Looper Chronicles - Place your bets OR You ain't seen my Balls!
"Don't do that," Xander said, stopping Buffy from crushing the orbs of Nezzla'Khan
"What?" Buffy said. "These things have caused nothing but trouble!"
"So has the slayer spirit in Faith's hands, doesn't mean we're exorcizing it from you, now does it?" he replied.
"Well, no," Buffy admitted.
"I have a use for them," Xander said as Buffy allowed him to pry them from her hands.
"I guess they can be useful," Buffy admitted, thinking Xander would be a lot tougher to hurt with them.
0o0o0o0o0o0
One of Warren's shots went wild, somehow hitting the second floor of the Summers' residence and passing cleanly through Willow Rosenberg to strike the skin over the heart of her lover, Tara Maclay.
Buffy and Xander rushed into the house to make sure everyone was okay, only to find Tara applying a pressure bandage to Willow while Dawn called for an ambulance.
"Are you okay?!" Buffy exclaimed, rushing to Willow's side.
"I- I'm fine, just a little shocky," Willow said. "It went right through me and hit Tara."
Buffy turned to Tara.
"It put a hole in my shirt," Tara said, pointing to her damaged blouse.
"But not you?" Buffy asked confused.
"Pay up," Xander told Dawn, holding out a hand.
"She's saved," Dawn admitted, "but where does the sex toy come in?"
"What?" Buffy asked wondering what the heck the pair were talking about.
"I bet Dawn twenty bucks that I could save Tara's life with a sex toy," Xander said with a grin.
"The bullet lodged in a sex toy Xander gave you to wear around your neck?" Buffy guessed, turning to Tara.
"No," the blonde squeaked out, her face bright red. "He... he gave me a pair of..." her voice trailed off in embarrassment.
"The orbs," Buffy realized. "You gave her the orbs I took off Warren and they made her bullet proof!"
"You knew we'd get shot?" Willow asked, confused and in pain.
"You made a bet involving sex toys with my sister?!" Buffy growled out.
"Me and Dawn sometimes get visions when in contact with each other," Xander said, laying out the cover story the two loopers had decided to use this time. "Dawn was horrified at seeing Tara die in the future, so I made a joke to try and cheer her up."
"Why didn't you have Willow wear them then?" Buffy asked, listening for the approaching ambulance with half an ear.
"Because I could get Tara to promise me to do something, if I thought it was important, without telling her what it was until after she agreed, and she'd do it," Xander told her.
"And I wouldn't?!" Willow demanded, hurt at Xander's apparent lack of trust.
"Nope," Xander said, "you'd say you would and then you'd skip it, thinking I was playing a joke."
"So you gave Tara the pouch with the orbs to wear, knowing Willow wouldn't be seriously injured," Buffy realized.
"Pouch?" Tara asked.
The girls turned to Xander.
"I needed twenty for lunch," he said with a shrug. "Now, pay up," he told Dawn.
"The Ben Wa balls of Nezzla'Khan does have a nice ring to it," Dawn admitted, handing him his winnings.
TN: I had to Google Ben Wa balls, as I had no clue what they were. I kinda wish I hadn't now. Poor Tara, she must have been terribly embarrassed haha.