“Hi Oz, I guess it would be stupid to ask why you're so bummed.” Buffy said as she walked up to the werewolf in the Bronze.

“True.” He replied.

“Listen, Willow is one of my best friends, but she shouldn't have gone behind your back like that.”

“You think.” Oz spat out. “Cordelia seems to be getting over Xander already.”

“Buffy looked to see Cordelia flirting with some guy. “She heals well I guess.”

“I thought that only happened to slayers.” Oz grinned.

“Yeah well.” Buffy sat down for the fist time in the conversation. “So apart from the obvious, how are you?”

“Apart from the Willow stuff, I'm pretty much ok.” He said.

“It'll get easier, Willow will realize what a great guy you are, and come back to you.” Buffy assured him.

“Maybe that's not what I want.” Oz said.

“What? So why are you being so mopey?” Buffy asked.

“With Willow I was always, Oz her boyfriend, never just Oz.” He explained. “We never just sat down and talked like you and I”

“That could be coz this conversation is about Willow.” Buffy pointed out. “Well I gotta go patrol, you can come along if you want.”

“Sure, thanks Buffy.”

“For what?” She asked.

“For being you.” Oz replied sincerely.

Willow walked into the Bronze, and immediately spotted Buffy, when she saw Oz she thought about doing a U-turn, but decided that she couldn't avoid him forever.

“Hi guys.” She said brightly.

“Hey.” Buffy said uncomfortably.

Oz just avoided her gaze.

“Oz, can I speak with you privately?” Willow asked.

Oz looked at Buffy. “Ill meet you outside in five minutes.” He said, Buffy felt a surprising twinge of jealousy as she saw the two of them together. But figured that it was only because, Willow and Oz had potential, and she and Angel, pretty much didn't.

“What do you want Willow?” Oz asked.

“To talk.” She replied.

Oz stood there in silence, waiting for her to go on.

“I'm sorry, I love you. Xander and I are nothing compared to you and I.” Willow explained.

But you love him?” Oz stated. When he saw that Willow couldn't deny it, he shook his head. “I can't be with someone if they are in love with someone else, I've ignored your feelings towards Xander up until now, but I can't any longer.”

“What are you saying?” Willow questioned.

“It's over, so lets just leave it.” Oz said.

A tear trickled down the side of her face, but Oz resisted the urge to comfort her. “Buffy's waiting for me.” He said.

“So that's it?” Willow asked.

Oz only nodded, and without a backwards glance; he left her to find Buffy. He wasn't as upset as he thought he would be.

“Everything ok?” Buffy asked.
“Now it is.” He replied.

“You alright?”

“I'm fine. Routine patrol?”

“Lets go.” Buffy agreed. “But wait, maybe I should check on Will.”

At that moment Xander walked by.

“Hey,” he said glancing at Oz awkwardly.

Oz barely looked at him.

“Hi.” Buffy replied.

“You two staying?” He asked.

“Patrol, got to go kill demony things.” Buffy said. After Xander had left, oz turned to Buffy.

“You know, I think she's going to get all the comfort she needs.”

“I'm sorry. You don't have to come patrol if you don't feel up to it.” Buffy said.

“I'm fine, honestly.”

“Hi Will.” Xander said as soon as he was next to her. “What's up?”

“Me and Oz, we're, we're officially over.” Willow replied.

“Oh. I just saw him with Buffy, he blanked me completely.” Xander told her. “So what are we going to do?”

They both just let the question hang in the air.

“What are you going to do now?” Buffy asked Oz.

“Who knows.”

“Just because you and Willow broke up doesn't mean you'll drive yourself away from the Scooby gang, does it? Coz I would hate that.” Buffy said.

“You guys are still my friends, you, Giles in a tweed sorta way, Cordelia…well.” Oz laughed.

“You still got me, and hey it's good you on patrol, stops it from being boring.”

“Glad to help.” Oz stood next to Buffy. “So are we expecting any vamp action tonight, or what?” He asked.

“Seems a pretty slow night.” But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, a newly formed vampire lunged for the pair.

Watching Buffy fight wasn't something new for Oz, though he did find he was seeing her in a new light.

She effortlessly staked the vampire. Oz watched her, she was so agile, and beautiful, Oz just couldn't stop watching her. He and Buffy had gotten very close over the last few months. She had helped him with his werewolf stuff and he'd been there about Angel. But that's all they were friends. Right? But watching the slayer fight he realized that the only reason that he wasn't that upset about Willow was because he was in love with Buffy Summers. That thought was so like Wow! That it almost knocked him over.

“Well at least I got one vamp tonight, I can go home feeling that I have at least saved someone.” Buffy laughed as she walked over to him. “You ok, you look kinda strange?”

