Willow gasps as warm lips make their way down her neck, trailing against her collarbones and pausing to suck harshly. She finds her hands instinctively reaching up, fingers tangling in long, curly hair without a second thought.

"Something wrong, sweetheart?" his voice laughs lowly against her ear. It sends shivers down her spine relentlessly, makes her fingertips press even harsher into his scalp as her back arches off the bed to press herself closer to him. She feebly shakes her head, but that's not enough for him, "Words, doll . I need your words."

"Nothing's wrong, just please... fuck," her hands travel from being tangled in his hair to the back of his neck, trying to force his lips back onto her, "Please touch me, Eddie. Please."

He complies at her begging, lips returning to their attack, his teeth nipping at her sensitive skin. Immediately, she whines, and his tongue laps at the spot with remorse. Her back is arching once more. Even with her nude chest pressed to his, she needs more. She needs him to touch her.

"Eddie, stop teasing, please," she sighs, eyes fluttering close despite her words and her head rolling back, giving him more access.

"Not teasing, just taking my time," he hums against her skin. His mouth finally travels lower, lips pursing as he stops at her breasts, "Don't wanna rush it. Wanna remember this moment, doll."

The nickname shoots straight for her gut, fluttering about and only worsening the ache between her legs. She glances down for a moment, just in time to catch his warm, brown eyes glimmering up at her as his lips wrap around her nipple.

Willow wakes up with a start. Her eyes snap open and she's gasping as if she's just run a marathon, breathless as the images of her dream continue to flood her brain.

Fuck.

She sits up far too quickly, getting dizzy but still wasting no time to throw her comforter off of her body. She's hot - she's far too hot.

What the hell was that?

She couldn't begin to process her dream if she wanted to try. The haunting image of Eddie, lips pretty and pursed and pink from kissing her, is still flashing behind her eyelids every time she lazily blinks. The feeling of his breath on her skin, his hands gripping her hips, being so close to her - the ache between her legs from her dream was still very real, torturous to her now as she stood and stretched. Friends don't dream about friends that way. Friends don't dream about how it would feel to have bruises littering their neck from each other, how it would feel to have bare skin on bare skin. The entire scenario was making her blush and all she could do was rake her hands over her face and groan loudly into her palms out of frustration. It made her skin crawl, not in an uncomfortable way, but instead in an unfathomable one.

She'd never had a wet dream.

Maybe it was from her lack of real-life experience, but most of the time, her dreams were nonsensical. Silly and light-hearted, easy to forget.

Willow couldn't forget the look in his eyes.

"What... what are you doing to me, Munson?" she whimpers in frustration, sighing harshly and glaring down at her bed she'd been occupying far too comfortably moments before. Her eyes widen when she does. As if the dream wasn't bad enough, the Universe couldn't give her a break; her pillow was stained a blotchy pink, and the edge of her fluffy comforter she'd had gripped up to her chin was, too.

Son of a bitch-

She knew last night that going to bed with wet hair was a bad idea, but had held weak hopes that she wouldn't wake up to the murder scene in front of her. The exact situation her mother had warned her of when her hair disaster first occurred had happened. She knows she should be pulling the sheets off, that she should grab the bleach and rectify her bad decisions, but she didn't.

No, the only thing on Willow Jenkins' mind was Eddie Munson.

His voice, the way it enunciated that goddamn nickname - doll. He'd used it incessantly last night. Even after their swim, they'd spent far too long with each other, lounging casually in the back of Eddie's van once they'd gotten dressed again. Part of the reason had been due to a game of twenty questions they'd indulged in, exchanging facts such as Eddie's middle name being Theodore and Willow's favorite cereal being cinnamon toast crunch, but the other half of the reason had been Eddie dropping quite the bomb on Willow.

"So, doll... this may come as no surprise but, I fucked up again."

Eddie's voice broke the comfortable silence that he and Willow had lulled into. Her eyes had been closed, feeling far too happy to cuddle into the musty blankets that Eddie provided in his van. It was too easy - his presence was practically a lullaby for Willow, washing her with a calmness that was too hard to fight off when her eyelids began to feel heavy.

