Chapter Thirty-Eight
The time with the futures
A/N Just a little chapter for the memory I mentioned in WWS S7E11.5, Xander and Willow are twelve discussing their futures. Thought it'd be nice to add a little Xander and Willow moment when they were young, coz I'm so sad there were no flashbacks to that in the show.
Sunnydale, the world without shrimp 1993
Ok, alright, so once I was at Xander's and we were talking about what we wanted our lives to look like, we were about twelve so it was a little overachieving, you know. Well, he was talking about his wife, back then he wasn't so thinky about all that. And it was the word. Wife, I just liked it. More than husband, I still do.
There were sitting around in Xander's comic poster walled bedroom, in footy pyjamas and on beanbags that were far too big for them. Between them was a bowl of popcorn and two cans of soda they shouldn't drinking or they'd be up all night, but little did either of them care. They were pre-teenager, they needed something for the pain of imminent puberty. Xander's mom would only let Willow stay over because she always had done, no other girls for fear Xander'd start having the sex. Far too early, he was only twelve, something he heavily stressed to her, but it wasn't like she stopped arguing with his dad for long enough to listen. He wished most days, they'd just get divorced, but both of them were far too stubborn for that.
They had been watching tv, out of lack of energy and much else to do. One minute Willow looked up at him, with one of her gingered, long eyed glances to capture his whole face in her eyeline. She was on a major crush alert, not that she noticed much but he was everything. Now, she treated him much like a girl at this point for lack of best friend to share girly stuff with, which prompted her to ask...
"So Xander, what do you think of when you see your future?" Internally cursing herself but really curious about his answer. He shuffled around for a while, thinking of his parents eternal unhappiness. Willow sat silently beside him, her brain racking for what her answer would be, she couldn't exactly go on and on about how she'd been planing their wedding could she? But if she could, it would be outside, with flowers and trees and her parents might actually take notice of her for more than two seconds because she's wearing the best dress in the room. Oh how she'd spend hours and hours fantasising about her wedding to Xander, one of her favourite hobbies as of late, but it kept her occupied in long classes she already knew the syllabus to.
"Um, I don't know Will, I don't really think about stuff like that. But I guess I want the usual. Good job, attractive wife, probably blonde, kid or two. You know normal stuff." He looked at his best friend then, who had the most bemused smirk on her face, despite the comment about the blonde. He suspected she was just coming up with her own fantasy about a mansion and a huge library. "Maybe I could be a spy or something, totally James Bond, yes I am 007, here to shoot you." Xander laughed to himself before realising Willow still hadn't replied. He'd look super awesome dressed as James Bond, all suited up and tuxy, oh my god what if one day we go to prom together, maybe just as friends, or maybe not and we dance and he's wearing a suit and-
What was really going on inside Willow's head was - hmm, his wife. Wife. Somehow I've never heard it like that before. "So Rosenberg how's you and the missus", she imagined her fake future boss would tell her, if she was a man that is. Somehow pretending she was a man helped sometimes, made the future seem less scary and more palpable. Unless of course it was Xander she was thinking about, he was her perfect image of a husband, and their wedding ran through her head smoothly as always. Willow, STOP! Stop thinking about male-version of you, and the you that Xander likes as more than a friend, and come up with a real-life fantasy quick before he asks you. Now!
And as if on cue: "what about you Will, I mean you must wanna be rich and famous with a quadrillion books or something. Personal robot butler." In truth she really didn't know what she wanted, other than a shot with her best friend. Maybe one day she'd have anything she wanted, like a huge house and a husband probably. Even though the word felt weird in her head, she much preferred boyfriend, or fiance. Not husband, it seemed singular, too male, too definite. Ooo, did he say robot butler?
"Ok, a robot butler would be seriously cool, I could program him to do all sorts of things, like juggling." Willow chuckled as her mind went to a much safer robot space, mainly to avoid thinking about Xander and that whole weird wife thing. The evening continued on, much as most of theirs did at this age. Willow would continue coming over for sleepovers right into their teens because she was kinda treated like Xander's guy best friend along with Jesse, and Willow did kinda enjoy hanging out with the guys, she understood when they talked about girls being hot, she could see it. Tell if women were attractive, and her blinding crush on Xander kept her coming round just for the odd glance he'd give her, or the touch of their digits that sometimes she'd count as him seeing her more than just one of the guys.