Something Real

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, Joss does and I'm just borrowing them for my
own evil purposes

Pairing: Wes/ Illyria

Setting: Takes place after "Power Play" and minor spoilers for finale
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Something Real

He remained standing in the empty office long after everyone had left, wanting to spend the
remaining day to prepare themselves for the inevitable that lay ahead.

The klinkling city lights and the easy flow of cars were kept to his attention, while he idly
studied the vast buildings straight ahead. He honestly couldn't remember when he'd ever felt so
comfortable and relaxed in waiting for impending doom. It was all quite ironic really, since this
was the first time in the long weeks his mind was calm and at ease. The first time he was able to
breath without the tight and constant hitch in his chest, having reached serenity in a city of the
damned. The odd humor of it didn't escape him in the least.

The gentle turn of knob was heard followed by a sound of unsure footsteps, coming to stand at a
safe distance beside him. He pretended to stay transfixed by the glaring lights , as the familiar
stranger at his side stared at him unwaveringly, with an icy depth shown clearly in her eyes.

"The rest have all left, celebrating the end as such occasion to be had. Yet you stand here in this
glass of room and day dream asthough the next day harbors promises of sun, instead of utter
darkness."

Wes quietly chuckles as he fixes his attention on Illyria. The sound of his laugh chiming foreign
to his own ears. "If by celebrating you mean I'm not out drinking myself into an unconscious but
needed stupor, then I'm afraid I am truly missing out." He senses the tiniest flicker of emotion
flicker across her face, but it was so sudden that he takes no real notice of it. For it would be alien
for such emotions to show on this creature's face, perhaps impossible.

Illyria brakes the eye contact and resumes standing in a position of readiness, as she gets caught
gazing at the dancing lights. She opens her mouth to speak, then closes it just as abruptly,
changing her mind and preferring the offered momentary silence.

"It looks so lively down there. All those people going about in their daily lives, but really taking
no heed of what is actually oundounding them. Too caught up in infinite small nothings, thus
missing the larger picture depicting that important something.es mes muses quietly, more to
himself than her.
"Why should they care for all such things? They are human, weak, and only prone to hear what
they desire. Deaf to the truth which they don't wish to know, and blind to what they don't favor to
see." Wes quirks his eyebrow at that, as he puts his hands in his pockets, thumbing his fingersythmythmically against his thighs, waiting for a continuation that doesn't come. "For a moment I
thought you were going to inform me yet again of how of pathetic and a waste of space we are.
Glad to see some things have changed. Or maybe you've finally grown tired of repeating
monotonously to my deaf of ears."

The look on her face could have passed for a grin, be it lacking in warmth and heart. "I don't
know why but I've decided to accompany you on your mission. To see whether you are as
powerful as you presume." Wes looks at her again, faintly displaying a small smile of his own.
"No, not powerful. Stupid, yes. However death is inevitable, even if I seem to constantly quicken
the process." He pauses for a moment, wondering how the next words falling from his lips would
sound in the empty office.

"Though it isn't necessary for you to accompany me, I wish to thank you." Illyria stares at him,
with a look of surprise and amusemhinthinting in her visage. "I'm doing this for my own personal
reasons. Am curious to what the final outcome will be. Wondering whether the ruler and his
kingdom will fall in the mighty storm, to powers greater than they perceived."

Wes listens to her, processing the last part with an uneasy heart. For that specific probability is
more than likely, expected even. In a tiny moment, he feels the need to cling to this creature,
have it chase away all his fears and help him remain his tie with reality. Know that she is real and
tangible, not a mere apparition conjured by his lonely soul.

He tentatively takes his hand from his pocket and grabs a hold of hers, which lays immobile at
her side. She glances down curiously watching the display of their adjoining hands, with a sad
sparkle in her belying frozen eyes. Her voice sounds very small as she speaks. "I'm not Fred. Just
a mere shell of what has been. I posses no warmth and love to enrapture a human. Just a shell.
Just her shell."

Wes smiles sadly as he hears the words leaving her mouth, and tightens his hon hen her hand.
"For now, this will do. This is something. As he says the last part, he looks back into the starlet
night sky, with looks of hope etched into the stars. "This will do for now."