Addrilanne

E-mail: mellnger@bu.edu, p_meilinger@hotmail.com

Summary: A test of the bonds of love. Or something.

Category: Xander/Anya relationship, Xander/Willow and Xander/Buffy friendship.

Rating: PG-13, just to be safe. A bit of swearing, and full frontal nudity. Don't'cha wish it was illustrated?

Timeline: Fifth season somewhere.

Distribution: Anyone who's already got my stuff is welcome to this as well. If anyone else actually wants it, I'd be tickled pink to hear about it. This and all my stories can be found on my site at www.unfitforsociety.net/pete/fiction.html

Spoilers: None, I don't think. Definitely nothing major.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, and I'm not making money.

Dedication: To Vic, Jen, Meg and Dot.

******

Part One

*THUMP*

Buffy, Xander, Willow and Anya looked up at the ceiling of Willow's dorm room.

"It could've just been someone dropping a pile of books or something," Willow said. She didn't sound convinced.

"Nope." Xander shook his head. "I hate to say it, but that was definitely a body-thump, not a books-thump."

Buffy nodded as she stood up. "I think you're right. And I think it's really, really sad that we can tell the difference." She walked over and grabbed her backpack. "We'd better go take a look." She walked out into the hallway, followed by the others.

As Willow locked her door, Buffy asked, "Will, who lives above you?"

Willow thought for a moment. "Angie Driscoll and Linda something. Tara knows them better than I do. It figures she's out of town," she went on as the group started moving towards the stairwell. "Angie came to one of our Wicca meetings last week, actually. She was looking for a spell that would let her know if her boyfriend was cheating on her, and another spell to make him regret it if he was."

Everyone stopped and turned to look at Anya. She bristled under their scrutiny. "What?" she demanded. "I don't do that sort of thing anymore." Then she shrugged. "I suppose I might recognize whatever spell she cast. If it actually is a spell. Shouldn't we go check?" She started off towards the stairs again. After a moment, the others followed her.

When they got to Angie's room, the hallway was deserted. Buffy smiled in satisfaction. "Looks like we get to do this without witnesses." She tried the door. "Locked. So much for the easy way."

Xander's face split into a wide grin as he winked at Buffy. "Would you like me to take care of that for you, little lady?" he asked in his best condescending-male voice. "Just step on back and let Big Xand take a shot at it."

Buffy speared him with a withering glare. "Why don't I do it? Just to keep in practice."

Xander shrugged. "If you insist. Little lady," he added, just to make Buffy glare again.

"I insist," she said through gritted teeth as Anya laughed and Willow smiled. Buffy shook her head and turned to the door.

Her foot lashed out, crashing into the door and tearing it completely off its hinges. They watched as it dropped into the room.

Buffy turned to Xander. "Whoops. Must've been your Big Xand-ness that did it."

Xander nodded. "I'd say so, yeah," he agreed absently as he poked his head through the door. "Shit!" He darted inside, followed closely by Buffy.

There were two bodies on the floor, both female. One of them was a short, plump brunette. The other was taller and rail- thin, with a purple crewcut. When Anya and Willow came into the room, Xander and Buffy were kneeling beside the women, checking for pulses.

Buffy looked over at Xander. He took his hand away from the brunette's throat and nodded, and she looked up at the others. "They're alive. Strong pulse." She pried the girl's eyelid open with her thumb. "Pupils are pretty funky, though. I don't think they're going to be waking up anytime soon. These would be Linda and Angie?" She directed the question at Willow.

The redheaded witch nodded. "That's Angie," she said, pointing at the brunette. Her eyes moved to scan the room. "And that," she said, pointing again, "must be the spellbook they used." She crossed the room and picked the large, leather-bound tome up off the floor, flipping quickly through the pages.

