Dream Big
By Ralkana

Disclaimer – I don’t own them; Joss and Mutant Enemy and all the various other Powers That Be do. If I owned them, I’m pretty sure they'd be much, much happier.

Comments and feedback to Ralkana47@yahoo.com would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Timeline – Late Season 3 BtVS.

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Hearing familiar voices, Giles looked up from the large book he was perusing.

"I'm tellin' ya, Wills," Xander said, waving a small orange and white piece of paper as he and Willow entered the library. "This baby is our ticket to freedom. Our ticket out of Monsterville."

"And what exactly is it?" Giles asked, removing his glasses as they neared him.

The smile Willow gave him was long-suffering. "It's a lottery ticket. Xander's first lottery ticket, now that he's all grown up and can gamble away his hard-earned money like the rest of the American populace. He won't shut up about the fact that he can buy them now."

"A lottery ticket, Xander? Don't you think perhaps there are better things you could purchase with your money?"

"You say that now, Giles, but what are you going to say when I'm eighty seven million dollars richer?" The boy smiled winningly. "Bet you'd be a whole lot more open to the idea."

Giles choked on his tea, scalding himself. "How much, did you say?"

"Eighty seven million dollars." Xander repeated, emphasizing every syllable with a wave of the ticket.

"Good Lord."

"Once I win it, Willow and me and Buffy and Oz -- and maybe even you, Giles -- we'll be on our way to Rio." Xander did a clumsy salsa move, making Willow giggle.

Giles arched an eyebrow. "And Sunnydale? Are you planning to leave it to the tender mercies of Mayor Wilkins?"

Xander sighed, slumping down into one of the library chairs. "You had to go and steal my cookie, didn't you, Giles?" Then his eyes lit up. "Oh, I know! We'll use some of the money to buy a really big anvil and we'll drop it on his head."

"Brilliant plan," Giles said dryly. "I'm crushed I didn't think of it first."

"You'd be lost without me, G-man," Xander said with a smile, pulling one of the piles of books closer. He clutched the newly bought ticket in one hand, dragging Willow down to the chair beside him with the other hand. "Admit it. Your world would be much stuffier place."

"Indeed," Giles said as he returned to his research, trying to hide his fond smile.