[ she grabs onto xander's hand. a little desperately. willow is hardly the only one she's missed. ]

I'm...fine. The mantle comes with a house, y'know. [ and the house comes with a live-in boyfriend, but-- ] So that's something. And my fellow lab-rats can be really...sweet. Fun. Aggravating, sometimes. But they're usually good folk.

Don't worry about me, Xand; I'm Buffy Summers. I'm made of sterner stuff. You can't bring me down with just a pair of wings and a few war-games.

[ downplay. downplay it all. ]