Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me

The day after spending the night on the town with Spike, Xander found himself back in the high school library helping Giles and Willow take the protective tarps off the shelves, put up the new books and generally get ready for the next school year.

In a way it was fun, getting to talk to Giles and Willow in the library without the threat of something about to unleash the Hellmouth on them. But it wasn’t the same sort of fun he’d had with Spike. When he suggested playing a practical joke on Giles just to loosen him up, Willow had given him one of her many looks. It was the “don’t be so juvenile” look that she used to give him and Jesse.

Then, of course, they’d wait until they could give her the slip and go make prank calls from Jesse’s house.

It had been fun, running around town with Spike. They’d bothered Angel for a couple of hours before moving on to just walking around town finding something interesting to do. The Bronze had been kind of boring, and they finally ended up going back to Spike’s place and watching videos.

“Where does this box go, Giles?” Xander was carrying in the heavy boxes of book and putting them in the general area they would eventually be in. Giles would come around and give them a number to go in the Dewey Decimal system, and Willow would put them up.

Xander had only asked once about the Huey and Louie Decimal system, because a joke wasn’t funny if you had to explain it and then get one of those Giles-glares.

“What? Oh yes, those are the books that classify the different demons that dwell below ground. Put them over there next to the books on gnomes and brownies. They should fall under the same basic categories…”

Giles went off mumbling to himself and Xander had to roll his eyes. The older man was distracted, and seemingly very much into his absentminded professor routine. There were times, though, that Giles showed a bit of steel in his demeanor and Xander couldn’t help but wonder what caused it.

After all, if Xander could have a secret life with a friend who just happened to be a master vampire, what kind of secret life could Giles have?

He set the books down on the floor beside Willow in front of one of the newer shelves that they were rapidly filling. Willow looked up and smiled at him. “Isn’t this neat? We’ll know where all the books are! No more searching around for the right book; it’ll save so much time during research sessions.”

Xander smiled back at his oldest friend. “Only you, Willow, would get excited about research. Well, you and G-man. I’m just here for your lovely company. That and the chance to annoy Giles.”

“I heard that.” Giles’ voice came from the other room but he sounded more amused then angry. Xander was just glad that he hadn’t asked any weird questions, considering the last time he’d really talked to Giles he’d all but admitted being bi-sexual, at the very least.

He didn’t have the dreams quite as much, but Xander figured it was because he had admitted the attraction to himself. His subconscious wasn’t trying so hard to get the message through. After looking around, he could admit to himself that he found certain guys just as attractive as girls.

None of them held a candle to Spike, though.

Xander just shook his head and went to grab the last box of books. Giles had lucked into an estate sale. One of his fellow Watchers had died of old age and there had been a whole truckload of books. Which again made Xander wonder about Giles.

“Hey, G-man! What did you do to pay for all these books anyway? Rob a bank? Or are you secretly a millionaire and just hide the fact so Buffy won’t make you take her shopping?”

“Yes…well, I...” The sound of Giles sputtering in the office could be heard from the stacks and Xander grinned at Willow and pulled her up so they could both sneak over and watch their mentor babble. “I supposed you could say that I am well off. There are certain advantages to our line of business…means of making money that while aren’t quite unethical, but aren’t quite on the up and up, either. Besides, it is essential to have the proper tools for dealing with the entities that can be found on a Hellmouth, and I’m afraid that the school barely budgets enough money to replace all the copies of Twain that get defaced each year, much less demonology texts.”

Xander was fighting hard to hide a grin. He felt like bouncing and running around all at once. He’d bet dollars to doughnuts that Giles had taken money from demons that he’d killed. He knew that Giles sometimes went on patrol, “just to keep his hand in”. And considering how much money could be stolen off of one or two fledges…

“No need to get all panicked, Giles, I was just wondering. Although if you actually robbed a bank I’d ask for a piece of the action, just for keeping my mouth shut. Which I don’t do very well, so let me know now.”

