Title: Before the Fall of Rome (14a/?)
Author: Brooke
Email: yabbadabbadome13@yahoo.com
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything. I wished I owned the two Xanders’ from "The Replacement" though. Buffy and friends are owned by Joss, Mutant Enemy, 20th Century Fox, The UPN and whoever else has rights to the show.
Summary: You remember all that crap that started post-puberty…yeah, it’s great isn’t it. It was when life started
Distribution: I don’t know why anybody would want this, but if somebody does…sure.
Feedback: Definitely!! Tell me if it sucked or if you liked it. Whatever. Just write back!
Authors Note: Takes place in an AU season 1 where Buffy and Xander are best friends and Willow is the new girl as Sunnydale High. It is the beginning of their sophomore year and, as 15 and 16 year olds, hormones and feelings are taking center stage.
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He was pissed. Xander hoisted himself onto the low roof outside of Buffy’s window. Not only had he ripped his pants on the tree he had climbed up, but she always made the sneaking look so easy. That was just one more thing about her that was making him angry right then.
Xander had been on his way home, but had gotten all turned around in his muddled thoughts and found himself at the Summers' home. If figured that if he wanted to know anything about Buffy, he should just ask her…it was his right as friend. He couldn’t very well kick Scott’s ass if he had been telling the truth, and… fuck! He just wanted to know.
Crouching, Xander climbed towards her darkened window and peered inside. He thought it was pretty early, only 11:15, but as he looked inside it appeared that Buffy was sleeping. And here he thought Slayers kept funky hours; he knew Buffy was usually up at this hour, undead or not. Xander tapped as quietly as he could on the glass pane, hoping to get her attention. "C’mon Buff…" he tapped some more, "Wakey wakey."
"What are you doing?"
Xander jumped and fell forwards into the glass only to then bounce off and land on his butt. The voice behind him now trying to stifle a giggle while he fought to catch his breath. "Trying to wake you up." He said through heavy exhalations. "Jesus…"
Buffy laughed quietly and reached pass him to push open the window. "Any special reason?" she asked, stepping back to allow Xander to enter first. She saw him hesitate so that she would climb in first, but she didn’t move. She knew that if she went inside first Xander might look around before he entered. Not that she didn’t find the fact that he wanted to protect her flattering, but she couldn’t risk him spotting Angel anywhere. The vampire had followed her like a shadow after she had stormed away from him; and the thing that got to her this time was that he wasn’t even trying to hide his presence. She could hear his footfalls behind her the whole way, and she doubted he was smart enough to get gone even when she entered her house. In fact, Buffy had made a mental note on her way to remember to be more cautious about shutting her curtains at night because who knew how long that monster had been watching her. She really didn’t need to have a falling out with Xander over Angel and that was what would happen if her friend knew that she was spending extra time with the demon, information provider or not.
Xander shrugged and finally moved through the open window. "No reason really," he said dismissively as he moved past her. "Just thought I’d swing by say goodnight, tuck you in…ask if you had sex with Scott."
Buffy had been searching for Angel on the street below, finally spotting him behind a tree in the neighbors yard when Xander finished his statement. "What?" she asked with her brow furrowed, turning and jumping into her room quickly to face him.
Xander was running his fingers over the jewelry box on her dresser, his back to her when he spoke. "You know. Sex. With Scott. As in did you…"
"I got that." Buffy said curtly. "Why would you ask me that?"
"I just heard, that’s all." Xander shrugged and turned to face his friend.
"No." she said with her face turned up in a half disgusted half confused statement. "No. Ewwww." She shook for effect, but then her voice took on a frighteningly threatening tone. "Heard from who?"
"It’s not important." Xander shook his head and plopped down on her bed while Buffy flicked on her bedside lamp.
"Oh," she said in a loud whisper, "I think it is. You can’t tell me that that was being considered public knowledge and expect me to just let it drop."
"I never said that it was public knowledge…"
"Why else would somebody have just told you then?" Buffy asked disbelievingly.
"It was just some guy talking shit, that’s all." Xander shut his eyes. "I told him it was a lie…"
"But you didn’t believe it." Buffy sighed and Xander could almost here the hurt ebbing in her tone.
"I told Jeff that Scott was a fucking liar…" Xander said quickly in his defense, but then realized what he had said.
Buffy’s jaw set and she huffed out an angry breath. "Jeff Broderick." She said recalling the typical jock that had infected her ex-boyfriend with male chauvinism, and was now working on her best friend. "He said that Scott said that I…" she trailed off leaving Xander to finish her train of thought.
"I didn’t say that." Xander denied feebly, turning his eyes to the floor.
