This is the first fic I've written and posted 10 years ago. I'm translating it now because I want to finish the second part of this story. English isn't my first language. I apologize for every grammar, conjugation or spelling mistakes you may find.

Context: This is after season 7. Buffy moved near LA after Sunnydale's destruction. I tried to respect as much as possible the characters' consistency and everything that happened until the end of season 7. This is not taking into account neither the Angel spinoff nor the Buffy comics.

I'd be thrilled to have your opinion on my story. I answer each one of your comments.

Enjoy your reading.

Chapter 1

An ordinary life

Buffy was in her room when she heard a knock on the front door. She quickly slipped the paper she was holding into an envelope before placing it between two books on the shelf overlooking her desk. She then rushed out of the room and ran down the stairs before opening the door.

"Willow, finally! I've missed you so much! Come in, give me your bag!"

"Thanks!"

The two friends hugged each other then Buffy stepped aside to allow Willow to enter. "I'll take your things upstairs. I have a guest room."

As she was about to go upstairs, she suddenly turned around. "Come to think of it, you've never been here since I moved in! Come on, I'll show you around. It's not much, but it's important that you know where your room is if you're staying for a while at least!"

Willow took a step forward timidly, "You know, I don't want to bother you…"

"What are you talking about?" Her friend asked, frowning.

"I mean that I show up unexpectedly and for an indefinite period. You probably have a lot of things planned and…"

"Will, stop that. You'll always be welcome here and you know it. No matter what I may have planned, stop worrying!"

Willow smiled before following her. Upstairs, Buffy showed her the room she was going to occupy and placed the young woman's suitcase at the foot of the bed. She then showed hers and Dawn's. The bathroom was also on this floor.

In the end, they came back downstairs and Buffy led her to the kitchen and then to the living room. Finally, the two young women sat down on the sofa.

"I also got a small basement," Buffy said, "But you have to walk through the garden to go. I could show you later."

"Why? Did you hide any interesting stuff down there?"

"Not really… I thought you might be interested, that's all," Buffy replied, slightly disappointed.

"Hey, I'm just teasing you! You can hide whatever you want in your basement anyway!"

"That's a relief… For a moment I thought you were gonna bombard me with questions once you'd seen the body…"

"What?" Buffy burst out laughing and it took Willow a few seconds to realize that her friend was making fun of her. "Ha-ha-ha. Very funny."

"It is! You should have seen your face! Oh well, you started it!"

"Yeah… Now tell me how you managed to find such a beautiful house just a few miles from LA. Did you win the lottery or something?"

"No, but I was still very lucky. Do you see the house across the street?" Willow turned to the window and saw another house across the road. "What about it? It looks like every other house on the street."

"The houses both belong to Mrs. Johnson. I met her at the real estate agency. I came to look for an apartment and she came to sell this house because it was haunted!"

"Haunted?"

"It was just a fairly harmless demon that I easily killed actually. To thank me, she offered to rent the house to me."

"Didn't you say she wanted to sell it?"

"Yes, but the house had belonged to her daughter before she moved to New York. She wanted to avoid parting with it now that it was no longer haunted! Anyway, I wouldn't have had the money to buy it!"

"That's for sure," Willow confirmed while looking around, "It really is a beautiful house!"

"It allows me not to spend all my money on rent, which is very nice given that I don't earn a lot! 'Be the slayer, you'll find accommodation more easily!'"

"Did you manage to find a job then? You're still a guidance counselor?"

"Yes, in LA. A rather quiet high school… compared to what we saw in Sunnydale!"

"I guess! It's hard to do worse than Sunnydale, especially when the Hellmouth was still open! You have quite a bit of experience now!"

"Yeah, and I don't see much demonic activity anymore but I still patrol, you never know… What about you? Tell me about what happened with Kennedy! Well, I mean, if you wanna talk about it of course…"

"Well, I don't really know, it happened pretty quickly… Making this trip to Europe was very interesting and everything was going well but when it was time to think about settling down… I… I don't know. It wasn't so obvious anymore. I kept thinking about Tara and…"

A tear rolled down the young red-haired woman's cheek and Buffy moved closer to her. "It's okay, Will. Maybe it was too early. Give yourself a little more time. You know, we all miss Tara."

Willow smiled weakly, "I know that but… Well, it's not just that." Buffy didn't answer but encouraged her friend to continue. She was pressing her hands nervously.

