REFUGE
Author: MeB (aka XanWill4Ever)
Email: lenoxfiles@hotmail.com
Spoiler: This story starts out before the First Season. It picks up after "Witch" in the First Season. Then, continues some time in Season Six before Tara and Willow had broken up because of Willow's obsession with magic.
Pairing: Xander/Willow
Summary: This is a story about a girl who lost five years of her life.
Disclaimer: All characters of Buffy tVS are the property of Joss.
Rating - PG-13 Language xwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwwxwxwxwxwxwxw
Chapter 1-Refuge
Little five-year old Willow Rosenberg cried hard into her pillow. The only boy in the whole wide world that really meant so much to her had hurt her badly. Her little heart was broken in pieces. Her heart was so broken, how could any doctor ever possibly be good enough to glue her heart back together again?
Xander Harris had stolen her Barbie, and he wouldn't give it back. Why did boys have to be so mean? How could they just want to play in one second, and the next second, do bad things? Like steal Barbie's? How could Xander do such a thing? Willow thought they had been going out like older couples do. Like her mom and dad did.
Well...maybe not like her mom and dad did since she knew they also did grownup, mushy things that were just yucky. Still, Xander was everything to her, and yet he took her Barbie from her.
She cried until she fell asleep.
They were still friends after that. Even though the Barbie was gone from her life, at least Xander was still there. Their friendship grew. Xander even made fun of Cordelia Chase whenever she made fun of Willow. He stuck up for her and called Cordelia things that made Willow blush.
When they were nine, Xander asked Willow to come to his house so that he could show her something. She went to his house and was just in time to see him come running out through the back door.
"Come back here, you goddamn little shit!!" Xander's father yelled after him. He sounded drunk...and mean.
Xander kept running, completely ignoring his father, or at least trying to. He had on a tool belt and he was holding a hammer in one hand. With his free hand, he reached for Willow. "C'mon, Will!" He sounded frantic. "Let's run!"
The two best friends ran, hand in hand. Xander's father stood on the back porch and he glared after them, and he shouted some more, but to no avail. Finally, he went back into the house and he drank some more. Xander and Willow kept running. Willow didn't care where they were running to, just as long as she was running with Xander. She glanced at him as they ran and she could see his lower lip trembling.
That was not a good thing.
He must have been punished for something. He got punished a lot. Sometimes, he got punished for just being home - for being in the way.
So they ran.
They ran into the woods and Xander led her to a project he had been working on. There was a neat stack of two-by-fours, and there was some wood paneling. A tree had steps nailed into it for a ladder. Xander had been preparing a tree fort. He even had a floor at the top of the ladder and he was ready to put up the walls.
They stood side by side and looked at the tree. Xander was breathing hard, and from the look on his face, he was already beginning to deny what had happened back at the house.
"See our tree fort?" he asked Willow, not turning to look at her.
Willow tried to see his face, but he kept his left side away from her. "X- Xander, are you okay?" she asked with concern.
Xander backed up a step and he shrugged like nothing happened. "Hey, Will. I'm good. You know me." He raised a hand toward the fort. "What do you think?"
She touched his face and turned him so that she could see him clearly. There was a nasty black-and-blue bruise around his eye. "Oh..." Willow felt like crying herself. "Xander..."
He swallowed. "Hey..." he shrugged helplessly, "forget it, Will. I-I fell. You know...clumsy me."
"You know you can't fool me." She looked at him sadly. "I-I know you didn't fall, Xander."
Xander nodded his head. "Yeah...well...yeah." He finally looked at her. "I've got my sleeping bag up there, you know? A lantern." He forced a smile as he began to get himself excited about the fort. "I'm gonna sleep here tonight...maybe every night, but...I want to get the walls up and the roof before the sun goes down." He looked at her. "Wanna help?"
"You know it, mister," Willow said with a smile of encouragement. "You're just a regular carpenter kind of guy, aren't you?"
They went to work on the fort. Willow even tried her hand at hammering a nail into a piece of plywood. She gave it three whacks and on the third whack, she cried out as she struck her thumb. She couldn't help it. She was just a girl and so she cried and said it was a stupid idea to build a fort. Xander took her in his arms and he kissed her thumb.
"It's okay, Will," he said gently to her. "Look. It's not broken. You'll be okay."
