"Xander, you ass!"
In response to the shrill voice intruding on his solitude, Xander rolled over and pulled a pillow over his head.
"Faith told me that you ran off last night and haven't been returning her calls or texts!"
"Ingrid..." Xander whimpered, hoping the girl would take pity on him and his obviously disheveled state. The girl, of course, did no such thing.
"And you came in super late last night, super wasted, and wouldn't tell anyone where you'd been. And now you're sleeping in past noon!" She chastened, pulling at his pillow. Xander pulled it back.
"I'm American, Ingrid. Our morning is later than yours." Had Xander's eyes been open he would have seen the young girl's nose wrinkle cutely.
"Is that 'morning' or 'mourning'?" she asked thoughtfully.
Xander sighed. He'd slept late enough and drunk enough water last night that he didn't really have a hangover. He just didn't feel like facing the day. Too many "are you okays" and "do you want to talk about its" on the horizon. For the umpteenth time in his life, he really wished he had more guy friends. Girls just didn't understand the need to silently process things, and that talking about it actually made it worse sometimes. Sighing, Xander slowly sat up in bed and looked at Ingrid, who was standing next to him. She cocked her head cutely (truth be told, there was very little she did that wasn't cute-in a puppyish way) and frowned at him.
"Hey, Xander. You look like shit."
He glared at her. The impressive one-eyed glare of an overtired former slayerette. Ingrid was not impressed. It worked a treat on monsters he was actually going to kill, but the women in his life were pretty much immune.
"Thank you for that astute observation. I'm awake now, you can go." She frowned.
"You'll call Faith?" She asked stubbornly. Xander sighed.
"Yes, I'll call Faith," he promised, his conscience not at all pricked by the fact that he was planning on just texting her.
"And Willow?" she insisted. Xander nodded, stretching. He didn't notice the way Ingrid's eyes traveled over his bare chest, or the way she blushed, suddenly realizing his state of undress.
"A-and you'll eat breakfast?" she added, taking a step backwards as he made to get up. Xander rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm up, I'm eating, I'm talking, I'm walking. You can go report to your commander that you've done your duty and Xander L. Harris has officially rejoined the ranks of the living," he muttered, wandering over to his dresser in only his boxers. Ingrid's blush deepened.
"Right!" she squeaked and fled the room.
Xander threw on a worn tee shirt and his super loose around-the-house jeans, mostly on autopilot. He had no intention of leaving the house today, and therefore did not feel the need for real people clothes. Normally he didn't like wearing his pajamas around the house, which tended to have lots of people he didn't really know. But there weren't a lot of other people in the mansion currently, and none of them would be offended by his informal attire. George tended to hang out in the basement, and Ingrid had classes and a part time job in addition to slaying so she tended to be in and out. Xander also suspected she had a boyfriend but he so didn't want to know.
On his way downstairs Xander grabbed his cell off of the dresser. It was next to a picture of the whole scooby gang which Xander glanced at fondly. He was hoping that Watcher HQ would have some research or other mostly harmless yet productive activity that he could focus on and therefore prevent his mind from wandering to images of last night.
He grabbed some cereal from the ancient refrigerator in the ridiculously oversized old kitchen and flung himself into the kitchen table. It was after about two bites of soggy frosted flakes that his cell phone began vibrating wildly.
Xander didn't bother looking at the caller Id before answering.
"Hey Willow."
"Don't you 'Hey Willow' me buster! I've been trying to call you since last night, and YOU have been shamelessly ducking my calls!"
"Not shamelessly. There was some shame. Some guilt and self-loathing, even. But I suppressed it with alcohol and greasy food the way my Mommy taught me to."
"Xander! Not healthy! Not okay, and not funny!" Xander grimaced.
"Sorry."
"Darn tootin' you're sorry! We're all really worried about you, and you refusing to talk to us just makes us more worried!" Xander rolled his eyes and managed not to sigh aloud.
"I know, Willow. And I appreciate that you worry about me, but I'm fine."
"People who are fine don't suppress their emotions with alcohol and greasy food."