Buffy shook her head as he refused to meet her eyes. It seemed pretty pathetic to her that Xander would risk coming all the way to her house in the dead of night because he wasn’t sure if Scott was an asshole. It had been Xander that had first introduced her to that concept in the first place. She moved past where he was perched on the foot of her bed towards her chest of drawers and pulled one open before stopping suddenly. "Why are you dressed like that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. She was still pissed at him for questioning her the way he had, but now she was focused on something else. That something that screamed that Xander was dressed for the Bronze.
"Why are you climbing through your window at midnight?" he fired at her quickly, stating his guilt with his defensive question. He raised his eyes to meet Buffy’s, both trying to read each other.
"It’s called patrol." Buffy snorted at him. "Slayers do it."
Xander tossed a sarcastic laugh at her. "Yeah. But you said you weren’t going out tonight…"
"And you never mentioned that you were going to the Bronze." Buffy said to him as she grabbed some pajamas from the drawer and headed to her bathroom. "Now what part of your destiny was it that makes you risk your life to dance and make merry?" she asked rhetorically through the open door of the darkened bathroom.
Xander craned his neck to the side to try to see into the room where Buffy was, listening to her discarded clothes hit the floor just beyond his eyesight. "Uh…" he took a deep breath and licked his lips. "I…"
Buffy was looking at him with raise eye brows as she exited the bathroom now clad in a tank top and loose plaid pajama pants. "Ah yes. The ‘Uh…I’, I’ve heard of them. They kill fashion sense and brain cells, right?"
"Look," Xander said shaking his head and standing up. "I just…I was just wondering… I’m gonna go home…"
"Xander," Buffy sighed and reached out to grab his forearm. "Wait a minute." He stopped and looked at her hand on his arm and then up into her eyes. "You can’t walk home at night. It’s not safe."
He shrugged and glanced towards the window. "I’ll handle it." He said quietly and headed across the room.
"You must have misunderstood me." Buffy continued from behind him, pushing the window closed again when he opened it. "I’m not letting you walk home now. You know how dangerous it is, and you’re lucky I don’t kick your ass myself for being out this late as it is."
"Alright mom," Xander sighed and turned to face her. The last place he wanted to be right now was in Buffy’s room. He couldn’t help that her answer of ‘No, ewww’ was not the flagrant denial to Scott’s rumors that he had been hoping for; but, at the same time, he knew he had better drop it or have a black eye to show a testament to his inquisition.
Buffy settled on his acceptance and walked over to her bed and pulled the covers back. Xander watched her back as she pulled out a large body pillow that was underneath. It had been what he thought was Buffy sleeping soundly from outside, and he grinned at her fourth grade inventiveness.
"You know where your stuff is." Buffy told him over her shoulder as she climbed into bed.
"You’re gonna go to sleep now?" Xander asked slightly confused as he watched Buffy settle into her pillows.
She flipped over onto her other side so that she was facing him. "Yeah. I’m kinda tired…"
"From what?" Xander asked as he opened the chest at the foot of her bed and pulled out a pair of his sweat pants and a tee shirt. "All the slaying you lied about?"
"Yep." Buffy answered quickly and rolled back over, "That must be it."
Xander rolled his eyes and turned around before unfastening his buckle. "Well, as long as you admit it." He smiled as he kicked off his pants, he rarely won an argument with Buffy, and even though he could tell that she had just backed down he had to be happy with small victories.
Buffy kept her eyes closed and listened to Xander move at the foot of her bed. She could hear his zipper being pulled down and the soft rustle of him pulling his shirt over his head. Even the distinct sound of both articles of clothing being tossed to the other side of the room. They had never sounded so loud in the past. <What in the hell did he think he was doing?> she thought with a swallow as she listened to him pull on his sleep clothes. What if her parents came in to check on her? He didn’t know if she had told them goodnight. What if her dad opened her bedroom door and saw Xander standing there in his underware? But she didn’t say anything and she didn’t open her eyes…in fact, she fought to keep her eyes shut; and then she felt the covers shift on the other side of the bed.
Buffy’s eyes snapped open and focused on her friend, noticing that he had neglected to put on the tee shirt that he had taken out of the chest. "What are you doing?"
Xander sat down and looked at her confused. "Going to bed at 11:30, I guess."
"You don’t have to…I mean, I…I’m kinda tired, that’s all…I…"
He watched her stutter for her words and was slightly amazed. Buffy could flip total 360’s in her moods at the drop of a dime – she had seemed pissed at him only a moment ago, but now, she couldn’t even meet his eyes. Xander smirked to himself, he liked that he could have the same affect on her that she had on him. "Well, I can’t very well take a stroll around your house, can I?"
Buffy’s eyes darted around the room and Xander shifted further down on the bed. "Well…Night."
