punch_kicker15

Title: Q & A
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Author: punch_kicker15
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Relationships: Kennedy, Anya (with some referenced Willow/Kennedy)
Summary: Set after Get It Done: after Willow steals power from Kennedy to open the portal, Kennedy seeks some answers from the only person who shared that experience: Anya.
Word count: 1164
Notes: Written for

halfamoon, for the friendship prompt

After Willow closed the door to Buffy’s room, Kennedy waited a minute, then made her way downstairs on still-shaky legs.

She found Anya sitting on the couch next to a pile of towels and a laundry basket.

Anya looked up at her in annoyance. “What do you want, potential-girl? Can’t you see I’m busy?”

Kennedy shifted from foot to foot. “I had some questions for you.”

“What’s in it for me?” Anya’s arms folded over her chest.

People rarely responded to Kennedy’s questions with so much hostility. Her mom’s advice on bargaining popped into her head: Don’t offer what you’re willing to give up until you have to. Make them make the demands. “What do you want?”

Anya stared at Kennedy appraisingly. “Help me with this towel-folding mission. And then I get to ask you some questions.”

“Deal.” Kennedy crossed the room and sat down beside Anya. She picked up a ragged towel and started folding. “When Willow lifted us up, and took--whatever--did it hurt you too?”

Anya rolled her eyes. “Of course it hurt!”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Anya didn’t seem like the shy-and-retiring type.

“What was the point?” Anya stared down at the towel on her lap. “Nobody listens to me. I said opening that portal was too dangerous, but everyone acted like I wasn’t there--including you.”

“Well, yeah, because I didn’t know what would happen.” Which wasn’t exactly true--Willow had tried to warn her, but there were some things that she had to feel to understand.

“Why not? Didn’t your Watcher teach you anything about magic?”

Gut-wrenching memories of Hannah’s final moments sprang to mind, but Kennedy pushed them away. She took a breath, yanking herself back into the present. “My Watcher didn’t really teach me anything about it. Magic was supposed to be her department, and beheading demons was supposed to be mine.”

“Ok,” Anya placed a pile of folded towels on one side of the sofa, and picked up a few more. “Maybe an analogy would help. Magic is like capitalism. You don’t get something for nothing. Everything has its cost.”

“But I’ve seen Willow pull a flame out of the air like it’s nothing.”

Anya shook her head. “The cost is there. You’re just not seeing it. She’s powerful enough that something like the flame looks effortless, but it still takes something from her. With powerful magic like the portal spell, she didn’t have enough inside her to pay the cost on her own, so she--made us pay the cost, too.”

Kennedy frowned. None of this seems as easy as bringing Willow back from Amy’s spell had been. But maybe Kennedy hadn’t been the one paying the cost for that spell; that thought left her feeling protective of Willow, even though Kennedy was the one who’d been hurt today. “I thought magic was like a fairy tale.”

Anya tilted her head, weighing that thought. “I guess you could think of it that way. As long as you remember that some fairy tales are about witches eating children.”

Kennedy huffed out a nervous laugh. “Way to take the sexiness out of the powerful witch thing Willow has going on.”

“Oh, it can be sexy, too.” Anya’s face flushed, and her voice grew a little faint. “There was a locator spell we did when she came back from England that was quite--pleasant.”

Jealousy surged through Kennedy, but her gut told her that neither Anya nor Willow had gotten any in a long time. If anything more than a spell had happened between them, she’d know.

“Was that all?” Anya asked. “Do I get to ask questions now?”

“Um,” Kennedy cast about for another question, one that would give her a little more clarity. Another piece of advice from her mom came to mind. Ask open-ended questions. You’ll get more information that way. “Is there anything else I should know?”

Anya frowned. “You should know that she’ll do it again, if she has to. She got Buffy back. That’s what mattered to her. Buffy and Willow and Xander--no one is ever gonna get between those three, no matter how hard they try.”

That was just bitterness on Anya’s part because she and Xander had been a train wreck. But it would be different with Willow, when they worked this out. And then Kennedy realized that she’d thought when and not if. Underneath all of the shock and pain, there was certainty in her heart--no matter what, they’d work things out in the end. “Thanks, that helped.”

“Ok, my turn now,” Anya turned towards Kennedy. “Dawn says that you’re rich. How did you do it?”

Ok, that was not what she’d been expecting from Anya at all. “It’s not so much me as my parents.”

Anya looked vaguely disappointed, and then her face brightened a little. “How did they get rich?”

“Dad inherited my grandfather’s fruitcake business--”

Anya scowled. “You’re telling me the only way to get rich is to have rich parents?”

“Well, that definitely helps,” Kennedy admitted. “But--my mom wasn’t born rich, and she made her own fortune.”

Anya perked up. “What did she do?”

“She’s vice-president of contracts at Coastal Cable.”

“How did she get that job?”

“Um, she started off in customer support, and worked her way up, but I don’t know much more than that.” Kennedy could just see her mother smirking at her: You should have paid more attention to my work stories--I told that you’d never know when they might come in handy. “She’d be able to tell you a lot more of what you want to know. My parents are hiding out until all of this potential-hunting stuff dies down. But when this is over, I’ll give her a call and ask her to talk to you.”

“Ok,” Anya said, “Promise you won’t die before this is over.”

Kennedy grinned. “Promise. I’m too much of a brat to die.”

“I have another question for you, as a lesbian--”

Kennedy braced herself for some blunt questions about her sex life.

“--what do you think of my hair? I haven’t had sex in months. Do you think it’s the hair?”

Kennedy laughed. “No, it’s just this stupid hick town. The men are all idiots. Your hair looks great.” She rarely told people what they wanted to hear, but in this case, it was true. She finished folding the last towel and stood up. “If you’re done with the questions, I’m gonna go talk to Willow.”

“You’re going to forgive her, aren’t you?” Anya picked up the folded towels and placed them in the laundry basket. Everybody does.” She sighed dramatically. “Even me. I think it’s something she does with her eyes. Not a magic thing, just a human thing.”

Kennedy nodded, then headed up the stairs two at a time. Her mom liked to say, If you want something, grab it with both hands and don’t let go. The faster she got to Willow, the faster they could start working things out.