Once again, Xander found himself holding a naked Cordelia and wondered how this was his life. Others guys got to wake up holding their naked girlfriends after a night of fun. He got to wake holding his girlfriend after she turned into a werewolf and decided he would make a nice pillow.
'The weirdness that is life on a Hellmouth, folks,' he thought, as he studied her beautiful face as she slept. He hated to wake her, she looked peaceful, plus naked and he was holding her, something to be savored as long possible, in his opinion. Remembering that they needed to view the video before going to school and discuss the tentative plan he had worked out the night before, Xander shook Cordelia awake. "Cordy, honey, wake-up, it happened again."
Cordelia woke, annoyed. She been having a nice dream, damnit. Xander and she had been running in the woods, playing chase, as she teased him to get him to catch her. He nearly had, when some rude idiot woke her up! As she sat up ready to rip into whoever it was, she stopped as she realized it was Xander. He was lying on the floor with the blanket covering him.
"It happened again, didn't it," she said, not as scared this time as she had been yesterday. Either she was sadly getting used to the weirdness or she was in shock. She wasn't sure which and frankly, both possibilities were scary to contemplate.
"Yeh," he said, handing her the blanket, "can you cover up, you are so very distracting, and I need to think with the big head, not the little head right now. We still need to watch the video and plan how we are going to deal with all this going forward, and I can't do any of that while wanting to enjoy your nakedness."
Cordelia glanced down herself and saw she was indeed naked again and remembering her dream, shuddered as she realized that they had both been werewolves in the dream. She reached for the blanket, "Probably a good idea, you just woke me up from a dream were I was teasing you. Problem with that, though, is that we both werewolves in the dream."
Xander blinked, then said, "I've actually had dreams like too, but we're both hyenas in them. Such is weirdness that is Sunnydale, I guess."
Cordelia just nodded and headed to the bathroom to shower and dress, calling back over her shoulder, "You can use the guest suite down the hall to get ready, Doofus."
Xander grinned, Cordy must be feeling better if she was back to calling him Doofus. He hurried down the hall to the guest bathroom, glad Lupe slept on the other side of the house, because he was pretty sure she'd wheeled a mean frying pan if she thought he had violated her little girl. Lupe had always been more of a mother to Cordelia then her stepmother had.
After showering and dressing he returned to Cordelia's room and checked the video camera. He pulled out the tape and put it into Cordy's VCR and started it up. He watched as they both slept for a while and fast forwarded it until he reached the point where she started transforming. He froze it at that point so Cordy could see it too. She came out of her walk in closet a few minutes later, looking yummy in a form fitting dress, not yet having applied makeup.
"I fast forwarded it to the part where you start transforming, it's stopped there."
Cordelia nodded and came to sit beside him on the couch, curling up under his arm automatically and drinking in his scent. She immediately felt calmer and said, "go ahead, Doofus, start it up."
He grinned at her, "Yes ma'am."
He pressed the button and both watched as Cordelia transformed into a werewolf. "Wow, looks and sounds painful," Xander commented, "and there's why you keep ending up naked," as wolf-Cordy shredded the nightgown she was wearing. The transformation itself didn't take long and then the wolf was sniffing the air, before jumping down and padding over to the sleeping Xander. Wolf-Cordy sniffed him, then licked his face until he woke up. Cordelia could hear him talking quietly to wolf-Cordy and watched as the werewolf settled down on top off him and feel asleep. "Well I guess that settles that, plus it really does look like wolf-me feels better with you around too."
"Yah," Xander said, as he got up and ejected the tape, "but we're no closer to understanding what triggers it. I mean in the movies it's supposedly the full moon, but doesn't that happen only one night a month?"
"Why don't you check online to be sure."
"Ok," Xander went over to her computer and called up information on when the full moon would appear. "Interesting, it does come out once a month, but the thing is the full moon was two nights ago. So you transformed the night before, the night of and the night after the full moon. I wonder if that has any significance. We can use it to help find some information in Giles' books. I thought maybe we could check during our free, like we were planning for checking out the pus demon. If Giles catches us, we can just say we're checking out the pus demon as a cover. Until your ready to tell the others anyway."
"Sounds good. Xander thanks for not pressing me to tell them. I just, I need to figure this out and to deal."
"I know, don't worry Cor, I've got your back on this. I told you unless you or someone else is in danger, I won't say anything. It's your secret to deal with how you want to deal with it. I'm just glad your letting me help." He said as pulled the tape from its housing and began cutting it up with a scissors he'd put on the VCR the night before, dropping the pieces into a plastic bag. He wasn't taking any chances here. Something like this could cause a lot of problems, not just for Cordelia or him, but all of Sunnydale if it got out.
