The next week bleeds together for Willow; she trains at her new job, she keeps up with her classwork, she attempts to keep Eddie Munson in line in class, and she avoids Jason Carver and his friends at all costs. She's been pretty successful, in her opinion. If you count hiding in the library every lunch period with only Robin for company successful.

"I seriously don't understand why you're still hiding from Jason," Robin mumbles when they enter the library for the fourth day in a row. Surprisingly, word hadn't reached Steve or Robin of Eddie's slip up. Willow is beginning to wonder if Eddie threatened poor Dustin Henderson into silence.

"Did you completely forget the part where I accused him of snorting drugs?" Willow says over her shoulder as she takes a sharp turn down one of the aisles of books. She's looking for a new book to entertain herself with - absolutely not in an effort to further put off beginning to read Eddie's annotated novel. No, Willow would never do that.

His offer still rings in her ears from time to time, when she's staring down the book with little to no motivation.

"I can read to you, too. We'll take turns."

Robin leans against the bookshelf beside where Willow stops abruptly, fingers tracing over book spines as if she's interested in them. "Everyone knows popular kids do drugs. Who cares?"

"Jason does, he has a reputation."

"We all have reputations."

"Yeah? And is yours to be the most annoying best friend I've ever had?" Willow says with faux annoyance when Robin leans herself into her eyesight, blocking the books she was trying to look over. "Christ, I think I would be better off hiding behind Eddie and his big, scary reputation. At least he can be funny."

"Hey!" Robin shouts, loud enough to make Willow shush her, "I can be funny. Screw you. I'm way better than Munson."

Willow is biting back her smile as she maneuvers around a very offended Robin, thinking about Eddie. The way he had looked in the van that morning, hands dramatically beating along to the latest mixtape he was trying to show her once he picked her up. He had spent this week in particular trying to get her to like Ozzy Osbourne, playing his tape of the album "Bark at the Moon" on repeat. She would never admit it to Eddie but she had grown a certain fondness for some of the songs - especially track four which she was only ninety-nine percent sure was called 'Rock n Roll Rebel'.

"I'm serious!" Robin insists as she follows closely behind Willow.

"Keep your voice down, Buckley," Willow reminds carefully over her shoulder, stopping at another random bookshelf to look over her options. She wasn't even sure what she was looking for, it was just something to keep her busy, truthfully. At random, she pulls one of the novels off the shelf: Of Mice and Men by John Steinback. She pauses and considers, but ends up shoving the book back into its home on the shelf.

She's not even sure she's in the mood to read right now.

"What kind of book are you even looking for?" Robin asks, but Willow's attention is suddenly caught by a commotion she hears coming from outside the library. Robin hears it too, immediately looking at her friend with raised eyebrows.

Willow walks slowly to the end of the aisle, peaking herself out around the shelf to catch sight of one of the large windows that showcase the school hallways. Robin is pressed up against her, also taking a look.

At first, all she can hear still is the shouts and chanting of students. Then, very suddenly, a few students run past one of the large windows. Willow has to squint to make out the pair of students that are clearly fighting: one of the students has flung the other one against a locker, bringing his forearm up to his neck.

"Hey, isn't that-" Robin doesn't get to finish her question, Willow's stomach already dropping.

It's not just random students.

It's Eddie. Eddie is the student pressed against the locker, nose clearly bleeding, and Jason Carver is the asshole with his arm pressed into his neck.

Willow wastes no time running across the library, ignoring the teacher that shouts for her to not run. She isn't even sure if Robin is following behind her, all her attention focused on the goddamn idiot pinned to the lockers: technically, her goddamn idiot.

"Break it up! Break it up!" a teacher has beat Willow to the scene as she struggles to shoulder past the students gathered around the sight. Jason has been yanked off of Eddie, who's still leaning on the lockers, bleeding profusely with a wicked grin.

That smug idiot. That fucking dimwit.

The teacher isn't making any moves to help Eddie, or punish Jason. Willow finally breaks through the final circle of students, nearly tripping on her way between two students who were too focused having a front row seat to the action to hear her demanding they move.

