Title: Carve the Crimson Road (6/??) Author: Tim Williams Rating: TV-14 or so. Violence. Pairing: Buffy/Xander, a few hints at others Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, etc. Even the ideas are probably things I've read and half forgotten. Joss owns Buffy, Xander, and crew. Distribution: Take my fanfic! Please! Feedback: I'm totally obsessive compulsive about checking my mail for feedback. Please help me with my problem? ;) Spoilers: Late season 4. If you know who Adam is, that's about all there's going to be. It's kinna nonspecific. Summary: Making a deal with the devil, of sorts. The final battle against Adam, maybe? Aftermath, sort of. Author's Notice: The interesting part is, this is actually the second part 6. The first one has been bumped back to part 7 since I felt more pacing was called for. I've been angsting over how to get to where I'm going, but the answer always seems to be the one for getting to the Bronx post office. Namely, "You can't get there from here." Oh, well, maybe I should relax and let it meander some more. And yes, I know how weird some of these scenes are. Tightly regulated insantiy is the order of the day. Anyway, hope you enjoy. *** "I don't suppose you're going to finish that?" "You mean this?" Crinkly cellophane wrapper on the outside, puffy cakey goodness on the inside. And no, I wasn't referring to Buffy. "Yeah, that." "Well, I was thinking about saving it." "Saving it?" I asked, a look of mock shock on my face. "Don't you know the rules?" "Rules? There are rules?" "Yeah, once the wrapper has been broken, both Twinkies must be eaten within the very near future. It's an unwritten law in Twinkydom." "Twinkydom?" "Yeah, Twinkydom." I didn't know what it meant, either, but I wasn't going to admit it. "Alright, I guess I'll just have to eat it, then." "Umm... It is acceptable for two people to share a package, though." "So, you're after my Twinky?" "If that's what you want to call... I mean, no, of course not." We were both grinning like idiots. "I don't think I can just GIVE my Twinky away... isn't there a Twinkydom law against it?" "I don't know of one." "There has to be. Yep, can't just give it away." "But?" "But what?" "There's always a 'but'. The whole basis of the Twinky legal system." "Okay... but... but... hmm..." She seemed lost in thought for a few seconds. "Yes, milady?" "Milady?" "Ah, never mind." Silence. "I've got it. I'll give you this Twinky, but only if you do something for me." "Okay..." Visions of all forms of perversion danced through my head. I won't deny that, since I'm sure all guys do it. Right? "Help me move." That was, almost literally, the last thing I'd expected. *** "Xander, what are you doing?" "Organizing the weapons." I was pretty tired from moving the last few boxes and was looking for a break. "See, casual stakes," I indicated the pile of sharpened sticks, "special occasion stakes," BIG sharpened sticks, "and crosses," they were crosses, kinna goes without saying. "And over here, crossbows, holy water, and miscellaneous." "I hadn't realized I needed a filing system." "Preparation time saves more time later." "Umm... sure. But could we please go back to moving boxes? Mom needs the car in an hour." I groaned a bit as I got up. Why couldn't I be super strong when it came to moving, too? "Alright, what's next?" "I think we're going to take the fridge over to Tara's." I inhaled a bit and shrugged. "Want me to open doors for you?" "Very funny." She moved to stand behind the small refrigerator and pushed closed the door, which had been left open after we removed the contents. "Get the other end." *** Buffy's room felt... different. I know I've been in it before. Quite a few times, in fact, but it'd never felt like this. The last of the boxes was unpacked and the room looked, once more, like its old self. I guess it was because every other time I've been in the room, I haven't had the overwhelming desire to kiss her and do naughty things on her bed.. Alright, so that's not exactly true, but I've never had the desire to do it and a reasonable certainty that she'd be all for it. "So, back home..." "Yeah..." "Did you miss it?" "I was only ten minutes away, by bus." "But still..." "A little." "Have big plans for the summer?" "Not really. Try to stay out of trouble, that sort of thing." "So..." "So..." "Enough small talk?" "Yeah." We were in each other's arms in an instant, her arms wrapped around my neck and mine snaked around her lithe waist. Mmmm... smoochies. I have been with a few girls in my time, some of them extremely hot, but I've never felt such a physical need with any of