Goldfish
By Voleuse

Rating: G
Pairing: Willow
Improv: #46 mesh--molded--orange--claw
Disclaimer: Not mine, wish they were. I play in Joss' universe.
Notes: Mild spoilers for "Passions."
Distribution: Ask, please.

She had goldfish, once.

They hadn't been her first choice, but her father's allergies weren't negotiable.

She used to pretend they were as good as a puppy's waggling tail, or a kitten's prickly claws. She bought them bright pebbles, tiny plants, and molded playthings. When she cleaned the tank, she would babble to them as they flailed in mesh, little Moby and Gabrielle and Lavelle and Liz.

She misses her fish, misses the orange-gold flash of their fins. When they died, she and Xander buried them in her backyard, complete with ceremony and tiny gravestones.

After that, in an unusual fit of pity, her mother came home with a new set of fish--striped and yellow and gray.

They're tropical fish, she told her. They'll live longer.

Now, she stares at the envelope in her hands, damp and squishy.

She's glad she didn't name them.

FINIS