Part Two.
At 19 Buffy should have felt at home on a college campus, after all it was where most of her peers spent the majority of their time. Yet every time she walked on to the UC Sunnydale grounds she knew with certainty that she could not endure spending another four years of her life in an institution. The lecture theatres, the labs, the need to excel at government prescribed educational activities; it was far more sophisticated than high school but really just an extension of the same. It made her feel closeted and nauseous just contemplating it.
Visiting, however, was fine and as she made her way up the neatly tended pathway towards the computer lab, she happily admired the view.
The computer labs were buried in the basement of the library building, the university administration having long realised that the students who frequented them had no use for natural light. Willow Rosenburg certainly didn't notice as she stared tiredly at the computer screen in front of her. 'Advanced Computer Science' had looked exciting in the course guide, but was proving to be tedious rather than stretching. Sitting alone in the deserted computer lab in the middle of the afternoon made the task seem that much more laborious; but a diligent student, Willow felt compelled to ensure her work was as thorough as possible. Maybe when she was done she would reward herself by working on that heat powered flashlight she was building for –
"Imagine finding you here."
Willow spun then jumped up excitedly, "Buffy!" She hugged her friend tightly then pulled back to surreptitiously check her over for injuries, "I didn't hear you come in stealthy gal."
"I'm all in one piece, Will," Buffy laughed, completely aware of the examination.
"How was Tanzania? You look all toasty."
Anybody watching the two girls would have been hard pressed not to notice the striking differences between them. Buffy was indeed tanned to a golden brown, thick wheat coloured hair hung almost to the small of her back while large, wide-set green eyes made her a visual example of the ideal most Californian girls aspired to. At a lowly 5"3 she fell far short of model height, but a blemishless complexion coupled with symmetrical features and a slight but perfectly proportioned figure guaranteed she turned heads all the same.
In contrast Willow's extremely fair complexion forced her to use the strongest sun cream available, a fact she often used as an excuse to spend beautiful sunlit days in basement labs or dusty libraries. Despite the inconvenience of highly sensitive skin, Willow's pale complexion set off dark poppy-red hair in a manner that, at the very worst, could only be described as arresting. Soft brown eyes and a small pert nose also flattered. Her mouth was too thin to be truly attractive, but a gentle temperament softened every expression making the computer scholar far more attractive that she could ever be persuaded to believe.
"Tanzania was good." Buffy casually reached into her Prada clutch to bring out a cloth wrapped object, then promptly clapped her hands over her ears to protect them from Willow's delighted squeal.
"You got it!" She exclaimed bouncing with breathless excitement. "I wasn't sure you had because you called and you didn't say anything," she unwrapped the object still babbling, "so I thought maybe I'd got the location wrong or Angel got there first or -"she stopped abruptly, holding the rock up to the florescent lights and marvelling as the light reflected off its surface. "Wow! When are you sending it off?"
"Tomorrow I guess, I have to call the Tanzanian department of antiquities," Buffy replied, leaping lightly to sit on a bench. "Anyway, I figured you'd wanna play first."
"Oh yes," Willow gushed happily. "Can you see that?" Without waiting for an answer she raced over to the lights and turned them off, plunging the lab into a blackness relieved only by the thin strip of light that snuck in from under the door. She then noisily returned to where Buffy stood, grunting as she bumped into a stool, to turn on a single lamp. "It's shaped so that the light reflects off it in a pattern. See? If you get the angle of the light right the pattern's supposed to form an image of something."
"So the name comes from all the water rushing about in there right?"
"It's not water, just a play of light on the surface. But yeah...that and the ancient Armenians thought they could control the sea using it."
"Sweet." Buffy stared up at the random lines of shadow formed on the lab ceiling. They didn't mean a thing to her but it was hard not to get swept away in Willow's enthusiasm.
"Angel says there are two more," she suddenly remembered.
"What?" Willow demanded, alarmed, as she always was upon discovering there was something she didn't know. "Where did he read that? There's no mention of that?"
"I don't know, but he offered to race me to Venice."
"Venice? Really? Well I guess it's possible, after all it was a major trading port in the 17th century. The Tide Rock is first mentioned in the Armenian book of The Living, before it fell into the hands of the Sudanese who were more interested in precious metals, but could quite conceivably have-"
"Venice should be nice this time of year," Buffy quietly mused, oblivious to Willow's chatter.
Willow stopped abruptly, paused to consider, then voiced a worried, "uh oh."
Buffy looked down from the ceiling and jerked back when she found Willow's face barely an inch away, peering closely at her. "What?" she asked, but was rewarded with muted grunts as Willow stumbled back to the light switch.
"Uh oh,' it will involve danger? Copious research?" Buffy blinked against the sudden light as she tried to gage the cause of the 'uh oh,' "cos you know I'm up for the danger." She frowned as Willow made her way back, still examining her like a lab specimen.