Something on one of the beds caught her eye, causing her to lower the book. "I think these must be the ingredients," she said as she moved to examine the mixed pile of herbs and powders on the bedspread. "I can't tell what spell they were doing, but it doesn't look like they used anything unusual. Nightshade, heartsbane, powdered granite. I'd say some kind of love spell." She paused and picked through the powders. "And a guy's class ring with what looks like blood on it." She turned to Xander. "Does Angie have any cuts?"

Xander ran his eyes over Angie's body, then lifted her left hand to look more carefully. "Yeah. Her ring finger's bleeding a little bit. Hey, Will, move that stuff, will you? We'd better get these two onto the beds."

Willow lifted the bedspread by the corners and moved it down to the floor, taking care not to spill anything. As Buffy and Xander moved the unconscious roommates onto the beds, Buffy asked, "Will, what are the odds on figuring out what spell they cast?"

Willow shook her head. "I don't know. This whole book is full of love spells. I wish Tara was here. She's the one who talked to Angie last week. She might know where to start looking. As it is, it could take me a while to figure out what they were up to."

"Addrilanne. They called Addrilanne." Anya's voice was soft. The others looked at her, surprised. They'd forgotten about her in the emergency.

The former demon was standing in front of the closet. She'd opened the double doors to reveal a portal that seemed to be made of black glass. The reddish stone frame was covered in thousands of tiny runes. As the group watched, flickers of lightning danced around the frame, highlighting each rune in passing.

Xander was the first to speak. "Okay, I'm gonna assume that didn't come with the room. Who's Addrilanne, An?"

Anya turned to face the others. "She's a love... I guess goddess isn't the word."

"Is she a demon?"

Anya shook her head. "No. Definitely not. Well, maybe a little." When she saw the exasperated looks on her friend's faces, she sighed. "She's a special case. She used to be a human sorceress, about a thousand years ago. She specialized in emotion spells, especially love. She was obsessed with figuring out people's motivations when it came to love. Her big thing was to force people to look inside themselves and see the truth."

"Well, then how'd she become a demon, or a not-demon, or whatever she is?" Buffy waved her hand vaguely to convey her confusion.

Anya shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not sure anyone knows. I became a demon after I cursed Olaf, when D'Hoffryn showed up and offered me the job. Addrilanne never did anything like that. One day she was a normal sorceress, studying love. Then she disappeared. A century or so later, she showed up as... whatever she is now."

"Okay," Buffy asked patiently, "exactly what is she now? Or what does she do?"

"She tests the bonds of love. When someone like Angie here feels like their boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever doesn't really love them, they can call on Addrilanne to find out for sure."

"So where exactly does the coma part come in?" Xander asked, gesturing at the bodies on the bed.

"I have no idea," Anya said. "Normally, the portal appears behind a nearby doorway," she pointed at the door behind her, "and the caster steps through to find out the truth. It's all remarkably harmless, actually, except for the broken hearts when the truth isn't what you want to hear." She moved over to look down on the unconscious roommates. "I don't know what's different about this one."

"I do," Willow said. She was studying one of the pages in the spellbook. "I found Addrilanne. This spell isn't to help the caster learn the truth, it's to test the person the caster loves. And the penalty for failure is death."

"What?" Anya demanded, moving to read over Willow's shoulder. "Addrilanne doesn't do that. She's never hurt anyone before, at least not that I know of. I don't know why..." Her voice trailed off as she quickly read the spell. "Damn," she finally announced. "This isn't a normal summoning. It's a binding."

"That's not good," Willow muttered as she read through the spell again with a frown.

Buffy and Xander looked at each other. Xander shrugged. Buffy sighed and said, "Okay, for the benefit of those of us who aren't witches or ex-demons, why is that not good?"

"Hmm?" Willow asked, her attention drawn away from the book. "Oh," she said as she realized what Buffy had asked. She handed the book over to Anya and turned to face her friends.

"Well," she began, "a summoning is usually pretty simple. You call up whoever, the being you're trying to deal with, and basically ask them to show up and help you. Depending on what kind of spell you use and how powerful you are and the mood of the being you're summoning, it either appears or it doesn't. If it appears, you ask it to do what you want it to do."

