Theme Fic: Part Four

["jbstories _"]

Part Four
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Xander lay stretched out across the couch watching the people spread out
around the room surrounding him. Giles was in the corner of the room
sorting through some old musty books in boxes, Spike was sitting in front of
the stereo with head-phones on listening to an old Led Zeppelin album and
Anya had disappeared into one of the back rooms after announcing that she
was bored and none of them were entertaining her so she could as well just
go to sleep. Thinking back to her exit Xander had to smile. The girl was
an original.

What he was really paying attention to however, was Willow and Buffy. They
were sitting on chairs at opposite ends of the room not doing much of
anything. At first Willow had pretended to be interested in Giles' books
but she soon gave up on that. As for Buffy she had been flipping through
the same issue of Vogue for about an hour. Xander doubted that any of them
had been anything but a series of hoots and hollers to her since the picked
up the magazine. Neither of them was crying or throwing a hissy fit or
anything, but he could tell that something was bothering both of them. They
had both been freakishly quiet since arriving, and there was just this
feeling of unease in the air. He knew that the way their lives were it led
to a lot of shifting, shuffling emotions floating around all the time, but
things had been relatively quiet in town lately so he didn't understand what
was up with them. Especially since they had seemed happier in the past few
weeks than in a long time, especially Buffy.

Xander knew that he wasn't exactly "Share your soul with me" guy. He was
jokey friend guy and he understood his role, but it didn't stop him from
worrying, and from sometimes wishing that he was "Share your soul with me
guy". The people in the house (and his parent when they were nice to him),
were his entire world, except of course for Spike. But he wasn't Mr.
Emotional Chat man, so he mostly had to let his actions be the testament of
his feeling for them all.

But, as he lay there watching them, he didn't know what action he could take
that would help.

"Hey!" Spike said breaking Xander's musings. He was banging on the top of
Giles' record player. "Fix it," he continued in the same agitated voice.

"Stop that right now," Giles said getting up and walking over to where Spike
was. "You're going to break it."

"It's not working," Spike said still banging away.

"That's because you keep hitting it," Giles said trying to get Spike to
stop.

"Slag off," Spike said waving his hands about trying to get Giles to leave
him alone.

Giles took a step back and just stared at him a for moment.

"I haven't gone to the butchers yet," Giles finally said in a warning.

"I'll be good," Spike promised even though he was glaring at Giles like he
wanted to rip his limbs from his body. Giles smiled and walked back over to
his books.

Once Spike was what Giles deemed a safe distance away from his record player
things calmed down once more.

"Buffy," Willow said looking over to where her friend was sitting.

"What's up?" Buffy asked. She was already halfway across the room.

"How would you feel about doing a little heavy lifting?" Willow asked
flashing Buffy her most charming smile.

"I'd feel like a sucker, but I'll do it anyway," Buffy responded coming to
stand behind Willow. Willow smiled up at Buffy and the Slayer kneeled down
to await instructions.

As Willow started directing Buffy to the boxes which needed to be moved and
where they needed to be moved to, Xander got off the couch (finally) and
followed Spike when the vampire began to move into the backrooms. He still
didn't trust vamp-boy and Anya was back there.

'What do you think you're doing?" Spike asked swinging around to face
Xander.

"Making sure that you don't eat my Anya," Xander responded getting right up
in Spike's face.

"As if," Spike responded before making a face at his own response. He'd
been in California for too long…way too long.

"What? Like you're so above eating people?" Xander responded.

"I'm above eating her," Spike said getting in Xander's face. "Not that I
could even I wanted to," he added backing away.

"So I hear you and Buffy spent some quality time together yesterday," Xander
said. He wasn't quite finished with Spike yet. "Should I be dusting off
the ol' tux?"

"Go away," Spike said testily.

"What's going on here?" Xander asked. He wanted some answers. He knew that
Spike was in the middle of whatever was going on. Then again Xander blamed
famine and just about every other bad thing on Spike too.

"I'm GOING to take a nap," Spike said in response. "Day time is sleep
time."

"Alright, that's it lemon-head," Xander said pushing Spike against the wall.
"I want to know what you did to Buffy and Willow."

"I didn't do anything," Spike said indignantly. "She tried to stake me!"

"If she tried to stake you, you'd be dust," Xander responded.

"Listen you bloody moron, whatever is going on between Muffy and Pine tree
out there has nothing to do with me," Spike responded.

"And I'm suppose to just take your oh so not trustworthy word on that?"
Xander asked.

"I cannot believe that you're a critical part of the 'on crack' team that
routinely foiled my plans," Spike responded shaking his head. "Just look at
them, for the love of God, just bloody look at them!" he said waving his
hand in the direction of the two girls. "If I have to be witness to one
more poignant silence, or longing gaze I'll throw myself on a damn stake."

