Summary: Anya doesn't exactly have a lot of money to her name right now and if there's anything she's learned in her centuries of life, it's that money makes the human world go round. Or, more concisely, money means security and comfort.
Which is why she only leaves Sunnydale for a few days, before she's back in town - one less high school in existence when she returns than before she left - and immediately starts making a checklist for what she needs to do her dream job. A private investigative vengeance agency, geared mostly towards wronged women. Anya just has to figure out a way past the obstacles in her path - like a lack of experience for a PI's license.
Notes: I couldn't resist writing a follow up to "Dance (With Me)" after all and I'm leaving the series open for me to revisit later, as there are about three more stories I'd like to fit into this series eventually.
- The short story of Parker getting his comeuppance
- Oz deciding to leave because of the events with Veruca and the fallout from that
- Willow having a gay crises over Tara and actually seeking out Anya for advice as her queer elder
In the show, Anya and Willow were often at odds with each other over Xander, which was generally just... annoying. So I've decided that one of the background aims for this series is to eventually lead those two into reconciling their differences and finding friendship over the common ground they do share. Though at this point in the series, Willow's firmly against Anya and Anya mostly just sees Willow as a pest she has to tolerate for Buffy's sake.
Keep an eye out for the Lord of the Rings reference. :D Also, there's a part of this story that's a commentary on gatekeeping, identity policing, and a trend towards ignoring the history of queer culture in order to push 'respectability politics'. Let's just say that I'm not a fan of people disrespecting other people's stated identities.
Anya's Vengeance Agency
Money makes the human world go round. It promises safety and security and the means with which to screw other people over.
A lot of women throughout history have wished for the men who'd wronged them to lose all their money, to lose the safety and security that men so often try to deny women the right to possess. It's a boring wish, but Anya's always been imaginative and creative. She's made an art of stripping men of their wealth to fund their enemies and destroy their lives pieces by torturous piece. It's why D'Hoffryn never minded her accepting the more simplistic wishes, even if he preferred she push for more... destructive requests.
But Anya's human now. And she doesn't have a lot of money left in her bank account. She doesn't not feel particularly safe or secure or comfortable.
She's physically eighteen and lacks the grades, the test scores, and the money required to attend any institution of 'higher learning', which Anya quickly recognizes is classist bullshit meant to encourage college students - and college grads - look down their noses at people who can't afford a specific brand of continuing education after high school.
The lease on the cheap apartment Anya's been living in is about to reach an end and Anya still doesn't really have a plan in place. But she does know that the safest place for a former demon to fly under the radar is probably also the most dangerous. An active Hellmouth, otherwise known as Sunnydale California.
Hellmouths are a dime a dozen, but active hellmouths are rare. They're kind of like magical volcanoes, though they generally don't 'explode' unless someone helps them along. They just ooze dark magic instead of lava and cause the occasional earthquake for anywhere from a few decades to a few centuries before going quiet for anywhere from a few centuries to a few millennia. They're a healthy, natural part of the magical ecosystem of the Earth and a hotspot for the demonic entities, not all of which are evil despite what limited minded humans might think.
Some demons even have souls, though that's not a requisite for being a good person. Plenty of humans with souls are serial killers. Plenty of demons without souls are philanthropists. Life is strange.
But this particular hellmouth, despite being active, is particularly safe for Anya in that the current Vampire Slayer lives in Sunnydale too. And she's not exactly thrilled by Anya's history of granting vengeance both great and terrible over the centuries, but she's also a little fond of Anya. Which means that as long as Anya's willing to toe the line, Anya now falls into the category of protected human and has at least one kind of safety net in place as a result.
And, well, they did go to Prom together. That had been nice. Buffy had looked lovely in her dress and was just gorgeous when she smiled. Anya had forgotten how much fun participating in human social customs could be until she was slowly spinning on the dance floor with a beautiful young woman in her arms.
Which might be why, a few days after the world failed to end at Sunnydale High's graduation ceremony, Anya returned to Sunnydale and made her way to 1630 Revello Drive.
Joyce was sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of tea and a mostly empty notebook when the knock at the door sounded.
"Hello?" called a voice from outside. A familiar voice, though Joyce couldn't quite place it. "Is Buffy home?"
It took Joyce only a few moments to stand and cross the distance to the front door and she remembered the young-but-not-really woman standing there from Buffy's prom night. Anya something... Jenkins. The former vengeance demon turned human who'd helped Buffy get over her feelings for Angel.
"Hella Anya, I'm afraid Buffy's out with Willow at the mall right now."
"Oh. Well... that sucks. I can't afford shopping right now. I just wanted to let her know I came back like I said I would after the Mayor didn't eat the west coast like he wanted to." Anya paused a beat, then said, "you own your own business... right?"
"That's right. It's an art gallery." Standing aside, Joyce doesn't invite Anya inside - she's had that nicety mostly trained out of her this last year - but she does make it clear that she won't stop Anya if she can come inside uninvited.
Smiling excitedly, Anya walked into the house and asked, "it must do well for you to afford this house and Buffy's college tuition."
"Well, my ex-husband's alimony and Buffy's scholarship help, but I do alright." Joyce paused for a moment, considering what she knew about Anya - admittedly not much - and asked, "are you considering starting your own business? Buffy mentioned you were interested in creating a sort of... vengeance for hire agency."
"Yes, yes I am." Anya beamed. "Do you mind if I pick your brain - not literally, I just want to ask a lot of questions - about being self employed?"
