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Jul. 11th, 2013 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lit_gal
GrayAfter having her world destroyed by the Winchesters, Eve wanted to rebuild her family. She claimed a soul with his own dark power and his own moral gray. He would be her champion. Hopefully. Xander just wanted to go home, preferably before the hunters Sam and Dean Winchester caught up with him.
Chapter ONE :: Chapter TWO :: Chapter THREE :: Chapters 4+5 :: Chapter SIX :: Chapter SEVEN :: Chapter EIGHT :: Chapter NINE :: Chapter TEN :: Chapter ELEVEN : Chapter TWELVE :: Chapter THIRTEEN :: Chapter FOURTEEN :: Chapter FIFTEEN :: Chapter SIXTEEN :: Chapter Seventeen :: Chapter Eighteen :: Chapter Nineteen :: Chapter TWENTY :: Chapter TWENTY-ONE :: Chapter TWENTY-TWO : Chapter TWENTY-THREE :: Chapter TWENTY-FOUR :: Chapter TWENTY-FIVE :: Chapter Twenty-SIX :: Chapter Twenty-SEVEN :: Chapter Twenty-EIGHT
Despite what the SPN writers think, there are strong women in this universe. Leave it to Xander to find one... and to find trouble. So, SPN folks, have you figured out where we are in canon??
Twenty Nine
Xander woke feeling like someone had rubbed sandpaper over his eyes. He’d ended up on his stomach, and Spike was practically using him for a pillow, but Xander didn’t shove him off. It seemed rude, especially after last night.
The sorrow was still there, nagging at the edges of his awareness and waiting for him to pull it into the light, but Xander made himself focus on something else. He started thinking about Sam and Dean, and something clicked. They’d lost everyone. Pretty much any human being that crossed their paths died, and all they had was each other.
And Spike had been with Drusilla for a hundred years while the rest of the world changed and people died. The two facts sort of got tangled up as Xander thought about what it would mean to have someone with you even as the rest of the world slipped away. All his other friends might die, but Spike would still be there for him. They could have a thousand years together, especially if Xander got powerful enough to protect them.
Dorsey would still be around unless he got killed fighting some aliens.
For the first time, Xander understood why vampires made nests. Yeah, some of it was the whole power in numbers thing, but vampires tended to be on the less than reliable or loyal side, so it never made sense to Xander that so many of them made childer, even knowing those childer were probably going to stab them in the back. Now he got it. In two hundred years, everything else might be gone, but hopefully Dorsey would still be there. Xander could search him out, look in his dark eyes and know that one thing had stayed the same.
Of course, Xander had the advantage of having Spike, too. So that made two things that would never change. That was more than most demons got. Maybe. Xander didn’t actually know a lot about demons and their lifespans. He knew they weren’t all immortal, but they all seemed to outlive humans.
Spike shifted, his knee poking Xander in the ass, which wasn’t nearly as weird as the fact that his leg was between Xander’s knees. “Morning,” Xander said. “Or already pretty late in the evening, in this case.” Not a bit of daylight crept in around the edges of the curtains.
Spike grunted, the sound sending air across the back of Xander’s neck. Little Xander might not have to pee first thing after waking up anymore, but Xander was still having some trouble with morning wood.
“You better then?” Spike asked before he rolled away.
“Less with the wailing and acting like a nincompoop,” Xander agreed.
Spike stood and stretched, and Xander watched him. What would they say to each other in a hundred years?
Spike twitched an eyebrow. “Something you want to say then?”
“No?” Xander guessed. “Except thank you for not running away as fast as you could when I got all weird. I don’t know why I felt the need to have a total mental breakdown.”
Spike sat back down on the side of the bed. “Because it was the first moment when you didn’t feel like you were being chased or tied up or bullied.”
“You? Bully? Never,” Xander said with enough sarcasm to make his real feelings known. However, he also grinned.
“Nit.”
“Yep,” Xander agreed. He might have a thousand years of life ahead of him, but he wasn’t going to waste one minute arguing about that.
“I wouldn’t have to bully you so soddin’ much if you weren’t so talented at getting into trouble.”
“Hey, this is not my fault. I was just sleeping in my room when Eve grabbed me.”
“Right, and when you got that huge reservoir of power shoved into you, that wasn’t your fault at all.”
Xander thought back to that day, to standing on the edge of that cliff while Willow slammed him with wave after wave of energy. He remembered feeling like his whole body might explode, and the heat gathering under his skin. “Nope, that was all Willow… well, Willow and Warren. Given that Warren sent her off on her little trip into big bad land, I’m blaming him too.”
“I’m thinking that all the good little happy meals run away from potentially world-ending conflicts, but there you were standing at ground zero, luv.”
“It’s not like I had a choice,” Xander protested.
Spike shook his head. “You had a choice. You just aren’t interested in making sane choices, is all. You’re about to test the theory that vampires can’t age because you’re already giving me gray hairs.”
“How can you tell under all the peroxide?”
“Watch it.” Spike reached over and caught one of the D-rings around Xander’s collar and gave it a tug.
