Title: "Help Wanted"
By: Lexie
Summary: Xander needs a new secretary and Buffy just happens to be
available. Chaos ensues.
Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Buffy. If I did BX would have
happened long long ago and would probably be married by now and there
would have been at least two Xander's in every episode since there's
twins that I could use. Two Xander's is always a good in my book. But
anyways Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN, and who ever else, owns everything
Buffy related. Not me no matter how much I wish for two Xander's.
Rating: PGish
Category: Humor/Romance

This fic is dedicated to Shawn and Brooke.

A/N: Line Break means changing of POVs and/or scenes.

"Help Wanted"

Later that night.

Dawn climbed the last of the top the stairs and stood in between Buffy
and Xander's bedrooms. She looked at both doorways and noticed that in
place of the doors where now white bed sheets hanging from each
doorway. Ever since Buffy had gone door crazy and took down two of
their doors by herself, things had been deafly quite. Silence once
more ruled the house and this time it wasn't the peaceful serenity as
it had been before. Now it was two pissed of twenty-something year
olds fuming in their door-less rooms. It was really stupid for them to
be acting this way. She wasn't even clear on what they were fighting
about. All she knew was one minute she was eating Captain Crunch and
the next minute doors were flying off their hinges.

Dawn sighed to herself. She had to fix this. She couldn't take this
suffocating quietness anymore. Plus, she wasn't sure she could handle
loosing any more doors. If things kept going as they were then Buffy
would probably go for her door next and she was a girl who needed her
privacy. Especially since she lived in a house with two idiots who
were so in love with each other that they didn't even know it yet.

Looks like it was time for more of a hands on approach. Dawn decided
it was best to start off with the easier one of the two as she turned
to go into Xander's room. Once there she knocked lightly on the door
frame and pulled back the sheet. Xander was sitting on the floor with
his back against the bed while he watched TV in the dark. The only
illumination in the room came from the flashes of light the TV was
sending out, which cast most of his room in dark shadows. Once she was
inside, Xander looked up and gave her an unusually gloomy "Hey" for
the usually cheerful senior Scooby Gang member.

"Hey. Whatcha doing?" she asked attentively.

"Watching Who's the Boss."

"Oh really?" She looked up to the TV sitting on his dresser and sure
enough Tony Danza was on screen prancing around in the kitchen saying
"A-oh Oh-A." She could remember watching that show with Buffy and her
mom when she was little. Buffy use to love that show.

"You know when Buffy was little she use to be in love with Tony
Danza." Surely that would get Xander to crack a smile, but he didn't
even fall for that one. All he did was make a grunting noise of
acknowledgement. Woah, he was in a gloomy mood. Not even the prospect
of having goods to tease Buffy with would get him to lighten up.

How should she approach this? She sat down on the edge of his bed with
Xander sitting just to the right of her on the floor facing the TV. So
far he had been pretty non-responsive to her being there. Either that
meant he was uberly pissed or that he was far too interested in the
show. She looked back to the old re-run on Nick-At-Night. She
remembered watching this episode before; it was the one where Tony
walked in on Angela taking a bath. It was funny stuff. "Oh hey this is
a really good episode. I love this one!"

"Yup. Me too. One of my favs," he remarked dully.

Okay honestly she didn't know how to approach this with Xander. She
didn't mind pointing out the obvious with Buffy and telling her to
stop being so stupid and just ask Xander out already. It would
probably be even a little fun to point out all the obvious points to
Buffy; she didn't care if her sister got pissy at her for it. But with
Xander it was a totally different ballgame. If you had Xander mad at
you it was all new levels of guilt. "You know she's not really mad at
you pacifically."

At first she didn't think that he had heard her from his unfazed face,
but then he threw out a "Could have fooled me," without even looking
away from the TV screen. What she really wanted to say to him was,
you've also have fooled yourself into thinking you aren't head over
heals in love with her you big dummy, so what does that say about you?
But instead she said, "Well, being her sister, as well as fellow girl,
I can tell that only about 50 of that madness is not at you, but just
mostly at the situation of it all."

"Well I can't help the situation of it all. I don't think I even know
what the situation of it all is. So how am I supposed to help it?" he
asked finally breaking his attention from the TV show and onto Dawn.