"I'm assuming it doesn't go along out of the kindness of its heart?" Xander asked.

Willow shook her head. "Not usually, no. You almost always have to pay it in some way, sometimes with something simple like food, sometimes with something disgusting like a human sacrifice. If you summon it correctly and give it the right kind of offerings, it'll usually do what you want, if it can." She frowned. "That's a really simplified explanation, okay? I mean, with some beings, like demons, you can't trust them at all. They'll try to trick you any way they can and kill you. Other beings, like elementals, are dangerous but not evil. Others, like brownies or sprites, are supposedly pretty nice, though I've never seen one myself."

"I have," Anya broke in. She had moved over to examine the runes on the portal, but turned to face the others as she spoke. "We had a brownie in the village I used to live in. He was very friendly, as long as he got his milk every morning, and as long as you didn't try to pay him for his work. You don't see them very often anymore. They're almost extinct. It's a shame, they were great for doing chores. Real good singers, too." She went back to examining the runes.

"Right," Willow went on. "Most of the nice guys aren't around anymore. No one's sure why, really. There are a lot of theories, but we don't have time to go into them." She stopped, thinking. "Where was I?"

"Bindings," Xander prompted as he propped the broken door up in the frame. "There," he said to himself. "Ought to keep the riff-raff from wandering in, anyway."

"Bindings, right," Willow agreed. "Okay. A binding is pretty much the same as a summoning, but it forces the being to do whatever you want. No payment, and no choice in the matter. They're usually a lot harder to pull off than a summoning, and they can require some really nasty ingredients. This one," she said, gesturing towards the spellbook Anya held, "is pretty tame. In fact, I'm surprised it's a binding at all, considering the ingredients and ritual."

"Yes," Anya agreed as she turned away from the portal once again, "it is strange. I think I know what happened, though."

"What?" Buffy asked.

"It was D'Hoffryn. He's never liked Addrilanne. She takes away a fair bit of his business. You'd be surprised how many women end up cursing men who truly love them. With Addrilanne around, those women can find out the truth before they call on a vengeance demon. And a lot of times, even if Addrilanne tells them the guy doesn't love them, they just give up on him entirely instead of calling for vengeance. D'Hoffryn doesn't like that. He's the one who created this binding spell."

"How can you tell?" Willow asked curiously.

Anya turned to point at a short series of runes on the portal. "That's D'Hoffryn's work. His signature, I guess you'd call it. It definitely doesn't belong there, not on Addrilanne's portal."

"All right," Buffy announced. "So a harmless spell just got turned harmful. What do we do about it? How do we break Angie and Linda out of their comas?"

"I don't know that we can," Willow said.

"We probably can't," Anya stated flatly. "There's nothing in the ritual about the casters falling asleep. They must have made a mistake when they cast it. If the spell isn't completed, they'll probably die. And the spell won't be complete until Angie's boyfriend goes through the portal and gets tested."

"I'm thinking he won't want to do that," Xander said from where he stood by the broken doorway. "Although," he mused, "what if he does love her? Then he'd be safe, right?"

"Not necessarily," Anya said with a sigh. "The tests might be lethal even if he really loves her. That's the sort of thing D'Hoffryn would set up. And if no one takes the test, Angie and Linda will eventually die. As long as someone dies, D'Hoffryn will be happy."

"Nice boss you got there," Willow muttered.

Anya shrugged, and said, "Hey, you're the last one he offered the job to."

Willow glared at her, but had the grace to look embarrassed.

"What if," Buffy began with a speculative look on her face, "someone else took the test for Angie's boyfriend? I mean, does it have to be him who does it? Could I take it instead?"

"Ooh!" Willow squealed. "That could work. Let me see the book," she said to Anya, who passed it over. Flipping the page, Willow said, "Okay, here's the part about entering the portal. Aha!" She looked up triumphantly. "The ring is the key. The owner of the ring is the only one who can pass through the portal."

