D'Jin
Smoke poured out of the ornate glass bottle making Xander drop it as he coughed and stumbled backwards until the smoke coalesced into a dark skinned man in what appeared to be harem garb with a scimitar in his belt.
The man examined himself. "You humans have a very weird idea on how genies are supposed to dress."
"I blame Disney," Xander replied numbly as he picked up and examined the bottle.
The dark skinned man snapped his fingers and became Xander's twin. "This is a lot more comfortable."
"Genie in the bottle?" Xander asked calmly.
"Yep, three wishes and the bottle vanishes for a decade while I enjoy some time off," the Genie said happily.
"Shouldn't I be panicking or doing the snoopy dance?"
"Magically enforced calm to prevent heart attacks," the Genie explained.
"I'm not likely to have a heart attack," Xander pointed out.
"True, but giving you clarity of thought should speed up my job immensely."
"You have to help out the person who freed you until all three wishes are cast," Xander guessed, as he racked his brain for tales of genies beyond sitcoms.
"Yep and since my personal magic powers are pretty damn impressive I've had masters last years before they wasted all three wishes with unguarded words."
"And thinking clearly I'll know it's best to make wishes on purpose rather than on accident and that pissing off the genie granting them is probably not the smartest move," Xander said.
"Of course officially all I'm doing is making sure you don't have a heart attack," the genie said with a grin.
"You are not only powerful you're also intelligent," Xander said thoughtfully. "What would I need to do to get that brain working on my side?"
"Don't be a dick for one, no trying to screw me over and keep me around, 'cause I'm ready to party and I need these wishes done so I can go!"
"Would you mind making my home and all our possessions new, shiny, repaired and clean? I'll trust your judgment on that and it should make my parents happy so we can skip out of here and consult the girls on what to wish for," Xander explained.
The genie nodded and snapped his fingers sending a wave of energy across the attic that straightened and cleaned everything. "That's reasonable."
"Glad to hear it, let's go."
The two climbed down the ladder letting it fold itself back up into the attic.
"Whoa," Xander said, sounding slightly sarcastic thanks to his magically enforced calmness. "I don't think it looked this good new."
"Creative license," the genie replied as they entered the living room.
Reality seemed to blink for Xander because he found himself on the front porch.
"I blanked the last three seconds from your mind as a favor," the genie explained. "I cleaned and repaired your parents so they look and feel loads younger."
"Couch?" Xander guessed. "Nevermind, I don't want confirmation."
"Giles is at the school library," the genie said, "we could teleport over but I'd like to stretch my legs a bit."
"No problem," Xander said, "Even with the whole clarity and calmness thing I got going on, I need some time to sort my thoughts."
'Money, fame, and power,' Xander thought to himself. They were the basic three wishes for a reason even though they all had their downsides.
Money could solve a lot of problems, but being rich attracted people who wanted it for themselves running the risk of kidnapping and having to deal with leeches your entire life, not to mention the IRS.
Fame held the same problems with an added loss of privacy, especially these days when everyone had a camera and tabloids paid big bucks for sleazy photos and made up scandals.
Power… was said to corrupt and Xander could admit there was that possibility, but he believed it was more that those that were already corrupt sought power.
A modest amount of money and a decent amount of power would probably be the best outcome so all that he really needed was a way to insure he worded the wishes properly.
Xander and the genie entered the library causing all the Scoobs to stare.
"Why are there two of you?" Oz asked when it became obvious no one else was going to.
"I'm the genie of the bottle," the second Xander said waving at everyone.
"Three wishes?" Oz asked causing the girls eyes to widen and Giles to pale.
"Exactly," Xander agreed. "My friend here will even be helpful and not do the whole monkey paw thing, provided I make the wishes before sunrise so he can go on vacation and not be stuck hanging around and forced to be a secret."
"Shouldn't you be jumping around like Red on a caffeine high?" Faith asked.
"He's keeping me calm so I can make the wishes with a clear head."
"You could bring back Angel!" Buffy said excitedly.
"No bringing back the dead," the genie said flatly. "I am not allowed to move the dead-alive line on anyone. There is a safeguard put in place so no one wishes for world peace which would require me to kill nearly the entire human race."
Giles winced. "Thank god for that."
"What are your limitations?" Willow asked.
The genie looked over at Xander who nodded for him to go on.
"I affect the present alone, I don't kill or resurrect people, and finally I am limited in affecting people's minds so I don't infringe on free will," the genie explained. "Also, though I think this is self-explanatory I have a feeling with you lot I better add no altering universal constants!"
Typing by: Bankrupt Samurai!
AN: I have half a dozen genie starts that never went anywhere. This is one of them.