Switcheroony
by alicorn
Chapter 18
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Giles sat, supposedly, engrossed in his journal but his mind was truly elsewhere. Xander's early morning visit from Faith was weighing heavily on his mind. 'What is that silly girl up to?' he wondered. He rather wanted to believe that Faith had changed, that Angel's guidance had indeed helped. That she had rediscovered her place in humanity and, with it, the value of each human life. That she was choosing to seek a path to redemption. But his Watcher instincts couldn't allow him to take the risk of believing that the hidden curse within a curse wasn't her damaged mind's version of homage - possibly to the Mayor and his original plan for mankind. She wouldn't be the first person to consider ending the world as the only solution to their problems. So here he was re-reading his very first year's worth of entries.
He smiled at his some of his comments about Buffy having friends. 'God what a Council cloned prig I was.' He felt more than foolish that he had ever considered Willow and Xander as only an annoyance, distracting the Slayer from her calling. If he was to be asked today why Buffy had become the most successful and committed Slayer of her time, he would have no compunction in placing almost all of the credit on her decision to surround herself with strong, brave, big-hearted and faithful friends. They had, somewhere over the years, become a family and an army against darkness and evil. Acknowledging his love, pride and concern for his acquired family, he was also fully aware of the weaknesses that came with the strengths their group provided.
He had watched each member of the group grow and mature over years but he had to admit to himself, even though he never intended to say it out loud, that he had been the most surprised by Xander. Most people would have thought that was because he had seemed set to be a drop out and nothing more. But Giles had watched him becoming the big brother to both women, a role that fitted him like a glove. He had allowed them to remove him from part of their friendship with a chivalry beyond his years. Yet he was always within hearing when they needed him. Giles was amazed at how selfless Xander had been in his support of Buffy and, especially, Willow. He'd watched his childhood friend move from his side to become a potentially very powerful witch and sincere warrior in her own right. Giles was unsure he would have behaved as well had his peers surpassed him and left him behind in, oh, so many ways.
So it really shouldn't have been such a surprise to him when he saw that Xander seemed to be accepting of this new twist in their friendship. To see his best friends literally walking in each other's shoes, in fact in each other's bodies, and be able to take it all in his stride was truly impressive. He even seemed to understand the myriad of dimensions involved. Giles almost wanted to start a journal on Xander to try and figure out how he seemed to have all the qualities of an immature male and yet at the same time have such great potential, strength and understanding.
Even Faith had chosen Xander to approach rather than coming to him. 'Lets be honest old chap, you've never been really that comfortable talking about your feelings, let alone to pubescent teens. You set the tone years ago,' he chastised himself, feeling that he had indeed become his father despite his best efforts not to.
"Okay G-man. Job done. Buffy said they'll be here when their ready," Xander said, interrupting his thoughts. "I figure there's still mega post ... you know ... girl talk to be had."
Giles nodded and then against his better judgment he asked, "Xander, is there something about Buffy and Willow ... that I should know?"
"What d'you mean?" Xander asked cagily.
"I just have this irritating feeling that as usual I've been left out of the loop on something relating to ... arrhmm ... something important. It seems you may be aware of factors that I'm ... missing," Giles admitted, feeling somewhat uncomfortable but certain that there was something he needed to know. Staring at Xander's stony features he continued, "Something that you know, something that I should take into consideration before I determine how best to direct our efforts. I know you all enjoy reminding me of the generation gap by leaving me out of certain parts of your lives and most of the time I have to admit I'm more than happy to be ignorant of the lurid details. But I can sense that on this occasion I'm missing something important. In this kind of situation I firmly believe that important decisions shouldn't be made without all the facts or ... mistakes may be made that we will all live to regret ... or not," he finished.
"It's not so much a fact as kinda a 'two weeks' notice thing," Xander said cryptically. "There's a secret ... sorta 'true lies' but without the airplane."
"Xander! You know I don't have a clue to what you are referring," Giles stated, somewhat annoyed that Xander was being so evasive.
Just then Anya, realizing that she was missing something potentially interesting, decided to join them by sitting down beside Giles with her annoying 'I know what Xander is going on about so let me bask here in my boyfriend's amazing wonderfulness' smile.
Xander smirked at the frustrated frown that he had raised on Giles' brow. 'This is fun.' And the worship of his Anya was always of the good. "It's kinda a big lie they're both telling ... to themselves and each other — that they're just friends," he raised his eyebrows as if his words had explained it all. But what he got back was a completely blank look. "That all they are -- is best friends. You know?" he tried again a little more slowly.
"Quite clearly, I do not," Giles said, his tone becoming sharp.
"It's like they're all big with the denial and the blindness but from the outside it's obvious. You know how when you get real close to the TV all you see is dots. Well they're the dots. But I'm like TV-watching guy and I'm sitting far enough from the screen that I can see the picture the dots make," Xander explained, again receiving nothing but a frown from the Watcher. "I see the way they are with each other, the looks they throw at each other when they think others can't see them. But I see them. The little slips, the hidden thoughts on faces that don't know how to hide their thoughts. It's like subplot. It didn't really come into sharp focus ... the picture I mean ... until this body swap. But then ... geez, you had to blind not to see it."
"Xander!" Giles interrupted in frustration. "Will you just get to the point? It must be patently obvious by now that I can not decipher your analogies. See what? What do you see?"
