"That went quite well", the Slayer stated ten minutes later; Pat had gone outside to have a cigarette, Anya tagging along and probably going through the Who-Is-Who of demons with her now to see if they had any acquaintances in common, while Willow had stayed behind with some flimsy excuse.
"Thank Goodness", the redhead now sighed out, idly drawing invisible patterns on the table in front of her, not looking half as happy as Buffy would have expected her to.
"But something's bothering you", she thus stated, scooting a bit closer to the witch and giving her a concerned look. "Why? She practically made a declaration of love to you, so I'd expect you to be bouncing in your seat now…"
"I feel bad about this whole spell thing", Willow sighed in response, looking at the Slayer miserably. "I know it was necessary", she hurried to add before Buffy had the chance to say anything, "but I still feel bad about it… It made me think of that time I put the forgetting spell on Tara, and you know how that ended... What if she finds out?"
"She'll understand", Buffy gave back immediately, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder reassuringly. "I mean, she did come here to kill me, she'd surely understand that we had to make sure her change of heart was honest…"
"I hope so", Willow mumbled, forcing herself to smile afterwards, not wanting to appear so gloomy after she practically had been told all the words she had wanted to hear from Pat. "And she never has to know, so… Plus, she did say that awfully sweet thing about true love's first kiss…"
"Oh my God, that was so cute", Dawn threw in, the sparkle in her eyes making Willow's smile widen and look much more honest. "I hope I'll find a guy some day who'll say such cute things to me!"
"When you're old enough for that", Buffy immediately gave back, throwing her sister a strict look and making her roll her eyes; smirking to herself, Willow shook her head at the scene, then got up from her seat and explained she'd join Pat outside before Anya would chew off one of her ears, making the rest of the group nod while she turned and left the shop, pushing her worries about the spell and the consequences it might have if Pat ever found out about it to the far end of her mind.
"Oh, there's the light of my life", the tall woman stated the moment her gaze fell on Willow as she joined Anya and her, briefly making the witch wonder if this still was an effect of the truth spell while she smiled and moved up to the demon, immediately making Pat put an arm around her shoulders. "Anya and I were just comparing notes on the demons we've both met."
"Somehow, I knew you'd be doing this", Willow giggled, making both Pat and Anya smile as well, the taller woman taking the final drag of her cigarette and throwing it to the ground afterwards, putting it out by stepping on it.
"It was nice", Anya now let the two know, "but I have some… thing… to check back there in the shop, so see you in a few!"
With those words, she turned and hurried back inside; amused, Pat looked after her, then glanced down at Willow again, her eyes twinkling as she spoke up. "You know, it's really amusing how your friends keep making up excuses to give us some private time… And how they all can't come up with anything more creative than I have to a thing to do or I forgot a thing."
"Well, I've always been the brain of the group", Willow smiled, "they can't all be as smart as me… Even though I have to admit, Giles does come close sometimes."
"Oh, that guy", Pat gave back, frowning momentarily and making Willow wonder why, speaking on though before the witch could ask and clearing it up for her. "Is he always that stiff? I was tempted to ask if he's got a stick up his… uh…intestines."
"That's just how he is", Willow giggled in reply, now moving slightly so she was standing in front of the taller woman instead of next to her, her smile widening when Pat put both arms around her waist. "You get used to it… You know, what you said in there, about true love's first kiss… That was awfully sweet…"
"What a change of topic", the demon chuckled in reply, "but I'm glad you liked it… I like it to make you smile…"
"You do", Willow reassured her, then moved one hand up to the taller woman's neck; the gesture was enough to make her lean down, their lips touching moments later, a shiver running up and down the redhead's spine as the kiss deepened.
"It's almost scary how much you mean to me", Pat mumbled after the kiss, caressing Willow's cheek tenderly, the gentle touch making the witch's heart beat faster. "After all those decades… centuries… I spent practically alone, I accept this stupid job to kill the Slayer, and there you were… To be honest, at first I even thought you put a spell on me to make me fall for you or something… I just couldn't handle it. I'd lay awake at night, thinking of you… Especially after you found out about me being a demon."
She grimaced at those memories, a small sigh escaping Willow as well when she thought back to that horrible time.
"Let's not think of this any more", she stated, moving closer to the taller woman and resting her head on her shoulder, "I felt so bad, too… And poor Buffy had to endure it all, I think I spent hours crying on her lap."
