Getting On...

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PART 24

The proposal had been beautiful, Xander admitted, and so had Buffy’s daintily tear-streaked face.

Of course, he wasn’t entirely sure of whether the tears had been because she was going to be getting married or were due to the three carat diamond claddagh ring Angel had offered her.

Either way, his sister seemed to be happy, and while he still couldn’t say he liked Liam Aurelius, he realized that he didn’t really have to. After all, it wasn’t like they’d be spending that much time together, even with the guy being Will’s brother.

So on the whole, Xander was happy for Buffy and wished her well.

His main concern at the moment was William, however, because ever since the dancing portion of the evening had become an impromptu engagement party, Will had been acting… strangely. So strangely, in fact, that Xander had felt the need to pull his love outside and wrap his arms tightly around him, his head bowed just a little to press his lips softly into the crook of William’s neck.

“Come on, baby,” he murmured quietly, “tell me what’s wrong, okay? We can’t make it better if we don’t try, right?”

William sighed and shook his head. “Don’t think it’s something that can be made better, luv. Just… jealous, I suppose. Of them. Angel. Buffy.” He sighed again. “Them. I’ll get over it, yeah?”

The only thing Xander could think of in that moment was Willow’s question the first night he’d been back. ‘Are you gonna marry him?’ she’d said, and while he’d never really thought about it because they were guys, what else could Will be jealous about?

Was his love worried that Xander didn’t feel as strongly for him as Angel did for Buffy? Or was it something more?

“Will… baby, I… you know I love you, right? I… hell, I should have asked before but I didn’t want you to think I was a big girl, you know?” He blushed. “Especially,” he mumbled, face hot against Will’s cooler neck, “you know… considering how much I love it when you, um… do me.”

And just like that, William was laughing at his slightly younger lover.

“Bloody hell! Xander! I don’t want to get married, for God’s sake! Not like we need that, is it? Know where I stand, and…” He laughed a bit more when embarrassed brown eyes met his. “It’s just… there isn’t anyone on the face of this earth who’s going to look at your sister with that tacky bloody rock on her finger and think she’s available, is there? I… bloody hell. I want that.” William’s brow furrowed. “And I’m not explaining this well at all. It’s simply that…” He sighed, defeated.

“You want jewelry,” Xander finished with a grin that felt like it was going to break his jaw if it got any wider. “So everyone knows, right? So that anyone—guy or girl—who sees you knows you’re taken. By me.” And fuck if Xander didn’t want that too, all of a sudden.

Hell, if he had a ring on William, even that fucker Lindsey would know just how taken Will was, and that was important because Xander had a feeling that the bastard would eventually realize just what he’d thrown away, and…

“As soon as we get home, baby,” he whispered, his mind made up completely and irrevocably by the sudden blush William was sporting. “Maybe we’ll have some sort of little… ceremony or something, too. Nothing official, because… well, it’s Texas, right? But… rings. Words. Party. Then you and me, lover… and when I call you mine, you’ll know I mean it.”

William blinked quickly, willing the entirely too emotional tears away. “R-rings? Did you say… as in plural…?” His heart tripped helplessly. If he’d heard correctly, then Xander was offering something he’d never even considered asking for. He wanted it, though. Wanted that. Not a wedding as such, but… some sign that they were both unavailable.

This time, it was Xander who was laughing. “Rings… a tattoo on my ass saying ‘property of Will’… whatever. Because I’m not letting you go, baby. It’s like I told you that night I first rode you. You’re stuck with me.”

Long, pale fingers tangled in silken sable locks and William smiled. “Best present I ever got, luv. And I’m going to work harder with Cordy. Going to get my leg all better for you, yeah?” He cocked his head and smiled wider. “Might even see what can be done about the scars, too. Plastic surgery may be up to the task now. Making leaps and bounds in that field, they are.”

‘Dear God… let that fucker Lindsey get what he deserves,’ Xander prayed desperately, even while he grasped the back of William’s head and kissed him breathless.

“Don’t you dare have your scars even touched, William,” he ordered, eyes pleading as he pulled back to meet blue that looked shocked by the words. “They’re a part of what made you into the man I met near I-35 that night… a part of what shaped you and formed you into you.”

The hand that had been on William’s side rose to the pale, beautiful face, fingertips stroking lightly at the slow tears that fell from disbelieving eyes.

“I know you were Spike Martin,” Xander went on slowly. “Cordelia made me watch every tape she could get of your games when we were in school. After your accident, I mean, because she was so fascinated by what happened. Hell, I knew you looked kinda familiar when we met, but I couldn’t figure out why… All that aside, baby… I never wanted Spike. Even with me being gay and with him being so… you know, almost as beautiful as you, but with less character.” He shrugged. “My point… and I do have one, baby, is that…”

God, William thought he was going to pass out. Xander didn’t want him to have the scars removed, and somehow his bloke had always known who he was…? But no, that didn’t make any sense because he would have known… would have felt it if Xander had just been trying to satisfy some odd urge to be with a ‘celebrity’, no matter how former the fame might have been, and… and maybe he’d only found out when he’d discovered who William really was, but even so, that wasn’t a part of his life that he wanted to remember or be reminded of and that had been all about Lindsey and him—and close to three hundred other random blokes and chits in the years it had lasted—but there wasn’t a ‘Lindsey and him’ anymore and he was glad of it and…

Xander swallowed hard and bit his lip just a little before forcing himself to go on in the face of William’s obvious distress.