"Freak," Jason spits at Eddie's feet. He's not facing Willow - she has no idea if Eddie even got any good hits in.

Willow is prepared to grab Jason by the shoulder, turn him and slap him into the next week before she has time to think rationally, but she's stopped by a hand on her elbow.

Robin .

"Willow Victoria Jenkins, don't you dare ," Robin hisses, more frantic than Willow had seen her in quite some time as she yanks her back into the ranks of students.

Willow turns to face her, eyes flaming, before she attempts to force Robin to let go of her arm, "Let me go."

"No."

Their interaction gets Jason's attention, turning slowly before he laughs. "Oh, good. Freak's girlfriend is here to save the day."

It's now clear Eddie had gotten a few hits in. Jason has a bruise on his jaw that is blooming spectacularly.

Willow is pissed. Unnecessarily pissed. She doesn't notice Eddie looking up at her wildly as she pulls herself free and takes her backpack, heavy with her math textbook, and swings it at Jason.

"Fuck off, Carver," she seethes as her bag makes contact with his shoulder, causing Jason to stumble backwards. Not a single one of his friends standing nearby makes a move, and even Jason himself looks stunned as she readjusts her bag onto her shoulder, now ignoring them and focusing back on Eddie.

By the look on his face, he's going to lecture her. It's painfully ironic, but Willow can handle it. She doesn't care right now.

"You," she points at Eddie, "Let's go, now. "

Despite the look that had been on his face, the moment he processes Willow is also pissed at him, he doesn't say a word back. He simply follows her as she turns and shoves her way back through the crowd. They pass the teacher that had made a feeble attempt at stopping the fight.

"Mister Munson, are you-" the teacher starts, but Willow doesn't stop, reaching behind her and grabbing Eddie's hand.

"He's fine."

She drags him down the hallway in silence, making a beeline for the girls' bathroom.

"I don't think I can go in th-" Eddie starts to protest, but Willow pays him no mind as she shoves the door open.

"Anyone in here?" she calls out sharply shrugging off her backpack and tossing it to the ground carelessly, "No? Good," she immediately turns to face Eddie, scaring him with just how upset she looks, "You better have a damn good reason for having gotten into a physical fight with Jason Carver, or so help me ."

She doesn't wait for his response, moving to the door and locking it before she's storming back across the room for the paper towels.

She can't think straight with how upset she is. She doesn't know where to begin. Is she devastated about seeing Eddie hurt? Or is she furious he caused a scene? Is she angry with Jason and just projecting it onto Eddie?

Who fucking knows.

"I honestly knew all boys were stupid, but my God , do you love to prove me right, Eddie Munson. I mean, seriously? A fight? With Jason? It's not even been a month of school. And on top of that, we just avoided a fight with Jason in the library. Is that why he hit you? Because if that little prick -" Willow angrily shoves the paper towels under one of the faucets, wetting them generously before continuing her rant "-was delivering backlash to you for what I said, I'll fill my bag with every goddamn textbook I own, and I'll dislocate his shoulder next time I see him."

She's back in front of Eddie, and the corners of his mouth are twitching upwards. He opens his mouth to speak, but she shakes her head, "Nope. No. This isn't funny, Munson. Sit."

He doesn't hesitate to go and lean against the trash can she had pointed at. Once she's standing in front of him, ripping at the paper towels and getting ready to press one against his nose, he finally speaks for the first time since they entered the bathroom. "You're pretty when you're mad, Red."

"Yeah?" she scoffs, hand midair with a paper towel, "Well then I must be drop-dead gorgeous right now, because I'm pissed ."

She can tell his wide smile is causing him pain by the wince that follows.

She lifts her hand once more, this time making contact with his skin as she swipes underneath his nose. He immediately flinches.

"Ow, ow, ow," he starts to lean away from her, but she grabs his chin immediately.

"Stop moving."

