Author's Note: As promised at the end of Sanity Fair, here goes the third fic of what by now is turning into a small series. It's recommended that the prequels Hearts on Fire and Sanity Fair have been read for this one to avoid several questions popping up, but not strictly necessary, as both fics are referenced in this one.

Disclaimer: The characters used from the Buffyverse are not mine, but property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy etc, lalala. Just borrowing them for a little while, promise I'll give 'em back.

Forget Me Not

If there was one thing Buffy was glad about when it came to the cemetery of Sunnydale, it was how secluded it was – no matter how much noise she made during patrol when she was fighting vampires, no one ever got torn out of their sleep and came to see what was going on, a fact which made patrolling and fighting much easier for her. Thus, she didn't worry much when she kicked one of the three vampires of the evening into the next gravestone hard enough to make said stone break noisily; at the beginning of her Slayer career, she had felt bad about breaking gravestones, but by now, she didn't really care much anymore – after all, the people those stones referred to were dead and wouldn't notice anymore, and if it bothered the relatives, they could always get a new one.

"You grave vandal", Pat, her patrol companion for the night, called out to her, causing Buffy to throw the taller woman a short glance and shrug; a second later, her eyes went wide, and she called out "Behind you!", giving the demon just enough time to turn around before the vampire who had been sneaking up behind her whacked her straight in the face with a wooden plank he had gotten from God knew where, sending her crashing into another gravestone and breaking it as well.

"Now we're both vandals", Buffy pointed out, casually staking the vampire with whom she had started the grave vandalism; grumbling, Pat came to her feet again, calling out "I didn't do it on purpose though!" to the Slayer while she ducked the plank as the vampire swung it at her again, then grabbed it with both hands and set it on fire, the vampire letting out a startled noise and loosening his grip on it, giving the demon a chance to jerk it out of his hands.

"Not so hot about fire, are you", she teased, only to make a long face when Buffy threw her a blank look and shook her head, the expression on her face making it clear without words that this pun hadn't been exactly good.

"Less making puns, more slaying", the Slayer now advised, causing the demon to roll her eyes in response – before she unceremoniously rammed the by now brightly burning wooden plank into the vampire's face, the creature letting out a howl of anguish before it vaporized, leaving nothing but dust behind.

"Two down, one to go", Pat stated, throwing the plank on the ground and stomping on it a few times – even if the cemetery was secluded enough to make sure no one would hear any sounds of fighting, a burning cemetery surely would attract unwanted attention.

"Speaking of that one", Buffy replied, looking around with a frown on her face, "where'd he go?"

"No idea", Pat gave back, glancing around as well and straining to hear any sounds which shouldn't be heard on a cemetery. "You think he ran off and into town?" she then added, turning to face Buffy; before the Slayer could reply though, the demon was tackled from behind and sprawled on the ground, the vampire grabbing her around the throat moments later and starting to choke her, obviously not all too interested in biting her. Reacting as quickly as she always did to such situations, Buffy rushed over to the two, the vampire noticing her just before she staked him; the dust he exploded into ended up covering Pat, the demon yelling as she sprang to her feet and started to dust herself off frantically.

"Ew, ew, gross, vampire dust!" she shouted, to the amusement of Buffy – even though she was more than two hundred years old and surely had faced much more disgusting things than vampire dust, it still freaked her out hilariously every time she ended up covered in it. "Plus, I think I got grass in my mouth", the demon now added, spitting noisily afterwards; not able to help herself, Buffy giggled, forcing herself to stop again though when Pat threw her a sour look and crossed her arms over her chest.

"You know, I've started to notice a pattern", she stated while the two started walking towards the cemetery's exit together, "whenever I go on patrol with you, they all jump me first. Why? You're the Slayer, not me, I'm just a harmless little fire demon!"

"Harmless", Buffy echoed, giving the taller woman an amused glance, "yeah right…"

"Well, maybe not that harmless", Pat admitted after a moment of consideration, "but anyway… Why?"

"Maybe the newbies think you're the Slayer", Buffy shrugged, smiling sweetly at her afterwards. "You are all tall and wiry-looking, and I often had newbie vampires tell me that they thought I'd be taller."

"But I'm a demon", Pat insisted, shaking her head at such stupidity, "shouldn't they be able to tell that? Being vampires and everything?"

