Amnesty Is Granted

Finally! To the bigger chunck of story! As of 11/22/05 this part is a WIP. This is Suki's Bday pressie! Hope you like luv! She wanted more Amnesty!verse so that's what she's getting. This isn't finished yet luv! It's turning into yet another long story, at least in my head! I'm going to aim for posting every other week for new chapters.

Anything For Love

Xander ducked as a fledge took a swing at him and brought his stake up under the vampire's guard to place it firmly in his chest. Doyle's vision had shown a brief glimpse of vamps at the beach, but they hadn't been prepared for as many as they'd found under the pier. It made sense, in a way. A lot of kids camped out at the beach and homeless people were there at all times. No doors to hide behind, no invites, just a 24 hour buffet.

Well, more like an eight hour buffet, what with it getting to be November and sunset and all.

Still, they were doing well. Thanks to training with Angel and joining the other man for Tai Chi, Xander was holding his own. Angel was doing his usual ass-kicking; he hadn't even bothered with bringing out his demon.

Doyle was doing fine too, despite the killer migraine that came with the visions from the PTB. Xander always felt sorry for the man; if it were him, he'd be telling the Powers where they could stick their headaches.

To tell the truth, they worked pretty damn well as a team. By now he and Angel were used to fighting together and the older man always seemed to know when Xander was struggling and needed help or just needed a few more minutes to dust some of the more coordinated fledges.

Doyle, he was still getting used to, but he fought pretty damn well. Xander figured it was all the bar fights the Irishman must get into. He still got sort of nervous around Doyle, mostly when the man was still a bit on the drunk side, but Xander had a sneaking suspicion that Angel had taken him to the side one night and explained that Xander wasn't really comfortable around alcohol, thanks to his father.

Whether he had or not didn't really matter. The last time Xander had really seen the man drunk was the same time Oz came to town and out of nervousness he'd gotten drunk himself.

After the mess the next day with Spike and his pervy henchman, Xander had promised himself he was never going to drink again. Unlike his father, though, he meant it.

Xander managed to stake the last of the fledges he was fighting and looked around. Doyle was doing okay; he only had one vamp left so Xander left him to it. Xander could well remember the feeling of humiliation at not being able to keep up in a fight and he wasn't about to give anyone else self-confidence issues. Unless the fledge got extremely lucky, Doyle could take him himself.

Angel was still fighting with the leader, though, and since there wasn't a good place to sit Xander just folded his legs and sat down in the sand. He'd worry about getting the grit out of his jeans later, but now he'd settle for enjoying a new hobby he'd found since arriving in L.A.

Watching Angel fight.

Xander sighed and fought the urge to get up and look for some driftwood to beat himself over the head with. It wouldn't help. The first couple of times he'd noticed that he noticed Angel, he'd tried hitting his head against the desk in the office and, later on, against the fire door leading to the sewers.

He'd stopped after that. For one, it didn't help, and the door had been made in the old days and was good quality metal. When Angel came back from getting some information out of one of his snitches and asked him why he had a bruise on his head, Xander had nearly hyperventilated.

And he couldn't stop watching; it was like he was compelled. So he pretty much tried to keep his hormones in line, tried not to drool like a Tex Avery cartoon, and wondered just when the hell he’d turned gay.

But, damn it, Angel did have this sort of animal-like grace when he got into a fight or his katas and just flowed with it. It was almost as if he stopped brooding for a few moments and his psyche stopped fighting itself and he was more balanced. Graceful, but still deadly.

He noticed a movement to one side and realized that, during the time he was mooning over Angel, Doyle had finished up and was sitting down in the sand with him. Xander didn't say anything, mainly because he didn't know what to say. Somehow, he figured 'don't mind me, I'm just watching Angel's ass' wouldn't be a good ice breaker.

