"Wow, that place is packed tonight", Buffy stated the obvious several hours later, as she entered the Bronze with the rest of the gang, everyone but Giles being there – even Spike, for reasons rather unknown, but the mood of everyone was too good to worry much about that. "Let's hope we'll still get a table."
"I could show my gameface and scare someone away", the vampire offered, shrugging at the looks he received from everyone before he smiled and clapped Pat on the shoulder, giving her another smirk as he spoke on. "Or you could fire up. We could make a team, you know. Gameface and fireface."
"Then we'd have the club to ourselves", the demon smirked, shrugging as well when the rest gave her looks similar to the ones Spike had received seconds ago; then, Anya spotted an empty table in one of the corners, thus ending the discussion, the group quickly moving there and sitting down before anyone else could claim that table.
"Who's up for beer?" Pat asked as soon as everyone had taken a seat, "I'm paying."
"I am!" Anya immediately quipped, not surprising anyone – she probably would have accepted an offer for sauerkraut juice if it'd come for free.
"Me too", Xander decided to join in on the drinking as well, Spike nodding his agreement too a moment later; Buffy and Willow decided to have some iced tea instead, and since drinking beer wasn't exactly legal for Dawn, she chose the same.
"Okay", the demon said as soon as she had memorized those – luckily not too complicated – orders, "now I'll just need someone to help me carry all those drinks. Volunteers?"
In response, Willow almost jumped up from her seat, making the demon and everyone else smile; the taller woman took the time to grasp her hand before they made their way to the bar, struggling through the surprising mass of people there until they reached the counter.
"You know, for a moment, I really was tempted to flame up", the demon muttered as soon as she was standing as close to the counter as she could get, "just so I'd get here. Why is this place so full tonight?"
"Well, it's Saturday", Willow shrugged in reply, impatiently shoving aside some skimpy girl who tried to push herself between her girlfriend and her, "and it seems some band is playing, they're setting up instruments and everything. Maybe it's a—"
She got cut off when out of nowhere, a strong hand grabbed her arm and she was jerked away from her girlfriend's side roughly, then spun around, finding herself face to chest with a tall guy, his eyes glaring at her with an anger that made her knees weaken; before she could say anything, he spoke up, his grip on her arm tightening until she was sure it'd leave a bruise. "Pushing my girl around, huh? Who do you think you are?"
"Eric", the skimpy girl whom Willow had pushed aside seconds ago clearly tried to calm him down, the guy simply ignoring her though, the witch's eyes going wide when he lashed out with one hand, barely able to believe that he'd hit her, especially for something so trivial.
Before his hand could come down though, he was grabbed at the forearm, Pat's voice down to a low rumble as she snarled at him, Willow for a moment wondering if she was keeping herself from actually bursting into flames right that very second.
"She's my girl, and I happen to be very protective of her", the demon growled at the slightly taller man; in response, he just looked at her for a moment – then his arm twisted in her grip, his hand closing around her wrist, the demon just having the blink of an eye to notice how unexpectedly strong his grip was before he twisted her arm behind her back, then gave it a rough jerk upwards, Willow and the black haired woman both letting out a startled cry when the sound of the bone breaking briefly drowned out the noise around them.
"Hey!" the barkeeper snapped, finally noticing as well that trouble was going on while Eric's girl hurried to get away from the scene, "no fighting…!"
"We're not fighting", the man named Eric snarled, grabbing the still stunned Pat by the collar, "I just won."
With those words, his grip on her shirt tightened, and he took a moment to give her a cruel smirk before he hauled her over his shoulder and sent her flying all the way to the stage, where she crashed right into the drumset which just had been put up there, briefly creating a cacophony of clashing cymbals and booming basedrums, the guys on stage staring at her while Buffy and the rest all came to their feet in shock, having missed the action at the bar thanks to the position of their table at the far back of the club.