"Okay, Will," Xander said patiently, "I don't know much about jewelry, but I know that ring isn't Buffy's style."

They all turned to look at the class ring that lay on the bedspread with the rest of the spell's ingredients. It was definitely a man's ring.

"It shouldn't matter," Willow explained. "Owner can be a pretty vague term in this sort of spell. If Buffy wears the ring, she can probably enter the portal."

"Great!" the Slayer said as she bent down to pick up the ring. It was too big for her fingers, but she found that it fit fairly well on her thumb. "No time like the present, I guess. Anya, what am I likely to run into in there?"

Anya considered the question for a moment, then said, "Probably nothing you can't handle. D'Hoffryn's out for blood, but Addrilanne's in charge of the tests, and she never kills of her own volition. She has to make failure lethal because of the binding, but she'll make it as fair as the binding lets her. And since the spell is intended to test normal people, you should be able to handle it easily enough." She turned to Willow. "Does the book say anything about what exactly the test is?"

"Yeah," Willow answered after a second. "Here it is. It's actually three tests. One part tests the Body, one part tests the Mind, and the last part tests the Heart."

Buffy seemed nervous. "Okay, Body I'm not worried about. Mind is a bit scary, but I aced the SATs, right?" Willow and Xander nodded encouragingly, and she went on. "But what about the Heart part? I mean, I don't love Angie. Can I pass that?"

"I don't know," Anya said. "Like I said, Addrilanne isn't going to want to kill you, so maybe she can change the test so you can pass. Or maybe you can handle whatever she does if you don't pass."

"I'm not too crazy about those maybes, An," Xander said. His girlfriend could only nod her agreement.

"Me, neither," Buffy agreed. "Is there any way to break the spell without going through the portal? What if we got Giles and Tara in on it, too?"

Willow shook her head sadly. "According to this, the spell must be completed before midnight of the day it's cast. That only gives us a little more than an hour. We'd never get Giles and Tara home in time."

"Damn," Xander muttered. "Y'know, those two picked a really inconvenient weekend to run off to Vegas to get married by an Elvis impersonator."

"Xander!" Willow scolded. "For the thousandth time, they did NOT run off to get married. Giles went to Las Vegas to get some stuff for the shop at the big occult trade show, and Tara went with him to fill the orders from our Wicca group. Plus," she added with a giggle, "Tara's a big Tom Jones fan."

"Hey, who isn't?" Buffy asked with a smile. She sobered quickly. "Okay, we can't wait to try and break the spell. I guess I just go in loaded for bear and hope for the best, huh?" When no one disagreed, she crossed the room to where she'd dropped her backpack as she first entered. Rummaging through it, she withdrew a few stakes, a pistol-grip crossbow and several bolts, and a wickedly sharp machete.

"'Be Prepared,' that's the Slayer Scout motto." Xander was smiling, but his eyes were serious. "Be careful, Buff."

"Yeah, Buffy," Willow agreed, "don't get overconfident just because we think the tests won't be too bad."

"Good luck," Anya said.

"Thanks, guys," Buffy said quietly. "See you soon." Then she turned and walked purposefully into the portal.

And promptly bounced off.

******

Part Two

"Okay, that I did not expect," Xander admitted after a few seconds of stunned silence. He reached down to offer a hand to Buffy, who lay sprawled on the floor.

"Me, neither," Buffy said as she took his hand and drew herself to her feet. "What went wrong?"

Anya shook her head. "I have no idea."

"I don't, either," Willow said, then snapped her fingers. "Yes, I do! You're a girl!"

Buffy just looked at her. "Yes. Yes, I am, in fact, a girl. And?"

"No, that makes sense," Anya said. "Angie wanted her boyfriend to go through the portal. Maybe it has to be a guy."

All eyes turned to Xander.

