Xander sighed, slightly disappointed but not surprised.
"Looks like Buffys not showing up tonight" He said loudly, competing with the band on stage at the Bronze. He and Willow were going to meet Buffy here tonight to hang out but it seemed like they'd been blown off again.
"You cant really blame her, she's got the whole slaying gig. She probably just ran into some vamps." Willow said taking a small sip from her drink, peering over her glasses at him.
"Yeah, I guess" He gave her a bit a smile and absently rubbed her leg with his under the table.
"So... You wanna go to the spring fling together?" Xander asked non-chalantly.
"Sure" Willow replied, equally suave. Well for the moment anyway. Xander didn't stop staring at her, a small smirk on his lips, as her own smirk grew bigger and bigger till it was a full blown smile and girlish giggle was added to the end.
The moment was only ruined by, ofcourse, Cordelia.
"I didn't think it could happen but geek girl just got geekier."
"Thats my girlfriend your talking about there, Cordelia!" Xander bit in quickly seeing the frown form on Willows face.
Cordelia seemed slightly taken back. Sure, Xander and Willow were an unofficial couple around school. Both having first dibs on each other and both excluding everyone else on offer. Sure everyone knew they were a couple but nothing had been said. But she herself had never expected it to be said.
"You could of done much better Xander. 'Much' better." Cordy replied, leaning in and completely ignoring Willow. Xander seemed rather unfazed as he stared into his glass and swirled around the last of his coke.
" If you leave now Cordelia, I wont give your boyfriend a black eye for the dance." He finally gazed up at her. She had stood back up straight shock and disbelief. He wouldn't dare! She said as much.
"You wouldn't dare!" Xander just smirked at her.
"Hmmph" Cordelia made a quick exit, scowl and mobile firmly in place.
"How do you do that?" Willow asked, practically glowing after Xander had called her his girlfriend.
"Do what?"
"Beat Cordelia like that?"
"Oh thats easy! All you got to do is act better to her. Act her superior, like she cant touch you. Pisses em off royally. You can to, all you got to do is get a little self confidence."
"Yeah but I cant threaten to give her boyfriend a black eye" Willow pointed out.
"You can threaten to give Cordelia a black eye"
"Like she'd believe me" Willow replied with a small frown.
"So, thats when you make her believe and give her a black eye" Willow straightened a little at the thought, a small grin spreading over her face.
"Yeah" Xander gave a small laugh.
"There's one thing you got to learn about life. It the most ferocious that always gets ahead. Whether it be in a fight or an argument, it's the one with the most guts that comes out on top. As long as you've got the guts to stand up to someone or something, even if it's smarter or stronger than you, if you've got the guts to take what ever it throws at you and not flinch, you'll always comes out on top."
"Xander logic for the day?" Willow asked dryly.
"Got it in one. Now come on. The night is young, the music loud, and the vamps heading out the door" he nodded over Willows shoulder as he said the last part. She turned and looked herself. A couple of guys where ushering a girl and her friends out a side door into the alley.
"How can you tell?" She asked even though they were both already moving to follow.
"Their thoughts sound different, they sound kinda like an echo, very hard to hear too... That and it's the biggest cliché ever. I'm mean look around, there's people making out all over the bronze, who would take someone into the alley to make out?" He explained as they headed for the door. Xander fished around in his pocket for a stake and saw Willow doing the same in her small purse. They paused at the door, and took a deep breath, both trying to calm their excited nerves.
* Willow, pull your hair back. * Crytex suddenly spoke up, giving a final pointer.
* Dump the jacket Xander * Glyndaf piped in as well.
* Really you two should know this by now *
"Yeah yeah" Xander said quickly stashing another stake into the back of his pants. He grabbed Willows purse and wrapped it up in his jacket and tossed them both into a dark corner by the stage.
They both gave each other excited, nervous smiles.
"Never gets boring does it?" Willow just shook her head.
"Lets go"
They quietly slipped through the doors, stakes held low. They found the girls, about six of them, being herded down to the dead end of the alley by two vamps with their game faces on. One looked up as they came through the door.
"Piss off or I'll rip your throat out" The vamp glare at them over his shoulder, expecting his game face to scare them off.
"Now thats a face only a mother could love" Xander quipped as they made their way towards them.
"I said. Fuck. Off." The vamp turned to face them fully the other glancing back at them. Xander gave a hard glance at the first vamp.
"Billy? Billy Consim? Is that you?" Xander suddenly asked squinting slightly.
"Xander? Is that you? Hey it is you. How you doin buddy?" The vamp suddenly smiled, slipping out of it's game face.
"Not bad. Hey Will, it's chess club Billy." Willow gave a small wave.
"I remember, we haven't won a tournament since you disappeared ya know." She stated.
"Oh really. Hey it's nice to know your missed" In the background the other vamp was rolling it's eyes at the current situation as he watched the girls.
"Yeah we're sorry about this" Xander told him now idly picking his finger with his stake.
"What? This?" Billy waved a hand at his face as it morphed back into his vampire visage. "Dont be man. I feel great, never been better. And hey, picking up the chicks now " He gave Xander a sly smirk.
"No no, not that. Sorry about this" Xander lunged in quickly, lodging his stake in billys un beating heart. He turned to dust like so many old oreos.
"You prick!" The other vamp stated annoyingly before stepping in and taking a wild swing at Xander. Xander just managed to duck the swing, it whizzing centimeters over his head. Xander quickly lifted his foot and planted it in the overbalanced vampires gut and gave a huge push. The vamp flew up and out, straight into the alley wall, a few feet from where Willow was waiting. Willow instantly nailed the vamp with a few hard elbows to the sternum before staking it.
The both turned and looked at each other for a moment before simultaneously...
"For Him!" The both let out a loud whoop of satisfaction as well.
"That was great Xan, we've never got two so easy before" Willow said estatically, almost bouncing on the spot.
"I know 'ey. And we didn't even..." He trailed off as he turned and looked at the frightened girls still at the end of the alley. They all looked pretty young.
"Ahhh ummm They were both on drugs, yeah drugs, so many drugs that they spontaneously combusted and turned to dust" Willow nodded eagerly trying to back up Xander s lie.
" Bullshit" One up the back of the group stated as they started to get their courage back. Xander let out a annoyed sigh.
"Fine, they were vampires." Xander stated sarcastically before glaring at them. "What the hell do you want from me? Get back in side!" He waved a hand at the side entrance and thankfully the girls seemed to decide they'd rather be in there than out here.
"Thats gratitude for ya" Willow stated dryly as she put an arm around Xanders waist and steered him for the door. Xander put his arm over Willows shoulders.
"Well at least we found out that vamps are a lot easier to stake when taken by surprise..."
"And a lot harder when they're not" An unknown voice from the end of the alley interrupted. Xander and Willow both looked up to find four vamps at the end of the alley. They'd probably sent Billy and his friend to get the food for them.
"Reckon we can take em Will?" Xander whispered.
