Back inside, Willow first checked on the guy she had used her magic on, glad to see that he was fine; when he, still a bit dizzily, asked what had happened, Buffy was the one to answer, telling him that the witch simply had pushed him and that he should keep his hands to himself in the future, then sent him along, turning to give her best friend a strict look the moment he was out of earshot.
"Okay, so what was this?" she demanded to know, a bit taken aback when Willow shrugged, then smiled, a somehow malicious smile which was quite untypical for her.
"He groped me, and I defended myself", she then explained, momentarily sounding so cold that Buffy nearly took a step back, her eyes widening briefly.
"I see", she carefully gave back, making sure to choose her next words wisely, "and you of all people know that I don't have a problem with this, but… with magic? What if someone had noticed something?"
"You explained to him what happened, right?" Willow shrugged it off, clearly not all too concerned about the possibility that the guests here might discover she was a witch, "and he believed it. You know they always do here."
"Yes, they do", Buffy had to agree, forced to admit that her best friend had made a good point with those words, "but there's still no need to take such unnecessary risks. Next time this happens, let Pat or me handle it, alright? No magic in the Bronze."
"Alright", Willow agreed surprisingly quickly, then grasped the Slayer's hand and gave her a toothy smile, one which looked much more like the ones she usually showed, nothing like the malicious smirk that had been on her face just a minute ago. "But now, let's not talk about this idiot anymore", she added, giving the blonde's hand quite the hearty squeeze, "let's go back to the others, we're here to have fun after all!"
"…alright", Buffy agreed after a moment, sounding a bit surprised at hearing that agreement coming from herself; before she could ponder this further though, and ask herself why she had given in so quickly, Willow started pulling her back to the table, all her doubts vanishing into nothingness when the redhead's hand tightened on hers once more.
She only let go of her when they had reached the table; instead of taking the seat again she had used before she had gone to dance, Willow decided to sit down on her girlfriend's lap, briefly surprising the demon – after all, they usually held back with showing their relationship so blatantly in public, limiting themselves to rather quick and innocent kisses after several quite nasty remarks they had heard from various guests at the Bronze, people Pat normally dealt with rather effectively, but it still upset the redhead nonetheless to have such words directed at her.
"I'm not too heavy, am I?" Willow smirked at the surprised look of her girlfriend, immediately making the demon shake her head; the redhead smiled at the taller woman for another moment, then bent down to kiss her quite deeply, the eyes of the others nearly popping out of their heads at the sight, all of them well aware of the "No tongues" policy Willow had established for going out a while ago, a policy she clearly now had thrown out the window.
"What is going on?" Xander whispered, unable to take his eyes off the kissing couple; at his left, Anya just shrugged, staring quite dumbstruck as well, while at his right, Buffy cleared her throat, sounding as stunned as her two friends looked when she replied. "Not sure, but what I am sure about is that Pat surely loves that."
"Not that I can blame her", Anya commented, finally managing to tear her gaze away from the couple and focusing on her beer again, taking a large gulp from it, looking up from the cup just in time to see Willow pull back from the kiss, her face visibly flushed and her breath a bit quicker than it had been before.
"I thought you don't wanna do that in public anymore", Pat brought out, clearly out of breath as well; with her eyes sparkling, Willow shrugged, taking the black haired woman's face in her hands afterwards while she bent closer again, her breath warm on the demon's cheeks as she responded. "Screw those idiots who think they need to make stupid comments. You don't mind, do you?"
"You know I don't", the demon hoarsely reassured her, then took the lead by pulling her down for another kiss; obviously, their friends were forgotten for the moment, along with the people around them, and if anyone did make any nasty comments, neither Pat nor Willow heard them, too busy with each other to notice or to care.
"That was fun, wasn't it?" Willow demanded to know another two hours later, as she entered the apartment again; right behind her, Pat nodded her agreement, still a bit surprised about the passion her girlfriend had shown at the club – after the first unexpected, but pleasant deep kiss, they hadn't done much else than kissing, barely paying attention to their friends anymore.
"I hope they won't mind that we were so busy with each other", the demon now voiced those thoughts, smirking when Willow giggled and shrugged, taking off her shoes and jacket before she stepped closer to her girlfriend and pulled her into an embrace, a mischief sparkle in her eyes when she replied. "I doubt they did… Xander and Anya shouldn't, they do that all the time, too, and Buffy got used to that thanks to them."
