Wesley was more than a bit distracted walking down the hall with his phone in hand, texting Anya. He never used to understand who his peers were texting constantly throughout the day and why they felt the need. Even when he was with Hannah, they didn't feel like they had to text one another every five seconds. With Anya, though… Wesley just couldn't get enough. He loved hearing her every thought, especially when those thoughts regarded their next date.

They had been going back and forth for a while trying to decide if they should do dinner and a movie or go to the aquarium. Wesley made a decision finally — 'Let's do the aquarium!'

He walked a bit further, still a bit caught up in his phone. Until suddenly Wesley walked into something that felt like a huge concrete wall.

"Watch where you're going, geek!" A familiar deep, menacing voice entered Wesley's eardrums. Owen.

Wesley looked up at Owen and a shiver of fear ran down his spine. He shook it off, deciding not to engage. "Sorry," Wesley mumbled, beginning to collect the things he was holding that had now been spread across the whole hallway. What a mess, Wesley briefly thought.

Before Wesley could grab his phone from the floor, Owen scooped it up. "What the hell is this?" He asked.

"My phone?" Wesley responded sarcastically, "You have one of them too, I'm pretty sure…" He wanted to poke fun at Owen, but after the words left his mouth, he knew it wasn't worth crossing the line.

"Not the phone, I'm talking about this," Owen held up Wesley's cell phone and read the words on the screen. "This text, 'OMG, yes! It's a date!' What loser girl did you rope into…" Owen paused, seeming to take in the entirety of what was displayed on the screen. "No freaking way." He did not seem happy.

Wesley was honestly getting a bit intimidated at this point. From the way Owen towered over him to the way he was gripping Wesley's phone with so much anger… "You and Anya broke up forever ago…" Wesley dared to say, attempting to remind Owen that he and Anya were ancient history. He knew he was poking a bear at this point, but he wanted to stand up for his relationship with Anya.

Owen paused for a moment before decidedly slamming Wesley's phone onto the ground, shattering the corner of the screen. "You're out of your mind talking to Anya. She would never sink down to the level of a loser like you."

Wesley, still shaken by Owen possibly destroying his property, attempted to quietly calm Owen down. People were beginning to stare and the last thing Wesley wanted was to get in trouble for fighting in the hallway. "I'm sorry, but you can't control what Anya does or who she dates…" Wesley instantly brought his hands in front of his face to avoid the punch that he was expecting from Owen.

Instead, Owen came closer and shoved Wesley against the lockers, his tone growing darker with each movement. "Don't you dare contact her again or I'll make sure your arms are broken for a third time." Owen then grabbed Wesley's arm and twisted it.

Wesley yelped. In an attempt to break up the attempted assault, Wesley yanked himself away from Owen and pleaded, "Please stop, I won't t-talk to her again!"

Owen ignored him, grabbing his glasses and dangling them above his head.

Wesley immediately panicked, disoriented by his now-blurry vision. "Please stop Owen, I can't see-"

Before Wesley could plead to Owen further, another student of similar stature to Wesley rushed up and stepped in. Drew Torres to the rescue. "Leave him the hell alone, Owen!" Drew stormed in and grabbed Owen's arm before punching him in the face, causing Wesley's glasses to fly across the hallway.

Wesley scrambled to pick his glasses up and put them back on his face. He had no idea what to do right now. Break it up? He kept a safe distance and let Drew handle things until a teacher came around.

"Mind your business, Torres! You're a fucking idiot," Owen yelled at Drew before landing a punch directly to Drew's gut.

A tall guy in a hockey jacket approached and pulled Drew out of the situation. "Take it easy, Torres. You have brain damage, remember?"

Drew stepped away and the hockey player who was completely unfamiliar to Wesley took over, grabbing Owen by the shirt and raising an intimidating fist. "If you ever try to hurt my best friend, his brother, or any of his nerd friends again, you'll have to go through me first." He said, practically spitting the words into Owen's face.

"Okay okay, jeez!" Owen finally slinked off, quickening his pace as he got further away.

"You better run!" The boy who Wesley still didn't know the name of yelled.

"And stay the hell away from Anya!" Drew called out as Owen was about to turn the corner. "She dumped you for a reason, bro!"

Wesley quickly thanked Drew for helping him - again, thinking back to Drew helping him boost his confidence to impress Anya two years ago. "I don't know what I would've done without you there, thank you, seriously…"

"No problem, my friend! You're the one who helped me pass grade 11." Drew gave Wesley a bro hug. They then turned to the other hockey guy, who looked cool as a cucumber.

"Thanks for stepping in," Drew grinned. "By the way… Dallas, this is the Wes-man. Wes, this is my billet bro, hockey superstar Mike Dallas!"

Dallas tilted his chin up in the "what's up?" motion. Wesley stuck his hand out to shake hands, immediately regretting the formal gesture. Dallas smirked but shook Wesley's hand, and said in a friendly tone, "Nice to meet you, man!"

