Two Slayers— One Heart (Version 3.0): Part 10

Elaine:

Well, Rose's mom was very cool. So was her Sifu, her class, her friend Brian, and the Vampire Slayer Web site. And so was Sensei Yashida, who I hoped would soon be my Sensei. This day was quickly shaping up to be the second best day of my life….

And I was planning on ending it with a bang, and pushing it over the top to the number one spot!

Still, I didn't want to just drag Rose out of the school— well, I did, in fact, but that wouldn't have been at all polite— so I smiled at Sifu Archer and Sensei Yashida again, then turned to Brian.

"It's been very nice to meet you," I said. "You must be a great guy, if you're Rose's best friend." I smiled at him, and he blushed slightly.

"Uh, well, I try," he joked. "Seriously, though, I'm glad Rose found someone— and since you seem really cool— I'm glad she's you, if that made any sense!"

I grinned. "Yeah, well— I'm glad she's me, too, believe me!"

I turned to look at Rose, because I couldn't not look at her at that point. She was blushing, but looked completely happy, and shot me an endearing and unbelievably tempting smile. Which reminded me of exactly why I wanted to leave….

I turned to Sensei Yashida again, and bowed. "It was good to meet you, Sensei— and you, Camden. I hope to start lessons in a few days, if that's all right with you?"

"Perfectly all right," Sensei replied. "Whenever you wish to start, I will begin teaching you."

"It was nice to meet you, too," Sifu Archer said with a smile. "Now, since you seem about ready to drag Rose away by force— get out of here, you two! Enjoy yourselves!"

Rose blushed, and I knew I was blushing, too, but I smiled. "Thank you!"

I waited until we got outside… then kissed Rose, deeply. She made a noise of contentment and leaned into me, and we just stood there for a moment, kissing, holding and being held.

I pulled away finally, and my heart swelled with love at Rose's slightly dizzy look. "I love you Rose. So much," I said seriously. Then I smiled wickedly. "So— shall we?" I held out a hand to her, courteously.

She smiled. "I love you, too," she said, "and— yes!"

She took my hand, and I entwined fingers with her as we began to walk. "I was thinking," I said, "we could go to that pizza place, just a couple of blocks over." I had a thought, then, with sudden concern, and coughed gently. "Unless you'd… like to go someplace… nicer?"

Rose looked at me, a little surprised, then grinned. "Pizza would be perfect," she said. "I'm starving, and… well… Elaine, anywhere with you is perfect!"

Hearing her say that made me feel like I could float down the sidewalk, feet six inches off the ground. I grinned. "Pizza it is, then!"

We walked in silence for a while— a comfortable silence, fingers intertwined, comfortable with each other. I had expected to be a lot more nervous than I was, tonight— especially considering what we were going to do— but I wasn't nervous at all. Just comfortable, content, and so very in love.

Eventually, I said, "Vampire Slayers."

Rose looked at me, suddenly serious, and nodded. "Uh-huh."

I smiled a little. "It's weird. Something like this should be scary. But— I'm not scared. Not of any of that." I paused, then added, "Not of any of this."

Rose smiled at me, squeezed my hand. "Good," she whispered.

We ordered a large pizza— what Rose called a "cholesterol special," with pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and other goodies. We scarfed down the whole thing, talking about nothing in particular. We also got garlic breadsticks, and ate those more slowly, no longer starving.

"Your friend Brian . . ." I said suddenly. "He's really cool."

Rose smiled, looking a little proud herself. "Yeah, he's great. We've been friends for a really long time. I get a lot of grief at school, but Brian's always there for me. He doesn't care what people say about me. He knows all my school problems, my family problems. I trust him with everything— I showed him my Slayer power as soon as I could, even!"

"He sounds great," I said. "I told my best friend, too— about the vision, and my insane new powers. She was looking for anything that might explain it, but wasn't having any luck. I should call her, tell her not to worry about it . . ." I bit my lip, smiling a little nervously at Rose. "Kimber's been my best friend for a long time. You should meet her— she already wants to meet you. We were involved for a while, but I guess we weren't a good match, romantically…."

