My May Day Human

Title: My Son's Monster
Author: Raihne
Feedback: jazzhot80@hotmail.com
Warnings: Angst, Fluffy Comfort
Disclaimer: Standard, I don't own them but I can still dream. (Mmmm leather and chocolate and Xander, oh my!)
Series: Sequal to 'The Prince of Monsters'
Summary: This is the forth story in what was going to stay a fluffy little series, before my twisted muse go tout of it's cage, about Spike meeting Xander back when he was 10 instead of when he was in high school. It might be called pre-slash (slash once Xander grows up), but I'm still not sure where I'm going with it.
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Xander sat at the kitchen table thinking of a wish to make even while his mother was still defrosting the cake she'd bought earlier. He almost know what to wish, he just needed to say it right. His dad's entrance to the room pulled Xander from thoughts of monsters and birthday hugs and partys with granny Harris at the cemetary. He looked up and smiled.

"So birthday boy, what are you going to wish for?"

Xander shrugged. He really couldn't tell him mom that he wanted to wish that his monster would be his forever. If you said your wish out loud it wouldn't come true. Willow said so, and when Jesse had told them he wished for a pony, he never got one, so saying a wish out loud was strictly forbidden. It would be in the rule book, if he had a rule book. maybe he should make a rule book, willow would help. . .

"Look't him spacing out over what to wish for." He dad laughed, "I noticed those kids haven't been roughin' you up lately."

Xander shook his head, "They're scared of me now."

Tony Harris smiled broadly and nodded, "See, I knew you could take care of your own problems. Bet you'll have quite a name for yourself by the time you start high school, no bullying fer my boy!"

"Tony! Don't incurrage him to fight!" Jessica scolded.

The boy has to grow up sometime Jess and this town doesn't go easy on kids. No small town does. So Alex, about the party. I hired . . ."

"I cancelled the clown." Jessica said forcefully.

"Damn it Jessica! He needs to face his fears! He's a fuckin' man and he'll grow up to be strong and he's not gonna be strong if he's scared of fat old men in face paint!"

"Tony! He's just turning eleven."

"Exactly! He's a young man now!"

"Well now he's a young man who won't be spending his birthday hiding from a clown in the linen cupboard."

Xander didn't want this to go much further, he loved his dad, he really did, but he knew his dad's temper, and if he thought he was in the right and someone argued with him too much, he would make them hurt. Xander didn't want his mom to get hit, or cry, and so he sat up straight as he could and bravely declaired, "I'm not scared of clown anymore Dad. They're just fat guys in face paint, just like you said."

Tony laughed and clapped his son on the back, grinning, "See Jessica, he's gonna be a real man, just you watch."

Jessica, who knew her son a little too well, smiled at the boy and winked, the went back to the cake, "I'm sorry Xander, but I already cancled him, I didn't know."

Xander smiled a huge smile, "That's okay mom, I'm too old for clowns now anyway. Dad doesn't have clowns at his birthday anymore, so I don't need them at mine."

If his dad realized what was going on, he didn't say anything, he just nodded and slapped Xander's back again, then made for the door, "Well, I'm gonna be late to work if I don't go now, so, happy birthday little man."

"Thanks dad." Xander beamed.

Once his father was gone, his mother wrapped him in a tight hug and gave his cheek a peck. "Thank you Xander."

"It's okay mom. He not so scarey when he has a job."

"I know honey. Now, presents or cake?"

Xander looked at her like she was speaking in blaspheming tongues. . . or claiming the pink ranger was the coolest power ranger(when everyone knows the green ranger is the best).

She put cake and presents on the table and crossed her arms, "Well you can't do both at once."

"Bloody Fecking Hell."

"Alexander LaVell Harris!"

His eyes were so wide he was afraid his eyeballs might roll out and get in his cake, which would be really gross, and probably hurt, but he hadn't meant to say that! "Sorry mom."

"I don't know who you've been hanging out with, but that kind of language is not allowed in this house."

"I'm really sorry!" His eyes were watery and he was glad his dad wasn't home because real men didn't cry, but he didn't want his mom to be mad at him! Not on his birthday!

"Well. . . I'll let it slide this time. But you only get one warning, next time I'm washing your mouth out with soap."

"Yes ma'am."

"Now open your gifts and then we'll light the candles and have cake."

He nodded and tore into the bright red and blue paper, making a huge deal over the comic books and the special box to keep them in that his dad had fashioned from leftover material from the construction site, while his mom held the video camera and made a fuss so that Tony could see how much Xander had liked it, if he asked when he got it that night. He instantly changed into his new orange shirt and the bright blue over shirt with wings and key shaped designs all along the bottom and the sleeves. He put on his new black jeans and the black boots his mom had gotten him when she noticed all the mud he tracked around and had decided that he must really love the parks hiking trails. He couldn't wait to show Spike his new clothes! They were even better than his favorites that Larry'd destroyed the day Spike scared him. "They're great mom! Thanks!"

"I know they're not name brand or anything but. . ."

"They're better! The name brand ones never last."

Jessica got tears in her eyes and hugged her son so he wouldn't see them. He was such a good boy, never complaining when they couldn't give him what the other kids had, always smiling over the simplest things. She hoped he never had to change. "There's one more sweety."

Xander searched around and found a small square package. He opened it up and stared at the silver box in confusion. "Mom?"

That one's not actually for you. I saw you looking at it in the store last week and thought maybe your monster would like it.

