Generally, if Xander went to sleep at all, he did it so late in the day that it was pretty much the next day. He'd gotten into the habit when he'd been an ordinary teenager who went to bed at ordinary times suddenly confronted with the task of patrolling graveyards every night. If he went to sleep early, he'd sleep through the night. Xander had kept the habit even when he wasn't patrolling and he'd become used to operating on very little sleep.

These days, he'd watch TV or read a comic now that he no longer had to deal with Potential Slayer crises or meet friends before patrol. Sometimes Dawn would drop by, if she'd finished reading (or more usually rereading) whatever book she was on at the time.

Usually, Dawn knocked before coming in, even though she had a key. There was always the chance that she would interrupt him doing something, after all.

So, Xander was pretty surprised when he was woken the morning following his golf game by a knocking at his door. A quick look at the clock on his bedside table revealed that it was far too early in the morning for it to be Rory or Lorelai, and Dawn didn't ever come around at this time. Besides, at the moment she was occupied with whatever problems she and Jess. Xander had hardly spoken to her for days. Come to think of it, he should probably find out exactly what was going on between those two.

Right now, though, Xander should find out who was at the door. He got up, threw on some clothes, hoped he was semi-presentable and went down to open it.

Upon opening the door, he was greeted by two women, one smiling and one scowling.

"Hey, Xan!" Buffy said happily. "How're you doing?"

Xander blinked. It was too early for this. "Is there an apocalypse? Tell me there's not an apocalypse."

"Chill, Xan-Man." Faith said, smirking. "There's no world-ending going on at the moment."

"We're just here to see you." Buffy added. "Can't we just drop by and see our favourite carpenter?"

"Of course you can, Buff." Xander nodded at Faith. "Her, on the other hand, I'm not too keen on."

"I thought you were getting on okay these days." Buffy said.

"Uh, no. You told me to work with her, remember? You thought, and I quote, 'We should foster good relations between the core Scoobies.' That doesn't mean we got along."

Buffy frowned. "I said that? I don't sound like that. That sounds like Giles."

"Sorry to break it to you, B, but when you get into speechifying, you could give any Brit a run for his money." Faith said. "And I really ain't a core Scooby."

"Oh."

"So, why'd you drag her along? I'm guessing that scowl means she didn't want to come." Xander asked.

"Remember I told you a while ago that she broke a mini-Slayers arm? Well, this is her punishment." Buffy replied.

Xander eyed Faith. "How exactly is this punishing her? I know I'm not exactly her favourite person, but if you want to punish her you should put her in a room with Wesley for a bit."

"Xander, you know we aren't contacting Wesley and… the others since they-"

"Joined Wolfram & Hart, yeah, I remember." Xander interrupted. "But I'm not particularly looking forward to having her trying to knock me out again."

"iTry/i?" Faith grinned. "You ain't got Vi and the other minis lurking around. You'll go out like a light."

"See, Buff?" Xander complained. "This isn't punishing her. This is punishing me."

"No, Xander, her dropping by to see you isn't her punishment. Thought we'd try small town life for a couple of days. You know how Faith gets when she's out of the action for a while."

Xander sighed. "Buff, there isn't going to be any town left if you leave Faith here for a couple of days."

"Oh, I'm not leaving. I thought I'd meet your girlfriend, now that there isn't an apocalypse going on." Buffy replied. "Thought I'd see this Jess as well. I never got to give the shovel talk before."

Xander rubbed his chest and sighed. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

Jess was pretty good at avoiding people. Admittedly, they were usually teachers, Luke, or the occasional police officer, but if he didn't want to be found he could do a decent job of keeping a low profile.

He'd managed to avoid Dawn every time she came by the diner, either by ducking into the kitchen or by being at the bookstore. He'd also managed to hide in the aisles in the bookstore when she was there, too. He doubted he could carry it on forever (Dawn was more persistent than the usual type of person he avoided), but hopefully she would stop sooner or later. Jess wasn't really all that great at long term planning.

