Warrior--Parts 5,6,7
Part 5:
Xander awoke to a soft tickling just below his ear.
He mumbled his annoyance in his half-sleep state and swatted the tickling away. After a moment, however, the tickling sensation returned. Xander grumbled this time and rolled over, hugging himself to the lovely cool thing he had in his bed.
His peace didn't last long, however. The tickling returned, this time under his nose, making him sneeze. Xander was about to roll over yet again when he heard someone above him chuckling.
His eyes shot open to discover he was lying diagonally across the bed, his head in Spike's lap. The 'lovely cool thing' in his bed had been Spike's lower half, the tickling had been curtesy of the edge of Spike's silk shirt in the vampire's left hand and the vampire himself was sitting up, smiling down at him with amusement dancing in his eyes.
He glared at his new lover, resisting the urge to smile back.
"I'm a big bad Warrior," he informed the vampire, trying to make his voice sound threatening.
"That you are, my pet," Spike agreed amicably.
Xander shifted around a bit until he was sitting up. He still hadn't relinquished his grip around Spike's waist, though. "It wasn't very nice of you to tease me with that," he told the vampire solemnly, still fighting down a grin.
"I'm *bad*," Spike agreed, his voice low and suggestive. "Really really *bad*."
Xander won the fight with the grin and frowned at the vampire. His eyes darkened. "You need to be punished," he told Spike.
An expression of pure desire flickered across Spike's face. "So, punish me," he replied, his voice low and growly.
Xander grinned slyly and reached one hand down....to tickle Spike's side. The blond vampire's eyes widened in suprise, before he doubled over in helpless laughter.
Xander's newly found powers had obviously made him merciless, because even after Spike was reduced to gasping and rolling around on the bed in the throes of ticklishness, Xander refused to let up. "Say uncle!" he ordered the vampire.
Spike tried to glare at him, but he couldn't really stay still long enough to do that convincingly. He tried to swat the boy's hands away, but Xander had managed to straddle himself over the blond vampire. "I'm...the...Big..ah!...Bad!" Spike managed to gasp out.
"I...*don't*...bloody..say..." Xander moved his attack further up the vampire's torso and was instantly rewarded. Apparently, Spike was *really* ticklish there. "Uncle! Uncle!" he cried.
Xander got in one last good tickle and then reluctantly relented, falling to the bed beside Spike.
"Soddin' pillock," Spike muttered moodily after he'd caught his breath, but there was still the glimmer of a smile playing around his lips.
"Serves you right," Xander told him, unrepentantly. "What were you doing waking me up this early?"
"You're a Warrior, remember pet," Spike reminded him.
"That doesn't mean I'm a fan of early mornings," Xander protested. "What are you even doing up this early? Didn't I wear you out yet?"
That earned him a well-aimed hit with a pillow. "Vampire instincts, pet," Spike explained. "What with dawn being so fatal and all. Besides," he added, looking a little sullen. "The Great Poof Extraordinaire is coming today. Remember, luv?"
Xander cursed, checking the time on the alarm clock. "We're late," he told the vampire, jumping out of bed and pulling on a pair of jeans.
"We could be even later if you wanted, lover," Spike suggested, his voice still low and growly.
Xander suppressed a shiver at the pet name. "We're not going to get there at all if you keep talking to me like that," Xander pointed out.
Spike shurgged. "Fine with me," he said a little too eagerly.
Xander looked at him. The vampire was decidedly sulky. And not just because his chances of getting an early morning shag were rapidly decreasing. "What is it, Spike?" he asked directly.
Spike looked away. "Nothing," he muttered.
Xander pulled his jeans on the all the way and did up the fastenings. He found a relatively unwrinkled shirt and pulled it on over his head. The thought registered in his mind that the shirt was Spike's and it made him smile.
He looked back over to the blond vampire and saw he hadn't made a move to leave the bed yet. He was watching Xander, his face full of resentment. Xander had a sudden lack of confidence. What if this was serious? What if it was about him? Was Spike regretting something they had done?
"Spike?" Xander asked nervously.
Spike caught the scent of fear emanating from the boy and realised he was scaring him with his moodiness. He felt a sudden pang of guilt. He snorted internally. He felt guilty over worrying a mortal boy. He didn't have to be worried about his nancy-boy of a Sire -- not when he was turning into him.