“Gee thanks, are you going to see Angel?”

“Yeah, but I better go now.” Buffy replied.

Oz fought down a surge of jealousy. “Ill drive you.”

Once they were outside the mansion where Angel was staying, he turned to the slayer. “Thanks for tonight.”

“That's ok, but you must have been really bored.” Buffy replied.

“You've made me realize a couple of things in my life, what my priorities are, and what's important to me.”

“You learnt all that in one night of patrolling with me?” Buffy asked.

“Guess so.” Oz looked at the mansion. “Are you seeing Angel regularly?”

“Actually, this is the first time in weeks. Spike said some stuff that made me think. He said that Angel and I could never be just friends.” Buffy told him.

“Can you, just be friends?”

“Ill always love Angel, but right now he's not what I want.”

“What do you want?” Oz asked.

Buffy blushed slightly. “Something I can't have.” She shifted in her seat. “So I'm going to tell Angel that if we can't be just friends, then we can't have anything.”

“Are you sure that's what you want?”

“Did you want to break up with Willow?”

“No, but it was the right thing to do.” Oz replied.

“So is this.” Buffy said. “I better go in now, night.”

Before she left the car, Oz impulsively leaned over and kissed Buffy on the lips. She sat stunned.

“I'm sorry.” Oz apologized.

“No, it's ok. What was it for though?”

Instead of answering Oz said his parting words, “I hope you get what you want.”

As he drove away, Buffy lightly touched her lips, the memory of their brief kiss tingling in her mind. “Maybe I already have.” She murmured to herself.

Oz drove back to his house, he felt like he was on such a high. He'd kissed Buffy, man. Admittedly it had only been brief, but she hadn't resisted. He flopped back on his bed, waiting for sleep, hoping for dreams of Buffy.

The next day Willow sat in the library, thinking about Xander, they'd decided to see how things go before taking it any further.

Buffy wandered in, with obvious happiness.

“Daydreaming?” Willow asked.

“Uh huh.” Buffy nodded.
“Things ok with Angel and you?” Willow asked.

“Angel?”

“You know good vampire, well at least now he is.” Willow reminded her.

“I was just in a world where there are no demons, and the man I love-“

“Angel.” Willow cut in.

“Um, yeah ok… Angel. Well he swept me of my feet. It was perfect. I had no math test next period.” Buffy groaned.

“You know there would be a demon in the world, if Angel was in you perfect world.” Willow pointed out.

“What?”

“Your daydream…what’s up Buffy?”

“Aren't I allowed to be happy?” Buffy demanded.

“Of course, I only wondered why.”

At that moment Oz wandered in. He looked at the two girls. Willow noticed that he was getting blushy behind the ears. She figured it wasn't because of her, but the only other person in the room was…Buffy. But it couldn't be. Willow pushed the idea away because it'd be too ridiculous to contemplate. Buffy and Oz?

“So any demons to fight?” He asked.

“Amazingly enough, Giles isn't here, so I have no idea.” Buffy replied.

“That's funny, I thought he lived here.” Oz joked.

“Yes, well very amusing Oz.” Giles said as he entered the room, catching the end of the conversation.

He turned to Buffy, “any vampires last night?”

“Only one, no biggie.” She replied.

“Yes, so let me know if anything does come up.” Giles insisted.

“As always.” She paused for a second, “Though I did have weird dreams last night.”

This was everyone's cue to sit at the large table. Oz sat next to Buffy, who was opposite Willow. Xander casually walked in and sat next to Willow.

“A dream you say?” Giles asked.

“A scaly creature, but there was some sort of ritual.” Buffy remembered.

“Can you remember anything else?” Giles asked.

“Candles, there were lots of candles.” Buffy announced.

“So you think this could be a warning of some portent?” Giles asked.

“Maybe, but then you and I took all the candles, opened a shop and sold them all.” Buffy grinned sheepishly.

Everybody sighed.

“Well we should at least be grateful that Sunnydale is being less demon full at the moment.” Xander said.

They all left the library, and Buffy pulled Oz aside.

“Why did you kiss me last night?”

“I couldn't help myself, sorry.” Oz said, feeling just like Xander.

“Ill be honest with you, I'm kinda glad you did.” Buffy admitted.

“You are?”

“Yeah, do you wanna come patrol tonight, maybe we could talk.” Buffy suggested.

“Sure, sounds great.” Oz agreed.

“Oz barely looked at me in the library.” Willow said.

“I think he was pretty much ignoring both of us Will.” Xander pointed out.

“Oh, yeah well. He could of at least of been polite.” Willow protested.

“Give it time, it's gotta be hard for him.” Xander told her. “Though it's not to hard for Cordy I see.”

