Tara and Anya stood in front of Buffy as she eyed them suspiciously until Anya broke. "What?"
"I'm so grateful to both of you for going on that quest. No offense but I would never have thought of sending you, but it turned out you two were the best ones for the job." Buffy hugged them both at the same time.
"I'd say you're welcome, but I'm never doing that again." Anya nodded for emphasis.
"Well I would if we needed it," Tara said.
"I can't thank you two enough. Even if the results weren't what we'd hoped for." Buffy finally let them go.
"This sucks a little less than it otherwise would have," Dawn said to Buffy as they sat on her bed waiting for Willow to go through with her decision.
"Sucking less is all we can ask for really, isn't it?"
"How's Xander taking the news?"
"He wasn't happy, but he knew there was no other way out of this." Buffy squeezed Dawn's shoulders. "But I also told him I love him, and that I believed in him, and that if he didn't treat Anya like the rockin' queen she is, I'd kick his ass."
Dawn saw Willow's skin ripple with pain in the corner. "Do you think she'll really disappear?"
"She made her decision, and she's in a lot of pain. She's just waiting for me to say goodbye to her." Buffy sighed as she stood up.
Buffy pulled Willow to her feet, and Willow calmed down, looked Buffy in the eye and said, "I'll miss you. Goodbye." And she kissed Buffy until the pain disappeared. Buffy was still in her arms and their lips were still locked. Willow didn't let go because she was still there. Buffy was supposed to absorb her and live with no other need. But Willow didn't disappear or get absorbed by Buffy.
The spell was a test. Willow sacrificing herself rather than killing Buffy again let them both live. She was still a succubus, but her hunger all but disappeared. So Willow kissed Buffy the way she wanted to kiss Tara and never could.
When they parted, Buffy smiled and said, "You kiss like Spike."
The winter passed and spring brought with it Anya and Xander's wedding. Willow got to be the best man and all Marlene Dietrich while Tara was the Maid of Honor. Xander blew off some demon that tried to make him doubt himself because it wanted revenge on Anya. Anya called Xander her sex poodle in her vows. There was cake and dancing, punch and the Electric Slide which could never be dancing. Xander's parents were led out in handcuffs after destroying the buffalo head in the Moosehead ballroom, screaming the whole way. D'Hoffryn left disappointed because he had no way to lure back his single most hardcore vengeance demon. And even Halfrek approved of Xander by the time the reception was over.
As Spike and Willow cleaned up afterward, he smiled at her. "Buffy seemed to have fun."
"She juggled stuff to entertain the unruly children rather than pay much attention to the service. So yeah, she did." Willow laughed. "My mother's called her 'that Bunny girl' ever since the first time she tried juggling something other than beanbags. Buffy broke my mother's most expensive crystal vase when she lost control of my dad's paperweights."
"He had more than one?"
"He collects them. Don't ask."
Dawn ran through with her shoulder length hair held back with something purple the emo demon boy gave her earlier. She laughed when she reached the last standing flower arrangement and screamed, "I win!"
They watched her run back to her new crush. And they shook their heads. "How you doing with Tara's new girl Angela? Meeting her for the first time today? You looked happy enough but were you really?"
"Yes and no." Willow tossed her bag out the window and into the dumpster outside. "I want her to be happy, so I'm happy she is, but I miss being the one to do that. Did you get a load of Giles looking dapper walking Anya down the aisle cane-free."
"I'll allow the subject change, but try not to make them so obvious. He's been cane-free for a month." Spike tossed some confetti at her and she shot him a fake glare. "It'll take me forever to get this crap out of my hair."
"Serves you right, you do see what you did to my hair, yes? Did you have to dump red wine on it? It's pink!"
"You were making a scene, what was I supposed to do?"
"Succuwitch."
"Leech." She stacked chairs. "Has Xander ever gotten around to fifth stepping you?"
"Do you ever really expect him to?" He threw his bag full of paper plates and plastic-wear out the same way Willow had. "Can't you magic this clean? I'd feed you later to make up for it." He winked at her.
"Sorry, bub, but I'd rather do it this way then screw you again."
"Do it yourself. Dusk has come and gone and I want to see the first movie in the new theater. Starts in twenty minutes," he said as he checked his pocket watch.
"What's playing again?"
"Some foreign film about vampires."
"Oh, I don't know why I thought it was some kids' movie. You know I have to go with you."
"Why so excited all of a sudden?"
"How many chances will I get to watch a vampire movie with a vampire?" She put up the last chair then laced her arm through his.
"I don't know, dozens at least since I don't see them disappearing anytime soon and we're going to be stuck with each other for a couple centuries."
"Hey at least we're friends, so don't sound so annoyed by that!"
"I'd have to say you're my best friend, Red."
"Back atcha, Yellow."
Tara and Buffy watched Willow and Spike walk down the road from the new and improved Espresso Pump where they sat drinking coffee with Angela and wondered who would win the ten dollar bet. Would Anya win it when those two started screaming at each other next week? Or would Tara win when they didn't even make it to the end of the day? Double points if Spike or Willow drew blood. They were demons after all.
When Tara heard Spike scream in pain before they even made it to the theater, she smiled.
"Why the smile?" Angela asked.
"Anya's a sore loser," Buffy said.
Angela gave Tara a questioning look but got no answer from her since Tara left to use the payphone. This left Buffy to explain the bet.
And the sound of childlike laughter echoed down the street, sending shivers down everyone's spines. Spike looked behind him. "Maybe we didn't dodge that bullet."