Through the Eyes of a Child

[thoughts] because yahell won’t recognize italics


It had been almost two weeks since the demon had injured Xander, and a solution had yet to be found. There just wasn’t enough known about the demon. Without telling the others, Giles had decided to call for help. He had searched everything he had available but had found next to nothing. Spike was still taking care of the regressed Xander, and never seemed to tire of the job. The girls helped him when they could, even Dawn “babysat” occasionally. Buffy had actually brought him to the Magic Box a few times, and let him play in the training room, after she locked up the weapons of course. She wrestled and played with him which helped to burn off some of his boundless energy. Xander had become their little brother, and the group was determined to protect him. The one time his drunken lout of a father tried to contact him, he was told that Xander was out of town on business for the Magic Box. The gang seemed to be determined to give him some of the things he missed out on as a child. The first time one of them had given him a present really brought it home to the group just how different Xander’s childhood had been compared to theirs.

One week ago….

Buffy was very happy with herself as she walked down the stairs to Xander’s apartment. He will love the Lego’s set she had bought him, a castle with knights and everything. It even had a dragon. She knew he would like it. Xan always was her white knight, even when she forgot sometimes. As she raised her hand to knock on the door, she heard noises coming from inside the apartment.

“help me, please somebody, help me, monster’s gonna eat me up.” [Oh God, it’s Xan, I knew we shouldn’t trust Spike.] Buffy burst through the unlocked door, and her blood went cold at the scene being played out before her. Xander was trying to crawl over the arm of the sofa as Spike came in from the kitchen in full game face. Xander’s eyes were huge, and wild looking as he tried to get off the couch and away from the approaching vampire. Before either one even knew she was there, Buffy had dropped the sack, and was over the back of the couch, holding Spike up against the wall with a stake at his chest.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t just dust you and sweep you out the door.” Buffy snarled.

Before she could do or say anything else Xander had run across the room and had her by the waist. He was trying to pull her away from the vampire. She was reminded that this was still a man when she and Xander both ended up sitting on the floor.

“aunt buffy, please don’t hurted spike, please. we was just playing the grrr game. honest it was just a game. please don’t be all mad. please don’t dusted my spike.” Xander was still pulling on Buffy while he tried to explain in-between sobs. Buffy dropped her arm around Xander’s shoulders, looked up at Spike with a smirk.

“The grrr game huh?”

“Well, yeah. The sprout likes it, it gives him the giggles don’t it.” Spike reached down and ruffled the dark curls on Xander’s head “You like me to chase you all vamp-like, don’t ya, ya silly git?”

“yeap, it’s really fun aunt buffy. first he goes all grr…grrr then he chases and chases me and when he catches me he throws me on the floor and tickles me all over. you wanna play with us?” Xander looked up at her with innocent eyes not noticing the twisted evil little smile on Spike’s face.

“Yeah Auntie Buffy, do you wanna play the grr game with us?” Spike drawled putting all the innuendo he could into the question. The look on Buffy’s face was just the response Spike was hoping for. He began to laugh so hard he couldn’t stay standing and slid down the wall. He was very thankful he really didn’t need to breathe, he was laughing to hard to even try.

“Xander honey, see that sack over by the door? It has something in it for you. Why don’t you go get it, okay? I need to beat u…umm talk to Spike for a few minutes.” Buffy stood up bringing Xander up with her and turned him around, pointing out the sack she had dropped. Xander looked up at her, confusion written all over his face.

“why’d you buy me som’thin? its not my birthday or chris’mis or nothin’. You don’t have to buy me stuff. i only get stuff when i’ve been good and not been bad.” The look on Xander’s face made it very clear that he was not used to being given gifts for no reason, that maybe he was not used to being given gifts at all. The idea seemed to be totally new to him. Spiked had stopped his laughing and just sat on the floor watching his boy try to explain. “my willow and jesse gets me som’thin for my birthday sometimes but daddy usually says it’s too fe…fa…fan whats that word?”

“Do you mean fancy, sweetheart?” Buffy asked quietly.

“yeah that’s it, daddy says sometimes they’re to faaancy and takes ‘em back to the store so i don’t break ‘em. she got me a really neat firetruck once with a ladder and hoses and firemans and a dog, it was so cool but daddy said it was to nice for me to mess up so he tooked it and gave it to my cousin ‘cause he’s older and he oweded his daddy some money.” Spike and Buffy’s eyes met over the top of Xander’s head, the soulless demon and the demon slayer both looking like their hearts were breaking.

“Spike here ta…ta..take him a minute, I, uh need to…uh.. need to…” Spike could see the tears starting to collect and pointed her in the direction of the bathroom. Buffy ran out of the living room barely getting the bathroom door shut before she broke down in heart wrenching sobs. What had that those bastards put her Xander through? How could he have become the loving, sweet boy that had accepted her from her first day in Sunnydale? He had taken everything the hellmouth had thrown at him again and again and he always came back fighting. Why wasn’t he mean and resentful? Buffy knew that she probably would be if she had been treated like that. She was truly beginning to understand just what a strong man her friend was. He had to be strong to survive the hell he grew up in. Maybe in a small way helping her and being a Scoobie had helped him stay strong. That thought made her feel a little better, to know she might have helped in some way. Buffy ran the cold water, soaked a washcloth and laid it on her swollen eyes. It wouldn’t be right to go back in there with red eyes, she didn’t want to do anything that might upset Xander.

Trying to distract his Xan-pet from Buffy’s quick departure, Spike reached down and picked up the bag. He handed it to Xander. “Here whelp, why don’cha go ahead and see what sla…Auntie Buffy bought ya.”

Xander sat in the middle of the floor with his legs spread open with the sack sitting between them. “look spike, look it’s legos…a really big thing of legos and it makes a castle and…and look there’s horses and knights with swords and armor and them long pointy things…”

“That would be a lance, sprout.”

“yeah, a lance thingie and oh wow. look, it’s a for real dragon with wings and everything.” Xander was bouncing up and down in excitement. When he saw Buffy coming back down the hallway, Xander jumped up and ran to her nearly knocking her off her feet when he grabbed her in a hug. “thankyou, aunt buffy, thankyou. i’ll take really good care of it and be really careful and not lose any of it, i pro-miss.”

“Sprout, why don’t you take it over to the table and open the box up. That way you don’t loose any on the floor.” As Xander walked away, Spike pulled some money out of his jean pocket and shoved it at a surprised Buffy. “Slayer, I need you to go get the fanciest fuckin’ firetruck this bleedin’ town has. Make sure it has all those extra bits on it. It’s kinda light out now or I’d do it myself.” Buffy grabbed the startled Spike around the neck and hugged him.

“Xander, I’ve got to go for awhile but I’ll be back later. Maybe Dawnie can come back with me, and we’ll help you with your legos.” As Xander waved at her, she leaned over towards Spike and whispered “We’ll also discuss how come 6 year old Xander knows you’re a vampire.” Buffy walked out the door laughing at the surprised look on Spike’s face.

“Oh fuckin’ hell…”