"Ah, hell," he sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "I guess I'm up, huh?"

"No," Buffy said. "Absolutely not."

"I'm with her," Willow agreed.

"Not your call, ladies," Xander told them with a smile.

"He's right," Anya said. When Willow and Buffy turned to glare at her, she shrugged. "I don't like it any more than you do, but if someone doesn't go through the portal, Angie and Linda are probably going to die." She walked over to put her arms around Xander and lay her head on his shoulder.

"What she said," Xander agreed, giving Anya a squeeze. "I can't let that happen. And since Giles isn't here, I'm the only game in town."

"I don't like it," Willow said anxiously. "I mean, yeah, Anya says this Addrilanne won't make the tests too hard, but still..."

"You're good in a fight, Xander," Buffy put in, "but I'm not too crazy about this." She sighed. "But I'm betting I won't be able to change your mind, right?"

"'Fraid not, Buff."

"Fine. Just be careful. Like, super-duper careful. Okay?"

"Anything you say, boss. Super-Duper Careful Man, that's me," Xander assured her. "Now gimme the ring, and especially the implements of destruction."

Buffy handed over the ring and the weapons. Xander put the ring on his left hand and turned to Anya.

"Kiss for luck?" he asked.

She smiled faintly and drew his head down for a long, lingering kiss. "Just make sure you come back to me," she told him sternly.

"Always," he promised, then turned just in time to intercept Willow's charge into his arms. "Hey, you," he said, as he held her.

"Hey, you," she answered softly. "Be careful, Xander," she pleaded, as she fought back tears.

"I'll be careful, Will. For you."

Willow reluctantly let go of him, and Buffy stepped up to hug him. "Be careful for me, too, okay?"

"I will," he assured her. "Okay," he said, releasing Buffy and turning to face the portal. "I'm thinking it's now or never. See you in a few, guys."

He walked purposefully into the portal.

And promptly bounced off.

"Okay," Xander announced from the floor, "now I'm getting annoyed." He took Buffy's offered hand and let her pull him to his feet, then turned to Willow and Anya. "What the hell was that? I was all ready to be heroic and stuff, and - nada."

Anya shook her head in confusion. "I don't know. It should have worked. You've got the ring, and you're a guy. Those are the only criteria. At least, I thought they were."

"Nope," Willow informed the group, with a strange look on her face. "There would appear to be one more requirement that we overlooked."

"What is it, Will?" Buffy asked.

"Well, here's what the ritual says about the person who's going to get tested; 'Clothed only in their love for thee, they shall enter the portal and prove themselves. Nothing unliving shall they bring with them.'"

All eyes turned to Xander.

"Back up the truck, here," he demanded. "What?!"

"I guess it's a naked test," Anya said. "You know, like the time I dressed up like a school..."

"I remember," Xander cut her off quickly. Then he smiled and his eyes glazed over. After a moment, he shook his head and said, "But that's not the point. Naked?"

"I think so," Willow said with a smile. Then she frowned. "But what about the weapons? They're unliving, aren't they?"

"Damn, that's right," Buffy said with a frown of her own. "I'm not letting you go in there unarmed, Xand."

"We might not have a choice, Buff," he told her. "But maybe it only applies to clothes, not weapons or other stuff. It's worth a shot, right? Is there any way we can check?"

"Try sticking a stake through the portal," Anya suggested.

Xander stepped over to the portal and poked at it with the point of a stake. It skittered across the surface, but didn't penetrate.

"So much for that," he announced. "Wait, let me try something else." He very carefully pushed a finger into the glassy surface of the portal, then pulled it back. "Yeah," he said, "I definitely felt it going in. Looks like I can make the trip, but not my clothes or the weapons. Damn."

"Hold on," Buffy said. "Let me try. Maybe it's just my clothes that stopped me from going through, not the fact that I don't have cooties."

"Oh, that's rich, that is," Xander said with a glare as Buffy crossed over to the portal.