However, Jess wasn't good at avoiding people he didn't know were looking for him. As such, he was completely taken by surprise when he came downstairs to start his shift and a petite blonde grabbed him by the arm and dragged him outside with surprising strength for someone who was at least six inches shorter than he was.

Shortly after Xander gave Buffy directions to Luke's, Faith went into the living room and grabbed a couple of chairs, holding one under each arm.

"Whoa!" Xander exclaimed. "What are you doing? You can't just up and steal my stuff while I'm standing here."

"Relax. I thought I'd catch the show. It ought to be fun seeing B tearing this guy a new one. Thought I'd bring chairs. Unless you don't want to come?" Faith replied, gesticulating with a chair in way that wasn't possible unless you had Slayer strength.

Xander thought about it for a minute. "Okay, you grab the chairs, I'll bring the popcorn."

Faith laughed.

"I haven't met you before, have I?" Jess said. "I probably would've remembered that."

Buffy frowned. "No, we haven't met. But you know my sister."

Jess tilted his head to one side. "Um, I do?"

"Oh, yes. Dawn."

Jess' face lit with understanding. "Oh, you're Lazarus. Wow, you two look nothing alike."

Now it was Buffy's turn to be confused. "Lazarus? What are you talking about?"

"Oh, Dawn mentioned that you have a habit of not staying dead."

Buffy blinked. "She told you about that?" she said, surprised. She hadn't thought that Dawn would've revealed the whole supernatural situation to someone she had only known for a brief while, even if she was sort of dating him. "What else did she tell you?"

"Well, she said that the Modernist movement was a complete waste of time and the Romantics were the height of literary achievement. I know that's kind of shocking, but it's not really enough to make you look like you've just swallowed a lemon." Jess said drily.

Buffy scowled. "I do inot/i look like I swallowed a lemon."

Jess shrugged. "Okay, I'm not going to argue with the girl who has a death grip on my arm." Buffy released it rapidly. Jess rubbed it absently. "Dawn didn't mention that you were on steroids."

Okay, so Dawn hadn't told him everything. She wondered what Jess knew. Buffy would have to have words with her sister later. "I'm not on steroids. Do I look like I'm on steroids? I'm not on steroids."

"My arm begs to differ." Jess muttered. Then, louder, he said "So, Lazarus, is there some reason you dragged me outside, or can I go back to work now? It's only a matter of time before Luke sends out a search party."

"Stop calling me Lazarus. My name's Buffy."

Jess chuckled. "Really? I figured Dawn was kidding about that. I mean, I know people have funny names down in LA, but Buffy? Really?"

Buffy's scowl deepened. "My name is not funny."

Someone yelled from across street. "Actually, B, it kind of is."

Jess and Buffy looked around to see Xander and Faith sitting in a couple of armchairs across the road. They both had large bowls of popcorn. Faith waved, and Xander tried to look as much like he wasn't there as it was possible to do while watching avidly with a mouthful of popcorn.

"Friends of yours?" Jess said.

"Not at the moment." Buffy said through gritted teeth.

"What did you do that for?" Xander said. "The show's spoiled now."

"Nah. She ain't going to come over here and let that kid get away. Dawnie's a higher priority than trying to beat us to death." Faith replied with a smirk.

"I am so blaming all of this on you."

"Nothing new there, then."

"So, can we get on with the topic at hand?" Jess said. He watched as Dawn came from the other direction and walked into the diner. She didn't notice them. He contemplated calling out, but he didn't think it would put him in good standing with Buffy if he hid behind her little sister. Although it was mildly annoying that the one time Dawn didn't see him was the one time he would've quite liked her around.

"Yeah. You'd better treat my sister right, okay? Because I know a lot of people with big, big swords who would be only too happy to make sure your body is never found."

Jess decided to pass on the quip about swords that he had on the tip of his tongue and instead said "Okay then. Message received. Can I go now?"

Buffy had never done this before, so she wasn't quite sure how it was supposed to go. She was pretty sure, though, that Jess shouldn't have just shrugged off a death threat like that. At the very least he should've made some sort of vow saying that he wouldn't hurt Dawn in the first place. "Huh? That's it? Are you dating my sister or not?"

