“Oh my God….. Xander???!! Oh My God!!”
The sleepy rather rumpled brunette found himself with an armful of overjoyed slayer.
“Giles was so secretive on the phone… just said I had to come and pick up two, and that it had to be today, and I’m supposed to be all sneaky-gal and move you and…. Who came with you? God Xan why you? Did Wills come? Don’t tell me they sent Andrew!…. And anyways where have you…?” She stopped mid sentence and released the rather bemused ex-Scoobie. Stepping back for a moment to take in the handsome thirty something who, but for the scarred space where his left eye had been, looking a picture perfect of manhood. She let go of all but his hand and dropped her gaze looking at the floor, then toed the carpet in embarrassment.
She looked smaller than he remembered, definitely slimmer, but the years since the hellmouth collapsing had obviously agreed with her.
“Sorry… Just that,” Her gaze lifted again to her friend-of-old’s face, “It’s been ten years… And I never…” She held the thought, smiled and changed topic “So come on… reminisce later…Who came with you?”
The color drained from Xander’s face as he realized just how much Buffy had been kept in the dark by the new council. They were doing it for her own protection, he knew that, but…
She noted his mood of sadness and confusion, and Spike received a jolt of panic through their link. “Oh Buffy… Where do I sta…” But Buffy’s gaze had shifted to the figure emerging from the bedroom.
A disheveled looking male with braided hair, apparently wearing a lycra suit and hastily thrown on shirt two sizes too big, was standing just too far into the shadows to see clearly.
“Who is it pet?”
Buffy recognized the voice, felt the blood rush to her feet as her world fell away and she retreated to darkness. Xander caught her on the way down.
It was some minutes before consciousness returned, and then it was to hear two men discussing her well being. Disoriented and surrounded by some… fuzzy comforter. Slayer instinct took an upper hand and she fought her way out, flipping to full fighting stance behind the couch that she had been so gently laid upon. And then she saw…
Xander was hugging his companion tight, his back to Buffy, but obviously in a protective position. The companion was a face she knew in her haunted dreams. Spike was wide eyed with terror, regret and a thousand other emotions he might ignore or analyze later. He simply smiled and nodded at her over Xander’s shoulder, “Slayer.”
Buffy fainted again.
Spike pushed away from his partner as Xander flew to catch the falling body once more.
“Oh bloody hell! What’s wrong with the bint! That bloody Immortal no doubt got ‘er all swoonin’ and silly!”
“No Spike! It’s you!” Xander shot his partner a look that was both worried and incredulous. “She thought you were dead after the First… and even if she *did* find out you were back… You said yourself, after the final battle with W&H it was…”
The shock on Spike’s face and distress shooting through the link had Xander dropping the unconscious slayer back onto the couch and embracing his lover tightly. Spike’s voice emerged as a hitched whisper… “She thought I was dead. I asked them not to… She thinks I was gone. Even if not… Oh *God*…. She won’t know about Angel… I killed him Xan… I killed him! How can I tell her that…. I had to kill him.” Blood streaked tears streamed down the vampire’s face and made small rivulets as he buried his face into his lover’s chest, mourning once again for his beloved Sire.
Buffy stirred, blinking hard as she watched her former friend and an apparently dusted vampire kneeling only inches away, comforting, petting and… kissing??! *Oh God…. I really have gone mad! But they are so… beautiful together… and why is… gay? And … alive … and????* The slayer retreated to semi-voluntary oblivion once more.
“We’ll do this together honey. Come on!... Hold onto me yeah… just hold on… here!” Xander thrust a wrist, still healing from the previous night’s passion, into the mouth of his distressed lover and was surprised by a reciprocal action.
“Bite too luv… please… need to feel you… bite!”
Neither drew more than a mouthful, yet the effect was electric. The renewed bond afforded strength to face the emotions of what was to come.
Buffy came to, sat up and took in the scene before her. Spike all but sitting in Xander’s lap. Both males intertwined enough to confirm that this was no ordinary ‘friendship’.
Saying the first thing that came to mind, Buffy coughed then squeaked, “Xan? Since when have you been gay?!!”
Xander turned to answer his friend. “Oh god! Buff… um yeah and with the lifestyle change and um …. Geez! Um….. Well there you are?!…. and…um..”
Xander took on the stunned demeanor of the fourteen year old caught ‘discovering’ himself by some family member at Christmas. There was more to it however…. He carried a sense of guilt based on the fact that had cut himself off from his Sunnydale life and friends deliberately post the first… He was saved from a full blown brood when his beautiful partner broke from his grasp and all but prostrated himself at Buffy’s feet.