"Well, you don't look that demonic in your human form", Buffy shrugged in reply, "maybe you should fire up before they pop out of their graves the next time you tag along with me…"

"I'll try that", the demon muttered, making Buffy smile and nod – before she playfully punched the taller woman's upper arm, her voice and facial expression making it clear that she wasn't fully serious about what she said next. "Or maybe you shouldn't. You know, it's kinda convenient, they're paying less attention on me so I can stake them more easily and you can heal almost anything in that demonic form of yours, so…"

"So?" Pat demanded to know, throwing the Slayer another sour look while she got out her pack of cigarettes and lit one of them up, "you wanna use me as bait from now on or something? I think I'll have to reconsider going on patrol with you."

"You know you can't resist", Buffy teased in reply, "after all, going on patrol with me guarantees that you'll get to beat something up…"

"Too true", the demon sighed out in reply, having to admit that the Slayer was right – even though she did look perfectly normal when she wasn't in her demonic form, and even though being with Willow for almost one and a half years by now had calmed her considerably, without succeeding to make her less protective of the witch though, she still had certain needs when it came to violent acts, needs she usually satisfied when going on patrol with Buffy.

"Well", she sighed out, pausing to take a long drag from her cigarette, "guess I can't say no to the chance of beating up vampires… and whatever other kind of monsters may cross our paths during those nightly walks together."

"Wow", the Slayer smirked, "that was almost poetic. Willow's rubbing off on you."

"I prefer it if she's rubbing against me", Pat replied absent-mindedly, only to have her eyes go wide a second later while she clapped one hand over her mouth; startled, Buffy stared at her, then started giggling again as the demon cleared her throat noisily. "Please don't tell her I said that… She's okay with it if I say such stuff to her, when we're alone, but not to our friends."

"I won't", Buffy reassured her, fighting down the urge to giggle again at the look of pure relief which appeared on the black haired woman's face in reply; she managed to keep the giggle inside, but not the smirk off her face while she patted the demon's shoulder, a mischief twinkle in her eyes as she spoke on. "Well, if you like that so much, I suggest you better hurry home then… It's not that late, so Willow might still be awake."

"Sounds like a plan", Pat replied, now smirking again as well, not telling Buffy to get home safely – she was the Slayer after all, and if she ever wouldn't be able to get home in one piece, it'd mean that things were really bad.

"See you tomorrow", the demon thus merely added, making Buffy nod; the two exchanged a brief smile before they finally parted ways, Pat whistling happily to herself as she made her way through the quiet nightly town, arriving at the apartment she by now practically shared with her loved one not all too long afterwards, a happy smile on her face as she entered the apartment building, knowing that within seconds, she'd see her girlfriend again.

To her dismay, the only thing she saw of Willow two minutes later was the redhead's hair, tousled and lying on the white pillow of their bed; the rest of the witch was hidden beneath the equally white blanket, the sight making Pat smirk while she shook her head to herself – thanks to her rather fiery nature, she hardly ever felt cold, and thus seldom bothered with heating the apartment, a fact which probably was responsible for Willow looking as if she had tried to wrap herself up in the blanket as thoroughly as possible before she had fallen asleep. Tiptoeing over to the bed, since she didn't want to wake the peacefully slumbering redhead, Pat carefully lifted the blanket, smiling at the sight of the sleeping Willow – she doubted that the witch ever really had noticed, but she felt as if she could spend hours with just looking at her, and often at least spent a few minutes doing just that, when Willow was studying and looking all concentrated, or when she was lounging on the couch, reading a book – or when she was asleep, just like now.

Well, of course she wouldn't notice it then, seeing she's asleep, the demon thought to herself, just like she's now… Which is too bad actually…

Holding back a sigh, she covered her girlfriend with the blanket again, then made her way to the kitchen, even though she knew she wouldn't find full satisfaction there – where Buffy sometimes ended up with her sweet tooth clamouring loudly to be stilled, slaying vampires more often than not awoke certain other needs within the demon, needs Willow usually took care of more than gladly, something which wasn't going to happen tonight though, not with the witch so fats asleep and Pat unwilling to tear her out of her slumber.

Once she had closed the kitchen door behind herself, the demon let out the sigh she had been holding back in the bedroom, then moved over to one of the cupboards, finding a pack of cookies there; while she tore it open and started to munch them down, she wondered if Buffy was doing the same thing right now – and if the Slayer ever came home horny as hell as well from her nightly duty, something the demon was dying to know, but didn't dare to ask. Taking one more cookie from the pack, she stuffed it into her mouth all at once, briefly resembling a hamster while she put the pack back into the cupboard, then found her cigarettes and lit one of them up once she had swallowed the cookie; mindful of how Willow sometimes complained about the smell of cooled cigarette smoke in the morning, she opened the window and gazed out into the night, smiling to herself as she thought of how she had finished that one obnoxious vampire off with the flaming wooden plank.

