Title: Sweet Talk

Author: Jeanny

Spoilers: None - Takes Place in Season 4, after Fear, Itself

Rating: PG

Feedback: Yes, please! jeannygrrl@hotmail.com

Distribution: Please do. All I ask is that you give me credit and tell me where it's going, so I can visit.

Summary: Willow uses a tried and true method to get Xander to divulge a secret.

Disclaimer: All Buffy characters are not mine, and I don‘t make any money from them. I just like telling little stories about them.

****************************************

"So what were you doing in the photo booth in the first place?" Willow asked, munching on leftover Halloween candy. She was intentionally keeping the bowl out of Xander's reach. Something had happened to Buffy and Xander at the mall, something Willow knew almost nothing about. She hated being kept in the dark. Despite her best efforts, Buffy was uncharacteristically keeping mum on the subject. Xander was an easier nut to crack, however. She could tell by the longing looks he kept giving the bowl he was ready to cave in any moment now.

"Goofing around. Getting my picture taken, natch. They have the kind with goofy backgrounds. I was gonna pretend to be underwater." Willow smirked.

"Reliving past glory?" Xander threw up his hands in exasperation.

"Will, do you always have to bring up the swim team thing? Not really the moment of my life I want to relive on a regular basis." Willow seemed to give the question serious consideration.

"Did you wear a Speedo when you were on the swim team?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered, dragging the word out unhappily.

"Are you gonna ever wear a Speedo again?" she continued.

"Unlikely." Xander shuddered. She just looked at him, and he sighed. “Which is why you’re gonna keep bringing up the swim team thing,” he concluded.

Willow smiled dreamily, then shook her head, frowning. She couldn’t allow him to pull her off track.

"So as you were saying, you were in the photo booth, alone...Buffy entered the picture how?" Xander looked startled for a second, then began to laugh heartily. Willow raised an questioning eyebrow at him.

"Sorry, it’s just an unbelievably...right turn of phrase. ‘Buffy entered the picture.’” Xander continued to chuckle to himself as Willow moaned in exasperation.

“Don’t just sit there having your own private funny. Explain, Xander! Why was Buffy there?”

“Apparently she came for a shoe sale and found some Fyarl demons tearing up the food court instead."

"Poor Buffy. At least she came prepared to fight," Willow sighed sympathetically.

"So, big fight, one of them tosses her, she lands on top of me.”

“In the photo booth?”

“Right. As luck would have it, just as the camera started to click. You see? Buffy entered the picture.”

“But that’s nothing big...you’re leaving something out. What’s the big?” Xander tried to look away, but the smell of the candy was making his mouth water. Willow‘s scrutiny as well as what he had to confess made him turn red to his ears.

“The pictures came out looking like there was something else going on," Xander confessed in a mumble. It was as if he thought saying it rapidly and incoherently would somehow equate to not having said it at all. Willow looked confused for a second, then comprehension dawned. She sat back, trying to get the image right in her mind. Her slight blush mirrored Xander’s.

“Compromising position?”

“Oh yeah.”

"Ohhh. Has Anya seen these incriminating photos?" Willow asked, starting to giggle.

"Heck no! Kind of like all my parts as they are, thank you!" Willow started to laugh harder, then struggled to compose herself.

"Can I see them?" she asked almost seriously. Xander glared at her.

"I think not."

"I've got candy corn," Willow teased in a sing-song voice. Xander swallowed hard, then his hands, holding his index fingers in the form of a cross.

"Back, foul temptress! Buffy said to get rid of them." He had dropped his gaze, and Willow knew what he wasn‘t saying.

"But you haven't. Gotten rid of them," Willow accused. Xander hung his head, still blushing.

"Yet," he said weakly.

"Right," she smirked, unconvinced. He looked at her, now with a mischievious glint in his eyes. Now that he had made his confession, he felt like he deserved his reward, and he knew a way he was sure to get it.

"There is someone I might show them too,” he began casually, trying not to laugh at Willow‘s slight pout. “Larry. If he was still around. Cause if there‘s gonna be an announcement in the paper about me, I‘d rather it be..." Xander ducked the sudden candy corn shower.

“That announcement would be your obituary, Xander, once Buffy found out.”

“Yeah, I know. But thanks for the shower of sugary goodness!” Willow handed him the bowl, shaking her head in bemusement.

“Don’t mention it, Xan. But about the pictures...you‘re really sure-”

“Really, totally, absolutely sure. There’s not enough sugar on the planet to make me show you those pictures,” Xander said emphatically.

“What pictures, Xander?”

Xander and Willow both looked up guiltily at the Slayer. Judging from her expression, Buffy had already crossed Annoyed With Xander Avenue and was making a beeline for Kill Xander Street. Xander did the only thing a man in his position could.

“Candy, Buff? I think there’s still some chocolate left!”

***********