"You seem irritated", Buffy observed when she met Willow for lunch, those not very charming words being the first thing she said, not even bothering to greet the redhead properly. "Irritated Willow is not something I like to see, especially not during lunch. I prefer Cheerful Willow, or at least moderately mild-mannered Willow. What happened?"

"It's stupid", Willow sighed out in response, after finally managing to place her tray on the ridiculously small table without endangering the meals of Buffy and herself. "There was this woman", she went on once she had made herself comfortable and had taken a bite of the sandwich she had chosen as her lunch, "and she actually managed to take my preferred seat during all my classes… As I said, it's stupid, and I know it, but it still irritated me…"

Even though Buffy couldn't really understand why this would irritate her friend, she nodded and smiled sympathetically, listening with honest interest when the redhead spoke on, interrupting herself with bites from her sandwich every now and then. "I think she's new, I haven't seen her around here before…"

"Maybe she just always sat in the back before, then realized that she's short-sighted and moved up to the second row", Buffy hazarded, not sure why she had said this, but also not knowing what else she could have said in reply; to her relief, Willow let out a small giggle, a noise which hadn't been heard often since Tara had died, and nodded, a slightly mischief smirk on her face as she replied. "Actually, she did wear glasses…"

"See?" Buffy smirked, taking a huge bite of her own lunch afterwards, glad when Willow changed the topic a second later by asking her, in a low voice so no one around would hear, if anything unusual had happening during the patrols lately.

"Nope", Buffy immediately reassured her; during the last few weeks, the redhead hadn't been on patrol with her anymore, claiming that she'd rather stay at home and learn, leaving that task to Xander, the Slayer suspecting that Willow just feared she might use a too powerful spell while on patrol and lose control over herself once more. "Just the usual stuff… Angry bloodsuckers, wanting to kill me for slaying their best vampire pal… No new Big Bad so far."

"Good to know", Willow commented after yet another bite from her sandwich, the food almost gone by now. "Maybe they finally learned and realized Sunnydale isn't a place where they're likely to succeed anymore…"

"That'd be too good to be true", Buffy sighed out, getting done with her sandwich afterwards and washing it down with a gulp of soda. "But I'll enjoy that peace as long as it lasts… Well, the little bit of peace I'm getting with vampires still… around…"

She trailed off when she noticed that Willow wasn't really listening to her anymore, but was watching someone behind her, her gaze following the unseen person; when she noticed the questioning look of the Slayer, she lowered her voice again, nodding her head into the direction where she had been looking before. "Over there… that's her!"

Curious to see the person who had managed to irritate Willow, Buffy turned in her seat, not even trying to be unobtrusive; she quickly spotted the woman in question, since it had been quite clear where Willow had been looking, the glasses on the woman's nose being enough to identify her quickly.

"Guess she's new", she then commented, once more not sure what else she could say. "Haven't seen her around before. Let's hope she's not evil."

"Well, I guess she's not a vampire", Willow shrugged, taking a sip of her soda afterwards. "After all, she's walking around in bright daylight… And the only not so nice thing she did so far was to take my seat."

"Which she probably wasn't aware of", Buffy pointed out, then changed the topic by asking Willow if she wanted to tag along to the Bronze in the evening, letting the redhead know that Xander and Anya would be there, as well as some people they knew from college.

"…sure", the witch agreed after a few seconds, to the slight surprise of Buffy – ever since Tara had been shot almost a year ago, Willow barely had gone out anymore, only for special occasions like birthdays and the celebration of defeating yet another Big Bad, this being the first time that she agreed to come along without a certain reason.

