Title: A Simple Twist Of Fate

Author: Jane McCartney

Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts to make it otherwise, none of them are mine. Joss and UPN and ME own 'em all.

Feedback: Don't make me beg for it. Oh hell, whatever: pleeeease? Pretty please? It'll just take a sec from ya!

Acknowledgments: Everyone who reviews and helps me. And my beta reader Starway Man. You rules, T!

Author's Note: AU. This chapter is practically a rewrite of "Welcome To the Hellmouth" with some changes and characters mixed around along the way. This story will deviate more in the following chapters.

Summary: For Buffy Summers, it took only a single glance to fall in love with the new student at Sunnydale High, Xander Harris. And with that look, she'd forever seal her fate as the Slayer.

***

They watched Willow and Jesse walk away for a moment, and then Xander furrowed his forehead and turned to Buffy. "Where they ever, ya know..."

"Diagnosed lunatics? In a mental institution? In serious need of psychological help?" the blonde intervened apologetically.

Xander chuckled, absently pulling his red backpack higher on his shoulder. "I was gonna ask if they were dating or something, but lapses of sanity seems like a way-juicier topic," he said jokingly.

The blond-haired adolescent chuckled at the answer, and then giggled when she realized what the true question was. "Wills and Jess? Oh no, no, God, no. They are just so full of issues, but them entering Dateville? You'd have to, like, wait for the apocalypse to hit first or something..."

"Don't jinx us like that, Summers," Xander mumbled to himself.

"Did you say something?" Buffy asked with curiosity.

"It was a beautiful summer," the innocent-looking boy clarified, and stayed on the subject to elude the girl a little more. "Ya know, California weather and all. Sun, me like. Lots of sun, me like lots."

Buffy laughed. "You're funny."

Xander absently kicked a stone in front of him in his way. "Thanks... uh, that is, funny 'ha-ha' or funny 'back away and avoid eye contact, pal, 'cause I've gotta pepper spray in my purse'?"

The blond-haired teen laughed again.

"Kinda both," she opted to say in what she hoped was a neutral, cool way. The yellow signal kind of way, as Jesse had once said; that's neither the green, 'I'll follow you like a faithful puppy for the rest of your life' sign, or the red one, the 'If I was an iceberg I still wouldn't be any more colder, so forget it, honey'.

Oh no, now it's a fact that I've hit rock bottom. I'm actually listening to Jesse's theories, Buffy realized with a hint of horror.

Their sideways glances accidentally met, and she silently smiled, making him smile too.

It was the same silence that overpowered their walk for some fleeting seconds, till Xander eventually broke it. "So, any decent spot for having some teenage fun that you'd recommend here in the 'dale?"

Oh my God, did he just ask me if I wanna go out with him? No, get a grip, Summers! He just wants to know if there's any fun to be had in this boring little town, where he could pick up any anorexic chick to be seen in public with... but isn't he okay with being seen with me in public too? Oh, oh, does he think I'm his anorexic chick now? a conflicted Buffy panicked, but then a more girlish silliness overpowered her mind.

He thinks I'm cool enough to be his anorexic chick.

And then, once again, the eternal loop of confusion that was Buffy Summers' mind started up once more. Wait, it's wrong to be okay with his thinking of me as his anorexic chick! But do I really care? Grr... stop it, Buffy - you're totally losing it, he didn't actually say anything like that at all ... God, you're so pathetic!

It was a sad fact that Xander's question, however, had been asked with a very different purpose than fulfilling Buffy's private fantasies.

Merrick had taught him that if you wanna find the hunter, you gotta look for the right prey first. And clubs full of teenagers ignorant of their demonic nature, with some kids drunk or even strung out on drugs, was like a true 'all-you-can-eat' buffet for the undead population.

And in a small town like Sunnydale seemed to be... Xander, who was still reluctant to fully accept his fate and duty as the Slayer after what had happened at Hemery, just wanted to get a feel of the territory - scope out the unfamiliar area.

