country western bar hmm? That's why she kept she kept
hearing Angel singing "Boot, Scoot, and Boogie" while she was talking to
Xander.
Willow fell asleep with visions of dozens of Angel clones line dancing.