Willow looked up, her eyes darkened in confusion. "Pardon?"

"Monkeys." Xander nodded. "We never have had to fight monkeys."

"They tend not to be evil." She continued looking at him oddly. "Most magical uses for monkeys are for…bits of them, making them less dangerous as a whole and more dangerous as, well, bits."

"I'm just thinking that it would provide some amply needed comic relief if just once Giles could say something like 'Oh dear, we're going to have to fight the monkeys.' That's all."

"Well, there is a possibility of the Monkees being possessed by demon spirits and touring, gathering aging groupies to do their evil work."

"See?" Xander leaned back in his chair and nodded in satisfaction. "It's all about the monkeys."

"Monks weren't close enough?" His face shut down and Willow sighed. "Sorry."

"Eh." He shrugged and got to his feet, the chair landing on the floor with a thump. "Nothing to apologize for."

She watched him walk toward the door, uncertain of how to stop him, certain that she needed to. "Xander?"

"What?"

"Come here."

"I've got things to do, Will."

"Yeah, but they'll wait for a minute, won't they?"

He sighed, his shoulders rising then sagging, turning slowly. He walked up to her, obviously reluctant, waiting for the apology or lecture she was sure to offer. "Yeah?"

She turned her book and held it up to him. There was a picture of a baboon, it's face stretched in a hideous smile. "I found you a monkey."

Xander looked at it for a long moment then shook his head. "That thing creeps me the fuck out. Maybe fighting monkeys wouldn't be so cool." He grinned at her, the curl of his lips made lopsided by the dark patch that still covered where his eye had been. "Thanks, Will."

"You're welcome." She closed the book and set it on the table, getting out of her chair and sliding on top of it as well, swinging her legs as she looked at her best friend. "He's the demon monkey god of the Zalubusha tribe. They're not likely to come to Illinois."

"Small consolations, huh?"

"Yeah." She nodded and looked at the floor. "It's strange."

"What?"

"That there's just the two of us now."

He didn't look over at her, preferring to cast his gaze to the darkened window. Hanging from the sill were four small crosses. One for Giles, one for Buffy, one for Dawn, one for Faith. Others had died. None of them had mattered. "We started out as two."

"True." She picked at a piece of lint that clung to her skirt. "It's just…what are the odds that the two of us…"

"The normal ones?"

"Are we normal?"

"Normaler?"

She chuckled softly. "You're going to leave again, aren't you?"

"I was thinking about it."

"I worry when you leave."

"But then you showed me a monkey, which was really what I think I was looking for, and made me realize I don't want to find one unless it's safely ensconced behind some iron bars or something."

"I'm always afraid you're not coming back."

"So I thought I'd stay."

"I sit here, petrified, because I don't know what to do without you."

"And there aren't any more Slayers out there, so it's useless."

"I don't know what I'd do if you didn't come home."

"Besides, this is home as much as anywhere, isn't it?" He looked at her, giving her a smile. "You're my Willow."

"Yeah, well, someone has to be."

"True as well." He walked closer to her, his hands guiding her skirt up her legs as he moved between them. "You know what I think is odd?"

"Besides us surviving?" She managed the words, though her breath caught dangerously.

"The fact that I haven't managed to stop wanting you."

"You don't want me," she reminded him. "You're lonely and your scared and you're afraid."

"There are other women for those things, Willow. You're the only one I ever…"

"Don't lie to me, Xander."

He nodded, bending his head to press a warm kiss to her forehead. "You're not still harboring those illusions of lesbianism, are you?"

"I thought we'd discussed this."

"So you're a lesbian," he nodded, snaking his hand down her thigh to press against the wetness that dampened her panties. "And not at all excited by the fact that I'm going to fuck you?"

"You're going to fuck me?"

"No," he shook his head, agreeing with her skepticism as he licked her lips, parting them. "I'm going to make love to you until you beg me to fuck you. Then I'm going to fuck you."

"Oh."

"Yeah," he kissed her, sucking on the smooth curl of her tongue. "Oh." His fingers slipped beneath the saturated fabric, parting her damp flesh. She moaned into his mouth as he found her clit, teasing it lightly with the pad of his thumb. "I feel that I should admit that the whole lesbian thing was a complete turn on."

"For you and every other guy on the planet."

"I didn't need to know that about Giles, Will. Thanks." He kissed her again lightly, playfully, even as his fingers slipped inside her, his thumb still moving in lazy circles. "Or Andrew, for that matter."

"Ew." She bit his lower lip, her hands sliding over his chest, rubbing the hard tips of his nipples through his worn t-shirt. "You're not so good with the dirty talk, you know?"

"Hey," he reminded her as he pulled back, tugging the shirt over his head and dropping it on the floor before reaching under her skirt to pull her panties down her legs. "I'll remind you of the 'fuck you' line, which you liked quite a bit, as I recall." He pushed her skirt up and let his gaze drift down to the dark red thatch of hair between her legs. "My dirty talk is legendary."

"Your dirty talk is something like babbling," she let her fingers trail over his chest and then down to his belt. "And not even really dirty babbling."

He grabbed her hands and pinned her down on the table, his body pressed hard against hers. "Would you rather I told you that I want to slide my tongue inside you and taste you? That I want to thrust inside you until you come all around my fingers and then all around my cock until we break this table?"

"That's…yeah, that's better."

He released one of her hands and reached down, unzipping his jeans and pushing the material down his thighs. She gasped as his skin brushed hers as he moved closer, his hand guiding his cock against her, pressing against her. "Are you going to take back what you said about my dirty talk?"

She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him closer, the quick thrust parting her flesh as he slid inside her. They both gasped and froze, then melted into a heated thrust. Xander released her wrist and rested his elbows on either side of her, his body against hers. "I think I'll reserve judgment until I see if you can put your money where your mouth is."

"My mouth," he whispered against hers, "isn't what you want to be concentrating on." He framed her face with his hands, stroking back her hair. "I love you, Wills."

She touched his face and smiled, closing her eyes as he feathered her with soft kisses. "I bet you say that to all the girls."

"Only the ones I'm attempting to lure back from the brink of lesbianism."

"And how's that working for you?"

He thrust forward, his head falling back as he felt her gasp, felt her contract around him, heat flooding him. "So far so good." He continued moving, bathing his cock in the liquid warmth of her orgasm. "Of course I'm a stickler for perfection."

"Oh yes. I've always recognized that about you."

"So I might want to keep practicing." He stilled, his muscles tightening as he came, his hips hard and tight against hers.

"The sex? Or the dirty talk?"

He kissed her softly. "Does it matter?"

"Will it keep you here?"

"I don't know. Do you promise not to show me that picture of the monkey again?"

"I can do that."

"Every night?"

She nodded and smiled. "If that's what it takes." She followed his gaze as he glanced at the crosses in the window. "What do you think they'd think?"

"That it's about time. Except for Giles."

"Really?"

Xander glanced down at the table beneath them. "Giles would be screaming at us for having sex on his books."

"Whoops." Willow blushed and bit her lower lip to keep from smiling.

Xander rocked his hips forward. "Does 'whoops' mean stop?"

Willow caught the back of his neck in her hands. "No."