-'Eye of the Beholder.'-

Pairings: a little angst for right now, something more substantial later.

A/N: This is the continuation of Enter Sandman and Sad But True. Xander must remember that spells don't work exactly right on him, where before they were annoying, now could be catastrophic.

A/N 2: God knows you can't write more unless you get reviews.

Disclaimers: I don't own anything relating to Buffy, Angel, or Metallica.

Timeframe: S2 AU "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered."

Dedicated to the ones you can't save, and to the ones you can.

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Xander made up his mind. Willow was happy with Oz, so he could be happy for her. Buffy was not in any place to be in any kind of relationship, besides, although he felt the familiar heartstrings for her, he knew that she would never feel the same way about him. Cordelia actually returned those same feelings for him. He wasn't exactly sure how their relationship started, or how it would finish, but he genuinely cared for her. He could, maybe, actually love her. He smiled as he walked through the graveyard with Buffy. He enjoyed the company, and he needed to make sure that he could protect the blonde slayer. Besides, he needed her opinion.

Xander held up the necklace. "So, what do you think?"

Buffy sat on a gravestone and took it from him, admiring it. "It's nice."

Xander walked around the freshly dug grave and approached her. "But do you think Cordelia will like it?"

Buffy shook her head. "I don't know."

She pulled it toward herself to take a closer look and pointed to the heart. "Does she know what one of these is?"

He yanked it out of her hand and put it and his hands into his jacket pockets. He gave her a sarcastic smile. "Okay, ha ha, very funny. I'll let you know that underneath all of that angry, sarcastic, feminine, sexy...

Buffy rolled her eyes and slapped him upside the head.

*Thwack*

"OW! When are you guys gonna stop hitting me there?" he rubbed the back of his head gingerly. "I swear I'm gonna have a bald spot within a week at this rate."

Buffy smiled sweetly at Xander. "I'm sorry. But...hmmm, never." Xander smiled and shook his head while Buffy continued. "It's just with Cordelia, I dunno. I just think you could find somebody more...better."

Xander gave a small chuckle. "Uh, parallel universe, maybe."

Buffy looked over her shoulder as a lone vampire bum-rushed the duo. She threw her stake and dusted him about twelve feet away.

Xander exhaled and continued, "Man, that was anti-climactic."

Buffy smiled a little too hard before continuing. "I'm glad that you guys are getting along. Almost really, kinda, sorta. But don't stress over the gift, its perfect, if she wont take it, she's crazy...er"

Xander smiled and looked up at the sky. "Well, this is new territory for me. I mean, my Valentines Day is usually met with heartfelt restraining orders, police citations, and/or," Xander pointed to the back of his head, "getting hit."

Buffy shook her head. "Well you shouldn't worry about the locket, she'll love it."

Xander walked to the other side of the grave as the dirt on the grave began to move. "I wish dating was like slaying you know, simple, direct, stake to the heart, no muss, no fuss."

He turned to face her again just as a vampire rose from the fresh grave. Xander reacted quickly and took a stake out, leaving his pistol in the back of his pants, where Buffy can't see it. Buffy jumped down from the tombstone and stood back as the newly risen vampire clawed her way out of the grave. Xander looked at Buffy, "May I?" Buffy shook her head, "Nah, I need to work off some steam tonight."

Buffy leapt at the vampire spinning into a double kick to his chest with both feet in rapid succession and landed upright as the vampire staggered back into another tombstone. Buffy charged him, but he blocked her first two punches and ducked a third swing. She switched tactics and kicked him in the testicles and followed up with a right uppercut, knocking the vamp down for the count. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a stake, and quickly plunged it into his chest, turning the vamp into a cloud of dust

Buffy yanked the stake back and watched with satisfaction as the ash fell to the ground. She walked over to Xander who shuddered. "Did you have to go for the nads? I mean I'm standing right here. You shouldn't do that infront of guys, it's just not right."

Buffy placed a stray hair back into place. "Sorry to say, Xand, slaying is a tad more perilous than dating."

They started to walk out of the cemetery.

Xander smirked. "Well, you're obviously not dating Cordelia."

He then stopped and smiled, "Oh, but if you were."

*Thwack*

"Ow! Come on, is EVERYONE allowed to hit me?"

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Xander sat in the back of American Literature. He smiled as Willow and Buffy sat next to him. He held up his paper and leaned over to Willow. "Ha, ha, ha. This time I'm ready for you Ms Beakman. No 'F' for Xander today. No way, this baby's my ticket to a sweet D-minus."

The girls rolled their eyes. Xander didn't mind being a goofball. Before, it was a defense mechanism, now it was more of misdirection, who would ever take 'idiot Jed' seriously? Ms. Beakman stood up to address the class. "Papers on my desk. Anybody tries to leave without giving me a paper is looking at a failing grade. So come on kids."