"I'm not sure..." Willow replied as a now familiar feeling came over her "But I want to find out." Xander grinned at her before reaching up and taking off his collar.
"Here, you can use this... Just in case" He handed it to Willow as they slowly backed up from the approaching vamps. She gave him a grateful smile as she put it on. They spread out slightly.
"You ready to do this Will?" Xander asked as he grabbed his other stake, now holding one in each in each hand, point down.
"Hopefully" she stated before mumbling a few words. A dull glowing Kite shield made an appearance on her left arm, and fire began to dance around her right fist. One of the vamps paused at seeing this, but after receiving a glare form his buddies continued on.
"Good" Xander started off. Running towards the vamps as fast as he could, his blades sliding out as he went. He didn't really have a plan, right now it was crash tackle as many as you can and hope your blades do a bit of damage while your at it. As it was he managed to catch two of them and take them to the ground with him. They hit with a heavy thump, luckily Xander landed almost directly on top of one of the vamps and his landing was slightly softened. The vamp reacted quickly though and Xander felt it's arms come up to wrap around him almost immediately after they hit. Xander rolled to his as soon as he felt the arms come up and was gratified to hear a scream of pain as he felt one of his blades bite into something. His yells joined it's seconds later as the other vamp he'd tackled kicked him in the gut with enough force to flip him over twice before he hit the ground again.
He almost lost it there, struggling for breath, seeing the vamp come after him again. He did lose it but in a completely different way. He lost himself to the rage that came with every fight, the one caused by pain and just pain. He screamed and relished in it.
As the vamp tried to kick him in the chest, he rolled with the blow. Pushing off the ground as hard as he could and spinning the instant before the blow hit. As such, the blow didn't hurt nearly as much and was enough to propel Xander, spinning, up to his feet.
He stumble backwards into the alley wall as the vamp kept coming. It threw a killer right straight at his head that only just missed, cracking the bricks next to Xanders ear. Xander ducked slightly and nailed the vamp with two hard lefts under his arm before viscously hacking at it's ribs with his left blade. It did little damage but caused the pain that Xanders rage was demanding.
The vamp though, was no fledgling . He'd been around about twenty years so he wasn't about to let pain destroy him. As the boy pulled back his arm for another hack, his danced back a step and let the strike pass through air. He then shoulder checked the youth into the wall and viscously grabbed a handful of hair and smashed his face into the bricks.
Xander grunted heavily as his face hit the bricks. That had hurt. Internally he screamed and yelled and rage and something clicked. Something that had been given to him but he'd never know about. Never been able to use.
The Hellmouth generates enormous amounts of negative energy. It's what draws the demons to the place.
Rage and hate feed of negative energy, your own personal negative energy. Xanders rage started feeding off the Hellmouths energy at that moment. It drew it in and absorbed it and made it something tangible.
Xanders teeth gritted as his head hit the wall again and his rage grew. His eye's began another change, it's whites discoloring as red seemed to bleed into it, until his eye's were just red black and brown.
The vamp drew back to slam Xanders head into the wall one more time. But suddenly the youths neck stiffened to the point were he was having trouble just trying to inch it towards the wall. His arms spread out and he started to push himself off the wall, with an incredible show of strength. The vamp gave up trying to hold him, and nailed him in the ribs several times. The youth didn't seem to feel them.
Xander couldn't feel the blows to his ribs. In the back of his mind he knew they were happening, but just didn't care. All that he felt, all that mattered was the berserker rage he felt. And he yelled it out, he released it, he let them feel it.
The runes on his blades glowed so bright they hurt to look at, and soon, the air around Xander began to glow their blood red as well. His scream went on, but suddenly changed and the yell became deeper and far louder than suddenly snapped into silence. The glow around Xander suddenly flickered and died. Than burst back into existence around Xander and shot out. It threw the vamp several feet away and continued to expand for several feet until it faded from existence. But in the few seconds it tenths of a second it took for this to happen Xander was already moving.
Xanders teeth were still clenched in anger as he moved around a slow world. The vamp that had been thrown off him almost floated a foot off the ground, ever so slowly heading towards the ground. Xander ran over to him and kicked his as hard as he could back into the air, he swore he could almost see his shoe imprint on the front of the vamps chest as he kicked it in the back, and all he felt was satisfaction at it.
The vamp rose up almost gently, and Xander was ready. He grasped his hands together over his head and slammed his blades into the rising vamp. The glowing blades slid so easily into the vamp, all the way up to Xanders elbows. With a violent twist of his body and arms, Xander wrenched the vamp into three separate parts in a spray of blood, gore and dust.
Xander suddenly turned his gaze on the other vamp he had tackled earlier. It was kneeling, screaming in slow motion as one hand wrapped around an almost stump that was it's hand. It's hand hung uselessly on a flap of skin and muscle as blood flowed ever so slowly from the stump. Xander kicked it in the ribs and felt with great satisfaction, it's chest cave in, seconds before it flew almost head first into the wall of the alley. It's head hit at an angle but it didn't stop it from shattering with the force of the impact and painting the wall a new color. Brain matter grey.
Xander saw Willow battling her last vamp, both seemed to be looking at him. Even that seemed slow.
He began to intervene, when it hit him. A crippling pain. Like every muscle in his body suddenly cramped than burst into flames. The pain and heat were so intense that he knew, even through his rage, that he was going to black out.
The world sped back up, or he just slowed down, either way, the ground still hurt when it rose up and hit him.
*******
Willow watched as Xander rushed into the fray, but decided to proceed with slightly more caution than his enthusiastic leap. She pulled power from the winds as she formed a large invisible fist that knocked the closest flying vamp flying even as he stared at the human foolish enough to rush a group of vampires.
His friend paid slightly more attention and was able to close on Willow before she could gather the concentration to form another blast. Willow knew it was coming and with very quick move, smashed her shield into the vamps face. Thanks to the fact that she was currently wearing Xanders collar, the blow had a considerable amount of force behind it. Enough force to cause the rather large crack that was the vamps nose breaking. The vamps instinctively clutched it's nose with a loud yell of pain as blood sprayed forth.
Willow used the vamps small distraction to mumble a few words and focus on her free hand. The fire that was leaping around it suddenly focused into a bright point of red light an inch above her knuckles. Willow turned back to the vamp with the broken nose and with quick harsh blow embedded her fist in his stomach. When she brought her fist back the red spark was gone.
The vamp began to scream even louder as it's hand went from it's nose to it's sides. Suddenly red lightning lept from it's mouth and begun to leap all over it's body. The vamp began to sizzle as a sickening stench started to float off it. Willow could see it's eyeballs begin to boil an instant before it turned into dust.
And through it all she felt one overriding emotion. Exhilaration. The rush. That was it. Nothing else. No anger or fear. Just exhilaration. Willows main weapon was her mind. She didn't use emotion to dictate her moves. She couldn't control magic if she let them. Just cold calculation. It was a devastating combination.
