Accidentally In Love
Summary: Three-shot part one: Xander makes the startling discovery that he could quite possibly be in love. Xapril.
A.N: Hiya boys and girls. The ficlet of the day is this: Accidentally in Love. Tomorrow will be a mystery and the same with the day after! Stay tuned!
A.N.2: Xander 'The Cobra' Helmsley/Levesque co-belongs rightfully to XoX-ShAdAy-XoX and me, EternalxInsanity, while Anna and April belong solely to me. Scott 'Raven' Levy belongs to himself, Paul 'Triple H' Levesque belongs to the WWE and himself.
A.N.3: Also, due to a major fuck-up on my behalf, all three parts of this fic had to be taken down and re-written. It is no longer be a song fic- as I don't want to draw attention away from the other fantastic stuff on FFN (it's been pointed out to me)- and to understand a lot of the content you may either want to have the lyrics for each song open in a separate tab or actually listen to the song on repeat as you read.
January 2007- Venice Beach, California
Walking along the beach in Los Angeles, California, Xander Levesque, commonly known as Xander Helmsley, kicked a rock with his shoe, watching it skid across the sand. Beside him was his best friend, Scott 'Raven' Levy. The two had been best friends since 1998 and nothing had changed; they could tell each other everything. Scott was that friend, one of few people Xander could actually call a friend, that he could insult and Scott would know it was a joke, the friend he could blurt sexual innuendo to and Scott would grin and fling one back. Scott had also been the first person Xander had called every time he'd screwed up.
Xander was awfully silent as they walked along the beach, which made Scott uneasy; usually the black-haired rocker was talking until his lips turned blue. But today he seemed almost nervous about something.
"Dude, what's the problem?"
Xander turned his head and looked at him, a sparkle in his eyes Scott had never seen. The emerald green orbs were bright and shining in the light.
"What's the problem?" Xander's eyes shifted to the horizon and the waves as they crashed out in the open sea. It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon, one of those afternoons that made him want to walk Jinx and Boozzaa, his Husky and Labrador puppies, across the sand with his mini-clone Jodi riding on his shoulders. But Jinx and Boozzaa were at home, probably running around the backyard with Jodi and Lara, Jodi's best friend. He picked up a sea-shell and threw it at the waves, watching it skip across the murky blue waves. "Well, I've been… well… I've got this weird feeling. It's been growing for months now."
"What kind of feeling?" Scott asked, looking at him. His black hair was pulled back into a half pony tail, the frosted white tips streaking through his hair like lines on the road. Around Xander's eyes were thick lines of guyliner and his lip and eyebrow piercings shone in the afternoon sun. The cuts and bruises on his face that he'd gotten in prison were gone and he looked somewhat human again. He'd been home for a month and the whole time he'd been trying his best to be a proper father and a boyfriend, and a Rockstar of course. Scott had never seen him like this before; he had a huge smile on his face, his hands weren't stuffed deep in his pockets and his eyes sparkled and were bright, like Xander had been introduced to a whole new world, like he'd been born again.
"That warm fuzzy feeling you get whenever Anna walks into the room." The older man smirked at his best friend and tossed another stone at the waves. Scott's eyebrows furrowed for a minute before his mouth dropped open in shock. The warm fuzzy feeling was what Scott liked to call love. Could it mean…?
"You wanna repeat that." Scott stopped walking and Xander turned back to him, smirking.
"I get this warm fuzzy feeling inside my chest."
"About who?"
Xander smirked and shook his head. "You obviously haven't been paying attention to my love life, have you?" Scott shook his head. "Who am I currently dating?"
Scott blinked, his mind blank. Who was Xander dating…? Then it hit him like a freight train at full speed; Xander was in a semi-long term relationship with April, Anna's twin sister. They had been going out for exactly five days before Xander had committed the crime that had put him in prison for ten months. He went in in late-January 2006, three weeks after he'd committed the crime, and came out in December. April had visited him every day, written to him and sent him pictures of Jodi as she'd spent the year with Lara, her best friend, and Laney, Scott and Anna's daughter. April had stayed by his side the entire time, reassuring him that everything would be okay.
"April."
Xander smirked and nodded, sitting down in the sand. Scott sat beside him as Xander slipped his jacket from his shoulders, sitting it beside him.
"Exactly."
"I don't know what it is," Xander said, his eyes twinkling in the afternoon sun. Scott eyed him curiously. "This feeling… it's like nothing I've ever felt before. Every time she walks in the room, I get this flutter in my chest like a swarm of butterflies has decided to fly into my ribcage." He looked at his best friend.
"Really? Butterflies? Cute analogy," Scott said, poking him in the shoulder. Xander smirked and shook sand from his hair.
"Okay more like bats. I can't stop thinking about her. She's like a virus that's been imbedded into my system and no matter what I do; I can't get rid of her."
Scott nodded his head. He felt the same about Anna, so he knew where he was coming from. Both of the Calaway sisters had that charm that made them completely irresistible to men.
"You know, if I didn't know you better, I'd think you were telling me that you love April." Scott looked at his friend. Xander looked at him, his face locked in a serious glare.