Wesley shyly thanked both older boys once more. Once they walked away he pulled his phone out again. 'Can't wait for our date!' he sent a text to Anya. He then smiled before adjusting his glasses and shoving his now slightly cracked phone back in his pocket. He was definitely still intimidated by Anya's ex, but it was a good thing to know he had reinforcements and possible new friends by his side.

...

After school, Wesley took the subway to Anya's apartment in downtown Toronto. There was still one year left on the three year driving ban that his uncle Mike had given him as punishment after getting pulled over while driving Hannah around without a license. Wesley figured his uncle was likely exaggerating about him having to wait that long, but if he was completely honest, he didn't feel ready to drive again. The fear of screwing up and getting pulled over again, or worse, hurting someone, was too nerve-wracking. Thankfully the subway ran pretty often, and it was nice to be able to read a book or listen to his favorite dungeons and dragons podcast without having to worry about the rules of the road.

Once at Anya's, they did homework side by side while munching on ketchup chips and pretzels. Even though they occasionally distracted each other, studying side by side actually helped both of them focus.

After a couple hours of studying, they moved to the couch. They cuddled and discussed their itinerary for Saturday's aquarium date.

Anya was in the middle of expressing her excitement to see the sea otters when she noticed a red mark on Wesley's pale forearm. Her eyebrows raised in concern, "Did something happen?" Anya asked, gently rubbing the spot on his arm.

Wesley bit his lip, embarrassed and nervous to bring up the culprit. He was unsure of what Anya would think and wondered if she'd get upset with him for engaging with her aggressive ex. The last thing Wesley wanted was for her to worry, but he knew she deserved to know the truth. Wesley avoided her gaze, stuttering, "Um, it was... it was Owen. He saw your text about our date... he was really jealous. I tried to defend you by saying he can't control you or who you date, but that made him angrier. Drew and his friend Dallas helped me."

Anya balled up her fist and shook her head, clearly frustrated and exasperated. "I'm so sorry Wesley," she said, "Are you okay? I thought he would've grown out of being a bullying jerk by now, but clearly not..."

"I'm sorry," Wesley gushed. "Are you going to be okay? I don't want him to bother you," Wesley was growing nervous thinking of how possessive and controlling he seemed. The last thing Wesley wanted was for sweet Anya to have to deal with any more of her ex's dark side.

"I'm okay. Other than a few sad emails, he hasn't tried to contact me. He shouldn't have reacted like that, but honestly, he never changed. He was nice to me when I was giving him what he wanted, but he's been so horrible to everyone in his path…" Wesley noticed a pang of guilt washing over Anya as she remembered what Owen had done to people close to her. "Riley, Zane, Adam… He treated everyone like crap. I thought I could change him. Clearly I was wrong…" Anya said. "I should never have dated such a jerk."

"It's not your fault," Wesley tried to console her. "Can I ask you what you mean by something though?"

"Sure," Anya nuzzled her head into Wesley's shoulder sweetly. "Ask me anything."

Wesley took a moment to make sure he was wording things correctly. "What do you mean when you say that he was nice when you were giving him what he wanted?"

TW: reference to past sexual harassment (Owen, Anya in season 10), discussion of consent

"I mean… the first time we really interacted, he was a total creep…" Anya recoiled slightly as she recounted her experience with Owen. "He was just like, a serial creep and serial asshole to everyone in his path. He started things off by sexually harrassing me in CPR class."

"Charming," Wesley sighed. "I'm being sarcastic, of course…" He assured Anya. "What a jerk. How did you go from being… uh, harassed…" Wesley said, hesitant to say the word sexual, "...To you guys dating?"

"Senior year was a weird time," Anya said. "I need to make sure I keep you on the right path so you don't repeat my mistakes." Anya smiled, locking eyes with Wesley and smiling, revealing her perfectly straight teeth.

Wesley smoothly wrapped his arm around Anya's shoulder, moving her even closer than she had already been sitting. "I'm sure you didn't make that many mistakes."

Anya raised her brows. "You'd be surprised…" she said. "I'll tell you some stories another time. Don't need to scare you off quite yet."

"Nothing you could do would ever scare me away, Anya," He reassured her immediately. Wesley felt Anya's hand gravitate back to the slightly tender mark on his arm.

"Even my jackass ex boyfriend?" She asked.

"Even him," Wesley said bravely. He looked into her eyes and said, "No one deserves what you went though, Anya." He promised to always ask before touching her and to respect her answer.

Anya smiled, and made the same promise to him. They talked about what they felt comfortable with and made sure they understood each other.

That evening, they headed to Anya's bed to start kissing. But first, Anya gently asked if she could take Wesley's glasses off. Wesley felt safe knowing that she respects his consent, unlike when Owen ripped his glasses off without asking.

Wesley asked Anya if he could kiss her. Anya nodded, feeling warm and safe. She kissed him and curled up on his chest. He kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms around her.