won't you be my girlfriend
That first day? She hadn't been ready; she hadn't even known she'd need to be ready. Girls like her, like Cordelia Chase, they aren't the kinds of girls who think to worry about going to school.
The first time she heard the whispers, the quiet laughter, Cordelia had thought it was about someone else, some geek or another who was following in her wake. It wasn't an unrealistic thought; Cordelia had always been one to attract a bevy of loyal acolytes and she'd certainly had her fair share of loser-like stalkers. She didn't realize the laughter was about her until after Harmony --that back-stabbing wannabe- walked her over to the tiny geek with the Big Gulp, effectively ruining her day and making her all-too-aware of how far the mighty had fallen thanks to one Xander Harris and one Willow Rosenbarf.
By the time she got propositioned by John Lee --what a toad! Ugh! To think she'd almost agreed to go out with him for a smoothie date!- Cordelia was ready to commit acts of grievous bodily harm for the damage to her carefully cultivated reputation. She considered all the usual go-to revenge scenarios for her role of scorned ex-girlfriend but rejected them pretty quickly as they all revolved around the idea that Xander had something worth losing. It was no secret Cordelia had been the best thing Harris had ever had going for him and the real joke was clearly that he had been the one to betray her regardless of the fact.
No.
Cordelia wasn't going to go after Xander. He'd made his bed. She was just going to make sure he didn't get to lay in it. At least not with Willow; not if Cordelia had anything to say about it.
"Willow!"
The girl gave a squeak of shock before stopping. She was clutching her books to her chest like life preservers; she couldn't have looked more scared if she'd been trying. Cordelia forced a bright smile while taking in the pathetic sneakers, dated tights, too-long-to-be-short skirt, and grotesquely atrocious sweater---thing Willow was wearing.
"Come with me. I need a girl's opinion and since you effectively ensured that no girl with a shred of reputation to lose will ever speak to me again: I think you owe me."
"Cor-Cordelia! I can. Sure! I can help. What kind of opinion?"
It was too easy. Cordelia resisted the urge to roll her eyes and instead turned to walk down the hall, confident that Willow would follow where she led. She took them into the far girls' room, the one where the most deaths had occurred and thus the least used in the school. Going over to the mirror, Cordelia inspected her reflection before taking out her lipstick to give herself an excuse to keep her back to Willow.
She didn't have a plan from this point out. All she knew was that she wanted to find a way to keep Willow from falling into Xander's arms immediately after he dumped her because then at least she'd know he wasn't with the geek of his dreams while she was alone. Cordelia was going to start by planting the seeds of discontent in Willow's head, convince the little geek she really didn't want to be with a guy who'd cheat on his girlfriend with the first dorkette who came along...but then she noticed the way Willow was looking at her.
"Cordelia?"
Cordelia caught Willow's eyes in the mirror and deliberately licked her lips. Willow tracked the movement of her tongue with her eyes; her grip on her books tightened enough to whiten all the knuckles on both her hands. Cordelia stretched, showing off a hint of toned tummy.
"Willow?"
She was staring at Cordelia's top as if she expected it to spontaneously rise up again if she wished hard enough with her witchy brain. Cordelia thought about that long enough to make the hair stand up on her body and cause a little shiver to run through her. She could have fun with those kinds of witchy powers.
"What did you want my opinion for?"
"I thought I told you already. Because your bitchtacular move to steal my boyfriend cost me all my girlfriends and a girl has to have girlfriends. You know that right? You're normal enough to know what having girlfriends is like?"
Willow didn't know, couldn't know because the only girl she'd ever been friends with had been Buffy Summers and Buffy was far from normal. Cordelia knew that too. In fact, she was counting on it.
Willow stammered, huffed, "Of course, I know what girlfriends are like. I have friends. Have had friends who are girls. I could be your girlfriend."
Her cheeks flushed a painful shade of pink when she said it; Cordelia would have bet her best Prada backpack the witch's panties got a little wetter too. She had always figured Willow for a freak but she'd never guessed her for kinky-freaky. If she hadn't guessed it, chances were really good neither had Xander and that would be all the better.
Cordelia had a feeling this would be one surprise he definitely wouldn't see coming.
He cheated on her with Willow? Fine. Willow could cheat on him with her. See how he liked it.
"Good! That's settled then. Now, we'll just be girlfriends. You can do all the normal girlfriend things with me since I've lost all mine and I'll---I'll be your fashion consultant. It's the least I can do for my best girlfriend, right?"
Honestly? Being Willow's fashion consultant would be the best thing Cordelia could do ever because that girl's clothes could cause an apocalypse all on their own. She should win a Nobel or something for even making the attempt.
