fandomtownies | Luke's Diner, Monday Night

Beka walked briskly across campus to Luke's Diner to meet with Lily. When she arrived, she saw the pretty redhead sitting in a booth by the window, and slid into the seat opposite her.

"Hey. Am I late?"

Snapping out of her haze, Lily looks up and smiles. "Right on time, Beka. I'm just usually early."

"How have you been?"

Beka studied Lily carefully. The smile looked a touch wan, and she'd clearly been distracted. "Glad I didn't keep you waiting. Hate to do that to a friend." She gave Lily a warm smile.

"Been pretty good." True enough. Bad dreams on the one hand, great sex with Angelus on the other. "How about you?"

"Oh, as well as can be expected." Lily wasn't in the mood for details, even though that's why she had asked Beka to dinner in the first place.

She laughs softly at herself. "Was that vague enough for you?"

"Hey, I'm easy. ~~In subtext anyway.~~ Pretty good at listening, too." She let her gaze slide slightly off Lily's eyes so she wouldn't feel challenged, or like she had to talk if she didn't want to.

Lily wonders why she feels compelled to talk to Beka, even though they still hardly know one another. She looks down at the table and plays with the edge of her napkin.

"Thanks. That means a lot," she says finally, looking up and attempting another smile.

"I just haven't felt quite right the past few days... but I haven't been able to pinpoint a reason for it."

"Right, well, first thing we do is get you a chocolate milkshake. That fixes everything." Beka gave her an understanding smile. "Any chance the emo is hormonal?"

Eyes widening just a little at the direct line of questioning, Lily laughed. "Yes, actually. And a chocolate milkshake just might do the trick now that you mention it." This time her smile was sincere.

Without thinking, she lowered her voice and said, "I'm relieved, too. Could have been a bit of a problem if the hormonal emo hadn't shown up on schedule."

A gently arched eyebrow accompanied a sympathetic look. "And you don't know why you're feeling out of sorts? Hold that thought, ~~baby~~. let's get that chocolate going."

Beka signalled for an NPC to come over and take their orders. "Two chocolate milkshakes. For me, a swiss cheeseburger, rare, fries, extra crisp, and an extra pickle. Please?" She gave an endearing smile to the wait-person. "Lily, what about you?"

"Chicken caesar salad, please. Thanks."

She turned back to Beka and gave herself the lecture. "I know, I know - I even worked at the clinic and stressed the importance of protection and then... it just didn't even cross my mind at the time!" A faint blush made its way into her cheeks. "I was so angry at myself. Just... not what I wanted to be thinking about the next day, you know?" Absently, she started playing with her napkin again.

Beka studied her. "Well. I wasn't going to go there with it. But I'm glad you know you need to be careful. It's over now, and you'll be careful next time." A long sip of water and then she asked, "Will there be a next time?"

Lily was silent for what seemed like a long time. "Probably," she said slowly. "I mean... he definitely wants to."

Beka listened to all the things Lily wasn't saying. For a long moment, she held Lily's gaze, then said, "But you're not so sure?"

"I can't seem to be sure about anything these days," Lily said with a sigh. She took a moment to think of exactly how much detail she wanted to reveal.

She lowered her voice and continued, "It was... my first time. With anyone. And it has to be better next time, right? Because this time really just sort of... hurt." She looked at Beka half-pleading for the girl to give her all the answers.

Oh jeez. Her first time, and Draco probably hadn't done it more than a handful of times himself. Recipe for disaster. Beka kept her face carefully neutral and her tone comforting.

"It always hurts the first time. How much depends on your body, your partner's size, and skill. It's better the next time, and with a little practice..." She can't help thinking of Angelus, and how talented he is after so many years, and how good it is with him. "It can be wonderful."

Lily looked considerably more hopeful after hearing that. "Practice? I'm sure Draco will have no objections to that," she said with a wry smile, as the waiter brought out their food.

Beka bit into a pickle, crunching it thoughtfully. "If he had objections, then I'd worry. But what about you, Lily? Do you have objections?"

Lily sipped her milkshake, her salad still untouched.

"I think I'd like to get to the point where it's 'wonderful'," she said at last. "Most other parts of our relationship are wonderful..."

Thankful for the physiology that let her eat whatever she want, Beka ate her cheeseburger in silence a moment, listening again to the things Lily wasn't saying. She washed down her food with a sip of water, then fixed Lily with a serious look. "Most? More lying?"

