Came up with the idea for this one while watching season 1 of Buffy. I was amazed at how different and innocent they seemed back then. I mean really a vamp is the Big Bad. P-LEASE! Anyway hope you enjoy and please review!

Disclaimer: Yes I do own Buffy! I am Joss Whedon and I have decided to write fanfiction about my show to make up for all the wrongs I have done to its viewers!....that was sarcasm for those of you who didn't realize…one could hope though…

Willow lay on her back in the dark contemplating her life. Well not her whole life, but the past seven years at least.

"Has it only been that long?" she thought slightly amazed. It seemed so much longer to her. Surely so much joy and pain, laughter and tears, hope and fear could not have been squeezed into seven short years. She had always heard the old phrase time flies when your having fun, but how exactly does most of these past years count as fun? Sure she was with friends, surrounded by people who cared about her, loved her for who she was and even who she became, but fun? Doubtful. Fun is not fear. Fun is not running for your life almost every night. Fun is not combing the paper for suspicious deaths, signs of a new Big Bad. Fun is not watching her friends die, sometimes more than once. Fun is not shaking in bed, ungodly pain racking her body, the price succumbing to the darkness that has surrounded her since High School. Fun is not losing your innocence at 16. No Willow had had a lot of things, but fun was the least of them. Still she lay in the darkness contemplating, taking advantage of the silence of a room empty of the snores of pre-teenage potentials and nightmare inspired whimpers.

As if on cue, the woman responsible for this blessed quiet shifted under Willow's draped arm, turning towards her and allowing Willow to take in the smug smirk that graced her lips even in sleep. Kennedy sighed a mumbled contently in her sleep as she snuggled her head into Willow's shoulder. Unconsciously Willow smiled at her slumbering girlfriend, smoothing back the raven hair that lay unkempt across her face.

"How could I be so lucky twice?" Willow inquired to the heavens. "After all I have done, how can the divine still deem me worthy having the sacred privilege of loving and being loved in return. After what I've done…" The sounds of breaking windows, muffled screams and ripping skin fill Willows mind, causing her to force her hands over her ears in a mad attempt to drown out the macabre reminders and attempt to suppress a horrified shudder. Perhaps sensing her lover's internal turmoil, Kennedy wraps her arms around Willow's upturned stomach and squeezes, an unconscious attempt at comfort. A protective growl issues forth from the petite prizefighter, a challenge to any night bumping meanie that dare bother her Willow. Looking down at her "protector" Willow can't help but smile and laugh at the adorable display, calming her protests with soft shushing and slow circles on the younger girl's olive skinned back. "My tough girl…" Willow thought silently as she gazed upon the moonlight form of the woman who was slowly mending her shredded heart. After Tara she thought she would never be able to live again, love again, be with someone again. She thought that the darkness she had embraced in her despair over her the loss of her soul mate would either kill her or force the others to kill her. The magic within her still fills her with mortal dread, bringing back memories of blackened eyes and bulging veins, of power unleashed by her on those she loved. She had held that power in tight check since the day Xander talked her down with his now infamous yellow crayon story, never letting her control slip in any aspect of her life. Then came Kennedy, a girl whose stubbornness and devil may care attitude sought to threaten that control, to shake Willow to her very core and bring her alive again, The prospect of what Kennedy could do to her, could cause her to do had frightened her, prevented her from reciprocating Kennedy's rather blunt advance. After all look what happened when they kissed! One moment of true happiness and poof she's Warren, a murdering selfish immoral bastard man (hmm like Angel.. well without the gender change).

Yet laying here now, wrapped in those same dogged arms, Willow knew that this she could handle. She had not been lying when she told Kennedy her fears if she made love now, allowed herself to lose control when she was fighting so hard to keep all that power back, that she would become consumed again, become Dark Willow again. But Kennedy had endeavored her time as Warren, helping her work through her guilt and ultimately helping her change back. Kennedy had endured Willow's theft of her life energy, eventually accepting the danger of magic and asserting that it was not truly her fault. And Kennedy had kept her promise tonight, letting her "float around" (there was some light hovering) keeping her grounded all the while. And much to Willow's surprise and delight, the darkness that lay within her seemed not to see her ecstasy as a moment to force itself out and consume her, instead pulling back and hiding deep with her from the all consuming love that filled her as she lay with Kennedy. "Guess the poets were right. Love conquers all." Willow admits with a smirk, running her fingers through the raven hair that now is spilling across her bare chest. Willow closes her eyes, enjoying her moment of true bliss and devotion in a sea of death and anger and pain. "I wish I could have met her years ago, when we were all were younger and the evil we fought was a pittance compared to what we face now. It seems laughable that we were so scared of an over-wrinkled vamp with fruit punch mouth back then. Everything was so much simpler then. Everyone was still alive then. I wish we could all go back to the beginning, wish that I could show her that my world wasn't always all death and darkness. Show her the geeky shy computer nerd I used to be, the kind of person I wish I could be again (well maybe not the shy part). I want to go back to the beginning." Willow laments silently, sending her request out into the silent universe. Still despite her burning desire she can't help but feel content. Silently and gently so as not to wake her, Willow turns onto her side towards Kennedy, taking the petite yet remarkably strong potential in her arms, hands pulling her towards her with into a soft yet firm grip, protecting and protected at the same time. She lightly kisses the shining forehead of her slumbering lover and then rests her own against it, taking one last look at the face of her salvation before closing her own eyes and falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Aw how cute and sweet and just aww worthy! Looks like thing are going so well! But as any fan can tell you when things are going well…