Cordelia took another slug of Jack Daniels. "I need help getting undressed."
"We'll start with your lower half since you're already halfway there," Xander said kneeling by her feet and slowly removing the laces from her shoes.
"What are you doing?" Cordelia asked.
"Removing shoes normally requires some pulling," he told her keeping his eyes on his work. "There will be a lot less pain if we unlace your shoes completely so they'll slip off."
"Thank you," she said as Xander gently removed her shoes and socks. She tried to ignore the little shiver that went through her as the kneeling man pulled off her panties. "Be a lot more fun if my leg didn't hurt and you could keep your dick out of redheads," she muttered.
"Yes it would," Xander agreed. "How does the leg feel now?"
"Much too real," Cordelia replied. "The rest of me feels much more comfortably numb. Can you keep your dick out of any redheads we meet?"
"I believe I can control myself for the moment," Xander promised helping her get her shirt off, a task made more difficult by her refusal to set down the Jack Daniels bottle.
"Good, now reach around and release the twins," she ordered, leaning forward.
Xander was almost straddling her so he could reach around and unhook her bra and slip it off.
"Ahh," Cordelia moaned in relief. Holding up her breasts with her left arm she ordered, "Scratch!"
Xander quickly scratched her sides and the undersides of her breasts. "Better?" he asked.
"Much," she replied.
He checked the tub and adjusted the water.
"Were her breasts better than mine?" Cordelia asked, breaking the silence.
"Different not better," he replied after a moment's thought.
"Tell me," she half asked, half ordered.
"Nipples were a lot pinker and they were probably more responsive, but definitely a couple of sizes smaller," he told her, shutting off the water in the tub.
"Was her ass better than mine?" Cordelia asked.
"Not remotely," Xander assured her.
"Was she tighter, smelled better, taste better, what?" Cordelia demanded.
"No, no, and a little bit sweeter because you drink diet soda, but it was never about the physical side of things, not really."
"Was she a better person than me?" Cordelia asked quietly.
"At one time, I'd have said yes, but after you started risking your life to help others that changed. You changed, so no; Willow is not a better person than you."
"And she has smaller breasts and her ass isn't half as nice!"
"Exactly," Xander agreed.
"So… why?"
"Because we were all we had for a damn long time, I have a hard time refusing her anything and…a shit ton of hormones," he said bluntly.
"Normally you'd play doctor and get it out of your system long before now," Cordelia said.
"Yeah, well…Willow never got the memo, so instead I learned how to preform emergency medical procedures as a preteen."
"Are you sorry you fucked her?" Cordelia asked bluntly.
"Sorry we got caught and that we didn't get enough practice for her teeth not to scrape," Xander replied honestly. "Do you want to try and stand with my help or should I just pick you up and set you in the tub?"
"Standing is not an option," Cordelia said seriously.
Xander picked her up bridal style and she hissed slightly as her leg was jostled setting her in the tub.
"Hot, hot, hot!" Cordelia groaned.
"Which will improve blood flow," he assured her.
"Distract me," Cordelia ordered.
"How?"
"I don't care, I just need a couple of minute's distraction while I get used to this," she groaned.
"Ok, I unplugged the soda machine outside and it still worked," Xander told her. "I also grabbed a hot plate and it also works without being plugged in."
"Did you get a soda?" she asked as she began to wash up.
"I got a grape soda," he admitted.
Cordelia grinned. "You pushed root beer didn't you?"
"Yeah," he admitted after a minute.
"Well at least we can get cold soda," she said, trying not to laugh.
"With the exception of root beer, unless I wheel you out there to push the button."
"Don't you even think it!"
"I'm not," Xander said, obviously lying for comedic value.
"Did Giles ever figure out why you always get grape soda when you push root beer?" she asked.
"He said it had something to do with chaos magic and was probably a mark of favor from Janus," Xander replied.
"The Halloween spell thing?" she asked.
"Janus the god of chaos and portals," Xander agreed. "Naturally his mark of favor upon my brow is to make it harder for me to get my favorite soda."
"Praise be to Janus for granting me minor vengeance upon you for favoring a taste other than my own," Cordelia intoned mock gravely, before finishing the bottle of Jack.
"Are you comparing you and Willow to soda?" Xander asked.
"Probably," Cordelia replied handing him the empty bottle. "My leg no longer feels like it's trying to kill me and I have a slight buzz going, so I'm not really paying attention, but just so you know, I'm grape!"
"Spend much longer in the bath and you'll be a raisin," he warned.
"Then help me out, doofus!"
Xander reached into the tub and pulled the plug to let the water drain, while Cordelia rinsed off the last of the bubbles.
"You have lousy aim."
"I didn't touch anything I wasn't supposed to," he defended himself.
"I need a two by four and a black marker," Cordelia muttered.
Drying her off and carrying her back to bed was a bit awkward as they tried not to jostle her injured leg, but they managed to get it done without causing her too much pain.
"My leg feels a lot better," Cordelia told him.
"We'll see if you say that tomorrow while you're dealing with a hangover," Xander told her.
"Get me something to drink with no caffeine and a couple more Midol and I won't have a hangover," she told him. "Hangovers are caused by dehydration."
"It'll have to be water for now," Xander told her.
"That's fine," she told him. "Xander?" she called out to him when he went to get her water and Midol.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for being honest."
"No problem."
*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*
Xander woke up early, the nest of blankets and pillows surprisingly comfortable to sleep in, certainly more comfortable than his bed at home, which had lost most of its spring.
Digging through the stuff he'd brought in he found what he needed to wash up and shave, while he started the water heating for coco. It didn't take long at all for him to be ready to face the day, drinking a mug of coco, but Cordelia was still asleep and he didn't want to wake her or have her wake up and find him gone, so he'd need something to do indoors. A handful of tools and the spare hotplate he grabbed off the cart and he was in business. Prying it open he looked inside and just stared.
It was practically empty. All the electronics and wires were missing, even the cord that hung off it was cut short and didn't connect to anything. All that was inside was a couple of thin layers of stone with something carved in them. Xander turned the knob on the side watching as a set of symbols lined up with another set and felt it slowly heat up. He quickly turned it off and then back on a few times just to check.
As he carefully copied them down he realized what they were, they were some form of Nordic runes and as he copied down the last one the paper combusted so he quickly stuffed it in his half full mug of coco. "Don't speak Latin in front of the books, don't write out full lines of runes, check," Xander said shaking his head. "Well at least it's not aliens…probably."
Typing by: The Last Primarch!