"Again?" she murmured, turning on her side and looking at the boy sitting up beside her.

"Again," he confirmed, looking down at her nervously, "I may or may not have told Steve that I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend tonight."

Willow's heart dropped.

"What?"

"I'm sorry, I just - I knew we were going to have to do it eventually, and he was kind of being a dick while we were alone, so my idiot brain figured it was good timing-"

"When were you two even alone?" Willow asked as she started to pull herself up, face contorted in confusion. As she wracked her brain, she couldn't figure out a moment that would have allowed the two to be cruel towards each other. She had been there the entire night, hadn't she?

Eddie smiled sheepishly. "Uh, when you went to grab your stuff from the back."

Shit.

Willow's brain had forgotten that moment, considering she had been wrapped up in her own spiral. But it made sense - Eddie had been tense when she returned. Steve had been short in his farewell to her.

"Fuck," she sighed, now fully sat up beside Eddie, "I... damn it. I mean, you're right. We were going to have to pull off the bandaid, just... Right before movie night?"

"I'm sorry," Eddie insisted again, "I know. It was stupid. I'm an idiot."

Willow's brain didn't have time to think before the words tumbled from her mouth, "You're not an idiot. Or maybe you are, but now you're my idiot. We'll figure it out."

Last night, Willow didn't have the heart to be mad at Eddie. She'd simply insisted over and over that it was fine, then concocting a plan as to what the boundaries would now be for movie night. Eddie had suggested kissing, and Willow had shot it down immediately.

After her unfortunate dream, she knew that definitely couldn't happen.

Plus, it hadn't gone over her head, the way Eddie had reacted when she'd referred to him as "my idiot". It was probably identical to the way she reacted when he called her doll. But she didn't have time to linger on that, to overanalyze and pull apart last night's scenes.

She needed to call Robin. No, scratch that, she needed to see Robin.

Her body is on autopilot as it navigates to her kitchen and she grabs the phone, dialing her best friend's number unnecessarily roughly. Steve had put them in charge of snacks, anyways, so they needed to meet up and go to the store at some point today to begin with.

The line only has to ring twice before Robin picks up.

"Buckley household, what can we do for you?" Robin's voice chimes, and it only calms Willow a fraction. She's still reeling - from the night before, from the dream, from the impending doom of Eddie joining movie night, from her stained sheets.

Everything was too much. She needs her best friend. "It's Willow, how quickly can you meet me at Denny's?"

—

Willow opts to walk to the diner. Even though it's across town, she convinces herself that it'll be good - she needs time to think. Time to organize her thoughts and settle her ever-racing heart. She starts to regret it halfway there, and her mind is still a mess when she arrives and sees Robin's bike sloppily chained up at the front of the restaurant.

"Finally! Did you walk here?" Robin calls to her as she approaches the booth that she'd secured for them in the back of the restaurant. One of the regular waitresses had greeted her with a brief wave, not stopping Willow as she'd barreled towards Robin's comforting figure.

"Yes, unimportant," Willow blurts out, throwing herself into the opposite of the booth far too roughly, "Buckley, I'm a fucking mess."

"We already knew that, but what happened?" Robin replies softly, pushing a water Willow's way.

Willow leans on her elbows, threading her fingers through her hair. She freezes the motion pretty quickly when she remembers the way her fingers had done the same to Eddie's hair in her dream. "Oh, God. So much. I've fucked up so royally. Jesus christ."

" What happened?" Robin stresses, leaning across the table and yanking Willow's hands down from where they paused, "C'mon, tell your dear old friend-"

"It's official. Eddie made it official. Like, he told Steve I'm his girlfriend. Or at least, he said he was going to ask me last night, and obviously I would say yes. Which means I'm officially out as fake-dating Eddie. I mean, I've been out as his girlfriend to his friends, but not to Steve," once the floodgates open, Willow can't stop her rambling, "And then I had this stupid dream, and we went to Lover's Lake last night, and God, I had this stupid dream, Rob-"

"Okay, okay. Slow down. One fuck up at a time. Eddie told Steve he was asking you to be his girlfriend last night?" Robin questions, rubbing her hands comfortingly over Willow's wrists.

