The re-education of Xander Harris

FANDOM: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series
TITLE: The re-education of Xander Harris
AUTHOR: Willie J
EMAIL: wmj166@yahoo.com
ARCHIVE SITE(S): http://www.slashaholics-island.com/library/viewuser.php?uid=69; http://www.brain-insane.com/beyondcanon; http://www.adult-fanfiction.org
PAIRINGS: A/X
RATING: NC-17
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any part of Buffy et all, nor Angel the Series.
FEEDBACK: Will be gratefully appreciated
DISTRIBUTION: List Archives
SPOILERS: Everything up to just before Faith killed the Mayor’s assistant
SUMMARY: Angel is determined that Xander understands the truth about demon
A/N #1: Those of Buffyverse are naturally Joss' creations, however, any and all other characters mentioned are my own.
A/N #2: This deviates greatly from Season 2. Wesley took Faith away to continue her training as a Slayer; the Mayor-becoming-a-giant-snake never happened; graduation went off without a hitch; Angel still in town and hasn’t left for L.A.
BETA'D BY: Elaine (the Mighty)


Chapter 8

Oz looked at Xander, his eyes revealing a quiet sadness. “She knows…Willow and Buffy knows that you lied about her resouling Angel.”

Xander paled alarmingly. He turned so white, that Oz thought he was going to pass out. Then the smaller teen became really alarmed when Xander began gasping for breath, his eyes standing out in his ghostly face like burning coals.

There was a shimmer beside the gasping boy, and a large buglike creature chittered, the sound somehow conveying an anxiousness to Oz’s ears. Then touching Xander’s face a low melodious humming vibrated through the room. The spikey haired teen was astonished to find that it was coming from the insect.

“Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit…” he murmured in disbelief. His face reflecting all his surprise to see Xander…Xander Harris, demon hating, bug-stomping Scooby suffering the touch of demon. He smirked, looks like Xander’s doing more than just allow a ‘touch’. Especially with Angel.

Then his smirk disappeared. Buffy was going to KILL Xander. Despite her repeated claims that she wasn’t in love with Angel, only a blind, noseless person would believe that load of baloney.

He settled back and watched the amazing scene. But he knew it in his bones, just like he knew the instant the full moon rose, there was going to be trouble. A trouble that may be the undoing of the tight bonds of kinship that made up the odd family of a sort that found solace and strength in each other. While he had very little problem with Buffy and her subconsciously possessive outlook, and normally he would be silently propping her up just like everyone around her did, even if he did think she was one french fry short of a Happy Meal. Because of her duties, he felt like she deserved to be a little…egoistical and believe that she was definitely that important to the world. Hell, he wouldn’t want her job! However, he knew that she was going to have a conniption over the fact that two of HER ‘orbs’ no longer revolved around her.

It was going to be especially hard when her greatest satellite no longer reflected her light back at her, and it looked like the tiny ignored moon on the outskirts of her universe was getting what belonged to ‘her’.

T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

Xander shuddered and shook as he struggled to breathe, struggled not to give into the panic that was trying to drag him under. He dropped swiftly down, pulling a memory of him and Angel, sng ong on the rocks and watching the waterfall gush into the stone basin below. Listening to the laughter and shrieks below them as kids and adults splashed and played in the water. Phosphorescent lichen glowed at their level, and further down, torches were set into niches in the rocky walls.

Gradually his panic receded, his efforts to breathe slowly coming back. He took a long dragging breath, smiling absently as D’kur nibbled gently at his cheek as he became aware of Oz’s calm, waiting face. He grimaced slightly at revealing his weakness. “Sorry, just a lingering problem with breathing,” he said briefly.

Oz nodded wisely. “Yeah, I kinda have that problem too. Matter of fact, I think the entire world has a bit of difficulty with breathing. Don’t breathe…don’t live. Except for vampires…they kinda got that problem licked what with being dead and all.”

Xander glared at the boy, but thwas was a humorous twitch to his lips. “Yeah, but they still have that dead issue going.”

The spikey-haired teen shrugged carelessly. “Hey, I didn’t say it was fool-proof,” he protested mildly.

Both young men had faint smiles on their faces. Then slowly their looks sobered. “So, what are you gonna do?”

“Hide…” Xander stated firmly, nodding decisively.

Oz gave him a sardonic look. “Suuuurrrre. Yeah, Angel’s mansion is the absolutely LAST place she would ever come,” he said with mock seriousness.

The other youth deflated. “Yeah…there is that bit of problem,” he admitted reluctantly. “Uhm, just how mad do you think Buffy is right now with me?” he asked in a small voice.

“On a scale of 1 to 10?” Oz raised a brow. And at Xander’s anxious nod, he added, “Man she’s gonna go off the Richter Scale.”


It took another week before Xander summoned the courage to face his friends. He left brief notes in their mailboxes, informing them he was back but that was about as far as he could force himself to go. Cowardly as he knew his behavior was, he just didn’t want to see hatred and disgust in their eyes now that the scales had fallen from his eyes. It was deserved, but he wanted to hold on to his feeling of goodness for as long as he could.

He managed to wring a reluctant promise from Oz to remain silent about his whereabouts, but the other teen warned him that he would remain quiet for only a short time. And if anybody asked him, he wout lit lie.

Unfortunately, events took a far different turn than what he intended.

Racing through the darken streets of Sunnydale with Jaile and a couple others enlisted to train him, Xander used his quarterstaf hur hurtle himself over a fence. Landing lightly he simply kept running. Not flat out, because he would need his strength to defend himself when they caught up with him. That they would, he had no doubts. Youst had the speed a cheetah would turn green with envy, he thought with hot resentfulness. The only thing that was keeping him out of their clutches was they were still unfamiliar with the streets above and he was able to dodge them.


However, unbeknownst to him, Buffy and theers,ers, in a rare cohesive unit had been patrolling and came across a group of demons sacrificing a human. Exchanging horrified looks, they leaped to attack. Momentarily, the element of surprise was on their side as they beat the large, armor-plated creatures back. But as with all good things the tide swiftly changed, and not in their favor. How could something that huge be so fast was all Buffy had time to think before a hammer-like limb slammed into her chest, throwing her several feet into the air. And when she fell, a gravestone conveniently prevented her from landing on the nice soft ground.

“BUFFY…!” Willow screamed, her eyes large with fear. None of her magics were working, and she yelled again, grabbing a chunk of broken gravestone and charging at the demon about to pound on Giles.

For her troubles, she was ignored as if her blows were a gnat challenging a human to fisticuffs.

At Willow’s distinctive scream of alarm, Xander put on the brakes and slid to a stop, nearly falling to the ground. Scrambling, his hand extended on the ground for balance, he whirled in that direction, he charged to the rescue. His face grim and intent on doing some serious asskicking damage to ANYBODY that messed with his Wills.