I looked Rose square in the eyes. "We were sleeping together. We stopped after the whole 'getting caught at school' thing, but I think we would have drifted apart anyway… because it didn't really work. I'm just glad we're still such close friends. I really love her; she's my best friend."

Rose smiled at me. Somehow, she always seemed to know when I was anxious about something, because the first thing she said to me was, "It's okay!"

I must have looked a little surprised, because she giggled. "I'm glad you two love each other. And I'm not upset that you slept with another girl— it was before you even met me— and she's your best friend, so stop worrying about it!"

The relief made me feel about ten pounds lighter, and I hadn't even known I was that worried about it! I sighed in relief. "Thank you. I know I shouldn't have worried about it, but— God, Rose, I love you!"

"Love you, too," she said, and leaned across the table to give me a quick kiss. She didn't check to see if anybody was looking before doing so. She didn't care. Neither did I.

When we finished, I beat her to the counter and paid for the pizza, then linked my arm with hers and dragged her outside. "I'm paying," I informed her. "You can't talk me out of it. It's a date— and I'm treating you!"

She made a face at me. "Okay, okay…."

"Would you like an ice cream cone?" I gestured down the street to the ice cream parlor. I grinned cheekily. "My treat?"

She mock-glared at me. "Sometime, I'm going to take you out, and then I'll pay for everything!"

I nodded matter-of-factly. "That's not a threat," I agreed. "When you take me out, then you have the right to annoy me with your generosity. It's my turn right now!"

We held straight faces for a moment, then both burst out laughing.

It was hard to hold hands and eat drippy chocolate waffle cones, but we managed. We didn't talk about anything consequential on the way to my house, just stuff about school, the fencing that Rose was having fun with, the way I was looking forward to possibly trying ballet, now that I could. By the time we got to my house, we were chewing the last bites of our cones, and after I swallowed, I grabbed Rose's hand and kissed it. "This is my house."

Rose blushed, and smiled. "It's nice."

It was, too. It was pretty much a semi-mansion, only built in a residential neighborhood in Illinois. Dad being so high up in the Farm, and both my parents being power-earners, they could afford it.

I showed Rose around briefly, then led her into my room. "This is my room," I said softly. I turned the light on, and smiled at her.

She nodded towards my bed. "That's almost as big as my bed, wow."

I nodded. "It's really comfortable. And it's big enough for pretty much anything we might want to do…."

Rose suddenly looked interested. "That is really tempting…."

She blushed, and smiled… and walked over, put her arms around me, and kissed me. I was pleasantly surprised that she had initiated this herself, and kissed her back with a passion, placing my hands on her hips, curling my tongue into her mouth and making her moan. As she had during our first kiss, she reached down and moved my hands down to cup her butt. As I had before, I reached down past the waistband of her pants to stroke bare skin.

I broke the kiss, pulled back. She was shaking, trembling very slightly. This would have worried me, but the look in her eyes told me it wasn't anything to worry about, and I was trembling as well— it didn't mean we didn't want this, not at all. It was just more than we were used to, more than we knew before we met each other.

I smiled, and took her hands, pulling her gently and walking backwards to the bed. "Come here," I said softly, and sat down. When she sat as well, I reached out, ran a finger lightly down her neck. "May I undress you?"

Her breath caught, and she nodded, eyes wide. "Yes. But… please, Elaine, don't ask. I meant what I said last night." Rose locked her eyes on mine, and blushed, but she said very firmly, "I'm yours. I belong to you. You don't have to ask— I know you won't hurt me, Elaine, so you don't have to ask. Just… do what you want to me, or tell me to do it to you— and I will."

That kind of trust was… amazing. I kissed Rose— my Rose!— very, very sexually as a thank you, and as an acknowledgement. Then I undressed her, and… well, things got wonderful and blurry for a while. We made love, then we lay afterwards, cuddling.

I was just looking at the clock, deciding that there was time for one more round of loving her. I kissed her, caressed her in a way that made my intentions known, and she responded eagerly—

Which, of course, is when the damned phone rang.

