Full Circle

The night before…


Giles' front door slammed hard enough for the windows to rattle in their frames, and Xander grumbled to himself as he wondered why he and only *he* got the honour of locating the Bleached Wonder and making sure that the vampire attended the next Scooby Meeting. The next meeting being tomorrow night, of course, which meant that Xander would have to spend his hard earned hours off from work trolling through Sunnydale's numerous cemeteries until he stumbled upon Spike's latest hidey hole.

Shaking his head as he continued to lament his situation, Xander grimaced at the thought of the newest 'Big Bad' that had descended upon Sunnydale. Apparently, some sort of three-armed, liver eating weirdo of a demon had decided to make Sunnydale its private playground. Something that didn't bode well for the little town's human residents. However, as Giles had soon discovered, thanks to rather large tome, there was a relatively simple way of getting the cloven footed demons to move on. According to the last person who'd had the chance to study the demons, they were pretty peaceable folk and would give up their claim on Sunnydale without a quibble or bloodshed if it was proven that someone else had staked a claim first. Someone like the Slayer for example?

Unfortunately, Sunnydale being situated on a Hellmouth, there was a down side. They would only relinquish their claim if spoken to in their native language. Snickering to himself as he recalled Giles sickened look as the older man had tried to pronounce the cat like purring sounds, Xander reluctantly acknowledged that Giles was more than likely right, and that Spike would probably have more success at being able to persuade the demons to give up their idea of turning Sunnydale into a buffet. So far, there had been nothing in the way of bloodshed from the demon clan but as Buffy had declared, sooner was always better when it concerned demons.

His snicker died down into a low groan as he recalled just how pissed Anya had been when faced with the thought of missing out on a morning and probably an early afternoon of orgasms. Xander had politely pointed out that there would be no orgasms for either of them. "So not the point!" had been the reply from the angry ex-demon. He had held his hands up in self-defence in an effort to placate her, all the while promising to make it up to his visibly steaming girlfriend.

Just his luck that Iowa Boy wasn't coming back till tomorrow night from visiting his family down on the farm, meaning that Riley was unable to help him with his search for Spike. Buffy had declared that she couldn't help Xander either, as she wanted to 'pretty herself up' so that Riley would know in the future that farms weren't the only thing that could inspire dreamy, sun filled memories. So, of course, no help from the Buffster. As for Wills and Tara, Xander couldn't really fault the two witches for being unable to help, as they did have important classes in the morning which they couldn't miss, no matter what they might say.

Giles had tactfully declined, stating that he was sure that stock take had to be done in his new shop. Snorting to himself, Xander picked up the pace on his way back home, sure that a shop as new as G-Man's really didn't need one so soon after opening. Then again, who was he to know what went on in a shop and after tasting the construction worker's life, he really didn't want to know, so he had let that one slide right by with a grateful look from Giles. Secure in the knowledge that he still had Anya to help him look, Xander had been content to let everyone dish out their various excuses.

Of course, that had been until his lovely girlfriend had jumped on to the excuse bandwagon by declaring that since her current ambition was to be a nightclub 'door bitch', helping Giles in the shop would be invaluable experience for her. Listening to Anya badger Giles into letting her point at things in the shop for him had actually been funny, and Xander had been certain that the ex-librarian would stick to his guns and continue to say no. He had been disappointed when Giles, after cleaning his glasses thoroughly with the ever present handkerchief, had finally given in and said yes.

"So, let me guess?" he mused out loud to himself. "This means that the whole demon situation rests on my ability to find Spike?"

"Joy! I love being the dependable one," Xander added, with more than a snaky tone to his voice. Doing the buttons up on his thick jacket, he continued his walk home in the chilly night air. Winter couldn't be too far away, Xander thought. Looking in the letter box beside his driveway, Xander briefly wondered why he still bothered to do it. He knew without a doubt that his parents would have already thrown away anything that wasn't addressed to them, or that didn't contain coupons to be swapped for groceries or better yet, giving them a discount on alcohol. Seeing that the box was empty, he made his way to the basement doorway and unlocked the door. Turning the light on so that he could see his way down the stairs, and hopefully avoid the rotten step that continually threatened to twist his ankle each time he encountered it, Xander descended down into his gloomy living quarters.

Idly, he wondered if it would be easier to just go straight back out and look for Spike that night, there-by ensuring that he was once again back in the good books with Anya.

Have a Twinkie and get sleep.