"Night," Buffy replied quickly.
"Are you sure you don’t want me to…"
"It’s fine Xander. Really." Buffy assured him. "I’d rather you sleep with me than go out and be live bait." Her mind flashed back to the large vampire she had faced in the house- the one who knew Xander by name. She couldn’t risk him getting hurt, and she’d suffer through a million sex talks with her parents and eternal groundation before she’d let anything happen to him. Buffy shut her eyes and felt Xander shift on his side as he tried to get comfortable. She tensed when he seemed to find the most relaxing position…with his right arm flung low across her waist and his knees fit behind hers.
Xander felt her body go rigid, "Is this alright?" he asked unsurely. God, he had no idea how to act around her now. She was fine with contact as long as she was the one who started it; outside of that they were still just best friends and he, it seemed to be, was making inappropriate advances towards her.
Buffy nodded against the pillow and tried to steady her breathing. She had slept with Xander a hundred times easy during the course of their friendship…she had just never had him hold her when she was going to sleep, not even that night when they first kissed. Speaking of which, she had never slept with Xander after they had engaged in as much *ahem* physical contact as they had that day.
Buffy’s natural progression of relationship related touching activities was being completely thrown by him. She had always had down time with Scott… time to take a breather and give him something to think about for the next time they were together – things could go slower that way…but with Xander. They spent almost every second together, and combined with the fact that she…that he…it was Xander. She had known him her whole life and could trust him completely. He meant everything to her. He wasn’t – random- as Scott had been. Xander was a constant, not a boyfriend…although he could be that if she was willing to completely convert him from a friend, but she couldn’t – she didn’t know if she wanted to, not when she could have all the boyfriend benefits and none of the titles. But she wondered how long she could offer him everything a real relationship was without it being a real live, living and breathing entity. Or how long she would be comfortable with that herself as she was right now.
Xander just sighed as she relaxed slowly against him, "You sure about…"
"This is nice." Buffy interrupted him. "This is fine."
They lay in silence for a moment, both knowing that the other wasn’t asleep by the tone of the others breathing. "I’m so not tired." Xander finally whispered.
"Me either," Buffy mumbled. "But I’m thinking if I just keep my eyes closed I can trick myself into sleeping." She had no idea how many times over the last few weeks she had hoped that tactic would work, but slaying always left her wired and jumpy, and she would usually grab something to eat or watch TV, usually both before shower time, some homework and then some light aerobics; but thanks to her minor freak out at Xander’s random appearance she had just hopped straight into bed.
"Tried that." Xander huffed against the back of her neck and Buffy shuddered at the feel of his warm breath. "So…" Xander breathed out hard, intentionally this time to elicit the same reaction. He wondered if he kept doing it if she would keep squirming and pushing back against him… He shut his eyes against the thought as he felt a familiar tingle shoot through his body. If he couldn’t summon a non-sexy thought right now he’d have to let her go for a second. "The slaying… Re-kill anything?"
Buffy furrowed her brow and felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as Xander’s breath blew through them and she heard him lick his lips. She would never understand guys…she wondered how many hours a day Xander spent with a hard-on because she had counted four separate occasions that day, and that was only when she had been involved. She shifted back a little more and heard him swallow…Make that five. "I don’t really want to talk about that." Buffy told him. "I like to leave the slaying in the field – no vampires in my bed and all." The image of Angel that flashed through her mind caused her to clench involuntarily as she tried to push it away. She briefly wondered if he was still outside. She wanted to know what he was thinking if he were…when he saw her light turn out and know that Xander was still inside with her. She wanted to know how the demon would feel knowing that she was sharing a bed with her dark haired friend…
Most of all she wanted to know why she was thinking about him. Buffy couldn’t push that thought away mostly because she was afraid of the answer – scare of the fact that the vampire was always in the back of her mind, that she was always wondering what he was doing and where her was, when he would show up next. It freaked her that she thought about Angel almost as much as she did Xander…that her hate was just as strong as her love and it could zip back and forth between the two that they could almost be interchanged. Buffy didn’t like that the buzz that both caused in her heart and stomach were identical in nature and that she craved them both.
"Understandable," Xander husked out, cursing the fact that nothing he could call to mind was quelling the fantasies of Buffy that were running in his brain on loop. And she kept rocking back against him- the slightest movements as if she knew what it was doing to him, as if she thought it was funny that he was hard and could do nothing about it. He grabbed a quick breath before speaking again. "So what do you want to talk about?"
She rocked her hips back again, this time in a small circle. She had Xander now though. She had the love, and she didn’t need thoughts of Angel plaguing her mind when she was in her friends arms. "Anything but that."
