**Sometimes having a Slayer for your older sister sucks big time. Like, last week she sort of saved me from this blonde vampire that she used to go to school with, which I admit might have been slightly my fault, and now she has this big hold over me. "If you don't do as I tell you, I'll tell mom you let a vampire in the house and got yourself kidnapped."
It's not fair. I mean, it's not like mom hasn't done exactly the same thing before. If they knew . . .
There's one good thing though. Buffy moves out today. She's going back to college so she's moving onto the campus with Willow. She's really cool. Willow can do spells, and hack into FBI files and all sorts of really neat stuff. And she actually likes books. How did she get to be friends with Buffy if she's so smart? Last night I told mom that I wished I had a friend like Willow, but she got really quiet and make me go to bed. Guess it's the whole witch thing. Her generation isn't cool with that stuff.**
Buffy put the last box down with a groan and straightened up, massaging her aching back, to survey the mess. "Why is it, Will," she asked, "that every time we move we have more stuff?"
The redheaded witch looked up from the box she was pulling books out of and winced at the jumble of stuff everywhere. "I think we just naturally accumulate stuff. We're hoarders."
"Ok, that didn't make me feel like a hamster," Buffy muttered, pouting.
Grinning, Willow stood and walked over to her girlfriend. "I meant that in a good way."
She cupped Buffy's face in her both her hands and pulled her into a leisurely kiss. As soon as Willow's soft lips touched hers, Buffy sighed and surrendered to it. For a while she just enjoyed the sensation of being so close to the redhead, feeling the warmth radiating off her and the soft curves that pressed up against hers. Buffy closed her eyes and returned the kiss gently, nibbling at one full lip before soothing it with her lips and moaning gently when she felt Willow's arms move from her face to her shoulders. She rested her hands on the witch's waist and pulled her closer, hooking her fingers into the convenient belt loops she found to hold her there.
Too soon, Willow was pulling back and smiling shakily, her face flushed and looking, to Buffy, more beautiful than she could ever remember.
"Mm, I've missed this," the redhead sighed.
"Uh-huh," Buffy agreed, her mind not yet processing higher thought processes.
"Guess we should get back to work then."
"Mm-hmm."
Willow started to pull away but Buffy tightened her arms around her girlfriend's waist.
"Don't you want to unpack?" she pouted, and Buffy decided then and there that taking things slowly was not going to be easy.
She reached forward and lightly nipped Willow's sticking out lip before reluctantly releasing her. "I guess we should try and get stuff organized."
"Good Buffy," Willow said absently, already heading towards an open box of books on slightly wobbly legs.
Huffing, Buffy looked down at the box she had put down a few minutes ago. It was large, cardboardy and full, she was sure, of non-thrilling bathroom equipment. Certainly nothing she could get waylaid by and accidentally not do any unpacking. Very, very unlikely to be weapons, or even one of the Slaying books Giles had given her to read. Glaring at it, she reluctantly took it into the bathroom and began putting things away.
Classes were due to begin in a couple of days so they would not have long to get settled before the drudgery of college restarted. The dorm room had actually been available for a month, but Joyce was still not happy about their new relationship so she had put a strict veto on the idea of them moving in any sooner. The small fact that it was one room, with a bathroom and a small kitchen area, but still essentially only one room probably had a lot to do with it, Buffy reflected as she put toothpaste and toothbrushes into the medicine cabinet. By the time they started looking around Sunnydale for somewhere to live, all the good places were gone and the rest of the apartments were of the 'would not house Spike in them' league of general icky-ness. There was definitely nothing available that had two rooms so that Joyce could happily pretend that there was nothing going on.
It had occurred to Buffy before that her mother preferred denial to knowledge, but this was getting ridiculous. Joyce did not want Dawn knowing what was going on, probably thinking that the younger girl might get ideas, and did her best to make sure that Buffy and Willow were never alone together. Being back in the dorm was the best thing to happen in a long time.
Buffy had emptied her box so she went back into the main room for another. Only to find Willow with her nose in a book, the box she was supposedly working on abandoned on the floor next to her.
"Uh, Will?" Buffy said, grinning as the witch jumped guiltily.
"I wasn't reading!" she exclaimed, hiding the book behind her back.
"Of course you weren't." Somehow, Buffy managed to keep a straight face. "How do you feel about pizza? Followed by ice-cream sundaes."