"I am."
Scott's stomach dropped. That was bad news. Anyone who fell in love with April felt it in the morning, so to speak. Out of the six people she'd been out with before Xander, only three had loved her. Chris Kanyon had been betrayed by her scheme to make her father pay and had left her, Adam 'Edge' Copeland had loved her, but once he found out she was pregnant he did everything he could to stop it. After that he'd slapped 'love' onto his feelings for her because he was a compulsive liar. Bret Michaels, lead singer of Poison, had chosen her out of nineteen other girls to marry on Rock of Love, his TV show to find a wife. They'd been set to marry in October of 2005 but April had called it off for some reason, still unknown to anyone but her. Now Xander was claiming to be in love with her. Oh boy.
"I don't know about this man," Scott said, drawing a random drawing in the sand with his finger. "April's track record against yours isn't exactly the best." He looked at Xander who looked at his boots, smacking the sides together in the sand.
It was true; Xander had the worst track record with women he had ever seen. He'd lasted little over a year with Rayne, Chyna had ditched him for Sean Waltman, Stacy, the keyboardist and back-up vocalist for the Rejects had been his other half for maybe two weeks, when Stacy had confessed her feelings for Mitch, the lead guitarist for the Rejects, and Allie had been shattered when she'd even learned of Stacy's existence. April's was a gimme; her men left her or she left them for unknown reasons.
The black haired man fell backwards with a groan.
"I know that. I'm trying to change, man, you know that."
Scott nodded. He didn't need to say anything.
"Look," Xander said, leaning on his haunches. "I'll forget about all of this, if you just tell me what the fuck it all means."
Scott swiped a finger through his short blond hair. "Okay. How do you feel about her when she's not around?"
"Like my world has fallen apart and I'm back in my jail cell, alone and cold," Xander said, blowing a lock of his raven hair from his eyes. He was definitely sincere. Scott's stomach dropped further into the pit of his conscious form.
"And when you're with her?"
"Butterflies and rainbows."
Scott let out a snort of laughter at the analogy but looked his friend in the eye. The crystal green orbs continued to sparkle in the sunshine. Scott had been completely on board with the whole Xander-April thing at first, but now he wasn't so sure. April was like a sister to him, and she was technically considering he was re-engaged to Anna after stupidly divorcing her, so if anyone hurt her, they got dropped. And Xander was his big brother, the guy he depended on and fought for when things got rough for him. Putting those two together had seemed like paradise but Xander's accident and then conviction had proven otherwise; they just couldn't work. But then again, Scott didn't know the whole story behind that, so he shouldn't be biased. But he was, and now his best friend was gonna pay the price for his stupidity.
"Look," Xander said, curling his muscular arms around his legs, "everybody on the planet has a soul-mate, right? Even me?"
Scott gave him a 'if you say so' look and shrugged his arms, gently scratching a scuff on his jacket. He'd never really believed in soulmates. That was an abstract concept even he couldn't get behind, no matter how devoted to Anna he was. He looked up and winced slightly. The sun was now high in the sky and was beating down on the friends as they sat on the beach. It was a beautiful day on the coast of California.
"I've been searching, pretty much since she left me," Xander said, obviously referring to Rayne Foley, his ex and Jodi's mother, "for that special someone, someone I can spend my life with. When I'm with April it's like the cosmos have exploded and brought me this beautiful supernova of a woman."
Scott blinked at his best friend for a second before bobbing his head up and down; he felt the exact same about Anna. She'd been his light and salvation, his savior, at the time when he'd needed it the most. Maybe April was for Xander too. He did seem different whenever she was around; like someone had hit him over the head with a bat and had replaced him with someone else. And his drug addiction was all but a distant memory now, making him a much easier person to live with. He was less angry and stubborn, now mellower and understanding, not traits Xander was known for.
"I don't know man," Scott said, looking at his best-friend. Xander looked at him, tilting his head to the side. "You and love don't exactly work."
Xander scrunched his nose, remembering all of his failed relationships.
"That's true I guess."
"What's true?"
Both of the young men turned to spy Paul Levesque, commonly known around the world as Triple H and Xander's older brother, limping along the beach, his Bulldog, Lucy, ahead of him on her leash, and a single crutch under his arm. Xander rolled his eyes; of course Paul would be in Los Angeles today; the WWE's January Pay-per view, the Royal Rumble, was being held at the Staples Centre that weekend and Paul and Stephanie were hosting, even though Paul was incapacitated at the present moment.
"Xander's inability to love anything," Scott said as Paul sat beside them, gently scratching his puppy's head.
The older Levesque laughed and nudged his brother in the shoulder. Xander scowled; in his mind the afternoon had just been ruined.
Paul smirked at the scowl. "Is baby-brother claiming he loves?"
Xander nodded once, not needing to explain himself.
"He's got butterflies in his stomach," Scott said teasingly, being shoved over by Xander. Paul snickered.