"Great", she smiled once she had gotten over her surprise, something which happened rather quick – after all, as the Slayer, she was used to surprises, and much nastier ones than a friend unexpectedly agreeing to come along for some partying. "We should leave at half past nine, I promised the others we'd be there at nine…"

"Fine with me", Willow shrugged in response, giving the blonde woman a slight smile afterwards, being perfectly aware of how surprised Buffy had been when she had agreed to tag along; for a moment, she wondered if it was a good idea, then shrugged it off and told herself that she couldn't spend the rest of her life hiding away in her dorm room, trying to reassure herself that everything would work out fine and that she'd manage to enjoy herself with her friends juts the way she had done before Tara had died.

Several hours later, it seemed at first that she had been right, and that she would be able to enjoy herself; since by now, all of them were old enough to drink, she purchased a cup of beer along with the rest of the gang, then moved to one of the stand-up tables, where she listened to Anya for a while as the ex-demon rambled about how well the Magic Box was going and how much money she was making. Even though she had known Anya for a few years now, it still stunned her how greedy the woman could be; whenever the Magic Box came up in conversation, she started talking about how much money she was making, to the great embarrassment of Giles, the fact that the Watcher wasn't among them thus briefly relieving Willow.

Despite the fact that she had heard Anya ramble about her success at the Magic Box for a million times by now, she listened politely, nodding at the right places and feigning interest – until Xander finally came along and saved her by telling his girlfriend to quit about the money at last, changing the topic immediately afterwards by asking Willow how she was doing.

"Fine, I guess", she gave back, shrugging; since she hadn't been born the day before, she quickly had figured out that there was a deeper meaning behind the young man's question, and it didn't surprise her – after all, the whole group had been kinda shocked when she had shown up with Buffy, after only going out for special occasions, so it was no surprise that her friends wanted to know if this meant that she slowly was getting better.

"I'm having a nice time with my friends", she added, "and the beer's cold, so…" Trailing off, she gave Xander a smile, the young man returning it immediately; he reached out and briefly touched her arm, a short, but kind gesture of comfort and reassurance, this touching Willow more than all the phrases and meaningless words she had heard from her friends again and again ever since Tara had died.

Her smile widened slightly, and she gave her childhood friend a grateful look; to her relief, he didn't say anything about it, and kept himself from asking her further questions, gesturing at her cup instead and asking her if she wanted a refill as well.

"Sure", she agreed after a second or two of hesitation; when she had left the dorm hall with Buffy, she had told herself that she wouldn't drink more than one beer, but now she figured that it'd be okay to have another one, after all, her lessons only would start shortly before noon in the next day and it had been ages since she'd been a little tipsy anyway. Promising her that he'd hurry, Xander moved away from the table and towards the bar, with Anya in tow; all at once, Willow felt slightly lost, since Buffy was busy talking to one of her friends from college, and she looked around, watching the people around her having fun and morbidly asking herself if any of them ever had experienced the loss of a loved one, like she had.

As if the DJ had read her mind, he let the rather fast dancing song he had been playing during her talk to Xander fade out, a slow, romantic tune starting up moments later; it took her only a few heartbeats to realize that it was the song she had danced to with Tara on the blonde woman's birthday, and her heart cramped up with sudden longing and pain, causing her to let out a shaky breath. Suddenly knowing that she had to get out of here, that she couldn't stand listening to that particular song, she interrupted Buffy rather rudely in mid-sentence by tapping her on the shoulder frantically; one glance was enough though to show the Slayer that something wasn't alright, and her voice was concerned when she spoke up, obviously not having a clue about what was bothering her friend, not recognizing the song. "Willow? Are you alright?"

"I… gotta get outside for a moment", the redhead made herself lie after a second, not wanting to tell Buffy the real reason for her sudden mood swing, eager to avoid worrying her friend further and maybe spoil the evening for her. "I need some fresh air… I'll be back soon…"

"Okay", the Slayer gave back, still sounding concerned, obviously not fully buying the lie; Willow made herself smile at her briefly, hoping that the smile didn't look as fake as it felt, then turned around without giving her friend a chance to say anything else and hurried outside, letting out a relieved breath when the Bronze's door fell close behind her and cut off the song, giving her the chance to regain her composure.