New Guys in Town
Rated SAFE
Written for Joannindiw and Silveramericana
"Hey guess who's... back in town to see you guys after not being in town for a really long time," Xander corrected herself as Giles opened his apartment door. Yeah, obviously Giles and Buffy and Angel and Willow were big with the knowing that Xander had just shifted gender again, but Tara and Riley so did not need to know.
Riley looked up from the couch, and--ever the gentleman--stood up. Oh yeah, this was not good. Tara sat on the floor next to Willow, and she just stared with wide eyes.
"Xan...adu," Willow corrected herself half way through the name. "This is Xander's cousin, Xanadu, from Sacramento," she hurried to say. Xander didn't miss the frown on Buffy's face.
"Hey, Xan. What's up?" Buffy asked as Spike pushed past to sprawl on the end of the couch nearest the witches. Tara jumped a little, but then gave a shy smile as she scooted closer to Willow.
"I was just... well, you know, and I thought I'd come help with the disaster of the day," Xan said weakly. She really hated lying, but she wasn't big with the sharing either.
Usually when someone saw a vamp go 'poof', the gang started talking about special effects and movie locations and hallucinogenic jello. But the minute Riley had kept his head during a vamp attack, Buffy had spilled the whole thing about slayers and vampires and the one girl in all the world bit. Of course now, there was more than one girl in all the world, but at least Buffy had managed to not spill that part, or the part where two of the gang assembled for the lastest Hellmouthy goodness were actually vamps, or the part where Xander turned into a girl when he got too stressed. Like today.
Xander shot Angel a look, and the man had the blank expression of a seriously on-the-edge vampire, which wasn't surprising considering how many of these meetings now included Riley.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Riley Finn," Buffy's latest beau introduced himself. Xander stepped forward took his outstretched hand. Spike's whole body went tight when Xander shook the man's hand, but there really wasn't a good way to get out of the hand-shaking without some seriously weird excusage... skin fungus or something. Damn, that was good. Xander promised herself that she would remember that excuse for next time.
"Xanadu Harris," she offered him before stepping back to Spike's side. Immediately, Spike reached out and pulled her down into his lap, and this was not helping. Riley knew Xander and Spike were a couple, so now his eyebrows rose all the way to his hairline.
"Spike, quit playing around," Xander said as she aimed her hardest punch at his arm while keeping a teasing smile on her face. Spike glared at Riley for a second before letting go. Oh yeah, so much love in one room. Riley hated Angel for being Buffy's ex, Angel hated Riley for doing the things he couldn't do with Buffy like walk in the sun, Spike hated Riley because Angel hated Riley, and Riley just got a disgusted look on his face every time Spike did something sexual, like grab Xander's ass. Yep, one big happy family.
"Riley," Tara said shyly, and the whole room looked toward her. Willow's new girlfriend was not usually the kind to speak up in the middle of the whole group, and Xander could count on one hand the words she had ever spoken to Riley. The buff TA seemed to make her shrink in on herself. "I left some ground toadstool in Giles' storage area, but he put it on a high shelf. Could you please help me g-get it?" she asked.
Giles stuck his head out from the kitchen, his 'Kiss the Cook' apron on, and an oven glove on one hand.
"Tara, I don't--," Giles started, "Never mind. Riley, would you be so good as to help Tara? She knows where I keep the key to the storage area," he finally finished. It seemed like the more the group started pulling apart at the seams, the more complicated the dishes Giles cooked. Today he was doing homemade lasagna, and that ranked pretty high on the avoid-o-meter.
"Of course," Riley answered as he stood and gave Buffy a kiss before heading toward the door after Tara who had already darted away like a rabbit. From the perch next to Spike, Xander could feel the sub-audible growl roll through Spike's body.
The door closed.
"Xanadu? What is up with that?" Buffy demanded
"Hey, it's called a secret identity! I can have a secret identity," Xander defended herself.
"It's Riley and Tara."
"Oi, think that's my girl's point," Spike interrupted, "not like we know them all that well."
"We can trust Riley," Buffy insisted.
"Hey, I'm big with trusting." Xander held up her hands in surrender. "I'd trust Riley to have my back and to hold my purse and to do other stuff that requires trust that I can't think of right now, but I don't trust him enough to get into the whole boy-girl discussion."
"You just have something against any boy I date," Buffy said as she crossed her arms. Angel flinched at that, and Xander flinched for the man. Unless he missed his guess, Spike was going to disappear tonight, and both vampires would have serious injuries before they turned up in Xander's kitchen for some first aid. Xander really didn't see how beating the hell out of each other helped anything, but he had to take Spike's word that it was a vampire thing.
"Xander, what has upset you enough to trigger this change?" Giles asked as he came out of the kitchen wiping his hands on his tomato-streaked apron.
