Title: Chemistry Fluke

Pairing: Willow/Xander sort of

Summary: Takes place sometime between Homecoming and Lover’s Walk (Btvs s3) Willow and Xander have fluke thoughts.

 

 

            Xander was sitting right next to her in Chemistry class. Why did he have to be so close? Okay, so they did have all of their classes together and he did sit next to her in every single one of them, but since the clothes fluke—well, Willow had found herself wishing she had a little more Xander free space.  Because when he’s this close, all I can think about is how much I want to kiss—no, no, no! You want to kiss Oz. You love Oz. Pez Witch!

 

            Willow looked down at her Chemistry book and focused on the periodic table. No one could think smooshy, flirty, wrong -so so- wrong, thoughts when they were concentrating on the periodic table, could they? She cast a quick glance up at Xander. Well, she’d meant it to be a quick glance. It had sort of turned into a long glance when she found Xander looking at her. No, it’s—it’s a Chemistry fluke! That’s what it is, Willow thought as she tore her eyes away from Xander’s and pinned her Chemistry book with a hard stare.

 

            “That’s quite a glare you’ve got going there, Will,” Buffy said as she slipped up beside them.

 

            “Oh! Oh, I-uhm-I was memorizing the periodic table.”

 

            Xander guffawed. “Didn’t you do that in second grade?”

 

            “Fourth,” Willow’s voice had that miserable, downtrodden, Angelus-killed-my-goldfish tone.

 

            Buffy frowned, but didn’t say anything to her friend until they’d gotten into the library. Xander had ducked out of school, claiming he’d return later with snacks.

 

            “Okay, Willow, what’s up?” Buffy asked as she slipped into a chair at the library table.

 

            Willow sighed and pouted. “Nothing.”

 

            “You’ve got something face.”

 

            Willow glanced up at her best friend, well, her best friend outside of Xander.  “It’s-I…” Willow stopped, unwilling to continue. She couldn’t tell Buffy about this. She just couldn’t.

 

            “Come on, Will. Slayer tenacity. What’s up? Something’s been bothering you since Homecoming,” Buffy prodded.

 

            It never had taken much for her to cave. Willow bent over, dropping her head to the table top. “Xander and I had a clothes fluke.”

 

            “A what?”

 

            “A clothes fluke. It’s-we were getting dressed for homecoming, you know trying to decide what to wear and stuff. I-Xander always helps me decide what to wear for big events, ever since the Science fair in first grade.  Anyway, he-we kissed.” The words tumbled out of Willow’s mouth in a rush.

 

            Buffy blinked hard and tried not to look shocked. “Okay, uhm—wow. That’s-that’s big. I mean-ever since I’ve known you, you were big with the wanting Xander kisses.”

 

            “Only not! I mean, not now—be-because Oz.”

 

            Buffy winced. “Yeah. So-uhm it was just one kiss, right?”

 

            Willow made a face and bit her bottom lip. “Yeah, but that’s not the point.”

 

            “Well, no ‘cause it’s wrong…that is the point, right?”

 

            Willow shook her head. “The point is every time I’m near Xander now, I want to kiss him! Or-or I want him to kiss me. Like today in Chemistry class, I wanted him to push me back on the Chemistry table and nibble at my earlobes.”

 

            “Oh.”

 

            “Don’t you-I mean-don’t you sometimes have thoughts like that about someone not Angel?” Willow asked.

 

            Buffy hedged, wanting to comfort her friend but not wanting to lie either. “Maybe…I mean if Angel and I weren’t so off again on again, no touchy, no feely…”

 

            Willow sighed. “Yeah... what am I gonna do, Buffy?”

 

*

 

            The truth be told, Xander needed a little Willow free time. He needed some time to get control of these wild, crazy thoughts going through his head.  He couldn’t be having thoughts about Willow like this. It was Willow, the girl who knew about his embarrassing bed wetting problem, well, the one he had had until he was eight. Willow knew about the crush he’d had on Daisy Duke. She knew about his massive, geeky Star Trek collection. She’d spent hours reading comic books aloud to him she had no interest in that summer he’d broken his arm. Jesse had been at summer camp, leaving Willow with entertaining Xander duty. She hadn’t complained once, not the entire summer. He couldn’t be having thoughts like this about Willow.

 

            “And yet,” Xander said to the emptiness of his room. He grinned like an idiot remembering that Willow had been his first kiss. Sure it had been in kindergarten, and it had been a little sandy since they’d both been playing in the sand box, but Willow had been his first kiss.

 

            Maybe this was right then, that he and Willow should be…”No!” He shouted to the ceiling, sitting upright. There was Cordy and well…Cordy. He loved Cordy, didn’t he? Of course he did and he loved kissing Cordy. So why was he thinking about kissing Willow of all people?

 

            “It’s a spell! We’ve been spelled!” He grumbled and flopped down on his bed. He would have liked to talk to a friend about this, a guy friend, but his guy friends consisted of Oz and… Oz. He could talk to Angel, he supposed, but he could imagine how that conversation would go. Dead Boy would let out a grunt or two while Xander rambled and felt like an idiot next to him.

 

            “And that would be different, how?” Xander mumbled to the ceiling.

 

            No, this was something Xander was just going to have to figure out… on his own. Fast.

 

*

 

            Talking to Buffy hadn’t helped, not really. It hadn’t helped Willow come up with one single solution to her problem. It had only established that she was a big old slut-a-rama for wanting to kiss another guy when she had a perfectly wonderful boyfriend she loved. After all, Buffy never wanted to kiss anyone but Angel.

 

            Willow sighed and threw herself down on her bed to stare at her still empty fish tank. She hadn’t had the heart to replace her fish after Angelus had killed them.

           

            “Stupid boys.”

 

            A year ago, Willow would have walked across live coals for Xander to be interested in her this way. It’d been that way ever since she could remember. The only time Xander had ever wanted her had been in kindergarten. They’d been playing in the sand box and she’d unearthed a storm trooper. She’d traded Xander a kiss for the action figure. It had been a little sandy, but it had been Willow’s first kiss.

 

            She sighed and turned over. Willow was just going to have to figure this out on her own, and quickly.