~**~
-11-
~**~
Willow was surprised when Buffy wandered out to the kitchen while
she was bustling around fixing her breakfast. Okay, she was just toasting a
Pop-tart and brewing coffee, nothing fancy here, but the point being, it was
far earlier than she'd expected either of her friends to emerge from what Rupe
had laughingly referred to this morning as 'the den of sin.' "You're up early,"
she commented to the rumpled Slayer, who was swallowed up in one of Xander's
shirts, worn with the jeans she'd probably had on earlier yesterday.
Buffy yawned. "Had to call in unavailable to the temp office
today," and off Willow's withering look, "What?" She thought for a moment. "I
know you've figured out what happened between me and Xander, and…"
"It isn't the knowledge that's disturbing, it was the guided
mental tour thorough his exploration of your body that was unnerving."
All the sleepiness left Buffy's expression. "Huh? I thought when
we were touching, two people could block the other two out. Maybe we were
touching too much, maybe it doesn't include…"
Willow interrupted again. "I couldn't hear your thoughts." Buffy
lifted an eyebrow, and Willow turned her attention back to the toaster. "Never
figured you for a screamer, Buff."
"Oh," came the humbled reply. "Sorry. Giles?"
"Missed the sound effects, but got the visual. You should also
learn to lock the door, hon." Willow figured she'd probably exacted sufficient
guilt from the situation, and turned to her best friend with a smile on her
face. "So, tell me about it," she grinned, pulling out a chair and motioning
across the table for Buffy to sit, reaching for her hand as she did.
~**~
Xander stumbled out of the bathroom and directly into someone.
"Ooops, s'cuse me," he looked up, "G-man." His roommate was giving him a grim
glare, and he answered it with a lopsided grin. "Sorry about last night. You
arrange things so you could sleep in the girls' room with Wills?"
"Sofa," the Englishman bit out. "Xander…"
"I know, I know. Painfully inconsiderate of me, should have warned
you, should have…"
"Locked the door?"
The younger man's eyes were wide. "You didn't. Oh, man, you did.
Did you come in when, uh, see, uh, were we…"
"Only the aftermath, thank God. Still, that is my room, too, you
know. My bed, as well as yours, damn it, Xander." Giles was glowering, and
Xander knew if he studied the other man's colors right now, there would be lots
of visible red. "I need to shave, now, if you'd just excuse me." He tried to
push by, but Xander grabbed his arm, and the tension flowed off of Rupert Giles
in waves, washing away. The two eyed each other in surprise.
"Good God, Giles. I didn't realize – you went all night without
the physical recharge. No wonder you were so wound up."
Far more relaxed now, Giles nodded. "I suppose you're right. Sorry
– I didn't know. But Willow – I spoke with her briefly this morning, and she
seemed her usually cheery self – why wasn't she?"
"She and Buffy see each other a lot more during the day, most of
the time. She's more likely to hug or touch you or me easily. You tend to pull
away more. She had a backlog, you didn't."
"Oh, my. I knew it was important we keep in contact, but I hadn't
realized what not doing so could cause." He frowned at Xander, although not so
angrily this time. "You realize that this merely makes your little indiscretion
with Buffy more awkward?"
"G-man, this was no 'little indiscretion,' by any means. This was
a major commitment, hopefully for the rest of my life, if I can talk her into
it. I never intended a one-night stand."
"Well, could we work out sign, like the fellows in the dorms at
Oxford? When one roommate planned to have a girl in the room, he'd place a
necktie on the doorknob."
They were still holding onto one another. Xander raised an
eyebrow. "First off, I don't own a tie that doesn't clip on. But I can solve
that – just paint one on the damn door, 'cause I don't intend to let her go,
ever again."
~**~
Xander led Giles into the kitchen, the older man complaining all
the way. "You didn't need to stay in the bathroom with me while I shaved, for
heaven's sake."
"No deal, G-man. You were in trouble, and I was there to help."
Buffy jumped up from the table, managing to hug Giles in a
friendly way and Xander in an intimate way, both at the same time. "Hey –
what's wrong?"
"The G-man here was suffering from tactile deprivation. In other
words, our evening activities left him with no one to touch overnight, and he
was spazzing over it this morning." Xander gave Willow a probing look.
"I was not, as you so elegantly put it, spazzing, Xander. I was a
bit tense, that's all."
"Well, unless you manage to get enough touching in with the rest
of us during the day, you're gonna need to sleep with one of us at night. I
don't like the way you do tense. Now, I don't know about Buffy, but threesomes
do nothing for me. So I was thinking, Will, would you mind swapping roommates
with me?"
Buffy, tucked under Xander's free arm, lit up happily. "Yeah, for
the good of the Unity."
"Excuse me," Giles asked with some irritation, "Do we have
anything to say about this?"
"Nope," Buffy and Xander answered together.