"Don't ask. No asking. Asking leads to discussions of sex acts which I do not want to hear," Buffy wailed as she stuck her fingers in her ears.
"You're just bloody jealous," Spike announced as he smiled smugly.
"Not with jealous, more with the ew," Willow came down on Buffy's side.
"Yes, well considering they are here and not either completing their sex act or meditating in order to return Xander to his male status, I rather assumed something more important had come up," Giles pointed out as he sat heavily on the end of the trunk with all Buffy's weapons
"Xander, did something happen?" Willow asked, concern immediately erasing the faint look of disgust from earlier.
"Something nearly happened," Xander said, as she felt her heart start to race even at the memory.
"Oi, don't get worked up over it now, pet," Spike said, and he reached out and pulled Xander back into his lap, a hand stroking her leg gently. "Ran into those soddin' soldier boys again. Had trouble getting' away."
"Trouble?" Xander nearly yelped. "Trouble? Trouble would be a stuck manhole cover. Trouble would be my pants falling. What we had was disastersville."
"Xander?" Willow asked, this time her voice was shrill with worry.
"I had to order him to leave me because the soldiers were everywhere. One nicked him with a tazer, and we barely got to the Bronze, and then Spike was smelling gun oil all over the Bronze, only these guys blended into the crowd. Like invisi-girl blended."
"Spike, do you know how they were tracking you?" Angel asked as he stepped forward now.
"They had somethin' because a lot of 'em went out the door after a fledge that I spooked, so they're smarter than the usual hunters."
"Oh god." Buffy's mouth made an 'O' and she looked toward Angel. Oh, this was so very, very unhealthy. Xander wondered if Riley ever got a glimpse of that lost expression that would sometimes flit across Buffy's face. In the past, that look might have made Angel's shoulders droop with loss and pain, but now he stiffened his back.
"How did you get away?" Angel asked.
Spike hesitated, his body tight with anger, and Xander knew they were going to have a serious talk tonight, either before or after Spike and Angel did their increasingly regular beating each other into senselessness.
"I told him to use the roofs. No way can humans follow through those downtown warehouses, especially with all the refrigerated and heated warehouses down there," Xander said when Spike seemed unwilling to admit that he'd left Xander in the club.
"You mean he left you?" Willow asked, dismayed, and Spike's body stiffened even more.
"Not like I bloody wanted to, you old cow," Spike snapped.
Willow jerked back. Spike said stuff like that to Buffy all the time, but normally he tolerated Willow. On good days, Xander would even say that Spike liked Willow what with the nicknames and the way he'd smile at her babbling. Even Tara had gotten a pass from Spike who had put the girl on his 'do not torment' list and had laid down the law with Faith who enjoyed teasing Tara and Willow until they both turned bright red.
"Hey, enough with the rude," Buffy complained at the same time that Angel gave a barked, "William" of warning.
"I'd switched into girl mode, so no way would they connect me to the guy with the vampire," Xander defended Spike. After all, Xander had been the one to order Spike away when the vamp had been perfectly willing to stay and kill any humans who had threatened them.
"If these are the same blokes who mucked about with you during World War II, they've grown some stones since then. These gits weren't afraid to keep hunting, and I think Xan is right about them using heat sensors. I lost 'em in the meat-packing district." Spike tangled his fingers with Xander's, and Xander closed her eyes in fear at what might have happened. These days, vamps and demons disappeared with no trace, which normally would be of the good, but not all the vanishing demons were exactly of the world-ending, people-eating sort.
"Buffy, I'm concerned that this level of involvement with demonic activity could have disastrous repercussions," Giles sighed as he pulled off his glasses and cleaned them with a clean corner of the apron.
"Big with the potential bad," Willow breathed.
"I've patrolled. I haven't seen anything, not even the normal number of vamps," Buffy protested. "I'm looking, Giles, I really am."
"I know you are," Giles assured her.
"Is anyone else nervous that the vamps in the group might not have as much trouble finding them?" Xander asked. For the first time, he found himself grateful that Oz had taken off after the whole she-wolf disaster because he would not want the werewolf in the middle of this.
"I don't want that any more than you do!" Buffy's back grew stiff as she glared toward Xander, and Spike went just as stiff in response.
"So, do I want to know what you people do with toadstool?" Riley asked with a laugh as he came back in the apartment. "Because if Mr. Giles is using this in his cooking, I think I'll skip dinner."
"Of course not," Giles said with more than a little disapproval. Angel retreated back to the wall, and Xander had to pinch Spike before he would let her go so that Xander could, once again, perch on the arm of the couch. Oh yeah, Riley was so going to think that Spike was a cheating dog.
"It's some biology thing," Buffy said with a wrinkled nose. "Those science nerds," she teased.