Xander was shaking now, actually physically shaking and now using all his mental powers to stop that. "Why don’t we talk about sports then…or…or…math…"
Buffy smirked to herself. She knew she was horrible…that she shouldn’t enjoy teasing him as much as she was, but…it was fun. "What about sports and math?"
"OR!!!" his voice was a loud whisper as she was rocking harder against his groin. His chin shook in effort to control his breathing. "Scott…let’s talk about him." He had to get her to stop her gyrating, and the best way he saw to do that was to piss her off.
Buffy recognized his tactic immediately. Minus the grinding, it was Jesse’s favorite move when she had the upper hand…Jesse…Darla. She had to find Darla. She had to pay.
Xander sighed in relief as Buffy’s movement ceased. "So answer my earlier question." He pressed thinking he had hit a sore spot that would undoubtedly provide him some uncomfortable relief. He had no earthly desire to hear about Buffy and Scott, but at least she was dry humping him anymore.
"Hmmm?" Buffy hummed distractedly as she tried desperately to push the image of her lost friend away and focus on the here and now…on being with Xander.
"What exactly did you guys do?" Xander kept speaking, oblivious to her internal struggle. "I mean…I’m guessing it…"
"Guessing?" Buffy swallowed. "Why?"
"You’re all gun ho…with touching and…kissing…"
"You keep up well enough." She pointed out, trying not to sound pissy as she became refocused on what he was implying. It was as if he had forgotten that he had been the one groping her breast in every closet in the school. This boy could change her thought processes faster than a tennis ball at Wimbledon.
Xander noticed her change in tone and his mind set off the alarm bells.
"And would you want me guessing what you’ve done with girls?" Buffy kept speaking.
He spotted an opportunity to defuse the situation. "I wasn’t even thinking about what you’d done with girls…"
"It’s probably be the same amount that you have," Buffy fired at him, knowing full well that it was a low blow. "Until today, that is." She basked in his uncomfortable silence for a moment, before his voice sounded uneasily.
"Hey," Xander defended whole heartedly. "I dated Michelle Corson."
"Oh, alright," Buffy mocked in an overtly sarcastic tone. "I guess," She emphasized the word he had used, "that the most that happened there was that you accidentally brushed up against her boob in a heated round of Seven Minutes in Heaven in Cordelia’s basement. Besides, she told everybody you get all nervous and pokey and then you ran away."
Xander forced a grin, happy that she couldn’t see him as he thought back to Michelle. His first relationship ever had ended badly and in front of everybody. But he didn’t run –it was more of a brisk walk that resulted in him tripping over his feet and falling on his face, but it wasn’t a run. "Hey, I didn’t run." He tried not to sound like he was pouting. "And what do you mean accidentally?"
She laughed against his chest, "I don’t know…I sorta believe it. I mean it was like you were trying to find 102.7 in my shirt."
"You weren’t complaining too much." He defended, still pressed behind her.
Buffy sighed. "I was trying to be encouraging… It helped."
"Meaning?"
"You were better at 2:15 than you were at 9:45." She told him honestly. "You got much less…proddy."
"Well, thanks, I guess."
"Practice does make perfect." Buffy tossed over her shoulder at him with a grin and felt his hand creep up her body, over her stomach until he was grasping her breast in a firm grip. She inhaled sharply in surprise when he squeezed slightly.
"Speaking of which," he said into her ear, getting her back for her earlier game. "We need to talk about your tactics."
Buffy sighed and licked her lips. She tried to regain control over the situation, but she was having trouble finding her voice, and she almost stopped trying when he thrust his hips out against her backside. "My tactics?" she managed to breathe out.
"Yeah." Xander squeezed her again. "You can’t be the only one who gets a say in the when, why, and wherefore."
It was Buffy’s turn to tingle now and she could hardly focus on his words as his hip rocked against hers. "Huh?"
"You can’t," Xander paused and placed a kiss on the back of her neck, punctuated by another thrust that was intended to show her to question his experience, "have all the control."
"Alright."
Xander smiled at the sigh in her voice. "And you have to stop freaking out if I initiate something…"
"Yeah…" Buffy felt another kiss to the back of her neck and her stomach clenched. Well, it started in her stomach and ended in someplace else entirely. It was a stronger sensation than Scott had ever caused in her, and Buffy couldn’t lie still anymore. She turned her head before the rest of her body could catch up and kissed him full on, not caring that he gasped in surprised in her change in position as she thrust her tongue into his mouth. This was exactly why they shouldn’t ever share a bed again, she thought with a grin, but it was quickly pushed to the back of her mind as she turned to face him completely.