Jess held up a hand. "Just hold on a second, will you?"

He walked past the rather surprised Buffy, poked his head into the diner and called "Hey, Dawn? Are we dating?"

Dawn froze, a forkful of pancake halfway to her mouth. The entire diner went quiet. "Um, yeah. Probably."

"Thanks." Jess said blandly, leaving again. Turning to Buffy, he said "Yeah, I guess we are."

"The kid smokes?" Faith said, sounding surprised.

"Yeah. He's a regular Spike Lite. How'd you work it out?"

"He keeps patting his pockets like he's looking for ciggies." Faith replied. She pulled out her own carton and tapped them absently against her thigh.

"You're still smoking?" Xander said disapprovingly. "Don't you know they're bad for you?"

Faith shrugged. "I'm a Slayer. I doubt that the Big C is going to have time to get me. 'sides, I already do so many things you guys don't like I might as well play up the whole bad girl thing."

An uncomfortable silence stretched out for a couple of seconds. Then Faith said "So, you figure the kid would appreciate a packet of ciggies?"

"What are you going to do, throw it at him?"

"Sure. Why not?"

Xander snorted. "He's across the street, and those things fly like a… something that doesn't fly very well. It's not going to happen."

"Got a lot of experience throwing cigarettes around?" Faith said playfully.

"Some." Xander said in a carefully neutral voice. Faith decided not to press the issue. After a couple of seconds, his expression cleared and he said "Anyway, I bet you a dollar you can't make the shot."

"You're betting a Slayer she can't do something physical? Yeah, I'll happily take your money." Faith said. Without further ado, she threw the cigarettes across the street. They were headed directly for Jess' head.

Xander cupped his hand around his mouth and yelled "Hey, Jess! Duck!"

Jess turned, but there was no way that he was going to get out of the way in time. However, just before it was about the hit him right between the eyes, Buffy snatched it out of the air. Faith groaned.

"Hah! Told you so!" Xander said smugly. "Pay up."

"Hey! I would've got him if B wasn't there." Faith protested. "I made the shot."

"Didn't hit him, though. Pay up."

Buffy said a few words to Jess, then crossed the street to her friends. "I think you dropped something." She said, tossing the carton to Faith who easily caught it.

"Hey, B? Spot me a dollar, will you?"

Buffy looked at her incredulously. "You've got to be kidding. After treating me like I'm a street show? No chance!"

Faith grinned at Xander. "Sorry." She said unapologetically. "I guess I'll have to pay you later."

After Buffy left, Jess went inside and sat opposite Dawn. "Do you want to tell me what that was about?" she asked around a mouthful of pancake.

Jess shrugged. "Your sister dropped by to give me the 'Hurt her and die' speech. She wasn't very good at it. She wasn't sure whether we were actually dating, so she asked, and I asked you."

Dawn waited for several second before asking "What did you say?" so that she didn't seem too eager.

"That we are."

Dawn couldn't hide her grin, even behind her cup of coffee. "So you've gotten over your whole avoid-y, panicky jealous thing now?"

Jess picked some imaginary lint off of his sleeve. "Apparently."

"What made you see reason?"

Jess gave her lopsided grin. "Having you dogging my footsteps like a little puppy began to get on my nerves. Thought I might as well face the music."

"So, we good then?"

"Don't get me wrong, Dawn, I'm not… ecstatic about your mysterious past. But even though your views on literature are absurd, I like you. So, I'm going to give this a try. I'll see if I can keep the flailing to a minimum."

Dawn made a face. "Would it help you to know that I don't know what I'm doing any more than you do?"

"No, not really." Jess shook his head. "Anyway, I'd quite like to kiss you now, but you've got syrup on your chin."

Dawn blushed and wiped it away.

"So." Buffy said brightly. "It's about time we meet Rory, don't you think?"

Faith chuckled wickedly, and Xander put his face in his hands. "Oh, this is going to be ifun/i." he groaned sarcastically.