The Guy Thing--Parts 1,2
TITLE: The Guy Thing 1/?
AUTHOR: Otsoko
E-MAIL: otsoko@hotmail.com
SUMMARY: Xander catches up with Riley at Willey's Place.
RATING: PG-13
CONTENT: Sort of slash, but not really. Almost slash. Maybe just Riley/Xander friendship. Not sure. Let me know.
SPOILERS: Through BtVS 5.06: Family.
FEEDBACK: That would be quite nice, actually.
DISTRIBUTION: any place slash-friendly who lets me know
*DISCLAIMER: All characters belong to Joss Wheedon, Fox and the WB. I am just playing.
ACK. EMMY.esq! Who did the fastest Beta turn-around in history on this one! And, as always, found the howling mistakes that I failed to find in six rereadings on my own. Thanks, luv. And to the JENeral, the Proph, and the Becca and the rest of the #RF gang, for whom I have *finally* written a Riley Finn story.
Note: Readers who know my stuff also know that a lot of my scribblings are song-fics, but the songs are generally really obscure, and rarely in English. OK, I'm over the top this one on the obscurity front. Riley's POV in this is from a Ska song by the Puerto Rican group, los Pies Negros. You're probably never gonna find any of their stuff off the island (unless maybe you get lucky on napster). But they *rock* in a serious way. OK, it's ska, so it has the happy happy joy joy upbeat sound, but the lyrics aren't so happy. The song is called 'Pesadilla' (Nightmare). I like the contrast between the happy boppy surface and the desperate angst underneath for Riley.
2. Another songfic in the Otsoko tradition of songs no one else has ever heard of ... It's a Greek Rebetika.. The radically sad, slow songs that they sing in Greek bars in movies with the guy slowly dancing, taking a half-step/half-jump forward, then back ... Rebetika songs are always sad. And usually about getting really drunk, or loving someone who doesn't love you, or being forced out of your home.
The song is 'To Tram to Teleftaio' (the Last Streetcar). It's about being too drunk and needing to catch the last streetcar home. The last bit of dialogue (after the bartender's 'efharisto' lesson) is from the song, translated from the Greek into Buffy-speak.
Cuerpo explotando en la oscuridad.
Ojos que me miran con intensidad.
Y unas manos que me aguantan
y no me quieren soltar.
A body exploding in the darkness
eyes that watch me with intensity.
and hands that support me
but don't want to let me go.
Veo que mis pasos
no van a ningún lugar
torpe he sido por lo que he visto
que no sabes lo que es el limbo.
I can see that my footsteps
aren't leading anywhere.
I'm being dense given all I've seen
but you don't know what it's like living in limbo.
Xander's POV is also a bit obscure. It's from a Spanish pop song from the 70's , Quiero Ser Libre (I wanna be free) by los Chichos. The key verse is:
en la celda en que yo estoy -- In the cell I'm in
hay un buen amigo mio -- there's a good friend of mine.
el me cuenta sus penicas -- He tells me his sorrows
y se consuela conmigo -- and lets me console him.
(y salgo al patio llorando -- (And I run into the yard crying
igual que si fuera un niño.) -- just as though I were a kid.)
*****
Riley was exactly where Spike had snidely said he'd be, exactly where he feared Riley'd be. He stood at the door for a minute and watched him sitting there, hunched over, unmoving, glass in hand. He sighed and walked over and sat at the bar next to Riley. The bartender gave him a scowl that wasn't exactly welcoming. He responded with his best attempt at a tough guy grin and asked, "Willie's not here?"
The bartender just shook his head, and turned his back.
Riley looked over and nodded at him, his face void of emotion.
"Hey" Riley said to the bartender and pointed at Xander. The bartender put down a glass and poured him a shot, hesitating when Riley pushed his own glass forward. Before he poured, he looked at Xander. "He driving?"
Xander shook his head. The bartender nodded and poured.
"So," said Xander taking a sip of the Irish whiskey and trying to hide the grimace. "Why you turning into this crazy party weasel, big guy?"
