716-348-6824

Rules: There are no rules. I jest. Alright, um, basically its set beginning of Season 7. Tara existed, as well, she did. It's the beginning, well, an ep. or so in so all the hard stuff (i.e. exposition) is established and leaves me with the duty of just having fun. I do not own any of these fellows, I'm just trying to fight writer's block. Also, this is not just going to be about Willow and Kennedy expressedly. there will be a general plot.

1

Sunnydale was unusually quiet for a Saturday evening. The sun was hanging lazily in the sky, its rays pregnant and unrelenting as they pulled the orb from its perch. There was electricity in the air, but no activity riding it's current. The porches and sidewalks of Rebello drive were vacant, and beginning to cool in the absence of the sun. The light breeze blew the grass and sent the grasshoppers into a state of emergency as they chirped excitedly as they sought shelter. One grasshopper in specific had reason for alarm as it stood on the wooden steps to 1630.

It happened suddenly. Feet were pounding down all around him, some light and giddy, others heavy and dejected, but all coming at him. He could only stand frozen, certain his grasshopper-time had come. Then suddenly he was careening off the step into the protection of the cushy flowers in the garden.

"That is not a safe place for you, Mr. Grasshopper," the voice was friendly, and innocent. The young girl smiled at her accomplishment, "here two minutes and already saving lives," she said happily.

"Come along now, um…" Giles pulled at his glasses in embarrassment as he struggled to remember her name. He rather liked her, but for some reason the name didn't stick…

"Vi," another girl cut in shortly. "Her name is vi," she said again for emphasis.

"Right! Vi! Yes, so sorry about that," he muttered shyly, then shuffled them all inside. When he closed the door behind him, he saw that they were already wondering about, snooping and prying to get their own first peak at this or that. Giles leaned against the door and sighed and thick, heavy sigh of relief, removed his glasses and groaned as he rubbed his eyes.

Buffy looked around with a mixture of alarm and amusement as several young girls poured into the kitchen from the dining room, and with a nod or a shy "hello", dove at the cupboards and the fridge. She looked to Dawn, who looked to Spike who merely shrugged and lit his breakfast cigarette.

"Want to take that outside?" Buffy glared at him as Dawn grimaced when the smoke flooded her nose. Spike looked pointedly at Buffy, ignoring the miniature women surrounding him.

"Not especially, no," His voice was smooth, calmed by the cloud that hung lazily in his mouth. Her eyes thinned and she went to speak again, but before she could, he waved aggressively and walked out into the backyard. When that was settled, Buffy looked around.

"These must be the girls," Buffy cunningly observed.

"Not all of us, there are a few others out in the living room, and one or two upstairs I think," A friendly girl with red hair, and an accent thicker than Giles said. She smiled comfortingly and Buffy instinctively returned it.

"They had better not be in my room," Dawn warned. Giles walked in the room after a moment, and replacing his glasses on the bridge of his nose he smiled at Buffy.

Upstairs Rona headed straight into the bathroom, muttering about breakfast. Kennedy ignored her, and looked around as her curiosity began to take hold of her as it often did. Every door was open, beds were made, and everything seemed orderly. She sighed, thinking of how dull the apocalypse was going to be if everything was to be so structured. So far the rumors of the renegade badass slayer were greatly exaggerated.

Then things appeared to turn. She came to a closed door. She examined the door itself, and then looked to the other doors. Exactly the same. Same paint, same knobs, same frames. So if there was nothing different about its appearance, which must mean that there was something inside that was different.
Her tongue went along her bottom lip and she looked around to see if anyone was around to tell her "no". Not that someone telling her "no" would stop her anyway, in fact it would make her want to even more. She smiled and placed a firm hand on the knob, which surprisingly felt warm underneath her palm. She felt her body go taut and a warm sensation wash over her and eliminate the chill in her palm. All of this happened in a blink of an eye and just as the door was about to click open she heard a firm, feminine voice call out from downstairs.

"Hey Slayer…ettes, come down here!" She commanded. Kennedy sighed, and looked to the door longingly. I'll investigate later, and with that she came back down the stairs, turned and found herself eye to eye with the slayer. Kennedy's heart thudded wildly, but her composure was steadfast and she smirked pretentiously.