"You could become quite the psychology nerd yourself with a little extra tutoring," Riley said as he sat down and slipped his arms around Buffy's waist. Xander just struggled not to choke on the sap, and Spike made a sound that might have passed as a cough if he'd been alive. However, Angel's amused glare suggested that something nasty had been buried in there.
"Well, since you lot aren't killin' any vamps tonight, I think we're off. Need ta go find Xander. Seems like a good night to shag him raw instead of the other way around." Spike smirked as Buffy and Riley got matching looks of disgust. Xander just backhanded Spike as he got up.
"Don't count on it, Bleachbrain."
"Oi, Xander loves the feel of my--"
"Hey, tender ears here, no saying anything Giles will polish glasses over. No saying anything at all," Xander interrupted as she grabbed Spike's arm and hauled the vampire right out the door. Spike was still laughing when the reached the street, and really, Xander thought her blush would be worn out by now, but she could still feel the heat in her face.
"Xanadu," Tara called.
Xander turned, surprised to see the shy witch behind them.
"Yeah, pet?" Spike answered for Xander.
Tara trotted a few steps closer and then stopped. "If you're having trouble with stabilizing your aura as either male or female, I have a few spells that might help, depending on what gender you w-want to st-stay with," she offered softly.
Xander stood under the streetlight, stunned into silence.
It took Spike a second to answer, but he recovered faster than Xander could. "Thanks pet, but we've had quite enough mojo."
Tara blushed and nodded.
"Hey, I really appreciate the offer, and now that I realize that you knew, I really appreciate you getting Riley out of the way for us, but Dru, the nutso who made my gender a little flexible, she said there was a good reason for doing it," Xander tried to reassure her.
"She called it a prezzie," Spike agreed, "And my dark princess could see the future. She couldn't always explain what she saw, but I learned to trust her judgment."
"Oh." Tara stood silent, her hair in front of her face as she look down at the pavement.
"But thanks again, and I'm sorry about all the keeping of secrets," Xander said.
"We all have secrets," she agreed quickly. She looked up at them, and Xander could see the acceptance, and really it was a little surprising since everyone else had required much time for adjusting and freaking, Xander included.
"No bloody kidding," Spike agreed as he slipped an arm around Xander's waist.
"But not all secrets are bad," Tara nearly whispered, shifting nervously before continuing. "I've never seen vampires with so much love in their auras before," she turned back toward Giles' place and hurried down the dark street. This time, when Xander looked up at Spike, the vampire looked just as stunned as she was.
"Okay, I think we've been underestimating Tara," Xander said.
"Seems like, pet. She'd make a lovely vampire with all that hidden depth."
Xander planted an elbow as hard as she could in Spike stomach.
"Hey, not bloody nice."
"I think the not-niceness of this vampire I've been hanging around with has rubbed off."
Spike grabbed her, planting a kiss on her that made Xander forget what they were even fighting about.
Reporting Officer: Captain Finn
Report 9934, Section C
Date: 9-23-98
Location A: Domicile of Rupert Giles
Location B: Westside Cemetery.
Untagged hostiles 17 and 18 continue to maintain human interactions with the group identified with slayer-A. As yet, I cannot determine whether any human associated with slayer-A knows of their true natures. The male, A. Harris (Xander) did not attend. A team should check to see if hostile 17 has turned him. A new female, Xanadu Harris, appeared at R. Giles' home, and hostile 17 appeared sexually interested in her. She may also be a target for turning. W. Rosenburg reports her home as Sacramento.
After the meeting, slayer-A and I conducted a sweep of Westside Cemetery and eliminated one hostile, a standard vampire. Tomorrow slayer-A plans to patrol the east side of the campus.
"Agent Finn," called a voice as Riley printed his nightly report.
"Yes, ma'am," he answered as he came to attention for Dr. Walsh.
"Is there any progress with Mr. Harris?"
"He missed the meeting, ma'am. I'm just not sure I'm comfortable waiting to see--"
"Agent Finn... Riley," Maggie Walsh softened her voice, "if we can observe their reproductive cycle or capture a young vampire, it might be the difference in this war."
"Yes, ma'am," Riley said through clenched teeth. "But Xander is a civilian."
"The innocence of the others might be in question, but Xander intimately knows hostile 17. He knows the hostile has no heartbeat or body heat, and you yourself reported seeing the bite scar on Mr. Harris' neck."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Riley, I know this is hard on you, but we're fighting a war. And if Mr. Harris has brought hostiles into close contact with the slayers, there is every chance that he is working for the hostiles."
Riley nodded. Some days he hated his job, and now--caught between not wanting to see Xander turned and wanting to protect Buffy--he just wished he knew what to do.
"I'm proud of you, Agent Finn," Dr. Walsh said with a smile. The fear that had tangled in Riley's guts slowly unwound.
"Thank you, ma'am," he answered.