“My point is…” he smiled shakily, leaning back against the stone balustrade of the balcony and pulling William flush against him, “if you’d never had the accident; if you’d never gotten those scars? We wouldn’t be here right now, Will.”

The blond blinked slowly, his eyes going wide, then narrowing, then widening again as he realized the truth of Xander’s words. “But…”

“But nothing.”

The words left Xander’s lips without even a thought.

“You would still be some arrogant, irritating, annoying bastard. You’d be fucking everything that moved and wouldn’t care about anyone but yourself and we never would have met because ‘Spike Martin’ never would have been on that road in the first place, so…” Xander sighed and hoped his next words wouldn’t drive an irremovable wedge between himself and his lover but he had to be entirely honest.

“I’m glad you had that accident, Will. I am! And I’m glad that you had to go through all those months—years!—of pain just to walk again! I’m glad that Lindsey-fucking-MacDonald is such a huge fucking moron that he couldn’t see what he had and abandoned you! And mostly…”

Xander sighed, sure that he was going to lose his lover forever… or go to Hell for what he knew was still coming out of his mouth.

“Most of all, I’m glad that you have those scars, William. Glad that you were so worried about them that you never let anyone touch you for those years between him and me. And just so you know, baby… I’ve never seen them as ugly. They’re just… a sign of your strength and your will to survive. And I love them. I… I’m glad you have those scars, Will. And a classic car that breaks down more often than not. I never would have had the chance to know you—love you—otherwise. And I’ll never love anyone else like this. Not ever. I don’t think I could even if we hadn’t gone for coffee that night.”

He’d been about to break and run—or try to, considering his bloke’s hold on him—right up until he’d heard those last words.

William didn’t really want to do anything but be offended and hurt and disgusted that Xander was happy about the hell he’d been through, but… a part of him had already considered it, apparently—the fact that everything he’d lived through had brought him to his love, he meant.

So in part, he was offended, hurt and disgusted… but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that his bloke was right.

The accident hadn’t been fun at all; neither had everything he’d gone through just trying to recover as much as possible.

Lindsey’s reaction to his ‘healed’ body had been heartrending and had broken him in more ways than he’d realized.

But now… now, here he was with Xander.

Xander, who didn’t mind his scars—and in fact had demanded that he leave them be.

Xander, who with no reason to lie had stated plainly that Spike wasn’t to his tastes.

Xander, who had made no secret of the fact that he wanted Will for Will— scars, quirks, bizarre mood swings and all.

Xander… who loved him and wanted to exchange rings with him. Who wanted to keep him. Who had never been anything other than loving and tender and sweet with him, except when William had wanted him to be loving and rough and demanding, anyway, and…

He pulled away, rather amazed when his bloke let him do so.

His eyes darted around the balcony, finally lighting on an almost hidden stone staircase in the far corner that ran up the side of the house.

“Where does that go?” William asked suddenly, his body already missing the pressure of Xander’s against it. “It seems a rather convenient way of leaving the main rooms without being seen.”

The brunette frowned deeply as his lover’s words registered.

He’d just spilled every secret thought he’d had and William was wondering about a staircase? Well, obviously, though it didn’t seem to bode well for ‘happily ever after’.

Still, he couldn’t ignore Will’s question, and so Xander sighed.

“It’s a direct route to the third floor, William,” he said sadly. “It’d be closer to go back the way you came. You know, for leaving and stuff. But you could stick to the edges of the room. I doubt anyone would see you unless you wanted them to.”

He held back his deep sobs at knowing he’d lost.

Blue eyes widened and William couldn’t help taking his bloke’s hands tightly in his own while he swallowed hard and made himself say what he’d never thought he would.

“I’m glad I had the accident too, Xander. Because you’re right. I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t have you to love and to love me, and… it would be incredibly rude to rush through the Ballroom right now, so I thought we might use those stairs to…”

From broken to brand new in just three point four seconds. It was a new record, Xander figured.

Of course, the speed with which he scooped up his love and ran up those stone stairs was likely another record, though he doubted Guinness would care.

“Will,” he whispered, laying the blond down on his bed mere minutes later, “God, Will…”

William smiled and started shimmying out of his clothes, well aware of what the heated look in Xander’s dark eyes meant.

“Might have to insist upon that tattoo, though,” Will admitted while he watched Xander rip fabric without care in his desperate effort to become as naked as William was. “Of course, it goes both ways, pet… and I don’t have a problem with having ‘Xander’s only’… oooomf!.. on my rear.”

Xander couldn’t hold back his smile. Hell, he’d been grinning when he’d pounced, and Will had barely even marked it.

One hand slid down, spreading tight, toned cheeks and finding the goal hidden there.

“How about we just have rings… and rings inked on, baby?” Xander growled wantonly as he stretched his lover carefully despite his desperate need. “Wouldn’t want your ass or mine too tender for weeks on end…”

And as that was something William completely agreed on, he simply nodded… then cried out loudly as his bloke slid to flush, filling him the way only he could.

“Xan… y-yes…! Yes!”

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tbc...