"Hey, we did our job, and we didn't have to shoot anybody," Deke said. "I call that a good day's work."
"Yeah," said Xander. "I always like not shooting people."
"Shut up," Boxer growled at him. "You can't just go –"
"Can't just what?" Xander asked, Hondo's words having had a great effect on him. "Make my own decisions? Live my own life? Or maybe this isn't about me? Maybe it's about you not having control over your sister's life?"
"Guys," Deke said, standing up. "You don't need to –"
"Fuck, you Harris!" Boxer yelled. "You bratty little bitch. You think you're some hot shit? You don't know me, you don't know anything. So just stay the hell away from me, and my sister."
"Hey, I'm not the one who did any approaching last night. In fact, she specifically asked me to get out of there so she could get away from you," Xander replied.
"All right, that's it," Boxer said, stripping his vest off and throwing it to the ground. "Come on, let's go."
"You don't want to fight me, man," Xander said.
"You make your decisions, I make mine," said Boxer. "Let's go."
Xander rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to fight you."
"Then you're gonna get your ass kicked. I said let's go!"
Deke and Sanchez rolled their eyes as Hondo and Street looked on with interest.
Xander shook his head and took off his protective vest and tossed it to Deke.
"You don't want to do this," Xander said.
Boxer moved at him suddenly, coming in with a haymaker meant for Xander's head. Xander nimbly dodged to one side, the punch missing by almost a foot. Boxer snarled and came at him faster, with a series of lefts and rights, all of which Xander either blocked or dodged, and continued to do so for three or four minutes.
"Quit that dancing shit and fight me!" Boxer yelled after a bit.
Xander sighed as he blocked another punch. "Fine," he said.
Xander quickly stepped up and inside Boxer's defenses, feinting first with his left, then with his right, before finally letting loose a solid punch with his right that dropped Boxer rather soundly to the floor, his lip split and his nose bloody.
"Can we stop now?" Xander asked, holding his hand out to help Boxer up. Boxer snarled at him, got to his feet on his own and stalked off to the locker room. Xander shook his head and started to take off the rest of his gear, as did the rest of the group, with Sanchez heading into the locker room to change in relative privacy.
"Hey," Deke said upon approaching Xander.
"Hey," Xander said, quietly.
"Those were some nice moves," Deke said. "You weren't kidding when you said you're a good fighter."
"Nah," Xander said. "Really not my style to brag."
"Listen, about Boxer," Deke started.
"I don't want to hear it," said Xander. "I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't want to fight him, but he was insistent."
"I know," Deke said. "But check it, Boxer's gone through a lot lately."
"That doesn't give him –"
"Man, just shut up and listen for a second," Deke said. "Look, he's got a temper, we all know that. But him and TJ were tight, you know?"
"TJ," Xander said. "That's the guy who –"
"That's the guy who had your spot first," Street said as he approached the pair. "He and Boxer were close."
"I don't see what that has to do with me."
"Look," Deke said. "When TJ went bad, Boxer took it hard. He got shot, and his friend betrayed him, then shot himself when it didn't work. Boxer took that hard, too. Thought maybe TJ could have had some redemption or something."
"I think you're a little familiar with that concept," Street said pointedly.
"I still don't –"
"You took TJ's spot, man," Deke said.
"Boxer has wanted me to get back with Lara for a while now, because he trusts me, even though it didn't work out last time, and it wouldn't work out this time," Street said.
"Then you come in, grab his friend's spot and take on his sister... all we're sayin' is, Boxer's got some issues. You're a convenient target. It doesn't necessarily mean it's personal."
"So, what, you think I should apologize?" Xander asked.
"Nah, that'd just piss him off more," Deke said. "Just ride it out. Don't let him get to you, and it'll defuse him."
"And don't bring up his sister too much," Street said. "And if you fuck up with her, he'll kill you."
"Gosh, I feel so comforted," Xander said. He shook his head and sighed. "All right, I'll just kind of steer clear of him as much as I can for a while."
"That's all we're askin'," Deke said.
"And in that spirit," Xander said, picking up all his gear and shoving it into Street's arms, "I'll leave from here and hit my own shower."
"But I—"Street started.
"Thanks, guys, I'll see you later!" Xander yelled as he jogged off towards his truck.
"Well," Street said as he shook his head and started off towards the locker room, "I walked right into that one."
Hondo approached the two men. "Get that all sorted out?" he asked.
"Much as we could," Deke said.
"Good. Jim, what'd you think of his fighting?"
"Truthfully?" Street said. "I wouldn't want to fight him. I don't know if he'd beat me, but he'd give me a good run for my money. He took Boxer down with one hit, and Mike's no sap."
"Dude wasn't even sweatin', or breathin' hard, either," Deke said. "Boy's got mad skills."
