Hum a Few Bars 5

Previous chapters AYASEMF068, AYASEMF070, AYASEMF071, ANYASEMF002

The credits rolled and Xander and Amy got up to shut down the projector.

"And that ends our broadcast day," Xander said. "You guys know the way out. See you all later."

The pair vanished up to the projector booth to put things away.

"What's next?" Amy asked Xander.

"Simple rituals to create a threshold and strengthen it," Xander replied, opening his backpack and handing her the book he'd borrowed from Giles.

Amy opened it and paged through the various spells, noting the ones Xander had bookmarked. "Did you read all the details or just glance at them?"

"Just glanced," Xander replied as he tried to make sense of how the movies were organized, if they were organized.

"I thought so," Amy said.

"I looked for common and affordable ingredients among the spells that I could afford and marked the spells that only required those," Xander explained finally realizing the movies were organized by studio and release date. "I can easily keep warding the doors so this was just a 'if you feel like it' kinda thing."

Amy grinned. "Are you a virgin?"

"Um… yeah, unless oral counts," he admitted. "Do some of those require that?"

"A few drops of virgin blood of both sexes on one, just virgin's breath on another," Amy answered.

"Seems easy enough," Xander said. "If you want to cast one, just let me know what I need to do."

"I think the easiest one is simply sleeping in the same bed," Amy said. "No hanky panky needed, just the trust to sleep close together."

"That's all?" Xander asked surprised.

"A couple of chants, blow out some candles, burn some herbs… the usual," Amy explained, "but then we simply sleep in the same bad and boom, accelerated threshold buildup."

"I don't mind if you don't," Xander said, "but I don't want to push you into anything."

"It's just sleeping," she assured Xander, "and I know you're trustworthy."

"Ok, I can handle that," Xander said.

"There is a ceremonial washing of feet in the morning to complement it. Are you ok with that?" Amy asked shyly.

"I don't have a problem with it," Xander assured her.

"Good," Amy said turning away to hide her blush. "So, where are we going to sleep?"

"I have a sleeping bag, though it's a bit of a tight fit for two," Xander said.

"Let's see what the apartment has available," Amy suggested.

"Alright, though I'm looking for clean sheets before we use a bed a vamp has slept in," Xander said.

Amy's face scrunched up. "Or just go without."

"I wonder if they have a laundry room?"

"They'd have to, wouldn't they?"

"After all the work they did putting a backyard on the room," Xander said. "Yeah, it's a given. Now, where would they hide it?"

"Either on the roof or in the basement," Amy guessed.

"The basement means they'd have to climb two flights of stairs every time they did laundry," Xander said. "This being Sunnydale I'm betting they did that rather then put it outside, even if it was on the roof."

"Yeah," Amy agreed. "Did we find the stairs leading down to the basement?"

"The janitor's room is actually just the top landing on the stairway," Xander replied, "the stair on in the back of it."

"Well after we saw the roof we knew this wasn't a conventional house design anyway," she replied.

The pair paused in the arcade.

"I'm going to have to fix that leg Oz busted off," Xander noted looking at the pool table. "Shouldn't be too hard."

"There's the jukebox, I think," Amy said pointing to an arcade machine that looked like someone had taken an arcade game and tried to mate it with a jukebox and some rock concert speakers.

"Weird, but workable," Xander said. "It's all video game soundtracks," he noted as he looked at the selection.

"We can switch out the music pretty easily, I think that's just the default listing for when no one's paying for anything in particular," Amy said.

"Yeah," Xander agreed, looking at the band names on the front of the machine all done in their own personal styles. "Let's go do laundry."

"What do you think we'll find in the basement?" Amy asked, as they entered the apartment.

"Unexpected cheerleaders," Xander said surprised.

"What?" Amy asked before noting the gang was all sitting in the living room. "Why are you all still here?"

"Vampires," Harmony and Gwen chorused.

"We couldn't agree who was supposed to walk who home," Buffy admitted.

"Morbid curiosity," Oz deadpanned.

"It's safer to wait for the morning," Willow said.

"So, what are you two planning?" Cordelia asked, trying to sound casual while inspecting her nails.

"Doing laundry," Xander said causing everyone to stare at the two. "I am not sleeping on sheets a demon infested corpse has laid on without running them through some hot water and a vial of holy water."

"That's a good point," Harmony said. "Would you mind showing me how to do laundry?"

"This would be a whole lot funnier if that had been a euphemism," Gwen said, "but yeah, please show us how to get clean sheets."

"Vampires don't shed or get dandruff," Buffy said, "and their vampiric aura kills off any bacteria or viruses."

"Don't care, hot water and holy water are a necessity as far as I'm concerned," Xander said firmly.

