Nothing But You
by Whedonist
Nothing But You
[reviews]
A/N: Started this about the same time as One Last Shot. Thinking too much again. This is all human. There are no slayers, or vamps, or dead things. It's set in Season four. Things are different, but I think it's not too odd. Willow moves from LA to attend UCSD where she meets Xand, Buff, and the rest of the gang.
Disclaimer: Joss's just a different take on a fantastic season.
Chapter 1
Buffy and Xander were lying in the grass outside Stevenson Hall. It was a beautiful summer day and the start of their freshman year at UC Sunnydale. Xander had met her after class with sandwiches and the rest of her books that he had been so kind to pick up. They were currently checking out the hotties moving about and trying to figure out which one Buffy would pick up for a date this weekend. Xander pointed to a brunette girl jogging up the dirt path to their right.
"What about that one Buff? She looks kinda hot what with the running and the sweating and the jiggling."
"Nah, I'm kinda over brunette's Xand. Faith was enough for one lifetime."
"Ah, come on, our Faith wasn't that bad was she?"
Buffy quirked an eyebrow at him and then smiled, "Nah, but let's be honest we make better friends than lovers. Besides if we hadn't broken up before graduation, who would have went with you on that disastrous road trip?"
"Hey, it wasn't that bad..."
"Xander, strip club, male strip club is my only response to that." She leveled a look at him that dared him to challenge her.
Taking the hint the man shut up and continued to look for a date for his friend. Today had gone well for him. He got into most of the classes that he wanted and the engineering program that he signed up for looked like it was going to pan out. He was living with his best bud and out of his parents' house. Things were good in the world of Xander. He was about to ask Buffy about tonight's festivities when he saw a flash of red hair come out of the dining hall. He smacked Buffy in the shoulder and pointed to the redhead walking their way.
Buffy looked up and followed Xander's finger. She saw the red first and then let her eyes travel down to the most perfect face she had ever seen. Her mouth dropped open and if anyone was looking closely enough they might have even seen drool.
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Willow came out of the dining hall and was looking for a space in the grass to eat her lunch. She had moved to Sunnydale under the premise that this university was going to allow her to build her own curriculum and study at her own pace. Other, more prestigious colleges had offered her similar packages, but when she visited the campus last spring, the place just seemed right. The only bad part was that she didn't know anyone. She had left her only friends, Fred and Tara, in L.A. They both had decided to stay in town and attend UCLA. Sighing she saw a place under a tree that was open and made a dash to get the spot before anyone could snag it.
She sat down and opened the brown paper bag that she had put together this morning. Not paying attention to her surroundings she began to peel her banana and think about the rest of her class schedule.
"Hi, I'm Buffy."
The statement brought her out of her internal musings and she looked up in to the face of a petite blonde. She smiled and offered the blonde her hand.
"Hi, Willow." As Buffy took hold of the redhead's offered hand she felt a tingle course through her body. For her part, Willow just took it as excitement of meeting her first new people on campus.
Xander came up behind Buffy and grinned at the redhead.
"Hi, Xander."
"Willow."
"So Willow," Buffy started in, "You new here at the UC?"
"Yeah, freshman year. You guys?"
Both nodded their head in agreement. Willow looked at the two and decided they looked relatively harmless. She scooted her bag behind her and offered them a seat in the grass.
"Are you living on campus Willow?" Buffy asked as she folded her legs under her.
"Yeah, here in Stevenson"
"Neato, Xander and I are on the third floor, number 303."
"Oh, you guys are right down the hall from me. I'm in 324."
"You'll have to come over sometime Willster. Buff here was able to deck out the room for maximum entertainey non-studyee value."
The redhead shook her head yes at the invitation. She fished around in her bag and offered Xander an apple. He took the fruit gratefully. For Buffy, she pulled out a Snickers bar.
"Oh peanutty goodness. Thank you kind lady."
Willow blushed a little and asked, "So how was the first day of classes for you guys?"
"Boring. And then one of the professors yelled at me. It was not of the good. It's okay though who wants to study pop culture anyhow."
"Well, Buff, if you hadn't been 15 minutes late. I'm sure it wouldn't have been that bad."
"Hey, a girl needs her beauty rest. What about you Will, how were the classes?"