Joyce smiled too, because maybe this was the break she'd been looking for too. "Of course. And maybe I could metaphorically pick your brain too? I'm trying to... find a way to extricate a young man from an abusive situation, but he's not ready to admit it's abusive and, well..."
"Quid pro quo," Anya declared. "I'm actually more comfortable with that anyway. Yes, I'm always happy to help take vengeance on abusers."
When Buffy and Willow got back from the mall, the last thing she'd expected to find was her mother and Anya sitting together in front of a kitchen table covered in notebooks and scattered papers.
Willow, of course, looks immediately wary. Which is fair - the incident with Vampire Willow from the bad wishverse had been pretty bad. But Anya seemed pretty sincere in giving up on recovering the amulet power source she'd used as a demon. So Buffy's not too concerned about finding Anya plotting something with her mother.
Especially since Buffy suspects she knows what they're plotting.
Before prom, a sophomore by the name of Andrew Wells had approached Buffy for help with his brother, Tucker, who'd summoned hellhounds to turn the Prom into a bloodbath. Buffy had killed the hellhounds while Andrew faced off with his brother using magic. Andrew hadn't exactly won that fight, but Buffy'd punched Tucker's lights out before completing her task with the hellhounds and then taken Andrew home to be mothered by her mom while Buffy went to the dance with Anya as her date.
And, well, it was the night that Buffy had started to admit she might be bisexual. Queer. Which was scary and exhilarating and actually made Buffy feel less... weird for being the Slayer. Like, okay, so she's not your average straight blonde girl and it's okay to be different. To be weird and have different expectations from her life. She'd never had a white picket fence sort of life until after her mom and dad divorced anyway, even if that did come with occasionally staking vampires with the fence slats.
Not that Buffy had come out as bisexual to anyone but her mom yet. She'd intended to tell Willow today, actually, but... sort of chickened out at the last second.
Still, Anya was the reason Buffy had figured out she was bi in the first place. So seeing Anya there, in her house, conspiring with her mom, leaves Buffy feeling more than a little flustered. Because, yup, Anya was still really pretty.
"Uh, hi," Buffy gave a little wave to Anya and then had to resist the urge to smack herself in the face in embarrassment. Certainly Willow was giving Buffy a raised eyebrow.
"Buffy," Anya said, voice loud and bright, like her smile. "Your mother has quite a bloodthirsty streak. I approve."
"Is this about the Wells again?" Buffy asked, giving her mom a look.
"Of course. Anya's given me a lot of good ideas. And, admittedly, a number I can't use but can at least daydream about doing anyway." The smirk on Joyce Summer's face is probably what Buffy's face looks like when she talks about slaying vampires. Bloodthirsty indeed.
"Uh, hi Mrs. Summers. Hi Anya," Willow greeted, awkwardly.
"Willow," Anya said, looking uncertain. Social niceties weren't her forte, but at least she was trying.
"It's good to see you," Buffy said and decided to throw caution to the wind. She went over and gave Anya a hug, which was quite enthusiastically returned. "What brought you by? Aside from giving mom vengeance tips."
"I wanted to see you. I was... worried about graduation. I'm glad you're not dead," Anya muttered, giving her one last squeeze before letting her go and settling back on her chair.
Buffy beamed. "And I'm glad you came back."
"She's also looking into how to run her own business," Joyce spoke up, grinning proudly at Anya.
"So business degree..." Willow started.
"Nope, too much time spent learning stuff I generally already know and costing money I don't have," Anya interrupted. "Private investigator's license first. I can start with customers from Sunnydale's demonic side since they're not going to care if I don't have an office yet, which help pay for me to get one so I can get human customers too."
"You're going to cater to demon clients?" Willow sounded disgruntled by the very idea. Buffy couldn't say she was thrilled either, even with knowing intellectually that not all demons were bad. Whistler was part demon and, annoying though he was, he was ostensibly on the side of the powers that be. He wasn't the only one out there either.
"It's not just human women who get wronged by men," Anya informed Willow tartly. "It would be speciest to discriminate like that. Though I might have to be a little careful about who I accept as clientele until I can afford a good non-violence spell for whatever office I wind up with. Better than a weapons check at the door. Probably can't afford something as thorough as what Caritas has in LA, but I'm sure I'll be able to get something decent eventually."
"Cool," Buffy said, even though she had no idea what a Caritas even was. She wondered if her cheeks were as flushed red as they felt.
Anya frowned at Willow and then glanced over at Buffy's mom. "Mind if I come back with more questions for you later?"
"Not at all," she replied. "I'm always happy to help out a fellow businesswoman."
Anya beamed at that, lighting up and making Buffy wish she could kiss her right then and there. "And I'd be happy to give you more advice on your vengeance endeavors later if you want."
"Thank you Anya." Buffy's mom looked a little too pleased by that idea.
"Well, I should probably head out," Anya said. She blushed and ducked her head. "I'm really, really glad you're not dead, Buffy."
"I'll see you around, Anya." Buffy knew she was grinning like a loon, but she was just... all too pleased to see Anya again. In fact, she rather wished Anya would stay.
But Anya and Willow seemed to be non-mixy right now, so Buffy figured she'd just find Anya later. See if she wanted to get coffee or a smoothie or just... spend time with Buffy. A girl could hope, right?
She ignored her mom's knowing look as Buffy saw Anya out.
So telling Willow had been a bust. Buffy'd have to try again later. And telling Xander would have to wait until he got back from his road trip. But there was still someone else she probably ought to come out to.
Giles.
