Summary: Giles gets a clue at the start, and trains Xander and Willow somewhat.
Crossover: At the moment, none.
Disclaimer: I own naught but debt.
Feedback: Why not? *listens to Iron Maiden's 'Out Of The Silent Planet'*
Pre-fic Comments:
Man, I *still* haven't gotten to the bit of plot I've thought up. This sucks. As to why this part is out relatively fast, you've all got me all inspired and motivated by your copious amount of postage. Please, keep me motivated! :D
I don't know if American schools use padlocks for lockers (like us) or if they use those funky built in combo locks. I'm going to assume you use padlocks, since they're the cheapest option if the students provide the locks.
Is it true that Americans have weird euphemisms for the loo/crapper/toilet/throne like water closet?
* * *
Back at school, Xander and Willow were going to their next class. School delays for no man, and teachers skip detentions for no student.
"I'm just saying, Wendell had a dream and then that exact thing happened," Willow pointed out. She had an idea cooking in her mind.
"Which is a fair wiggins," Xander admitted, "but how do you think that ties in with Laura?"
The two of them thought that over for a moment while Willow got her books from her locker.
"It could be a coincidence," Xander said hopefully. "Y'know, Wendell finds a spider's nest, and we all wig because he dreamt of spiders. So it may not be connected."
Knowing his luck, though, it was probably a ten foot tall and bulletproof spider sending forth it's arachnid hordes to enslave mankind.
"I dunno," Willow mused as they entered class. "Can we take that chance? I mean, we are on a Hellmouth."
"If there is a connection," Xander complained, "it doesn't sound like anything... what?"
He realised all of the students in the classroom were staring at him, along with Willow.
A slight breeze made itself known.
He looked down. His privates were covered, but nothing else was.
"Xander!," Willow gasped. A slight tinge of red was starting to spread across her cheeks. "When did you be--uh, what happened to..."
"I-I-I dunno!," he stuttered, in a panic. "I was, uh, dressed a moment ago! It's a dream, it's gotta be a dream! Ow! Wake up! Ow! Gotta wake up!"
The brunette ran screaming from the room, the redhead chasing him close behind.
Cordelia and the Cordettes stared at where the boy had been standing in shocked amazement.
"Wow...," Harmony Kendall said. "Harris is /built./"
"When did that happen?," Fleur asked.
"I heard that Coach Swansen had been chasing him to join the Martial Arts clubs," Cordelia said. She paused a moment. "It's a shame that he didn't get a dress sense with those new muscles."
"Yeah..."
* * *
Xander ran to his locker, ripping it open in a panic. He grabbed his gym clothes, thanking God that he didn't have PE that day. He made a break for the nearest toilets, holding the clothes over his ass and his underwear.
Willow arrived at the lockers soon after. She stopped a moment to catch her breath.
"Ge--geez, Xander... wai... wait up nex' time..."
The future witch noticed something. She touched the locker's door frame, which had been twisted and distorted in Xander's panic. The 'Shacklock' padlock was still intact, but the tabs it was attached to to hold the door shut had been mutilated beyond repair.
"Wow, Xander, who'da thunk you could do that?"
She opened the now unsecured locker, noticing that the plastic grocery bag that Xander used for his gym clothes was missing. Putting two and two together, she moseyed on down to the nearest guy's loo block. Willow knocked on the closed door.
"Who's there?," Xander asked.
"Me," Willow shouted back. "Come out here, mister!"
She wasn't proud -- she'd admit that she was kinda hoping he'd forgotten his gym shirt or something. Those months spent training with Giles had paid off, and he'd hidden those payoffs behind those Hawaiian shirts. Willow foresaw some nights of discussions with Buffy.
"Okay," Xander said. "I just changed."
He opened the door. He had on his tracksuit -- all of it, to Willow's disappointment.
"Time to go see Giles," Xander said.
The two of them ran to the library.
"Whoop! Red alert!," Xander yelled as he entered the tomb of knowledge.
Out of pure reflex, Giles hissed at them, putting a finger over his lips to indicate 'Quiet!'
"Uh...," Giles said, "where are your other clothes?"
The Man In Tweed and The Xanman didn't bother changing when they practiced things like knife fighting or the Art during free periods, and he'd never seen Xander in his PE clothes before.
"Oh, don't I wish I had the answer to that question," Xander groused.
"Xander kinda found himself in front of our class not wearing much of anything," Willow explained.
"Except my underwear."
Willow laughed.
"Yeah! It was really...," she began, before looking at Xander's expression. "... bad. It was a bad thing. Not all bad, just bad for Xander."
"Bad thing?," Xander asked rhetorically. "I was naked. Bad thing doesn't cover it."
Didn't cover him either, Giles noted in his mind with a mental smirk.
"Everybody staring?," Willow said. "I would hate to have everybody paying attention to me like that."
"With nudity!," Xander complained. If he found out who magicked away his clothes, they were a dead witch. "It was a total nightmare!"
A light went on in Willow's mind. Her idea finished cooking. "Well, yeah, Xander! It's your nightmare!"
"Except the part with me waking up going 'it's all a dream'," Xander ranted. "It happened."
"Like it happened to Wendell," Willow continued. Giles expression became thoughtful as he saw what Willow was driving at. "That thing with the spiders? Wendell had a recurring dream about that."
"I-I dreamt that I got lost in the stacks and I... I couldn't read," Giles said. "Of course!"
"Uh, our dreams are coming true?," Xander asked, realising what was happening as well.
"Dreams?," Giles asked cynically. "That would be a musical comedy version of this. Nightmares, our worst nightmares, are coming true."
"So, why is this happening?," Willow asked.
"Billy," Giles said cryptically.
"The kid in the coma?," Xander asked. "From that hospital visit?"
"Somehow I think he's crossed over from the nightmare world he's trapped in," Giles thought out loud.
"And he brought the nightmare world with him," Xander said. "Thanks a bunch, Billy."
"How could he do that?," Willow asked, sounding hurt.
"Things like that are easy when you live on a Hellmouth," Giles explained.
"Well, um, we have to stop it," Xander said. He had no intentions of the others seeing his nightmares. They were personal.
"And soon. Or else everybody in Sunnydale is going to be facing their own worst nightmares," Giles said.
The three paused for a moment.
"Buffy!," the Watcher realised. "Buffy doesn't know this is happening. And given the sort of things she dreams about, it's imperative we find her."
The trio left the Library in search of their errant Slayer.
"Probably faster if we split up to look for her," Xander pointed out.
"Good idea," the Watcher approved.
* * *
Post-Fic Comments:
"Things like that are easy when you live on a Hellmouth," Giles explained.
Doesn't that sound like a convenient plot cop-out? Mutant spacebunnies invade. "Things like that are easy when you live on a Hellmouth."