FIC: ...Moving In 2/2

["Selenay" <selenay@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I haven't checked this through, I just wanted to get it out to the list
you'll have to excuse any spelling mistakes. I'll be putting the finished
version up on my site in a couple of days but in the meantime - enjoy!

Title: Sequel to Conversations part 3: ...Moving In 2/2
Author: Selenay
E-mail: selenay@xxxxxxxxxx
Summary: Finally, Willow and Buffy move into their own place. But there are
a few complications...
Spoilers: A few for 'Real Me' and huge, enourmous ones for 'The
Replacement'. It seemed appropriate.
Distribution: My site, http://www.selenayhaven.com. and 'A Slayer A Hacker.
Anyone else please ask first.
Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy and her friends. It all belongs to Joss
Whedon, Mutant Enemy et al. I'm only playing, and sadly make nothing from
this.
Feedback: Gratefully received


"So, a mythic triumph over a completely indifferent foe?" Buffy summed up,
grinning openly at Giles' flustered expression.

The Gang was assembled in the Magic Box to discuss the first in what would
probably be a stream of attacks on the new proprietor. Buffy and Willow sat
on the floor next to each other, backs against some drawers, with books
spread across their knees while Giles paced in front of them. Surprisingly,
or maybe not so surprisingly, Anya was nowhere to be seen and Xander stood
next to some shelves trying to look as though he was not worried.

"Well, I'm not dead or unconscious so I say bravo for me," Giles said
defensively, while Buffy tried not to giggle.

"Some good demons in this one," Willow said, holding up a book. "See if your
guy's in there."

While Giles flicked through the books Xander took the chance to rub in what
they were all thinking. "So you bought the magic shop and you were attacked
before it opened. Who's up for a swingin' chorus of the 'we told you so'
symphony."

Buffy raised her hand and Willow slapped it down, giving her the look she
recognized as 'don't you dare'.

"Toth," Giles said absently.

"Huh?" Xander asked.

"He called you a Toth. It's a British expression. It means, like, moron,"
Buffy told him, grinning. She could feel Willow giggling silently next to
her, either because she was right or she was so wrong it was funny.

Giles' words confirmed that option two was the correct one. "No, Toth is the
name of the demon. Ancient demon. Very strong. Last survivor of the Tothric
clan. It also says that for a demon he's unusually sophisticated."

"Sophisticated. So I should discuss men's fashions with him before I chop
his head off?"

"They're referring to the fact that he does not fight bare-handed. He uses
tools, devices. Oh, he's also supposed to be very focused. And since he
mentioned killing the Slayer, I think we know what the focus is."

"Don't they ever have other plans?" Willow asked plaintively. "Like,
starting a quilting circle?"

"Maybe they want to sew my death scene into their newest quilt," Buffy
suggested, smiling at Willow reassuringly. "Where can we find him?"

"There's no mention of the types of places we might find him," Giles said,
scanning through the book again. "But I have an idea. He had a very
distinctive olfactory presence."

"Well, I guess we're off to the olfactory. I hate that place," Xander said,
inducing eye-rolling from everyone. "I'm joking, I know what it means. He
smelled. Right?"

"Some demon rituals involve anointing with oils. Was it sort
of...sandalwoody?" Willow asked.

"Um, not even remotely," Giles told her. "But it was very distinctive."

"I'm gonna hate this, aren't I?" Buffy asked, hiding her head on Willow
shoulder.

***

"I knew I was going to hate this," Buffy complained. "The city dump. Where
smells go to relax and be themselves."

She carefully picked her around the mounds of rubbish, wrinkling her nose at
the powerful smell. Even breathing through her mouth did not help - the
smells just took up residence in her mouth as tastes, which was probably
even more disgusting.

"I found a spell so that you can't smell anything, but it does it by taking
your nose off...so..." Willow trailed off and exchanged glances with Buffy.

"It's no big," she reassured the witch. "Mental note - when Giles makes
comments about smells bring a gas mask."

The Watcher began to glare at Buffy, but turned when they all heard a
rustling noise. The clicks of crossbows loading and stakes being pulled out
echoed through the otherwise silent, stinking dump.

Buffy spotted the source of the noise. Spike was poking through one of the
rubbish mounds and as she watched he pulled out the disconnected arm from a
mannequin.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, trying to inject as much disgust into
the question as she could muster. Which was a lot thanks to their
surroundings.

"Oh, there's a nice lady vampire who sets up a charming tea room over the
next pile of crap," the vampire said sarcastically. "What do you think I'm
doing? I'm scavenging, aren't I?"

"Spike, uh, we're looking for a demon," Giles said. "Tall, robed, skin sort
of hanging off. Deep voice?"

"You mean a great, tall, robe-y thing like that one?"

Buffy looked behind her found herself facing the tall robed figure of Toth.
The demon was pointing a stick-thing at them and Buffy had enough time to
process this before it discharged a bolt of energy. She threw herself at
Willow and felt the hair on the back of her neck tingle as the energy zapped
overhead.

"Big guy!" Spike yelled cheerfully. "Kick her ass!"

