Title: A Little Girl-Talk
Author: Tonya
Rating: G
Disclaimer: The usuals. Now own…yada yada yada… Joss Whedon… yada yada yada…no sue.
Feedback: “Hello my name is Tonya, and I am a feedbackaholic.”
Summary: Cordy and Fred start to bond. (Get your minds out of the gutters, people!)
“Thanks for inviting me over, Cordelia,” Fred smiled as she got comfortable on Cordelia’s couch. “I was actually kinda shocked when you asked me.”
Cordelia returned to the room, carrying a box of pizza and two cans of soda. “Well, I just got to thinking the other day. All the guys seemed to have bonded, and we’re just kinda… here, you know.”
She sat down across from Fred with a slight smile as she continued, “I mean, you haven’t had any real human contact in five years. And the last time I bonded with an old friend, she turned evil and tried to kill me.”
“Relationships are weird that way,” Fred nodded with agreement as she picked the cheese from her pizza. “You think you know what’s happening, and then, people change. Like in 6th grade when Tina Morris and I were like best friends one week, and then the next week, we couldn’t even stand to be around each other and…”
Fred finally looked up at Cordelia, who simply stared back silently.
“Sorry,” Fred replied sheepishly to Cordelia’s bewildered expression. “I was rambling again, wasn’t I?”
“No, no it’s fine,” Cordelia tried to reassure her. “It’s kinda…”
“Annoying?” Fred finished with an apologetic smile.
Cordelia shrugged. “I was going to say quirky, but hey, it’s your call.”
Fred laughed nervously in response.
“But that was kinda my point. The guys get to bond over their demon slayage so why can’t we? I mean, why should they get all the fun?”
“We’re the wives,” Fred replied, biting into her pizza.
“What?”
“Wives,” she repeated matter-a-factly. “You know, our husbands are off doing the manly thing—fighting evil, saving the day. And we sit at home, baking brownies. Of course, they’re hypothetical brownies since we don’t actually bake.”
“Your mind works in odd ways, Fred.”
Fred simply smiled in response.
“But we are so not wives. We’re important members of the Angel Investigations team. I mean, first of all, visions. Without those bad boys, there would be no saving of the day. And secondly, we research and then we… do more research.” Cordelia sighed, slightly frustrated, and mumbled, “Now I know what Xander felt like.”
“Xander?”
Cordelia waved the question off with her can of soda as she replied, “Long story short, he was some loser I fell for in high school.” She sipped from her drink before continuing, “But enough about me, Fred. I saw you got a letter in the mail from your parents the other day.”
Fred’s eyes brightened at the mention of her parents. “Yeah, they just wanted to check up on me. Make sure I was doing okay,” Fred replied with a smile. “They’re really happy for me. They’re glad that I’ve found a place where I belong, that I’ve met you guys here in LA.”
Cordelia smiled, despite the feelings of jealousy she was beginning to feel in the pit of her stomach. It must have been nice to have supporting, involved parents. Cordelia found it slightly ironic that the quirky girl who had spent a good five years in a demon dimension had a closer relationship with her parents than any other member of the Angel Investigations team.
“That’s great to hear, Fred,” Cordelia managed to say.
“I’m sure your parents are just as thrilled,” Fred said, sipping from her soda. “I mean, their daughter is a messenger for the Powers That Be. That’s a big thing.”
Cordelia cleared her throat in response. “My parents aren’t like yours, Fred. I’m not really close to them.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Cordelia smiled slightly. “Oh, don’t be. I mean, I may not have the parental thing, but I have a great family. I have Angel and Wes and Gunn. And now you, the little annoying sister I never had. I’m all covered on the family issue.”
“You think of me as part of the family?” Fred asked, slightly surprised.
“Yeah, Fred, we all do,” Cordelia replied. “I mean, well… Okay… what I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this room, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Well, Wesley thinks of you in a non-family way.”
Fred simply looked at Cordelia blankly.
“He likes you, Fred.”
“Oh… oh!” Fred replied as the realization of Cordelia’s words finally hit her.
“Exactly. I mean, you’ve had to have noticed, right?”
“I just thought he was being Wesley.”
“Oh come on, Fred,” Cordelia replied with a soft chuckle. “The guy is completely enthralled by you. I mean, you haven’t noticed all the signals?”
“Signals?”
“The way he looks at you. The way he finds some way for you guys to work together. Just little things. You honestly haven’t noticed?”
“Honestly, I haven’t,” Fred replied with a slight shrug. “But neither have you.”
“What?! Wesley and me? No, no, and no. Are you insane?!”
“Not Wesley,” Fred smiled. “Angel.”
“And I’ll repeat-- are you insane?! There are no signals from Angel. Angel is a signal-free zone.”
“You said it yourself, Cordelia. It’s the way he looks at you…”
“He looks at me the same way he’s always looked at me. Okay, there are a few times when it gets weird, but he’s weird at times.”
“What about your training sessions?”
“Aha! That was completely my idea so you got nothing there,” Cordelia smiled triumphantly.
“Okay, how about how he will go to any length to save you? I know Angel’s a champion and hero, and that’s his job and all, but he went to a hell dimension and battled a fellow champion of good just to save you.”
Cordelia stared at Fred, finally silent. The girl was insane. There was no way that Angel felt that way about her. Yes, he had been acting a little weirder around her lately, but she had chosen to accept it as part of Angel’s ever-changing personality. Yes, he had a tendency to swoop in and save her from the big bad, but that was in his job description-- helping the beautiful damsel in distress. None of it meant anything. It was just Angel being Angel… right?
“Cordelia?” Fred finally asked as they continued to sit in silence.
Cordelia finally stopped reanalyzing her relationship with Angel as she turned her attention back to Fred. “Um, Fred? Can we never mention this conversation around the guys?”
Fred nodded with a smile. “Your secret’s safe with me, Cordelia,” she replied as she took another bite from her pizza.
Cordelia smirked at the girl in response. She really was the annoying little sister Cordelia had never had.