Willow walked into the Magic Shop, her hair bouncy, her clothes cheery and her smile bright. Of course, her little façade did nothing to fool her friends. Buffy looked up.
“Hey, Will. What’s wrong?” She said, light concern edging her voice.
“Oh, I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Or any at all.”
“You and Tara have a wild and crazy night of…spells?” Xander chimed in, adding the last word as he remembered Dawn was in the room. Dawn just rolled her eyes.
“No, we didn’t do any…spells last night. Or spells,” Willow replied with a tired smirk.
“Then what’s with the eye-circles?” Buffy replied.
“I was having weird dreams,” Willow said, sitting down next to Dawn.
“What kind of dreams?” Xander asked.
“Well, there was just the one. And it was kind of a nightmare.”
“Were there bunnies?” Anya piped up from behind the cash register. Everyone stared at her for a moment, and she chewed on her lip, going back to counting the amount of money in the drawer. “Well, she SAID it was a nightmare,” she muttered under her breath.
“What kind of nightmare?” Giles asked curiously, entering from the back, where he had heard the end of the conversation.
“Well, I was in a field. It was really pretty, and there was magic there.” She paused.
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Dawn said.
“Well, then it started to rain, and there was wind and it was dark…and then I went into this little shack. And Tara was there, only it wasn’t really Tara. Whatever it was, it was speaking THROUGH Tara, you know?” As Willow spoke, Buffy’s mind flicked to the dream she’d had a few years ago, which she still remembered in full detail, where the First Slayer had tried to kill them in their sleep. She shook off the memory, and continued listening to the redhead.
“And it told me that I had to be ready, that my time was coming. And then I…sort of went…kablooey…”
“Kablooey?” Dawn asked, her eyebrows raised?
“Well, I exploded. It was scary.”
“That’s quite a dream, Wills,” Buffy said. “Do you think it means anything?”
“Well, I don’t exactly have prophetic dreams like you do, Buffy. I’m sure it was nothing.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be too rash in making that assumption, Willow,” Giles said, putting a book back on the shelf. “In fact, it’s very likely that something is about to happen, and we should all be ready.”
All eyes turned to Giles. He simply looked back. “Well, I, uh, I’ve been doing some research lately,” he began, but Xander interrupted him.
“Because God knows you don’t do ENOUGH research for fun,” he said. He visibly withered under Giles’ scathing glare. “Sorry.”
Giles nodded. “As I was saying, I’ve done some research. It seems the forces of the Hellmouth are stirring up again.” Before any of the others could interrupt with another sarcastic comment, he continued. “And it seems they’re all looking for a book.”
“Want me to stake out the library?” Buffy asked innocently. Giles sent her a withering glance as well, and Buffy promptly shut her mouth.
“I’m not sure, exactly, what kind of book it is, or why they’re looking for it, but with a little more research, we should know more.”
“So we’re breaking out the stuffy books?” Buffy said sadly. Giles’ glare quieted her again. “I’ll just call Angel and tell him we WON’T be getting together this weekend, then…” she said quietly.
“Oh, did you have plans with Angel again?” Giles said.
“Of course they had plans, Giles,” Anya said. “Buffy gets together with Angel every weekend. It’s amazing that they can be together and not have sex. I know if I couldn’t have sex with Xander…”
“And that’s more than our friends want to know about our sex life, An,” Xander stopped her.
“Well, I was just saying…”
“And now you’re not.” The rest of the scoobies just looked on in amusement.
The phone rang suddenly, breaking into the silence shrilly. Anya picked it up quickly.
“Magic Box! All your Occult needs under one beautifully crafted roof!” The scoobs glanced at her, amused. “Oh. It’s you. Yes, she’s here. All right. But don’t tie up the line. We could have actual customers calling us.” She held out the phone to Buffy. “Angel.”
“Ooh!” Buffy said happily, jumping up to pick up the phone. Willow watched her, a smile on her face. Buffy was so much happier since she’d come back, since her and Angel had decided to stay together, even though he remained in L.A. with Faith. They fought evil there, and Buffy fought evil in Sunnydale. They usually met up on weekends.
“Hey,” Buffy said softly into the phone, the smile not leaving her lips.
“Hey,” Angel said back.
“What’s up?” “Well, Cordy had a vision.”
“Uh oh. Business call?”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
“No, it doesn’t matter, Angel. At least I get to hear your voice.” In the background, Dawn made gagging motions with her hand. Buffy rolled her eyes at her sister.
“Anyway, she saw a cave, and Willow doing some magic, and then Willow just…exploding.”
Buffy halted, the smile leaving her face immediately. Giles moved toward her, concern lining his already-weathered face.
“Buffy?” Angel said.
“I-I’m here. It’s just…did you say exploding?”
“Yeah. As soon as it gets dark, we’re going to come down to Sunnydale. Okay?”
“Okay. Bring Wes’ books,” Buffy said, remembering that Giles would want research tools.
“Got it. See you in a few hours?”
“Right.”
“I love you,” Angel said softly, his voice showing the awe of being allowed to say it to her again, after they’d thought she’d be gone forever.
“Love you back,” Buffy replied, her voice containing the awe at being allowed to tell him that even after he’d left two years ago.
“Tell Buffy she’s got a nice ass!” Faith said from behind Angel, loudly enough so that Buffy would hear her. Both Angel and Buffy rolled their eyes.
“See you tonight,” Buffy said, before hanging up the phone. She turned to Willow, who had turned as white as a ghost the moment Buffy said “exploding”.”
“Cordy had a vision,” Buffy told the group.
“Am I going to get blown up?” Willow asked weakly.