Xander Harris

It had been a relatively calm day. A lazy summer day where not much happened. It would be years before anyone actually realized what a momentous day it had actually been.

For Xander Harris is was a day of labor. He had volunteered himself as a pair of helping hands. Willing to move heavy boxes about as they were delivered to Sunnydale's premiere art gallery(and only art gallery). Anything to help out his friend Buffy's mother Joyce. Anything to keep Joyce's mind off of the fact that her daughter Buffy had run away before the start of the summer.

And so it was that Xander found himself peering into the last of many non descript crates. And what he saw in the crate puzzled him. Unlike the other deliveries he had helped with today this crate didnt seem to contain a piece of art. Or, at least, good art.

The statue that was in the smallest crate of the day wasn't like any of the other objects that came today. Instead of surreal or modern or classical the style that best described this delivery was, to Xander, low brow. The statue, to Xander's eye, was nothing more than a golden statue of an off brand Red Sonja with bigger boobs and a bubble butt.

Stepping back he scratched the back of his head and uttered alloud, "Huh."

"What have you got there, Xander?" Joyce asked from one crate over where she was inspecting the tribal masks that had been delivered.

"Uh, you tell me." Xander answered looking down at the statue that made his own teenage imagination seem tame.

With a curious hum Joyce made her way over to Xander's side. "Curious and curiouser." Joyce laughed slightly, "What's behind door number one in our most mysterious crate."

Xander just waved a hand at the crates interior as Joyce stepped up to him.

"Huh." Joyce was just as nonplussed as Xander as she looked at the statue.

After a minute of staring at the statue of the scantily armored sword bimbo Xander broke the awkward silence. "Maybe this was supposed to go to the comic book store over on Chestnut Street?"

Joyce stared at the statue and nodded slightly. Something about the statue... something.... called to Joyce.

"A knock off Frazetta type thing, maybe." Xander mused. "I don't remember any new bad girl barbarian comics coming out this month. And something, uh, with this much T&A would stand out. I mean, damn... this things worse than Lady ****."

Joyce murmurred an agreeable noise as she stared at the statue of the bikini babe with a sword. She could almost hear something. A woman's voice. Softly..... Faintly.... a promise of... contentment. A promise of bliss.

"What do you want to do with this?" Xander asked her.

With some effort Joyce took her eyes off of the statue and slowly shook her head. "Leave it here for now. I'll make some calls and try to find out who sent me this crate and who was actually supposed to get it."

"Your the boss." Xander stepped back, and wandered to the ither crates that had arrived today. "Now what?"

Turning away from the sword wielding babe statue Joyce refocused her attention on Xander. And for a second Joyce was suddenly struck by the fact that her daughter's best guy friend was a very handsome young man. A very nice young man at that, who was willing to waste a precious day of his summer vacation helping an old lady like herself doing hard manual labor. Just because it was the nice thing to do, not because there was mention of some kind of reward. With a nodding of her head Joyce made up her mind, she owed him.

"Now you get a reward for spending the day helping me with this shipment." Joyce announced.

"I don't nee-" Xander began to protest.

"Uh-tuh-tuh- tut!" Joyce waved a hand at him. "It's not about need. I want to do this for you Xander. You deserve a reward for helping me out today. Sometimes a Gal just needs a big strong guy to lend a helping hand with his mighty muscles." Joyce smiled at Xander and comedically flexed her biceps at him.

Xander looked at his perfectly normal arm that didnt have much in the way of bulging biceps. He shot her a disbelieving look.

Joyce just waved him off, "You know what I mean. Now, how can I repay you for today's hard work Xander?"