Wishes
"We could wish to have the person we settle down with, you know the one we get in the end, with us right here and now!" Willow said excitedly. "No bad first dates and relationships just *boom* true love!"
"I… actually that would be pretty cool," Xander admitted.
"Only if everyone agrees they can't make fun of, interfere or get mad about it," Buffy said, seeing a way to get Xander to lay off her and Angel.
"Deal," Xander agreed, knowing what Buffy was trying to be subtle about, but damn sure a centuries old corpse wasn't her true love even if she wasn't Xander's either.
"That works for me," Willow said, hoping to have Xander.
"Genie, so I wish," Xander said, letting the genie handle the details.
"OK, but just so you know I have to alter a universal constant for that," the genie said. "Fortunately it would have been altered in a couple of years anyway, so I won't count it against you."
There was a flash of light and a dark-haired girl that didn't look old enough for high school appeared in Willow's lap.
"Uh?" Willow mumbled, red faced and stunned.
The young girl blinked as the genie's magic whispered what was going on into her mind. "Hah, I told mom it wasn't just a phase!" Kennedy said smugly, throwing her arms around Willow.
"Willow's gay?" Xander asked.
"And likes them young?" Buffy asked awkwardly.
"Normally she wouldn't meet Kennedy until she was about your age, we are working on an accelerated schedule here," the genie reminded them.
The room filled with glowing green energy that slowly condensed into a naked brunette near Kennedy's age on Xander's lap.
"Uh?" Xander asked, mirroring Willow's earlier reaction, before stripping off his shirt to cover the girl.
"And they have similar tastes in dates," Buffy noted, hoping she wasn't going to end up with an underage brunette in her own lap, male or female, clothed or otherwise.
The Genies magic finished up the spell the Monks would have cast and everyone remembered 'Dawn'.
"I knew it!" Dawn said happily, wrapping her arms around Xander. "I was made for you!"
"I'm trying not to be mad here," Buffy said slowly. "But… when?"
"Dawn catches him while she's in college," the genie assured them.
"I'll use a net and a tranq gun to speed things up, but I am not waiting nearly a decade this time!" Dawn swore.
There was a flash of light and everyone turned to Buffy who had a box in her lap.
"OK, this is different," Buffy said opening the box and quickly slamming the lid shut a second later. "You have got to be joking!"
"Haunted by a ghost and requires one thousand…" the genies voice trailed off. "You agreed to break the curse binding him to this plane. It's bizarre but touching."
*SNAP*
"And that's why you shouldn't make that wish," the genie said as reality snapped back to normal minus Xander's shirt.
"Where's Xander's shirt?" Willow asked.
"She outranks me, if you want to get picky, and even if she doesn't exist yet, she's keeping his shirt," the genie replied.
"OK… next possible wish?" Xander asked not wanting to think about it.
"Love's out," Buffy said, hoping that their futures would be different now that they knew of them.
"Fame, fortune, and power all have their own pitfalls," Xander said already having thought of it.
"I'd still like to know how power turns out," Willow said.
Three visions later…
*SNAP*
"OK, I'm not complaining about you two making me your sex slave in your realities-" Xander began.
"Not when we ended up yours in yours," Buffy told him bluntly.
"Agreed," Xander said. "My only complaint is I was a neglected one! And even when you had me as court jester you made me dump my funniest jokes!"
"Apparently I really like girls," Willow admitted. "The fact that you got any use at all, is solely because I do love you."
"And your funniest jokes were making fun of my main studs," Buffy said. "Sorry."
"Power's a bust," Willow said. "Apparently we are very corruptible and kinky."
"Money would probably go the same way," Xander admitted.
"Are you sure we can't make worldwide changes," Buffy asked.
"Sorry kiddo, but while I can make those changes, other forces would undo my work or do something else to balance the scales," the genie explained. "Focused changes on a small scale are something they aren't allowed to touch, so we're safe there."
"How about a power that can't be used against others?" Xander asked as an idea hit him.
"How do you mean?" Buffy asked.
"I mean what about wishing our group had Wolverine's regenerative ability," Xander explained. "It'd make our lives easier and we can't use it like our corrupt selves did the power they gained."
The genie nodded. "I can give you three that level of healing ability that you can share while touching someone else, but that's the limit."
"Sharing it… I didn't even think of that," Xander said impressed.
"I've had more experience than you," the genie assured him snapping his fingers. "Done!"
"Wolverine's healing ability?" Buffy asked.
"Didn't that make him immortal?" Willow asked.
"No just really long lived," the genie assured them. "Wolverine could heal almost anything and his aging rate slowed to a year a century once he hit his mid-twenties."
"And we can heal our friends like that by touch," Buffy asked in shock.
"Exactly," the genie agreed.
"We are going to be friends a long time," Willow said wide eyed.
"Damn near forever," Buffy agreed with a smirk.
"That's one excellent wish down," Xander said smugly.
"How about wishing we'd find our own empowerments that wouldn't corrupt us?" Buffy asked.
"Ahhh," Xander and Willow chorused impressed.
The genie nodded. "A simple nudge here and there will ensure you find the right path to it. It won't be instant because you'll need maturity and discipline that you're still developing to avoid becoming corrupted by it and rushing that would require making you mature adults right this instant, which I'm pretty sure you don't want."
"Definitely," Xander agreed. "I think I have five or six years of childish behavior planned first!"
The girls laughed.
"Done!" the genie said with a snap of his fingers.
"Last wish," Xander said, glancing outside and seeing the sun close to setting. "Willow, you're up."
"You guys made some pretty good wishes," Willow admitted. "Let me think for a minute."
"You've got maybe half an hour," Xander said.
"Half an hour?" Buffy asked.
"In exchange for the genie's help I agreed they would all be made before sundown," Xander reminded her.
"And we used up a lot of time getting things right," Buffy nodded. "Of course the genie was a huge help in that."
"That he was," Xander agreed.
"The number of out and out bad situations he helped us avoid is incredible," Willow agreed. "Would I be… would you mind…" Willow tried to figure out how to say what she was thinking.
"Go ahead Wills," Xander said. "Don't be shy, I still remember being your favorite pillow."
Willow flushed and grinned shyly. "I was just thinking we don't need the last wish and he really helped us."
Xander smiled. "Genie, the last wish is yours. What do you wish?"
The genie, still looking like Xander's twin laughed. "I can grant my own wishes, but I do appreciate the thought. How about I cast the last wish for you?"
"You've done right by us so far," Xander said. "Wish away!"
"This is a simple little wish that will improve the quality of your lives," the genie promised. "From now on when you hit snooze on your alarm clock, time in your bed will increase sixty-fold until the snooze alarm sounds or you leave the bed."
The genie snapped his fingers. "It's done."
"What? Buffy asked as Xander kissed the genies feet and was quickly joined by Willow.
The genie laughed and floated up to the ceiling.
"What am I missing?" Buffy asked.
"Set your snooze alarm for eight minutes and when you hit it in the morning you get eight more hours to sleep in that eight minutes," Xander explained.
"Or if you like to read in bed and set an alarm so you don't stay up all night… again, you'd have more time to relax and read," Willow added.
"Or other activities," Buffy said with a smirk. "Come back down here, so we can hug you and kiss you and call you George!"
The genie laughed. "It's actually been fun… master, and I honestly can't recall the last time that happened. I am off. Maybe we'll meet again someday, ciao!"
The genie vanished in a puff of smoke.
Typing by: Bankrupt Samurai!
AN: Just an idea on how the wishes could go.