Joe's Note: Since some people were curious about it, I decided to roll back time a bit and show some of what happened in between Xander getting transformed and his debut as a public superhero. Or should I say 'her' debut as a superhero'ine'. Ah, the joys of writing transgender fiction. The English language isn't really equipped to handle this sort of situation…
Dedications & Thanks: To Alexander, Nicholas, MJ, Judedeath, James, Ken, Thyatira, Daniel, Vi9, William, Koby, Wil, Thomas, Christopher, Juan, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

"Well aren't you just… delicious."

Looking up from where he was picking at his nails with the knife Faith had given him, Xander sucked in a nervous breath at the sight of his girlfriend standing in the doorway. While he hadn't known the exact day of her return - the details of her missions were 'need to know' and Giles and Faith were of the opinion that he didn't need to know - he'd known it would come eventually. And yet despite all his preparations, now that it was here? He had no idea what to do. As the blonde continued to stare at him, an odd little smile on her face, he slid down to the end of the bed and rose to his feet, slowly closing the distance between them. "Hey. So, uh, did Willow explain how all this happened? And how it's completely her fault and not at all mine?"

Amora Incantare shrugged before raising one hand to Xander's face, gently tracing her fingers over his cheek. "She might have said something along those lines. To be honest, I tuned her out after 'turned Xander into a hotter version of Merida'. I've found the Scots to be a delightful people from the day I first began whispering in Constantín mac Áeda's ear, guiding him against those savages that worshipped the Æsir and Vanir…" Leaning in, she bit Xander's jaw roughly enough to make him hiss in pain, but he knew that these days he wouldn't even need her help to walk out of their room in the morning with flawless skin. "Now I have a gorgeous little Scottish girlfriend that I can play with all I want. And without cheating on the person I love."

Before Xander could respond to that, his breath left him in a loud huff as Amora planted her hands on his shoulders and shoved him backward hard. Like several other times she'd pulled the same stunt, his feet actually left the ground as he went flying back to land on the bed with a grunt. While it was becoming increasingly clear that this homecoming would be no different than any other, he felt compelled to ensure they were on the same page. "We're still good, then? I mean, I knew you were… which means it shouldn't be a problem that I-"

"Let's just say that someone will be getting a very lovely Hanukkah present this year. Or Yule. I suppose it depends on whether or not she's still claiming she's Jewish when the time rolls around." Amora slowly slid her hands up Xander's side and then across his chest, eventually coming to a stop with her fingers curled around the neckline of his black t-shirt. Pulling harshly, she tore it clean in two down the front before waving her hand twice and using magic to dispose of the remains. Then she paused, hooking a finger in the bridge of Xander's rather utilitarian white bra and tugging gently. "Although I'll be having words with whoever took you shopping. I prefer my presents to have quality wrapping jobs."

Xander chuckled, craning his neck so he could see what she was up to. "Actually, that was my decision. I figured you'd want to take me out shopping when you got back and so I only let them buy me the bare minimum. Which I'm sure violates some sort of girl rule - turning down free clothes, I mean - but even with Orla's memories, I'm still not a very good girl."

Dissolving the bra with a yellowish-green pulse of eldritch energy, Amora grinned at him wolfishly. "Does that mean you're a very naughty girl?"

"Not exactly where I was going with that, but… giggity."

"I had snoo-snoo."

"Hush, darling."

"Seriously, we broke the bed in four places." There was a low, long groan as the headboard finally called it quits and collapsed, the remains thankfully tipping over to the side rather than onto where Xander and Amora were lying. His mind raced as he opened his mouth to crack the obligatory joke he thought the situation called for, only to let out a grunt as the mattress dropped the last few inches and hit the floor with a thump. "Err, make that six."

Chuckling, Amora ran her fingers through Xander's hair as she held his head to her chest and holy hell, having nails scraping against his head wasn't supposed to feel that good, was it? Because if that was a standard girl thing, he had to apologize to… Faith was his only living ex, wasn't she? Damn. That was kinda depressing. Not because he had something against Faith, but because he'd dated a bunch of other women an- "So sue me for deciding not to hold back now that I know you can take it. Besides, I suspect that we won't be needing this room - or its bed - too terribly much longer."

Xander nodded as best he could, not wanting to risk dislodging the hand doing such amazing things to his scalp. "I've been worried for a while now about Willow's backslide when it comes to magical morality, but I had responsibilities. Now? I've trained people who can take over anything even remotely essential that I do for the Council, and I'll even be leaving them with some well-trained minions. So yeah, I think it might be time to move on with my life. Before she decides that she 'has' to do something to me that's even weirder than this."

"I don't know. I don't think it's weird at all." Amora gave a faint tug on Xander's hair, making him hiss in a mixture of pain and pleasure, and then rolled them over so she was on top of him. "As a matter of fact, I kind of like it."

Leaning up, Xander pressed a soft kiss to the blonde's lips. "Gee, I never would have guessed."

After staring down at him for a moment, Amora frowned and sat up a bit straighter atop his hips. "Am I supposed to be disgusted by you now, then? Leave you? Is that how you imagined this situation unfolding? Or… perhaps hoped it would?"