"Well why don't you tell me what happened. Maybe we can figure out the
madness of my sister's logic together. Of course I don't have all
night so lets try to keep the Buffy madness narrowed down to this
particular lunacy event." Dawn teased and looked down to see Xander
holding back a small grin. Finally some signs of the real Xander.

"Try days. Buffy madness isn't something that can be figured out in
one night." He looked at Dawn smiling. "If ever completely figured out."

"True True. So what I gathered from the whole slamming of doors battle
was that someone asked you out at work?"

"Um well kinda. It's more like my boss, you know the one that I
sometimes refer to as Lucifer, came by with his daughter today and I
somehow got roped into showing her around town…" Xander paused and
then quickly said, "…tomorrow night."

Dawn was following along by nodding but when she heard that last part
she stopped and looked down at him. "Tomorrow night? As in Friday
night? Ohhhh," she considered, knowing full and well what Friday
nights meant to Buffy and Xander. "I see. Well that explains why my
sister went berserk with door slaying around here."

"No, that's just Buffy being…" he paused and looked up at Dawn. "Well
just Buffy. Besides I really didn't want to skip out on movie night
either but it just happened."

"Hmm, Yes," Dawn said. "Well you could always call off the date and
then you and Buffy can happily have your Friday night back."

"I wish I could but I think it may be to late. I just want to get it
over with like how I want to get this project done with so I can move
on up the ladder and not have to deal with these people anymore. Plus,
ever since Anya…." He looked down not wanting to talk too deeply about
Anya's death but looked up at Dawn knowing she would understand. "…you
know…I just haven't felt like dating or anything. I dunno I guess just
got too comfortable hanging out with you and Buffy. You guys being
such great company and all. I just don't want to burden your time
anymore. Maybe it's time I get back into the scary world of dating."

"Xan," she added softly and slumped down to sit on the floor beside
him "you have never been a burden and you could never possibly be one.
Even if you tried really really hard. Buffy and I have really enjoyed
being roomies with you. I know Buffy can't live with out her daily
Xander dosage. That one's addicted to you, I can tell. Of course that
could be a bad thing depending on how you look at it." She smiled at
him and said finally "But if you think you need to venture out into
the dating world again, then be my guest. But maybe you should be
taking Buffy with you instead of this boss's daughter." With that she
stood up and started headed towards the door.

"Buffy? What's that suppose to mean?" He had a feeling what she was
trying to hint at but that wasn't possible. "If your referring to
dating Buffy I think you are over thinking things. Besides Buffy
thinks it would be weird to date me, her words not mine."

She paused at the door and turned towards Xander again. "Xander have
you seen Buffy's last few boyfriends? They are the definition of
weird. In fact they couldn't be any weirder. Next year Webster's
putting "weird love" in their book and Buffy's past boyfriends are
going to be lined up beside it. So what does that say to you about
Buffy's explanation of weird?"

Xander wasn't sure what he was supposed to say, so he just stared at
her. Did he really want to think on that too deeply? Dawn thought he
needed a little more to think on it so before she walked out she said…

"Oh remember earlier when I said that 50 of her madness was at the
situation of it all?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"Well that other 50 is pure jealousy." With that she threw the bed
sheet back and walked though the doorway smiling. That should give him
some things to think about tonight.

Now it was time to tackle Buffy's side of things. This should be
interesting; Dawn thought to herself as she knocked on the doorframe,
pushed the bed sheet back, and stepped into Buffy's room.

Buffy was laying with her back to the head board with her legs
sprawled out in front of her. She was hugging a pillow to her chest as
she watched TV in the dark. Dawn turned back to look at the TV to see
what her sister was watching but she had a feeling she already knew.
Yup, she was right. Tony Danza was still dancing around in the
kitchen. Buffy was watching the exact same episode of "Who's the Boss"
as Xander was. Typical. Dawn thought to herself as she turned back to
Buffy.

"Let me guess this is one of your favorite episode too?" she asked as
she jacked her thumb over her shoulder pointing to the small TV.

Buffy looked at Dawn with a slightly confused expression as she asked.
"How'd you know?"

