Traveling by ship had proven difficult in Willow's first day. Her stomach allowed her nothing to eat, and she feared daring to try in case it wanted to come back up. Her roommate didn't make it any better, for his eating habits were that of an untamed beast rather than a vampire. She wondered often through the day why he was seemingly not a threat. Even before she knew what Spike had been, she could feel the danger he imposed on those around him. Angel though, she could sense his abilities to rip her limb from limb, but not the urge to. Unfortunately, try as she might, Angel would hardly glance Willow's way, and she didn't quite have the strength to try and force a conversation. Willow stayed content with just having company, be it quiet and brooding company, but nonetheless, who was she to complain.
As the day wore on into night, Willow knew that sleep wasn't going to come easy. Her roommate had disappeared somewhere and that scared her. Did he know something she didn't? Did they check this part of the ship at a certain time? She went into her backpack, searching for something to eat, knowing that if she didn't at least try to eat something, she would probably get even worse. She was soon disappointed to find that she had nothing left. So eager and nervous about getting on the ship at the correct time, Willow had forgotten to get food for the journey. It was three days journey to England and she would have nothing to eat. Not her worst predicament, but the young girl knew enough to know that it would be a difficult three days. Maybe there was a way to sneak some food from the cafeteria for the crew. As she pondered on this, it came to a harsh reality that she might actually have to steal again. She hated that. Her parents had always taught her better. The few times she had already stole, she always stuck around to try and pay it back somehow. When she was in Pittsburgh, she had stolen from a barbecue that was happening to celebrate Fourth of July. The morning after, before anyone was there to clean it up, she had already cleaned up all the trash and gathered the left over supplies in a neat fashion on the picnic table. However, she had no idea what she could possibly do for the ships crew, or if she would even have the strength to do anything with her apparent sea sickness.
It was at this moment that her roommate made his mysterious return. As she curled up to endure the night of hunger and little rest, he slowly came up behind her, his feet as quiet as could be, before coming to a stop behind her. His face impassive as he loomed over her curled form. He bent down gently, but before he could reach his hand out she rolled quickly over, hand at the ready with a spell on her lips. Willow wasn't one for games and though she couldn't feel danger emanating from Angel, it didn't soothe her much when it came to survival. The vampire backed away quickly, his hands in the air, confusion and pain cast in his face. He should expect as much, with his monstrous past, that this young child would be suspicious, though he was curious as to how she knew he was there and what she had planned on doing to him.
Willow's long red hair was draped partially in her face from the fast move, but her eyes had learned to adjust to most anything in the last few years. It was at this moment, she saw a small bag in his hands. The serious and fearful look in her eyes started to drop, as her hands went back to her sides slowly, "Sneaking up on people isn't exactly wise you know. I could have done something really bad to you. Like the baddy...uh, badness that I can create..." Willow couldn't believe she just said that. She looked at him, and could almost see a ghost of a smile on his chapped and bloodstained lips. But it was no smile of a killer, or eyes of a monster. It was almost laughter.
"Baddy badness? You can't be more than, what, ten? Maybe more. Your clothes are ratted and too small. Your hair is long, though somehow you manage to keep it nice, it still looks like you haven't had it properly cut in years. Tell me, why are you here and alone, Red?" An emphasis put on the name, showing he knew it wasn't real. His face went back to its normal seriousness, and his arms lowered by his sides, keeping firm hold on the small bag he had. Angel stayed still where he was, careful to make sure that he didn't scare the young one more.
She looked him up and down, wondering what was in his hand, "And you look any better? My business is my own. And I'm thirteen in like, two days." She stuck her tongue out at him, clearly insulted by being thought younger than she was.
