FIC: Tiger by the Tail (5/?)

["Shadowlander" <Shadowlander1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Tiger by the Tail (5/?)
Author: Shadowlander
Email: Shadowlander1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx - or - Tankesly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters commonly associated with Buffy the Vampire Slayer; they are used without permission.
No copyright infringement is intended.
Pairing: Buffy/Willow
Rating: PG
Summary: After a four-year absence Willow has come home.

TIGER BY THE TAIL (5/?)

Giles, who had chosen that moment to come downstairs, broke the somewhat awkward silence that had settled itself over the living
room. "Oh B-buffy you're here", the former Watcher stammered. Pushing aside the somewhat irrational urge he had, to run back
upstairs and hide under his bed at the look the young blonde was giving him, he calmly walked into the room.

"Yeah, I'm here", Buffy replied after a moment her eyes narrowing as she stared accusingly at her Watcher. "Imagine my surprise,
when I walk in and find my best friend...WHO HAS BEEN MISSING FOR FOUR YEARS... asleep on the couch." She all but growled at him.

"Buffy quit growling at Giles," Willow said placing a restraining hand on the blonde to keep her from doing something she would only
regret later, "we got here pretty late last night."

"Late? He could have called me, told me you were back,." she stressed, giving him a dirty look before turning her attention back to
the redhead standing beside her. "I wouldn't have been mad. Far from it, in fact", she finished in a small voice as she found
herself in the receiving end of Willow's resolve face. Even after four years, the infamous resolve face had not lost its effect,
even if one eye no longer focused properly.

With a tired sigh, "Buffy I knocked on his door a little after four this morning. It took me nearly forty minutes to convince him
that I was not a demon, a vengeful spirit or a vampire, before he would let me through the front door," Willow explained with a
lopsided grin, "and another fifteen before he let Yoshiro in," she added smugly.

"How was I supposed to know the porch light was going to make my eyes do that?" Yoshiro questioned in mock offense. "Like I go
around scaring people on purpose", he grumbled.

"Well he could have still called," Buffy replied, knowing that she was whining and not really caring. 'Is it such a bad thing that
I wanted to know the exact moment my best friend had gotten back into town?'

"When you and Amy had left here just about an hour before?" Willow questioned, giving the stubborn Slayer a poke in the shoulder,
silently daring her to continue being difficult.

"We wouldn't have minded being called", Buffy insisted, a light entering her eyes for the first time in four years, "would we Amers?
We would have gotten back here in record time. And just how do you know what time Amy and I got back to the dorm anyway?" the
Slayer questioned smugly, thoroughly enjoying herself now. 'God I missed this', she thought fondly, knowing that she was being
silly, if not down right goofy, and couldn't care less. 'Willow's home! Willow's home!' her inner Slayer voice was crowing in the
back of her mind, even as she firmly pushed down the urge to take the redhead into a bear hug and not let go for the next month or
so, just long enough to assure herself that Willow wasn't going to disappear on her, then she would see about having homing devices
sewn into all of her clothes so she could easily keep track of the small hacker no matter where she went. 'Wonder if Angel can get
me a good deal on them?'



"So...how do you like university?" Yoshiro asked Amy after a moment turning his attention to the young witch and away from the
Slayer, who was still trying to convince the redhead that she would have preferred being pulled out of an exhausted sleep to trudge
back to Giles' flat, all because Willow had come home.

"Oh it's coming along nicely", Amy replied with a small smile, finding herself liking the young man standing beside Giles. Although
she too wanted some answers to a lot of questions surrounding Willow's sudden return, she was willing to wait a bit before she tied
the redhead to a chair and drug out the interrogation equipment.

Any further conversation was interrupted by Giles' front door flying open, two figures nearly falling over one another, just to be
the first inside each searching for someone in particular.

Xander scrambled to his feet first, giving the figure that had become tangled up with him at the door a slight push to steady
himself. Looking around the room rapidly he settled his gaze on Willow standing on the other side of the couch. "Wills!" he cried
a wide grin plastered across his face as he jumps over the couch and swept his childhood friend in a bone-crushing hug, unmindful of
the dumbfounded stares being directed at him.

"Does he realize that he's not dressed?" Yoshiro asked, unsure if he should remove the dark-haired man, clad only in a pair of
beige Snoopy boxer shorts and socks, from the room or not.

"That is dressed for him", a new voice said from behind him as Cordelia Chase leisurely entered the flat, closing the door behind
her, a smug little smirk planted firmly on her face.

"Xander! Xander...oxygen becoming REALLY an issue here", Willow growled as Xander continued to merrily swing her around.

"He's on medication, right?"

"Yoshi!"

"All right hang on", Yoshiro replied with a laugh, raising a hand and pointing toward the embracing couple...with rather interesting
results. One moment Xander was doing a very bad rendition of a waltz, the next he found himself floating above the floor, a
grinning Willow staring up at him.

"Hey! What the..?" Xander cried out, trying to shake off the force that was holding him.

"Interesting friend you have there, Wills", Buffy commented dryly.

"Ain't he though?" Willow replied with a big grin, "you can put him down now Yoshiro." Glancing behind Giles and Yoshiro, Willow's
smile got even wider as she spotted Angel and Cordelia lurking in the background. 'How did Angel get here?' she wondered, before
seeing the little puffs of smoke raising from the vampire, even as he patted himself down with mild annoyance. "Hi Angel."

"Hi Willow," the vampire said, a rare smile on his face, "if I give you a hug will your friend take offense?"

"He shouldn't, but if he does you can always bite him."

"And she mentions biting again? Exactly what is it with her and biting?" Yoshiro asked.

End part five.

Well? What do you guys think?