"I don't see why we need to invite Buffy to such an expensive place", Anya complained as the group entered said restaurant together, after meeting in the parking lot; to the relief of everyone else, she at least had the decency to keep her voice down, keeping anyone else from hearing her tirade, but it still made the rest of the group sigh to themselves. "That burger place where she worked would have been enough. I had to buy a dress just for this occasion!"
"Me too, so?" Willow shook her head in reply, throwing the ex-demon a stern look. "It's Buffy's birthday, and this is part of the celebration. Plus, we won't take her to that awful burger place for her birthday, that'd just be… cheap."
"Exactly!" Anya agreed whole-heartedly, causing Pat to whisper "Not the best choice of words" into the smaller woman's ear, making her nod with a small sigh – before she looked at Anya again, her voice stern again. "Not that kind of cheap. Cheap of us to do this, as her friends. This is supposed to be a nice evening, and it's starting here, end of discussion."
For a moment, Anya looked as if she wanted to protest again, then fell quiet at the glance the witch gave her; she just sighed theatrically, making her way to the table Willow had reserved with the rest of the group, all of them smirking at the neatly written name cards which had been put on the smooth wooden surface.
"Admit it, this was your idea", Pat stated as she sat down at the place assigned to her, Willow taking the seat to her left with a smirk on her face, the candles on the table bringing out the sparkle in her eyes as she looked at the woman beside her.
"However did you figure that out?" she asked, giggling to herself afterwards while Xander and Anya took their places as well, both of them noticing that two empty chairs remained between Willow and the young man, the name cards quickly making it clear to them though that these were the seats of Buffy and Dawn.
"They should be here any minute now", Willow stated at the questioning look Xander gave her, after glancing at her watch; next to her, Pat noticed the non-smoking sign on the wall and looked unhappy for a moment, then apparently shrugged it off as she leaned back into her seat with a sigh and started toying with her napkin.
The feeling of Willow's hand on her upper leg distracted her from her new toy, and she looked at the witch, almost automatically smiling when her gaze met the one of the redhead; smiling back at her, Willow patted her leg briefly, then looked up as Buffy and Dawn finally approached the table, the Slayer apologizing for being late while she sat down, her sister taking the only remaining free seat next to her, a waiter coming over not too long afterwards and asking for their drink orders, marking the beginning of the celebration they all had been looking forward to during the last days.
After a rather filling dinner, consisting of soup, main course and dessert, the group left the restaurant to head on to the Bronze for drinks; none of them minded much that they all were slightly overdressed for that place, the two couples of the group strolling along hand in hand, Pat taking the chance given by being outside and smoking a cigarette.
"So Willow still didn't get you to quit", Dawn commented as she moved up to the couple, the redhead letting out a dramatic sigh in reply while the demon just chuckled, then shook her head, smirking down on the smaller teenager and briefly risking her idolized status by ruffling Dawn's hair with one hand.
"Everyone needs at least one vice", she then commented wisely while Dawn made a show of straightening her hair again, "and it's not like it can give me lung cancer, so…"
Behind them, Buffy smiled when her sister started to lecture the demon on how nasty and yucky smoking was, even if there was no danger for her to get cancer from it; still holding the not-cigarette-clutching hand of her girlfriend, Willow just wandered along in silence, smirking slightly to herself, giving the Slayer a chance to notice once more how happy she appeared to be.
Ever since the fight in the secluded house, where they had gotten rid of the big demon boss who had hired Pat to kill Buffy, a fight during which the black haired woman had proven once and for all that she indeed had changed sides and nearly had been killed, Willow seemed to be in a more or less constant state of happiness, practically always having a smile on her face; none of her friends had seen her like that for a long time after Tara had died, and it warmed the Slayer's heart to see her best friend so happy again.
During the last eight months, any small doubts about this relationship she still might have had left after that fateful fight had been blown away whenever she had watched the couple together; it was impossible to see the admiring glances Pat threw Willow every now and then, to notice how they both immediately smiled whenever they looked at each other and to see how the taller woman literally wasn't able to keep her hands away from the redhead, using every chance given to touch her – of course always in a decent way whenever someone was around – and not believe that their love was as real and honest as it could get.
"Penny for your thoughts", Willow's voice now tore her out of her musings, causing to her realize with slight surprise that for once, the witch wasn't holding hands with her lover, but had dropped back to talk to her, while Pat now was discussing the latest episode of some TV show they both enjoyed with Dawn, a topic which obviously didn't interest Willow much.
"The two of you", the Slayer smiled after a second, causing the redhead to give her a questioning look – after the fight in that secluded house, Buffy had made it clear that she was trusting the demon fully now, and that there was not an ounce of doubt left within her, so Willow couldn't really figure out what the Slayer might have been pondering about Pat and her.
"You're a cute couple", Buffy now clarified, to the relief of the redhead not bringing up any doubts about their relationship again, "and tonight, you're really looking amazing together…"
"And normally we don't?" Willow teased in reply, smirking briefly at the Slayer before her gaze moved to her girlfriend again, softening in that way it only ever did when she was looking at that woman.
"Of course you do", Buffy quickly reassured her, smiling as well though to show she hadn't taken the words of the witch fully serious. "But today, it's even more amazing than usually, what with you in that dress and her in that suit… I think I've never seen her in a suit before."
"You have no idea how long I had to pester her so she'd wear that tonight", Willow grimaced in reply, giggling slightly to herself afterwards as she remembered how exactly she finally had convinced her girlfriend of wearing that particular set of clothing, a small detail she wouldn't tell Buffy about though. "She hates wearing such formal clothing… If I'd let her, she would have gone out tonight wearing jeans, as she always does."
"I wouldn't have minded", Buffy shrugged, causing the witch to give her a scolding look, a smile forming on her face again though as she replied. "Don't let her hear that though, or she'll rush home to change. Plus, I would have looked awfully overdressed next to her then…"
"Or she would have looked underdressed, compared to the rest of us", Buffy pointed out, smirking; after a moment of pondering this, Willow nodded her agreement, looking at her girlfriend again afterwards as the taller woman was still strolling along slightly ahead of her, fully focused on the discussion she was having with Dawn.
"You'd never think she's two hundred and forty years old, seeing how she talks about that show with my sister", Buffy commented, smirking at the sight; next to her, Willow giggled and nodded, then looked at the Slayer again, after taking another moment to notice once more how much she liked the sight of her lover in a suit.
"Don't let her hear that either, though", she then stated, focusing on the blonde next to her again, "or she'll get cranky and point out that she's not even two hundred and thirty nine yet… She can get surprisingly touchy about her age."
Buffy just nodded in reply, still smiling even though a more serious thought had come up in her mind, something she had been pondering quite often ever since the demon and her best friend had started dating – with Pat not really aging, but Willow doing so just the way any other human would, she wondered if this would become a problem for the couple sooner or later, and if the redhead was aware of this.
Shrugging it off, the Slayer told herself that Willow surely had thought of this before, but had ignored it for now, something which was easily possible at the moment – after all, Pat even looked a bit older than her currently, and it'd take quite some time for that to change; telling herself that there'd be enough time to talk about this on some other day, and that it wasn't necessary to maybe ruin the nice time they wanted to have, Buffy fully forced those thoughts out of her mind.
A short time later, the group arrived at the Bronze, earning some strange looks for the way they were dressed, none of the six minding it though as they entered the club and found a free table, all thoughts about problems which might come up in her best friend's relationship gone by the time Buffy sat down and nodded when Xander asked her if she wanted beer as well, smiling at her friends while they made themselves comfortable, suddenly filled with gratitude about their presence and support.