Bad Apple

"Why are we watching this weird… Japanese animation?" Anya asked, chancing a glance Xander's way, while the two of them sat in his apartment: an apartment he was damn proud to have bought for this girlfriend of his.

And at first, as she said this, Xander had thought that Anya was about to say she found something wrong with anime—and he would have to chip in and tell her why that was maybe a bit racist, and why he found the shows rather entertaining—but before he could even get a word in edge wise, the demon was speaking a mile a minute, with a ramble that would have made both Buffy and Willow proud, he thought.

"I mean, yes, I know the large eyes in the style of animation here was influenced by Walt Disney's own art, which is charming. Because clearly, he knew what he was doing. And anime stories can be very interesting and even quite adult, I've heard, which is definitely a breath of fresh air over having to watch cartoons with you, let me tell you… but why must we watch this when we could be doing more pleasurable things? Like having sex?"

And Xander didn't miss the way that Anya had somewhat crawled into his lap with her last comment, so that her chest was pressing against his own in a very nice manner. And now- and now her lips were getting closer to his own, as she also tried to sink down lower onto him to-

Suddenly, Xander knew that he had to get away from his girlfriend before she ruined this very good idea and evening he'd had planned, so he headed back to the kitchen with a large bowl to get some popcorn.

He didn't miss the irritated "hmph!" that Anya threw his way when he did so, though.

When he came back—with his head clearer and a bowl of buttery deliciousness in hand, that he gave back to his girlfriend—Xander tried to plead his case, as he stood beside the VCR and then pointed at the screen.

"C'mon, An! Tenchi's a classic! It's a really funny harem anime, that I think you'll enjoy! An if, for whatever reason, that gets boring for you, the girls are from outer space with crazy powers, and there are some interesting plots with epic sword fights and stuff… it's just really a lot of fun. Trust me."

"Well, I suppose it doesn't sound terrible," Anya allowed, snuggling into Xander the moment he came to sit beside her again, and leaning her head on his shoulder. "But I still don't really get why we're watching it."

"Because—and dear God, I can't believe I'm about to say this. If you ever try to blackmail me with it, I'll plead the fifth—we can't have sex all the time. We should- we should prove to the others that we can have stimulating conversations about things… And since I don't see either of us reading a book any time soon, I think this will have to do."

"I suppose you're right," Anya whined. And then she surprised Xander completely by leaning towards him to kiss him on the cheek. "And you're cute when you try new things. And speaking of cute… Everyone in this is easy on the eyes, in a stylistic way. So at least there's that."

And having said pretty much all they could say at that point, without having watched the show (Anya had never seen it before, and Xander hadn't seen it since he was a child), the two quieted down and watched the episode. It seemed to be one mainly centered around the main "heartthrob", Tenchi (who was really just your Average Joe with a heart of gold), and the space pirate Ryoko…

It seemed like he was breaking her heart, though, in choosing to go back to reality over the fantasy world she'd created for them, that she'd sucked their entire group into.

But in the end… In the end, Tenchi was offering Ryoko an olive branch—even over his other potential love interests—by throwing an apple to her (even though she'd been selfish to get them to the fantasy world in the first place, and usually drove him crazy, apparently). And the two of them just shared a nice, comfortable silence with each other, as they snacked on their own fruits.

It didn't take a genius to see that the writers were hinting that there was a possibility for them still, but one steeped in reality, Xander thought… And all of this coming from someone who failed English on a regular basis.

"Except I can't figure out why the show didn't mention that she was a demon," Xander complained now, with his hands crossed over his chest, as he sat up on the couch. "I remember it vividly from the first season of the anime. And it was one of the coolest things about it. So you'd think they would have said it here, for anyone too lazy to tune in at the same Bat Time and same Bat Channel. But no dice. How lame is that?"

Okay… maybe Xander had gotten a little worked up there. Though he honestly had expected Anya to agree with him. But looking at her out of the corner of his eye, Xander could tell that she… did not. And did not care about the issue at all.

Anya just slurped on the apple slush that she'd gotten from the ice cream shop with him earlier and shrugged. "I actually get annoyed when people tell me the same thing over and over again. So, if I'd been a regular viewer of this, I would have been irritated if they'd done something like that, so it's no skin off my nose."

Man, there were sometimes that Anya really annoyed Xander… but looking into her lovely brown eyes, that almost seemed to be smiling at him, as they locked onto him again, he just couldn't help loving her, anyway.

"Hey, do you mind if I have a sip of that?" Xander ventured now, pointing at her slush upon feeling suddenly parched. "After all, if I drink from it after you do, it's an indirect kiss and all."

"Sure!" Anya chirped, seeming much more alive than she had since they'd started this whole "movie marathon", even though Xander did think she'd liked "Tenchi"; and he knew they now had something to watch when they wanted to feel better about themselves and act like they did more than makeout and have sex with each other. "And then when you're done with that, we can get to direct kisses and more, since we came, we saw, we conquered."

And he'd never been so glad to have compromised with someone in his life.