Romance and Regrets

Willow's PoV

Willow had really cared for Lake at first. Even though there had been some anxiety on her part, deep down, about going to work for the U.S. government, Lake had quickly assuaged her fears with open arms.

And, if Willow was being honest… Lake had spoke well of things that Willow herself had felt a couple of times, but had been afraid to put into words: like what if Willow moreso loved her memories of Buffy and the others than who they were now (and vice versa).

The witch had thought that with beauty and grace, Lake had really seen who Willow was now. And, well, Willow was moved more than she had been since Kennedy. Maybe even before Kennedy.

…But it wasn't meant to last.

Like it so often happened, it seemed that Buffy's instincts were strong and true and when it came to choosing between the government and what Willow believed in (her fellow Wiccans and the super-powered of the world in general), of course Lake would side with the government.

When Willow learned that she was going as far as wanting to put the supernatural in internment camps and for them to eventually give up their magic if they wanted to get out of there (even if Willow could maybe understand the government's desire to handle vampires and other nasties this way, if she was being fair), the witch thought she had never felt more nauseous. It was the Initiative all over again.

Yes, Lake eventually came through for Willow while she was in the camp, but only because of their former relationship. It was clear where her heart really lied, and she was all too smug about it all as far as Willow was concerned.

And Willow wasn't even surprised when the whole "taking the supernatural beings' powers" thing turned out to be a ploy by one government official to steal everyone's powers for her own—once again: this was seriously the Initiative, and how this rung strongly of Adam—and Lake was too much a fool to have ever sensed any of this.

Once upon a time, Willow had looked at Lake, thinking she met new chances and maybe something more beyond that.

She never would have thought she'd end up being one of the relationships she regretted the most. But unfortunately, that was just how the cookie crumbled.

Author's Note: A story that I wrote a while ago and forgot about, but just recently found again on my laptop. I think I mainly wrote this because I've been writing a lot of Bangel lately, but I don't want to get in the habit of only writing them. So, this was to again prove that I care about other things in the Buffyverse besides just them, of course.

To be honest, I actually kind of liked Willow/Lake at first… but then Lake became The Worst TM, and alas. (Though I actually did write a fic once—that was after Buffy season twelve—where I had her redeem herself some and her and Willow make another go at it [largely because it's kind of hard to find good romantic candidates for Willow at all in the comics]. This is the 50K Buffy fic I wrote for NaNoWriMo one year that I've mentioned a few times, that'll probably never see the light of day unless I do some serious editing on it. It was one of my first Buffyverse fics [especially of that caliber] and I didn't have a great grasp on Buffyverse yet. But it helped me to get that grasp, so there is that. Anyway…)