~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wesley landed on the hardwood floor with a loud "oof". It took him a while to
scramble back to his feet. Once he was in standing position he noticed Buffy
was leaning casually against the table examining her nails. "Ya know, I don't
know why you insist on training with me, Wes. Even Xander makes a better
opponent. Let's face it, your more of a book guy," Buffy teased as he
straightened his pads.

"Be that as it may, I am your Watcher and it is *my* job to keep you on your
toes," Wesley explained for the third time that day.

"On my toes? Wes, I could beat you on my back. There's no challenge. Do you
know how boring it is to fight someone who is absolutely no competition?"
Buffy whined.

"Hey, Buffy," Oz greeted as he entered the library. "You ready to roll?" He
jingled his keys at her.

Buffy nodded and went to collect her bag that was stuffed with her clothes
and books. "Wait a moment, we haven't finished with your training yet,"
Wesley objected.

"Au contraire, my good man," Buffy said with a smile. "I have a chemistry
test tomorrow. With Willow off looking at colleges with her parents, Oz has
agreed to be my second hand study buddy. Sorry, Wes." Buffy slung her bulgy
backpack over her shoulder and headed towards the door. "Bye, Giles," she
called as she passed the open office door. She heard her former Watcher grunt
in response.

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

"I really appreciate this, Oz," Buffy said as she followed him into his room.
She was slightly surprised to see how tidy it was. She was a firm believer
that all teenage boys were complete slobs. Of course, she shouldn't have been
surprised about anything concerning her best friend's quiet boyfriend.

"It's no problem. Willow's right, chemistry is easy. It's one of the few
classes that I passed last year," Oz told her. He tossed his keys in a change
dish on the night stand by his bed. When he turned he noticed her looking at
the band and movie posters lining his walls.

"'Resevior Dogs'? Hmmm." Buffy said, turning around. "Teenage Fanclub, I
don't think I've ever heard of them," she added before flopping down on his
bed.

"I didn't either until I saw the poster and bought it. I just thought it was
kind of cool looking. Plus, it was only fifty cents," Oz said, and joined her
on the bed. "Do you mind if we listen to music, it helps me think?" he asked
her. She nodded as she pulled her chem book and notebook out of her bag. Oz
used his remote to turn on the stereo.

A few minutes later they were down to the studying. All of the numbers were
giving Buffy a major headache. Math was never her subject. Of course, the
only thing that *was* her subject was gym. As Oz tried to describe to her the
elements, Buffy's mind started to wander. She started to rock along to the
song that was playing on the stereo. She recognized the band as Pearl Jam,
but she didn't recognize the song. "Does this CD have a lyric sheet?" Buffy
asked suddenly, interrupting whatever boring thing he was busy trying to
explain to her.

"Uh, yeah," he answered and went over to the large CD rack to get the case
for her. "One thing though," he said as he handed it to her. "None of the
songs have all of the lyrics."

Buffy opened the case and flipped through the little lyric booklet noticing
the half songs with wacky pictures. "And I suppose Eddie thinks this is some
big artistic statement. Ptsh, what about all of his loyal fans who'd like to
know what the hell he's mumbling about?" Buffy complained.

"Well, if you want all of the lyrics you can get them off of the Internet,"
Oz offered.

"They have that stuff?" Buffy asked. Oz nodded and went over to flip his
computer on.

"Come here, I'll show you." Buffy pushed herself off of the bed. Before going
to join him at his desk, Buffy put his CD case back on the rack. When she
went over there, she looked over his shoulder to see The Unofficial Pearl Jam
site was already on the screen. Oz clicked on 'Lyrics' and waited for the
page to upload. It only took a second and then he clicked on the album title
"Yield".

"Does this have all of the lyrics?" Buffy asked as the first song came up.

"Supposedly. I guess these people have nothing better to do with their time
than to try and figure out what deep and meaningful messages Eddie has to
tell them," Oz quipped.

Buffy barely noticed the semi-harsh comment he made because she was busy
swaying to the beat of a song that she actually knew. "This is the one with
the cartoon video, huh?" she asked. Oz only nodded and scrolled down to "Do
the Evolution".

Buffy leaned down with her arm propped on his desk to check out the words. A
slight shiver went up Oz's back as her hair brushed against his neck,
tickling him. He brought his hand up to to brush the hair away and scratch
his neck where it had brushed his skin. Buffy didn't even notice as she was
reading the lyrics, singing quietly along.

Buffy startled when she felt Oz's unshaven cheek brush against the soft skin
of her neck. She turned suddenly and nearly got a mouthful of his spikey,
now-red hair. "Oz?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper when she
noticed that he was nuzzling her neck.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, quickly pulling away from her. "It's just....well
you smell like strawberries and vanilla."

Buffy tried to laugh the uncomfortable moment off as she stood. "Good call.
It's my body spray."

"Oh," he said lamely and pushed his chair out to stand. "Maybe we should get
back to the studying." Buffy nodded her agreement and they both headed over
to the bed. Buffy resumed her same spot, but Oz sat as far away from her as
possible.

"Oz?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You're going to have to see the book to be able to explain to me what's up,
right?" she asked, noticing that he was on the very edge of the bed.

"Uh huh," he answered absent-mindedly. He didn't really seem to know what he
was answering. He looked like he was off in another world.