Riley pointedly ignored the question, raising his glass and clinking Xander's unmoving glass. "Cheers." He took a healthy swallow.
"Back at ya." Xander managed a smile of sorts.
Xander took another sip, studying Riley's face as he stared into the middle distance. "The door man here knows your name. I'm not taking that as a good sign."
Riley didn't look at him. His jaw muscles clenched tight. "You here to read me the riot act?"
"I try to avoid the reading thing as much as possible."
Riley glanced over at him and gave him a hint of a smile. He looked down at Xander's glass. "You don't like it much, do ya?"
Xander shook his head, "Better than turpentine, I guess. Not that I've drunk that much turpentine. Although I hear that Home Depot is the place for your better turpentine."
Riley looked up at the bartender. "Get my friend here a beer." It was pretty much an order.
The bartender leaned down and opened the bar fridge.
Riley suddenly realized that he hadn't even asked if a beer would be better, "That OK, Xand?"
"Yeah, thanks."
The bartender held up a bottle, Xander nodded that it was an acceptable brand, and reached across the bar for it, shaking his head at the offer of a glass.
"It's on the house if you can get him to move to someplace less conspicuous. You both kinda have a rep among my clientele."
Xander grinned at the bartender, pleased with having a rep. He stood up, and put a hand on Riley's shoulder. "Come on."
Riley hesitated a second before he stood up and followed Xander to a table against the back wall. They sat across from each other. Riley rolled the half-empty glass back and forth between his hands. He looked over at Xander. "This is the point when you're supposed to ask 'How 'bout them Steelers?'"
Xander grinned. "It's been a while since I've done the guy thing. Been mainly hanging out with the girls for the last couple of years."
Riley tried to figure out if Xander was making fun of him. "The guy thing? Are we doing the guy thing, here?"
"I'm trying. Quick check: How am I doing so far?"
Riley looked him in the eye, and gave him a bit of a smile. "Not bad."
Xander sighed in relief. "Good." He looked at him for a second, trying to figure out how to broach the topic. "So... how bout them Steelers?"
Riley managed a smile, but then he shook his head, his face betraying a real sadness. "She loves *you*, ya know."
"Yeah, in an idiot kid brother kind of way."
"Yeah. But, she still loves ya. You should have heard her lay into me when she found out I punched you out that night at Dracula's."
"I was sort of doing the in-the-thrall thing."
"You know she'd do just about anything for you."
"Yeah, almost anything." There was just the slightest trace of bitterness.
Riley's eyes flashed with a hint of anger.
Xander scrambled, "Forget I said that, OK?"
Riley smiled bitterly. "Yeah, between the two of us, we'd make her one good boyfriend."
Xander had to smile at that. Then he put on a mock-worried face. "You're not suggesting..."
Riley just gave him a weary smile. "Sorry, I pretty much like being with one person at a time. Sorry if I'm blowing any fantasies for ya." Riley looked at his empty glass before standing up and walking over to the bar. Xander watched him as he ordered another whiskey and another bottle of beer.
Riley put the bottle in front of him. Xander pointedly picked up the half beer he still had.
"Wimp." Riley chided, as he sat back down.
Xander chugged the rest of the first bottle and picked up the second. "I take it we're getting drunk tonight."
Riley cocked his head. "It's what you usually do when you're in a bar doing the guy thing."
"Right."
"So, why no guy thing? Where's the high school buds?"
Xander shrugged and swigged from the bottle too quickly. Riley was still staring at him, awaiting an answer, when he put the bottle back down. Xander met his stare for a second and then said simply "Vamps. Demons. Sunnydale High, remember?"
"Yeah. Sorry."
"It's all right."
They both drank in silence.
"Have you asked her?"
Riley shook his head, unable to meet Xander's eyes. "It doesn't count if you have to ask."
He picked up his glass and drained it.
Xander took a swig of his beer. Riley slid his empty glass over at him. Xander picked it up, stood, and walked over to the bar. He got Riley a new one, and decided to get himself another beer, rather than risk another 'wimp' comment..
