Getting On...

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PART 26

If anything, Willow was relieved that her brother and Oz had managed to work things out well enough that Xander wouldn’t be telling their father and Uncle Ethan anything. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to give Xan a hard time, though.

She sat on the edge of his bed and watched him pack while William was gathering the grooming products in the bathroom, her eyes sparkling merrily.

“So you guys are gonna have some sort of a ceremony?”

Xander barely glanced at her, more focused on packing the Armani suit he liked best. He wanted to wear it when he put his ring on Will’s finger, after all. “Yeah.”

Willow swallowed her laugh. “And you’re gonna exchange rings…?”

A small shrug then a clear nod as Xander said “Yeah,” again; then “as soon as we pick them out.”

“All of your friends are gonna be there, right? And me, of course.”

Xander couldn’t help the huge smile that spread across his lips. “God, I hope so. I mean, I’m not ashamed of him or how I feel about him, you know, Willow?” He blushed and looked at his baby sister, finally closing his suitcase before sitting down beside her on the side of the bed. “I really want everyone to know that we’re together. Even people who don’t know us. I want everyone who’s capable of seeing us and seeing that we have matching rings to know—without a shadow of a doubt—that William is mine… and I’m his.” He sighed happily, looking forward to that time. “And, okay. Maybe there are gonna be some people who can’t handle it. Who think we’re perverted or whatever. But I can’t worry about them. I don’t want to worry about them.”

He smiled softly. “The only person I want to worry about is in the bathroom right now, Wills… probably making sure that the bristles of our toothbrushes are interlocking for the trip home.”

God, it was amazing to see her brother so completely in love. Even more, it was incredible that he was making it so easy for her to tease him.

“Okay,” Willow giggled, unable to actually meet Xander’s eyes at that moment, “Just to make sure I have everything straight—pardon the word—you and Will are gonna have a ceremony and exchange rings in front of family and friends… so nobody will think either of you are single.”

Xander’s smile got a good bit larger. “Oh, yeah.”

“And then later, you’re gonna take a few days off and just be together before you have to rejoin the rest of the world.”

William chuckled from the bathroom doorway, even as he finished zipping up the small satchel that held their grooming items. “As many days as I can get him to take, pet,” he agreed.

Willow giggled even more before darting her gaze back and forth between her brother and her brother’s lover. “Okay… and explain to me again how that’s different from getting married, because I’m for damned sure not seeing it.”

Blue eyes met baffled brown, and as William stepped into the bedroom, both men shook their heads despairingly.

“It’s a bloke thing,” William finally said, one hand sliding slowly down Xander’s spine as the other put the satchel in his suitcase. “And you clearly don’t understand.”

Of course, neither did he, now that Willow had pointed it out, but… “won’t be having us any babies, will we?”

Xander laughed and leaned back against the hand just above his ass. “Not unless there’s something you haven’t told me, Will. I’m pretty sure I haven’t knocked you up.”

The blond laughed and settled beside his lover, one hand resting on Xander’s knee. “Yes. That is precisely why I want us to ‘marry’, as Willow believes us to be doing. I’m pregnant and don’t wish our child to be a bastard, Xander. Please make an honest man of me.” He batted his eyes dramatically.

Red hair shook and shimmied in waves as Willow laughed. “Fine. Fine,” she answered, her voice shaking with amusement, “and maybe it’s just me being a girl, but I still say you’re getting married. So there. Nyah!”

She stuck her tongue out at them childishly, and when they were all laughing harder than they’d ever done, she finally forced herself to stand.

“I love you guys,” Willow said, her voice quieter suddenly, and more intense. “And I love it that you’re together. I… I think you were maybe meant for each other. So, Xander? Don’t screw it up, okay?” She grinned. “I want my kids to be calling you Uncle Xander and Uncle Will twenty years from now, okay?”

Twenty years.

It was almost a lifetime to the two men, and because of that, it was a somewhat scary thought.

To be together that long; to know only each other intimately for almost as many years as they’d been alive…?

Neither of them had ever considered being apart… not really, except for those moments when each had feared losing the other, but twenty years?

Concerned blue eyes found equally shaky brown, and that was all it took.

“Best make it forty years, pet,” William murmured after a moment, caught in his bloke’s gaze.

“Sixty,” Xander added helplessly because… oh, he would never get enough of Will’s eyes, his smile, the way he touched him—down deep in his soul, even when the blond was miles away or as close as he was right then. “Never gonna screw this up, baby… and if I start to, tell me.”

It was William’s response to those words that convinced Willow that it was time to go.

She didn’t even say goodbye; she just slipped nearly silently from the room and closed the door behind her.

After all, she didn’t really need to see her brother and William making out like two fifteen year old kids. It was hot, granted, but… none of her business.

Her eyes sparkled again, this time with a touch of wickedness.

Oz should be finishing up his work for the night and if she chose to surprise him by being naked and in his bed when he got home, well… she didn’t think he’d mind.

* * * * *

The next time Lindsey woke, he turned his head away from the glass pressed to his lips.

When it was placed there again, he groaned loudly and as threateningly as possible.

“Stop that!” he ordered, his head throbbing just as it had done before. “Jesus fucking Christ, I need to sober up…”

If he’d been less hung over, he would have recognized the relief in the sigh that met his words, but as it was…

“What the fuck do you want?” he demanded, his eyes cracking open just a bit to see the lithe, blonde and naked woman beside him.

Huh. A woman.

It took a good minute or so, but Lindsey finally shrugged on the inside. He liked women sometimes. They were soft and curvy. Gentle.

His eyes raked blearily over as much of her as he could see without actually moving, and it was only then that he realized he’d missed whatever it was she’d been saying.

“Huh?”

“I said,” the blonde repeated, as though speaking to a particularly dimwitted child, “that what I want is for you to bathe. You smell like you’ve been rolling around on the floor of a public restroom. Of course, that makes sense since you haven’t showered for at least three days that I know of. I can’t speak for the time before that because I wasn’t here. But after you’ve washed, you’re going to shave, get dressed, and take me to dinner. I’m tired of room service. I want to go out.”

Lindsey groaned loudly, hands covering his ears. “God! Can you shut up? Or at least not be so loud?”

The young woman rolled her eyes as she climbed naked from the bed. “That depends. Are you going to do what I told you to?”

He groaned again, but the fact that the blonde seemed entirely willing to speak even louder if he didn’t? That made him move.

“Fine,” he grumbled, slitted, bloodshot eyes giving her an appreciative once-over as he stumbled towards what he hoped was the bathroom. “Just… fuck. Quiet, okay?”

She watched him disappear into the bathroom, a small smile crossing her lips when she heard the shower start running. He seemed to be rather obedient, and that was never a bad thing. Then again, she’d known who he was as soon as he’d introduced himself… had known who his Aunt was, which possibly explained his willingness to be dominated by a strong-minded woman.

Her smile only grew when she heard his mobile phone ring from across the room and it took mere moments to locate it in his discarded pants. It had rang at least six times a day since she’d been spending time with the man, but he’d always mumbled something about ignoring it.

Now that he was out of the room, though, she was for damned sure going to satisfy her curiosity.

“Lindsey’s pants,” she answered the call with a soft laugh. “He’s not in them right now; can I take a message?”

She listened to the annoyed voice on the other end, and when the inevitable question came, her grin became truly enormous.

“Pffffft… you first. Who’s this?” she demanded right back, laughing on the inside at the answer.

“Oh, okay. Well, ‘Lindsey’s Aunt’, I’m Anya. Anya Jenkins-MacDonald. Lindsey’s wife.”

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tbc...