Severus was quite sure the Hellmouth was causing him to lose his mind. There was no other reason why he had kissed that annoying girl. It surely had nothing to do with that strange mix of strength and vulnerability that she portrayed. Nor was it related to the fact that other than being infuriating she was also beautiful and, he had to admit it, brilliant. Bloody wonderful! Now he was even babbling like she did. That woman was going to ruin him! He tried to ignore the small part of his mind that whispered otherwise, that she just might be the one to save him. He already knew he wanted to rescue her.

At that moment the idea of rescue became horribly apt, but not for Willow. There was a knock on the door followed by Buffy and that Xander boy waltzing right in. Snape crossed his arms.

"Excuse me, but do you two always just walk into someone else's home?"

Xander blinked. "We knocked. Besides, I practically grew up here. Where's Wills?"

Snape couldn't control the growl that came from deep in his throat. It was amusing to watch the boy's eyes widen and his face go pale. "Willow," Severus spat putting emphasis on the girl's proper name, "is still sleeping. I will tell her you stopped in when she wakes. Now, leave."

"Actually," Buffy said with that coy lilt Snape found positively grating, "we're here to see you. Giles said you're a wizard."

"Yes. I was aware of that fact. Will that be all?"

"Um, no?" Xander's voice squeaked as he spoke and he was looking directly at Buffy. Snape heaved a heavy sigh.

"I see. What exactly do you want, Ms. Summers? I have a great deal to do."

"Yeah, I heard you were tutoring Wills. That's why you're staying here. I still think my place would be more.comfortable for you."

"You've come to offer me a place to stay? Let me make this perfectly clear to even your vapid intellect. You are utterly repellent to me, Ms. Summers. You're excessive flirting and completely unsubtle seduction attempts do nothing but turn my stomach. That said, if you continue to bother me I will not be responsible for the consequences."

"Whatever." Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Um, actually," Xander mumbled, "I thought we were here to warn you to go slow with Willow." At this he actually met Snape's gaze. "I mean you kissed her and all, and she didn't seem to mind, so of the good-" Buffy mumbled something incoherent at this point. "But," Xander continued shooting the blond a glare, "Oz hurt her pretty bad when he walked out on her, so, you know, be careful. I just don't want to see her get hurt again."

Severus nodded, silently reevaluating this boy. Perhaps there was some miniscule worth to him after all. "I assure you that I have no desire to hurt the girl. That is really all I can offer you."

"Okay, it will do for now, but I warn you Willow's not the only one good with a shovel."

"What?" Snape was lost.

"Nevermind. Come on, Buffy."

"I thought I'd stay and talk to Sev for a minute."

"Give it up, Buffy. He doesn't want you. Lets go." With that Xander dragged the startled blond out the door. Snape locked it behind them.

***

Willow couldn't help it. From her perch on the stairs she had heard most of the conversation and the look on Snape's face as he turned from the door just pushed her over the edge. She laughed.

She didn't stop laughing until she heard the potions master clear his throat both loudly and violently. Then she looked up and met his angry scowl. Suddenly it didn't seem so funny.

He stood at the foot of the stairs with his arms crossed. Willow could only look down at him and blush. "Sorry. I just thought it was amusing."

"That much was obvious, though why you find inflicting your insipid friends on me amusing-"

"Hey! They are not insipid, well maybe Buffy is sometimes, but that's not the point, and I did not 'inflict' them on you. They came all by themselves to see you!"

Snape crossed his arms. "Perhaps, but that is no reason to laugh at my expense. They'd have not found visiting necessary were it not for you. Not to mention I would never have had to meet that Buffy had you not dragged me to that place."

Willow stomped down a few stairs so that she could look Severus in the eye. "There was no dragging. Maybe an inordinate amount of begging, but you went under your own power, Bub!"

He nodded. "True enough. Now, shall we get to work?"

"That's it. You're letting me win?"

"You had a valid point for once. Also, I feel no need to continue such a pointless conversation when we have a great deal of material to cover." He started to turn from her but she grabbed the sleeve of his robe.

"Aren't we going to talk about last night?" She noticed he wasn't meeting her eyes anymore.

"What about it?"

"You kissed me!" Willow snapped as she forced his face up to look at hers.

"I did." His face was carefully blank, but she thought she saw shadows of something moving behind them.

"And you don't think we should talk about this?"

"There's nothing to discuss. It happened, it's over. We have other business to attend to right now."

Willow felt her jaw drop. "How can you say that? What, was it just some game to you, did you do it just to prove you had some hold over me? What is wrong with you? I mean-"

Severus sighed and put a finger to her lips. "What is wrong with me, Willow, is that I have two months to teach you everything I can about the wizarding world and how to control your magics. I can not afford to be distracted from that task."

Willow ripped his hand away from her mouth. "And I get no say in this? That's it. You've decided it's over before it started and you don't give a damn about my opinion."

"I didn't say that. I said we have a great deal of work to do in a short amount of time. Therefore, discussion of this can wait until later, though I feel there is nothing to say-"

Willow took a deep breath. "Do you want to pursue what you started with that kiss?" She watched the almost concealed emotions flicker in his eyes. So he was confused too. Good. It served him right.

"I find you utterly annoying and thoroughly unfathomable. Your tendency to babble can be infuriating and I don't think we've ever had a single civilized conversation."

Willow smiled. "You didn't answer my question."

"I most certainly did!" He scowled at her. "If you are incapable of extracting an answer from my reply then that is your deficiency, not mine."

"Can the defense mechanism, Mr. I-Can't-Give-A- Straight-Answer. Yes or no, do you want to pursue this?

Snape took a deep breath and she was sure he was going to launch into another tirade of quips and insults. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out, and she found herself lost in his dark eyes. Finally she felt more than heard his whispered response.

"Yes. Merlin help me, but I do want to pursue this."

Willow nodded. "Your right. There really is nothing to say." She might have felt bad about the hurt look that crossed his face had she not been too busy launching herself into his arms.

Their second kiss was more fervent and longer than the first, but just as sweet.