What the hell am I thinking? Quit being a blind numbskull and take a good look at this town, Harris; it's freakin' well like something out of a 50's TV series! I bet everybody knows everybody else around here - some of the houses even have white picket fences, for God's sake.

The boy shook his head in self-disgust. So stop looking for vamps in Pleasantville - and what the hell, you're done with the whole Slayer thing anyway, remember? No more late night patrols, no more dead friends and no more burning down parts of the school, comprende?

Neither Buffy nor Xander, both so engulfed in their own thoughts, noticed how long had actually passed since a word had been spoken between the two of them.

"The Bronze," Buffy then finally broke the silence, out of the blue.

"The who?" a distracted Xander, obviously lost, questioningly bored his eyes into Buffy's.

Feeling a little stupid, the petite teenager elucidated more specifically, "It's a club we've got here, The Bronze - lots of sweaty teens, loud music and if you're lucky, someone forgets an almost totally full can of free Coke on the table. It's pretty much the only place to be... especially when Sunnydale only has the one club."

"Extra sweat and loud music? Sounds fun, in a sorta masochistic kinda way," Xander replied slowly.

Buffy chuckled. "Yeah, well, we don't have a whole lotta town here. Choices you can make, are pretty much limited."

"There's the free Coke thing though," the boy remembered, a thin smile on his face as they absently stopped in front of the main doors of Sunnydale High.

"If you get lucky," Buffy remembered with a grin of her own, but soon realized what she had said and swiftly amended, "Are! If you are lucky. Is there any way you can pretend I turned back time, and didn't say that last part?"

"That could be arranged... but nah, where'd the fun of using it later against ya be then?" Xander teased her.

"So, heartless and manipulative?" Buffy cocked a brisk eyebrow.

"Don't forget unmerciful and calculating. It's kind of my thing," the male teen continued the banter, faking proud.

"You kinda make it sound like a penis metaphor," Buffy cringed slightly, and frowned, a little blushed. "Can I say that word to someone I've only known for a few minutes?"

Xander laughed nervously at that, and then said, "If you don't want to hear that creepy, weird laugh again, I think it's no problem."

Looking down at the ground and pulling a lock of her behind her ear, the blonde girl then said, acting by impulse, "You know, there's this really cool band that'll play tonight, and me and my friends are gonna go, so maybe, um, you should show! I heard Mondays are great days to get some free Cokes... unless, you'll be busy with all the unpacking and stuff?"

When Buffy noticed there was only silence to her question, she immediately felt her heart cringe, and then she became angry with herself for making a stupid move like that.

But looking up with a hint of fear, the blond-haired girl was pretty sure she actually heard her heart cringe this time; because she'd noticed Xander didn't seem to have heard one word of what she'd said, on account of his attention was completely focused on Cordelia Chase.

"Uh, I gotta go. Lots of unpacking to do," Xander excused himself lamely, his expression suddenly turned to one of anxiety and unease.

Buffy tried to smile coolly, despite the raging turbulence inside. "Unpacking, yeah. That's, uh, that's okay. Unpacking is peachy, with a side of keen. I guess..."

But then, for some seconds, his features softened again and the Slayer added, "Well, it was nice to have met you, and Jesse and Willow... See ya around, 'kay?"

Xander then turned away and hurriedly fled in Cordelia's direction, leaving Buffy behind in his dust.

The blonde angrily kicked a stone that was right in front of her foot. "Oh yeah, I just bet he and Cordelia have a lot of unpacking to do tonight," the girl mumbled sarcastically to herself, shooting a venomous glance at the distant brunette cheerleader.

If Buffy hadn't just focused on Cordy though, she'd have noticed the police detective that was talking to her and her friends, Aura and Aphrodisia; and also a couple of bluesuits, that were standing a little further behind them, followed by a reporter and his cameraman.

Which, by the way, was exactly what had caught Xander's attention - and caused him to run off like that.

***

"Buffy, you and Willow want some cookies? I just baked them!" Joyce's cheerful voice yelled from downstairs that night, after school was over.