The ghost smile came back to his face. So stubborn a young girl, and yet strong for having been so ready to fight him at a moments notice. He slowly put his hand out in front of him, laying down the brown bag before stepping away and stalking quietly back to his corner. Willow's eyes followed him before turning back to the bag. She slowly reached out to the top, unfolding the slight crease and looked just inside the top. Her surprise came in a gasp. It was an apple. As she searched the rest of the bags contents she discovered a sandwich, celery with peanut butter dip, and even a milk. Her stomach gave way at the thought of the delicious food, and she quickly took the sandwich from its wrapper. To find out it was ham was not as big a blow as she thought it would be. Trying to stay alive came of more importance than eating kosher as her Jewish heritage would stand.
As she scarfed down the small meal, she looked intently at the peanut butter dip, before making a decision not to eat it. Not that she had anything against peanut butter, but she had an idea to use it for something else. Willow quickly noticed her sickness level going down, and wondered if it wasn't about being seasick so much as not eating. How long ago had it been since she had last had a meal? Finishing off her milk, she looked around her area for the materials she would need. Seeing the old bucket she wanted, she looked in her bag for the tongue depressors she had stashed. As she had told Angel before, there were easier ways to catch a rat and she had figured them out long ago. Since he didn't seem to care too much about how sanitary they were unlike her, there wasn't really any reason not to help him. The first thing she did was push a large crate against the wall. Then she found an old 2x4 board and leaned it against the crate, creating a small ramp to the top of it. She placed the bucket directly in front of the crate, coating the bottom of the bucket with a small layer of water. The water would make it slick, but it wasn't deep enough to drown the rats. Finally, she took five of the tongue depressors and dabbed the peanut butter dip on one end of each one. Not enough to weigh the depressor but enough to attract the rats. It was lucky that these were smaller rats. Not the ones that were gigantic from the sewers of New York. Any bigger and the depressors wouldn't be big enough. Carefully, Willow balanced each depressor on the edge of the crate, peanut butter end over the bucket. Stepping back, she smiled and wiped her hands on her pants, clearing the dust and residual peanut butter from them.
Angel had gone to his side of the room. He had heard noise coming from the his roommate, but he did not want to scare her again. His gut told him to let her be until the morning. This was not a normal young teenager. Her eyes were hard from travel and loneliness. Through his years he had seen many children, abandoned, alone. Most didn't survive. Many taken by his own hand with fear evident in their expressions till the last breath. He almost choked at the memory. Angel sat there, in the cold of night, hearing the breeze and small waves lap against the ship in gentle time. He wasn't listening to it though. His thoughts were back where they always turned to every night. Haunted by every face, by every soul he had taken away. The gypsies had wanted suffering for their daughter's life, and he did. For her life and all the other lives the demon in him had stolen.
Willow awoke to the sounds of the morning crew making their rounds on the ship. She had slept well, making note to try and remember food as a priority. She rolled her eyes at her own dumb mistake. The next thing she heard were tiny scratches, which seemed odd. Then it dawned on her that they were that they were coming from the bucket she had set up the night before. In a small blur of red hair and crumpled clothes, she made her way over to her homemade trap. In the bucket there were five rats. 2 of them were even larger than most of them on the ship. She gave a proud smile to herself before picking up the bucket and walking to the other side of the room. Angel lay sleeping in a crumpled heap of tattered blankets. Or she thought he was asleep.
"Sleep well, youngin'?" His accent still held a bit of its Irish heritage. Willow set the bucket on the floor next to him, as he sat up. He looked curiously at the bucket, then up to her young face.
She gave him a proud smile, "It's to say thank you. For getting me dinner yesterday. Well, of course it's for that. What else would it be for? We haven't known each other long enough for it to be for..."
Angel put his dirty hand up to silence her before he looked in the bucket. His face became that of surprise. She had caught him rats. Five of them. In the last 45 years or so he had a soul, no one had shown him any kindness such as this. He had been filth. No purpose, no reason for existing, and yet he still walked among the world weighed by his past. He really had no idea what to say. Willow just turned around, but before she could walk back to her side of the room, Angel stopped her, "Why are you going to England?"
