"Well, we survived." Cordelia said the next day. "Trying to figure out how, but we survived and hey! I staked my first vampire. Sure, I've driven a car over them, but I've never staked one before. It's not as hard you'd think, I didn't even need superpowers, all I needed was to know where to stick the stake and thanks to Xander, I now know. So, I'm off to Los Angeles, where I will soon be discovered and you will see my name in lights."
"I have to finish packing for the road trip. I'll give you guys a call occasionally and let you know I'm still alive." Xander said to the others.
"I'm planning to sleep until college starts." Buffy replied. "Just leave a message at the beep."
"Sure, have a great summer guys." Xander turned to Cordelia. "I can give you a ride to your place if you want."
"I'll take you up on that, I have some packing of my own to do." The group scattered with Oz and Willow heading one way and Buffy heading another. The next day Xander picked Cordelia up so they could start their road trip together. She had fewer bags than he did.
"Those IRS bastards took everything, didn't they?" He asked quietly.
"Yeah, they did. I still don't understand how they were able to take my trust fund, but they did. So, Doofus, where to first?"
"San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, I want to see if it lives up to the hype."
"It's not actually gold. I was so disappointed when I was four and found that out."
"Those little gold statues that Hollywood gives out will make up for it."
"Yes, they will." She grinned at him and then buckled in as he drove them out of town. Neither of them knew someone was watching them leave and cursing as they moved out of its sphere of influence. 'Now what am I going to do? All that work, down the drain.' And than it saw someone still in that sphere of influence and quickly made new plans.
"Cordy, there's something we should talk about before we actually get to San Francisco." Xander said, as they drove.
"What's that?" She asked.
"I have plenty of money saved, but it was for when this trip was a solo one. We either need to make it a shorter trip with two rooms or one room with two beds."
"One room with two beds. Hard to work on rebuilding if we're not talking, sure we can talk in the car, but there are some conversations that can't happen with a radio going."
Xander breathed in and out and got control of himself, she wasn't offering sex, she was offering personal conversations. If they were going to make this work, than testing his resolve had to be part of it. "Two beds, one room, got it." He agreed. They moved on to safer topics of conversation for now. The more important ones would come.
The summer passed in a whirlwind of tourist's sights and alternated between lighthearted conversations about anything and everything, except Sunnydale and deeper, more personal conversations, which did include Buffy, Willow and Faith and his feelings about each of them. He admitted to loving Buffy and Willow, but not how he loved her and how helpless he'd felt at Faith's deterioration and then finally, by the end of summer, before they headed to Los Angeles, Cordelia was able to tell Xander he was forgiven.
"But you only get one chance, Doofus." She told him seriously. "You screw this up again and that's it, never again. I'll kill you and bury you in the desert."
"I have no intention of ruining the best thing that's ever happened to me, Cor, I promise you. We've talked about all of our insecurities and fears and if new ones come up, we'll talk about them too. I'm planning on this being for life."
"So am I. So let's talk about getting a place to live. Neither of us have a job right now and money's going to be tight for both of us. I was thinking we should get a place together."
"How together, Cordy? Because I've got to tell you sharing a hotel room with you has not been easy and that didn't include sharing a bed. Would us sharing an apartment include us sharing a bed?"
She reached out her hand and grasped his in hers. "Trust me, I'm just as frustrated as you with the current arrangement. You in sleep pants is almost as good as the speedo, so how about one bed tonight?"
He stood up and wrapped his arms around her slim waist and dipped his head to kiss her. It didn't take long to light the fire between them and soon they moved to her bed.
The next day they set out for Los Angeles and the bright lights of Hollywood, Cordelia determined to make her dream come true and Xander determined to help her.