Chapter Six

Willow may have had a really big headache, but that didn't make her stupid. Buffy was wrong. Sure, that wasn't something she thought a lot, but she was darn well thinking it now, thank you very much! Xander was acting like some crazy beast thing that was very un-Xander, but she was pretty darn sure that this wasn't Kyle's fault.

"This is so Kyle's fault!"

Which brought her right back to thinking Buffy was wrong. If anything, someone had hexed the boys together…which actually sounded kind of likely. Maybe she should say something.

"I don't think so, Buffy."

Nope. Giles beat her to it.

Giles and Buffy were facing off across the library table while Willow sat on the counter, icing her head. Their yelling really wasn't helping her headache. Getting knocked out twice in a row would do that to you. Still, it was nice to have Giles agree.

"I rather doubt that Kyle is capable of such a complex enchantment," he said.

Amen, thought Willow.

"Well, you're…wrong?" said Buffy, and really Willow couldn't decide whether to laugh or roll her eyes. Buffy was just so attached to the idea of Kyle's responsibility, which was a little weird. It actually seemed a little homophobic, and that wasn't really something Willow wanted to think about her best friend.

Sure, she still really liked Xander, and her heart went all jittery around him and she monitored him like crazy, but if he were gay, she would be happy for him. Actually, it would make her feel a lot better about his impressive powers of obliviousness. Xander was gay. That was why he always chased after girls he couldn't get, looked at boys a little bit too long, and ignored her. Willow's Xander was gay.

That didn't mean he wasn't under a spell too, though.

"I think they're both under the same spell," she said, effectively ending the argument. Buffy and Giles looked over at her, and sighed. Giles pulled off his glasses and began polishing.

"Why do you think that?" he said.

"Well, they both growl, Kyle's got that funny laugh, and you didn't' see them on the bus back from the zoo. They were all snuggly and weird."

"They were weird on the bus," Buffy said.

Willow looked up at Giles with big anime eyes. He coughed a little bit and put his glasses back on. She cheered internally. Yes, yes, they were both weird, go on!

"Actually," Buffy went on, "Heidi, Tor and Rhonda were acting kind of weird too."

Okay, not what she was aiming for, but she'd take it!

"So we have a total of five magically influenced teenagers, at least," said Giles.

"Yes," said Willow. "But if they're all affected, how do we figure out who did it?"

"You say they all seemed normal this morning?" Giles said.

"Yup," said Buffy, "then, by the time they got to the bus they were all freaky."

"The Hyena House!"

"What about it?" said Buffy. Giles looked on with interest.

"That's the last time we saw Xander before the bus, when he ran into the Hyena House!"

"You failed to mention this," Giles said to Buffy, who looked down shamefully.

"Oops?"

Giles snorted his disbelief. Willow giggled just a bit. She thought back to before the Hyena House while Giles chastised Buffy and made plans to go back to the zoo. Xander was most certainly himself that morning, but she wouldn't go so far as to think that he was happy.

She wasn't stupid. She knew that Xander's homelife was awful and that he really missed Jesse and that he would never tell her any of this because he thought she would be happier not knowing. He was wrong, but sweet. He wanted to keep his Willow-girl innocent forever, and as much as she might rail against the image, she loved meaning that much to him.

Of course, she didn't mean much to him right now apparently. Poopiehead. She rubbed her bruise. That was what had really convinced her of a spell. Her Xander would never hit her. Willow was willing to allow the possibility that her Xander might be gay, but he would never hurt her.

That and Kyle was adorable when he talked about stalking her best friend, which was cute and wrong on so many levels.

"All right," said Giles, interrupting Willow's ruminations on the creepy, "the zookeeper will meet us at the hyena enclosure in an hour, so I suggest we all head over to my car soon."

Ew. Giles' car was horrible. It made these awful clunking noises whenever it went above thirty miles an hour and she was perpetually afraid that bits were falling off. Still, if this would help Xander, she would risk a ride in the death-mobile.

Granted, she had to force herself to remember that this was for a good cause as she folded herself into the back seat (Buffy got shotgun, naturally), but she couldn't wait to get to the zoo. Buffy and Giles were nattering away in the front, so she let her mind drift until it landed on her conversation with Kyle.