Moving with astonishing speed, Willow was at Buffy's side tugging on her hand. "You mean it?"
"Will, do I ever joke about pizza?"
***
Replete, and relaxed at having put the unpacking off for a few more hours, Buffy and Willow walked up the hall to their room hand in hand.
"Ampata," Buffy said.
"Bezoar."
"Catherine the Witch."
"Der Kindestod."
"El Eliminate."
"Fyarl demon."
Buffy snorted. "Not allowed. I didn't actually defeat that one."
"You made it go away," Willow protested, unlocking their door.
"Yeah, because I made Ethan turn it back into Giles. Doesn't count."
Willow pouted. "You did stab it-"
"Give it up, Will. It was 'The Alphabet of Defeated Monsters', not 'The Alphabet of Monsters Buffy made go away'. That doesn't count."
"Spoil sport."
The two girls looked hopelessly at the scene of destruction that was their new home.
Buffy peaked hopefully at her partner. "We could..."
"Clear everything onto the floor and unpack tomorrow?"
The blonde grinned. "You read my mind."
"I'm a witch. It's what we do."
Buffy paused with a box suspended part way between the bed and the floor, feeling a chill pass over her at a horrifying thought. "You didn't..."
Willow rolled her eyes. "Buff, I was kidding. I can't read your mind."
"Phew." Buffy sighed and put the box down, wincing when she saw the speculative look in her love's eyes.
"Why? Is there something I should know? Or not know?" Willow asked.
"Nope, nothing. Absolutely nothing."
One red eyebrow lifted.
"I mean it, Will. There's nothing." Thinking quickly, Buffy grinned. "My mind is a place that no one in their right mind would want to visit."
She did not wait for Willow to process that, instead throwing the pillow she conveniently found in her hand directly at the redhead. That earned her a mock growl and the pillow returned quickly, straight into her face. For a while afterwards nothing was heard apart from muffled thuds and giggles.
***
"If you get the apartment this'll be your hallway," Willow said excitedly.
She was walking down the aforementioned hallway hand in hand with Buffy, grinning happily. Xander and Anya walked a little ahead of the couple, the former demon's arm still in a sling, and the witch was slightly stunned that things were actually starting to turn out well for a change. She and Buffy had finally been able to move in together, despite Joyce's objections, their room was starting to look more homey and less like a bombsite and Xander had sprung the apartment hunting on them early that morning. Xander was actually going to get an apartment of his own. This was a day she never thought would come.
"We'll walk down this hall, and we'll say 'la la, I'm on my way to Xander's'," she continued, grinning.
"Just warning you, Xander, I probably won't be doing that," Buffy told him, grinning almost as widely as her redheaded partner.
"Hey, we're just looking," Xander said. "Rent's way high, so don't get your hopes all carbonated."
"But you have references," Anya protested.
"No, I have Albert, which is just me doing an important voice." Xander put on an 'important' voice. "Xander Harris? An excellent tenant, and a very fine-looking fellow."
The couple stopped and Anya opened the door in front of her, Willow and Buffy following her into the apartment. Willow's eyes bugged out a little as she saw it.
"Whoa! Big!" she said, trying to keep the awe out of her voice. Why was there nothing like this when they were looking for a place to live?
"It's nice," Buffy said uncertainly. "And not subterranean. It's very, uh, above-terrenean."
Willow noticed that Xander was looking a little less thrilled, and a little green around the edges.
"I want it," Anya announced. "Pay anything."
"Xander Harris?"
The witch was startled to see someone else in the apartment that she had not noticed before. She nearly pulled her hand out of Buffy's, before mentally slapping herself. Sometimes, it was hard not to feel uncomfortable but this was a public display of affection in front of someone she did not know. Admittedly, a small PDA, possibly so small the dark haired woman walking towards them wouldn't notice, but still...she steeled herself and smiled up at Buffy before turning her attention back to Xander.
"Hey," he said, wiping his hard on his shirt and holding it out.
The real-estate manager shook hands gingerly.
"I brought my friends," Xander said, indicating Buffy and Willow.
"I see."
Somehow, Willow got the feeling that the manager was not impressed with them all.
"They wouldn't always be here," added Xander.
"But we're clean and-and quiet," Willow said brightly, trying to find something to say that would stop the manager giving her friend such odd looks.