Focus and exhilaration.
As soon as she had seen the first vamp vanish into dust she turned to locate the other, just in time to raise her shield as a metal pipe tried to take her head off. It bounced off her shield harmlessly, but was quickly brought down again and again as the vampire forced her back. Every strike on the shield sent a painful jar up her arm, stopping her from gaining focus, and each blow seemed to increase in strength as the vamp tried to smash away her shield. Willow had to bring up both hands to support the shield.
And suddenly they were both buffeted against the wall.
They both turned to watch in fascination as a blur kicked up a falling vampire, and with bright blades that almost left an image burnt into their eyes, rip the vamp into three with a spray of gore.
Suddenly, vamp lying on the ground catapulted into the wall just next to Willow. It's head ending up with the consistency of cookie dough on impact. It dusted. And just as quickly, Xander collapsed onto the ground.
Willow didn't waste anytime staring. She reached out and snatched the metal pipe from her stunned vamps hands and with a back handed blow shattered his kneecap. Her next blow to his head knocked him out and onto his face, but only moments before she bent down and staked him.
"For him." She only muttered it as she rushed to Xanders side. Quickly kneeling down to examine him. Large bumps were already forming on his forehead and on top of those were large cuts that were currently leaking blood. Other than those she couldn't really see anything immediately wrong with him.
"What happened to him? What did he do?" She asked swinging around to look at Crytex and Glyndaf. What she saw was perhaps shock or awe but she couldn't tell. She'd never seen those emotions on the twos faces before.
* He.. he skipped a level... *
"What?! What do you mean?" Willow asked confused.
* Willow... Xander just accessed a power he didn't, shouldn't have had. It's way beyond his level of power... it's impossible. He shouldn't have been able to do that! * A stunned Crytex informed Willow. Glyndaf on the other hand was grinning like a demon in a nursery.
* I knew it! The kids a prodigy! *
* Are you kidding? He almost killed himself using it for that, what? second? *
"Killed himself?!" Willow butted in alarmed.
* Child, theres a reason Xander wasn't meant to be able to do something like that. His body is no where near ready to be able to cope with the strains the power causes. His muscles, heart, lungs... They aren't enhanced enough yet to be able to cope, he almost burnt himself out *
* But the fact that he was able to do it anyway! He is blessed! HE must of really taken a shining to the boy * Glyndaf added excitedly.
"How long till he wakes up?"
* Minutes... *
* But it will be days before he is anywhere near fighting shape again * Crytex interrupted.
* You underestimate his abilities! * Glyndaf almost spat at Crytex, annoyed at her lack of vision of what this could mean. * He will be up and fighting fit at most in 2 days... Quick Willow, run in and get Xander a coke and something full of sugar. There's a ten in his coat pocket. * Willow gave a quick nod before casting a regretful look at leaving Xander out in the open but hurried off anyway.
As soon as Willow was through the side doors, Crytex angrily turned to Glyndaf.
* You use these children to harshly and fill their heads with stupid ideas! You see to much in this... *
* And you not enough!... * Glyndaf spoke back hastily * Cannot you see the potential these two have? *
* You speak as if they are a resurgence of our ways! They are only two! *
* Two where in thousands of years there were none! *
* And you would use those two so recklessly? We both know something big is going down. They haven't seen so many vampires all week let alone in one meeting. Not since the harvest have so many vamps been together in one place. The master is mustering his forces, you know it, yet you send them out anyway! *
* I do not send them anywhere! They know the risks yet go anyway. Anyway would you stop them from going into a fight? Would you risk His wrath? * Crytex had no answer to that, but was luckily saved by a moan from Xander.
"Whoever took my muscles and replaced them with little balls of pain... I need them back." He weakly raised an arm as he said it.
* Stay down boy. Your running on fumes. Willow will be hear in a second with some food * Glyndaf told Xander firmly.
"Good, I could eat... something really big. Alright, someone stole my bag of wit." The side doors burst open and Willow rushed out, a large coke in hand and an arms full of chocolate bars.
"Hey Will..." Xander muttered weakly as Willow squatted down next to him and held the cup up to his lips.
"You alright Xan?" She asked concerned as he carefully took the cup in hand and painfully sat up.
"Ask me again in a couple of hours" He told her as he took another large gulp of drink and unwrapped a candy bar. "By the way. For him. I dont think I got a chance to say it before I passed out" He inhaled the bar of chocolately goodness. "Oh Will your a savior" He told her gratefully as he started on the next bar.
"What was that anyway?" He asked turning to Glyndaf, before taking a large bite of the next bar.
Glyndaf darted a quick glance at Crytex to see her watching him with concern before answering.
* Something your no where near ready for Xan. * Xander shrugged the explanation off, more concerned with the third candy bar in his hand right now. He took another bite before offering a bit to Willow. She accepted gratefully.
"Some night hey Xan" She said to him, smiling between chews.
Xander smiled back at her toothily, showing all the chocolate in his teeth.
"One of the best. But I reckon we should head home, I'm beat." He absently rubbed a large bump on his forehead. Willow just grinned at him before kissing the bump.
"Me too. Come on, we'll get our stuff and you can walk me home"
"Ohh. Do I have too?"
*Thwack*
*******
Xander walked Willow up to her front door. The light on the porch was left on for her, and Xander grabbed her just before she headed in. Curling an arms around her slim waist and kissing her gently... well at first anyway.
As they broke away, both smiling at each other, Xander noticed a little blood trickling out of some cuts on Willows arm.
"What happened?"
"Oh my bangle cut into my arm is all. Moron didn't realize he couldn't break my shield." She told him.
"Easy fixed" He slowly and very gently linked minds with her, she was barely aware he was there, and slowly sped up the healing process on her arm, directing the her body to focus on the area. It didn't heal up in front of her eye's but the bleeding stopped.
"It'll be good by morning. Walk you tomorrow?" He asked as he held her hand, gently rubbing a thumb over her knuckles.
" I have a free first. You don't."
"So?" He gave her a cheeky grin, but she couldn't bring herself to berate him over it.
She leant up and gave his a small kiss on the lips.
"Night" And with that she quietly slipped inside.
Xander just sighed happily and grinned. Then winced and groaned as he started his way home. He hadn't let Willow know how bad it hurt. No need to worry her, he'd be moving fine if a little weakly tomorrow.
He cast around a searching for a second. He wasn't in the best of shape to take on a vamp. He wandered up a few houses before darting into someone's back yard and scaling the back fence. He groaned with the effort, but knew he had to get home a soon as possible, and this way would be twice as quick. He limped out of the next houses front yard but sped up as a dog started barking a couple of houses down.
'This is gonna be a long night'
*******
Xander stumbled into his room at about ten. And almost instantly collapsed on his bed, groaning in relief at being able to get off his feet.
* Dont get too comfortable, You know what you have to do *
"Cant I just sleep? I'll do it in the morning " Xander whined.
