Disclaimer: See prologue.
“Hiya, cutie.” Willow whirled around to face the familiar voice, slamming her locker door shut in the process.
“Oz!” Her boyfriend chuckled lightly at her flustered appearance and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Hey.”
“Hi. . . . um, I mean hey, um. . . . hmmmm.” she managed to stutter out, collecting her scattered wits.
“I, uh, didn’t mean to scare ‘ya.” The young guitarist apologized with a small half-smile which gradually disappeared as he noticed that Willow’s nervousness hadn’t eased. He raised his eyebrows in question as a worried crease lined his forehead.
“You okay?” he asked, taking her hand in his as they started down the hallway. “You seem a little. . . . jumpy or something.”
“Oh, no, I mean yes - yes, I’m fine, it’s just-” she cut off and exhaled quickly, stopping to turn towards her boyfriend’s questioning gaze. “I guess this whole Angel thing has me more on edge than I thought. There’s just. . . . I don’t know, maximum tension around. Giles and Xander and Faith all aren’t cool with Buffy right now, or with Angel at all, and that then makes weirdness with me, ‘cause I’m cool with everyone, and it makes things just , well, weird all over, and hey, things could just keep getting weirder and weirder until-” The rapid flow of her words was cut short by Oz’s lips on hers. When they broke off, Willow smiled sheepishly.
“I was babbling.”
“I know, I noticed. I-it kinda gave me the urge to kiss you.” The redhead smiled sweetly, if not a little sadly. She really did like Oz, and didn’t ever want to hurt him.
“Hi, guys!” a sunny voice piped up behind the couple.
“Buffy! Hi!” Willow exclaimed brightly, happy for a diversion of sorts. “You weren’t in third period today, where’d you go?”
“Ah, library. You know, slay-speak.” Buffy colored a little at the ease with which she lied to her best friend, but. . . . she suspected that not even Willow would have understood her trip to Angel’s. The faintly distant look in the Slayer’s eyes wasn’t lost on Willow. Buffy had been acting very differently from her usual self lately, she seemed to be more reserved and almost walking on eggshells, especially around the guys and Faith. She could usually play those awkward moments off deftly, but they then stood out in marked contrast to her forced cheerfulness. The hacker mentally noted this as one of those moments as her friend continued on brightly. “Hey, you know, I’m going back there right now, wanna keep me company? You have a free, don’t you?”
“Sure, yeah!” Willow perked, drawing herself out of her thoughts. “I do have this thing I wanted to ask Giles about, there’s a root I need for this spell. . . .” she trailed off as Oz tugged at her arm and proceeded to kiss the back of her hand lightly in a disarmingly innocent manner.
“Sorry, ladies, this is my stop,” he explained, then looked at Willow questioningly. “See you at lunch?”
“Yeah, stop by the library. And *stay awake* this time, huh?” she admonished, cocking her head towards the open classroom door, trying to sound stern and menacing but failing as a smile played on her lips. Oz returned the smile.
“It’s a promise.” he said, slipping into the classroom on the right.
“So,” Willow began, “how was patrol last night? Did you go with Faith?” she asked as the pair moved slowly towards the library.
“Mmm, patrol was a little uneventful, but I have a possible lead on some potential newbies of the undead variety in town. I noticed a couple vamps watching me as I fought, but when I turned on them, they just ran away. Very not typical. Thought I’d run that by Giles. As for Faith. . . .” Buffy sighed and grimaced lightly. “I don’t know, things are still kinda strained between us. Ever since, you know. . . .” she couldn’t bring herself to say Angel’s name around others yet.
“Yeah, since. . . .um, how *is* Angel doing?” Willow queried carefully, still a little unsure of how her friend was handling that topic. Buffy gave her a sad smile.
“Will, it’s okay. You don’t have to pretend like you care how he’s doing. Nobody else is bothering to pretend that, so I’m used to it.” The two girls stopped as they reached the doors to the library and Willow put a hand on her friend’s shoulder.
“Buffy, I *do* care. I seem to be having an easier time with accepting that Angelus wasn’t Angel and that what Angelus did wasn’t Angel’s fault. I mean, you know what Giles always says, it looks like the person, it even has their memories, but it doesn’t have the soul, it’s not really that person.” Buffy nodded, looking down at the floor as Willow gave her shoulder a squeeze, then dropped her hand. “It’s harder for them, Buffy, but I think that if you give them time, they’ll forgive him, too.”
“Thanks, Will. I don’t know what I did to deserve a friend like you.” Willow rolled her eyes and launched a playful punch to Buffy’s arm.
“What, besides the fact that you save the world about once a week? Come on,” she teased, pushing the library doors open.