Putting on an extra burst of speed at her thin yell, he heard a high-pitch, inhuman scream of rage. Jumping over a headstone, his startled eyes took in the situation.

A flick of his eyes identified the situation at a glance. His jaw tightened at the sight of Buffy struggling furiously with a Pentra demon, Giles valiantly holding his own, while Oz and Willow were fighting back to back. Another glance showed a man lying on a slab of granite still breathing, another man lying, very much in the non-breathing way.

Fighting against her large opponent Buffy was surprised to see Xander burst onto the scene. Their eyes met, and despite her intense anger at him she knew he wasn’t so lost that he wouldn’t throw what little help he could into the fight. Confident, she turned her attention back to hammering at the demon.

All this, Xander took in with a split second of his attention. Then he acted, knowing that time was critical. Running to the still breathing man, he ignored the bellow from the Pentra and scooped up the fn cen censer.

Gritting his teeth against the burning pain the chains inflected, he stood over the man and began speaking aloud the multiplication tables, moving the small object back and forth over the man’s body, trailing calming incense. The multiplication table was the only thing he halfway knew by heart. Besides, the words were unimportant, only the tone and how he modulated his voice.

“XANDER…!” Buffy screeched. Her voice was joined by Giles’ harsher bello fur furious rage and disappointment. Like Buffy, he had seen the boy arrive and knew Xander would help. If only as a distraction by getting thrown to the side. But to his angry shock, Xander was actually HELPING the creatures!

“Xander, you bloody idiot…!”

But the young man ignored their outcries; his attention focused only on the terror-filled eyes staring up at him. Slowly the fear receded in the grey eyes, gratitude eclipsing the terror that had begun to slice through the man’s being.

Tears now leaking from his eyes as the chains burned into his flesh, Xander’s voice began to falter. Quickly subduing Willow and Oz by twisting the boy’s arm painfully forcing Willow to her boyfriend’s side, the male Pentra hurried forward, adding his deep masculine tenor to the human’s chanting. Carefully he removed the chains from the h.
.

“Xander, how could you…?” Willow whispered in disbelief, kneeling beside her groaning boyfriend.

The Pentra fighting Giles abruptly pushed him away and hurried over to the chanting duo. Reaching them, she took Xander’s hands and stuck them in her mouth. Her tongue bathing his flesh with cooling saliva as he continued to chant. He almost collapsed from the cessation of pain, but she held him up easily, then sank down with him in her lap.

It was the least she could do.

The human on the granite slab gasped, his eyes staring upward in a fixed stare. Then he exhaled with a harsh explosion of breath. His chest burst open, and out came a tiny baby Pentra. It wailed piteously, then attempted to leap on Xander’s head, but was snagged in mid-leap by its’ father. The hulking demon’s back split apart, and he tucked the wailing child into a wet, slick pouch. There it would remain, growing to the size of a German Shepard, living off its’ father’s store of fatty tissue that the Pentra converted from food. In several months, a young Pentra would emerge from his or her fath pou pouch to take their place in society.

Giles stood up slowly, he was so furious with Xander that he was near shaking with rage. To go from one extreme to the next, what the bloody hell was the boy THINKING?!

With a final apologetic lick at the human’s hands, the female stood carefully up, lowering the mortal to the ground. Removing his hands, she peered warily at the other humans, halfway tempted to snatch the little human up and run away with her mates.

Xander sighed, his mouth turning down. You dumb idiot! You screwed things up again, he thought savagely to himself. But it was for a good reason, he thought weakly. They…
Just didn’t know what they were doing.

He stepped away from the reassuring bulk of the Pentra and gave the Scoobies a half-hearted smile. “Uhm, hi guys…”

Without a word, other than disgusted contemptuous eyes, they turned and walked away. Oz gave him a puzzled, disappointed look over his shoulder before accepting Willow’s help to leave.

Jaile and the others stepped out of the shadows where they had been standing in case their friend required their assistance. They watched the humans leave with solemn eyes, then they turned to Xander.

“I’m thinking for a first contact that didn’t go too well,” Youst quipped, rustling his quills. Jaile calmly reached between the boy’s quills and, with unerring accuracy, popped his finger against a particularly sensitive spot on the youth’s skull.

Ignoring the boy’s yelp of pain, Jaile regarded his young human friend. “Will you follow them? Explain what just happened…?” he prodded when it looked like Xander wasn’t going to speak.

Quietly the Pentra demons gathered their humans’ bodies and silently departed, while the male pondered carefully on how to repay the boy.

“Reckon so…don’t think things could possibly get much worse,” the boy muttered and turned to slouch towards where he knew the Scoobies were going.

Sudden pain at the back of his head had him turning around with a wounded look. Rubbing the sore spot he glared at the composed demon. “What the hell…?”

“Straighten up when you walk, boy. I’ve taught you better…” Jaile responded coolly.

“Sheesh… Mom much…?” Xander muttered beneath his breath as he assumed a proper posture. Too bad he forgot what excellent hearing an Erosno demon had. The next smack sent him forward a few steps. The others shadowed the grumbling youth to the human’s house.


At Giles’, Willow was attempting to doctor Oz’s arm with shaking fingers. She was near blinded by tears by Xander’s actions. Buffy was pacing back and forth, angrily muttering but wearing an expression of shocked disbelief at their friend’s action. Giles’ had bypassed the tea and headed straight to the scotch. Disdaining a glass he drank straight from the bottle, an expression of stunned disappointment in his eyes.

There came a tentative knock at the door, and they stilled, somehow knowing who was outside. With a set jaw, Giles levered himself from the chair and stalked to the door. There was a fluid, deadly gracefulness to his stride that almost shook Buffy and the others out of their angry, sorrowful moods. Exchanging glances, they just knew somebody was gonna get a spanking.

Yanking the door open, Giles face tightened. A look of cold disgust and disappointment in his eyes at the young man on the other side. “Yes…?” he said with frosty hauteur, peering down his nose at the youth, despite the fact that they were almost the same height.

Oh, this is going to be bad…BAD, I tell ya! Xander shrieked frantically to himself. Hiverivered, almost tempted to run back to the mansion but swallowed hard and squared his shoulders.

“C…ca…can I come in…? Please…?”

Giles folded his arms and merely stared. “Why…? Do you have more of your demon friends waiting outside to kill us too?” he said acidly.

“Or maybe you’ve come to kill us instead?” Buffy yelled furiously from the other side of the room. Her eyes bright with rage and contempt.

Xander flinched, his eyes taking on a bruised look that only Giles saw. And the older man’s eyes narrowed, his expression still cold, but his mind was reevaluating, struggling to come to grips with this version of Xander. Three months ago, the boy would not have been caught dead helping a demon, yet tonight, he killed a man to help a demon.

