Sit! Stay! Good Kitty!

Title: Hopelessly Unfair
Author: Eena_Angel2001
Email: eena_angel@hotmail.com
Rating: 15
Category: BTVS/AB
Disclaimer: Joss owns BTVS, Laurell own AB.
Spoilers: S1-2 for BTVS, and CS for AB.
Summary: Willow knew that having the Hellmouth in the school library meant that weird things would happen from time to time. She just didn’t think they would get this weird. Maybe that was her mistake. She should call Giles to ask. If only she was tall enough to reach the phone . . .
Notes: Response to the Mommy Anita Challenge.

Chapter Three: Sit! Stay! Good Kitty . . .

It had taken twenty minutes to calm Willow down, and even after that was accomplished, she refused to speak. Hell, she refused to even look at anyone but the violet eyed male stripper. Anytime another person got too close, she would start to tremble and then proceed to bury her face in the violet eyed male stripper’s chest. If anyone other than him dared touch her, she would add in a few screams as well. Pretty soon everyone got the message.

Violet eyed male stripper had picked her up and carried her a good distance away from the scary brunette monster lady, whom she had heard the other strippers call Anita. Of course, they could have called her Mother Theresa and Willow wouldn’t have given a damn. That woman was by far the scariest thing Willow had ever encountered. Her mere presence drove Willow practically out of her mind. Not to mention that she swore in front of a child. That was just wrong.

She opened her eyes for a minute, gaze immediately washing over the peculiar surroundings. For a manager’s office or whatever, this room sure was decorated weird. But then again, maybe it wasn’t that odd. Maybe all strip club manager’s had offices like this one. Willow sure as hell didn’t have any prior experience with strip clubs or their managers, so it wasn’t like she could compare this one to any other.

But she couldn’t help shake the feeling that this was weird, even for the office of a strip club manager. Who needs this much leather furniture, and what was with the paint job? She wrinkled her little nose and tried to push the thought from her mind. Only problem was that she had been doing that a lot, with many other thoughts. Pretty soon she would no other thoughts to occupy her mind and she might have to deal with the reality of her situation. And with the scary-monster-lady just outside those doors, that just wasn’t something Willow felt like doing.

There was some mumbling between the violet eyed male stripper and his one blonde colleague that she had allowed to remain in the office with them. Of course, the colleague in question was on the opposite side of the room, as far as he could be from Willow without actually being inside the wall. If he moved an inch closer, she began her little tantrum again. So he didn’t move, at all, for the past thirty minutes or so. To his credit, he didn’t sound all that annoyed. In fact, he sounded kind of neutral, just like violet eyed male stripper. They discussed the situation like they were discussing the weather.

What she could gather from the murmurings that she chose to listen to, owner John had arrived and was outside with the scary-monster-lady. They were confused about what to do with her. It sounded like the scary-monster-lady was also a bit insulted by Willow’s reaction to her. John was trying to reassure her that she wasn’t all that frightening, or something to that nature.

And there was still a gigantic lack of enthusiasm for calling the police. Or calling any kind of authority at all. John and Anita seemed determined to deal with Willow all on their own, but how they planned to do that she couldn’t say. Mostly because the male strippers wouldn’t say. She would have asked, but that meant talking to them. Willow wasn’t quite ready to make that leap. Besides, as soon as she started talking, the sooner all of these weird people would start asking her questions. Questions that she probably couldn’t answer.

The situation was so complicated that it made her head hurt. Willow pouted into the violet eyed male stripper’s chest and heaved a tiny little sigh. She was so screwed. There was no use dancing around the situation at this point. She was utterly and completely screwed. Never before, in the entire history of screwiness, had there ever been anyone as royally screwed as Willow. A sixteen trapped in her own eight year old body, surrounded by male strippers and a scary-monster-lady that wouldn’t call the police to help her, and no sign of her friends.

She sniffled, a new batch of tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She still felt all achy and sick from the last time she cried, but it wasn’t like she could stop herself. She really wanted to be with her friends right now. She wasn’t even sure if they were okay. And if they were, did what happen to her happen to them? Was there a confused group of not-real-eight-year-olds running around Sunnydale looking for her? And what if she wasn’t even in Sunnydale? Willow wasn’t sure if there was a male strip club in Sunnydale, but the odds weren’t that great. It was a quiet town, even if the nightlife was a little more dangerous than other places. And if there was a male strip club with guys this cute working there, surely she would have heard it being whispered about by all the giggly and hormonal teenage girls at school. There was no way that a guy with hair like the violet eyed male stripper’s hair could have gone unnoticed in a town like Sunnydale.