Xander turned his head to look at Buffy and Willow and see if he could make
any sense whatsoever out of what Spike was saying. When he watched them he
didn't see anything out of the ordinary. It looked like Buffy had just
finished with the boxes and was helping Willow and Giles put away the rest
of the books. Giles was saying something to Willow, what it was Xander
couldn't hear, and Buffy was listening. The Slayer had her hand resting on
Willow's shoulder but was looking in Giles' direction. Shortly after that
the Watcher got up and headed for the kitchen shooting Xander and Spike an
odd look as he did. Xander ignored it and continued to watch his friends.
Buffy, her hand still on Willow's shoulder, kneeled down so that they were
now side by side on the floor. Once she was down there she leaned over and
whispered something into Willow's ear. Whatever it was it must have been
amusing because Willow broke out into a huge grin and eventually ended up
shaking her head and looking down at the ground.

"I don't know what you're talking about, there's nothing…" Xander started to
say to Spike, but then he was interrupted when he saw something that he
hadn't noticed before. Buffy had shifted position so that she was now
sitting cross legged on the floor and was putting away books too. It wasn't
that that caught his attention, but the expression on Willow's face. She
was watching Buffy intently, a small, gentle smile playing across her face.
Then Buffy turned her head and Willow quickly returned her gaze to the
books in front of her. Then, while Willow was busy putting away some of the
books Buffy looked at her with the same kind of look Willow had been giving
her moments before. There seemed to be this potential energy surrounding
Buffy as she looked at Willow, like in chemistry or psychics. It was like
she wanted to do something, but couldn't. Like she was just lying in wait
for her potential energy to be released.

Xander backed away from Spike, who muttered something then went into the
kitchen to badger Giles, but continued to watch the interaction between
Buffy and Willow. There was something captivating about it and he couldn't
quite pull himself away. It was like he was on the verge of making a
great discovery. As he watched them he remembered what Spike had said, and
it did seem kind of poignant. Even though he didn't really know what he was
looking at, there was something there it could feel it…see it, even from
where he was. Then another thing Spike had said started ringing in his
head. Longing. And there was longing there, you could see it in their
eyes, if you were looking for it that was.

He leaned back against the wall confused. He didn't understand what he was
seeing. He didn't understand what was going on.

"What are you doing? Are we hiding?" Anya asked sneaking up behind him.
Xander jumped slightly. "What are we hiding from?"

"We're not hiding," Xander said glancing over at her.

"That's good cause this really isn't a good spot," she responded rubbing her
hand over his pecks. "Maybe we SHOULD go hide," she suggested a moment
later sliding up against him.

"I can't, not now," Xander said returning his attention to the two girls in
the living room.

"Why not?" Anya whined.

"I'm trying to solve a problem. It's important," Xander said.

"What is it? Maybe I can help," she said looking over his shoulder. "I
want to have an orgasm."

"What did I tell you about saying things like that in public?" Xander asked
turning around.

"But we aren't in public…not really," Anya pointed out. They were the only
ones in the hallway.

"Right," Xander said turning his head again. "Is it just me or do you sense
something going on between them?" he asked waving in Buffy and Willow's
general direction.

"Nothing more than usual," Anya said trying to drag Xander into the bedroom.

"Usual?" Xander asked.

"Uh huh," Anya said still tugging to no avail.

"What's the usual?" Xander asked wondering if he was the only person in the
dark about this mystery 'thing' going on.

"Sexual tension/frustration, unrequited love yadda, yadda, yadda," Anya
responded. "Is that it? Can we have sex now?"

"What?" Xander asked in a high pitched voice.

"They obviously want to sleep together, but no doubt some stupid human
emotion is keeping them from telling each other, so they just sit there
holding hands pretending they don't want to have sex, while unintentionally
charging the air around them with unresolved sexual tension. It's sad
really, sex is good and they'd make good orgasm friends," Anya responded.
"Can we please have sex now?"

Xander turned around and stared at Anya for a second. Buffy and Willow…that
way? No way. Buffy and Willow didn't…they weren't…that was just nuts.

"You're silly," Xander said finally. "Stop being so silly," he continued.
"You silly girl…silly."

"Fine," Anya said. "I'll take care of it myself," and with that she headed
back in the direction she had come from.

Xander watched her go but he was rooted to the spot where he was. He had
known Willow for almost his entire life, and he'd known Buffy for a good
portion of his adolescence. He thought that he knew them as well as anyone
else, and he thought that he would be aware if there was anything 'gay'
about them. No, he thought to himself, they're just good friends, best
friends. He knew that he and Jesse never went around holding hands and
hugging each other, but they were guys and guys and girls acted differently.
Lots of girls, completely heterosexual girls, who were friends were close
like Buffy and Willow. Still, looking at them sitting there…there seemed to
be something more.

He shook his head, they couldn't be…could they? Nah, he was just watching
pay-per view a wee bit too much. If they were he would know…wouldn't he?
Of course. Right?

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To be continued...

Janine