Anything for You

<Part 2>

 

    When Xander woke up, Spike was gone. It was still dark
out and the gapping tear along his back wasn't quite so gapping. //Gotta
get out of here before he comes back. He got his kiss, that's all he has
from her, and it wasn't even her. But I can't take it away from him. He only
want's Buffy kisses just the same as I only want Spike kisses.//

    The boy, who wast bet becoming a man, got up and pulled
his jacket on only to realize there wasn't enough left of it to save. "Shit."
He tossed it into the corner and walked out into the night. Even the vampires
left him alone this time. His mood was projecting from him like a brick wall.
'Stay away or die!'

    Spike was walking back to his crypt with food for the
git when he saw the boy leaving. He looked down at the take-out he held and
tossed it away. //What was I thinking?! Just cause I promised to look after
the Nibblet doesn't mean I'm supposed to cosey up to the slayer's minions.//
He sniffed the air carefully and frowned, //tears again. For a boy raised
in a country where men't n't cry, he sure does it a lot.//

    //He's defenseless walking back to his place like that.
Not even a stake. . . I should follow him, he might get hurt.// Spike quickly
decided that the only reason he was worried was that Dawn had a crush on
the clod and she'd be sad if he got eaten, and he followed him at a safe
distance. Staying close until he opened the door to his apartment. The demon
bint's smell was nowhere around the place, like she'd rarely if ever, been
there. Funny that. //Something isn't right here. . .//

    He crept up to the window and listened through the open
pane as the boy readied himself for bed.

    "Hey guys. Don't worry, I didn't die after all."

    Spike blinked and leaned closer, over the roof so he could
see inside, he didn't smell anyone else with the whelp so who. . .

    Xander was sitting on his bed in just his pajama bottoms,
while young Garkreshin lizard demons crawled around his lap, shoulders and
back. The vampire almost jumped inside to save the fool but stopped when
Xander rubbed one on the back lovingly. "I shouldn't have even tried. Sorry
if I scared you."

    //Garkreshin grow up to be just about human size, a little
larger than average maybe.// Spike ran through all Angelus had taught him
about those specific demons, //And they don't age like humans, they age twice
as fast until puberty when they gain immortality by . . . they drink blood!
And the kids need fresh blood too, or they'll die! What is the whelp thinking?!
Those things aren't pets! They could kill him when they get older!//

    Obviously he 'wasn't' thinking because Xander had just
calmly offered his arm to the three and each was sucking blood from the limb
while they lay in the bed like a mother cat and her kittens. "That's enough
now guys. You know I can't give you much after an injury."

    "Xan-daddy?" The echoing, purr-like voice of the Garkreshin
demons all spoke in tandem and Xander laughed.

    "Hm?"

    The largest child spoke first. "Don't go away daddy."
Spike watched a black tear streak it's scaly silver skin. "We love you. 'We'
can be your mates when we grow up. You don't need him."

    //Him? The whelp has a hard-on for a boy? This is interesting.//


    "Shh Ssol. I just want to be your daddy ok? Humans don't
take there kids for mates. At least not the good ones." The pain in his voice
told stories Spike didn't want to hear. Because he would want to kill then
and he wouldn't be able to.

    "Why aren't we human too?" The smallest one asked softly,
curling closer to his 'daddy's' warmth.

    "I told you that story."

    The middle sized one looked hopeful, "Tell it again?"


    Xander smiled and Spike almost fell off the roof. The
smile went all the way to the whelp's eyes! He'd never seen the boy really
smile before. He was almost ethereal when he did that.

    "Well Buffy and the rest of my pack were hunting one night
and She told all of us to split up and cover more ground. I took the graveyard
because. . . well just because."

    "Because 'he' lives there?"

    Xander's smile faded a bit, "shh." He shushed. "I just
did."

    "ok."

    "The graveyard was completely dark. All of the streetlights
around it were out and I couldn't see where I was going, but I heard a growlly
sound."

    "It was mommy!"

    "Yeah, Essej, it was your mommy. She was fighting with
a really nasty baddie and I slayed it for her but she was really hurt. She
wasn't human but I hadn't noticed at first because she looked so close to
a human girl. When I saw she wasn't I started to freak but she took my hand
and pointed to a tomb really close by. She said something in a weird language
and then when I didn't get it, she repeated it in English."

    "What did she say daddy?" Ssol pressed.

    "She said, 'my pups, my pups need me but I can't stay.'"
He whispered and tucked them in warmer next to him and under the covers.
"And she told me, 'you save demons, you are friend to me, love my pups for
me. Love them like I do. They are good pups. Very good pups."

    "And so you found us in the tomb and took us home!"

    "Yrral! I want daddy to tell it!"

    "You told some too Essej!"

    Xander smiled and ran his hands through their hair, "hey
now. you each told some ok?"

    "Tell us the rest daddy." The little one, Essej, pleaded.