Silently he stepped aside, opening the way for the boy to step through to Buffy’s loud furious dismay. Oz went totally still, turning his eyes to the ceiling when Xander stepped into the room. Fuck! He mentally cursed.

Giles merely threw her a sharp look that effectively silenced her.

Xander nervously sat on the couch, his eyes lowered to avoid their condemning eyes. “What you saw tonight wasn’t what you think you saw…” he began abruptly, his knee jiggling up and down nervously.

“Indeed…?” Giles murmured dryly. He was still standing after he had shut the door. “I don’t know what the others saw, but I saw three Pentra demons kill one man and they were about to kill another! And what else I saw was YOU BLOODY WELL HELPING THEM!” he roared, coming to the crux of the matter.

“Long time ago, the Pentra demons were dying out because they were a little too…dumb. Every child that they had was becoming increasingly stupid. It was the way that they were breeding was what was causing the dumb down effect. You see, the way they have a child is by injecting a mammal with their spawn. Eventually the spawn hatches, which incidentally, kills the host. The spawn assumes part of the intelligence and some memories of its’ host as a trade off.” Xander half-whispered, still looking down and away from them.

“Let me guess...they discovered that humans would make excellent hosts…” Giles snarled harshly.

“Yeah sorta, but you see the Pentras really, REALLY don’t like killing anything that can think. They barely like killing the animals that their children hatch from. They asked some of the smarter demons what they could do to stop having idiot kids, and the answer they got wasn’t one they could live with. So, as a whole, the Pentra’s race decided on extinction rather than cause a sentient being to die unnecessarily.”

Now Xander looked up, meeting Giles eyes with a mature adult look that had never been on his face before.

“Excuse me? You said extinction…?” Giles responded, tossed out of his furious rage at this unknown tidbit of knowledge. “But…all the Watcher’s diaries and journals repeatedly reference Pentras sacrificing humans to breed their spawn…!” he protested.

Xander shook his head. “They were wrong. Every person the Pentras implant their eggs is already dying. That guy that you saw? His name is Nelson Trevor. He was in the advanced stages of leukemia. His family was struggling with the mounting medical bills required for his chemotherapy. They owed well over $150,000 alone in medical bills. He had five kids, one of them with cerebral palsy. They had a nice house, two cars and everything in between. But with the medical expenses, they sold everything and starteding ing in a three-bedroom apartmentt tht they had to struggle to pay the rent. But with his sacrifice, their debts are cleared.”

“They don’t kill anybody. What they do is bargain for the right to our bodies. In exchange for wiping out the dying man’s debt, plus an additional $50,000 to the family they offer a painless death to give their children life. Not only are they financially taking care of Nelson’s family while he’s dying, but when he dies, they give the family more money. And Nelson, or at least the memory of him, will live forever.

At their blank looks, Xander continued.

“See, once the baby is ready to be born, he or she secretes this numbing agent throughout the body. This way, the human host won’t feel a thing when the baby bursts out!”

“But…but they killed that other guy! I saw that! We all saw that…” Willow spoke up, her face still pale. She wanted to believe him, but she remembered how those demons killed the other guy.

The dark-haired boy had a sad expression on his face. “Yeah, there’s a flip side to when a Pentra baby is ready to be born. You remember how I said they really hated causing harm? Well, when the baby’s ready to be born, the chanting lets it know that it’s safe to come out. That its’ mommies and daddy is waiting. But the longer it waits, the more the numbing stuff starts wearing and and the host starts feeling pain. And some of the babies, they sorta get off on causing pain. The more pain, the better. From what I understand, it’s like heroin…only better. Like I said, the Pentras REALLY have a problem with that. So rather than endure a child with a hardon for causing pain, they kill it before it hatches.”

Giles looked aped, ed, and sat down heavily in a chair. “So, by us interfering we…” he murmured a sick look in his eyes.

Xander nodded soberly, his eyes dark in distress. “Yeah, they had no choice…” he said quietly.

“Well, I think you’re lying!” Buffy yelled, her face turning dark and furious. She was shaking, trembling as she listened to the malarkey that he had just spewed out. And they were eating it up. “Just like you lied about Willow doing the soul restoring spell…!” She was breathing rapidly, glaring at him.

“Buf…” Xander began to say but her loud, scornful voice broke in.

“Don’t you Buffy me! You lio meo me…! Me of all people! And you involved Willow!” she cried, her face heavy with disappointment and contempt.

He lowered his eyes again, looking ashamed as remembered feelings of being unworthy in her presence overcame him. He plucked at the loose weave of his pants. “I’m sorry…” he mumbled softly. But hea heard, and laughed bitterly.

“Sorry…?! All you can say is sorry…?” And she laughed again, a wild tinge to her voice. Then suddenly she was in front of him, yanking him to his feet. Oz yelled for her to stop, even Giles and Willow cried for her to stop, though Oz had a different reason.

Xander’s hand went up sharply to them all as he stared down into Buffy’s bitter, disappointed eyes. “Yes, I said was sorry. Angel’s forgiven me. I just hope you …”

*CRACK!*

His head jerked sharply to the right from the force of her blow.

“Does that feel like forgiveness? Maybe I should do it again, ya think? Maybe you’ll get the message: THERE IS NO FORGIVENESS!” Buffy hissed venomously. She raised her hand again to dhim him another hard smacking.

“And maybe if you lower your hand right this second, then maybe you’ll get to live another day,” came a cool voice from the now open door.

“Jaile…” Xander half groaned, half whined. “I’m handling this…”

But the silvery demon never took his eyes off Buffy as he sauntered in. “Dear boy, I am not the threat…” he said mildly, pointing at the ceiling.

“Crap…” Xander moaned at the slight thud as the insectlike warrior, D’kur landed. It chittered ominously, cocking its’ head at Buffy who was still standing, her hand frozen in the air in astonishment.

“An Erosno…” Giles breathed, eyeseyes large with disbelief at the slender, black-clad silvery demon. His eyes turned to Xandincrincredulity in his eyes that Xander…
XANDER knew an Erosno demon. In sudden thought, he pinched himself. Maybe this was all a dream. A really horrible nightmare.

He jumped at the pain. No dream was this.

“D’kur, you were supposed to wait for me outside…” Xander chided his bodyguard gently. Some days he wasn’t precisely sure just how much English it knew. Other days, he was pretty sure D’kur knew exactly what he was saying and just chose to pretend ignorance so it could do what it wanted. Which in retrospect wasn’t a bad plan, he decided.

“What the hell…?” Buffy stammered. She backed away from the bugcreature, visions of the Praying Mantis lady coming back to haunt her. God! She HATED bugs! Especially when they were big enough to step on her ass.

“Anyway, like I said before. Angel and I had a long talk…and he’s gotten past what I did. I…I hope that maybe you can too, Buffy,” Xander turned back to the tiny blonde. He had a wistful tone in his voice, but her face hardened, cold rejection in her eyes.