Meanwhile, Anya had moved into the living area and was looking around with love in her eyes. "We can have the Scooby meetings in the living room, and-and Giles can explain the boring things over there."
Poking around in the kitchen, Willow found and a microwave and turned to Buffy with a smile. "Oh, there's a microwave! It would be like having our own hot and cold running popcorn."
The manager, probably sensing that the meeting was getting out of her control, ran through the apartment's advantages. "Phone and electricity are hooked up, there's a private balcony, ceiling fan, closet space..."
Xander opened a door.
"...And that's the bedroom. I brought an application form for you to fill out."
He took the piece of paper that was offered to him, eyeing it cautiously. "An application? I can't just tell you my references. Because there's Albert."
"We run your credit check based on the application," the manager told him.
"Oh! Credit check. Little check on the credit. See how credible my checks are."
Willow laughed politely along with everyone else, mentally running through her spells to see if there was one she could use to help him. Feeling a gentle prod in her side, she turned to see Buffy's warning face. Sighing, she let the idea go and gave her partner a reassuring smile. Sometimes, there were disadvantages to having someone know you as well as she did.
"And we'll be asking for first, last, security and a small cleaning deposit," the manager was saying when Willow tuned in again. "The total's at the bottom of the sheet there."
Anya walked back over to Xander and glanced over the sheet of paper. "He'll take it. Xander, go get the furniture, I'll wait here." She looked at the manager. "He's been living in his parents' basement where something urinated on the hot plate."
Xander pulled Anya aside leaving Buffy and Willow to smile nervously at the dark-haired woman.
"It's a nice apartment," Buffy offered.
"Yeah. Really nice," Willow backed her up, wincing as she heard Anya whine.
"So, do you have any other places like this?" the Slayer asked.
Willow elbowed her in the ribs.
"What?" the blonde asked. "There's no harm in asking. It's not like I want to pack and unpack again...although if there was some place I wouldn't...but at the same time the dorm is closer to classes."
Willow smiled at her. "Buff, the dorm isn't so bad. I wish we could have our own place too, but we can make the dorm ours."
The blonde nodded and Willow squeezed her hand gently. "I already have the most important thing in my life there."
"What is...oh. Thanks."
Blushing, Willow remembered the manager and turned to find her looking at them with undisguised fascination.
"I-I-I-" she managed to stutter.
"She loves her computer," Buffy said, a slight flush staining her cheeks as well.
Thankfully, Xander chose that moment to interrupt their descent into fiery, blushing hell. "I guess I'll just start on that application. I think you'll like it. I've been told I have lovely penmanship."
He rushed out, and the two girls realized that Anya was already gone.
"He's uh..." Willow started.
"Yeah. And we'll just be..." Buffy continued, smiling hopefully at the manager.
Sighing, they made their escape into the hallway.
"Think they'll be ok?" Willow asked.
"They'll sort it out," Buffy reassured her, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Thanks for what you said back there."
"It's the truth." Willow grinned mischievously. "My computer is really great."
She wriggled out of Buffy's hold, giggling as the vengeful Slayer chased after her.
***
"So, a mythic triumph over a completely indifferent foe?" Buffy summed up, grinning openly at Giles' flustered expression.
The Gang was assembled in the Magic Box to discuss the first in what would probably be a stream of attacks on the new proprietor. Buffy and Willow sat on the floor next to each other, backs against some drawers, with books spread across their knees while Giles paced in front of them. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, Anya was nowhere to be seen and Xander stood next to some shelves trying to look as though he was not worried.
"Well, I'm not dead or unconscious so I say bravo for me," Giles said defensively, while Buffy tried not to giggle.
"Some good demons in this one," Willow said, holding up a book. "See if your guy's in there."
While Giles flicked through the books Xander took the chance to rub in what they were all thinking. "So you bought the magic shop and you were attacked before it opened. Who's up for a swingin' chorus of the 'we told you so' symphony."
Buffy raised her hand and Willow slapped it down, giving her the look she recognized as 'don't you dare'.
"Toth," Giles said absently.
"Huh?" Xander asked.
"He called you a Toth. It's a British expression. It means, like, moron," Buffy told him, grinning. She could feel Willow giggling silently next to her, either because she was right or she was so wrong it was funny.