And what was good for Giles was good for Xander. He was so going shopping with his cash. Xander was unable to stand still any longer and he went to lean by one of the stacks and Willow and Giles went into the office. It was nice, just being there with his friends, so what if he had to deal with dusty old books that smelled like mold?

He was so intent on the warm fuzzy feelings he was having that he didn’t even notice that someone was behind him until a hand picked him up by the collar and he found himself dangling from Angel’s meaty fist.

He knew he should be scared, but when he caught sight of Angel from the corner of his eye he started giggling. Well, giggling as much as he could when all the air was leaving his lungs.

Willow and Giles must have heard his odd wheezing laughter and turned around. Both had looks of shock and Xander could see Giles’s lips upturn just a little. That set off Xander even more and he fought to laugh through the lack of air and ended up making gasping noise. He started to see spots and everything seemed far away by the time he heard Willow trying to get Angel to let him go.

Finally he was given a full body shake and collapsed to the floor. Tears were running down his face and he held his aching side and stomach and as he tried to catch his breath. Xander refused to look up at the source of the growling he was hearing. He just knew he’d lose it again if he did.

Unfortunately, Giles had to go and ask. “May I take it Xander is the reason why your hair is bright blue?”

Through his renewed laughter Xander could hear Angel whine. “It won’t come out, you little brat!”

Through gasps of laughter, Xander managed to choke an answer out. “Don’t worry…it’ll wear out by the time Buffy gets back…Broody Smurf!”

The looks on Giles and Willow’s face were priceless. Willow was really trying not to laugh and definitely didn’t approve but the sight of Angel with bright blue hair was too funny for her. Giles, however, had an open smirk on his face, and Xander was sure he’d be laughing out loud too if he had understood what a Smurf was.

Xander’s laughter finally tapered off for the most part, an occasional chuckle escaping his lips. “Aww! Come on, Deadboy! Cheer up, that water balloon could have been filled with holy water instead of blue dye. And do you know what kind of effort I put into finding just the right shade of blue?”

Angel growled, proving that he wasn’t human, and both Willow and Giles jumped, just a little. Xander just grinned to hear it. He probably knew more about Angel and Angelus than even Giles did. He knew that if Angel picked him up and beat the crap out of him it would only go to prove what Xander had always said, that the other man was a monster.

After all, ringing someone’s doorbell on and off for a half hour and then running wasn’t the end of the world. Annoying, yes, but not worth beating someone up over. The water balloon filled with hair dye, maybe, but if he did it in front of Giles and Willow it would be stepping over the line.

And even if he did get beat up it would be worth the amount of fun he and Spike had. Spike had used his vamp senses to know when Angel was standing there at the door, waiting to grab him. Finally they had left for an hour looking for balloons and hair dye before coming back to deliver the final touch.

They’d run off laughing, and Xander had realized that was the most fun he’d really had since Jesse died.

Angel finally turned around and stalked out of the library in frustration. Xander could see how his hands kept clenching as if he were wishing he had Xander’s neck in his grasp. “Don’t ever do it again, Harris, or you’ll find out exactly what kind of a sense of humor I have.”

“I think I know what kind of humor you have, Broody, I just know that with the soul you don’t have the balls for it.”

After Angel left Xander picked himself up off the floor and faced Willow and Giles. It could be worse; Buffy would have had three kinds of a fit for bugging her boytoy.

“Dare I ask why you choose to bother Angel last night?” Giles was trying to sound like he was being all stern but the slight smirk he still wore gave him away. Willow, however, had her arms crossed and looked like she was about to give a lecture.

Xander looked down at the floor and scuffed his shoe. He turned big eyes onto his friends, trying to look innocent. “Umm, I was bored?”

“And is that a good enough reason to paint Angel’s hair…blue?””

“If I say yes, how much trouble will I get into?”

Willow’s voice ran in his ears. “Xander!!”