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carlyinromeTITLE: The Heart Stone
RATING: PG-13
FANDOM: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
PAIRING: Kendra/OFC
SUMMARY: It is Kendra's 18th birthday, and she is going to die.
AUTHOR’S NOTES: Written for the
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
femslash_minis Kendra round for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
kwritten who requested Kendra with a Cordette in a non-Buffy universe with high school politics and a reversal of the knight/damsel relationship, without hyper-feminine politics or Xander.It is Kendra's 18th birthday, and she is stuck inside the meat locker in the Sunnydale High kitchen, with a pissed off vamp outside clawing to get in.
It is Kendra's 18th birthday, and she is going to die.
***
Six months ago, Kendra sat outside the principal's office at Sunnydale High, waiting for the mandatory orientation for new students. Mr. Zabuto was dead three months, and Kendra had been in the US with Mr. Giles for ten weeks. Kendra already hated it here.
She sat in the unpleasantly ergonomic chair outside the principal's office in her cargo pants and old boots and one shirt. Beside her, a girl flipped through the pages of the packet each new student had been given. It wasn't hard for Kendra to figure out where this girl fit in. In school, Kendra hugged the walls and hid her face behind books at the back of the classroom; this girl, with her short, designer skirt and her perfect makeup and her delicate fragrance, she was a popular girl. She was one of the blossoms the boys and less popular girls buzzed around like bees desperate for a taste of sweet nectar. A Cordette, they were called here, for their allegiance to Cordelia Chase.
Most of the Cordettes had this air of quiet desperation about them, Kendra thought; they all wanted to be Cordelia, and, failing that, they wanted to be as close to her sun as possible. This girl wasn't like that, though. She appeared calm, confident. She would fit in with the Cordettes because she was something fine, not because she strove for it.
Kendra studied the way the girl’s glossy dark hair fell against her neck, the slender bones of her hands, the practiced line of the fig colored lipstick accenting her mouth. Kendra didn't want to be her, the way the Cordettes wanted to be Cordelia. But she did want to be near her; her mouth watered for a taste of sweet nectar, and she lowered her eyes as she blushed.
The girl turned to her.
“Hi,” she said, and smiled. “I'm Li Ying.”
***
Kendra's fingers are numb. Her teeth chatter so hard her jaw aches. There is frost in her hair and her muscles are contracting from the cold.
Kendra's fingers are numb, and so she fumbles with her cell phone, dialing the numbers. Her battery is at 3%. Only time for one call.
She gets Li Ying’s voicemail. Kendra listens to the pleasant woodwind note of Li Ying's voice over the phone's speaker. She breathes, fogging the air.
The voicemail instructs her to leave a message. Kendra is not one given to overt displays of emotion, but if there is a time, it is now.
“Li Ying,” Kendra says, “thank you. I will miss you most of all.” Then, hesitantly, words she has never said before, not to anyone. “I love you.”
***
Kendra was not to talk to boys, but Li Ying was a girl. Kendra took a seat next to her in biology. Li Ying smiled at her, offered her a piece of strawberry gum. Kendra stuffed the candy in her mouth in lieu of talking. Its sweetness flooded her senses as she watched the hem of Li Ying’s skirt inch up as she crossed her legs.
“It's Kendra, right?” Li Ying asked as class let out.
Kendra swallowed so hard she almost choked on the gum.
“Yes.”
Li Ying’s gum snapped against her teeth; she blew a pink bubble, round and perfect.
“You should come out with us sometime,” she said, and walked out the door, leaving Kendra with the sticky sweetness tangling around her tongue, leaving her speechless
***
Kendra less avoided Li Ying than kept a wary distance without looking away, the way you might act with a tiger in the room. She was like that. Beautiful, terrifying.
Kendra walked to class one day through the courtyard. The sky opened up suddenly, and the rain soaked her through. She started to run, the rain half blinding her, and when she reached the covered walkway, she bumped right into a solid body, knocking them both to the floor.
