"No," Angel said to Cordelia. "That isn't what it was at all. I distinctly remember that you gave him my clothes without asking me. You just threw them on him and said 'Here, wear these.'"
"I so did not!" Cordelia said. She shoved Xander's shoulder, which was turned away from her. "Xander, tell him I didn't just give Groo his clothes."
Xander held up a finger as he and Oz listened to Faith finishing a story from her prison days. By all accounts, her stories had gotten a bit more interesting since her Sunnydale days, as the boys were totally engrossed in what she was saying. So much that Xander ignored Cordelia when she started poking him in the back.
"Wow," Xander said, as she started hitting his shoulder. "I had no idea things were like that… and would you stop doing that, it's really annoying."
"Well, I'm trying to get your attention here!" Cordelia said. "Hello, recent coma victim!"
"I'm sorry, Cordelia," he said, smiling sincerely at the young woman. "You're right, this should be your night. What was it you wanted?"
"Did I or did I not ask Angel's permission to let Groo use his clothes?" Cordelia asked, a smug look on her face.
Xander's smile dropped, and he looked at her with a blank expression. "You're serious," he said. "That was why you were poking me? That's why you gave my shoulder a bruise? To talk about the clothes of a guy we haven't seen in a year and a half?"
"Yes."
Xander blinked. "No. You did not ask Angel's permission. And thank you for the next few weeks of whining that caused."
"I did not whine!" Angel said. "I don't whine."
"Oh, you definitely whine," Cordelia said. She started to go off on another 'remember when' story, and Xander rolled his eyes and turned back to Faith.
Willow shifted her eyes to Giles, who was looking at some napkins in front of him. He and Dawn had been engaged in a debate about some ancient language, and Dawn had grabbed some napkins and drawn symbols on them, explaining her points to him while gesturing pointedly. Giles, truth be told, looked a bit lost, and thankful for the respite he had been granted by Dawn's ever-tiny bladder.
And then there was Buffy. Buffy was looking at her food. It looked to Willow as though she felt left out, and she was surprised that Buffy wasn't taking a more active role in attempting to get included. Buffy's face looked concerned, and thoughtful. Willow wondered what she was thinking
"Hey Buff," Xander said. "You okay?"
Apparently he had noticed, too.
"Do you think the vegetables notice that they get ripped out of the ground and eaten?" Buffy asked, cocking her head to one side, as if to see her carrots better.
Okay, maybe she was just tired.
"Ah, no probably not," Xander said, smiling at the young woman. "I don't think they notice much, being inanimate."
Buffy looked up from her meal. "Where's Dawn?" she asked, looking around the table.
Xander tossed a thumb over his shoulder. "Bathroom," he said.
Buffy nodded, and went back to inspecting her food. Xander shook his head and turned back to Faith.
Willow frowned. She still wasn't sure what was giving her a weird vibe.
"It's them," Dawn whispered as she slid into the booth next to Willow. The witch was startled out of her watching, and turned to the young key.
"What?" Willow asked. "What's who?"
"The weirdness that nobody else seems to see," Dawn said.
Willow nodded. "It's who?"
"Those two," Dawn said, nodding. "Xander and Faith. It's all… weird. Uncomfortable, because of what Lorne said."
"Really?" Willow asked. "Because they seem to be getting along fine."
"They get along great," Dawn said. "But the other day, Lorne dumped this big thing on them about how they're going to be the key figures in something big, and they're going to have to know each other, like, intimately, but not the sex kind of intimately, in order to beat this thing."
"Okay…"
"Anyway, so even if you can't really tell, they're a little awkward around each other. Not because they don't get along, but cuz they're, like, worried."
"Worried about facing a big bad?" Willow asked. "That doesn't seem –"
"No," Dawn said. "They're… nervous, I guess. Lorne said they have to share, like, everything. I think they're nervous about that level of intimacy with each other. Who has Xander ever been that close to, other than you? And I don't think Faith has ever been that close with anybody. Nobody we know, anyway."
Willow frowned. "How come they –"
"I don't know," Dawn said. "I'm not sure anybody does, and they haven't had time to deal with it. This was just a couple days ago, and then we flew out, and then back…"
Willow nodded. She looked and saw Faith engrossed in some police story Xander was telling. "Do me a favor?"
"Sure," Dawn said.
"Keep an eye on them, and keep me informed. I know Xander's all with the friend-making, but I still don't trust her."
"Willow," Dawn said, "she's been nothing but –"
"I know," Willow said. "Please?"
Dawn sighed. "Fine," she said.
Willow smiled. "Thank you," she said. Satisfied, Willow turned back to her food, the caught Oz's attention and started asking him about Tibet.
"You did what?" Xander asked. He was standing in the foyer of the Hyperion. Faith, Oz and Dawn had gone to bed already, while everyone else was chatting in the lobby, along with Lorne. Xander had just announced he was going back to his place.
"We moved some of your stuff in," Angel said. He didn't like the look Xander was giving him, and quickly pointed at Lorne. "It was his idea."
