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Chapter Twelve

Xander is sitting on his bed staring at his phone when suddenly it rings and he moves backwards so quickly he falls off the other side of the bed.

"Ugh, I'm ok." He says with a groan.

He limps over and answers the still ringing phone.

"House of pain, Xander speaking."

"Hey Xand." Says Faith from the other end of the line. "I was instructed to call and invite the troops over for lunch. Buffy's cooking."

Xander cringed at the thought.

"So… I should bring food?"

"Well, I really think somebody should." Said Faith with a laugh. "But then again Kenn probably has that covered. You could bring over some ice cream though, a little dessert never hurt anybody right?"

Xander thought for a moment.

"Faith?"

"Yeah?"

"You just wriggled your eyebrows then didn't you?"

"Yeah." The brunette replied with another laugh. "Good luck with the girl Xand! Later."

"Hey, Faith wait.."

"Xand, come on, you know I've gotta supervise a certain blonde that's loose in the kitchen."

"Oh God yes, but just a quick question, am I supposed to call her first or just show up at the shop?"

"Call first, set a date, go to the shop to buy some ice cream then idly drop into the conversation that the ice cream was really just an excuse so you could once again see her beautiful eyes." Faith said before adding. "Chicks dig that." With a smile.

"Thanks Faith."

"Anytime."

Xander hung up the phone, found the number Buffy had given him and then… continued to stare at the phone.

--

Buffy and Faith's

Faith was sitting on her bed reading a comic while keeping an eye on the blonde that was busily rushing around their small kitchenette.

"You ok there B?" Faith asked with her usual raised eyebrow.
"Uh huh." The busy blonde replied.

Faith dropped her comic and wandered over to the blonde wrapping her arms around her and giving her a kiss on the forehead.

"Don't worry so much about the food, it's just us remember? No big deal." The brunette said with a smile.

Buffy nodded without meeting Faith's eyes and went back to her shuffling around.

--

Kennedy's room.

Kennedy and Willow were crashed out on Kennedy's bed together happily watching a comedy.

"Hey Will?"

"Uh huh?"

"Does Buffy actually… you know, know how to cook?"

"Umm, not really."

"But she's making lunch for us today."

"Yeah."

"Should I get the oven heated?"

"Probably."

With that the two get up and walk over to Kenn's own little kitchen.

"Although," the redhead added with a thoughtful look, "We should probably make an entrée type thing so she doesn't get offended. Then we could say that we felt bad just letting her do all the work." Willow said with an excited smile.

"That's my girl." Kenn said with a smile of her own. "So I'm guessing we're gonna have this lunch at Buffy and Faith's?"

"Guess so." The redhead replied without a second thought.

"What a great way to start the month." Kennedy added offhandedly.

Suddenly the redhead's eyes widened and she ran over to the small calendar by Kennedy's bed.

"Uh oh."

"What? Willow, is everything ok?" Kennedy asked with a slight frown.

"Uh…" The redhead held the calendar that just told her it was exactly a month that they had been in college.

She vaguely remembered making a promise along with Buffy and Xander that all three of them will be having lunch exactly a month after starting college… with Buffy's mom and sister.

"She can't be serious."

"Who? Who can't be serious about what? Babe, I'm getting a little worried here."

Willow looked worriedly at Kennedy and their eyes met.

"How's Faith with meeting the parents?"

--

At the Summer's house.

Joyce was preparing apple pies for dessert with the help of her younger daughter, happy that her eldest daughter and her two best friends were finally coming over to have lunch.

Joyce smiled peacefully.

"You ok there mom?" Dawn asked with a smile.

"Just, you know looking forward to lunch." Joyce replied still beaming as she packed a fourth pie with apples.

"Uh, mom? Why are we making so many pies? You're not planning on marketing them are you? As good as they are…"

"We're having guests over Dawn." Joyce replied nonchalantly.

"Yeah, Buffy, Willow and Xander." The teenager replied. "Are we getting a whole pie each?"