them as with Buffy. But kissing will satisfy it for a while, and we eventually broke our kiss and leaned back a bit, smiling at each other. "So, what do you want to do now?" I shrugged nonchalantly, though I was feeling anything but. "Up to you." She got one of those mischievous grins on her face. "We could go patrol." "Sun won't set for a couple more hours, though..." "I'm sure we'll think of some way to pass the time." "Oh..." She leaned in to kiss me again. Oh. *** It's not cruel. There's no way it can be called cruel to draw out a fight with a vampire. I mean, it's a demon in a dead human body. It deserves whatever it gets. That doesn't keep me from feeling a bit guilty, though. There were three this time. Not Adam's gang, fortunately, but they weren't fledglings, either. Buffy took one while the other two tried to take me down, thinking I'd be the easier target. Did I mention that vampires are also idiots? I didn't let them touch me, but I didn't do them crippling injury, either. I wanted to make the fight last as long as possible. I didn't know why. An urge, I guess. Wanting to fight on and on for a while, to loose myself in the rhythm of battle. Finally, one of my opponents exploded into dust as Buffy staked him from behind. Her vamp hadn't lasted and she decided to help me out. The other one more or less resigned himself to death as the fight went from three on two to two on one, in our favor. However, when an animal, and vampires are pretty animalistic, knows it's about to die, it turns even more vicious. It was doing a good job of holding the both of us off, but I knew it couldn't hold out. Buffy can stake vampires all night if she needs to, and my own endurance is pretty good. Not the kind of thing your average vamp is up for. However, it got lucky and landed a hook on Buffy's jaw, sending her spinning to the ground. I was on it before it had even lowered its arm, blade in hand. Once clear of my arm, which hurts like hell, by the way, the dark weapon pulsed and grew almost a foot in length. Bigger than the last time I'd used it, certainly. I plunged straight in. The sword pierced it's heart easily and it let out a horrific shriek. That's when I felt it. Before that, I'd only actually killed one thing, and that was Adam. But that time, the blade hadn't been in my hands. This time it was. Wave after wave of energy surged out of the vamp and into the blade and then into my arm. It felt good. Damn good. After a few seconds, two, three at most, the thing went grey and slowly crumbled to dust. Not quite the same as with a staking, but similar. The energy I'd drawn from the vampire seemed to fill me completely, power pulsing inside me, but then the heat of battle was gone and it faded. I realized that the sword was no longer in my hand, and a glance at my wrist showed the disk once more in place. I must have put it back without thinking about it. I offered Buffy my hand and she accepted. Her jaw looked a bit red, but it was already fading. "Gee, Miss Summers, you sure know how to show a boy a good time." She grinned half heartedly. I think she was just embarrassed about the whole sucker punch thing. "Enough patrol for one night?" "Maybe one more. Then I need to get home before mom gets all worried." "Does that mean..." She kissed me lightly. "You'll survive." "I know... I just like having you there." "Yeah..." "Hey, I was thinking..." "Uh-oh." "Uh-oh? What uh-oh?" "You plus thinking equals trouble. Simple fact of Sunnydale." "Sure it does." I gave her a look, but she might have been right. "Anyway, I was thinking that we've not actually been, you know, out. Like on a date." "And?" "And, I think we should. Just you and me. It'll be fun." "If I let you take me on a date, what would we do?" "I don't know... dinner, something besides dancing, a movie, maybe?" "Something besides dancing?" "You've seen me dance before. I'd rather not look like an idiot on our first date." "So, we'll be dating..." "Yeah..." "Does this mean we can stop sneaking around?" "Hey," I knew it was going to be a point of contention eventually. Buffy's not the kind to hide her feelings for long if there isn't a really good reason. "We're not sneaking around." "What do YOU call it?" "Being discreet about our private lives." "That's one way to put it..." "Yeah." "... if you're not too keen on telling the truth." "Hey, I never said we shouldn't tell the truth. Just that we shouldn't volunteer information." I had an idea. "Do you really want to explain to Giles what we've been doing the last few days. And what if Spike found out?" "Umm..." I think that settled it. I hoped so, at least.