Dawn just rolled her eyes and shook her head. It figures that the two
of them would love the exact same shows and both be sulking in their
rooms watching it at the same time. If these two didn't get together
soon they were going to drive her to the loony bin. Dawn walked to the
side of the bed that Buffy wasn't occupying and heavily plopped down
beside her with a sigh. Other than the old re-run on the TV there was
silence in the room for a moment.

"So how many times a day do you dream about Xander smoochies?"

"What!" Buffy screeched out and turned towards her little sister
looking at her as if she had just grown a second head.

"Oh. Maybe they are shirtless Xander smoochies…is he shirtless?"

Buffy just sat there blinking at Dawn for a second. "Again I say….What!"

"Well I just figure the way you walk around here all day drooling over
Xander, your fantasies of him must be really good and detailed."

"Wha…I do not drool!" Buffy screeched out again.

"Oh so you admit that your fantasies involve yummy Xander smoochies?
Wow this was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be."

Buffy's mouth fell open but she quickly shut it. "I did not say that!
You are twisting my words around! I don't know what you are talking
about!"

"Suuure you don't. We can both play that game. Except we both know
that you are so deeply in love with Xander that you can't even see
straight. But Shhh don't worry, we can both keep pretending that you
aren't already in a relationship with Xander."

"What!" Buffy's screechy voice came back.

"Whaaat!" Dawn imitated Buffy's voice. "Is that all you can say? Tell
me, which one of us is in college again? I mean really, Buff, use your
words."

"Why don't you tell me why I haven't literally thrown you out of my
room yet, huh!" Buffy asked dangerously. It was more of a dangerous
statement than a question.

"Maybe because you are so shocked that I am speaking the truth about
your googly eyes on Xander that you've been rendered motionless?" Dawn
asked innocently.

"Oh that's it!" Buffy yelled as she jumped up off the bed slamming
her pillow down and faced Dawn.

"Uh oh," Dawn rolled off her side of the bed and scrambled to her
feet. She wasn't as smooth and graceful as the Slayer was when getting
up but nevertheless they both were standing facing each other with the
bed in between them.

"Have you been eating those weird anchovy and peanut butter sandwiches
again? I knew those things were bound to affect your brain!" Buffy
said incredulously while pointing at her from across the bed.

Dawn crossed her arms and faked pouted at her sister. "Aww, Buff, are
you cranky? I guess I would be too if I was sexually frustrated
because I was living with man who I wanted but kept telling myself
that I couldn't have, only to have that man sleeping right across the
hall from me every single night. That's gotta drive you crazy!…er."

Buffy lunged at Dawn from across the bed.

"Eeeek!" Dawn yelled out as she ran from her sister's sudden grasp.
Well its time to leave Buffy to her thoughts by herself, Dawn thought
to herself as she quickly headed towards the door.

Right before she ran out of the door way she turned and quickly said
to Buffy "Oh, if you suddenly get the urge to just go ahead and jump
Xander tonight, try to keep it down I have to get up early tomorrow!"
With that she flung the sheet back and quickly exited the room,
leaving a very shocked and very confused Slayer behind.

"Now that's what I call fun." Dawn laughed to herself once she was
safely alone in the hallway outside Buffy's door.

The pillow that came careening out of Buffy's room took Dawn and the
makeshift bed sheet door down in its route. Dawn laid on the floor
spread eagle. She turned over on her back and smiled up at the ceiling
saying to no one in particular…

"Oh yeah she has it bad!"

Next Morning.

Buffy was lying in her bed thinking about Xander and what Dawn had
said the night before. Her little sister was apparently going crazy.
She wasn't jonesing for Xander. He was her best friend. Falling in
love with your best friend had to be a big no no in the best friend's
handbook. And he meant too much to her for her to start falling for
him now. She couldn't just risk her friendship. She did love spending
time with him lately. And maybe she was getting a little too
comfortable with it. It just felt great to be able to sit back and
just be Buffy with him. No Slayer, no leader, no counselor, just
Buffy. She hasn't felt this comfortable with herself in a very long
time. But dating Xander would be crazy. He's Xander. Cute lovable
Xander. No matter what Dawn said she wasn't day dreaming about
Xander…much. It was just an occasional thing that was completely
innocent! Like wondering what Xander would be like on a date. Would he
be nervous and be over spilling with goofy jokes? Or would he be all
cool and suave? Maybe he would be a little bit of both? And Xander was
never shirtless in them that's for sure!