"You're just mad 'cause you didn't think of it first," Buffy teased.

"Well, yeah," Xander admitted. "What's the word?"

"The word is no," Buffy said, pressing her hand against the portal. "I'm not getting anywhere."

"Well," Xander said, "maybe you should take your clothes off and try. Just to be sure, you understand."

Buffy just looked at him.

"Worth a shot," he said with a grin.

"No, it wasn't," Buffy said.

"Nope," Willow agreed.

"Not really, no," Anya said.

"Man, tough room," Xander said with a sigh.

"Tough or not, you're just lucky it's not cold," Willow teased, "since you're going to be naked pretty soon." Xander grimaced, and she went on. "Naked, as in without clothing or ornamentation of any kind."

"I get it, Will," he said, shaking his head ruefully.

"What about the ring?" Buffy asked. "I thought he needed to wear the ring."

Willow nodded. "The ring was part of the ritual, so it should be okay."

"Well, is there any way we can do something to the weapons to make them okay?" the Slayer demanded.

"I don't think so," Willow answered, after looking over the spell once more. "Maybe if we had more time to research, but we have less than an hour."

"That's it, then," Buffy said. "You can't go in there unarmed, Xander."

He sighed. "I have to, Buffy. If I don't, Angie and Linda die. We can't let that happen."

"I know," Buffy said, torn. "There has to be something we can do, dammit."

"Trees!" Anya shouted.

All eyes turned to her.

Buffy was the first to react. "I think I speak for everyone present when I say 'Huh?'"

Anya was clearly excited. "Well, trees are alive, right? But they're slower than people or animals. So, if you chop one down..."

Willow cut her off. "It wouldn't actually die for at least a few minutes! It might be able to get through the portal."

"Now we're cooking with gas," Xander said, nodding. "Good thinking, An. Now, who wants to play Paul Bunyan?"

"That'd be me," Buffy said, taking the machete from him. "Do you want a club or a staff?"

"I'll go with a staff. Pointed, of course."

"But of course," Buffy agreed, walking to the door. Picking it up, she handed it to Xander. "I'll be back in a few minutes. And since we don't know how long we've got once I cut the tree down, I suggest you get yourself stripped down for action by the time I get back." She wiggled her eyebrows lasciviously and left.

Xander propped the door up again and turned to Willow and Anya. "Okay, Will," he said, "if I've got to be naked, you've got to be elsewhere."

"I don't see that happening," Willow told him with a twinkle in her eye. "I should be here, in case something bad happens."

Xander opened his mouth to protest, but Anya spoke first. "She's right, Xander. Take off your clothes."

"What?!" he demanded, turning to his girlfriend.

Anya shrugged. "She's the witch. She's our best chance to get you out of there if something goes wrong."

"But..." Xander began.

"Come on, Xander," Anya cut him off. "It's not like you have anything to be ashamed of." Turning to Willow, she smiled widely and said, "He really doesn't, you know. He's about..."

"An!" Xander yelled. "Ix-nay on the ize-say!"

Willow giggled, and Anya shrugged again. "It's not like she won't see for herself in a minute. Now come on. Off with 'em!" When Xander didn't move, she walked over towards him. "Do you need some help?" she asked.

Xander sighed. "Normally, you know my answer would be yes. Under the circumstances, though, I think that's a bad idea." He chuckled softly and turned to Willow. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you set this up."

Willow's face took on an expression of injured innocence. Xander ignored it as he started to take off his shirt. Tossing it to the floor, he started to bend down to take off his boots, then straightened and looked at Willow suspiciously.

"You didn't set this up, right?"

"I'm shocked!" Willow cried. "Shocked and appalled that you would even suggest such a thing! Plus," she admitted, "I could never come up with something this devious."

"That's true," Xander agreed, and bent to get his boots and socks off.

"I could," Anya said proudly.

"That's also true," Xander agreed as he straightened up and kicked the boots and socks to the corner of the room. "But you don't have to be this devious. You can see me naked whenever you want."