Her mom had taken Buffy being bi a lot better than her being the Slayer. And she was a little nervous that the reverse would happen with Giles.
Which is why Buffy was now sitting on Giles couch, cup of tea in hand, rambling about whatever came to mind so that she could avoid the topic she'd actually come over to discuss. And, somehow, Giles seemed to realize what she was doing if the amused expression on his face was any indication.
"Buffy," he finally interrupted, voice gentle. "What are you avoiding telling me? Angel hasn't come back from LA, has he?"
"Oh, no. No, definitely not." Buffy paused a beat, then said, "Anya's back, though. Planning on going through with making a vengeance agency. Came to talk to my mom for advice on running her own business. Which mom is really good at, so I'm glad she's got someone she can mentor now. Running my own business really isn't something I'm interested in, but it is pretty impressive that mom does it."
"Your mother is a very impressive woman," Giles agreed.
Buffy refrained, with great effort, from asking him if he was still interested in her mom. She suspected there was something there, but for whatever reason neither wanted to act on it. Which is too bad. Giles was much better stepdad material than Ted the murderbot and at least Buffy already saw him as a parental figure.
"But I don't think you came to tell me how wonderful your mum is," Giles continued. "And it seems you're not here about something you ran into on patrol last night either."
"No, couple of newly risen vampires. Pretty straightforward." Buffy put her tea cup down and snatched up a pillow to fiddle with. "I, uh... I'm bisexual. And I really want to date Anya."
Giles took off his glasses. Cleaned them. Classic stalling technique. He sighed, put the glasses back on.
"Well, you do have something of a type. Several centuries older than you," he said. "But if you're worried I might be bothered or upset that you find women attractive... well, I myself identify as bisexual. So I can't exactly cast stones."
"You do?!" Buffy's eyebrows went up. "Since when?"
"Ah, well... I mean, you know about the, uh, Eyghon demon that Ethan and the rest of my friends used for, um... well, we were very young adults and of the five of us, only one was a woman..." Giles couldn't even look at her. "I thought maybe you'd all actually guessed and simply didn't say anything."
"Uh, no, you're old and we definitely like to pretend our generation invented sex," Buffy told him, burying her face against the pillow for a moment.
"Not that old," Giles grumbled. "And, I suppose, my generation liked to pretend we invented sex too."
Probably every generation did, Buffy supposed. No one wanted to think about their parents or grandparents getting it on.
"Well, I've also been thinking that bisexual is the word for me. Apparently Anya's also interested in both men and women, but I guess since she took me to the Prom that isn't too surprising." Buffy sighed and then asked, "are you upset I've fallen for another demon? Or former demon, but she's still culturally a vengeance demon so I think she still counts."
"Well, I can't say I don't wish you'd fall for someone a little more conventional. A nice young lady who is exactly as young as she looks, perhaps," Giles allowed, "but she doesn't require a curse to keep her from turning into a mass murderer, so she's a step up on Angel. If Anya is aware that if she crosses the line with her vengeance business that you won't turn a blind eye just because she's your girlfriend, well... I wish you luck both in asking her out and dating her."
"So... you and Ethan? Really? You've got terrible taste in men, Giles," Buffy teased.
"Oh like you've room to talk," Giles retorted.
They both grinned.
Willow frowned as she watched Buffy flirt with the barista - the lady barista - at the coffee bar. She'd been doing that lately, since prom. Flirting with women.
Since dancing with Anya who had, Willow had to admit, looked very... sharp in a tux. But still. What if Anya had done something to her?
Once they settled at the cafe table, Willow asked, "were you flirting with her?"
Buffy blushed and her eyes went wide. "Uh... yeah. A little. I just... I..." She took a deep breath. "I'm bi. You know, attracted to guys, but also girls."
"So this is new?" Willow frowned, "because, I mean, you didn't used to be..."
"Well it's new in that I'm newly identifying as bi, but also not new because I think maybe I've always been a little... well, gay-ish. I thought Amy was really pretty and while Cordelia's personality is a total turn off, I always understood why Xander wanted to make out with her. It's... something I've been considering a lot lately and..." Buffy shrugged even as Willow's mind whirled. "I've been trying to work up the nerve to tell you for the last few days. I just... didn't want to make things weird between us."
"So it's not like Anya just flipped a switch or cast a spell..." Willow asked leadingly.
"No! Of course not." Buffy looked offended by just the thought. "I mean... I'd have probably taken forever to figure it out if I hadn't gone to the dance with her. But that's not something she did to me, Willow. That's something that's just... always been a part of me. Something I've been ignoring because I wanted so badly to be... normal. But I'm starting to think that there are better things than normal. Like being me."
And, well, what could Willow say to that. And it's not like girls weren't prettier to look at than guys - not that Willow was gay or anything. Nope, totally straight girl with a boyfriend here. But... if Buffy really did like girls too, well... "I'm probably going to need some time to wrap my brain around this, but... I'm proud of you. And this won't make our friendship weird, I promise." Because if things did get weird, that'd be on Willow, not Buffy.
Though... maybe Willow would cast a tiny little revealing spell on Buffy later. Something she wouldn't notice if there was really no Anya-magic to be found.
There was just something so weird about Anya... surely Buffy had better taste than her?
Anya quickly runs into a wall with the whole PI's license thing. She needs experience to qualify just to take the test. And that experience couldn't be her just doing the job on her own anyway.
Since she didn't have an associate's degree or bachelor's degree, she needed six-thousand hours of experience working either for a law enforcement agency of some kind or working under the auspices of an accredited PI or other investigative service. Which, obviously, she did not have.
