Beauty and the Beast
By Kennie Gajos
A/NWell, as per ordered, a prompt update!! It's not actually Spike's bike (that was destroyed along with the rest of Sunnydale!) it's one that Willow found at Giles' place. Spike is cool though!
The demon isn't actually Oz. If it was then they would have recognised him by now. It's an OC that I came up with when trying to make the story fit to the Buffyverse.
Anyway, I'm waffling. Time for the fic!
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Willow paced in her room, awaiting the explosion that was sure to come after she failed to make an appearance for dinner. Sure enough, she wasn't disappointed.
The demon banged fiercely on the doors. "I told you to come down for dinner!" He raged.
"I'm not hungry." Willow shouted back, grateful for the spell she had put on the doors to ensure that they couldn't be broken.
The demon snarled. "Do you want to starve to death?"
"Suits me!"
"Why are you being so stubborn?" The demon shouted, banging on the door once again.
"Hmmm, perhaps because I'm the lifelong prisoner of a demon?" Willow shouted back sarcastically.
The demon growled. "I am not a demon."
"Well you sure fooled me!"
"Are you coming down to dinner?" The demon asked.
"What do you think?"
"Fine!" He bellowed. "Then you will not eat at all!"
Willow waited until she had heard his footsteps recede into the distance before she sagged onto her bed.
"Well, that went well." She said to herself before jumping at the sound of her cell phone.
"I forgot I had that!" She exclaimed, digging into her pocket to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Willow!" Giles exclaimed.
"Will, what's going on?" Asked Xander.
"Giles said something about a demon?" Buffy butted in.
"We conference called." Angel said.
Willow was overwhelmed. "Wow."
"So what's the what?" Buffy asked.
"Giles got kidnapped and I went to rescue him and traded me for him because he can be of more help on the outside, I mean I can help from here but he wouldn't be able to so now I'm a prisoner."
"I told them that." Giles informed her.
"Yeah, we wanted to know what's happened to the Willster since." Xander explained.
"And tell you that we're coming to break you out." Said Buffy.
Willow frowned. "You can't break me out. I made a promise."
"To a demon." Said Xander.
"Actually, demon law is harder to break than human law." Gunn intervened.
"Angel have you got us on speaker phone?" Asked Buffy.
"Yes."
"Oh."
"Gee thanks."
"A little warning would have been pleasant."
"Hey guys!" Willow broke over the top of the voices. "I don't think he's a demon. At least he said he wasn't. And he sounded all offended when I called him one."
"But he's got you all locked up in a teeny cell." Buffy said.
"Actually I'm in a pretty nice room." Willow told her with a glance at her surroundings.
"Oh."
"But I bet he's not feeding you, huh Will?" Asked Xander.
"Well, he told me to come down for dinner but I refused to. We just had a fight about it."
"He hit you?" Angel sounded as though he was preparing to come to France and kick arse.
"Um, no. We just shouted at each other from different sides of a door."
"So he's treating you quite well then?" Giles asked, sounding amazed.
Willow thought about it. "Yeah. I guess he is. All things considered. I mean, he's got a bit of a temper, but when he's around so have I. Maybe we just rub each other up."
There was a brief silence and then…
"Okay, ew."
"I so did not need that mental image."
"I concur wholeheartedly."
Willow giggled. "You guys have the most disgusting minds!"
"So what do you want us to do?" Angel asked.
"Well…" Willow thought about it. "I guess you should, y'know just hold off for the moment. And stay in contact y'know. I'll let you know how it goes and you let me know if you need my help on anything. Oh! Speaking of help, have you found that new Slayer yet Giles?"
"Yes." Said Giles. "Her name's Claudette Rainier. I'm sending her to London tomorrow and then I'm going to Paris to see if I can locate that other one we were talking about."
"Cool." Said Willow.
"What flight is she going to be on?" Buffy asked.
"You just wanna go to Disneyland." Joked Xander at the same time.
Willow's battery beeped.
"Uh, guys, my cell phone's dying." Willow told them. "Giles, can you drop off my stuff before you leave?"