Buffy sighed and sat up looking at her door with the newly replaced
bed sheet. She guessed she did get a little carried away with their
"debate" yesterday. Xander just made her so angry sometimes. He should
know by now not to anger a Slayer. If there was anything to be learned
on a Hellmouth, that was number uno on the list. Candi was the real
problem with this whole situation. She was really the reason for her
being so mad. The girl was just all wrong for Xander and Xander didn't
even seem to care. Plus, the ho bag had made the date on Friday night,
which they already had, plans for. This girl had to be evil. She could
sense things like this, she is the Slayer after all! That and Xander
always seems to attract them. Yup, she definitely had evil vibes going
on with her stupid short skirt, big stupid fake smile, and her stupid
poofy hair. Evil!

Xander was just distracted by it all she guessed. Evil had a tendency
to do that to a person. Who wouldn't be when the evilness was throwing
herself at you. Was it right to blame him and destroy his door over
it? Probably not. But she couldn't help it when she was so irritated
by it all yesterday. However, even though it annoyed her to no end and
they did have a small blow out, they still had to go to work today.
They couldn't hold out the silent treatment while there. So it was
probably best to let things slide for now and just try not to think
about Candi or her evilness. What she did have to think about was
beating Xander to the shower. Even if she was supposed to be mad at
him, he was not going to beat her at the shower time.

Buffy had to be extra quick these days if she wanted to get some hot
water for herself. Every morning the precious time in the shower
brought on a new battle with Xander. It was always a big rush to get
ready and living in a house with only one full shower and tub made it
very precious. And a hot one even more precious. That's why they
battled over the shower every morning because they both knew that who
ever got to it first would use most of the hot water up and the poor
soul who got in next would get a cold surprise half way through.
Therefore, creating the start of a bad day and who wanted that?

Dawn constantly had to play referee over their battles of the
bathroom. She once even threatened to start taking bathroom privileges
away. She then went off on a lecture about how precious water was
these days. She started stating facts about water shortages and
talking about people she didn't even know who lived in some place
Buffy couldn't even pronounce and how they didn't even have running
water. By this point Buffy had already started blocking her out and
was coming up with a plan on how to beat Xander Harris to the bathroom
in the mornings. She could set his clock and his wrist watch back
about 5 minutes and that would give her just enough time to get to the
bathroom, lock him out, and enjoy her extra steamy shower. She smiled
evilly to herself when she thought that. This would be a good plan
indeed. But then her smile faltered a little when she heard Xander's
last crack about how the best way to save on water would be for him
and Buffy to share showers. That would save a lot on water and then
with the extra help they could both get to all those hard to reach
places. He then gloated how he would take one for the team on this
one. That night Buffy set his clock ten minutes back for that last
crack.

But Xander was getting really clever lately. A couple of times he had
some how beaten her to the bathroom. Once he even figured out a way to
make her door stick shut so when she got up that morning she couldn't
open her door. It was like it was locked from the other side. She knew
who the culprit was when she heard Xander giggling like a little boy
as he walked towards the bathroom. After she had practically ripped
the door off its hinges, it was just in time to see Xander smile
brightly at her and slam the bathroom door shut and lock it.

This morning she had decided to get up a few minutes early to give her
enough time to beat that sneaky little rat. Buffy went to her door and
stuck her head out and peered across the hallway. Xander's sheet for
his door was still up but she could tell all the lights were still out
and if she used her super hearing she could hear Xander's evened out
breathing indicating that he was still asleep. She knew Xander's
breathing because she had listened to it a lot over the last 2 months
while working with him in the little trailer. He had a breathing for
when he was exhausted from something, a breathing for when he was
concentrating on work, a loud breathing for when he was bored or
annoyed, and a breathing for when he was asleep. She was a Xander
expert so she should know his breathing patterns.

A wide grin came over her face as she sneakily ran down the hallway
towards the bathroom. The early bird gets the all the hot water, as
she liked to say.