Giles' words confirmed that option two was the correct one. "No, Toth is the name of the demon. Ancient demon. Very strong. Last survivor of the Tothric clan. It also says that for a demon he's unusually sophisticated."
"Sophisticated. So I should discuss men's fashions with him before I chop his head off?"
"They're referring to the fact that he does not fight bare-handed. He uses tools, devices. Oh, he's also supposed to be very focused. And since he mentioned killing the Slayer, I think we know what the focus is."
"Don't they ever have other plans?" Willow asked plaintively. "Like, starting a quilting circle?"
"Maybe they want to sew my death scene into their newest quilt," Buffy suggested, smiling at Willow reassuringly. "Where can we find him?"
"There's no mention of the types of places we might find him," Giles said, scanning through the book again. "But I have an idea. He had a very distinctive olfactory presence."
"Well, I guess we're off to the olfactory. I hate that place," Xander said, inducing eye-rolling from everyone. "I'm joking, I know what it means. He smelled. Right?"
"Some demon rituals involve anointing with oils. Was it sort of...sandalwoody?" Willow asked.
"Um, not even remotely," Giles told her. "But it was very distinctive."
"I'm gonna hate this, aren't I?" Buffy asked, hiding her head on Willow shoulder.
***
"I knew I was going to hate this," Buffy complained. "The city dump. Where smells go to relax and be themselves."
She carefully picked her around the mounds of rubbish, wrinkling her nose at the powerful smell. Even breathing through her mouth did not help - the smells just took up residence in her mouth as tastes, which was probably even more disgusting.
"I found a spell so that you can't smell anything, but it does it by taking your nose off...so..." Willow trailed off and exchanged glances with Buffy.
"It's no big," she reassured the witch. "Mental note - when Giles makes comments about smells bring a gas mask."
The Watcher began to glare at Buffy, but turned when they all heard a rustling noise. The clicks of crossbows loading and stakes being pulled out echoed through the otherwise silent, stinking dump.
Buffy spotted the source of the noise. Spike was poking through one of the rubbish mounds and as she watched he pulled out the disconnected arm from a mannequin.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, trying to inject as much disgust into the question as she could muster. Which was a lot thanks to their surroundings.
"Oh, there's a nice lady vampire who sets up a charming tea room over the next pile of crap," the vampire said sarcastically. "What do you think I'm doing? I'm scavenging, aren't I?"
"Spike, uh, we're looking for a demon," Giles said. "Tall, robed, skin sort of hanging off. Deep voice?"
"You mean a great, tall, robe-y thing like that one?"
Buffy looked behind her and found herself facing the tall robed figure of Toth. The demon was pointing a stick-thing at them and Buffy had enough time to process this before it discharged a bolt of energy. She threw herself at Willow and felt the hair on the back of her neck tingle as the energy zapped overhead.
"Big guy!" Spike yelled cheerfully. "Kick her ass!"
Buffy helped Willow up, not even sparing the time to glare at the vampire, and tried to work out some way to disarm the demon. Toth did not give them time to regroup, instead focusing on the Slayer and firing again. She found herself tackled to the ground before her assailant was sent flying backwards through the air.
"Xander!" Willow shouted.
Again, Buffy picked herself up from the floor and rushed over to the group surrounded the downed teen. He was gasping for breath but otherwise seemed unhurt.
"I'm ok," he panted. "Remind me not to do that again."
"Deal," Buffy said with a relieved smile.
She felt a touch on her arm and looked up to find Willow's green eyes inches from hers.
"He's gone," the witch said, and Buffy turned to see that she was right.
"He'll be back."
Giles was already helping Xander to his feet so Buffy took his other arm and let him lean against her. Willow took Buffy's unoccupied hand and the group slowly walked out of the dump.
"Take it slowly," Giles cautioned.
"Actually I was planning to run the hundred meters," Xander said shakily.
"You could hobble it," Willow offered.
"Need a hand getting home?" Buffy asked.
***
"Pass me the mace," Buffy said absently, trying to fit an extra crossbow in her bag.
Willow looked uncertainly at the pile of weapons on Buffy's bed and the large duffel she was trying to put them all into. Morning had brought a change in the Slayer's attitude to the Toth demon and she was not sure that it was a good one. Xander seemed unhurt but Buffy was now determined to bring it down before it could do any more harm - despite Giles' warning that she not try to tackle the thing without back-up. Willow could appreciate that a large arsenal of weaponry would probably help, but not when only one person was operating that arsenal. After all, Buffy could not operate seven different weapons all at once no matter how much she had trained recently.
