Hello again! Due to how many people asked for more, and how fun this crossover was to think about, I wrote a second part. That was a fair few months ago, it took ages to find any time for editing.
This is quite different to the last part. It went in a different direction to what I expected, as well, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!
Halliwell Manor, San Francisco. It was rather idyllic, really. A quiet house, a well-tended garden. Not much made it stand out, Willow reflected. Even less made it seem like the home of some of the most powerful witches ever to have lived.
Still, she was assured that was the case. It was a little nerve-wracking. The only other witches Willow had met were Amy, Tara, and the Devon coven. None had really ended well. Hopefully the First Evil wouldn't rise again while she was meeting Paige's sisters, though. Even she couldn't be that unlucky.
Then again, with the stories with which Paige had regaled her, and the luck it sounded like the Halliwells possessed, it couldn't be ruled out.
"Nervous?" Paige said.
"A little," Willow said.
A chuckle, and Paige let her lips lightly brush Willow's cheek.
"Don't be," she said, "My sisters are nice. Unless you're a demon. Which I'm guessing you're not."
"Nope," Willow said, chuckling slightly. Paige smiled.
"Um," Paige said, "One thing though. Can you not mention, uh, us?"
"Are they-" Willow said, and hesitated. She didn't exactly want to accuse her girlfriend's sisters of being bigots, especially when they seemed so close.
"No," Paige shook her head, "No, no. I just, I want them to get to know you first. I'm sure they'll be accepting. That ok?"
Willow nodded. "Of course."
A smile: then, hand in hand, witch and whitelighter approached the front door.
It was with some trepidation that Willow watched Paige open the door. She wouldn't pretend to know a great deal about the Charmed Ones, living in Sunnydale meant practical magical knowledge trumped general magical knowledge, but she'd read up ever since she'd been assigned Paige as a whitelighter.
Meeting any people who were the subject of myths would always be nerve-wracking. Wanting to make a good impression because you were dating their sister only added to it.
"Hello?" Paige called.
A dark-haired woman stepped out of one of the rooms adjacent to the hall. She tilted her head.
"Using the front door are we?" the woman said. "Feeling alright, Paige?" a pause, "And who's this?"
Paige stepped to the side: letting Willow enter. Willow waved, a little shyly.
"Um, Piper, this is Willow, witch," Paige said, "Willow, Piper. Sister. Blows stuff up. Where's Phoebe?"
"Upstairs," 'Piper' said, "Saying goodbye to Coop. Elders have a task for him. So. Willow: should I know that name?"
"She's my charge," Paige said. "Remember, I mentioned the Elders reassigning me?"
"Ah, so this is her," Piper said. She paused. "Since when did you bring your charges home?"
It wasn't quite what Willow had expected. From the texts she'd managed to get her hands on, all those that outlined the Charmed Ones, she expected much more solemnness. She thought they'd be far more serious.
Maybe she should have guessed that wouldn't be the case just from knowing Paige, but still. It was still a bit of a shock to see just how much like regular sisters these Charmed Ones were.
"She's not a regular charge," Paige said, after a moment's hesitation. "Think I mentioned that too."
"Oh, right. Your only charge now, something like that, wasn't it?" Piper said, "That's new. Guess you could probably marry her then."
Willow inhaled to speak, before choking on that breath as Piper finished her sentence. Eyes momentarily wide again, shocked, she glanced at Paige, to see a similar instant of surprise. She covered it well.
Thankfully, Piper didn't seem to notice: or if she did, she misinterpreted.
"I meant like Leo," she said, quickly, "Elders were opposed because they thought I'd distract him from all the… I've had a long day, ok?" she paused, then shouted: "Phoebe! Paige is back."
.
Beyond Piper's unwitting faux pas, the rest of the introduction went fair well. Phoebe came down the stairs alone, getting the same introduction to Willow, and introducing herself in turn. The four of them then moved out of the hall, sitting down.
Piper introduced her husband, Leo, when he came in with drinks. Her former whitelighter, apparently: Willow suppressed a smile at that.
"So then, Willow," Phoebe said, after a few minutes. "Who're you, then? Tell us about yourself."
"Phoebe," Piper said, quietly scolding. Phoebe shrugged.
"What?" she said: "Sounds like she's going to be spending a fair bit of time with Paige, or around here. Inquiring minds want to know."
"I don't mind," Willow said. "Um, at least I don't think I do."
It was almost refreshing. She didn't have much opportunity to be completely open among new people. Her social circle had shrunk ever since having to move to Cleveland, and most of the people she could afford to mention she was a witch to, were Slayers she only really met on business and official matters.
