Chapter 11.

Xander's days seemed to flow together. Wake up, run, go to school, get ignored by Willow and Buffy, go to the gallery, work, go home, train, eat dinner, go to bed.

On weekends he lengthened his runs and also sparred against Giles – at Xander's apartment so the girls wouldn't find out. He was getting better and better, winning half of their bouts now. It wouldn't be long until he was winning them all. And he was very grateful to Giles for taking the time to help him improve like this. Though he knew as he improved, Giles was getting more and more out of the bouts himself as well.

Unfortunately, his hectic schedule left him no time or energy to do any actual patrolling since that one time. The second Monday after he got his sword, Xander arrived at court for his emancipation hearing. After the officer who delivered the summons to his parents testified that his parents hadn't even known he'd been gone for two weeks and only his mother had even bothered to show up to contest, the judge declared him free of any and all obligations to them. Joyce cheered for him, having closed the Gallery that day to support him on this.

Joyce took him out to dinner to celebrate.

It would have been nice if emancipation changed his life in some way by itself, but all it really meant was that he could now 'officially' receive the money he'd gotten from the art auction. Joyce even agreed to waive her commissions on future purchases and sales in exchange for the occasional tip. Xander immediately gave her one he'd been looking at, but had decided against because the capital investment was just too large, even now. But Joyce had deeper pockets than he did, and was able to easily triple her money in a week. She was ecstatic.

After that, his duties at the shop were simply to tell her what he wanted to buy and then tell her what information to add before selling it. She was more than willing to give him the entire year off – with pay – in exchange for that one tip. That absolutely changed his life then.

Not having to work nights or weekends anymore freed up a lot of Xander's time. He was really looking forward to this Saturday's bout against Giles.

Except that Giles never showed up. He tried calling but only got the answering machine. He didn't leave a message for fear that Willow might have been there and he was screening his calls to avoid hurting her.

He didn't get a hold of Giles until Sunday, when he found out that a demon from Giles' past had come back to haunt him – literally. And possess Ms. Calendar too from the sound of things. He was cheered by the fact that the idea to kill the demon had come from Willow. Xander wasn't completely surprised that no one called him, only a little disappointed. But Giles wasn't in any shape to spar that day, so they rescheduled for the next weekend.

Xander's runs stopped getting any longer. After all, he wasn't training for a marathon. He'd likely never have to run 26.2 miles. But running 3 miles as fast as he could was something that might save his life and actually already had. So his runs started getting faster and more intense. He started pushing himself harder and harder. His goal was to be able to sprint for 3-5 miles.

And come Saturday, he pushed himself harder in his sparring against Giles. He left Giles gasping for breath after their bout.

"You've- you've really improved, Xander. I must say, I'm impressed." Giles complimented, huffing.

"Thank you." Xander was breathing heavily too, just not quiet as bad as Giles. His endurance had greatly improved since their first bout.

"But there's one thing you didn't know." Giles added, straightening up a bit.

"Huh?"

Giles switched his sword to his right hand. "I am not left handed."

Xander was too busy laughing his butt off to properly defend himself for a couple seconds and Giles landed several blows. However, once he was able to suppress the laughter for a few seconds, he was able to prove Giles wrong by disarming him easily. "Wow, the Dread Pirate Giles strikes. Never figured you for pop-culture-man." Xander said while still laughing.

Giles gave a lopsided grin and retrieved his training sword.. "Yes, the fight scene from the movie is actually required viewing for watchers. The footwork of the actors even on uneven terrain is quite good... for a movie."

"I'll have to watch it again. The last time I watched it I wasn't paying attention to the footwork." Xander said and switched to his left hand. "Weak side against weak side?"

Giles tried and failed to contain the glimmer in his eye at that. "Absolutely."

Xander soon found out that Giles was far better with his off hand than Xander was with his. He was now getting a beating to match the one he'd given Giles earlier. Giles had just knocked his sword to the floor and placed the tip of his at Xander's neck. "Surrender?"

"You wish to surrender to me? Very well, I accept." Xander joked. Two could play the quote from Princess Bride game. And Xander was sure to win that one.

Giles rolled his eyes and removed his sword. "Yes, how droll. Anything else you'd like to share?"

Xander smiled, picked up his sword, and switched sword hands again. "I'm not left handed either."

Giles sighed and switched his sword hand too.

Career Week was not the exciting, fun, week off from school that Xander had been looking forward to only a month earlier. Now, he just saw it as a waste of time. Methos had already done most of the jobs being offered. His plans for the Fair itself were to grab a few brochures to prove he had been there and then blow off the rest of the day to train. Too bad they were only losing half a day this first day to the 'placement tests'. He lounged alone on a couch filling his in, only occasionally paying attention to what he was writing.