She looked at him. "B-but it hurts."
He kissed her thumb again. "Shhh. It'll be okay. I won't let the bad hammer do it again. Okay?"
She looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Promise?"
He nodded. "Promise."
That night, they had the walls up, but Willow hadn't hammered in any more nails. She handed everything to Xander that he needed. The nail she had started to hit was sticking out of the wood. Xander had broken off a piece of plywood and he had written something on it with a magic marker.
At the top, he wrote...
REFUGE
Below that, he wrote...
THE FRIENDSHIP NAIL
Then he hung the sign he made on the nail that Willow had tried to bang in.
Willow looked at him. "The Friendship Nail?"
Xander nodded. "It's a symbol of our friendship, Will. It's sacred. It's so sacred that it can never be broken."
"R-really?"
He nodded again. "We made this fort together. I could never have done it without you." He looked around and smiled as the lantern flickered and cast shadows on the walls. "This is our refuge. We will always be safe here, Will. From everything." He smiled. "No one will ever be allowed in unless we invite them."
Willow smiled. "That's nice." She looked at the bruise on his face. She touched it gently. "D-does it hurt?"
He shook his head. "Nah. It's...it's fine."
"Are...are you really gonna sleep out here? By yourself?"
He swallowed. Then he nodded. "Yeah." He didn't want to go back home. Not ever.
Willow hesitated. "W-would you like me to stay with you?" she asked meekly.
He smiled. "Would I? Yes! You're my best friend, and this is your refuge, too."
The two friends snuggled together in the sleeping back and they talked throughout most of the night.
Below them, out in the woods, a presence watched them. This presence was evil, but it recognized the Refuge for what it was. It respected the boundaries set up by those who built it. They didn't even realize what they had done, the presence thought. Just two bloody kids building a fort, and it might as well be a fortress. Well, imagine that.
The presence listened to them talk, and then it moved off into the night. At that time, it had simply been passing through Sunnydale. It was curious about the place, and what it saw of Sunnydale only convinced it that it would be back one day.
As for Xander and Willow, their friendship strengthened. They used the Refuge a lot. They spent many nights there dreaming about the future. Sharing their hopes and fears. Until one day it happened.
Willow had stopped coming to the Refuge, and Xander couldn't understand why. She had stopped coming to it some time after Buffy Summers had moved into town. They had gone to the Bronze. They had come to believe that Sunnydale was infested with vampires. They had even met a Witch, and it was after that when Willow had stopped coming to the Refuge.
It was in the hallway at school when it happened. The door slammed open and Amy Madison walked in only to be confronted by a shy and frightened Willow Rosenberg. Amy was actually Catherine, her mother. The evil witch had wanted her daughters youth for her own and so she had simply taken it.
Now this little bitch thought that she could actually stand in her way.
"Amy!" Willow exclaimed nervously, standing in her way.
Amy/Catherine glared daggers at her. "Get out of my way!"
"W-wait!" Willow hesitated as she tried to think of something to stall the angry witch. "I-I-I need to talk to you. I-I can help you."
Amy/Catherine scowled. "Help me? With what?"
"Uh, well, y'know, all your witchcraft! I-I know this really good cauldron."
Xander sneaked up behind Amy/Catherine.
Willow made a face. "Do you actually ride a broom?"
Suddenly, Amy/Catherine twisted around, growled, and she held out her hand like she was grabbing Xander's neck. His hand went to his throat and a shocked look crossed his face. Amy/Catherine made a fist and she twisted it. Xander collapsed to the floor, choking.
Willow looked at her best friend in horror. "Xander!"
Amy/Catherine spun back around and she punched Willow hard in the face, knocking her to the floor. Then, she started to run to the lab.
Willow fell hard to the floor, but something was horribly wrong. She saw Xander get up and he helped her to sit up. She nodded that she was okay, and then he ran off after Amy/Catherine. Unfortunately, she was not okay at all. She leaned against the wall and couldn't understand why her legs suddenly felt like jelly. The corridor began to spin. She fell to one knee and closed her eyes.
She saw Catherine Madison's angry face. It seemed to float toward her.