This didn't mean she couldn't make her vengeance business anyway, but she wouldn't be able to advertise it as a private investigative service. Not among humans anyway. Demons were another story.
There were demon bars aplenty in Sunnydale, if you knew where to look. Anya did. Which is why she was currently seated across from a Sylki demon who was going by the name of Jessica in a hole in the wall bar that made Willy's look mainstream. It served human blood on the drinks menu and kittens as appetizers and was dark and dingy enough that Anya didn't want to guess what sort of muck was swimming at the bottom of her untouched beer glass. But it put Jessica at ease, which was all that really mattered to Anya at the moment.
Sylki demons were relatively harmless. All female species that mated primarily with human men to propagate the species. They were often confused for selkies and certainly a number of swan maiden type fairy tales floating around out there were about Sylkis.
They did not look like seals in their native forms. More like stereotypical mermaids with human torsos and fish tails. However, the tail could be sort of removed, via ritual, allowing the ladies to transform the musculature and bone below the surface of the tail into human legs and other bits. The outer scales then took the form of a... sarong, really. Sylkis typically did the ritual when they were ready to become mothers, came up from the depths, removed their outer tail, seduced a man, and then returned to the ocean when they were certain they were pregnant. They usually lived in depths of the ocean that humans couldn't survive in and it was quite likely their upper 'human' torso was as much as disguise as their legs.
Jessica, obviously, had decided she wanted to become a mother. She arrived on a beach not far from Sunnydale, made her way into town, and cheerfully made her way into the beds of several local boys at the college. They were of legal age by human and Sylki standards, horny, and not likely to be upset by a woman wanting a one night stand. Unfortunately for her, one of the guys she'd slept with had gotten attached and stolen her scales. Jessica was now a month pregnant and desperate to get back to the ocean in time to give birth in seven months. Sylki babies couldn't survive on land. They needed the depths of the ocean and the pressure that came with it. But Carson O'Dale had become obsessed with Jessica and, somehow, figured out she couldn't leave without the beautiful shimmering fabric that used to be her outer tail.
Carson O'Dale clearly had to pay.
"Getting back my scales is the most important thing. But... I want his life destroyed the way he's trying to destroy mine. He wants my baby to die, so that he can keep me to himself. And... I'm not sure where I'm going to be staying tonight. Because he knows where I live, so I can't go back..." there was panic in her voice as one hand pressed against her stomach.
"You can stay at my place," Anya said, not missing a beat. "Let's talk fees."
A pouch was produced from Jessica's purse and she tipped the bag over so that it's contents spilled onto the table. Shiny, shiny, shiny...
"That's probably a lot more than my services cost. And then some." Anya didn't want to become known for swindling her customers from the start, after all. But those uncut gems still made Anya's fingers itch to pick them up and test if they were real. That one looked like a diamond.
"My baby's life is worth everything to me. And where I live, these gems have no value at all. We take them with us because the humans value them. And since you have to live like a human, then this could help you get a new start. It's not easy, pretending to fit in when their culture... their customs... they're almost incomprehensible."
"I know," Anya sighed. "Well if you're sure, then I'm certainly not foolish enough to argue you out of paying me with those. But you should put them away for now. I don't want someone else seeing them and dreaming about their own bank accounts too."
Jessica snorted in amusement. But she put the gems back in their pouch and then that slipped back into her purse.
"So where does this O'Dale live? I'm gonna have to do some recon."
O'Dale lives in a frat house. Which makes things both harder and easier on Anya when it comes to breaking into his room and going through his things.
Easier, because Anya can just flutter her eyelashes at the hungover frat boy who opens the door when she knocks. Morning after a party and it's not like anyone in that house knows who was there the night before. A faux embarrassed blush and an 'I'm so sorry, but I think I misplaced my keys last night' gets her through the door.
Harder, because then she's got four young men tripping over themselves to help Anya find her non-existent keys.
Thankfully two of them have to leave for class. Anya makes sure the back door is unlocked, 'finds' her keys, and leaves through the front of the house. Then she sneaks around to the back and comes back in through the kitchen. The stairs are right there and the two guys left in the house are in the living room playing some fighting video game on their playstation.
The bedrooms are, conveniently, labeled with the names of who sleeps where. Carson rooms in the master bedroom with two other guys. There's a bunk bed and a futon and a huge mess on the floor. Anya pulls out a small magic detector that ought to be sensitive enough to pick up the latent power of Jessica's scales. It's a cheap crystal based spell, one that Anya could handle on her own with minimal ingredients just fine. It leads her to a few harmless amulets they'd probably bought on a laugh and some trick dice, but no sign of the shimmering fabric Anya's looking for.
She takes a quick peek in the other rooms only to find a mostly benign old book of spells and a tube of athlete's foot cream that had been cursed to reduce it's effectiveness - which is at least amusing. Still no scales, though.
Anya quietly makes her way back downstairs and then tries the basement. Still nothing.
Well shit. She's never going to get paid at this rate and the money those gems are worth could easily foot the bribe necessary to bypass the whole six-thousand hours of experience requirement for a PI license.
And Jessica needs to be back in the ocean before she hits the four month mark in her pregnancy or she'll lose the baby regardless. Anya would prefer the Sylki not have to go through that. But there was also the fact that Sylki weren't exactly known for handling miscarriages well; she might very well kill every man in the frat house simply for living with the man responsible for her losing her child and damning her to a slow, painful death on land. Buffy wouldn't like that, because then Jessica would become her problem.
