Xander sprawled into the lazy-boy and scooped up the remote. Then stopped, dropped his hand into his lap, closed his eyes and lolled his head back into cushy head-rest of the chair.
And for long seconds he did nothing but revel in the silence.
The girls were out. All of the girls were out. In fact, so were the guys. He felt a smile creep onto his face. No refereeing between super-teenagers going through puberty. No listening to Andrew comparing the merits of Kirk and Picard. No Giles. No Willow. No Buffy. No Dawn.
Just him and the quiet.
Ding-dong.
His eye snapped open even as the sound of the doorbell faded.
Damn it.
For a moment he debated just not answering it. Nope, no one here but us one-eyed vampire-fighting carpenters. You want the building down the street.
With a groan he heaved himself up out of the chair and stalked out of the den and down the hallway toward the front door, muttering all the way.
"You had to do it Xander. You know better than to even think about relaxation on a Hellmouth. It's one of the ultimate jinxes, in the category of "How could it get any worse?"
As soon as he realized what had just exited, he slapped a hand over his mouth.
Double damn.
With a sigh he reached the front door and, removing his hand from his mouth, took hold of the doorknob.
It had better not be the Jehovah's Witnesses again.
Drawing in a deep breath he opened the door and his mouth simultaneously. And froze in surprise as he saw the person standing in the afternoon sunshine.
"Hi," she said.
He blinked, his mouth still open.
She waited for a second and a smile appeared on her face as she said, "I hear you can catch flies like that."
His paralysis broke. "Sydney?"
Breaking into a smile he stepped forward and swept her into a hug. Feeling her flinch as he wrapped his arm around her, he jerked back, and caught the flicker of pain that crossed her face.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she made a little gesture. "I just hurt my arm." She stepped close and resumed his interrupted hug. "It's good to see you."
He was much more careful this time, avoiding her arm. "You to." He drew her inside saying, "What are you doing here?"
She shrugged. "I was flying back from Europe and I... just wanted to see a friendly face."
"So you stopped over in Cleveland?" He chuckled. "It would have only been a few more hours for you to get home."
"Yeah, but everyone there is... involved."
Oh. He paused at that. It was one of those work related things. She seemed fragile, for an instant, as he stood there regarding her.
"Besides," she said, the moment passing. "I wanted to see you. It's been more than six months."
He smiled at her but that moment of vulnerability still held in his mind's eye. It stabbed at his heart.
Making a decision he hooked his elbow through hers and steered her toward the kitchen. "Well, welcome to Chez Harris! Here is the living room, where, nightly, you can witness life-or-death struggles for control of the TV remote and whether we get to watch Smallvile or Dawson's Creek re-runs. There is the dining hall, site of a holocaust involving the most dreaded weapon the world has ever known: Andrew's Mac and Cheese. And up those stairs, there, are the bedrooms of a multitude of giggling teenage girls. Fear it."
Xander-shaped-female-friend-cheering-up-mode-engaged. The master was at work.
Sydney had a amused-yet-bemused smile on her face as he made grandiose gestures and flourishes toward each of the rooms as he named them. "And here," he brought her to a halt in front of a door. "Is my second favorite room in the house." He bowed his head. "It requires a moment of silence in respect."
Out of the corner of his eye he caught her glancing at the closed wooden door and then at him.
Was he laying it on too thick?
Nah.
His head came back up. "You hungry?" he asked, his tone perfectly normal again.
Her stomach gave a little grumble before she could open her mouth. They both looked down at it.
He shook a finger at it, "I wasn't asking you, I was asking her. Behave."
That got a laugh out of her.
"Yes," she said, the laugh still in her voice. "I could definitely munch on something."
Grinning widely, he said, "Excellent! We have hordes of munchies."
He pushed to door open and pulled her through. "Welcome to the kitchen."
Settling her at the small wooden table that served as a place for the old Scoobies to sometimes escape the "screaming hordes" during meals he stepped toward the massive refrigerator, asking, "What would you like to drink?"
"What do you have?"
He opened the fridge and crouched to look in. "Hum. Pepsi, Coke, Sprite, orange juice, unidentifiable green stuff, water, tea, and... eewww. What is that?"
"I'll pass on the unidentifiable and the eewww. What kinds of teas do you have?"
A laugh escaped him and he said, "In this house there lives a British man who has spent the last eight years in America. What kind of tea don't we have?"
"Something herbal. No caffeine. That wouldn't be good right now."
He paused that that last comment and then said, "Right, coming up." It took just a second to turn on the electric kettle.
As he began rummaging through the cupboards he kept an eye on her. A harder thing than it used to be. Having one eye sorta sucked at times. Oh, wait, it sucked at all times.
She'd taken her eyes off him and was looking around the room seeming to just soak in the ambiance. Good. Hopefully it would get her to relax enough that he could pry out of her whatever was wrong. Unless it was classified. She had said she worked for the State Department but he really didn't buy that. And he knew she knew he knew. He was willing to bet that she did work for the government, though. Thus classified could be a issue.
Yes, there it was: an infinitesimal relaxing in her shoulders and her head had drifted back to rest against the wall.
Excellent. It was all falling into place.
God. He was watching way too many Simpsons episodes.
And where was the herbal tea?
Ah. There. "I think Giles is addicted to caffeine. That's okay, here's Willow's stash. We'll just have to avoid drinking any of her spell components."
Sydney's eyes, which had begun to drift halfway closed, opened wide and her head came up off the wooden wall paneling behind her. "Spell components?"
He filled two tea balls and dropped them into a mug each and poured the water in. "Yeah, Willow's a Wiccan."
There was a moment of silence then, "Right. I almost forgot, you life's even weider than mine." He set the mugs on the table, one in front of her. "It wasn't labeled, but Willow doesn't keep anything dangerous in the kitchen."
"So I'm not going to tun into a frog if drink it?"
As he went back to the cupboards he threw a grin back at her. "Nah. But if you do I'll know not to drink it"
She raised the mug to take a sip saying, "Comforting."
He pulled out some crackers an retrieved so cheese from the fridge. When he turned back he saw she was staring down into her mug.
Uh-oh. "Bad taste?"
She looked up at him. "No. No, it tastes fine." She looked to be fighting a smile. "You don't know what this is?"
He settled in to the chair across the table from her and placed the cheese and crackers on the table. "Nooo."
"Fenugreek."
Yup. She was definitely fighting a smile. "And that would be?"
"It's used to strengthen the constitution." She lost her battle and began to grin. "And is often considered to be an aphrodisiac."
His mug froze in its journey to his mouth. Oh, God. Kill me now.
Sydney started laughing.
Her laughing was good. Though he could have done without the embarrassment factor.
Wait. "You know this how?"
She shook her head an impish look in her eyes, "Not telling."
As her mirth calmed he asked, "Do you want me to find you something else?"
"No, thanks this tastes just fine." The grin broke out again. "It'll be difficult but I think I can manage to keep my hands off of you."
"Impossible, I'm irresistible."
She just chuckled and reached for the crackers.
A minute passed in companionable silence and he wondered how to get her to talk about what was bothering her.
She paused suddenly and asked, "You said this is your second favorite room. What's the first?"
He swallowed his mouthfull before answering, "The bedroom."
Sydney's eyebrows climbed.
"You know, sleep." He paused before taking another sip. "Get your mind out of the gutter, girl."
He thought he saw a slight blush.
Yes! One point scored back from what shall henceforth be known as the tea incident.