In the next morning, Willow woke up to find herself alone in the king-sized bed; she frowned momentarily, then heard the demon rummaging around in the kitchen, smiling slightly to herself when she realized that, unlike usually, Pat had woken up first and had already begun to prepare breakfast. For a moment, she felt torn between getting up and joining her and remaining in the warm, comfortable bed a bit longer; then, she settled on the second option, briefly wishing that the demon was there instead of in the kitchen to cuddle with her as she made herself comfortable again.
As if her thoughts had somehow been picked up by Pat, her footsteps approached the bedroom moments later; and when she entered, she was carrying a tray, the smell of coffee and toast reaching the witch's nostrils and making her stomach rumble loud enough so the demon could hear, as the smirk on her face showed.
"Seems like I got done just in time", she then stated, making her way to the bed and carefully setting the tray down on the mattress after Willow had moved her blanket aside to create room, "and I figured it'd be nice to have breakfast in bed, been a while since we did that."
"Indeed", the redhead agreed at once, smiling at the taller woman as she sat down beside her; before they both focused on the breakfast though, she leaned in for a tender kiss, smiling at her partner afterwards, briefly pondering the fact that right now, it felt as if she'd never get enough of kissing her, no matter if the kisses were short and innocent or much more passionate and heated.
"Thanks for doing this", she then said, gesturing at the tray while the demon filled the two cups she had brought with the steaming hot black liquid, "that's really sweet and thoughtful."
"What can I say, you bring out that side in me", Pat smirked, handing one of the cups to her before she prepared her own just the way she liked it, something which was done easily and quickly since she only had to pour gracious amounts of sugar into it, "and after that nasty dream you had, I thought you'd deserve it."
"Ack, don't remind me of that dream", Willow grimaced in reply, smiling again though when immediately, Pat looked guilty, "it was nasty enough so I won't need any other nightmares for the next ten years or so. I still can't believe how realistic it was."
"Apart from the fact that Buffy wouldn't hand you that crossbow", Pat shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee before she went on, "not that you can't use it, but she knows you have your magic to defend yourself, and I guess you'd prefer working with that, as well."
"True", Willow agreed after a moment, only realizing now that this was quite the good point, "in fact, I hardly ever used crossbows even before I learned all that magic stuff, so it doesn't make any sense that Buffy would give it to me… And that I'd try to use it against a demon sneaking up on you. I'd just yell a warning to you."
"See?" Pat smirked, helping herself to one of the ham and cheese toasts she had made, "so it wasn't all that realistic. It had a fatal flaw."
"I'll just forget about it", the redhead decided after a moment, "that's probably for the best."
"Yup", her partner agreed at once, then leaned in for another kiss; afterwards, they both focused on their breakfast, the taller woman shaking her head when Willow asked her between two mouthfuls of food if she had any plans for the day.
"Not for the day", she then clarified, "but Buffy asked me if I wanted to come along for patrol tonight. I told her yes, unless you have some plans you'll need me for."
"Nope", the redhead gave back, taking another sip of her coffee before she went on, smiling up at her partner, "in fact, I'd like to come along, if Buffy and you don't mind, it's been quite some time since I went on patrol with you guys."
For a moment, the demon wondered if the nightmare her girlfriend had had was behind this, that it still was bothering her despite her words of reassurance that it wasn't and that thus, she didn't want to let her out of her sight more than necessary; then, she shrugged it off, figuring that, even if that was the case, it'd be nice to have the smaller woman's company during patrol.
"Of course I won't mind", she thus told her, "and neither will Buffy, come on, she's your best friend. Why would she mind?"
"Well, going on patrol together has kinda become a thing of the two of you", Willow shrugged, smiling to make it clear that she didn't mind that, "some sort of bonding time or something, you know what I mean?"
"Um, I guess so", the demon smirked, "but it won't disrupt our… bonding, as you called it, if you come along."
"Good then", the witch gave back, smiling as well; they shared another kiss, then finished breakfast, the taller woman grinning from ear to ear at what her partner suggested after the food and coffee was gone and the tray had been moved to the ground. "So, if you're not having any plans for the day, just like me, why don't we cuddle a bit now? I don't feel like getting up right after this yummy breakfast…"
"You know I'd never say no to cuddling with you", the demon replied at once, making herself comfortable and pulling Willow into her arms; smiling, the redhead snuggled up to her, lazily drawing invisible symbols on her chest with one finger while she silently wondered if she'd fall asleep again, now that she was lying there so comfortably.
"I like that", she sighed after just lying there for a while in silence, "just lying here lazily and cuddling…"
"Me too", Pat let her know, not really surprising her, "with all the action in our lives, it's nice to have such calm times every now and then."
"Indeed", the redhead agreed at once, "but if it were any different, I'd miss it, I know this sounds weird, but it's true."
"We've talked about this before", the demon reminded her, smirking again, "and it doesn't sound weird to me, you know that."
"Yeah, because you get grumpy if you don't beat up anything up for too long", Willow giggled, the taller woman just shrugging, then nodding her agreement, "but anyone else would think it's weird."
"Probably", Pat agreed after a moment, "but who cares? They'd also think it's weird to date a woman who's almost ten times your age."
This made Willow giggle again, and she nodded her agreement; then, she pulled the demon closer for a kiss, all thoughts of possible weirdness and bad dreams leaving her mind when the kiss deepened and all she could focus on was how happy her partner was making her.
