I don't own Buffy, or the characters from the show. If I did, my teen years would have been very different.
On any other school day, the figure of Alexander no admitted middle name Harris walking through the doors of Sunnydale High wearing a tailored suit with neat hair would have caused all sorts of comical pauses in conversation as the entire focus of the High School population shifted to him, with Jocks accidentally slamming their hands in their lockers, seniors walking into walls, and one poor, unfortunate student inevitably slipping on a previous unnoticed patch of water and falling down a set of stairs.
However, on this day they were distracted by the chaos of Homecoming preparations. There were four young ladies vying for the privilege of wearing the Queen's crown at the party, and all of them felt it necessary to push their campaign as hard as they could in the last few days before the ball. The most notably successful of the four was, naturally, Miss Cordelia Chase, and many of the students assumed it was a forgone conclusion that she would win.
Xander was grateful to her for choosing to debut his new look on one of the few days when he could pass without comment. Sure, she may act like a horrific bitch at times, but things like this proved that she really did have a heart of gold, beating underneath her warm, smooth…
Smacking himself on his forehead, he shook it off. 'Not allowed to think those thoughts anymore, Harris'. Shaking off his self-reflection, he made his way to class, where he was almost counted absent, as his homeroom teacher, who had known him for three years, didn't recognize him, and refused to believe that the same Hawaiian-shirt wearing slacker she had taught for most of High School would even recognize a hairbrush, let alone know what to do with it.
Xander wasn't the only one getting a hard time at school that day. Faith had stayed over in the guest room of Casa de Summers last night, not an uncommon occurrence, citing the need for a positive maternal influence and to let the X-Man struggle with his humiliation on his own. Of course, the real reason had more to do with interrogating Buffy about her reaction to a well-dressed Mr. Harris.
Buffy had categorically denied everything, including the wolf-whistle in front of a large audience, claiming she had been delirious from lack of food, and didn't remember it. After Faith started applying the thumbscrews, figuratively speaking, Buffy changed her story to admiring the fine Italian suit, and not the well-muscled youth inside of it.
Buffy would later swear that Faith must have been trained in interrogation by the KGB, because the younger Slayer finally managed to wring a confession that Buffy had been having warm and fuzzy feelings for her Xander-shaped friend ever since she had come back to Sunnydale, but was unwilling to do anything about it because of how badly her last few relationships had ended, and that she couldn't bear to lose him as a friend. This then led to the world's first Slayers-only pillow fight as Faith then suggested she wouldn't mind have a slice of that beefcake for herself.
Joyce, upon hearing the racket coming from upstairs where the two girls were gossiping, merely smiled, and sipped the tea that Giles had given her. She was glad that Buffy and Faith were managing to act like normal teens for once, and anyhow, the blend that Rupert had given her was simply divine.
Upstairs, the fight came to a decisive end when Buffy knocked Faith to the floor with a well-placed pillow to the back of the knees and then pounced on her darker-haired counterpart and pinned her. Faith let out another giggle.
"Guess you really do have somethin' for X-man, huh B? Well, consider this fair warning, if you don't make a move on him soon, I am going to take him for a test drive."
"Uurrgh! Faith!" Buffy pushed herself back up, but stayed straddling her friend. "It's not that simple! I mean…"
Buffy trailed off as her unfocused gaze came to rest on Faith. The Boston native would have made a smart remark then, but she instead pushed herself up and put her hand behind Buffy's head. The blond leaned in, until their lips were almost touching, and…
The two of them sprang apart, shaking their heads and wondering what had just happened.
"Wow. Xander. Mmm-mm tasty, am I right, Faith? With his hard, manly, muscles, and strong, almost stubbly chin. Very masculine, just what I like."
"Um, uh, yeah, right, a big hunk of cheesca-BEEFCAKE, I meant beefcake! Like Brad Pitt! Or those guys from that band!" Faith risked a glance back at Buffy, who was pacing about and trying desperately not to look at her. She let out a sigh of relief that whatever had happened seemed to have worn off.
Buffy turned to look at her at the sigh, tenser than a ten-story slinky. She relaxed when nothing happened.
"Y'know, Faith, studies have shown that developing teens need nine hours of sleep a night. I'm going to go…" she trailed off as she saw the pillows that they'd used had not survived the Slayer-strength impacts "…get a new pillow and call it a night. Yawn!" And with that entirely unconvinced fake yawn, she fled the room.
While maintaining an outwardly cooler appearance, Faith had also been rattled by what had happened, and decided to call it a night herself.
In the morning, both young ladies were happy to note that whatever had happened the previous night had passed like a dream, leaving them to resume where they left off- Faith teasing Buffy about Xander. This was continued all the way to homeroom, which they shared, despite Faith being almost a year younger than Buffy. Apparently being tutored by one of the members of the Watcher's council was worth more then the majority of a US high school education. Who knew?
The beginning of class led to a moratorium on the teasing, and Faith was either merciful or absent minded enough to stop for the rest of the day.