He put the glass down in front of Riley. "Not sure I should be giving you this..."
"We're doing the guy thing, remember?"
"Right. I forgot." Xander sat back down. He leaned back in his chair. "So do we talk pro sports now?"
"You follow the Bulls?"
Xander shook his head. "Sorry."
Riley shook his head with a slight smile. "You really haven't been doing the guy thing."
"Hey, I talk cricket with Giles every now and then."
Riley gave him a look that made him regret ever mentioning it. "Cricket?"
"Okay, okay." Xander admitted defeat.
"Isn't Anya expecting you or something?"
A shake of the head. "Nope, she's doing inventory or something with Giles at the store. Buffy?"
"Quality time with the kid sister."
"It's kinda tough with her Mum being sick and all."
"Yeah." Riley looked at Xander and gave him a bit of a leer. "She's got quite the crush on ya, you know?"
Xander started, "Buffy's Mum?"
Riley laughed, for the first time that night, and shook his head. "No, Dawn."
"Dawn? You gotta be kidding."
"Yeah. Keeps asking me about you. What you like and stuff."
Xander blushed.
Riley said kiddingly... or half-kiddingly ... "I can see it, you got the cute sensitive guy thing down. Girls go for that."
"Yeah, 13 year old girls."
"And Anya."
"Okay, 13 year-old girls and thousand year old ex-vengeance demons."
"I heard you were dating the cheerleaders in High School."
"One cheerleader, and it didn't end well."
"What happened?"
"She pretty much caught me and Willow ..."
"Damn, Xander! Can't you keep it zipped up?"
Xander saw that Riley was grinning at him. He smiled back, and shrugged. "It was pretty zipless. Besides, we thought we had the 'we're about to die' exception."
"Vamps?"
"Yeah, our very good friend Hostile 17 in his earlier and more dangerous days."
"He's hasn't really mellowed much has he?"
Xander grinned and shook his head and took another swig of beer.
Riley picked up his empty glass, and stood, "My turn." He went over the bar and got them refills. As he sat down again, he sighed, slightly nostalgically, "My first time was in a barn with a cheerleader."
"In a *barn*?"
"Iowa, remember?"
"You *are* the farm boy!" Xander chortled.
"Come on. Yours?"
"In a cheap hotel with a slayer."
Riley's eyes got very intense, very fast.
"*Not* the Buffster!"
"You mean ... Faith?"
Xander nodded. Riley stared at him. "Something else we have in common."
"Yeah, but I knew it was Faith. At least you had a good excuse."
"So, were you two ... an item?"
Xander shook his head. "No, she pretty much tried to kill me the next time we got together."
"Nice."
Xander scowled, "I didn't think I was that bad."
Riley broke up laughing. "According to Anya, you're pretty much the life of the party in the sack."
Xander blushed, and stammered. "I keep telling her that there are some things she needs to very much NOT talk about."
"It's kinda impressive, actually."
Xander smiled, and blushed.
Riley looked down at the glass.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Hey, if I can talk about Faith..."
Riley didn't look up. "It's just that before the Doc fixed me up, I was pretty much..."
"... Superman?"
Riley nodded.
Xander got it. "And now you're just a regular guy..."
Riley nodded once, without looking up. Xander sighed. He reached across the table and gave Riley a pat on the shoulder.
"I don't think she's into you for that..."
"She's real understanding about it." Riley said with a trace of bitterness as he finished his glass.
Xander stared at Riley's face as the former commando looked down at his glass. Sometimes the girls knew exactly the wrong thing to say. "Oh, Shit. I'm sorry, Ri."
========================
The two walked out of the bar.
"You're a good guy, Xander."
"As opposed to a bad guy?"
"Dork! I'm just sayin' you do the guy thing good."
"Thanks. Wasn't sure I had it in me. Tell me one thing, Ri. Why were we drinking at a demon and vamp hangout?"
Riley looked straight ahead, nodded his head with conviction and answered, "Cause."
Xander replied with equal seriousness. "Ok. So long as there was a good reason."
