Willow Rosenberg : Problems Shared
Willow Rosenberg unlocked the door of the Summers' house and walked inside. It was days since Buffy had confiscated all of the magickal items in the house. She walked up the stairs, into her magick free bedroom, she dumped her bag in a chair and flopped onto the bed.
Buffy had been patrolling a lot more since the revelation of her being in heaven.
No, since I brought her back from heaven, Willow thought to herself. Willow's addiction to the magicks had resulted in Tara's departure from the house.
Willow sat up and then looked down the hall. Dawn's bedroom door was closed, which meant she was either in bed or at Janice's and Buffy's bedroom door was open which meant she was wherever the hell she was.
Willow walked over to the closet, opened it and pulled out some cloths, putting them on the side table. Next Willow pulled out a candle, a crystal, some butterfly transormer pods, some tumbleweed, some raven feathers and some rose bush thorn.
She put them on the bed and then opened a drawer, she pulled out a box of matches and stood the candle on the floor. She lit it and then sat with it, clutching it for dear life. She pulled the chrysali out of the bag it was in and burned it on the flame.
I can't do this, Willow thought. Not without Tara. But I'll never get her back.
Willow heard the front door slam and some footsteps on the stairs. She blew out the candle and threw her duvet over the stuff on the bed, pushing the candle under the bed she stood up, chrysali debris fell to the floor.
"God! What is that smell?" Buffy clutched her nose.
"I don't know," Willow muttered. "Maybe someone was burning stuff outside."
"It doesn't smell like burning. Why would it smell like burning?" Buffy asked.
"That's not the smell you can smell? It's the smell I can smell," Willow sat on the bed.
"You're incredibly hyped," Buffy replied. "Were they doing drugs at the library?"
"What?" Willow asked. "Oh. No drugs, well they could have been, but not me."
Buffy walked out of the room down the hall, into the bathroom. Willow could hear the shower running.
That was a close one, Willow jumped off the bed and grabbed the candle and from under the bed and unravelled the duvet, pulling out the other magickal stuff. She ran over to the closet, threw it in, the clothes followed.
A few minutes later Buffy walked back into the hall and padded down it back into her room. She reappeared later, dressed. She walked into Willow's room and looked around, clothes had been piled on the side table and the closet door had been open.
"What happened?" Buffy asked.
"What?" Willow asked.
"The clothes and the closet," Buffy replied. "There were clothes on that side table and the closet door was open."
"I put the clothes away and closed to door," Willow replied. "Well I'm tired so I'm gonna get some shut eye."
"Night," Buffy closed the door and left Willow to do whatever she was gonna do.
A car pulled up on the docks, the door opened and a figure stepped out. It had blue skin, with yellow and red dots.
"So this is the home of the slayer?" Darsateayes asked.
Buffy woke up the next morning to the smell of pancakes, drifting from the kitchen. Buffy got walked down the stairs. Willow was standing at the stove, Dawn was eating in the dining room, away from Willow. Buffy sat at the counter, Willow was staring at the burning pancake.
"Uh Will," Buffy said, Willow snapped out of it and turned of the stove.
"I'm going to bed," Willow left the kitchen and walked up the stairs, Buffy followed.
"You've been doing that a lot lately. The cooking breakfast and then sleeping," Buffy stood at the top of the stairs.
"I'm just really tired," Willow closed the bedroom door.
"But don't you have college?" Buffy shouted.
The door opened and Willow glared at her friend, "Oops. I knew there was somewhere I needed to be."
Willow walked down the hall, emptiness filled within her. She was carrying some of the books that she needed, she was pale. A girl with long brown hair brushed past her arm.
Was that? Willow asked. Willow continued down the hall and entered one of the rooms.
Buffy walked down the street, passing dozens of houses, no van was parked outside any of them.
I could have sworn Willow told me that the geeks lived down Crestlow Avenue, Buffy looked back down the street, wind blew a piece of litter down it.
Buffy headed to the Magic Box.
Anya dusted a shelf, Xander sat at the table reading a book. Buffy took a seat and then looked around the room.
"Still haven't unloaded any of those Essence of Slug candles yet?" Buffy noticed the brown, rectangular objects on some shelves near the stairs.
"I don't get it. Slug is the best," Anya announced, the customers that had been browsing the shelves against the walls looked at Anya and then walked toward the door. "Hey! Come back! Please! We need your money! Come back with it soon!"
