Drusilla/Darla: Ripe With (Wicked) Possibilities by Jennifer-Oksana

Darla/Dru is one of the more overt almost-textual 'ships in the Jossverse. It's clear from "Reunion" that love between a vampire family is love with sexual tension, no matter what the gender, and that Drusilla, in particular, loves her family. All of her family, including Angelus/Angel, Spike, and Darla, her grandmummy/daughter.

So where in the world does one get started with Dru/Darla fic? Well, one might consider the decades the two women spent together with Angelus. There's at least forty years of Dru and Darla living together as a family (from 1860, when Dru was turned, until 1900 and the Boxer Rebellion), and the first twenty of them don't include Spike in any way, shape, or form. And we know from the many Darla flashbacks in Angel season one that despite the grand passion between Darla and Angelus, fidelity in the traditonal sense is not the issue it could have been. Darla sees no major foul in leaving Angelus in a barn with Holtz and running off to Rome. There seems to be no problem in Angelus raping and feeding on dozens of young girls in front of Darla -- in fact, the spectacle turns Darla on. Darla is complicit in Angelus' mad scheme to sire Drusilla after making her insane.

All of this suggests that Darla, though most interested in her "darling boy" Angelus, has no problem with Drusilla joining their little family. Though one caveat is that Darla is clearly often baffled by Drusilla's mad chatter and has little patience for it when she's annoyed.

That means that if you're willing to do a little historical research, you have forty glorious years of 19th century Darla/Dru romance, perversion, and kink. In fics like Laure Alexander's So Hungry, one of several possible roles of Darla to Drusilla is suggested -- the domme who teaches Drusilla the ways of vampirism. There are also ample possibilities for Angelus/Drusilla/Darla, or even Spike/Drusilla/Darla/Angelus (the wonders of polymorphously perverse vampires) and their "whirlwind." The rationales are less difficult than many 'ships -- vampire sexuality is more fluid than human, as evidenced by the touching, the wanting, and the thin line between feeding and sex. The challenge of writing historicla Darla/Dru is deciding how to write those voices. Does one emulate Victorian novels? What about location? I would suggest, heavily, reading a few Victorian novels, visiting The Victorian Web, and trying one's hand at it, because the results can be GORGEOUS and fun. Plus, it stretches you as a writer.

There's also post-1900 Darla/Drusilla, where our canon is hazy. Obviously, Drusilla and Spike were together, mostly on their own, for many, many decades. But is there anything saying that Darla couldn't visit them?

Possibilities for illicit Darla/Dru and Dru/Darla/Spike abound between 1900 and probably until the early 1990s, if you're comfortable writing historical fiction for other periods. Obviously, Darla spent a good amount of time with the Master, but it's not hard to imagine Drusilla and Darla crossing paths.

And then there is post-Reunion until Darla's return. It seems clear that the family was reunited and Darla and Dru were both happy about it, at least until Angel burned them up in Redefinition. Yes, Drusilla went to Sunnydale for Crush, but what happened after that? It's possible to write Drusilla and Darla, at least temporarily, post-Epiphany until Heartthrob. There's buckets of post-wine-cellar to write, and much to be made of the post-S2 summer. What if Drusilla was the first to know about Connor? Would she tell Darla? Would she be repelled?

Or what if Darla and Drusilla were on the run together? What sort of havoc would they wreak outside of LA?

In short, there's no lack of opportunity for Darla and Drusilla to have girl-time alone together. There's no apparent lack of even canon motive, as Darla seems amenable to living with Dru (her comment in Reunion about people cellars in their shared housing, mind), and there's no lack of pretty vampire visuals.

What are the caveats, then? Well, remember that Darla gets very impatient with Dru and that can lead to conflict and break-up. That Darla would need time in a post-Reunion to start looking for shamans once she knew she was pregnant. That Spike and Angel/Angelus mean a lot to these women, and that there might be some lingering issues regarding Dru/Darla/Angelus and thattriangle. Obviously, it's important to point out that vampires live by drinking the blood of the innocent and that Darla and Drusilla had no problem feeding off large numbers of people, so their angst won't be over killing.

Other than that, Darla/Dru has a lot of potential for you to exploit. Happy fic-ing!

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