Straight to work

It took a few minutes but Xander eventually found his quarry. A dejected and disappointed Anya was leaning up against the lockers. Pulling on every ounce of courage he had Xander approached her.

"Hey." He said stopping in front of her.

Jerking out of her stupor Anya looked at him, "You!"

Xander held his hands up, "Hey, none of this is my fault. Admit it."

Anya sneered at first but slowly she looked away and bobbed her head once before hissing thru gritted teeth, "Fine. It's not your fault."

Xander felt the phone in his pocket vibrate with a notice. Thinking that was a good thing he pushed on. "So one of the scariest beings in all of creation told me I had to hang around you as punishment for whatever it is you did." He noticed the way Anya tried to hide her shudder. "I dont know what you did but I'm not as dumb as you. I know better than to poke the big bad supernatural bear that is your old boss."

"I'm not dumb!" Anya snarled.

"Dumb enough to try and play games with you know who, Yes or No?" Xander asked.

Anya bared her teeth as she hissed, "Yes."

"Which was dumb." Xander pointed out at the phone vibrated again with a notice. "I.E. you were dumb, Yes or no?"

Anya grimaced, "Yes."

"Sooooounds pretty dumb to me." Xander mused.

"Why the hell are you here tormenting me?" Anya glared.

"To torment you until you learn your lesson, I'm guessing. The faster you admit to your mistake the sooner I'll be told I can leave. I hope." Xander answered.

Anya groaned.

"So are you dumb or not?" Xander asked. He held up a hand, finger pointed at her face, "Remember, I'm here because HE wants me here. I dont want to be here. HE wants you to feel bad for what you did. I dont want that. The sooner you feel bad and admit it, making HIM happy the sooner this is over and we never have to see each other again."

Anya took a deep breath and stated in a flate, resigned voice said, "I'm dumb. I should never have tried to play games with Lord D'Hoffryn. It was stupid of me to think I could get away with it."

Xander nodded his head as the phone in his pocket vibrated more than usual.

Xander clapped his hands, "Okay. I think this is a great starting point. Everybody is on the same page now. I think we made some real head way into doing what HE wants. A few more days or weeks of this and we'll be free of wach other. I'm excited arent you excited? Tell me you're excited. "

Anya groaned, "I'm so excited."

Xander smiled as he felt the phone vibrate with a notice. "Fantastic."