.

Buffy hopped off the hood of the car she had been sitting on outside of the Bronze when she saw the convertible pull into the parking lot. She, Willow and Angel approached it as it came to a stop. "Xander, what are you doing here?" she asked, obviously annoyed.

"Yeah," Amanda said. "I thought you said we were going for ice cream."

"We are," Xander told her, getting out of the car. "After we're done here."

"Are you kidding me?" Buffy asked. "You know Mitch wants to beat the crap out of you."

"I have to face them sooner or later," he pointed out.

"It's not just Mitch," Amanda said as she got out of the car and joined him. "It's his friends."

"I know."

"Xander, Willow can beat the crap out of you," Buffy told him. ""You're not gonna last ten seconds with those guys."

"I know what I'm doing," he told her.

"Xander, please don't do this," Willow said pleadingly as she caught sight of the locket around Amanda's neck. She felt herself freeze before she continued. "He's not worth it. You're just gonna get hurt."

"Willow, please," he said gently. "I have to do this. I don't want those guys thinking they got the better of me. I have to prove that I can do this."

"Promise me you won't go overboard?" Buffy asked him.

"Scouts honour," he told her.

"Xander, you were never in the scouts," Willow reminded him. "You were thrown out of the first meeting you ever went to for making fun of the leaders."

"Okay, then, I promise." He said.

"You know you don't have to do this, don't you?" Buffy asked.

"I do."

"We'll be here if you need us."

Larry was the first person to spot Xander and Amanda walking into the club, hand in hand, looking every inch the happy couple, among the sea of faces in the Bronze. He quickly left the girl he had been chatting with and headed for Mitch, who was cosying up to the freshman girl he had been seen with so may times before. "Guess what?" he said to Mitch, almost excited. "Amanda brought him."

Mitch grinned at Larry and kissed the girl quickly as he stood up from the sofa they had been sitting on and straightened his shirt. He gave a nod to three other guys around the room and they joined him, walking over to where Xander and Amanda had found a space at the counter. "Welcome to the party," he told them jovially as he approached them. "It's getting late. I was worried that you weren't going to make it. So, did you have a good time?"

Amanda looked at Xander and smiled sincerely. "Yes, thank you."

"Yeah," Xander said with a grin, clutching her hand tighter in his.

"She's so deceptively naïve and innocent, don't you think?" Mitch asked Xander. "Did she do you?"

Xander and Amanda exchanged embarrassed, awkward glances as the guests at the party turned their attention to them, only the music playing faintly in the background.

Xander felt something snap inside of him as he rushed at Mitch, slamming him into the concrete pillar, and launching a particularly vicious punch at his jaw, sending Mitch to the floor in a heap. He suddenly felt two pairs of arms grab him and he knew it was Mitch's friends holding him back.

"That wasn't very smart, friend!" Mitch yelled at him, picking himself up from the floor with a hand to his bloody lip. "This isn't even about you. She's the trash, you're just the fool." He looked at the two guys holding Xander back. "Take him outside and beat the crap out of him."

"Why don't you take me outside?" Xander asked.

"What?" Mitch asked, caught off-guard.

"If you've got such a big problem with me, why don't you take me outside?"

"Because…this is my party. I'm the host here. Can't you see? I have guests here." He looked at the guys again. "I said take him outside!"

"Mitch, you don't wanna do this," Amanda said, cutting in as she tried to pull Mitch's friends off an angry Xander. "You said it yourself, I'm the trash. This isn't about him. It's my fault he's in this mess, why don't you just deal with me?"

"Oh, that's nice," Mitch said with a laugh. "Standing up for your new man. I like that."

"Just do something right for once in your life."

"Amanda, he's worthless," Xander told her. "You can't talk to him. Leave it alone."

"What do you want?" Amanda asked Mitch.

"You know what I want," he told her, stepping closer to her and running his finger along her cheek.

"Okay, fine," she conceded, glancing at Xander and feeling so much guilt that all the trouble he was facing was all down to her. "You want me back? I'm back. Now let him go."

Mitch laughed. "What, you think it's that easy?" he asked. "You're gonna have to convince me. Beg."

"Mitch, let him go," Amanda said desperately.

"Come on," he encouraged. "Beg."

"You asshole!"

"You're gonna have to beg."

The tension was interrupted by the door being thrown open, and everyone turned to see who had caused the noise.

"I'm sorry," Angel said laughingly, with menace in his dark eyes. "Were you in the middle of something?"

"This is a private party," Mitch told him through gritted teeth.

"Well, I'm a pretty private guy," Angel told him.

"That's great, but you're not invited."

"That line doesn't work as well when it's a public building," Angel said with a shrug. "So I guess I'll go ahead and tell my friends outside that they can come on in." He turned his back and sensed two of the guys heading for him at each of his sides. His reaction was to strike out with both arms, punching each of them in the face, and looked at Mitch as they fell to the ground, both unconscious. "See what happens when you rough house?"

"Angel…" Xander said under his breath, not sure if he was happy or angry to see the vampire as Amanda breathed a sigh of relief, realising she had seen him outside and that Xander knew him.

Mitch backed off, indicating to his friends to do the same. "Look, I don't want any trouble," he said to Angel. "I don't have any problem with you."

"Well, see, that's where things get a little complicated," Angel told him. "See, he's a friend of my girlfriend and, being perfectly honest, it's really better for that it's me standing here and not her. She'd already be breaking faces by now. You know what girls can be like."

"Look, there's been some misunderstanding here," Mitch said nervously. "I'm perfectly willing to forget this. It's all just been one big joke that's gotten out of hand. I don't see any reason to carry this on any longer. As far as I'm concerned, it's over, okay?"