"Oh, don't say such things", Pat grimaced in response, moving one hand to caress the redhead's hair tenderly. "The thought that I made you cry clenches up my heart… and, oh jeez, that sounded so tacky right now."
"No, that was sweet", Willow protested, lifting her head again so she could look up at her, her eyes sparkling. "Really… Well, maybe a bit tacky, but I like tacky. Sometimes. Right now."
"Good to know", the demon gave back, smiling again as well. "Then I can keep going I guess, and promise you that I'll never make you cry again…"
In response, Willow just smiled, then demanded another kiss; afterwards, the couple made their way back into the shop – "Before they think we're getting it on out here", as Pat phrased it – joining the rest of the gang there for a relaxed afternoon, the atmosphere now much less stiff as thanks to the spell, it had been made clear that the demon wasn't a danger for the group any longer.
During the next month, Pat was successfully established as newest addition to the Scooby gang; she often accompanied Willow and Buffy on patrol, obviously having no qualms anymore about killing off other demons and vampires, never showing the two her full demonic form though – all she allowed Buffy and Willow to see were the fiery hands the witch already knew, but those were enough to be helpful and to make Buffy admit that Willow had had a point when she had claimed that this had looked nifty.
Several times, the witch made it clear that she had an interest in seeing the full demonic form of the woman she now referred to her as her girlfriend, but Pat would refuse every time, only telling her that it wasn't a pleasant sight and that she didn't want to see it; this annoyed the redhead at first, but she soon accepted it, figuring that the demon probably had her reasons to keep that form from her. Since it had been made clear that Pat wouldn't leave Sunnydale after all, she had returned to her apartment, the place where Willow and she spent the night whenever they wanted to get intimate – after all, the witch was sharing her room with Buffy, and it didn't seem fair to kick her out of there every time certain needs came up.
During those nights, Willow learned the advantages of dating someone who was more than two hundred years old and a demon on top of that – such a long life inevitably led to a lot of experience on certain fields, and she found out that Xander hadn't been exaggerating when he had mentioned the uncanny stamina Anya always had shown.
"You know, sometimes, I'm surprised I can still walk straight", she told Pat one Saturday morning after yet another quite long night, while the demon was standing at the kitchen counter making coffee and ham and eggs, Willow sitting at the kitchen table and watching her.
"I can hold back if you want me to", the black haired woman now stated, looking at her briefly and smiling before she focused on the pan again – even after more than two hundred years of being alive, her cooking skills weren't worth much, as she had confessed to the witch, and the last thing she wanted was to let the food burn.
"No way", the witch now giggled, finally getting up from her seat and moving to the coffee machine, where the coffee had finished running through by now, "I didn't say I don't enjoy that… You know I do… Often several times in a row."
She giggled at her own quite kinky remark, the demon smiling as well; usually, she'd rather drop dead than saying such a thing, and she knew that she never would have made such a comment towards Tara, but with Pat, she had no problem with making such remarks.
"I noticed", the black haired woman now winked at her, making her giggle again while she poured coffee into the two fresh cups she had gotten from one of the cupboards; as always, she took hers with just a tiny bit of milk while she dropped three cubes of sugar into Pat's cup, shaking her head to herself as she did so.
"I'll never understand how you can drink your coffee like that", she then stated, handing the cup to her girlfriend after stirring it for her. "I swear, if you'd be human, you'd have diabetes already."
"And lung cancer", the demon shrugged, smirking at her afterwards; Willow just rolled her eyes in response, then smiled at her, moving back to the cupboard afterwards to get clean plates for the food.
"I hope this is as ready as it looks", Pat commented, eying the ham and eggs so closely that she nearly stuck her nose in them. "I'd hate to make you sick to your stomach with undercooked eggs…"
"Next time, I'll cook", Willow gave back, peering into the pan as well, deciding after a moment that it probably could be eaten. "I'm not that much of a cook either, but I'll make something which won't endanger us of getting salmonella…"
"Which won't endanger you of that", Pat gave back, apportioning the food on the two plates Willow was holding out to her, "demons don't get that…"
"Oh, good", the witch smirked while she made her way to the table with Pat in tow, "then you can nurse me back to health…"
"Did I mention I'm even worse at that than I'm at cooking?" the black haired woman immediately replied, making Willow laugh heartily; she shook her head to herself, then kissed her tenderly before they both sat down to eat, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere and each other's company.