Kendra blinked the water from her eyes. When the world came back into focus, she was appalled to find that she had knocked down Li Ying. There was a wet, Kendra-shaped spot on the front of Li Ying’s dress, and they were both on the ground. Li Ying’s knee was scraped and had just starting to bleed. Kendra was nauseous. She started to scramble to her feet, then realized she should help Li Ying up. She extended a hand, but had forgotten to brace for the weight, and they ended up back on the ground again.
Kendra wished for the hell mouth beneath their feet to open up and swallow her.
And then Li Ying started to laugh.
“I was wondering how I was going to get us together,” she said.
Li Ying came to her feet, then helped Kendra up, her hands on Kendra's arms, on her waist. For a moment they were breaths apart, and Kendra could see her reflection in Li Ying’s eyes and smell the water lily note of her perfume.
“There,” Li Ying said, and she smiled. “Isn't that better?”
***
The freezer door shakes and rumbles as the vampire outside tries to get in. Kendra knows that, even if her powers had not been suddenly stripped from her, she is not in the best shape to be facing a vampire without a weapon. But it is becoming hard to breathe, and she knows it is almost the end for her. What remains is how she chooses to end it, and she refuses to die huddled for warmth in the freezer of a high school cafeteria.
Kendra rubs her hands together, trying to urge the last of their life into them. For a moment, she can feel some sensation other than the biting cold; for a moment, they stop shaking. Kendra takes a breath. She pulls out the pin locking the door from the inside, and with fire burning through her frozen muscles, she pulls open the door.
The vampire’s fists are bloody from pounding at the door, its fingernails torn from scratching to get to her. He is a head taller than her and weighs at least twice as much.
Kendra kicks him square in the chest with all the power she can muster. It's not a lot, but it's enough that it surprises him, at least, giving her time to run to the butcher's block and pick up a cleaver. She can't possibly outrun him in this state, and she'll be damned if she's going out without a fight.
The vampire springs at her, pushing her against the counter. He holds the wrist of the knife hand, and all Kendra can do is struggle to get it back so she has some chance of survival. She kicks at his stomach, twisting in his grasp. She headbutts his cheekbone, causing him to howl. He slams her against the counter, hard, and she loses her breath.
“I'm going to enjoy this,” he says.
He holds her arms, presses her against the counter. The vampire bares his fangs, leans in to bite her neck. Before he can, Kendra bites his ear. Blood fills her mouth, disgustingly thick and hot and metallic. She chokes, and spits the ear out in his face. The vampire folds, screaming, holding the bleeding hole where his ear used to be. Kendra runs, blood slippery on the concrete floor beneath her boots. She grabs at the counters to steady herself, and half runs half stumbles out of the kitchen.
***
Kendra didn’t know much about romance. It was not essential to her training. She was given to Mr. Zabuto as an infant, and he, too, forewent romantic attachment in favor of training. Maybe she should prepare rice and taro leaf to celebrate their union. But did they have a union, really? It was just a date.
Her first date.
Kendra washed her hair, oiled and braided it. She brushed cemetery mud off her boots, and fluffed her one shirt in the dryer so it would smell all fabric softenery. She checked the time obsessively, and left ten minutes early, anyway; it was the only way to get this tight feeling out of her chest.
It was mid-evening, and starting to get cool out. Kendra waited for Li Ying outside an ice cream parlor, hands in her pockets. She expected to wait a long time, or at least for it to feel like it, but it was only minutes before she sees Li Ying crossing the street, waving. Kendra straightened, and Li Ying hurried to meet her.
“So,” Li Ying says. “What should we do?”
***
There was a shop down the street that sold spellwork gems for necklaces and knockoff Ojibwe dreamcatchers to hang from rearview mirrors. Still, it was someplace they could go, just the two of them. Li Ying ran her fingers over the trays of gemstones, wrinkling her nose at the incense and stopping every so often to examine something further. She picked up a tiger’s eye.
“Pretty,” she said. “For you?”
Tiger’s eyes increase focus, which is good for a Slayer, but they also bring change. Kendra did not want this to change. She plucked up an emerald, placed it in Li Ying’s palm.
Emeralds open and feed the heart. Emeralds for successful love.
“For you,” Kendra said.