"They're in love," Anya stated unable to keep quiet any longer. But her words just seemed to make Giles' sharply turn his head and stare at her until his eyes became inordinately large. So she added, "with each other." Looking up at Xander she saw that oh too familiar 'glare'. "What?"
"Stealing my thunder, much?" he commented irritably
"He was taking too long to get it," Anya protested in her defense. Then turning back to Giles and she added, "Buffy doesn't think Willow loves her ... that way and Willow thinks Buffy's straight."
Giles stared back and forth at Anya and then Xander, trying to take in what he had just been told. "They're ... are you certain?" Giles asked before he could stop himself.
"As certain as I can be. Think about it," Xander advised him.
"Yes think about it. Xander likes to think about it," Anya advised. "But he knows he can only have sex with me."
"Anya!" Xander yelled, although you could see he didn't really expect her to understand why.
"What?"
"I ... but when ... how did this ... how could I have missed this?" interrupted Giles, before falling into silence and dropping his eyes towards the floor.
"It's not that surprising really. Remember when Willow was doing the slow 'Ellen run' up to her coming out scene? I mean no one guessed," Xander piped up, trying to soothe the Watcher's ego.
"I don't know why Willow thinks Buffy's straight. I mean in what twisted world would the "Powers That Be" make the good guys ... okay good girls ... a lesbian witch with a straight female who is more powerful than your strongest male best friend. I mean, professionally speaking, that sounds more like a curse to me," Anya said, changing the subject back to her earlier comments. "Hello --- and Buffy ... there's all the black, and the way she loves her axe and the occasional leather. Oooh and stakes! Talk about a penis replacement. Talk about missing the sub plot here. I knew these two girls in Greece ... back in the day ... you wouldn't believe how long it took them to get ... "
At this point Giles stopped listening to Anya and Xander. Instead he took their theory, now knowledge, and weighed it in his mind. It seemed real. None of his usual "this is a load of old twaddle" radar was going off. 'Oh my God.' He suddenly wished he hadn't asked. This was going to make matters more complicated than ever. It was as if he'd been watching a completely different story from everyone else. He'd managed with Buffy's teenage fixations on boys. He'd even resigned himself to Angel. But this ... well he was out of his depth and drowning seemed almost acceptable.
**************************BtVS**********************************
Buffy followed Willow into the Magic Box. Their journey having taken place in relative silence, she still had little or no idea exactly what Willow was feeling about last night. This freaked her out more than anything else; even the knowledge that everyone in this room now knew what they had tried last night.
"Ahh, you're here. Good. We can get on with it," Giles commented offering both women a small smile. "It is imperative, in my opinion, that we take advantage of all the additional information we can ostensibly by using the vision rod. We need to know the exact origins of this curse or, to be more precise, the curse within the curse. Now recent events ... aarhmmm ... may have proved our past interpretations to have been ... a little off the mark. But I don't think we can let this dissuade us from proceeding."
"Okay. Back to the magic stick we go," Buffy agreed, eager to do anything that involved not talking about last night. She watched Willow, out of the corner of her eye, sit on the stairs that led up to the restricted book section. She seemed so vulnerable, so hurt. Pain filled her heart and she wished with all her soul that she could go back in time and knock Faith out before all of this began. 'I'm gonna show you a world of hurt when I find you Faith. You will wish you were still in a coma,' she mentally promised.
Xander couldn't take his eyes off them. 'What the hell's going on here?' Wiffy was half herself and half an injured little girl, a somewhat familiar little girl. He had a sudden flash back to kindergarten when Willow had broken the yellow crayon and had been far too scared to tell anyone. What he was seeing on Willow's 'Buffy' face was that 'yellow crayon' look. However Bullow's anger levels were off the scale. That look on Buffy's 'Willow' face was just way too easy to read but she was holding something else in. He could feel it and even though she was at least six feet from Willow he could almost see the protective shield she was attempting to throw around her best friend.
Bullow's protectiveness made him feel slightly ashamed as he knew that part of the reason she was being so protective was her fear of what he or Anya might say. After Giles had updated them, his first thought had been of this moment, anticipating much humor, practicing of puns and innuendos but eventually he'd realized that some cheap shots were just that and nothing more. His earlier call to Buffy had really brought things home to him as her tone had kinda yelled 'I will not be bringing my sense of humor.'
He'd been so right to give Anya a very detailed social etiquette talk, especially emphasizing that there should be no questions, digs or side comments relating to last night's failed attempt to end the curse. At first she had protested, pointing out that sex was a natural human act and that 'to remove all sex talk or reference to it was un-American!' Feeling brave he had actually asked — 'why?' Anya informed him that the desire for sex, conversations about acquiring sex and research into acquiring sex were the main reasons many of her customers came to their shop. Xander at first did nothing but pull his goldfish face on [opening and closing his mouth without anything coming out] until eventually he recovered and pointed out that neither Willow nor Buffy were customers. They were friends. Anya agreed since they never paid for anything.
Willow could feel the weight of the silence as she sat on the stairs. She noted that Anya was avoiding all eye contact and that Xander seemed lost in thought, thoughts that seemed to be making him smile. She suddenly felt really annoyed. 'Couldn't he have got all his fantasizing done before we turned up?'
"So when do we start?" Buffy asked.
"Now seems as good a time as any. Anya can you mind the store?" Giles asked, somewhat eager to remove the ex-demon and her bluntness from the now somewhat delicate mix.
Thanks to Lilly a beta treasure