During the day, Buffy and Riley were telling Giles, Willow, Tara and me about what had happened last night when they had patrolled alone, in a college lounge, about how a demon and vampire helping each other.

Riley was sitting in a chair. Buffy was sitting on Riley's lap.

Willow, Tara and I were sitting on a couch.

Giles was sitting in a chair, holding a rolled-up piece of paper. "There's always been great discord between them. And yet you say that the--the vampire went to the demon's aid. The two of them were working as a team?"

Buffy nodded. "Everything except giving each other little pats on the behind."

"Extraordinarily odd," Giles told us, sitting back, crossing his legs, gesturing with the paper. "As a rule, demons... have no empathy for any of the species other than their own." Buffy and Riley looked at each other. "In fact, most think of..." Giles saw someone walking by, lowering his voice. "Vampires as... abominations. Mixing with human blood and all."

"So, what brought these two together?" Willow asked.

"Not what," Riley told us. "Who."

I nodded in understanding. "Adam."

Giles pulled off his glasses.

"Think about it," Buffy told us. "Who better to bring together a bunch of... demon type than someone who's made out of a... bunch of demon types?"

"So, he's, um, bridging the gap between the races," Tara told us.

"Huh, like Martin Luther King," Willow told us.

Giles raised his eyebrows skeptically. "Um..." He cleared his throat, looking at Buffy and me. "I suggest that, uh, over the next several nights, you two..." Buffy and Riley's hands were stroking each other. "Concentrate your patrol in that same area. If there's any other peculiar pairings or groupings, you let me know."

"I'll let the squad know as well," Riley told us. "They're patrolling." He looked at Buffy and me. "We'll have a, uh, reserve unit out during the party."

Giles frowned. "Party?"

"Tomorrow night," Riley told us. "We're having a thing."

"At a time like this?" Giles asked. "Who, well, whose idea was that?"

"Mine," Riley answered. "Boys are pretty ragged, need to let off steam."

Giles nodded. "Point taken."

"You're welcome to come," Riley told him.

"Well, much as I, uh, long for a good kegger, I have other plans," Giles told us. "The Espresso Pump."

Giles sat back, looking embarrassed.

Buffy and Riley exchanged another amorous look, with more hand stroking.

"What are you doing there?" I asked.

"I'm, um, uh, it's a--a meeting of, uh, grownups," Giles told us. "It couldn't possibly be of any interest to you lot."

"Buffy, hey, look at the time," Riley told her. "Don't you, uh, have a class?"

"Yeah, in about 20 minutes," Buffy answered.

"Yeah, but... I have that... thing," Riley told her.

Buffy realized. "Right. That... thing. We could... squeeze in... before."

"Yeah," Riley agreed.

Buffy and Riley stood.

"Bye," Buffy told us.

"Gotta run," Riley told us.

Giles waved them off with his paper.

Buffy and Riley walked away, leaving.

Willow smiled. "They--they're probably going to--"

Tara smiled.

I shook my head, looking away.

"Yes, thank you, Willow," Giles told her. "I did attend university in the Mesozoic era. I do remember what it's like."

          ••••      

Xander, Buffy, Willow, Tara and I met up at the Lowell House party.

Buffy was looking across the room toward Graham, Forrest and Riley.

Graham, Forrest and Riley looked toward us.

"How many kids?" Willow asked.

"I don't know," Xander told us. "A whole herd of them. And some parents to boot. It's kind of embarrassing, which, welcome to the life with Anya."

"So you don't even know if she's coming tonight," Tara told him.

"I'm thinking no," Xander told us. "She was... pretty upset. Which makes me wonder. Is it me? Am I the crazy one?"

Buffy wasn't paying attention, looking toward Riley. "Uh-huh. Absolutely."

"Hey, Buffy, this might be a good time to mention that someone so not me spilled something purply on your new peasant top, which I would never borrow without asking," Willow told her. "Still love me?"

"Uh-huh," Buffy answered. Willow smiled. Buffy came back to earth. "Huh? What about my peasant top?"

Willow shook her head. "Nothing."

I smiled. "Xander was just talking about Anya."

"Oh, it's nothing much," Xander told us. "I'm just feeling pretty glad right now that a certain ex-demon doesn't have any powers."

Buffy looked toward Riley again.

          ••••      

I had been drinking for a while.

Everyone in the party was acting weird, acting off, not like themselves.

I walked upstairs toward the bathroom, stopping, a hand against the wall.

Graham walked around the corner without noticing, bumping into me, drinks spilling all over both of us. "Oh... I'm so sorry."

I groaned. "Wow. That's... that's perfect."

"College party," Graham told me. "Surprised nothing like that's happened so far tonight."

"Yeah, me, too," I told him, taking off my jacket. "God..."

Graham walked past, leading me toward a room at the hall. "I got some shirts you could use."

"Thank you," I told him. We walked into his room. Graham turned the lights on, walking toward the dresser, pulling it open, pulling a shirt and a muscle tank out, holding one toward me. I smiled a small smile. "Thanks. I'm sorry. I'm kind of..."