* I know you aint that dumb Xan. You know something big's going on. What if it's tomorrow and you aint ready? * Glyndaf told him.
"Yeah yeah alright" He sighed heavily and sat up, mumbling under his breath about how he never got to be lazy anymore. He fished around under his bed before pulling a small chest he'd made in shop out. Inside was half a loaf of bread, a couple of candy bars, cans of Pepsi, and a couple of pieces of fruit.
Xander had learnt pretty early on that it was better to supply his body with what it needed to repair, other wise it tended to take apart other things for what it needed, namely muscle mass. On the plus side he'd never need to diet, when he set his body to healing like this, it tended to drain his fat supplies for energy rather quickly.
Xander took a mouthful of half stale bread, than a mouthful of warm Pepsi.
"I think I need to restock, or get something where I can keep this stuff" He complained idly.
* When the house is up and ready to move in you wont have these troubles *
"I guess" he took a bite out of a slightly bruised apple, glaring at it...
"I really need to restock"
He polished off the rest of the bread and two more apples before he sat down and began. Just as he was getting his concentration up he heard his TV flick on.
"What you doing? I need to concentrate. Turn it off!" He glared at Glyndaf.
* You need to be able to do this while there are distractions. There will eventually be times when you wont have a nice quiet room to come back and recuperate in * Glyndaf explained calmly.
Xander still wasn't convinced.
* Look, try it for an hour. If your not making much progress I'll turn it off and we'll try it some other time, ok? *
"Finnnne" Xander rolled his eye's and settled in again.
"This is gonna be a really long night"
*******
"Morning Xan"
"Ahh here's my favorite Willow" Xander snagged Willows waste as she came down the stairs and pulled her down into a kiss.
"How d'ya sleep?" He asked as he put her down.
"Like a baby, and look..." She held up her arm "Not even a mark"
"Are you questioning my workmanship?" he asked with false hurt. "Cause you know there's no refunds" Willow laughed before grabbing his hand.
"Come on. We got to get to school. See ya Mom!" She almost dragged him out the door.
"So did you feel that quake last night?" She asked as they started down the street.
"We had an earthquake? Man I was really into the trancy healing last night" He said tiredly.
"Did you get much sleep last night? You look pretty healthy?" Willow asked concerned.
"My bodys just finishing up, but it was a no go on the sleep front. Dont worry though, I'll just ditch class and sleep in the library for a bit."
"Xander, you know you shouldn't be skipping out on so many classes" Willow whined gently.
"This close to the summer break, I'm not really worried. Heck, I'm thinking of dropping you at school and heading up to the house, see if theres any damage from the quake. Plus there's a mattress up there. I could crash for the rest of the day and be good to go by tonight. By the way, we're gonna have to start sinking some funds into the house. I can only repair so much, we need professionals to fix the roofing and some of the electrical and plumbing. Plus there's furniture in the place but it's pretty seedy. If we're ever going to move in..."
"Whoa! Move in?" Willow interrupted, shocked.
"Yeah Will, that's usually what you do with houses." Xander stated matter of factly.
"Well yeah I know that. I just guess... The idea of moving in together... It just never occurred to me before." She spoke slightly shocked as the idea slowly bloomed in her mind.
"Big thought huh? We'd be all adult like." They walked on in contemplative silence for a few minutes, just thinking about the implications of their thoughts.
Xander sucked in a quick breath before giving Willow a reassuring smile.
"We dont have to worry about that now. Probably wont be for a while anyhow. But I'm just saying we might want to look at getting that stuff fixed." he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Yeah I guess your right. But could you please stay at school today? It'd be pretty boring without you" She said giving the puppy dog eyes.
"Oh alright, but no guarantees on the whole falling asleep thing. There's very little on earth right now that could keep me from dozing off."
*******
"Wow. That was boring" Buffy sighed as she, Willow and Xander came out of biology.
"That was so boring, I couldn't even fall asleep. In fact, I'm really starting to think it wasn't boring at all. It was the next thing." Xander stated out loudly.
"The next thing?" Buffy asked confused.
"Yeah, you know; "Normal, slow, boring.... the next thing""
"Even I was bored. And I'm a science nerd" Willow pointed out, really expressing how boring that class was.
"Dont say that" Buffy told her, concerned at they way her friend put herself down.
"I'm not ashamed. It's the computer age. Nerds are in. They are still in right?"
"Only the pretty ones" Xander assured her before giving her a kiss on the forehead, she smiled gratefully up at him.
Buffy stared at the two.
"Up to public affection now?" She asked, raising and eyebrow.
"We've decided to jump on the officially dating bandwagon" Willow told her happily, leaning back into Xander.
"Asked her to the springfling" Xander explained "Plus it has nice perks. By the way Buff you coming or what?"
"I dont know, I wouldn't want to be a third wheel and all"
"No ones asked you?" Xander asked slightly stunned.
"What about Angel?" Willow asks.
"He really doesn't seem like the dance type Will."
"Hasn't asked you yet has he ?" Willow asked completely seeing through her cover.
"No. But if he knows whats good for him he'll ask soon."
"Dont worry Buff. He probably has already. Just really really cryptically. He'll just outright say it soon enough."
*******
"Willow!" Willow looked up as Cordelia Chase flagged her down and started to stride over.
"Willow! I really like your outfit!" She stated in her usual snide tone.
"No you dont. What do you want Cordelia?!" Willow asked quickly, really not liking being in Cordelias presence. It meant that others of the air head brigade were close by.
"Well actually they upgrade you to freak on the fashion scales" Cordelia said, uncharacteristically glancing at Willows new clothes "But anyway, I need a favor"
'Upgraded to freak, yay for me!' Willow thought dryly
"What do you need?"
"Well the Bronze wont let us use their sound system, and I need someone who knows how to hook one up. If you could show up tomorrow morning I'd be really grateful. I'd talk to you at the dance and everything."
"Sure, whatever Cordy" Willow said dryly.
"Here at Ten than? Thanks"
Willow sighed in relief as she walked off and started over to Xander who was currently sleeping on the student lounge couch.
"Hey hobo, wake up" She gave him a gentle nudge and he jerked awake and looked around.
"Huh... oh hey Will whats up?" He looked down and brushed off the rubbish so nicely placed on him by passing by students. A group of guys hanging in one corner started to laugh so he gave them the finger. Willow gave a small laugh and mentally noted to never fall asleep in public.
"Nothin much. If had known you were this tired I would have let you go up to the house and sleep."
"Hey, no biggy. I'll just go this arvo. Wanna come with and scope out the attic. Might be pirate gold" He gave her an innocent smile.
"Yeah ok, but only till 4. I've got an appointment at the hairdressers. Gotta look good for the dance" She gave him a cool smile.
"What are you getting done?" he asked curiously.
"I dont know for sure... I'll decide when I get there. Ask Buffy for a few pointers"
"Cool..." The bell went off in the background "Ah well, off to maths and more sleep." He gave her a quick kiss "Catch ya at the gates". They got up and headed off to their last class.
