The Hands of Fate (Buffy/Willow, PG)

[punch_kicker15]

Title: The Hands of Fate
Author: punch_kicker15
Rating: PG
Fandoms: BtVS
Characters/Relationships: Willow/Buffy
Word count: 657
Summary: AU Season 3 where Buffy and Willow are dating and Angel and Oz are out of the picture: Buffy, Willow, and a public display of affection.
Author Notes: Written for the Science Fiction Double Feature round of femslash_minis, for the_wiggins, who wanted the pairing, who wanted the pairing, Scoobies watching cheesy old horror movies, lighthearted banter, and hand-holding. Title is a reference to Manos, The Hands of Fate because I couldn't resist the Mst3k reference.

As she left the movie theater, Buffy squinched her eyes for a moment and reached in her pocket for her sunglasses. Something about being in the dark for four hours made the sun blaze ten thousand times brighter than normal. Or maybe it was the light reflecting off Willow’s neon-green and orange sweater, which in perfectly Willowy fashion, was paired with a bright yellow miniskirt.

“I think The Eye Creatures was worse,” Willow declared.

Buffy nearly dropped her sunglasses. “We listened to someone narrate half of The Creeping Terror! At least The Eye Creatures had actors delivering their lines.”

Willow shook her head. “Creeping Terror was entertainingly bad. Eye Creatures just kind lay there. I’d rather watch something fail in a spectacle-y way than something succeed in being the dullest movie ever.”

As they passed the Doublemeat Palace, Buffy saw Larry, Scott Hope, and their hyper friend whose name started with an H—Horton or Holden or something like that—across the street. She made eye contact (as much as she could with sunglasses on) and Larry looked away. Good. Maybe he’d grown up a little in the last year. Or maybe he still remembered that day she’d flipped him over in gym class.

She turned back to Willow. “Creeping Terror had the victim crawling into the monster’s mouth. Badness personified.”
Willow shrugged. “I kinda like the obviously fake monsters. Keeps me from getting too caught up in the story and getting scared.”

“Seriously? Movie monsters give you a wiggins, after all the real monsters you’ve seen?”

“Ventriloquist dummies!” Willow retorted. There was a sly grin on her face. Buffy couldn’t think of any logical reason for ventriloquist dummies to be any scarier than men in rubber alien suits, even though it felt like the difference should be obvious. Stupid logic.

They passed by the park. Harmony and some of the former Cordettes were eating lunch at one of the picnic tables. Harmony wrinkled her nose in an exaggerated expression of disdain. Buffy had never really appreciated Cordelia until she’d seen Harmony in charge of a clique. Truly there could be only one Queen C.

As if summoned by her thoughts, Cordelia and Xander walked out of April Fool’s, Xander staggering under the load of at lead eight shopping bags.

Buffy waved at them. Cordy waved back and Xander swung the bags in their general direction.

Just as they crossed the street to meet them, Willow slipped her hand into Buffy’s.

Buffy’s heart skipped a beat. They’d held hands before, but that was before they’d started dating. This felt different, somehow, and she was sure everyone could tell.

Xander said, “Sorry I couldn’t make the double feature. But I’m needed as a beast of burden right now.”

“They were both doozies,” Willow said. With a mischievous smile, she added, “Both of us were just saying that Creeping Terror was better.”

That was Buffy’s cue to jump in with an indignant denial. But the hand-holding thing made her hold her breath. She snuck a look at Xander. Would he feel left out, now that she and Willow were dating? Would he be a massive jerk about this?

But instead of making some snide remark, he just grinned and asked, “Is that the one where Costume Guy stole the monster suit, so they just wrapped an actor up in a shag carpet?”

“The one and only,” Willow answered. Then her brow furrowed. “Maybe not the only. There were a lot of bad monster movies back then. It could have happened twice.”

It was a perfectly Willowy bundle of contradictions. She was wigged by actors in monster suits, but totally fearless about holding hands in front of Xander and Cordelia and half of Sunnydale High.

Buffy took off her sunglasses and shoved them in her pocket. The sun shone as bright as ever, but she wanted to experience this relationshippy moment in all of its eye-blistering neon glory.

Comments

[dragonyphoenix]

Aww, I like Buffy's thoughts on courage.

And, “Ventriloquist dummies!” Eee! Awesome line.

[punch_kicker15]

Thanks! The thoughts on courage and the ventriloquist dummies line kind of came from the same place. I was thinking about the odd little phobias these characters have, even though they're really brave about other stuff.