Rating: NC17/Slash
Pairing:Spike/Xander
Length: 3238 words
Spoilers: The Movie, Welcome to the Hellmouth, Becoming, TheWish...that’s it, I think
Notes: Written for fall_for_sx. There's vampy stuff, so if that squicks you....
Feedback: It’s ALL about the feedback (and naked Spike)! Don’t make me beg, it’s not pretty.
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the series, characters and concepts are the property, copyright and trademark of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kuzui Enterprises, Grr Argh, the WB, UPN and whomever else they really belong to. No ownership is claimed by the author. This work is nonprofit, noncommercial and not for sale for commercial purposes. Characters and situations not specifically owned by the creators of BtVS/Ats or under copyright, are the sole copyright of the author.
Written: September 22, 2005

Five Ways Spike and Xander Didn't Meet

by
Spikedluv

Xander the Vampire Slayer

Summary: Xander patrols the Cleveland Hellmouth and meets a vampire with a soul. Notes: AU, obviously. *g* Takes place during what would have been season three of BtVS, so Xander is at least 17. As per ‘The Wish’, instead of going to Sunnydale, Xander ends up in Cleveland.

Yes, I understand, but it's imperative that I see her. Here. (listens) Well, when will you? (listens) Yeah, well, you are her watcher. I'd expect her to at least check in to... (listens) Yes, I'm aware that there's a great deal of demonic activity in Cleveland. (listens) It... Well, it happens, you know, that, that Sunnydale is on a Hellmouth. (listens) It, it is so! (listens) Well... Just... Just give her the message, if you ever see her again. (hangs up) ~Giles, The Wish

God, I could eat a horse. Isn't it crazy how slayin' just always makes you hungry and horny? ~Faith, Faith, Hope and Trick

It was that inky black darkness that came just before the dawn, the only illumination provided by the few unbroken street lights spaced intermittently along the road. Xander was almost home when he got the tingle between his shoulder blades that told him a vamp was near. He’d been out slaying all night and he was exhausted, but he figured that the vamp trailing him was a fledge.

Or a complete moron, which, based on past experience, couldn’t be ruled out. A quick glance at his watch confirmed his feeling that it wouldn’t be long before the sun began it’s steady climb towards the horizon and lightened the sky. He could probably get in one last slay before heading for home where he could shower the dust and sweat off and obtain a little relief before hitting the sack.

Xander slowed his pace to allow the vampire to catch up to him. He felt the vampire’s presence like spiders running up and down his spine, but there was no attack. Tired and frustrated and just wanting to get home, Xander turned to confront the vampire.

It wasn’t as close to Xander as he’d thought, which meant the vampire was older than he’d judged. No mere fledge, this one. Which still left moronic.

“Are we gonna do this, or not?” Xander called. “We haven’t got much time. Well, I do.” An obvious look at the sky. “You don’t.”

The vampire moved out of the shadows and slouched against one of the light poles. He had bleached blond hair and wore a black leather duster over dark clothing, and he held a lit cigarette in one hand. He seemed too calm, which raised Xander’s hackles. He concentrated, making sure this wasn’t a trap, and that there was only the one vampire he was faced with.

“Sun’ll be up soon,” Xander said when the vampire didn’t make a move. “You must be hungry to be out this late. Bet I smell good.”

“That you do, pet,” the vampire said, finally breaking his silence. “That you do. Fighting always made me hungry and horny, too.”

Xander frowned, annoyed. “Look, are you here to fight, or chit chat?”

The vampire flicked the butt of his cigarette to the sidewalk and ground it out under his boot. “Neither. Just here to give you this.”

He pulled a small box out of his duster pocket and tossed it to Xander, who reached up and caught it one-handed, keeping a tight grip on the stake in his other hand.

“Who are you?” Xander asked.

“A friend.” He turned to leave.

“I don’t have friends.”

Xander watched the vampire disappear into the shadows, then looked down at the small box in his hand. He ran his fingers over it, shook it, sniffed it, but didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary about it. Curiosity soon got the better of him and he popped the top off the box. His confusion grew when he saw a gold cross with a thick gold chain lying on a bed of white cotton.

