(Old Version) Hopelessly Heroic

six

Knowing Willow, I went left after walking out of the bakery, turning into the alley. She was there, and in no time she had me pinned against the wall. Although I knew it wasn't a part of her power, I swore there were flames in her eyes. Even that close, she was beautiful.

Her hands, wrapped around the collar of my uniform, were warm in a way that I knew wasn't exactly human. I didn't flinch. She didn't cool off.

"What are you doing here?" She asked finally, breathing too heavily for someone who hadn't done any physical activity.

I chanced a glance down to my shirt, where the logo of the store sat proudly. She tightened her grip and clenched her jaw, and suddenly I realized we weren't having fun. I swallowed, reaching up slowly to wrap my fingers around her wrists - not trying to pry her off, just trying to ground myself.

"I work here," I told her.

She rolled her eyes and stepped closer. Three years ago I would have been looking at her lips, but I found myself too frightened to move my eyes from hers.

"I meant what are you doing in this city? Did you follow me?"

The urge to say Yes, I missed you, I've been trying to find you for years, I love you was overwhelming, but untrue, and I felt like it might break her heart to say it to her. She wasn't happy to see me, but when she asked if I followed her, I knew what she hoped the answer was.

"Willow..." I started softly, and she groaned in frustration, her hands heating up even more. I couldn't help myself from trying to move away.

"Shut up! That's not what I meant." She told me forcefully, trying to convince both of us, probably.

She let go of my shirt and turned around, running her hands through her hair as she paced. I saw smoke rise from her head, and thought maybe I knew why she cut her hair. I stayed where she had pushed me, watching her. She was the same in so many ways, but it was clear that she had also changed parts of her that I didn't know if I would get the chance to figure out.

I was admiring her cheekbones when she suddenly whipped around to face me and shot a ball of fire right at my head, making me scream and duck to the side. And just in time, apparently, because when I looked at the wall behind where I had been standing, I saw the black mark the flames had left. She had actually aimed for me. Another small screech left my lips when I saw another flicker whiz by and light the end of a bit of my hair on fire, which I quickly smothered with my hand, which resulted in a whimper as I yanked it away. A beat too late, I remembered I could have used my water to put it out. She was watching me inquisitively.

"What the fuck?" I yelled, too scared to look away from her anymore.

"Just checking." She said, staring at the burnt end of my hair. I knew the smell would be in my nose for the rest of the day.

"What?" I said, bewildered.

In lieu of a response, she lit up both of her hands and lunged at me. I barely ducked away in time, and then my panic response kicked in and I forced myself to look at her. I felt my brain rattle as she grabbed my shoulders and shoved, and then I spun to the side before she could push me into any more brick walls. She didn't slow down, just steeled herself and rammed into me with her shoulder, sending me flying to the ground. I couldn't catch my breath; all the air had been whooshed out of my lungs from the impact. Just when I felt like maybe I'd be able to get a good inhale, Willow dropped down on top of me, using her knees to really dig into my ribs, and my eyes squeezed shut. My elbow was throbbing. The back of my head was bleeding. When I opened my eyes and only saw red, I used all my strength to roll over, forcing Willow off of me, and then I pushed up off my - now bleeding - knees and ran out into the street, hoping she wouldn't attack me out of costume in plain sight.

Either she didn't notice or didn't care, because she kept her eyes on me and took steady steps forward. My heart sped up.

"Willow," I pleaded, "Willow, there are people."

There weren't, not really. The bakery was on a side street that wasn't very popular, but it was off a main street, so while there weren't actually people currently around us or looking at us, it wouldn't be very hard to attract attention if we were putting on a free fire show.

She laughed, shaking her head. "Oh, Junie," She said, fake-sweet, "I don't care. I'm a Villain. I'm evil. I've got nothing to lose. Let them see me. I want them to know who they should be running from."

There couldn't be more than a foot between us, and for the first time, I was terrified to be so close to her.

"Willow..." I said, reaching for her hand.

"Stop."

And I did. Suddenly, I couldn't move. I was stuck. And it wasn't magic. She hadn't created a gadget or a gizmo to control me. She was just Willow, and she was asking me to stop, so I did.

"I'm sorry." I said, and I could have been apologizing for everything in the world with the amount of feeling I put into it.

We stared at each other. I was waiting for another ball of fire to take me out, but it never came. The final blow was when I saw the tears filling her eyes.

"Why didn't you follow me?"