In This Together-

A/N:Hey all, this is a tag team fic from me, spikesbabyblues and darlawinifred. We hope you all enjoy the story. And plz, plz,plz review


Disclaimer: We own Nothing

Chapter 1: Living Arrangements



Buffy Summers wandered around on the Quad of the UC Sunnydale. There
were mass numbers of students swarming around about her and they all
seemed perfectly at ease. They all seemed to know exactly where they
were going. Buffy felt lost, like a fish out of water. She was
confused; she had no idea where to go. She had nowhere to go. A change
in situation in her relationship had made things a little complicated.
And with only a few days until classes started, she had to figure
something out. But first she had to kind out where she was, and how to
get where she was going.


She walked into the crowd of people, trying desperately to catch the
attention of of thf the passers-by. But she was not having much luck
After five minutes or so, she saw a young redhead looking at her.
Buffy was about to call out her when the girl came over.

"Hi, you look pretty lost. Can I help you?"

Buffy smiled gratefully. "Yes, I am so lost. Thank you so much. Could
you tell me where the housing office is?"

"Um, you go straight down here," the girl said pointing straight in
front of her "Then you turn left. Walk a little further and you'll see
the sign for housing." she finished.

"Thank you." Buffy replied, thanking god for the girl.

"No problem."
With a small wave Buffy left the girl to go about her business.

It took Buffy a further ten minutes to find the housing office, as she
kept forgetting the directions she had been given. She let out a sigh
of relief when she finally saw the building in view. She opened the
door, and cursed silently. There was an extremely long queue of people
waiting to be seen. 'Great, looks like I'll be here a while' she
thought, not at all amused, or happy. But she took her place at the
end of the queue, and got ready to wait.



And wait she did, an hour or so, she was next in the queue. Her feet
hurt. She was grumpy, and the person in front seemed to be taking
forever. But finally it was her turn. She smiled sweetly at the woman
behind the counter.

"Hi, I need a dorm." she told her matter of factly.

The woman looked taken aback.
"Ok, did you apply for a dormitory? If so, name please."
Buffy looked sheepish as she answered.

"Well actually no, but there are circumstances and I really need a dorm."

The woman smiled apologetically "I'm very sorry, but all they dorms
are gone. You would have to applied at least a month or so ago. As it
is now, we have no spare dorms. The people who applied have to get the
rooms."

Buffy looked deflated, and felt near hysterical. But she tried to
remain calm as she pleaded her case. "Please, a lot has happened, I
really need a dorm."

"I'm sorry but it just isn't possible. Your only option is to find
something off campus." the woman gave a soft smile.

"Please." Buffy tried again.

"I'm sorry." the woman repeated once more, a bit more forceful this
time to let Buffy know that there was no chance. Buffy just nodded
mutely and turned away and walked out. Now what was she going to do?






Buffy groaned and slammed her head down on the table. Pushing the
newspaper out of her way. She had been searching for an apartment for
over two hours with no luck. She was really worried now. She kept
asking herself, 'why the hell did this have to happen to me? What the
hell am I going to do? She hadn't been able to find an answer to those
either. So now she was wallowing, close to tearse woe would probably
have cried had someone not tapped her shoulder right then. Her head
flew up; there standing in front of her was the girl who gave her
directions earlier. Buffy managed to give her a weak smile.

"Hi," the girl said cheerfully "I'm Willow. I thought I'd say 'hey'."

"I'm Buffy." she introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you." Willow said as she took it upon herself to sit
down across from Buffy "Did things go ok at housing?" she then noticed
the open newspaper, and the apartment ads. "Is everything ok?"


Buffy looked at the girl, and for some reason everything began to tumble out.

"No, I didn't apply for a dorm because I thought I had somewhere to
live this year. And now I don't. Housing told me they don't have a
spare dorm. I can't afford any of the apartments in this paper, and
classes start in a few days, and I have nowhere to live." her voice
gigheigher as she got more panicked, and as she finished the tears
began to spill over. She put her head in her hands and let them fall
for a moment. She felt Willow place a hand on her arm in a soothing
gesture. And she was grateful for it. When she managed to calm herself
down a little, she looked up at he new friend with puffy red eyes.

"Sorry."

"Don't apologise to me," Willow admonished, "What are friends for."
Buffy gave her a watery smile.

"So, what happened, if you don't mind me asking, with the place you
were supposed to live?"

"Well, I'm not from around here. I just moved here a month or so ago.
Because my boyfriend went here, and I moved here to be with him. But I
wouldn't sleep with him and he cheated on me, so I moved out. I
couldn't stay with him after that. But now, I have nowher go. go.
Willow I don't know what I'm going to do." Tears threatened to fall
again, but she did her best to bite them back.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Buffy. But maybe we can find something."

"I've tried. I've been sitting here for two hours and I can't find
anything." Buffy grumbled.

Willow nodded, searching through her mind trying to think of some sort
of solution. And then it hit her


"I have an idea. Come with me." she jumped from her chair. As soon as
she was joined by Buffy she started walking in the direction of the
main buildings.


A few minutes later, she was inside a small office. There was a
middle- aged man, wearing a pair of dark trousers and a beige coloured
sweater and glasses perched on his nose. Willow was talking quietly to
him. Buffy felt a little awkward standing there, looking on. But if
Willow thought she had a solution the Buffy was willing to stand there
all day. It didn't come to that however, as a moment later the man
looked away from his conversation with Willow and Willow turned to
face her again.

"Buffy this is Professor Rupert Giles." Willow introduced "Professor
Giles, this is Buff-" she looked at Buffy.

"Summers." Buffy supplied.

"Nice to meet you," The professor greeted "I understand you have a bit
of a problem."

"Yes, I came here to be with my boyfriend, but we split up and now I
don't have anywhere to live."

He looked sympathetic, sighing, "That is too bad." he looked towards
Willow, who gave him a pleading look. Sighing again he turned back to
Buffy.

"I have known Miss. Rosenberg for some time, as she is from Sunnydale.
I trust her to be a nice, reliable girl. So, I have an apartment over
my garage, and I am willing to allow you to rent it. If you wish, and
I'm sure we can come to some arrangement about the price of your rent.
So, do you want the apartment?"

Buffy could have squealed in excitement, but at the same time she
could barely remember the ability to speak. So she nodded dumbly, then
realised she probably looked like an idiot.

"Yes, yes I want it, thank you so much Professor Giles."

"You're welcome. Willow will show you where to take your things. Come
at any time after 6 tonight."

Buffy nodded and thanked him again over and over eventually being
dragged out of the room by Willow. As soon as they were far enough
away from the office, Bulet let out the squeal she had been
suppressing, and threw her arms around Willow.

"Thank you so much, you are a life saver."

"You're welcome." the redhead smiled shyly.

"You are officially my new best friend." Buffy declared, linking their
arms as the walked out of the building. She felt more at ease and more
at peace. At least now she wouldn't be homeless. She had living
arrangements. Now she just had to figure everything else out.