Unless Doyle had a crush on Angel, too, and then his life was going to get even more complicated than it was already. And here he thought he was done with hearing giggles over cute boys now that he was out of school. Only, surprise! Now he was the one doing the giggling, if only in his head. He hadn't broken out in nervous laughter in front of his friend.

Not yet, at least.

Angel finished his fight, preferring to just rip the weaker vampire's head off its shoulders, and he was left standing in a shower of dust. Xander tried not to think about how sexy Angel looked when he went all primal like that, and how the lights from the carnival a block away made the dust falling around him look like something out of a movie. He and Doyle got up and dusted the sand from their pants.

And now he wasn't thinking about asking Angel if he had any sand on his ass. Because he wasn't going to go there.

“So that's it, yeah? That's all of them? 'Cause I really don't want another vision. Haven't the damn Powers ever heard of saying it with flowers?”

Xander grinned at Doyle. “Somehow, I really doubt if the higher plane has an FTD office, but hey, don't lose hope, man.”

Angel did his usual post-fight scan of both of them. Xander always assumed he was using his vamp senses to check for blood and the like. It was nice, knowing that Angel worried. About the both of them. Really.

“You two okay?”

They both nodded and Xander started walking towards the parking lot where Angel's Vampmobile waited. He would have loved to walk beside Angel but that would be just way too close. And every once in a while he’d see Doyle smirking out of the corner of his eye and he so didn't need to be questioned right now; he was just too confused.

“Xan-der!!”

He turned around a bit too fast at Doyle's yell and nearly fell over his own two feet. A small voice in the back of his head snarked at himself. Great way to impress Angel, actually fall at his feet. Doofus. Zeppo. He shook those kinds of thoughts away and turned to look at Doyle. “Huh?”

“Where were you, mate, Never Neverland? I said we should go to a pub and throw some darts or do something to celebrate. Anything but go back to the office. It's depressing there.”

Xander blinked and tried to think quickly. There was no way he was going to yet another bar and watch Doyle make an ass out of himself. Or let Doyle make an ass out of him. Besides, Angel wouldn't go; he didn't enjoy that type of thing.

“Thanks but no, Doyle, I don't think so.”

Angel frowned. “What's got you so quiet?”

Xander panicked for a half a second before coming up with something believable. “I need to call the 'Dale tonight, make sure everyone lived through Halloween.”

Angel nodded and even Doyle stopped bothering him. It was partially the truth; he had promised he'd call Willow and check in. And then he'd get quiet, up to the point where Doyle would tease him about getting lessons in brooding from Angel. But at least it was a good excuse as to why he hadn't been paying attention.

Better than saying he was thinking about Angel in a more than just friend kind of way.

Only problem now: he had to call Willow.

He figured he didn't really need the brooding lessons from Angel. He thought he did it pretty well on his own.

******

“...and it turned out to be, like, two inches tall! Giles was so embarrassed after he figured it out! Who would have thought of a fear demon being Smurf size? Buffy squished it with her shoe and then had to scrape him off. It was really gross!”

Xander laughed. “Okay, that's weird, even for Sunnydale. And here I thought you guys would be partying all night or pigging out on candy.”

“We did that after the fear demon, over at Giles's place. It was fun and Buffy about yakked all over the place after a bad Milky Way.”

“Ooh, was it poisoned?”

“No, just stale.” Willow's laughter always made Xander smile but now that he was caught up to what happened in Sunnydale he was going to be expected to talk, and he really didn't want to tell anyone what was on his mind. At least, not yet.

“So, what did you guys do?”

“Well, Doyle had a party to go to, but he had a vision. Some kinda demon was trying to snatch kids while they were trick or treating out in Highland Park. It was kinda fun since we only knew the block he was on, so I bought a mask off a kid and went house to house while Angel lurked in the bushes. I got a handful of pixie sticks and a 100 Grand bar out of it and we managed to kill the demon and get all of the kids out without bloodshed. Well, on our part. When Deadboy chopped off the baddie’s head it gushed like a fountain. Luckily, the kids bought the story that it was all part of a special haunted house and thought it was fun. That man must have kissed the Blarney Stone a couple of hundred times before moving to the States!”