At Dawn's raised eyebrow Joyce gave an exasperated sigh.

"Alright, I was going to keep this as a surprise but I invited a few more for lunch."

"You did what? I mean… who?" Dawn asked trying to keep the mask of worry off her face.

She was very close with Buffy and both her sisters best friends who she considered siblings of her own so she naturally knew about Faith and Kennedy, although she hadn't met either.

Joyce didn't notice the change in her daughters voice and quickly informed her of who the three mystery guests were going to be.

"Well as I say, I did really want this to be a surprise but since we're family…"

Dawn rolled her eyes at her oddly excited mother.

"I've invited Angel, Oz and Cordelia over."

"Oh God." Said Dawn but her statement was ignored by Joyce who seemed to be in a world of her own.

"I know that none of them actually went out with Buffy, Willow or Xander but I always felt something could definitely happen with those three don't you think?"

"Something's gonna happen alright… although to who, I don't know." Dawn said thoughtfully before adding. "Well I think I'm going to go make a phone call."

She tried to walk off but was stopped by Joyce's hand on her arm.

"Oh no you don't! I want this to be a surprise. If you breathe a word of this to Buffy, Xander or Willow then you're grounded for a month."

"Wow mom when you shoot cupid's arrows you really go for the pain." Dawn said under her breath.

"This is going to be so exciting!"

"In the violent, death and dying kind of way?"

"Dawn I really think you should cut down on those action and horror movies you like so much."

The youngest Summers sat at the kitchen bench suddenly very worried about how lunch was going to turn out.

Her mother was right, although there was no official dating going on between the planned guests, there was always some weird tension between them all.

Besides, for the Angel, Oz and Cordelia to all agree to have lunch with the family was all a bit odd if they really weren't interested.

They couldn't possibly all be doing it out of respect and politeness to Joyce.

Dawn laughed at the thought. Angel and Oz maybe but Cordelia doing anything she didn't already want to out of politeness?

'I think not.' Dawn said to herself.

--

Xander's house.

Xander was still sitting next to his phone although now he was surrounded in comic books, random packages of half eaten, open and closed food packets and a bunch of Dvd's.

He turned off the t.v, now pretty seriously frustrated at himself and dug under all the food packets to find Anya's number.

He dialed the number oh-so-slowly and then hung up before he could punch the second to last digit in.

'Oh God, get a grip!' he told himself. He cleared his throat and dialed again and this time only hung up before the very last digit.

He did some deep breathing exercises like the people in the movies did when they attended Lamaze classes.

'Ok this is it.' He said before dialing the number completely and listening to the ringing.

"Hello?" a female voice said.

"Hi umm…" Xander began before he was interrupted.

"You've reached Anya's answering machine! I like leaving the 'hello' part like that it confuses people and I find it very amusing! Leave a message after the tone…"

Xander threw the phone on his bed.

"Oh my God!" he said loudly. "All I want is one date with Anya! Just the one, just lunch, today maybe with my friends is that too much to ask?!"

"Hello?" someone said with a voice that was suspiciously like Anya's.

Xander quickly shut up and looked around his room.

He suddenly realised that he left the phone on his bed without hanging up. He brought it closer to his ear and gulped.

"Hi?" he said into the receiver.

"Hi." An amused voice answered.

"Hear all that did you?" Xander asked sheepishly.

"Well you were speaking kind of overly loudly." Anya said matter of factly. "So, lunch was it?"

Xander raised his eyebrows in surprise and grinned.

"Umm, yeah, that would be great."

"Pick me up at the shop?"

"Sure!"

"Great."

"Perfect."

"Absolutely."

"One of us should really hang up now." Anya mused aloud.

"Right." Xander agreed stoically.

"I'll see you soon." Anya said with a giggle before hanging up.

Xander fell back onto his bed, phone still in hand.

"Well, I think that went well." He said to his room.

--

A/N - hope you guys like, dont forget to review!!