Willow's POV

After school, I went straight to Angel's. I wanted to hurry this up. I wanted to learn to fight. I knew it would take time, but I was ready. He answered on the first knock and escorted me inside.

He'd moved his coffee table out of the way and now the livingroom was like one rather large empty space. "You ready?" he asked. I nodded and started to pull my shirt over my head. "What are you doing?" he snapped. I stopped in mid-motion.

My face burnt with a sudden blush. "I have my workout clothes on underneath..."

"Oh." His face went back to its normal un-readable expression. "Sorry."

I inwardly rolled my eyes and turned my back to take my shirt off. The tanktop underneath was practically a sports bra that came down to my waist. The shorts were spandex that went to my knees and fit to every curve of my body. So yeah, I was a little embarassed. But it was no worse than wearing shorty shorts and that was my only other option.

I turned to Angel as I started to scoop my hair into a ponytail. "I'm ready."

Angel's POV

She was a fast learner. Very fast. And it was oddly calm to watch her mimick my movements. When I could concentrate on the movements, that is. And then we got to the part where I would have to actually touch her. Sparring. And she was wearing the tightest clothes possible. Spandex.

Don't get me wrong...I'd seen some sexy getups in my time. And I'd seen Willow's body already but it was still shocking and distracting. That someone as sweet and meek and smart as Willow, who wore overalls and frumpy sweaters...had curves like that underneath.

I shook my head to clear it. Back to sparring. "I'm going to run at you. I'll hold back a little, but not too much. And I want you to try to find a way out of it. You have no stake. No holy water. What are you going to do?" And then I jumped.

She hadn't had a chance to prepare. And that was sort of the point. I knocked her to the ground, but made sure that she didn't hit her head. She grunted as we crashed down.

I grabbed her arms, pinning them down and put my face to her neck. Nothing happened. She was frozen under me, but her blood was pumping fast under her porcelain skin. I could hear it, smell it, and even see it where he pulse point was thrumming erratically. "You're dead." I told her. It came out more as a breath though and my mouth was dry. I got off of her quickly and helped her up. "Were you planning to submit to me to death?"

Her eyes narrowed. "It was just so sudden. I got scared."

"Willow, when a vamp comes at you, you're gonna be terrified. You have to do it anyway." I told her. And then I jumped her again. She hit the floor a little harder than I'd meant and her breath whooshed out of her body. I did the same thing as before, grabbing her arms and going for her throat. This time, she struggled. When she saw she wasn't getting anywhere, she headbutted me. I grunted and stood up, holding my nose and looked down at her.

She was holding her head.

"What is up with all the headbutting?"

"My arms weren't free." she complained.

"Well, what are you going to do when they recover and you're passed out on the ground?" I snapped.

I expected her to be hurt a little but her eyes narrowed again and she climbed to her feet and clocked me in the face. I stumbled a little in shock and she shook her hurt hand. Now she looked hurt. "That's what you get." I told her.

She glared. "Fine. Let's go."

So I jumped her again. As we fell back, she put her knees up to keep me from pinning her legs. We hit the ground and her breath left again. She started coughing but she still reacted. One leg went flat but the other stayed up, causing my lower body to hover a little. And then her right knee came up right into my groin.

I yelled out in pain and rolled off of her. She jumped up, kicked me in the ribs and ran to the other side of the room before I even got my breath back. "Better?" she asked me, her voice sarcastic.

I pushed onto my feet. "Well, actually...yeah." She walked back over and we kept practicing suprise attacks. From the side. The back. All angles. And after a few tries, she found a way to get out of every single one.

"I think that's enough for today." I finally said, glancing to the clock. It was a little past nine o'clock. She'd been there for five hours.

"Good." she sighed. "Because I feel like I'm about to break." She stretched slightly, rolling her neck to relieve some of the tension. I saw her wince and then roll her shoulders slowly. "Goddess, this hurts."

"Well...you're a little out of shape."

"Hey! I run everyday."

"When?" I asked with a rose brow.

"Gym."she admitted. "And patrol."

"You run when you have to. That's probably like five minutes in total every day."

"Shut up." she mumbled, looking down. I chuckled and her head snapped up. "Oh yeah, stupid vampire hearing." I chuckled again and she giggled for a minute. "So...when will you have time for me again?"

"I thought this was going to be a daily thing." I said, brows furrowed.

She gave a huge Willow grin. "Great!"

"You're not going to think so tomorrow. Trust me, the pain and soreness are going to get worse until your body adjusts." She sighed heavily.

"Well...I guess there is no getting around that." she said after a long minute. She started to pull her school clothes on over her workout clothes.

"Why do you have work-out clothes anyway?" I asked. "If you don't workout..."

"Yoga." she explained. "I dabble in it. Sort of goes hand-in-hand with meditation."

"Have you tried Tai-Chi?" I found myself asking. Her brows furrowed as if amused. "What?"

"I actually have tried it...but I feel stupid when I follow instructions from a tape so I stopped."

"Where'd you learn Yoga then?"

"My mother."

"Oh. Well...I could teach you Tai-Chi." I told her. Why was I volunteering for all of this suddenly?

"Well...if we're going to be training for five hours every day, I don't know if we'll have time." she said slowly. "I mean, I could stay for another hour. My parents would never know. But I usually patrol with Buffy." She blushed but never stopped talking. "Well, you know that because you usually do too. Patrol with Buffy, I mean. With Buffy and me. And Xander and Cordy. But maybe y-"

I chuckled, effectively cutting her off. She took a deep breath of air. "We can squeeze an hour of Tai-Chi into our training time. Sound okay?"

She nodded. "I should go home to shower." She turned to go. She stopped. "Well, actually, I'll just have to shower again after patrol because Vamp dust." She shook her head as if to clear it. "Anyway, I'll jus-"

"You want me to show you some Tai-Chi moves now? Until Buffy's ready?"

She turned back around. "Are you sure?"

I shrugged. "Nothing else to do."

She smiled that huge grin again and stripped back down to her workout attire. I turned away as she removed her outer clothes because even though she'd already wore the skin-tight garments in front of me, it seemed wierd to watch her undress. I pulled my shirt off and threw it to the side. She rolled her shoulders again and came to stand beside me.