Buffy helped Willow up, not even sparing the time to glare at the vampire,
and tried to work out some way to disarm the demon. Toth did not give them
time to regroup, instead focusing on the Slayer and firing again. She found
herself tackled to the ground before assailant was flying backwards through
the air.

"Xander!" Willow shouted.

Again, Buffy picked herself up from the floor and rushed over to the group
surrounded the downed teen. He was gasping for breath but otherwise seemed
unhurt.

"I'm ok," he panted. "Remind me not to do that again."

"Deal," Buffy said with a relieved smile.

She felt a touch on her arm and looked up to find Willow's green eyes inches
from hers.

"He's gone," the witch said, and Buffy turned to see that she was right.

"He'll be back."

Giles was already helping Xander to his feet so Buffy took his other arm and
let him lean against her. Willow took Buffy's unoccupied hand and the group
slowly walked out of the dump.

"Take it slowly," Giles cautioned.

"Actually I was planning to run the hundred meters," Xander said shakily.

"You could hobble it," Willow offered.

"Need a hand getting home?" Buffy asked.

***

"Pass me the mace," Buffy said absently, trying fit an extra crossbow in her
bag.

Willow looked uncertainly at the pile of weapons on Buffy's bed and the
large duffel she was trying to put them all into. Morning had brought a
change in the Slayer's attitude to the Toth demon and she was not sure that
it was a good one. Xander seemed unhurt but Buffy was now determined to
bring it down before it could do any more harm - despite Giles' warning that
she not try to tackle the thing without back-up. Willow could appreciate
that a large arsenal of weaponry would probably help, but not when only one
person was operating that arsenal. After all, Buffy could not operate seven
different weapons all at once no matter how much she had trained recently.

"Are you sure you need all that?" she asked, trying to spot the mace in the
middle of the heap.

"Toth is dangerous. I have to defeat him. Ergo, weapons," Buffy stated
carefully.

"Yeah, but..."

"No buts. Xander got hurt because he was out there with me and this needs to
be done. I'm not risking anyone else."

"But Buff, I don't mind being risked. Not that I like danger, but I don't
like staying here while you're getting yourself killed." Willow sniffed,
trying her pitiful look. "I don't want to be the little woman who sits here
and worries while the big strong Slayer goes out and kills the bad guys. We'
re partners, right? That means I get to be the person who goes along and
watches when you kill the bad guys. I can offer support, cast spells and
bring snacks when the big strong Slayer gets hungry."

Buffy put down her bag and took Willow's hand. "I'm sorry. I'm doing it
again, aren't I?"

"Doing what?"

"Over-protecting you."

"A little. It's nice to feel protected, but wrapped-in-cotton-wool is a
little different."

"Sorry."

Willow closed her eyes as Buffy leaned in to steal a kiss.

"Am I forgiven?"

The witch pretended to consider it. "Well, you might have to..."

"What?"

"Kiss me again?"

***

Buffy raised an eyebrow at her Watcher.

"Er, well, I suppose...uh...that..."

"I knew you didn't know!" she crowed triumphantly.

Giving into Willow had not been easy, particularly in something she knew she
had to do, but during the confrontation she had realized something. Her
relationship with the shy witch was more important than anything in her
life, including the Slaying, and risking that just was not worth it. So
instead of rushing out and tracking down the Toth demon single-handed she
was at Giles' shop doing research while Willow bought mochas at the Espresso
Pump. She had narrowly managed to choke down her objections to that plan
("It's not safe for you wander around Sunnydale on your own!") and was now
doing her best not to worry. Teasing Giles was a good distraction at least.

A thundering knock on the door startled them both and the Slayer rushed to
open it, a stern lecture about walking in the rain on the tip of her tongue.
Instead she faced Xander looking unusually smart. < Who died? Oh, yeah,
meeting with the realtor. >

"You have to help me," he announced as she opened the door.

"Come in Xander. It's nice to see you too," Buffy said, stepping back from
the door.

"Sorry, hi Buffy." Xander stepped through. "You have to help me. Something
out there is wandering around looking like me."

"Looking like you?" Giles asked. "Something is...imitating you?"

"No, something looks exactly like me. It stole my face. We have to find it
and we have to kill it."

"Don't worry, Xander." Buffy put a reassuring hand on his arm. A glint of
light from something in his hand caught her arm but she shook it off.
"Whatever stole your face, it has to deal with a Slayer now."

***

Willow pulled her coat around her a peered out of the coffee shop window.
The weather was deteriorating rapidly and running through the streets of
Sunnydale would be a little tough with cups of coffee. So she was sitting in
the shop waiting for a break in the rain to go over to Giles'. Someone
tapped her on the shoulder from behind and she squeaked and whirled around.

"Don't be scared Will. Just listen. It's me, Xander."

It was indeed a very wet, scruffy looking Xander. But she had been friends
with the boy for years so why he felt the need to suddenly tell her that
was, frankly, puzzling.

"And I can prove it."

Curiouser and curiouser.

