A/N: Some sex in this chapter

"Don't be ridiculous, Xander. Of course I'll pay you," Giles groaned in exasperation at the hemming and hawing teen in front of him. "Any extra money I can siphon off Travers will be money well spent."

"Well, in that case...," Xander nodded and held out his hand. "I'm your man, Boss. Always happy to help a good cause."

They shook hands in the middle of the now totally stripped-down space that used to be "Uncle Bob's Magic Cabinet". The dismantling service team had just finished packing away the parts that would be reused and taken away all the debris, leaving the interior scrapped practically down to the concrete.

The deal to transfer the ownership of the store had been finalised a week after Halloween and now, just days before Thanksgiving, the place was ready face a new start.

For days after the disastrous Halloween party, Giles had been mercilessly teased about the whole "actual size" fiasco with the Gachnar demon, but otherwise everything had returned back to normal almost immediately – thanks to the peculiar indifference of the people of Sunnydale about anything out-of-the-ordinary.

The construction team would start the Monday after Thanksgiving, but Xander was now hired as a junior consultant specialising in the additional requirements their operations mandated for the premises. His hours would be very flexible, so that they didn't interfere with his bartending job. Ever since his Summer tour, he had been entertaining the idea of going into construction, and this job gave him a perfect chance to be in the front seat to see professional crews do their job. Without any critical responsibilities on his shoulders, at least initially, this would be a great learning experience.

Behind them the door opened suddenly and both men turned to look in surprise. In the doorway stood a tall, brunette girl. Xander dropped the hammer in his hand to the floor.

"Anya?"

Crossing his arms over his chest, Xander got quickly over his shock. "Last time I saw you, you were fleeing in terror," he sneered. "How'd that work out for you?" By his side, Giles mimicked his posture.

"I need to talk to Xander," Anya noted simply, as if not even registering what Xander had just said. She waited expectantly. "Go away," she shooed Giles.

Not even a single muscle twitched in Giles's face as he looked down his nose at the intruder.

Anya gave a short, nervous laugh and grabbed Xander's hand. "Xander, come with me."

Xander gave Giles a "huh?" look but allowed himself to be dragged out of the store by the insistent ex-demon.

"Your mother said you were working here," Anya stated once Xander had closed the door behind him.

"Yeah, I needed the money," Xander shrugged. His parents didn't know about his bartending job so this deal with Giles worked as a perfect cover for all his activities.

"So, where is our relationship going?" Anya asked suddenly, turning around to face Xander.

Xander's jaw dropped to the approximate level of his knees. His mouth kept working like that of a fish on dry land, but no sound came out.

"Our relationship," Anya repeated, fully serious. "What kind do we have, and what is it progressing toward?"

With a vivid flashback of their conversation from before the prom, Xander once again felt like he was inside a surreal sitcom. "I, uh... We have a relationship?" he managed to blurt out.

"We went to the prom."

"Yeah. On our one-and-only date," Xander snapped. "Second date got cancelled on account of... wait, what was it? Oh, yes, the Ascension. Quite a party that. Too bad you missed it. Aaaand... there's the teensy little bit of you being a man-killing ex-demon."

Anya fidgeted in place, in clear discomfort. "Icannotstopthinkingaboutyou," she muttered.

"Beg pardon?"

"I can't stop thinking about you!" Anya yelled exasperatedly but then forced herself to calm down. "So, can I assume a standing Friday night date and recognize prom night as our dating anniversary?" she asked brightly with a wide smile.

"Whoa! Slow down, Anya," Xander exclaimed in vexation, holding his hands up. "That's not how these things work. They kinda have to develop on their own."

"Alright," Anya nodded happily. "How?"

This was totally foreign territory to Xander. "I don't know," he shook his head. "It just... happens."

Back inside the store, Xander grabbed his hair and leaned his elbows against his knees. He let out a long "Aaarghhh!"

"Can I assume your individual expectations didn't quite meet?" Giles asked, barely able to suppress a laughter.

"Expectations," Xander groaned and straightened his back. "As in me not having any and she assuming the prom night to be the day of our anniversary."

"She seems to be quite drawn to you," Giles commented and sipped from a bottle of water.

"Don't. Just... don't," Xander shook his head vigorously, pushing some more troublesome thoughts to the background. "Now, about those blueprints..."

Later in the evening, Xander was fixing a mirror-ball to the ceiling of his man-cave, aka the basement of his parents' house, when there was a knocking at the door that led to the backyard.

"It's open!" he yelled without looking. He felt a flash of pride. He'd remembered not to issue a clear invitation.

When the door opened slowly, he almost fell off the ladders.

