Xander was running up the stairs to Buffy's dorm, when he realized he had kissed Faith. Then he realized why he had done it, and hoped very strongly that Buffy would understand.

He knocked on her door, and entered when she yelled that it was open.

"Hey baby," she said when he came in, standing up to give him a kiss.

Xander grinned at her and kissed her passionately.

"Mmm. . . nice," she said.

"Blech," said Willow, from her desk.

Xander turned to Willow and grinned.

"What?" Willow asked.

"Faith called me a Paladin!" Xander said.

Willow squealed, then jumped up to give Xander a hug.

"Well that was fast," Willow said, grabbing the book she was studying and throwing it in her bag. "I'll give you some time to explain to Buffy."

"Thanks, Will. You're the best."

"I bet you said the same thing to Faith."

"I was pretty happy," Xander said, still grinning.

Willow nodded. "And with good reason," she said. "Okay, I'm out of here. Bye, guys."

Buffy raised an eyebrow when Xander turned around to face her again.

Xander smiled at her meekly, sat down on her bed and patted the spot next to him, where Buffy sat down.

"Okay," Xander said. "I'm going to tell you a kind of a funny story, which isn't really funny 'ha ha', but rather funny 'I'm not going to kill my boyfriend, and instead will be understanding and supportive of his elation and temporary insanity.'"

Buffy looked confused.

"Okay, let me put this another way. I'm going to tell you a story that ends with me kissing Faith about 10 minutes ago, and hope very much that you will understand my reaction."

Buffy slid away from him a little and frowned. "You kissed Faith?"

"Yes, but there was a good reason, I swear. And if Giles had been sitting there, I would have kissed him, too."

Buffy chuckled. "Well, there still better be a good reason for kissing the only woman you've had sex with when you currently have a girlfriend who is not her, and with whom you are decidedly not."

Xander winced. "There is. So I'm going to tell you."

"Okay," Buffy said. "I'm listening."

"Okay. So a couple days ago, when all you ladies came down to my site individually, Faith came by to tell me that Giles needed to see me. She said it was something about training."

"All right."

"I got off work a little early and headed over. When I got there, Giles told me that you and I might not be soul mates."

"He WHAT?"

"That's what I said. I yelled at him. I said 'Me White Knight, she Chosen One. Duh.'"

"Right."

"And his response was basically, 'And Faith is what, chopped liver?'"

"But I don't get wha-oh. She's also Chosen."

"Right. But I didn't give up. I yelled. I said 'Hey, man, but I love Buffy! That should be enough, damn it!'"

Buffy smiled.

"And Giles said 'Yeah, but what if it isn't.'" Xander paused. "So I sat down and listened to what he had to say."

Buffy frowned.

"He read me a prophecy from a book the Council had sent that had a prophecy dealing specifically with this. It said something about the valued one from the order of white or whatever, but the main part was, it referred to Angelus naming me, but one of the Chosen giving me a new name."

"She calls you Boytoy."

"Yeah, but it would be something White Knight-ish. Anyway, it said whoever does name me will be my Companion. . . but not my Chosen. Which means, I guess, that Faith and I are destined to be friends, which is kind of, 'Hey, duh.' But whatever."

"I still don't see how this leads to you kissing her."

"I'm getting there."

"Okay. Sorry."

"Right. So, here's li'l ol' me with this big thing. . . I have a soul mate, I know that, but right now destiny's kind of being all 'column A or column B' on me, so I had to make a decision. I decided that, destiny be damned, I'm gonna be with the woman I love."

Buffy smiled again.

"And then, the other night, you wanted to. . . well, you were there, you know what you wanted to do."

Buffy nodded. "When I wanted to jump your bones."

Xander chuckled. "Right, that. And I said that I wanted it to be perfect, and when I saw you there, in my sweatshirt, looking as gorgeous as ever, the. . . sixth or seventh thing that went through my mind was 'But what if?'"

"What if?"