Xander forced himself up onto his elbows, blinking owlishly up at Amora. "What? No! I just thought-"

"Darling, we may have the same genders as humans, but I'm not even the same species as you. Why would I care about your gender? Either way, it's still xenophilia." Amora raised one fine blond brow at that, waiting for Xander to shrug in response before continuing. "Besides, one of my best friends before the fall of Asgard was a shapeshifter. I know a thing or two about caring more for the insides than the outsides." Reaching down, she let her fingers play over the soft orangish-red fuzz on the sides of Xander's head; the undercut that Kennedy had talked him into getting seemed to endlessly fascinate the Vanaþegnar. "Although speaking of the outsides… I'd like to think that you hold me in higher esteem than Willow. I'm surprised you didn't ask me if I could fix you."

Leaning into her touch, Xander rubbed the side of his head against her hand. "When? I think I got out a whopping three sentences before my mouth was, uh, otherwise occupied." Amora blew a noisy raspberry at that, making him chuckle. Because he definitely wasn't girly enough to be giggling. Nuh uh. No way. He did find it funny, though, that certain little mannerisms of his had rubbed off on the Vanaþegnar. "Besides, some guys do listen to their girlfriends when they talk. I remember what you told me about the how you measure up to some of the Æsir and Vanir, and how they compare to the Olympians. Willow got Hecate involved in this mess and I'm not going to ask you to go against the Olympians' magical specialist because we both know how it'd end." He shrugged. "Granted I might have a different opinion on things if Willow hadn't mindfucked me into being okay with the situation but… eh. Them's the breaks."

Amora scowled at that, her fingers scratching harshly against Xander's scalp as she curled her fingers into a fist before relaxing them. "Willow neglected to mention that aspect of her little… magical adventure. I believe I'll be having words with her in the near future." Personally, given some of the things she'd told him about her past, Xander felt that was a bit of a 'pot, kettle, black' situation… but it was nice to know someone was looking out for him, so he decided to keep his mouth shut. "Hmm. Are you going to pick a new name to go with your new form? Not that I particularly mind calling this version of you Xander, but I imagine your friends find it unnerving to use your male self's name for this form."

Nodding, Xander put one hand on Amora's hip and pushed gently, coaxing her off onto the bed beside him. "Yeah, Willow winces every time someone calls me Xander. I guess it's hard to forget about your colossal fuck up and move on when people are constantly rubbing it in your face." Leaning to his right, he grabbed a stack of folders off the top of his nightstand. Placing them on the bed beside him, he fanned them out so he could check the names printed on the tabs before selecting one and passing it to Amora. "One of the seers slipped that under my door the day after I woke up like this. I think it's a hint as to where I'm supposed to go from here. Now that I'm a Slayer, I can do pretty much everything she can do and so it wouldn't be hard for me to become a superheroine. Especially once I emotionally blackmail Willow into refreshing my old Halloween soldier memories and transferring a bit of advanced training from the minds of the men on our wetworks teams. And what this has to do with my name is… Alexandra Natashova Bochkareva. Lexi for short. What do you think?"

Amora's brow inched back upward as she leafed through the contents of the folder, looking back and forth between it and Xander. "I suppose I can see it. You turning yourself into a miniature version of Natasha, that is. But isn't taking on a name from her culture just because you want to pattern yourself after her superhero identity a bit of… oh, what was that term Chloe used when she lectured me on how it was wrong for the Asgardians to assume the identities of a pantheon worshipped by Midgard's mortals? Cultural misappropriation?"

"Pfft. Like I care what Captain Social Justice Brigade thinks of me. But I guess you're right; having a Russian name would be kind of weird, especially since I have a Scottish accent at the moment. Hmm." Xander drummed his fingers against the mattress as he thought, inevitably bringing them into contact with the other folders. "It's probably still misappropriation because I'm an American mutt, but maybe Orla's parents could help me pick out a nice Scottish name for myself?"

"Or meet in the middle and combine Alexis with a more traditionally Scottish surname. Establish your Highland bona fides and such." Amora closed the folder that contained all the Council's information on Natasha Romanova and dropped it on the mattress before scooping up the other three files. "And these?"

Xander shrugged. While he had his suspicions based on the parentage of two of them and the skill set of the third, they were just that: suspicions. "Teen Avengers Assemble? Maybe? I mean, they're all roughly the same age as my new body, and two of them are the daughters of existing heroes while the third looks like she can kick some serious ass. Although speaking of the Avengers… you've never hidden your past from me. I know your history with them and with the superhero community as a whole. If I did go through with something like this, would it be a 'my' future or an 'our' future?"

Rather than respond directly, Amora scrunched up her brow in concentration as she mumbled some distinctly non-English words under her breath. Before Xander's eyes, the years began to melt away until the blonde looked like his new body's peer rather than a cradle-robbing cougar. "Of course I'd come with you, darling. Someone's got to keep you out of trouble, and I don't know those girls well enough to trust them with the job." Straightening up a bit, Amora inspected her new form before perking up and offering Xander a grin. "And if I took on a teenage form to match the rest of you, I'd have an excuse to join you in buying new clothes."

"Amora, since when have you ever needed an excuse to buy new clothes?"

"Never, darling, bu-"

"Xander, have you seen… eep!" Despite having walked in on similarly awkward situations numerous times in the past, Willow evidently still hadn't learned to knock before she entered. The redhead stood in the doorway, jaw working soundless as she stared at the naked pair of girls and their destroyed bed. "Ohmigoddess! I'm so sorry, I didn't thi-"

His girlfriend would probably smack him for it later… but Xander knew exactly how he had to respond to the situation at hand, lest he get his geek card taken away. "Close the door! You're letting all the stank out!"