Xander Harris leaned back against the stone wall, and
closed his eyes.
Nearby he heard the clatter of tools, and the gruff
voices of the men he
worked with. It wasn't unusual, not for his job, or
this time of day.

He made a habit of taking his lunch a little later
than most. That was just
happenstance. Due to the fact that if he was working,
he sometimes forgot to
stop and eat unless there was a break in whatever he
was doing. And partly
by choice. He wasn't much for company these days.

The past couple of years had caused an odd,
estrangement between him and the
other Scoobies. At first it had made him depressed,
and lonely. Even having
Anya there wasn't much help. She was nice, sort of.
But she didn't seem to
care about much, aside from having lots and lots of
orgasms. Not that that
was a bad thing; for a while at least. But it just
wasn't enough. He wanted
friendship, companionship, someone who actually
understood his jokes and
found them funny, or at the very least knew why they
weren't.

Anya had never really understood that not everything
revolved around sex.
And she never understood the relationship he had, with
his friends. She'd
thought he should have forgotten about them, moved on,
or whatever normal
people did.

But he didn't, he couldn't, and to be honest, he
wasn't exactly normal. He
hadn't been for several years. Not since Buffy had
come, and Jesse had died.

Things were strained with his friends. Buffy and
Willow were doing their
college thing, but that was okay. They deserved
whatever normality they
could find. Then Buffy met Riley, and Willow met Tara
and there was the
Initiative, and they just didn't have time for him.

That too was okay, mostly. What hurt most was that
Willow couldn't tell him
about Tara. He wasn't surprised about Willow's new
relationship. Well, at
least not really. He saw the signs, he saw the sparks
between them, and he
knew how Willow was when she met someone new. So
despite his initial
reaction, when he heard Tara was Willow's girlfriend,
during that fight at
Giles, he wasn't *really* shocked. He was hurt though.
Hurt that his best
friend since the age of 'five' couldn't tell him about
her.

Him, of all people. Willow knew he wasn't the
straightest arrow in the pack,
but yet she felt she couldn't tell him. That hurt.
Then add to that Anya's
announcement that she was leaving Sunnydale.  It was
just too dangerous for
a mortal to hang around on the Hellmouth, she'd said.

It didn't really upset him too much. Truth be told, he
enjoyed the quiet. He
really did. Even though he'd patched things up with
Buffy and Willow, and
was now spending more time with them, he was still
mostly alone. Not because
he had been abandoned, but because he wanted it that
way.

"Harris!"

Xander opened his eyes and looked up. His boss was
waving at him from the
main trailer just a few yards away. So much for lunch.
That's okay, he
wasn't really hungry anyway.

Xander put his uneaten food away and stood up, walking
towards his boss.

"What's up?"

He followed his boss, Ray Milton, into the trailer,
wondering what was going
on. Ray had an odd look on his face. He was normally a
pretty relaxed guy,
but he was looking a little tense at that particular
moment.

Xander shut the trailer door behind him, and leaned
against the table.
Seating himself just to the left side of it.
"Something wrong?"

Ray walked around to the desk and sat down. "Wrong?
No, but I have a new
contract. I thought you might be interested. It's at
the university, so I
thought since you were familiar with that area..." Ray
trailed off and
looked at Xander.

Xander raised an eyebrow. "Is that why?" He asked
carefully.

He'd worked for Ray for over a year, and although
there were lots of guys
who had worked there longer, he was still considered
one of the best workers
on the site. It wasn't unusual for Ray to recommend
him for a new job, that
had happened frequently enough since he was hired on
permanently nine months
ago, but there  was something *off* about this
particular request.

Ray looked up from the paperwork on his desk and eyed
Xander carefully.
After a couple of seconds he sighed, and leaned back
in his chair. "This job
is slightly unusual."

"Unusual?" Xander asked, mimicking his boss' words.

"The work is on one of the fraternity houses at the
university."

Xander leaned forward, his interest piqued.