"What's the mattow?" Cordelia asked in a baby talk voice as she walked by. "Poow widdle Xander lost all his fwiends?"

"Yes." Xander replied, not looking up from his test.

"Huh?" Cordelia had clearly been expecting more of a reaction, or at least denial.

"Yes." he repeated. "I made some choices a while back that pretty much guaranteed a messy split eventually. Better now than later."

"Ouch. Poor, ugly, and friendless. How much further can you fall?" Cordelia snarked.

Xander finally looked up from his paper. He cast an appraising eye over the Cordettes and gave a snort. "With friends like those, I think I'm the better off of the two of us." He then casually went back to his test, dismissing Cordelia and her friends.

Harmony got in a huff about that. "Oh, yeah? Well at least we're not poor!"

Cordelia shot a glare at her minion. Both for speaking out of turn and for using an unoriginal put-down.

Xander sniffed, took a piece of paper out of his pocket, blew his nose into it, crumpled it up, and threw it at the feet of the Cordettes.

"Eww!" Cordelia wrinkled her nose.

"That's a 50!" one of the girls cried. Three girls went down in a tangle of limbs trying to get the money.

Cordelia and Xander watched with varying degrees of shock and amusement. "Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'dirty money'. Doesn't it?" he quipped.

"Where exactly did you get 50 bucks, dweeb?"

"From my job, of course." Xander vaulted up to sit on the back of the couch to get a better view of the festivities. "You probably haven't heard yet, but I'm emancipated. Got a job and my own apartment."

"Your own apartment?" Aura questioned. She was the only Cordette besides Cordelia not currently getting up from the floor. Her parents were just as rich as the others, but hers gave her a larger allowance, which meant her budget went further than the others. "Your own car too?"

"Aura!?" Cordelia cried, accusingly.

"Not yet." Xander smirked. "But I could probably have one by 7:00 tomorrow night?" he offered.

"Xander!" Cordelia glared.

"Pick me up at my house." Aura winked before heading off. A very disheveled Harmony (clutching something in her hand) and the other almost as disheveled Cordettes followed behind. Cordelia cast one more warning glare at Xander before hurrying to catch up. Xander gave a soft chuckle. So much for a waste of a day. Now all he had to do was buy a car.

Xander walked into Pottery from Pluto and nodded to Joyce. He waited while she finished up with her customer.

"Xander. Nice to see you again. Did you have some more art you wanted to buy?" She asked.

"Not today, Joyce. I've got a slight problem. Today, I promised this girl at school I would pick her up at 7:00 tomorrow. Only-"

"Only you don't have a car, to my knowledge." Joyce finished.

"Not so much, no." Xander nodded. "But I figured I was emancipated and could pay cash for a used one, didn't figure it was going to be a problem. Except that the dealership didn't want to work with me. Emancipation papers or no."

"Ah, you need me as a go-between? You give me the money and I buy the car for you?" Joyce figured out.

"No. I'll handle those bozos myself. Or maybe get a car in LA where people actually understand the law. I do, however, need a car tomorrow night. And the rental companies won't rent to anyone under 25, emancipated or no. And I don't have the time to try and fight that decision."

Joyce nodded. "Absolutely, I'd be happy to help."

"Thanks, Joyce. If you want to make the reservation tonight, I can come by after school tomorrow and cover the shop for you while you pick it up. And make sure you get all the insurance too. I'm a pretty safe driver, but I don't want you on the hook in case something happens." Xander said.

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow." Joyce agreed.

After securing wheels for his date tomorrow night, Xander headed off to patrol. He started off patrolling the alleys downtown. He impaled a green demon on his sword (didn't even have to chop its head off) and got a vamp with a hidden stake while it was busy trying to fend off his sword with a 2X4. It was actually the first time he'd faced an armed opponent who'd been trying to kill him and it took him several minutes in a nearby hardware store to come down off the shakes.

It had been an intense fight. Xander was under no illusions that he would possibly survive a direct blow from the vampire's weapon, sharp or no. A blow to the head would almost certainly be instantly fatal and anywhere else would cripple him enough that he'd be all but finished. But he'd been able to use the vamp's own eagerness to get in for the up close kill to draw him in to be staked.

After the excitement downtown and after finding his feet again, Xander headed out to patrol the cemeteries. He heard some noise coming from a crypt and went to investigate. Then he heard Buffy heading in the same direction. He froze. She froze too and listened for a moment. Then she shrugged and headed towards the crypt. Xander silently made his way back in the opposite direction. He had no desire to have another confrontation/conversation like they'd had the other night. And Buffy was sure to be able to handle whatever was up ahead better than he ever could.

A/N: Do not own the Princess Bride