Getting On...

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PART 12

Lindsey MacDonald groaned silently when William walked into the room, and it was definitely William, not Spike. Spike had carried himself differently. Spike had been almost as pale, but so fucking perfect.

“What the hell is he doing here?” he demanded, looking up into serious brown eyes.

Angel shrugged, sipping his warm champagne with a grimace. “It’s his house too, Linds. When he wants it to be, anyway. I guess he was bored and decided to swing by. Or a chipmunk told him to. Either way.” He carefully hid his sorrow at his brother’s state. It was his fault that Spike—William, he reminded himself—had been so badly injured that his mind took flights of fancy. “He has every right to be here,” he added.

Lindsey sighed and shifted a bit, trying to hide himself behind the much larger form beside him. “I know. But it’s been months. I just…” He sighed again. “I can’t stand the way he looks at me, Angel. Like I shouldn’t care about the scars. I mean, he was…”

“Pale. Perfect. An incubus before the accident. You’ve said. Repeatedly.” Angel growled softly, setting his glass down on the tray of a passing waiter and snatching another. “God, you’re so fucking shallow, Linds.”

The younger man shrugged. “You’re just now figuring that out?”

He tensed fully when the blond in question approached, only to find his brow furrowing at the lack of interest in the soft blue eyes.

William smiled just a bit as he entered the usual Friday night party his brother threw. He didn’t particularly want to be there, but with Xander gone he was somewhat at loose ends and dropping in was far preferable to sitting and moping. Besides which, he had his mobile, so if his love called, he’d be able to find a quiet space very quickly. And he was thinking about Xander again, which was not good for his peace of mind.

It wasn’t until he was approaching his brother that he saw the other man who seemed to be hiding behind Angel’s tall, broad form. “Bloody hell,” he grumbled, but it was too late to change direction so he simply pasted a pleasant smile on his face.

“Angel. Good to see you,” William managed to say with just the right degree of affection. “And Lindsey.” He didn’t realize that his tone had become a good bit more flat but the two men couldn’t help noticing. “Hello.”

Less than five minutes were spent chatting and when William wandered off in search of shrimp puffs because ‘you know I can’t resist them, Angel’, Lindsey frowned. “That was… what the fuck just happened here?”

Angel furrowed his enormous brow playfully as he laughed on the inside. There was nothing quite like stunning Lindsey, after all; especially with how much the younger man hated being out of the loop. “William has a new boyfriend. You knew that, right? It’s been… God. Over two months, now?”

Close to seven years without dating and Spike—William—had someone all of a sudden and wasn’t pining for him? Well, shit.

He’d thought he wanted the blond to move on, but… Lindsey frowned and if he hadn’t been at a party—and standing beside William’s brother—he would have snarled.

“So, who is he? Who’re his family? Oh, wait. Let me guess. No one we know, right? I would have heard,” he said instead, his teeth gritted; fingers clenched into fists at his sides. “Does he know about the brain damage?” Lindsey blinked. “Or is that why he’s with him? I mean, think about it, Angel. Crazy, rich, gay guy… and did I mention rich… whoever it is could be reaching for the brass ring, right?”

Angel frowned deeply, swallowing the entire contents of the glass in his hand. But no.

“No… he doesn’t tell anyone who he is. He never mentions ATS. Hell, he doesn’t even use Aurelius in his name, except at the office. The guy he’s seeing… well, he can’t be after William’s money. How would he even know he had any?”

Lindsey snorted. “Maybe the ‘vette? Or Sp… William’s apartment? How many guys without money drive around in fifty-thousand dollar cars and call million-dollar condos ‘home’?”

Fuck. As much as Angel hated to admit it, Lindsey had a point.

Of course, that didn’t mean he was going to say so out loud, or even imply as much.

“I’ve had him checked out,” he lied bluntly, “and Xander Harris has enough money of his own that he doesn’t need my brother’s.”

He would get Charles on it in the morning, he promised himself. And if Lindsey was right, there would be one construction worker who couldn’t find work even sweeping up dust.

Angel looked after his own, and William was definitely his own. He’d known the guy since he was nine and William was six, for fuck’s sake. They were family and that trumped everything else.