My parents, much as I love them, have the absolute worst… timing… EVER!

Still, I think it alleviated a lot of their worries about my behavior when I snatched up the phone on the first ring and said a… well, it was a moderately cheerful "Hello," because I knew it had to be my parents, or it might have been a snarl.

"Hello, Elaine," Dad said. "You're home earlier tonight, I see."

"Yeah, even I can only spend so much time in Barnes and Noble's," I said, rolling my eyes at Rose. "Besides, they won't get any more new books until Tuesday."

"That figures," Dad chuckled. "So what are you doing tonight?"

"I've got a friend over," I said. "I met her yesterday, she's cool. Her name's Rose."

"And what are you two doing?" Dad asked, sounding a little too casual.

"Not much," I said. "We're trying to find something decent to watch on cable, but… well, it's TV. TV and decent seem to be mutually exclusive. So we'll probably end up with her trying to convince me that BHS is better than Winston, which isn't going to happen until BHS lets me take dancing instead of PE, so there, Rose!"

"Yeah, but it'd be even better if they let you take martial arts classes," Rose called dutifully, playing the part of the competitive teen, and earning a smile and a mouthed, "That's my girl," while Dad chuckled in my ear.

"She's a martial artist, then?" Dad asked. "What style?"

"Tiger and leopard style kung fu," I said. "It looks awfully neat. I was sort of wondering if the offer to take lessons might still be open… but karate instead of kung fu, it would help more with my dancing, I think."

"The offer's open," Dad said. "Look around some after school, or this weekend, find a school you like, and we'll go talk to them once I get back."

"Thanks, Dad!" I said.

"Never a problem," he said. "Hey, talk to your mother, I need to get changed for a late dinner— Big-Big Boss is buying for all of us Little-Big Bosses."

"Okay," I said. "Thanks, Dad— love you."

"Love you, too, Ballerina-girl."

The phone changed hands, and my mother said, "Made a new friend, huh? Well, that's good— but don't let her poison you on private schooling, Elaine."

"Never happen," I said. "I'm a Winston girl— they teach me to dance!"

"That's good," she said. She hesitated a moment, then said, "Okay, your father's got the water running in the bathroom, he can't hear.

"Be straight with me, Elaine, please; is this new friend more than a friend?"

I blushed scarlet, I know, because it's never nice to realize that you're made of glass and your mom can see right through you.

"Yes, Mom, she is," I said. "She's a girlfriend. Her name's Rose, and she's a martial artist. She goes to BHS."

"Is she your age, Elaine?" Mom asked.

"A year younger, but same grade," I said, reaching over to squeeze Rose's hand. "She skipped a grade, she's really smart, on top of being gorgeous and athletic."

"All right, I tentatively approve already," Mom said. "Smart and athletic, and if she's a serious martial artist, she'll have some self-discipline. Now… Elaine, I'm going to put the idea in your father's head that you two might be or become more than friends— and that he needs to get used to that idea. Okay?"

"I— okay." I took a long, deep breath, held it for a second, then let it out. "Okay, Mom. You know him best. You do what you think will work best."

"All right, and thank you for trusting me, Elaine," Mom said. "And for being honest with me.

"Now… are you planning on going out any this weekend? So I know and can tell your father, so he doesn't worry if we call and you aren't home?"

"Well, Rose tests for her red sash— the equivalent of a black belt at her kung fu school— Friday evening, and the testing is open to observers," I said. "I was going to go and watch her get promoted."

"That's fine, your father won't object to that at all," Mom said. She made this little whispery humming noise that she makes when she'd thinking for a second. "And I'll bet there will be a congratulatory dinner thing after, right?"

"I don't really know," I said. "But after listening to her mom rave about watching Rose practice her forms? Yeah, probably."

"Okay, we'll plan on calling right after school if we call at all Friday, honey," Mom said. "So… honey, I ask you one thing and one thing only; if you two make love, stay away from potentially public places, please!"