Xander sighed. "Buffy, when we do. . . get together. . . I want that to be it. You and no other woman for the rest of my life. And selfish as it may seem, I want it to be me, and no other man for the rest of yours. And I thought, 'But what if? What if it really is Faith?' I didn't believe it was, not for a second but I couldn't keep the 'what if?' out of my head. And I didn't want to take that step with you until I was positive that the 'what if?' was gone. And I wasn't, until today. I was never unsure of my love for you, Buffy. But you heard what Giles said about Arthur and Guinevere. Despite her love for him, she couldn't keep away from Lancelot, because they were soul mates. And I didn't ever want to be put in a position where that might happen. And Buffy, if we had. . . well, when we do, it'll be over for me. That's it. I'll have you, and I'll be happy."

"So, you kissed Faith because you want to be with me?"

"Yes!"

"I'm still confused."

"I'm not explaining very well. I went over to Giles's again today, having spent the past few days basically saying to myself 'I love Buffy, but what if? Am I powerful enough to deny my soul mate if it's Faith?' So I saw her at Giles's today, and apologized for. . . the way things went last year, because I felt that we treated her unfairly. . . as a stand in for you, which she isn't. She forgave me. . . us, for it, and then said 'Sorry for trying to choke you to death.' At which point I asked for a favor."

"A favor?"

"Yeah. I asked her to take over patrols tomorrow night, because it's our one-week anniversary and I want to take you out and have a wonderful, special night that's just us and monster free. So I asked her, and she was a little disbelieving that: A) I'm cheesy enough to want to celebrate our one-week anniversary and that B) we've only been together for one week. So I told her that we were in love, and she got a little angry and told me to, and I quote, 'dedicate a religion to you and name myself your frikking Paladin.'"

"O. . .kay."

"So, I heard her call me a Paladin, and it clicked. . . Paladin, White Knight, same basic deal. She named me. Which means she's my friend, and nothing more. It means that you are, as I have always believed you to be, my soul mate. My one and only, Buffy. I was so happy that I grabbed her, kissed her on the mouth, yelled at Giles that she called me a Paladin and ran out to find you. The kiss meant nothing but that I was happy, and she was there. I would have kissed Willow and Oz, and Giles and Anya if they had been there."

"Anya?"

Xander laughed. "She showed up at the site yesterday wanting to 'copulate' to get over me. Her words, not mine. I told her I was with you, she smacked me and walked off."

"Odd."

"Yeah. So. . . do you forgive me?"

"Xander, of course I do. I mean, you could have told me though."

"I know," he said. "But I was scared. Scared of your reaction, scared that it would make things weird between us, and with Faith, and..." he shook his head. "I was just scared."

"Well. I can't very well fault you for being happy that we're soul mates, can I?" she asked, as she moved closer to him and kissed him.

"Mmm. . . I suppose not. And, you know, if you feel that happy, and feel the need to kiss Faith too, while I'm around with a camera, I won't object."

Buffy glared at him.

"Or, you know, not."

Buffy looked at him, and then stood up.

"Where you going?" Xander asked.

"Nowhere," Buffy said. She then pulled out a scrunchy, opened the door and slipped it over the doorknob, then shut the door and locked it.

"Buff?"

She turned to him and grinned. "I want it to be over for you," she said, and pounced on him.

Had they had the ability to hear anything outside the room twenty minutes later, they might have heard their mutual friend Willow walk down the hall, stop outside the door and say "Oh, eww," then walk away.

* * * * *

Three hours later

"She actually had a scrunchy on the door?" Faith asked as she and Willow sat at a table at the Bronze.

"I swear! It was like a bad college movie, except I actually noticed it and didn't walk in on them, thank the Goddess."

"Small favors, eh Red?"

"You're telling me!"

Faith nodded to the stage. "So, what are these guys called again?"

"Dingoes Ate My Baby."

"Uh huh. And why?"

"You know, I never thought to ask."

"Might be better that way."

"Yeah. So. Uh, Faith. What do you do with your day, anyway?"

"Not too much. I sleep a lot. Can't stand that daytime TV shit Jeeves watches though, so I pretty much stay out of the way until you guys show up in the evening."