"What's the deal?" Buffy asked Xander, indicating the book.
"Wonder Woman just got attacked by some skeletons," Xander replied.
"Wonder Woman. I thought you would be researching the nerds," Buffy looked at the pile of the books on the table.
"Well where to start. I mean we could search for people in these old old books but the nerds, not that old. And plus I doubt the hellmouth drew some geeks here," Xander replied.
Anya approached the cash register and opened it, "Crap! Now I can't do the dance of capitalist superiority."
"I'm sure there'll be more customers soon," Xander looked toward the door, hoping for a ding.
"No. Our number one customer was Willow, and she didn't even pay for the merchandise she brought," Anya replied.
"Things that bad?" Buffy looked at Anya.
"Yes. Where've you been all day?" Anya snapped. Buffy turned and looked at Xander for a sympathy vote, Xander simply shrugged.
"Have you ever thought maybe you should try a different sales approach. For example don't announce things like Slug is the best," Xander smiled at Anya.
"You really thinks it's my sales approach?" Anya asked.
"Maybe," Xander smiled again.
A customer walked into the shop, the person headed for the shelf and picked up a crystal ball. Anya ran up toward the person, grabbing a slug candle. "Hello customer. Would you like to buy this candle?"
"How much is it?" the man asked.
"Um $2.50," Anya replied.
"What does it smell like?" the man asked.
"Um ooh slug. You like a bit of slug don't you?" the man took the candle and smelt it. He grinned and handed over some money. He left the shop, sans crystal ball.
"You just sold one of those things?" Buffy asked.
"Yes! The guy said that he had every other scent," Anya put the money in the cash register and sat down next to Buffy.
Willow walked down the street, headed for the Magic Shop, she passed a guy who was smelling a brown candle. She walked inside the shop and dumped her bag on the table. Dawn entered the shop a little later.
"Hey, Dawn!" Willow said enthusiastically as the bell dinged.
Dawn dumped her bag on the table and walked into the training room.
"What's her deal?" Xander asked as the training room door slammed. Willow glanced at Xander. "Oh! That thing where you almost got her killed. Can that girl hold a grudge or what?"
"She has every right to," Willow replied.
"Yes she does. It's gonna be a long while till she trusts you again," Anya smiled at Willow.
"I know," Willow replied.
"So you don't think she can do this?" Dawn asked, Buffy was punching the dummy that Xander had made.
"She can do it, but she can't do it if she doesn't want to," Buffy stopped punching and stretched her legs on the vaulting horse. "Which I guess she wants because she asked me to help her."
"Or she could be acting, y'know waiting for the exact right time to do another memory spell, I hate those," Dawn flicked the dummy and then walked toward the knife holder on the wall. She picked up a throwing knife.
"Watch where you throw that," Buffy snapped. Dawn put the knife back on the wall and walked across to the weapon chest. She pulled out a sword.
"Ooh, slashy," Dawn swung the blade, barely missing Buffy's stomach. Dawn twirled the sword into a fighting position. "Guess I learnt that little twirl from you."
"Guess you did," Buffy ducked as Dawn swung the blade again. "Hey! Watch it with that thing!"
Buffy walked into the shop proper, Dawn followed.
"So what's going on?" Buffy asked.
"Like what?" Xander put his comic book down on the table.
"Apocalypses, arising cults, y'know the usual," Buffy sat down.
"Nothing," Xander replied. The Magic Box window smashed and a demonic looking creature emerged from it.
"It's called a door," Anya shouted. The demon walked toward the table. It had yellow and red dots that covered blue skin. It walked with a limp.
"Is one of you the slayer?" the demon asked.
"Wow. Never had one that asked me before," Buffy stood up.
"So you're the slayer? I thought you'd be bigger," the demon replied.
"Hey!" Buffy shouted. Buffy ran at the demon and performed a jumping roundhouse, Buffy bounced onto the floor. "That's a cute little trick. What is it? Are you wearing a skapula?"
"Your power cannot harm me," the demon shouted.
"Oh huh," Dawn muttered.
"No power that the slayer has can penetrate the skin of Darsateayes," Darsateayes punched Buffy as she stood up, she fell back down. Darsateayes took off out of the window.
"Darsatty-what?" Buffy asked.
