"I might as well get up and see what pleasures the Hellmouth has in store for me today," he grumbled as he stumbled out of bed and got ready for the day.

Xander had been completely miserable lately. Night and day, one thought alone plagued his mind: Willow. He just couldn't get her out of his mind. Every waking moment was spent thinking of her. He saw her everywhere he went, heard her sweet voice in the passing breeze. It took him awhile to realize why he could think of nothing but his life-long best friend. The reason should have been obvious to him, but this was Xander Harris, after all. He's never been notorious for noticing the blatantly obvious.

Xander had a bad case of Willow on the brain because he loved her and he missed her. Not only did he love her, he was in love with her.

They had been best friends since before they could even remember, the brainy but shy redhead and the aloof but lovable goofball, but lately their friendship had been more than a little strained. Things had been noticably different between them ever since they had each become part of a couple, but after the "fluke" at Homecoming things had been especially weird between them.

Now, it wasn't that Xander was miserable because all he could think about was Willow. In fact, he actually enjoyed thinking about her. The fact that he loved and wanted, but couldn't have her was killing Xander inside.

"She's with Oz now, Harris. She chose him, not you. She loves him, not you. You're so friggin' thick-headed and stupid that you missed your chance with her...you missed your one chance at true happiness in your sad little existence. Accept it and move on," Xander angrily told himself as he glared at his own reflection in the mirror, hating himself for being so blind, so oblivious. He just knew that he had really messed things up for good this time. Little did he know how very far from the truth he was.

"Why do things have to be so complicated? Why do things have to change? And what spaz ever said that change was good?" Willow grumbled to herself.

Willow hadn't exactly been her usual sunny self lately. On the outside she looked fine, happy even, but inside she was a complete and utter mess. Ever since the "fluke" she had beenwaging a fierce war, only this time it wasn't against a vampire or any other Hellbeast. This war was against her own heart- the heart that was making her feel exactly the opposite of what her brain was telling her to do.

"God, why can't I ever want what I have and what's good for me?" Willow almost desperately begged an answer from any god that would listen.

See, the thing was that Willow was in love. Sounds great, but she wasn't in love with Oz, her loyal and devoted boyfriend. She was head-over-heels in love with someone who didn't reciprocate her undying affection and, she thought, never would.

With her best and most determined resolve face on, Willow turned to her mirror and said, "Xander doesn't love you, Rosenberg. He never has and he never will...no matter how many times you do his homework for him or let him crash in your guest room. You're his best friend and nothing more. The fluke was just that- a fluke, a big accident caused by a gigantic cosmic disalignment that sent everything into wiggy mode. Accept it and move on." Little did she know how very far from the truth she was.

Xander quickly bacame aware that the voice that broke into his thick fog of thought belonged to Buffy.

"Huh? Oh. What? I wasn't doing anything," Xander spit out as tried to recover from his mission to space.

"Yeah...ok, Xand. Penny for your thoughts?" the concerned Slayer asked as she tried to figure out the Xander-shaped puzzle that sat before her.

"Hmmm...what? Thoughts? What thoughts? Nope, no thoughts here. I am totally void of thoughts," he babbled on. "Everything's A-OK here in Xander Land." ["Xander Land?! What the hell was that?!" he thought to himself.]

Buffy wisely decided not to push the issue...it would only lead to more senseless yammering. Anyway, she already had a pretty good idea of what was causing Xander to be quite the space case today. ["He's been watching her all day. Why can't he just admit that he's in love with her? Ugh, men," she thought to herself.] She smiled and had to stifle a laugh as Xander resumed gazing at their best friend. [Doesn't he realize how obvious he's being? He's practically drooling...he probably doesn't even care. Still, he could at least pretend to be reading...nah, that would be a dead giveaway. The words Xander and reading aren't even in the same dictionary.] Buffy smiled at her joke. ["I made a funny," she mentally congratulated herself.]

As Buffy sat temporarily in her own little Buffyverse, Xander's chocolate-brown eyes lit up as he laid them on his one source of happiness and pain, all at the same time- Willow.

