Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Thanks to Oxnate for beta-reading this fic.
Similar to chapter 3, this has some detailed - but not exactly explicit - explorations of sex. That's why the rating is what it is.
As I've done in my other fics, I've smoothed out some of Tara's stammering and verbal stumbles - some fanfics have a tendency to overexaggerate it, and equally, it's just not very easy to write in a realistic way that doesn't overexaggerate that characteristic. So while I do try to display some of it, bear in mind that in speech, Tara is probably stumbling or hesitating a bit more than the dialogue would imply.
Just a bit.
This Year's Boy
By Kylia
Chapter 5: Gettin' Some
February 24, 2000
Cheap Motel Room, Los Angeles
Xander Harris had no game. Boy couldn't pick up a girl to save his life. Faith had been surprised he'd ever been able to get a hot girl like that Cordelia chick to date him, but since he did what all men did and fucked it up soon enough anyway, it obviously hadn't been that great.
But the point was, Xander, despite looking pretty good, especially in the right outfit, was terrible at picking up girls.
Faith, on the other hand, had game in spades. Picking up guys, girls or the ones who were somewhere in between or whatever. So she'd figured it would be easy to do that in Xander's body.
Not quite as easy as she'd thought though - a lot of her usual lines and tactics didn't exactly work with a guy's body, and so she struck out, badly, a few times for her trouble - even got slapped across the face. Faith had nearly responded in kind, but the woman had quickly moved away before she could - no slayer speed for her.
Goddamnit.
Still, she'd managed to figure it out.
The bus she'd taken from Sunnydale had stopped in Oxnard of all fucking places, and stayed there for hours for some stupid fucking reason, so that's when she'd started trying to have her fun. In the end, she'd gotten lucky with some surprisingly hot - and just a bit tipsy - cougar who was leaving some male strip club called the Fabulous Ladies Nightclub. Woman might've been twice her age, but damn was she still smokin'.
Getting the woman to take her back to her motel room had been easy, and that's when things had gotten fun. Not wanting for this to go too quick, Faith got the woman off first with her fingers before getting down to the fun part - finding out of a blowjob was really as good as guys always claimed.
And fucking hell yes it was. It was totally different than being eaten out - no surprise there - but it felt just as fucking good, but it was all concentrated in the dick. Her eyes had rolled back into her head and the fucking explosion when she finished - the cougar - whose name Faith hadn't really registered - actually swallowed most of it, which, gross, but also Faith found somehow so fucking hot to watch.
No wonder guys wanted me to do that. Still didn't interest her, but if this chick wanted to, that was her problem.
Dealing with that annoying 'refractory period' bullshit hadn't been fun, but it was pretty quick, and Faith had put her skills with her tongue to good use in the interim. But finally, she was able to try fucking a woman with a real dick, rather than a toy.
Once more, it was really impossible to compare the feelings. Faith nearly blew up right after getting inside her, it felt so good, but held out and held on. Not only did it feel different, but it was different than using a strap-on with how to do the fucking itself - the right way to do it and all. But after a few false starts, Faith figured it out.
And fuck that had felt good. Not as good as the blowjob, maybe, and Faith still didn't want to stay like this, but she minded a hell of a lot less that she was going to have to take her time to make her plan worked.
Still, when it was over, Faith had to leave to catch the bus down to L.A., and the cougar was half asleep.
Faith helped herself to the woman's cash before leaving. Not like she'd have to worry too much about the cops coming for Xander Harris for long.
And now here she was in L.A., bright and early, pulling the curtains closed so she could get some sleep. She was too tired, but again, not a Slayer. Gotta do that sleeping shit, and more of it.
At least she wasn't wasting any real time - Angel would be inside, or sleeping even, this same time. If she wanted to find him, she'd have to look at night anyway.
But one way or another, she was gonna find Angel, she was going to steal his body, and then she was gonna put the rest of her plan into action.
And once she had her shiny new sexy vamp woman body, she could go back and kill B, give her exactly what she deserved. Kill her old body too, if the cops or Club Tea and Crumpets over in the fucking mother country didn't get off their asses and do their fucking jobs and kill it for her. Then maybe burn the body or something, make sure there was never a chance she could be forced back into her old body, old life.
First things first though. Find Angel. And that meant sleeping until dark.
February 24, 2000
Giles' Apartment, Sunnydale
"Xander, this is Tara," Willow said, once everyone was inside Giles's house. Thankfully Xander hadn't gotten lost in the sewer - a quick trip to the next manhole and then out, with no cops at that specific one.
