House of Cards
Chapter 2

Author: Kamikazee

Email: neo_kamikazee@hotmail.com

Rating: PG-13

Characters/Pairings: Willow/HBK, Xander/Chris Jericho, Warnings: Slash, if that's not your thing, don't read

Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/WWE

Spoilers: BtVS - Season 6, WWE - Set Around August 18, 2003 (though, everythings going to be a little screwed up)

Summary: Houses of cards always fall down when you least expect them too.

Archive: Twisting the Hellmouth, Personal Space, Fanfiction.net, anyone else, please e-mail me the URL and I'd be happy to let you post it.

Author's Notes: Sorry it took a while to get this out. I had a completely different chapter and then decided to scrap it half way through. Then I wrote this over about a week. Notes 2: Okay, so since season 6 ended in June 2002, that's when the prologue was set. Now, the fic is set in August 2003. So, it's been a little over a year since the prologue. Notes 3: Thanks for all the encouraging feedback. It really does help.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own any of the characters or storylines from either Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the WWE. No copyright infringement is intended.

~

"Are you sure about this?" Xander looked worriedly across the hotel room at his redheaded best friend. Willow Rosenberg was sitting on one of the two twin beds, casually flicking channels on the TV. She looked up at him when she noticed his stare.

"Yes, Xander," she replied, her voice quiet and each word carefully thought out. She had been like that ever since the incident, carefully planning everything she said before she said it. Of course, she didn't talk all that much. "I want to see other people. I want to see people smile and laugh and act normal."

Xander sighed at the wishful expression on her face. Her wide green eyes were just begging him without words. He knew that he would give in, but that didn't mean he had to do it without a fight, "You're looking for happiness in the WWE? Willow, these people fight for a living."

Willow let a small wistful smile come to her lips at that, "Sort of like we used to do." Xander clammed up after that, not wanting to think about Sunnydale. That would just lead to thinking about why they left Sunnydale.

"Fine, you can come to the taping on Monday," Xander finally gave in, attempting to make a flourish of it. "As long as you promise to stay with the referees for the show, alright? There are some people I don't want you to interact with." The young man involuntarily thought about his confrontation with Chris Jericho a couple of days ago.

Willow nodded compliantly, a happy smile on her face, "Can do. As long as I'm around other people. You're great Xander, but I need to see some normal people."

Xander looked at her with an arched eyebrow, "Normal?"

~

As the two adults entered the arena, both their mannerisms were decidedly weird. A woman and a man, neither of them was interacting the way one would expect for people entering a WWE event. Whether you were an employee or a guest, this was odd behaviour.

The redhead was looking around with a look of wide-eyed curiosity. That in itself wasn't surprising. What was was the fact that she had a look in her eyes that she expected someone to start yelling at her at any moment. She expected to be ostracized and criticized.

The brunette on the other hand, had a look of extreme protection and wariness on his handsome face. His eyes were twitching, as though he expected a physical attack to be sprung any second on him and his companion. He stayed close to the young woman, glaring at shadows and scowling at nothing.

When the two reached the door marked 'referee' for the night, they both let out an audible sigh of relief. Both Willow and Xander had agreed to it, but neither had been prepared for Willow's first time willingly going into a highly populated area in a while.

"Okay, you should be fine here," Xander said as he opened the plain door. Inside were a couple of chairs and a large table, littered with papers. A couple doors led to what can be assumed is the changing area. There were three men idling around, not yet in their striped referee jerseys.

Xander was greeted with shouts of greeting from the men, which he returned with a small smile. When their voices died down he took a deep breath before pulling Willow forward from behind him.

"Guys this is Willow," he said, smiling hopefully at the other men. They were nice guys, but Willow was still so twitchy. He hoped he hadn't made a mistake. "Willow this is the guys."

At that comment, Willow gave him a light slap on the arm, frowning up at him. "And do the guys have names?" Xander gave a small smile to his best friend before slowly shaking his head.

"No," he said gravely, "It's such a tragic story of drama and." Xander was cut off as one of the other men coughed loudly. He walked forward and held out his hand to Willow. The woman looked at it seriously before slowly reaching hers out and shaking.

"I'm Charles Robinson," he introduced, a grin on his face, "Those two over there are Earl Hebner and Chad Patton. It's nice to meet you, Willow."

Willow smiled softly at the man before clearing her throat, "It's nice to meet you, too. I hope you don't mind me hanging around tonight. Just wanted to get out for a bit."

The man who had been introduced to her, as Earl laughed reassuringly, "It's no problem, Willow. In fact, we were wondering if we would ever get to meet you. Xander's been here for a year, and all he does in his spare time is talk about you."