Or

Look for Fangless.

Or

Twinkie first, shower and then sleep.

Or

Look for Fangless and be tired and cranky the next day.

Or

Two Twinkies, shower and sleep.

Or

Look for Fangless, get tired and cranky and be unable to summon up enough energy to perform for a seriously pissed girlfriend the next day.

Or...

After a few rounds had rattled around his skull, Xander settled for eating two Twinkies, using all the hot water while suffering a sugar hyper and then crashing down into a hopefully dreamless sleep. Bleach Boy could wait until tomorrow to get his Boy Scout badge of Usefulness.

Turning the rapidly cooling water off, Xander gathered the wet Twinkie wrappers in his hand and leaned over the cramped shower recess to grab a towel. The coarse towelling prickling at his skin as he dried himself off, he walked from the bathroom to the small kitchenette to deposit the sticky wrappers in the bin. Towel wrapped around his waist, his more muscular waist now that he had been at his construction job for more than a month, Xander opened the plastic bag that he had placed on the kitchen bench and took out the blood packets, placing them in the fridge's vegetable crisper right next to the carrots. The mouldy, gross looking carrots. Sighing, he threw the offending items into the bin, on top of the candy wrappers.

Only briefly wondering what had been so important that Spike hadn't come to the weekly Scooby meeting, if only to pick up his week's supply of blood, Xander walked across the basement's threadbare carpet covering cold concrete to his inviting bed. The towel dropped onto the floor beside the bed, he rummaged through the various piles of clothes that decorated the basement floor in the hopes of finding a pair of not so smelly track pants and a long sleeved T-shirt. Once found, dutifully sniffed and approved, he wearily climbed into the thin, hole filled welcome of his sheets and blankets. Throwing himself around the squeaky mattress, Xander only succeeded in getting himself thoroughly tangled in the meagre warmth the bedclothes offered.

Making a mental note to get some better blankets or better yet, a thermal sleeping bag that zipped right out, he thumped his pillow into a more serviceable shape and closed his eyes. As he let himself drift off into a Twinkie induced dream of epic proportions, his last coherent thought was never to eat Twinkies in the shower again.



"FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!"

Scowling, Xander picked himself up from the basement floor onto which he had landed after tripping over his forgotten towel. With a few pats to his knees, he dusted off his new cargo pants, inspecting them for any rips and tears. Anya loved him in cargo pants and had repeatedly told him that his arse looked totally 'hot and biteable' in them. Hopefully, just by wearing them, Xander would be making a good start in his efforts to make up the missed orgasms to Anya.

Really, why he had to look for the English wanker on his Rostered Day Off from work was still anybody's guess. Anya had leapt onto Giles' excuse with an amount of gusto that still surprised him. Even when he had pointed out to her that one of the benefits of having her help him look for Spike wouldbe that they would have more time for orgasms, it hadn't been enough to dissuade her from wanting to hassle Giles all day.

The sound of 'Errrrrrkkkk!' coming from Buffy hadn't worried him, neither had the giggles from both Wills and Tara. Giles' politely worded 'Ah!' and inspection of the ceiling hadn't bothered him either. What had annoyed him so much had been the unexpected response from his beloved. A response that had gone something like 'You're the man, you do the dirty work. I'm not!'

Something that had Xander angrier than he had felt in a long time, hence the door slamming episode at Giles' place the night before he had really lost his temper.

Once he made sure that his cargos were still in top shape, Xander checked the amount of money left in his wallet. mounmount that pleasantly surprised him as he had been sure that he had overspent the day before on his afternoon chocolate attack. With ten dollars left, Xander found himself forming a search plan for Spike with the issue of a cooked breakfast foremost in mind. Even though he knew he was going to have to search every crypt in Sunnydale, Xander would make sure that he had breakfast at the little diner opposite Sunnydale's oldest cemetery.

"Probably makes most of its money holding wakes," mused Xander, already dreaming of eggs, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms...

Mmmmmm, he thought to himself, I'll be good and save it till last. That way, if he ate breakfast close to lunchtime, he wouldn't have to buy a separate lunch and that meant he both saved money and would have more stamina for Anya later that day.

"Wow, with that kind of thinking, I should be a shoe-in for Harvard," snickered Xander as he bounded up the stairs, being careful to land on the squeaky step and avoid the rotten one. He pushed the basement door open, and stepped out into the chilly but bright day.