A chance to relax around new people was a novel experience: even if 'relax' was hardly the right word.
"That's the spirit," a grin from Phoebe. "So, you're a witch? What's your power, anything cool?"
"Uh," Willow said, "I don't think it works like that. At least not for me."
The two sisters frowned; Leo regarded her, thoughtfully. Suddenly self-conscious, Willow continued.
"I grew up in Sunnydale," she said. She meant to continue, when Leo made an 'ah' of understanding.
"Hellmouth?" Leo said.
Willow nodded, relieved. At least she didn't need to explain an entirely new concept to them.
"Not born one?" Leo said, and Willow nodded again.
He opened his mouth to continue, when Piper spoke:
"I have hands that make things go boom," she said, "And I'll use them if you don't stop being cryptic."
Willow found herself chuckling. Paige's sisters were oddly likeable. Well, not oddly; she'd expected to get along with them, she just hadn't expected to feel this comfortable, this quickly.
Inhaling, Willow rushed through a brief explanation on Sunnydale, and the hellmouth: both how it drew demons towards it, and caused all kinds of phenomenon. Among said phenomenon, making certain people witches.
"Sounds like you're used to demons," Piper said, and looked at Paige: "See if you can convince her to stick around the house. Could do with another now Billie's off at college."
Though she wasn't completely sure Piper was joking, Willow chuckled.
"I'm an orb away," Willow said.
"She'll vanquish demons for us," Piper said, "I like her."
Piper took a gulp of her drink, before lying back, clearly rather tired.
By the sound of it, she was the only one of the sisters who had a power built for harming demons. Willow knew Paige's powers, and Phoebe had idly mentioned premonition. On the other hand, Piper could apparently cause explosions.
By the sound of it, she must have taken care of a fair few demons today. Then again, that wasn't anything special; there were always a lot of demons around.
"Done anything good?" Phoebe said. "Any big vanquishes?"
"Um, I guess," Willow said. "Hell-god, helped stop an uber-vampire army, giant snake, and a weird cyborg-demon thing."
She couldn't help but smile at how casual a demon-killing conversation seemed in this house.
She did feel a slight pang at how Leo's expression fell, but she hoped it was just surprise. Hellmouth-borne witches might not be rare, but they didn't often end up with whitelighters; it was likely he was just surprised at what she could do.
That, or it was the fact he was a whitelighter: or former whitelighter, by the sound of it. Willow hoped he hadn't heard of her; some of her old deeds could take some explaining. She didn't want to dredge up those stories until she knew the Halliwells a bit more.
"Nice list," Phoebe said. "Source of All Evil is probably our top vanquish."
"No bragging," Paige said, teasing, before looking at a frowning Willow: "What is it?"
"Nothing," she shook her head, "Just thought I was dealing with that a month or so ago. Called itself the First Evil, think it was meant to be the Source."
"Demons lie," Piper said. She seemed a little uninterested: "One of them probably was. Maybe both."
Willow chuckled again. It did make sense; all things considered, a lot of sufficiently old beings could claim to be the first of something. Or maybe the Source and First were somehow connected.
It would take too long to figure out and, all things considered, probably wasn't too important.
Willow sipped at her drink, and smiled.
"Did you say you lived in Sunnydale?" Phoebe said, "How is it?"
"I used to," Willow said. "It's a bit crater-y now."
"Yeah, that's almost happened a few times here," Piper said. "How'd it happen?"
"Everyone had gotten out before, so not many people got hurt," Willow said. "Just a nest of uber-vampires underneath it. Got collapsed by a vampire with a soul and an ancient amulet," Willow hesitated, "My life can be confusing, sometimes."
"Angelus?" Leo said, immediately.
Willow blinked: then shook her head, a little surprised Leo knew the name. Then again, if he'd been a whitelighter like Paige was, he would have picked up a lot of general knowledge over however-long he'd been doing it.
"Spike," Willow said, "Angel's fine. I think."
"Again with the crypticness," Piper said, exasperated: she lifted her hands in what might have been a playfully threatening gesture.
As Leo rushed through the story of the first vampire ever to be given a soul, and how big a deal it had been 'up there', Willow looked sideways at Paige.
The Charmed One seemed perfectly happy to be here, even enjoying the conversation. Apparently the introduction was going better than she'd expected: Willow smiled at her, Paige smiled back.
Willow let herself relax: she exhaled, relieved. There weren't very many places she could feel safe, any more. There were either (mildly suicidal) demons after her, enraged that she'd increased the number of Slayers, the generic vamps that were almost the background radiation of her life and, lately, her own darker impulses flaring up whenever she used magic.
