Chapter 10 Unwelcome Visitors

A/N: I know, I know, Willow's style in clothing has changed...But this is my fic. So, it's either my way or the highway...I've always wanted to say that.

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At 10:30 P.M., the girls said their good-nights and headed to bed. Each had at least one test the next day and they needed all the rest they could get. Little did they know that one curious, brunette vampire stood in front of the new sign on campus. She studied it until it finally clicked. A silly grin spread across her pretty face- until it morphed into that of a hideous creature of the night's, that is.

The she-vamp made a dash toward the double doors of the main building. They were locked, seeing as the campus curfew began half an hour ago. She cursed under her breath, until she remembered she had super-strength. She was new to being a vampire and was ready to enjoy the satisfaction of her first kill. She pushed all her weight on the two doors until she heard a nice crack and they shot open. She covered her ears, expecting a blaring alarm to go off, but was surprised-and pleased- when there was none.

She made her way through the halls, searching for the right dorm door to rip open and feed off whoever was inside. There was rumor going around the undead population that the Slayer was staying there. The vamp was determined to find her, and kill her, proving her worth.

She stopped at room 115. This was it. She could feel it. She just knew. What she didn't know was that the Slayer suddenly bolted upright in bed, sensing the vamp's pressence. Again, the she-vamp applied pressure to the locked door and it popped open.

Buffy was waiting.

She had pulled a stake out from under her bed, and was waiting in a fighting stance when the door flung open. Being light sleepers, Willow and Dawn woke immediately.

Seeing the vampire's twisted, evil face, Dawn let out an ear-piercing scream. Willow, on the other hand, was too shocked to say a word.

Buffy threw a hard punch at the vampire's head. The vamp ducked and spat: "So, I take it you're the Slayer? Cool."

"Yup, it's a walk in the park!" Buffy grunted as she jumped up and kicked the vamp in the jaw, knocking it backwards. It tumbled out of the door and into the hallway. Then it recoiled and shot back into the room, shoving Buffy backwards and onto her bed. The vamp got on top of her and placed her hands around Buffy's neck in a death-grip. The vampire was strong, but Buffy managed to choke out a strangled "help!".

Dawn was there in a second, with the stake Buffy had dropped earlier. She gripped it tightly in her hand. She had only staked a vampire once before. She hoped it was enough. With all her strength, she plunged the piece of wood into the brunette-vamp's back, aiming for the heart. Dawn hoped she hit the target. The vampire's eyes grew wide with surprise and pain before it exploded into little pieces of dust that proceeded to rain down on them.

Buffy coughed and sat up on the bed. "Thanks." She said as she rubbed her already bruising neck.

For a split second, she wondered what it would be like to have a Watcher around. He would be there to ask things like 'what happened?' and 'how do we keep this from hapening again?'. But Buffy didn't have a Watcher. She used to have one. His name was Rupert Giles. He was the best Watcher a Slayer could ask for. Everything was great until he was murdered. Not even by a vampire. Just a regular old murderer. For some reason, she wasn't sent a new Watcher. And she didn't know how to contact The Counsel. So she fared on her own.

"W-What?..." Willow asked in awe.

"Uh...we have some explaining to do." Buffy said apologetically.

"I'll say" Willow replied.

Buffy and Dawn sat Willow down and explained the whole thing to her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" A hint of sadness was in her voice.

"We didn't want to put you in danger." Buffy replied sincerely."Friends being in danger is uber-bad." Dawn nodded for emphasis.

Willow still felt a little betrayed, but she understood why they didn't want to tell her.

"So are we good?" Buffy asked.

"We're great." Willow and Buffy embraced quickly. Dawn glanced at the digital clock on the dresser.

"It's 11:30P.M., and tests are tomorrow. Let's call it a night." Dawn suggested.

"Good idea. We can let someone know about the broken lock tomorrow." Willow replied.

The girls re-said their good-nights and headed to bed again.

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The soft strains of music floated in through the slightly open dorm door. Willow sat up groggily in bed. She looked over at the clock. It was 1:30 A.M.

/♦Do people want me to fail this test tomorrow?♦/ She wondered. /♦Well, today, techinally.♦/ She corrected herself. Curiosity overcame her crankiness and she decided to see where the music was coming from. She pulled on a pair of nicely fitting, faded blue jeans and a soft, pink cami that was outlined in tiny, white beads. She slipped on a pair of pink flip-flops and quietly headed out.

Her ears told her that the music was coming from somewhere to her left. She traced the music to a hallway, that was a pretty good ways from hers, lined with off-white lockers. Even though the school had dorms, lockers were a necessity, because one couldn't stop at their dorm between every class.

Willow saw a boy with a guitar sitting on the white, tiled floor by the lockers. His back was facing towards her, but she could see his spiky, strawberry-blonde hair, and she knew who it belonged to -Oz. She felt butterflies flutter in her stomach. She wanted to talk to him, introducer herself, tell him how great he played, tell him how great his hands were...But she decided against it. What if he didn't like her? What if he thought she was a crazy stalker? No, that was definately not good. She needed the right time, and the right situation. Then she would approach him. But as for now, she just slowly backed away, trying not to draw attention to her presence. She wanted to linger there longer ; he was such a wonderful guitarist. But she continued to back up, his beautiful guitar chords were becoming fainter by the second. As she rounded the corner, he was no longer in her line of vision. She turned aound a few more corners on her way back to room 115.

Suddenly, a blur of blonde ran smack dab into her and knocked her over, and kept going.

