Four

Long ago it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They're all that's left you

"Cleaning? Isn't there something more conducive to fighting the good fight? Research? Casting spells? Operating heavy equipment?"

Buffy crossed her arms and looked at him steadily. "I need to clear room. It's way too crowded around here. If you don't want to help…"

Xander held up his hands. "I'm helping! I'm helping."

"What would I do without you?" she grinned, handing him a heavy box of books.

"Make Spike do this?"

"Oh, he's already stockpiling stuff in the basement," she replied, pushing her hair behind her ear. Xander looked around Buffy's relatively bare room. It had a utilitarian air about it now, sparse and streamlined. The room of a grown-up, he thought, then frowned when he saw a picture frame on the bed next to a box. He put the box down, picked up the picture frame, and stared. It was that picture of the three of them, Buffy, Xander, and Willow, from when they were in high school. Young and smiling, so full of hope. His eyes narrowed.

"You are going to pack this away?" he fumed, turning to face Buffy. "Are you insane? You can't get rid of everything, Buffy. What the hell has happened to you?"

Buffy stopped packing away extra shoes and clothes and walked over to Xander.

"This," she said, plucking the frame out of her hands, "is not getting packed away. I was just dusting it. That and Mr. Gordo will forever stay on my night stand."

"Oh. Well, then." Xander tried his charming smile and when Buffy just frowned some more he sighed.

"Sorry, Buffy. I guess I've been feeling a little nostalgic lately and thought maybe I was the only one. I was scared you were trying to pack our past away." He sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the photo. Buffy sat down next to him.

"Xander, you and Willow are my best friends. You always will be. I know I don't show it that much anymore, but that will never change on my end. Never." Her voice was soft and steady.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Even when you two don't invite me to your sleepovers," Buffy grinned.

"That was so very impromptu. Speaking of, how is Kennedy, um, dealing?"

"Pain in the ass, par for the course. She made herself scarce. Willow seems a lot happier today, at any rate. That's all I care about." Buffy stood up and stretched. "I'm gonna go take some of this stuff downstairs. Don't go rooting through my underwear drawer while I'm gone."

"Dream on, sister," he called after her, then decided to have a peek anyway. He had a reputation to uphold, after all. He stood up, crossed to the dresser, and opened the top drawer.

"That is wrong on so many levels," Willow said, standing in the doorway.

"It's the First! I'm under the power of the First. It made me do it. And now, I must look at your underwear too," he said, grabbing her and pulling at her long skirt. Dawn came out of the bathroom and saw them wrestling in the doorway of Buffy's room.

"Everything under control here?" she asked pleasantly.

"Yes, Xander just wants to look at my underwear."

"Cool." Dawn continued on her way down the hall and Xander let Willow go.

"It's not like you haven't seen my underwear before, Xander," Willow said, straightening her skirt, breathless from laughter.

"Yeah, but that was when you were eight, and those were Underoos," he said, grabbing the box of books. "So not sexy."

"I'm not exactly the epitome of sexy now either, Xander," she said, helping him carry the box out of the room.

"Sure, you're not the flaunt it type… except when you're a cleavage-wielding evil vampire of course… but if you don't think you've got sex appeal you're crazy." They paused in the hallway and looked at each other over the top of the box. Her eyes, always so expressive, revealed hundreds of emotions in the space of a minute. Xander realized he was holding his breath.

"If you two could quit making googly eyes at each other I need to get another box," Spike's voice interrupted them. They were blocking the doorway to the room.

"We weren't making googly eyes," Willow protested. Spike raised his eyebrows, then grinned.

"Whatever you say, Red," he sighed, pushing past them into the room.

Xander really, really hated when Spike got all insightful.

"He's still nuts, I see," Willow said, trying to interject some humor into the tense silence that ensued.

"Yeah."

"He is, isn't he?" she asked softly, frowning at him, waiting to be reassured. Xander let out a long breath.

"Will... I think we need to talk."

"No, no we don't," she interrupted, quickly, her voice nervous. "Let's just get this box downstairs, my arms are about to fall off."

"Will..."

"Please, Xander, let's just do this. No talking, not after things with Kennedy. Not today, okay?" Her eyes, he saw, were full of fear. He smiled then.

"I forgot. Our agenda is too full today. There's packing, there's ice cream planned. We don't want to extend ourselves."

Her expression changed to one of relief. Together they carried the heavy load downstairs.