The next night Xander was off his game. He’d been unable to sleep after his shower, disturbed that the image of the irritating blond vampire, all shadows and angles as he was backlit by the street light, had been the thing that had finally taken him over the edge when he was jerking off in the shower, and when he did fall under the influence of nod, slept only fitfully. When he woke up the next afternoon, he felt like he hadn’t slept at all.

Even a quick, cool shower to get rid of the cobwebs hadn’t helped. And he’d almost fallen asleep during his GED class, which made the instructor pull him aside after class to ask if everything was all right at home. After assuring her it was, and that he was fine, he’d dropped his books off at home, avoided his parents, which wasn’t too hard since they were both passed out, and stocked up on weapons.

He always carried a stake or two on him, but when he patrolled he added the nifty dagger his new watcher had given him, tucked away in a sheath at his back, as well as a switchblade in his boot. When demon activity was high, he often carried a duffel bag with an axe and a broadsword, but since this was just a normal patrol, he packed light. He glanced at the gold cross lying on his dresser, then forced it and the blond vampire from his mind. He had work to do.

An hour into his patrol, Xander already knew he was going to have to really work for it tonight. Nothing was coming easily for him. Every punch, every block, every stake was hard fought and hard won. After he took another kick to already bruised ribs, he started getting angry. He didn’t like to get angry, because sometimes angry made you stupid, but he needed the extra fuel it provided tonight.

Just after he’d staked the last of three vampires who had thought that killing a slayer would make them BVOH, Xander felt the unmistakable sensation of dust raining down on him. He turned around, stake at the ready, to see the blond vampire from the night before standing with his own stake, the dust from a vampire he’d taken out still settling to the ground between them.

“You’re sloppy tonight,” the vampire said.

“You been watching me?” A surge of the anger he’d had to work to build up earlier boiled up nice and hot without any trouble at all now.

The vampire looked around, then looked back at Xander. “Nothing better to do around this godforsaken place.”

“Then why are you here?”

The blond raised one scarred eyebrow. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“You could have gone to California, I hear there’s a Hellmouth out there, as well.” Xander stood tall and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Too much sun.”

“Did you come here looking for me?” Xander asked, loosening his stance and twirling the stake between his fingers.

“You could say that.”

“Well? Are we gonna fight, or what?”

The vampire shrugged. “You got some nice moves....”

Xander thought the vampire leered at him, but he couldn’t be sure.

“...but it’s obvious you’ve never been trained....”

“I’ve got a watcher.”

The blond started to circle him, and Xander turned with him.

“Some mamby pamby English bloke who likes to read books and doesn’t want to get blisters on his lilly-white hands?”

Xander didn’t care for his new watcher, mainly because he’d already lost one who was ten times the watcher this guy was, but he didn’t like the idea of this vampire badmouthing him. He struck out with the hand that held the stake, and the fight was on.

They were pretty evenly matched...at first. It wasn’t long before the vampire’s hits were getting through his defenses, and he was blocking every punch and kick Xander aimed at him.

“You’ve been studying me,” Xander said, his irritation coming through despite the fact that he was sucking air.

“Some. Needed to see where your weaknesses were.”

It really annoyed Xander that this demon didn’t need to breathe.

“So you could take me out easier?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” the vampire said, effortlessly knocking the stake out of Xander’s hand and slamming him up against a tree. “If that’s all I wanted,” he whispered in Xander’s ear, “I could have done that within the first five minutes.”

Xander gasped for air as the vampire pressing on his chest constricted his lungs. “Then why didn’t you?”

“Didn’t come here to kill you.”

“Turn me?” Xander’s eyes widened and his breath caught. It was one of his worst nightmares, waking up with the memory of the taste of blood on his lips.

“They didn’t tell me you were such a silly sod.” The vampire pushed off and moved back, then wiggled his fingers at Xander. “Want another go?”

Xander used the tree for leverage and lunged at the vampire even as he reached for his other stake. After another half hour of fighting, he was on his back on the ground, gasping for the air that had been knocked out when the vampire threw him over his shoulder. He waited for the vampire to lean over him in his demon guise and go for his throat.

When the blond didn’t appear, Xander looked for him. He was leaning against a tree, smoking as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

“I. Am going. To kill you,” Xander said.

The vampire didn’t look impressed. “Yeah. Let me know when you’re ready to do that, right?”

“Fuck you,” Xander said as he rolled over and got to his knees.