“Wills…” he turned to his best friend. “I’m sorry for getting you involved in my lie…I just hope that you can forgive me too,” he said quietly. Willow had a look of indecision on her face, then she dropped her eyes. Not rejecting, but she needed time to think.

“Give me time,” Buffy heard Willow say to Xander with an air of disbelief.

“Willow…” the blonde growled threatening. But Willow looked at Buffy, uncowed. She had an opportunity to get her Xander back, if she could get past the lying. Even if she couldn’t, she hoped they could still build something from the ashes of their past relationship.

“Get off my back…this is my decision, not yours. You can stay mad all you want at him, but you do NOT tell me how I should feel or behave.” There was a strength, a resolution in her face that took Buffy aback in surprise. Her lips tightened into a thin bloodless line at the unspoken challenge inherent in Willow’s voice and eyes.

“Giles…whenever you’re ready…I’m staying at Angel’s. He’s loaned me the mansion until I get on my feet again. Apparently, my parents took exception to my little vacation and threw me out,” he said with a wry lift of his lips.

“Oh…” Giles blinked, unsure of how to respond. “Would you care…I mean, I have the sofa…?” he said tentatively. His meager offering was rewarded by a bright smile, not quite as wide or merry as three months ago, but it certainly made him feel better.

“GILES…!” Buffy rounded on her older friend in disbelief.

“My house, my decision…” he said sternly, looking at her.

Jaile gave Giles a long, slow look over his shoulder. Xander gaped as they went out the door.

Giles felt his cheeks warm at Xander’s words as the trio left his apartment. “You were macking on Giles,” came the boy’s astonished voice. “Don’t try to deny it! You were definitely casting him come-hither looks! You can’t mack on him…he’s…he’s old
and so not interested in sex. Especially sex with a demon.”

“Lovely boy, there’s not a man or woman, human or otherwise, that can resist ME,” came a smooth, silky voice.

“But he’s Giles….” came a faint protest. “Now you’re putting thoughts of naked Giles in my head…ewwwww! I’m gonna hafta scrub my brain out when I get home,” the boy exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, I may just save you the trouble,” Jaile remarked placidly, a low undertone of warning in his voice.

Giles hurried to the window, resolutely ignoring Oz’s smirk. Drawing aside the curtain, he peered outside. A thoughtful hum coming from his lips at the group of demons surrounded Xander. Even from here, he could sense an easy camaraderie that existed between Xander and the 10 demons strolling down the street. He was vaguely aware of Buffy’s raised voice behind him, but he ignored it for the time being. Watching Xander was certainly more interesting. And he had to wonder, if he had been wrong about other people as well.

He felt a certain stirring in his pants when Jaile turned and looked at him again. The demon’s smile a slash of blatant interest. He shivered at the predatory look, and slowly lowered the curtain.

“…lied to me!” Buffy yelled at Willow, who looked away. “Willow, he told me that you said ‘kick his ass’!” She felt a surge of triumph when the redhead looked torn.

“Funny thing about the English language,” Oz said abruptly from his comfortable sprawl. All three turned to look at him, drawn by something in his voice and eyes. “Take for example the word ‘tear’. It has two meanings, did you know that? One means to rip apart, the other is what you shed from crying.”

Buffy rolled her eyes impatiently. “And your point?”

He ignored her, focused on a particular trail of thought. “Now both Giles and us, we all speak English, right? But, things in American means something totally opposite in the place where they grow Giles” The man in question heaved an exasperated sigh, but didn’t interrupt the boy. Oz didn’t often say much, but when he did, his comments were pithy and to the point.

“Biscuits are cookies there, a bonnet is the hood of a car, a lift is an elevator and a lorry is a truck. BBCTV,” he said in an aside to his mystified listeners.

Oz met Buffy’s eyes directly. His cool and distant. “And while I don’t speak for Giles, but I sorta have a feeling that in neither Americanish or Englandish does the phrase ‘kick his ass’ mean stab him with a sword and push him into a hell portal. I could be wrong. But I’m not.”

At her goggling eyes he continued. “From your own mouth you stated that Xander said ‘kick his ass’ and to my way of thinking, that just means give Angelus an old fashion beat down.”

“But…he meant for me to kill him,” Buffy yelled, feeling confused by Oz’s words.

His brows went up sharply. “And you pick that particular time to listen to Xander?” the boy responded with soft incredulity.

Giles sat down heavily, and put his head in his hands. Bollocks! He eyed the bottle of Scotch wistfully.

“What are you trying to say…?” Buffy demanded suspiciously.

Oz shook his head in dismay. Definitely not the brightest light on the porch.

“That perhaps you should have simply slid the sword across his palm instead of stabbing him, then thrown the sword into the portal? All that was needed was Angel’s blood, not his whole body,” Willow suggested quietly.

The slight blonde flushed darkly. “So now it’s all MY fault?! Xander lied…” She growled, circling back to the main point and ignoring everything else.

“And you ran away…” Oz pointed out, a growl of his own in his voice.

“You KNOW why…why I ran…I…couldn’t handle…I was only 17! What the hell did you expect from me?!” Buffy cried out, looking from one blank face to another.

There was no condemnation in Willow’s eyes as she looked at her friend. If she condemned Buffy, then she condemned Xander. “And how old was Xander…? I believe we are all the same age. Yet you seem to expect more from him than for us to expect from you,” Willow replied in a distant voice. Xander lied, but Buffy ran away and left them to struggle on their own.

“Willow…you…you said you understood…” Buffy stammered.

The young redhead nodded. “I did, and still do. But I can’t help but feel that if WE thought about what happened and came to this conclusion…what ideas do you think Angel may have come up with for him to forgive Xander?” she sdelidelicately.

Buffy’s face whitened slowly, a sick look in her eyes. “Giles…” she exclaimed desperately.

But he just shook his head, a look of pity in his eyes. This time, he couldn’t help.


Meanwhile in L.A., Angel was waging his own war against a much more deadly enemy. His memories of Sunnydale. In particular, memories of Xander. Every time he thought he had put the boy out of his mind, Xander would pop up. An engaging grin on his face, a look of laughter and mischief sparkling in his eyes.

What made things so bad was that it wasn’t even their fabulous sex life that he was recalling…it was the little things. Like how Xander liked to eat chocolate, savoring a piece in his mouth, a drugged look of bliss on his face. Or Xander getting chased by Jilly after he had played a harmless prank on the Erosno girl. Angel smiled at that memory, that silly boy conveniently forgot that Erosno demons were way faster than humans.

Mindblowing sex aside, Xander made him feel happy and full of life. He had no illusions about who and what he was when he was around the boy; it was something he couldn’t forget, not with that shadow gaze staring back at him.