Riley gave Xander a play punch to the shoulder, Xander boffed him on the back of the head.
Riley started to respond, but saw Xander wince, and instead put his arm across his shoulder.
"Sorry about that night at Dracula's."
"'S'alright. It wasn't me, really."
Riley said as though making a resolution, "I really gotta stop punching out guys I like."
"I'm all for that one." Xander gave him a smile. Riley gave his shoulder a squeeze and let his arm fall back to his side.
"You're all right, Xand ... for a dork."
"You, too ... for a bonehead."
They flashed grins at each other and walked down the street in companionable silence.
=====================
"Here's my place. Come on in. I've got a bottle somewhere."
"That's OK, not sure I need another."
"Wimp."
Xander wagged a finger at Riley. "You think you can get me do to anything just by calling me a wimp if I don't, don't you?"
Riley grinned and nodded "Yup."
Xander grinned back. "OK, but just one."
Riley fumbled a bit with the key, but managed to get the door open. Xander followed him in. Riley turned on the lights and noticed that there was a message on the answering machine. He hit the button. The electronic voice said "Hay ... un ... mensaje."
"Bought it in Tijuana. Got a deal." Riley explained.
The beep sounded. A deep voice spoke. "Hey, Ri. Just calling to see how you're doin'. Give me a call, OK? 555 - 867-5309."
Xander looked at Riley questioningly. Riley sighed, and looked at Xander, "Graham."
He sat down hard on the bed, and put his head in his hands. Then took a deep breath, collecting himself. "Where's that bottle?"
"You miss'em, don't ya? The Initiative guys? The whole Initiative thing?"
"Yeah. I guess."
Riley found the bottle of Bushmills whiskey and rinsed out a fairly skanky looking coffee cup and a relatively clean glass. He handed the latter to Xander, and poured them both a fairly stiff belt. He walked back and sat on the bed. Xander took the chair. They clinked glass and cup.
"Cheers."
"Cheers." Xander took a bit of a sip. It tasted better after several beers. "Graham's the one you decked when he came up with the doc?"
Riley nodded.
"He doesn't sound too pissed off about that, at least."
"Not my finest hour." Riley took another swig. He looked at the floor. "They want me back."
Xander let that sink in. He nodded. "Back on the team."
Riley nodded, still staring at the floor.
"Gotta say, the Initiative was pretty impressive, if you overlooked the whole creating monsters to take over the world part."
Riley grinned up at him.
"What?" Xander asked, and lifted the glass to his mouth.
"Buffy told me when you first saw the Initiative, you said you wanted to have sex with me."
Xander choked on the whiskey, spewing it all over the floor.
"That was just ... I mean ..."
"So you did ... say it?"
"Yeah. But I didn't mean I actually wanted to have sex with you."
"Wimp."
*****
Part 2: Metaxa
Xander put himself between Riley and the drunk guy. Both of them were tensed and ready, fists clenched, glaring at each other. As the bouncer put a beefy hand on the other guy's shoulder, he turned to Xander and growled,
"Why don't you get your buddy out of here?"
"Good idea!" Xander said as brightly as he could given the fact that he was scared shitless. He put a hand on Riley's upper arm, and said in as friendly voice as he could muster, "Come on, buddy. Let's go get some air."
Riley didn't move. Xander whispered sharply, "Riley!". He was suprised, but perfectly willing to be grateful, when Riley let him lead him out the bar and onto the street.
Once outside, he could feel the ocean breeze, humid, salty, with more than a trace of dead fish from the boats only yards away, bobbing in the moonlight, somehow picturesque if not exactly romanitic....
Riley stopped, shrugged Xander's hand off his arm, and glared at him, annoyed. "Xander, I can take care of myself. I don't need you to ..."
Xander interrupted, "I know you'd come out of that fight OK, Ri. I was sort of counting on it, so there'd be someone around to take me to hospital afterwards. That guy in there had three friends."
Riley looked at him. "Shit, sorry. I wasn't thinking."
"It's alright." Xander looked down.