Xander had gotten even more panicked over his silence. "Is..Is there something..you..I mean..." Xander stumbled nervously. Oh god, he'd known this had been too good to be true.
"It isn't you, pet," Spike told him softly. He sighed. "It's that great ninny of a Sire of mine."
Xander blinked. "Angel?" he asked suprised. He knew Spike didn't like his Sire, but he'd also been the one to suggest that he come down from LA and train Xander.
"He's going to take one whiff of you and know, pet," Spike explained to the brunette. "And I *don't* really think he'll be offering us congratulations, if you get what I mean, lover."
Xander sat down heavily on the bed. "Does it matter?" he asked the vampire, half-scared of the answer. He suppressed the surge of jealousy that rose in him when he realised just how concerned Spike was with what his Sire thought.
Xander wasn't stupid. He'd read about the Sire-Childe bonding and he had seen the power dynamics between Spike and Angelus. It had been blatantly obvious to the boy that the two had been lovers in their mayhem-wrecking days. Angel may have a soul now, but that didn't necessarily mean that Spike didn't still want him.
Xander knew for a fact that he was no match for the tall, darkly beautiful and tortured Angel. And he was suprised to find how much losing Spike to the souled vampire would hurt him.
"He's my Sire," Spike answered simply and Xander's heart fell like lead to his stomach.
For his part, Spike was too caught up in his own thoughts to notice how deathly quiet the boy had become. Angel was his Sire, and yes, they had been lovers back in the Scourge of Europe days, but it wasn't that old passion that was bothering Spike at the moment.
Angel was his Sire, soul or no soul, and as such, he had the right to take possession of anything that Spike had. Lovers and mates included.
He'd known that last night when he'd told the Watcher that the ponce would be able to train Xander as a Warrior. He'd briefly considered the fact that Angel might take Xander away from him, if he came, but he told himself he didn't care. He just wanted the boy for a shag, didn't he?
Looking back, Spike saw that the decision had been a lot less self-centred than that. This chip had bloody well done him in. He was no more an evil, ruthless demon than the witches' pet cat.
Yes, he'd known Angel might take Xander, he'd known how much that would hurt him, but he'd also known that Xander needed to be trained and so the boy's needs had taken priority.
But now, after spending the night making love with the boy and sleeping in his arms, Spike had to admit to himself just how much more than a shag Xander was to him.
He was distracted from his thoughts by a flying pair of jeans that hit him squarely in the jaw.
"Get dressed Fangless," the boy ordered, not meeting his gaze. "It's getting lighter and I don't want to have to carry you to Giles' in a dustpan." A shirt joined the pair of jeans. "I'm alergic to dust," Xander added after a beat.
Spike had just snorted and did as he was asked.
The walk to Giles' was a strange one. The first signs of light had turned the night into a strange gray world that was neither dark nor light.
As usual, Spike had Xander's hand entwined with his own, but he was clutching it a little more desperately than normal. They walked closely, so that their hips and shoulders brushed with every second step, but there was none of the usual banter and flirting that usually accompanied them everywhere. Both were silent and caught up in their own thoughts.
From the looks of Giles' place from the outside, they were the first, bar Angel, to arrive. As he did last night, Xander lifted his free hand to knock, but Spike caught it before it reached the door.
The blond vampire turned the boy so that he was facing him, and for a moment, squeezed both the boy's hands and stared at his face, as if he was trying to memorise every line.
Xander was begining to worry about the well-being of the vampire, when Spike's patented grin slipped across his face, a moment before Spike leaned forward and pressed his lips to Xander's and clutched the boy's face in his hands.
The kiss was feverish. Spike's tongue darted into Xander's mouth and proceeded to trace every inch of it's warmth. Xander responded just as feverently, arching his own tongue up to stroke and tangle with the cool one that was invading his senses.
This kiss was unlike any they'd had before. Xander snorted internally. He'd already thought that at least four times since he'd started playing tonsil hockey with the vampire. Would Spike ever run out of new experiences to show Xander with his skilled tongue and soft lips? Or was every kiss going to be completely differnt from the last?
After what seemed like forever, Spike released the boy, and pulled away, relinquishing all contact except that of his hand in Xander's.
Not bothering to knock, Spike pushed the door open and entered, Xander following behind him, their hands still joined and not looking like they were going to seperate anytime soon.