"Everything was good. I had a physics class at 7 and then Roman History at 10. Both went well." Willow looked down at her watch and realized she had a psych class that started in 10 minutes. Moving to get up, she made her apologies. "Uhm, speaking of class, I have one that starts in 10 minutes so I should be off. It was nice meeting you guys. I'll have to stop by your room sometime."
"What class?" Buffy asked.
"Psych 101 with Professor Walsh. From what I've heard, you do not want to be late to her class."
"You're in that class? Me to! If you want we could walk together."
Smiling gratefully, Willow nodded. Buffy and Xander got up and gathered their things.
"See you Xander!" Buffy said as she walked away trailing slightly behind the redhead. She kept trying to convince herself that she didn't do it to check out the other girls rear end, but it even sounded lame in her head.
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Class had ended and Willow was following Buffy back to the dorms. Willow found the more time she spent with the blonde the more she liked her. Buffy was funny and much to Willow's surprise, she found the blonde to be incredibly adorable.
"So Wills, Xander, me and a few of our other friends are going to this club, The Bronze tonight. Would you care to accompany me and perhaps save me from my dear friends lame, but heart felt jokes?"
Thinking about the mountain of homework she had, she was going to decline, but stopped when she saw the blonde give her the biggest puppy dog eyes she had ever seen.
"Well, I would normally decline, but I can't say no to a face like that so count me in. What time?"
"Yay!" Buffy said clapping her hands. "Uhm, how about 7 ish? It's only 2, so that should give you time to get ready and do some homework if you want to."
"Sound's like a plan. I'll see you at 7." With that Willow walked down the hall towards her room.
Buffy walked in to her room and saw Xander sitting on his bed watching some TV. He smiled up at Buffy and patted the space next to him.
"So, how was the class and Willow?" Xander smirked at the last part and waited on a response.
Buffy threw a pencil at him as she set her bag down and plopped down on the bed.
"Well, class was...boring. The T.A. kept staring at me. Gave me the wiggins. Willow was fantastic. She's so smart and funny. Hot. She's hot. God, Xander, I kept on sneaking glances at her. Let's hope she's isn't straight. I'm already in deep deep smit. Oh, she's coming to the Bronze tonight to."
"Alright Buffster! Don't worry no one can resist you're wily Summer's charm."
Buffy rested her head on her friend's shoulder and began counting down the hours until she saw Willow.
Willow was hunched over her desk working on the physics problems for next week. She had finished all of her assignments for this week and wanted to get a head start on next week's batch. The ringing phone brought her out of her world.
"Hello."
"Willow?"
"Tara! Hey! God it's good to here a familiar voice. What's going on?"
"Nothing. Just wanted to call and check in to see how the new place was working out."
"Not bad, it's the first day of class, but things are good. I even met a few new people that invited me to hang out with them tonight."
"You accepted? I'm shocked. We couldn't get you to go out on a school night even if the world was going to end. Again I say: I'm shocked."
"Well, I figured its college and it's time to try new things right? It's all about growth and new experience. So this is me with the new things."
"I'm glad."
"Oh, how's everyone at home? Fred? How's classes?"
"Hmm, well things here are alright. The campus is too big for my liking, but the only thing Fred talks about is the physics lab and how great her professor's are. Oh, I did get the ecology class I was telling you about. Apparently the professor is like some famous scientist. And from what was said today, we are probably going to be able to actually get some time in the field."
"That's great. Oh, I got into that psych class, but it's boring or at least this lecture was, but hey my new friends or at least one of them is there with me so that at least makes it less boring."
"Spill Will, who are these people and what are they about?"
"One's name is Xander and the girl is Buffy, she's the one in my psych class. Xander seems like a nice guy. He kind of reminds me of Bruce Campbell. He's got the chin and the smile definitely. Buffy is really cool she's shorter than me, blonde, kinda bouncy, funny and very pretty."
"Hmm...Wills is there something you're not telling your oldest friend?"
"What?" Willow scrunched up her brow in confusion.
"I dunno, you sound like you did when you first met Eddie. Do you have a crush on this GIRL?"
Willow balked at her friends comment. 'Me crush on a girl? Nah.'