"Damn you", Buffy cursed many hours later as the first vampire they had encountered during patrol kept ducking and blocking her punches; laughing girlishly, the female vampire responded by yet another block, then almost casually rammed her elbow backwards, a low "Ooff" coming from Pat as her try to sneak up on the vampire was ended by the blow landing in her stomach.
"It's not nice to sneak up on people", she reprimanded the demon, then ducked another one of Buffy's punches and countered with one of her own, sending the Slayer a few steps back; keeping a safe distance between the vampire and herself, Willow watched how she turned away from the blonde and faced her partner, giggling girlishly again when the taller woman tried to land a kick and failed as much as Buffy had before.
"I thought you'd be better than this", the vampire taunted, dancing aside to avoid another blow, then moving with surprising speed so she ended up behind the demon and kicking her in the back, sending her down on all fours, "seeing what reputation you have among all of us, I really thought that's it when you spotted me and came after me… But you aren't that tough, are you? Neither of you."
With those words, she grabbed Pat by the back of her jacket before she had the chance to get up; and seconds later, the demon found herself flying, even though it was just a brief flight, ended quite abruptly when she crashed into Buffy, both of them going down and ending up in a heap on the ground.
Deciding that she'd watched long enough, Willow took a step forward and brought up one hand; her eyes narrowed briefly as she concentrated, but by now, she had done that certain spell often enough so that a mere second of focus was all she needed, thick roots growing out of the ground moments later and wrapping around the vampire's legs.
Frowning, the vampire looked down at herself, then up at Willow; she bared her fangs at the witch with an animalistic snarl, then suddenly jerked one leg upwards, the redhead's eyes going wide when the roots were torn to pieces in the process – so far, she had been convinced that this spell could only be broken by magic, not by physical force, something the book where she had found it in years ago had confirmed, as well.
"Not used to someone breaking your little spells so easily, are you", the vampire taunted, moving closer to her, "I've heard about you, too, witch, it'll be my pleasure to drink your blood, maybe it will taste different?"
"You won't taste anyone of us", Buffy snarled as she finally managed to disentangle herself from Pat and came to her feet, the demon doing the same a second later; with a low growl, her fists burst into flames, but before she could do more than take a step towards the vampire, she had moved with shocking speed again, her arms around Buffy moments later, a hoarse cry escaping the Slayer when the sharp fangs sunk into her neck.
"No!" Willow cried out, her eyes going wide; without even fully realizing what she was doing, she shot forward, blue fire crackling in her palms as she raised her hands and grabbed the vampire's head, the pain which immediately shot through the undead woman prompting her to yell as she let go of the Slayer, the blonde slumping back into Pat's waiting arms, a dazed expression on her face, blood trickling down her throat.
"Willow!" the demon called out as the vampire fell to her knees, clutching her head and gasping; the redhead looked up just in time to see her partner toss her a stake, and she caught it easily, then brought it down with all her might, letting out a heavy breath when moments later, the vampire disintegrated into a cloud of dust. The moment the vampire had perished, Willow dropped the stake and rushed to where Pat was by now kneeling on the ground, cradling the wounded Buffy in her arms; to her relief, the dazed look already had vanished from the blonde's face, replaced by one which was mostly annoyed and a tiny bit shocked.
"She bit me", she finally said after a few moments of silence, "that bitch really bit me!"
"Is it bad?" Willow demanded to know, carefully moving her best friend's hair aside so she could get a look at the wound; the skin was torn and bloodied where the vampire had sunk her teeth into it, but the flow of blood was already ceasing, and she figured that it would look much less threatening after it had been cleaned.
"No", Buffy now confirmed the redhead's thoughts, "you got her away from me before she could drink too much… But this has never happened to me before, at least not like that. Why was she so fast and strong?"
"No idea, and I hope this won't become a trend amongst them now", Pat grumbled as an answer, "it was quite unnerving how she just grabbed me and threw me at you. What did she think I am, a piece of wood?"
"Apparently", Buffy smiled, moving out of her grip and sitting up, grimacing as she gingerly touched the wounds in her throat and felt the blood drying on the skin around them, "but you're okay, aren't you?"
"Yes", the demon gave back at once, "just peachy keen. Let's just hope the other vampires tonight will be less skilled than that one right now, so it'll stay that way."
"Wise words", the Slayer agreed, coming to her feet again and dusting herself off; Pat did the same, then looked around the cemetery, straining her ears as she tried to pick up the noises vampires typically were making when they were digging themselves out of their grave.
"Hear anything?" Willow wanted to know after her partner just had listened in silence for almost a minute; with a dismayed look, the taller woman shook her head, then sighed as she looked around once more, her gaze focusing on Buffy afterwards. "I guess this doesn't meant that we're done for the night though, right?"
"Right", the Slayer agreed at once, "we should check here a bit longer and maybe head on to another one in case we don't find anything else here."
"Alright", the demon shrugged, clearly not minding much, "let's go then, we won't find any vampires if we just keep standing around here."
"No", a fourth voice came up before Buffy or Willow could reply, "but the vampires find you." And with those words, figures began to emerge from the shadows around them, the demon growling lowly in the back of her throat while she clenched her fists as she counted them; it was obvious even without count that the vampires were outnumbering them, and the fact that there were eleven of them, forming a circle around them, didn't help to calm her down.
Licking his lips, the vampire who had spoken looked from one member of the trio to the next; finally, his gaze settled on Buffy, his voice full of hunger when he spoke up again, his words making the other vampires bare their teeth hungrily as well. "Boys, girls… The snack bar is open. Let's start with the Slayer."