***
Li Ying held her hair back as Kendra clasped the emerald necklace around Li Ying’s pale, graceful neck. She was nervous and her finger slipped, resting for a moment right over Li Ying’s pulse point. Her heart was going just as fast as Kendra’s was.
Li Ying swept her hair back in place in one elegant, effortless gesture, and then centered the emerald above her heart.
“Thank you,” she said, and she leaned close and kissed Kendra.
Kendra closed her eyes. She always felt like she needed to be doing something, like action was the answer for everything, but now it was just so nice to receive. Li Ying wrapped her arms around Kendra, and she kissed her with passion until they were both heady. When they pulled apart, the little edges of Li Ying’s emerald necklace had pressed geometries into their flesh, right above the heart.
***
Kendra was patrolling one evening, and came upon Li Ying sitting on the stone wall of a gate, waiting for her.
“You—you should not be here,” Kendra said. “You could be hurt, or—”
Li Ying rolled her eyes. She hopped down from the gate, kept pace with Kendra as she stomped off. “I’ve got the Slayer to protect me, don’t I?”
Kendra frowned. “You are not supposed to know. No one is supposed to know.”
“My father knew a Slayer, back in China. A great aunt. She died before he was born, but we still celebrate her.” Kendra did not speak, so Li Ying added, “Don’t worry; most people are so wrapped up in their own lives that they’ll never figure it out.”
Kendra’s eyes narrowed. “You figured it out.”
Li Ying grinned. “Yeah, well—I have, shall we say, a prurient interest in you.”
“I don’t know what that word means.”
“I’ve been studying for the SATs,” Li Ying laughed. “Anyway, I would be happy to provide a demonstration.”
Kendra looked around. The cemetery was still. Certainly it would be harmless to go with Li Ying for a little study session...
***
It was not a study session. It was not harmless.
They snuck in Li Ying’s room, climbing up the trellis and into her open window. They left the window open, the cool night air drifting in.
Li Ying was taking off her shoes and letting her hair down. She was going to the closet and coming out wearing expensive lace lingerie and nothing else.
“Where are your books?” Kendra asked. Li Ying grinned. “I told you, this is more ... show and tell.”
Li Ying’s languid eyes were on her, a question hidden in their depths. Kendra did not know what the question was, but she knew the answer would be yes.
“Do you want to take your clothes off, too?” Li Ying asked.
It was not a study session. It was not harmless.
What it was, was amazing.
***
It is Kendra's 18th birthday, and she is running through the halls of Sunnydale High School. She can hear the vampire roar; she knows he is coming for her. There's no chance to outrun him. Kendra breaks the security glass for the firefighters with her elbow. The remaining glass cuts at her hands as she extracts the axe.
Kendra holds her ground. The vampire enters the hallway, growling and screaming and cursing her name. Kendra holds her ground, and when he comes close enough, she swings the axe with every bit of strength she has left. The axe blade lodges itself in his shoulder. He screams in pain, but it's not enough to deter him. The vampire grabs Kendra by her ponytail and pulls her up, throws her against the wall. Glass cuts her. She is bleeding. The vampire pulls the axe from his shoulder and holds it like a baseball bat. Prepares to swing. Kendra closes her eyes.
And after a moment, opens them. The axe never fell. Before her, the vampire pulls a funny face, and then crumples to the ground, the axe clattering to the floor.
Where he was standing one moment before stands Li Ying in her short skirt and the delicate, strappy heels that would fold under her weight were she not feather light. There is a little pink box in her hand. Her eyes are wide.
“Are you okay?” she asks, extending a hand. Kendra takes it, then falls against Li Ying, lets her take her weak muscled weight.
“What is that?” Kendra asks of the box in Li Ying's hand as the two of them limp to the door.
“It's a taser,” Li Ying says. “A girl's got to protect herself.”
“Why is it pink?” Kendra asks, boggling, and Li Ying laughs.
***
It is Kendra’s 18th birthday, and she is on Li Ying’s bed wrapped in blankets and quilts and Li Ying’s arms. Kendra is wearing Li Ying’s pajamas and Li Ying is wearing the emerald, and everything is warm and quiet and safe.
It is Kendra’s 18th birthday, and she is going to live.