With G-man, Buffy, himself, Willow, Tara and Anya, the living room was almost crowded, but not quite. He sat next to Anya.
When he'd come in, Willow had given him a knowing smirk, which made it clear that yeah, she'd known damn well what she was reminding him of when she'd brought up those lists about if they ended as the other gender for a day they'd made, with Jesse, years ago. And how his and Jesse's lists had been predictably NC-17. And from her smirk, Willow seemed to know, or at least be pretty damn sure, that he'd gone and done it.
He felt his cheeks heat a little as a result, but not by much. He was a teenage boy - what was he supposed to do with a surprise pair of breasts and everything else that came with having a female body temporarily? Not have a bit of fun?
At least he knew it was temporary. The idea hadn't really occurred to him until after he'd had a chance to calm down after knowing for sure this could end.
"Tara, this is Xander. Just not how he normally looks," Willow added, turning to Tara.
"I - I can tell..." she said, looking at him. "Your aura - it's - it's fragmented," Tara explained, stumbling over the words. Clearly shy and not used to meeting new people all at once.
"Fragmented aura? Do they have a prescription for that?" Xander joked. "Something I could get at the drugstore?"
Tara shook her head, either not getting the joke or not finding it funny. Probably the second one - it wasn't his best material - but at least it didn't upset her.
"No - no... just getting you back to your normal body. It's not ... it's not dangerous, or anything. But it's obvious to anyone... anyone who can see auras," Tara said quietly.
"Well, I'm glad it's not dangerous. It's nice to meet you Tara." He held out a hand and she shook it a bit hesitantly. "Especially you can help me out with the whole... fragmented aura body-stealing problem." He smiled. "Willow says you're a powerful witch."
"Not really," Tara said with a bit of self-deprecating laugh.
"Yes really," Willow countered. "You can read auras and you know and can do spells I've never even heard of or thought about." She held up a small wooden box. "I couldn't have figured out how to do this - or done it as easily - without your help." She opened it and showed the glowing green ball inside to everyone.
"And - and what is that?" Giles asked, leaning in a bit to examine the thing more closely. "Exactly?"
"It's a Katra - well, the homemade version, anyway. If Faith did something to the one she used to switch bodies with you, we can use this one." Willow explained.
"Oh thank god," Xander said. "And it'll last until we find her?"
"It's - It's one use, but it'll stay good forever, or close," Tara said after a moment, still hesitating on her words a bit, stumbling as she spoke. Anya opened her mouth to say something, and Xander lightly put a hand on her knee. He loved his blunt girlfriend, but-
Anya pouted a moment, then closed her mouth, deciding not to say whatever she'd been about to say, and then said something else.
"So than we just need to find Faith in Xander's nicely shaped real body." Anya concluded. "Did you get everything you need from the magic shop?"
Willow nodded, "ingredients, focusing crystal. And we'll start with a map of Sunnydale. You said she said she wanted to do this to Buffy?"
Xander nodded, "Probably wanted to keep the powers without the whole, wanted for murder thing." He chuckled darkly, "I mean, Sunnyhell's cops aren't all that good, but sooner or later someone would notice something."
"She was jealous," Buffy said quietly after a moment.
"Jealous?" Giles raised an eyebrow, looking over at Buffy.
"When Angel pretended to go evil to find out what Faith and the Mayor were up to, and they pretended to hold me prisoner," Buffy clarified. She was still quiet, almost too quiet to hear clearly, though not quite. "She did the whole 'villain rant' thing you're always talking about, Xander. She said everyone kept comparing her to me, and how I had this 'perfect' life with the friends and the mom and the not-useless watcher. I don't - I don't remember exactly what she said, but..." she trailed off.
Don't remember? For some reason, Xander got the distinct impression she remembered it exactly. That Faith's 'rant' was burned into her memory, or something cliched like that.
Then she raised her voice, changing tones. "She thought she deserved more and all just because she's a Slayer. Or something - I mean, Faith's crazy, who knows what she's really thinking. I tried to give her every chance, and she's refused all of them. After we switch you back, we need to... to do something, to make sure she can't hurt anyone else."
"Prison? She is wanted for murder, and undeniably guilty," Giles suggested.
"Does prison hold a slayer?"
"Not historically, no," Giles admitted. "But from what I gather, modern maximum security prisons are much more secure than the Austrian prison in 1845 that last held a Slayer."
"There was a slayer in Australia in 1845?" Xander asked, purposely getting it wrong. He couldn't point to it on a map, but he knew that Austria was a country somewhere in Europe. Mostly because of the lame joke 'Austria was Hungry so they invaded Turkey and cooked it in Greece'. "Vampires really do get around."