"There was some sort of *something* underneath the
building. Last year it
was cemented down. Why I don't have a clue, and
honestly I'm not sure I want
to know." Ray paused a second and then handed over a
piece of paper.
"They're tearing the building down tomorrow. They want
it rebuilt."

Xander looked over the paper. "Lowell House." He
whispered more to himself
than to the other man. He knew what it was the
cementing was trying to hide.
What he didn't know was why they were tearing down the
whole building, and
more importantly why *now*? Adam had been defeated
over a year ago.

"The university isn't very busy now that the semester
has ended. The
students who live there were relocated. The work will
begin next week. You
have fifteen weeks to finish it before classes start
up again. You
interested?"
 

"Yeah, I am." Xander answered without hesitation.

"Great, Harris. You're off until then."

Xander nodded and turned towards the door. He left
without another word.

His smart comments and jokes had died away shortly
after high school.

Things had changed. He had changed. Or more precisely,
he had ceased trying
to hide himself behind his humor. The humor itself was
still there, but he
didn't use it as a mask anymore. There didn't seem
much point to it now.

He only saw Buffy and Giles during Scooby meetings,
and they were more
interested in the current nasty than in any
insignificant thing in Xander
Harris' small, unimportant life. And Willow, she had
always seen beneath the
mask, and accepted him for who he was.

That was true friendship, and not something he was
likely to find in anyone
else, friend or lover. He hadn't dated much since Anya
had left. It had been
over a year, but with the exception of a few one night
stands with people
he'd never met before and not seen again, there had
been no one.

That was the way he liked it, mostly.

Sure it would be nice to find someone. Someone who was
interested in him,
would listen to him for a reason other than a humor
fix, and wouldn't go
screaming into the night at finding out what Xander
did in his off hours.
But he wasn't likely to find such a person.

Such was his life.

****

Xander walked into the Magic Box and slumped down into
a chair, beside the
main table. Looking around, he noticed that he was
alone in the shop, which
was sort of strange.

He had barely gotten in the door to his apartment when
he'd noticed the
blinking light on his answering machine, and listened
to the message from
Willow asking him to come by for a research session.
There was some new evil
brewing.

Xander was dead tired, but considering he wasn't due
back to work for over a
week, he figured he could skip the nap he'd been
planning on having. Willow
had sounded distracted on the phone and he wondered
what was going on.

He was curious, but not enough to get up and look
around for his missing
friends, so instead he slumped his head on the table
and closed his eyes. He
wasn't sure how long he sat there like that.

Eventually the front door to the magic shop opened,
causing the bell to
ring. Xander heard the sound of feet moving towards
him and another body
slumping into a chair across from him.

Xander lifted his head and then smiled slightly at the
girl staring at him
curiously.

"Rough morning?" She asked with a grin.

"Hey, half-pint. Where is everyone?" Xander asked,
sitting up straighter.

Dawn shrugged. "Buffy and Riley are at the house
moving his stuff in, Willow
and Tara stopped by Giles place to grab some books he
forgot. Not sure about
anyone else."

Xander didn't hear much after the first comment.
"Riley's moving in?" He
was certain he would have heard about that before. Of
course for that to
happen he probably would have actually been around to
talk to.

Dawn shrugged again. "Yeah, everyone at his place had
to move."

She didn't offer any more information, but since
Xander was already privy to
the future of Lowell House it wasn't really necessary.

Before he could comment further, Giles came walking
out of the back, his
nose in a dusty old book. It reminded Xander of the
old days, when they all
met up at the library of Sunnydale High School, doing
research and whatever
else the Hellmouth required of them. And then later,
after the school had
blown up, they met at Giles house for much the same
reason.

Now, it was the Magic Box where they had their
meetings. Different place,
but the activity was the same. So much stayed the
same, and yet, so much had
changed.

Their numbers had grown. In the beginning, their had
only been four of them.
Buffy, Giles, Willow and himself. Then, Cordelia and
Oz had joined the
group, and of course the intermittent appearances of
Angel.

Jenny Calendar had been a part of their group for a
short while.