It is Kendra's 18th birthday, and she is going to die.
***
Six months ago, Kendra sat outside the principal's office at Sunnydale High, waiting for the mandatory orientation for new students. Mr. Zabuto was dead three months, and Kendra had been in the US with Mr. Giles for ten weeks. Kendra already hated it here.
She sat in the unpleasantly ergonomic chair outside the principal's office in her cargo pants and old boots and one shirt. Beside her, a girl flipped through the pages of the packet each new student had been given. It wasn't hard for Kendra to figure out where this girl fit in. In school, Kendra hugged the walls and hid her face behind books at the back of the classroom; this girl, with her short, designer skirt and her perfect makeup and her delicate fragrance, she was a popular girl. She was one of the blossoms the boys and less popular girls buzzed around like bees desperate for a taste of sweet nectar. A Cordette, they were called here, for their allegiance to Cordelia Chase.
Most of the Cordettes had this air of quiet desperation about them, Kendra thought; they all wanted to be Cordelia, and, failing that, they wanted to be as close to her sun as possible. This girl wasn't like that, though. She appeared calm, confident. She would fit in with the Cordettes because she was something fine, not because she strove for it.
Kendra studied the way the girl’s glossy dark hair fell against her neck, the slender bones of her hands, the practiced line of the fig colored lipstick accenting her mouth. Kendra didn't want to be her, the way the Cordettes wanted to be Cordelia. But she did want to be near her; her mouth watered for a taste of sweet nectar, and she lowered her eyes as she blushed.
The girl turned to her.
“Hi,” she said, and smiled. “I'm Li Ying.”
***
Kendra's fingers are numb. Her teeth chatter so hard her jaw aches. There is frost in her hair and her muscles are contracting from the cold.
Kendra's fingers are numb, and so she fumbles with her cell phone, dialing the numbers. Her battery is at 3%. Only time for one call.
She gets Li Ying’s voicemail. Kendra listens to the pleasant woodwind note of Li Ying's voice over the phone's speaker. She breathes, fogging the air.
The voicemail instructs her to leave a message. Kendra is not one given to overt displays of emotion, but if there is a time, it is now.
“Li Ying,” Kendra says, “thank you. I will miss you most of all.” Then, hesitantly, words she has never said before, not to anyone. “I love you.”
***
Kendra was not to talk to boys, but Li Ying was a girl. Kendra took a seat next to her in biology. Li Ying smiled at her, offered her a piece of strawberry gum. Kendra stuffed the candy in her mouth in lieu of talking. Its sweetness flooded her senses as she watched the hem of Li Ying’s skirt inch up as she crossed her legs.
“It's Kendra, right?” Li Ying asked as class let out.
Kendra swallowed so hard she almost choked on the gum.
“Yes.”
Li Ying’s gum snapped against her teeth; she blew a pink bubble, round and perfect.
“You should come out with us sometime,” she said, and walked out the door, leaving Kendra with the sticky sweetness tangling around her tongue, leaving her speechless
***
Kendra less avoided Li Ying than kept a wary distance without looking away, the way you might act with a tiger in the room. She was like that. Beautiful, terrifying.
Kendra walked to class one day through the courtyard. The sky opened up suddenly, and the rain soaked her through. She started to run, the rain half blinding her, and when she reached the covered walkway, she bumped right into a solid body, knocking them both to the floor.
Kendra blinked the water from her eyes. When the world came back into focus, she was appalled to find that she had knocked down Li Ying. There was a wet, Kendra-shaped spot on the front of Li Ying’s dress, and they were both on the ground. Li Ying’s knee was scraped and had just starting to bleed. Kendra was nauseous. She started to scramble to her feet, then realized she should help Li Ying up. She extended a hand, but had forgotten to brace for the weight, and they ended up back on the ground again.
Kendra wished for the hell mouth beneath their feet to open up and swallow her.
And then Li Ying started to laugh.
“I was wondering how I was going to get us together,” she said.
Li Ying came to her feet, then helped Kendra up, her hands on Kendra's arms, on her waist. For a moment they were breaths apart, and Kendra could see her reflection in Li Ying’s eyes and smell the water lily note of her perfume.
