Thank you all for reading! Please note, as this is written entirely from Willow and Oz's perspective, there are no scenes with vampire Willow that don't contain either of them.

Willow was feeling guilty as she came into the library, sorry about how she had stormed off from her friends earlier. It hadn't been their fault that she felt … inadequate. Boring. Dull. And after that thing with Anya, she kind of wished she felt boring and dull again. That had been a bit more magical than Willow felt she was entirely ready for.

It didn't help that Xander and Buffy and Giles were all sitting glumly on the steps, looking as though the end of the world was nigh, when she walked in with her cheery, "What's goin' on?"

They all turned to look at her, shocked, and she said, "Geez, who died?" flippantly, before it occurred to her that someone must have. "Oh, God, who died?"

Xander scrambled up off the steps, rushing toward her with a cross held out in front of him. "Back! Back, demon!"

Willow looked at the cross, and looked at Xander, trying to figure out what was going on.

He looked at her, and then at the cross, shaking it as if to make it work better, and shoved it at her face again.

Behind him, Buffy got up and came toward her, looking at Willow as if she was seeing her for the first time. "Willow, you're alive," she said in a tone of wonder and disbelief.

"Aren't I usually?"

They were still all staring at her, and then Buffy rushed her, throwing her arms around her and holding on tight. Then Xander followed suit, both of them wrapping themselves around her as if they'd never let her go.

Willow held on to them, glad that they cared so much, even if she was still confused. "I love you guys, too." But they didn't let go, wrapping themselves more and more tightly around her until it was starting to get hard to breathe. "Oxygen becoming an issue," she said at last, and they let go. They both continued to stare at her as though they had never expected to see her again, and Willow looked at the sanest member of the group for some clarification. "Giles, what's going on with these—" And then Giles was hugging her, too, which was weird. And a little scary. And kind of reminded her of the crush she used to have on him and how she used to wish he would hug her, which was also weird and a little scary.

He must have found it so, as well, because he let her go as abruptly as he had embraced her, stepping back and stammering out his apologies.

Buffy put her hand on Willow's shoulder, still staring. Willow was beginning to find it all really creepy. "It's … really nice that you guys missed me," she said. "Say, you all didn't happen to do a bunch of drugs, did ya?" It was the best explanation she could come up with.

Xander finally found his words. "Will, we saw you, at the Bronze. A vampire."

"I'm not a vampire!"

"You are," Buffy said. "I mean … you were …" She frowned. They both turned to look at the man who usually had the answers. "Giles, planning on jumping in with an explanation anytime soon?"

Giles stammered a bit more, clearly as lost as the rest of them. Eventually he managed to offer, "Something very strange is happening."

Xander grinned. "Can you believe the Watchers' Council let this guy go?"

"Seriously, that's all you have?" Buffy asked Giles.

"Without having seen this vampire version of Willow myself, it's hard to say. Possibly you and Xander were under some kind of spell, or a demon was wearing a glamour of Willow …"

"Willow in leather," Xander muttered.

"Leather? I don't wear leather."

Buffy shrugged. "You looked pretty good in it. Not … Willow-y, but good."

Willow considered that. She liked looking Willow-y, but … maybe it was time for a change.

"We just thought—you know, you kind of were mad earlier and said you wanted a change, and—"

"Boy, was it," Xander put in.

Willow shook her head. "That wasn't me. You guys know that, right?" she asked, because they were still looking at her funny.

"I know …" Buffy frowned. "Giles, research? Books? Anything?"

He shrugged, and they all stood there looking at one another. Willow kind of wanted to see this vamp version of her now … but she also kind of didn't.