But thoughts of Xander weakened him. Made him sloppy and careless. He was a warrior, a fighter for the Powers That Be…he had no time for sentimental weakness such as missing a lover. He needed to be alert and ready for any coming foe and battle. Resolute, stalwart…alone. He had no place in his life for trying to be ‘one of the guys’. He was a vampire, a demon that fought for the Powers of Light. He couldn’t afford ‘human’ weaknesses; they simply held him back, preventing him from becoming what he knew he had to be.

A lone warrior.

With ruthless discipline, he strove to banish Xander from his mind. Clenched jaw, iron will was reflected in his dark, grim gaze as he sat behind his desk….

“Look, do you EVER smile…? Just once…” Cordy pleaded with her brooding new boss. He merely cast her a dark look and looked away. “Fine! Be that way…!” she snapped and stormed out of his office with a contemptuous toss of her hair over her shoulders.

Doyle looked up when the long-legged beauty stalked out of Angel’s office. He raised a brow mockingly. “Didn’t work, eh?”

Cordy threw herself into her chair and sulked. “NO…” she pouted. “Ya know, he’s even more broody than ever…I mean, look at him.” She waved a hand expressively at the office. Doyle, as commanded, looked through the glass at their boss. Angel’s lip curled. He got up and pointedly shut the door and pulled the cord on the vertical blinds. Cutting off their view of him.

“See…?” she exclaimed triumphantly. At Doyle’s blank, uncomprehending look she rolled her eyes and tried to explain.

“In Sunnydale, when Angel got this broody he would never think to shut the door and close the blinds in his office so we couldn’t see him.”

Doyle looked at her in confusion. “He had an office in Sunnydale?”

“No…but that’s not the point. The point is, he would have tried to PRETEND not to be broodguy even though we all knew he was secretly brooding on the inside where we couldn’t see him brood, because we had a unspoken rule that he wasn’t allowed to brood around us, which would lead directly to dampening our youthful spirits and vigor,” she said patiently. “If we got depressed, he got broodier, which lead to more depressing and by that time, not even Bronzing like maniacs could we make with the happyfaces. And you know depression causes wrinkles?!” She exclaimed, looking profoundly upset.

Doyle blinked and abruptly decided that looking like he understood was smarter than listening to her convoluted explanation.

Angel, hearing the entire conversation, smirked. Feeling a brief bubble of laughter rise within him before he suppressed it. If Cordy heard him laugh, she would be in his office in a heartbeat. Give that girl an inch, and she’ll immediately take a mile and charmingly convince you to build a mall full of designer clothes exclusively for her.

She was right. But after 80 some odd years of being without much company, he had a right to brood, he thought with rising indignation. She should try living off rats, living in a freaking sewer and eschewing human company and see if she didn’t start brooding.

Why he even bothered to save her life he still didn’t know, he groused silently. Probably if that vampire had bit her, he would have broken a fang, he thoughstilstily of the spirited girl. He immediately felt ashamed of himself. Cordy meant well, she just…didn’t understand and he wasn’t too enthused about bringing to mind his beautiful, lovely, sweet funny boy.

He sighed, relaxing back into his chair. There was soft loving look on his face as he contemplated his memories of Xander.

“Ugh…creepy,” Cordy exclaimed softly peering through the keyhole.

“Cordy…” Doyle said urgently, trying to tug her away from the tiny opening. “It’s my turn…!”


Back in Sunnydale, Xander left the group alone. Waiting to see if they could find it in them to forgive him. Buffy, on the other hand was marshalling her forces to convince the others to ignore Xander.


Below ground, Skoal was putting together his final plans to destroy his rival. He smiled gently. It was pretty ingenious, if I do say so myself, he thought proudly. All he had to do was take a mate, who in turn would take him above. Once above, he would kill Xander, kill his mate, and then he and Angel would be together. He shrugged, maybe they would return below, maybe not. He had no doubts as to his ability to convince Angel of anything once he was back in his vampire’s bed.

There were just a few details to finalize, but things were progressing quite nicely. He glanced at the beautiful creature lying beside him, sleeping so peacefully. A look of gentle repose was on the demon’s sleek, pale blue face. He had been keeping company with Tomas ever since Angel had departed and knew the fierce k’Tosh demon adored him and loved him. He ran his fingers through the gorgeous white, rain of hair. Picking up a handful, he allowed the heavy silk to fall back on the bed. Playing with the sleek locks, his eyes rested with cool distant impartiality on his slumbering lover.

Yes, definitely Tomas would have to die if he was to mate to Angel…Skoal mused thoughtfully. Tomas may be inclined to share, but HE was not.

It took two more weeks for him to gain his objective and another two weeks for him to convince Tomas to move to the surface. He submitted to the ritual of removing some of his memories of Undervale with easy grace. He had nothing to lose. He had already copied the various routes to the underground community. If Angel got too testy with him, then he could always threaten to reveal the location of Undervale to the Slayer. Eventually Angel would come to see that they were made for each other. There was a way around the spell the Elders had placed on his mind.

Beautiful, smart and ruthless. He felt Angel would be pleased and proud of him.

They were a perfect match.


Above, Xander continued living without his best friends around. But he was gradually making new friends, opening himself up and no longer relying on others to validate his existence. He carried himself with a new self-confidence that drew others to him, and his infectious humor and zest for life kept them there.

Wherever he saw Willow or Buffy across the street, he would smile and wave. If they didn’t return his greeting, he simply pretended they didn’t see him.

Willow on the other hand was going through a slow process of change. She noticed the new, confident attitude Xander wore with the ease of practice. And it occurred to her that he had changed, altered in some indelible way beyond her. He didn’t need them…she realized in shock. Somewhere, Xander had grown up without her. She couldn’t help wonder what had happened to her friend, what events had re-shaped him into this mature version of the boy that once stole her Barbie doll? How did he do it, and could he show her the path he took?

Angel returned from his meeting with the greyish-skinned Oracles, more puzzled than ever over thetrantrange words. He thought they would be pleased at his progress, at how he was turning himself into a lean, mean, warrior machine…

“Greeting Angel…to what do we owe the pleasure of your company?” the male said smoothly, gliding away from the female. There was a cool look in his black on grey eyes.

Angel blinked, feeling uneasy for some reason. “I…I just wanted to report on the fight that we just had with the Mnlus,” he stammered. Though he found it was surprisingly hard to fight the demons, but he had prevailed. And he was proud that no human weakness intruded on his thoughts.

“We saw it all,” the female answered shortly, her eyes narrowing on his face. Then she sighed, exchanging a pregnant look with her male, toga attired counterpart. “Angel, it is our belief that you have mistaken matters and have come to a most unfortunate conclusion. It is not necessary for you to become this grim, humorless warrior. You were chosen because you truly wished to atone for Angelus’ past deeds. That has not changed. What has changed ist yot you discarded a part of yourself that held much promise of making you truly a fearsome warrior in the Light’s service.”