"You would have jumped in, wouldn't you?"
Xander shrugged and continued looking at the sidewalk in front of him. Riley put a hand on his back.
Another shrug from Xander. Riley let his hand slide off.
Backup. What Riley wanted was backup. Like the guys on the team in high school. Like the guys in his squad. There for him. No questions asked.
OK, Xander was being there for him. But with lots of questions asked. Too many questions, maybe.
"You're not used to talking your way out of it, right? You're used to hanging out with the manly men: Jump in, duke it out, figure out why later."
Riley laughed. "Yeah. I guess so." He found himself a little embarassed by that analysis.
Xander looked over at him. "You used to beat up on guys like me in High School, didn't ya?"
Riley's head snapped over to look at Xander. He sighed and shook his head. "I went to school in a really small town, Xander. I knew everybody in the school. Knew all their brothers and sisters. My parents knew their parents. It wasn't like what you're thinking at all."
Xander nodded. "Small town boy."
"I was from *outside* the small town, actually."
"Better than a hellmouth, anyway."
They walked down the almost deserted street near the waterfront. Xander checked to make sure his stake was handy. Nights out in Sunnydale always had that little extra special touch of danger. As they walked by the fishing boats, Xander heard the sound of music coming from a dimly lit place half a block up a street so narrow, it would properly be called an alley. He looked up at it. Some kind of Middle-Eastern sounding music: sad, slow, loud.
"Wanna check it out?" Riley asked.
"Why not?" Xander shrugged. "But if it's a demon bar, we're not staying."
Riley cracked a smile, "OK".
Xander read the cheaply painted sign, 'Taverna Piraeus', and noticed a Greek flag in the window.
"OK, Riley. You gonna play nice with the other boys?"
Riley grinned and nodded. "Promise."
The two walked in. Riley practically strutting in, Xander was a bit more cautious, checking the place out. Mostly, he tried to figure out how much trouble Riley could get into. Riley went straight over the bar and ordered himself a whiskey, turning to Xander to see what he wanted.
The bartender took one look at Riley and rejected his order, almost spitting out "No whiskey, Metaxa!", handing them two shot glasses and a bottle of Metaxa. Riley was ready to argue with the bartender, but one look from Xander and he backed off. Riley threw a 20 on the counter. The bartender took it, without offering any change. "Efharisto." he muttered.
When Riley looked at him, not understanding, the bartender raised an imaginary glass in the air and added "Yasu!", without too much enthusiasm, but Riley could tell it was as welcoming a gesture as he was going to get.
The bartender leaned on the counter and returned to talking soccer with an old fisherman who smelled like he'd just back from two weeks at sea, and had come to the bar before heading home for a badly needed bath and change of clothes.
The two sat across from each other at an incredibly beaten up wooden table.
Riley put the glasses in the middle of the table, and took the cork of the bottle between his teeth and pulled it out, and filled the shot glasses to the brim. He held his glass up to Xander, and waited for Xander to do the same.
"Yasu!" Riley wasn't sure what led him to say it, but going on his instincts hadn't been wrong yet. Xander responded, "Yasu". Riley downed the shot and banged the empty shotglass on the table. Xander followed suit, even though he knew this is the beginning of a very bad idea.
"Look, Ri, I know ya don't think much ... I know I'm not one of your commando guy buddies, OK." Hint of bitterness in his voice. Xander fighting that. Suave Xander nowhere to be found.
Riley's turn to be taken aback. "You'd make a good marine, Xand."
"That a compliment?"
"Yeah. A big one. The biggest."
"Then, thanks." Xander gave him an appreciative smile. "I wouldn't, though."
"Why not?"
Shrug. "Because I wouldn't, ya know, just charge in cause someone told me to."
"Seems like Buffy's always trying to get you not to charge in."
"Yeah, you noticed that, huh?"
"Yeah. We got that in common."
"But you're charging in anyway, right? Blowin' up vampire nests on your own and all that..."
"Look. That was just something I had to do."
"A man's gotta do..."