"More? No." Lily sighed and played with her straw. "Not that I'm aware of anyway. But we never really talked about the original problem... We just sort of made up and then I might have told him I loved him, which I thought was a bad plan as soon as I said it, but then he said it back. And then there was Jonathan..."

"The whole 'I love you' thing is kind of overrated, Lily. It's easy to say and much harder to do. Talking about the stuff between you is important," Beka said calmly, as if she were some sort of expert on the subject. But she supposed, given that Angelus and Bel were the closest thing she had to love right now, and she was truthful with them, she was at least minimally qualified. "What about Jonathan?"

Another sigh. "Well... Jonathan is Jonathan. He's always around, and he's nice and I like him well enough, but sometimes I wish he weren't joined at the hip with my boyfriend." She sipped her milkshake and attempted a joke, "That's my job, right?"

Returning to serious mode, she added, "And it's difficult to be sure, but sometimes I think he might be coming on to me. He makes these comments occasionally... Which is not on, considering he's supposed to be Draco's best friend. But then Draco gets all protective and possessive... I like that part," Lily admitted.

Beka smiled. "Yeah. Don't tell anyone, but I occasionally like that, too. As for Jonathon, well..." A blonde eyebrow arched mischievously. "Threesomes can be fun, but you might want to wait til, oh, at least your third time?" She sipped her chocolate milkshake innocently.

"Beka! I can't believe you just said that!" Lily blushed furiously and quickly looked down at the table. Not that it hadn't crossed her mind - but you know, in a wondering-about-logistics sort of way rather than actually considering it an option.

Rich, warm laughter bubbled up. "C'mon, Lily, you read the gossip column. Me, Phoebe and Bel?" She winked. "Y'know, then there's the ever popular teasing about me, Angelus and Bel."

"Right," she responded, "but still. I'm trying to eat!" Lily laughed as she took a first bite of her salad. She was glad to finally feel her appetite returning.

Curiousity peaked now, Lily asked, "Bel's with Phoebe, right? But what about Angelus? Any shred of truth behind those rumors?"

Beka threw up her hands in mock-offense. "You want me to screw and tell?"

Very deliberately, she picked up her burger. Ate. Then replied, "Bel and Phoebe and I are very close. We're not a threesome in the conventional sense, no. If you're asking about me and Angelus, then yes. I'm by no means the only one. Not even his favorite playmate. Still. I'd consider him one of my closest friends."

Lily nodded as Beka finished speaking. "Didn't mean to pry - just wondering," she explained. "I like Angelus - he's been kind to me."

"It's OK, Lily," Beka said with a bright smile. "It's not like I've made a secret out of the fact that I'm hot for Angelus. Hell, Parker made it a campaign issue for StuCo. That aside? Angelus is..."

Hmm. What to say? "Angelus is strong. Smart. Provocative. A brilliant leader. He thinks for the long term. He can be kind or cruel when it suits him, and perform acts of enormous beauty. He's also deadly." Remembering the moment in her room when she'd feared, really feared him again, her voice grew quiet. Calm. "Don't forget that."

Lily could feel the mood in the whole room change. "I'll remember," she responded, with a questioning look, wondering what had brought that out.

Beka waved off the question with a game smile. "I trust him more than I should, but I'm not an idiot about what he is. And I don't want my friends do be either. That's all."

"Duly noted," Lily said, finishing off her milkshake.

She looked at Beka for a moment before adding, "Also, if you're considering me a friend now - and I'm definitely considering you one - there's something I should tell you. You know Draco's a wizard, right? I'm a witch - of the same variety."

She supposed she should be more surprised than she was. "Witch, huh? I did know about Draco, and Potter. So I probably should've guessed. Cool by me. I pick my friends by who they are and how they treat me. Not what they are. Obviously." Witch. Bel. Fuck.

Very casually, she said with a smile, "Since we're friends, you should have a way of getting in touch with me if you need me. Got a pen? I'll give you my cell."

"Sure." Lily smiled and dug a pen out of one of her pockets and grabbed a napkin, ready to take down the information.

Beka gave her the numbers, one at a time, slowly. "4. 3. 7. 6. 6. 6. 9. Want to repeat that back to me to make sure you've got it?"

Lily wrote the numbers carefully, then repeated, "437-6669. Got it. I would give you my cell if I had one - I'm not too up on the latest technology. But you know my room phone, right?"

"Best you give it to me. I'll put it in my Flexis." Beka pulled out a flimsy PDA-like device. "Unless you have a spell or something for quick contact?"

Luke's Diner, Monday Night

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