*******
"Looks like Buffys not showing up tonight" He said loudly, competing with the band on stage at the Bronze. He and Willow were going to meet Buffy here tonight to hang out but it seemed like they'd been blown off again.
"You cant really blame her, she's got the whole slaying gig. She probably just ran into some vamps." Willow said taking a small sip from her drink, peering over her glasses at him.
"Yeah, I guess" He gave her a bit a smile and absently rubbed her leg with his under the table.
"So... You wanna go to the spring fling together?" Xander asked non-chalantly.
"Sure" Willow replied, equally suave. Well for the moment anyway. Xander didn't stop staring at her, a small smirk on his lips, as her own smirk grew bigger and bigger till it was a full blown smile and girlish giggle was added to the end.
The moment was only ruined by, ofcourse, Cordelia.
"I didn't think it could happen but geek girl just got geekier."
"Thats my girlfriend your talking about there, Cordelia!" Xander bit in quickly seeing the frown form on Willows face.
Cordelia seemed slightly taken back. Sure, Xander and Willow were an unofficial couple around school. Both having first dibs on each other and both excluding everyone else on offer. Sure everyone knew they were a couple but nothing had been said. But she herself had never expected it to be said.
"You could of done much better Xander. 'Much' better." Cordy replied, leaning in and completely ignoring Willow. Xander seemed rather unfazed as he stared into his glass and swirled around the last of his coke.
" If you leave now Cordelia, I wont give your boyfriend a black eye for the dance." He finally gazed up at her. She had stood back up straight shock and disbelief. He wouldn't dare! She said as much.
"You wouldn't dare!" Xander just smirked at her.
"Hmmph" Cordelia made a quick exit, scowl and mobile firmly in place.
"How do you do that?" Willow asked, practically glowing after Xander had called her his girlfriend.
"Do what?"
"Beat Cordelia like that?"
"Oh thats easy! All you got to do is act better to her. Act her superior, like she cant touch you. Pisses em off royally. You can to, all you got to do is get a little self confidence."
"Yeah but I cant threaten to give her boyfriend a black eye" Willow pointed out.
"You can threaten to give Cordelia a black eye"
"Like she'd believe me" Willow replied with a small frown.
"So, thats when you make her believe and give her a black eye" Willow straightened a little at the thought, a small grin spreading over her face.
"Yeah" Xander gave a small laugh.
"There's one thing you got to learn about life. It the most ferocious that always gets ahead. Whether it be in a fight or an argument, it's the one with the most guts that comes out on top. As long as you've got the guts to stand up to someone or something, even if it's smarter or stronger than you, if you've got the guts to take what ever it throws at you and not flinch, you'll always comes out on top."
"Xander logic for the day?" Willow asked dryly.
"Got it in one. Now come on. The night is young, the music loud, and the vamps heading out the door" he nodded over Willows shoulder as he said the last part. She turned and looked herself. A couple of guys where ushering a girl and her friends out a side door into the alley.
"How can you tell?" She asked even though they were both already moving to follow.
"Their thoughts sound different, they sound kinda like an echo, very hard to hear too... That and it's the biggest cliché ever. I'm mean look around, there's people making out all over the bronze, who would take someone into the alley to make out?" He explained as they headed for the door. Xander fished around in his pocket for a stake and saw Willow doing the same in her small purse. They paused at the door, and took a deep breath, both trying to calm their excited nerves.
* Willow, pull your hair back. * Crytex suddenly spoke up, giving a final pointer.
* Dump the jacket Xander * Glyndaf piped in as well.
* Really you two should know this by now *
"Yeah yeah" Xander said quickly stashing another stake into the back of his pants. He grabbed Willows purse and wrapped it up in his jacket and tossed them both into a dark corner by the stage.
They both gave each other excited, nervous smiles.
"Never gets boring does it?" Willow just shook her head.
"Lets go"
They quietly slipped through the doors, stakes held low. They found the girls, about six of them, being herded down to the dead end of the alley by two vamps with their game faces on. One looked up as they came through the door.
"Piss off or I'll rip your throat out" The vamp glare at them over his shoulder, expecting his game face to scare them off.
"Now thats a face only a mother could love" Xander quipped as they made their way towards them.
"I said. Fuck. Off." The vamp turned to face them fully the other glancing back at them. Xander gave a hard glance at the first vamp.
"Billy? Billy Consim? Is that you?" Xander suddenly asked squinting slightly.
"Xander? Is that you? Hey it is you. How you doin buddy?" The vamp suddenly smiled, slipping out of it's game face.
"Not bad. Hey Will, it's chess club Billy." Willow gave a small wave.
"I remember, we haven't won a tournament since you disappeared ya know." She stated.
"Oh really. Hey it's nice to know your missed" In the background the other vamp was rolling it's eyes at the current situation as he watched the girls.
"Yeah we're sorry about this" Xander told him now idly picking his finger with his stake.
"What? This?" Billy waved a hand at his face as it morphed back into his vampire visage. "Dont be man. I feel great, never been better. And hey, picking up the chicks now " He gave Xander a sly smirk.
"No no, not that. Sorry about this" Xander lunged in quickly, lodging his stake in billys un beating heart. He turned to dust like so many old oreos.
"You prick!" The other vamp stated annoyingly before stepping in and taking a wild swing at Xander. Xander just managed to duck the swing, it whizzing centimeters over his head. Xander quickly lifted his foot and planted it in the overbalanced vampires gut and gave a huge push. The vamp flew up and out, straight into the alley wall, a few feet from where Willow was waiting. Willow instantly nailed the vamp with a few hard elbows to the sternum before staking it.
The both turned and looked at each other for a moment before simultaneously...
"For Him!" The both let out a loud whoop of satisfaction as well.
"That was great Xan, we've never got two so easy before" Willow said estatically, almost bouncing on the spot.
"I know 'ey. And we didn't even..." He trailed off as he turned and looked at the frightened girls still at the end of the alley. They all looked pretty young.
"Ahhh ummm They were both on drugs, yeah drugs, so many drugs that they spontaneously combusted and turned to dust" Willow nodded eagerly trying to back up Xander s lie.
" Bullshit" One up the back of the group stated as they started to get their courage back. Xander let out a annoyed sigh.
"Fine, they were vampires." Xander stated sarcastically before glaring at them. "What the hell do you want from me? Get back in side!" He waved a hand at the side entrance and thankfully the girls seemed to decide they'd rather be in there than out here.
"Thats gratitude for ya" Willow stated dryly as she put an arm around Xanders waist and steered him for the door. Xander put his arm over Willows shoulders.
"Well at least we found out that vamps are a lot easier to stake when taken by surprise..."
"And a lot harder when they're not" An unknown voice from the end of the alley interrupted. Xander and Willow both looked up to find four vamps at the end of the alley. They'd probably sent Billy and his friend to get the food for them.
"Reckon we can take em Will?" Xander whispered.