She stopped dead in her tracks and turned to face him. She looked straight in his eyes. There was no judgement, no anger, and only very little curiosity. The look in his eyes was kindness. He cared. Willow's heart fell. It was too late to stop it. They had become bonded. Maybe only a little, but it was enough. She knew they would have to part ways. Right when they arrived or after, she knew they couldn't stick together. He would leave. Everyone always left. But why not? She couldn't do this completely alone. The woman from the magic shop had said she had a destiny. So right there, in that moment, Willow made a vow to herself. People were going to come into her life, and that was fine. She would need help, and she, in return would help them if they needed it, but she would never get attached. She would never care about them. She couldn't bring herself to do it anymore. That was the whole point of running away. To stop having to let people go. It was so much easier to be numb, and not care.
The young redhead moved over to sit by Angel, surprising him slightly, but he quickly made his blankets more manageable for her to sit on comfortably,"I was told I have a destiny. Which is crazy cause I'm not even a teenager yet, but I have a destiny. And power. I don't know what kind of power, I don't know what destiny, all I know is that I was told to go to England. Well of course I was told to go to England, you probably figured that out with me being on this boat, and the questioning of why..." Willow took a breath finally, and then turned her eyes upward to look into his caring brown ones and sighed deeply, feeling overwhelmed and scared about what the future truly held. The weight of loneliness, and responsibility on her, and she continued, her voice low and heavy with emotion, "so to answer your question, I don't know why I'm going to England. I just know that I have nothing else right now to go off for a future. Why not try and find it in England? Someone else thinks it's there, thinks I'm some powerful, destined girl full of knowledge and strength. I don't know. For me, I'm just..." Her voice trailed off, not wanting to give her name. She was just Willow Rosenberg. A lonely runaway orphan. The only friend she had was back in California, and even though she somehow knew he would never forget her, or stop caring, he was still too far, and it was still too dangerous for her to go back now. Especially after seeing what lies in the shadows of the night. Willow put her brave face away for the first time since she had run, only for a second, "Well,I'm just me."
It hit home for Angel right there, that his meaningless existence may not be so meaningless after all. This young girl couldn't go forward alone, and it wasn't as if he was doing anything particularly important the last 45 years of his ensoulment. He looked at the shining green eyes, that moments ago showed so much fear of the world, now showing courage in the face of the unknown change that was obviously set for her long ago. His time on this boat had finally come to an end for now, "I can help. I will help, at least until you find whatever path you're looking for. I'll protect you, however I can. No one should ever be alone."
Her eyes shown with unshed tears of loss, of pain. However, her brave face continued to put forth its appearance, skillfully showing her thanks in those emerald orbs, but without compromising her strength.
The rest of the day and the next day were spent in comfortable silences and short stories spanning Willow's adventures over the last couple of years. A couple times, Angel disappeared again to obtain another small meal for little "Red" as she had so insisted on being called. Who was he to expect her to give a life history? Some people truly deserved to be alone. Not in a bad way, but in the way that it was what they needed, to get where they were meant to go.
As she mentioned Spike, Angel gave an expression of surprise, or as much of one as he gave. His eyes quickly found hers, and his interest in the story allowed him to give her his complete attention. He told Willow of his knowledge of Spike, but when she tried to dig up his way of obtaining it, he would have none of it. Her frustration showed clearly on her face, "So you get to ask questions, but I don't?"
"You're far too young to understand such matters as my past, and it's also not your problem. It's mine and mine alone," Angel gave her a hard stare, and though his eyes remained warm, they had a definite spark in them that said he meant it.
Willow wouldn't have that though. She already knew of the dangers of the world, and though she felt that he was trustworthy, she didn't like secrets. And if she were going to trust him, why then, should he not trust her? Her gaze became intense and solid, no emotion as she stared back into his eyes. Somehow the look was more off putting for a child, "Look, it's nice and stuff that you wanna help me, but I'm not your normal kid. In fact, tomorrow I'm officially a teenager, not a kid. There is no 'you're not old enough' in my case. I deserve to know who you are and why you haven't tried to kill me. You don't have to go into detail, or tell me what you've done. Your past is just that. Past. Just like mine. But the whole mystery batman thingy, it's not gunna fly with me Mr. If we are gunna get along, we have to know the us that is us now, not the us that was us then...Umm, did that make sense?"
