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TITLE: Mockingbird, Part 1
AUTHOR: Tesla and dessert_first
RATING:
SPOILERS:
CHARACTERS: Angel/Anya, Cordelia/Xander, Gunn/Fred/Wesley, Gwen/Lilah, Spike/Buffy, Willow/Tara, Lindsey/Darla
DISCLAIMERS:
SUMMARY:
NOTES: AU, AtS/BtVS, set in Anya!World
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This thing, this threesome thing, it took some getting used to. Wesley, Fred, Gunn, they all had to make adjustments, the way people do when they take as big a step as moving in with someone.
Or someones, plural.
Oh, but it was worth it. Wesley with his little smiles, Fred with her chatter, both of them filling areas of Gunn's life he hadn't even had time to realize were empty, big dusty places inside of him slowly getting cleaned out and filled up with sunshine and people and other necessary things. They all knew they probably looked like idiots, running around smiling all the time like they'd won the lottery, because they had. They really had.
It wasn't perfect, by any means. Wesley still had a tendency to fuss, and to withdraw when he worried, and Fred tended to work on her happy sunny routine an awful lot, leaving Gunn wondering what might lie underneath it. He knew they all had demons, of course, and not just the literal ones. And he couldn't be sure if it was because of himself and Wesley or something else, but it seemed the more settled they all got, the more Fred's demons seemed to wanna get out there and rattle the bars.
Fred had seemed happy enough with Gunn and Wes, but lately she kept waking up in the wee hours of the night, feverish, restless. Or maybe she just wasn't feeling down with the domesticity bit; too much, too fast, too many people in her space twenty-four seven. Whatever it was, he couldn't help worrying at her panicked nightmares that would jerk Gunn and Wes out of sleep and set them to hugging her, stroking her hair, trying to coax her back to herself until she recognized them. Gunn and Wes's eyes would meet over her tousled head and Gunn could see his concern reflected back at him in Wesley's troubled gaze.
They'd decided to talk it over with Fred, and she confirmed their worries with one word: Pylea.
"Ya'll don't understand," she'd told them over breakfast at the diner. "It's not that I'm unhappy, it's just the opposite!"
"So you are happy?" Gunn ventured. "With us, with this thing we've got going? This is working for you?"
She smiled at them, and Gunn could swear the whole diner lit up from it. "Of course I am! You guys are... how lucky can a girl get? But that's the thing, see?"
Wesley frowned. "So you're too happy?"
"Exactly!" she blurted, then blushed at their identical looks of dismay. "Guys, I haven't been this happy in years. And at night, with you guys in my bed, I feel..." she trailed off, looking at them with those big brown eyes. "I feel safe. Like I'm not alone out there anymore. And it made me realize, there are still people out there, stuck in Pylea, wanting to come home just as desperately as I did, and what have we done for them?"
"Fred," Wesley said gently, "we don't know that we can reach them. The conditions that lead to a portal are by nature extremely unstable, and we don't even have--"
"She ain't sayin' we gotta rescue them, English," Gunn said, putting a hand on Wesley's shoulder as Fred nodded. "She's just saying she's gotta try."
::
So there was research, and cryptic note-scribbling on the whiteboards Anya had bought to preserve the Hyperion walls, and Gunn and Wes did their best to be stalwart, supportive boyfriend-types. Not that Fred needed much help in the funky metaphysics department. But occasionally she would ask Wesley to fetch her some obscure resource, or Gunn to aquire some sort of freaky... thing, which could be animal, vegetable or mineral and frequently seemed to straddle the lines between two or more of those categories. So they would get her what she needed, and she would thank them, and go back to her scribbles.
And life went on.
Fred seemed to be sleeping better, which meant Gunn and Wesley got to sleep better, and Anya could stop making pointed remarks about efficiency in the workplace as she replenished the ever-present stocks of dark roast and strong tea.
And one day, there was a portal.
Angel and Anya were out dealing with some ritzy clients whose last name didn't ring any bells for Gunn but had Anya's eyes gleaming in that capitalistic way of hers that was almost cute, sometimes. Gunn and Wesley were looking up some information in the office, trying to get a head start on the night's activities.
"Now if I were a ten foot tall Raklesh demon with a taste for snacking on puppies, where would I be?" Gunn mused, scanning Demons, Demons, Demons online while Wesley leafed through the Demonologica Compendium.
There was a sudden strange whoosh, as if all the air pressure got sucked out of the room, and the lights flickered, the computer shutting down in the middle of downloading a truly disturbing-looking series of diagrams. Gunn bolted out of his chair, scooping up an axe on his way out the door, briefly getting caught in the doorway as Wesley and his sword tried to push through at the same time. They managed to get out just in time to catch the light show as a swirling vortex formed in the middle of the lobby, crackling blue arcs of electricity zapping about, a brisk wind sending papers flying.
"Fred!" Wes called out.
Gunn charged in, axe at the ready. "Fred, are you okay?"
Fred stood on the other side of the vortex, a dismayed expression on her face. "I'm fine, you guys! I don't know what--""
And that's when the vortex gave a sudden heave, spit someone out, and closed in on itself with a final whoosh. The sudden silence almost set Gunn's ears ringing, but he didn't pay attention to that. All his attention was caught by the very surprised-looking fur-clad teenager lying on the carpeting. The kid immediately leapt up, crossbow in hand, and looked around, sharp blue eyes assessing Fred, Gunn and Wesley.
"Dad?" the kid said.
Gunn almost jumped out of his skin when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He drew it out slowly, making no sudden moves that might startle the kid into doing something unpleasant with that crossbow. It was Anya.
"Hello, Gunn?" She seemed a little breathless. "Listen, I just had a vision. There's this kid: tall, thin, blue eyes, hideous outfit, needs a haircut. I think he's--"
"Uh, Anya?" Gunn interrupted, feeling the kid's suspicious eyes on him. "We know. You guys might want to get back here."
Part 2
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