"I'm not sure..." Willow replied as a now familiar feeling came over her "But I want to find out." Xander grinned at her before reaching up and taking off his collar.
"Here, you can use this... Just in case" He handed it to Willow as they slowly backed up from the approaching vamps. She gave him a grateful smile as she put it on. They spread out slightly.
"You ready to do this Will?" Xander asked as he grabbed his other stake, now holding one in each in each hand, point down.
"Hopefully" she stated before mumbling a few words. A dull glowing Kite shield made an appearance on her left arm, and fire began to dance around her right fist. One of the vamps paused at seeing this, but after receiving a glare form his buddies continued on.
"Good" Xander started off. Running towards the vamps as fast as he could, his blades sliding out as he went. He didn't really have a plan, right now it was crash tackle as many as you can and hope your blades do a bit of damage while your at it. As it was he managed to catch two of them and take them to the ground with him. They hit with a heavy thump, luckily Xander landed almost directly on top of one of the vamps and his landing was slightly softened. The vamp reacted quickly though and Xander felt it's arms come up to wrap around him almost immediately after they hit. Xander rolled to his as soon as he felt the arms come up and was gratified to hear a scream of pain as he felt one of his blades bite into something. His yells joined it's seconds later as the other vamp he'd tackled kicked him in the gut with enough force to flip him over twice before he hit the ground again.
He almost lost it there, struggling for breath, seeing the vamp come after him again. He did lose it but in a completely different way. He lost himself to the rage that came with every fight, the one caused by pain and just pain. He screamed and relished in it.
As the vamp tried to kick him in the chest, he rolled with the blow. Pushing off the ground as hard as he could and spinning the instant before the blow hit. As such, the blow didn't hurt nearly as much and was enough to propel Xander, spinning, up to his feet.
He stumble backwards into the alley wall as the vamp kept coming. It threw a killer right straight at his head that only just missed, cracking the bricks next to Xanders ear. Xander ducked slightly and nailed the vamp with two hard lefts under his arm before viscously hacking at it's ribs with his left blade. It did little damage but caused the pain that Xanders rage was demanding.
The vamp though, was no fledgling . He'd been around about twenty years so he wasn't about to let pain destroy him. As the boy pulled back his arm for another hack, his danced back a step and let the strike pass through air. He then shoulder checked the youth into the wall and viscously grabbed a handful of hair and smashed his face into the bricks.
Xander grunted heavily as his face hit the bricks. That had hurt. Internally he screamed and yelled and rage and something clicked. Something that had been given to him but he'd never know about. Never been able to use.
The Hellmouth generates enormous amounts of negative energy. It's what draws the demons to the place.
Rage and hate feed of negative energy, your own personal negative energy. Xanders rage started feeding off the Hellmouths energy at that moment. It drew it in and absorbed it and made it something tangible.
Xanders teeth gritted as his head hit the wall again and his rage grew. His eye's began another change, it's whites discoloring as red seemed to bleed into it, until his eye's were just red black and brown.
The vamp drew back to slam Xanders head into the wall one more time. But suddenly the youths neck stiffened to the point were he was having trouble just trying to inch it towards the wall. His arms spread out and he started to push himself off the wall, with an incredible show of strength. The vamp gave up trying to hold him, and nailed him in the ribs several times. The youth didn't seem to feel them.
Xander couldn't feel the blows to his ribs. In the back of his mind he knew they were happening, but just didn't care. All that he felt, all that mattered was the berserker rage he felt. And he yelled it out, he released it, he let them feel it.
The runes on his blades glowed so bright they hurt to look at, and soon, the air around Xander began to glow their blood red as well. His scream went on, but suddenly changed and the yell became deeper and far louder than suddenly snapped into silence. The glow around Xander suddenly flickered and died. Than burst back into existence around Xander and shot out. It threw the vamp several feet away and continued to expand for several feet until it faded from existence. But in the few seconds it tenths of a second it took for this to happen Xander was already moving.
Xanders teeth were still clenched in anger as he moved around a slow world. The vamp that had been thrown off him almost floated a foot off the ground, ever so slowly heading towards the ground. Xander ran over to him and kicked his as hard as he could back into the air, he swore he could almost see his shoe imprint on the front of the vamps chest as he kicked it in the back, and all he felt was satisfaction at it.
The vamp rose up almost gently, and Xander was ready. He grasped his hands together over his head and slammed his blades into the rising vamp. The glowing blades slid so easily into the vamp, all the way up to Xanders elbows. With a violent twist of his body and arms, Xander wrenched the vamp into three separate parts in a spray of blood, gore and dust.
Xander suddenly turned his gaze on the other vamp he had tackled earlier. It was kneeling, screaming in slow motion as one hand wrapped around an almost stump that was it's hand. It's hand hung uselessly on a flap of skin and muscle as blood flowed ever so slowly from the stump. Xander kicked it in the ribs and felt with great satisfaction, it's chest cave in, seconds before it flew almost head first into the wall of the alley. It's head hit at an angle but it didn't stop it from shattering with the force of the impact and painting the wall a new color. Brain matter grey.
Xander saw Willow battling her last vamp, both seemed to be looking at him. Even that seemed slow.
He began to intervene, when it hit him. A crippling pain. Like every muscle in his body suddenly cramped than burst into flames. The pain and heat were so intense that he knew, even through his rage, that he was going to black out.
The world sped back up, or he just slowed down, either way, the ground still hurt when it rose up and hit him.
*******
Willow watched as Xander rushed into the fray, but decided to proceed with slightly more caution than his enthusiastic leap. She pulled power from the winds as she formed a large invisible fist that knocked the closest flying vamp flying even as he stared at the human foolish enough to rush a group of vampires.
His friend paid slightly more attention and was able to close on Willow before she could gather the concentration to form another blast. Willow knew it was coming and with very quick move, smashed her shield into the vamps face. Thanks to the fact that she was currently wearing Xanders collar, the blow had a considerable amount of force behind it. Enough force to cause the rather large crack that was the vamps nose breaking. The vamps instinctively clutched it's nose with a loud yell of pain as blood sprayed forth.
Willow used the vamps small distraction to mumble a few words and focus on her free hand. The fire that was leaping around it suddenly focused into a bright point of red light an inch above her knuckles. Willow turned back to the vamp with the broken nose and with quick harsh blow embedded her fist in his stomach. When she brought her fist back the red spark was gone.
The vamp began to scream even louder as it's hand went from it's nose to it's sides. Suddenly red lightning lept from it's mouth and begun to leap all over it's body. The vamp began to sizzle as a sickening stench started to float off it. Willow could see it's eyeballs begin to boil an instant before it turned into dust.
And through it all she felt one overriding emotion. Exhilaration. The rush. That was it. Nothing else. No anger or fear. Just exhilaration. Willows main weapon was her mind. She didn't use emotion to dictate her moves. She couldn't control magic if she let them. Just cold calculation. It was a devastating combination.
Focus and exhilaration.
