Fic: Though the Frost was Cruel (Buffyverse)

[katayla]

Title: Though the Frost was Cruel (Buffyverse)
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Spoilers: For all of both Angel and Buffy
Rating: PG
Word Count: 519
Summary: Willow and Fred kept in touch after their first meeting.
Notes: For tiger_bri_duck, who put Willow/Fred on a list of prompts.


Fred and Willow kept in touch after Willow restored Angel’s soul. It made sense. Clearly, the communication between their two groups was out of whack if Angel could lose his soul without even Buffy knowing.

Not that Buffy should know, which was all the more reason Willow figured it should be her responsibility to keep in touch with Angel Investigations. It wasn’t like evil didn’t travel between LA and Sunnydale. Best that both groups knew what was going on with each other.

And it was nice to talk to someone who actually got all of her geeky talk. And Fred was cute and Willow was never going to say no to more cute friends.

So she and Fred fell into emailing each other, sometimes about vampires and demons, but sometimes because they saw an article the other might be interested in and, once in a while, just to say hi.

When Sunnydale was destroyed, Willow thought about dropping by LA, but it felt weird to just show up. Besides, she had a feeling she was going to have her hands full tracking down new slayers.

And she still had Kennedy. So probably shouldn’t be popping in to say hi to cute gal pals.

Then Fred started sending her long emails about her lab at Wolfram & Hart and everything she was doing there and every time Willow got one, she wanted to type back, in all caps, ignoring every rule of internet etiquette, “HIRE ME, PLEASE!!!!!”

But she never did. Instead, she’d reply back, warning Fred about getting involved with an evil corporation. Telling her that it’s so very easy to slide down a corrupt path and end up somewhere you never thought you’d be, end up someone you never thought you’d be.

Only Fred was stronger than Willow because she still seemed the same Fred. Happy. Chirpy. Excited about everything that was going on.

And Willow had her magic, so maybe she didn’t need science, after all. Except sometimes she and Giles would have long conversations about the possibility of combining science and magic and Willow started looking up flights to LA. Not every day or anything, but when she thought of it.

She could see herself there. Could see herself with Fred, working together, doing good, combatting everything Wolfram & Hart had done in the past.

Kennedy broke up with her.

And then Willow almost did book a flight. She had the ticket picked out and everything. But then she got an email from Fred that dropped some hints about Wesley and, well, Willow wasn’t going where she wasn’t wanted.

So she stayed where she was and found some more slayers and tried not to think about what it meant when Fred stopped emailing. Tried not to think about what might be keeping Fred so busy that she didn’t even have time to write a one or two line email.

Then a month passed and Willow started worrying for real. Even someone in the full flesh of new relationship glow wouldn’t go that long without emailing, would they?

She called Angel.

And then she regretted never booking that flight.