"Anya. Hi again," he greeted the brunette in surprise. As she stepped inside, he realised it really wasn't all that unpleasant to see her. She had clearly spent considerable effort to make herself presentable. Her makeup was light, and her hair nicely done. She was wearing a long, silvery dress that showed a respectable amount of cleavage.

"Your mother sent me around the house," Anya explained, pointing with a thumb over her shoulder. "Can we talk some more?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Xander shrugged and stepped off the stairs. As company went, Anya's really wasn't too bad. And she did look really nice in the form-hugging dress. "Would you care for something? I have cran-apple."

"All right," Anya nodded.

"You know, it's customary to call before you show up," Xander reminded her of this piece of common courtesy as he crouched down in front of his small fridge. Behind him the silvery fabric slowly pooled on the floor around Anya's feet. He pulled out a small carton and inserted the straw before standing up again and turning to face the brunette. "Not that..."

The cran-apple fountain spurting out of the suddenly flat carton in his hand was quite impressive.

"... at which point the matter is brought to a conclusion with both parties satisfied and able to move on with their separate lives and interests. To sum up, I think it's a workable plan," Anya concluded, resting her hands on her waist. Even within his haze, Xander had to admit that the motion made her breasts move in some very interesting ways.

"Sooo...," Xander drawled. "The crux of this plan is to..."

"Have sex. It's the secret to getting you out of my mind. Putting you behind me."

"B-behind you?"

"Yes, both literally and figuratively. But I think face-to-face will enter the equation as well."

"Right," Xander conceded. "But, see, we hardly know each other. I mean, I like you, and you have a certain... directness that I admire. But sex... it should be about expressing something, and accepting consequences... And I'm in no way turning into a woman for admitting this."

"I like you. You're funny and you're nicely shaped." She stepped in front of him. "And, frankly, it's ludicrous to have these interlocking bodies and not interlock." She pressed herself against him. "Please, remove your clothing now."

"And the amazing thing," Xander managed to mumble as Anya's lips found his, surprisingly gently. "Still way more romantic than..."

"Who?" Anya asked absentmindedly as she kneeled in front of Xander.

"No one," Xander practically squealed as Anya pulled his zipper down with her teeth. 'Faith who?'

"You're very nicely shaped," Anya complimented happily, very satisfied with what she found in Xander's pants. "I can suppress my gag reflex," she disclosed eagerly and immediately demonstrated said skill.

"Gaaa...," Xander moaned helpfully as his eyes were threatening to roll over in his head. There was also some unintentional buckling of his knees coming up, he realised amidst the heavenly feelings his groin was sending up to his brain... the one inside his skull, that is. "Anya... the bed," he requested urgently.

With a loud 'plop' her mouth was again free, and she beamed up at him. "Yes," she nodded, standing up. "Would you like to watch me finger myself? I'm quite wet already but I know men like to watch women pleasure themselves."

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, sure," Xander agreed. In his current state he would have agreed to call her Mistress and let her spank him with a broom handle.

With that Anya crawled sensuously on the bed on all fours with her admittedly easy-on-the-eye ass up in the air, pointing right at him. She brought her hand underneath her to spread her lower lips apart.

"Do you by any chance have a butt plug?" she asked hopefully over her shoulder.

"Faith, you got mail!"

Pauline's yell from downstairs shook the Slayer out of the flow within which she had been working on her trigonometry homework. Surprising as it may sound, she really enjoyed trig. After geometry it was her favourite math course. She did ok in algebra but the real shapes she had to work with in geometry and trigonometry somehow made the concepts easier for her to comprehend than the abstracts of algebra.

She got mail? Who would be writing to her? Probably the Sheepherder guy from that law firm had sent her some form or another to view or sign.

When she got downstairs, she had to blink a few times at the wide grins on Pauline and Miyoko's faces as the former brandished a large envelope in her hand. "Your SAT score came in."

A sudden tight knot appeared inside Faith's stomach. A month earlier she had gone to Auckland with Pauline to participate in a SAT test session at the international test centre there. Initially she had not wanted to disappoint Dr Kiwi who gently but firmly insisted she take the test. So, she had gone without any pressure but then quickly realised that she knew the answers to the first couple of questions she looked at. That had kindled her curiosity and she just started writing and answering, mainly to pass the time.

Now with the results in a still-sealed envelope in front of her, she suddenly felt more than a little self-conscious. She, a high school drop-out, was to be weighed and measured against her peers by an impartial judge. She knew that Buffy had scored 1430 the year before and Willow most likely something in the 1500s.

She didn't want to know.