Willow laughed again but this time it sounded hollow. “That must have been...different. Oh! Did I tell you that Anya was looking for you? She came back to Sunnydale just to see you. Do you want me to give her your phone number?”

He fought the urge to pull out his hair, settling for running his hand through it in frustration instead. “Wills, I don't think that's a good idea. I don't want to give a vengeance demon the wrong idea.”

“But she's all human now! And, strangely enough, scared of bunnies. But you would have thought she looked great in her costume! It had a fluffy tail and everything!!”

Xander sighed. Sometimes he wondered about Willow; everything was so black and white to her. “Willow, her brain is still mostly demon. Believe me, I know. I had to listen to her lecture on 101 ways to castrate a cheating man at the Prom, remember?”

And, man, had that been totally weird. Maybe that was why he was having lusty thoughts about a guy now. His track record with women was enough to scare any full blooded male's balls into hiding. Giant Bug, Mummy, Cordelia, Faith and Anya. Not to mention his little run in with Drusilla.

Yeah, if he was his dick and had a choice, he'd start going after guys too.

“Seriously, Xander, you need to be doing something. You can't just hang around and be Angel's sidekick forever, you know. And you haven't been on a date since...”

Since their relationship had gone up in flames, thanks to the Willow and Xander kissage problem, but Willow wasn't going to say that and Xander certainly wasn't going to bring it up. He was just glad Buffy was out on patrol, or else he'd have to deal with her well-meaning but totally unnecessary advice as well.

“Wills, I'll date when I'm ready, okay? Wasn't there a saying about a woman with a man was like a fish with a bicycle?”

“Yes, but, Xander, you're a male and therefore need someone to take care of you. Men need women more than the women need the men; that's why the Goddess invented flowers and chocolate.”

“Jeeze, way to be liberated, Wills!” It was so tempting to point out how millions of gay men got along fine without women, or how Angel took care of Xander and vice versa. But Xander figured if he couldn't say it out loud to himself or the object of his desire, there was no way he was telling Willow. “So, since you're still doing the smoochies with Oz, how's Buffy holding up? Any new boyfriends in her future?”

“Oh, goddess! I need to tell you about Parker! He hurt her so badly I could just scream or do something really nasty!”

And so he got to sit there and listen to fifteen minutes on the evils of men and how if Willow ever caught up with him she was going to make Parker wish he'd never been born. Never mind the fact that Buffy all but jumped the guy within days of meeting him. While he may not be ready to face up to his Angel attraction and possible gay issues, at least he wasn't going down to the local gay bar and taking the first guy he saw for a test drive.

Besides, while his parents had pretty much left him to raise himself, between Buffy's Mom, Willow's parents and Giles he knew that good girls shouldn't do that sort of thing on the first date. It was kind of shocking that Buffy had.

When he finally hung up he felt a bit better. Of course, he felt guilty that he felt better but, still, it was nice to hear that the others were having personal problems too. Willow was worried this singer was flirting with Oz, and apparently Giles was taking time off for his mid-life crisis. Having the sudden lusties for one of your best friends wasn't that bad, and he'd finally gotten over Willow.

Or course, it had taken a microscope to the head and Cordy being impaled...

“Everyone in Sunnydale okay?”

Xander jumped and then gave Angel a dirty look. He'd stopped swearing every time Angel startled him long ago; the older man seemed to get a perverse pleasure out of it. “Yes! Well, mostly.” He wasn't too sure about telling Angel about Parker, or how Buffy was heartbroken. “Buffy's having some problems but I say give it another week before we go back to the 'Dale to apply physical threats. No biggie, just...well, rebound guy problems.”

Angel looked pained. Or brooding. Or gassy. Sometimes it was hard to tell. “Oh! And I guess I can't, you know, go back and break anyone's leg or anything?”