"Yes, Mother," I said in a small voice— and I know that I must have turned almost plum-colored, I blushed so hard.

"All right," Mom said, and I could hear her grinning just as easily as she could hear me blushing. "We'll call tomorrow evening, honey, and we'll see you about nine Sunday evening. Behave yourself. I love you."

"Love you, too, Mom," I said, and hung up the phone.

"Your mom figured out what's going on, didn't she?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, but… she's okay with it," I said. "And she's going to work on Daddy, some."

"Cool," Rose said. "So… um, where were we?"

"Right here," I said, and slipped across the bed to pick up where we'd left off.

After we made love again, Rose lay there gasping for a couple of minutes before she finally said, "Elaine, that— I can't believe— I had no idea anything could ever be that— that incredibly, wonderfully, perfect!

"I love you, Elaine!"

"I love you," I said softly. "I love you, too, Rose."

"I'm yours, Elaine," she said against my neck.

"Yes," I said, smiling, accepting the gift she offered so freely. "You're mine."

I glanced at the clock by my bed, saw that it was still pretty early, only a little after eight-thirty, and said, "Want to shower, babe? We probably need it."

"Yes, please," Rose said.

We went to the bathroom off of my room (a highly prized luxury in my life) and showered together. Rose… made it into something special, playing bath girl for me, cleaning me first, thoroughly, and very gently. Then she cleaned herself, mostly, making it plain that me helping her more than a little would spoil the moment for her in some way that I can't explain, but that I understood. I helped only with her hair and her back, let her do the rest.

We dried each other— a lot of fun, I recommend it for new lovers!— then dressed, and went back out to my room. It was only ten after nine, so there was no hurry. I'd been thinking about something, and wanted a little more time to think about it before I said anything, so when Rose asked if she could use the computer in one corner of my room, I said yes, and simply sat next to her, thinking about my idea, while she checked her email. Her friend Brian had sent her the link to that site he'd found, and Rose went and checked it again. Nothing new had been added.

"I'm going to email one of these people," she said. "Do you want me to not say anything about you, so you can do it yourself?"

"No, you can tell them about me," I said absently. "Maybe they should know there's two of us— I mean, they say there are hundreds of girls like us, now, but… two of us in one place? Maybe they should know about that, in case that means something really bad is going to happen here."

"Good point," Rose said. "Now, which one to email…?"

I glanced over at the list of email addresses, read them with her.

Buffy: The_. Willow: . Giles: . Xander: The_X_. Dawn: Sunrise_. Andrew: Boba_Fett_.

"I like the sound of Sunrise_girl," I said. "Sounds… friendly. And you know, Dawn is bad for vampires.

"Besides, I definitely want to talk to a girl, and that lets out the Giles one, I bet, and the Xander and Andrew for sure. Since I'm not Wiccan and neither are you, Willow, not the best bet. And as for the first one? Please, who can take someone named 'Buffy' seriously?"

"Good point," Rose said, chuckling. "Okay, I type fast, won't take long."

She wasn't kidding. In just five minutes, she'd summarized all that had happened to each of us, minus the relationship bits, and added her own address and phone number (as well as a note saying that, if they called, please have a girl call, and claim to be a friend).

She had me read it over for approval, and all I had her change was adding my email address, so they could reach me if they wanted. Then she sent it.

"Okay," Rose said, glancing at the clock. "It's nine-thirty. If I go home a few minutes early, it'll look good to Mom. Will you walk me home, Elaine?"

I agreed, and Rose grabbed her bag with her kung fu stuff before we left. Once we were on the sidewalk, I put my arm around her waist and walked as slow as I could. Rose matched my pace, and we dawdled along for a minute before I finally started talking about what I'd been thinking about.

"Rose," I said, "You know I love you, right?"

"Yes," Rose said. "And I love you."

"Good," I said. I hoped she'd understand what I was about to say, and why I was saying it. "Because what I'm about to say may sound a little weird— and I want you to remember that I'm saying it because I want us to be in love forever, Rose, I want you to be mine forever… but we are kind of young, and I think we need to… admit that. And figure out ways to get around the stuff that's likely to come up and sort of… pull a 'life' on us. You know, 'life got in the way,' you've heard it, right?"