Letting herself out the back door, Anya crept out of the backyard and headed down the street towards the bus stop. She was going to have to come at this from another angle.
Having been accepted at Sunnydale U, there was already a lot things to take care of before the Fall semester swung around. Buffy's major was still undeclared but the information packet on the classes available for incoming Freshmen included information on the core classes required for most majors and some general information on the degree programs available at the college. So Buffy was, tentatively, trying to figure out what sort of class schedule she wanted to apply for once courses became available for signup.
First, she decided on a boring class. Algebra seemed like a good fit. Boring, but she'd done decently at the high school level algebra and should prove to be a solid B student in the college level version too. And since it was required by most degree paths, it was a good one for an undeclared student to take.
Once Buffy had a boring class, then she could pick a fun class. There were a number of humanities classes that might work, though Buffy'd never really been a 'read for fun' sort of person. Though the class on modern romance novels seemed interesting. A definite maybe.
Flipping through the course catalogue, something under the banner of sociology and women's studies catches Buffy's eye. Queer Studies 101.
Well... Buffy was kinda queer now, right? Being bisexual was a queer identity so that meant Buffy was queer. Or could call herself that if she wanted, anyway. And what better way to understand the community she was now a part of than to just... jump right in, as it were?
Buffy wrote down the course name and number in her list of potential classes.
Once she had a good assortment of classes picked out - but no real schedule determined - Buffy decided that was enough school related work for one day. It was a beautiful day and, well, she wanted to see Anya. Maybe try and read the situation between them, see if Anya might be interested in a date...
This wouldn't be like her relationship with Angel, despite Anya also being at least a couple hundred years old herself. Angel had run hot and cold with Buffy all throughout their relationship. He'd been Mr. Yes-No Man, telling her how much he wanted her and how much being a vampire meant they couldn't have each other. And then after they'd learned the boundaries on his soul-curse, he'd treated her like a romantic relationship with her would be a chore if sex wasn't involved too.
Not that Buffy didn't want both romance and sex, but for the right person she'd happily accept a sexless romance. Angel could have been that right person, if he'd been willing to at least consider the option. Which he hadn't been.
Then along came Anya to open Buffy's eyes. Being different - being queer - didn't have to feel bad.
Anya, Buffy was quite certain, wouldn't yank Buffy around. She'd be blunt. If she wasn't interested in Buffy that way, she'd say so. She wouldn't beat around the bush, hemming and hawing (and where did that saying come from anyway?) claiming interest one minute and shoving Buffy away with a ten foot pole the next. If Anya wanted something, she'd say so and accept whatever answer Buffy had for her too.
Though some things would, likely, remain the same. Buffy rather doubted her friends would be thrilled by her dating the former vengeance demon, especially Xander. But Giles seemed accepting of the idea, at least. And it was kind of nice to know that she wasn't the only queer one among the Scoobies.
Picking up the phone, Buffy dialed Anya's phone number.
"Hello?" Anya answered after two rings.
"Hi, Ahn," Buffy said, the nickname just sort of slipping out. Hopefully she wouldn't mind. "I was wondering if you were free today? I was hoping we could hang out."
"Well, I'm not exactly free, but I could use the company. I'm stalking a frat boy who stole the scales of a Sylki demon. First client for my new business, but I'm having some difficulty locating her scales. I can tell you more if you're still interested in spending time with me while I work."
The demon - silky? she'd have to ask about the spelling - must be the new client. "Congratulations on your first client," Buffy told her sincerely, while wracking her brain trying to think if she knew anything about silky demons. Which she didn't. "Meet you at your place?"
"Yeah, just... my client is staying with me right now. Because she's afraid of the guy who took her scales."
In other words, Slayer play nice. Buffy wondered what a silky demon looked like anyway. "Well, if she needs someone to look after her while you're busy, I'm good at punching jerks in the face."
"Nah, she's safe enough in my apartment for now. I've got a storage facility that I need to check out anyway. Could use some slayer strength to break a lock, if you don't mind a little slightly illegal activities," Anya added.
"Oh, I'm cool with that." A little breaking and entering in the name of what was, hopefully, a good deed wasn't something she'd argue with.
Jessica, the Sylki demon - who was happy to tell Buffy a little about her people when she expressed her curiosity - was a nice person. Buffy wouldn't have guessed she was a demon from her appearance alone, though there was definitely something that pinged Buffy's Slayer-radar.
Though Buffy didn't stay to talk to her long. Anya was ready to head out not long after Buffy arrived and they took the bus to a storage facility near campus.
"So looking at the frat house where the guy lives was a bust, but it turns out he's got a unit rented at this facility where he's stored most of his stuff after moving out of his dorm at the end of the Spring semester. Jessica's scales might be there." Anya led the way towards the facility from where they'd gotten off the bus. "Unfortunately, I don't know which unit is his."
There were a lot of storage units in this building. If Buffy were searching for something here to fight demons or stop an apocalypse or something, she'd just ask Willow to hack their records. But to find something to help a demon, well... Willow probably wasn't going to want to help. Not unless Buffy could introduce her to Jessica so that Willow could hear her story.
"Well, if we can get the guy at the front desk to leave his things unattended, maybe there'll be a written record of who rents which unit," Buffy mused.
Anya nodded. "I'm not too bad a hand at magic. I once did a spell to transfigure my cheating ex into a troll, after all. But I won't need anything so drastic to distract a desk worker. Assuming they're not particularly strong willed, I can stick him in a trance long enough to let me poke around his office. If you'll be my look out?"
