Author's Note: The following story is the sequel to my previously posted fic "Hearts on Fire", it's not 100% necessary to have read it first, but still recommended or some questions might pop up. Feedback is very appreciated.
Disclaimer: The characters used from the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer universe are not mine (unfortunately), but property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy etc. and I'm just borrowing them for a while; the fiery demon goodness of Pat sprang from my own mind, so she's mine to mess around with. Hehe.
Sanity Fair
„…can't believe it's not here… Where is it? Must be here somewhere…" Those sounds of distress echoing through the bedroom were clearly heard by the demon in the kitchen, but for a while, she paid them no mind, figuring that whatever the owner of that sweet voice was looking for couldn't be far away; when she heard a low thud though, followed by some very out-of-character cursing, she rose an eyebrow, then put the cigarette she had been smoking into the ashtray on the windowsill and made her way to the bedroom, carefully opening the door and poking her head into the room. "You alright in here?"
"No", the one responsible for all this muttered words and thumping noises said in exasperation, throwing the taller woman a look that was a mixture of pleading and annoyance. "I can't find my earring… Have you seen it?"
"Which one?" she gave back, for a moment thinking longingly of the cigarette smouldering away in the kitchen, then shrugging it off and stepping into the bedroom, telling herself she'd have plenty of time to smoke later on – maybe even literally, if things didn't go quite as planned.
"The dangly one", the smaller redheaded woman now replied, causing her companion to rise an eyebrow, a smirk tugging one corner of her mouth upwards despite her obvious tries to hold it back. "That surely narrows it down, you only have like, I dunno, ten pairs of those?"
"I'm looking for the one which matches this one", the response came immediately, the earring nearly being shoved into the other woman's face, "and don't you smirk at me like that, Pat, just because you're content with owning one pair of earrings, which you constantly wear all the time anyway so you'll never be in danger of losing it, doesn't mean that I have to do the same as well…"
"Whoa, whoa, Willow, slow down", Pat gave back, holding up both hands, momentarily glad that she was wearing glasses and hadn't given in to the constant begging and pleading of her loved one to use contacts – that earring had been dangerously close to one eye after all. "I'm sure we'll find it", she added, scanning the room for the earring's missing partner already, "then you'll wear them and all will be fine and dan-"
"Don't say that", Willow interrupted her quickly, covering her mouth with her hand and causing her to let out a muffled, surprised noise, both eyebrows now practically shooting upwards. "The first time you said that, you got stabbed in the tummy afterwards", she explained, "then, the second time you said it, that vampire threw you out the window and you smashed the windshield of Giles' car. And the third time you said it, just last week if I may remind you, you set the carpet on fire when you tried to light up candles the living room and lost control of yourself."
"Because you walked in on me wearing nothing but that negligee thingy, which was very hot by the way", Pat pointed out in response, rising an eyebrow again afterwards. "Plus, you compare me getting stabbed in the tummy, thrown out of a window and setting the carpet on fire to a lost earring? Jeez, trivialize much?"
"…sorry", Willow mumbled after letting this sink in for a moment, "but… oh, it's so silly, but that pair of earrings means a lot to me… Buffy gave them to me for my birthday, last year, so…"
"It's not silly", the demon reassured her immediately, scanning the room for the earring once more afterwards, to no avail though, her gaze focusing on the smaller woman in front of her again moments later. "Did you look underneath the bed?"
"Why should it be there?" Willow gave back, now raising an eyebrow as well, making the demon shrug as response to her quizzical gaze. "How am I supposed to know? But did you look there?"
"No", the witch admitted after a moment, the taller woman giving her another smile in response – before she darted past her and crawled underneath the bed, almost ending up flat on her stomach thanks to the lack of space between the frame and the carpet. For a while, Willow watched in silence, now smiling to herself despite her annoyance about the lost earring – by now, Pat was almost all the way beneath the bed, the only thing still visible of her being her feet and part of her legs, said feet moving left and right slightly as the demon kept looking for her earring.
"So", the redhead spoke up after just watching the feet move for a while, amused by how they also went up and down as the demon tried to get further beneath the bed, "you setting the carpet on fire was some sort of demonic equivalent to a raging hard-on then?"
The response was immediate, but unexpected – Pat's feet jerked on the ground, apparently with the rest of her body as a low thump came from beneath the bed, followed by harsh cursing. "Ow, dammit dammit dammit, dammit all to the bowels of Hell! My head!"
"Sorry", Willow apologized between giggles – even though she always pretended to be shocked when her girlfriend started cursing that way, especially at the times she used much more boisterous curses and sounded like a sailor, it amused her to listen to those little tirades. "I guess I should have waited with asking that until you're standing again…"
"Indeed", came the grumbled response from beneath the bed, "and what kind of a question is that anyway? A raging hard-on? I'm female in both forms, just in case you didn't notice…"
"Actually, I wasn't sure", Willow teased, giggling again when the feet twitched on the carpet, even though this time at least, Pat didn't hit her head. "I only saw that demon form once, remember, and you were dressed then, plus engulfed in fiery flames, so…"
"The flames are part of the package", the demon muttered in response, still sounding a bit sour – only to have her voice lighten up noticeably when she spotted a certain shiny, dangly object on the carpet beneath the bed.
