12/28/04

Cordy

AN: Willow/Cordelia femslash.

Willow grabbed Cordelia from behind, slapping her hand over her mouth. The vampires stalked outside of the utility closet; the girls could hear their growls and footsteps. Kicking started pounding the door, making it shake, and the girls began to tremble harder.

The cheerleader whimpered, and Willow gripped her mouth tighter. Cordelia's breath was warm against the redhead's hand. When the vampires' steps suddenly disappeared and the kicking at the door ceased, Willow sighed and began to drop her hand. Immediately, Cordelia collapsed to the floor on her knees.

"My God," she breathed, "Why does this always happen to me? Like, has Buffy's weirdness rubbed off on me or something?" The brunette turned her head to look at Willow. "You know her. Does she have, like, some sort of weirdness odor that follows her around?"

Willow just smiled wanly back at her. She smoothed some hair away from her forehead. In fact, it wasn't the vampires that were making her tremble. Nope. Willow Rosenberg was more frightened by Cordelia Chase.

Outside, the vampires ran by, and the two froze again, Cordelia reflexively grabbing Willow's arm. Willow unobtrusively wrapped her arms around Cordelia's waist, and they gasped in sync, clinging against each other.

As silence ruled the air again, their muscles loosened.

"You think they're gone?" Cordelia whispered, piercing her with her gray-green eyes.

"I don't know." Willow answered her gaze solidly for a second, finally losing her braveness and skittering her eyes down. A blush warmed her cheeks.

"You know," Cordelia said, cocking her head, drawing her arms away, "If you just added a bit of makeup, your eyes really would stand out."

"What??" Willow couldn't believe her ears. Her arms dropped bonelessly to her sides. Taking a step back from the other girl in front of her, she took a seat down onto an overturned crate, suddenly feeling stifled in the small space.

The brunette rolled her eyes. "C'mon!" she said, exasperated, "Don't you think it would be more constructive if I concentrate on other things than impending death? I need something to keep myself sane, you know. And why not something that I know best? Fashion."

"Why me?" Willow asked weakly, trying to disappear into the wall, "Why not you?"

Cordelia gestured down at her dress, shaking her head. "Seeing as I'm already impeccably dressed and fashionable, why don't I do some charity and help you out? You obviously need it."

This was completely not what Willow wanted. "I…"

She didn't have a chance to speak. The cheerleader cut her off. "Alright, now. Seeing as we are in mortal danger, I am really going to have to put my all into this."

"But…" Willow's eyes widened, and she held one hand up in front of her, trying to fend off Cordelia, who just grabbed it.

"Hmm. Not too bad. You, my girl, are just going to have to come with me when we get out of here to the nearest manicurist. We cannot let you run around Sunnydale with cuticles like these!"

"We can't…?"

Cordelia snorted. Throwing her hair behind her shoulder, she took a seat next to the redhead, who automatically flinched.

"A tick? Great. Tell me, Rosenberg, just how overworked, are you?"

Swallowing, Willow asked, "A lot?"

The brunette sighed. Letting go of her hand, she looked off into the corner. "Alright," she seemed to make up her mind, "I'll let you off this week. You don't have to do my homework.

"Now." She turned back to the other teen, "Let's talk about your hair."

Willow fingered some of the long strands that fell over her shoulder. "What about it?" she asked defensively, "I like it long. Xander always said – " She cut herself off, blushing and looking down, avoiding Cordelia's gaze.

"Xander!" Cordelia burst out loudly, suddenly stopping and flicking her eyes at the door that stood between them and probable death. With baited breath, they both waited for a vampire to come crashing through.

When nothing happened, Cordelia turned back to her. She leaned forward and gripped Willow's hands in between her own. "You can do so much better than Xander!"

"I, but he!" Willow started to protest, tugging back her hands and beginning to play with the waist of her green dress, "I've known him for so long, and he knows everything about me and-"

Cordelia cut her off. Rolling her eyes, she said, "Exactly! There's no mystery there. I mean, tell me. How does he treat you?"

Willow avoided her gaze. With a sinking feeling in her chest, she realized that Cordelia had noticed exactly what Willow didn't want to. "Like a best friend." She looked quickly up, immediately starting to defend her longtime friend, "But that's okay, because-!"

"Willow! Snap out of it!" Cordelia whispered loudly, making the redhead pause, "You can't always wait around hoping that he'll suddenly sit up and notice you. If he hasn't already seen the woman that you are, he'll never see it. He's a male. And males are surprisingly more foolish than we give them credit for. Believe me, Xander's completely dumb to your charms."

"What charms?" Willow said miserably, feeling old tears crowd into her eyes again. "I'm Willow Rosenberg. I have no charms. I'm just the hacker nerd geek girl who does others' homework for them for fun. Heck! Giles and Buffy don't even need me." She felt her face begin to crumple.

Cordelia shrugged. "True."

"What?" Through wet eyes, Willow stared at her fellow prisoner.

Cordelia set her sculpted face into an expression of disdain, leaning back and crossing her arms. "Do I really have to repeat it? That's true. What you said. It's true. Giles and Buffy don't need you."

"I knew it!" And Willow hunched her body down, burying her head into her arms. "Strangely enough," she said, her voice cracked and muffled, "hearing you say it doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would. If you noticed it, it really would have to be true, wouldn't it?"

"Look," Cordelia sighed, and she reached out, touching Willow's shoulder with surprisingly gentleness, "I'm not one for soul-searching talks or whatever it is they call it on those Showtime movies that I so do not watch. Because, you know, that's just not popular right now. And, heaven forbid, if that ever got out, that I do watch them, I will so kill you.

"But that's not the point right now. Willow," the brunette moved the other girl's hands away from her face, "Look at me. Just don't get any tears onto my new dress. It's one of a kind."

Through a haze of leaking tears, the redhead protested, "I know that he only sees me as a best friend, but I can talk to him, unlike anyone else, and he's so comfortable and familiar and…" She trailed off. Something was bothering her, and she drew her brows together. She looked up.

Cordelia looked at her knowingly. "You just described a puppy."

Willow shut her eyes. "But…"

Cordelia shook her head. "No. Willow? You're obviously hiding behind something. And, being the all walkoverable person you are, you're too scared to admit it."

The redhead looked up at her, confused.

The cheerleader sighed again. She threw her hair over her shoulder, out of the way, and pursed her lips. Bringing a hand up to her forehead, she muttered under her breath, "Why am I even bothering? She's obviously too far gone to even notice the words coming out of my perfectly shaped lips."

Willow glared at her, her nose starting to stuff up, making her head feel like a watermelon.

Sighing once again, the brunette cocked her head to the side as if to listen for sounds outside of the closet, then grabbed her purse to rummage through it. Catching bits and pieces that sounded like, "Lipstick… No. Eyeliner? No… Not what I… Gum? Oh God! What is THAT doing in there?" Willow couldn't help but watch her with a nervous expression on her face. What was the popular girl planning?

Finally, with an 'aha!' look on her face, Cordelia whipped around to smirk at her. "Close your eyes."

Immediately, Willow refused, shaking her head wildly, her tear tracks stretching a little on her skin.