It's clear that if her hand didn't have his face in a death grip now, he would have replied with something snarky. But instead, he stays quiet, only scrunching his face in pain as she continues to clean the blood away from his nose. At some point, she steps closer to him, positioning herself between his legs with ease. He has his knees against each of her hips, and she can tell he doesn't know what to do with his hands initially by the way they hover at his side until he finally settles on allowing them to rest on his knees, his fingertips barely ghosting against her.

"He was fucking with Henderson."

Willow tosses the first bloody paper towel away, prepping a second one. "What?"

"Jason. He fucked with Henderson. I started the fight," Eddie is looking down, picking at the knees of his jeans as she stares at him.

She isn't sure whether she's in awe, or back to being pissed.

"You idiot," she finally mumbles, sighing heavily as she twists the end of a dry paper towel, pressing her right palm against his forehead to force his head to glance up at her, "Was it at least worth it?"

Before he answers her, she carefully stuffs the paper towel into the side of his nose that's bleeding, whispering a soft 'lean forward' once she has. He follows her instructions flawlessly, tucking in his chin as he finally answers in a nasally voice, "Absolutely. I told you, I take care of my sheeps."

"There are ways to take care of and defend your little freshmen that don't involve almost breaking your nose," Willow grumbles, finally stepping back. Eddie's knees leave her hips and she studies her handiwork.

It'll do.

"Like what? Hitting him with my backpack?" Eddie laughs, a tinge of bitterness in his tone, but Willow knows it's not directed at her, "No offense, but if I did that, he would have had my ass on the floor in ten seconds flat."

"I know," Willow isn't sure what to do with her hands now, fiddling with them in front of her. "I just... I don't know. I saw him throwing you against a locker, and that stupid teacher wasn't doing anything. No one was doing anything. You talk about taking care of your sheeps or whatever, but who does that for you?" Willow blurts out her words without much thought, immediately regretting them.

"You, apparently."

"I'm being serious."

"So am I. Both times you've been present during my fights with Jason Carver, you've embarrassed his ass to all Hell to defend my honor. It's badass. Like, having a big, scary dog - except my big, scary dog is like, two feet tall and has bright red hair."

"I'm actually five foot four," she corrects him, standing up straighter for emphasis. He snorts now despite the pain.

"Right, right. My mistake," she knows his smile must be causing him a world of pain, but he's still wearing it proudly as he stands up from the trash can, towering over her.

She fights the urge to laugh at how ridiculous he looks with the brown paper towel shoved up his nose.

"My point is, I've got you now, Red."

Her heart aches. Her heart aches so goddamn badly because of a single word: now . Eddie had Willow now to scold him, to force him to do his classwork, to rush him to make it to school on time, to clean him up after his ridiculous fights - but who was there before her? Did she take over someone else's place in Eddie's life, or was this space always so vacant?

Willow lifts a hand, swiping on Eddie's bottom lip that is swollen but not quite busted, "You need ice."

"What, I'm not cool enough for you?" he teases, but she just rolls her eyes, finally walking to where she had tossed her backpack. Her hands are still trembling a bit with her anger.

The roles will be reversed next week. Jason Carver better pray he doesn't run into Willow.

"Never said that, Eds," she turns and faces him again, eyes wandering over each fresh injury. She can see Steve's face flashing before her eyes all over again, the same bone crushing empathy having drowned her at that time that felt so faraway returning now. But this time, it's for Eddie. It's for the boy she's only really been friends with for two weeks now.

"I've seen that look before," he whispers, taking a step closer to Willow, "It's the same look you had for Harrington that night at the bar."

"What do you mean?" she murmurs, heart racing when he comes even closer to her.

"I mean, you get this look when your friends get hurt - like you'd burn the world down for them. Didn't know you cared about me that much, sweetheart," he's trying to cover up a serious observation with a joke, the delicate shining of a question behind his sarcastic words and affectionate nickname.

"Well, I do," Willow doesn't joke back, she's deathly serious. She would burn the world down for him - she'd drag Jason to hell and back herself if it meant the boy in front of her knew a moment of peace, "You're my friend. It's part of the deal. Get used to it."