As soon as she had seen the first vamp vanish into dust she turned to locate the other, just in time to raise her shield as a metal pipe tried to take her head off. It bounced off her shield harmlessly, but was quickly brought down again and again as the vampire forced her back. Every strike on the shield sent a painful jar up her arm, stopping her from gaining focus, and each blow seemed to increase in strength as the vamp tried to smash away her shield. Willow had to bring up both hands to support the shield.
And suddenly they were both buffeted against the wall.
They both turned to watch in fascination as a blur kicked up a falling vampire, and with bright blades that almost left an image burnt into their eyes, rip the vamp into three with a spray of gore.
Suddenly, vamp lying on the ground catapulted into the wall just next to Willow. It's head ending up with the consistency of cookie dough on impact. It dusted. And just as quickly, Xander collapsed onto the ground.
Willow didn't waste anytime staring. She reached out and snatched the metal pipe from her stunned vamps hands and with a back handed blow shattered his kneecap. Her next blow to his head knocked him out and onto his face, but only moments before she bent down and staked him.
"For him." She only muttered it as she rushed to Xanders side. Quickly kneeling down to examine him. Large bumps were already forming on his forehead and on top of those were large cuts that were currently leaking blood. Other than those she couldn't really see anything immediately wrong with him.
"What happened to him? What did he do?" She asked swinging around to look at Crytex and Glyndaf. What she saw was perhaps shock or awe but she couldn't tell. She'd never seen those emotions on the twos faces before.
* He.. he skipped a level... *
"What?! What do you mean?" Willow asked confused.
* Willow... Xander just accessed a power he didn't, shouldn't have had. It's way beyond his level of power... it's impossible. He shouldn't have been able to do that! * A stunned Crytex informed Willow. Glyndaf on the other hand was grinning like a demon in a nursery.
* I knew it! The kids a prodigy! *
* Are you kidding? He almost killed himself using it for that, what? second? *
"Killed himself?!" Willow butted in alarmed.
* Child, theres a reason Xander wasn't meant to be able to do something like that. His body is no where near ready to be able to cope with the strains the power causes. His muscles, heart, lungs... They aren't enhanced enough yet to be able to cope, he almost burnt himself out *
* But the fact that he was able to do it anyway! He is blessed! HE must of really taken a shining to the boy * Glyndaf added excitedly.
"How long till he wakes up?"
* Minutes... *
* But it will be days before he is anywhere near fighting shape again * Crytex interrupted.
* You underestimate his abilities! * Glyndaf almost spat at Crytex, annoyed at her lack of vision of what this could mean. * He will be up and fighting fit at most in 2 days... Quick Willow, run in and get Xander a coke and something full of sugar. There's a ten in his coat pocket. * Willow gave a quick nod before casting a regretful look at leaving Xander out in the open but hurried off anyway.
As soon as Willow was through the side doors, Crytex angrily turned to Glyndaf.
* You use these children to harshly and fill their heads with stupid ideas! You see to much in this... *
* And you not enough!... * Glyndaf spoke back hastily * Cannot you see the potential these two have? *
* You speak as if they are a resurgence of our ways! They are only two! *
* Two where in thousands of years there were none! *
* And you would use those two so recklessly? We both know something big is going down. They haven't seen so many vampires all week let alone in one meeting. Not since the harvest have so many vamps been together in one place. The master is mustering his forces, you know it, yet you send them out anyway! *
* I do not send them anywhere! They know the risks yet go anyway. Anyway would you stop them from going into a fight? Would you risk His wrath? * Crytex had no answer to that, but was luckily saved by a moan from Xander.
"Whoever took my muscles and replaced them with little balls of pain... I need them back." He weakly raised an arm as he said it.
* Stay down boy. Your running on fumes. Willow will be hear in a second with some food * Glyndaf told Xander firmly.
"Good, I could eat... something really big. Alright, someone stole my bag of wit." The side doors burst open and Willow rushed out, a large coke in hand and an arms full of chocolate bars.
"Hey Will..." Xander muttered weakly as Willow squatted down next to him and held the cup up to his lips.
"You alright Xan?" She asked concerned as he carefully took the cup in hand and painfully sat up.
"Ask me again in a couple of hours" He told her as he took another large gulp of drink and unwrapped a candy bar. "By the way. For him. I dont think I got a chance to say it before I passed out" He inhaled the bar of chocolately goodness. "Oh Will your a savior" He told her gratefully as he started on the next bar.
"What was that anyway?" He asked turning to Glyndaf, before taking a large bite of the next bar.
Glyndaf darted a quick glance at Crytex to see her watching him with concern before answering.
* Something your no where near ready for Xan. * Xander shrugged the explanation off, more concerned with the third candy bar in his hand right now. He took another bite before offering a bit to Willow. She accepted gratefully.
"Some night hey Xan" She said to him, smiling between chews.
Xander smiled back at her toothily, showing all the chocolate in his teeth.
"One of the best. But I reckon we should head home, I'm beat." He absently rubbed a large bump on his forehead. Willow just grinned at him before kissing the bump.
"Me too. Come on, we'll get our stuff and you can walk me home"
"Ohh. Do I have too?"
*Thwack*
*******
Xander walked Willow up to her front door. The light on the porch was left on for her, and Xander grabbed her just before she headed in. Curling an arms around her slim waist and kissing her gently... well at first anyway.
As they broke away, both smiling at each other, Xander noticed a little blood trickling out of some cuts on Willows arm.
"What happened?"
"Oh my bangle cut into my arm is all. Moron didn't realize he couldn't break my shield." She told him.
"Easy fixed" He slowly and very gently linked minds with her, she was barely aware he was there, and slowly sped up the healing process on her arm, directing the her body to focus on the area. It didn't heal up in front of her eye's but the bleeding stopped.
"It'll be good by morning. Walk you tomorrow?" He asked as he held her hand, gently rubbing a thumb over her knuckles.
" I have a free first. You don't."
"So?" He gave her a cheeky grin, but she couldn't bring herself to berate him over it.
She leant up and gave his a small kiss on the lips.
"Night" And with that she quietly slipped inside.
Xander just sighed happily and grinned. Then winced and groaned as he started his way home. He hadn't let Willow know how bad it hurt. No need to worry her, he'd be moving fine if a little weakly tomorrow.
He cast around a searching for a second. He wasn't in the best of shape to take on a vamp. He wandered up a few houses before darting into someone's back yard and scaling the back fence. He groaned with the effort, but knew he had to get home a soon as possible, and this way would be twice as quick. He limped out of the next houses front yard but sped up as a dog started barking a couple of houses down.
'This is gonna be a long night'
*******
Xander stumbled into his room at about ten. And almost instantly collapsed on his bed, groaning in relief at being able to get off his feet.
* Dont get too comfortable, You know what you have to do *
"Cant I just sleep? I'll do it in the morning " Xander whined.
* I know you aint that dumb Xan. You know something big's going on. What if it's tomorrow and you aint ready? * Glyndaf told him.
