Chapter 1:YEMF 45
Chapter 2: YASEMF 63
Darla sniffed the air inside the shop. It was difficult to separate out the smell of those present from the countless roots and herbs, but centuries of experience allowed her a small measure of success.
'Fee fi foe fum,' she thought to herself as a redheaded girl who couldn't have been more than ten at most, popped up from behind the counter, laying a tome bound in living skin on it.
"Stop trying to escape," Willow ordered her latest trade, a leather bound book that was always warm and she kept misplacing.
"Excuse me," Darla said politely, not sure what was trying to pose as a child, but not really caring as she had a job to do. "I have a list of ingredients I need." She placed the list on the counter.
Willow picked up the list and read it while absently giving her spiel, "We're low on a few things, so if you bring in anything we're low on, you can trade in for seventy five percent of the marked price in store credit. The idea is that you can probably get at least a couple of things cheaper than we can, so you can actually make a small profit in materials while getting what you need. As for books, I like books, especially old leather bound tomes." She gestured to a chalkboard with a half dozen things listed.
"Valerian bloodroot is easy enough to come by," Darla said, knowing of a patch growing out of the wall near The Master's lair. Vampires had no use for it and no other demon would dare enter The Master's territory, so it'd grown quite large. "I could bring in a few pounds of that, but I don't have any on me right now."
"That's alright," Willow said, grabbing the living tome before it could crawl off the counter and stuffing it in a drawer, "we'll just go by the honor system. Bring it by tomorrow and I'll just give you the credit for it now."
"Sure," Darla agreed with a mental grin, as she doubted she'd ever have to use this shop again so it's not like she'd have to go through all the hassle of actually delivering on what she promised.
"Follow me," Willow said coming out from behind the counter and lead the vampire into the workshop where Jesse and her boyfriend were working.
Xander ran a whetstone over the edge of the iron spike he was working on, trying to get it as sharp as possible.
"You should use the grinder," Jesse said as he sanded down a section of wood.
"And have dull spikes?" Xander scoffed. "I am a professional! Dull spikes aren't going to penetrate flesh nearly as well."
"Dull ones hurt more going in," Jesse said with an over the top sneer that he had copied from the sheriff of Nottingham in the movie they'd just watched, "it's only a shame we can't use spoons!"
Xander laughed. "I'm not raiding the silverware drawer when I can just use spikes from the church's old iron fence they are replacing."
Darla swore she felt her unbeating heart leap to life to skip a beat as she saw the two 'boys' were finishing up work on a Judas' coffin and had even went to the trouble of enhancing it with spikes from a church's fence!
"The black iron spikes do look cool," Jesse admitted.
"Let's see," Willow said, as she disappeared down an aisle with the list, causing Darla to rush after her, "beihr root we actually have an overstock of, so I can give you a discount on that."
Darla nodded, swallowing heavily but saying nothing as Willow filled her order, deciding that she was definitely going to be getting that Valerian bloodroot and paying them tonight!
0o0o0o0o0o
"Thank you, come again," Willow said as a tall male in a leather jacket left, having delivered half a dozen pounds of bloodroot to pay for the blonde woman's earlier purchase.
He seemed really nervous, but she figured it was because he was walking alone at night, she knew she'd feel the same way without Xander there.
Willow flipped the open sign to off and locked the door before rejoining the two in the back.
Xander walked around the wardrobe, rechecking the runes he'd carved into it and comparing them to the book he was working from. "It all looks right, but I need a ton of blood, freely given to finish it."
Willow stepped up to him and they exchanged a quick kiss, blushing as Jesse smirked at them. "I'm not positive about that translation," she admitted as he set the book on a bench so they could hold hands. "It was more… not forcibly taken, than freely given, I think."
"So, we could buy some," Jesse said.
"How are we going to buy blood?" Xander asked.
"People sell blood," Jesse said with a shrug, "so there has to be a way to buy it."
"We could try a butcher shop," Xander said. "The British cook with blood, so maybe they save it."
"I don't think we have a lot of British people in town," Jesse said, "but it's worth a shot."
"I wonder what the hospital does with the blood that goes bad?" Willow said thoughtfully.
"Blood goes bad?" Xander asked.
"I found out at least year's blood drive that they can only keep it for ninety days and about ten percent can't be used because the person who donated it is either sick or has taken aspirin recently," Willow explained.
"We can buy the bad stuff off them next blood drive," Xander said, "for now let's try the butcher shop."
"Sounds good," Jesse agreed. "So all you need to finish the cabinet is blood?"
"The wardrobe," Xander said firmly, "just needs some blood, spices, and chanting. Your coffin for Halloween is done, with freshly sharpened spikes, and Willow's headboard is still a work in progress."
"You could just leave it plain," Willow offered.
"Nope," Xander said, "I saw some really cool Star of David designs in one of the books that would look perfect, I just need more practice carving because they are really complicated."
Willow hugged him tightly with a huge smile on her face. "You are getting kissed a lot later," she swore.
Xander beamed.
"What about the table?" Jesse asked.
"That's for Max," Xander said. "Varnish is still tacky."
"If we're all done for the night, I vote we go to my place and watch movies!" Jesse said.
"Or we could watch your movies at my place," Willow said, "just in case my parents call to check on me."
Xander and Jesse exchanged glances knowing her parents weren't going to call but not wanting to say it.
"Good idea," Jesse said, "I'll tell my parents I'm staying at Xander's place and I can sleep on the sofa."
"Good, you can help us eat all the beef stroganoff, we kinda made too much," Willow said.