"We should probably do the same," Cordelia told Buffy.

Buffy looked surprised but before she could say anything everyone had went to check the various bedrooms and strip the beds.

OoOoOoOoOo

"I'll go first," Buffy said, passing the sheets to Cordelia and pulling out a stake as they entered the janitor's closet and closed on the stairs going down.

At Harmony's nervous look Xander passed her a large wooden cross from his bag. She gave him a grateful smile as did Gwen who moved closer to Harmony as they followed down the stairs.

The basement was huge, dark, and poorly lit… until Xander flipped the light switch and multiple banks of florescent tubes came on showing clean white walls, an overly large laundry area, and a multiple rows of boxes and shelves.

"Oh," Buffy said, putting her stake away.

"Movie memorabilia and advertising," Willow said going to poke through the multitude of boxes.

"We've got two industrial sized washers and that's good," Xander said as the Scoobs minus Cordelia went to look at stuff.

"Why?" Gwen asked. "We only have four sets of sheets and pillowcases, that's not a lot."

"Because you guys have whites while we have colors," Xander said. "If we tossed a red silk sheet in with all the whites they would come out pink."

"Silk sheets," Cordelia muttered softly, glaring at them as Xander stuffed them in one of the machines.

"Now, with white clothes you want to set it on hot and add a cup of bleach," Xander said as the girls watched like he was revealing the secrets of the universe and Amy was trying not to snicker.

"And 'Dry Clean only' can't go in the washer," Harmony said, recalling learning that lesson very clearly.

"Always check the tags, some have special instructions especially if it's expensive material," he agreed as he poured a vial of holy water in the washer and started it up.

"I learned that lesson the hard way," Cordelia admitted.

"Now for colors you usually use cold water or warm at most, but since I don't care if the colors fade so much as the vampire cooties are gone I'm going to set it to hot as well," Xander explained.

"And no bleach," Gwen noted.

"But still with the holy water," Xander agreed finishing it off and starting it. "There is usually a chart on the inside of the lid of household washers that tells you what size you should put it on, but I always put it on large, so I don't have to worry about there being soap left on anything."

"They should teach this in home Ec," Harmony complained. "I mean, I can order out for food, but laundry gets done at home."

"Yeah, I think that course was designed before washers and microwaves and all that," Cordelia said. "They never bothered updating it, but at least I can sew on buttons and make a decent coffee cake."

Oz came back wearing a Santa hat. "Found the seasonal decorations."

"How long does it take to do a load and why does our housekeeper joke about the spin cycle?" Gwen asked.

"And now I'll turn you over to my lovely assistant while I go with Oz to look through decorations," Xander said moving a giggling Amy in front of him.

"Smooth," Oz said to the blushing Xander.

"Just show me to the Santa hats," Xander said.

Ten minutes later

"Why do they have Chucky dolls?" Xander asked.

"I think there was a giveaway that was cancelled because the Mayor thought the movie was a bit too gory for public advertisement," Oz said. "Pretty sure these are valuable collector items now."

"There are a number of boxes of stuff like that down here," Xander noted.

"There is a horror convention in LA next month, you could open up a booth and make a killing," Oz said.

"You provide the van and I'll cut you in," Xander offered.

There was a feminine squeal from the laundry area followed by a lot of female laughter.

"So how about those Mets?" Xander asked.

"I've never trusted them" Oz replied, both of them doing their level best to ignore the squeals and laughter.

"You don't trust the Mets?" Xander asked surprised.

"I don't trust a team named after a past tense verb, especially when it's not singular," Oz explained. "It's like they're hiding something."

"Steroids?" Xander suggested.

"Without a doubt," Oz agreed, "but what else?"

"They don't win enough to have made a deal with the devil," Xander pointed out.

"I don't know about that," Oz disagreed. "Who's to say multiple teams haven't made deals with multiple devils? Maybe that's why selling your soul to the devil is so rare these days, they are all struggling against one another to uphold sports sponsorships."

"What the fans do can be considered worship… That's a lot of power they are vying for," he admitted seriously considering the issue.

There was the sound of a pair of buzzers and Xander closed the box he'd been looking through.

"How do we use the dryers?" Harmony called out.

Xander rejoined the girls, seeing that Buffy and Willow had joined them and was slightly unnerved by how well they were all getting along now; usually that meant danger to all lone males and he had to force himself not to back against a wall. "Since we used the large setting to make sure all the soap was washed off your load it would take care of any remaining bleach as well, so we can dry them together… or we could have if they weren't made of different materials," he explained.

"Like when my wool sweater got shrunk!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Exactly," Xander agreed. "Cotton can go on high heat, but silk goes on low at most."

