Chapter the Tenth

The Marauders, along with Dawn, Xander and Anya, continued on through the store, whether by coincidence or because they wanted to avoid a scene in the middle of the crowded Sunnydale Mall, Buffy was unsure.

Only she and Willow remained, looking disdained and quite confused at The Trio, who looked surprised and embarrassed in their own right. Well, Buffy revised in her head, all except for the scary third of the group. Warren's eyes shone eagerly at the Slayer, and she averted her eyes. What the hell? thought Buffy. Averting my eyes from He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Outdweebed?

"Juniors? Really?" Willow questioned skeptically, seeming not to have noticed Warren's uber creep.

"It's hard to find pants that fit my frame!" whined Jonathan defensively. Andrew patted his shoulder in wise understanding.

"…whatever," Buffy shook her head. "You must be lost. This isn't Nerdy-Losers-Who-Have-Deluded-Themselves-Into-Believing-They're-Super-Villians…R Us." Huh. Not my best.

"Oh yeah? Well - so's your face!" Andrew piped up. Buffy watched as Warren shot him a warning glare. Andrew immediately shrank into the shadows.

Buffy couldn't blame him. For all that he was perverted and weird, Buffy had never found Warren Meers particularly threatening. Until now. The small hairs on her arms stood on end. He had a look about him Buffy had seen many times before. A mixture of greed, hunger for power, a drive to succeed, but mostly, and most alarmingly, a willingness to destroy whatever or whomever stood in the way. Yes, it was a look The Slayer was all too familiar with. She realized with a start that she recognized the deadened void in his eyes as…soullessness.

She shook herself from her mental musing and forced her distracted Slayer brain back into the conversation, interrupting Andrew saying…something stupid, she was sure, and addressing Jonathan. "-that's great. What are you doing out of your mom's basement, anyway? Aren't super villians supposed to be like, furtive?"

"I'll have you know I don't live with my mom anymore, thank you! We've moved up in the world. Gone underground. Which is still…up. Even though it's physically… under… ground, which is um. Down."

"You…do understand the term 'underground,' right? You don't actually have to dig into sub terrain," this was Willow, who looked perplexed that someone could be that…well, stupid. "You're terrible hiders. In fact, I remember you always losing hide-and-seek in grade school. Who knew it would haunt you now, a decade later?"

"Better at it than you, witch! Or did you forget your Mask today?" Andrew said from behind Warren's shoulder.

"Uh - time to go," Warren looked shifty and nervous for just a moment, but recovered even more quickly, before Buffy, who was still pondering over her revelation, had noticed. He noted, however, that the witch's eyes had clouded over with worry, and she was regarding Jonathan with confusion. Warren turned a sickening smile at the pair of girls, looking each of them over in turn. "Slayer. Witch. See you soon." His grin widened, and he turned to face his cohorts. "Ladies. Let's roll." Andrew pulled the sunglasses that were nestled on top of his head back down to the bridge of his nose. He gave his most menacing glare to Buffy and Willow before Jonathan shoved him forward and they hurried their short little legs away to catch up with Warren.

Buffy stared after the Trio. "Well. That was weird." After they disappeared from sight, she turned to her best friend, whose brow was still furrowed worriedly. She stared at the spot where Jonathan had stood. "…Will?"

"Uh. Huh? Oh. Yeah. That was weird. Let's go." The witch wound her arm through that of the Slayer and steered her back toward the gang.

Once Buffy and Willow had caught back up with their companions, it was well into lunchtime and the group was ravenous. The pair had decided not to mention the encounter to the others yet, who seemed not to have noticed when they separated. Their disappearance was easily explained away by distraction via shoe clearance.

The group took the only table that was large enough to accommodate all of them, right in the center of the food court, as if on display for the rest of the patrons at the mall. It put Buffy on high alert and she found it difficult once again to concentrate on the fun everyone else seemed to be having. She wasn't so distracted, however, as to be blind to Dawn's not-so-subtle attempts at flirtation with Sirius, who was all too pleased with the attention. Buffy caught a snatch of him criticizing his beard, of all things, which she had honestly never noticed. His arms, his shoulders, his hands, his smoldering eyes, sure… Ahem. But his beard?

"Oh, I don't think it's too much!" Dawn was overly eager in reassuring him.