But now, Cordelia and Angel were off in Los Angeles
doing their own evil
fighting thing, and Oz was off doing whatever it was
he was doing. Riley and
Tara had joined their little group, and Dawnie was now
old enough to do her
part to help fight the evil nasties that surrounded
them.

Things had changed, but the basic things were still
the same.

"Oh, Xander, Dawn, you're here, good." Giles'
distracted voice brought
Xander out of his musings.

"Hey, G-man, what's the what?" Xander asked with a
grin.

Giles glared slightly although it was more for show
than from actual
irritation. Riley and Buffy chose that moment to come
through the door
followed shortly by Willow and Tara.

As the group all took seats surrounding the circular
table, Giles began
explaining the most recent demon attacks and what he
knew about stopping
them.

Xander listened to everything Giles was saying, and as
he took it all in, he
let his mind wander. He knew what the watcher was
saying was important, but
something was bugging him, something he couldn't quite
place. It kept
nagging at him, like some extremely important thing he
had forgotten.

After a few hours of research, the group split up to
go on patrol. Riley and
Buffy went in one direction; Xander, Tara and Willow
went in another, while
Dawn stayed behind to help Giles research.

They found themselves near the campus, without a demon
or vampire in sight.
It was getting tiresome, and Willow finally used her
cell phone to call
Buffy and inform them of their lack of success. Buffy
reported the same and
suggested they all call it a night and meet up the
following day.

Xander was glad to be done with the evening, and
walked the girls to
Willow's parent's house, where they were currently
living since Willow's
parents were out of the country indefinitely.

He found himself walking back to the campus, curiosity
getting the better of
him. He walked directly to the building that was
scheduled to be torn down
the following day. Lowell House stood silent in the
night, empty of all its
previous residents.

It seemed a little on the ominous side, looming in the
darkness. Xander felt
a chill go down his spine.  This building was just an
ordinary building,
nothing evil, or Hellmouthy about it, really.

Except for the fact that it was here that the
Frankenstein reject was
created. Here that Spike was chipped, which despite
the fact that it kept
him from killing people, still wasn't a cool thing to
do. Not to mention
this is where Riley and Buffy were trapped, having a
seriously draining
sex-marathon.

Xander closed his eyes and turned away from the house,
only to find himself
face to face with someone he *knew* he should
recognize, but he couldn't
quite place.

"Do I know you?" Xander asked cautiously, realizing
that it was entirely
possible, considering the lateness of the hour that he
had run into one of
Sunnydale's unliving residents. One that he may have
known at one time.

He stepped closer to the man, and realized that
whoever he was, he wasn't a
vampire. He was, however, really familiar, and now
knowing he wasn't undead,
he realized his previous question seemed extremely
cliched.

"I don't think so. I would have remembered." The man
said.

Was it just him, or was there humor reflected in those
eyes? It was too dark
to really get a good look, but he had short hair, and
there was definite
amusement in those eyes.

A flash of insight hit him and he smiled. "You're a
friend of Riley's,
right? One of the Initiative?" He tried to remember a
name, but nothing came
to mind.

"Yeah." The man seemed slightly embarrassed about the
mention of the
initiative. "Graham." The man put out a hand to shake,
which Xander took.
"Graham Miller."

"Xander Harris." Xander offered. "I'm a friend of
Buffy's."

Graham nodded in understanding, and recognition.

"What are you doing out here?" Xander asked, resuming
his earlier curiosity.

"Just walking . . . and thinking." Graham answered
quietly. His eyes moving
to the house that still loomed in the darkness.

Xander turned back to the house himself. He was
curious as to what would
bring out somehow who knew the dangers of Sunnydale's
nightlife, alone. He
sensed there was a story there, but wasn't sure it was
his place to ask.

Xander nodded more to himself than to the other man.
"I better get going."
He started to walk away. "Nice seeing you again."

"Yeah, you too." Graham agreed. When Xander was almost
out of sight, he
called after him. "Hey Harris."

Xander stopped and turned around, expectantly.
"Yeah?"

"Maybe I'll see you around."

Xander grinned. "Definitely."

****