Willow nodded eager as a puppy. The innocent wonder on her face almost made Cordelia change her mind, call the whole thing off and just be nice to the girl already...but then she remembered the way that John Lee had offered her a pity fuck somewhere out-of-the-way and the doubt crept away as silently as it had come.
"First: take off your tights."
Willow jerked back, "What?"
"The tights. Lose them. They're horrible and so out they were never even in."
She waited while Willow set her books on the nearest sink and rolled her tights off while obviously trying not to let her skirt slip up to show Cordelia her panties. That was no good. Cordelia had been hoping for something a little easier to work with.
Stepping up behind Willow while she tried to slip her shoes back on, Cordelia started carefully pleat-rolling Willow's skirt up. Her palms flattening into Willow's stomach and around her sides every time she straightened her meticulous work. Cordelia knew that, in fashion, the art was in the details; from the sound of Willow's breathing, the witch felt much the same way about having Cordelia's hands on her body.
"Cordelia?" she whispered.
Cordelia smiled softly to the back of Willow's head, "I'm fixing your skirt, silly. It can't look bunched. That's just tacky. Trust me. With legs like yours, you want to show 'em off a bit."
She turned Willow around to face her, inspect her work. The skirt was still horrible but at least it wasn't as horrible. Losing the tights had done a lot for her.
"You think so? I mean. My legs are good? Good legs?"
Willow was looking at Cordelia's legs. She spread them a little to offer more of a distraction while she took care of the hideously offensive sweater. Willow was so distracted by the amount of thigh Cordelia was showing, she didn't notice Cordelia was taking her sweater off until it had cleared her head, fanning her hair out wildly around her startled face.
"Hey! I can't! Cordy, you know I can't go out there like this!"
"Like what?" Cordelia challenged, oddly thrilled that Willow had called her by Xander's nickname, "Like someone who isn't a fashion reject? The tank looks fine. The skirt looks way better and yeah, your legs are killer. We need to get you better lingerie though."
The shock on Willow's face was slowly fading, a flush creeping in to take its place.
"Lingerie? Like panties and bras? Oh I don't know, Cordy. I just wear whatever. Nobody sees them anyway, right?"
Right. Nobody had seen them and, if Cordelia had anything to say about it, nobody --except herself- was going to see them.
"You're so silly, Willow!" Cordelia gave a coy laugh, "You don't wear nice lingerie for someone else! You wear them for you. To make you feel sexy and good about yourself."
She rubbed her palm from her knee up her thigh to show off the side of her own black silk undies. The way Willow's eyes changed to follow her movement --tracking her hand, pupils dilating to take it all in- made Cordelia feel sexier than she ever had before, even sexier than the first time she'd show her panties to Xander and he had certainly been eager enough to show his appreciation. Cordelia had a feeling that Willow would agree that her plain white day-of-the-week wear was no match for a little silk and lace.
"I already feel good about myself," Willow said shakily.
Cordelia pushed her skirt up higher, showed off the full front of her lacy bottoms, and stepped close enough to let Willow feel the softness of the silk against her own newly-exposed legs. Cordelia had done a lot of wild, reckless things with boys but she'd never done anything this wild and reckless with another girl before. She certainly hadn't imagined it would feel this...this good. She had counted on the thrill of seeing Xander's face fall while he watched her kiss his new girlfriend but she hadn't counted on the thrill of how it would feel to have Willow so obviously wanting her to kiss her.
"But do you feel sexy?" Cordelia heard herself ask.
A heartbeat passed between them, a heady throb of pulse and life that could have been Cordelia's, might have been Willow's, but was most likely shared between them as a thick, red rush of life.
"No," Willow answered back, hands coming up hesitantly to rest on the curves of Cordelia's hips.
Cordelia leaned forward and whispered against Willow's lips, "We're going to work on that. That's what real girlfriends do, you know? Make each other feel their best."
"Their sexy best?"
Cordelia laughed, kissed Willow quicker than she shockingly wanted to, and stepped back to offer her lipstick to the witch, "Absolutely. Their sexy best. Try this. I thought it would look good on you."
Willow took it and licked at her lips in a half-echo of the gesture Cordelia had made in the mirror. She looked like she'd seen some sort of light, found some epiphany from a glimpse of Cordelia's silk panties and tasteful cosmetics.
"Okay. If you say so, Cordy."
Oh yeah. This was going to be fun. Maybe even more fun than she'd thought.
Cordelia smiled a very real smile at Willow as she turned to start carefully putting on the borrowed make-up.
Xander Harris wouldn't know what hit him.