With the exception of Cordelia, who was planning her Queenship, the scoobies met up in the library after school. Xander, or Alex, as he had been calling himself during the day was looking frazzled as he flipped through a large tome at high speed, his eyes darting back and forth behind a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He looked studious and focused, until Giles came out and pointed out the book was written in Hebrew, and he was reading it backwards.
"Aaaaaaaaugh! I hate this! Every one of my teachers has complained, accused me of cheating, and one said I was from a mirror universe who'd been smart enough to shave my goatee! And I have had to be quiet, polite and reasonable to them in exchange! How can they ignore things like vampires and disappearing students, not to mention the plethora of other craziness that arises just from living here, but obsess over a change of wardrobe!" Xander dropped his head on the desk and moaned pitifully.
"W-well, Xander, I do believe that your problem has its roots in the fact that while these other changes a-and unusualness that normally arise are too hard to believe, a teenaged male changing his wardrobe is, in fact, not. They just didn't expect it from you."
"Whoa there, G-man. You sayin' that X has been hassled all day because it's just crazy enough to believe?"
"In essence, Faith, yes."
The brunette shook her head "Gotta love Sunnyhell. So, what's the plan for today?"
"A-as the local, um, nightlife has been quiet as of late, we don't need particularly to indulge in any of the more esoteric forms of research, so the plan is to adjourn to, um, the safehouse, where we have a more extensive set up to exercise."
"THANK you, Giles. I have needed to hit something since ten minutes after I got here!" Xander stood up and started looking through his pockets for his car keys as their Watcher stood back, nonplused.
"Um, yes, well, we will also take the opportunity to go over patrol routes. I believe you two saw evidence of large animal predation last night?"
"If you mean Faith and I saw a struggle with blood on the ground in a graveyard, yes, Giles, that's what we told you. It was on the side near Angel's old mansion." Buffy grew quiet at the though of Angel, but shook herself out of her nascent funk.
"We'll swing by there on tonight's sweep. C'mon people, punching time! Let's go!" Everyone laughed and shook their heads over Xander's enthusiasm.
"So, Faith, Oz and Willow have the night off, with me, Xand and Giles patrolling, right?"
Buffy was toweling off after the workout as she addressed the group. Xander and Oz were doing some cool down meditation, Faith was stretching and trying to break Xander's cool, and Willow was slumped exhausted on the floor after a moderate workout, moaning about how cyberspace doesn't hurt like this.
"You got it B. Wolfie's giving me a lift to the music store before he and Red head out on a date, and then I'll head over to your place so Mrs. S can give me some homework help and I can listen in in case you three need me to bail you out. And then I'm going Bronzing with X-man when you're done."
"Um, I don't recall being consulted about heading over to the Bronze." Xander was still sitting in lotus, but obviously had an ear open on the conversation.
"That's cuz you weren't. Dress nice, you have a new image to maintain." Faith smirked at him.
"Giles, she's picking on me." Xander managed to deliver the line in a complete monotone, causing the corner of Giles' mouth to quirk upward.
"I've told you before, leave me out of your adolescent drama. It's bad enough dealing with it at school, I refuse to have anything to do with it after."
"Don't you have junior Watcher-y stuff for me to do?" Now everyone could hear the plaintive tone in Xander's voice.
"Hmmm. As a matter of fact, I do." Xander started to smile. "I feel that it is imperative for you to establish your new persona as quickly as possible. Therefore, you should go somewhere public where a number of your peers will be, and interact with them on a social level." Xander's smile was gone now.
"You're sending me to the Bronze."
Giles snapped his fingers "That would be the perfect place to help establish yourself. What a clever idea." Now everyone was laughing.
"You guys suck. I'm going to go eat a cheeseburger and put on my armor."
Patrol had been quiet. Only two vampires, both alone, so neither had lasted more than a few seconds against the well armed trio. They were making their way over to where they had seen blood the previous night when Xander stopped. He turned, closed his eyes and sniffed the air.
"Something old. It's nearby. And it's eaten recently. I smell blood."
Giles produced a cross and tightened his grip on his crossbow as Buffy cast around, stake in one hand and axe in the other.
A growl, a blur, and impact. Buffy was carried away from the other two by the tackle, dropping her weapons as she rolled down the hill with her assailant. She dimly heard Giles calling Faith for help, but the fetid breath in her face held her focus.
They tumbled to a stop and she wrenched her attacker off of her, giving her space as she tried to pull out another stake. She looked up at her attacker and paused, recognizing the eyes staring back at her.
"Angel?" She was almost in tears as she took in the face of her lover she thought she had sent to hell.
And then Xander's haymaker crashed into Angel's chin.
AN: You didn't think I'd forgotten about him, did you?
I ended up cutting a workout scene that I'd written because while it was funny, it didn't add anything to the plot. I'll see if I can work it in later.
Oh, and if anyone complains about my timeline having Faith and Buffy both stay in and gossip/pillowfight as well as patrolling, well, stop it. Have YOU ever gone shopping with Cordelia? You'd get back late as well. So they had plenty of time for both. Hah. So there.
I would also like to thank Mega Kilo 69 for the proper spelling of Cruciamentum, as well as correcting another spelling error in the previous chapter. You are now the closest thing I have to a beta reader, take a no-prize.