"Of c-"
The battery beeped once more and then the phone went dead. Willow looked at it for a moment and then shrugged and placed it on the dusty bedside cabinet.
She took a closer look around her new home. Sure, it was exquisitely furnished but it showed many signs of neglect. All of the surfaces were dusty, the bedclothes were damp and the curtains were ragged. She scrumpled her nose in distaste. Some serious cleaning was needed.
Willow peeked outside. The coast was clear! Moving quickly but quietly, she made her way downstairs and then set about discovering the location of the kitchen.
It was there that the demon found her a few minutes later.
"I thought you were not hungry?" He growled menacingly.
"I'm not." Willow informed him. Her stomach growled unconvincingly. "I just came to get some stuff to clean my room. It's filthy. In fact, this whole place is falling to pieces."
"So?"
"So it's dangerous. I'm surprised you haven't done anything about it." Willow filled a kettle and placed it on the old fashioned stove.
"Why should I?" The demon asked.
Willow frowned. "Fine. If you won't, I will!" She said. "I have to live here too now and I'm not living somewhere that's crumbling around my ears!"
That said she casually waved a hand at a large crack in the wall and with a shudder that reverberated around the castle it sealed itself.
The demon roared. "What was that!" He demanded to know.
"Magic." Willow explained. "I'm a witch."
The demon roared again. "Get out of my sight! Out! Get out!"
Shocked and a little scared at his sudden rage, Willow ran blindly out of the kitchen.
Left alone in the kitchen, the demon paced to and fro.
A witch! Another of the same kind of the one who had done this to him in the first place. And to think that he had thought that she might be the one to undo the spell! Why had he even bothered to dream in the first place? She was so beautiful and he, he…
He caught sight of his reflection in the whistling kettle and threw it roughly to one side with a snarl.
He was so ugly.
By the time Willow began to take note of her surroundings she was completely lost.
Why had he reacted so badly to her doing magic? Granted, some people did, but that was mainly humans and he was a demon for Christ's sake!
Upset, Willow decided to carry on in the direction she was heading, reasoning that sooner or later she would find her way.
The demon deflated even more as he continued to think.
Perhaps she was an innocent. It wasn't her fault after all, she had only been trying to repair the castle. And she was right. It wasn't a fit place for her to live. And they had almost had a conversation before…
He set off in search of her, following her scent.
Willow opened another door and found herself in a room that had been completely wrecked. All of the furniture was broken and claw marks marked every surface and soft furnishing. With a gasp she moved further into the room. A tattered painting above the mantelpiece caught her attention and she walked over to it, grasping various pieces and trying to fit them together into some kind of order so that she could make out the subject. It was a young man. A handsome young man. Willow gazed at him, attempting to make sense of what she was seeing but her attention was distracted by her shadow falling on the painting. Willow frowned. There wasn't a light source behind her.
She turned to face the opposite wall. A lone candle burned there, in a glass case. Power emanated from it. It drew Willow like a moth. She wasn't even aware of moving, but suddenly she was in front of it. She pressed a hand to the glass and stared into the hypnotic flame. A vision of her captor flickered in the dancing flame. Willow pressed closer and watched a droplet of wax begin to fall in extremely slow motion.
"Wow." She breathed.
A sound from the doorway distracted her and she glanced towards it, only to see a fuming demon standing there.
"Why would you get upset with me for doing magic when you've got some serious mojo working for you here?" She asked him, looking back to the candle. Another vision of the demon appeared in the centre of the candle and then disappeared. The penny dropped.
"Oh." She breathed. "It isn't working for you, is it? It's working against you." She frowned. "Why don't you just blow it out?" She asked.
"When it goes out I will die." The demon informed her.
"Well that sucks."
One half of the demon's mouth lifted slightly. "That is describing the situation lightly."
Willow moved away from the candle and towards the demon. "So… I'm Willow."
"I know. I am Thiery."
Willow nodded. "Well, I'm gonna go… clean my room."
Thiery moved out of the doorway so that she could pass by.
"This is my room." He informed her. "Do not come in here again."
Willow's eyes widened and she turned to say something but was forestalled by Thiery's door closing in her face.
"Huh!" She exclaimed and stalked away.