Xander had no choice but to hold on to her, as she held him in a vice grip, her lips moving against his with purpose. He heard her…moan…he thought, into his mouth, but found himself unable to fully register it as he felt her lift her left leg, bent at the knee to his hip. He did recognize his groan as the action lined up her girl parts, as his mind dubbed them, with his corresponding boy ones, and before he could respond properly he was pulled on top of her tiny form when she rolled onto her back.
Buffy grunted against his lips, but didn’t break the kiss as Xander struggled to brace himself on his forearms and keep up with her. She had to stifle her giggle as she had wrapped her legs around the back of his and kept her arms around his neck, effectively trapping him right where she wanted him; and thanks to her Slayer strength, he was unable to do anything in protest. She ground her hips up against his and heard his groan when he trust back down against her causing a sharp throb to course through her lower abdomen, but despite the wave of pleasure her eyes snapped open and she pulled her mouth away from his, grinning as Xander attempted to follow her movement before opening his eyes.
"What?" he said in a harsh whisper, his dark eyes wide and his chin shaking subtly. He couldn’t control the aborted flex of his hips that was being drawn out by their maintained position. It seemed to him that his body knew to keep going as it was in this scenario, because it wouldn’t stop moving.
"Shhh." Buffy whispered back in his face.
"Sorry," Xander nodded quickly. In the heat of the moment he had forgotten all about Mr. and Mrs. Summers, not to mention Dawn who lived in the adjoining room from her big sister. But unfortunately for him his common courtesy for the other members of Buffy’s family was not on the forefront of his thoughts, in fact, he couldn’t care less. He pushed his lips back down to hers and thrust his hips out at the same time, catching the high pitched whine that shot out of her mouth. Buffy just held him tighter and his whole body started to shake. Xander clenched his eyes shut and moved his right hand up Buffy’s body, groping at her chest roughly.
"Xan," she pulled back again and spoke mumbled against his kiss. He was pushing against her harder now…hurried…and it felt good. Really good.
"Sorry," he muttered again and tried to slow himself down. "Sorry."
"No," Buffy gasped out, squirming a little under her friend’s rapid handling. "S’kay…s’kay…calm" there was so much pressure it almost hurt…it was so strong that nothing she had ever felt before compare to it. It wasn’t like she had never felt it before; she just never understood what was so great about orgasms. Scott sometimes made it happen a little bit, she had always assumed that he was getting her off…but this was sooooo different. So different that she wondered if Xander would change her opinion on the matter. She could feel his breath on her face coming in hard exhalations, and despite the lack of rhythm he was using to rub himself against her it was paying off for her as well. She just needed to concentrate on it a little bit more…
He had never heard he voice like that before and it tore through him, making him shake and ... "Aruuggg….Oh God…" Xander clenched his eyes shut and pulled back from the heated kiss with a painful frown. That was just his luck, he cursed himself as his body continued to shake.
"Wha?" Buffy was still breathing hard and thrusting up against him, still moving hard as she worked to make her own throb cease. "Are you ok?"
Xander nodded his head bent over hers. "I…" he was still fighting to catch his breath from the event, which in his mind, and on his part, was over far too soon. "I gotta…. I …"
"Oh," Buffy breathed out noting that she couldn’t feel him anymore when he shifted his hips. "Okay…"
He pushed himself off of her quickly, breaking the loosened hold of her legs, and stood at the side of the bed trying to discretely cover himself with his hands. "I’ll be right back," he said unable to hide the embarrassment in his tone.
"Yeah," Buffy nodded as her eyes darted around her room confused. She didn’t even watch him as he walked into her bathroom, his hands still locked in place in front of him. She scrunched her brow in confusion at the events that had just transpired as she sunk down into her pillow and listened to the water run in her bathroom. She really had no clue as to how to react when Xander reemerged… so she was doing what she did best and ignoring everything. They could just go to sleep, Buffy figured, like they hadn’t just…
<Yeah,> her mind agreed, <Just go to sleep>.
Satisfied with her decided course of action at the moment, Buffy had her eyes shut when Xander padded back into her room. She attributed his lack of noise to more embarrassment than concern over who might hear him walking about –that had to be it since he was moaning loud enough to re-awake the dead about ten minutes before.
Buffy kept her eyes focused on the window opposite him and felt the mattress compress of the other side of the bed as Xander slipped under the covers again, this time not touching her at all. "Night…again." She said after several moments of silence.
