Work, Work, Work
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognizable characters. I receive no profits from this. It is just for fun.
Archiving: Please ask.
Feedback: Constructive Criticism desired.
Beta: None.
Summary: Warning: Stopping the end of the world has a price.
AN – Thoughts are between asterisks - *He’s cute.*
AN – The Scoobies are going to be referred to by their new names since that is how they need to think of themselves at the moment:
Willow Rose W. Wood
Cordelia Hunter C. King
Xander Alec X. Lovell
Buffy Anne B. Winters
AN: Thanks for the Nomination for Best Unfinished Crossover (Comics & X-Men) 2008 CoA - wish I could have gotten this chapter out before the end of Round 1
FYI – Other Award Nominations that this fic has received:
Shadow and Dust Awards
Round 16 - January 2008
Nominated for Reaper Award - Best Death Scene (Only fic nominated in this category)
Nominated for Sorrowful Award - Best Tear Jerker
Nominated for Twisted Award - Best Alternate Reality
Nominated for Wonder Award - Best Unconventional Shipper
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Hunter was fuming. She was livid. She was incensed. She was extremely upset. She was royally pissed. She was also giddy, enthused, elated, and grateful. All for the same reason and because of the same person.
While it was true she’d gotten the Personal Shopper job she’d been hoping to get, and for a fairly wealthy client at that, but it hadn’t been though her newspaper ad that she’d spent so much time on getting the wording just right.
Nooooooo!
Anne got it for her.
Actually, Hunter got the job on her own merit but Anne was responsible for setting up the interview.
This meant that she was on garbage detail for the next 4 weeks for being the last one to get a job. The fact that it was her own fault for making the bet with Anne in the first place had absolutely no relevance to her foul mood for having lost. No, it was the fact that Anne got her own job based on a fluke, a different type than the one Xander and Willow committed.
Anne wasn’t even a sales clerk like she’d been filling out job applications for. Anne got the position of a Personal Trainer for the fairly wealthy woman who ended up giving Hunter her job. All solely based on the woman observing Anne working out at a local gym that they went to because the hotel didn’t have one and they wouldn’t be able to move into the house they were going to rent for another ten days. The woman had noticed Anne doing the Tai Chi stuff Angel had taught her and decided she wanted to learn as well.
Hunter just knew that Anne had recommended her for the Personal Shopper job as a way to rub it in that Hunter had lost the bet. She would have politely turned it down too and then fried Anne’s ass for gloating, if it weren’t for a couple of minor details. One, the salary was nothing short of phenomenal. Two, though Anne hadn’t initially recognized the woman’s face and had only known her first name prior to accepting the personal trainer job, once she heard the woman’s last name she just had to let it drop that her roommate, Hunter, was looking for a job as well.
They had learned a lot about each others’ old lives while they grew back up in the Ether, including people they each admired. Anne knew there was no way Hunter would turn down the chance to work for someone who had been a personal hero to Cordelia Chase. Although the woman was not a personal hero of Buffy Summers, she did remember her being someone of note for setting fashion trends from her time at Hemery when that sort of thing occupied much of her time.
Not only was the woman super rich and thus independent of having to rely on anyone else for support, she was also uber-smart, which explained why Rose also recognized the name when Anne told them who she got a job with. The ability to have that type of life had been Cordelia’s dream back then as the only other future she saw for herself was as a trophy-wife which was only a step above being a high priced call girl in her opinion. And not much of a step either as far as she was concerned. That’s why being an actress had appealed to her then as it gave her a path to that independence that was feasible for her to achieve.
Alyssa Moy had been traveling around the world for the past few years and was now planning on settling in L.A. for a while. That was why she was out hiring staff, assistants and the like.
So Hunter not so grudgingly accepted the job offer and was currently looking through Alyssa’s closets to get an idea of her employer’s likes and dislikes in fashion. The fact that they both wore roughly the same size and build had worked in her favor for getting the job as well. Hunter didn’t even have to use her Elemental nature to adjust her body to be an exact match. So it allowed her to try on some of Alyssa’s things that caught her fancy. To get a better idea of how the clothes would look on Alyssa of course.
Just because she could manifest any outfit she wanted didn’t mean that she didn’t enjoy playing dress-up with actual clothes since all of them had a problem reproducing the feel of real clothing. Plus the Vera Wang Little Black Dress looked absolutely stunning on her along with the three inch silver heeled pumps.
Alyssa and Anne were currently down in the mansion’s newly installed gym doing Alyssa’s preliminary run through of what would become her three times a week session. Once that was done Hunter would head out to do some shopping for a dress that Alyssa needed for a diplomatic ball to be held later in the week. Anne would accompany her, mainly because she had nothing better to do.
Hunter was allowing this even though she was definitely miffed at her sister/cousin/lover for the lost bet and not because Fire and Water were opposites and tended to rub each other the wrong way, though Anne knew how to rub her the right way as well. Alec had advised against their going out alone too often in the event another incident like what happened to Anne occurred. He pointed out that if whoever was trying to push them into crime fighting caused another such occurrence then it would be better all round, especially when it came to the energy drain for using their powers, if they didn’t have to deal with it solo.
Despite the sound logic behind such a decision, Anne still complained about having to have a baby sitter.
Hunter wasn’t too thrilled about it either since both Alec and Rose had jobs to go to so it fell to Hunter by default.
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Alec was enjoying his lunch break. It was his third day on the job and he had already gotten into a working rhythm with his co-workers. Being low man on the totem pole meant he got a lot of the scutt jobs but nothing too onerous or difficult. He was part of the interior finishing crew that made the rooms in the high rise being built look like rooms. That meant he did a lot of fetching of materials or hauling away the refuse from the various jobs the more experienced workers did. He was learning things as well just from watching them.
He was now glad he had applied for the job when he saw the ad in the paper. Somehow, at the time, it had just felt like it would be something he would enjoy rather than being just a job. Working with his hands gave him great satisfaction.
*The girls also seemed to be well satisfied with the way he used his hands,* he thought with a smile just before the whole world seemed to tilt sideways.
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Anne and Hunter had just said goodbye to Alyssa and exited the mansion when they both stopped dead in their tracks.
“Alec’s in trouble,” said Hunter reacting to the psychic impression they both got.
The same type of psychic impression she, Rose, and Alec had gotten when Anne was involved in that shoot out. Apparently, it was another aspect of their having been joined during the ritual that when one of them got hurt, the others were made aware of it.
“You better go help him,” said Anne. “I’ll take the car and head that way as quick as I can but you’ll make better time flying.”
Hunter hesitated only a second before stepping over to the bushes at the side of the entrance way and unzipping her dress.
“We really need to find a way to transform into our Elemental forms without either stripping or shredding our clothes,” she said as her dress puddle around her feet and she stepped out of her shoes. Her bra and panties quickly followed.
Once she was far enough away from her pile of clothes, she said, “Flame on!”
La Flamme quickly rose into the air and streaked off towards Alec’s work site. They had not known where Ann had been when the psychic impression from her had hit them before which is why none of them had shown up at the shoot out site even after they figured out what the psychic impression meant. Since they had dropped him off at work on their way to Alyssa’s, La Flamme knew exactly where to go.
Ann had just finished picking up Hunter’s clothes when she heard a voice from behind her, “You can tell her that if she damaged the Shamrock Japanese Hydrangea, the replacement cost will come out of her paycheck.”
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AN: I just couldn’t resist the irony of including Alyssa into the story. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyssa_Moy for more insight.
AN: I do not own the rights to the phrase ‘Flame on!’ either.
