6 am

"You didn't have to stay," Buffy said. Xander just gave her a look in
reply. Buffy laughed, "Okay, dumb thing to say," she admitted, taking
his hand. They walked for a few minutes in silence, and Buffy sensed
Xander looking over at her occasionally. She smiled after a few
times, and looked at him, saying, "If you've got something you want
to say, say it."

"I was just thinking this was far from the perfect evening I had
planned," Xander said.

"It was fine," Buffy replied, squeezing his hand. She stopped walking
and turned to face him, adding, "It was, in fact, pretty perfect,
because I spent it with you." She smiled wider when his face lit up
in response. "We really need to work on your self-confidence skills,"
she said.

"It will take a while for everything to sink in," Xander replied.
They were near a park bench, and he asked, "You wanna sit for a few
minutes?"

"The sun will be up soon," Buffy said. "It's been forever since I've
watched a sunrise."

"We could do that," Xander suggested. Buffy nodded, and they sat side-
by-side on the table, hands still linked.

Again, she sensed him looking at her, then looking away, repeatedly.
She finally caught him in the act, and he smiled self-consciously,
looking away. He looked back at her though, and there was a moment
when Buffy forgot how to breathe. She reminded herself it was
necessary however, and managed to take a deep breath. She continued
to meet his gaze, and vaguely realized that he'd dropped her hand to
put his arm around her waist, pulling her closer. His head also moved
closer to hers, and it seemed that it took forever. But finally he
kissed her. It was soft and tender, and all too fast as far as Buffy
was concerned. He pulled away and leaned his forehead against hers,
looking into her eyes.

Buffy could see the uncertainty in his expression, and she smiled at
him. "Not bad," she said. "But I know you can do better than that."

Xander grinned, "Is that a challenge?" Before Buffy could reply, his
lips descended on hers, and this was far different from their first
kiss. This was a passionate kiss which told her the depth of emotion
he felt for her far better than any words. His tongue brushed against
her lips requesting entrance, and she granted it. She shivered with
pleasure at the feelings he was invoking with that kiss, and smiled
as he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tighter. She had to
break the kiss first, and explained, "Gotta breathe," gasping for
breath.

Xander smiled at her, and said, "You were saying???" with a wink.

"What?" she looked at him innocently. "All I said was you could do
better, and I was right." She realized then that she'd somehow ended
up sitting sideways across his lap, and frowned. "Now how did that
happen?" she wondered.

"Not sure," Xander replied with a shrug. "I think it's a good place
for you to be, though," he added, wrapping his arms tighter around
her waist.

"No argument from me," Buffy said. She laid her head on his shoulder
and wrapped her arms around his waist, sighing contentedly. "And
there's the sunrise. Yeah, Xan, I'd say this was a perfect evening."