She entered and quietly closed the door behind her. She started
setting about her morning business and started to prepare for her
shower. She turned on the water and made sure it was to the perfect
blazing temperature. She then started to gather her bath products that
she would need. She set out her shampoo, conditioner, lotions, oils,
and soaps. She suddenly realized that she didn't have her favorite
soap of all. Where could it be? Did she leave it in her room
somewhere? It was one of her favorite parts of her shower and she
couldn't just go with out it.

"Crap!" She said aloud. That means she was going have to run back to
her room, ram sack her room in search of it, and then come back. She
could do that. She was known for her extra speedy-ness, surely she
could be back before Xander even rolled over to get up.

Dawn walked out of her room trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
This will be the last time she will offer to help her friend, Kit,
move her family into a new house, especially if it involved ungodly
hours like this. It was summer for goodness sake. A time for sleep. Or
for Buffy and Xander a time to go to work. Dawn thought back to her
discussions with the two the night before. She thought that she had
been quite successful at throwing obvious little hints their way about
their relationship. She gave Xander that extra little push in the
right direction and well for Buffy it was mostly just fun seeing her
all dazed and confused. Maybe now they could just admit their apparent
feelings for each other and just go out. But even if they didn't just
yet it would still be entertaining to watch them run around the house
pretending to not be drooling for each other.

Dawn looked down at her watch. Yup it was time for the early morning
ritual race to the shower. Dawn didn't know why her sister and Xander
were constantly bickering over the shower. It wasn't like they were
even fighting; it was more like a need to beat the other. It was like
they were always in some kind of competition with each other. Lately,
they had been acting that way a lot about little things. Rather it is
showers, who got to choose what they were going to eat for dinner, or
what TV channel they were going to watch it was a contest of teasing.

They were weird. Even their fighting wasn't normal. It was more like a
mean flirting thing with each other. To the strangers eye it may look
like two adults acting very childish but to Dawn's eye, who knew both
Buffy and Xander like the back of her hand, it looked like both were
ready to jump each other. The sexual tension in this house was so
thick one could cut it with a knife.

She would probably find it annoying if she didn't think it was kinda
cute that Buffy was in obvious denial about crushing on Xander and
Xander was in denial about the fact that Buffy was in deed crushing on
him. The flirty fight thing had been pretty innocent up until last
night when the screaming match occurred. But even then the sexual
tension was suffocating. Like always they were oblivious to it but of
course again they were weird that way.

"Speaking of weird. Who left the shower running?" Dawn thought out
loud as she walked into the bathroom. It had to be Buffy or Xander.
That was just like them too. Probably all distracted with thoughts of
smoochies and nakedness to even think clearly. Don't they know that
water shortages are a big deal these days? What are they going to do
20 years from now when they can't even take showers because somebody
wasted water from like leaving the shower on just like this, thus
creating a massive water shortage for generations to come. Did they
not listen to her speech about the importance of conserving water? Did
they not read the facts she pulled up on the Internet, printed off,
and gave them? Did they pay her any attention at all?

"Hmmph" Dawn snorted as she irritably turned off the water. Then again
it was times like this that made living with two morons, who were so
in love with each other that they couldn't see straight, a real pain.

Xander was lying in bed blinking the sleepy cobwebs away. He was still
pretty tired since he really didn't sleep much the night before. How
could he with the thoughts Dawn left him with last night? He was
already going to lose sleep over fighting with Buffy, but then Dawn
had to come in and be all vague and hinty and leave him with to many
thoughts. That was just like a Summers girl. Come in, suck all the air
out of the room, and then leave you in a whirlwind of thoughts and
feelings.

Before Dawn left his room she had dropped the bomb on him that Buffy
was probably jealous. What was that suppose to mean? He stayed up most
of the night thinking about it and he still didn't have the slightest
clue. Was she jealous that he was going out on a date? Was she jealous
of Candi going out on a date with him? That was a pretty absurd idea.
Buffy wouldn't be jealous of that. Jealous of a girl who liked him?
Buffy? Ha! That would almost be laughable if it didn't involve dating
him. But Buffy jealous? Nope not going to happen. It might be funny to
see her jealous but it wasn't Buffy-style to start getting jealous of
his dates. If she was anything she was upset that he started dating
again before her. That had to be it. It's the only thing that made
anything resembling sense. And that said something since things making
sense was hard to come by in Sunnydale.

