Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set post Chosen. Xander's meets an old friend while he's waiting at the airport.
Authors Notes: Part of my 'Missing Scenes' series. Which currently consists of the fics: 'It's Buffy', 'Thoughts Before Battle', 'Verbal Contract', 'Eating Alone' and 'Paying her Dues'. You don't need to read any of the others in order to understand this fic, you just need to be familiar with canon. If you do wish to read them, all my stories are here:
Rating: 15 by English standards.
Four months after Chosen
Heathrow Airport
London
"Xander... Xander Harris..?" the voice called out.
He turned to face the newcomer, blinking a few times with his good eye as he tried to put a name to the vaguely recognisable face. "Hi." He offered, hoping to buy himself some time for his memory to kick in. "Long time..."
"Hell yeah." The man facing him responded eagerly. "Wasn't sure if any of you would have made it safely out of home before it went... well, you know."
'Sunnydale, then.' Xander figured, trying to work out if it would help if he pictured the person in front of him with different hairstyles and less facial hair. 'Well, where else would it be... before coming to England to help start up this new council, I'd spent what... three months out of Sunnydale in my whole life.'
"Yeah, I was..." He paused, trying to come up with something plausible. "Out of town when the earthquake hit."
"Earthquake, really..?" The man responded in a surprised tone. "I figured it was the normal weird supernat-" He looked around conspiratorally, quickly correcting himself. "Sunnydale shit... like graduation, but to the n-th degree."
'Graduation..?' Xander thought, taking a closer look at the stranger, trying to compare his fellow students against what was in front of him.
"Larry..?" He guessed eventually.
"Yeah, man, Who else..?" The man did a quick double take, produced what sounded like a small noise, then continued on. "You forgot who I was." He accused in an amused tone.
"Not forgot as such." Xander began, as a way of excuse. "More like didn't recognise the new you." He waved his hand in a general facial direction.
"Ah, okay." Larry seemed to accept the explanation easily enough, but then lightly tapped Xander on his stomach. "But we've all put on a few pounds over the years."
Xander grinned, forcing himself not to appear uncomfortable. 'Oh grow up Harris,' he chastised himself, 'You've been okay with Willow's sexuality for how many years, and you knew about Larry's before that.'
"It was more the beard, and you know... the other hair."
"If you tell me blonde highlights are stereotypical. I'm gonna have to beat you down." Larry responded with a large grin that showed he was only joking.
"Whoa..." Xander played along, raising his hands in a mock defensive gesture. "Calm down."
"To be fair, I wasn't sure if it was you either... what with the-" Larry began, but quickly shut off that topic and began another. "So it was really an earthquake..?"
'Yep, the eyepatch freaks him out... no-one's ever sure if they should ask or not.' Xander realised, before answering the question. "Nah, the earthquake's just the official story."
"Ahhh..." Larry nodded understandingly, "Heard they'd rebuilt the school again, this time you have to take out the whole town as well as the school..?"
"Not as such," Xander shrugged, trying to work out how deep he ought to go into this. "This time it wasn't exactly our plan to destroy anything."
"Really..?" Larry looked shocked. "Xander Harris, School-Destroyer, didn't feel the need to blow anything up this time..?"
'School-Destroyer..?' Xander internally questioned himself, trying to remember back to his high school years. 'I came up with the plan and laid the explosives, but I never actually pushed the detonator. How did he know it was my plan..?'
He was interrupted by his thoughts by another question from Larry. "Anyway, enough about the hometown... and how it finally met it's well deserved end. So which one..?"
"Which one what..?" Xander asked back, confused by the question, that as far as he could work out, didn't actually ask anything.
"Which girl did you end up with..?"
'What does he mean, which girl..?' He thought sadly of his lost ex-fiance.
Larry had obviously picked up on the depressed look. "Man, that's awful... neither of them make it..?"
'Neither of who..?' Xander wanted to shout. 'There was only one girl.'
"Jeez, I'm sorry." Larry continued, offering his condolences. "I know you'd known Willow for, like, ever... and to be honest, I always thought Buffy was unkillable."
