In defense of a kite string

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

We’re the few... the proud... the slightly uncomfortable when reading s7 fic because we know what’s usually coming... the Kennedy-not-haters. The ones who might not be prepared to take to the streets screaming "Willow and Kennedy 4 Eva!", but just don’t see anything inherently wrong with Willow getting a little latin lovin’ or with Buffy occasionally being called on her not-always-wise tactics during s7. Finding people who agree with this isn’t easy, but here are some:

We can start off with stormwreath’s meta “Why Kennedy was possibly the best thing ever to happen to Willow”, which is a good Kennedy 101: addressing some of the usual complaints about her and outlining her (canonical) good sides as of "The Killer in Me".
When Willow is running off in self-hate and embarrassment and the Scoobies are letting her go, it's Kennedy that takes the initiative and doesn't let her isolate herself from everyone again. (Frankly, I think there are a few other characters in the cast who could do with a Kennedy of their own...).

But yeah, fic. Wolfkin appears to be one of the few true Willow/Kennedy 'shippers out there, and has written a number of excellent fics on that pairing. One of my personal favourites is the WIP "Coma", which manages to juggle both the Tara-coming-back-to-life thing and Willow/Kennedy without bashing either side... very nicely done.
Kennedy insisted on her leaving the computer to eat and sleep and had, on more than one occasion, shut the computer off in her face to get her to leave it for a few hours. She'd been furious the first time, and it had taken her new girlfriend quite a while to calm her back down.

bitterfig wrote "The Five True Loves of Willow Rosenberg" and included what I thought was a dead-on portrayal of what Willow/Kennedy is about.
I had a lot of good reasons not to go on with my life, not to make myself vulnerable again, not to fall in love again.
Kennedy wouldn’t listen to any of them. I couldn’t put her off. Believe me, I tried.

But not everything is happy W/K fic. Most people don't seem to see a future for the two, which is fine by me as long as they write it as well and as balanced as oroborusfox does in Knowledge".
Oh, she cares, and if you died, she’d grieve, but she wouldn’t hunt down and kill the one responsible, wouldn’t lose herself in the pain, and her hair would still be red.
You know it’s not a coincidence you’re so different from the love of her life.
You wonder if it’s wrong to be jealous of a dead woman.

But even if it ends, Kennedy is a character in her own right. frogfarm’s “Life During Wartime” (and its hot-and-I-do-mean-HAWT-on-its-heels sequel “Honey Moon Shine”) is a Willow/Faith story, but with ex-girlfriend Kennedy playing a not-insignificant part – and NOT as the archetypical spoiled bitch. Nice stuff. Plus there’s some really cool W/F smut if you read to the end.
"He came back for me." Kennedy stares out the window like she'll see something Faith couldn't, one lone forgotten chip clutched in her hand. The Slayer frowns.
"Preacher man?"
"Xander. He --" Kennedy stares at the countertop. "I was down, and he came back for me. And then Caleb --" She swallows, hard. "I hope he's okay."