Changing
Tomorrow 15
by
Danielle
** emphasis
// thoughts
True to his promise, Spike had knocked on his window shortly before dawn and
Xander ushered him in silently. They only had time for one deep kiss before the
human's alarm sounded, reminding him that it was time to get ready for
school.
Xander floated through the halls that day, grinning like an idiot
all the way to the library.
"Hey, Wills! G-Man! Buffster!" He greeted
the Scoobies as he vaulted into the chair, sitting hard.
"Who put a
quarter in you, Xander?" Buffy raised an eyebrow at him, clearly
amused.
"Come on, Buff! Birds are singing, the sun is shining, I'm not
possessed by a soldier--all in all, I'd say things are looking up!"
"Easy
for you to say, you didn't almost end up Spike's entree last night..." the
Slayer groused.
Xander got a mental image of Spike licking his earlobe
and he blushed. His good mood was indestructible, though.
Willow fished a
pencil out of her backpack. Her eyes sparkled and she said, "Yeah, but did
anyone else notice that his heart wasn't exactly in the fight last
night?"
Xander straightened up and put a hand in his hair to flatten it a
bit. His voice dropped an octave and he gave a horrible English accent, "Oi! I'm
an evil fiend and my enemy is defenseless. This looks like a good time to chat
her up instead of killing her to death!" He dropped the accent and
slouched,"What gives?"
"Yeah! Giles, he was actually...nice. Oh, and he
said something about waiting for the spell to break, like he knew it was there
and he didn't want me defenseless." Buffy looked troubled.
"Hardly the
slogan of the guy who killed two slayers..." Xander was loving every minute of
this. He knew Spike wasn't a direct threat anymore, and if the human tried to
convince them of this head on, it'd be a losing battle. Why not try the subtle
approach while he still had his credibility in tact?
"We'll delve into
Spike's motivations further when we have more information. Right now we have
more urgent business to attend to in finding the cause for Xander's attacks."
Giles was distracted, as usual.
"So I'm guinea pig guy today...and I
thought just going to school was bad anough." The brunette pretended to gripe,
but he was still soaring from his night with the vampire.
Giles and
Willow found a revealing spell that they thought would work with finding the
problem. At first there was a snag, since magick was used on everyone the
previous day, but they found a solution quickly. Willow and Xander would both be
in the circle so that the redhead could be the control group.
As Xander
sat on the research table holding a smudge stick and a feather, his mind drifted
and he replayed Spike's lips trailing over his neck and stomach...the slippery
feel of the vampire's cock against his...their accidental first 'I love
you'...
With a dopey grin, he regarded Giles as the Watcher chanted and
sprinkles sand onto a candle flame. Suddenly both is friends gawked at
him.
"Oh wow!"
"Dear Lord..."
"What? Did I grow a tail or
something?" The mortal looked around himself.
They stood there, staring
awestruck at what the spell had revealed. Willow had traces of yellow sparkles
floating around her head, and the pads of her fingers glowed pink, like she’d
just made a handprint out of red light.
“Seriously, guys, if you’re
going to do the goldfish impression on my account...I think I should know what’s
going on...” The human started to squirm.
“Well-it’s just that--the
spell’s supposed to show us if magick was used on you recently and our glowies
match...see?” Willow pointed to the yellow speckles that made lazy circles
around Xander’s head, “But the rest doesn’t match up at all!”
Giles was
flipping through the pages of a book as he walked the perimeter of the circle.
“It would seem that other supernatural forces have affected you two...”
They haltingly explained that he had a white halo, and that his eyes
were glowing blue orbs, only that one was incredibly dim. He looked down and saw
a red dot of light resting over his heart.
“So, you’re saying that
someone else put the whammy on me?” Xander tried to sound interested as he tried
to shove away the memory of seeing himself lose an eye.
“Ah ha! I found
what the colors and locations mean...It would seem that Ethan’s spell is shown
as the yellow residue that surrounds you both. His magic lingers around your
head and shoulders because it affected your minds...”
The teenagers tried
to touch the floating lights, listening intently to Giles’
explanation.
“Willow’s hands are pink because she just helped me perform
the revealing spell. Hmmm...white indicates the work of a higher being. Xander,
have you been in contact with anyone unusual lately?”
Two pairs of eyes
on the human, and Xander laughed nervously, “You—you mean have I taken candy
from strangers? Come on—“ Willow and Giles watched as the hazy white light that
surrounded his silhouette suddenly flared.
“—this is a level of power
that we haven’t dealt with. Are you absolutely certain...”
“Don’t you
think if I met someone, I would tell you guys?” He hoped the evasive tactic
would work, but didn’t notice the buildup of light as the halo flared again.
“Anyway, what does it say about my new baby blues?” The brunette batted his
eyelashes at them.
“Er, um...it says here that the only way blue light
comes from the eyes is if the subject is a seer...” Xander saw the lightbulb go
on above the Watcher’s head. “headaches...episodes similar to seizures—Xander,
why haven’t you told us you’re seeing visions?” He was clearly irritated, but
all Xander could do was stand there as the white light cascaded down to his
hands and mouth, waiting for him to try to communicate.
//Oh god, my
tongue’s gonna fall out if I try to say anything!// Xander thought frantically
as he turned desperate eyes on Giles and Willow.
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