"Yeah, I do know how to pick 'em, don't I?" Hondo said.
"Hell, you picked us," said Street.
Hondo laughed and shook his head. "Go on, get changed and get the hell out of here."
"Oh, man, you smell like ass," Gunn said to Xander when Xander showed up at the Hyperion. "How'd the thing go?"
"It was good," said Xander. "Nobody died, we didn't blow up the bus by lighting fire to the gas leak, the hostages are safe and relatively unharmed – physically anyway – and I'm free for a while."
"Excellent," Gunn said, slapping him on the back. "Well Angel's about to start cookin' up some burgers, you want?"
"Oh god yes," Xander said. "Dead cow sounds great right about now."
"I hear that," Faith said, hopping off the bottom step of the stairs. "Angel makes the best cow. Hey Xan."
"Hey," Xander said.
"Sorry about this morning," she said. "I didn't know –"
"Don't worry about it," Xander said. "Lara was out of line. Not your fault."
"Was still some fucked up stuff she said."
"Yeah, it was. How's your knee? And was that really a 'hairy guy'?"
"Knee's good. And no, it was a demon."
"Who's Lara?" Gunn asked.
"X-man's latest conquest," Faith smirked.
"How come I never heard about her?" Gunn asked.
"Uh... I might have met her last night," Xander said, his cheeks growing a little red.
"Damn man," Faith said. "I knew you were fast –"
"Hey!"
"But I didn't think you were that fast," she finished.
"That was uncalled for," Xander said. "And that's not even a fair judge. I was unprepared, and inexperienced."
"Wait, what?" Gunn asked.
"For her sake, I hope you've gotten better," Faith teased. "Cuz I gotta say, Xan, you may have gotten the deed done, but there was definite room for improvement."
"Wait, are you saying that you two—"
"It was my first time!" Xander said.
"Your first time was with Faith?" Gunn asked.
"That was your first?" Faith asked, her eyes wide. "Oh, shit."
"What was whose first?" Angel asked as the trio walked into the kitchen to the smell of bovine flesh being seared over an open flame.
"Faith was Xander's first," Gunn said.
"Yeah, and?" Angel asked.
"You knew that?" Gunn asked.
"Sure," said Angel. "There's not a lot Faith hasn't told me."
"Shit, even I didn't know it was his first time," said Faith.
"Truthfully, neither did I," said Angel. "I just assumed."
"And doesn't that just do wonders for my ego..." Xander said.
"Ah, you know what they say," Faith said. "It's okay to lose your virginity, you can just take someone else's."
All three men looked at her oddly.
"Who says that?" Xander asked.
"I never heard that one," Gunn said.
"I've been alive ten times longer than you, and I've never heard that," Angel said.
Faith shrugged. "Maybe I picked that up inside..."
"So, he was bad was he?" Gunn asked with a grin.
"I want to thank you all for giving me legal reason to shoot each and every one of you," Xander said. "Making fun of a man's first sexual encounter is a felony."
"Can't take me in, remember?" Faith asked. "Got a deal."
"Yeah, and bullets won't do much against me," Angel said.
"Yeah," Gunn said. "And I uh..."
They all looked at him expectantly.
"I'm too pretty to die?" he tried.
"Can we just eat our food and not talk about my sex life?" Xander asked.
"What got you on the topic anyway?" Angel asked as he laid burgers out on toasted buns for them.
"Homeboy got lucky last night," Gunn said.
"I don't know if 'lucky' is the word," Xander muttered.
"That bad?" Faith asked.
"No, that part was fine. Great, even. It's the uh... unexpected ramifications that weren't too great."
"Man, I said I was sorry for just burstin' in –"
"Not that," Xander said. "Lara is Street's ex-girlfriend."
"That had to suck," Gunn said.
"It wasn't so bad, actually. Jim was all cool about it, like 'we were never gonna work anyway' and whatever. The bad part was that she's also Boxer's little sister."
"Boxer?" Faith asked.
"SWAT guy, square face," Angel said.
"Right," Faith replied.
"Yeah. So Boxer's real overprotective, and he might have heard me talking to Hondo about it, and we might have gotten in a fight."
"Fight like in yelling?" Angel asked.
"Fight like in fists connecting with faces," Xander said.
"Yours or his?" Gunn asked.
"My fist, his face. Then he kinda walked off in a huff. But he started it."
"That's mature," Angel muttered.
"What, you would have just let him hit you?" Xander asked. "I figure it's none of his business who I sleep with."
"That's an interesting spot in a conversation to walk in on."
"Morning, Oz," Angel said.
"'Morning'?" Xander asked. "You're just getting up now? You slacker."
"Says the man we once had to forcefully drag out of bed at 2 pm to get him to the library," Oz said.
