Title: To Say I Missed You (1/1)
Author: Queena
E-mail: thessulah@aol.com
Rating: G
Summary: I just wanted to write something. It has absolutely no point. It was just something to kill time with. Buffy in the future having a relationship with a long lost friend.
Disclaimer: Joss owns 'em.
Dedication: To Morphea.
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Buffy chewed on her lip as she perused over the passage in her Psychology text, tapping the eraser of her pencil idily against the page. Truthfully, the stuff read like Greek to her, yet somehow she was doing well in the class.

Her reading was interupted by a quiet rapping at her dorm room door. She thanked God for the justified break in her studies and jumped up to answer the door. Ever since Spike had been given invitation into her room, she had become more careful about giving flippant invites into their room.

Clasping the knob, Buffy twisted it and swung the door open. Her mouth fell open when she saw who was standing on the other side. The man before her had his hands shoved deeply into his pockets and a slight expression of shame etched in his pale features. However, his gaze was unwavering when he stared back at her. Something calm and.....defeated? about his posture. Buffy tried to form words, but she couldn't seem to. She scraped her brain futily for one of her famed quips, but nothing came, so instead she opened the door wider, stepping back to allow her visitor in.

He entered and turned to her as she shut the door behind him. Neither of them spoke for what seemed to Buffy to be a century. Both studying each other silently, reverently. It had been close to two years now since she'd seen him last and his appearance hadn't changed a bit. She realized neither had hers, except that she'd cut her hair to shoulder length again. She hadn't had much to say in the matter, since her long locks had been singed severely during a fight with a big beastie who had a problem with vanity.

Finally, the silence was broken and Buffy found herself extremely relieved. "What? No hug?" he asked her.

Then, without a thought and with only a slight twitch to her lip, she brought her hand up and struck him with a biting slap across the cheek. His head snapped to the side and he immediately brought his own hand up to cover his stinging skin. Waggling his jaw a bit, just to be sure it wasn't broken, he looked back at her. "I'd be lying if I said that I thought I deserved that," he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper.

"And I'm not sure that you did either, but I'll be damned if I'd take it back," she bit out her first words since his appearance.

He only nodded solemnly and broke his eye contact with her, still holding his cheek as he turned to take a seat on her double bed. His hands dropped between his legs and his knees squeezed together, pinning his hands tightly between them. The silence grew thicker as she allowed him to take in his surroundings. Things had changed a little since he had left. "She's not here anymore, Oz. She moved out," she told him.

"I know. Devon told me."

"Well, good to know that you kept in contact with *somebody* since you disappeared," she snapped angrily. "If you knew she was gone then why did you even come here?"

Oz shrugged, smiling a bit. The fire was still there, bringing a pinkish blush to her cheeks. At least something hadn't changed since he left. "I wanted to see you," he admitted.

"Why?!" she cried, tossing her hands out into the air exasperatedly. "What makes you think that *I* wanted to see *you*? What the hell are you....." she tapered off, realizing that she was acting angrier than she should be. Still, she couldn't help how she felt. And she *was* really angry. "What are you doing here?"

He sighed, freeing his hands so that he could run the fingers of his right hand through his stylishly rumpled hair. "I don't really know. Something just told me that it was time to come back. I've learned to give into my insticts."

"Clearly."

Pressing his palms onto his knees, Oz pushed himself back into a standing position. "Well, good to see you're as judgemental as ever, Buffy. I knew I could count on you to be my one steady." He shook his head and wandered over to her desk, picking up a picture of her with a muscular, blond boy. He seemed familiar, but he couldn't really place the face. "Good-looking guy," he said and set the picture down.

"He's a jerk. Not really suprising though," Buffy said, walking over to stand beside him. "I mean, there have only ever been five men in the world that I've given full trust too and they've all managed to let me down in one way or another."

"Would I be assuming too much if I thought I was one of those men?" Oz asked, looking deeply into her eyes.

"No."

"Then I'm sorry I let you down," he said, glancing back down at the picture breifly. "I...um...missed you."

"Yeah, well...." Buffy looked away, suprised to find her eyes filling with tears. Who was this guy anyway? She didn't know him. Never *really* knew him before he left and certainly didn't know him now. So why was he affecting her emotionally. She could give him Willow's address right now, if he wanted it, and he'd probably be happy with it. He'd probably leave quickly, without any kind of explanation. Probably.

"D'you miss me too?"

The question surprised her. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and glanced at him through the corner of her eye. Still, she didn't answer. She blinked rapidly, annoyed with the water forming in her eyes. The way he turned to face her fully made her nervous. "You know, I called Devon every week and the first thing I asked him was, 'Ya know Buffy Summers? You haven't seen her around have you?' He thought it was weird, cause I never asked him about Willow." He stopped for a second and took a deep breath. "I didn't really need to ask, cause the world never ended."

Buffy shook her head, the confusion was beginning to give her a headache. She didn't understand. Of all the people here for Oz to care about, she never would have thought it would be her. Hell, she even thought that Xander would be more important to him than her. They had been better friends, even though neither of them ever admitted it. Maybe they never even realized it. "I don't understand you. What are you doing here?" she repeated.

"I told you that already. I wanted to see you." She felt a whisper of a touch on her elbow, but before it could really be considered physical contact, it was gone. "Hey, look. I'm really bothering you, aren't I?" She didn't answer. "If you want to slap me again, feel free."

Buffy took a deep breath and turned back to look him the eye. "I guess.....well, I missed you too. In a weird kinda way. But I still don't get it."

"How 'bout I explain it some other time?"

"Huh uh, I want to know now. What do you want from me? Why you came to me? And why the hell haven't you asked me about Willow yet?" she demanded.

Oz looked down at his feet for a minute and realized that hers were only a few inches from his. Truthfully, he didn't know why he had come to her? It was pure instict that carried him to her dorm room, hoping that she would still be there. The nightmares he had had.....all blood dripping from golden, gnatted hair, bruised and bronzed skin, fingers wrapped tightly around a wooden stake, loosening until finally it slipped away to clunk against a heavy cement floor. Laughter in the background. He didn't know what they meant, but he just had to see for himself that his.....that Willow's......that everyone's friend was okay. And alive. And breathing deeply so that her chest rose and fell. Did she even realize the way he was gazing at her?

He lied. "I just came to say I missed you."

Her touch was a surprise, her tentative hand falling on his shoulder and moving down his back to wrap him in a short, loose hug that ended way too suddenly. "I missed.....something. I don't know," Buffy said, shaking her head.

Laughter bubbled up from deep within her. It had a hysterical edge to it, frightening him for a minute. "I never did understand you," she gasped out. "I'm totally lost when you're around."

"I'm going to go now, but I'll be around," Oz told her. "If you need anything...if there's anything that you need help with....or anything at all, I'll.....be around." He skated around her, careful not to brush up against her.

"That's it?" she asked.

"For now," he said at the door, before opening and leaving her gaping.

"What the hell?" Buffy asked the empty room before going to the phone. She wasn't sure if she was really going to call Willow or not, but she could. Or she could just sit here and wonder what the hell had just happened. She decided on the latter.

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The End