Willow got back to the Summers' home and took a shower. She walked back into her room and sat on the bed. She put on some party clothes and decided to go to the Bronze.
Willow stood at the bar, looking, the last time she had been there was when she had been having a magical time with Amy Madison, literally. She walked up the stairs and stood, looking over at the dancing couples and singles.
She could sense a magical presence in the room, not her own and not Tara's. Willow turned around and saw Amy was behind her.
"Willow. What are you doing up here all on your own?" Amy asked. "You're not being naughty with the magicks are you?"
"No I'm not," Willow replied.
"Do you want to?" Amy asked.
"Do I want to what?" Willow asked.
"Do some magicks? Have good fun? Go to Rack's?" Amy asked.
"I-I-I can't. I have to get home," Willow took off down the stairs. She pushed past dancing people and left the Bronze.
Willow walked down main street, Amy hadn't followed her. She past many people, she even passed Spike and Buffy.
Must have been patrolling together, Willow thought. She reached the house and went up to her room. She pulled out a book from the shelf and decided to look up info on Darsateayes. She read the contents and then opened it up on the page she thought would help.
This would be so much easier if I-, Willow thought. I can't think that way. Not if I want to give up the magicks altogether.
Willow leafed through the pages, until she came upon one that had a picture of the demon in question on it.
Darsateayes is a demon that exists only to destroy the slayer and her watcher. It cannot be hurt by the slayer and can only be killed by magicks.
Giles! What if it killed Giles? Willow thought.
The magicks thing stuck out in her mind. She couldn't do them, but if it was to help Buffy, it was the only way.
Willow woke up the next day and dragged herself to UCS. She lived through the boring lectures and managed to stay awake through the not so tedious ones. She walked down the hall.
Everyone is staring at me. It's as if they know I can't do this. But they can't know. They don't know me, or the magicks situation.
When college finished Willow went back to the house instead of going to the Magic Box. She picked a spell book off the shelf and found the spell she was looking for. She went up the stairs and sat cross legged on the floor. She opened the book, pulled out the ingredients she needed, and a candle.
Nighttime had fallen at the Magic Shop, and all over town and Buffy and Spike were gearing up to go and destroy Darsateayes.
"I thought it said that no slayer's abilities could kill it?" Dawn asked.
"It did, and I'm gonna test that theory," Buffy loaded her crossbow.
"You don't even know where it is," Dawn replied. The bell to the shop rang and Buffy turned to see who had just entered the shop.
"Not a problem," Buffy gestured to what had just entered the shop, Darsateayes.
"Slayer, you think your weapons can destroy the powerful Darsateayes," Darsateayes bellowed.
"Wow, you talk in third person and you're up yourself, hey you wanna try a third trait?" Buffy asked.
"Punning will do no good either," Darsateayes whispered.
"And look you're not intimidated by my puns," Buffy sighed.
"Are you guys just gonna have a sarcasm contest or are you gonna fight?" Xander asked.
"The fighting comes when I say it does, which is now," Buffy ran at Darsateayes and kicked him in the chest, she bounced on the floor. "God! What is it with unkillable demons?"
"You can't kill them?" Anya suggested.
"It was rhetorical," Buffy replied. Spike ran at the demon and attacked, to no avail.
Willow began to chant.
The demon ran at Buffy and stopped mid way, he began to shake and then a bright white light came out of his mouth. His insides were seeable, Spike turned Dawn to face the other way, demon parts not a good sight. Darsateayes' heart was glowing orange, and the colour changed at the mouth. He exploded into millions of pieces. Blue skin littered the floor of the shop, red and yellow spots landed on the walls.
"Thanks for the shield," Dawn turned around. "Maybe I should have not looked at all."
"Crap! How am I gonna get this place cleaned up?" Anya asked.
"It's called a mop," Xander said.
"I wonder how it got destroyed," Buffy wondered.
"Maybe it's time was up. Y'know it's heart gave up and just exploded," Spike suggested.
"Maybe," Buffy headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Anya asked.
"To patrol."
"But there was gonna be cleaning."
"You can do it with Xander," Buffy looked at Dawn. "Xander can you see that Dawn gets home okay? And Spike you can come and patrol."
"Fun," Spike and Buffy left the shop.
Willow blew out the candle, but the ingredients back into the closet and put the book away. That was my last spell.