onepassingnight | (no subject)

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[New York City is all around him, a mixture of loud noise and constant movement. He's standing in the middle of the sidewalk, holding a piece of paper and scanning the crowd.

And there she is.]

Kate! [He starts running after her, pushing people aside as he goes.] Kate, wait!

[He runs faster and faster, following her through the streets, darting into alleys and making sharp turns but he can never quite reach her, no matter how fast he goes.

His lungs are burning, his legs ache but he keeps moving, taking another quick turn and nearly crashing into a brick wall.

A wall. A wall with no other exits in immediate view and too high to climb.]

...Kate?

[He looks around, expression momentarily helpless.]

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Damnit! [He spins around, turning to face her. Yo9u're kidding, right? Where is she? She has to be here, there's nowhere to go. [He's frustrated and tired and he was so, so close. She can't have just disappeared.]

Somewhere else? [she guessed.] I wasn't really paying attention, I was reading.

Is she in danger? [This is the first thing she thinks of, even while asleep.]

Yes. [He starts looking around again, trying to see if there's anywhere she could have gone but if this girl didn't see her come down this way....

But where could she have gone? He knows he saw her come down this way.

He takes a deep breath, hands raking through his hair in frustration]

[Willow's spent enough time saving people that it's her automatic response. She shuts the book and tucks it under her arm; it's thick, leather-bound, and musty.]

Do you want me to help you look for her?

[He considers her offer, studying her for a moment. Why not? What does he have to lose at this point?] Sure, okay.

[He starts studying the alley more closely, trying ot see if there are any hidden doors or anything but he doubts he'll find anything. It looks like an average, every day alley and if Willow didn't even hear someone come down this way....]

I don't even know where to go next. It's more an admission meant for himself than to her but he says it aloud anyway, though he's not entirely sure why.]

Tell me what she looks like? [she suggests, taking a step away from the wall and peering around as he does. She's probably looking for different things, though: traces of demons, the sense that magic's been worked here... but there's none of that. Willow supposes at some point she has to run into regular, mundane problems, too. It just doesn't seem likely.]

We could try retracing her steps, too. We might run across something useful.

[When he speaks, there's a detatchment to it, like he's rehearsed this in his mind, or at least some of it] White, blue eyes, long, dark brown hair that was pulled back when I saw her. She was wearing jeans and a burgundy blouse from what I could see. She didn't have a bag or anything.

[He continues to feel around the walls, finding nothing and giving a frustrated sigh. This was impossible. She couldn't just vanish and he would have seen if she had doubled back.

We can but I doubt it's going to do any good. She's had enough time to put distance between us, so that we'd have trouble tracking her even if she wasn't good at losing a tail.

[Her eyes widen.] Oh, she's... not wanting to be found. Gotcha. [That's a whole different ball game, and Willow's suddenly not so sure about helping him, especially after the way he rattled off her description by rote.

Sure, he looks nice and respectable, but so did the Mayor. And then he turned into a gigantic demon snake thing. Those kinds of things make Willow cautious, but she's slowly trying to put the pieces of the story together.] Let's look anyway, [she says decisively, moving toward the entrance to the alley.] She's definitely not back here. And maybe you can tell me why you're looking for a girl in danger that doesn't want to be found.

No, it's not that. Look, it's complicated, really complicated. [He rakes his hands through his hair, frustration obvious.] Someone is using her to get to me and they're doing a really good job at it. It's not that she doesn't want to be found, so much as she thinks that if she is found, she's putting us in even more danger than what we're already in.

[He smiles bitterly] See? Complicated.

[That explanation deflates her.] Complicated, but... I understand. No wonder you're worried.

I really do want to help, there's just not a lot I can-- [She stops mid-sentence and blurts out,] But I think we're dreaming. There's been a lot of weirdness, and someone said dream, and now I'm stuck on the dream explanation.

[He stares at her skeptically but he doesn't completely dismiss the possibility. Things are...odd. The world seems different, things don't quite add up right.]

A dream. [He says the word carefully.] I guess it's a possibility. It would explain how she just vanished. But why am I dreaming about you? I mean,, I understand Kate. but I have no idea who you are.