“I’m not that kind of vampire,” the blond said, faking a high falsetto. “Besides, don’t you think you’re moving a little fast here? I mean, we’ve only just met.”

Xander got one foot in under him and reached for the stake he’d dropped when he hit the ground. “I am going to shove this stake so far up your....”

The vampire interrupted him. “We’ve got company. Five o’clock.”

Xander looked up to see the blond put his cigarette out on the tree before dropping it to the ground, then glanced behind him to see a group of five vamps who looked like they wanted in on the fun of beating the shit out of him. Great. This freak of a vampire was making him look like a laughing stock on his Hellmouth.

“Think you’re up for a little less talk and a lot more action?” the vamp asked as he tossed Xander’s second stake to him before picking up his own.

“Bite me.”

“What are you doing?”

“Walking you home.”

“I don’t need you to walk me home. I’m a big boy. I’ve been walking myself home for years now.”

“You’re hurt.”

“I’ve been hurt before,” Xander said, snarling the words out.

God, he was really in a bit of pain. He’d landed on a rock when one vamp had gotten a particularly vicious kick in, and he thought it might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Or a couple of his ribs, to be more accurate.

The vampire continued to follow along behind Xander without deigning to reply. Pissed, Xander stopped and turned around, biting back a groan as he jarred his ribs.

“Are you ever even going to tell me your name?”

The vampire looked back at him in surprise, and then his expression turned thoughtful, as if he was considering Xander’s question. When the blond had remained silent for too long, Xander made a contemptuous sound and said, “I figured.”

Before he could walk away, the vampire said, “Spike.”

Xander turned back around more slowly this time. “Spike?”

“My name.”

“Was that so hard?”

“You have no idea, pet,” Spike said, and then turned and disappeared into the shadows.

Xander told himself that he didn’t feel lonely or abandoned at Spike’s defection, and reminded himself that it was exactly what he’d wanted, to be left alone. The scratch between his shoulder blades never completely faded, however, and Xander realized that Spike, though he’d appeared to leave Xander to his own devices, was still out there somewhere, watching over him. He rolled his eyes.

“All right, mom, I’m going home now,” he said, and resumed the walk to his house. How bad was it that he could already imagine Spike’s responding smirk?

That night he didn’t need to take a very long shower at all. He thought about the way Spike had laughed while they were fighting, and the way he’d looked when he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him to face the other vamps down, and he’d barely touched himself before he was coming his brains out all over the tile wall of the shower.

The next night after his GED classes, Xander had a meeting with his watcher. Nothing new and dangerous loomed on the Hellmouth horizon, supposedly, but Xander wasn’t so sure. There had to be a reason Spike had shown up now, despite his assurances that he wasn’t here for Xander. Gerard knew nothing about a vampire named Spike, but he promised to hit the books and find out everything he could.

When Xander stepped outside, Spike was waiting for him.

“Jesus!”

“What’s the matter, your spidey senses acting up?”

“Spidey senses?”

“Yeah, you know, the little tingle you get at the back of your neck....”

“Yeah, I know what it is, I’m just surprised that you called it that. So, what, you’ve seen the movies?”

“Don’t be daft! The movies got fuck all right.”

Xander grinned. “Which means you’ve read the comic books.”

Spike froze, and Xander could see the wheels spinning. He’d backed himself into a corner, and was looking for a way out.

“Nah,” he finally said. “Dru brought this kid home one time, had some comics in his bag. Made him read ‘em to us before we killed him.”

And that, Xander thought as his grin faded, was exactly why he needed to remember that Spike was a vampire. Without another word he turned and walked away. A few minutes later he heard Spike behind him.

“Stay away from me.”

“Can’t.”

“Can’t, or won’t?”

Spike just shrugged, a movement Xander saw out of the corner of his eye. Angered beyond belief, and mostly at himself for dropping his guard, Xander turned and shoved Spike, and then shoved him again.

“Why not? Huh? If you’re here to fight me, let’s just get it over with, okay? Right now.”

Xander threw one punch, which Spike didn’t bother to block. The fact that he knew, knew, that Spike had just allowed him to hit him stirred Xander’s anger like nothing else before. He threw another punch, and this time Spike caught his wrist before he could make contact.