“Right, just go ahead and bully me for no reason,” Xander said in his most long-suffering voice. Spike rolled his eyes.
“We’re late. Shift your arse out of bed because I want to go check out that place you spotted last night.”
“Well I need a shower.”
“I was meaning to tell you that exact thing,” Spike said. Xander threw a pillow at him before grabbing his bag and heading into the bathroom.
Spike shouted at him as he closed the door, “Oi! You’re supposed to bloody submit, not attack me with the bedding.” Xander grinned as he turned on the water.
They pulled into the parking lot for the Guidry Cajun Café long after it’d gotten dark, but the neon sign was still lighting up the night. Spike slipped his hand around Xander and rested it on the small of his back.
Either someone had tried to age the outside of the building to make it look more authentic, or the building had been around since Thomas Jefferson had bought Louisiana. They headed inside, and the aged wood and rust theme continued, but Xander noticed that the chairs were fairly new and sturdy, and the kitchen equipment behind the lunch counter was all stainless steel and clean. So most of the age was for the tourists. Then again, maybe the same people who had decorated all the hotel rooms in this universe had gotten ahold of this café.
A pretty woman with long brown hair and an apron stood behind the lunch counter. “Evening, boys,” she offered with a nod.
“Evening,” Spike answered. Xander just smiled at her and followed as Spike chose a seat at the counter. When Spike gave him a little sidelong look, Xander shrugged. He still thought he could feel something supernatural, but he didn’t know what it was.
“What can I get for you two?” the woman asked as she dropped a one-page menu page in front of each of them.
“Food?” Xander guessed as he looked down at the options.
She laughed. “Okay, I can do that. What sort of food are you in the mood for?”
“I’ll have something fried,” Spike said. “The boy here eats like an ox, so whatever you have extra of, you can sell him.”
“Not okra,” Xander protested quickly as he spotted it on the menu. He did not like slime. He didn’t want to step in slime or slay slimy creatures, but most of all, he didn’t eat slime.
Spike rolled his eyes. “Fine, the boy will eat anything except okra. Happy?”
Xander smiled. “Yep.”
The woman laughed before she turned to the stove and started cooking. “That’s a deal.”
“Isn’t Roy around?” an old man in the corner asked.
“He took the evening off. He works too hard, and I don’t pay him enough for the work he does, so I’m not complaining,” she answered before she moved to the fryer. French fries went in one basket, and something else went in the other. Xander strained to see what she was cooking, but the angle was wrong.
“As hard as he works, he must be sweet on you.”
The woman turned around and shook her finger at the man. “Don’t you start. Roy has never treated me disrespectfully.”
“If he’s trying to make an honest woman outta you, he shouldn’t,” the old man said. “He oughtta show you how hard he can work, show you he can take care of you. That’s the way it uster be done.”
“Well it’s not done that way now.” She shook her head. “Ignore that old coot. My regular cook is a drifter who needed a job and he’s grateful enough to work hard. I’m Elizabeth.”
“I’m Xander, and this is my Spike.” Xander flushed brilliant red when he realized what he’d said. “I mean, this is just Spike. Not my… that’s his name. Really, his name is Spike.” Xander stopped. Spike was laughing hard enough that he was holding the edge of the counter, and Elizabeth was definitely trying to hold back laughter. “Crap.” Xander let his head fall down to the counter and he covered it with his arms.
“Sad thing is, that’s his version of eloquent,” Spike offered. Xander raised a middle finger. “You’re twenty-three, and that’s still as smooth as you can get. It’s sad, luv.”
“Twenty-four,” Xander muttered from under his arms.
“Right then, that makes it so much better.”
Xander sat up and smacked Spike with the back of his hand.
“I’m wounded,” Spike said, his smirk still in place.
“Bite me.” And again, Xander’s brain caught up with his mouth two seconds too late. He flushed brilliant red.
“Bloody hell, breathe before ya pass out,” Spike said, and that was the first time Xander realized he’d forgotten to breath. He took a deep breathe, and the ghosts all scattered. Weird. He hadn’t even noticed there were ghosts.
“Now don’t pick on him. I think he’s adorable,” Elizabeth said. Up to this point, Xander had assumed she was a normal human, but if she liked him, that did suggest evil and demonic.
“Adorable, just what every adult male wants to be called,” Xander said weakly.
“That he is. Cute as a button, this one,” Spike said with a nasty smirk on his face.
“I’m going to…” Xander paused. Spike’s eyebrow went up in that way that meant he was going to take the next words out of Xander’s mouth way too seriously. Xander understood. He did. He was way more powerful than Spike, so Spike was going to feel a need to force Xander’s submission any time Xander had so much of a passing thought of rebellion. “I’m going to sit here and eat my food,” Xander finished.
“That’s what I thought,” Spike said. He draped his arm around Xander’s shoulders, but now Elizabeth was looking at them with some alarm.
Spike wouldn’t hurt him, but Elizabeth was looking more than a little alarmed that he might, and Xander did not like getting cast as the long-suffering wife. “His bark is worse than his bite, but I am not starting a war of practical jokes with him, because that is the path of the loser with green hair and black teeth and underwear full of itching powder,” Xander told her.