I've been asking the same question, [she sighs.] Unfortunately none of my potential answers are very believable.

I can show you some things that would prove it's a dream, I think, but it won't answer the 'why' or 'how'.

[He laughs a little, shaking his head.] You do know that the whole dream theory in general sounds a little unbelievable, right? I mean I'm not saying I don't believe you, just that considering the foundation is a little suspect, it doesn't seem like a few out there theoriest are going to be that bad.

[He considers for a moment before nodding and gesturing for her to begin.] Go for it. I'm kind of curious to see what my mind things is decent proof, to be honest.

[She takes a moment to decide what she'll do, and ends up with 'grand gesture' as maybe the best. It's short, sweet, and undeniable.]

Not to go all Aladdin on you, but take my hand and I'll show you. [She holds it out to be taken. Willow's gotten a good enough hold on the dream scape by now that suddenly changing locations is not a challenge for her; she's nearing teleportation in real life through magic, and this is infinitely easier. She's not confident enough to do it without physical contact just yet, though, and who knows what consequences there would be here. Better safe than sorry is an important motto.]

[He takes her hands, his eyebrows raised.] This should be interesting. [It's not said unkindly, more musing than anything else. Whatever she's going to do, it's going to be a sight to see, he's sure. It would have to be to prove that he's actually dreaming. Or that's what he thinks anyway.]

[It takes some concentration on her part, but a moment later they're somewhere else entirely - one of the Sunnydale graveyards, in fact, at night. It's about what you'd expect from a typical movie cemetery.]

Oops, this is kind of morbid... [Eyebrows furrowing, she lets his hands go.] It probably says something that this is where I end up when I focus on going 'somewhere else'. [There's no people around, however, because that takes much more talent than she has (yet).]

[He looks around, staring at the sudden change of scenery in momentary shock. Then he collects himself and laughs.

A dream. It was just a dream.

Wow. This is definitely a little morbid but I guess it's better than my dream. [He walks around, peering behind gravestones and prodding the general area.] So do you come to graveyards often or...<[He laughs]<<

Yeah, not really a good way to answer that when the answer's yes, is it? [she says wryly, a little self-conscious as she trails after him. There's artful fog drifting across the ground between the headstones, the air pleasantly warm as it's California.]

I guess if it's a dream, I might as well tell you... there's a lot of vampires in my town, and I try to help get rid of them. Cemeteries are kind of a hot spot for them. [She does more than that these days, and more than 'try', too, but Willow doesn't want to get into that.]

Vampires? [He turns to look at her, a mixture of confusion and amusement on his face.] You're not kidding, are you?

Sadly not. [Willow's had this conversation a couple times before, so she takes his disbelief with aplomb.] It's not a fun thing to prove, either, so you can write it off as a dream or think I'm crazy if you want. It doesn't matter much here.

I'm probably going to do that, yeah. <[He laughs a little.] Though you do get points for rational thought. [He starts poking around the graveyard, peering around and studying the names on the tombstones.]

So I take it they aren't very friendly. [He says it with a slight smile.}

I try for the rational, [she answers wryly.] But no, not friendly at all. They're more on the luring you into isolated places and killing you type.

[It occurs to her that the one exception to that is actually around, and she adds,] There is one exception, which is Angel. If you meet him hanging around, he's okay. A little on the broody side, but not murderous.

[He nods] I'll keep that in mind if I ever...run into one. [This conversation is drifting into the realm of ridiculous but he thinks he's okay with that.]

So, I hate to be the one to point this out but isn't this a decent hunting ground for them? It's isolated and strikes me as a pretty good place to go looking for victims if I were a vampire.

Oh, well, yes, but it's my dream. I'll leave the vampires out, I promise. [She smiles at him to take the edge off the conversation, propping herself against a nearby headstone. She's been here so often the creepiness of it has worn off.]

You're taking this pretty well.

I had my suspicions, now they're just confirmed. [He smiles at her.] Bisides, it could be worse. We're not in someone's nightmare, right?

[After a pause, he decides to ask her something else.]< Will you teach me to do what you just did? TO change dreams like that? I know we've barely just met but it seems like a pretty handy skill set.