"Any thoughts about, um, what ya might wanna do with your future?"

"Well, Giles told me today about this wicked soul mate deal, so that sounds like fun. This old book he had made it seem like I'm gonna get one, so maybe I'll get some action soon, you know?"

"Um. . . yeah. But I kinda meant, well. . . you never finished high school, and a lot of people. . . employer types? They tend to like it when you do."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess. Although, y'all blew up the high school, so that ain't really an issue."

"Yeah. Oh! But you could get your GED! It's just a test, and then they send you the diploma and it's good."

"Never was much for tests, Red."

"Oh! But, I could, you know, help you study and stuff. We all could. And Oz! Oz is smart, with the learning and stuff? I mean, not that you have to, but if you wanted to, we could, you know?"

"I gotcha. I don't know, I'll think about it."

"Okay, well, it's just an idea. Hey, you want something to drink?"

"Sure thing, Red."

"Okay, I'll be back in a few minutes."

Faith sat drumming on the table alone as Willow walked to the bar to get them drinks.

"All alone?"

Faith turned to see a tall young man with dark hair standing behind her.

"For now," she said, smiling seductively. "My friend's over there getting some drinks."

"Guy friend?"

"Nope."

"Lucky me."

"Only if I say so."

"Oh? And just how does that happen?"

"Take a seat, give it a try. Never know what you'll find out."

The young man grinned, and Faith thought, 'Damn, he looks kinda like X.'

* * * * *

Willow stood at the bar drumming her fingers to the tune the Dingoes were playing, when her eye was caught by the two people entering the Bronze.

"Buffy! Xander! Over here!" she called.

They turned and saw her, waved and moved towards her, Xander with his arm draped over Buffy's shoulder, Buffy with her arm around his waist, and both of them had shit-eating grins plastered on their faces.

"Hey, Wills," Xander said. "What's going on?"

"Hey guys!" Willow said with a knowing smile. "Did you two have a good time?"

Buffy blushed and Xander just smiled.

"None of your business, little Miss Nosy. Giles said you and Faith were here, watching the band."

"Yup. I decided to really try to get to know her, because, well, I don't, and we were talking and it was actually pretty cool. I'm just getting us a couple of drinks."

"Great," Buffy said. "We had kind of a weird thing happen on the way over here."

"What's that?" Willow asked.

"Well, we were cutting through one of the cemeteries, and there was this demon, so we chased after him, and it was all normal and stuff. Then, he got away from us a little, but we heard what sounded like gunshots, or tazers or something, and we got to a clearing and saw burn marks on the ground, and what looked like somebody had dragged a body off."

"That is weird," said Willow.

"Yup," Xander said. "But I guess we'll check it out some other time. So where's Faith?"

Willow turned to point. "Oh she's over. . . heh. Hey, Xander, do you want to have some fun?"

Xander followed her line of sight and saw who Faith was talking to. He grinned.

"Got those drinks yet, Will?"

"Right here," she said, handing the two cups to him.

Buffy rolled her eyes, but did not object. Xander leaned over and kissed her before walking off towards the table Faith was at. Willow and Buffy followed at a safe distance.

Xander walked up behind Parker, reached his hand around him and slid the drink across to Faith.

"Hey, Boytoy," she said. "Didn't think you and B would be done yet."

Xander shrugged and stayed silent. Faith looked at him oddly.

"Well, take a seat. Red'll be back soon, I expect. Oh yeah, this is. . . sorry, I didn't get your name."

Xander grinned as the young man turned around, and said "Hi, I'm Par. . .."

"Your name is Par?" Faith asked.

"No, Faith. His name is Parker."

"Look, man, I didn't know she was a friend of yours."

Xander stayed quiet, just looking at him and smiling.

"I swear, I didn't."

Xander continued to look at him. He raised an eyebrow, and looked quickly at the exit of the club.

"Right. Umm. . . well, I'm. . . just gonna go then. So long."

Parker ran as fast as he could through the crowd, knocking over a waitress and bolting out the door.

