In mid January Xander stopped by to return a plate that had a couple days ago held cookies baked by Joyce in her on going efforts to feed him. Not that he was complaining, she cooked like a dream, but he was able to cook for himself. Gods knew he'd been doing it long enough. Willow had jokingly asked if the Harris house even had a stove once and truth was it had a non-working one. Fortunately the Sanctum had an amazing modern kitchen, complete with working stove. Buffy was getting ready to go to Giles' and Xander offered to give her a lift.

"Sure," she agreed. "am I finally going to get to see the car you mentioned that you can't drive in Sunnydale because it'll stand out too much?" She joked.

"Since we're currently in Sunnydale, I'm thinking no." He joked back. "I got a regular car for running around Sunnydale."

"So what is your fancy car anyway?" Buffy asked as she buckled into the passenger seat.

"There's two actually." Xander answered. "A Jaguar and a Lamborghini."

"A Lamborghini?!" Buffy exclaimed. "You're kidding!"

"Nope, it's yellow and sooo fancy. The Jaguar is pretty sweet too." He headed toward Giles place. "I'm trying to sell the Lamborghini but it's a small market for people who can actually afford that kind of car, even one that's technically brand new, given they wouldn't be buying from a dealership. But it's never been driven either. So, what's on the old training agenda today, Buffster?"

"Just going over martial arts forms." She answered. "Want to be my sparing dummy? You haven't done that for awhile, give Giles' old bones a rest. Wear the old puffy suit and let me pound on you instead."

"Maybe you could teach me instead." Xander suggested.

"I don't think so, Xander." Buffy shook her head. "Unless you're the Slayer it takes years to learn it."

"So? Doesn't mean I can't learn it, I might even learn it faster then normal. Dr. Strange studied martial arts for years and some of the information is still rattling around in my head."

"Why would he do that?" Buffy asked, confused. "He had his Magic to protect him."

"Besides the health benefits to staying fit? It's logical, having only one way of defending yourself makes you predictable and Magic can be blocked. If you don't have another way of protecting yourself, you're screwed."

"But I'm way stronger than you, Xander, I might hurt you." Buffy tried another tactic, still not sure this was a good idea.

"Are you telling me you haven't figured out how to control your strength?" He raised his eyebrow at her. "Pull your punches? You've been the Slayer for two years, Buff. Granted you took two summers off from actively hunting, but you still interacted with people during that time. Accidentally punch any of them through walls when you weren't looking?"

"No, of course not. I just don't want to hurt you, that's all."

"Buffy, I may not have the strength you and Cordy, thanks to her sword, do, but I'm not fragile either. So stop treating me like I am, okay, because it pisses me off. You take concern way too far sometimes and it's totally unnecessary." Xander said evenly, as he parked in Giles' driveway. "It's not like you worry about Giles when he's training you and he's old."

"But he knows what he's doing, he's been doing it for years."

"That's my point, Buffy, he had to start somewhere and so do I." He climbed out of the car and headed toward Giles' front door as Buffy scrambled out and followed him.

"I suppose I could show you a few things." Buffy agreed reluctantly.

"Great, glad that's settled." He knocked on Giles' door.

"Just go in, Xander, it's not a big deal."

"Ms. Calendar's here, Buffy, I'm not risking walking in on them doing stuff. Ms. Calendar's my version of Giles to you, only with Magic and not old. So I don't want those kind of pictures in my head. They're half there anyway given I still thinks she's hot."

"How do you know she's here?" Buffy looked grossed out. "And ewww, I don't want those pictures in my head either. It's Giles!"

"Her car is in the garage, parked next to Giles' beat up old clunker, you didn't see it? The garage door is only half closed."

"No, I missed it." The door opened and Jenny motioned them in.

"He's all set up in the basement." She told Buffy. "You can go right down."

"Thanks, Xander's coming down too. I agreed to show him a few things. He says knowing other ways of protecting yourself is a smart thing."

"He's right, it is." Jenny agreed. "I'll be in my workroom, if you need anything." Her apartment had only one bedroom and needing space to work on figuring out how the force field glove Xander had given her worked, Jenny had taken over one of Giles' other bedrooms and turned it into her own lab. Giles had grumbled about having a room in his own house he wasn't allowed in but caved when his girlfriend just gave him a look. Xander recognized it, Cordelia had her own version and he was just as helpless against it.

Giles too was sceptical at first, but agreed to help Buffy show Xander a few things. He was more surprised when Xander knew the names of a number of forms, but it did stop his protests and he watched with interest as Buffy took what she knew and began teaching Xander. He was sloppy at first, trying to translate the pictures in his head into real moves, but he was learning and Giles watched with interest as Xander grew more sure of himself the longer the two practiced. 'What else was rattling around in Xander's head?' he wondered.