Never Fear

10

By the time morning came, Willow found herself alone in the apartment. Running a hand through her chin length curls, she looked around before raiding the cupboards for something to eat. Sitting in front of the television she idly ate some cereal while watching the news. She nearly choked when a reporter was talking about something called 'Batman'.

Willow rubbed her eyes and tried to figure out if she was dreaming this up. But no, there on the screen was footage of a man dressed up as a bat, kicking a man through a door before leaping over the side of a building and gracefully catching a falling person. Willow didn't blink at all during the whole thing. "That is awesome." She said quietly with wide eyes, "That is so awesome." Eating another spoonful of cereal she stood up and washed her breakfast things up in the kitchen before having a quick shower and getting dressed.

Doing up the buttons on her sleeveless white shirt she patted her light brown skirt down before smiling and pulling on her coat. She was going job hunting, and apartment hunting. Gotham was rather cool despite it being a heavily populated city. Turning the corner Willow suddenly stopped. She just realised she had no way of getting back into the apartment. Hitting a hand against her head she ran it down her face. "Idiot," muttering to herself she continued to explore. She kept in mind the way back to the apartment, but really she didn't want to go back there.

----

Seeing a dejected familiar woman sitting on the steps Jonathan tapped Willow on the shoulder. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh you know, I was in the area, thought I'd drop in and see my old friend...who teaches at this university." Willow smiled and rocked on her heels.

"You're lost aren't you?"

"A little. This place is very big," her eyes looked up towards the towering buildings surrounding them. "So, this is the university where you work?" Willow questioned in a tone which was most curious.

"Yes." Jonathan answered simply.

"I've been thinking," Willow said while looking down at the floor and taking to inspecting her shoes.

"Go on."

"Can I stay with you a little longer?" Jonathan raised an eyebrow at her. "It's just...there's seemingly nowhere in my price range around. I'll put money towards rent and bills! Well...I will when I find a job." Willow said quietly while running a hand through her hair. "But I have some money to help out!"

"Willow, you're rambling in confusion."

"Nah, I'm thoughtfully rambling." Willow corrected him with a smile.

"You can stay."

"Yes!" Willow waved her hands in the air and quickly latched onto him. "Thank you, Jonathan!" Willow gave him one last squeeze before letting him go.

Jonathan looked down at her, she smiled up at him. He meant what he said, she really hadn't changed at all since school. Sure she was taller, but she seemed to still be the same excitable teenager he knew all those years ago. Willow seemed rather conflicted about being in his company though. He could tell that with or without understanding how the human mind worked. It seemed like Willow half expected him to act like he did the last time they saw each other. Sure, Jonathan still had the gun, and of course he still had the costume but he hadn't touched them since moving here.

----

The mind worked in such interesting ways, Jonathan noted. "Stitches, scissors, scalpel." He spoke quietly while leaning his head against his hand and watching the person in front of him twitch as if they'd just been kicking in the shins. "Plaster, broken bones, operations," the person gave another twitch. Words had such an interesting effect on how people acted. Jonathan was just sitting at a table and the person in front of him had the option of leaving any time. But didn't, the simple reason being he was stuck to his chair through the fear of the words that Jonathan was saying. The dreaded word got spoken soon after, "Hospital." With this the person yelped and fell out of the chair. Raising an eyebrow and standing up to look over the table, Jonathan watched as he picked himself up.