Xander stood there a second, watching him go, then burst out laughing. Willow and Buffy joined in and stepped up to the table. A quick glance towards the stage showed Oz with a slight smirk on his face.

"What the fuck was that, X?" Faith near yelled.

Xander shook his head and sat down, along with Willow and Buffy.

"I'm sorry Faith. I won't do that again, but please trust me when I say that he is *not* the guy for you."

"What the hell did you do to scare him so much?"

"Um. . . I kind of punched him."

"A lot," added Buffy.

"And you put your fist through his wall," said Willow.

"Broke his stereo."

"And his bed."

"Oh, gave him that welt on his cheek."

"Put his head through a window."

"Kicked down the door of the frat house he was at."

"Oh, you slammed him face first into a phone booth."

"Then you made him pay for your phone call."

"Hey, he gave me that quarter of his own free will!" Xander said, grinning.

Faith sat there slack-jawed at the tale of what Xander had done.

"What the fuck did he do to deserve that?" she asked

They all looked down. Then Buffy slowly raised her hand, ashamed.

"What, B, is it question time?"

"Uh. . . Faith?" Willow said. "She's answering your question."

"What? How. . . oh shit, really?"

Xander wrapped his arm around Buffy as she gazed at the floor.

"Hey, baby, it's okay," he said softly, kissing the top of her head. "You're past that, right? All better? That piece of shit doesn't matter."

Buffy looked at him and smiled. "I love you."

Xander pulled her into a hug. "I love you, too." He stood up. "Come on, let's go dance."

Buffy nodded and let Xander lead her to the dance floor.

"So, what, Parker and B got it on, and Xander got jealous and beat the shit out of him?" Faith asked when the couple had gone.

"No, not exactly. I mean, yeah, Xander was jealous, but that's not why he beat up Parker. See, Buffy was having a little trouble getting over Angel, and Xander helped her with that. . . by accompanying her to a party so she could feel more comfortable with Parker, who she had just met. It kinda sucked for him, because he was still, obviously, in love with her. So that night Parker and Buffy. . . you know."

"For real? Way to go, B."

"Not exactly. The next morning, when Buffy woke up, Parker was nowhere to be seen. And he didn't come around at all, or call or anything. So a few days later, I'm sitting there consoling a crying Buffy, when Xander comes in just to say 'Hi.'"

"Sees his precious B crying."

"Right. And he has the Xanderific reaction of 'Buffy hurt. Make better.' So he stalks out of the room, and comes back like a half hour later, basically dragging Parker with one hand, forces him to apologize, then says that if he ever sees Parker near us or our dorm or anybody he knows ever again, he's going to get really angry, then he tossed him out the door, which I promptly shut."

"Wow. That's some kind of devotion."

"I know. It's kind of sweet. . . if it wasn't for the reason behind it, I mean. Oh, I forgot. On the way back to the dorm, carrying Parker, Xander stopped at a payphone and called Oz to get him to bring ice cream to the dorm."

Faith laughed. "Damn. Boytoy knows how to treat a woman, don't he?"

Willow smiled. "What can I say? He loves her. Actually, I think that night is really the first time Buffy saw Xander as a man, and not just a friend."

Faith nodded. "Now she knows what she's been missing. I may not have treated him well, but I always saw him."

"Me too, although, I was in love with him, so, that would make sense. I'm just glad they got it right."

"So, X told you about the prophecy thing?"

"Yup."

"Jeeves showed it to me, too. Apparently, I'm supposed to get a soul mate?"

"That's what Xander said, although he didn't really focus on it at the time. But yeah, according to the Council, all Slayers have one. It's just a matter of finding him."

Faith chuckled, bitterly. "Not much chance of that, huh? Not like I deserve it, anyway."

"Oh, don't say that," Willow said. "I mean, sure you made mistakes. . . some pretty bad ones. . . but you're trying to make up for it, right? Doing the good guy thing. Who's to say you won't find happiness, too?"

"I don't know, Red."

"Well. . . I guess we'll just have to see."

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End Chapter 20