Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

Chp27

It ain't Easy Being Green

Other info is where it always is

She’d come back down the stairs as everyone else dispersed to other parts of the building. She now stood in the middle of the lobby, fidgeting nervously. The fingers of the right hand picking at the nails on the left, she had no idea what to do with herself.

Gunn had called the demon she now awaited, and had told them that he’d be there shortly.

She had been through all of the songs she knew, and still didn’t have any inkling of what the hell she was going to sing for the guy.

Kennedy comes in from the kitchen, making her way over to the distracted witch, and placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She tries to calm her girlfriend down, but found that it was no use. She had no idea that Willow would more than likely mangle any song she tried to sing.

Kennedy gives up, makes her way over to the couch in the middle of the reception area, and throws herself on it.

Willow looks up from her pondering as the door in front of her starts to open. A green demon with red eyes, and horns, dressed in a tangerine colored suit, and a pea green shirt makes his way through the double doors, from the sunny afternoon outside.

Her breath catches as she takes in the spectacle standing in the doorway. She hadn’t expected to see the demon dressed in such bright colors, and the colors kind of clashed with the color of his green skin. She had no idea what to make of the demon. Then all of a sudden there’s a quiet little giggle, which quickly turns into a full on laugh. She couldn’t help herself. The guy looked ridiculous, although she wouldn’t tell him that.

On the alert, as she looks at the demon, Kennedy gets up from her seat, making her way back over to Willow, and adapting a menacing looking fighting stance between her lover, and the possible danger standing in front of her. She feels the need to defend her witchy girlfriend if need be.
**********

Walking into the room, Angel notices Lorne standing in front of the new slayer, and the witch looking bewildered at the display, of Kennedy in a fighting stance, and Willow nearly bent double as she laughs. He suddenly feels the animosity of the slayer; she looks as if she’s ready to do some major damage to the harmless, singing demon.

Noticing the broody vampire, “Angelkins?” Lorne asks, still baffled at the two people in front of him, he throws a toothy grin in the direction of Angel. “It’s not exactly the red carpet arrival that I’d hope for, but I’ll take it.” He quips, shutting the door, and making his way down the few steps into the main foyer.
**********

Kennedy watches the demon closely, making sure he isn’t there to do any harm, and then turns to Angel with a scowl. “You know this thing?” She asks, as she looks at the vampire.

Willow had just about finished her giggle fest, until the brightly clad demon had called Angel, ‘Angelkins’. That had made her go back into her hysterics. She is now bent double yet again, and can barely draw a breath as tears start streaming down her face.
**********

Sitting the coffee mug down on the desk that was in his hand as he made his way from the office. He looks from the hysterical witch, to the way to defensive slayer, and nods his head in affirmation. “Yeah, Kennedy. This is Lorne, the demon I told you guys about.” He says, trying not to look at the bright orange of the suit that Lorne is wearing today. It reflected the light, and hurt his sensitive eyes. “You don’t get to slay him, so drop the defensiveness. He’s here to help.” He growls the last part out, giving the dark girl a warning.

Willows laughter abruptly stops, when Angel says that the demon was the one she has been waiting for. Her gaze falls on everyone else in the room, stopping on Angel. “I’m supposed to sing now, aren’t I?” She says her nervousness comes back with a vengeance as she looks over to Lorne.

Lorne looks the petite, little red head over, noticing the power in her aura, and walks back over to her. “You’re the one I have to thank for relieving me of my meeting with Bob Barker.” He says. Making out the nervousness coming off of the girl. Then turns to Angel. “He’s still bucking for the role in the new Happy Gilmore movie.” His hands come up in a wave, and he shakes his head. “No matter how many times you tell the guy that there’s no role for him to play, he keeps going and going. You’d think that when the producers of the thing tell you that they don’t want you in it, that he’d get the picture. Nope, he comes to me trying to get me to get him the part.” He shakes his head, again, claps his hands, and turns back to Willow, smiling amicably at her. “So, Sweetie, you want to tell me what makes you so apprehensive about this little interlude?” He asks her.