"Sure." Buffy watched with interest as they headed to the front desk inside the building.
Anya fiddled with a crystal while talking to the guy at the desk about how much a rental unit in the facility cost. And after a few minutes, the guy went quiet, staring blankly straight ahead.
"Alright, he's out until I either bring him out of the trance or something startles him awake," Anya went around to the other side of the desk while Buffy went back to the front doors to check for anyone coming from outside, while keeping an ear out for anyone in the building itself.
Not a use she'd ever considered putting her better than average hearing towards. But a little exciting, if Buffy was being honest.
There was a sound of rustling papers from Anya's direction and then a muffled 'yes!' when she clearly found what she was looking for. Anya bounced over and tapped Buffy's shoulder. "Come on, the unit's just down the hall. We can leave the guy at the desk like that for a little bit longer while we check out the storage unit. Shouldn't hurt him and I used a little magic to hit the computers with an EMP discharge. I've done that to kill cameras before and it should erase any footage the system might have already taken of us. It's not exactly a complex system with backups or whatever," Anya informed her.
"Lead the way," Buffy told her. "So you've got experience with computers?"
"Disrupting computers, anyway. Turned a computer genius who cheated on his girlfriend into walking tech-bane a few years ago. Guy can't even touch a cell phone without it immediately shorting out on him." Anya smiled wistfully. "That one was fun."
Buffy chuckled at the thought. Guy would've had to find a whole new career after something like that. And maybe it was overkill for cheating on his girlfriend, but a guy who cheated was likely an entitled jerk in other ways too.
The unit Anya leads Buffy to as a simple combination padlock that she gestures to with a flourish. Grinning, Buffy gives it a sharp yank and it pops open. Barely even needed to use any real strength for it either.
Anya's crystal comes back out as she opens the unit's door and immediately begins wandering around inside. It glows bright green over the dresser stored halfway back in the unit and Anya directs Buffy to move a few things for her she can finally pop all the drawers open to snoop through. A shimmering green-blue piece of fabric is removed from the bottom most drawer.
Clearly that must be Jessica's scales in transfigured form. It was beautiful - almost hypnotizingly so. No wonder Mr. Jerkface had realized it was important to Jessica, even if he hadn't realized the why.
Anya rolled up the fabric and slid it into her purse. "Alright, we're good to go. Will that lock go back in place okay?"
"It should. I didn't actually break it, just forced it a little. Those things aren't really very reliable." Once they'd shoved everything mostly back to where they'd found it, Anya shut the door and Buffy put the lock back in place. Clicked it closed and gave it a spin. Seemed fine. Back at the front desk, they resumed where they'd been standing earlier and Anya dispelled the trance.
"Thanks for the info," Anya told him cheerfully. "I've got a few other places to consider, but the rates here aren't unreasonable."
And that was that. They headed back to the bus stop and Buffy decided she might as well ask now.
"So, uh... Anya... would you be interested in a coffee date with me? Like, a date-date. Not just hanging out."
"Yes. I'd be very happy to go on a date-date with you. But... I thought you were straight." Anya's smile was sly, like she knew very well what the answer was now.
"I was wrong about that. I'm not gay or a lesbian or whatever. But bisexual? That's me. B for bisexual and for Buffy and please stop me talking now." Buffy's mouth clicked shut when Anya kissed her on the cheek.
"You're sweet. I like sweet." Anya slid her hand against Buffy's until she could twine their fingers together. "I'm glad you found a word to describe yourself you're comfortable with too. Figuring out the right words that mean you can be really hard to do sometimes."
Buffy felt herself blush ever so brightly, heat prickling along her spine and down her arms. Oh yes, definitely. Bisexual woman loving woman was very much the right words for Buffy this moment.
Returning the scales to Jessica was only half the job. Anya now had to figure out what a fitting revenge for Carson O'Dale would be. Non-lethal and not something that'd be upsetting for Buffy, so no turning him into a Fyarl demon or something like that. Besides, the transformed always ended up going native. Fyarl demon O'Dale would wind up killing someone and there went the non-lethal aspect of things anyway.
Now that Anya had a date with Buffy, she especially didn't want to become a problem for the Slayer.
And, oh, Buffy was so cute when she was showing off how strong she was for Anya. She could hoist Anya around so easily and that was just... very, very hot. And distracting.
Something to look forward to if their relationship starts including sex, like Anya's hoping it will. It's been way too long since she's enjoyed herself between another woman's legs. She'd let her job get in the way, but Anya had wanted a life partner. Her on again, off again relationship with Halfrek had been nice, but it was a friends with benefits thing and they'd both known it'd never go anywhere else. Buffy, however, seemed the romantic sort.
It'd be interesting to see where things went with Buffy. She was very young, compared to Anya anyway. So Anya figured she'd need to take things slow. She wanted a relationship of equals between them and the age difference could make that difficult, though Buffy had plenty of strengths to balance that out.
But she really needed to focus on the job right now.
Anya had gone with Jessica down to the beach. "Anything specific you want me to do to O'Dale?" she inquired. She'd asked a few times already, but Jessica wasn't particularly forthcoming with ideas.
Now was no different. "I just want him to never abuse his power over women again," Jessica said, stripping off her shirt and bra and chucking them aside before shimmying out of her pants and underwear.