"And no heat is Tumble Dry?" Cordelia asked as she read the dial.

"Yeah, you can sometimes cheat and use that setting for stuff you'd normally hang on a line and air dry," he said, "but that's a bit risky. I mostly use it to help remove wrinkles if I've left the laundry sit too long in the dryer after it's finished."

"It's best to fold or hang clothes the moment they come out of the dryer," Amy added, "it prevents wrinkles."

"And that's laundry," Xander said. "Any questions?"

"How come your clothes are always wrinkled?" Harmony asked.

"I'm lazy so I don't really put a lot of effort into it," Xander admitted.

"But why not look your best?" Harmony asked.

"People who only care about looks aren't the types I want to hang with," Xander admitted. "The stuff I get into is dangerous, I need to know who's really a friend and who's going to bail."

"You'd never know that until disaster strikes anyway," Gwen said. "Looking good isn't solely about… looking good." She sighed unsure how to phrase it.

"Looking good means you value yourself," Harmony said. "Look good, feel good, do good things."

"It's not just showing off," Buffy said, realizing Xander may not have gotten this speech as a kid… and maybe Willow hadn't either. "You take pride in your appearance, so people will know you will work hard."

"I'm missing something there," Xander said.

"Proud people work hard to do the best they can," Buffy explained. "Pride in your work isn't just a phrase."

"Are you saying people evaluate your competency based on your appearance?" Willow asked in disbelief.

"Pretty much," Buffy agreed.

"Of course it's situationally appropriate at times," Cordelia admitted. "Hard physical labor requires different clothes than stock brokers."

"I also use my clothes to blend in and get overlooked," Xander pointed out. "Sometimes I need people to dismiss me as unimportant."

"What?" Willow asked looking shocked as she started thinking about things in the past and trying to see where his attitude came from.

"I slouch so I look shorter, I wear clothes that are baggy to hide my build," Xander explained. "Vamps dismiss me as a threat till I blindside them."

"What about before the vamps?" Willow asked.

"Jessie was trying to catch Cordy's eye and I was kinda overshadowing him," Xander admitted. "Plus, I didn't get challenged to as many fights, so my parents didn't have to come to school as often."

Buffy could see something go through the native Sunnydale girls' head from the slight expression of understanding they all got before Amy changed the subject, "It's just school anyway, most of what happens here doesn't matter, no one really checks your permanent record, not even the CIA."

"Oh no, it is important," Cordelia disagreed, "the people you know and the contacts you make can help you tremendously. It's all about networking."

"So many popular actors and comedians don't come from the same high school because it has a great drama club," Buffy agreed. "People know people, who know people. It's like the six links to Bacon game."

"Kevin Bacon," Cordelia clarified.

"I'm smart enough I can write my own ticket," Willow pointed out. "I've already been scouted by some big tech firms and given warnings by some three letter agencies."

"We aren't," Gwen said flatly. "Most people have to do the stuff we do, show they can get along with people they hate, to get stuff done so we'll have solid futures."

"Don't look at me, I was raised to be a human sacrifice, so I didn't get told all this," Amy admitted.

"I've already passed my life expectancy," Buffy said, "so I hadn't really thought about talking to you guys about any of this."

The dryers buzzed.

"And let's drop that topic and get to bed making," Xander said, relieved he didn't have to think about the future, much less his future prospects.

"That we know," Harmony said. "I always helped the maid when I was little."

"It also helps when you need to straighten things up, so it doesn't look like you had someone in your room," Gwen added.

"I love when they're warm like this," Harmony said burying her face in them for a moment. She looked up embarrassed, but then noticed the others doing it as well.

The group of teens returned to the apartment and Xander and Amy disappeared into the master bedroom closing the door behind them.

There was a moment of awkwardness as the 'couples' stood there but Gwen broke the silence, "Slumber party rules?" she suggested.

Buffy and Cordelia exchanged glances. "Cheer Camp rules," they chorused.

"Agreed," Harmony said looking relieved and pulling Gwen towards their bedroom.

"Cheer Camp rules?" Willow asked.

"What happens at Cheer Camp, stays at Cheer Camp," Buffy explained, before going to make her bed, Cordelia reluctantly following after giving one more glance at the master bedroom's closed door.

Now that they were alone and about to share a bed Willow got nervous. "Um."

"We'll just sleep," Oz promised her.

"Just?" she asked disappointed.

"There will be snuggling," he promised.

Willow perked up. "What's your opinion on groping?"

"I'm very pro groping," he promised as he followed her into their bedroom.

Typing by: fyrewolf5

TN: It's always the quiet ones ;-)