If – Details

Teaser

He pushed her, and she died.

Such a silly thing, they weren’t even playing roughly or arguing, but she made an inane remark and he pushed her. Half in fun, half retaliation. She must have been off-balance. Or maybe the heel of her shoe had given way. She staggered.

He could never look at the heel of that shoe and know, yes, there it was broken, any more than he could ask her why she fell. One minute she was there, laughing, snarling – he could no longer remember which – then the table cracked under her weight, a leg splintered, she fell against it and she was gone.

Angelus found him curled into a ball beside the sofa and heaving sobs that rose from within his chest so utterly pure in his misery that there was no need for him to think, no requirement to name the source of his pain even in his own mind. Nothing to do but feel.

Angelus stopped beside him, and then, after a bit, hunkered down.

‘What’s the matter, Will?’

He burrowed his face into his hands. Of all the things he’d ever thought he would do as a vampire, he’d never imagined that one day he would have to tell his sire that Dru was dead.

‘Will, it’s no good leaving me to guess.’ Angelus didn’t say it unkindly. After all, he could be kind if he chose. And he quite liked finding his fledglings in tears – the childishness appealed to him.

So there Angelus was, unthinkingly playing one of his normal games. The last time he ever would be normal again. Will didn’t want to speak so he pointed.

‘What? You broke the table? Oh dear, bad boy. Why the sniffles? Hmm?’ Angelus’s hand stroked a damp lock away from his face. And from under the protection of that broad, strong hand Will looked at where she had died.

Read on…

Disclaimer

Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, and all the characters in them, are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Twentieth Century Fox, the WB, UPN, and just about everybody else on the planet except me. I acknowledge this fully; and I promise I’m only playing with them without hope of profit. I will put them back in the box carefully when I’m done and apologise if they got a bit hurt while I was using them. But come on, they are vampires, they can probably take it.

Please be aware that since the stories involve vampires some of the subject matter may be unpleasant or otherwise not suitable for children. To help protect minors and those of a sensitive nature, all the pages on this site are labelled with ICRA.