"No Mom, we're good, thanks!" the teen shouted in reply, and closed the door of her room with extra force. The red-haired girl shivered absent- mindedly in her spot.

"You..." Buffy said menacingly, glaring in a maniac psychotic manner at a gulping Willow, seated on the edge of the blonde teen's bed. "...are so dead!"

The redhead opened her mouth to try to babble something, but a frenetic Buffy cut her off. "What the heck were you guys thinkin'? And the thing! The thing? There wasn't even a thing, don't try to lie to me; you, you two made it all up, so I could be alone with Xander!"

"We're sorry?" Willow offered meekly, once Buffy shut up and sent the redhead a look that meant she was waiting for answers.

Buffy glared. "You can do a lot better than that."

"We're so, so, so sorry?" the redhead tried again, and upon the threat of receiving that glare again, rapidly amended, "It was all Jesse's idea!"

A frown. "Okay, I suppose nobody like a tattletale," Willow mused loudly to herself. "Look, Buffy, I'm sorry... but it's just that you did the mating hyena laugh, and you know how long it's been since we've heard that from you? Too long, I just... I just thought Xander seemed like a decent guy..."

"I so did not do the mating hyena laugh!" an emotional Buffy replied, forgetting about the rest of the sentence.

"Yes, you did! You went like this," Willow paused for a second, and then started laughing in a exaggeratedly hysterical way for many moments.

"Okay, okay, I get the point! But please either stop it, or just shoot me now," the blond-haired teen said in annoyance.

The redhead, the color of her cheeks matching her hair's, stopped instantaneously. "I can't blame you, though. He is a cutie, huh?"

Buffy glared at her again, but the two soon broke in a giggle. "Tight jeans, thy name is Xander."

"And the mysterious-guy look, the messy-but-gracious-kind-of-messy hair, and the cool red backpack always hanging on his shoulder? And, and the whole sexy foreign aura?" Willow kept adding enthusiastically.

Buffy stared at her in sudden incredulity, cocking an eyebrow. "Will, do *you* like Xander?"

The redhead blushed in response. "What? No! Just got, uh, a little overexcited. Sorry."

The petite blonde unexpectedly crashed her body against the fluffy bed, almost making Willow fall from the edge. "Oomph! Idiocy, thy name is Buffy," her muffled voice against the pillow moaned.

"Idiocy? No, that's so not true! You're a little headstrong, but in no way an idiot," the petite hacker hurried to comfort her friend.

Buffy, however, was convinced. "No Wills, it's idiocy plus imbecility plus the entire lot of all those kind of things," she said morosely. "He's cute. He's mysterious. He's out of my league. He's-"

"Buffy. You're not stupid, you're just in love."

Buffy's head quickly popped into Willow's range of vision, making her internally yelp at the suddenness of it. "Love? Me? In love? I never said I was in love with Xander - come on, that's like the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!"

The red-haired girl looked on in silent worry at her friend's manic behavior, which was basically making faces and a lot of hand gestures.

"Why would someone think I'm in love with Xander? Geez, he just arrived here... so yeah, okay, he's a cutie - to anyone female that's got eyes! So what if I didn't stop thinkin' about him from the second I first saw him; and so what if I think my heart'll burst every time I hear his name? In love, pfft. That's the biggest nonsense you've ever said in like, three lifetimes..."

Buffy suddenly paused and actually heard her words echoing in her own mind; she then looked horrified, as a prudent Willow cautiously nodded her head in confirmation to the unspoken question.

"Oh my gosh, no. I'm so in love with Xander," the girl fearfully realized, and an unforeseen yelp made Willow flinch. "Ah! I heard his name, and my heart did it again!"

The eldest of the Summers daughters languidly raised her body to a sitting position on the bed. "I never asked for this, Wills. Seriously. I'm so screwed."

"You never told me what happened after Jesse and I left you two alone," Willow softly offered.