Willow felt a blush rising in her cheeks as she glared at her dark haired friend. Xander gave her a big smile. "Well, I can see your settling in just fine. Remember, don't wander off alone." His smile turned slightly downwards, "In fact, maybe it's best if you just don't leave the room." Willow rolled her eyes skyward. "I'll drop in when I can."

Xander quickly dropped a kiss on her cheek before heading out the door. He hoped desperately tonight went well.

~

Willow was bored.

This was not how she thought she would be feeling. She expected to be nervous, excited, maybe even a little bit scared. But, not bored. Then again, she also didn't expect the referee's locker room to be this incredibly dull.

Now, don't get her wrong, the referees were nice guys. Especially Charles, who had made it a point to talk to her and involve her in some of the conversations. It was just; they were boring conversations for anyone who wasn't a referee.

So, here she was, sitting on a bench, fidgeting. The guys were involved pretty heavily in some conversation that she wasn't listening to, and probably wouldn't understand even if she were. Rising slowly, Willow headed towards the door, trying not to disturb the others.

Xander's warning came involuntarily back into her head, but she shook it off. What could go wrong? She was just going to slip out and find a vending machine. Grab a couple of snacks and come back. They probably wouldn't even notice that she was gone.

Besides, it wasn't as if anyone who saw her was going to pay any attention. I mean, she was just Willow. They probably wouldn't even care. They had more important things to do.

As she slipped out the door, it was those thoughts that were running through her head. She kept up the mantra as she started down the hallway. She was just kind of drifting, hoping she would come across something soon.

Lost in her thoughts of safety, Willow didn't even look up as she turned the corner. It was only when she collided rather forcefully with a hard wall of muscle that she realized she wasn't alone.

Looking forward, Willow found herself face to face with a blue dress shirt covering a large chest. It was a very nice shirt, probably silk, she thought. The chest was nice too. A little on the bulky side, but she supposed some people might like that kind of thing. Of course, it wasn't like she was noticing, because she was a lesbian recovering from her lover's death, but.

Willow's mind babble was interrupted by a voice to her right, "Well, well, what do we have hear?" Looking sharply in the direction of the voice, she took in the well-dressed older man. Seeing his hair, she balked. It was a platinum blonde-yellow colour.

She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking back at the man she had walked into, she looked up. And up. He was tall. And blonde. And had an abnormally large nose. She was quite content to phase out in her thoughts when he spoke, "Well, Ric, looks like I found myself a little present here."

At those words, Willow jumped back away from him. She turned around to run, only to find herself blocked by another man. This one was younger, with dark hair. She supposed he would be pretty good looking under most circumstances, but the smile he was giving her was just a little bit creepy.

She backtracked away from him, only to end up exactly where she started, against the large blonde man. He chuckled as his hands came down on her shoulders. "Looks like it's your lucky day. You get a taste of Evolution."

Willow laughed nervously along with the men before managing a response, flustered as she was, "Gee, thanks for the offer, but really, I should be leaving. You know, things to do." As she tried to walk away hands tightened on her shoulders.

"Leave?" the blonde man, who was obviously there leader said, "Well, that would be terribly insulting, wouldn't it Randy?"

The dark haired man leered at her before answering, "Terribly rude, Hunter." The blonde, she guessed his name was Hunter, began to let his hands drift lower before she leapt away in outrage.

"No! No touchy!" she cried, turning wide eyes on the man, "No touchy! You don't touch. That was bad." Willow could feel the slight stirring of her magic wanting to be used but she pushed them down. She wasn't about to ruin everything, not now.

As Hunter moved forward and trapped her between him and Randy, Willow felt the stirrings of panic inside. The magic was straining against her shields and she didn't know if she would be able to stop it from coming out.

"Hey!" a voice called out from somewhere out of sight, "What do you think you're doing?" Willow could hear footfalls coming toward them and sighed audibly in relief. At least, she was relieved until she looked up and saw the anger in the eyes of Hunter.

His eyes flashed with anger as he looked towards her possible rescuer, "Why don't you just stay out of this, Michaels? It's none of your business." The words were practically growled. Willow tried to peek over her shoulder, but Randy was in her way.

"Well," the unknown man replied, "I'm making it my business. She doesn't seem to want your attention, so maybe you should just back off. Wouldn't want you to get hurt before the Elimination Chamber."

Hunter scowled darkly before slowly stepping away from Willow. With a small hand motion, he called Randy off as well. The two of them joined Ric. Hunter let one last message before parting, "This isn't over." Whether he was talking to her or the new man, she wasn't sure.

Willow was shaking as she slowly turned to face her rescuer. Her eyes were cast downward, and all she could see were worn boots and the bottoms of a pair of jeans. That's all she planned on seeing as well.