"We were at Giles' in London when I told Kennedy that it might be better to take a break. Of course she had noticed something was going on but when she found out it was because of Tara, she… She was really angry. I tried to explain that I just needed some time alone, to think about everything, but she chose to break up… In the end, she wanted to stay in London and found a job as a sports teacher. I decided it was up to me to leave and I went to Tibet. You know that I always wanted to go there and it's a great place for meditation so… In short, I was in a small village where I met Buddhist monks and one evening… I met… Oz."

"Oz?"

"I know… it's crazy. We talked all night. I told him about all our adventures since he left and why I was there. He told me that he had returned to Tibet when I decided to be with Tara and that he had learned a little magic from the monks at the village temple. He also studied his condition as a werewolf even more and learned to control himself."

"Really? Wow! It's incredible! Talk about news!" Buffy exclaimed.

"I stayed for about three more weeks and we spent all our time together. The monks he lived with gave me some keys to controlling my powers a little more. They also studied me a lot."

"Ah, Willow's study, that is fascinating! And where's Oz now?"

"He stayed in Tibet."

"But?"

"He said he'd probably come see me. I gave him your address because I don't have any… I hope you don't mind!" Willow looked at her friend as if she had been caught red-handed and Buffy immediately reassured her. "You did well. I've always liked Oz and I'd love to see him again."

"Thank you, Buffy. You know… during those three weeks, it was truly paradise. We had so much to talk about the whole time."

"I'm happy for you. Did that allow you to reflect then?"

"Yes and no," she admitted, "I still think of Tara of course, but it doesn't hurt me as much now. Oz really allowed me to think about something else, it was magical."

"You speak like a little girl in love!" Her friend teased her.

"I… I'm not! Oh, Buffy, it's so complicated! Tara is in my head but so is Oz. This is so insane. I thought I had found what I wanted with Tara and… I don't know anymore!"

"Will, there's no problem! No one is gonna judge you and especially not me." Buffy hugged her friend again. "I'm so happy to see you! Almost six months! We've never been apart for this long! Xander is gonna be so happy! Since I told him you were coming, he hasn't stopped talking about his dear little Willow!"

"I missed you both so much… How's he? What about Dawn?"

"Dawn lives on her university campus, it's about ten miles from here. She studies literature. I think she's following in the footsteps of Giles. All she does now is devour books with weird titles written in dead languages! We meet regularly and she often spends her weekends here. Everything's fine on this front."

"On this front?"

Buffy snickered. "Yeah. She actually won't tell me she has a boyfriend but I saw them kissing in the lobby when I was picking her up one Friday afternoon."

"Really? This is weird… Say, do you think he's a demon or a vampire?"

"He's not, trust me! It's true that the Summers girls had problems with vampires, well me especially. But Dawn seems to be escaping it for now. She won't tell me because her boyfriend is Andrew!"

"Andrew? You mean Andrew the one who was part of that ridiculous trio with Warren and Jonathan? The one she couldn't stand?"

"This one! He's on campus studying photography!"

The two young women looked at each other for a few seconds and then burst out laughing. "Actually, the Summers girls have a problem with men!" Willow pointed out between laughs.

After a few minutes, the girls got serious again. "What about you? Have you found someone?" Willow asked.

"You know I've never been lucky about that either. There's a very nice young man at my job, Jack. I think he likes me. But I don't know. I just don't see us working out. I don't feel ready to start another love story. I have the worst luck…!"

"Come on, Buffy, since Riley you haven't had any serious relationships. You should let yourself go. Sure, Jack might not be Prince Charming, but you could share some good times together, without it being too serious."

Buffy stared at her friend for a few seconds and a look of sadness crossed her face. She recovered immediately but Willow had noticed, "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was still hard for you to bring it up…"

"No, no, it's not about Riley. I moved on a long time ago. It's just that… No, it's nothing. I feel sorry for myself, that's all!"

Buffy had said the last two sentences with a smile but Willow wasn't convinced. Her friend had really seemed desperate and that wasn't like her. Buffy wasn't used to playing the victim. Yet she didn't want to insist and quickly changed the subject.

"And how's dear Xander?"

"We meet very often; he doesn't live far away. He found a job as a carpenter. He probably also told you that he underwent an eye operation. The surgeons had a transplant opportunity and they called him. Everything went well, he just has a ton of medication to avoid rejection. Fortunately, there should be fewer and fewer."

"Yeah, he called me at Giles but I didn't know how it went."

"The three of us should go out tonight, I know he'll be happy to see us together after all this time. And it'll change your mind."

"You're right."

Welcome aboard, I hope you like it!