< Be nice to have the old Xander back though, > she thought. < Even though new Xander's...intenseness _is_ kinda sexy. > She mentally slapped herself at the thought. < Where on Earth did that come from? > she wondered. < Must be the love potion, > she reasoned.

She walked up the stairs to her room. < After all, it's not like I fall for the first good-looking moody guy I see. >

Entering her room, she found her diary on the nightstand. Where she had most definetely _not_ left it. Abruptly, she remembered that her house had a guest...who had just gone and read her most intimate secrets.

Angel greeted her.

That's about when the bad stuff started.

Willow sat on the couch, fidgeting. < What is taking him so long? > she wondered. < He practically lives next door. > She began to entertain the possibility that he had chickened out had she would have to come over to his place and take the damn cure from him, when he entered.

"Hey Will!" he said in his cheeriest voice.

"Don't 'Hey Will,' me, Mister," she scolded him. She couldn't help noticing that she was still attracted to him. < Damn Xander and his love potion! >

"Do you have it?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "But it's going to take awhile to mix," he explained. "That is, if you still want to do this."

"Oh yeah, I want to do this," she said. Inwardly, she wasn't so sure. < Why does life have to be so darn _twisted_? > she asked herself. < I finally get Xander, only he only loves me because he's dosed himself with some wacky love potion, which he has also given to me, because he thinks, in his love-addled brain, that I don't love him. > Her head swam. < I mean, didn't even stop to consider the consequences? NO! Of course not! Xander Harris is Mr. Act-First-And-Don't-Worry-About-Later, Mr. I-So-Do-NOT-Have-A-Plan, Mr. -- >

"All done," came Xander's voice from the kitchen.

"I thought you said it was going to take awhile," said Willow, shocked.

"Yeah, well, I was wrong," he said simply. He came back in, bearing what seemed to be two mugs of steaming hot cocoa.

"Hot cocoa?" she asked.

"Ah, you only _think_ it's hot cocoa," he said, smiling only a bit. "This is it." He put the mugs down on the endtable by the couch. "This is the cure. The cure for love." He looked sad again.

He handed a mug to her. "Well," he said, grimacing, "bottoms up."

They drank.

Buffy was outraged. "You looked through my diary?" she asked. She went into a tirade about how everything about him in the diary was not about him, and how it wasn't sexual at all. < At all! > she repeated to herself. Only it came out -- the opposite.

< What is wrong with me? > Buffy wondered. < I wrote all that stuff before I took the potion. >

Then she was getting closer to Angel, and they were about to kiss, and she had to wonder why the heck Giles couldn't have given her the cure, but no, of course, Willow and Xander were in worse shape, and there were fireworks and stars and earthquakes and wow that was a GREAT kiss.

She looked at Angel's handsome face.

It was marred by deep brow ridges, cursed with golden irises and fangs.

Angel was a vampire.

Willow looked at Xander. "So that's it?" she asked. "I don't feel any different."

"Trust me, it worked," Xander said.

"Maybe we should test it out," she said. She stood up, leaned in towards him, and he leaned in toward her, and they so did not stop kissing for about a half a minute or so.

"I'd call that a -- a, uh -- " Willow said, trying to form sentences. It wasn't working.

She forced herself to sober up. "You -- we -- need the cure. The real cure." She nodded her head to emphasize the point, which was a bad thing, since she was rather lightheaded at the moment.

Xander looked at the