Inspired by the song Istanbul (Not Constantinople) originally recorded by The Four Lads, made popular more recently by They Might be Giants. I represent neither of these musical talents. Nor do I own the song or the characters of Willow and Oz or their history or environment.
Κωνσταντινούπολις
This may have been her most dangerous mission yet. Sure she'd faced Hellgoddesses, and helped beat back the awesome force of the First Evil, but those contests of power were nothing like this. Messing with the time line was sensitive work. The risk that any misstep could cause countless people to cease to exist was a real worry, drilled into her by Giles and the other Watchers. And yet, it needed to be done. All their research had shown that the latest apocalypse could only be prevented by subtly changing one event in the capital city of the Ottoman Empire at the height of it's power.
To lessen her potential impact, they changed her appearance, gave her the clothes of the day and dyed her distinctly northern-European red hair a black so rich it was almost blue. She couldn't wait to turn it back, the dark shade reminded her of bad times, and it really didn't suit her. Now that the translocation/timetravel spell had been successfully completed, all that needed to be done was to steal the über-dangerous enchanted weapon before it could be buried and found centuries later by their future foe. Simple enough.
She carefully "stretched out with her feelings" as it were, and soon caught the aura of that thing that had been causing the side of light so much trouble. As near as she could tell, she needed to walk 100 yards ahead, turn left, and walk another quarter mile. Easy peasy. She turned the appointed corner and froze. There he was. Her first boyfriend, his outfit a little more Turkish than usual, and his hair dyed a deep henna red.
She hadn't been lying per se, all those years ago. A part of her still was waiting for him. But as to the not being surprised...
Given that she had made the statement on the Hellmouth, where casual speech had the unnerving tendency to come true when you least expect it, she couldn't exactly be shocked that she'd spotted him in this city. No, the where was no surprise at all. But the when...
She walked slowly towards him without breaking eye contact, half expecting him to vanish, until they were standing a hair's breath apart. She leaned forward to whisper in his ear (the last thing they needed was for some passerby to hear them use modern English) and silently rejoiced in his shiver as her breath caressed his ear.
"Oz, I said that I'd meet you in Istanbul, not Constantinople."