Angel frowned, not understanding what she was saying.

“Vampire, your weakness is your true source of strength. You would do well to remember that fact before it’s too late,” the male stated cryptically. Twin gestures, and Angel suddenly found himself outside the post office.

“Okay, it’s getting really strange,” he muttered to himself.

Two hours later Doyle had a vision. A vision that sent Angel hurtling into the night, dread certainty that he would be too late clutching at him


Sauntering at Buffy’s side, Willow vaguely listened to the inane chatter as they strolled along the campus pavement. Allegedly they were supposed to be patrolling, but in reality it was just to give the blonde a chance to try to convince Willow that Xander was not someone they needed to associate with.

But she had a bitter feeling that it was a losing battle. In fact, she suspected that she had already lost Willow. She wasn’t exactly the brainless, blonde she often pretended. She noticed the changes in Xander when she saw him around town. At first she was smugly certain that he would come running back to them, begging to be allowed to return. But to her chagrin, he did neither. It was unspoken, but she knew that if they forgave him, he would be happy; but if they didn’t he would still be okay. He was perfectly fine with or without them in his life.

She fell silent with a sidelong glance at her quiet, redheaded friend. Finally admitting defeat.

“I’m going back to the dorm,” she announce abruptly. “You coming…?”

Willow started and looked at Buffy uncomprehendingly. “Uhm, no…I…uhm…gotta meet…” she trailed off at the twist in her friend’s lips.

“Well, I’ll see you back at the room,” Buffy replied coolly and stalked away, taking out her bad temper on any vamps she encountered along the way.

It was too bad that she didn’t turn around. She would have seen Willow turn and lean towards the bushes, then tumble and disappear from view…

…thirty minutes later, Giles answered the door. A vague, pleasant smile on his face. His smile fading at the puff of powder that was blown into his face. Instinctively inhaling, the room started spinning and his eyes rolled up in his head. He collapsed to the floor, unconscious….

…it was the work of seconds to dupe Buffy and knock her out using the same powder used on Giles…

…Oz was more difficult. Only coming to heel when the life of his girlfriend was threatened….

Whistling cheerfully, Xander happily bounced back to the mansion. He was in exceptionally high spirits. He, Xa Har Harris, was gainfully employed!

It wasn’t a great job or anything like that, but dammit! it was a job and that’s what was important. While it was beyond cool living at the mansion, he couldn’t stay there forever.

He strode with careless enthusiasm into the mansion and came to an abrupt stop at the sight of Buffy, Willow, Giles and a growling Oz tied up. ”Whoa…and rewind,” he exclaimed.

Then his eyes narrowed as a slinky blonde form sauntered from the kitchen. A coldly amused expression in the blonde’s green eyes.


“Skoal…what the fuck are you doing here?” Xander yelled furiously, his face flushing with beginning fear. Whatever the reason was, he knew there was going to be hell to pay.

“Why, can’t I come up and see my two favorite lovebirds?” Skoal threw out mockingly. He darted over to Willow and held a knife to her throat when Xander growled and took a step towards him.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk…no, no, no…there’ll be none of that,” he stated with malicious humor. His smile widening at the wayder’der’s face paled. “Isn’t that interesting…? Here I was thinking the only one you loved was Angel and yet you’re fond of this little cunt.”

Buffy blinked, slid her eyes towards the beautiful, young man. “Loved Angel…?”

Skoal cocked his head to the side and brightly regarded the blonde bitch. “Yes,” he said pleasantly. “Didn’t Xander tell you about his torrid affair with Angel? About the nights of passion when the neighbors couldn’t sleep for their moaning and screaming?” Despite himself, rage shook and his hand quivered, a thin line of blood oozing down Willow’s throat.

“STOP IT, Skoal…!” Xander yelled, his eyes fixed on that line of blood. But he was proud of his Wills, not once did she whimper. He felt a bit sorry for Skoal once his little redheaded friend got free. Willow didn’t often get mad, but when she did…he planned to find the nearest foxhole and take cover. With a box of popcorn, of course.

“Skoal, your fight’s with me…so leave them out of it,” he tried to say with a degree of calm, wondering where his other friends were when he needed him.

“Xander and Angel…?” Buffy repeated in confusion, she spared a glance at Xander. Her eyes darkening at the look on his face. “You lying, backstabbing, two-faced, boyfriend-stealing BASTARD!” she screamed in furious denial.

Skoal smirked. “Oops…and I supposed you also didn’t know his soul is now permanent?”

“Skoal, I am so gonna kick your ass,” Xander said calmly, pushing up his sleeves. “You are such a little bi Yo You’re still obsessed because Angel fucked and dumped your skanky ass, and didn’t want seconds.”

“Angel loves ME! Not you…!” Skoal screamed whirling away from Willow to face Xander. “I was there to comfort him when he came back from Hell. I became everything he could ever dream of. “

Xander sneered, but his eyes were watchful. “You don’t even know what love is, you little prick.” Like Skoal, he was ignoring the sputtering coming from Buffy. Though he spared a glance to make sure Willow and Giles were okay. Flushing at their wide, amazed eyes.

“I don’t know what love is? I DON’T KNOW?! I changed my fucking hair to blonde to please him! So don’t you tell me I don’t know what love is. Everything I am, is because of love for him,” Skoal yelled through gritted teeth. His hand tightening ominously on his knife.

Xander shook his head. “Changing yourself to please him, that’s not love, that’s infatuation. How could Angel possibly love you, if he doesn’t even know you? The real you…?”

Skoal froze, his eyes cooling, freezing as he took in Xander’s meaning. “I’m going to kill you, and then I’m going to kill your friends,” he announced quietly.

“You don’t got the stones to kill me…” Xander scoffed, but his heart was thudding in fear. What he had begun to suspect, he now knew. Skoal was a freaking lunatic.

Skoal charged, moving with unexpected competent skill and agility.

But Xander had not spent the past few months just eating bonbons and chocolate. He had been training with the best assassin in the demon world…Jaile. Twisting with eerie grace, he avoided the blonde’s initial attack; pulling a knife he secreted at his back and engaged the older boy in a dual.

Back and forth they fought. With knives, feet, hands and teeth. Buffy’s mouth dropping open in shock at Xander’s sharp economical movements, his skill and ability. While not quite up to par with her, he showed some definite promise, she grudgingly thought. He even had moves that she intended to immediately incorporate into her fighting style.

Snarling, Skoal jumped back when Xander sent his knife spinning to the floor. Whirling, he put some distance between them and leapt, grabbing a sword off the mantel. . A venomous, maniac grin on his face, his true personality etched on his face, the blonde attacked with vicious enthusiasm.

A long silver sword sailed from the shadows, and landed neatly in Xander’s hand. He thanked Jaile with a short nod before meeting Skoal’s sword with an awesome clang of metal.