"Let's see, stuff only you and I know." Xander began to pace in front of
her. "Okay! On my seventh birthday...I wanted a toy fire truck, and I didn't
get it, and you were real nice about it, and then the house next door burnt
down and then the real fire trucks came and for years I thought you set the
fire for me. And if you did you can tell me. For a while last year I thought
I was lactose-intolerant, but it was just some bad Brie. Oh! You bought
Buffy a friendship ring last Christmas but chicken out of giving it to her
and gave her a CD instead."

"Xander, I believe you. Why wouldn't I think you're Xander?"

"Oh, huh," Xander said intelligently, somewhat bewildered now that he did
not need to prove his identity.

"What's going on?"

"Okay, I woke up in the dump this morning."

"Xander, the basement isn't a dump. It-it's more like a really nice hovel."

"No. *The* dump. The city dump. I got hit last night, fell down boom and
woke up this morning."

"Nuh-uh!" Willow shook her head. "We walked you home last night, remember?"

"You walked? Will, did I do anything weird? Did I wave any shiny things
around?"

"Shiny things...what are you talking about?"

"Last night, that wasn't me. There's a double out there. Some...thing has
stolen my face and it's going around pretending to be me, and it's
hypnotizing people. It even got to Buffy and Giles. It's over there right
now and they have no idea."

"It's got Buffy? What are we waiting here for?"

***

Willow rushed to the magic shop while Xander went in search of Anya.
Surprisingly, he seemed to really care about the former demon.

"Our lived are weird," she muttered to herself as she pushed the door open.

"I swear, this time I *know* I had that locked," Giles muttered.

Willow immediately went to Buffy, not caring that the British man was
watching them, and wrapped her arms around the Slayer's waist.

"Buffy, Toth looks like Xander," she said, calming a little as she felt the
warm presence of her partner surround her.

"We already know. Uh, wait a second, how did you know?"

"He came to me. I-I mean, Xander did." Willow closed her eyes. "He looked
terrible. We need to help him."

"He came to us too," Buffy said, rubbing her hand along Willow's back.

"No, we each had a Xander. I mean...you didn't have a Xander, you had a-a
demon in a Xander suit."

"What makes you sure that yours is the right one?"

The witch pulled back a little. "He knew stuff. Buffy, it was Xander and he
needs our help."

"Oh, dear lord," Giles said from the counter where he was flicking through a
book.

"Our Xander seemed a little...forceful," Buffy mused, resuming her soothing
motions on Willow's back.

"That's not Xander," Willow said, resisting the urge to purr as the tension
melted out of her.

"I said 'dear lord'," Giles said testily.

"You always say that," protested Buffy.

"Well, it's always important."

"Um...is one of them a robot?" Willow asked.

"What? No. Uh, the rod-device, it's called a ferula-gemina. It splits one
person in half, distilling personality traits into two separate bodies. As
near as I can tell, Toth was attempting to split the Slayer into two
different entities."

He held out the book and Willow reluctantly disengaged from Buffy to take
it.

"Two Buffys?" the Slayer asked.

Giles nodded. "Yes. One with all the qualities inherent in Buffy Summers,
and the other with everything that belongs to the Slayer alone...the uh,
the-the strength, the, uh, speed, the heritage. And when it hit Xander, I
think it separated him into his strongest points and his weakest."

Buffy shook her head. "So...they're both Xander?"

"Yes. Neither one of them is evil. There's nothing in them that our Xander
doesn't already possess. The two halves can't exist without each other so
kill one part..."

"And we kill Xander," Willow concluded. "Applied to Buffy that would be a
neat plan."

"So what do we do?" Buffy asked.

"Stop them killing each other and then put them back together."

"Killing each other?"

"Yeah, Xander is...oh!"

They exchanged glances and rushed for the door, Giles following close on
their heels.

***

The hardest part turned out to be persuading Anya to let them put the
Xanders back. Buffy talked the two men into not killing each other, just in
time for Toth to attempt to kill her again. One sword through a demon later
and Xander had a dead demon and a cleaning bill. No one was hurt, although
the mental pictures Anya conjured were enough to give them all nightmares,
and the rain even stopped.

Buffy walked through the wet streets with Willow's hand clasped firmly in
hers. It was peaceful and right, walking like that, and she smiled inwardly.

"Watcha thinkin' about?" Willow asked sleepily.

Possibly the smile made it to her face, Buffy privately acknowledged.
"Stuff. How good this feels."

"Good. World-shattering thought isn't allowed tonight."

Silence for a while and then Buffy spoke again. "Does it feel weird to know
Xander has his own swanky place?"

"Completely."

"Glad I'm not the only one."

"Nope. Who would have thought it?"

"Yeah." Buffy thought for a while. "The dorm's all right, isn't it?"

"It's home."

"Yeah, it is." The Slayer held the door open for her partner. "Anything else
isn't important."

They made their way through the halls to their room in silence and Buffy
unlocked their door. "After you."

"Why thank you, kind lady," Willow said, grinning.

Buffy bowed elaborately and followed her in, planting a kiss on the witch's
lips as the door closed.

For a moment the corridor was silent and still. Then a shadowy figure
stepped around the corner. Her sea-green eyes were shadowed but she bravely
smiled at the happy couple's closed door as she unlocked the door to the
dorm next door and slipped inside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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