Willow takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Yeah. He... he picked me up from work, and he said that Steve was an ass to him while I was in the back, so he just... yeah."

"Jesus."

"Yeah, that's a mess. But my dream , Buckley! Fuck, it was... I'm... fuck!" Willow's shouts gain the attention of a few other patrons in the diner, mostly older people, but she can't even begin to scratch the surface of her embarrassment.

Robin quirks up an eyebrow at her, "Wait, you're telling me making it 'official' with Eddie isn't more important than a dream? What, did you dream you were the president of the United States? I better have been your vice president."

"No," Willow laughs bitterly, pausing and sipping on her water. Her eyes flutter shut, and she's seeing big, brown ones again, pink lips wrapped around her- "It was a wet dream. About Eddie."

She can't stop the flush from admitting it out-loud. She's mindful to keep her voice down at these words.

"Holy shit, what?" Robin gasps, not taking the same care as Willow to be quiet. Willow smacks the hands that had been trying to comfort her in retaliation, and Robin pulls them back and throws them up defensively, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry," her voice drops to a whisper, and she leans over the table to the point in which she's almost face-to-face with Willow, "I just... a wet dream? About Eddie? "

Willow nods, "A wet dream. About Eddie."

"Well, don't be shy. What happened?"

"I- don't be a pervert. It.. he just... ugh," Willow throws her head down against the table with a severe lack of grace, deciding to mumble her next sentence, "He was sucking my stupid neck off, Buckley. And I liked it. God, I liked it so much."

Robin snorts, and Willow turns her face up enough to prop herself up on just her chin with a glare. It's uncomfortable, but she doesn't care. Her face is so hot, it's surely bursting into flames.

"It's not funny," she grumbles.

"Oh, it's very funny. Look how flustered you are, 'Low!"

"I'm not flustered."

"Bullshit. Your cheeks are darker than your hair."

"I stained my sheets," Willow changes the subject quickly.

"Ew," Robin scrunches her nose, "I didn't need to know that you have it that bad for Munson. Impressive, but still-"

Willow interrupts her, shaking her head so hard that her neck aches, " No . No, no, no. Not that kind of stain. Jesus christ. I meant with my hair, get your mind out of the gutter."

"Hey, you're the one who comes running in here, screaming about how you had a dirty dream," Robin shrugs and starts to sip on her water, giving Willow a moment to compose herself. She hates that her friend had a point, and that she was probably being dramatic, but the entire ordeal felt monumental to her. She didn't like Eddie that way. She couldn't like Eddie that way. Robin has sucked down nearly half her glass when she starts up again, "So, you guys went to Lover's Lake?"

Willow can see the suggestive, playful look. She immediately puts a stop to it, "Yes, but I'm going to stop you right there - nothing really happened. We went swimming, but nothing else. I just... Fuck , Buckley," Willow groans and is rubbing her face with her hands again. The entire situation felt like a mess, sticky and uncomfortable, uncharted territory for Willow. She had never even had a dream like that for Steve , and she'd been crushing on him for over a year.

That was a hard reality. Eddie Munson had officially breached a part of Willow's mind that not even Steve Harrington had reached.

"Hey, hey," Robin's hands are on Willow's again, "It's okay. You're going to be just fine, I promise. I just... wow. A lot to take in, you know?"

"Tell me about it," Willow mumbles into her palm. Realization then hits her that Robin wasn't aware of Steve's overly generous invite to Eddie, "Steve invited Eddie to movie night, by the way. I didn't even get the chance, he did it himself. How fucked is that?"

"Pretty fucked," Robin hums, "But he's just being supportive, I'm sure. You play the role of love-sick puppy very well on our rides home from school."

"I do not," Willow scoffs.

"You so do. Did Eddie accept?" Willow simply nods, hands falling down against the plastic of the booth seat beneath her thighs, "Wow. Okay. Did you guys... talk about it? At the lake?"