The two young men danced across the floor. Their faces grim and hard. One fought for the possession of Angel, the other simply fought to stay alive.

Though somewhat evenly matched in ability and skill, Xander called upon all the dirty, underhanded lessons Jaile and the others were teaching him. After all, he didn’t have to be good…he just needed to be better than Skoal.

This fight was short, and abrupt. Using a tricky, unexpected move Xander slashed first at Skoal’s face, drawing a shrill scream of fury from the boy. Then he aimed a blow at the blonde’s arm. With a loud scream of pain, the blonde dropped his weapon and fell to the floor, holding his dripping, bleeding arm.

He looked up at Xander, a hateful glare in his eyes. Then looked around at the surrounding demons with angry eyes. They were all on Xander’s side…nobody ever stood up for him! They only liked Xander! Well, he would show them, he didn’t need them. He would still figure out a way to get Angel away from Xander’s evil influence.

Jaile smiled proudly at his pupil, a little too showy for his liking but still effective overall.

Xander gave him a tired smile in return, allowing it to widen as he took in the other demons spilling into the room. There were a lot, some he knew som did didn’t.

He looked down at the beaten young man, recognizing that Skoal wasn’t defeated, just…
temporarily checked.

“It’s over Skoal, just let it go,” he pleaded hoarsely. “Angel doesn’t want either of us, so there’s no reason why we need to fight. You just go about your business and leave me alone. Leave my friends alone. Just get on with your life, and leave me to mine. Angel doesn’t want you, me or Buffy. He doesn’t want any of us.”

“He loves me…he just needs to be reminded of that,” Skoal grated out, his face tight with pain. Carefully he stood up, trying to keep an eye on the demons and Xander at the same time. He already knew that the repercussions of his actions would be devastating. None of the demons would keep their mouths shut, and he would be lucky to escape with his life from his mate’s furious anger.

Xander looked pityingly on the obsessed young man. “What will you do if he doesn’t want you?” He paused and added deliberately. “George Smith…that’s your name, right? You see I finally remembered where I’ve seen your eyes. It was the blonde hair that kept throwing me.”

He turned to Willow, who was gaping at the frozen young man. “Will, you remember that awful fire when we were kids? It was the…”

“…Smith’s house! Omigawd…I remember that! That’s all the adults were whispering about, how horrifying that the entire family had died in that. But they always said thatleasleast they died together…like a family,” she whispered still staring at George. Mentally stripping the blonde hair away and replacing it with ordinary brown.

Jaile frowned, glancing at the motionless boy. Skoal had a fixed, eerie smile on his face. “But…his father was a demon…he’s a half-blood!”

Youst scowled and shook his head. “Nuh uh, my brother told me it was his mother that was a demon.”

From various demons, loud voices insisthat hat the father was the demon, while others insisted that it was the mother and some insisted that Skoal was just as human as Xander. Slowly they awoke to the fact that the young man couldn’t be all three.

“They never liked me,” George said dreamily. “Especially mother. She hated me more than anything. Because I wasn’t weak, like HIM!” He spat out derisively. There was a world of hatred and contempt in the blonde’s voice. “He was a pathetic, sniveling little bastard. Always licking the shit out of her ass. He NEVER stood up to her. Not when it counted. If that bitch said jump, he would only ask “how high?” on his way up. She was always on my case about some stupid shit, trying to make me into a fuckin’ lapdog like him.”

Willow shook her head slowly, a repulsed look in her eyes. “Your mother worshipped the ground your father walked on. And your father, he was a sort of control freak. He was the kind of man that needed someone to give him orders, to tell him what to do, this way he had all the control. I heard my parents talking about yours one day,” she said looking faintly embarrassed at revealing flaws in somebody else. “He had a controlling submissive personality, but he loved your mother because she gave him the structure he needed. And your mother, she was determined that you wouldn’t grow up to be like him. That’s why she constantly challenged you to be strong and independent. She loved your father, but she didn’t want you to be like him.”

“She was a ball-breaking, controlling, emasculating bitch,” George pronounced calmly. He shrugged carelessly. “That’s why I drugged them and set fire to the house. I originally was going to kill only her, but I decided Daddy was taking up valuable space and wasting air that could be used for other purposes, like inflating a beach ball or something.”

Slowly he turned to Xander, absolute no remorse on his face. He laughed lightly, a pleased look in his eyes. “What…? Didn’t you guess? I thought that’s where this whole denouncement was going.” He laughed again, at the horrified look on the idiot boy’s face. How Angel could possibly standing looking into Xander’s face he would never understand. But at least that dumb bastard didn’t have Angel’s heart.

Youst looked at the blonde, his face darkening. Along his sides, demons hastily jumped out of the way as his quills slowly became erect.

“How did Sandon die?” he asked softly, referring to the young man’s former lover. There was a hard dangerous look coming in his eyes.

The blonde raised a puzzled brow. “In a fire, you halfwit.” The others in the room looked between the two young men in puzzlement. While tragic, everyone knew how Skoal, no George’s mate had perished. Why did Youst want to rehash old news?

The other didn’t blink. “And how did the fire start?” At his question, certain pieces of the puzzle dropped into place. As one they turned cold eyes he bhe blonde. A silent, insistent question in their eyes.

George brows contracted, a look of self-righteous, petulant anger on his face.

“He wouldn’t let me go,” he said with rising indignation. “He said that my infatuation with Angel would pass!” There was a dark, scowl on his face as he thought on his former mate’s words. “Well, I showed him!” He snorted in cold contempt.

“He was so stupid…” he shook his head sadly. “I told him that if he didn’t let me go, he would be sorry. I told him. He didn’t listen. I told him….”

He looked up, taking note of the expressions on everyone’s faces and looked bewildered. “He had to die, don’t you see? He was keeping me and Angel apart,” he said reasonably.

But as he looked at the frozen expressions on the demons’ faces, he saw there was no understanding. ne une understood his pain, his needs. And looking at them he knew there would be no returning to that particular place.

Like he did with unwanted reminders of his past, he decided to burn it. Set fire to it in the only way he could.

The sly, ugly smile on George’s face made Xander shiver, and grasp his sword a bit more tightly.

“Slayer…the one girl in every generation, born to do battle against the demons that t tht the darkness,” the blonde misquoted softly. An eerie smile growing on his face at the sudden uneasy looks everyone exchanged. His mad laughter made them jump, but Jaile watched him with cold, deadly eyes. Even D’kur dropped from the ceiling and clacked his mandibles menacing.

Buffy nodded warily, caution in her eyes. But her eyes were angry and hostile when she darted a glance at Xander.

“All this time you’ve been battling demons and they’ve…”

Xander understood in a split second what George was about to do. “SHUT UP…!” he screamed in sudden fear.

George tossed him a merry, malicious smile before facing the Slayer. “And all this time they’ve…” abruptly he gasped.