Jessica was gorgeous in her naked, human appearance, though with her clothes off there were patches of blue-green, like the fabric of her scales, that settled around her hips like a tattoo. And Anya could see the swell of Jessica's pregnant stomach without the clothing to hide her appearance. But as lovely as Jessica was in her human guise, Anya had no doubt the demon was ready to return to her natural state. And, indeed, she wrapped the scales around her hips before hugging Anya goodbye. "Good luck with the job," Jessica told her and then walked into the water as the fabric about her legs began to merge back into place. By the time Jessica reached the deeper waters, there was a tail flipping behind her.
Thinking about the gems sitting between her mattress and box springs back in her apartment, Anya thought she had plenty of luck already.
Never abuse his power over women again. Pretty vague as far as wishes went.
Anya was still thinking it over a day later when she met Buffy for coffee. The barista was cute, and she got very flustered when both Anya and Buffy flirted with her, which was fun. And once they had their drinks, they fell into a discussion about where a good place for Anya to set up her office would be and what classes Buffy was considering taking in the Fall.
Her drink was nearly empty by the time their little coffee date got crashed by the arrival of Willow. The redhead's eyes narrowed when she saw Anya sitting there with Buffy and part of Anya couldn't help but wonder how much of Willow's dislike of her was overprotective friendship and how much was jealousy. Platonic jealousy or otherwise - Anya'd seen that sort of things enough times over the centuries.
The more humanity changed, the more it stayed the same after all.
"Oh, hey Buffy! Anya. Mind if I join you two?" And then, without waiting for an answer she added, "I'll just go order something." And then she was disappearing inside.
"Sorry," Buffy sighed. "I'll go let her know we're on a date."
"It's not your fault," Anya assured her. "I don't suppose I can talk you into getting me a refill? It's that chocolatey iced coffee that's on special."
Buffy laughed and kissed Anya on the cheek impulsively. "I need a refill too. But next round's on you."
"Of course." Anya grinned widely, chest all warm and fluttery-full. She watches through the window as Buffy and Willow stand in line together, chatting. Willow seems to take whatever Buffy says fairly well... until Anya sees a flash of what can only be magic around Willow's fingers and Buffy's temples.
Anya does her own little quick check of Buffy once she's back with their drinks and Willows flounced off with a smile and a wave, to-go cup of her own iced caramel latte in hand. Whatever Willow did left no residue or effects behind, so Anya doesn't mention it to Buffy. Instead she resolves to go pay the young witch a visit to find out just what she witnessed really was.
But while Anya left the coffee shop a while later with a smile on her face, she was still a bit frustrated in her head for being no closer to deciding what form her vengeance for Jessica should take. And now she had to go track down Willow Rosenburg to make sure she wasn't doing anything untoward to Anya's very pretty girlfriend.
A little more stalking of Carson O'Dale reveals his daily schedule. Despite his proprietary attitude towards Jessica, O'Dale clearly fancied himself a ladies man. And he wasn't exactly unsuccessful at pulling the ladies either. When he goes partying at the Bronze he proves not to be the sort to slip roofies in drinks, but he is the sort to become uncomfortably, belligerently possessive. In class - which Anya slips unobtrusively into a few of his larger, more poorly lit lectures in order to watch him there - O'Dale clearly thinks highly of himself, impressing some of his peers but clearly irritating classmates who were more knowledgeable than he was and annoying at least on Professor who didn't appreciate him 'correcting' her with incorrect information mid lecture.
But a picture of who Carson O'Dale really is starts to form for Anya. And, slowly, a plan for vengeance begins to bloom in her mind.
If only pinning down some time alone with Willow were quite so easy.
It's while Buffy is busy fighting a Serkis Gollum that Anya finally gets her chance to confront Willow.
"You used magic on Buffy at the coffee shop the other day. I want to know what you did," Anya demanded.
They weren't alone. Giles was there... understandable since they were in his house, waiting for Buffy to get back.
"You did what?" he spluttered.
"There were no lingering effects when I checked," Anya told him. "But I've been doing magic since the 800s. You're a baby witch at best and that's being very generous," she told Willow.
"You're how old?" Willow exclaimed, eyes widening.
"Willow," Giles said, voice severely disappointed, "what did you do to Buffy?"
"I just... wanted to make sure Anya hadn't done anything to her. To make her, you know..." her voice went very quiet, "gay." Anya and Giles stared at her blankly. "It was just a basic revealing spell. Which revealed nothing."
"Of course it didn't. Being bisexual isn't the side effect of a magic spell," Giles retorted, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I'm bisexual, for goodness sake. Certainly magic didn't make me that way."
Willow twisted her hands together, looking down and shamefaced. "I didn't mean it like that. It's just such a big change for Buffy and I just... wanted to be sure that it was really Buffy's decision and not.."
"Not something mean ex-demon did to her," Anya finished for her with a scowl.
"I'm sorry." Willow looked genuinely shamefaced, but Anya was fairly certain Willow was really only sorry she got caught.
Anya sighed and dismissed her. "No wonder you're more interesting than the average Watcher's Council minion. They're straight and stiff-necked in pretty much every sense."
Giles snickered in amusement. Then shook his head and gave Willow an arch look. "Magic is not a toy, Willow. It's something you need to study deeply in order to truly understand what your doing. I'd hate for you to wind up with the same sort of regrets I have from my early use - and misuse - of magic."
Nodding meekly, Willow made noises about promising to learn to use her magic wisely. Powerful, intelligent, and a quick study who found the basics boring... a sure fire combination for disaster. But also not Anya's problem.
"So are you bi too?" Willow asked hesitantly.