“Planning to bite me if I touch you?” he heard, and the teasing tone of the words had him smiling suddenly.

He turned, one large hand closing around the petite fingers presented to him. “Only if you ask really nicely,” he answered, Lindsey and his issues forgotten for the moment. “I thought you had to leave this morning?” His voice was soft and probably just as besotted as he was.

Buffy smiled and shrugged as he lifted his arm in a clear invitation. “With as many chicks on the make as you have here?” she laughed, her arm going around Angel’s waist as she pressed herself lightly against his side. “I’m staking my claim, Mister. And I’ll leave in the morning. That way I’ll still catch the second night—and all the rest—of the Shareholder’s Ball.”

And God, how he loved a woman who could multi-task.

“Oh, hey,” he smiled, giving her a gentle, sappy gaze, “My brother’s here. You should meet him.”

Buffy couldn’t help tightening her hold just a little before nodding. Angel’s father and step-mother had been dead for years so she’d never met them. His brother was the only family he had left and he wanted her to meet him?

It was a good sign, she figured, that he was as enraptured by her as she was by him.

“I’d love to,” she agreed with a soft squeeze to his waist.

* * * * *

Xander was groaning on the inside as old man Travers rambled on and on about… well, he didn’t know what because he’d known by the age of ten that the man could and would go on and on about nothing at all, simply because he’d once been Rupert Giles’s boss and so thought he had some claim to the family’s loyalty.

He sipped slowly at his scotch on the rocks, ‘uh-huh’ and ‘oh, I’m sure’ emerging from his lips at appropriate intervals while he scanned the room for a rescue.

God, how had he ever thought he was happy when he was younger? Sure, it was nice to have people around whose sole purpose was to do things for him, but the third time he’d tried to put his own ice in his glass and had it taken from him and refilled, Xander had realized that there was a certain sense of satisfaction in doing things for himself and… and he hadn’t truly understood that until just that night.

Even a year earlier he’d lapped up the attention, but maybe that was because he’d been coming off of the travesty of a relationship with Larry and had needed soothing.

Yeah, he told himself, that was probably it.

Now, however, he was with Will and he was so fucking happy. Except for the part where he was hundreds of miles away from his lover and being bored to fucking death.

“I’m sorry, Quentin,” he interrupted, not even noticing that he’d used the man’s Christian name for the first time ever, “but my sister seems to need me.” He nodded towards Willow, who looked frighteningly good in a sapphire blue silk gown, then narrowed his eyes as he caught one of the waiters giving her an interested stare. “She’s way too young for that guy.”

The older man’s obvious grumble had him lying like a cheap rug when he continued with “Not to mention, he’s a waiter. She’s so far out of his league that it should be illegal for him to even think about looking at her like that.”

And as that was something Quentin Travers could understand, he let the young man wander off, even if he did mutter “Sister. Hardly. Your half-sister’s half-sister, yes, but no relation whatsoever to you, Alexander,” before wandering off, sharp-eyed for his next victim.

Xander heaved a sigh of relief as he made his way across the room. He couldn’t imagine anyone actually wanting to spend time with the snobby old man. That didn’t make Quentin’s words any less true. Willow really wasn’t related to him by blood, but what Travers didn’t get was… it took more than the same genes to make a family. He’d grown up with both his sisters; loved them like they were a part of him. Hell, Willow was only six years younger than he was and he remembered his fumbling attempts at changing her diapers, watched over carefully by her nanny, Miss French.

He’d gotten many a giggle from her name back then because he’d been obsessed with old TV shows at the time—mostly ‘Family Affair’—and the nanny ‘Miss French’ couldn’t have been more different from the heavy, bearded butler ‘Mister French’ if she’d tried.

So no. Willow really was his sister, regardless of what Quentin Travers seemed to think.

“Hey, sis,” he said with a one-armed hug that effectively blocked her from the view of the poaching waiter, “I missed you.”

For her part, Willow was nearly bouncing and had been ever since she’d seen Xander across the room. She’d known he was home again because Uncle Ethan had called her dorm room and left a message, but she’d had classes and such and this was the first chance she’d had to see him.