Xander swallowed loudly enough for her to hear, "Yeah. Night…Buff…"
"Huh?" she turned partially on her side to look at him out of the corner of her eye. He sounded like he wanted to say something but didn’t know what. She could think of about seventy-five things he could say…but it wasn’t like she could tell him, as she had no idea what she wanted to hear from him anyway. Buffy was pretty sure a ‘thank you’ would do more harm than good for him cuz it would only serve to piss her off; but at least it would be something…an acknowledgment – unless…unless Xander thought that she did that type of thing a lot, and therefore it wasn’t a big deal, in which case she was pissed off again. How dare he assume that about her. It didn’t matter if it was true or not, he had no right to think it, and to degrade what they had done by not even speaking to her…
"Night," Xander said again somberly, completely unaware of her internal defenses rising up. There was nothing that came to mind that could justify himself. That was…it could’ve been special. It was his first ‘contact’ in that way with his best friend, and he had pulled the famous Harris luck. Leave it to him to loose his load with record speed during his first dry hump with Buffy. If he were her it would be his last too.
He felt her turn back away from him and he sighed. He should say something…a thank you? < Yeah,> he berated himself,< Thanks for letting me get off on you bestest buddy. Lets do it again sometime.> Xander shook his head and shut his eyes wishing for the sun to rise. The sooner it was daylight, the sooner he could be out of that window. He could even fake sick and get out of school…after he left her room, he didn’t have to see Buffy all day, maybe two if he could act his way through a stomach virus well enough. He turned onto his side and put as much distance between them as he could, resigning to the fact that holding Buffy didn’t seem like the ideal sleeping arrangement anymore as they lay in eerie silence. Yeah, he had made an ass of himself. She probably didn’t even want him there anymore. She probably even regretted that she didn’t send his sorry ass out to be vamp bait – he bet Scott never…
"Xander," Buffy whispered after a while, turning her head to see him again. She had tried to be pissed at him, but growled to herself that she found him cuter now than she had previously. He was all pouty now, she could hear it in his breathing that he was upset…even more so than she was, and, damn him, it was adorable. He was her best friend to a fault, caring more about what she was feeling and, most likely, degrading himself for not giving as he had received. Xander had a habit of always wanting her to be happy, and driving himself insane to make it so. In the end that was why she could never stay mad at him, this was no different. "Can you hug me?" she asked in a quiet tone, which previously had been designated as her cutesy girlfriend voice reserved for Scott.
Buffy heard Xander swallow again, this time more out of surprise, but then felt his arm reassume its position around her waist. Buffy sighed, letting him hear her contentment for his benefit and settled back against his chest, once again allowing herself to revel in the feel of his breath on her neck. "Better." And Buffy felt his small nod and heard his soft grunt of agreement before she shut her eyes. He was right that she was biting off more than she could chew right now…trying to have a new boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with her best friend, combined with school and her overprotective parents, and now the slaying, but it was something about Xander…something that she knew what it was exactly, but had never learned how to express it verbally, that made so look forward to trying everything out with him.
~*~*~
"She’s happy right?" the thick New York accent of his companion asked from beside him as he kept his eyes focused on the darkened bedroom window from across the street. She had closed the curtains, and Angel couldn’t see inside clearly, but he had just seen Xander’s shadow moving in the bathroom and the light had just flicked off again. It made him sick that the boy was spending the night in there…with her.
Angel didn’t even bother to glance at Whistler, "Yeah. She is." He could imagine what was going on in there. He could smell Buffy anywhere – everything had a smell…he wondered if he would be able to pick up the scent of her purity the next night, or if that little snot would have taken it by then.
"Then be happy for her."
"Easier said than done." Angel shook his head.
Whistler shrugged. "Well, how bout I spring for a nice juicy steak and eggs breakfast – hold the eggs."
Angel chuckled a little.
"I’ll even let you tell me how perfect she is some more…"
"Rare steak?" Angel asked glancing back towards the window.
Whistler grinned and started down the street again, "The rarest. Plus we need to work out the plans for tomorrow. You still wanna keep her out of this right?"
Angel dropped his head and caught up with the other demon. "I’m going to keep her out of this."
"As much as you can." Whistler added. "Don’t get to much in the habit of sheltering her Mother Goose. The kid’s gotta grow up…make her own way."
He focused on the street ahead as they walked away from Buffy’s house. "I’m just going to assume that you’re only talking about the Slaying aspect…"
"I’m talking about the girl, Angel." Whistler broke in, "She’s gonna grow up fast, and it’s gonna happen right in front of you. You’re just gonna have to watch it happen, and I guarantee you’re not gonna like it all the time." He heard the vampire sigh. "You can’t protect her anymore from the boy than you can from the Master, but if you love her, you’ll stay by her no matter what."
Angel nodded in agreement. He knew that Whistler was right, he would just have to stand by Buffy…and hope…hope that one day she would choose him. "So we’ll nix the plan to use Harris as bait?"
Whistler couldn’t hold in his laughter at the comment. It was just too funny that this immortal being was insanely jealous of the teenage boy. This had to be the first time in the history of the world that a mortal had gotten the upper hand on Angelus…on Angel, and it was over a girl, a teenaged girl. "Well pal, I guess what they say is true."