The little boy stared at his mother in awe and clutched the silver zippo tight in his little fist, the railroad spike decoratio on the front pressing into his palm.

"I'm your mother. I know everything." She explained with a soft smile. "Now you need to make a wish, eat your cake, and then you can go to the arcade, okay? And I told your dad you have a sleepover tonight. You have fun at your party, and don't trake mud into the house when you get home okay?"

"You don't mind?"

His mom knelt down in front of him and shook her head, "He's your monster after all, right? Just don't swear like him anymore."

"Okay!"

Jessica watched her son blow out the candles and devour the cake at light speed, then he was out the door and she sat down and laughed to herself.

Honestly, she hadn't known what to think when she'd caught the bleched blond punk standing outside her son's window. She'd watched the two of them carefully and hadn't noticed anything strange beyond the fact that it was two am and a twenty something man was sitting on her roof laughing with her ten year old. She'd gone to Xander's room to check on him and there was no one there but the 'monster under his bed'. It wouldn't have even come to mind again except she'd seen her son the week before while she was doing some last minuet shopping just after dark.


He was in the park, with the same bleached blond punk, and going over, what looked like strange fighting moves in slow motion. She'd watched for hours until the blond had motioned to someone in the shadows and instructed the smaller man who emurged to get the kid home safely.

Once they'd gone, she got out of the car and approached the man. "Excuse me."

He'd spun and pinned her to a tree so quickly she hadn't seen him move, and his face. . . he really was a monster. Instead of struggling though, she yelled out the thought that had been in the fore front of her mind. "What are you doing with my ten year old son?!"

The man had let go of her and taken a step back to study her. "Sorry bought that misses, only saw yeh once an I was under a bed at the time."

"Xander's monster."

He grinned and lit a cigarette offering one to her, shrugging when she declined. After a moment he snorted, "An' this is in no way awkward." He chuckled and sat on a park bench, stretching his legs out before him.

"What are you?!"

"Vampire. William The Bloody, folks call me Spike."

"Spike. . . you seem very close to my son." She started, and eyed the familiar macaroni necklace at the vampire's throat. She didn't know why she wasn't panicking. Part of her was probably in shock, part in denile, and part remembering her sons smile when he'd been talking on the roof, and just minuets before, when he'd hugged his monster goodbye.

"'e's a bit of all right." The punk, Spike, offered. "I like 'im, my whole bloody effin' court likes 'im."

"Court?"

"Vampire thing luv, I killed ol' bat face that used to run this place, like shootin' fish in the proverbial barrel that. . . now I'm the master. The vamps in this place, most of 'em bow to me. . . bow to yer whelp now too don' they."

"Xander?"

"He's the Little Prince."

"You won't hurt him. I don't know what I can do to stop you, but you can't. . ."

"Not gonna hurt the whelp. Didn't even kill you when I found out who ya were. Told ya di'n I? I like the boy. 'm his bloody monster. Even taking time outta my busy night to teach 'im how ta stand up to blokes like that there Larry and 'is ol man."

Jessica didn't know why, but she didn't doubt that Spike wouldn't hurt her child. . . not in a vampiric way. . . but still. . . "What are your intentions."

"Prob'ly keep 'im till 'es ripe enough to decide if 'e want to be one o' us. Maybe turn 'im, maybe fuck 'im, maybe both. Not a saint me, 'm a vampire."

"But not now." She pressed.

Spike made a face, "Wha'd ya take me for? 'm no fucking child molestor."

She read the honesty in those words and nodded slowly. "You'll wait until he's eighteen?"

"Fifteen." Spike bartered, "For one part at least."

She couldn't wrap her mind around her baby doing. . . that. . . when he was still so young! "Seventeen."

Spike rolled his eyes, "Sixteen fer anything below the belt, anything above only if he comes to me. No leading him to it. Deal?"

She didn't want to deal with this monster, but he struck her as someone who kept promises when made, and he'd been good for Xander as far as she could tell from the past year. She felt her heart pounding over how not right the situation was, but. . . "Deal." She agreed and then added, "But you and I are going to meet once a week."

"Wot fer?"

"To talk about Xander, and to trade stories, and because if you're going to be a part of his life I'm not letting you fade into the background. Tony isn't ready for anything like this, but I will not have a member of this family watching from the sidelines."

"Bloody buggering fuck woman! I'm not yer kid!"

"No, you're my monster in law apparently, or you will be." She held out her hand and grinned a bit evilly, "Welcome to the family."

"Fuck, now I see where he gets it, all you Harrises are bloody well insane!"



She cleaned up the wrapping paper and thought of the vampire that her son had brought home. //Most kids bring in strays, Xan just takes it to a new level.//

She'd actually talked to Spike twice since then, and he didn't act like she would have expected a monster to act. He drank cocoa, and got mini marshmellows stuck on his fangs, he watched a soap opera, listened to really bad music, but could be caught singing disney songs with Xander if she listened to her son's room late at night. and he genuinely cared about her child. That was what had won his way into her heart. The coldblooded monster loved her Xander, even if he didn't know it yet. She finished cleaning the kitchen and looked out at the bright sun. //I wonder how long I have to go, before both of my 'sons' only visit after dark.//

She remembered a comment she'd made about Xander going nocturnal on her and laughed out loud, if she'd only known. But her son was smiling again, and standing up to his father in subtle but effective ways. Spike was good for him, and to him.

//My son is a little demon prince. . . well, it could be worst.//

She wiped roughly at the tears that slipped down her face. And she didn't know why she was crying.

Maybe she was still in shock.