Title: Beginning
Author: pocketwitch
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing: Xander/Anya
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for alto2

"Why won't they sell it to me? I have money! I want to give them my money in exchange for a product - that's how it works! Don't they want to take my money?"

"They don't have any more, it was discontinued. The astoundingly patient lady at the store explained it, oh, a dozen times maybe?"

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It was funny, really, how many times the world had almost ended. Only it never had actually ended. It would almost end - it would come damned near close to ending - but at the end of the day, well, there was still an end of the day.

Apocalypse after apocalypse, and the world went on, and everyone took a deep breath and relaxed.

Not this time.

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"It still doesn't make sense. Why would they stop making something that people are willing to give them money for?"

"Apparently not enough people were willing to give them money for it."

"I don't see why not. It smells like candy. Besides, seeing you covered in bubbles makes me want to have sex with you."

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Oh, sure, the world would continue to go on. They had saved it after all … again. This time, though, he wasn't doing any celebrating. The world may not have ended in the universal sense, but his world had come to an abrupt halt, and he was pretty far from relaxing.

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"As you so graciously explained to the sales lady - and not in your indoor voice. There are other kinds of bubble bath, you know, each one just as full of bubbly goodness as Perfumed Peppermint."

"It isn't the same. How would you like it if you couldn't take baths with Mr. Quackers anymore?"

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His world would go on, too - he knew that. His brain, at least, knew that, or it did during the moments when it wasn't feverishly occupied with wrapping itself around the magnitude of his loss.

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"Hey, now Mr. Quackers is an irreplaceable part of my bathing experience. I've had him since I was nine -"

"And I've had Perfumed Peppermint for as long as I've been taking bubble baths! It's like losing a friend. I think I'm in mourning."

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It had caught him by total surprise at the store; the last thing he'd expected to see, the last thing he would have looked for. A lone bottle of Perfumed Peppermint. He had thrown it into his cart with as little thought as possible, saving the reflection until he was back in his new apartment, staring at the bottle across the kitchen table.

Thirty minutes later, after he'd pulled himself together, he decided that a bubble bath might be fitting.

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"Well, then, we'll just have to use the remaining bottle to grieve the loss. A final farewell."

"You're just trying to get me to take a bath with you so that I'll want to have sex."

"Of course not. Not at all. Possibly."

"I didn't say I minded. But what if we find another bottle later? The woman did say that there might be some left on the shelves at one of the other stores."

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There was no big epiphany, no sense of laying her to rest through the completion of the last bottle of her favorite bubble bath. There was no sudden peace, no feeling that her spirit was joining him one last time. She was gone, and he was broken, and it would be a long time before he was mended again.

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"We'll just have to have another final farewell later. A slightly more final-y one."

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For a few moments, however, in the warm water, surrounded by her favorite fragrance, he relaxed.

It was a beginning.

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