Cordelia watched him as he methodically destroyed the tape and said, "What do we do now,"
"Now we make a plan on how to deal with it in the future. Because I can't move in here to be with you every time this happens, much as I'd like too, and you can't be caught tracking me down and trying to break into my parents place. So I was thinking last night about what we would need in order to keep you safe. Some place that's isolated, yet near enough that we can still get to school on time. Some where that is away from people, because I'm not sure how'd Wolf-Cordy would react to other people. You may feel threatened or possessive about me. Feelings that can make a human dangerous, let alone something that acts on instinct. I remember how I was when I was possessed by the Hyena. It was all about instinct. Eat, sleep, mate. It saw Willow as weak and Buffy as strong. And pack as something that needed to be protected, which as Alpha, was all my responsibility, to make sure we had what we all needed. Maybe that's why this isn't freaking me out that much. It feels familiar, without the scary not being in control aspect, there was before."
"You're being kinda Alpha right now, aren't you."
He looked at her for moment, considering what she said, and then nodded, "I guess I am. You've given me your heart and your trust and I am damn sure going to make sure I do the best I can to take care of both. You're mine to protect Cordy and I will do so to the best of my ability. I've still got all that soldier knowledge in my head from Halloween, I know how to make a place defensible. So we just need to find somewhere suitable and go from there."
Cordelia nodded, before all this, she would probably have ripped into him on the 'you're mine' comment but considering she was feeling just as 'you're mine' in regards to Xander, decided it really didn't matter and moved on to consider the qualifications of a place she could safely transform in. "There's a gardening shed at the back of the property. It isn't used anymore because Daddy had a new one built a few years ago that's closer to the house. It's actually more of a small house I think. I haven't seen it in a few years, but if I remember right it's brick and has a couple of windows and a 3/4 bath, you know toilet, shower and sink for the groundskeeper to use. I think I remember Daddy saying water was still run out there in case Fernando, the groundskeeper, ever needed to use it while he was working so he didn't have to come all way up to the house."
"That might work, we can check it out after school. Speaking of which, you should finish getting ready, we can stop to get something to eat on our way to school, so Lupe doesn't know I spent the night. Not sure she's ready for possible confirmation that her little girl is growing up."
Cordelia smiled cheerfully, "I am her little girl, aren't I. But she likes you Xander, so she won't kill you, probably just maim you," she laughed as she moved to her vanity to put on her makeup for the day.
"Probably. Heh I always wondered why do you bother with the makeup? I actually think you look better without it. This morning, I was watching you sleep and you just look so peaceful and beautiful. Is the makeup like a mask thing? Like the clown mask, you accuse me of wearing when we're in public?"
"Well, yah, partly, that and it's expected. Part of the image I have to maintain in order to be a 'proper Chase'." He could practically hear the quotation marks.
"You know, you don't need it in front me, right? It's why I don't do the clown thing in front of you so much anymore, because you see the real me."
"Yah, I know. It's nice to feel free."
Cordelia finished getting ready, thinking about their conversation. For so little being said, it felt like one of the most honest conversations of her life. Hell, the whole weekend had been one of openness. She smiled as she suddenly remembered, Xander had said he loved her and she had said it back!
Cordelia jumped up and raced over to Xander, grabbing him and kissing him long and deep! He looked dazed and flushed when she stopped and pulled back.
"Wow, what did I do to deserve that and can I do it again?"
"You said you loved me and I said it back!"
"Yes, and I meant."
"Say it again," she ordered.
He grinned, that loped sided grin she loved so much. "I love you."
Cordelia squealed and kissed him again, making him even more dazed. "I love you too, Doofus."
"Good, damn, we have get going otherwise I'd love to continue this conversation."
Cordelia nodded happily and went to get her bag. She pulled out Xander's t-shirt and inhaled deeply, catching his scent. "I'm good to go," she said, tucking it back in. "Having that should help get me through until I see you again. Come on, Doofus, I'm hungry." Cordelia said, heading for the door. "We'll take your car, if it stays here Lupe will have questions."
Xander drove them to McDonald's drive though, were each placed an order, before heading to the school. Xander drove one handed while eating, with Cordelia holding his pop for him so he could drink using the straw. They tossed the wrappers, along with the bag with the remnants of the tape into a garbage can on the way in. Xander walked Cordelia to her home room giving her a kiss, before heading to his own home room to start his day.