Her breath intake was sharp after her long winded babble and she couldn't believe that, after all this time alone, she could still talk that much.
Angel couldn't help but give a small chuckle. She was quite the character, and had earned her prize, "In short, I was once a feared vampire for over 150 years. My little family and I did some good damage, and I was ruthless." Angel paused, his thoughts drifting back to all that had happened. He came back to the present, eyes hard as they drifted back over to young Willow. Her back rested against another old crate of broken supplies, "However, I made the mistake of feeding on a young girl in a long line of gypsies. They like revenge. I've been ensouled for the last 45 years or so? Doing nothing but existing, feeding on small vermin, and pretty much a plague to mankind as far as people are concerned. Is that enough for you to work with?" He gave an unsure look, expecting her to walk away at any moment, or give him the look that everyone else seemed to, undeserving filth with no reason to exist. She did neither.
"I don't care," was the first thing out of Willow's mouth. Before Angel had time to look hurt, she continued, her eyes showing care and warmth along with a childlike wonder that he didn't quite get, "I don't care what your demon did, I don't care what horrible things you see in your nightmares, or what you tell yourself you deserve. As far as I go, I just know that you're good. I knew not to fear you, though I felt as I should have been afraid. The world has long since passed from black and white for me. It's all sorts of different colors. You care as if you are a regular adultish guy person, then you must be. It just so happens you have pointy-er teeth and a little more strength behind the muscles then it looks." Her eyes shown with pride as she saw her words sinking into him. Words that she guessed had not been said to him often, if ever, "My parents told me when I was a kid that a man in an expensive suit and a charming smile could be a villain, while the homeless man on the corner with a ratted jacket and holes in his pants could save a life. Do you feel like a killer, Angel? Or do you feel like a guy with some bully inside trying to pick on him and get you to be one? You aren't the demon anymore. You're just you." With that Willow stood up and moved a couple steps over on the blankets where he sat leaning against the outer wall of the ship. She sat down again, and put her head on his lap before he could protest, curling into the blankets. Her eyes closed. She knew this to be a bad move. It brought him closer to her then she liked, emotionally. But he needed it. She wasn't a stupid kid. Willow would pay the consequences when the time came, but for now, her mind rested. It was the dead of night. Midnight had passed. And they would soon be in England.
Angel sat completely still for a few minutes trying to contemplate what had just happened. He felt the urge to throw her off of him, on top of the usual urge to drink her dry. His heart however could not end her, and his soul won out of pushing her away as he realized she had fallen asleep. Her long, red tresses falling in her face. He leaned his head back, head full of new thoughts and fears. What had he done in befriending this girl? But for the first time ever, that he could remember anyway, he slept without memories. Dreamless, and peaceful, as though the earth was soft and still, the air was quiet and calm, the water under the ship swayed in time and not sporadic as it almost always was. Just a second before he nodded off, he would have sworn that he felt a warm flame in his chest, igniting something in him. As if nature had started a fire to keep the demon in the dark, and allow the man to warm himself for the first time in almost 200 years.
The four elements combined, creating nature. Creating the world, and connecting it through balance. Understanding and forgiving, yet powerful and not to be messed with. It had been a long time since these elements had all been connected into one person. The powers that be chose a slayer to protect mankind, but Mother Nature would not leave her creations to such trivial beings as the powers anymore. They had been trying for centuries and had barely succeeded in their attempts. One day, the slayer would not be enough. She chose a champion herself. One that would connect with nature, instead of fighting it, or simply ignoring it. The only problem she had was that there was no one that could understand her champions predicament, or even more so, her powers. She had come to her awakening so quickly. The years passed too fast. The vampire could protect her for awhile perhaps, but she would have to struggle to learn for herself. With maybe a little help from a certain coven of witches...
Back at it ladies and Gentleman. This chapter caught me on writers block. But I got it thanks to a certain fan. You know who you are... Thanks!