Here though, Paige kept her grounded, and the near-legendary status of the Charmed Ones would keep most demons away. And if any did come, she probably wouldn't even need to get up.
"Someone's lead an interesting life," Phoebe said, and looked at Paige: "Hope you're not feeling too intimidated."
"I'm not the only one who's done, uh, big stuff," Willow said: and Phoebe laughed to herself, nodding.
"She has a point," Paige said: "Besides, she's a good charge. Probably less of a pain than we were."
A moment of silence. Willow finished her glass, and put it down on the table. A little while later, Piper did the same.
"Nice to meet you, anyway," she said. "By the sounds of it, you'll be welcome back any time."
"Thanks," Willow said.
"And you could be helpful," Leo said, finishing his drink also. "If you live by a hell-mouth, you must have run into all kinds of new demons. We could-"
"Leo," Piper said, mildly irate, "Work later. Rest now."
"But-"
"I don't mind," Willow said. "If there's- I'm not the librarian of our group, but if I can help…"
Piper took that opportunity to explain their Book of Shadows; rather different to the usual Wiccan kind Willow was familiar with, but nonetheless she grasped the idea quickly.
Enunciating its name, Paige orbed a rather battered looking tome into her arms, apparently just as a visual aid. Willow's eyes widened, undeniably impressed. She could see why Giles had wanted to meet the Halliwells.
It was with some hesitation that Willow took it, when Paige offered the Book. She still remembered Paige mentioning that the Charmed Ones had a book that could only be held by good witches. despite the insistence of Paige and, apparently, the Elders, Willow found herself sometimes struggling to apply that label to herself.
It was a small comfort when she was able to hold the Book, unaffected.
"Anything you can add to our knowledge would be great, think we've dealt with most of the things in there," Phoebe said. "Any time you want to. Don't need to, now."
Willow shrugged, idly opening it, peering at the store of knowledge within. She didn't linger on any page too long, just trying to gauge how much it held, and how it worked.
There were a few unfamiliar faces in there, as well as a lot of painfully familiar ones. The kind of vampire she was used to deal with was noticeably absent, but beyond that, a lot of the demons she'd encountered were there.
"Taken care of a few of these," Willow said, and snorted when she turned the page.
"What is it?" Paige said. Willow shrugged.
"Used to date that one. Kinda," she said, tipping the book to show a depiction of the demon Moloch: both a stylized rendering of his true demonic form, and the book in which the demon had once been imprisoned.
"And she dates demons too," Piper said, "Almost like she's one of the family."
Willow wasn't entirely sure when looking at old demons started constituting nostalgia, but she found herself enjoying her brief skim-read of the Halliwell Book of Shadows. Moving on from Moloch, she passed a few other, less memorable, faces she'd seen before: and, a lot of the time, had vanquished.
She hastily moved past a page depicting the grinning face of the Gnarl demon, not wanting to linger on those memories. Paige noted the motion, but didn't ask.
Willow finally finished skimming through the book. She closed it, and looked up, meaning to compliment them on it. Instead, she jumped, wincing as she felt something dig into her head: and pull back, like a hair was being plucked.
She jumped up to her feet, turning. No-one's hands were near her: she did, however, glimpse a blue light from behind the sofa. Instantly on guard, Willow leant forward, to peer down behind it.
"What is it?" Paige said, making the same motion, just a few seconds after. She, however, was unable to see nothing save the last flicker of the blue light, as it faded.
"Demon?" Piper said. She sounded rather bored.
"Think so," Willow said, frowning. "Vanished quickly. Um, do you want me to look through your Book?"
"You don't have to," Phoebe said. "Been working on my power, could probably get a premonition off you. You can rest, we deal with demons all the time."
"I do too," Willow said: but nodded nonetheless.
"I know," Phoebe said, "Not in San Francisco though, I'm guessing."
At that, Willow chuckled, before blinking as Phoebe took her hand. Paige smiled supportively, and Phoebe closed her eyes.
It was only a few seconds later that Phoebe inhaled suddenly, and stepped back, briefly unsteady on her feet. She opened her eyes, and frowned: regarded Willow strangely. Instinctively, Willow tensed, unsure of what the Halliwell would have seen.
"Definitely a demon," Phoebe said, slowly. "I recognize it."
"One we've seen before?" Piper said.
"One we've vanquished before," Phoebe said. "Looked like Abraxas."
A moment of silence. Willow didn't speak, not sure what she could add: Paige just looked between her sisters.
"Who's Abraxas?" she said.
