A dimly lit Bedroom
There was the patter of light feet and a faint rustling of cloth, that's all it took for Buffy's eyes to snap open and narrow in on the source of the sound. Someone squeaked and there was a faint rattle of porcelain. "I-i'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude.. but Cordy has not been eating well these days and I thought I'd bring something up to remind her." Maria said with barely a whisper while pointing at the two plates on a tray.
Buffy was not calmed down by this in the least, if it had been a demon or vampire she could have dealt with it.. but this? This was not good, not good at all. She started to rise to protest, to explain, to argue but before she got further than an inch or two Cordelia mumbled something in her sleep and held on to the blonde. "Please.. Buf..."
"I-i'll let myself out now, I already took the liberty of calling your mother that you will be staying the night. So that's nothing to worry about, we can talk in the morning." Maria made a hasty retreat, not wanting to intrude any further.
'Shit.' Buffy looked down at Cordelia and recalled what had happened so far. 'This is not getting any less complicated anytime soon is it?' Glancing in the direction of the door she wondered what the maid thought about the whole thing. 'I highly doubt that it's a regular occurrence for her to find Cordelia in bed with another girl. Then again I should stop thinking like everyone knows about me, no one does.. except her.' Looking down at Cordelia she had to smile at the innocent and serene expression that was on her face. 'We were just two girlfriends, who spent the day talking and arguing and then fell asleep, that's all. Yes.. yes that sounds believable, especially since it's partially true. Except the intense hugging maybe and the nails.. a-and what Cordelia had said.. a-and then again what she had said.. and boy did she say a lot that would make the story about two girlfriends talking sound totally off base.'
'And what was that about my mom? The maid called her and she agreed to let me stay over? Well at least that is one less thing to worry about, except its odd that mom would allow something like that considering I have been locked in my room ever since my release from the hospital.' Shrugging she looked down again, it seemed like Cordelia was about to wake up. Stretching a bit and crawling up on Buffy while doing so she opened her eyes and grinned sheepishly. "Umm.. sorry about that." She quickly backed off of Buffy and the blonde was not sure if she had meant the touchy feely stuff waking up part or the whole mental breakdown theme that had been going on today.
"No problem, you were sleeping and I seem to be a good teddy bear surrogate lately." Buffy fully set up as well, feeling the kinks of the awkward position she had been in up until now. Sitting across from each other now Buffy could see Cordelia smirk in the dim light. "Ah yes, I think Willow can attest to that."
'And she's back. Seriously?' Buffy gaped at her in a mixture of stunned disbelieve and confusion. Bending forward until she was on all four and slowly crawling close to Buffy she said. "Gotcha!"
"Why?.. what? .. you!" and Buffy pounced on her, tickling her for all its worth. "I can't believe you did that!" Trying her best to avoid the tickling hands Cordelia could not help but keep laughing. "Y-you should have seen your face! HAhahaha, that was perfect, hahaha." Narrowing her eyes she pinned the brunette to the bed intent on finishing her with a tickle of doom when she locked eyes with her.
The smile faded, both smiles faded, the laughter stopped, neither moved and the silence was back. Buffy had Cordelia's arms pinned on either side of her head, planning to capture both arms with one hand afterward for easier tickle access but now it was something different altogether. It was a mockery. Buffy stared at her hands holding Cordelia, holding her tightly in place.. like .. before.. and she freaked. "I-i'm sorry, I didn't.. I-i.." She immediately let go of the arms and slumped back, away from the other girl.
"Buffy wait! This can't be happening." She said in a frustrated growl. "It was just playful banter, I doesn't mean anything. I don't want it to be weird like this every time from now on out."
"How?! I mean Jesus Cordelia." Running a hand through her hair she tried to find the right words, not wanting to upset the girl too much. 'I have to get off this bed, we had our heart to heart, we talked, we got weepy and helped each other calm down, now it's time to move on and act normal again. Yeah right.. HOW does she expect anything to be normal again?! Fuck..' Buffy got of the bed and stumbled over her shoes, she must've slipped out of them sometime during.. everything. Toppling over she found nothing to get a hold of so she used the momentum to do a quick back handspring, landing softly only a few inch behind where she had started and still looking in the direction of Cordelia.