"She died once... well twice." Xander automatically responded, before his brain caught up with the conversation. "What do you mean, Willow and Buffy..?"
"How does someone die twice..?" Larry asked with a confused expression. "Is this some sort of vampire thing..?"
"No, just a resurrecti- hold on, why do you think Willow and Buffy died..?"
"Well, I asked about your love life and then you got this really sad look." Larry tried to explain.
"Yes, because someone I was really close to passed away... why do you think my love life involves either Buffy or Willow?"
Larry shrugged, "We all saw how you were around those two... it was like you were undecided as to which was your soulmate."
"Soul-mate..?" Xander almost choked out.
"Okay... love of your life, future wife, woman you couldn't live without... choose your own term."
"No I'm not arguing over the term, I'm arguing over the people you're trying to apply it to." Xander queried. 'Now I know I had a reputation for not paying attention, but I'm pretty sure any love triangle rumours about me would have involved Willow and Cordelia, not Buffy.'
"Did something happen..?" Larry asked in a genuinely confused tone. "At school, people assumed you'd been kind of with Willow since kindergarten, and we all saw how you acted around Buffy."
"Well, Willow's gay..." Xander offered, not looking the other man in the eyes as he stated so, "And Buffy's never seen me that way."
"Well, Willow's not really a factor then anymore." Larry stated in a matter of fact tone. "So you and Buffy never..?"
"No." Xander responded immediately, silently hoping he could keep this conversation away from the memory of Anya. Unfortunately other stray memories came to his mind, memories of the previous summer which had basically consisted of him and the two Summers girls. "I don't think she was ever interested..." He quietly confessed, his mind revisiting evenings with Dawn telling them about her day, and post patrols conversations which had only consisted of himself and Buffy. A lot of evenings where it was basically the two of them.
Larry noticed the hesitancy and smiled.
"You sure she's never looked at you that way."
"Of course not. I'm not in her league." Xander answered, trying to ignore his internal doubts. 'Doubts... or wishful thinking.' He mused. 'Man, I thought I was over her, I thought the closeness we had that summer was due to being the only remaining Scoobs, it dissipated easily enough when the others came back.' He reasoned, trying to ignore the voice which contrasted his belief.
'It dissipated when life got more complicated... and then got shoved aside when the First turned up to wreck havok.'
He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of Larry laughing at him. Returning his glance to Larry, he noticed it wasn't a cruel laugh, if anything he seemed amused by Xander's inner conflict.
"Your problem," Larry began. "Is that you're still living in high school. Those terms, those cliques... all that shit died the second we left high school. Don't look at the you and her of then, look at the two of you now... I don't know the details, but I'm betting you're miles from that high school setting where you were just a friend." Noticing Xander's shocked look, Larry continued. "Look, I'm not yanking your chain or nothing, you may still only be viewed as a friend. Shit, for all I know, after you've thought about it you may only want to view her as a friend. But the reasons for that now, aren't the same as the ones from back then." Larry paused as though to consider it. "Unless she's as stupid as you are, and neither of you ever took a real look outside of your assigned safe-zone for one another."
Xander was unable to come up with a real coherent response, "Yeah... er... thanks." He managed to get out.
Larry's smirk was still present. "So anyway, where you off to..?"
"Africa." Xander responded, mind obviously still elsewhere.
"Pity." Larry stated, quickly expanding. "Might have had someone to talk to on the way back to the States."
"You're going home..?" Xander asked.
"Home's not really an option is it..?" Larry grinned.
"Well..."
"Just had the summer off touring all over Europe, something I promised myself I'd do before settling into a job. If I can get one... Parents moved to Oxnard, figured I'd live with them til I can get a teaching position." Larry answered.
"Teaching..?" Xander queried.
Larry shrugged. "Just finished my degree... the Europe trip was a present, mostly from myself but my parents chipped in a little."
"But teaching... that's a real job." Xander argued.
"Yeah, back in the day who'd have ever thought I'd be wanting to return to a bunch of teenagers." Larry laughed, "So what do you do for a none-real job then..?"
