Damn, yes. I've been rewatching the eps, and, watching S2, I keep wondering what was going on. Was he under pressure to try to look like a high school guy and worried about that? And if he was, I feel sort of awful for him, and like it was a wasted effort, because really, none of the guys on Buffy looked right for high school, but you just had to ignore the fact that there were no spotty adolescents in Sunnydale as just another product of the Hellmouth magic *g*.

As for the slash, it's gotten to where I find myself shocked if I read a story set in later seasons or after S7 in which there isn't a line or sentence in which Xander's reset.