"Are you sure you need all that?" she asked, trying to spot the mace in the middle of the heap.
"Toth is dangerous. I have to defeat him. Ergo, weapons," Buffy stated carefully.
"Yeah, but..."
"No buts. Xander got hurt because he was out there with me and this needs to be done. I'm not risking anyone else."
"But Buff, I don't mind being risked. Not that I like danger, but I don't like staying here while you're getting yourself killed." Willow sniffed, trying her pitiful look. "I don't want to be the little woman who sits here and worries while the big strong Slayer goes out and kills the bad guys. We're partners, right? That means I get to be the person who goes along and watches when you kill the bad guys. I can offer support, cast spells and bring snacks when the big strong Slayer gets hungry."
Buffy put down her bag and took Willow's hand. "I'm sorry. I'm doing it again, aren't I?"
"Doing what?"
"Over-protecting you."
"A little. It's nice to feel protected, but wrapped-in-cotton-wool is a little different."
"Sorry."
Willow closed her eyes as Buffy leaned in to steal a kiss.
"Am I forgiven?"
The witch pretended to consider it. "Well, you might have to..."
"What?"
"Kiss me again?"
***
Buffy raised an eyebrow at her Watcher.
"Er, well, I suppose...uh...that..."
"I knew you didn't know!" she crowed triumphantly.
Giving into Willow had not been easy, particularly in something she knew she had to do, but during the confrontation she had realized something. Her relationship with the shy witch was more important than anything in her life, including the Slaying, and risking that just was not worth it. So instead of rushing out and tracking down the Toth demon single-handed she was at Giles' shop doing research while Willow bought mochas at the Espresso Pump. She had narrowly managed to choke down her objections to that plan ("It's not safe for you wander around Sunnydale on your own!") and was now doing her best not to worry. Teasing Giles was a good distraction at least.
A thundering knock on the door startled them both and the Slayer rushed to open it, a stern lecture about walking in the rain on the tip of her tongue. Instead she faced Xander looking unusually smart. Who died? Oh, yeah, meeting with the realtor.
"You have to help me," he announced as she opened the door.
"Come in Xander. It's nice to see you too," Buffy said, stepping back from the door.
"Sorry, hi Buffy." Xander stepped through. "You have to help me. Something out there is wandering around looking like me."
"Looking like you?" Giles asked. "Something is...imitating you?"
"No, something looks exactly like me. It stole my face. We have to find it and we have to kill it."
"Don't worry, Xander." Buffy put a reassuring hand on his arm. A glint of light from something in his hand caught her arm but she shook it off. "Whatever stole your face, it has to deal with a Slayer now."
***
Willow pulled her coat around her a peered out of the coffee shop window. The weather was deteriorating rapidly and running through the streets of Sunnydale would be a little tough with cups of coffee. So she was sitting in the shop waiting for a break in the rain to go over to Giles'. Someone tapped her on the shoulder from behind and she squeaked and whirled around.
"Don't be scared Will. Just listen. It's me, Xander."
It was indeed a very wet, scruffy looking Xander. But she had been friends with the boy for years so why he felt the need to suddenly tell her that was, frankly, puzzling.
"And I can prove it."
Curiouser and curiouser.
"Let's see, stuff only you and I know." Xander began to pace in front of her. "Okay! On my seventh birthday...I wanted a toy fire truck, and I didn't get it, and you were real nice about it, and then the house next door burnt down and then the real fire trucks came and for years I thought you set the fire for me. And if you did you can tell me. For a while last year I thought I was lactose-intolerant, but it was just some bad Brie. Oh! You bought Buffy a friendship ring last Christmas but chickened out of giving it to her and gave her a CD instead."
"Xander, I believe you. Why wouldn't I think you're Xander?"
"Oh, huh," Xander said intelligently, somewhat bewildered now that he did not need to prove his identity.
"What's going on?"
"Okay, I woke up in the dump this morning."
"Xander, the basement isn't a dump. It-it's more like a really nice hovel."
"No. *The* dump. The city dump. I got hit last night, fell down boom and woke up this morning."
"Nuh-uh!" Willow shook her head. "We walked you home last night, remember?"
