Grinning slightly at the warmth the woman half on top of him gave as he woke up, Xander tried to figure out how to get some breakfast together for them without moving out from under her. He began smiling even more as he realized that was the most important decision he would have to make that day. Gently stretching, he looked over the side of his bed for his slippers when he suddenly realized, he had no idea of where he was.
Granted, many of his things were present and accounted for, but he had never seen this room before in his life.
Slowly sitting up, the woman on him smiled, asking, "Sleep well honey?" Taking in the confused look on his face, she asked, "Xander? Are you Ok?"
"Who are you? Where am I?"
"It's me, Anya. We're in your apartment."
"Anya? Apartment? How can I have a apartment?"
Realization dawning, Anya quickly understands what has happened, "That spell, it's still affecting you."
"What spell?"
"Do you remember Willow? Or Buffy? Or Buffy's nighttime job?"
"Of course, why wouldn't I remember them?"
"A demon hit you with a spell a few weeks ago, an amnesia spell.
Willow managed to fix you up, but it keeps recurring, it does seem to be weakening though, last time you couldn't even remember Willow at all. Do you remember graduating high school?"
"I graduated? Wait, why are you here?"
"We're engaged."
"WE'RE WHAT?"
Standing up and making her way to the door, Anya reassures him, "It's alright, let me just call Willow, she can fix this."
"I was dating Cordelia…"
"That's how we met, through Cordelia."
Reaching the phone in the kitchen, Anya quickly dials the witch's number. "Willow, it's me, it happened again. He remembers dating Cordelia…No, I told him he was hit by a demon's spell. Ok, you'll be here in ten minutes, great." She stares at the phone angrily for a moment before hanging it up, and then pours two glasses of orange juice from the refrigerator.
As she walks back into the bedroom with them, she hears Xander on the phone, "Operator, I'd like the phone number for a Cordelia Chase."
Eyes widening, she rushes back into the room. "Xander, I have Cordelia's number right here, we're supposed to meet her for lunch later."
Hanging up the phone, Xander begin pacing around the room, "I feel like I'm remembering things, only not. This is really weird."
"It's Ok, you just watch some TV until Willow gets here. She said I shouldn't try to make you remember anything on my own, it could backfire or something."
"Ok." After staring at each other for several more seconds, Xander follows her advice and sits in front of his TV until Willow arrives. Anya barely manages to open the door when Willow rushes past her, "Hi Xander."
"Oh my god, Willow, you cut your hair."
"Yeah, well, you'll remember that in no time, why don't you go lie down on your bed while I get some of these ingredients mixed." Willow states, holding up a small bag.
"No problem." Xander calls as he walks into his bedroom.
As soon as he is out of hearing, Willow turns and whispers to Anya, "Does he have to work today?"
"No, it's his day off."
"Good."
While Willow is in the bedroom with Xander, Anya busies herself with a small, monthly habit she has formed, in the nearly three years she has dated Xander, ripping strips of paper out of a magazine.
Each time she hears Willow cry out in ecstasy, she tears a strip.
Each time she hears the headboard slam into the wall, another shred is torn. It is the only thing preventing her from grabbing one of the kitchen knives. She has seen enough daytime television that she feels for sure she wouldn't go to prison, she just isn't sure if she could surprise Willow enough before magic tipped the scales out of her favor.
With one final shout, Willow has apparently finished with Xander, and a couple minutes later she walks out of the room, "He'll wake up in about an hour." Stumbling as she walks, Willow adds, "Wow Anya, you're really training him well." Not a compliment any woman wants to hear, but Anya barely glances up, Willow has spoken those same words to her every month for three years.
"I have your check ready. By the way, I have an offer."
"Oh, what?"
"You charge $500 each month to do the spell, that's $6000 per year. Over the next forty years that would be $240,000. What if I paid you $500,000 the next time he starts to remember things, and you make the spell last forty years. You're powerful enough to do it."
"Hmm. No. The money isn't all that important to me, and I really like my monthly session with Xander."
"This isn't fair."
"Fair, how can you talk about fair. Maybe if a certain demon hadn't just granted Cordelia a wish instead of telling her Xander was under magical influence like the demon was supposed to…"
Royally pissed, but trying her best to hide it, Anya demands, "Fine, fine. But what if he snaps out of it and your unavailable? He gets his memory back faster than normal sometimes."
"Well, he really is in love with Cordelia, it's enough to break through the spell completely in some cases. You'd just better hope that doesn't happen."
"If I get caught, you get caught."
Willow answers, "Is that a threat? All I have to do is get Buffy and Cordelia on the phone and say…" Making herself sound as grief stricken as possible, Willow says in a choked up voice, "Oh god Buffy, she made me do it, she said she would come after me if I didn't. What do I do? I think she's after me right now, oh I'm so sorry, boo hoo hahaha." Laughing loudly now, she manages to calm down and finish talking to Anya, "As long as I can keep from laughing out loud, I'm free and clear, no one would believe you. And I keep getting Xander whenever I want him. You on the other hand, Buffy probably won't hurt you because you're human, but Cordelia will take a bat and beat your head in, and I mean right the fuck in."
Standing up and straightening her clothes, Willow says over her shoulder as she walks out, "Oh, next time I might 'convince' Tara to come along too, so I might be more than ten minutes getting here, so you'd better call me the instant you know he's breaking through the spell."
Sighing angrily, Anya doesn't even bother answering, Willow has already dismissed her from her thoughts. Looking around the kitchen, she thinks, 'It's worth it, it's just like another business expenditure, it's worth it…' as she begins preparing a large breakfast for herself and her fiancé.