“Come on, Spike. Isn’t this what you came here for? Take on the Slayer? Put another notch in your belt?”

“I don’t need another notch in my belt, you pup! And I’ve already told you, ‘m not here to kill you.”

“Then what are you here for?”

“To help you,” Spike said.

“To help me? Is that some kind of a joke? A vampire helping a vampire slayer?”

“Well, it’s plain you need someone to watch your back. You’re good, but you’re getting tired of the fight and it shows. You’re slowing down and leaving yourself open, and you practically advertise your moves. In big neon lights.”

Xander wanted to argue, but he knew that Spike was right. He’d been getting hurt a lot more lately, and he was tiring more quickly. He fingered the scar at the corner of his mouth. But there was no way he’d admit that to Spike.

“What makes you think you’re the vamp for the job?”

“I don’t claim to be the vamp for the job. In fact, I told ‘em I didn’t want it, but they didn’t take my wishes into account.”

“Who? The Watcher’s Council?”

Spike scoffed. “Please, they think they’re playing with the big boys, but they got no idea.”

“Then who?”

“The powers that be.”

“The powers that be?”

Spike nodded.

“Why you? I’m not saying I believe you, but, I mean, if you didn’t want it, why you?”

Spike dropped his wrist. “You might say I inherited the job.”

They didn’t talk the rest of the night, which was quite a feat for Xander because he normally couldn’t keep his mouth shut. It also turned out to be a bad idea, because with all his questions and confusion bottled up inside him, he was primed to go off.

Several hours into his patrol, they came across a group of five demons Xander’d never encountered before.

“Fyarl,” Spike said. “Not very smart, but they like to fight. Don’t let them get you with their mucous,” he said as they separated.

“What?”

By the time they’d killed three of the Fyarl demons and the other two had run off to tell their master, Xander’s ribs were killing him again, and blood was dripping into his eye. He limped over to where Spike was leaning against a tree, automatically wiping the blade of his dagger onto his jeans.

“You all right?” he asked, and when Spike turned hungry eyes on him, Xander knew he was in deep trouble. He took one step backwards, which was a mistake, because Spike, feral and wild, was on him immediately and they hit the ground hard enough to jar his ribs again.

Xander fought to get away, but when he’d gained the upper hand and had Spike spread out beneath him, cock hard against his thigh, he realized he’d really been fighting for dominance.

Spike growled and shifted beneath him. “Well, are you going to fuck me, or what?”

Xander groaned at the image those words created in his mind. Spike on his knees, jeans rucked down his thighs just far enough to bare his ass, t-shirt pushed up so Xander could bite and scratch his back while he pounded into him from behind. He hung his head, panting as he struggled for control.

“Too close?” Spike’s voice sounded strangled, and Xander was glad to know he wasn’t the only one affected so strongly.

He could only nod in reply.

Spike rolled until their positions were reversed and his hand closed over Xander’s groin. Clever fingers found his hardness and teased it.

“What me to fuck you, then?”

Xander mewled as the image in his head was reversed and as Spike’s touch on his dick grew more firm.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Spike said as he began tearing at Xander’s jeans.

He pulled Spike down into a kiss. His first had been with Tina at the homecoming dance last year when he’d still been attending high school. It had been sweet and fun, if inexperienced, but this one beat it all to hell. This one was everything that one wasn’t. Hot and hungry and desperate and dangerous.

He was lost in the sensation of the kiss and lost track of what Spike was doing, so when Spike’s hand touched his ass it surprised him and he froze.

Spike lifted head and looked down at him. “Tell me this is not your first time.”

Xander couldn’t tell him that. He waited for Spike to laugh at him, or to leave.

Spike lowered his head until their foreheads touched. “Oh, bloody hell.”

Emboldened, Xander said, “You don’t have to stop.”

“Fuck, fuck, don’t say that, Xander. Because I don’t think I can wait long enough to prepare you properly.” Spike’s fingers squeezed Xander’s ass as it was his turn to struggle to regain control. “Okay, plan B.”

“Plan B? There’s a plan B?”

“There’s always a plan B, pet,” Spike said as he unbuckled his belt and unfastened his own jeans.

When he brought their cocks together and wrapped cool fingers around them and began to stroke, Xander saw stars. He made sounds that couldn’t in any way, shape or form be considered words, and his hips jerked.