"Yeah yeah alright" He sighed heavily and sat up, mumbling under his breath about how he never got to be lazy anymore. He fished around under his bed before pulling a small chest he'd made in shop out. Inside was half a loaf of bread, a couple of candy bars, cans of Pepsi, and a couple of pieces of fruit.
Xander had learnt pretty early on that it was better to supply his body with what it needed to repair, other wise it tended to take apart other things for what it needed, namely muscle mass. On the plus side he'd never need to diet, when he set his body to healing like this, it tended to drain his fat supplies for energy rather quickly.
Xander took a mouthful of half stale bread, than a mouthful of warm Pepsi.
"I think I need to restock, or get something where I can keep this stuff" He complained idly.
* When the house is up and ready to move in you wont have these troubles *
"I guess" he took a bite out of a slightly bruised apple, glaring at it...
"I really need to restock"
He polished off the rest of the bread and two more apples before he sat down and began. Just as he was getting his concentration up he heard his TV flick on.
"What you doing? I need to concentrate. Turn it off!" He glared at Glyndaf.
* You need to be able to do this while there are distractions. There will eventually be times when you wont have a nice quiet room to come back and recuperate in * Glyndaf explained calmly.
Xander still wasn't convinced.
* Look, try it for an hour. If your not making much progress I'll turn it off and we'll try it some other time, ok? *
"Finnnne" Xander rolled his eye's and settled in again.
"This is gonna be a really long night"
*******
"Morning Xan"
"Ahh here's my favorite Willow" Xander snagged Willows waste as she came down the stairs and pulled her down into a kiss.
"How d'ya sleep?" He asked as he put her down.
"Like a baby, and look..." She held up her arm "Not even a mark"
"Are you questioning my workmanship?" he asked with false hurt. "Cause you know there's no refunds" Willow laughed before grabbing his hand.
"Come on. We got to get to school. See ya Mom!" She almost dragged him out the door.
"So did you feel that quake last night?" She asked as they started down the street.
"We had an earthquake? Man I was really into the trancy healing last night" He said tiredly.
"Did you get much sleep last night? You look pretty healthy?" Willow asked concerned.
"My bodys just finishing up, but it was a no go on the sleep front. Dont worry though, I'll just ditch class and sleep in the library for a bit."
"Xander, you know you shouldn't be skipping out on so many classes" Willow whined gently.
"This close to the summer break, I'm not really worried. Heck, I'm thinking of dropping you at school and heading up to the house, see if theres any damage from the quake. Plus there's a mattress up there. I could crash for the rest of the day and be good to go by tonight. By the way, we're gonna have to start sinking some funds into the house. I can only repair so much, we need professionals to fix the roofing and some of the electrical and plumbing. Plus there's furniture in the place but it's pretty seedy. If we're ever going to move in..."
"Whoa! Move in?" Willow interrupted, shocked.
"Yeah Will, that's usually what you do with houses." Xander stated matter of factly.
"Well yeah I know that. I just guess... The idea of moving in together... It just never occurred to me before." She spoke slightly shocked as the idea slowly bloomed in her mind.
"Big thought huh? We'd be all adult like." They walked on in contemplative silence for a few minutes, just thinking about the implications of their thoughts.
Xander sucked in a quick breath before giving Willow a reassuring smile.
"We dont have to worry about that now. Probably wont be for a while anyhow. But I'm just saying we might want to look at getting that stuff fixed." he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Yeah I guess your right. But could you please stay at school today? It'd be pretty boring without you" She said giving the puppy dog eyes.
"Oh alright, but no guarantees on the whole falling asleep thing. There's very little on earth right now that could keep me from dozing off."
*******
"Wow. That was boring" Buffy sighed as she, Willow and Xander came out of biology.
"That was so boring, I couldn't even fall asleep. In fact, I'm really starting to think it wasn't boring at all. It was the next thing." Xander stated out loudly.
"The next thing?" Buffy asked confused.
"Yeah, you know; "Normal, slow, boring.... the next thing""
"Even I was bored. And I'm a science nerd" Willow pointed out, really expressing how boring that class was.
"Dont say that" Buffy told her, concerned at they way her friend put herself down.
"I'm not ashamed. It's the computer age. Nerds are in. They are still in right?"
"Only the pretty ones" Xander assured her before giving her a kiss on the forehead, she smiled gratefully up at him.
Buffy stared at the two.
"Up to public affection now?" She asked, raising and eyebrow.
"We've decided to jump on the officially dating bandwagon" Willow told her happily, leaning back into Xander.
"Asked her to the springfling" Xander explained "Plus it has nice perks. By the way Buff you coming or what?"
"I dont know, I wouldn't want to be a third wheel and all"
"No ones asked you?" Xander asked slightly stunned.
"What about Angel?" Willow asks.
"He really doesn't seem like the dance type Will."
"Hasn't asked you yet has he ?" Willow asked completely seeing through her cover.
"No. But if he knows whats good for him he'll ask soon."
"Dont worry Buff. He probably has already. Just really really cryptically. He'll just outright say it soon enough."
*******
"Willow!" Willow looked up as Cordelia Chase flagged her down and started to stride over.
"Willow! I really like your outfit!" She stated in her usual snide tone.
"No you dont. What do you want Cordelia?!" Willow asked quickly, really not liking being in Cordelias presence. It meant that others of the air head brigade were close by.
"Well actually they upgrade you to freak on the fashion scales" Cordelia said, uncharacteristically glancing at Willows new clothes "But anyway, I need a favor"
'Upgraded to freak, yay for me!' Willow thought dryly
"What do you need?"
"Well the Bronze wont let us use their sound system, and I need someone who knows how to hook one up. If you could show up tomorrow morning I'd be really grateful. I'd talk to you at the dance and everything."
"Sure, whatever Cordy" Willow said dryly.
"Here at Ten than? Thanks"
Willow sighed in relief as she walked off and started over to Xander who was currently sleeping on the student lounge couch.
"Hey hobo, wake up" She gave him a gentle nudge and he jerked awake and looked around.
"Huh... oh hey Will whats up?" He looked down and brushed off the rubbish so nicely placed on him by passing by students. A group of guys hanging in one corner started to laugh so he gave them the finger. Willow gave a small laugh and mentally noted to never fall asleep in public.
"Nothin much. If had known you were this tired I would have let you go up to the house and sleep."
"Hey, no biggy. I'll just go this arvo. Wanna come with and scope out the attic. Might be pirate gold" He gave her an innocent smile.
"Yeah ok, but only till 4. I've got an appointment at the hairdressers. Gotta look good for the dance" She gave him a cool smile.
"What are you getting done?" he asked curiously.
"I dont know for sure... I'll decide when I get there. Ask Buffy for a few pointers"
"Cool..." The bell went off in the background "Ah well, off to maths and more sleep." He gave her a quick kiss "Catch ya at the gates". They got up and headed off to their last class.
*******