"Tare, if you don't remember, you're the one that loves the Sapphic naughties not me. No crush or at least I don't think so. I've never had that interest before."
"Well let's run down the list of Willow crush signs shall we? Did you take any notice of her smile, laugh, or hands?"
"Yes, yes, and no. Seriously Tare, it's nothing like that. She's just a cool person. I'm going to meet the rest of her friends tonight at this club called the Bronze."
"Ok fine ruin my hopes of converting you. But Will just so you know, its okay if you do. It's college remember, new experiences and all. I need to get ready for a class. Call me tomorrow and let me know how it goes?"
"I will. Miss you. And tell Fred I love her and miss her to."
"Bye Will!"
"Bye Tara."
Willow hung the phone and was getting ready to turn back to her homework when she glanced at her clock. 'Holy Moly it's 6:00pm. Got to get ready.' Willow grabbed her bathroom kit and headed to the showers for a quick rinse.
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By 6:45pm Willow was standing in front of Xander and Buffy's dorm room. 'They must be involved. It's cool they seem like they would make a good couple. Ah well, here we go.'
Willow rapped on the door and was greeted immedatly by a grinning Xander.
"This way my lady, do come in and have a sit before we depart." Speaking in a very fake but funny British accent, he bowed deeply and ushered Willow in the room.
Their room was twice the size of her's and had a lot more stuff. She took notice of only one desk and where the other was supposed to be sat an entertainment center. It was stocked with the latested electronics and a sizable amount of DVD's. She looked around some more and noticed to beds. 'Hmmm...that's..ah well.' Xander led her to one of the chairs in front of the TV and sat down with her.
"We are running a little bit late. Buffy is uhm...let's face it if Buffy was on time for anything the world would begin to rotate backwards and there is a slight chance hell would freeze over and the devil woiuld go for Olympic gold."
"It's ok, I'm usually early. It's a thing. So how was the rest of your day?"
"It was very very bueno, I got to nap at least an hour and didn't touch a bit of my homework."
Willow looked at him sideways, "Not big on the studying? How can you do that? I would go insane if I didn't get a jump on my assignments."
"Well it's a part gift and part finely honed skill. For I am the king of procrastination!"
Willow laughed at the brunette's antics and decided he was definitely a nice guy. Besides she didn't think Buffy would date or room with someone that was mean. As Willow's thought's turned to the blonde, she came bouncing into the room.
"I am here let the fun begin."
Willow's breath hitched a little at Buffy's entrance. The small girl had on a mid thigh leather skirt, knee high boots, and blood red halter top that was revealing enough to attract as much attention as possible. Willow's outfit was tame by most standards and definitely by comparison. She had chosen to wear a casual/dressy tank top with a pair of jeans and sneakers. She didn't know what to expect from the club, but this outfit was neutral enough for most anywhere.
"Uhm...Hi!"
Buffy looked over at the redhead and internally groaned. Her attire was sexy in a subtle way. Buffy let her eyes roam up the slender arms to the girl's chest and up to meet the emerald eyes of her new friend. Buffy smiled and pulled Xander and Willow up.
"Hey back. Come on we have to pick up the rest of the gang." Buffy pulled the two out of the door and down the hall.
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Buffy turned in her seat and looked back at the redhead. "So Willow, what kind of music do you listen to?"
"Well, it's a varied mix. My friend, Fred, likes punk, Tara is more of a mellow music listener and I've picked up some faves from her like Sarah MacLauchlan and I adore Tori Amos. I like trance, some technoie stuff, and my current fascination are two bands: She Wants Revenge and a band from L.A, Pistol Grip. The latter I can completely blame on Fred though."
"Well then you're going to have to introduce us. I haven't heard much of what you mentioned except for Sarah and Tori of course."
"I'll burn you some cd's. What about you guys?"
"Well, Xander here will listen to pretty much anything. It's really more from being friends with a bunch of girls. I listen to almost anything that is danceable. The club we're going to plays a good mix of everything, but if Faith has her way she'll want Nine Inch Nails and Tool played. It's cool to dance to sometimes, but not all the time."
Willow laughed. She knew the feeling. Fred was always dragging her to these punk shows in LA. And while there was fun had, you couldn't really dance to it unless you like to slam dance or run around in circles slamming into people.