It was a few tense seconds later that he finally cleared his throat and began talking again, "I'm Shawn." He had a pretty strong Texan accent, "Uhhh. Is there anywhere I can take you? Someone you want to go to?" He seemed nervous to be dealing with the still shaking redhead.

Willow let her eyes slowly move up the jean clad legs, onto the black t- shirt and bare muscular arms, and finally to the face. He was handsome, with long blonde hair and a weathered face of someone who's seen the worst the world could offer and fought through it. In a strange way, he reminded her of Buffy. A jaded but optimistic light shone in his blue eyes.

She processed his words. Slowly, trying to control the quiver in her voice, she managed to answer him, "Xander. Xander Harris. Can you take me to see Xander Harris?" She felt so small and weak. She just wanted her Xander- shaped friend.

He looked thoughtful for a second before the proverbial light bulb lit up. "Xander. That's right. He's Bischoff's assistant right? I'll take you to the office."

After that answer, Willow contented herself to following Shawn silently through the corridors. Taking deep breaths, she was glad that he wasn't pushing conversation. She didn't think that she could handle that right now.

As they turned yet another corridor, Willow could hear the sound of raised voices. Shawn sent Willow a perplexed frown as they turned the last corridor, both of them stopping at what they saw.

Christian was ranting and raving, his arms swinging about him in indignation. Eric Bischoff was yelling right back at the blonde. Chris Jericho was draped casually against the wall, looking on in mild interest. Xander was on the other side of the hallway, randomly shooting non-helpful comments into the fray.

"It's not fair! Test has a manager! Test! If he has one, we should get one too!" the young man was screaming at his boss, any maturity lost in anger, "It's just not fair!"

Xander let a smile quip his lips, "It's an outrage. He can't treat you like this. You should sue." Christian looked at the dark haired man in interest as Eric glared at his son.

"He's right! I should sue!" Christian exclaimed, "For, like, mistreatment of an employee! That's right! If you don't give us a manager, we'll sue! Right, Chris?"

Jericho opened his mouth to reply to his partner, when Xander suddenly noticed Willow and Shawn at the end of the hallway. Any words Jericho had been preparing to say were cut off by the frantic "Willow!" that echoed in the hallway.

Immediately, the three other sets of eyes in the hallway swivelled to face the newcomers. The scrutiny was a bit too much for Willow and she quickly stepped behind Shawn. Her attempt at hiding didn't last long before Xander pulled her into a hug.

"What are you doing here?" was his worried question, "I thought I told you to stay with the referees." His brown eyes were concerned and Willow felt a pang of guilt. She put him through so much.

"I'm sorry," she replied quietly, "I just went out for a drink." her voice faded out as she clung to her best friend. She quickly buried her head in his chest. Xander's arms held her close as he looked up at Shawn for an explanation.

The heartbreak kid looked down at the petite redhead fondly, "I found her being accosted by Evolution. I scared them off."

Xander looked horrified, angry and relieved all at the same time as his arms tightened around Willow. "Thanks man, I owe you one."

Shawn simply nodded. It was then that Eric decided to interrupt. "You're guest is causing problems among my superstars," Xander looked up sharply at his father. If looks could kill, Bischoff would be dead. "She's messing things up and she's not even being useful."

Everyone in the hallway was so fixed on the altercation; they didn't notice the dangerous smile slip across Chris Jericho's face. The other blonde Canadian pushed himself away from the wall before disrupting the conversation.

"We want her as our manager." Everyone looked at him in shock and confusion at the statement. It took a couple seconds before their previous conversation came back to them. Christian and Eric had matching twisted smiles. Shawn and Xander had matching disgusted expressions. Willow was still trying to disappear into Xander.

"No." Xander's voice was firm. He was not going to let this happen. "No fucking way. Willow doesn't work here, you can't make her do anything." He glared at Jericho, anger evident in every part of him.

Bischoff's eyes turned positively gleeful at that, "But you do. I gave you this job, out of the kindness of my heart, and what do you do to repay me? You refuse this one little request. Well, that's not very nice."

Xander snorted and continued to stand tall, supporting his conviction. "You know, we really don't need you around here. Your cooperation skills are really hurting us. In fact, I might have to let you go."

Both Willow and Xander tensed at that remark. They needed this job. It was what was keeping them going. It kept them warm, with food and shelter. Most important of all, it kept them moving. Losing it would be a very bad thing.

Xander didn't care though. This was Willow they were talking about. He wasn't about to put her through that. Opening his mouth to tell his father exactly where he could stuff his job, he was cut short by Willow.

"I'll do it."

~

Now, weren't you all dazzled by the shiny new chapter? So sorry it's taken so long. I've been kind of eurgh when it comes down to writing lately. Thankfully, my muses are looking better now. Thanks for all the support, I couldn't do this without you guys.