When all else fails...

[callmesgtfury]

Who: Kaylee and Xander
When: Afternoon
Where: Kaylee's Room
What: Xander knows that Kaylee is still rather down since Owen's disappearance, and takes a day off from sex with a vampire slayer decides to go visit his best friend with a box in hand, hoping to cheer her up a bit.

Comments

[kay_lee_frye]

Kaylee had been dozing when a knock on the door made her eyes snap open. Recognizing the knock as Xander's she stretched quickly with a stifled yawn and rolled off the bed. Padding barefoot over to the door she used one hand to ineffectually smooth down her hair.

"Wei, Xander," she greeted, opening the door with a genuine smile. "What's up?"

[callmesgtfury]

"Well, if I'm not interrupting anything, I came by to steal you for the rest of the day." He said, his surprise hidden behind his back. He wanted this to be a surprise.

"So.. let your favorite neighbor in from the cold?" Well, it wasn't really cold, especially since the snow had finally gone the way of the dodo. Something for which Xander was grateful.

[kay_lee_frye]

"Nope, not interruptin' anything. Steal away," Kaylee said with a grin, holding the door open and stepping out of the way so he could pass. "But if you're comin' in, I don't really think it counts as stealin'," she pointed out.

[callmesgtfury]

"Well.. okay. I did mostly plan on staying in, so.. you're right. But either way.. okay. You're just right." He said, nodding at Kaylee as he entered her room. He figured he'd explain just what he'd had planned in a few minutes after he was able to check on his neighbor/best friend.

[kay_lee_frye]

"Yeah, so really it would be trespassin' except I invited you in, so really ain't no illegal activities at all!" she said brightly. "And I know my illegal activities," she teased, leaning in consipratorily.

[callmesgtfury]

"...I swear. The company I keep." Xander said, with a smile in his voice. Between the escaped convict he was sleeping with and the bandit he spent the rest of his time with, he was surprised he wasn't filching things from people at this rate.

"So, how is one of my favorite people in all of time and space?" He asked casually. Yes, priority number one today was making sure Kaylee was okay, even if she'd been seeming better so far.

[kay_lee_frye]

"I'm shiny," she answered with a grin.

She paused reminding herself that she was talking to Xander, who knew her better than anybody else currently in the hotel, knowing he wouldn't be satisfied with that answer. "Some days are better than others. But it gets a little easier every day," she admitted truthfully.

[callmesgtfury]

It was almost as if Kaylee had read his mind (which would be a nightmare, because he still didn't have any mental control, even after the incident with Buffy), because Xander was getting ready to get on Kaylee for giving him a half-assed answer when she gave him a more truthful one. "I'm glad to hear that." He said, offering her a smile.

With that out of the way, Xander felt the need to get to his distraction on hand. "So.. I was thinking recently how whenever we hang out and do something geeky like play a videogame or something.. it's almost always from 20th century Earth. ..have you noticed that too?" He asked, innocently and not segueing into anything at all.

[kay_lee_frye]

Kaylee's brow furrowed curiously as she tried to figure out what exactly Xander was getting at. "Yeah... I suppose. Ain't really thought 'bout it much I guess," she said honestly.

[callmesgtfury]

Xander pulled the boxes out from behind his back and held them out towards Kaylee, a triumphant smile on his face. "Well.. I decided it might be fun to switch things up a bit. Figured we could play a game from your time. Just.. wasn't sure what to grab, so I got both Chinese Checkers and Mah Johg."

Yes, Xander was aware of how awesome he was for getting Kaylee games she knew how to play AND making sure they could do something that would feel familiar to her.

[kay_lee_frye]

Kaylee's face positively lit up when she saw the wooden box taking it from his hands and opening the lid. "I love Mah Johg!" she exclaimed excitedly. "I ain't played since I left home, for some reason we never had a set on Serenity," she told him as she gently ran her fingertips over the delicately painted ivory tiles.

"Thank you Xander," she said sincerely standing on her tip toes to plant a kiss on his cheek. "But you do know that Chinese Checkers ain't actually Chinese right?" she asked with a teasing grin.

[callmesgtfury]

And that was all the reward Xander really wanted for all of his hard work. It'd been quite a while since he'd seen Kaylee's face light up like that, and he couldn't help but smile at her reaction. Still, he didn't complain or even consider turning down the platonic kiss on the cheek she provided.

Of course, he raised his eyebrow at Kaylee's comment about Chinese Checkers and chewed on his bottom lip. "I.. uh.. er..." He paused for a second. "..no?" Well, okay so maybe he wasn't as awesome as he had previously indicated.

[kay_lee_frye]

Wrinkling up her nose she shook her head playfully, the look in her eyes clearly bemused. "No," she confirmed bitting down on her bottom lip in a futile attempt to hold back a grin. "But that don't matter, the name is deceiving and it's the thought that counts."

"I wish we could play right now," she said turning her attention back to the box of tiles in her hands. "But it's a four player game," she pouted.

[callmesgtfury]

Xander went from mildly flustered to outright embarrassed when Kaylee mentioned that Mah Jong was a four player game. He found himself applying the palm of his hand to his forehead as he realized he was batting a solid .000 for games with Kaylee.

"So.. what you're trying to tell me is that I'm 0 for 2 on games we can play?" He said, a little annoyed with himself from taking an awesome idea and failing so horribly with it. "Well, that wasn't the way I'd expected this to work out.."

[kay_lee_frye]

"Wait, no, it's okay," Kaylee quickly backtracked when she saw the look on Xander's face.

"There's a solitare version, we can just play that together. It'll be fun," she said taking the box and upturning it on the desk spilling tiles and two yellow crayons onto the polished wood surface. She picked one up and looked at it curiously. "What was that doin' in there," she asked rhetorically. The tiles had been stacked so neatly, there shouldn't have been room in the box for Crayolas.

[callmesgtfury]

"Oh.. okay. Good. Well, at least that's some..." He paused as he looked at Kaylee's latest find and his good eyebrow went about as high as it possibly could go. He reached over and picked up the other crayon, examining it closely.

"That's.. that's weird." He said, absolutely confused how there just happened to be yellow crayons inside the Mah Jong box he'd grabbed for Kaylee. His mind, of course, jumped over to the thought of his last friend he used to talk about yellow crayons with. Willow.