"Hey! You can at least apologize!" Willow shot back at the figure, who was still on it's way down the hall. It stopped abruptly and turned around. It was a tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, teenage girl.

"Oops! Sorry. I'm in such a hurry! One of the members of Dingoes Ate My Baby is HERE! I LOVE that band!" She squeaked a little too excitedly.

/♦Oh, great, a groupie...♦/ Willow internally groaned.

The blonde groupie was about to rush down the hallway in search of Oz, when she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks and turned to face Willow.

"You...You're a human!" She squealed, pointing at Willow. Willow suddenly had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. This couldn't be good.

The girl's face morphed into that of a vampire's. Buffy told her she had to stake a vampire in the heart, with a piece of wood. But it wasn't like people carry those around!

/♦Well...maybe Buffy...♦/ Willow was snapped out of her thoughts when the blonde vamp charged at her. She suddenly found herself at a loss for direction. She couldn't remember where her dorm was, or which hallway she came from. So she surged forward, just missing the perfectly manicured claws of the vampire.

Apparently, another vamp got curious of the sign out front. As the vamp charged after her, she screamed. "We didn't get a chance to exchange names! My name is Harmony! Wait up! I won't bite...hard!"

Willow ignored her and continued to charge forward. She was finally gaining some distance from the she-vamp, who was lagging behind. They were about two hallways apart now, but Willow was sure that she could..smell her or something.

Willow turned her head and glanced back. Without warning she smacked into someone else as she rounded a corner. Both her and the other person fell to the ground.

"Sorry!" Willow replied frantically. She looked up to see who she had hit...Oz. Figures. She nervously net his gaze. Their eyes locked. This was the girl Oz had been looking for! His eyes quickly scanned over her. She was beautiful. Willow watched his eyes flow over her and she felt a blush creep up into her cheeks. It was a wonderful feeling- until she remebered she was being chased by an insane vampire.

Willow scrambled to her feet. Then she remembered Oz. She couldn't just leave him there at the mercy of that psychotic vampire groupie. She pulled Oz to his feet, and impulsively took him by the hand and led him into a small, dark, hallway. She backed up into the wall and pulled Oz up against her, in hopes of making them temporarily invisible to the crazed she-vamp.

She closed her eyes, praying that the vampire was too ditzy to see them, and that Oz's black shirt would cover any traces of her pink cami, making them even less noticeable. Her head was spinning and she was feeling dizzy just thinking about how close she was to him. Her face was reddening fast, and in an attempt to stop it, she tried to ignore it. So, she just stood there with her eyes closed ;her heart was throbbing so loud she was sure Oz could hear it.

All the while, Oz was just gazing at her, in a state of wonder. She looked gorgeous with her eyes closed too. On a wave of courage, he leaned down and kissed her. Willow was so shocked she forgot to respond. When she did, the kiss lasted for about two minutes. But in both of their books, it was the best two minutes of their lives. When Willow heard 'Harmony' ,as she had called herself, stomp by in her pink stilletos, she tensed up and pulled Oz even closer to her.

"Where are you? Where's the band member! Band member? I just want to touch youuuuuuuu!" She cried frantically. Soon, the clomping of feet grew fainter and fainter. Willow ket out a deep breath she didn't know she was holding in. Willow knew she should go after her and stake out, or something, but she didn't seem like much of a threat. Besides, Willow didn't want to be anywhere but there.

Oz slowly backed up from her and clreared his throat. "Uh, was that a vampire? You can tell me I'm crayz if you want.." Oz trailed off.

"Yeah,...I'll have my friends explain it to you better in a second, but first, I'd kinda like to know your name." Willow replied shyly. She already knew his name, of course, she just wanted him to tell her himself.

"I'm Oz, and you are?"

"Willow" She smiled at him.

/♦Willow...I like it. It suits her.♦/ Oz thought, as he too smiled. They made small talk on the way to Willow's dorm room.

/♦Buffy and Dawn are gonna kill me for this...♦/ Willow thought nervously.Oz was about to speak when she held up a finger to her lips.

Oz made a questioning face and jerked his thumb in the direction of the broken lock and doorknob. Willow mouthed the words 'I'll tell you later.' Oz nodded as they headed into the pitch-black room. Willow quietly walked over to Buffy's bed and placed a gentle hand on her arm.

Buffy shot up in the bed and scrambled to turn on the purple lamp beside her. When light flooded the area around her, Buffy loosed up, realizing it was just Willow. Then she saw Oz. Knowing Willow's feelings for him, she tried to hide a small smile. Then she realized it was 2:00 in the morning and became suspicious.

"What's going on?" Buffy asked, lookibg utterly confused. Dawn awoke at the sound of Buffy's voice. She looked around and decided it would be best to keep quiet for once. Willow explained to Buffy how she woke up, wandered the halls, had an encounter with Harmony, and literally ran into Oz. She didn't give any details of that, but her silly grin promised there would be some later.

Buffy, Willow and Dawn explained the whole hellmouth thing to Oz. It was almost like deja vu. At the end of the little 'talk' Oz seemed fine. Just as cool and collected as he did before. Buffy smiled slightly. He seemed good for her, yet Buffy couldn't help feeling jealous that she hadn't even remotely found someone yet. She dismissed the thought, and continued feeling happy for her red-headed friend.

Willow walked Oz to the door and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. They had already exchanged room numbers and planned on eating lunch together tomorrow. After saying their goodbyes Oz left and Willow went back into the room.

The girls said their goodnights for the third time that night, and headed to bed. In a matter of moments, all three were fast asleep.

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Yes, it was fluffy...I can't help it...Please review! Thanx.