Crying out her girlfriend's name, Willow pushed past the still seething Eric, rushing over to the stage; for a moment, he looked as if he wanted to go after her, then noticed that his girl was gone and, shouting her name, followed her outside, none of the Scooby Gang paying him much attention as he left.
"Pat!" Willow called out again as she reached the stage, then hurriedly climbed on it, pushing past the stunned men still standing on it and to her girlfriend's side, carefully putting an arm around her and helping her to sit up, grimacing when the demon let out a few painful noises at the movement.
"Ow, ow, ow, careful", the taller woman then brought out between grit teeth, "broken arm, broken arm…"
"What happened?" Buffy demanded to know as she joined them on the stage while, with great care, Willow helped her loved one to her feet; then, the Slayer noticed the way Pat was clutching her arm to her stomach, immediately figuring out what had happened.
"We better get you outside so you can… go to the hospital", she thus stated, correcting herself in the last moment; nodding, the demon grimaced when Willow helped her off the stage, one of the musicians hesitatingly asking if they should call an ambulance. Immediately, Buffy shook her head, then reassured the guy that everything was just fine when he gave her a doubtful look; she smiled toothily at him before moving up to the demon and, together with Willow, helped her outside, the rest of the gang following in silence as they all tried to figure out what just had happened.
"Area's clear", Spike let the rest of the gang know as he came back from the quick check of the alleys and streets nearby Buffy had sent him on; the Slayer nodded her agreement, then gave Pat an expectant look, the taller woman answering it by demoning out, growling lowly to herself as the bone healed with rather audible, rather unpleasant cracking noises. Clearly unbothered by this, Spike put a cigarette in his mouth and leaned closer, using the flames which flickered all over the demon's body to light it up; this earned him a dirty look, accompanied by an annoyed "Don't light cigarettes on me!", a reprimand the vampire shrugged off easily though.
"You better un-demon once the bone healed fully", Buffy advised, nervously looking around, not wanting anyone to round the corner unexpectedly and end up seeing the demon, "before someone comes along."
Grumbling something which sounded like an agreement, Pat gave Spike another glare, then returned to her human form as soon as the bone was healed, smoke still rising from her clothes for a few moments, the black haired woman once more glad that she always bought clothing which wouldn't be too small for her demonic form and thus wasn't torn to pieces the moment she demoned out – she wouldn't have minded standing around in shredded clothes in front of Willow only, but the thought of doing so with the whole Scooby Gang plus Spike watching was rather unnerving.
"What happened?" Buffy demanded to know as soon as the taller woman had returned to her human form, making her scratch the back of her head sheepishly while she replied, telling her the exact happenings, the Slayer frowning as soon as she had gotten done.
"That guy was awfully strong", Pat added, making Willow nod next to her immediately, the witch grimacing as she remembered the painful grip he had had on her arm.
"I'm actually surprised he didn't break my arm, as well", she let the blonde know, the mere thought making Pat grumble to herself, "with the way he grabbed me… I'm sure that'll bruise."
"Was it vampire strength?" Buffy wanted to know after thinking about this for a moment, even though she already knew the answer and thus wasn't surprised when the demon immediately shook her head. "Nope… That was more than vampire strength. Actually, it was more like Slayer strength. I'm quite sure that guy was stronger than me."
"Just once, I'd like to go out without some mayhem happening", the Slayer sighed out in reply, shaking her head to herself before her expression grew serious again, the same emotion showing through her voice when she went on. "We should look into this with Giles tomorrow, I don't like the thought of some guy like that running around out there."
"I'll ask around at Willy's and the usual demon hideouts", Spike offered in reply, making Buffy nod after a moment; she thanked him for his help, then let the rest know that they should go home and get some rest so they'd be in proper shape for the research while surely would have to be done in the next morning. "You'll drop by when you know something?" she added, turning to look at Spike; the vampire nodded, then briefly raised his hand as a goodbye before he turned and walked off, the rest following his example half a minute later, all of them returning to their homes, both Pat and Willow still troubled about what just had happened.