Willow opened her mouth to scream, and then her world went black.
xwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwwxwxwxwxwxw
TO BE CONTINUED--
Author: MeB (aka XanWill4Ever)
Email: lenoxfiles@hotmail.com
Spoiler: This story starts out before the First Season. It picks up after "Witch" in the First Season. Then, continues some time in Season Six before Tara and Willow had broken up because of Willow's obsession with magic.
Pairing: Xander/Willow
Summary: This is a story about a girl who lost five years of her life.
Disclaimer: All characters of Buffy tVS are the property of Joss.
Rating - PG-13 Language xwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwwxwxwxwxwxwxw
Chapter 1-Refuge
Little five-year old Willow Rosenberg cried hard into her pillow. The only boy in the whole wide world that really meant so much to her had hurt her badly. Her little heart was broken in pieces. Her heart was so broken, how could any doctor ever possibly be good enough to glue her heart back together again?
Xander Harris had stolen her Barbie, and he wouldn't give it back. Why did boys have to be so mean? How could they just want to play in one second, and the next second, do bad things? Like steal Barbie's? How could Xander do such a thing? Willow thought they had been going out like older couples do. Like her mom and dad did.
Well...maybe not like her mom and dad did since she knew they also did grownup, mushy things that were just yucky. Still, Xander was everything to her, and yet he took her Barbie from her.
She cried until she fell asleep.
They were still friends after that. Even though the Barbie was gone from her life, at least Xander was still there. Their friendship grew. Xander even made fun of Cordelia Chase whenever she made fun of Willow. He stuck up for her and called Cordelia things that made Willow blush.
When they were nine, Xander asked Willow to come to his house so that he could show her something. She went to his house and was just in time to see him come running out through the back door.
"Come back here, you goddamn little shit!!" Xander's father yelled after him. He sounded drunk...and mean.
Xander kept running, completely ignoring his father, or at least trying to. He had on a tool belt and he was holding a hammer in one hand. With his free hand, he reached for Willow. "C'mon, Will!" He sounded frantic. "Let's run!"
The two best friends ran, hand in hand. Xander's father stood on the back porch and he glared after them, and he shouted some more, but to no avail. Finally, he went back into the house and he drank some more. Xander and Willow kept running. Willow didn't care where they were running to, just as long as she was running with Xander. She glanced at him as they ran and she could see his lower lip trembling.
That was not a good thing.
He must have been punished for something. He got punished a lot. Sometimes, he got punished for just being home - for being in the way.
So they ran.
They ran into the woods and Xander led her to a project he had been working on. There was a neat stack of two-by-fours, and there was some wood paneling. A tree had steps nailed into it for a ladder. Xander had been preparing a tree fort. He even had a floor at the top of the ladder and he was ready to put up the walls.
They stood side by side and looked at the tree. Xander was breathing hard, and from the look on his face, he was already beginning to deny what had happened back at the house.
"See our tree fort?" he asked Willow, not turning to look at her.
Willow tried to see his face, but he kept his left side away from her. "X- Xander, are you okay?" she asked with concern.
Xander backed up a step and he shrugged like nothing happened. "Hey, Will. I'm good. You know me." He raised a hand toward the fort. "What do you think?"
She touched his face and turned him so that she could see him clearly. There was a nasty black-and-blue bruise around his eye. "Oh..." Willow felt like crying herself. "Xander..."
He swallowed. "Hey..." he shrugged helplessly, "forget it, Will. I-I fell. You know...clumsy me."
"You know you can't fool me." She looked at him sadly. "I-I know you didn't fall, Xander."
Xander nodded his head. "Yeah...well...yeah." He finally looked at her. "I've got my sleeping bag up there, you know? A lantern." He forced a smile as he began to get himself excited about the fort. "I'm gonna sleep here tonight...maybe every night, but...I want to get the walls up and the roof before the sun goes down." He looked at her. "Wanna help?"
"You know it, mister," Willow said with a smile of encouragement. "You're just a regular carpenter kind of guy, aren't you?"
They went to work on the fort. Willow even tried her hand at hammering a nail into a piece of plywood. She gave it three whacks and on the third whack, she cried out as she struck her thumb. She couldn't help it. She was just a girl and so she cried and said it was a stupid idea to build a fort. Xander took her in his arms and he kissed her thumb.
"It's okay, Will," he said gently to her. "Look. It's not broken. You'll be okay."