Xander turned to Lorne and waited expectantly, his arms crossed over his chest. Lorne didn't look at all abashed. "Hey, I told you, Babyface," Lorne said. "You gotta get close, and quick. I was against your little jaunt to Cleveland, so I took matters into my own two hands."
"You didn't move a thing!" Angel protested. "You were just telling us what to move."
"My strengths are in design, not labor," Lorne said, waving off the vampire's protest with a flick of his wrist.
"How much did you move?" Xander asked.
"Not a lot. Some clothes, a few trinkets, some pictures," Angel said.
"I did go through your underwear drawer though," Lorne said. "It was like handling the Dead Sea Scrolls."
Everyone looked at him oddly.
Lorne sighed. "Nobody gets my humor. Listen, kiddo, this is important, okay? Don't go gettin' all in a huff."
Xander rolled his eyes. "Fine. What room am I in?"
"225a," Angel said.
"Okay," he said. "At least it's a suite. I'm gonna go crash. I'll see you guys in the morning."
"There's uh… one more thing," Angel said, wincing a little bit.
"What?" Xander asked, impatiently.
"The suite, well… we moved Faith into half of it. You guys share the common room and bathroom."
Xander stared at the vampire. His eyes darkened, and he muttered something that made Angel cringe, and that nobody else heard. He stalked up the stairs and down the hall.
"What did he say?" Buffy asked.
"Don't worry about it," Angel said. "It's nothing."
Buffy was concerned, but let it go.
"Was it about that thing that time?" Cordelia asked. Angel nodded, and the brunette waved it off. "You know he's just being a dick because he's tired."
"Maybe," Angel said, shaking his head, and turning back to the girls. "I'll talk to him tomorrow. So, ladies, Giles, anything else we can do for you tonight?"
Buffy, Willow and Giles all shook their heads.
"I think we're all rather tired," Giles said.
Angel nodded. "I'll see you to your rooms, then," he said. "Lorne… take Cordy up, okay?"
"Can do, bossman," Lorne said, wrapping his arm around the young woman's waist. "Just wait till you see what we've done to the place. I completely redecorated."
"I'm sure I'll love it," she said. Cordelia wrapped her arm around the demon's waist, and they proceeded up the stairs.
Angel watched them go, then turned to his guests with a smile. "Okay," he said. "Let's see about some lodgings."
He didn't see Buffy frown at the attention he paid Cordelia.
Xander stood in the lounge between his and Faith's new rooms. The room held a loveseat and a couple of chairs, a coffee table and a television, with doors on opposing walls. One door was closed, with music seeping out from under it. Xander shouldered the other door open, tossed his bags onto the bed and flicked on the light.
The gang had done a pretty good job of decorating the room and making it feel homey, he had to admit. His favorite pictures were all in evidence, as well as his pillow. They had touched up some of the paint scratches, and Fred – he knew it was Fred – had sprayed some air freshener in the room. Nobody else really cared, but Fred always kept her room smelling fresh as a spring day. It was occasionally overpowered by the smell of tacos, but such is life.
"Not bad, right?"
Xander jumped.
"Jesus!" He yelled, as he turned around and placed one hand over his heart. Faith was standing across the common room from him, now clad in sweatpants and a tank top. "You scared the shit out of me!"
"Sorry, X," Faith said, shying back a little into her room. "I… don't really know proper etiquette here, or whatever. Only ever had one roommate, and that was way closer quarters than here."
"I think generally, one rule of thumb can be 'don't be so quiet that nobody can hear you,'" Xander said.
"Sounds good," Faith said. "Any other rules I should know about?"
"I don't know," Xander said. "I was never really one for roommates either. Best I could come up with are rules from sleeping over at Willow's house, and those only involved who slept where. I don't think we've got that same problem."
"You had to have rules to tell you not to sleep with Willow?" Faith asked.
"Understand, I was seven at the time," Xander said, leaning against the door frame. "I really don't think there would have been any harm in it, but Will's parents were all about making distinctions at an early age, keeping up on all the psychology and psychiatry of children, and whatever." He chuckled. "Might've been better if they just paid some attention to her."
"Yeah?" Faith asked. She sat on the loveseat, folding her legs up beneath her. "They, like, neglected her and shit?"
"Well, I wouldn't call it neglect," Xander said, moving to sit in one of the chairs. "They were gone a lot, yeah, but not until she was older. Really, though, it wasn't that they didn't pay her much attention, but really like… like she was an experiment. Controlled circumstances, all the time. Every hour of her day was planned out from morning to night, because they wanted to 'maximize development' or something. The only time she ever really got to be a kid was with me and Jesse, and even then she was always afraid she'd do something wrong."
"Didn't she ever just, you know, play around?"
"When we played doctor," Xander said, "she would bring out the medical journal and try to diagnose me."
"You're kidding."
"I'm not."
"So, like, what else did she do?"
"Ah, I shouldn't be telling you all this," Xander said.
"Sure you should! Lorne said so," she argued.
"Nahh, because he said you should know about me. He said nothing about giving up the goods on my oldest friend."