Giles and Angel were seated in the lounge room talking. Giles was the first one to see them, and he broke of his conversation halfway through a sentence and stood up. He noted their joined hands and gave Xander a stern look.
Angel, noticing Gile's movement turned and stood too. He looked momentarily confused when he took in Spike and Xander standing in the entrance to the lounge room, reeking of each other and holding hands.
The confusion passed quickly, however, and the souled vampire's eyes windened considerably.
Xander was avoiding his gaze, but Spike, his Childe, ever the rebellious one, stared back at Angel, his face set in determined lines and his eyes issuing a challenge.
Angel's eyes darkened. "Giles, take Xander upstairs," he ordered the Watcher without so much as glancing in his direction. His gaze rested on his Childe. "Spike and I need to have a little talk."
*****
Part 6:
"Spike and I need to have a little talk."
Angel's words reverberated around the lounge room. For an instant, no one spoke. The air actually seemed to ripple with tension and no one wanted to move for fear of setting it off. The tension wound tighter with every second that passed.
Giles was the first one to move. He went to Xander's side and gently tugged on the boy's arm.
"Come on, Xander, I'm sure they'll only be a few..." he trailed off as Xander turned to face him.
If Giles had had any doubts left about the truth of Xander's power, they were slain with that one look.
The Watcher had known the boy for years. He'd loved him and treated him like a son. He'd watched him go through every situation imagineable, seen every emotion flicker across his expressive face.
But he had *never* seen the look in his eyes that he saw now.
His dark brown eyes burned with a depth of emotion that Giles feared he would drown in.
There was rage there. Pure, white-hot, protective and instinctive rage. And the power...it rolled off him in waves.
This wasn't Xander, clumsy and kind-hearted. This was the Warrior, strong, confident and powerful.
Giles released the boy's arm and backed away. He was way out of his depth here.
Xander turned to Angel and hit him with that very same gaze. "I'm not going anywhere," Xander informed him, coldly.
Beside him, Spike grinned tightly and tightend his grip on Xander's hand. An irrational pride surged up in the blond vampire. Xander at full power was a force to be reckoned with, and he was *his*. Spike vowed it. Come hell or brooding Sires.
Angel's eyes narrowed and he unconsciously slipped into game face at the potential threat. "You have no idea what you're dealing with," he ground out, his gold-eyed gaze boring into Xander's burning dark one. "You're not in Kansas anymore."
Xander didn't miss a beat. "Well, I'm no Dorothy," he drawled, amusement evident in his voice.
"And Spike sure as hell isn't Toto."
Giles darted a glance at the boy to find a familiar grin playing around his lips. All at once, Giles was relieved. Xander was still in control.
The humour in a tense moment and the almost playful grin were the unmistakeable property of the boy he'd known for the last four years. He may have the power and confidence of the Warrior, but he was still Xander. He may not have honed his skills or learnt how to control his power, but the power did not control him. Did not corrupt him. Not yet.
Angel saw the Xander in that grin too and with a frustrated growl he slipped back into his human guise. "Listen to me, Xander," he tried to reason with the boy. "You are in way over your head. I can help you, but you have to let me. You and Spike are playing with fire. He's a *vampire*."
Spike snorted. "How very bloody observant of you, Peaches," he drawled mockingly. "But, and
I hate to point out the obvious, so are you, mate. Take a look in the mirror you great poof. You're as lacking in the reflection-department as I am."
Angel turned to his Childe, angrily. "For godsake Wil, open your fucking eyes!" he vented at the blond vampire. "There's more at stake here than whether or not you get your leg over!"
Spike felt the anger boiling in him. "Now, you wait just a minute here, mate," he began, taking a step towards the other vampire. The two of them were barely half a metre apart and they were glaring at each other, both looking as though they might strike and kill at any instant.
"You know this chip only works for humans," Spike pointed out, threateningly. "And unless there have been any recent bulletins, you still don't fit into that catergory, *Peaches*." The blond vampire put a derisive twist on the name.
The two of them began to circle each other like predator and prey, only it was impossible to determine which was which.
Angel glared at his Childe. "I'm your *Sire*, Wil," he reminded the other vampire.
"Angelus was my Sire," Spike spat.