Angel jammed his hands into his pockets, "And what do they say?"
Whistler shrugged, "Anything worth having is worth fighting for."
~*~*~*~
Xander kicked his legs free of the covers before he opened his eyes, squinting against the sunlight that was streaming into the room. The much brighter than his room – Buffy’s room. He was surrounded by it – intense Buffyness all embedded in her blankets and pillows. He grinned and glanced to his side…
The bed was empty.
Xander sat up and rubbed his hand down his face to clear his eyes and looked around the room. He could hear the faint sounds of the shower running and he relaxed a little bit. For a moment he had thought Buffy had freaked out like she had the night she had slept in his room and ran. Although he had no idea where she would run to now because this was, after all, her house.
But no. She was still there, and while examining her side of the bed it seemed that she had been awake for quite a while. He inventoried the variety of school books that were laid on top of the covers and assumed that she had woken up early to do homework before heading to the shower and he wondered just how hard a sleeper he was.
He pushed himself out of the bed and padded as quietly as he could to the foot of the bed to retrieve his clothes when he heard the shower stop. He figured that he shouldn’t just stay sitting there like a jack ass when she got out – they both had to get ready for school and her parents would, most likely, be knocking on her door any moment.
Truth be told, he wanted to get out of there before he had to actually talk to Buffy anyway. He figured that it would be best for the both of them if he were gone – it would defiantly spare them both the embarrassment that, when he heard the water stop as a signal that she would be in the room with his soon, welled up from the pit of his stomach. How could he even look at her after that? Not that she had done anything wrong, but he…How could she even want to speak to him? He had…
"I thought you were never going to wake up."
Buffy didn’t sound angry. She didn’t sound like anything really.
"Heavy sleeper," Xander shrugged, turning to face her. His breath caught in his throat and he blinked at her. He had just started to congratulate himself on his focus on things other than wet naked Buffy, but now there she stood. Not naked, but still a screaming reminder that she had been. And she still looked innocently cute to him in a completely hot kind of way, dressed in the tiniest pair of shorts and the hugest gym shirt he had ever seen. He assumed that it had been her fathers because it had ‘Hank’ written on it and just the name sent him into a flurry of activity that forced the majority of his rising arousal away. <Which probably would have happened anyway if last night is any indicator.>
Buffy nodded and brushed past him on her way to the bed where she started to close her books. "You do that a lot?" she heard Xander ask from behind her and she listened to him get dressed.
"What? My homework?" Buffy questioned with a slight grin, "Yeah, occasionally."
"No," Xander chuckled, "Well, yeah…I guess I never paid attention to what you hand in or anything…but you get up early to do it?"
Buffy turned to see Xander as he sat on the trunk at the foot of her bed to tie his shoes. "Well, I have to do it sometime…plus I was kind wired from…I mean, I was up and all…"
Xander caught her almost slip and stood up, jamming his hands into his pockets. "I should do that…the homework and all that is…in the morning…"
Buffy tilted her head at him, and much to Xander’s surprise sent him an almost comforting smile before reaching out and pushing at his arm. "You should start by doing your homework anytime."
He opened his mouth to speak, his confidence reborn at her light tone; it was almost as if she had completely glossed over the whole of the previous night. Like it didn’t even matter to her. Weather it was for his benefit or not, Xander was grateful that she was reacting the way that she was. He assumed any other girl would have posted his photo along with a warning to the remaining female population that he, the Razorback Swim Team’s answer to Greg Louganis, was a quick shooter. But not his Buffy…
But the knock at the door quickly shut him up and both he and Buffy froze as their heads whipped to face it.
"Buffy," Hanks voice rang through the hard wood and Buffy could pick up, with her new more acute hearing, his hand land on the door knob – right before the thud of her own heart drowned it out. "It’s time to get up Princess…"
"Princess?" Xander mouthed with a cutesy smile, despite his rising fear at the fact that Hank was standing mere feet away…and his foot, therefore, was the same distance from his ass.
Buffy rolled her eyes and grabbed Xander by the arm, pulling him across the room, "Out the window," she whispered harshly to him as she forced him onto the larger sitting ledge.
"Princess?" Buffy’s father called again followed by an attempt at the door knob. "Buffy?" Her father’s voice took on a more dominating tone. "Why is this door locked? Buffy?"
"Coming!!!" she called hurriedly trying to push Xander outside and cursing the fact that his long legs were getting caught as he tried to squeeze himself outside. "See you in a few," she whispered to him with a grin once he was outside.
