"Willow."

Buffy called out to her just a block from the Bronze which was good because that last alley? Sort of dark and scary. Scarier now that she knew about vampires. As Buffy ran to catch up – and how did she even run in those shoes? – Willow compared her clothes to Buffy's, starting with her own sensible shoes. Well, yeah, because if she tried to run in Buffy's shoes she'd twist an ankle and then she'd be vampire-chow for sure. Her own sweater had some really nice gold tones to it but looked all beige and drab in the dark light of the alley. Her skirt was colorful, actually her whole outfit was a lot more colorful than Buffy's black shirt and purple miniskirt with the black wavy lines. Maybe Buffy needed to wear darker clothes for patrolling or maybe they hid her from the vampires or something but if that was true then Willow should also wear dark clothes because she was a lot slower than vampires although she didn't actually go hunting them down herself. Maybe it was just that Buffy was cooler than she was. Yeah, that was probably it, with her no sleeves and how was she not cold with no sleeves and that really short skirt? Willow looked at her own sleeves which ran down all the way to cover half of her hands. Mom really had to stop shopping for her clothes without her. The sweater was nice and all, particularly when there was light and the gold tone could actually be seen but the sleeves were too long and, now that she was seeing Buffy's miniskirt, her own skirt sort of looked like something somebody's grandma would wear.

"So, what's up?" Buffy took her arm as they continued into the alley.

"Oh, not too much. Kill any good vampires? I mean, not good vampires because obviously none of them are good. I just meant, uh, kill any evil vampires? Except that they're all evil so maybe I just meant kill any vampires?"

Buffy's smile wasn't a superior smirk. It wasn't. "There were a couple of fledges rising at Shady Rest. No big."

"Fledges, those are baby vampires, right?"

"Yeah, vamps that have just been Turned. I'm not sure why there's a special name for them."

Oh, just been Turned. Like Jesse had been. Willow sort of lost the thread of the conversation. Buffy kept chatting until they were at the Bronze. There wasn't much of a line or any line at all really but that was because the Bronze was packed. The dance floor was full and she didn't see Xander anywhere. Buffy was looking around too but probably not for Xander. "Are you meeting Angel here tonight?"

"Mr. cryptic here's a vague warning and sorry but I've got to go guy? Not so far as I know."

"Oh, you just had that sort of searching for somebody look and, oh, speaking of searching, you won't believe what I found on Miss Mansfield."

"So, give."

"Well, I didn't have a chance to search during computer class because I'm doing those magic sessions with Mr. Giles so I had to wait until after I got home and finished my homework. I've still got some more searching to do but I did find, well, she disappeared when she was four."

Buffy took one look at the tables, all claimed, and steered them toward the bar. "Disappeared? But she's here, I mean we know where she is so how can she be disappeared?"

"That's the thing. She turned up again when she was nineteen."

"So what happened in between?"

"Nobody knows. She said she doesn't remember. I did a pretty extensive computer search. If there'd been any info, I'd have found it."

"Doesn't remember?" Buffy asked. "So there's nothing on her for, what?, fifteen years?"

"Nada. Zilch. Zip. Zero."

"That doesn't sound very likely."

"It's what she claims."

"Okay, well see what else …"

"Babes!" Xander, he had made it to the Bronze. And, okay, grabbing them each by a shoulder was different.

"What are you doing?" Buffy asked.

"Work with me here," Xander said. "Blayne had the nerve to question my manliness. I'm just gonna give him a visual."

Willow grabbed Xander back. "We'll show him!"

And she was actually getting to hold Xander sort of like she was a real girlfriend but then Buffy walked off and Xander sort of let go so she had to let him go too. Oh, and look who Buffy was talking to. "That must be Angel! I think?"

"That weird guy that warned her about all the vampires?"

"That's him. I'll bet you." And, gosh, he was cute, just as cute as Buffy had said.

"Well, he's buff! She never said anything about him being buff!"

Why would Xander think another guy was buff, except she could tell when a girl was pretty, or when guys would like a girl which sort of came down to the same thing so maybe it went that way for guys too. Or maybe Xander was just protesting because he didn't want any other guy swooping in on Buffy but that totally wasn't Xander's call. If Buffy wanted to see the cute, cryptic guy then that was totally her call and, oh, look, Angel was giving Buffy his jacket.

"Oh, right! Give her your jacket. It's a balmy night, no one needs to be trading clothing out there!"

Well, at least Buffy wouldn't be cold anymore.