“It is Xander, she doesn't want to admit she's hurt. She is putting up a brave front. Don't let her get to you.” Willow explained.

“I won't, hey maybe you, Buffy and I could do that ‘our lives are so pathetic’ thing, it's been ages.” Xander suggested.

“I'm up for it, but I don't know about Buffy.”

“Oh yeah, she has to patrol.” Xander remembered.

“Or something else.”

“Angel?” Xander asked.

“No, I think it's something other than that.” Willow mused, a worried frown set on her features as she watched Buffy and Oz across the hall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“That was the fifth vamp tonight, maybe something's coming.” Buffy wondered.

“Maybe.” Oz agreed.

“Thanks for your help.” Buffy said.

“That's cool.” Oz replied with a shrug.

They both sat in silence.

“So we're here because…” Oz started.

“Because we kissed and enjoyed it.” Buffy finished.

“Normally I would say lets carry on, but the circumstances are weird.”

“Does it put you off?”

“No, I don't want to go behind anybody's back, but I don't see any other way.” Oz replied.

“I want to be with you, you want to be with me. Even though it might mean being on the quiet about it at first, I think it would be worth it. How about we see how things go?” Buffy suggested.

“Yeah.” Oz leaned towards Buffy and the pair dissolved into heated kisses. The werewolf and the slayer knew that there was no turning back, they had made a connection to strong to ignore.

As per usual, the gang met in the library.

“And there were five of them you say?” Giles asked.

“Yeah, it was weird like they'd all timed their attacks.” Buffy replied.

“Yeah, it was every five minutes.” Oz said.

“So after the fifth, there were no more?” Giles asked.

“I don't know, we went to check out the other side of the cemetery.” Buffy said quickly.

Giles looked at her strangely, “Ill check to see if there are any references to the demon you saw in your dream. But until then, I suggest you go home.” Giles said.

Xander, Willow, Buffy and Oz gratefully got to their feet and wandered out of the library.

“So are we Bronzing it tonight?” Xander asked. Willow and Buffy nodded.

“Are you coming Oz?” Buffy asked.

Yeah.” Oz said.

Xander and Willow walked off, leaving Buffy and Oz.

“Things seem less hostile today.” Buffy commented.

“We're doing the exact same thing that got me so mad at those two in the first place, I don't want to be hypocritical.” Oz said.

“Well let's bring it out into the open tonight.” Buffy suggested.

“Ok.” Oz agreed.

They kissed, and were so involved in each other, that they didn't notice Willow walk up.

“So this is why you wanted to break up with me?” Willow looked as though she was going to be sick. “And you, you're supposed to be my best friend.”

“I am Will, I'm sorry.” Buffy said.

“This just happened Willow, we didn't expect it. But it has happened.” Oz explained.

“Why didn't you just tell me?” Willow demanded.

“I know how you feel, remember.” Oz pointed out.

“So this is to get me back?”

“No, Buffy and I have something special.”

“How could you?” Willow asked, tears forming in her eyes.

“Will, you're my best friend, but aren't you being a bit hypocritical?” Buffy asked.

“I never went behind your back, it was Xander not Angel.” Willow pointed out.

“But Willow, you found Xander, isn't Oz allowed to find me?” Buffy questioned.

“I’d never do this to you, I never want to speak to either of you again. You know what, a bitch and a werewolf deserve each other.” Willow cried.

“Hey, that was out of line Will.” Oz said.

“Yeah, well.” She muttered before taking off.

“That was intense.” Buffy said, “ Why did she go off like that?”

“I guess she feels that the two people she trusted most, betrayed her.” Oz said.

“But you must of felt like that when you caught her with Xander.” Buffy said.

Oz turned to Buffy, taking both her hands in his own. “I'm not using you to get back at Willow, you know.”

“I know, Will was just talking crazy talk.” Buffy replied, “But it must be hard to see your best friend kissing your ex-boyfriend.”

Oz could only agree.

“Hey, what's up?” Xander asked Willow as she returned.

Willow replied by kissing him. “Let's be an us Xander, it's what we both want.”

“Sure, but what brought this on?” He questioned.

“Oh I don't know, so what do you say?” She repeated.

“Yeah, ok, I’d love that.” Xander replied.

They kissed again.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Buffy asked Oz.

“I'm sure.” He replied, he took Buffy's hand in his own, and the two walked into the Bronze.

Cordelia saw them arrive. She walked over to them. “Buffy… and Oz. What a good way to get revenge.” She said.

“This isn't revenge.” Oz replied.

“SO what, you're serious. Ha, ha…Oh right you are.” With that Cordelia moved on to her next victim.

Xander wandered in alone, when he spotted Buffy he went over. “Hey, Giles sent me.”

“Something big?” Buffy asked.

“The biggest.” He replied.