“Yeah, do that again,” Spike said, encouraging him with lips against his face, his ear, his neck. “Come on, Xander, fuck my hand.”

Fingers digging into Spike’s shoulder, Xander did just that, and when Spike’s tongue lapped at the blood on his forehead, he came. His only thought was that this was much better than jerking off alone in the shower.

The next night Xander said, “Will you tell me why you’re here?”

Spike lit a cigarette and they walked in silence until he said, “I wasn’t their first choice.”

“No?” Xander hated that he sounded so eager, but he was dying—not literally—to find out more about Spike.

“No. See, a long time ago, this vampire, he made a mistake. Killed the wrong girl. Beloved princess of a tribe of gypsies. So they cursed him. Gave him a soul.”

“A vampire with a soul?” Xander kept his voice low to not disturb the mood.

“I guess he hasn’t been good for much of anything since he got the soul, so the PTB decided to put him to good use helping you out. Only you didn’t go to Sunnydale like they thought you would. You ended up here, in the back end of nowhere.”

“Why didn’t they just send him here?”

“Stupid ponce got himself captured by the Master. I guess they tortured him for a couple years. Until he was able to stake himself. Which opened the way for another vampire with a soul to be...created.”

Xander stopped walking. “You?”

Spike didn’t. When he was about twenty yards away from him, Xander realized that he wasn’t going to stop. He didn’t know what to do. Was Spike done talking? Or did he want Xander to catch up with him?

While he was pondering that, a vampire used his inattention to sneak up on him. It grabbed him around the chest to immobilize his arms and he smelled the vampire’s fetid breath as it went for his neck.

Xander threw his head back, smashing the vampire in the head. It hurt him more than it hurt the vampire, but it slowed its decent towards his neck long enough for Spike to get there and tear it away from him, smash it up against a tree a couple of times before staking it.

And then Spike was in his face. “What in hell do you think you were doing?”

“Watching you walk away,” Xander said, surprised at how much it hurt to say that.

Spike swore, and Xander had never heard words like that before. He wondered if Spike would teach him what they meant. He turned and pointed at Xander.

“You ever do anything so stupid again, I’ll, I’ll....”

The pointing is what pissed Xander off the most. “You’ll what? Leave? If you can’t handle this, then maybe you should leave now....”

Before he knew it, Xander was up against the same tree Spike had pounded the vampire on just moments ago. “You have no idea what I can handle, boy.”

Xander didn’t try to fight. “No, I don’t. I don’t know anything about you, but you know everything about me. You may not have chosen what they did to you, but you chose to come here, and if you’re gonna bail, do it now before I start relying on you.” He hoped Spike didn’t know he already had.

Spike slumped against him, his face hidden in his chest.

“I was alone for the first time in over a hundred years and I was hurting and lonely and I felt Angel die and they found me and put this thing in me and I was crazy with grief for days over people who’d been dead for a hundred years already until I realized that wasn’t me! That wasn’t this me, anyway. And yeah, the demon’s still in there, and the soul feels a little sick sometimes, but mostly I can function, and I just don’t like to talk about it, okay?”

“Okay.” Xander felt a little bit breathless, even though Spike had been the one speaking so fast he’d barely been able to understand him. He brought his arms up and wrapped them around Spike. “Okay.”

Spike lifted his head and placed his hands on either side of Xander’s head. “And you.” He shook him. “You do not get to die on my watch, got it?”

“They kick you off the team if that happens?” he asked, trying for a levity he didn’t quite achieve.

Spike just glared at him.

Xander swallowed hard. “Got it,” he said. “No dying.” And it felt good to know that someone besides him didn’t want him to die.

Spike pulled back and led Xander away from the tree. “Let’s finish patrol.”

“Okay.” As they walked down the street, Spike didn’t let go of his hand, and it gave Xander a warm, fuzzy glow. “Is this like, a date? Are we gonna have patrol dates?”

Spike rolled his eyes. “What we’re gonna have is a regular training schedule. You’re getting soft.”

“Soft?”

Spike didn’t deign to reply

“What about sex?” Xander asked.

“Yeah, we’ll be having that regular, too,” Spike said, and then he looked over and smiled at Xander.

And that’s when Xander fell a little bit in love with a vampire with a soul.

Part Five

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