Switcheroony
by alicorn
chapter 3
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Chapter 3
"How are my two favorite ladies?" Xander greeted them as they entered the coffee shop, placing an arm around each. "I feel like a rose between two thorns," Xander said waiting for the inevitable slaps but they didn't come. Instead he could feel them both go rigid. Inside he was laughing his head off. This was going to be fun.
Xander turned to Willow with his patented lop sided grin. "Ready for the research fest? I am so ready to get doughnuts." Turning back to Buffy he asked "So, are my favorite snuggle bunnies ready to face the books?"
Buffy blushed unable to look at Willow. She smiled weakly and nodded at Xander, not feeling that it was safe to speak and slightly unnerved by Xander's greeting.
Willow was even more afraid of what she couldn't say. She felt she knew that if she told Xander about last night, he would just go into fantasy mode; his eyes would glaze over and maybe even roll around a bit in his head. She could hardly have a meaningful discussion with her friends on the subject of the feelings that were crashing in around her; like something out of The Birds rather than the gaggle of Austin Powers' a-go-go girls that Xander would have envisioned. It would take her too long to get his head back to earth. Re-entry was trickier than it looked with his imagination. She joined Buffy in the safe and silent nodding.
Buffy finally extricated herself from Xander's hold and headed to the counter to order their coffees. Left alone with her other best friend, Willow still didn't know what to say, instead remaining quietly and very uncomfortably beside her tall, slightly chuffed looking childhood friend.
Xander held in his inner laughter as he imagined that something more than just having to share a double bed had happened last night. And so his brain took a trip down his very own fantasy highway until Buffy's return brought him back to reality but with a decidedly silly grin on his face - a grin that for once neither of his best friends questioned.
Walking along to the Magic Box in relative silence, the girls were oblivious to the somewhat smug smile on Xander's face. His mind revelled in the possibilities before him. Having the upper hand was a whole new experience, something he wasn't ready to give up just yet. 'Ahhh, the way power just sucks you in. I'm learning to have sympathy for Darth Vader. Well, his outfit was way cooler, but the 3-pack a day voice? Nah'.
Xander yawned and turning to Buffy, said "Sorry. Bit of a sleepless night. Anya stayed at her place and even though I had all the covers, I missed her snoring. You're female, right?" Xander added as if it had just occurred to him. "How do you tell a girl she snores and hogs the covers? Without getting demon slapped, of course. It's a serious problem." Suddenly, pretending to realize he had asked the wrong person, he turned to Willow. "Oops, guess it's the real Will I should be asking that one. Buff's not really with the sleeping with a woman thing, are you?" he threw over his shoulder, seemingly off the cuff.
"Yeah. Right," Buffy acknowledged, hoping that her face hadn't just gone blood red. She desperately wanted to look at Willow to gauge her expression. But she knew that, as lately happened whenever she tried to glance even briefly at Willow, she would find herself staring at the wonderful, beautiful woman who she was blessed to call her friend. So it was best not to give in to the desire to look at her. 'When had this started?' she asked herself.
"You're on your own there, Xan. Never had that problem myself," Willow replied as light heartedly she could manage. Buffy hadn't exactly snored but her breathing did have a little cute mumbling noise when she was asleep. Realizing that she needed to take control of this conversation and quickly, she asked Xander "Want me to look up an anti-snoring spell?" putting as much eagerness as she could into her remark.
"They have those?" Xander asked, suddenly finding himself interested, just as he also realized that Willow was smirking ever so slightly. "Right," he laughed. "Sounded too good to be true. But untapped market there, if you ask me."
Turning the final corner they came upon the Magic Box. Buffy took a deep breath and steeled herself for all that she knew was coming. This was going to be one of those awkward question and answer sessions that both she and Giles preferred to avoid.
Xander noticed the ever so slight stiffening of Buffy's back as well as the slight dipping of Willow's head. He realized that they were planning to tell all to Giles. 'Damn.' His fun was going to abruptly end. He had hardly gotten into his stride.
Entering the Magic Box, Xander made a bee-line for Anya. He really had missed her last night; although in truth he had not suffered from a sleepless night — more a missing the possibilities of good hot sex.
"Any thing new?" asked Buffy, for once really hoping that overnight Giles had resolved everything and that a cure for the body swap was just awaiting their arrival. At least then the events of last night would become immaterial and there would be no need for quizzing. That would be really okay with her.
"I'm afraid not. It seems our only option is to find a way to break the curse," Giles replied. "Have you remembered anything new?" he asked hopefully.
"Nope, no remembering," replied Buffy. "But something odd did happen when we got home last night," Buffy added, suddenly feeling that the temperature had risen.
"Really?" Giles questioned.
"Yeah. When we got to the dorm room our two beds had been removed and replaced." She paused and took a deep breath at the expectant look on his face. "With a double bed."
Giles took in her words and then 'Oh!' He took the words in again. His eyes shot wide open. Unable to remove his glasses for cleaning quickly enough, he dropped them and fumbled on his hands and knees while mumbling "Ahh, I see. Very interesting." Retrieving his glasses, which he frenetically cleaned, he added "Did anything else happen?"
Buffy suddenly went silent and a little red. She glared at him. 'He couldn't be asking what she thought he was — no' but she glared a little harder just in case.
"A rose was on the bed," Willow added, almost as a whisper.
"Indeed. Well we will have to consider all of this very carefully. I'm not sure where this fits into the curse. But I'm sure that it's just a matter of applying our minds." He turned his back and replaced his glasses, somewhat puzzled by the sheer wave of discomfort he had felt coming from Buffy. "So do you have any thoughts?"
"Faith wants them to be orgasm buddies," Anya said, obviously sharing her immediate deduction. It seemed she had actually been listening. Then quietly, almost to herself, she added "That's scary."
"Anya," Xander said, with as much surprise as he could muster.
"What? It's as plain as the mouth on your face," Anya responded, annoyed that everyone else seemed so blind to what was actually going on.
"Nose," said Giles, turning before he could stop himself.
"What do you mean scary?" asked a very insulted Willow before she realized what she had said. "Not that I want to be Buffy's ... I mean, Buffy, your great and all, but we're friends. But I'm kinda gay, kinda enjoy the orgas ... buddy thing ... So why did you say, scary?" Willow's back was well and truly up. 'Does she have to say everything she thinks? How does he cope?'
Xander suddenly wanted to be somewhere else. He hated it when they argued. No matter who eventually did win, he always managed to lose.
"Faith is evil. Right? So what she wants has to be evil or, at least, not nice. So if that's for you two to become orgasm buddies, you can bet it won't be enjoyable. Kinda gay or not," Anya ended, pointedly looking Willow straight in the eye. "Maybe she's gonna watch you two. I know Xander always wanted to watch."
"Anya!" Xander yelled again, this time not acting.
"Well you do," Anya glared at Xander. "Why is everyone pretending to be so upset by the idea? It's just sex. And, at least, they don't have to do it with a stranger. Plus Willow is on her own turf. That should make it easier. Right?"
Silence fell over the room.