"Found it!" she cried out triumphantly, causing Willow to let out a happy squeal; smirking to herself, the demon crawled out from beneath the bed again, managing to do so without hitting her head again, proudly holding the earring out to her girlfriend. "There you go", she stated the obvious, "now that poor other earring you're hopefully still holding and didn't lose while I was crawling around beneath my bed, saying Hi to the dust bunnies there, has his partner back and isn't single and lonesome anymore."
"Wow, that was close to Willow quality rambling", the redhead smirked in reply, accepting the earring and holding the other one up to reassure her girlfriend she hadn't lost it while she had had her little adventure beneath the bed. "And now, let me put these on, then I'm all set and ready to go…"
"Don't I get a reward for finding that earring?" Pat demanded to know in reply, the words accompanied by a pout and the cutest set of puppy-dog eyes she managed; giggling, Willow nodded in reply, stepping even closer to her afterwards so she could kiss her tenderly – on the cheek, to the obvious dismay of the taller woman.
"That's not enough", she declared once the redhead had pulled back again, "the payment for finding beloved dangly earrings is higher than that. A peck on the cheek is only sufficient for finding non-beloved earrings, or non-dangly ones."
"Then what is proper payment for finding beloved dangly earrings?" Willow played along, the response once more coming quickly – in form of the other woman bending down to kiss her, full on the lips, not content with just another smack on the cheek. With a small sigh escaping her as the kiss deepened, she wrapped both arms around the taller woman, closing her eyes momentarily when, after pulling back from the kiss, Pat moved slightly to kiss the sensitive skin of her neck; then, she forced herself to step away, giving the demon a scolding wriggle of her index finger. "Now, now, don't do that… You'll get me all worked up and then we'll be late."
"So?" Pat just mumbled in response, the look she gave the smaller woman afterwards making it clear that she'd be late anytime; giving her best to keep up her self-control, Willow shook her head in reply, smiling as the demon continued to practically undress her with her eyes. "So, Buffy will be sad if we're late for her birthday party. And we don't want a sad Slayer, do we?"
"She'd understand", Pat shrugged in reply, smirking afterwards and moving closer to the witch again, placing her hands on the smaller woman's waist so she could pull her closer. "She knows I can't keep my hands off of you anyway… Plus, you're getting me all worked up too, just by wearing that awfully pretty dress…"
With those words, she tugged at said dress, a rather daring piece of clothing with an – at least for Willow – surprisingly deep cleavage, the colour matching her hair and bringing out her eyes, the deep green of them now twinkling with mischief as she looked up at her loved one. "You get worked up no matter what I wear, my dear, so don't put the blame on me. You even got worked up once when I wore that old bulky sweater and just laid around on your couch, being lazy."
"Because I fantasized about what that sweater was hiding", the demon chuckled, raising her hands afterwards before Willow had a chance to reply, "but fine, fine… Let's go then, we really don't want a sad Slayer…"
"No, we don't", the redhead agreed in reply, still taking the time to steal a brief kiss from her girlfriend before she quickly put on the earrings, leaving the bedroom afterwards and making her way to the front door while Pat made a short detour to the kitchen, putting the cigarette she had left there out – even if she was a fire demon, she had no desire to burn her own apartment down. As soon as that matter had been taken care of, she joined Willow at the door, putting on her boots and jacket there, the redhead watching her slightly impatient; since she didn't want to show off her cleavage to all of Sunnydale, she had covered herself with a jacket as well, but thanks to the length of the dress – or the lack thereof – the population of the town still would get a rather good look at her legs, something she didn't mind though as long as Pat was by her side.
During the almost eight months they had been together now, she had learned yet another of the advantages of dating a demon – apart from uncanny stamina and the ability to provide fire and thus warmth whenever it was needed, Pat also knew how to shut up annoying guys who'd make vile comments about them kissing in public or even dared to try and cop a feel off her, one glance given by glowing red eyes usually more than enough to make them shut up or pull their hands back where they belonged. Every now and then, this wasn't enough, when the guy or guys in question had had too much to drink or felt especially daring; and even though Willow never had been all too fond of violence, not even after meeting Buffy, she had to admit that it felt good to see her girlfriend pick some obnoxious guy up by the collar and snarling threats and curses at them, until it seemed as if they'd wet their pants and were close to begging for forgiveness.
At first, it had been a bit weird to be with someone so protective of her, but she soon had realized that this was just one of the ways with which the demon showed her feelings for her, and that she couldn't really expect Pat to behave differently – after all, she was the one the demon had fallen in love with after two hundred years of living without knowing about this emotion, so it was only natural that she wouldn't want the person who captured her heart so unexpectedly, but thoroughly, to get hurt by nasty comments or molested by the hands of strangers.
"Ready to go?" the taller woman now tore her out of her thoughts, making her smile and nod; the couple shared another brief kiss, then left the apartment together, soon on their way to the restaurant where the first part of tonight's celebration would be held.