"Soul or no soul I *am* you're Sire," Angel retorted. "And you know it, Spike. You know I can end this *insanity* this moment, if I want to."
Spike let out a fierce growl and slipped into game face. "I don't take orders from effin' poofs!" Spike threw back. But his tone quavered slightly, uncertainly.
Xander sensed the vulnerability there and felt a surge of protectiveness well up in him. He took a step forward and joined in the bizarre predatory dance that was taking place.
"This is none of your business, Deadboy," he spoke through clenched teeth. "You're here to train me as a Warrior, not interfere in my sex life."
"Xander, listen to me," he begged of the boy. "You have no idea what you're dealing with. He'll hurt you. He's a killer."
Xander cocked an eyebrow at the souled vampire. "And you're what? The Mother Theresa?" he shot back. "You should really take another look over your credentials, Deadboy, and come back when you can talk."
Angel's eyes pleaded with Xander's. "He's a murderer, Xander," the souled vampire continued pleading with the boy. "He's killed people who were your friends."
Xander's eyes darkened with barely controlled anger. "So have you," he hissed at the dark-haired vampire.
Angel winced at the comment, but continued with his pleading. "You don't know him, Xander, not like I do," he went on. "He may have a chip, but he still wants to kill. He doesn't have a--"
"A soul?" Xander cut him off. "Is that you're point? Spike doesn't have a soul and you do?"
Xander shook his head in disgust. "Are you applying for the position?" Xander asked the souled vampire.
Spike's heart rose to his throat as he waited for Xander to finish. If he'd had breath, it would've been caught his throat. The blond vampire already knew the answer to the boy's question.
Angel had always coveted the boy. As Angelus, he had unequivocally warned everyone off dark-haired, puppy-eyed teenager. Spike knew full well that his Sire had planned to turn the boy to serve at his right hand. Luckily, his little trip to Hell had put those plans on hold.
But Spike knew that if Xander wanted Angel, rather than Spike, he could have him. All he had to do was say the word. And Spike had recently discovered just how much Xander's decision meant to him. He watched Xander's face intently as he continued.
The blond vampire needn't have worried. "I'm sorry," the boy finished mockingly. "But the position is already filled."
Spike let a full-beamed, near-feral grin spread across his face. "You heard him, Peaches," he drawled happily. "The whelp had made his decision." Somehow the old nickname didn't really seem to fit the boy anymore, but old habits die hard.
"Enough is enough," Angel snapped at them both. He turned to Spike. "I am your Sire, Wil, and as such, I *order* you to--"
In the next instant several things happened at once.
Willow, Buffy, Riley and the others who had arrived as a group a few moments earlier, heard the row going on inside, and had instantly come to the worst possible conclusion, and had barged in through the door as a group.
Giles, fearing the arguement may soon escalate to something dangerous had slipped into the other room and had returned with his crossbow.
It was Angel, however, who made the cataclysmic movement. Halfway through his order, he had raised his hand to strike his Childe.
Once again, Xander felt that something inside him roar with anger. The power flooded through him instantly, giving his protective rage fire. The normally harmless dark-haired boy saw red. He felt the adrenaline pumping through every single vein. No one touch what was his. *No one*.
With touching the souled vampire, before Angel had the chance to hit Spike, Xander sent him flying across the room to crash into the opposite wall. Xander followed quickly, grabbing Angel by the throat and pinning him against the wall. Angel stared back at the boy in shock.
Xander met his gaze, his eye's alight with rage and power. "*No one* touches what is mine," he growled at the vampire. "Spike *belongs* to me. Don't even *think* of trying to take him away."
All of a sudden the lounge room was filled with silence. The air grew thick with tension, and all were frozen in place once again.
It was Buffy who broke the silence this time. She stared at the scene before. She had seen her clumsy, useles, but amusing friend pin her ex-boyfriend to the wall and claim ownership over a mortal enemy in a way that sent shivers down her spine. She was still reeling with shock.
Her voice was barely above a breath when she spoke at it was full of shock, confusion and just a tint of fear. "What?"
*****
Part 7:
"What?" Buffy breathed, taking in the scene before her. After as second, her need to be in control kicked in and the shocked question became a a forceful demand. "Would somebody *please* tell me what the *hell* is going on here?"
Angel, Xander and Spike ignored her. Only Giles spared her any of his attention and that was to throw a warning glance in her direction.