"Yeah. I mean, Eddie suggested we kiss in front of Steve but-"

" What? " Robin's shrill voice gains the attention of others again, and Willow finally has found enough of her mind to shush her, "Sorry, I just- he what? "

"Exactly!" Willow nods, pinching her eyes shut, "I've never kissed anyone, Robs, so I told him no. What have I gotten myself into?"

Willow had never been more grateful for Robin than at this moment. Despite the entire situation feeling like some terrible spiral, something awful and out of Willow's control, she still had the girl in front of her. Everything could feel so temporary, the world ever-changing and moving so fast it made Willow ill, but Robin Buckley being by her side wouldn't change. The world could be ending , and she knew Robin would still hold her hand through it all.

"A mess. A terrible, terrible mess," Robin sighs, shaking her head at Willow, "Good thing you have me, huh?"

Willow doesn't reply, instead opting to grab Robin's soothing hands and squeeze them, looking up at her best friend. Her grip is tight with no plans of letting go.

She needed something normal, just like this. Something to ground her.

"Well, look. I'm obviously no love doctor, but I can be one hell of a wing-man. Or wing-woman, I guess. What's the plan for tonight?"

Willow opens her mouth to explain everything her and Eddie had discussed the night before, but the waitress comes over to take their order. Both girls simply recite their usual orders as quickly as possible, and the moment they're alone again, Willow is back to filling Robin in.

"We agreed we need to sit together. Be cuddly. Just... I don't know, stereotypical, disgusting couple. Sickenly sweet," Willow picks at her nail beds as she goes over all this, reminiscing on how her cheeks had burned when she'd had this conversation with Eddie.

Her cheeks were red. Terribly, terribly red. Bright and crimson, and she told herself that Eddie would let her blame the heat of the night.

"C'mon, Red. What do you mean you've never done any of this before?" Eddie whined, trying to get her to look at him as she burrowed into her embarrassment.

"I think you know exactly what I mean," Willow laughed nervously, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. The entire situation was painful for her.

Eddie flung himself down, head hitting one of the pillows propped up behind him with a soft hmph, "I really don't. What are we talking here? I know you've held hands, considering we've held hands-"

"Yeah, and you were the first boy I've ever done that with."

"Really?" Eddie looked up at her with genuine shock, "Wow, I feel lucky."

"You should."

"So it's safe to assume that you've never kissed anyone?" Eddie didn't hold back, barreling right into the topic that Willow so desperately wanted to avoid, "I'm taking your blush as a yes."

"I'm not blushing," she snapped, glaring down at him and his cheesy grin. She convinced herself it's the night air that's stifling, not the way his eyes flicker to her lips as he licked his own.

"You're still a terrible liar," his voice was soft, almost raspy, probably from all the cigarettes he had smoked. She was almost positive he'd finished off his pack.

She hadn't noticed the way she was leaning down closer to him until her hair nearly brushed his cheek.

"And red's still your favorite color," she mused, voice just as soft as his had been, recalling their earlier game of questions in which he had admitted the fact with embarrassment.

His eyes never left hers, boring into her irises and taking her breath away. "That it is."

"Earth to Willow?" Robin snaps in front of her face, and she's torn from the memory.

"Sorry," she apologizes when the waitress brings them their food, placing their plates in front of them with a gentle smile. They mumble their thanks.

"Where'd you go? Thinking about your loverboy?" Robin teases, taking her time to unravel her silverware they'd been provided.

Willow shrugs, no energy left to lie, "Yeah, I guess. I'm just... I'm nervous, I don't know. I've never done any of this. I'm feeling like I'm in a little over my head right now, Robs."

"That you are, my friend," Robin doesn't bluff, doesn't even attempt to provide any false comfort. And that in itself is enough for Willow, "But hey, you just focus on playing house with Munson tonight. Leave dingus to me. By the end of the night, you'll see that I was right all along - the fake-dating plan was so crazy, it'll work. Just watch."

"Nuh uh, I haven't forgotten you trying to deter me once I got the balls to ask Eddie on the first day of school."

"What can I say? Second-hand embarrassment is very real. I wasn't sure how he'd react," Robin should say this with all the confidence in the world. It should feel like friendly banter, easy-going and unimportant.

It doesn't.