"Yes, but we didn't make a mess," Xander said proudly.
"Well, not one we didn't clean up anyway," Willow conceded as they retrieved their jackets from the lifelike statue they'd found in there and were using as a coat rack.
"If there are no witnesses, there is no crime," Jesse said. "Can I invite someone?"
"Jonathan?" Willow guessed as Xander locked up the shop and reclaimed her hand.
"I was thinking more… Sharon Deats," Jesse said nervously.
"You've been hanging out with Sharon?" Willow asked. "When? I haven't seen her around."
We meet up at the library," he admitted. "I've been checking out books on tape. Heinlein is awesome!"
Xander and Willow exchanged a look, surprised but not seeing any problem with it.
"Sure, but how are you going to keep her parents from finding out?" Willow asked.
"Her mom is at her boyfriend's place most nights, so she won't have to make any excuses," Jesse said.
"Works for me," Xander said. "So, what are we watching?"
"I don't know," Jesse said as they climbed in the flatbed truck and put on their troll masks. "I thought we'd either grab some college flicks or horror movies."
"Or we could watch some cartoons," Willow said as Jesse started the truck and she quickly buckled up.
"Cartoons are good," Jesse said. "How about Heavy Metal?"
"That's a cartoon?" Willow asked.
"Only the coolest one ever!" Jesse enthused turning to face them as he pulled out.
Xander forcibly turned his friends' head back towards the road. "Sounds good, concentrate on driving."
"Sure," Jesse said, pleased that he'd tricked them into agreeing to see an R rated movie, while they were distracted by his awesome driving skills.
*THUMP*
"Relax, it was just a can," he told them as they drove down a back alley to a poorer section of town not far from the docks.
"Wow, you only hit one can," Willow said impressed as he pulled to a stop behind a small house that had seen better days as the paint was peeling and the bushes were overgrown, visible even in the faint light from the streetlamps.
"Practice makes perfect," he said smugly, before turning off the key and hoping out of the truck.
Xander quickly reached over and shifted the truck into park while Jesse opened the back gate and walked up to the house.
"Shouldn't he take the mask off?" Willow asked as Jesse knocked on the door.
A young girl with short dirty blonde hair answered the door screeched and smacked Jesse in the head with a frying pan.
*CLANG*
"Probably," Xander agreed as Jesse fended the girl off while talking quickly.
"Where did she get the frying pan?" Willow asked. "Was she carrying it when she answered the door?"
"Maybe," Xander replied reaching under his mask to scratch an itch on his chin.
"It could have been hanging by the door if their back door opens to the kitchen," Willow decided, feeling that was a lot more likely.
The girl vanished into the house and Jesse gave them a wave to let them know it was alright before he rubbed his head.
"Maybe I should drive," Xander said, worried about how bad Jesse's driving would be now if Sharon had hit him too hard.
The young girl returned, carrying a backpack and wearing a witch's mask and the two quickly joined them at the truck.
"Sharon, this is Xander and his girlfriend Willow," Jesse said waving at her to climb in while he introduced them. They'd shared some classes in school, but had never spent any time with her. "Guys, this is Sharon."
"It's nice to meet you," she said as she climbed in, Xander and Willow scooting over to give her room. "Jesse scared the hell out of me or I normally wouldn't have greeted him with a sauce pan."
"I thought it was a frying pan," Willow said.
"Nah, those are heavier," she said cheerfully as Jesse climbed in and started the truck. "So, we're going over to one of your houses to spend the night?"
"My parents are in LA so we're going to watch movies," Willow explained. "Plus, we cooked too much food… I hope you like beef stroganoff."
"Sounds good," Sharon said. "My place is way too quiet on the weekends, so it'll be fun to hang out."
"I know what you mean," Willow said, "I'm just glad I've got Xander to keep me company."
"Always," he told her, giving her a squeeze.
"They are sickeningly sweet," Jesse said, "so if you're diabetic get your insulin ready."
*THUD*
"Try not to hit every can in the alley," Xander said.
"That was Mr. Grouse's can, he's a dick," Sharon said, "hit his cans all you like."
"I'll get it again when we drop you off," Jesse promised.
"Cool," Sharon said with a grin in her voice.
"Are we sickeningly sweet?" Willow asked Xander nervously.
"Darn tooting," he replied giving her a hug. "I happen to like it."
"Good," Willow said.
After a quick stop at Jesse's house to pick up movies and get permission, where they parked several houses away so his parents wouldn't see and reminded him about the mask so he wouldn't get hit in the head again, they finally reached Willow's place.
"I'll get the food," Xander said, taking off his mask and setting it on the coffee table.
"I'll start the movie," Willow said putting her mask on top of Xander's and getting Heavy Metal from Jesse. "Hey, this is R-rated!"
"It's a cartoon," Jesse assured her as he and Sharon removed their masks and added them to the stack.
"Oh, okay," Willow said, putting it in the VCR and starting it up.
Five minutes later they were all relaxing and watching the movie while they ate.
"Hey, there are boobies!" Willow complained.
"Cartoon boobies," Jesse countered.
Willow frowned but then shrugged, it was still a cartoon as he'd promised. "Oh, okay."
Xander put his arm around Willow and she leaned into him. 'This has been a great summer,' he decided.
Typing by: fyrewolf5
TN: Nice to see this one continued, and it was fun seeing Darla freaking out certain that the kids are horrible monsters in disguise. And nice to see Jesse not obsessed with Cordelia yet, so he might actually get a full life.