"Ah, but that was years ago," Xander said. "Now when I get dragged out of bed at 2 pm, I bust heads."
"You never once busted a head when that happened," Gunn said.
"Yeah well if you didn't always send Cordelia..." Xander trailed off, then looked up at Angel. "Sorry. I didn't mean to –"
"It's okay," Angel said, looking down at the stove. "We should talk about her. Even if she were dead, which she isn't."
"But, I know that you were –"
"All the more reason," Angel said, looking up at him and smiling. "Cordy would like nothing better than to know we were talking about her."
"She always did love the spotlight," Gunn said, a nostalgic smile on her face.
"You remember that cat outfit she wore?" Oz asked.
"Oh, do I ever," Xander said. "Soldiers notice things like that."
"Cat suit?" Gunn asked.
"Yeah," Xander said. "As you could imagine, it was... wow."
"I can imagine," Gunn said. "I am imagining... wow."
Faith rolled her eyes. "Man, I expect this from these three," she said to Oz, indicating Xander, Gunn and Angel, "but I thought you were above that type of thing."
"Well, while I will say that my standards of visual stimulation vary greatly from those of my peers in most respects, there are certain things that are universally appreciated," Oz said.
"Means he likes boobs," Xander said.
"I got that, X, thanks," Faith said.
"No problem," Xander said.
"Hey, what are you doing tonight?" Gunn started as Xander's cell phone rang to the tune of the theme from Zelda.
"One second," Xander said as he opened his phone. "Hello?"
Xander's expression brightened and he turned in his chair and stood. "Lara, hi," he said as he walked out of the cafeteria.
"I guess now we know what he's doing tonight," Faith said with a smirk.
"Man's got his priorities," Gunn said as he took a bite of his burger. "You do something different to these today?"
"Garlic salt," Angel said. "Gives it a little extra... something."
"It's good," Faith said.
"Thanks," said Angel.
"Any of you heading to the mall?" Faith asked. "I got some stuff I need to buy."
"I've got phone duty," Gunn said.
"Wes took my car," said Angel. "He, Dawn and Fred went to get some books up in San Francisco."
"Why did Dawn go?" Gunn asked.
Angel shrugged. "Hasn't been to San Francisco. Also, she was kind of a Watcher Junior back in Sunnydale this past year, and I guess Wes thought she might want to help or something. And I think she was kind of bored."
"Why don't you get Xander to take you?" Oz asked of Faith.
"Xander hates the mall," Gunn said. "He'll never go."
"Yeah," Angel said. "That's basically an impossibility."
"Yeah?" Faith said. "Well nobody ever said I don't like a challenge."
"It's not worth it," Gunn said. "You're wasting your time."
"Wanna put some money on that?" Faith asked.
Gunn looked at her. "Sure, I'll take your money."
"Can I get some of that?" Angel asked.
"Sure," Faith said. "Ten bucks says I get a ride to the mall from Xander."
"Done," Angel and Gunn said immediately, before sharing a knowing smile.
"Okay!" Xander said, strutting back into the cafeteria. "X-man's got an honest-to-god date tonight."
"She wasn't angry you hit her brother?" Oz asked
"She wasn't happy about it," Xander said. "But she said he's been way too overbearing recently, and could we maybe meet for dinner tonight. I, in my infinite wisdom, said sure."
"What's this girl like, anyway?" Gunn asked.
"Well, she's tall," Xander said.
"She's not that tall," said Faith.
"She's like 5'9". Compared to the girls I usually hang out with? She's tall. Shorty."
"Hey," Faith said. "I ain't short."
"Shorter than Willow," Xander said.
"Taller than B."
Gunn snorted. "So's a lawn gnome."
"I'm taller than Buffy," Oz said. "And I am not a tall person."
"Man, all y'all are short," said Gunn.
"Says the giant," Faith put in. She turned to Xander. "What are you doing the rest of the day?"
"I got nothing planned until tonight," he said, pausing before he bit into his burger. "Wait. Why?"
"Well, Fang here's got me on salary now," Faith said.
"Uh huh..."
"And I could use a ride to the mall."
"No," Xander said as emphatically as he could.
"Oh come on," Faith said, pressing herself up against him as Gunn, Angel and Oz stood back and watched. "Please?"
"No," Xander said. "I hate the mall. Not a chance."
"Aww, come on," Faith said, pouting her lips. "For me?"
"No," Xander said, taking a bite of his burger. "Not gonna happen."
"Please?" she asked, breaking out the puppy dog eyes.
"No," Xander said, shaking his head. "Whatever you try, it's not going to work."
Faith leaned in even closer to him, pressing her breasts firmly against his body. "Please?"
"No."
She batted her eyelashes. "Please?"
"No."
She continued to look at him.
"No!"
The looking was still happening.
"No!"
----------
End Chapter 13