"Yeah," she said, beaming. "I can. You too, of course. You can see me naked whenever you want."

"I know, hon," Xander assured her, unbuttoning his jeans. He paused, and turned to Willow. "Hey, Will, just to be fair, you understand..."

"No!" Willow cut him off, smirking.

"Hey," Xander protested, "you don't even know what I was going to say!"

"Xander," the witch told him, "Buffy and I are not going to take our clothes off to make us even."

"Okay," Xander admitted with a sigh, "you did know what I was going to say.

"Yeah," Willow mocked, "like that was hard to figure out. Now quit stalling!"

"Yes, ma'am," Xander grumbled, and dropped his jeans to the floor.

Standing there clad only in his boxer shorts, Xander blushed. "Will, could you at least turn the other way or something?"

Willow considered the question. "No," she said, shaking her head.

Xander turned pleading eyes to Anya.

"What are you looking at me for?" his girlfriend asked. "Let her stare, that's what I say. Now get the boxers off."

"Can't I wait for Buffy to get back?"

"I'm back!" Buffy announced, moving carefully through the broken doorway. "What'd I miss?" she demanded. Seeing Xander still partially dressed, she said, "Oh, good, just the previews. I'm in time for our feature presentation."

She tossed a six foot staff to Xander. He caught and hefted it, testing the balance. Then he ran his thumb over one end, testing the point Buffy had carved.

"Not bad," he said. "Not bad at all. Where'd you find the tree?"

"Right outside the front door," Buffy answered. "You'd think those people had never seen a woman chop down a sapling with a machete before."

"Such sheltered lives college students lead," Willow commiserated.

"Yeah," Buffy agreed, then turned to Xander. "Chop, chop! Time's a-wastin', boy. Off with 'em."

"You know," Xander mused, "I never thought I'd say this to the three girls I love most in the world, but women are pigs."

"Oink, oink," all three women said simultaneously.

Xander sighed and gave in to the inevitable. "Fine," he said, handing the staff to Anya. "But keep your eyes above the waist, dammit," he added, hooking his thumbs in the waistband of his boxers and dropping them to the floor.

No one said a word as he stepped out of them and took the staff back from Anya.

He turned to glare at Buffy and Willow. "What, no comments?" he asked acidly, then pointed to his face. "Hey! Eyes up here!"

Buffy and Willow blushed furiously and their gazes immediately shot up to meet Xander's. He laughed and shook his head. "Oink, oink is right," he said, reaching to take the staff from Anya.

She didn't let go of it as he pulled at it, and ended up in his arms. "Be careful," she whispered, kissing him.

"I will," Xander promised her.

"Good luck," Buffy said, still blushing.

"Yeah," Willow agreed softly. "Good luck."

"Thanks, guys," Xander said. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Then he turned and walked purposefully in the portal.

And promptly disappeared into its inky depths.

Anya, Buffy and Willow stood and stared at the portal for several minutes. Finally, Buffy raised a timid hand.

Anya turned to her. "Yes, Buffy?"

"Um," Buffy began, "are we allowed to say wow?"

Anya smiled. "You most certainly are."

Buffy nodded absently, her eyes still on the portal. "Then, wow."

"Ditto," Willow agreed faintly.

"Big Xand is right..." Buffy said.

"Uh-huh," Willow agreed.

"Damn right," Anya said with a smug smile. Then she frowned and crossed her arms to hug herself. "I hope he's okay."

Buffy and Willow broke out of their stupor. "He will be," Buffy assured her.

"Yeah," Willow agreed, trying to appear more confident than she felt. "He's gotten out of worse jams than this."

"Really?" Anya asked. When Willow nodded, she went on. "Name one?"

Willow opened her mouth, then closed it and turned to Buffy.

Buffy shrugged. "He'll be okay," she said, so softly that even she could barely hear it.

To be continued....