["God, she's just so beautiful. Her skin's so pure, so soft looking...I wish I could touch it. Her eyes are so bright and happy...I wish I could be the one to make them shine the way they do. Her lips are so pink, so kissable...I wish I could just take her and--NO!!! Stop it, man, stop torturing yourself. Just keep repeating these three words: NEVER GONNA HAPPEN," Xander told himself silently.] Ever since they had been caught kissing in the factory, Xander had been itching to grab Willow and kiss her like she was his. He was relieved and crushed all at once when Oz had taken Willow back. Xander kept telling himself over and over that Oz was good for her and he was the one she really wanted...and loved. Maybe one day he'd believe it if he kept telling himself that.

Buffy snapped out of her own thoughts when she noticed Xander abruptly look away from Willow as if he had been caught in the act. Then she noticed that the happy look he had in his eyes as he watched Willow quickly faded into extreme melancholy as his gaze drifted away from her. It hurt Buffy to see one of her best friends in so much pain, but she knew there was only one solution to his problem. She leaned over to Xander and whispered that solution in his ear:

"Tell her. It's the only way, Xander."

["Just keep your eyes in the book, Willow. If you don't look at him then you won't think about him. Yeah, good plan, very good. Out of sight, out of mind. Wait a second, I've been staring at the same page for 10 minutes now and I'm still thinking about him. This is hopeless."] Willow sighed out loud as she finished her depressing thoughts.

Her loud sigh caused Buffy to look over at Willow with concern. "Everything OK, Will?" Buffy softly asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Everything's great. Yep, couldn't be better. Just peachy. You- you might even go so far as to say that things are fine and dandy," Willow sputtered out. ["Peachy? Fine and dandy?! What the hell was that?!"] Willow mentally smacked herself.

"You sure, Will? You're looking kinda...distracted today. Did you know that you've been staring at that same page for about 15 minutes?"

"Oh...well, yeah, cuz it's so interesting that I wanna absorb every word...oh and then there's the fun factor. It's, like, waaay up there on the Richter Scale o' Fun," Will tried to explain.

"Um, Will? The book is written in Latin. Also, it's upside down. Doesn't that make it a little hard to understand?"

"Well, yeah, but, you know, people underestimate the value of old upside down Latin stuff...so you know, yeah..." Willow trailed off.

"Ok, Will, whatever. You just go on back to staring at your little book," Buffy said with a raised eyebrow. She was really worried about her best friend. The ultra-fake idiot grin Willow had plastered on her face wasn't doing much to reassure her that everything was ok.

["Keep smiling, keep smiling,"] Willow thought to herself. As soon as Buffy and her raised eyebrow looked away, Willow's cheese grin faded and her eyes drifted...right to Xander. ["It doesn't matter where I look. I'm gonna think about him anyway."] Will let her eyes rest on her true love, who was absentmindedly chewing on his bottom lip while staring off into space at something only he seemed to see. ["God, I love him...NO! You love Oz, Oz loves you. See how nicely that works out?:] But no matter how hard Willow tried to convince herself that Oz was the one she wanted, she couldn't lie to her heart. She had been in love with Xander since they were just kids. She had always wanted him to hold her and kiss her and love her the way she loved him. After having her heart broken by him over and over again, Willow accepted that it would never happen between them. When they shared those stolen kisses, she had renewed hope that Xander just might love her. It felt so right to be in his strong arms and to kiss his soft lips. She felt fireworks in her heart everytime their skin grazed against each other. But that was all just a fling- a fluke, an accident. ["If only I could tell him how I feel. But he would just laugh it off. I have to stop this. I was lucky that Oz took me back once. I can't risk losing him again."] The truth was that if she thought Xander really wanted to be with her she would never have gona back to Oz. It wasn't that she didn't care about Oz. She did, but not the way she cared about Xander. The passion and undying affection she felt for Xander just wasn't there for Oz. She would always care about Oz, but she could never truly love him if she harbored such strong feelings for Xander and she felt bad stringing him along.

Willow didn't notice that Buffy had been watching her intently the whole time she was lost in her thoughts. Buffy knew exactly what was bothering her best friend- the same thing that was bothering her other best friend. ["God, could I have two more dense friends? Can't they see how much they belong together? I swear, sometimes I just want to throttle them both. Ok, someone has to make a move to end this. It's got to be either Tweedle Dum or Tweedel Dummer, but who says I can't help them along?"] With that thought, Buffy leaned over to Willow and whispered the words she needed to hear: "Tell him. It's the only way Willow."