"Neat.. no wonder you were able to survive the grinder during cheerleading practice." Cordelia smiled at her, an open honest smile with no subterfuge, no hidden meaning and Buffy immediately smiled back. "Well yes.. that was pretty easy, it's more about hiding what I can really do because it would freak everyone out .." Intrigued Cordelia flipped on a light switch next to the bed, she wanted to see the slayer in all her glory not only dimly lit by the fading sunlight. "Is that so? Please show me something like that." Her eyes sparkled as she asked Buffy.
'She looks so innocent, like a child wishing for the magician to show her another trick.' Nodding partly to herself and to the other girl she bend down, crouched and sprang up into the air. She flipped around midair and grabbed hold of a fancy girder that made up the modern looking ceiling of Cordelia's room. Hanging there face down, she smiled at Cordelia, pressed her feet into two nearby girders and crossed her arms in front of her. "Tada!"
The brunette gasped in awe. "That's.. that's amazing! Why did you even start cheerleading when you can do stuff like that?" Buffy held up an upside down finger, untangled herself from the ceiling and dropped down with hardly a sound. "Because if I did something like that people would start looking for a tranquilizer gun to put me down and cart me off to the nearest laboratory." She said that lightheartedly but it was obvious that that's exactly what she thought would happen if the truth about her came out.
"I wouldn't." Cordelia said instantly, looking straight at her. "Then again being able to put down such a feisty prey does sound kind of appealing to me, i still would not cart you of to a laboratory tho." She added with a grin.
"Is that so? That's .. comforting.. I guess." Buffy said as she dusted off her hands. "At least around you I no longer have to hide anything hm?" The brunette nodded and Buffy headed over to the tray Maria had left behind. "I hope you don't mind but I'm starving, that's one thing you might not know about me but I have a rather huge appetite. Giles said it has something to do with my rapid metabolism. I'll try my best not to gross you out or anything, I almost blew my cover the other day during lunch with Willow and Xander."
"No, sure, go ahead I don't mind, I'm not really hungry anyway." Came the reply and something clicked in Buffy as she heard it. She deftly picked up the plates in one arm looking around the room for a place to sit down and eat. There was a huge desk but that seemed to have been built with only one person in mind and it was littered with sketches, notes and a plethora of other interesting tidbits. There was a low desk for magazines and the like, and that was pretty much it as far as a place to eat went.. except the bed of course. Which looked simply perfect to sit down in front of each other with the plates either on their lap or before them and eating while talking about this or that.
Cordelia saw what the slayer had intended to do and the following hesitation about how to proceed. "You can come back here with that you know? I don't bite.." She said as sternly as she could muster and it must have worked because the blonde turned her way and went on to put the plates down in front of Cordelia. "..much." Was added with a slick grin that made Buffy laugh. "You just can't stop that can you?" Buffy replied before sitting down in front of her and digging into the food and making the brunette eat something as well. "No.. no I can't." whispered Cordelia with a melancholic smile.
By the time they were done the sun had fully vanished, same as every speck of food that had been on both of the plates. "I could really go for seconds but I feel silly asking your maid to bring us any more." Buffy gestured towards the bell. "It looks so demeaning, I mean here we are in a mansion, having already eaten, laying back on a silky bed and then we grab this tiny silver bell and ask a stranger to make us a sandwich!" Shaking her head, she looked helplessly at Cordelia.
"First of Maria is no stranger to me, she has been around almost my whole life and second of all what would you rather do? Sneak down into the kitchen and bump into Mr. Chase, the devils lawyer and have a nice chat with him about how he ruined the latest orphanage with a lawsuit .. oh! .. or maybe into Ms. Chase, the CEO who gets a kick out of buying little companies, firing all the unwanted personal and reselling it to the highest bidder? That's always nice conversation while eating a sandwich isn't it?"
"The bell it is.." Buffy mumbled and reached for it but stopped midway. "I'm sorry i can't do that, she looks like a lovely lady, i can't have her do all this work and zig zag around the mansion just because I'm hungry."
