Part Twenty-Eight: All Together Now, II

Over at the small table where the drinks and glasses had been set up, Devon regarded Nathan and gestured towards the couch. “Maybe you should head over there.”

“I don’t think that’s such a hot idea,” Nathan answered.

Devon leaned against the wall. “You’re cool with it, then? Everything being over?”

Nathan watched Willow smile at something Oz said and swallowed. “No, I’m not. But it’s not like I have a choice, really. Yeah, I wanted to see them tonight, talk to Willow, ask Oz what he wants . . . but seeing them together now . . .” He drained his drink and set the cup down. “I shouldn’t have gotten in the way in the first place. They were good before I entered into it. If they can have a chance at fixing things, I should back off.”

Devon peered in the same direction that Nathan was still looking. “So you think taking yourself out of the equation will help.”

Nathan shook his head slightly and gave Devon a rueful smile. “I suppose . . . well . . . yeah, I think so. I guess I really fucked things up.”

“Just you, huh?” Devon asked, sipping at his drink. “And you’re the one who’s going to fix it by staying away, all by yourself.”

“Yeah, I -- wait. What do you mean, by myself?” Nathan asked him.

“Just saying,” Devon shrugged. “It’s not like you were the only one in the mix.”

Nathan interrupted impatiently. “I know that, but I’m the one who--”

Devon laughed slightly. “What’s with wanting to take it all on? It started because of you, it ended because of you -- you think that the parts that went well were all you too?”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Nathan said firmly, but his face showed his hesitation.

Devon shook his head. “Man, you three are something else. Oz thinks you and Willow will get what he’s thinking even if he doesn’t tell you. You think you’re carrying the whole show, and you’re not even going to let them in on the secret. And Willow -- who knows what her deal is.”

“Hey, you guys need some snack-type stuff?” Xander clapped a hand on each of the other men’s shoulders and smiled encouragingly.

“Nah, we’re good,” Devon said. “So you and Spike, huh?”

“Yeah,” Xander said, automatically glancing over to Spike, who was standing, back against the wall, eyes intently trained on him. “Me and Spike.” He drifted off towards the vampire in question.

“Man,” Devon said with a shake of his head. “Those dudes have got it bad.”

* * *

“So we are moving on to the actual dinner portion of this dinner party at some point, right?” Buffy asked Xander, poking him in the arm.

“Ow. And, oh, right,” Xander answered absently, moving away from Spike nuzzling his neck. “The baked cheesy pasta thingy.”

“Am I the only one who’s curious if the baked cheesy pasta thingy is completely burnt by now?” Buffy wondered aloud.

“No worries,” Clem said grandly, sweeping his hand towards the counter. “Took it out half an hour ago myself when it was all bubbly and stuff.”

“Need some help?” Nathan asked Xander, who was staring at the glass casserole dish that was already on the counter with a puzzled look on his face.

“Plates?” Xander suggested, pointing in the appropriate direction.

In the larger part of the room, Giles was having an animated conversation with Cindy about her knowledge of various demon languages while Clem watched her with a proud expression on his face. Buffy and Devon both edged towards the counter, forming a subtle line for dinner portions. And Nathan suddenly found himself standing in front of Willow and Oz.

“So,” Nathan said softly.

“So,” Willow echoed. Her eyes went a little wide, and the corners of her mouth quirked up slightly in an almost-smile.

Oz merely nodded. Then for a moment or so they all just looked at one another awkwardly.

“Three strings walk into a bar,” Nathan began, a vague look of panic on his face.

“Oh! I know that one!” Willow said excitedly, losing her expression of wariness. “That’s a cute joke. Frayed not!”

“Good clean humor for the kids, yet having a bar element so that the adults can relate,” Oz noted.

“Okay,” Nathan said with a slight grin. “So maybe opening with a joke wasn’t the best idea.”

“Better than opening with more rounds of focused staring,” Willow said out of the side of her mouth. “What?” she asked when both of them looked at her. “Like we weren’t all thinking that!”

“Not sure if there is any good way to start off,” Oz said with a shrug. “Maybe we just have to . . . start.” He touched Willow’s arm briefly and then reached out to brush his hand against Nathan’s shoulder. Each of them shifted imperceptibly closer, closing the circle that they made slightly.

“You know, I just really like you,” Nathan said suddenly. “I mean, both of you, and I don’t want what we were doing to end. But I don’t want to push if that’s not what either of you wants, or if it might hurt one of you . . . or both of you.”

“Or you,” Willow put in generously. “There’s no need for there to be hurting of you, right?”

“Well, yeah, ideally,” Nathan said with a nod. He motioned the two of them towards the bedroom, away from Cindy and Clem who were now nearby, politely exclaiming over the casserole and looking anxious about being within eavesdropping distance.

“Okay,” Oz said as he partially closed the door behind them.

Willow sat down on the edge of the bed, but then jumped up suddenly. “Oh! This wasn’t supposed to be that kind of bedroom talk.” When the other two smiled at her, she took a deep breath and went on. “See, the thing of it is, Nathan, we really like you, and --” She stopped and turned to Oz. “That’s okay, right, saying ‘we’ . . . with me and you and the liking?”