"Well, I was in construction... kind of a foreman, really." Xander explained. "Using those skills to see if I can provide some help in third world countries." 'And it's a good cover for while I'm looking for mini-Slayers.' he added silently to himself.
"And you thought me being about to start in the education system was a real job." Larry laughed aloud. "Construction foreman, eh..? Seriously Harris, we're not in high school anymore... especially ours."
"Guess so..." Xander agreed quietly.
"My plane's boarding so I've gotta go..." Larry answered quickly. "Feel free to look me up next time you're back home-ish... but if I can offer some advice on the Buffy situation." He waited for Xander's nod before continuing. "Take a long look at where you both are now. Figure out what you want, and if you are interested... tell her. Give her the chance to take stock of her life before answering... it might not be the answer you want, but it definitely won't be the answer you're expecting til you lose this high school mindset..."
"Yeah, er, thanks Larry, given me a lot to think about. Good luck on the teaching..." Xander waved goodbye as his old friend headed towards his gate. Suddenly he remembered something, chasing after him he quickly caught him up. "Wait... wait."
Larry turned back towards him. "I've got a plane to catch." He gestured to the board which showed a flight to New York departing in half an hour which was lit up with a boarding status.
"Right, the teaching thing..." Xander began. "I'm not really sure which way the advice ought to be going."
"Advice..?" Larry looked confused.
"Call it returning the favour." Xander moved on. "Okay... teaching... right, well remember the deal back home..?" Larry nodded at Xander's obvious hint. "Well, there's another similar situation in Cleveland."
Larry nodded, but then tried to make out Xander's questioning glance. "So Cleveland's just like Sunnydale. I get it."
"Right... you're a big boy." Xander stated, pausing for breath as he went through an internal debate as to whether or not he ought to share this info. "It's not a warning... well, it's not just a warning." He tried to explain.
"Cleveland's just like Sunnydale... so you can take that information, and avoid it if you want to... or you could, with your added knowledge and experience of having lived through it once, you could got their to see if you could be of help." Xander paused, giving time for that to sink in.
Larry paused as if carefully considering the information. "Okay... but we had a kind of advantage, didn't we..?"
"You mean Buffy..?" Xander asked, expanding on Larry's nod. "Well, Cleveland's got a lot of Buffy's."
Larry looked confused. "Cleveland's got what..?"
"It's complicated." Xander ignored it, realising he had nowhere near the time to go into that level of detail. 'It's only important if he actually goes there.'
"Now, we haven't located the hellmou-..." He paused realising that Larry had recognised the phrase, "... exact centre of Cleveland's issues. So we haven't put a mini-Buffy into all the schools or anything like that."
"You haven't... wait, what..?"
"Okay, the word is Slayer... as in Buffy is a... when we were at school, there was only one of them; well, only supposed to be one of them. I don't suppose you met either Kendra or Faith..?" At Larry's blank look, he waved it off as unimportant. "Now there are hundreds... I'm going to Africa to try and locate them."
"I'm confused..." Larry admitted. "How does this involve me..?"
"Okay," Xander quickly glanced up at the departure information screen. "Quick version. We've already located quite a few Slayers. They're in a school in Cleveland that we've set up."
Larry looked even more confused. "You've got a school for these... Slayers..?"
Xander dismissed that option. "It's open to the public too, not anywhere near enough Slayers based States-side that we could open a school just for them... but it's primarily for Slayers, true..."
"And this involves me how..?" Larry spoke again.
"I'm only really giving you information about Cleveland... and about all the newly powered Slayers." Xander stated. "How you use that is up to you."
Larry nodded, intending for him to go on.
"If you wanted... you could contact this man here." Xander quickly wrote Robin Wood's name and contact details on a piece of paper and handed it to Larry. "And he could definitely use more teachers who are 'in the know' so to speak."
"You're offering me a job..?" Larry asked incredulously.
"Kinda... sorta... well, not me specifically. It's called the Watcher's Council. They own the school, but you wouldn't actually be a Watcher... erm, yet... possibly."
"What's a watcher..?" Larry asked.
"Remember the librarian, Giles..?"
"Sure." Larry responded.
"He was a Watcher." Xander explained.
