Chapter 7

"So, how is the new roomie and you getting along?" Willow asks looking out of the corner of her eye to watch Buffy. They were walking into the Espresso Pump to have another mocha before heading to the Magic Box and then spend the day shopping the other little stores around town.

Buffy grins as she opens the door to let Willow in ahead of her. "She can cook, she's funny, very outspoken, in a good way, not in an Anya way. Even though she does like to say stuff occasionally for the shock value. I think, no I know things were very rough on her at home before she left." Buffy stops and frowns thinking about that for a moment hoping that one day Kelly may want to talk more in depth about that time. "And…" Buffy hesitates looking at Willow for a moment.

"And… What Buffy?" Willow asks wondering what else Buffy was going to say since Buffy had this worried look on her face. "You know I love you, right?"

They stop and place their orders for mochas and grab them to take them to a table in the back to sit down and continue their conversation.

"Damnit, Willow. I like her." Buffy blurts out, looking down at her coffee.

Willow grins from ear to ear, with her tongue slightly poking out from between her teeth. Buffy glances up and sees that grin on her face and shakes her head. "Why are you grinning like that for? You would think you won the lottery from the look on your face."

"As far as I'm concerned, I have." Willow laughs looking at Buffy.

"But…I've never liked another woman before. What am I supposed to do? What if she doesn't like me? She's gorgeous, tall, her eyes are that deep brown, but they have green circles in them that distract me when we're talking. God, when we talk, having a serious conversation, she seems so…intense. And my God, she's built. Did you notice her…" Buffy stops and realizes she has her hands out in front of her like she's gripping and releasing something in front of her and quickly puts her hands down beneath the table with a blush on her face.

By then Willow is laughing so hard she can't speak. She holds up her hand to keep Buffy from saying anything while she gets control of herself. "That was Willowbabble worthy." Willow says with a soft smile on her face, finally having gotten control of her laughter. "Buffy, let me see if I can remember all your questions, statements and whatever you said. Let's see, something about not ever liking a woman before – I never liked a woman before Tara, either. But I love Tara with all my heart and can't see myself with anyone else. Personally, Buffy, I don't think it's the sex of the person, but the person themselves. Give it a chance, if it doesn't wig you out too much, and I would assume with the grasping motions, that it doesn't….." Willow grins at Buffy.

"Ugghh." Buffy states blushing even redder and looks down, grabbing her mocha to have a sip to keep from having to say anything.

Willow just grins some more at the slayer. "Let's see, what else did you say? Something about does she even like you? I would say that is a definite yes. She likes you, my goodness, she's flirting with you almost non-stop Buffy! Anybody can tell that she likes you. Yes, she is gorgeous and has an extremely nice rack. And if you even think about telling Tara that I've noticed her sister's rack, I will disown you for the rest of my life and never talk to you again! Do you understand me?" Willow states with mock seriousness.

Buffy looks up at that and grins. "Well, if nothing else, it might be bribe worthy at a later date." Buffy laughs heartily and Willow's eyes getting big and round.

"You wouldn't dare! Would you?" Willow almost whines with a pleading look in her eyes.

"Don't worry Willow. I'm probably going to be coming to you for all kinds of help with questions on what to do, how to act and God only knows what else." Buffy states with an almost terrified look in her eyes. "How am I supposed to act around her? What am I supposed to say? Willow!"

Willow reaches over and grabs Buffys hand and holds it, trying to calm her down. "Buffy, just act normally. If she likes you, which I'm sure she does, she likes you being yourself. Say what comes naturally. You know how to flirt, Buffy. You flirt all the time with guys. This time it just happens to be a woman. There's nothing different."

Buffy raises an eyebrow at that last statement. "Uh, Willow. I hate to tell you this, but there are definitely some things that are different between women and men. If you don't know that by now, we need to have a serious talk." Buffy smirks at Willow.

"Buffy!" Willow whines. "You know what I meant. Flirting, flirting. There is no difference in how you flirt with a woman from how you flirt with a man. Why do I even bother? You're hopeless." By then Willow is lightly banging her forehead with the heel of her hand and shaking her head.

Buffy just laughs, feeling much better having talked with Willow about the feelings that Kelly's stirred up inside her. So glad that Willow didn't seem to have any problems with her possibly dating a woman… 'Me, dating a woman. Not something I ever really thought about before. But maybe, just maybe I should give it a chance.' By the end of her inner monologue she has a heart-stopping smile on her face and is gazing off in the distance.

Willow shakes her head watching the emotions cross Buffy's face. 'Whether Buffy realizes it yet or not, I think she's already fallen a little in love with Kelly. Goddess knows she needs someone that will be there for her. Not someone that's bad for her, like Angel and Spike. Or someone that feels like they always have to be in competition with her, like Riley. Ooh, that reminds me.'

"Buffy, not to get off track here, but how did patrol go last night?" Willow asked wondering if Kelly might be all 'macho woman' in a Riley sort of way.

"You wouldn't believe it. Kelly has this spell that makes all her weapons invisible. You can't even feel it unless she actually has hold of it. I was fighting three vampires in the cemetery and she was sitting on top of a tombstone watching me when I yelled over to her to ask if she was going to help. Of course, I didn't really need any help, they were all relatively newly risen. You won't believe it, but she basically said that she knew I was the slayer, with all the powers and strength to fight demons, that she could never compete with something like that. But since I asked, she hopped down and proceeded to fight one of the vampires and took its head off with the invisible sword. It was so cool. While she was holding the sword I could feel it, but once she put it away, I couldn't even detect it in her jacket. You know, she's not like anyone else I know. It isn't a competition with her or testosterone. It's just seems to be something she does. Like she likes to help out but doesn't want to be in the way. Then we came across this demon that I was fighting and I stabbed it with my stake like 10 times, but it didn't seem to phase it, then she took it's head off with her sword, thank God it decided to actually die then." Buffy shakes her head thinking about the night before and how unpretentious Kelly seemed.

"Thank the Goddess. That was something I was wondering. You didn't need someone that would think they had to be in competition with you, like past boyfriends." Willow gets a glint in her eye looking at Buffy. "She sounds perfect, she has to be evil. Run away as fast as you can, Buffy. She's human, she doesn't seem to want to be in competition with you, she's gorgeous, has a great sense of humor, and guess what else?" Willow asks while Buffy just grins shaking her head at the hacker.

"What else, Will?" Buffy asks wondering what else the red head could say.

"She's knows about the things that goes bump in the night, is an asset and she's family. After all, she's Tara's sister. You would have your own Maclay to love and hold and have unlimited smoochies with. I mean, I know how much I enjoy having my smoochies with Tara, and if Kelly is even half as good a kisser as her, watch out! It's been years since you've had anyone to have a smooch fest with. It's about time you got on with it, girl!" Willow laughs as Buffy wads up her napkin and throws it at her.

"Let's go do some shopping. If we keep talking about smooch fests, you will want to head back to the house and grab Tara and disappear for the rest of the day. And I need to go get these ingredients for the spell at the Magic Box, since Kelly is going to make some of my weapons invisible for me. Then we need to finish shopping for the rest of the group. I need to figure out what to get Kelly for Christmas. Maybe I'll ask Anya to keep an eye on her to see if there's anything she notices her looking at when she gets to the shop." Buffy states more to herself than Willow.

Willow just grins and grabs her jacket to head out and continue their day.