Things were at a very delicate point at the moment, and the last thing they needed was Buffy blundering in with her size eights and turning an arguement into an explosion. Xander had vast amounts of power at his disposal, without any real knowledge of how to control it, and at the moment, he was very, *very* pissed.
Spike was busy watching the scene unfold before him. He was grinning ferally at Xander's protectiveness. The claim he'd declared over the blond vampire had sent a electric shivers to every part of Spike's body. It had laid to rest the last of any of his fears about losing Xander to Angel. Xander had already made up his mind, and Spike was pretty damn sure there was no power on earth that could take the choice of Xander's hands now.
Angel was staring down at Xander, from his position of being pinned against the wall, in amazement. "You're powerful," he noted. "Much more powerful than I thought."
Buffy was not satisfied with being ignored. She stamped her foot in frustration. "What the *Hell* is going on?" she yelled again.
This time she got a response - in the form of Spike and Xander turning to shout in unison: "Shut the hell up!"
"Stay out of this, Buffy," Angel added, before turning his attention back to Xander. "You're much stronger than the last Warrior I trained," Angel observed.
Xander had no time for Angel's observations. He only wanted one thing from the souled vampire at the moment. He tightend his grip around Angel's throat. "Spike is mine," he repeated.
"And you will never touch him again, without my permission. Do you swear?"
Angel's eyes widened, several things coming together in his head at once. All at once, he realised just how big a mistake he'd made in trying to come between those two. In the end, he had initiated what he had meant to stop.
"Xander," he began as placatingly as he could manage. "You don't know what you're asking. You don't know what it'll mean."
Xander pulled back and slammed Angel's against the wall, leaving a noteable dent there. "Do you swear?" he demanded.
Angel's eyes sunk closed and he sighed. When he opened them again, Xander saw the defeat there. "I swear," he replied, and Xander thought he could hear a clicking sound - the sound of two things falling into place - as he said it. "I swear."
Stepping back, Xander nodded and released his grip on Angel and lowered him to the floor. All of a sudden, the tension seemed to flow out of him, sweat began to pour off his forehead, and his legs felt weak. He stumbled backwards.
Spike immediately stepped forward and caught him, pulling the weakend boy into his arms and hugging him fiercely. "It's alright, pet," Spike soothed the boy. "I've got you."
Xander contentedly burrowed down in the blond vampire's arms, but soon he was too weak to even stand, and Spike didn't have the right leverage to hold him up.
Giles dropped his crossbow and quickly came to their aid, guiding them both into one of the armchairs. Spike sat down first and pulled the boy onto his lap, and wrapped his arms firmly around the boy.
The blond vampire absently brushed back the boy's brown locks from his forehead and continued to stroke the boy's face and hair. The look on his face was one of complete absorption in his task. It was the tenderest look that the others had ever seen cross the master vampire's face.
Angel, who had picked himself off the ground and taken a seat in the armchair opposite Xander and Spike, watched the two of them with a sense of wonder. He, alone of all of them, knew what the results of this pairing would be, but yet, watching the two of them now, he could not bring himself to blame them. Some things were just inevitable.
Giles returned from the kitchen with a glass of water, which he silently passed to Spike to give to Xander. The blond vampire gently tilted the boy's head up and opened his mouth just enough and slowly began to pour the water in. Xander lapped it up gratefully, and soon the glass was empty.
As Spike passed the glass back to the Watcher, he noticed that he and Xander had the wrapt and shocked attention of the entire Scooby Gang. "Oi! What the bloody hell do you think you're looking at?" he demanded.
Buffy gave a weary sigh and dropped onto the couch. "Could somebody *please* tell me what's going on?" Buffy pleaded, no longer demanding, but requesting.
The others, still in shock, followed her lead and took seats around the lounge room.
Only Anya looked relatively unsurprised. She'd seen much more shocking things in her thousand year stint as a vengence demon than a Warrior in a bad mood, and she'd already had a pretty good idea where Xander's affections lay when she had walked out on him. That the blond vampire appeared to reciprocate was no shock to her.
Angel tore his gaze away from Spike and Xander, to regard Buffy and the others. "Xander has just claimed ownership over Spike," he explained.
"So we noticed," Riley commented dryly, barely able to keep his hatred of the souled vampire out of his voice.