"Yes, I've heard it," Rose said, sounding (to my great relief) interested, not at all scared or worried. "But… what do you mean?"

"We're in love. No doubt about that, after the way things worked so perfectly between us a little while ago." I squeezed her waist, felt her squeeze back. "But I'm fifteen and you're fourteen, and I don't even know of but a handful of people who fell in love at our age and lasted until they were eighteen, even, let alone actually know any myself. So I was trying to think of ways to help us stay together forever… and I had this really weird idea…."

"You've got a point about the whole staying together thing," Rose said solemnly. "And I really do want to belong to you, forever. So… let's hear the idea."

"Well, I got to thinking… it's going to be other people that get in our way, if we're like most everyone else," I said. "I mean… one of us wanting another person. Or other people, even. So… we make a deal about that.

"We… don't go looking for other people, Rose, but if one of us meets someone, someone we want to have sex with— 'cause mostly it's gonna be about sex— we don't get all freaky-stupid sneak-around-behind-the-other's-back about it. We just tell the other one first, before we do anything, and unless the other person has some really, really strong objection, we just… let them do it, and promise to come back to each other.

"Like I said, I'm not looking for that, I don't want you to look for it— but it's maybe going to happen, and… and I know you, already I know you, Rose, and when you say you belong to me, I know you mean it— so I think I could let you go have sex with someone else, someone like, I don't know, Kimber, my ex-lover-still-best-friend, and not get stupid about it. I really think I could let it happen, so long as I liked… whoever."

"I… think that's kind of weird, yeah," Rose admitted— but she smiled up at me. "But I like that you think about these things. And… I got to admit, when I think about the bad soap opera that is dating life at BHS, I know what you mean— it's sex, wanting sex from other people, that gets in the way a lot of times.

"So… yeah. Yeah, I can… I like that idea. And I agree, so long as it's not someone like Jennifer Hetzler, whom I loathed for being a stuck-up preppy bitch even before I knew she was a homophobe, I think I could be okay with it, too.

"And… well, maybe… I mean, if it was somebody you thought was hot, too, maybe we could all three do it together…?"

"Oh, look," I said, grinning and kissing her under the streetlight at the corner of Washington and Mercer, "I've created a sex fiend!"

"No, you didn't create a sex fiend," Rose said, stepping closer and tucking her head under my chin for a second. "You just… woke it up!"

I laughed, took her to the oak tree in her back yard, kissed her goodnight there (with a little groping tossed in for good measure), listened to her explain that she had to study tomorrow for finals (mine weren't due to start until Monday) so we couldn't hang out much Thursday, kissed her again, and trotted back home, feeling like ten million dollars.

Interlude:

"It's time for stage two," said a voice from the armchair. "And that means some changes that you aren't going to like, Jerry, but… well, if you want to move up, you're going to have to go along with it."

"What sort of changes?" Jerry Wentworth asked. "And why won't I like them?"

"Changes in how you treat your stepdaughter," the voice said. "And you won't like them because you are going to have to make yourself get along with her… and her new girlfriend."

"Oh, hell," Jerry said, and tossed back half the whiskey from the glass he held. "Sir, I know that whatever this is about must be important, but— sir, she's… contemptible!"

"And she's necessary to the plan, Jerry," the voice said. "Further, we need her happy, and her girlfriend… well, lets just say we want them happy, together, and not ill-disposed to you."

"Rose? Necessary to the plan?" Jerry shook his head. "I can't imagine a plan hinging on that little brat."

"You don't need to imagine it, Jerry," the voice said, a note of reproach coming into it. "You just need to make sure you stick to it. Rose and her little girlfriend Elaine are key elements to us getting an inroad to a power that's going to change the world. And you, Jerry are the key to Rose and Elaine."

"All right, I'll— damn," Jerry sighed. "We aren't talking all sweetness and light, are we? With Rose and her fellow dyke, I mean?"