Xander smiled as he stood with his paper in his hands. He actually spent a decent amount of time on his paper on 'On the Road' by Kerouac. He worked hard on it, and between the slaying and his other late night activities, it took up most of the rest of his time. Everyone in class got in a line to turn in their papers. Willow stepped down the aisle and stopped next to Amy.

"Hey, Amy."

Amy smiled as she pulled on her backpack. "Are you guys going to the Valentine's Day dance at the Bronze? I think it's gonna be a lot of fun."

Willow turned to Buffy with a huge smile on her face. Buffy smiled and patted her shoulder. "Go ahead. You know you wanna say it."

Willow turned to face Amy again, grinning broadly. "My boyfriend's in the band!"

Amy smiled and laughed. "Cool."

Xander leaned in and nudged Willow from behind Amy. "That's about it Will, I think you've now told everybody."

Willow pulled her backpack up and grinned. "Nah, I still have to hit Europe and Indonesia."

Amy turned to Buffy. "What about you?"

Buffy waved her off. "Oh, Valentine's Day is just a cheap gimmick to sell cards and chocolate."

Amy shook her head. "Bad breakup, huh?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't believe it."

Finally, They stood infront of the teacher's desk, Buffy turned in her paper.

Mrs. Beakman took the paper. "Thank you."

Buffy headed out of the room as Willow held up her paper as well.

Mrs. Beakman smiled at Willow. "Thank you."

Willow followed Buffy out. Amy stood in front of Mrs. Beakman and stared her down. Xander stood behind Amy and slowly lost his smile. Mrs. Beakman smiled at Amy and took an invisible paper from her.

Mrs. Beakman smiled blankly. "Thank you, Amy."

Amy smiled and started out of the classroom. Xander walked up to the desk staring open-mouthed and handed his paper in also. "Um, Mrs. Beakman?"

The teacher didn't even look up. "There's no extra credit Xander."

Xander shook his head and walked out of class. "Never mind."

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Xander stood inside the Bronze. There had been a lot going on in his life lately. He wanted to be sure that he was doing the right thing. He was scared. Having someone that actually reciprocated and valued his feelings was nice. It made him feel good. It made him feel worth something. He looked up and saw Cordelia sitting at a table alone. He smiled. 'She looks beautiful.' He got up the courage and walked over to her.

Cordelia looked up to see Xander start to walk over and stood up to meet him. 'It's okay girl. You _need_ to do this.'

Xander smiled widely. "Hey."

Cordelia looked him up and down. "Your clothes... You look so good." 'Why did he have to make it so hard?'

Xander looked down at himself. "Oh. I let Buffy and Mrs. Summers dress me." Cordelia gave him a rather odd look. "What? Oh, not physically, but they showed me what to wear."

Cordelia muttered under her breath. "Perfect. You had to make this harder, didn't you?"

Xander took a step back. "Okay, clearly the fact that I please you visually has got us off on the wrong foot here."

Cordelia took his hand. "Xander..."

Xander stopped her with a gesture. "Let me finish. I've been thinking a lot about us lately... the why and the wherefore. There's been a lot going on lately with me and with everyone else, but also with us. I mean between us. You know, once, twice, a kiss here, a kiss there. And you can chalk it all up to hormones. A-and maybe that's all we have here. Tawdry teen lust, but maybe not. Maybe something in you sees something special inside me. And vice versa. I mean, I think I do. See something. So..."

He pulled out the jewelry box and handed it to her. She took it and looked up at him.

Cordelia tried to hold back her tears. "Xander..." she opened the box, "Thank you." She held up the necklace and pendant. "It's beautiful."

Xander grinned. "I knew you'd love it."

Cordelia exhaled. "I wanna break up."

Xander's face fell. "Huh?"

Cordelia shook her head. "I know. I'm sorry. It's just... Who are we kidding?" Xander looked down at the necklace. "Even if parts of us do see specialness, we don't fit."

Xander felt the shiver in the back of his mind and looked up suddenly. "Yeah! Okay... Do you know what's a good day to break up with somebody? Any day besides Valentine's Day! I mean, what, were you running low on dramatic irony?"

Cordelia looked at him apologetically. "I know. I didn't mean to do it this way. I..."

Xander did his best to hold it back. "Do you know how long I had to save up for this? How hard I worked? Between the slaying and the whole thing with Angel, and the sleepless nights and everything else. God, I _wanted_ you. I wanted you to like me. I thought you might actually fucking care for me. YOU care for ME. I can't believe that I actually believed someone would fucking think that I was anything else than a little dishrag for their emotions"

Cordelia bit her lip, she would not cry, not infront of him, not now. "Xander, I didn't..."

Xander felt the shiver over come him and interrupted her. "Well, you did."

Cordelia closed her eyes and tried to compose herself, when she opened them, he was gone.