"Maybe he was a demon", Willow stated an hour later as she sat on the living room couch, a cup of tea in her hands and her gaze focused on the TV, even though she didn't really notice much of the program it was showing.
"I don't think so", Pat gave back as she sat down next to her with her own cup of tea, having added a rather generous splash of rum to numb the pain she still felt in her arm, once more cursing the fact that even though her abilities helped to heal almost all wounds, she still felt the pain from more serious injuries much longer than necessary.
"I would have noticed", she added when the witch gave her a curious look, taking a sip of her tea afterwards – only to nearly spit it back out at what her girlfriend replied. "Well, he was as protective of that girl as you were of me when we started dating, you know, that's why I thought, maybe…"
"I never beat someone up for shoving you", Pat defended herself, "just for groping and molesting and insulting you."
"Yes, after I made you stop beating up people for looking at me the wrong way", Willow reminded her, making her clear her throat noisily – before she moved the topic back to the guy in the bar, by stating once more that she was sure he hadn't been a demon.
"If you're sure", the redhead shrugged in reply after a moment, figuring that her girlfriend knew what she was talking about; carefully, so she wouldn't hurt her on accident, she snuggled up to her afterwards, smiling slightly when at once, Pat put an arm around her, her hand moving to caress her hair tenderly.
"I hope this won't be some new big bad", the redhead mumbled after just enjoying the embrace and the tender caress for a while in blissful silence, "but knowing our luck, he probably will be."
"Or he's just some guy who's messing with stuff he doesn't understand", Pat hazarded in reply, causing Willow to give her a curious look before she demanded to know what the demon was talking about, making her shrug slightly. "You know, magic?" she then went on, the redhead just giving her another clueless look in reply. "Of the evil, non-good kind, unlike yours", the black haired woman thus continued, "to make him stronger or something, and then something went wrong. Wouldn't be the first time something like that happens, right?"
"Probably not", Willow had to agree after a moment, "but why would you think of just that? It could be a million of things, potions, a talisman, whatever, why magic?"
"Don't potions and talismans count as magic, too?" the demon wanted to know in reply, making it her turn to sound confused; giggling, the witch shrugged in reply, then rested her head on the taller woman's shoulder again before she replied. "Depends on what potions and talismans we're talking about. If it really is magic though, well, at least we'll know how to beat him then, I could simply to a counter spell."
"Guess we'll figure something out, as always", the demon shrugged in reply, leaning forward to pull the ashtray on the table closer to herself before she got out her pack of cigarettes, removed one of them from it and lit it up, not bothering to use a lighter since it was only Willow who was watching her, one of her eyebrows wandering up when the witch all at once let out a giggle.
"What's so funny?" she demanded to know once she had taken the first long drag of the cancer stick, leaning back into the couch comfortable again; still giggling, the redhead snuggled closer to her in reply, shrugging before she replied, her words making the black haired woman frown at her. "I just remembered how Spike lit up a cigarette on you when you demoned out behind the Bronze. That looked funny."
"I didn't think it was funny", Pat grumbled in reply, only making the witch giggle again before she let out a cute little "Awwww", snuggling closer to the taller woman afterwards and placing one hand on her upper leg, drawing complicated, invisible symbols on the fabric of her pants with her index finger as she continued. "It kinda was, but I can imagine why you wouldn't think so. I'm actually surprised Spike dared to do that and wasn't afraid of setting his hair on fire or something."
"All the gel he uses to keep it slicked back that way probably makes it fireproof", Pat smirked in reply, making the redhead giggle once more, "like a protective layer."
"Good you don't need something like that", Willow smiled, moving her hand from the taller woman's leg to her hair, "I don't think that style would look good on you…"
"Or on my clothes", the demon smirked, the redhead nodding her agreement before she leaned up to demand a short and innocent, but still sweet kiss; afterwards, they both focused on the TV, for the moment pushing the unpleasant topic of the freakishly strong guy they had encountered during their night out aside.