Willow stops fidgeting, looks the demon in the eye, and scrunches her brow together trying to figure out how he knew. Yeah, she’d been showing nervous tendencies, but she knew her apprehensiveness was all in her head. “How?” She cocks her head to the side, and a piece of red hair falls over her shoulder.

“See Honey, I’ve been reading that aura of yours since I came in here. You got a lot of stuff goin’ on there, by the way. But the most prominent of all of it, is the waves of apprehensiveness coming off of you. I’m just wondering why? Everything else screams control, and power. This just seems odd.” He explains, his voice putting her at ease, as he does.

She rolls the explanation over in her mind, and then comes to a conclusion. “I think that Angel mentioned the whole aura reading thing, so alright” She shrugs her shoulders, looks over to Kennedy and gives her a cheery smile. She has relaxed considerably, after talking with the friendly green guy. It hits her that she hasn’t introduced herself. “Oh my names Willow by the way. You know, just incase you need to know it or something.”

“Lorne, pleased to meet you.” He holds his out hand in greeting, and Willow takes it shaking it with a light squeeze. Letting him know that she liked him. He studies her for a few more moments, her hand still in his, he seemed to remember the name Willow from somewhere, it hits him that Fred had called the girl for help with the whole Angelus debacle not too long ago. “You’re the one that came and put the soul back in Angelhair over there, right?” He asks motioning in the direction of Angel.

A full-fledged smile makes it across the red heads face, at yet another silly nickname for the vampire. “Yep, that I did.” She answers trying not to laugh, but lets a small giggle out, anyway.

“Then I guess I have more to thank you for, than just getting me out of the meeting that wouldn’t end, then. Huh?”

She thinks the guy isn’t so bad, after you get past the whole brightly colored clothing, and well him being a demon. “You’re welcome, I guess. I mean I don’t know Bob Barker or anything, but the whole Angel thing. You know it’s always not of the good to have Angelus around.” She babbles, her face turning red. She glances over to the vampire who’s leaning against the edge of the desk, and finishing whatever is in the mug in his hand. “Sorry, Angel.” She apologizes with a grimace.

“No really I agree with you Wills. I know from first hand experience that Angelus shouldn’t be runnin’ around without a leash.” He quirks a corner of his mouth at her, “anyway, it’s over and done. We have more important matters to discuss.”

Willows smile fades, at the implication of Angel’s statement. “Oh, yeah.” Her shoulders slump. “Uh, umm.” She looks up to the brightly clad demon. “That means I have to sing, right?”

“That’s right cupcake. You sing me a little ditty, and I read you. Then you ask me what I seen and I tell you.”

“Well, you see I don’t really sing. Correction, I can’t sing. Singing and me are really not with the mixing. Really it’s bad.” She rambles along, again, getting nervous.

The demon looks her in the eye, smiling encouragingly at her. “Well, you certainly couldn’t be any worse than Angel and his Manilow fixation. I had to sit through that, so I think I should be okay listening to you.”

“But I have no idea what to sing. Even if I did, it wouldn’t sound anything like it’s supposed to.”

“My power is to read what’s going on. You could sing anything, just as long as it’s actually sung.” He explains, putting a hand on her shoulder, and squeezing slightly. “Sing whatever you want. It’s fine with me.

“Okay.” She says taking a deep breath, and beginning to sing. “I don’t wanna grow up I’m a Toys R Us kid There’s a million toys at Toys R Us that I can play with From bikes to planes to video games It’s the biggest toy store there is So I don’t want to grow up Cause if I did I wouldn’t be a Toys R Us kid.” She sings all in one big breath, getting it out as quickly as she can. Then takes another deep, needed breath, and looks imploringly at the anagogic demon.

Well she said she couldn't sing, atleast it wasn't Manilow, and as bad as Angel's singing. Lorne's head hurt from all the cracking voice, and too high notes. And thanked god that she'd missed words, and gotten it over with as quickly as possible. Anymore of it and his head might have imploded.

(Yep there's quite a few words left out of the song. But Willow being Willow wanted to get it over and done with, forgetting the words as she went.)