"What else?" Buffy snorted bitterly. "He ditched me. Made up some ultra- lame excuse, and headed straight for Cordelia."

The first feeling that crawled inside Willow's head was anger towards Xander, and at herself for liking him from that very first moment. She knew there was no actual fault to be his in all this, but since her best friend was hurt she felt it was 'justifiable' to blame the male Slayer now.

"Are you sure? I mean, did you actually see him go talk to her?" Willow questioned, with as much sympathy as possible.

"Well, pretty much. Okay, I didn't hang around long enough for the sordid details; but he sure seemed all anxious to 'go unpack' with her," the sentence, that left Willow confused, was said with spiteful sarcasm.

"Maybe it was just some trick of the light - and what you thought was Cordelia was actually just a, uh, a lamppost?" Willow offered lamely.

Despite herself, Buffy chuckled through her slightly sniffy voice. "Oh no, it was definitely her. I don't think a lamppost would be able to complain that loud."

The two girls giggled at that, but the giggles soon disappeared and silence occurred for some moments.

Buffy sighed and stated matter-of-factly, "I should have known better; Cordelia's popular and I'm not. She's hot, rich, beautiful and I'm just-"

"A big, yucky load of white trash?" Willow completed with accented sarcasm, raising an eyebrow. "Come on, Buffy, you don't really believe what Cordelia says, do you? You never did before..."

The blond-haired girl smiled morosely. "I know. But I did the mating hyena laugh. That equals no sane thoughts, and a sudden urge for ice cream and oysters. I just can't help it; it's really my curse, like you and Jesse always say I go all weird and freaky. And plus, today I had stupid hair..."

Willow furrowed her forehead, at hearing the last sentence. "Now I remember the insane thought part..."

"Let's go to the Bronze!" the redhead suddenly exclaimed, getting excited over the idea. "Then you can cool down a bit, shake your bones, rock 'n roll and oh my God I think maybe your temporary dementia is getting catchy," the redhead shut herself up, frowning at her over-enthusiasm.

"I don't know," an unconvinced Buffy retorted. "I just don't feel in the mood for Bronzing it tonight, ya know?"

"Please?" her petite friend whined. "For me?" that, with the best Willow puppy-dog eyes, was said in a heart-breaking tone of voice.

The blonde female grunted at that low blow. "I thought this was about me and my existential crisis?"

"But you don't have an existential crisis," Willow frowned.

"Yeah, well, it just sounded like a clever thing to say at that moment," the other teen shrugged in response.

"Go out and blow off some steam, " the redhead offered gently. "Maybe we can even score a free Coke."

Buffy sighed. "I dunno, Wills. I still gotta go talk to Mr. Flutie about whatever masochist 'non-punishment' he has in store for me tomorrow. I'll be all tired and grouchy, so I don't exactly think I'll be Fun Buffy tonight..."

"Pretty please?" Willow tried sheepishly.

"Oh, fine! Let's go Bronzing tonight," the blond-haired girl gave up, and wasn't able to help but smile a little at her friend's wild grin.

***

Author's note: there was a half-quote from 'The Zeppo', and another from 'Where The Wild Things Are'. And also, I just wanted to say that all the silly dialogue's just a reflection I'd like to show, about how life might have been for Willow and Xander before Buffy and her vamp friends entered the equation. Simple and uncomplicated, mostly with teen problems that, well, I know the show's all about metaphors, but I don't think there's a match to wishing you'd die 'cause you were dumped or having a vampire boyfriend that turns into a soulless monster and all the other stuff. Anyways, the story's summary do make sense, and I'll explain ocasionally. And well, I'm having a hard time to decide who's the souled vamp after all, but the two things I know is that, first: I'm not chosing Darla, 'cause I'd not really know how to write her at all, and probably not Drusilla too. Maybe... someone else. Someone unexpected. And, last but not less important, I'm already saying: this will not be a slash. I don't have anything agaisnt them, but I just don't know how to write them either.

And, right, one last thing: please, REVIEW!