Images of April flashed before Xander's eyes and he fell backwards onto the sand, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Usually, well in movies at least, images of someone's beloved that flashed before their eyes were surrounded with love hearts, but April was surrounded by flashes of lightning, which meant she was very special. Xander looked at Scott, his eyes bright with passion. Scott raised an eyebrow as two words escaped Xander's lips; "I surrender."
Scott looked at Paul who shrugged, releasing his puppy from her leash.
Paul looked at his little brother. "Did you force yourself to love her, like you did with Rayne?"
Xander growled at the mention of his ex but shook his head. "I didn't mean to do it. I didn't even think it was possible for me."
Which was true; Xander and love didn't exactly exist on the same plane together.
Paul smirked and pulled his cell phone from his pocket, texting Stephanie, before looking at his brother. "Xander plus April equals Match Made in Heaven." He smiled at the surprised look on Xander's face. "I approve."
Xander smiled and Scott mocked gagging, which promptly got him punched in the arm, so hard in fact that the appendage went numb. He moaned as Xander flipped to his feet like his idol, Shawn Michaels. Paul and Scott watched him for a second before he pulled three back flips then a corkscrew back flip, landing in the sand perfectly, like he was a trained gymnast. He smiled then winked and dashed off down the beach.
"What was that about?" Scott said, looking at Paul while Lucy rested her fat head on his lap. Paul shrugged.
"Love makes you do the whacky."
Walking along the road that lead to Uptown LA, the smile on Xander's face grew and grew. He was so happy; never had he felt this good. Jodi's birth would be a tie breaker for how good he felt right now. And he had April Hailie Jade Calaway to thank for that. Her smile, her brains, her unmatched beauty… she truly was a Goddess, plain and simple. An Angel amongst men, as her nickname implied. She was his angel, sent from heaven to help him through the pain and misery that was life.
Turning on the road that his house was on, Xander stopped mid-step, his heart beating a thousand times faster in his chest, so much so that it hurt.
In the front yard of his house, playing with both her daughter and his, was April herself. Her waist-length black hair was slung over her shoulder in a thick braid and Lara was pulling on it, while Jodi pulled on her arm, dragging her towards the swing set. In the sunshine, her deep tanned skin glowed and the tattoos down her arms deepened the tone. His heart seemed to melt as his beloved April picked up his little Jodi and flipped her upside down, tickling her ribs with her free hand. Xander's heart swelled with happiness, even as he saw Jodi's face turning red from the blood rushing to it. She was perfect; a perfect mother, a perfect daughter, a perfect sister, and most importantly a perfect girlfriend. He smiled when he saw her sister, Anna, sitting on the porch swing with Elaina 'Laney' sitting on her lap, gently swinging back and forth. Anna smiled as he stepped up to the gate but she didn't say anything as Xander's finger went to his lips, silencing her for the moment. He silently slipped through the gate and tip-toed to April, curling his arms around her waist.
April jumped for a second but she turned her head and looked into the admiring eyes of her boyfriend, those beautiful eyes, and almost drowned. His eyes were intoxicating and one of a kind. That deep sea green mixed with pastel green made his eyes two glowing orbs of perfection, swirling on his perfect face.
"Hello, my sweet," Xander cooed, kissing her shoulder. She giggled and turned in his arms, wrapping her tattooed arms around his neck. He smiled back at her and before she could say a word, he captured her mouth in a kiss.
Every emotion Xander had felt for April; happiness, compassion, gratitude and undeniable love, came flooding through his brain like a tidal wave as he poured everything he had into his kiss, holding his Angel close. The squeaking of the swing that Jodi was sitting on stopped and Xander inwardly laughed; her jaw was probably dropped in shock, as it always was when he did something out of character.
April moaned as Xander's fingers danced across her bareback as his hand slipped up her shirt, gently tracing over her skin. She pulled away and bit her lip, running her fingers through his hair.
"Somebody missed me," she mused softly, her voice barely above a whisper. Xander smiled and nudged his nose against hers, his lips speaking the one thing he'd been longing to say to somebody and actually mean it;
"Te amo, mí ángel hermoso."
Granted he'd said it in Spanish, but she spoke the language of Passion, so she'd know what it meant. He loved her, and he thought she was a beautiful Angel.
April's jaw dropped open slightly and she let out a silent gasp, taking in what he'd said. He loved her! And he'd actually said it while looking her directly in the eye, which meant that he meant every word he'd just said.
"You do?"
Xander's head bobbed once and a lock of his hair fell in his face, making him look irresistibly cute.
"I've only ever said that to one other person before but I didn't actually mean it."
April smiled and brushed her hand over his hair. He smiled and kissed the palm of her hand as it grazed his cheek.
"Now I do."
Later that night, as Xander lay on the sofa with his girlfriend curled up on his legs asleep, memories flashed through his brain; their first kiss on Christmas Eve of 2005, their first weekend away just before he'd been tried and convicted of manslaughter, and their first proper vacation in the Bahamas just after he'd gotten back. He'd had some incredible experiences with the woman asleep in his arms, and there were many more where they came from. He was truly, madly, deeply in love.