"No take-backs?" Eddie questions, rocking on his heels with a boyish grin.

"No take-backs," Willow says, fighting in her own childish grin. She breaks when Eddie holds out his pinkie, looking at her expectantly. It takes her a moment to realize what he's insisting on before her face breaks out into a shining smile, her own pinkie shooting out to hook with his.

She's taken off guard when he locks their hands together by the small contact tightly, yanking her in closely with a mischief on his breath. "Good, because personally, when I get my ass kicked in a fight in the middle of a school day, my friends ditch the rest of the school day to tend to me."

"Eddie, no, I can't-" she starts to deny, by his pinky tightens on hers, and her smile isn't faltering, "Seriously! It's only the second week of school! And I-"

I've never ditched before.

"What? It won't kill you to miss gym class, I promise, Red. Besides, if you don't nurse me back to health, who will? I'm not even sure I know proper icing techniques," Eddie begs and barters, and for the first time in her life, Willow watches the school freak use puppy dog eyes on her.

"I just... I've... I've never-" Willow is stuttering, mostly due to the intense eye contact Eddie is forcing onto her.

"You've never what?" Eddie questions, growing more serious for a moment in concern at her distress. His eyes leave hers to take in her heaving chest and quivering lip, anxiety wrapping its claws around her veins at the mere thought of doing something so out of character for her, "Ditched?"

It's embarrassing. Willow doesn't know how to spell it out more plainly to Eddie: before their deal, she was a goody-two-shoes, a wallflower who didn't interrupt fights and who didn't talk back to the jocks. She didn't lock herself into the girls' bathroom with a boy. She didn't let her attention waver during class, whether it be to laugh at one of Eddie's jokes or to pass notes with him. She was the golden student who always sat in the front of the classroom, who came to school and did her work and went home. Even Robin and Steve's best efforts had never gotten her to budge from her good girl routine.

But in the last two weeks, Eddie Munson had begun to unravel her without her even noticing.

What would her mother say if she found out her daughter had been involved in a fight at school? It didn't matter if she hadn't really thrown a punch, unless you count slinging her backpack - the thought of causing her mother any worry or distress made her dizzy. Not in the way Eddie made her dizzy - in a way that made her ready to burst into one of the stalls to their sides and vomit right then and there. A guilt that burned her throat raw and brought spots into her vision.

"We don't have to," Eddie suddenly murmurs, and he places a hand on each of her shoulders.

Am I having a panic attack?

She can feel tears pricking at her eyes, and snaps them shut in embarrassment. "Fuck, no, I'm- Jesus, Eddie, I'm sorry. I-I-"

Her stuttering is cut off by the soothing motions of his thumbs trailing along her bicep, and even though her hearing is muted as if she's underwater, she swears she can make out him rapidly whispering reassurances to her.

"Hey, you don't have to do anything you don't want to, okay? You want to go to class right now? I'll walk you, I swear. I was only joking. But, Red, I- you just don't look so good. I think you're having a panic attack," Great, cool. I am having one. Three cheers for keeping it cool. "So if you want to get out of here, we can. We can just go sit in my van for a little while. Is that alright? Just so you can calm down?" Eddie is talking impossibly fast, but Willow appreciates his effort - he clearly wants nothing more than to make her feel better.

She wasn't making it through Burley's Algebra class in this state. Besides, like he said, it only had to be a little while.

She opens her mouth to say yes, letting her eyes flutter back open to see Eddie's worried expression, but she can't find her words. All she can do is nod.

It's all she has to do. Eddie doesn't waste another moment gathering up their things, plucking the paper towel out of his nose and grabbing a few extras, before guiding Willow at his side outside.

She doesn't remember much about the walk to Eddie's van - whether they came across any teachers or fellow students, or which exit they walked out of, but she does remember the comfort in the weight of Eddie's arm around her shoulders. It's nice.

a/n: surprise! double update just for funzies. i'll see you all again tomorrow