But he needed to put all that thinking behind him. He and Buffy still
had to get through the workday together. And he couldn't handle the
idea of what damage she might cause at a construction site if she was
still mad at him while there. There were far too many blunt heavy
objects to throw around there. So he was just going to put everything
behind him and try to make the best of the day. Now all he needed to
worry about was beating Buffy to the shower this morning.

Xander stuck his head out the doorway. Buffy was nowhere to be seen
and the bathroom was free for him to take. Ha! He thought to himself.
He would rule the shower time today. No more freezing showers for him.
No soiree!

An evil grin crossed his face as he made his way down the hallway.
Buffy was probably still trying to find her favorite soap. He mentally
patted himself on the back for thinking about hiding her soap so that
she would be forced to take time to look for it. He knew Buffy almost
better than he knew himself. And he knew that she would not start her
shower without that really good smelling soap. That will teach her for
setting his clocks back and making him take ice cold showers, he
thought as he closed the door behind him.

If he learned anything from living in a house with a bunch of teenage
girls last year it was that you had to be pretty quick if you wanted
to take a peaceful shower. Otherwise you would have one angry Slayer
on your hands. And you had to be even quicker if you were going to
beat that angry Slayer for the valued bathroom time.

Even though Xander's ego was pleased that he had finally got the upper
hand back on this whole shower deal, a part of him felt a little
guilty that Buffy would have to take a cold shower. He always hated it
when all the hot water ran out in the middle of his shower. That's why
when the last few times he actually beat her to the shower, he would
stand outside of the bathroom, count down to when her hot water would
run out, and got a small gratification to hear her surprise yelp
signaling when the freezing cold water came drenching down. Thinking
about the cute scowl that she would give him later on that morning
would always make him smile.

But today he would try to make it quick so that she would have some
hot water for herself. They didn't need anything else to make this day
more stressful. He quickly stripped down and threw his night clothes
into the dirty clothes hamper in the corner.

"Only if she were more open to the idea of mutual showers…" he said
out aloud as he turned on the water and stepped inside.

Buffy popped up from the side of her bed and leaned into it. Her soap
wasn't underneath the bed either. She had looked everywhere. She
looked around her room at all the pulled out draws, dumped out boxes,
and scattered clutter all around that she had created while searching
for the soap.

"I guess I will go with my back up soap," she mumbled out loud as she
made her way to her closet. She pulled out a bottle of soap that she
used only when 'her soap' ran out before she could buy a new bottle of it.

Buffy went back to the bathroom and noticed her shower was still
running. She stepped into the room and quietly closed the door behind
her and stripped down. Xander must still be asleep. Ha! She still beat
him.

She reached for the shower curtain and threw it back to step in...

Xander quickly soaped up. He would be through soon and Buffy could
have all the hot water she wanted. He didn't hear the door open and
close. He didn't even see the hand that reached around the curtain.
But he definitely heard the loud gasp when the shower curtain suddenly
flew open...

Buffy got the shock of her life when that shower curtain flew open.
There stood Xander Harris completely naked!

Her line of vision started at his shoulders and made its way south.
She took in his built chest. Her eyes roamed over his tight abs. Her
eyes continued to move south...

Xander turned towards the loud gasping noise, but he wasn't prepared
to see the sight before his eyes. He couldn't move. He couldn't say
anything. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't even think.

Buffy had no problems in the thinking department. All she could think
was… For the love of god look up woman! Look up! She was just having
problems in the not staring department.

Finally Xander brain started working. The words "Buffy boobies"
flashed across his mind and he had to control himself from saying it
out loud. That's when he noticed her blush and he suddenly realized
that he was very much naked too. He had to get cover himself up, but
Buffy was standing right in between him and his towel so he grabbed
for the nearest thing he found.

Buffy finally got control of her mind and screwed her eyes shut. She
had to stop staring! She had to get out of there! She had to cover
herself up! She grabbed for the shower curtain at the same time
Xander did.

