I own nothing. Please don't sue me or send people with large sharp weapons in my general direction. I'm just borrowing Joss's toys since he's not, to the best of my knowledge, using them right now.

Set during whichever season it was that Willow and Buffy roomed together. I don't believe Willow's full class schedule was ever given…?

Buffy was staring at one of her textbooks on the desk, hoping that some mystical force would allow the knowledge to go directly from the book to her brain, when Willow ran through the door, looking utterly terrified. Buffy was out of her chair and holding a sword in a second. "Where's the demon?" she asked.

"No demon. Big idea." Willow sat down heavily on the bed, shaking her head as if trying to shake loose the thoughts she was having. "My philosophy professor-"

"Is a demon?" Buffy guessed.

"I don't think so. He might be, 'cause I don't think anything human could eat those burritos he has for lunch, but if he is, he's still in a really good disguise. Class today was about the meaning of life, and someone… someone…"

"Was a demon?"

"No, not really. Maybe metaphorically or something like that, but not all spiny or scaly with weird colored blood kind of demon that you can kill without getting in really big trouble." Willow took a deep breath. "This girl, I think, maybe a guy with a high voice but probably a girl, asked, really seriously, if… if…" She had to stop and take a deep breath to compose herself before finishing in a rush, "Ifthehokey-pokeyiswhatit'sallabout."

"Whoa, Will, I can't even think that fast. Say again, a little more clearly and a little less like you're gonna die if you make the words understood."

Willow, her face turning almost the same shade of red as her hair, said, "What if the hokey-pokey really is what it's all about?" As soon as she finished repeating the question, she buried her face in the pillow.

"That's crazy talk, Will. Giles would have found it in one of his books already if that was true. All those books in his library, there would almost have to be something about the deep and secret meanings of all those dances you do when you're a kid and you don't know any better. He would have told us if the Chicken Dance could be used to summon demons or if the Electric Slide was from a hell dimension or if the Hokey-Pokey was some ancient sorcerer's way of studying the universe."

"But the way the song keeps talking about going in and out and in and out and in and out, what if it's talking about reincarnation? You go in, you go out, and you go in again, but you're something a little different, you're never the same twice in a row unless you're doing it wrong. I used to do it wrong all the time, and all the other kids laughed at me 'cause I never heard the song right, and, and- Buffy, what if I screwed up my next life 'cause I put my right foot in instead of my right leg?"

"If some god decides that you need to be an ant 'cause of something like that, I'll hit him until he changes his mind. Or, you know, until there's nothing left to hit." Buffy raised the sword that she was still absently holding, having not been willing to put it down; she was sure a demon was going to feature into this somewhere along the line, and she wanted to be ready just in case. "I hit really hard when people try to hurt my friends."

Willow sniffled appreciatively, but her face turned pensive again and she was halfway into the pillow when she said, "But what if the hokey-pokey is some kind of slang term for magic? Are we supposed to have been doing magic all our lives? How late to the party am I?"

"You're giving me a serious wiggins here. I know we're in the capital of weird here, but not everything is native to the land of weird. Some things are just… okay, they're weird, but not the kind of weird that might end the world." Buffy perked up. "Hey! Maybe there's some demon or evil spell that's making you obsess over this! We should go talk to Giles. Come on, Will. Will. Library. Your people's heaven. Place you would never leave if you had a choice. Are you even listening to me?"

"And you turn yourself around…" Willow was musing. "Turn yourself around… that's like making your life better, isn't it? If you've really messed it up and you need to not mess it up any further, then you're getting turned around, or at least you should be 'cause if you're not you're gonna be really screwed up- Buffy, am I really screwed up?"

"Well, maybe a little bit." At Willow's pout, Buffy hastened to say, "That's one of the things we like about you. You're screwed up, but it's the good kind of screwed up, not the bad kind where people wear funny jackets and live in padded rooms with their imaginary friends. We don't like that kind."

"Aww," Willow said. "Hug?"

"Hug."

They hugged.

"I think I could write my paper for that philosophy class right now."

"When's it due?"

"Oh, uh, next month."