“Are you calling me immature?” Spike demanded, all mock indignation and horror.
“Yes, yes, and hell yes,” Xander agreed.
Spike laughed. “Seems better than getting old.”
“Says the guy who reads poetry when he thinks no one is looking.”
Spike narrowed his eyes and glared at him, but Xander gave him a bright smile. Elizabeth laughed, and that distracted Spike from his cranky.
“You two put on a nice show. Either you're brothers or you’re something more.”
“Something more,” Spike answered before Xander could say anything. They were something more, but probably not the something more Elizabeth meant.
The old man gave a loud harrumph that made his opinion on the matter pretty damn clear.
“Cletus, don’t you start.” She gave them a smile. “All sorts are welcome around here. So, we have some fried pickles with our specialty, fried alligator. And for you,” she told Xander, “we have a fried shrimp po boy. That’ll fill you up.”
“I doubt that,” Spike said, but he was too busy giving the old man the hairy eyeball to really tease Xander too much. Cletus decided that he didn’t want to hang around the cranky gay guy, so he gathered up his newspaper and headed out the door with another huff. That left one man in the place. He was a bald guy having a nearly pornographic moment with a piece of pie, his cell phone up to his ear. Xander glanced over, and froze for a half second before quickly turning back toward Elizabeth. Chocolate. Oh, it was a faint smell, but Xander was definitely picking up on chocolate.
Spike and Elizabeth verbally sparred some, but Xander lost most of their conversation, and Spike had to elbow him to get him tuned back in. Elizabeth was giving him another strange look, and Xander had the feeling she was the mom sort, the sort like Joyce who would jump into a situation in a heartbeat if they thought they needed to, even if it meant going up against a vampire with a frying pan.
“Low blood sugar,” Xander explained weakly. “I’m not feeling well.”
Now Spike was giving him a concerned look, turning in his chair and leaning close to get a good look into Xander’s eyes.
“I’ll get the food,” Elizabeth quickly offered. She turned and pulled a bag of French bread off a shelf.
“Harris?” Spike asked in a whisper as he leaned close.
“Is he human?” Xander asked softly, giving his head a quick little jerk back toward the bald guy in the old leather jacket and plaid shirt.
Spike didn’t have to look over at him. “Through and through,” Spike said. “Why?”
“I’m getting some chocolate smell,” Xander confessed. Spike’s eyes started widening. “Only a little, a little, tiny itsy bitsy bit,” Xander blurted out before Spike could drag him out and hogtie him again. Elizabeth turned to look at him, and Xander improvised. “I let my blood sugar get a little out of hand, which always makes Spike overprotective and twitchy.”
She pushed a plate in front of him. It was piled high with fries and a twelve inch sandwich so overly full of shrimp that they were tumbling out. “He should get twitchy. You have to take care of yourself,” Elizabeth said firmly. Yep, definitely the mother-type. She watched him, arms crossed until Xander gathered up the oversized sandwich and took a bite.
“It’s my job to worry about you, luv,” Spike said. It was unfair of Spike to go and get all serious when Xander had his mouth full. “He doesn’t pay attention to his own needs until it’s too late more often than not,” Spike complained to Elizabeth. “Don’t worry, ducks. I have him now, and he’ll eat up and get his blood sugars back where they should be.”
She grabbed the other fryer basket and shook it before tipping the fried food out onto a new plate. She took that plate and slid it in front of Spike. “Just make sure he does. I don’t let men pass out in here, understood,” she pointed a finger at Xander.
“Yes, ma’am,” he agreed, his mouth still full. She smiled at him and then headed for the back. “I’ll get you a couple of cokes.”
Xander waited until she was gone before looking at Spike. He expected threats, the third degree, maybe even a Spike-sized hissy fit. Instead, Spike leaned close. “Got trouble, pet. Should have known you’d land us in the soup with a hunter.”
Xander’s eyes got big. A hunter? The weird looking guy was a hunter? Shit.
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First?
Date: 2013-07-12 02:37 am (UTC)Re: First?
Date: 2013-07-12 02:52 am (UTC)Re: First?
Date: 2013-07-13 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-12 03:17 am (UTC)I have a suspicion on the cook.
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Date: 2013-07-13 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-12 05:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-13 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-12 05:08 am (UTC)Zaz
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Date: 2013-07-13 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-12 11:09 am (UTC)And I like Elizabeth.
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Date: 2013-07-13 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-12 04:07 pm (UTC)Shakatany
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Date: 2013-07-13 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-12 07:09 pm (UTC)What did Spike expect when he told Xander to hunt for the unusual vibes? He shouldn't be at all surprised that they've ended up in the soup with a hunter (and one who's on the unstable end, at that.) Well, at least we're likely to run into the Winchester boys this way. Can't wait for the next chapter!
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Date: 2013-07-13 06:58 pm (UTC)And I don't think Spike is particularly surprised.
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Date: 2013-07-12 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-13 06:58 pm (UTC)