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"Nice fruit."

Giles slowly pulled his eyes from his newspaper, clearly distracted by
whatever he was reading.  "What?"  Oh.  The fruit basket.  "Ah.  That.
Yes, Olivia sent it to thank me for putting her up when she was visiting."

"That's the only reason she would be thanking you?"  Xander smirked.
"Well, on the up side, you got pineapple.  And grapes.  And apples."

"Yes, if I want to make a nice fruit salad, I'm prepared."  The older man
sighed.  "What do you want, Xander?  I was enjoying a nice, peaceful
Sunday, alone with my newspaper.  And now you're here.  *Why* are you
here?"

Xander shrugged.  "Nothing better to do?  I don't know.  But I'm here."
He examined the basket once more.  "Wow.  She must really like you.
There's kiwi in here."

Frustrated at the apparently pointless conversation, Giles dropped the
newspaper on the floor.  "Would you like some fruit, Xander?  Feel free to
help yourself."

The teenager shook his head.  "I was just noticing the variety you have
going here.  I mean, you don't send a basket like this to someone you hate
or just happen to work with."  He peered deeper into the depths of the
arrangement.  "Hey, there's chocolate in there.  And coffee."

"Do you have a *point*?"

Xander flushed at the irritated tone in Giles' voice.  "Sorry.  I'll just
shut up now."

"Thank you."

A few silent moments passed before Xander had to speak again.  "What did
you do to deserve pears?"

Giles blinked, his mind a blank.  Pears?  Xander was fixated on *pears*?

"I mean, these are really nice pears.  All nice and ripe, with no bruises
or cuts."  He lifted one to his nose, sniffing the fruit flesh.  "And it
smells really, really good."  He sighed.  "I wish someone thought enough
of me to send me something like this.  You have to really admire someone
to do something like this.  But I know that's not going to happen to me.
So I have to live vicariously through you."

Later, Giles would wonder what would have happened had he simply handed
the fruit to Xander.  He would follow that thought with the realization
that he really didn't care or want to know.  Things turned out rather
nicely, after all.  He picked up a pear and took a bite of it.  Then he
carefully placed the pear on the table, wrapped one hand around the back
of Xander's head, rubbed the fruit held between his teeth over Xander's
lips, and finally used his own lips to deposit the bite of pear between
Xander's, pulling away the instant they touched.

Dazed, Xander slowly chewed the pear and swallowed it.  Then he spoke.
"Is that what you think deserves a pear?  Because I don't think so."

Instead of speaking, Giles gently licked the traces of pear juice from
Xander's lips.

"Um, you're getting warmer."

But Xander's voice was slightly strained, and Giles' smirk returned.  "So
you think *you* deserve a pear?"  The teen shrugged.  "I think you do.
Prove it."

"How?"

"How do you think?"  He handed the pear to Xander.  When the teen just
stared blankly, Giles sighed and lifted the pear and Xander's hand to his
own mouth, taking another bite and leaning down to place the fruit in
Xander's mouth once more.  But this time, instead of pulling away as soon
as Xander took the pear in his lips, Giles used his tongue to carefully
push the fruit in and -- oops, gosh darn it all, he slipped --
deliberately stroke the roof of Xander's mouth.

And that was all it took.  The rest of the pear took a *very* long time to
finish.  Eventually, it turned brown and mushy, but by that time, both men
had forgotten about it, so it didn't really matter.

And Giles never did manage to finish reading his newspaper.

~~~ the end ~~~