She looked at him. "B-but it hurts."
He kissed her thumb again. "Shhh. It'll be okay. I won't let the bad hammer do it again. Okay?"
She looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Promise?"
He nodded. "Promise."
That night, they had the walls up, but Willow hadn't hammered in any more nails. She handed everything to Xander that he needed. The nail she had started to hit was sticking out of the wood. Xander had broken off a piece of plywood and he had written something on it with a magic marker.
At the top, he wrote...
REFUGE
Below that, he wrote...
THE FRIENDSHIP NAIL
Then he hung the sign he made on the nail that Willow had tried to bang in.
Willow looked at him. "The Friendship Nail?"
Xander nodded. "It's a symbol of our friendship, Will. It's sacred. It's so sacred that it can never be broken."
"R-really?"
He nodded again. "We made this fort together. I could never have done it without you." He looked around and smiled as the lantern flickered and cast shadows on the walls. "This is our refuge. We will always be safe here, Will. From everything." He smiled. "No one will ever be allowed in unless we invite them."
Willow smiled. "That's nice." She looked at the bruise on his face. She touched it gently. "D-does it hurt?"
He shook his head. "Nah. It's...it's fine."
"Are...are you really gonna sleep out here? By yourself?"
He swallowed. Then he nodded. "Yeah." He didn't want to go back home. Not ever.
Willow hesitated. "W-would you like me to stay with you?" she asked meekly.
He smiled. "Would I? Yes! You're my best friend, and this is your refuge, too."
The two friends snuggled together in the sleeping back and they talked throughout most of the night.
Below them, out in the woods, a presence watched them. This presence was evil, but it recognized the Refuge for what it was. It respected the boundaries set up by those who built it. They didn't even realize what they had done, the presence thought. Just two bloody kids building a fort, and it might as well be a fortress. Well, imagine that.
The presence listened to them talk, and then it moved off into the night. At that time, it had simply been passing through Sunnydale. It was curious about the place, and what it saw of Sunnydale only convinced it that it would be back one day.
As for Xander and Willow, their friendship strengthened. They used the Refuge a lot. They spent many nights there dreaming about the future. Sharing their hopes and fears. Until one day it happened.
Willow had stopped coming to the Refuge, and Xander couldn't understand why. She had stopped coming to it some time after Buffy Summers had moved into town. They had gone to the Bronze. They had come to believe that Sunnydale was infested with vampires. They had even met a Witch, and it was after that when Willow had stopped coming to the Refuge.
It was in the hallway at school when it happened. The door slammed open and Amy Madison walked in only to be confronted by a shy and frightened Willow Rosenberg. Amy was actually Catherine, her mother. The evil witch had wanted her daughters youth for her own and so she had simply taken it.
Now this little bitch thought that she could actually stand in her way.
"Amy!" Willow exclaimed nervously, standing in her way.
Amy/Catherine glared daggers at her. "Get out of my way!"
"W-wait!" Willow hesitated as she tried to think of something to stall the angry witch. "I-I-I need to talk to you. I-I can help you."
Amy/Catherine scowled. "Help me? With what?"
"Uh, well, y'know, all your witchcraft! I-I know this really good cauldron."
Xander sneaked up behind Amy/Catherine.
Willow made a face. "Do you actually ride a broom?"
Suddenly, Amy/Catherine twisted around, growled, and she held out her hand like she was grabbing Xander's neck. His hand went to his throat and a shocked look crossed his face. Amy/Catherine made a fist and she twisted it. Xander collapsed to the floor, choking.
Willow looked at her best friend in horror. "Xander!"
Amy/Catherine spun back around and she punched Willow hard in the face, knocking her to the floor. Then, she started to run to the lab.
Willow fell hard to the floor, but something was horribly wrong. She saw Xander get up and he helped her to sit up. She nodded that she was okay, and then he ran off after Amy/Catherine. Unfortunately, she was not okay at all. She leaned against the wall and couldn't understand why her legs suddenly felt like jelly. The corridor began to spin. She fell to one knee and closed her eyes.
She saw Catherine Madison's angry face. It seemed to float toward her.
Willow opened her mouth to scream, and then her world went black.
xwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwxwwxwxwxwxwxw
TO BE CONTINUED--