Two feet of steel protruded from his chest. A blossoming red stain, widening with every beat of his heart, spread over his chest. There was a dazed expression in his eyes, and an equally stunned look in Xander’s. He was still holding the sword pressed into George’s back.

The young blonde tried to speak, husking out a breathy sound. Malice and spite keeping him upright as he tried to tell Buffy about the demons. The sword moved backwards, and slammed forward again. George fell to his knees, his mouth moving but no sound emerged. But to his immense satisfaction, he saw his mate arrive. He had won after all. If he couldn’t have Angel, then he would take Xander down with him and Angel would have no one.

He collapsed to the ground, his eyes unseeing. An expression of smug triumph on his face.

Angel burst into the mansion, just in time to see Xander standing behind Skoal, a bloodsoaked sword in his hand.

“Angel…!” Buffy shouted, her face lightening up. She rocked furiously in the chair, trying to get free.

Xander stared down at the dead man at his feet. A dead man that he killed. He killed someone. He killedhekilledhekilled…

…and he began breathing rapidly, his thoughts circling, spiraling out of control. Horror at what he did feed the panic that was swiftly taking a hold of him. Dropping the sword, he patted his chest with frantic hands, trying to force himself to breath.

In and out…in and out…I can’t do it! Oh, God! I forgot how to breath! Somebody, teach me quick…!

To Buffy’s enormous disbelief, Angel ran past her without sparing her a glance.

“Xander…!” Angel raced to the boy as Xander dropped to his knees. The wheezing sound he was making was loud in the room a he struggled to still the panic setting in and stealing his breath.

Clasping the boy’s face in his hands, Angel stared into the terrorfilled eyes. “Listen to me…just listen to the sound of my voice. There’s nobody here but us,” he said softly and jerked Xander’s head back to him when the boy looked the dead body on the floor. “No, look at me and only me. You can do this, watch…” and he deliberately inhaled, then exhaled. “Now you…remember that time by the pool when we went swimming? Misty pushed you into the water…” he saiietlietly.

“In and out, leannán…in and out…”

Xander nodded frantically, his eyes fixed on Angel’s trustingly. In and out…he could do this…okay…in and out.

The room was silent as everyone’s eyes focused on the scene of the young boy struggling to breathe. Buffy’s mouth was firmly covered by a silvery hand.

Tugging the boy forward, he hugged Xander tightly; almost undoing what had just been accomplished. But the young dark-haired human didn’t mind. He tucked his head into happily into Angel’s cool neck.

“You killed my mate…” a smooth, silky voice of menace stated softly. A slender, blue demon paced forward deliberately. “By Law, I can either Claim you or kill you.” There was a cold, bitterness in the maroon –colored eyes.

Xander scrambled to his feet, his eyes growing large with distress. He bit his lip, and cast a look at a growling Angel. He smiled; it felt kinda nice to be so fiercely protected.

“Over my very dead body,” Angel stated with equally cold menace. He started forward, his face shifting into demon g.
.

“No…” Xander said softly, restraining his…friend. He swallowed hard. “I killed George, not you. I am the one that’s gotta pay the price.” He raised his head proudly and faced the blue demon with nervous courage in his eyes.

“A life for a life; an eye for an eye,” Tomas quoted softly to the boy. He watched the growling vampire from the corner of his eye. Signaling his family not to interfere. He looked down at his lover, his mate and wanted to spit.

“Don’t you love me?” Angel said, daring to speak aloud what he knew had been hidden in his boy’s heart.

Xander blinked. “What’s love got to do with this?”

“Xander, it doesn’t have to be this way,” Angel said urgently, pulling the boy back and away from the demon. “I can fight, and I’ll win and you can join me in L.A.”

The young dark-haired young male smiled shyly. . “Thank you,” he whispered. Then drawing on his meager store of courage he added, “But I don’t want you too. I’ve taken a lot of things from you, but now I get to give something back. You have a destiny, a shot at redemption. And there’s no way that you’re gonna find it with me hanging around your neck. Angel, I’ve always been the weakest member of Buffy’s merry gang. No strength, no magic, no welfy lfy thing going, and I’m not too good in the intelligence department either. So, let me do this…”

He smiled gently at the poor confused vampire. Angel looked so cute when he was clueless, Xander thought fondly. But someday Angel would understand. Life wasn’t about being happy and getting what you wanted. It was about simply doing the right thing. Even if that thing left you half-dead inside.

Then looking at Tomas, Angel began talking, speaking in the other demon’s dialect. Xander frowned and shook Angel’s arm. Harder when the two ignored him and continued speaking in a rapid fire, melodious way.

//“If you Claim him I will kill you,”// Angel said calmly, but his eyes were liquid gold with rage.

Tomas shrugged, looking very much unconcerned. //“You know the Ritual as well as I. He killed my mate, therefore his life is forfeited to me to do with as I will.”// His eyes however deepened to mahogany as he glared at the vampire.

//“And I haven’t decide what I will do with him,”// Tomas said haughtily. //” If you were interested in him, then you should have Claimed him before me, that would have at least given him some measure of protection. Being around humans have made you almost as stupid and weakwilled as them.”//

//“He doesn’t know the Law,”// Angel gritted out.

Then he blinked, reviewing what Tomas had just said and whae Ore Oracles said. His eyes narrowed to slits as he stared at the blue-skinned demon. A light went on in Angel’s eyes and slowly he nodded to himself.

“Will you hurry up and do what you have to do…?” Xander loudly, nervous impatience in his voice. Perhaps too loudly as both Angel and the blue demon broke off their conversation to look at him.

“Uhm, nevermind…take your time,” he stammered under their intense gaze.

“Yes, you are the weakest,” Angel said thoughtfully, his eyes softening at the wince his boy gave. “Very well, Xander,” he said quietly. He stood at the boy’s back. And at his cool hands on the bottom of Xander’s shirt the boy gasped. “The shirt has to come off in order for the Claim to work,” he said patiently as Tomas stood in front of the young human.

Willow began shouting, furiously shaking her chair as she struggled to free herself. Her eyes were darkening with dark intent. If she could just get free…!

Giles, though silent, fought just as hard to get free. No one was Claiming one of his children without a bloody good fight…

Buffy frowned, then her face cleared. Without Xander around, perhaps Angel would come back to her. Though disturbed at how intensely obsessive George was, she firmly decided that she was not acting like that. Going further she also chose to ignore all references to Angel’s ‘supposed’ gayness. And Xander’s as well.

Though she couldn’t prevent an illicit thrill going through her at the thought of Xander and Angel together, maybe with her in the middle, she thought with a little guilty smile. She didnoticotice the cool look Jaile gave her, nor the way his hands flexed as if around a soft vulnerable throat.

Xander faced the blue demon nervously. Half-hysterical about acquiring a husband. And he didn’t even know the guy’s name.