"Yeah, I kinda picked up on that too," Willow chimed in. "But, and not to criticize your explantion or anything Angel, but I think we're all still a little caught up on the 'why' and the 'what does it mean' aspects of it."
"I think I can answer part of that," Giles told them. He gave Xander and Angel a questioning look. Xander was too busy nuzzling Spike's neck to pay him any heed, but Angel gestured for him to go on. The souled vampire was too concerned with the many thoughts whirling around his head to hand out dictionary definitions.
"It's a ritual," Giles began. "The Warrior's adhere to an ancient code, that is passed down in instincts, much like the powers are. The ritual Xander and Angel just played out was the ritual of claiming a...a..."
Giles took off his glasses and began to clean them, mostly just so he wouldn't have to meet the eyes of any of his charges and deal with their reactions to what he was about to bring up. "A mate," he finished finally.
He rushed on with his explanation before all hell broke loose. "In order to claim a mate, one must revoke ownership from the previous guardian. It's usually a father, but in this case, since Spike's a vampire, it was his Sire."
Despite all the evidence she'd had already, Buffy's jaw dropped. "A mate?" she echoed. "As in to share smoochies with?"
Giles was about to answer in the affirmative, but Xander saved him the trouble.
The boy was still terribly weakened from his exertion of his power. He was much more spent from the tension he'd created and the claiming ritual he'd unwittingly performed that he had been from slaying two demons the night before. The two releases of his power had come too close together, leaving Xander completely drained.
At the moment, Xander was in a kind of exhaustion-induced daze, completely unaware of his surroundings, except the immediate ones - i.e. Spike. And all he wanted at the moment was to curl up somewhere with his blond vampire and cuddle and kiss.
So, needless to say, Xander hadn't been following the conversation, but regardless, his actions were right on cue. The moment Buffy's bewildered query left her lips and all eyes turned to him and Spike, the boy licked his way up Spike's neck and gently tugged an earlobe into his mouth and suckled at it.
"Oh my," Willow murmured what they were all thinking.
Spike, ever the exhibitionist, could not leave it at that. He gently tugged the Xander's head around, until they were facing each other. He ran his thumb down over the boy's lips and quickly followed it with his mouth, molding his lips to Xander's, twining his hands in the boy's hair, to pull him closer.
Xander sumbitted happily, moaning into the vampire's mouth, and sliding his tongue out to duel with Spike's.
For a moment there was a stunned silence, while the two kissed passionately. When they finally broke apart, Xander smiled cotnentedly, still utterly unaware of anything but the blond vampire who held him. "Spike?"
Spike was busy stroking back his hair and trailing his hands through it. "Hmm, pet?" he replied.
Xander's dark, pupp-dog eyes met his piercing blue ones pleadingly. "Bed? Now?"
Spike grinned at the ripple of shock that went through the room. As if the kiss they'd just shared hadn't shocked the others enough. The boy was an absolute gem. Spike couldn't have planned it better, if he'd scripted it. Of course, Xander had no idea what he'd just done and he'd probably regret it after not too long. But still.
Spike repressed the urge to agree and whisk the boy away. The sun had risen already and he doubted the old man would lend them his bed. "Later, pet," he told Xander. "I promise."
"M'kay," Xander conceded and went back to burrowing himself into the blond vampire's arms.
"But, he's evil!" Buffy exclaimed finally breaked the stunned silence of the Scooby Gang. "Xander hates him as much as we do!"
"Coulda fooled me," Spike mocked her, leering dramatically at the boy.
"That's it," Buffy exclaimed. She drew her stake and made to attack the blond vampire.
"Not so fast, Slayer," Spike cut in, quickly. "You saw what the whelp did to Angel for messing with me. You think he's going to cut you some slack cause you're the Slayer?"
Buffy froze. "He's my friend," she declared, a little uncertainly.
"Angel's his chum, too, if I remember correctly," Spike pointed out. "But if you want to dice with death, Slayer, be my guest."
Buffy reluctantly dropped her stake arm to her side and sat back down. "This is *wrong*," she declared. "He's a *vampire*."
Angel, who'd been brooding silently throughout the exchange, turned to Buffy at her exclaimation. "You don't know the half of it," Angel informed her. "Things are about to get *very* messy."
Parts 8,9,10
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