"You know, most people call me Kennedy," Her voice, Buffy though, demanded respect. But she would have to earn it.

"Yeah, but everybody calls you 'brat'," Rona was coming down the stairs, and obviously displeased with the situation, her hand on her belly. There were some snickers from the other girls, and Giles himself could not suppress his smile. Kennedy didn't flinch.

"You might not want to go up there for a little while, Rona's been stinking up your bathroom with the twelve pancakes and six sausage patties she ate this morning," the smiles turned to grimaces, and a few uncomfortable coughs, but Kennedy had her intended affect and smiled.

"Right," Buffy said, slightly flabbergasted, "well…you're all here now. There are going to be more of you, but you're the first, and that carries a lot of responsibility. You'll learn the rules from me, and teach them to the arrivals as they …arrive," she looked around to see a lot of faces who were listening but not really paying attention. "Rule one: everything I say is important," this got some of them back to focus, "Rule 2: No going in the bedrooms without the permission of the people who live there. Rule 3: there are more rules to come later, but go ahead and help yourselves to whatever food you can find," she smiled, "One more thing before you go," she said as they dove towards the kitchen yet again. Reluctantly they turned back to her, "There are a few people you're going to need to familiarize yourself with. The first is Dawn, my little sister," Buffy said, and Dawn shifted, then waved.

"Hello," she said more fake than friendly. Buffy gave her a look, and then
continued.

"The second is Xander, he's a tall guy, black hair…incredibly geeky—"

"And sarcastic," Giles added. "Right," Buffy said, "Pretty much you can't miss him. The next is Anya, she's a pain. There's Spike, he's in the backyard, he's a vampire, but he's not evil, so don't…well, try not to kill him." There was an awkward hush among the girls in the room, and Molly's eyes darted to the stairs.

"Who is she?" She asked, genuinely curious.

Kennedy turned her head, and her eyes went wide.

"Oh, that's Willow, she's a witch," Buffy said and smiled at her best friend. Willow looked among all of the girls, a welcoming smile spread wide across her beautiful face. She looked groggy, as if she'd been sleeping, but adorably so. Her eyes were wide, but in that way where one was adjusting to the light, and her body was relaxed and her hand hung lazily on the stair rail. Kennedy took her in slowly, so slowly that her body was aching for more answers before it even knew the questions, all pertaining to the body of the beautiful witch. She doesn't look like a which, she's so…

"Hot," Kennedy said aloud, and everyone looked to her. Willows emerald eyes looked to her and Kennedy felt her cheeks get flush and didn't miss a beat. "Your hair…I like it," she said with a confident smirk. Willow shifted under her gaze and looked to Kennedy's beautiful dark hair, and smiled slightly, then looked to Buffy for salvation.

"Well…Willow is here to help you guys too, just like the rest of us. So if you need anything, just find us and we'll help you," Buffy said with a friendly smile. Giles stepped forward.

"Another thing, girls," again, they groaned and shuffled uncomfortably in their places. "You're going to need to be trained to defend yourselves. It's going to be very rigorous, and probably not that enjoyable, but believe us that it is for your own good," He said, and the Watcher in him was shinning brighter than it had in a very long time. There was a gravity in the room that hadn't been there before. The girls' faces were no longer light and their eyes no longer full of wild curiosity. Instead their eyes were shifting and their faces heavy and severe.

Willow felt their sadness and all she could think of was the day she met Buffy, the way things had changed and evolved, and finally that this was the end of that evolution. These girls were just beginning their evolution, and for many of them the apocalypse would not be too far away from the genesis. She saw the fear in their eyes, but beyond it she saw the fight inside of them and she knew that they were strong. Though they didn't have the potent power of the slayer, they had the spirit, and that's what they needed. As she looked over them, the dark haired beauty cast her a wayward smile, and she smiled back a much more innocent smile. This girl was obviously a teenager, and teenagers have trouble distinguishing their "I want you" smile from their "Hello, let's be friends" smile and Willow didn't want to weird her out. By the time her train of thought pulled into the depot, whatever needed to be said was finished, and Buffy had turned to her.

"I need you to figure out some sort of sleeping arrangement for them, and while you're doing that, we'll look for something we can put in place, some sort of alarm system for when Bringer's come close to the house since they're bound to, what with all the people the want to stab coming here," Willow nodded and looked around.