"I was hoping to be an English teacher." Larry stated in a confused tone.
"Fine, ignore the librarian bit and concentrate on the person himself... Giles. He was a Watcher, everything else was sort of a cover." Xander stated, wishing he could explain this clearly. Glancing at the board, he realised he'd wasted over ten minutes already. "Shit."
"What..?"
"Look, just think about it... and if you're interested, contact that man, and inform him that I passed the number on. Tell him that you were involved at the graduation party with Buffy, Willow, Giles and myself and get him to check with the others if he doesn't know the full story."
Larry still looked a little lost. "And then what..?"
"And then I guess you need to decide how you want to live your life." Xander offered. "Look you've got about fifteen minutes before you leave. Use the journey to think about it and continue to do so for a few days. The school's still relatively new, we only opened the doors to the public in the last week or so... I think Willow should still be based there for the short term. Just think about it, okay."
Larry shrugged.
Xander could tell from the expression, that he was more than a little lost. And he hoped he hadn't done something he'd regret in the future.
He was quite pleased with Larry's first real question.
"If I call this number and ask to meet with Robin and Willow to get the full story, I'm not agreeing to anything, right... I can still walk away..?"
"It's not a cult... well, not officially anyway." Xander joked. "Look, there's no time, you need to catch a plane. Go home, call the number, speak to Willow, get the full deal... and make your mind up."
"Yeah man, er thanks, I think." Larry responded, offering his hand out to shake. "Make your mind up, eh..? Take your own advice, Harris." He finished as they shook hands.
"Yeah cheers." Xander offered, as he released the other persons hand. "Not sure which one of us has the harder decision." He grinned back.
Xander watched as Larry joined the line at his own departure gate.
Xander waited til he disappeared through the gate and then returned to the departure lounge. 'Only another hour til my plane leaves.' he thought to himself, while quickly finding a free seat.
He placed his carry-on bag by his side, while he sat blankly staring at the screen of departure times, willing himself not to think any Buffy-related thoughts.
Unable to distract his thoughts onto other topics, he sighed and resigned himself to trying to view both his and Buffy's current situations.
Fleeting memories of that summer kept coming to mind, he managed to pretty successfully view the both of them as they were a year ago.
Buffy concentrating on trying to make up for the previous year to Dawn. Buffy getting more control over her life, getting more comfortable with her role as a surrogate mother. Of course he'd offered to help where he could, but she'd refused any financial help regardless of whatever payment or non-payment suggestions Xander had offered.
Throwing himself into work as a distraction from all of their issues. Something that looking back on it, definitely seemed to fast-track him at his company. Spending more time at the Summers' house, in an effort to avoid his own apartment.
'Hmmm.' He thought to himself, realising something else he'd never really allowed himself to think. 'Although Buffy wasn't accepting any financial help, she somehow slotted me into the surrogate father role for Dawn.'
'Did she actually slot me there, or did she just allow me to slot myself there..?' After speaking with Dawn, he'd known he'd wanted to prove to Dawn that not all men left. And to be fair, maybe he was trying to prove it to himself... especially after the wedding.
Shrugging it off, he tried to concentrate on the current situation. 'What current situation..?' He mused, 'Buffy and Dawn moved to Rome two weeks ago, she said she's out of it til after Dawn's finished high school. Least she's got her priorities right,' he figured, turning his thoughts onto himself. 'And I'm what, Giles' errand boy..? Sure the jobs seem important, but it's not like liaising with the various covens or guarding the hellmouth...' he finished bitterly.
Maybe he was underselling himself again, maybe like Larry suggested he finally needed to drop the high school mentality. 'Giles had been stressing the importance of these jobs... and he did seem to entrust a whole continent to myself.' He figured, preparing to go another round on the 'am I or am I not part of the new Council merry-go-round' before he realised what he was avoiding.
'So... Buffy.' He thought to himself... 'How exactly do I feel..?'
He knew it was going to be a long trip.
The End
A/N: Hmmmm, noticed this might also fit into my Explaining Africa/Souls universe (well with a few little tweeks regarding his thoughts on what he was currently doing...). Need to think about that...