“There,” Li Ying said, and she smiled. “Isn't that better?”
***
The freezer door shakes and rumbles as the vampire outside tries to get in. Kendra knows that, even if her powers had not been suddenly stripped from her, she is not in the best shape to be facing a vampire without a weapon. But it is becoming hard to breathe, and she knows it is almost the end for her. What remains is how she chooses to end it, and she refuses to die huddled for warmth in the freezer of a high school cafeteria.
Kendra rubs her hands together, trying to urge the last of their life into them. For a moment, she can feel some sensation other than the biting cold; for a moment, they stop shaking. Kendra takes a breath. She pulls out the pin locking the door from the inside, and with fire burning through her frozen muscles, she pulls open the door.
The vampire’s fists are bloody from pounding at the door, its fingernails torn from scratching to get to her. He is a head taller than her and weighs at least twice as much.
Kendra kicks him square in the chest with all the power she can muster. It's not a lot, but it's enough that it surprises him, at least, giving her time to run to the butcher's block and pick up a cleaver. She can't possibly outrun him in this state, and she'll be damned if she's going out without a fight.
The vampire springs at her, pushing her against the counter. He holds the wrist of the knife hand, and all Kendra can do is struggle to get it back so she has some chance of survival. She kicks at his stomach, twisting in his grasp. She headbutts his cheekbone, causing him to howl. He slams her against the counter, hard, and she loses her breath.
“I'm going to enjoy this,” he says.
He holds her arms, presses her against the counter. The vampire bares his fangs, leans in to bite her neck. Before he can, Kendra bites his ear. Blood fills her mouth, disgustingly thick and hot and metallic. She chokes, and spits the ear out in his face. The vampire folds, screaming, holding the bleeding hole where his ear used to be. Kendra runs, blood slippery on the concrete floor beneath her boots. She grabs at the counters to steady herself, and half runs half stumbles out of the kitchen.
***
Kendra didn’t know much about romance. It was not essential to her training. She was given to Mr. Zabuto as an infant, and he, too, forewent romantic attachment in favor of training. Maybe she should prepare rice and taro leaf to celebrate their union. But did they have a union, really? It was just a date.
Her first date.
Kendra washed her hair, oiled and braided it. She brushed cemetery mud off her boots, and fluffed her one shirt in the dryer so it would smell all fabric softenery. She checked the time obsessively, and left ten minutes early, anyway; it was the only way to get this tight feeling out of her chest.
It was mid-evening, and starting to get cool out. Kendra waited for Li Ying outside an ice cream parlor, hands in her pockets. She expected to wait a long time, or at least for it to feel like it, but it was only minutes before she sees Li Ying crossing the street, waving. Kendra straightened, and Li Ying hurried to meet her.
“So,” Li Ying says. “What should we do?”
***
There was a shop down the street that sold spellwork gems for necklaces and knockoff Ojibwe dreamcatchers to hang from rearview mirrors. Still, it was someplace they could go, just the two of them. Li Ying ran her fingers over the trays of gemstones, wrinkling her nose at the incense and stopping every so often to examine something further. She picked up a tiger’s eye.
“Pretty,” she said. “For you?”
Tiger’s eyes increase focus, which is good for a Slayer, but they also bring change. Kendra did not want this to change. She plucked up an emerald, placed it in Li Ying’s palm.
Emeralds open and feed the heart. Emeralds for successful love.
“For you,” Kendra said.
***
Li Ying held her hair back as Kendra clasped the emerald necklace around Li Ying’s pale, graceful neck. She was nervous and her finger slipped, resting for a moment right over Li Ying’s pulse point. Her heart was going just as fast as Kendra’s was.
Li Ying swept her hair back in place in one elegant, effortless gesture, and then centered the emerald above her heart.
“Thank you,” she said, and she leaned close and kissed Kendra.
Kendra closed her eyes. She always felt like she needed to be doing something, like action was the answer for everything, but now it was just so nice to receive. Li Ying wrapped her arms around Kendra, and she kissed her with passion until they were both heady. When they pulled apart, the little edges of Li Ying’s emerald necklace had pressed geometries into their flesh, right above the heart.
