Thank you for reading!

Willow met Buffy and Xander after school, as usual, and the three of them walked off campus together. Part of Willow felt she needed to hurry, to get away before Oz could see her with Xander.

But wasn't that part of the problem? It had to be. Oz knew everything that had been between them, except for the illicit kisses of the past few weeks. He knew they were lifelong friends, he knew Willow had thought herself in love with Xander for most of her adolescence. He had to know that whatever happened, Xander was always going to be part of her life.

"Will?" Buffy was looking at her as though she had missed a question.

"I'm sorry, I was thinking about …"

"Oz." Buffy looked sympathetic.

Xander tried to … but he had never understood Oz. Willow looked at him now, wondering if part of Xander felt as threatened by Oz as part of Oz, she now believed, felt threatened by Xander. "Yes, Oz," she said, sighing. "I just …"

"Did he finally show at the lockers?"

"Yes. And … I feel like a heel."

Xander said, "You shouldn't. What did you do …" He stopped talking, looking sheepish.

"I wanted to apologize, to make things right, and he—he said … He said he needed space, and if I kept pushing, that was about me and what I needed, and not him and what he needed."

"He's a wise man." Buffy tilted her head, looking thoughtfully at Willow. "That was hard to hear, I bet."

"The hardest. But he wasn't wrong. I was making it all about me, and now I'm trying to think about what I would do if I was him and he was me and I caught him making out with Xander."

Xander leaped off the sidewalk. "Whoa! Hold on there. That's far enough down What If Road."

"It's a pretty disturbing visual, Will," Buffy agreed.

Willow frowned at both of them. "That's not what I meant. I just meant that here I am acting like nothing happened, hanging out with Xander right in front of Oz's nose—or where his nose would be if he could see me. Could I get past that, if I were him? I don't know."

"Hence the space, huh?"

"Exactly. If that's what he wants, that's what he'll get."

There was a silence, and then Xander said, "You're not having thoughts about not hanging out with Xander, are you? Because … Cordelia won't even look at me, and I don't think I can do this without my Willow."

She smiled at him. "No, no non-Xander thoughts. But no more 'my Willow', either. I can't be your Willow and Oz's Willow, and I want to be Oz's Willow again."

"If he can shut you out that way, Will …" Xander was looking at her with concern, and she shook her head.

"He's the injured party here. Well, Cordelia really is, but … I hurt him. I really hurt him. You guys should have seen his face and heard his voice. I wanted him to be more … demonstrative, but now I don't. I'd be okay if he never made an expression again if it's going to hurt so much when he does." Her voice cracked, and she swallowed against a big lump in her throat.

Buffy put her arm around Willow's shoulders. "I think he's right to ask for what he needs, and you're right to give it to him."

"But … in the meantime … what do I do?"

"You come to the Bronze with us." Buffy gave her shoulder a squeeze. "That's what you do. We'll get each other through this. I promise."

Xander nodded. "Yeah. All for one and one for all, or however that goes."

"No, that's right." Willow smiled. "The way it should be."