This time Xander did sigh aloud.
"Ok, point. I'm not fine. But I'm not not fine to the degree where people need to worry about me and speak in hushed tones."
"We're not-"
"Last night was bad, Willow. It was sucky, and bad, and brought up stuff best left forgotten. But bottom line, no more kids are going to get snatched because of us, and that's a good thing. And there were no casualties on Team Scoobie. All in all, a successful evening. You know, aside from the House of 1,000 kiddie corpses. And hey, I've seen worse."
"Xander..."
"Everything's really ok. I just need to get that image out of my head, and move on. And if I'd taken your calls last night, you would've made me talk about it. Which would've made me think about it, and wallow in it, when no good can come of the wallowing."
"I know no good can come of the wallowing, but sometimes good can come of the talking, and the venting. I want to be here for your venting." Xander smiled, picturing the adorable little frown that was no doubt on Willow's face.
"I know. And I love you for that. And when I need to vent, I promise that you will be the one I direct my impotent rage towards."
"That's all I want." They paused for a few moments, basking in the comfortable silence of mutual affection.
"So how are things at Watcher HQ? Everyone doing good? No Apocalypses on the horizon?" Xander asked eventually. The silence that greeted his question was distinctly less comfortable.
"Willow?"
"Sorry! Sorry, don't panic, no Apocalypses. We think."
"We think? We're not sure? I really think this is something we should be sure about Wills."
"Well, it's weird. All the seers and psychics and sensitives say that something's happened."
"Something. What something?"
"Well that's the thing! They don't know. And none of them agree with each other. And they're all unhelpfully vague."
"Vague prophecies of doom? That's new and different."
"Not even doom! Some just say that a change is coming. Some say a dark force has entered our world. One seer in Bulgaria just started saying, 'danger' over and over and over again. They had to gag him eventually."
"Kinky."
"Xander! It's not funny, he could choke. And! It's really annoying, because the only thing we can do is research all the prophecies that could possibly happen in the near future, and try to prepare for them. Which is impossible! We can't even warn people because we don't know what's happening."
Xander couldn't help smiling at Willow's tirade. Nothing frustrated her more than being confronted with a problem she couldn't solve.
"Well, I was kind of hoping that you'd have some busy-work you could throw my way. I could really use a distraction, so this latest crisis is actually kind of well timed."
"Hey, yeah! This is actually kind of perfect. There's a book of obscure prophecies we need, just to hedge our bets. It's one of a kind, bound with the skin of...cows. Just, you know, ordinary, non human leather binding. Anyway, it's one of a kind, and all of us are really busy researching, so if you could get it, that would be amaaazingly helpful. And, I think it's in one of those ancient languages you're kind of familiar with, so if you want to peruse it, give us a preliminary rundown of anything that seems pertinent, that would be great."
"Anything for my Witchy Woman. So where am I going to get this one of a kind book?"
"Not too far out of your way. You remember that semi-interdimensional demon library in New York?"
"The one Andrew got banned from?"
"That's the one!"
"Alrighty. Consider it done. And hey, is Andrew still in New York?"
"Yup. He was Watchering a couple slayers up in Albany, but they got relocated recently so he's been on a sort of sabbatical. He said he's working on some pet projects and being kind of secretive about it. Actually, if you could swing by and try and get a sense of what types of secret projects he's working on, that would also be great. We trust him, but we're all still a little nervous after that giant spider incident."
Xander sighed.
"Yeah, I can do that. Might be nice to see him again. We can get our geek on and I can make sure he's not going to kill us with his unilateral attempts at helping."
"That's the spirit!"
"Right. So everyone else good? Are you good?"
"All good. I'm good, Buffy's good, Dawn's good, Giles is...well, British, but good."
"Ok, good. I'll call you when I've got the book."
"Love ya. Bye."
"Bye." Xander hung up and breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced up at the clock. If he left soon, he could be in New York by the early evening. He could hang out with Andrew tonight and head to the library tomorrow. All in all a fun filled day.