Sure, he'd been acting a bit funny, but she was pretty darn positive that most of what he'd said was the truth, which meant that Kyle'd been stalking Xander and she hadn't even noticed.

Willow felt stupid. She really didn't like feeling stupid. It was a very not nice feeling.

Okay, time to put her thinking-helmet on. She screwed up her face and tried to think of a time when she had seen Kyle being all stalkery. Nothing…nothing…nothing…oh! Okay, so that time when she and Xander had been eating lunch and Kyle had walked halfway across the quad to push Xander's food out of his hands, that was weird. And how Kyle always managed to appear outside of history class just in time to knock Xander over, and, and…!

Wow. Kyle was so stalking Xander. She giggled a little bit. It was kind of cute!

Giles must have heard her quiet laughter because he looked at her sternly in the rear-view mirror. "Willow, please remember this is no laughing matter. These children could be in great danger."

Willow maintained a little half-smirk all of the way to the zoo. It was a little funny.

The zookeeper was waiting when they got out of the car, which was a little creepy, but it was after hours, so it wasn't impossible, she guessed, but hadn't he agreed to meet them over by the hyenas? Willow made a point of sticking on the far side of Buffy. Buffy would kill him if he tried anything. Heehee—fanfiction reference! Willow sort of liked being a dork sometimes.

His office was covered with pictures of animals and plans for enclosures. She felt claustrophobic and confused. They were there to see the Hyena House, not his desk! Hmmph. Stupid zoo-man.

"I knew there was something wrong with those hyenas," said the zookeeper, whose name Willow had missed. "That's why I put them in quarantine."

Something was off about this man. Willow had been oblivious once, but never again! She was going to be Nancy Drew if she had to, but no one was going to pull anything over on her again. The zookeeper was too interested in them. Anyone else would try to fob them off with a half-answer. So why did he care so much?

Something was rotten in the state of Denmark. Heehee! Shakespeare quote.

Giles and the zookeeper went off into their own world for a while, and when they were done Giles looked worried and the zookeeper looked pleased. Willow decided that this was probably a bad thing. They trooped back out to the Citroen (she only knew the car's make because Xander had written it an ode last week), crammed back and headed for home sweet hell.

Willow wished that she could feel good about the new progress, but she didn't. Her Xander was still hurting, and she wanted him to feel better so that she could tell him she accepted his gayness.

"All right," said Giles, and Willow forced her attention back off of Xander's sex life. "We need to lure the pack to the enclosure."

"Pack?" Oh good. Buffy hadn't heard what they were talking about either. It wasn't her fault that Giles talked really quietly.

"Yes. It seems that Xander has been possessed by a hyena primal."

"Oh?" Wait, if Xander's sex life was all gay now, what about her sex…love life?

"The spirit of a hyena, hence why the children have been acting especially animalistic. Really, Buffy, I expected more attention from you."

What about me, Willow's mind screamed. Granted, I couldn't hear you, but aren't you disappointed in me?

"You as well, Willow."

Good. Wait. Giles was yelling at her—bad! But he was also noticing her—good! Hmm.

The library was just as they had left it. Willow claimed her usual spot at the computer. Her head was a lot less throbby now, but they still had to figure out how to get Xander and Kyle and all those other people to the zoo.

"I could just beat them up," volunteered Buffy.

"Thank you, no," said Giles. "We have no idea how strong they are and while you are the Slayer, you're still only one girl."

"We also don't know where they are," Willow chimed in.

"Great," said Buffy. "So all we know is that there are a bunch of hyena people running around the Hellmouth. This sounds super!"

"They're probably at home," said Willow. "I can look up their addresses in the school records."

"Good," said Giles. "I think we should prepare to kidnap on of them and bring it to the zoo. The others will hopefully sniff out their packmate and join us, then we can do the reversal spell."

"And put the hyenas back in the hyenas?"

"Yes, Buffy."

As Willow pulled up school records, she couldn't help but wonder if this was at all a good idea.