Author: Lucinda rating: pg/pg13 main characters: Willow, Kurt Wagner, Xander disclaimer: I hold no legal rights to anyone from BtVS or X-Men/Marvel Comics.
distribution: WLS, WWW, Bite Me, Twisting, Paula, Jen - anyone else just ask.
notes: set the summer after season 2 BtVS.

Kurt followed Willow, aching with exhaustion. He'd been attacked by vampires. Willow and her friend Xander had been fighting vampires. Die Jägerin was gone. Maybe it would make more sense in the morning...

He was vaguely aware as they made their way to Willow's house, noticing that the little mat in front of the door didn't say any variation of 'Wilkomen', but instead had a simple ivy pattern.

"Vampires can't come in without an invitation. We weren't sure if a welcome mat counted." Xander offered, pointing at the ivy-mat. "Better safe than sorry."

They ended up sitting in the living room, holding warm mugs of weak cocoa with little marshmallow pellets floating on the top. "This.... are there many blutttrinkers in Sunnydale? You did not seem very surprised."

Willow looked at her mug, and closed her eyes. "Not just vampires. There's a lot of weird stuff. Vampires, demons, weird stuff that shouldn't happen... I wonder if Marcie was a mutant?"

Xander leaned back, his back making a few popping noises. "It's the Hellmouth. It draws the baddies, and somehow, our town got built right on top of it. Welcome to the Hellmouth, Kurt."

Kurt shuddered. He didn't know quite what a Hellmouth was, but with a name like that, it had to be a very bad thing. And he'd thought that he'd be safer here... "Is this place safer?"

"It all depends on what safe means." Xander commented. "There's lots of churches with holy water, and most of the vamps and demons can't go into those. No freak shows. And hey, nobody's really going to worry too much about a guy on the street who's blue."

"They'll try to pretend that everything's normal. It's the only way most people can cope with living here." Willow said. "Sunnydale... it's not really safe, but because of that, unless something's dripping slime or trying to rip heads off or something equally icky, nobody notices. They don't think anything's odd about a town this size having so many cemeteries and churches, or the death rate being so high."

"A different sort of danger then." Kurt nodded. Her words... they made sense and they frightened him at the same time.

"Yeah." Willow agreed sadly. "But really, is anyone really safe in this world at all?"

Kurt accepted a blanket and a pillow, content to curl up on the couch for the night, although he wasn't certain why Willow's parents would be willing to go away for the week considering what he'd learned about this town. Xander had said they were members of the Sunnydale Denial League, which had left him puzzled at first. But he'd deciphered it eventually - they didn't let themselves see anything unusual about the place.

Things should look better in the morning... at least, he hoped they would.

Morning felt like it came early. Willow sighed, and slowly made her way to the kitchen, wondering what Kurt would like for breakfast. Xander would eat anything, but loved the pancakes. After a moment, she decided to make the pancakes and hope that Kurt was okay with that.

The smell of food brought both of them into the kitchen, and Xander got the plates and forks, passing them to Kurt to set the table. Pancakes and syrup and apple juice... yeah, morning felt very early.

"You never did say if you'd heard anything from Oz. Shouldn't they be getting back from that trip to... where were they going anyhow? India?" Xander asked, helping himself to four pancakes.

"He sent another post card." Willow sighed, feeling a pang of what could have been. "Apparently they found this monastery in Tibet, and he thinks they can help him. Oz is staying there, and his family should be back next month."

"Tibet? Is he going to sit on a mountaintop and go 'ommmmm' in a yellow robe?" Xander teased.

Willow giggled a little. "Maybe. He said there are meditations, and the head guy said they should be able to teach him control. Which would be good, no more locking him up in the book cage."

"Locking him up?" Kurt repeated, clearly confused.

"Oz is a werewolf. When he changes, he's... It's safer to keep him in one place, so nobody gets hurt." Willow looked wistful, remembering the rest of the postcard, where he'd gently broken up with her. He'd said she deserved better than to be tied to a guy off in another country for however long it took to master tranquility.

"Strange places." Kurt shook his head, lifting another pancake to his plate.

"You're welcome to stay." Willow offered, feeling a little nervous, and recognizing the little flutter inside of her. "If you want to."

"It might be nice to stay." His words were soft, and he was looking right at her.

"Right, I'll just go see if Giles has heard anything about Buffy..." Xander muttered, making his way out of the kitchen. "She's got to come back, this is home. We need her."

Willow glanced over at Kurt, and realized that maybe... could she and Kurt...? Would he even be interested in her, or would it be another unreturned crush? Maybe she could find out, if he would be staying in Sunnydale. Of course, she could embarrass herself completely...

Hoping for courage, Willow walked over, her hand resting on Kurt's shoulder. "Kurt? I'm glad that you're here."

She leaned closer, and kissed him on the cheek, feeling herself turn pink.

His hands moved, holding her close, and for a moment, he stood there, looking surprised. Slowly and very gently, he kissed her lips, offering, "I'm very glad to be here."

Life in Sunnydale was looking up a little after all.

end Immigrant from Munich.
End Munich series.