Queen C rolled her eyes, grabbed the tiny bell and made a quick sharp movement before putting it back down. "She does not mind, believe me there are worse people to work for then me. I like her and respect her, she has always been kind to me and I know she loves to help out any way she can. Plus it's her job after all, would be a bit weird if she sat around here all day long and then held up her hand at the end of the month and demanded money hm?"
Buffy was looking a bit confused at that but guessed it was simply normal for Cordelia to live like that. As long as Maria was ok with it and she was treated well maybe it was ok? 'It still feels weird. I don't think I like it no matter how she rationalizes it.'
There was a soft knock on the door and after Cordelia had said "Enter." Maria peeked in and smiled at them. "Ah, good to see you two up and about again, you seemed so exhausted earlier! And my my you even ate all the food, great!" She squinted at Buffy. "Did you eat it all by yourself or did the that bundle of sticks over there eat some as well." She nodded in Cordelia's direction.
"I'm sitting right here Maria, do you mind?" Cordelia huffed but was ignored as the other two kept their conversation going. "Nah, I was able to make her eat a few pieces, she is somewhat of a picky eater tho isn't she?" Buffy replied and the elder woman made a little wave. "You don't know the half of it, when Cordy was little she would.." "Maria!" Grinning the maid in question stopped her teasing, picked up the empty plates and gathered everything else. "Was there something else you wanted?" She asked with a smile.
Cordelia looked over to Buffy who was fidgeting a bit. Seeing that the blond was going to be a wuss about it she asked Maria for another sandwich, quickly altering the order to two when she saw the blond discreetly lifting up two fingers. The maid nodded and quickly left the room.
"Having fun are we?" Cordelia raised an eyebrow in Buffy's direction. "Hehe yep, she is fun to be around, as i said she seems like a really lovely person which makes the whole thing harder you know? Ugh no you don't. Nevermind it's ok, I'm just not used to it i guess."
"Maybe you simply rather serve people then be served." Cordelia mentioned with a smug grin on her lips, picturing Buffy in a maid's costume before quickly blinking the fantasy away and licking her lips. Turning crimson in an instant Buffy let out a frustrated sound. "We honestly have to talk about this soon Cordelia, I have no idea what's going on and what all this means ok? Like what you expects of me and what you think is going on.. well .. here .. between us."
"No.. we don't, I already told you everything there is to know.. even tho i did not plan for it to come out the way it did .. but .. ugh .. what's done is done right ? Please just let everything i said sink in, try to understand what I could have meant but do not overthink it! I do not expect anything from you except maybe acceptance of my weird behaviour and in return you can sleep easy in the knowledge that I would never do anything to jeopardize your secrets or social position or whatever."
"Well.. that's .. good .. but.. what about the flirting.. and the t-touching and everything earlier. I'm really confused about that part cause .. well you know.. I'm ..."
"God Buffy! You can say it out loud you know! It's not contagious or will burn down anything." Grumbling the brunette picked at her clothing, trying to smooth out all the wrinkles from today's naps. "And I'm not flirting, well not really, you do not have to worry about that. It's just nice .. and personal, and I like being so close to you in that way. Like I get under your skin? That makes me feel close to you as a person, someone I could talk to, someone that could confide in me. It makes me feel safe." Shrugging Cordelia looked back up from her cloth picking. "I still haven't figured it all out, this .. this .. whatever this new me is all about. I do know tho that my whole life had been a sham and I'm seeing everything for the first time now, experiencing everything as if it were the first time and I don't want that spoiled by any second guessing or needless drama alright? If you don't like something I do just tell me, ill tune it down and that's that, no harm done."
"Right.." Buffy said, but clearly not that much wiser than before. "So you'r not .. um .. like .. in love with me or anything." At that the brunette bursted out in laughter before holding up her hand and making a show of calming down. "You're cute when you babble." she said with a straight face before cracking up in laughter again. Realizing Cordelia had quoted her the day she said the same thing to a flabbergasted Willow Buffy narrowed her eyes and got ready to pounce the other girl with another tickle attack.
