"Practice? Practice?!" Xander glanced over at Buffy and shook his head, almost shamefully "I don't know about you,Buff. But me? I'm a well-oiled, mean, lean, Ovaltine-lovin' fightin' machine. There's nothing out there that I can't jab that pointy stick into. Forcefully. With lots of skilled maneuvering and why do all of my comments about staking always come out so dirty?"
Patrolling. Buffy wasn't the only one that had felt kind of out of the loop lately. Xander was so used to being relied on when the apocalypses came winding into town. Now he was the guy who stood in the back and made all the jokes. Of course, he was that guy before too, but still. He didn't exactly get the eyepatch plastered across his face from pulling stand-up comedy.