"No, no," the voice assured him. "That would only make Rose suspicious, and thus make Elaine suspicious.

"No, Jerry, you just need to… stop being as open in your dislike. Accept her as she is, or pretend to. Don't harass her, and… don't ignore her. I'm not asking you to hug her and buy her candy, just… try to be a little more accessible. Say hello when you see her. Good morning, good night— things like that. Let her think that you're learning to accept her. She needn't think you like her— just accept her."

"Damn," Jerry said, and tossed back the rest of his drink. "Well, I did agree to this. And it is a way up the ladder. I just wish… couldn't you tell me a little more about what this power is? Why we need to get our hands on it?"

"I can, and I will," the voice said. "Jerry, you know about the balance-shift last Tuesday, don't you? The shift between good and evil?"

"I heard, yes," Jerry said. "I heard that the Slayer managed to beat the First Evil— and did it by activating all the Slayer Potentials she had with her."

"That's close to what happened, Jerry," the voice said. "But not quite all of it.

"Buffy Summers didn't activate all the Potentials that she had with her— she activated every Potential Slayer on earth between the ages of eleven and twenty-one. Accounting's best guess is that that means somewhere around two thousand girls, Jerry. All with the Slayer's power, speed, grace… it would have come on them suddenly, of course, sometime around two PM local time last Tuesday…."

For a moment, Jerry didn't get it— then his eyes widened.

"Oh, crap on a candlestick!" he said. "Rose— she got into that fight a little after two. She won, she's never won a fight before. Then later… crap! That little bitch is a Slayer!"

"She is," the voice confirmed. "She and her little friend— who's also a Slayer— are the key to us getting our hands on some of that power, Jerry. So you see how important this is?"

"I do, sir," Jerry said. "I do… and I'll do as you say. I'll learn to live with her. And to… keep the peace, at least.

"Is there anything else I need to do?"

"Actually, yes," the voice said. "Late Sunday afternoon, Elaine Marshall's parents are going to die. Her only other relatives are grandparents on her mother's side, too old to care for a teen-aged girl. Your wife is going to ask if you are willing to try and get legal custody of Elaine Marshall— and you're going to say yes. We'll make sure you get custody, of course."

"Two Slayers?" Jerry said. "I'm going to live here with two Slayers? Isn't that… a little risky? I mean— what if they figure out something's wrong? Or that I'm up to something? Or… what if Buffy Summers comes here?"

"It's a low risk," the voice said. "Our people in Divinations say that there's a sixty-plus percent chance that Buffy Summers will be going to Europe for a well-earned vacation. The rest of the chances are a little vague… evenly split between her going to Cleveland to deal with the Hellmouth there, and just… going back to normal, whatever normal is for a girl like her. Who knows, maybe she'll just retire? We can certainly hope.

"But… well, if you'd rather we worked out a way to pass all this on to someone else, Jerry—"

"No, no!" Jerry said. "I'll handle it. I mean— a promotion, a raise… and I admit, the brat's mother… she's great in bed."

"All right then," the voice said. "So, we're all clear?"

"I think so, unless there's something we haven't discussed from your end," Jerry said.

"Oh, you know, actually, there is," the voice said. "We'll be doing the spell to bring the Marshall girl's parents to their untimely end from the Bloomington offices, Jerry. Why don't you arrange to be there? It's a good way to seal the bargain, if you help bring the girl into your home."

"I… yes, sir," Jerry said, sighing acceptance. "What time and where, sir?"

"Three o'clock, in the larger diagram room, sub-basement four," the voice said. "No need to wear a suit, casual dress is fine."

"I'll be there," Jerry said. "Thank you, sir."

"You know, Jerry, we've known each other a long time, and you're moving up in the firm," the voice said. "I think it's time you dropped the 'sir'— you can call me Holland."

"Thank you, Holland," Jerry said, and watched as the image— or maybe the ghost, he wasn't sure and didn't really want to be sure— of Holland Manners faded swiftly from sight with a jaunty little wave.