Xander grinned and shook his head. “Sorry, no can do. And even if it does call for a good beat down, it might go over better with Buffy if it was me. It would send the wrong message to Buffy and the other guys at college if her ex came to protect her. She might think you're willing to get back together. Any broken legs would look better coming from a brother; besides, the guy is human so you'd have an unfair advantage.”

Angel collapsed into a chair beside him and there was nothing Xander wanted more than to scoot his chair closer just so they could touch. But he didn't. Because that would be wrong. Instead he tried to listen to Angel without looking like a love sick puppy. “Xander, you think what I did was right, right? I mean, leaving Buffy.”

Ouch. Nothing hurt worse than an unrequited lover dreaming about an ex. “Well, I gotta say, if it's just the curse thing, you guys could have worked that out. I mean, you can have other moments of happiness, you've heard my theories on that, and if you really love someone the sex thing would be annoying but blue balls never killed anyone. Somehow, I don't think that was the main reason you two broke up, though.”

“No. I just—we were too different. Buffy had all these ideas of getting married someday and somehow having children and there was no way I could give that to her. She would have hated me, eventually.”

“Not to mention what would happen the first time she found a wrinkle and you still looked the same.” Xander winced at the imagined Buffy-fit. Yeah, that would not have been fun.

Angel ducked his head. “There are ways around that part, I won't go into it, but sometimes a Master Vampire takes a human lover and, well, the human's life span can be drawn out. But I don't think it would happen any way that Buffy would like.”

Xander blushed, his mind going into vague areas to guess at. “Oh. Well, see, you did it for the right reasons. At least, I think so.”

Angel didn't answer. Instead they just sat there in the semi-darkness. It was nice; Angel was the one person Xander didn't feel like he needed to entertain or distract. Well, normally. There was a slight urge to fidget but that was because he wanted to edge closer to the other man and that would be wrong. Well, if Angel didn't want it, it would be wrong. There was nothing wrong about two guys cuddling if they were both willing.

Xander couldn't stand it, he just had to move or else his brain would go into even worse places. As it was, he was considering watching reruns of SOAP since Billy Crystal played the first openly gay male on television. “Hey, Angel, has Doyle already left?”

“I think so. Why?”

“We should go out. Umm, not to a bar, but, you know, patrol. I mean, it's great that he has visions and all but I still don't know the area that well and if we patrol maybe we'll save Doyle a headache. We can get me a bite to eat or something. And maybe if people see us doing a sort of neighborhood watch type of thing when something weird happens, it’ll make them feel better. And we can make contacts—or something like that. I mean, if we're going into the private eye business, don't we need snitches or something?”

Angel smiled and got up. “That sounds good. I have some people I know from when I used to live here but it never hurts to make new contacts. We can take some of those awful cards Cordelia ordered before she left. The faster we get rid of them, the better.”

Xander grinned and followed behind Angel, grabbing his own denim jacket and a few stakes from a drawer of a chest by the door. “Yeah, right. You know she's gonna be back one day and you'll have to face the Wrath Of Cordy if you're not still using them. “

Angel's wince said all he needed to say and Xander bounced on his toes. “Face it, Angel, we're stuck with that damn design until she's too old to remember she drew it. And considering she's going on that all natural health food diet to keep in shape, with being an actress, that is going to be quite a long time!”

Angel's next words had him giggling out loud. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can we go kill something now? Do we have to discuss how I'm over two hundred years old and I still get intimidated by a teenage girl?”

“Angel, my friend, you may be old but you're smart. That's why you're afraid of a teenage girl.” Xander followed Angel out the door. There wasn't anything he liked better than a night out on patrol and getting to actually help people.

Well, spending the night cuddled with Angel might be better, but he wasn't ready to go there.

Yet.

*****


I should really stop using Meat Loaf songs for title ideas.