"Buzzed?" Graham finished. I nodded. "Yeah, me, too. More on the border of being drunk, but..."

I smiled a small smile. "All right. So, uh..."

Graham nodded in understanding, walking toward the door, stopping, turning to face me. "You know, I don't get you."

I turned to face him. "Not many people do. But what are you talking about?"

"The whole 'doomed' thing," Graham answered. "What happened to make you think that every relationship is doomed?"

"Well, in my experience, they are," I told him. "Besides, I'm better at being single when relationships lead to heartbreak and pain and one disappearing off the face of the earth."

"That's stupid," Graham told me.

"I know," I told him. "Which is why I'm saying no."

"No, I mean you're stupid," Graham told me. I raised my eyebrows at him. "I mean... I don't mean that." He thought for a moment. "No, I think maybe I do."

"Wow," I told him sarcastically. "With sweet talk like that, you'll definitely melt my reservations."

"I'm serious," Graham told me. "You have this twisted way of looking at things. You keep thinking like that, and things will probably turn out just the way you expect."

"You know, there is nothing more dangerous than a psych-grad-student," I told him. "And you really think this is a conversation we should be having when we're both a little more than buzzed?"

"Now better than never, right?" Graham asked. "Zoey, where is the bad here?" I sighed, fidgeting with the tank top in my hands. "It just turns out, we are even more well matched then most of the people out there that think they're soulmates."

"Yeah, but you're a commando, and I come from a long line of Slayers that don't live past 25," I told him.

"Which is exactly the attitude I'm talking about," Graham told me. "Look, I know the risks of what we do. I also know it's more rewarding than any other job on the planet. And fun. Not that I'm saying that you shouldn't take your work seriously."

"That I should just turn my frown upside down?" I asked sarcastically. "Is that it? I am gonna do my job, and I'm gonna have fun while doing it. But I'm going to take it seriously, and I'm gonna do it alone."

I tried to walk past Graham.

Graham stepped in my way. "Why?"

"Because I've tried mixing business with pleasure, okay?" I asked. "And if just fell apart."

"Welcome to the story of the world," Graham told me. "Things fall about, Zoey. But the way people manage is, they don't do it alone. They pull each other through. If you weren't so scared, you'd see that."

I shook my head. "You have no idea what you're talking about. You barely know me."

"I know that it's not just a job thing," Graham told me. "I'm sure that there is some good looking guy that done you wrong in there, too. But mostly I think you want to stay alone because you're too scared to even give it a try."

"I'm not scared," I told him.

Graham looked at me for a moment. "Prove it."

I looked at Graham for a moment, closing the distance between us with a kiss. Graham responded instantly, putting a hand to my cheek. He slid his hands down my back, untying the straps of my shirt without breaking. I pulled away, pulling his shirt over his head, letting it fall, starting to trail kisses from his lips to his jaw, down his chest. Graham stood behind me, pulling my stained shirt off, kissing from my collar bone to my neck to my cheek. I slid back into bed, looking up at him for a moment, kissing him, rolling him to the bed, his arms around me. He rolled me to the bed, continuing to kiss.

          ••••      

After what seemed like hours, when we were draped in a sheet, the door opened, revealing Anya and Xander on the other side.

I held the sheet tighter, giving him a look. "Xander, don't you knock?"

Anya and Xander breathed heavily, turning around, walking away, leaving.

          ••••      

Everybody had been acting weird at the party because there were poltergeists in the Lowell House. It had used to be a house for children, and the woman that ran the place restricted any and all sexual activity, and when they even thought about anything like that, she would cut off the girls' hair, and baptize the boys in the bathtub, holding them under water. Torturing them.

And that was why everyone was affected by repressed sexual tension, including us. Using sex as a battery to fuel their evildoing. And that was why Xander and Anya had to get to Buffy and Riley, and Graham and me.

And they told us Giles had sang Behind Blue Eyes at the Espresso Pump.

The Scoobies were meeting in a campus lounge area the next day.

"I can't believe that really happened," I told them.

"I just had no idea," Buffy told us. "It's so creepy. He was really singing?"

Willow nodded.

"I'd say it was more like crooning," Xander told us. He looked at Anya. "If we grow old together, remind me to skip the midlife crisis."

Anya smiled slyly. "Okay."

"Come on," Willow told her. "You have to admit, it was kind of sexy."

"Please stop saying that," Xander told her. "I'm willing to offer cash incentives."

"We're just lucky no one got injured," Riley told us, putting a hand on Buffy's thigh, looking at me. "No thanks to us." He looked toward Graham while he was getting his food. "Or him."

"Don't be too hard on yourselves," Willow told us. "Really, it wasn't your fault. You were under the influence of powerful magics."

"We were like zombies," I told them. "I had no control over myself at all."

"It must have been horrible," Willow told us.

Riley and Buffy exchanged an unconvincing look, nodding.

"Yeah, horrible," Buffy told us unconvincingly.

"Uh-huh," Riley told us unconvincingly. "It was bad."

I looked toward Graham, as unconvincing as they were. "Mm-hmm."

Magical influence or not, alcoholic influence or nay...

It was not bad.

And I didn't regret it.