"No. I identify as a lesbian," Anya told her. "While I find men attractive, the only attraction I'm interested in acting on is to women. So... lesbian."
"But if you're attracted to men, then shouldn't you really call yourself bisexual instead?" Willow persisted. "Lesbians are only attracted to women. I know you haven't been human for very long, but you can't just redefine the word lesbian because you like the way it sounds better."
Giles looked up at the ceiling, as though asking for patience.
"First rule of queer identities," Anya told Willow, "if someone tells you they're a lesbian or bisexual or nonsexual or transsexual or transgender or... or any identity under the sun, be it a current term or definition or an outdated one. You do not contradict them. Not even if you're also queer yourself. You respect that a lesbian is a lesbian is a lesbian if she say's she is. Even if they don't use female pronouns. Even if she's dated men or been attracted to men in the past. You do not get to tell someone else how to describe themselves." Her voice was sharp because she did not want to have this conversation with Willow twice.
Hopefully Willow would take this information to heart.
"I've been identifying as either a sapphist or a lesbian for over a hundred years. And those words have always felt right. But bisexuality didn't feel like the right word for me in the 1890s any more than it does now in the 1990s. It used to be that lesbian just meant a woman who acted on their attraction to another woman. And while language has evolved to narrow those definitions down, I don't want to pick a new label every fifty years just because other people have redefined the words I use to describe myself. So I'm not making up a new definition for the word lesbian to suit myself - other people have already done that because they felt it was necessary. And it's fine to change language when it's needed. All I'm doing is using an older, but still perfectly acceptable, definition of the term. Language changes all the time, but that doesn't erase it's history." She sighed and shook her head. It was shame, given how quickly human culture grew and changed, how fast humans forgot - or otherwise lost - their own history. Or worse, re-wrote history to exclude people from their own communities. Well, Anya wasn't going to let that happen to her. She'd been a lesbian since she'd first learned what the word meant - when it wasn't referring to someone from the island of Lesbos, anyway - and she'd be a lesbian until the day she died. Which, unfortunately, was likely only to be a short seventy or so years away.
Humans were so short lived. It was awful.
But at least Giles was nodding along with what Anya was saying. He was a trusted source to Willow; if he was agreeing with Anya then the other woman might actually listen.
The front door flew open. "One demon officially defeated and beheaded," Buffy exclaimed, cheerfully letting herself inside. Then she frowned, taking in the serious faces all around. "Did I miss something?"
Buffy liked the way Anya's hand felt in hers. All smooth skin and soft touches.
But she rather liked the way Anya's mouth fit against her own even better.
Breathless, Buffy pressed her forehead against Anya's. "That was lovely."
"Kissing always is," Anya agreed, leaning in to kiss Buffy's lips again.
She tasted so sweet...
"So," Buffy said, pulling back to talk to her. "You've been human again for the last... six-ish months. I know you miss being a demon but... is it so bad, being human?"
"Well... having a period again sucks," Anya mused. "I forgot how annoying period cramps are. And not being immune to everything. I had a cold in March and thought I was dying. And I'm not immortal anymore. And I only ever bothered to understand enough of the various human cultures to wear them like masks as needed, so there's so much about humans I don't understand. But... I feel emotions more strongly and my physical senses - touch and taste especially - are more sensitive. Except for my hearing. But even though human life moves so fast, I've had my first real chance to slow down in centuries. I haven't had time for a significant other in a very long time. So being able to make the time to kiss a pretty girl is nice."
Anya bit her lower lip for a moment and then concluded, "I can't say I wouldn't become a demon again if offered, but no. Being human isn't so bad."
"Well, I could help you better understand local human culture," Buffy offered. "As your girlfriend, it'd be a fun bonding thing for us."
"I'd love that." Anya's smile made Buffy ever so pleased. "I'd love that very much."
Anya winds up deciding on a multi-tiered approach to her vengeance on O'Dale, stripping him methodically of every piece of status and power he held dear. His attractiveness to women, his status as a leader amongst his frat brothers, the good grades he lauded over his struggling peers... and finally attaching to him a spell that would visit back upon him any harm he ever attempted to commit a woman twofold.
He would have destroyed Jessica's life happily out of a possessive sense of entitlement. And so Anya planned to destroy his life instead. It made sense to her in a way so few things did since becoming a human.
It'd take several months to pull off, but Anya had been well paid in advance.
Already, O'Dale was clearly seething from Jessica slipping his grasp. And as more of the women in his life pushed him away, the angrier he'd no doubt become. But he'd have no more victims claiming vengeance against him. Anya had stripped that power from him. She suspected that, if there was some way to tell Jessica, the Sylki demon would approve.
And she's already got a new client. A human woman whose half-demon ex-husband has been stiffing her child-support payments while taking up with his secretary.
It seemed that Anya's vengeance agency was off to a good start after all.
Notes: Since Anya's over a thousand years old, including some queer history has been a fun little aspect of this series thus far. She's a fish out of water among humans, so I can see her clinging to words and definitions that makes her feel comfortable. Hence the usage of an older definition of lesbian for herself even as she whole heartedly supports Buffy identifying as bisexual. Though this version of Anya would never be interested in acting on any attraction she might have for a guy, so it's not exactly incorrect for her to refer to herself as a lesbian by more modern (and narrower) definitions either.
Anyway, this particular story was inspired in part because a vengeance demon falling in love with the very guy she'd intended to take vengeance against never made sense to me. Anya as a lesbian works so much better, in my opinion, than the show's Xander/Anya pairing ever did.