"Look, if you're uncomfortable with this now, I can go," Buffy said, closing
her book and picking it up to pack it away.

"No," Oz said, quickly. "It's just that....well, it's really close to the
full moon."

"Oh," was all Buffy said. She couldn't think of what the full moon had to do
with the situation, but she figured it had to be something since Oz was a
werewolf. She had never really taken the time to ask Oz about his wolfiness
and she wondered if anyone ever did. She wondered if Willow did. "Do you want
to talk about it?" she asked.

"It's just that...on the nights closest to my change I go through some weird
mood swings. I do things that I wouldn't normally do and my senses are
heightened more than usual. Being here with you...." he trailed off. He
wanted to just leave it at that, but Buffy's interest was peaked.

"Being here with me what?" she prodded.

"Buffy," he said, shifting uncomfortably. "I don't know if I should tell you
this 'cause I don't want you feeling uncomfortable around me."

"Well, if you *don't* tell me then I'm going to be tortured. It's like saying
to someone 'Guess what. Nevermind.' over and over again," Buffy complained.

There were a few minutes of silence as Oz tried to find the most delicate way
of telling her what he had to. Buffy fidgeted as the silence got longer and
longer. "Oz!" she finally complained. "Look, you can trust me. I'll try not
to wig."

"Okay, but keep in mind that this is only on the nights that are close to the
full moon, it's when I'm at my wolfyest." Oz took a deep breath before
continuing. "During the week of my change, I try not to be alone with Willow
because I'm kind of afraid of what I might do. Not that I would ever hurt
her," he hastened to assure her. "But because I don't really want to upset
her. See, I'm not very.....I guess the word would be...attracted to her on
those days. She makes me a little uncomfortable."

Oz stopped, leaving Buffy on the edge of her seat waiting for him to finish.
"What does this have to do with me?" she quickly asked, barely giving him a
chance to catch his breath.

"Well, it's like this. When I'm around you on the days before my change, I
feel a kind of attraction. It's kind of like a pull. Your scent, the way you
move, everything you do just kind of hypnotizes me. And it probably wigs me
out more than it does you," he said quickly in his own defense.

Buffy was at a complete loss for words. It's not every day that your best
friend's boyfriend tells you that he's attracted to you. She opened her mouth
to speak, but nothing seemed to come out. She shifted uncomfortably in her
seat.

"Well, finally it just freaked me out so much that I had to find out what was
up. A couple of months ago, two days before the night before the full moon,
you were sitting next to me and your knee kept brushing up against mine and
it was....well, anyway, I went to talk to Giles about it. And he promised me
he wouldn't tell you about this. I guess he kept his promise. He said it had
to do with a sort of kinship. I told him about how I was uncomfortable with
Willow and how you were making me feel. He basically said, that the wolf in
me senses your supernatural vibes and it confuses you as one of it's own
kind. Basically, it wants to....well, make you it's mate." Oz winced at his
own words, but was waiting eagerly for a response, any kind of response.

Again, Buffy didn't know what to say. She took what he said and processed it.
"So, it's just the wolf right?"

Oz didn't answer for a long time, but there was no way that Buffy was going
to let him off the line. "I want to be completely honest with you, Buffy.
I've always thought you were really pretty, but I didn't think of you like
that until I became a werewolf. I'm strictly a one woman man and you know how
I feel about Willow. And at first it was just during the week of the full
moon, but lately...." Again, he trailed off, hoping she'd be able to fill the
blanks in herself.

"Lately..." she waved her hand, urging him to go on.

"Lately, it's been happening more often," he finished. "See, I knew this was
going to wig you out."

"Well, it's definitely wig worthy," Buffy said and nodded with a dazed look
on her face.

"Buffy, I just want you to know the only reason I told you is, well, you
should know, right? But I respect you and I love Willow and I would never-"

"Well, neither would I," Buffy quickly said, cutting him off. "I wouldn't.
Willow's my best friend and--well this frantic voice isn't really doing
anything for my argument is it? I..I..have to go. Now, would be a good time."
Still, Buffy didn't move. She was rooted to the spot and seemed very
interested in the purple condom that Oz had pinned to his wall.

A *very* uncomfortable silence fell between the two. Oz knew he should say
something, but nothing came to mind. Buffy knew she should say something, but
her tongue seemed to be glued to the roof of her mouth. They continued like
that for what had to be about fifteen minutes. Oz finally decided that this
had to end. "This is going to change things between us, isn't it?" Buffy
nodded to his question, still refusing to meet his eyes with hers. "Do you
want me to drive you home?" Oz offered. Buffy shook her head in a negative,
but didn't make any move to leave. Again, the silence fell.

"Oz, thank you for telling me, I guess. And I guess, I should tell you
that...the reason this is going to change everything is...I'm jealous of
Willow," Buffy said, nodding to herself. "She has you and I sometimes think
she doesn't really know what a catch you are. 'Cause with the whole
Xan-actually I won't go there." She sighed, hoping that it would clear her
head, of course, that never works though. "I'm in love with Angel and I guess
you kind of remind me of him, which is really weird since your a nineteen
year old werewolf and he's a 243 year old vampire and you're not really
broody, but more the quiet type. Anyway, that's how I feel about this, and
now I'm definitely leaving."