"You walked? Will, did I do anything weird? Did I wave any shiny things around?"
"Shiny things...what are you talking about?"
"Last night, that wasn't me. There's a double out there. Some...thing has stolen my face and it's going around pretending to be me, and it's hypnotizing people. It even got to Buffy and Giles. It's over there right now and they have no idea."
"It's got Buffy? What are we waiting here for?"
***
Willow rushed to the magic shop while Xander went in search of Anya. Surprisingly, he seemed to really care about the former demon.
"Our lived are weird," she muttered to herself as she pushed the door open.
"I swear, this time I *know* I had that locked," Giles muttered.
Willow immediately went to Buffy, not caring that the British man was watching them, and wrapped her arms around the Slayer's waist.
"Buffy, Toth looks like Xander," she said, calming a little as she felt the warm presence of her partner surround her.
"We already know. Uh, wait a second, how did you know?"
"He came to me. I-I mean, Xander did." Willow closed her eyes. "He looked terrible. We need to help him."
"He came to us too," Buffy said, rubbing her hand along Willow's back.
"No, we each had a Xander. I mean...you didn't have a Xander, you had a-a demon in a Xander suit."
"What makes you sure that yours is the right one?"
The witch pulled back a little. "He knew stuff. Buffy, it was Xander and he needs our help."
"Oh, dear lord," Giles said from the counter where he was flicking through a book.
"Our Xander seemed a little...forceful," Buffy mused, resuming her soothing motions on Willow's back.
"That's not Xander," Willow said, resisting the urge to purr as the tension melted out of her.
"I said 'dear lord'," Giles said testily.
"You always say that," protested Buffy.
"Well, it's always important."
"Um...is one of them a robot?" Willow asked.
"What? No. Uh, the rod-device, it's called a ferula-gemina. It splits one person in half, distilling personality traits into two separate bodies. As near as I can tell, Toth was attempting to split the Slayer into two different entities."
He held out the book and Willow reluctantly disengaged from Buffy to take it.
"Two Buffys?" the Slayer asked.
Giles nodded. "Yes. One with all the qualities inherent in Buffy Summers, and the other with everything that belongs to the Slayer alone...the uh, the-the strength, the, uh, speed, the heritage. And when it hit Xander, I think it separated him into his strongest points and his weakest."
Buffy shook her head. "So...they're both Xander?"
"Yes. Neither one of them is evil. There's nothing in them that our Xander doesn't already possess. The two halves can't exist without each other so kill one part..."
"And we kill Xander," Willow concluded. "Applied to Buffy that would be a neat plan."
"So what do we do?" Buffy asked.
"Stop them killing each other and then put them back together."
"Killing each other?"
"Yeah, Xander is...oh!"
They exchanged glances and rushed for the door, Giles following close on their heels.
***
The hardest part turned out to be persuading Anya to let them put the Xanders back. Buffy talked the two men into not killing each other, just in time for Toth to attempt to kill her again. One sword through a demon later and Xander had a dead demon and a cleaning bill. No one was hurt, although the mental pictures Anya conjured were enough to give them all nightmares, and the rain even stopped.
Buffy walked through the wet streets with Willow's hand clasped firmly in hers. It was peaceful and right, walking like that, and she smiled inwardly.
"Watcha thinkin' about?" Willow asked sleepily.
Possibly the smile made it to her face, Buffy privately acknowledged. "Stuff. How good this feels."
"Good. World-shattering thought isn't allowed tonight."
Silence for a while and then Buffy spoke again. "Does it feel weird to know Xander has his own swanky place?"
"Completely."
"Glad I'm not the only one."
"Nope. Who would have thought it?"
"Yeah." Buffy thought for a while. "The dorm's all right, isn't it?"
"It's home."
"Yeah, it is." The Slayer held the door open for her partner. "Anything else isn't important."
They made their way through the halls to their room in silence and Buffy unlocked their door. "After you."
"Why thank you, kind lady," Willow said, grinning.
Buffy bowed elaborately and followed her in, planting a kiss on the witch's lips as the door closed.
For a moment the corridor was silent and still. Then a shadowy figure stepped around the corner. Her sea-green eyes were shadowed but she bravely smiled at the happy couple's closed door as she unlocked the door to the dorm next door and slipped inside.
*finis*