Xander Harris has the coolest friends on the planet.

No really; who else can say they know a slayer, two witches, and a former demon? That's just his core group, too. There's also a werewolf, another slayer, a watcher, and a couple of vampires. Even Dawn- little squirt Dawn- has blood which opens portals to other dimensions.

Yeah, the people Xander spends most of his time with are downright awesome. Like save-the-world, X-Men type awesome.

It's amazing they're still around, really.

Sure, he may hang around demons and witches and ninja-like warriors. He may even have been part of some amazing things too. But Xander is nothing special. No super powers or kick-ass skills. No supernatural knowledge. He can't even read Latin.

He's just Xander Harris, typical wise-guy hiding away his insecurities. Just his jokes and a family worth spending Christmas sleeping outside on a hammock eating leftovers.

Maybe that's why he's so amazed they've stuck by him all these years.

Maybe it's why of all the people he knows, they're the ones he cares for most.

[-]

Get up!

"You can't stop this."

"Yeah, I get that..." Xander rises slowly, his body screaming in pain from fresh wounds. He's rambling. Always rambling.

Willow only scoffs at him. Her eyes. Her face. This can't be Willow. Not his Willow, the one he's known forever. The girl who cried over breaking a crayon their first day of kindergarten. His best friend. This can't be her, this vengeful creature before him, full of wrath and pain seeking to burn the world to a cinder.

"World's gonna end, where else would I want to be?"

"Shut up!" she screams. With a wave of her hand comes more pain, this time in his face.

Again! Xander swallows. "If I'm going out, then it's here."

"Shut! Up!"

Another sweep of pain, worse than before, knocks him back to the ground. Xander lets out a grunt.

"You wanna kill the world? Then start with me."

"You think I won't?" Even her voice is wrong, snarling and dripping with an intensity he's never heard from her. Instinctually he flinches; she means it. She will kill him. She will kill him and not even think twice about it.

So it continues, a repeated cycle until he can no longer see or hear or even breathe, the pain paralyzing his very core. He wonders how much longer until his inevitable end at the hands of his best friend. And yet, every time a new wave of pain comes, unable to do or say or even think of anything else, he whispers the one thing he wants her to know.

"I love you, Willow. I love you."

"Stop it!"

And suddenly it's over. The pain, the noise; everything stops. Xander wonders if maybe this is it, maybe he's dead and the world is gone.

Until he hears her cry.

He feels her fall against his shoulder, sobs soaking his shirt. Only then can he open his eyes again to discover it's her.

His Willow. Crayon-breaking, sweetheart Willow.

It worked. By God, it actually worked.

Xander holds her, letting her cry as he strokes her hair. Willow falls slowly, his arms around her, on the spot where she nearly managed to obliterate it all. And as he holds his best friend, he wonders just how in the hell he – Xander Harris, the no-skills nobody- just saved the world.

[-]

"Xander?"

"Yes. It was he who got to her in time. He saved us all."

- 6x 22, Grave