“Think it’s safe to say ‘we’,” Oz said agreeably to her. He shifted slightly to face Nathan. “Because, yeah, it’s both of us that like you. And because no matter how this shakes down, Willow and I are a package deal.”

“I want that,” Nathan said. “I want the package -- both of you -- and I want so badly for it to work out this time.”

“I think we could get it now, maybe,” Willow said quietly. “If we had more talking, and not so many avoidy impulses. And, oh, like maybe we could have a schedule . . . ” Oz raised his eyebrows at that, and she continued hastily. “Or, you know, not, if that’s too planned -- but if we could sort of tell each other who’s seeing who when?”

“And where,” Nathan added.

“And why,” Spike said from his position leaning against the frame of the now-open doorway.

“Bell! Neck! You!” Willow exclaimed.

“Oh, like a collar, yeah?” Spike smiled with open lips, touching the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth. “Didn’t know you had it in you, pet.”

“No, no, to stop you from the creeping into rooms,” Willow said defensively. “This is a private conversation -- ”

“Which you’re having in my bedroom,” Spike pointed out.

“Who’s having what in our bedroom?” Xander inquired as he poked his head around the doorway.

“Just talking,” Oz said. “Not, you know, doing actual bedroom type things.” He sniffed a few times, raised his eyebrows, gave Xander a significant look, and then looked away discreetly.

Xander turned beet-red. “Oh my god. I can’t believe that I have friends who can smell when Spike and I have had sex. And, okay, I really did not mean to say any of that out loud.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of,” Spike scoffed. “What did you think they supposed we were doing, just braiding each other’s hair and having tea parties in here?”

“I know, but Oz can probably tell that we had sex today, right before everyone came over,” Xander said loudly. Then he dropped his face into his hands and moaned. “Oh god. Why am I still talking?”

Spike drew him into his arms and looked indignantly at Oz, Willow, and Nathan. “Not enough that the three of you have to be ridiculously unreasonable about one small tiff and let your whole relationship go to hell. But you have to come in here and upset Xander too?”

“We didn’t get unreasonable about a tiff,” Willow said hotly. “This was . . . important, and we had to . . . and . . .” She trailed off in a far more uncertain voice than she’d had when she started.

“Well, there was weirdness,” Oz put in.

“See?” Willow nodded firmly at Spike.

“And I didn’t handle things well by just backing off, I think,” Nathan added. “We should have talked more, and maybe we should have been more open, and -- wait a second.”

“What?” Xander said, seemingly relieved to have a change in the topic.

Nathan frowned and put both palms out flat against the air in front of him. “Wait. Why would you say that Oz can smell that you had sex right before we all came over? I mean, sex smell, sure, but that seems pretty damn specialized on the olfactory front.”

“Oh, you know,” Xander said, waving a hand in the air. “On account of Oz being a werewolf -- the heightened sense of smell thing.”

“Oz is a what now?” Nathan asked in confusion.

“Uh oh,” Xander said.

“We talked about that. We must have,” Willow said with a nervous laugh, but she turned towards Oz with a question clear on her face.

“That might not have been covered, actually,” Oz said slowly.

Spike snorted. “Right. And maybe you should have been more open. Something of an important thing, that detail.”

“But we talked about me being a witch,” Willow told Spike indignantly. “So open stuff was exchanged.”

“Hard to avoid that particular topic, wouldn’t you say?” Spike asked with raised eyebrows. “The way you play with the mojo?”

“Werewolves exist?” Nathan asked Xander.

“Well, you knew that vampires existed,” Xander said in an accusatory tone, apparently trying to distract everyone from the fact that he’d been the one to bring up another contentious topic.

“Werewolves. Huh,” Nathan said, shaking his head. “You’d think they would have mentioned some of this stuff in the college guide, even in a kind of veiled way.”

“I think you’ll find that under Security and Campus Safety,” Xander pointed out helpfully. “The part about using the buddy system for late night walks.”

“But only three nights a month, would the werewolf warnings be needed,” Willow pointed out loyally, and Oz smiled.

“Yeah, and we’ve got the situation more than covered on those nights,” Oz said.

“Very modern cages with all the amenities and a tranquilizer gun at the ready,” Xander added.

Nathan looked back and forth between Willow and Nathan and then grinned. “Wow. I have a witch for a girlfriend and a werewolf for a boyfriend? I’m so freaking cool.”

“That’s the spirit,” Xander said in an encouraging voice. “Keep focused on the positive.”

“Positive, like, say, dinner being ready?” Buffy asked from the doorway plaintively. “We were going to eat, but then you guys disappeared, and Cindy said we should wait for everyone before we started . . . so can you come back out there, right now?”

“In any case, I rather doubt that room was intended to hold so many people,” Giles said from behind her, peering into the bedroom at the cluster of occupants. Spike rolled his eyes and slipped past him out the doorway. Buffy followed on his heels, presumably to get back on line for the baked cheesy pasta thingy.

Xander cast one look back at the rumpled bed and sighed before he grinned at Oz. “So. The three of you ready?”

“Yeah,” Oz answered in a mild voice, smiling at Nathan and Willow. “We’re ready.”

***************************************