Violet eyed male stripper shifted underneath her. She frowned into his chest. She could feel him stiffening up, spine going completely straight and limbs becoming tense. Something was happening, and she had been too preoccupied feeling sorry for herself to know what it was. Violet eyed male stripper had tightened the grip he had on her waist, though she didn’t know if it was for comfort or to stop her from freaking out.

When she heard the telltale sounds of an opening door, Willow figured that the latter had been his intention. And given that violet eyed male stripper had proven to be quite strong, Willow knew better than to waste her time with struggling. So she just tilted her head so that she could see who was entering the room.

The blonde male stripper was on his feet and actually had his head bowed a bit to the new guy. She was pretty sure she heard him mutter something like ‘master’ before he exited the room. She watched his departure, noting the speed at which he fled the room. That didn’t bode well. The door closed with a single click. With little choice left to her, Willow turned her face so that she could see who had arrived.

To say the man was handsome was like saying the Mona Lisa was a decent painting. Gorgeous didn’t even cover it. It was like he was sculpted from clay and then brought to life, because there was no way for anyone to naturally be this beautiful. Nice, normal build, from what she could see, and dressed in the craziest outfit she had seen in her life. Leather and lace just didn’t seem like a viable clothing option to her, but this guy pulled it off very well. Long black hair that fell in waves around his shoulders, framing a delicate, but pale face. And his eyes, so blue that she could barely describe them. So blue, that she could just fall into them and drown . . .

Whoa! Willow jerked her head away, mind all blurry and muddled. There was a ringing in her ear, like someone had just fired off a cannon right next to her. And her brain felt like someone had just jammed their fingers into it, gouging and carving holes into it for their own perverse pleasure. She shook her head, trying to shove the feeling away, but not quite managing to do the trick. She twisted in the violet eyed male stripper’s grip, determined to get free of these people so that she could get a chance to relax and think properly again.

But it wasn’t happening. Violet eyed male stripper just held her close, so close that her fidgeting made absolutely no difference. But that didn’t mean that she had to stop. No, the resistance only made her fight harder. And even though her brain understood that it was futile, Willow’s little eight-year-old body refused to give up the fight. She pushed and jerked, scratched and clawed, kicked and punched, but there was nothing she could do to make the larger man let her go.

But she would not admit defeat. Things had become even worse than before. The possibility of a scary-monster-lady was nothing compared to this strangely beautiful man who apparently had the power of the Vulcan Mind Meld-or something very similar to it. No, now Willow knew that she was in real danger, and there wasn’t anything that was going to stop her attempt at escape.

And so she kept at it. She wore herself out, frantically pushing and clawing, little sobs escaping her mouth when she realized the futility of it all. Both men just waited for her to stop, but she wasn’t going to make it that easy for them.

She screeched in sheer frustration as she abandoned her pushing and resorted to pummelling the violet eyed male stripper with her tiny child fists. They made no real impact, but she kept it up. Tears flowed freely and she screamed more and more as her panic mounted. And finally, for the first time she had landed in this strange place, Willow said (shouted more like it) something.

“Let me go!”

It was a scream of desperation, one that she didn’t actually believe would accomplish anything. But she had said it anyway, because she couldn’t stop herself. She just needed to get away. She didn’t expect her words would get her freedom, but they came tumbling out almost instinctively. She didn’t believe they would help her in the least. She thought that she was done for.

So imagine her surprise when the violet eyed male stripper let her go.

She had been caught off guard, in the midst of another ineffectual assault when he released his grip. She couldn’t stop herself from falling off his lap and therefore landed in a painful heap on the floor by his feet. She sat there, momentarily quiet as she tries to register what had just happened. She think she won, but she’s not sure how. All she knew was that suddenly, and without warning, the violet eyed male stripper had decided to listen to her.

Then reality set in and she jumped to her feet, scrambling as far away from both men as she could. So when she was firmly wedged in the corner just beyond the office desk, Willow turned around to assess her situation. Looking at the new, pretty guy was out of the question, so she tried to look around him for a bit. Then it was onto her former anchor, the violet eyed male stripper who had just let her go for reasons beyond her.

She found him sitting in the exact spot she had left him, only there was one thing different. He was turned in her direction, head bowed slightly, just like the other blonde male stripper had done to the beautiful-mind-melding guy. Willow frowned and moved a few steps to the right. The violet eyed male stripper followed her movements, his head bowed all the while.

Huh. This was new, and kind of freaky.

There came a laugh, suddenly and without warning, just rushing over her like the flow of a cool spring stream. Willow felt her eyelids flutter for a second before she shook herself back to control. She knew who was doing it, she just wasn’t sure why. And then his voice came, seductive and wholly French, wafting through the air like a musical note.

“Well, isn’t this interesting?”

~*~