***
Kendra was patrolling one evening, and came upon Li Ying sitting on the stone wall of a gate, waiting for her.
“You—you should not be here,” Kendra said. “You could be hurt, or—”
Li Ying rolled her eyes. She hopped down from the gate, kept pace with Kendra as she stomped off. “I’ve got the Slayer to protect me, don’t I?”
Kendra frowned. “You are not supposed to know. No one is supposed to know.”
“My father knew a Slayer, back in China. A great aunt. She died before he was born, but we still celebrate her.” Kendra did not speak, so Li Ying added, “Don’t worry; most people are so wrapped up in their own lives that they’ll never figure it out.”
Kendra’s eyes narrowed. “You figured it out.”
Li Ying grinned. “Yeah, well—I have, shall we say, a prurient interest in you.”
“I don’t know what that word means.”
“I’ve been studying for the SATs,” Li Ying laughed. “Anyway, I would be happy to provide a demonstration.”
Kendra looked around. The cemetery was still. Certainly it would be harmless to go with Li Ying for a little study session...
***
It was not a study session. It was not harmless.
They snuck in Li Ying’s room, climbing up the trellis and into her open window. They left the window open, the cool night air drifting in.
Li Ying was taking off her shoes and letting her hair down. She was going to the closet and coming out wearing expensive lace lingerie and nothing else.
“Where are your books?” Kendra asked. Li Ying grinned. “I told you, this is more ... show and tell.”
Li Ying’s languid eyes were on her, a question hidden in their depths. Kendra did not know what the question was, but she knew the answer would be yes.
“Do you want to take your clothes off, too?” Li Ying asked.
It was not a study session. It was not harmless.
What it was, was amazing.
***
It is Kendra's 18th birthday, and she is running through the halls of Sunnydale High School. She can hear the vampire roar; she knows he is coming for her. There's no chance to outrun him. Kendra breaks the security glass for the firefighters with her elbow. The remaining glass cuts at her hands as she extracts the axe.
Kendra holds her ground. The vampire enters the hallway, growling and screaming and cursing her name. Kendra holds her ground, and when he comes close enough, she swings the axe with every bit of strength she has left. The axe blade lodges itself in his shoulder. He screams in pain, but it's not enough to deter him. The vampire grabs Kendra by her ponytail and pulls her up, throws her against the wall. Glass cuts her. She is bleeding. The vampire pulls the axe from his shoulder and holds it like a baseball bat. Prepares to swing. Kendra closes her eyes.
And after a moment, opens them. The axe never fell. Before her, the vampire pulls a funny face, and then crumples to the ground, the axe clattering to the floor.
Where he was standing one moment before stands Li Ying in her short skirt and the delicate, strappy heels that would fold under her weight were she not feather light. There is a little pink box in her hand. Her eyes are wide.
“Are you okay?” she asks, extending a hand. Kendra takes it, then falls against Li Ying, lets her take her weak muscled weight.
“What is that?” Kendra asks of the box in Li Ying's hand as the two of them limp to the door.
“It's a taser,” Li Ying says. “A girl's got to protect herself.”
“Why is it pink?” Kendra asks, boggling, and Li Ying laughs.
***
It is Kendra’s 18th birthday, and she is on Li Ying’s bed wrapped in blankets and quilts and Li Ying’s arms. Kendra is wearing Li Ying’s pajamas and Li Ying is wearing the emerald, and everything is warm and quiet and safe.
It is Kendra’s 18th birthday, and she is going to live.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-04 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-05 12:25 am (UTC)That is exactly what I wanted readers to get out of this story! Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2016-08-05 12:13 pm (UTC)You definitely made Li Ying a very likeable character.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-08 04:18 am (UTC)The alternation between Kendra's Cruciamentum and her courtship with Li Ying is really effective. Great job with this!
Here from buffyversetop5
Date: 2017-01-16 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-09 08:06 pm (UTC)shame on me
this is so ... SO BEAUTIFUL
I am incoherent and want to ramble but that would destroy how i feel about this you...
this.
thank you.