Just like the previous night, patrol was rather unexciting, to Dawn's clear dismay; they only encountered two freshly sired vampires, getting rid of them quickly, Pat allowing the teenager to stake one of them – but only once she had a tight grip on him and he couldn't fight back, clearly not wanting a repeat of the previous night.
"You should have let me do more", Dawn thus complained to the demon while they walked back to the Summers' house, "I could totally have taken that one guy! You said you'd let me try fighting!"
"I guess so", Pat agreed, momentarily surprising her companion, "but I didn't know if any other vampires were around at the time when he popped up, and I couldn't risk it that he'd end up hurting you while I'm distracted by anyone else. You can try one of them tomorrow, when Willow comes along again, alright?"
"Alright", Dawn agreed after thinking about this for a moment, "I guess this is still better than what Buffy would let me do, which would be nothing but sitting around and watching her."
"Yup", the demon smirked, "and remember, don't tell her that Willow and I let you do anything else than that, alright? She'd rip my head off or something."
"And I'd be grounded for life, so I'll keep my mouth shut", Dawn reassured her in reply; smiling, the taller woman gave her a satisfied look, then gestured at the road ahead as they were approaching the home of the Slayer and her younger sister. "Well, there we are", she stated the obvious, "sleep tight now, and don't let the bed bugs bite. Willow and I will pick you up tomorrow again for patrol."
"Okay", the teenager agreed, then told the taller woman to take care on the way home; after reassuring her that she would, Pat turned and walked off, whistling to herself as she made her way back to the apartment building.
As always after winning a fight, she felt surprisingly relaxed and even a bit giddy, a fact which could be blamed on her demonic nature; by now though, everyone had gotten used to see such strange behaviour from her after battles, and no one minded much anymore when she seemed hyped up afterwards, most of the Scoobie gang members thinking that it was funny, the only one who didn't share this thought being Willow, who thought that it was absolutely adorable.
Thanks to her hyped up state and the faster walk which was one of its results, it didn't take the demon long to reach the building she lived in; she still whistled while she let herself in, then rode the elevator up to the second floor, not caring if any neighbours heard her or not once she had arrived there and made her way to her apartment door. With a new tune coming from her now, she unlocked the door and entered, quickly kicking off her boots and shrugging out of her jacket; briefly, she wondered if Willow still was awake, then noticed the strange light from the living room, the whistling fading away when the demon grew curious and moved to said room, quickly recognizing the source of the light as candles.
With her curiousness now reaching the highest possible level, the demon sped up and entered the living room seconds later; it took only took one look to make her mouth go dry and her good eye go wide, the ability to talk clearly fleeting her as she stood there staring, her jacket dropping out of her fingers and falling down to the floor.
Smiling at the sight of the stunned demon, Willow lifted one of the glasses she was holding and moved over to her, giving her another good look at her outfit – or the lack of it. To Pat's astonishment, her girlfriend was wearing one of her wider shirts, the ones she always used when she thought she'd have to demon out so they wouldn't tear; clearly, this was all the redhead was wearing, the first few buttons opened, just low enough to let the demon get quite the good peek at her cleavage.
"Thirsty?" the redhead now asked, reaching her girlfriend and holding up one of the two glasses, the black haired woman only now able to identify it as red wine; nodding, still dumbstruck, Pat accepted the glass, unable to take her eye off Willow, her reaction clearly pleasing the smaller woman.
"I figured I'd surprise you", she now stated casually, "it's been a while since I did that…" Finally, the demon seemed to snap out of her trance, since a smirk tugged at the corners of her mouth, a well-known, lusty glint entering her eye; without having taken even one sip, she put the wineglass on the nearest surface, making Willow smile as well when the taller woman took her glass from her and put it aside too.
"Not thirsty anymore, I take it", the redhead winked, not able to hold back the giggle when Pat merely let out a low growl in reply, then pulled her closer with surprising speed, their lips meeting the blink of an eye later.
When oxygen became an issue for the witch and she had to pull back, both the demon and her were panting; this clearly didn't slow the black haired woman down though, since immediately, her hands moved to open the rest of the buttons while she bent down to kiss the redhead's neck, both of them not capable of talking or even merely thinking anymore just a few minutes later.
"Oh wow", Willow sighed out quite some time later, still breathless, "that was… Wow. When did we make it to bed?"
"No idea", Pat mumbled beside her, shifting on the messed up bed sheets afterwards so she could take the redhead into her arms, "some time after the second round, I think."
"You kept count?" Willow giggled in reply, snuggling closer to her girlfriend, "so how many rounds were there?"
"Dunno", the demon smirked as an answer, "I lost count after we made it to the bed." This made the redhead giggle once more, Pat chuckling as well after a moment, a yawn escaping her afterwards, the cute sight making Willow smile before she yawned as well, clearly tired out after how well her surprise had worked out.