    "I brought you back here and kept you safe just like your
momma asked me to. I looked in the books Buffy's watcher keeps to figure
out what kind of demons you were and I learned your language so I could teach
you mine. And I found out what you needed to be healthy."

    "But you never told anyone."

    "Nope. Never."

    "Because Buffy lady might hurt us?"

    "No. Buffy lady was a good, good lady. She just wouldn't
understand."

    "But she understood about 'him'?"

    Xander looked close to tears, "Yeah, she did."

    "Don't cry daddy."

    "We'll be here."

    "We wont go away."

    "I know babies." Xander hugged them all close to him and
closed his eyes, "I know."

    Spike pulled back from the window and sat on the roof
in thought. The whelp had surprised him. It was hard to surprise a master
vampire, but the whelp had done it. Garkreshin demons. He had raised three
Garkreshin for almost three years if their size was anything to go by. And
they hadn't killed him. They called him 'daddy' for crying out loud! and
Xander had called the slayer's minions his pack. A pack he was obviously
Alpha male for. And he was in love with a guy, obviously a demon guy who
lived in one of SunnyHell's cemeteries. //And he smiles like the sunshine.//


    The vampire made a decision. Xander was definitely not
the lack-a-wit he'd tagged him as. He wanted to know more.

____________________

    Mmmm. . . Saturday. Xander rolled over in bed and floated
in and out of sleep as he woke up slowly, a leisure he didn't normally get
with work and the kids and. . . he shot to a sitting position, THE KIDS!
Where did they go? Why hadn't they woken him up to say they were hungry?!
He stumbled into the living room in a state of panic and his eyes widened
at what he found. His beloved children. Essej, Yrral, and Ssol, all gathered
around a grinning William the Bloody on the sofa and watching cartoons while
they fed off of him hungrily and he drank enough blood to keep feeding them.
They had never had such a large meal because Xander couldn't give that much
and stay conscious. He felt a little betrayed that they were feeding off
of someone else, but more so he was relieved that they were eating so well
and it was giving him warm fuzzies to see Spike and his children gathered
together like that. Almost like a family.

    "Daddy!" The kids jumped up and tackled their father figure
to the ground giggling like no demon had ever been raised to do and talking
all at once, in perfect tandem, as they tended to do when they got excited.


 p;&np;  "Spike came over before the sun came up!" They all said
together, "He brought food and nummies for you and he let us drink from him
'cause he can drink more and it was good and we like him you were right daddy
can we keep him please?!"

    Xander just starred and Spike grinned and helped him up,
"Came over ta visit didn't I. The brats were a surprise. Shame on you pet,
they're a chip of the ol'. You should bring them to the watchers and let
them meet the 'pack'."

    The stare became a grimace and then a glare that bordered
on fright, "What did you hear Spike."

    "Hear pet? Nothin' much. Lovely tale of woe an' all."


    Xander stiffened, "Guys, go into your room."

    "Why daddy? What's wrong?"

    "Spike and I need to talk is all. Tell ya what, go into
my room and you can watch the tv in there ok?"

    They nodded and filed passed but Essej stopped at Spike
and looked up, "If you hurt daddy we'll kill you. We can do that you know."


    "I'm sure ya can pet." Spike grinned and waited until
the bedroom door shut, "So whelp what's up your. . . erk!" He found himself
backed against a wall and held up by his neck. //Damn! Construction does
a body good! Yum pet.//

    "You aren't going to use them to threaten me do you hear
me? Threaten me all you want but don't use them. They're as close to family
as I've ever had and I love them like they were my own. Hurt them and I'll
show you just how 'much' good construction has done me. Understand?" 
He dropped the stunned vampire and Spike gapped up at him.

    "Did I say that out loud? . . . No. . . I know I didn't
say it out loud." He stood and faced the boy, "You have quite a few secrets
don't you nummy."

    "It's the kids." He sat on the couch and waited for Spike
to do the same. "Garkreshin demons can give phycic powers to the person they
feed off if it's over a long time. I guess it's so they know when to stop."


    "Wasn't the smartest thing you've ever done pet. Coulda
killed ya."

    "They wouldn't. I've raised them for four years now."


    "Four?! Then they must 'ave been just born when you. .
. 'ow could you keep this a secret?!"

    "I'm very good at hiding things Spike." Xander sighed
andted ted back into the couch. "You aren't going to tell anyone are you?"


    Spike grinned, "Nah pet, I like the li'l buggers, but
I don't think the watcher or the witches would 'urt 'em. Might spoil them
to death, but they wouldn' 'urt 'em."

    "I can't chance it. Not while they're still young."

&;&nb;   "They'll be tall as you are soon."

    Xander blushed, "But they're still my babies."

    The vampire shook his head. The whelp was a treat all
right. And whadd'ya know. He hadn't thought of Buffy in almost 12 hours.
Maybe he'd found his distraction.