"And Dawn didn't even notice", Pat added, chuckling to herself as she thought of the classmate the teenager had been talking to from the moment she had been given her drink until Buffy had gained her attention and had told her that it was time to go home.
"She really fancies that guy", the black haired woman thus added, making the witch smile and nod – before her stomach grumbled audibly, prompting her to blush while Pat let out another chuckle, raising an eyebrow at the redhead afterwards.
"Hungry, I take it", she then teased, Willow's blush deepening in reply; she cleared her throat, then nodded, her facial colour slowly returning to normal as she beamed up at her girlfriend.
"Come to the kitchen with me?" she then asked, the demon nodding her agreement; they took the time to share a this time rather chaste kiss, then moved from the hallway to the kitchen where Willow started preparing a snack for herself while Pat leaned against the counter, smoking a cigarette and watching her, trying to figure out if she should worry about the behaviour Willow had displayed earlier that night – or if she just was being paranoid, reading too much into events which could be explained with perfectly ordinary reasons.
In the next morning, Giles called Pat's cell phone ten minutes after Willow had left for college; this made the demon wonder if the Watcher knew her girlfriend's schedule by heart or if it just had been a lucky guess, a question she forgot within the blink of an eye though when Giles gave her the reason for his call.
"I think I found something which might be helpful", he let her know, making her shift on her seat as she waited for him to get to the point, "it's a potion, showing if a spell has been put on the drinker after it has been swallowed."
"Great", Pat sighed out, clearly relieved, once more thinking about the strange behaviour Willow had shown the previous evening; now that the witch was gone, the stuff she had done seemed highly out of character again, and the demon barely could believe that she just had shrugged it off like that.
"Now all we have to do is make her drink it", she added after a few moments of thoughtful silence, "does it taste bad?"
"I don't know", Giles gave back, clearly taken aback by that question, "I never had to drink it before. Judging from the ingredients though, it should taste quite sweet."
"Well that's something", Pat mumbled, her mind already running wild as she tried to figure out how she could get Willow to drink the stuff; deception to make her do so was out of question, but judging from the witch's behaviour lately, it might be harder than expected to convince her of drinking the potion.
"We should just talk to her", Giles suggested, clearly on her train of thought as well, "tell her about our worries. If the spell didn't change her personality completely, assuming that there is a spell, this should be enough to make her see reason and convince her to drink the potion."
"I hope so", Pat sighed out, then reassured Giles that it wouldn't be a problem when he asked her if she should come to his place with Willow once she was back home; clearly pleased to hear this, the Watcher promised her he'd call the others so they'd be there as well, then said his goodbye to do just that, Pat returning the words before she hung up, a small sigh escaping her.
Now that there was a way to find out if a spell really had been put on her girlfriend, she was getting nervous, asking herself what they'd do if they would find out that there really was some magic at work and responsible for Willow's strange behaviour; after all, the redhead was the most skilled witch of their group, the abilities of Giles and Anya mediocre at best, and her own rather rusty, thanks to the fact that so far, Willow had done all the spells and even before that, the demon hardly ever had seen a reason to use magic, even though she was naturally inclined to do so, thanks to her nature.
"Well", she mumbled to herself, lightning up a cigarette before she got up from her seat and made her way into the kitchen, "if there really is a spell on her, she'll want it gone too, I assume, so she hopefully will help then."
Realizing that she was talking to herself and that this made her look quite odd, Pat forced herself to shut up and shook her head; still feeling dismayed despite the reassuring words she had told herself, she opened the fridge and found a cold can of coke there, quickly opening it and gulping half of it down with a few big swallows.
Not bothering to hold back a burp, since no one was around to hear it anyway, she belched quite loudly, then returned to the living room and made herself comfortable on the couch there; a quick glance at her watch showed her that she still had several hours until Willow would come back home, and after thinking about what to do during that time for a while, she picked up one of her books, lying down on the couch after opening it and somehow managing to focus on the plot and the characters, despite her nervousness and her worries about what they might do if someone really had put such a personality-changing spell on her girlfriend.