She hardly ever spoke to this about Willow, since it made the witch clearly uncomfortable, but it felt good to do such things to the vampires; before she had accepted that one fateful job to get rid of the Slayer, she had been doing quite similar stuff to humans for money, but now that she was with the witch, killing humans was off limits – mostly, the demon thought to herself with a smirk curling her lips again, remembering certain sorry business with a certain annoying guy who suffered from an overblown ego.

Still, even being hopelessly in love for practically the first time in her long life hadn't dulled her demonic nature, and the need for violence it brought along; this might have turned into a problem if Willow hadn't been best friends with the Vampire Slayer, said Slayer always more than willing to take Pat along on patrol and give her the perfect chance to get rid of those violent needs. Sometimes, the demon wondered if Willow know the true reason why she always was ready to accompany Buffy on patrol, a duty the other members of the Scoobie gang fulfilled much less willingly; if the redhead had any idea though, she never had mentioned it, the demon figuring though that as the best friend of the Slayer, the witch probably knew perfectly well that all demons had certain urges – even demons who were head over heels in love with humans.

"Not that this happens often", she muttered to herself, blowing a cloud of smoke out of the window and into the nightly sky; in fact, now that she was thinking about it again, she couldn't remember ever meeting any other demon to whom something like this had happened, and she shook her head to herself with a small smile on her face, once more remembering how confused she had been when she had realized how Willow made her feel deep inside. The sound of footsteps coming up behind her tore her out of her thoughts, and she turned around, surprised for a moment when she found herself looking at Willow; the witch gave her an adorable sleepy gaze, stepping up to her and snuggling close to her, yawning while Pat put an arm around her and pulled her even closer to herself.

"Did I wake you up?" she demanded to know, gently caressing the smaller woman's back, "if I did, sorry… I tried to be quiet…"

"You didn't wake me up", Willow reassured her in reply, a yawn interrupting her before she could speak on. "I woke up because I wanted to snuggle up to you and you weren't there… At first I was worried that something might have gone wrong on patrol, but then I heard you opening the window in here and knew everything's fine… Everything did go well during patrol, right?"

"Yeah", Pat reassured her, then remembered the ruined gravestones and grimaced briefly before she continued. "Well, mostly. Buffy and me both ended up being grave vandals."

"Grave vandals?" Willow echoed, her still sleepy mind not able to remember that she had seen the Slayer break gravestones several times already.

"Yeah", the demon confirmed, taking another drag of her cigarette before she spoke on, her words making the witch's eyes go wide seconds later. "Buffy threw one vampire against a gravestone and it broke, and then another one of those creeps smashed me in the face with a plank and I broke another one when I fell on it."

"What?" Willow gave back, sounding as shocked as she was looking, "you got hit in the face and then fell on a gravestone hard enough to break it? Oh my God, are you hurt?"

"Oh, no, I'm not", the demon quickly reassured her loved one, giving her a calming smile, "demon robustness, remember? It takes more than a pansy wooden plank and a gravestone… well, an old and thus eroded gravestone… to hurt me."

"Are you sure?" the witch demanded to know in reply, giving her a sceptic glance. "You're not just keeping it from me again so I wouldn't be worried, right?"

"No", Pat immediately replied, grimacing as she remembered the incident Willow was referring to – it had been a bit longer than a month ago when things hadn't gone as smoothly as usual on patrol and she had ended up badly bruised, trying to keep it from the witch since she didn't want to worry her, without much success though as Willow had noticed right in the next morning. "I'm fine, really… As I said, that gravestone was pretty old, it broke easily."

"Okay", the redhead accepted after another moment of studying the demon closely, yawning once more afterwards, all at once appearing sleepy again as she gestured at the cigarette her girlfriend was still holding. "Are you done with that soon? I'm kinda tired and I want you to go to bed with me…"

"You know I'll go to bed with you anytime", Pat smiled in reply, a mischief glint appearing in her eyes before she spoke on. "Or to the kitchen table, in case the bed seems too far away…"

"Or to the living room couch", Willow added, giggling to herself; smiling at that certain memory, Pat nodded, then put out her cigarette and surprised the witch a second later by picking her up on her arms, the redhead letting out a squeal before she smiled as well, putting both arms around the taller woman's neck and kissing her tenderly.

"Just don't drop me", she then stated, the demon immediately shaking her head; she turned around slightly so Willow could close the window, then carried her out of the kitchen and into the bedroom, kicking the door close behind herself, the apartment soon falling silent as the couple laid down and quickly drifted off into dreamland, as always falling asleep holding each other close.