On his knees in front of her, Spike grasped one of her tiny hands in both his and pulled it to his forehead, rocking and whispering apologies and penance that he were never truly his to offer. Xander understood the reasons, so scooted behind his distraught lover, embracing the slim form lightly so as to let him have the moment, but not suffer it alone.
Buffy stared at Xander in distressed confusion, then whispered, ‘Crazy basement Spike again?”
Xander shook his head and squeezed his partner tighter as Spike began to rock. Buffy felt her held hand becoming damp, and gradually picked up the quiet, near keened words.
“He’s dead Buffy. I’m sorry… Angel’s dead…. Sire….Should have been me. Should have been me. But he couldn’t and then I… He begged me… Ohhh… Sire… Buffy, I’m so sorry… He always loved you… I’m sorry.”
Buffy lifted Spike’s hands to her lips and kissed him. After a deep breath and with tears slowly tracking down her own cheeks, she kept hold of the hands and gently kissed the top of the blonde’s bowed head and whispered, “Shhhh…. It was a long time ago. So long ago. Giles told me he died in the final battle with some senior law firm – apocalypse thingy. But I already thought that you…” Her voice hitched a little, “I had lost you too… And now… God Spike?!… Xan?!”
Buffy’s voice became a little stronger as she forced Spike to look at her, Xander simply hugged his support and gave a wry smile. He was no longer sure who it was she spoke to. “You have no idea! Look at you!? You are so beautiful and… well the togethery thing obviously needs some explaining but…” Buffy dived from the couch, catching her two newly found friends unawares, so much so that the hug flattened them, and resulted in more of a pile of bodies on the floor than an embrace.
Buffy eventually swung around and sat up, slapping Spike and Xander both hard on their nearest arm as they righted themselves, then giving her best school girl pout exclaiming “So come on… confession time… and hang on…” She touched Spike once more and with an expression of complete wonderment and exclaimed, “You’re warm! Are you…? God, Spike… What? Did you….?”
Spike pulled away, sniffed a little to regain his composure then answered rather resignedly, “No love, just a heat suit. Nifty bit of 007 watcher technology is all. Fools your army stalker types though and is bloody brilliant when you’re….” Xander gasped and clapped his hand over his errant lover’s mouth. Once he decided Spike understood, he peeled off the hand only to be rewarded by the finish of the dreaded statement, “shaggin’ the consort.”
Xander groaned and stared at the apartment ceiling apparently to gain strength.
For the first time since Buffy arrived she laughed openly, “Oh far out … You two! You’re just… Just… Far out! But…. Umm, and this is *so* wrong…. You look great together! Are you happy?”
“For the first time in my life Buff, I really can say that I am … current kind of outy weirdness, and Scooby reunions notwithstanding of course!”
Spike lifted an eyebrow in his classic incredulous expression then pulled himself and his lover up to standing, and reached down to help their visitor to her feet.
“Right well…enough of this Slayer… Seems sundown is around an hour away, and Me an’ Xan are goin’ out for dinner… Senora does a lovely coffee Should I ring down?” Spike moved to the phone but stopped when Buffy’s hand stopped him.
The vampire looked a little concerned but followed up with “Look there’s some Lambrusco or Grolsch in the fridge, but us boys need a shower before we go adventurin’ “
Buffy’s hand was still firm on his wrist. “We have to go tonight.”
“And that would be because?”
“Riley is the senior officer in Europe. You said these guys have pictures..”
Xander pushed Spike behind him and away from the Slayer in a protective gesture, “But Buff, they’ve backed off!”
Spike placed a quiet hand on his partner’s arm, “All the more reason to move today pet. The boys in green will be doin’ their own Q&A session an’ it won’t take them long if Captain Cardboard of Sunnydale is on the case. Our little Peepin’ Tom’s were cannon fodder… we both knew that… Let’s thank our good land lady and get the hell out of the building.”
“What about?”
“No need luv. Stefano is a given – *and* I’ll make it worth his while to make sure Yanos, Con et al are looked after… “
Buffy looked slightly puzzled, Xander simply grinned. Sometimes ‘extraordinary wealth’ and ‘old money’ had their advantages.
Without hesitation Xander headed for the bedroom, threw a suitcase on the apparent nest of covers, threw open the turtle-shell encrusted antique wardrobe, and began packing to leave.
Spike simply grinned at Buffy, shrugged then commented with more than a little mirth in his tone as he left to assist his partner, “He’s so bitchy in the mornings!”