"Throw it away," she growled. "I don't want to know."

Miyoko was the first of the scholarly pair to recover from her shock. "Throw it away? Throw it away!? Have you gone completely mental since I last saw you? This is what you have worked all those rigorous hours for, Faith. Please, believe in yourself. I know you did good."

"She's right," Pauline agreed and held out the envelope to her. "I was watching you when you exited the test. You had this air... I saw one boy throw up under a bush, a girl burst into tears, but you were just calm and relaxed. Open it."

Accepting her fate, Faith picked the envelope gingerly from her tutor's hand and carefully ripped it open. The score, in large bold letters jumped out at her.

"Faith?" Pauline prompted when the Slayer just stared at the paper in her hand. She was more than nervous herself, despite her otherwise calm exterior.

"This can't be right," Faith shook her head. "They must have sent me someone else's score... or it's a typo... or..."

"FAITH!" Miyoko shouted in exasperation. "Don't make me come over there and beat the information out of you."

"1470," Faith stated in a flat voice. Saying it out loud made the truth finally penetrate her shock and the paper floated slowly to the floor from her suddenly slack fingers.

"14...," Pauline gasped. She knew Faith had done well, but this was...

"...70," Miyoko breathed. To think that the Slayer still doubted her academic skills...

The stunned silence lasted only a few seconds before Pauline and Miyoko started woo-hooing and dancing in place. They grabbed the shell-shocked Slayer in their embrace and whirled around the room with their arms around each other. It didn't take long until Patricia and Trang came in, curious of the sounds of bedlam echoing from the living room. After a short, breathless explanation, the two women joined in the circle.

There was a more dignified celebration taking place later in the evening with the Hogans also joining in. A cake and a few bottles of champagne were procured by Lynn, and Faith got full permission from Pauline to enjoy two glasses of sparkling. She made it clear though, that no alcohol beyond that would be tolerated. Faith was still too stunned by the day's events to do anything but nod her head in agreement.

Blue Sky Mining by Midnight Oil was playing quietly in the background when Pauline sat down next to Faith on the couch.

"Tonight's for celebration," the Māori woman told her. "But in a few days, I want you to start thinking about your future options. With your SAT score and current GPA, you would probably get accepted to at least a few Ivy League universities.

"Dr Ki... Pauline," Faith started thickly. "I... Before today I never really understood what you were trying to accomplish with me. All the A's and B's didn't really mean anything as I didn't have a clear comparison. But this," she pointed at the SAT score sheet on the table. "This really hit it home. Some of the teachers in my old school probably just gave me passing grades to be rid of me, so I never took the grades seriously – they were too subjective. I think... I think I can really make it this time."

"Yes," Pauline agreed. "Yes, you can. In a few months you'll be ready to take your GED test at the University of Auckland and after that... who knows."

"Look, I know I have caused you a few grey hairs since I came here but, you know..." That was as far as she got before a lump in her throat made further speaking impossible.

"I know you have, sweetie," Pauline agreed gently and pushed a few stray hairs behind Faith's ear. "And you're welcome."

She patted the Slayer's leg affectionately a few times before standing up to get herself another slice of Lynn's delicious cake. She had only taken a step away from the couch when Faith's quiet voice from behind her made her stop.

"UC Sunnydale."

Turning back around to face the Slayer who looked up at her seriously, made a slight smile caress her lips.

"That's a good choice," she nodded approvingly. "You have lots of options but if that is what you'll eventually choose, you have my wholehearted support. Why don't you at least sleep on it, and we'll return to this topic when you feel comfortable? Now, let's both have one more slice before bed. I'm exhausted so you must be double that."

"Thanks, but I'll pass," Faith shook her head and yawned. "I think I'm more than ready to crash."

Miyoko was dancing slowly with Patricia on the other side of the room. The Japanese woman mouthed a "good night" and blew her a kiss before continuing her sensuous movements.

After brushing her teeth, Faith went straight to bed. She was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.

"I don't think the forces of darkness are even trying. I mean... you could make a little effort here, you know? Give me something to work with."

From his elevated vantage point Spike snorted at the Slayer's sarcastic plea to the Powers.

"You should watch your mouth, little girl. You should know better than to tempt the Fates that way. 'Cos the Big Bad is back and this time..."

That's as far as he got before 50,000 volts coursed through his body, overloading his nervous system. He collapsed to the ground, twitching, unable to control his muscles. His field of view was suddenly filled with the large suppressor of an automatic rifle. Beyond that, he got only fleeting glimpses of a figure in dark clothes and a ski mask wearing night goggles.

Strong hands grabbed both his arms and started dragging him away.