Sirius waved her away blithely, clearly thrilled. "Oh, stop, you. You're just saying that." He had a huge, annoying smirk on his face. Buffy was a little surprised to note jealousy in the Buffy Brain File labeled Current Emotions. She shoved it to the back of her mind for now.

"No I'm not! I think it's perfect! It looks very…coiffed." Buffy was sure she only knew the word through those ridiculous books Dawn read about vampires falling in love with humans or some such nonsense. Never works out, the Slayer thought bitterly.

Sirius noted Buffy's inner monologue and reached over to her, gently putting one hand on her upper arm. She started, having been lost in thought again. He grinned even wider, and Buffy found she had to forcibly roll her eyes, though she'd rather have sent him a sheepish grin back. Dawn, sensing the shift in attention, reached out to touch Sirius' beard again, but clumsily knocked over her soda in the process.

"Dawn!" Buffy chided harshly.

"It's okay, Buff. I got it! I'll go get some napkins." Willow smiled kindly at Dawn, who was blushing furiously, and excused herself from the table. She wandered toward the condiments kiosk on other side of the large food court. Just as she had reached it and begun scoping it out for napkins, she heard a sweet, familiar voice call her name from behind. Willow smiled involuntarily, returning the smile in the kind voice. She turned to find Tara, just as she knew she would. "Tara! Hi! It's um- hi," The witch could feel herself grinning and fidgeting like a moron, but she didn't know how to shut it off. She hadn't allowed herself to think about how much she had missed Tara recently.

Tara smiled back, her sweet, bashful smile, and said quietly, "hey. I d-didn't expect to see you here."

"Really? W-why not? Should I not have? Come, I mean?" Willow was suddenly worried and self-conscious, which was an entirely foreign emotion she couldn't reconcile feeling in Tara's presence. I shouldn't have come! I should have stayed home in my comfy pj pants and watched Glee! I knew it!

Tara laughed softly. "No, I don't mean that. I'd just heard that you guys had a new…project. I figured you'd be in Research Mode for a while, otherwise I would have called by now."

Willow thought she could feel the eyes of her companions on her back, but she ignored it as best as she could. "Oh! Yeah, it's been kind of a weird deal. Um, but we were just here doing some shopping. Getting our heads out of the books for a while, ya know. Heh." Willow wasn't at all sure why she was feeling this nervous. She almost felt…guilty? No, that couldn't be it, she must be overanalyzing. "Um, how…how did you hear about it? The-project. Um. That we were busy, I mean." Andrew knew about my spell. What if Tara felt it too? I shouldn't have done it. It didn't even work, Willow thought sadly.

"Oh. A-Anya told me. I had to come into the magic shop a few days ago, and we got to talking. I wasn't trying to snoop, I swear!" It was Tara's turn to look worried. It put Willow's heart in a vice. She had always so hated to see Tara's eyebrows turn up like that, like she wasn't sure if she were even allowed to be breathing. Willow entirely blamed her redneck, chauvinistic brother and father, and whenever she thought on the subject too long, a particularly nasty evisceration spell came to mind. Though she'd never hate anyone enough to use that ugly thing, she knew. "Oh! No, I don't mind! I was just a little worried because we ran into Warren and his minions a few minutes ago, and they hinted they might know something was up,"

"Oh. Heh." They stared at each other for another awkward, unbearable moment, until they both finally broke simultaneously.

Willow said, "I've missed you," as Tara was saying, "well it was great seeing you. Take care. Oh, sorry. Heh. W-what was that?"

The witch wished she knew a self-drown-instantaneously spell. "Uh, I said it was good seeing you." She smiled self-consciously again, and grabbed a handful of…crap! What was she supposed to be getting?! Shot in the dark. Grab something, Willow, you idiot! She grabbed a handful of whatever was closest and swept away without saying another word.

Tara stared at her back. "I've missed you, too." Her eyebrows knitted upward, and a moment later she went off in the opposite direction.

Willow returned to the table and dropped a handful of… she inspected what she had just plunked onto the table. Straws. "Here ya go," she sighed. Everyone stared for a moment longer than was appropriate and then dutifully returned to cleaning up the mess. All except for Remus, that is, who regarded Willow with an unreadable expression till she smiled an unconvincing smile and suggested they head home.