Faith looked at him for a second, then pointed at him. "Is it possible to really know you if I don't know about Willow?"
Xander took a deep breath, ready to deny her again, but paused before the words left his mouth. He shook his head. "Okay. Valid point. But not tonight, I'm wiped. Tomorrow we can have a big ol' gossip fest and dear God did I need some male friends back in high school. Anyway, I need to get some sleep."
"Sure thing," Faith said, rising from her seat and stretching, an action which earned her an appreciative, albeit subtle, glance from Xander. "G'night, Xander."
"Night, Faith," he said.
Xander went into his new – and temporary, he assured himself – room, and quickly fell asleep.
"Sorry."
"It's okay," Angel said, without looking up from his paperwork. "You were tired."
"Yeah, but that doesn't excuse it," Xander said. "You didn't know that demon was her guardian."
"Xander, it was three years ago."
"And it still bugs you, and I have no right to bring it up. You became that woman's champion, and the Tribunal is now protecting her and her daughter. You made a mistake, and you did your damnedest to make up for it, you shouldn't suffer for it because I feel like being a dick."
Angel looked up from the large, ornate desk he sat behind in his office at Wolfram & Hart.
"Thanks," Angel said. "And don't worry about it. We all have our bad days."
Xander nodded. "Seen Buffy?"
"Is she okay?" Angel asked. "She was really weird at breakfast. Avoiding me and stuff. Is that guy she's seeing –"
"I don't know," Xander interrupted. "That's why I was going to talk to her, but it's time, now."
"They're in the gym," Angel said. "I'll join you guys in a few minutes, I just have a few things to finish up here."
Xander nodded and left Angel to his work. Making his way three floors down to the gym, Xander came upon the rest of his SWAT team standing in awe of the sight before them. Buffy and Faith were sparring. As punches and kicks connected, the two women flew across the room, only to rebound at inhuman speeds and re-enter the combat.
"You wanna see something really cool?" Xander whispered to Deke. The man turned to him.
"This isn't really cool? These chicks are insane!"
Xander smiled. He walked over to the weapon rack, picked up two quarter-staffs and returned to Deke, handing the man one of them.
"Okay," Xander said. "On my signal, throw the staff at Buffy."
"At…"
"Buffy. The blonde," Xander said. Deke looked at him like he was crazy, but got ready to throw it anyway. They drew the attention of the others.
Xander watched the pair for another few seconds, before finding the perfect time.
"Now!" he said, as Faith's butt hit the floor. He and Deke tossed the staffs into the middle of the melee, as Xander yelled "Sticks!"
As smoothly as if she were expecting it, Faith flipped to her feet and grabbed the staff mid-air and swung it in a downward arc towards Buffy's head, only to have the weapon met at the last instant by the blonde's staff. The two staffs impacted with such force that Faith's snapped in half. Buffy shot the length of her staff towards Faith's head. She met the blow with her forearm, and Buffy's staff also snapped. The girls discarded the weapons without even one wasted motion, and continued to fight.
"Jesus!" Boxer said, as he watched the on-going spectacle. "They're incredible."
"You want to really feel inferior?" Xander asked. "Give either of them two, maybe three days at a firing range and they'll be as good a shot as you are."
"With what gun?" Hondo asked.
Xander shrugged. "Any gun they work with."
"Are you serious?" Street asked.
"Sure," Xander said. "Slayers and weapons are like ducks and water."
"Not fish?" asked Boxer.
"Nah," said Xander. "They don't live in the weapons, they just use them a lot. You guys ready to go up against them?"
The group looked at him like he was crazy. Xander just smiled.
"All right, all right, all right," Angel said, clapping his hands as he walked into the gym. His outfit, a loose-fitting wife-beater, received an appreciative whistle from Sanchez.
Angel rolled his eyes as Buffy and Faith stopped fighting. A sheen of sweat covered both of their bodies.
"Okay," Angel said. "We're working on hand to hand today. Faith and Buffy are going to be providing examples of anything we work on, and they'll also be training with you. You need to learn to predict your opponent's moves, and counter them."
"Some of us already know how to do that," Street said.
"No you don't," said Angel. "Not the way you need to. You have to be aware of everything and everyone around you."
"I am," Street said.
"Close your eyes," Angel said.
"Excuse me?"
"Close your eyes."
Street sighed and closed his eyes.
"Now," Angel said, "where is everyone in the room standing, in relationship to you, along with approximate distances?"
Angel worked Street through an exercise, having him identify where certain things were, what people were wearing, anything else he could think of. Street did outstandingly well.
"You only missed one thing," Angel said. Street had said Buffy was wearing white tennis shoes. Buffy was wearing socks. "I underestimated you. I'll be sure not to do that again."
"So do you think I could beat Harris in a fight now?" asked Street.
Angel smiled. "No."
"You sure about that?"
"Yes," Angel said.
The rest of the session was spent sparring, and quizzing the SWAT team about their knowledge of their surroundings. Xander didn't get to talk to Buffy until after dinner.
End Chapter 24