"Well, since you asked so nicely," Willow said wryly. Turning to
the older man, she offered, "I don't snore, and I promise I won't paw at you
any more than Xander did. And I won't embarrass you by telling anyone where you
spend the night, and I will *never* say we're 'sleeping together.'" Inside, she
felt like she'd just signed the death warrant for any hope of a relationship
with Rupe, but she didn't want to see him uncomfortable, so stealing a page
from Xander's book, she poked fun at the deal.
"W-w-well," Giles stuttered, something he rarely did anymore, "I
don't want to inconvenience you." He pulled away from the couple, sitting down
at the table beside the other girl and touching her arm. "Perhaps we could work
something else out."
Willow shook her head. "I felt a little funny this morning,
myself, after spending the night alone. Let's face it, we're forced into
co-dependency by Unity, and they aren't going to be much help anymore." She
nodded toward the other couple, who were wrapped around each other, staring
into one another's eyes and probably carrying on a mental conversation at the
moment.
*You know,* he said inside her head, *It's just like the Body and
the Heart to act on impulse. It's like the left brain/right brain dichotomy.
Spirit and Intellect are more measured, more cautious and thoughtful.*
*So maybe we're thinking?* she asked, only half joking.
*Or maybe we should be,* he responded seriously.
For some reason, even the hint that he might feel the same way
about her overwhelmed her, and Willow jumped up from the table, pulling away.
"I'm gonna be late for class," she babbled, racing out of the room.
Giles looked after her, disappointment written clearly on his
face.
Xander, usually the first to pick up on such things, was obviously
focusing on something else, as he started back to the bedroom after Buffy.
"Hey, G-man," he called back, "Ask Amy to tell anyone who calls for me that I'm
gonna be indisposed today. I'll come by the shop later to get my messages."
*Sure,* the Watcher thought. *I'm glad to see things are working
out for one of us, anyway.*
~**~
"Two of them seem to be staying home today," Travers informed
Andrea, sipping his tea. "Can they be sick?"
He could see his associate riffling through her mental files. "I
don't think they can," she answered thoughtfully. "Although, if they went
without the contact long enough, all bets are off." At his confused look, She
explained. "We've gone over this before, haven't we? Unity is like a home base,
or a petrol station. They draw their strength from her – from each other,
basically. They have to stay interconnected, or it's like a car running out of
petrol – they have no fuel to go on."
"Would taking just one away weaken all the others?"
"Not as individuals, no. Not as long as the others are still
touching regularly. They couldn't form Unity if one died; the others probably
wouldn't continue to live at all. But distance doesn't affect Unity coming
together, and once they did, the one who'd gone without contact would be
refreshed again. The one separated would be the only one affected by simply
taking away a single Part, however."
"Oh. I was rather hoping it might be an alternative to killing one
of them. Oh, well." He took another sip. "If they were kept apart long enough,
would the separated one die?"
"That's one of the things I can't predict. Possibly. But they
might join as Unity before that happened anyway, negating the entire exercise."
Andrea couldn't believe she was taking people's lives so casually, but she was
well trained.
Quentin could have been discussing the weather, for all he seemed
to care. "We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose. She's been quiet lately.
Maybe we won't have to worry."
*We can only hope,* Andrea prayed fervently
~**~.
"You do realize that eventually, one or both of us will have to go
back to work?" Xander was leaning back on the headboard against his propped up
pillow, Buffy's head resting on his chest.
"You mean, you don't think Giles will support us while we boff
like bunnies on a daily basis?" She grinned saucily, and he kissed her nose.
"What a lovely phrase – 'boff like bunnies.' Not crude enough to
be erotic, not subtle enough to use in public without shocking people. I do
like the mental picture though – except for all the little bunnies it invokes."
"We can't have little bunnies, remember?" Her sad face made him
sorry he'd mentioned it.
"Nope, wrong species," he declared.
She pulled away a little. "You know what I mean. Dr. Fairhope told
us we were all sterile." It had been another adjustment Unity had apparently
made to her Parts, like the age thing. Since two parts were male and two
female, the reproductive system was simply neutralized to prevent difficulties.
Besides, as Buffy and Willow had discussed afterwards, what would happen to the
baby when they joined? If one of them were pregnant going into it, when they
divided, would the other one be? She knew it was one of those sacrifices that
had to be made. She had to admit she hadn't missed her menstrual cycle in the
least, however.
Xander pulled her closer, wrapping his arms tightly around her.
"Maybe if we practice enough, we'll get so good at it, we could prove her
wrong."
As she kissed him long and deeply, her spirits lifted. Pulling
away, she smiled again. "I think we're already awfully good at it." Her face
grew thoughtful. "Did it seem – different? Better this last time, and I don't
just mean because we've worked out how to use the interlocking parts to our
best advantage?"
"Yeah," he agreed. "There was something beyond anything I've ever
felt before. Almost like I was feeling double."
"Feeling double…" Buffy's voice drifted off, then her eyes grew
wide. She pulled away further.
"Ouch," Xander complained, rubbing his thigh. "What'd I do? What'd
I say? Why'd you pinch me?"
Buffy's answer took his breath away. "I didn't pinch you, I
pinched me."
~**~