"Yeah." Riley nodded, glad that Xander got it.
"So you're doin it by yourself cause you figure I'm less than a man..."
"Aw, fuck no. Christ, Xander. That's not what I said."
"It is what you meant."
"No, Xand. It's just that, well, in the cemetary the other night ... you guys just ..."
"... didn't just automatically follow your lead."
"Well, yeah. I mean, I got the training and everything."
"Riley, How long you been doing the vamp hunting thing?"
He shrugged, knowing where this was going. "Year and a half."
"How long we been doing it?"
Riley sighed, "What, four years?"
"Yeah." Eyebrows raised to make the point.
"Yeah, but ... I'm just used to ..."
"We're just not your commando guys, Ri."
"Yeah, I got that."
Riley refilled the glasses, and the two clinked glasses and drank. The two shotglasses banged down on the table in unison. Riley grinned at Xander and nodded in approval.
Xander was a little taken aback by the woody, slightly sweet taste of the Greek brandy. It was thicker than he expected, almost syrupy. It soothed the back of the throat even as it burned it.
Xander looked over at Riley as he refilled the glasses. Riley raised the glass again, but before he could down it, Xander clinked his glasses, and pointedly took a sip instead of downing the whole thing. Riley gave him the slightest of nods and followed suit, suddenly realizing that the only point of whatever it is was doing was doing it together.
"So how's life as the construction grunt?"
Xander looked up. "I got made crew boss."
"Promotion? When did that happen? Congratualtions. You're supposed to tell us so we can celebrate, ya know."
Xander sighed. "And listen to Buffy and Giles make jokes about how badly I was gonna fuck up the job. No thanks."
"Means a lot to you, the job, the promotion."
"I'm good at it. Ya know?"
"Yeah," a sigh. "Yeah I know that one. I used to know that one."
Xander looked at him and light dawns. "It's not just the other commando guys you miss, eh?"
"I miss the whole thing, Xand. I miss having a ..."
"... place."
"Yeah."
"I mean, this is cool. Hanging out, taking a few classes, seeing Buffy, hitting the gym whenever I want. But it's not enough. It's not what I thought it would be ..."
"Why are ya here? For Buffy?"
"Yeah. Plus, I kinda burned my bridges when I got the discharge. Kinda said some things."
"Graham wants ya back in."
"Yeah."
"So bridges may be smoldering but not burning."
"That almost made sense."
Xander grinned. "Look, Buffy's been going through a lot, ya know."
"Yeah, I know."
"If ya want, I can talk to her."
Riley cut him off sharply. "No."
If Xander hadn't seen the flash of pain in Riley's eyes, he would have been
hurt by the sharp edge of the negative. But Xander just nodded. Once, slowly, an understated nod. There are times when words don't matter, they're just words.
The music playing was slow, sad, almost middle-eastern sounding, lots of strumming string instruments that sounded almost like mandolins or guitars, but weren't. All the lyrics sounded like someone had yanked the singer's heart out, thrown it on the floor and was slowly grinding their heel into it.
Both guys looked around the bar. Xander would ordinarily have been sort of scared to come into a place like this by himself, but Riley had been taking him on a tour of the scuzziest bars that Sunnydale had to offer. He had heard stories about these waterfront bars, tucked away in alleys just off the docks where the fishing boats tied up.
The bars walls had tourist posters of Greece, mountains, and stunningly white villages perched on cliffs over perfectly blue seas. Picture perfect snapshots of a home halfway around the globe. There were handwritten notes in Greek announcing one thing or another above the bar. Xander grinned to himself when he found himself thinking that Giles would have a field day here, correcting their Greek misspellings and then feeling all superior.
The other patrons all seemed to know each other, and greet each other with hugs, the drunker the patron, the more bearlike and affectionate the hug.
The few that deigned to notice the two 'foreigners' either pointedly ignored them, or gave them a sidelong glance trying to figure out if they were there to make trouble. Clearly the bar was a little home away from home. Xander looked around and suddenly felt envious of the regulars.
Parts 3,4
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