"Not Australia, Xander, Austria. It's right there in Europe," Giles shook his head, letting out an exasperated sigh as he realized Xander had been pulling his leg. "Really, Xander is this the time for your... unique brand of humor?"
"It's better than freaking out," Xander said.
"Prison could work, but there's every chance it wouldn't," Buffy shook her head. "I don't know what we should do with her, but there has to be a way."
"Well, there's always the Council. They want her, and they probably have magic that can hold a Slayer, right?" Anya suggested.
"The Council is just as likely to kill Faith as to hold her prisoner, at this point, I'm afraid," Giles pointed out, taking off his glasses to clean them.
"And that's a bad thing?" Anya said. "Once she's back in her body and Xander's in his, I mean. Faith killed people who didn't even deserve it. Eye for an Eye is an ancient legal precept for a good reason."
Xander managed to stop himself from grimacing at the way Anya talked about it. On the one hand, he really did understand the logic of Faith dying - and if they turned her in, she might even get the death penalty, so was this even so different?
But just handing her over to the Council to die didn't really sit well with Xander. Probably because those british assholes were... well, assholes. Helping them would probably never appeal.
Plus... handing her over like that? Still kinda felt like murder.
"We can figure that out when we have her," Buffy said, perhaps a bit too loudly. "Right now we need to find her."
"I have some of Xander's hair," Anya said, taking a small plastic bag with a couple brown hairs inside. Willow took the bag.
"So how does this work anyway?" Xander asked, as the two witches unrolled a map of Sunnydale.
"There's a few ways to track someone with magic," Willow said, obviously relishing the chance to explain and lecture, as she often did. "The most straightforward way is to take a piece of the person - hair, blood, saliva, the usual. Boil it up with the right reagents and then dip a crystal into the mix. Tie the crystal to a string and let it lead you to your target."
"But you don't know where you're going that way," Buffy noted.
"Nope. Which makes it useful to a point, but then there's this option - take a piece of the person, boil it up, and spatter it across a map with a different spell. The spatter will congregate on the map wherever the person is. There's a few other ways, but they're a lot more complicated and messy."
"So boiling up my hair is step one then, either way," Xander observed.
"Exactly. I figure we use the map to narrow it down, and then use the crystal to find her once we get there. The map is only going to be so exact, after all," Willow concluded.
"Can-can we borrow your stove, Mr. Giles?" Tara asked. "And a pot?"
"Yes, of course," Giles nodded. Willow and Tara got up, moving to the kitchen and set to work on their alchemy or potion making or whatever the hell it was they were doing.
"Giles - have you ever heard of vampires attacking a church in broad daylight?" Buffy asked, going back to what had happened earlier.
"Not in broad daylight, no. Though few cities have as extensive an underground system specifically designed for vampires to use to get around," he pointed out.
"Thank you for that, Mayor "I Just Want To Be A Giant Snake"." Xander noted. "Does anyone else miss him? Compared to ADAM, anyway?"
"He was planning on eating us all at Graduation. We don't even know what ADAM is up to," Buffy shook her head.
"So you think ADAM is behind the irregular behavior of these vampires?"
"It makes sense," Anya said chiming in. "Most vampires aren't that creative. I've granted a few wishes to scorned women who were vampires. None of them really had any imagination. It takes a real master vampire - like your ex, Buffy - or a demon to get them to do something like that."
Buffy inhaled a little at the mention of Angel, and his bloody past, but didn't say anything.
Giles cleared his throat, "Yes, well, that still begs the question - why would ADAM have vampires attack the church?"
"Distraction?" Xander suggested. "Riley said the Initiative was mobilizing. Maybe he wanted to throw them off his scent. Or you," he nodded to Buffy.
"Or seeing how fast we'd respond," Buffy said. "He could be up to something."
"He's the big bad, of course he's up to something." Xander scoffed. It didn't sound quite as satisfying in Faith's voice.
"Fine, but I meant, like... right now." Buffy waved a hand dismissively. Before she could say anything else, Willow and Tara returned with a small bowl full of bubbling brown liquid, and then, using a wooden spoon, spattered a generous amount on the map. Willow set the bowl down and the two of them held hands tightly and chanted a spell, their free hands out over the map. The map and the brown stuff glowed, and then... nothing. No moving of the stuff.
"That- that wasn't supposed to happen..." Willow said.
"Did you do it right?!" Anya demanded.
"Yes we did! Right?" She looked over at Tara, only hesitantly letting go of the blonde's hand. Huh?