Xander nodded and leant back through the window, bringing his hand up to cup her face and pulling her into a light kiss. "See you," he smiled back after he pulled away quickly and turned before she could see the stupid grin on his face. That had been so much different than before – it was how he always wanted it to be, well, always since they had started this whole thing, whatever it was. It didn’t really matter, Xander thought as he lowered himself down carefully off of the roof and into Buffy’s lawn. She had wanted him to kiss her this time. She hadn’t pulled away. Maybe, just maybe, they were getting somewhere.
Buffy had watched him disappear down the street before turning and setting herself to open the door. She took a deep breath and pulled it open, trying her hardest to wear an innocent look under her father’s scrutiny.
Hank eyed her suspiciously and then tried to look discreetly into her room. It had sounded like she was talking to somebody…
"Sorry Daddy," Buffy spoke noticing how her father was surveying her space. "I was in the shower."
Hank nodded slowly and looked her up and down. She did look like she was telling the truth…he guessed. "Alright," he said slowly. After fifteen years of raising girls and twenty five years of marriage he would think that he knew something – anything – about how to read women; and his little girl was, much to his loathing, becoming one of them. "Come down for breakfast when you’re done."
Buffy sight internally knowing that she had him beat this time. Her Dad had thought something was up, but didn’t want to or know how to ask, and now had used up all his snooping time so he had given up. "Alright Daddy," she grinned and at his unsure smile before shutting her door.
~*~*~*~
Jesse walked around the lair carefully stepping over the strewn limbs of the twenty of so bodies littering the damp sewer floor.
The night had been a tremendous success; it was all falling into place. And now that the sun had risen all that remained was to sit and wait for his reign to come – dusk would bring a new age, and he, for one, couldn’t wait. It would be unforgettable.
Not only had he, Darla, and later in the evening, Luke ascertained a suitable amount of minions for the Harvest, but he had made his presence known to the whole of the Bronze
He idly rolled one of the large male bodies over and roughly yanked off the jacket he had been wearing – a Sunnydale High wrestling team member. He must not be that great at it if he had been killed so easily, but, Jesse guessed, he was probably thinking with his little head. He recognized the boy, a year older then he had been, Keegan Foreman to be precise. He would benefit Jesse’s outfit more than SDH anyway.
Jesse slipped his arms though the sleeves of the jacket and adjusted it on his shoulders. He had always wanted one, but had been cut from the tryouts after the first round. He had never had the luck with sports that his friend had. <Never could compete with swim super stud Xander Harris.>
But soon his time would come. He would show all of them up and it would happen tonight. It was coming. The Master would rise and more importantly, for his own new social standing, it would be the night he would kill his first Slayer. Jesse would face off with Buffy and he was going to win.
He had secretly decided against all the mental torture and ‘make her weak’ bullshit. He would just break her neck and be done with it. <Or turn her> Jesse thought evilly. That would be the sweetest twist and she would be his childe – owe him for an eternity. Either way she would be dead by his hand and he would have the respect of the Hellmouth to wear as an additional badge.
Enough people had seen him that night at the Bronze to be talking about it all day at school and Buffy the Vampire Slayer would undoubtedly rush in to save the day. She had to know about the Harvest. Her lapdog, Angel, had probably clued her in. Not to mention that her little Watcher, and Jesse had loved finding this the most, the new librarian, was working overtime to decode all the symbols…decipher the signs to pinpoint the when and how. But he would be too late. It was already happening.
Jesse stopped suddenly and knelt down over a body near his new room, which by giddy coincidence, was also Darla’s, and flipped it over onto its back. He starred at the familiar, now relaxed, features of the boy unable to wipe the sinister grin off of his face. Jesse ran his fingers over the name embroidered onto the high school letterman jacket the body was wearing…Willow’s boy had been out alone that night.
Percy. He would rise soon. The high school senior star quarterback may have made it is business to fuck up Jesse’s mortal life, but in a few short hours he would wake his childe. Jesse had taken great joy in killing him…he had stalked him and beat him…he had taken pride in the fun he had doing it, too.
"Jesse?"
His head snapped up and he looked towards the room the Darla’s voice had echoed from.
"What?"
Darla peeked out of the room, vampire vestige in place, and grinned at him, making sure that the immortal teenager could see her lack of dress. She shifted in mock insecurity at his growl. "Come to bed and rest for tonight."
Jesse slit his eyes at her but didn’t approach. "Not tired."
The blonde vampire slinked up to her childe; head tilted innocently, and pressed herself against him. She ran her hands lightly up his sides and leant up, as if to kiss him, but stopped mere centimeters from his lips. Darla locked eyes with him and gripped the lapels of the jacket he was wearing in a vice grip, whispering into his mouth. "You will be."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
End Part 14a
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