With the force of both of them grabbing for the cover, the curtain
immediately gave away and popped off the rod holding it up. It was
left to be fought over by Buffy and Xander. Both had decided they
wanted it for cover since it was the closest thing. Buffy pulled one
way and Xander pulled the other.

They battled that way for a few moments. Buffy had decided she had
enough of this madness and gave one Slayer strength tug at it and
pulled it and Xander out of the shower. He was no match for the Slayer
and tumbled out of the shower and right into her.

They both tumbled to the ground. Buffy was on bottom staring up at
Xander. This was not good. Skin on skin. Xander well toned skin. Buffy
felt her blush rise back up.

They both jumped up at the same time. Buffy snatched the rest of the
curtain from Xander and covered herself up.

"I…" she started. She didn't know what to say.

"Buffy.." For the second time of the day Xander was speechless.

"Sorry…I…uh…" Buffy's words were jumbled in her head. Why were they
coming out that way? Why wouldn't her legs work so she could get out
of there? Why is he still standing there naked? More importantly why
is she still staring?

"Oh god…" she muttered as she turned around and flung the door open
and ran out.

"Buffy…wait…no its okay…wait!" Xander heard her as she ran down the
hall with the metal shower curtain hooks clinging all the way down the
hallway. He started to run after her but stopped dead in his tracks
when he heard Dawn's "What the hell?" at the shower curtain clad Buffy
running past her room. He slammed the bathroom door shut again before
Dawn came out to investigate and saw his exposed state as well. Where
was a damn towel when you need one!

Back in Buffy's room.

Buffy was standing in the middle of her room clutching her shower
curtain that was still wrapped around her.

"What just happened?" she said to no one in particular. She flashed
back to Xander standing there all wet in the shower. This was her best
friend Xander. The one who she shared all her secrets and rocky road
ice cream with. The one who she fell asleep on the couch when watching
movies with. The one who she couldn't stop picturing his nakedness with.

"Oh god." She shut her eyes again and tried to will herself to stop
thinking about it but every time she shut her eyes she only pictured
it more.

"Buffy?"

She snatched her head up at Xander's meek voice from the hallway.
"What!" she asked still a bit panicked.

"Um…" Xander slowly pulled her makeshift bed sheet door back and
timidly looked inside her room as if he was scared she would be
standing there naked again. "Can I come in?" he said and then slowly
steeped in.

Buffy clutched the curtain to her more and gulped loudly. At least he
had a towel around his waist this time. He was still soaking wet and
his hair was spiked out going in all different directions. He must of
not have finished washing off because he still had blotches of
soapsuds on him.

"Um…" Xander just stood there not quite sure what to say. He was still
trying to get his brain working again. What was he suppose to say,
'Sorry I was standing in the shower nakedly when you came in?'

"Sorry I…" they both said at the same time.

"No I'm sorry…" they both said in unison again.

"No really it was…"

They both stared at each other and said in unison.

"Stop saying everything I say!"

"Ugggh"

Buffy just looked at Xander urging him to continue. She shifted
nervously under his gaze and tried to ignore the loud squeaky noise
her curtain towel made every time she moved.

"Look Buffy, its okay. I know it was an accident. Cleary from the way
you ran out of there you didn't mean to do that. I'm not exactly sure
who just gets into a shower when it's already running and they didn't
turn it on but whatever. The important thing is that we are good
friends who are both adults. We have both seen the opposite sex naked
right? Its…its..um…no big deal… right?"

Buffy was only half listening and half thinking at the moment because
she was being distracted by a water drop that was running down his
chest. She watched it smoothly run over and down his pecks, over his
abs, and go underneath the towel at his waist. Buffy gulped and
snapped her head up as she caught the end of Xander's nervous ramble.

"Right!" She said a little too loudly. "I…Sorry …I didn't know you
were…you know. It's…hey wait…why were you in my shower anyways?"

"You're shower? Hey you can't stake claim on it if you aren't in
it….and I was."

"I left the shower on when I went to look for my soap so I fully had
claim on the shower."

"What? No it wasn't on when I…." he stopped when it all started to
make sense. They both stood and stared at each other while the wheels
in their heads starting turning.

They both turned around and yelled in unison once more…

"DAWN!"