"We should get some sleep", she thus stated, not surprised when immediately, Pat nodded her agreement; the couple shared a this time rather chaste kiss, then both quickly drifted off into slumber, the only sound in the room soon being their slow, calm breaths.
During the next few days, Willow's appetite remained as high as it had been lately, concerning both food and activities in the bedroom; at first, this astounded her girlfriend, but soon, she started worrying again, asking herself where all this energy was coming from and why the redhead still consumed such insane portions of food. When this strange rise of Willow's appetites had started, Pat had been thrilled; their love life hadn't been bad before, but this was taking it to new levels, levels which, as she soon realized, were too high even for her, something she never would have thought possible.
It didn't take long until this not only surprised her, but also worried her; and after another two days of watching Willow eat more than it could be humanly possible without exploding and somehow managing to satisfy her heightened appetite for bedroom activities as well, the demon finally had enough and called everyone to a meeting at the Magic Box when the witch was at college, wanting to discuss this with her friends, the people who knew the redhead much longer than she did, first before she'd speak to her.
"Wow", Anya observed the moment Pat entered the store five minutes before the time she'd set for the meeting, "you look awfully tired. Is something wrong with you? That dark circle under your good eye there goes almost all the way down to your mouth."
"Tell me about it", Pat muttered in reply, letting herself drop into the nearest chair and yawning heartily – the heightened appetites of the witch clearly were taking toll on her, and she briefly wondered how much longer she'd be able to keep up before Anya distracted her by putting a cup of coffee down in front of her, surprising her with this unexpected generosity.
"Thanks", she gratefully mumbled, picking up the cup and taking a long gulp from it afterwards, not caring that the coffee was still steaming hot; Anya told her not to mention it, then looked up when the bell above the shop's door rang and signalled another entry, not a customer as she had hoped, but Buffy, the Slayer rising an eyebrow as well when she saw the demon and immediately noticed how tired the taller woman looked.
"Do you want coffee, too?" Anya asked her as a greeting while she took a seat next to Pat, her surprise now turning into concern as she got a closer look at the demon; she nodded almost absent-mindedly, then focused on the black haired woman again, her worry showing through her voice when she spoke up. "Are you okay? I've never seen you like that before."
"I'll explain once the others are here", the demon gave back, slightly touched by the obvious concern the blonde felt for her, "I'm too tired to tell twice."
"Okay", Buffy immediately accepted this, her concern growing a bit bigger at hearing those words – she had seen Pat in many conditions during the last few years, but never as obviously tired as she was now. To her relief, it didn't take long until Xander and Giles arrived, making the group the demon had called together for this meeting; they both noticed how drained Pat looked as well, didn't comment on it though, only giving her curious looks while they sat down, keeping Anya busy for another five minutes with preparing coffee for all of them.
Finally, everyone had been given a cup of coffee, allowing the ex-demon to sit down as well; as soon as she had made herself comfortable, Pat cleared her throat, then spoke up, immediately gaining the attention of everyone else. "You're probably wondering why Willow isn't around, well… I can explain that…"
With those words, she quickly told them about the witch's heightened appetite when it came to food, prompting Buffy to throw in that she had noticed that as well; clearly relieved that she wasn't the only one who had been aware of this, Pat gave her a short grateful look, then spoke on, to the amusement of everyone blushing slightly at her own words. "Well, she's not only much, much hungrier than usual about food, but also about… other stuff, if you know what I mean…"
"Sex", Anya helpfully informed anyone who might not know what the demon was talking about, "right?"
"Uh-huh", Pat mumbled, clearly embarrassed, her blush deepening; obviously uncomfortable as well, Xander cleared his throat, shifting on his seat when everyone was looking at him in response.
"So what could this be?" he asked after a few more moments of uncomfortable shifting and silence, "some sort of spell? Who'd put such a spell on Willow, and what should it accomplish? That she eats until she explodes?"
"I doubt that", Giles dryly replied, "but clearly, this is some sort of external influence which was put on her. Your… appetites… are still normal, Pat?" "Yup", the demon confirmed, "well, at least they didn't change. Dunno if they were normal before. Is it possible to find out if such a spell was put on her?"
"It is", the Watcher reassured her, her facial expression once more letting everyone see how much this relieved her, "even though it won't be easy without Willow's help… She didn't notice anything is off so far, herself?"
"Not really", the black haired woman sighed, her relief being replaced by obvious dismay, "whenever I mention it to her, she just kinda shrugs it off and blames it on the stress about college. Um… all of it."
"This might be an effect of the spell as well", Giles thought out loud, looking up at the ceiling as if this could help him to sort his thoughts, "keep her from noticing anything is amiss until it's too late… It is possible that the symptoms you described are only the start. We should do some research on that kind of spells and see if we can find anything to help us with this."
The rest just nodded in reply, then all simultaneously rose from their seats to get the books; shortly afterwards, the store fell quiet as they all were leaving through the thick volumes in front of them, looking for a way to find out what had happened to their friend and how to free her of the effects it was having on her.