"Sleeping, I got this…" She said lightheartedly and looked around at the girls trying to count heads. I've never seen girls scurry about so much, she thought to herself, and just decided to assume there were between twelve and fifteen of them. She then walked around in every room, looking in every closet, cupboard, trunk and storage space that could possibly harbor runaway pillows or blankets, and the final tally was twenty-seven blankets, eighteen pillows, and three sets of unopened sheets that held no specific importance to the task at hand, but still should be noted. Then, once resources had been inventoried, she went from room to room assessing space on the beds, and on the floors. She wrinkled her nose slightly at her calculations, then headed back downstairs to assess the living room and dining room.
Kennedy was sitting in the living room, her feet inconsiderately resting on the coffee table, and her arms outstretched on the head of the couch. She was finishing her last (and largest) piece of sandwich when Willow walked in, concentrating on the list in her hand hard. Kennedy couldn't help but stare at every aspect of the witch's physique, and she smiled, her mind playing an enticing movie, adding a little more sensuous detail as her eyes scanned over more and more. She swallowed the last bit of sandwich with a gulp and Willow looked to her and smiled.

"Hi there," she said with a genuine tone of welcome. Kennedy couldn't help but to smile back.

"How's the sleeping arrangements coming along, Willow?" She asked, using the scarlet-haired witch's name for emphasis, and to see how it felt on her lips. The result pleased her and Kennedy smiled, with the same enticing curve that Willow had brushed off before.

"Oh, it's going alright," Willow said and took her eyes away from the smile quickly, looking around the room. "There should be room for about thirty or so…I think," she said, then added looked at her again. Her eyes were wide and displayed her nervousness. Kennedy saw a lot of raw emotion inside those eyes, a lot of clashing emotions. Kennedy thought back on the past, remembering those who had touched her lives that had inside them such destructive combinations.

"What's your name?" Her voice was shaky as she asked the question, but still held that inviting tone that made Kennedy's voice tingle in anticipation to answer.

"Name's Kennedy," she stood up, and after brushing her hands off on her jeans, held one out to Willow, who took it. When their skin touched, there was a charge on the air, magnetic almost, that was keeping their hands tight, and eager to know every detail about the other. Willow's hand pulled back a moment after the touch, and smiled at Kennedy who was trying to sort out the sensation.

"Well it's nice to meet you," there was an awkward pause, and both women looked down, thinking of what to say next.

"Welcome to Sunnydale," Willow said cheerfully after a moment, and then began casually, "Alright, so I've got Annabelle, Vi, and Rona in Buffy's room, Molly and yourself in Dawn's room—it's a little smaller—and then Eve and Colleen in my room. What do you think?" Willow asked tentatively when she saw Kennedy's brows wrinkle.

"Do you like snoring as loud as a garbage truck?" Kennedy asked with a hint of sarcasm. Willow puffed herself up.

"Well no, nobody does, I'd imagine," she was slightly defensive, but more flustered that defensive. Kennedy walked around the table and stood next to her, looking over her shoulder at the chart she had made. Kennedy's body pressed lightly against Willow's, and Will felt her body surge with a combination of energy and guilt. Tara's face flashed. Willow grew apprehensive with the presence of the girl but she didn't pull away. Another, strong, part of her was fighting. While one side of Willow was telling her to step away, far away, the other was saying 'turn to her'. Kennedy apparently didn't notice this inner turmoil.

"Well Eve snores pretty loud and Colleen gets really pissy about it," She said knowingly. Willow sighed.

"What's your suggestion then?"
"Switch me and Eve, and I get dibs on the bed," A smile twitched on her face as she attempted to keep sober and businesslike. Willow took a moment and then looked to Kennedy.

"Who said anything about sleeping in bed with me?" Willow's voice was an unidentifiable combination of seriousness and playfulness. Kennedy didn't bother translating and as Willow looked over her shoulder at the beautiful brunette, Kennedy leaned closer. Her breath was hot and smelled like sweet cinnamon, which elicited a state of alert that her body had not felt in a while. As soon as she felt it, guilt swallowed her being, Willow felt her throat tighten and her body sting. She couldn't say anything, she just watched the young woman for a moment before pulling back, watching her for a moment, almost petrified, and headed upstairs.