"I - I think we- I think we did," Tara said softly. "The only reason it wouldn't work..." she trailed off a moment, then took a breath. "The only reason it wouldn't work is if she wasn't anywhere on the map."
"So she's already left Sunnydale? Fuck," Xander cursed. "She could have gone anywhere. And if she switches again -"
"We can find your body at least," Willow said hurriedly. "We just need a bigger map."
"I have one of the state somewhere in here," Giles gestured to the boxes of books and papers. "Had to drive here from Los Angeles." He went over to one of the boxes and started searching through it.
It took about fifteen minutes of them searching to find it stuffed in the back of his desk drawer, but they found a map of California - and it included a bit of Arizona, Nevada and Oregon each around the edges. Thankfully there was more of the brown stuff to use, and Willow and Tara cast the spell again after spattering it once more.
This time it worked, and the brown liquid started to flow across the map and slowly gathered at one point on the map.
Los Angeles.
"She's in L.A." Anya said. "Good, then we can go and find her and get Xander his body back."
"We can't just leave town right this second," Buffy pointed out. She looked to Xander, "Not that I don't want to help-"
Xander nodded. "You have classes you'd miss and- and ADAM. And the Hellmouth in general." He didn't like the idea of waiting, but he could get how Buffy and Willow could hardly just drop everything at the last minute and rush out to L.A. to help him. "But we can't wait long. Faith could... fuck, she could take a plane out of the country!"
"Do you have a passport?" Giles asked, and Xander shook his head.
"Of course not!" He laughed, "Where am I gonna go?"
"Then Faith probably hasn't left the country yet. She might still leave that city but it has been enough time since she switched that she could have gotten farther than Los Angeles if she wanted to go further," Giles pointed out.
"Willow and I just need to do a few things, and get ready - we could leave tonight."
"There's still ADAM to worry about," Xander countered. "If he's up to something, you can't leave down right this second!" Part of him could barely believe he was making that point, but it was true. And keeping the Hellmouth safe was more important than getting him back into his body, at least as long as they still did it soon.
"Xander, why are you trying to-" Anya started, then she narrowed her eyes. "Do you want to stay-"
"No!" Xander protested quickly, entirely truthfully. "There are, however, things that are more important than me! If ADAM is up to something, I can hardly ask Buffy to leave town! She's the Slayer." And they would need Buffy - once they switched bodies, someone would need to make sure Faith didn't get murderous and try to kill him - or someone else - as revenge or something.
Or run off. Buffy was right that they needed to do something to make sure Faith couldn't keep hurting people or worse, killing them.
Prison she can escape or the Council who will definitely kill her. Talk about terrible choices. If they could be sure she'd just stay in a cell, Xander would say prison. Slayer or not, she killed people. Law and Order and all that, right?
"Look, we'll go tomorrow. If ADAM doesn't do anything today," Buffy said. "We can't wait too long - Faith might run further anyway."
"Tomorrow. That works," Xander nodded. He squirmed in his seat on the couch for a moment, realizing that he wasn't as upset about the idea as he claimed. He didn't want to stay in this body, stay a woman, any longer than he had to, but if he was going to, that did give him a few more opportunities to have a bit of fun with it.
Maybe patrol tonight, dust another vamp. And...
He looked over at Anya, who looked like she was about to pout. Xander tried to give her a look of reassurance, but judging from her expression, it didn't work very well.
"The-the spell on the map should stay active until sunrise..." Tara said softly. "If she leaves L.A. before then... it will move."
"Oh thank god. That's helpful," Xander said, letting out a sigh of relief. Then he looked to Anya and grabbed her hand, "Ahn, We need to talk." Anya inhaled sharply, looking very unhappy, but then she nodded.
"Fine," she said. They got up and moved quickly out into the little 'courtyard' in front of Giles's place. "Why are you delaying! I don't like you in this body. You can't - or don't want to - give me orgasms like this, and... you wouldn't be nice to sleep next to either."
That was probably the closest his girlfriend was likely to get to admitting she liked to cuddle up next to him in her sleep.
Xander smiled softly, then closed his eyes and let out a breath. "Like I said, there are important things - Buffy and Willow have to like... plan for missing class for a day or two while we search L.A. for Faith and make sure she doesn't get away. And ADAM - he's kind of a big deal." It wasn't that Anya didn't care about people dying - she just... didn't care much, as far as he could tell.
Or maybe she really doesn't care at all. Xander ignored that little voice in the back of his head. That was just his own stupid brain trying to trip him up, just like he had with Cordy. No more listening to little mean demon of self-doubt in the back of his mind.