"You want the truth?" Xander asked, standing inches away from him. "You're nothing, Mitch." He turned to walk away, only to be stopped by Amanda taking his hand and pulling him back.

"Are you just gonna leave?" she asked.

"Yep," Xander told her. "There's nothing we can do that he hasn't already done to himself."

"I wish I could live that…" she said as he pulled out of Xander's grasp and approached Mitch with a seductive smile. Suddenly, her right arm flew up and the palm of her hand connected to his cheek with a loud slap.

"Okay," Xander said as he pulled her back. "I think we'll just be leaving." As he passed Angel, he saw Buffy enter the club. "Hey," he said in greeting.

"Hey," she said back. "You guys go. Angel and I are gonna stay, enjoy the party a little."

"Have fun," Xander told her as he and Amanda left.

"Always," she said with a wink.

Xander felt the doors of the Bronze close behind him and Amanda and he felt a sudden exhilaration, laughing to himself. "Remind me never to get you mad," he told Amanda jokingly.

Amanda was laughing herself and shaking the hand she had used to slap Mitch, feeling it go numb from the impact. She looked at Xander with a look somewhere between shock, absolute amusement and the slightest hint of love. "Did you see the look on his face?" she asked.

For the first time in Xander's life, he knew how it felt to be wanted, to know how it felt not being rejected. It was a new experience to find that she wasn't laughing behind his back like Cordelia and Harmony and the others so often did. After all that pent-up frustration thinking it had been a set-up, it felt good to feel it all flow away – well, almost all of it. There was still something inside that remained, and he didn't even realise it until he saw her. He looked dead ahead and saw Willow stood in the parking lot, leaning against Rory's car, having opted to stay outside while Buffy and Angel did the intimidation thing inside. It was then he felt things fall into place very confusingly. His mind flashed through images of times when Willow had been in trouble, like the night she had been taken from the library with the others, and again when Ampata was around. Finally, the image of her that earlier afternoon in the gas station came into view and he felt his breath stick in his chest.

Amanda, who was still laughing, watched his face when he saw her and she realised what was happening.

"Will!" Xander called, trying to act as normal as possible.

"Hey," Willow said as she slowly walked over to them. "I heard what happened from out here. Sounds like I missed quite a show."

"Yeah, you did," he told her, quietly impressed with himself.

"Well, I'm glad everything went okay," she said, trying to keep her voice from breaking. She held out a hand to Amanda. "I'm sorry I misjudged you," she said sincerely. "I thought you were just another Cordelia, and I shouldn't have assumed without getting to know you."

"Hey, it's okay," Amanda said, shaking Willow's hand.

"Well, I think it's time for me to leave," Willow said as she backed away.

"What about-?" Xander began, concerned.

"It's okay," Willow said, cutting him off. "Buffy loaded me up. Have a nice night."

Xander watched her retreating back for a second, a sense of sudden and important loss filling him. He took a breath and turned his attention back to his date, grinning at her as widely as he could manage. "So, ice cream?"

"Remember how I said that I'd rather be with someone for the wrong reasons than be alone for the right ones?" Amanda asked. "Well, I think I'd rather be right."

Xander looked confused as she unhooked the chain around her neck and held it out to him, placing it in the palm of his hand.

"It's going to feel good to do something right for a change," Amanda told him. "In your heart you wanted to give this to someone else."

Xander looked down the road, seeing Willow in the distance, and looked back at Amanda in confusion.

"Go and catch her," Amanda told him. "Go…"

Xander quickly kissed the girl's cheek before he took off down the street.

Amanda watched him, tears beginning to form in her eyes, realising that there really were some nice guys out there.

"Hey," Buffy said as she came out of the club with Angel.

"Oh, hi," Amanda said. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, the party's pretty much over," Buffy told her. "It's no fun when they give in so easily. Where's Xander?"

Amanda motioned down the street where Xander could be seen running after a female figure in the distance.

"He finally saw the light, huh?" Buffy asked.

"Looks like it," Angel said.

"Sorry," Buffy told Amanda. "I know you liked him."

"It's okay," Amanda told her. "He should be with the one he loves. I'll be fine."

"Willow!" Xander called as loud as he could as he ran down the street, absently wondering how she could have gotten so far away in such little time. "Willow!" he called again as he got closer.

Willow stood still, her face soaked with salty tears and she quickly tried to wipe them away, without much luck, and turned to face where he was now standing. She looked into his eyes and tried to figure out what was going through his head. It was then she saw something that she thought she never would. It was love. She tried to remind herself to breath as he suddenly rushed forward and scooped her into his arms, lifting her from the ground as their lips met. She clung onto him with all that was worth, reassuring herself this wasn't another one of her many longed-for, far-fetched dreams.

"Okay, need to breath…" he mumbled as he put her back on the ground, but keeping his arms around her.

"Oh, sorry," she said, wiping her cheeks, the tears of sorrow being replaced with ones of joy.

"No," he told her, using his thumb to help her. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I…I didn't know."

"Yeah, well, you're dumb," she told him, grabbing his jacket lapels. "I always knew you liked being the dumb one."

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"You never asked," she said simply.

He leant down and kissed her again, this time softly and tentatively, feeling something inside so strong that he felt like kicking himself that he hadn't realised sooner. Knowing she had a crush on him wasn't the same as knowing that she loved him, but this was something he definitely wanted to keep feeling. "I love you…" He whispered as he hooked the locket around her neck.

Willow looked down at the silver locket and picked it up, grinning. "I wanted this," she said excitedly.

"Well, it's yours," he told her, appreciating the smile he felt like was made for him only.

"How do I look wearing your future?" she asked jokingly but proudly.

He placed his arm around her shoulders, drawing her closer so he could place a kiss in her hair, smelling that familiar Willow scent as they started back to the Bronze parking lot. "Baby, you are my future…"

The End