"Venice should be nice huh?" Willow asked gently. Buffy felt her cheeks flame red as she realised where this was going.
"No, I'm not – I didn't mean it like that!" she protested quickly, but there was no way of fooling Willow.
The girls had first met in kindergarten but hadn't become friends until 2nd grade when Xander Harris had called Willow 'tomato-head' and taking pity on the quiet girl struggling not to cry, Buffy had stabbed him in the leg with a pencil. Willow had admired Buffy's fearlessness and Buffy had enjoyed having someone to take care of. Over the years the relationship had changed significantly; Willow was still shy but wouldn't hesitate to stand up for her friends or the things she believed in, and the fearlessness she'd seen in Buffy she'd soon discovered was as much defensive as it was as an outlet for the many troubles Buffy kept hidden far below the surface. She'd learned to read the varied shades in the tone of her friend's voice and could differentiate between expressions that to the outsider looked uncompromisingly carefree and happy.
Pulling herself up on to the bench opposite, Willow shook her head regretfully; and couldn't help another "uh oh," escaping.
"No! This isn't an 'uh-oh,' I'm fine! Really!"
Willow looked gently at her friend, like a doctor who regrets having to deliver bad news but knows there's no way of avoiding it. "I've seen this look before," she observed.
"What look? There is no look,"
"You had this look when you first met He Who Shall Not Be Named."
Buffy cringed. "Why are we mentioning the one we're never supposed to mention? And this look can't be anything like that look. Because that look would have been the lost, naïve high school girl begging for somebody to snatch her heart out, maul it like dough then use it as bird food." She paused for breath, then pointed to her face. "This look is the grown up, woman of the world, Faithesque 'I want a thing, you want a thing, let's get together and have a thing, no commitments or trampling of hearts' look."
Willow shook her head gently, "that's not the look."
"Worked with Spike," Buffy pointed out in a small voice.
"Spike was right after Parker-"
"Hey!"
"Sorry, he was right after He Who Shall Not Be Named, so he was rebound guy, if even that, he was more 'I'm feeling weak, I need a moment of passion guy.' You didn't have this look with him."
Buffy whimpered and let her head fall despondently into her hands.
"Well it- it might not be so bad," Willow rushed to comfort her, "they're very different guys. Park- sorry, He Who Shall Not Be Named was all open and 'share my pain'- well until he started to keep secrets..." she waved a hand to dismiss that line of thought, "while Angel sounds really quiet."
Buffy raised her head to send Willow a sceptical frown. "There's quiet - that's cute, it's refreshing - and then there's ominously silent, that's not so cute. That's more Norman Bates, I have serious problems and if I speak more than two words you'll become aware of them."
"But he spoke to you in London," Willow pointed out.
"Only so he could steal my plate," Buffy pouted.
"And then in Tanzania you talked."
"Yeah, 'race you to Venice' was us talking. Maybe he really is pissed off about the map and he's planning on killing me in Venice."
"Buffy stop. So he's quiet," Willow paused at her friend's frown, "okay, silent," she amended, "but you share an interest," she pointed to the Tide Rock, "-tomb raiding, and at least you know he's not after your money, he's ridiculously rich too."
Buffy spared her friend a small bemused smile. Willow took every opportunity to tease her about her privileged lifestyle which just amused Buffy because with a psychiatrist mother and US defence scientist father, Willow's background wasn't too shabby either.
"I don't know Will, he's just so...self-assured and...mysterious. You should have seen him at that party in London, every woman in there was after him, even the waitresses were star struck, and he just did this stand-offish, Mr Darcy thing. Spent the whole night with his friends."
"At least he's not a ladies man," Willow offered uncertainly.
"I don't know about that, there are all these stories about him and women...and," her expression suddenly sheepish, "Igoogledhim, and he's been linked to a ton of beautiful women. Oh, and let's not forget that I slept with his cousin, that's always a turn on. God I'm a slut."
"No Buffy, that's not true."
"And why do I even care? Like I want to go through all of that again."
Willow didn't have to ask what 'all of that' was; she hadn't realised how close Buffy was to breaking until Parker broke her heart. Now she was just as worried about her friend getting into another relationship as Buffy was, despite the two years that had passed since her last one. However, "sometimes the only way to regain your confidence is to get back on the horse Buffy."
"I know Will," Buffy sighed, "high school feels like years ago, but all that stuff with Parker..." Buffy raised a hand, palm face down, and positioned it under her chin, "it's right here." Her voice quivered as her eyes suddenly became glassy with tears and she had to take a steadying breath before adding, "I don't want to do that again Will."
Willow nodded and moved quickly to envelope her friend in a reassuring hug.