"And as for your orgasms, Ahn," he chuckled, "I'm willing to give you what I can. We can go back to your place."
"When you weren't willing to last night? What changed?" Anya raised an eyebrow, skeptically, though she also sounded eager.
"Last I was... it was awkward and weird and I didn't really feel- I felt like it would be... awkward or something," Xander babbled out, channeling his best friend for a moment. "And now," he added, feeling his cheeks get hot again, even more than before.
"Why-" Then Anya smirked, sly and sexy. "Ah. You... explored a bit, last night."
"I - no - yeah," Xander stammered out. "Are you mad? I mean-"
"It's not like you cheated on me with another woman. If you'd put her your hands on Faith's body when you weren't using it, that'd be one thing." Anya said, unfazed. "Besides, masturbation is entirely healthy." She leaned in. "How did it feel?"
"...good," Xander said with a squeak. Oh thank god. At the time, he hadn't really thought about Anya's possible reaction - genius move there Xander - but Anya was not angry with him over it.
"Good." She grabbed his hand, "say your goodbyes and we'll go back to my place and you can put your face between my legs until I'm satisfied."
"R-right. Good plan," Xander said quickly. A few minutes later, off to Anya's place they went.
February 24, 2000
Anya's Apartment, Sunnydale
It took several hours of intermittent oral sex - Xander was well trained by Anya at this point, but he couldn't go nonstop that entire time - before Anya claimed to be satisfied. Xander had mostly focused on his girlfriend during that time, but he had used his fingers on himself once during that span, since he'd gotten more and more turned on as he ate his girlfriend out.
But he had still been ready for more. When Anya finally had him pull away and some time to come down a bit, Anya had tried to return the favor - not with her tongue, but she'd tried to use her fingers to help him get off again. She'd been... awkward, and after a couple minutes of mostly unpleasant efforts, he grabbed her wrist - gently - and pulled her hand away.
"Stop, stop..." Xander said, wincing a little.
"I'm sorry," Anya said, actually apologizing.
"It's okay. You - you tried." Xander said, his mood not entirely gone, but it had become a lot less noticeable, thanks to how bad her efforts had felt. "I... I'm just a little surprised. When I... you know, touch myself down there," his entire body still felt warm, but for a moment it felt like his cheeks might actually have been even warmer. More flushing.
"When I did that last night, I just - I just kinda did to myself what you like when I do to you." Which she'd demonstrated - the first time anyway - by doing it to herself. And then made him do the same for how he liked to be touched on his dick. He'd had sex with her several times by that point, but somehow the notion of masturbating in front of her had been mortifying for him.
Anya, with her typical blunt openness about sex, had had no issue doing it in front of him though.
"It is different when you do it to someone else rather than yourself," Anya said. Then she frowned, "The problem, Xander, is that I don't like women. So touching one - even if it's really you in there - doesn't work for me." She sighed, "I'm sorry. I thought it would be different this time, since it was you in there."
"This time?" That implied Anya had had another experience with a woman - well, a woman's body. Which - she'd lived a thousand years, plenty of time for something to happen. Suddenly the image of Anya kissing a woman passed through his brain.
Aaaand there's the mood again.
"Xander!" Anya cut in, getting his attention again. "Honestly, I should have known your mind would go there."
"I can't help it - I'm horny and we just had sex. Of course my brain's gonna go there. I'm still a guy in here." He gestured to his head and sighed. "So... you... had sex with a girl before?"
"Tried to, once, eight hundred and..." Anya furrowed her brow, "seventeen years ago. I think. She was one of my clients, and after I granted her wish, she started flirting with me. I didn't really like the idea of having sex with a woman, but I decided to try anyway."
"Just to experiment?" Xander couldn't imagine himself just deciding to 'experiment' with a guy - in any body.
"Yeah, basically." Anya laughed ruefully, "Xander, I hate the vast majority of men, and I like sex. I had to find out if women really were an option.".
"And they're not," Xander stated, not asking a question, since the answer was pretty obvious.
"Not even close, no," Anya shrugged. "But I thought since you were really you in there, it would be easier." She shook her head. "But that didn't work."
"Clearly," Xander said. Unfortunately, he was still turned on, and felt like he needed to get off at least one more time. At least. "You don't mind if I..." He started, but Anya waved a hand dismissively.
"Of course. Like I said, masturbation is healthy, and it's not like I can help you out with arousal until you get your body back." She smiled. "I can give you some nice visuals, if you'd like." Then she proceeded to do just that.
Xander's breath hitched a moment, then he swallowed and nodded. "Yeah. I - I'd like that."