“Xander!” she grinned, turning under his arm to wrap her own around his waist and hug him hard. “You’d better have missed me! It’s been three whole weeks since you’ve even called! And ‘it’s me, just saying hi’ on my voice mail doesn’t count!”

Xander laughed and shook his head. “Like it’s my fault your schedule exists in a dimension that’s totally opposite from mine? Right. Tell me another one, Wills.” He winked as she released him and grinned up into his face.

Willow snorted through her happy smile. “Uh-huh. And the new boyfriend doesn’t have anything to do with you suddenly being so busy that we’ve barely spoken in nearly three months? Tell me another one, Xan.” She giggled. “In fact, tell me all about him. Is he cute? Because I didn’t want to ask over the phone but I’m betting he is. What does he do? Um, for a living, not… with you, because… well, that might be hot to know but it’s none of my business and you’re my brother, so thinking about you and him and the hot-naked-sweaty would be kind of creepy, right? So only tell me whatever won’t have me needing therapy a few years from now, okay?”

And it never ceased to amaze him that she could manage to get that many words out on one breath and not sound even slightly fazed.

“In order, sis…” he said with a laugh, ignoring the comments about ‘hot-naked-sweaty’ completely because… his Willow would never even think such things, “Yes, he’s cute. Hell, he’s fucking beautiful. He works for his brother’s company doing… something that involves phone calls. We don’t really talk about his work. It embarrasses him. But Angel likes him to keep busy and so do I. He’d get bored, otherwise. As for the rest…”

Xander shrugged, his arm tightening around the petite redhead. “He had some kind of car accident a while ago so he has a limp but he’s been working with Cordelia—you remember her. Anyway, she’s been helping him so he’s not as bad off as he was at first, and…”

He smiled sheepishly and leaned down to whisper into Willow’s ear. “I’m in love, Wills. It’s like he makes me… more me, somehow. Or maybe more the me I want to be… and that doesn’t make any sense, does it?” Xander flushed slightly.

The mention of Cordelia Chase had throw her for a moment but she’d known that both Xander and Buffy had kept in touch with the girl. Of course they had. Cordelia’s mother had been the one to catch Buffy’s stroller the day Joyce Summers had died. And granted, Lilah Morgan-Chase hadn’t made the perfect catch because Buffy still had a small scar on her temple from the corner of the metal newspaper box, but… Willow could totally understand their loyalty to the girl.

In fact, she shared it, and if Cordelia Chase ever called her needing anything, Willow would do whatever she could to make it happen, but… Cordy was scary. Always had been, what with being so focused. But at least she hadn’t wasted the scholarship to Sunnydale Preparatory Academy that GSI had arranged as part of Lilah’s reward for saving Buffy.

Still, that had nothing to do with what Xander was saying, so Willow pushed it from her mind for the moment and let herself squeal softly.

“You’re in love? Does he love you too? Are you going to get married,? Because I hear that lots of gay couples are doing that now, and… and why isn’t he here?” she demanded with a sudden frown, not even noticing the disappointed waiter finally walking away.

“He’s your boyfriend and if you’re in love, he should be here! Meeting the family and stuff, right?” Willow pouted. “Xander, are you ashamed of us? Because with Daddy and Uncle Ethan being what they are, you know your guy would be welcome and… and we’ll all love him just as much as you do. But in different ways from you because it would just be freaky if we suddenly wanted him and…” She blushed. “Shutting up now.”

Xander found himself laughing more than he’d done in ages and he pulled Willow close again, not caring that he was likely wrinkling her gown.

“I may not have mentioned who I really am,” he murmured into her ear. “To Will, I mean. Um, that’s his name, in case I didn’t mention it on the phone. Will. William Barrington. And yeah, he… loves me.” Xander sighed, suddenly aching again with missing his one and only. “But the me he loves is Xander Harris, Wills. The construction worker who dabbles in the stock market. I… I don’t know how to tell him that I’m not as poor as my life makes it seem… or that I’ve been sort of… lying to him since the second we met.” He sighed again.

Hazel eyes blinked and Willow pulled back to stare up into worried brown. “Oh.”

Yet another sigh. “Yeah. Oh.”

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tbc...