A/N: I know the book is an anachronism, but I couldn't resist ;-)

And I assure you my debts are real

-Muse, "I Belong to You"

Willow sighed and looked at her phone. No blinking message light. She pulled her blanket tighter around her. Talk about feeling like a nobody.

Oz had finally, truly, left, and nobody seemed to really understand how much that hurt. She'd snuck into the girl's bathroom in the dorm the night before to do a spell to try and make reality fit how she saw it. Not the 'My Will Be Done' spell, which had been her first choice, because the stupid magic store had been out of one of the ingredients. Instead, she'd been forced to cast the 'As Above So Below' spell that supposedly packed an even bigger bang. While it'd totally drained her, as far as she could tell it'd done nothing else.

"Just a 'Make Me Tired' spell," she grumbled.

When the spell had been a bust she'd ended up going to her house super early in the morning, before the sun had even risen, to have a good cry all on her own. Her parents were, per usual, out of town. At first it'd been nice—she'd read and watched TV between naps—but now it was starting to bug her that not a single one of her friends had bothered calling her to check and make sure she was okay.

She could be dead in a ditch for all they knew.

Xander was probably too busy getting it on with Anya.

Giles was probably…doing whatever he did now. She didn't really know, but if he was off doing it then Buffy was probably having to vampire-sit.

And once you got Spike and Buffy together and the fur started to fly, well good luck getting them to think about anything but each other. That situation was a ticking time bomb. Either they were going to kill each other or end up so deeply in love you'd need a nuclear blast to so much as think about getting between the two of them.

Even she could see that and apparently she was a complete dummy at relationships.

Willow nearly jumped out of her skin as the French doors to her room banged open. "Xander?" she yelped.

"Oh, oh, thank god, you're here." He sagged to his knees beside her bed. "This day has been terrible." With a groan he buried his face against the mattress. Willow looked up to find Anya standing there, arms crossed, and Buffy and Spike, hugging each other tightly, still outside the door.

Well, that mystery had been solved.

"Um. Hi guys, why didn't you call? I've been here all day, just reading and watching old reruns on TV." Willow sat up and scooted back against her headboard.

"Your phone isn't working." Xander's voice was muffled since he still had his face squished against her quilt.

"Oh." Willow looked around at everyone's worried faces and felt a little better. They had missed her.

Anya sighed. "Willow, did you do a spell?"

"Uh, maybe? Why?"

"Because the entire town has gone nuts." Xander finally picked himself back up. "There's demon beavers, Giles won't leave the old library, all kinds of people are seeing and hearing things, and in case you didn't notice, the entire sky has been black all day."

"I've sort of been inside…" Willow trailed off. Xander looked really mad. Stupid mad.

"And," he said, "Spike is sparkling, Buffy's turned into a klutz, they broke my towel bar, and Spike helped with yard work."

"S-s-sparkling?" she stammered. She looked at the book lying beside her. Oh no. Sparkling vampires and gravity challenged heroines. She glanced up at the TV as a new episode of The Twilight Zone marathon she'd been watching started up. Willow dropped her head into her hands. "Oh cripes."

There was another drawn out sigh from Anya's direction. "What spell was it?"

"As Above So Below," Willow answered.

"Really?" Anya sounded surprised. "You could do that? I'm kind of impressed, that spell takes a serious amount of magic."

Willow sat up straighter. "It made me tired, hence the hermiting." She looked past Anya to where Spike and Buffy were. They were gazing at each other intently and speaking in hushed tones. Spike's hand was on her cheek and he was gently stroking her face with his thumb. "So is Spike Buffy's boyfriend now?"

Spike wrapped his arms around Buffy and buried his nose against the top of her head.

"I guess so," Xander said with a shrug.

Anya yawned. "Like that wasn't going to happen."

"Right?" Willow agreed. "Well, I guess I better end the spell. Hang on." She got to her feet and took a deep breath.

"Uh, Willow-" Xander put his hand on her arm.

She opened her eyes. "Just a minute, I need to do this." She focused on the pattern of her bedspread. "No longer what I think to sow, returning normal to above and below. As these words of peace are spoken, let this harmful spell be broken." With a grin, she looked up just in time to see Buffy push away from Spike, both of them looking completely stricken.

"I think maybe you should have waited," Xander said.

"What?" Willow asked, confused. "I don't…"

Xander rubbed his forehead. "Let's get everyone back to Giles' place and make sure he's okay. Then we can sort out the rest of the mess."

A silent Spike led them to his car. Overhead the stars were twinkling.

As they drove, through what now seemed like regular ole Sunnydale, Willow looked at the solemn faces around her. "Uh, I'm going to make cookies. Everyone loves cookies, right? Requests? I bet Giles has raisins and oatmeal. When you know ahead of time it's not chocolate it's not a disappointment when you bite into one. Or maybe just sugar? With sprinkles? Guys? What about frosting?"