So This is Your Grand Plan—It Sucks
By: Aurorarose13
The next ten days passed in a blur for Buffy as she relished every moment in Xander's arms. During the daylight hours, she and Xander would walk Orystinna, never missing the meeting of the two suns over city hall—for that was their place now, where "they" began. At noon of every day, they would share a passionate kiss in Hothgot Square, no matter how many onlookers there were. Night after night, they would huddle in blankets at whatever inn they could afford, curling up around the other and trying to cope with the world and their romantic situation.
This was all very strange to Buffy, and, no, not just Mystenninna. Xander was her boyfriend now, her companion. He wasn't just the best friend that loved her from the side anymore; now, he loved her from all sides. She grinned widely at that thought. Turning in his arms to stare at his sleeping visage, Buffy murmured contentedly into his shoulder, "This is the way it's supposed to be." Placing a light kiss on his hot skin, she closed her eyes and fell deeper into his embrace.
Under the covers, it was hotter than a furnace. Xander's touch, even when it was unconscious, was electric, like Buffy had fallen into the core of the sun when in reality she had only stumbled into his heart and his soul. His skin burned next to hers, leaving a permanent branding that marked her his property, and Buffy was pleased to leave it that way.
Although they slept like this together every night, they had not made love, nor would they until Buffy allowed herself to believe she was in love with him. The way her heart ached when he left her side let her know that Xander was not just some experience or toy, but when he was gone—shopping or trying to earn some money—she felt empty, like he had to be there. At least that proved he meant something to her. However, Buffy needed to feel not empty, but complete when he left. Once she felt like Xander was always in her heart, no matter where he was, once she believed his arms were around her when they weren't, only then could she admit it was love. And only then would she allow herself to love him they way he deserved and desired.
Through a hole in the wall of their one-room hotel room, Buffy smelled jasmine. Judging by the vibrant purple light cast onto the beige walls, Grinnen—the larger of the pair of suns and the embodiment of the chief god in the Orystinnian religion—had risen above the distant mountain range and capped the tallest building in the City of 1000 Suns, the Trylennia, a towering shrine to the sun god. The morning market must be open, she recalled. Hopefully today, she and Xander might find a job to support their lives in town. After all, the slim remainder of their silver tailings could only afford them one more night at the inn and maybe one good meal to share.
"Xander… Xander…" she cooed, pressing lightly on his shoulder to wake him up. He ignored her, instead rolling over and leaving his naked back to the Slayer. "Dammit, doofus! Get up!" She smacked her palm flat against his back, knocking his ass out of bed.
Gasping like a beached fish on the bare wood floor, Xander shivered visibly and clasped his arms tight against his bare chest. "Jesus, woman! Couldn't you have been a little more ginger?"
"Bitch, bitch, bitch," Buffy said, tossing his words away with a wave of her hand. "With your lazy ass, I don't see how we're gonna survive here."
"Eh, we'll make do."
Buffy scowled as she got up and threw a wool shawl bought in the market over her bare shoulders. "No, you'll make do; I'm leaving your stupid face in the middle of town today. Maybe then I can get a man that treats me like I deserve."
"As the King once said," Xander began, twisting his hips and curling up the corner of his mouth, "'Don't be so cruel.'"
The Slayer stared at her boyfriend in disbelief. With a blank look on her face and a flat tone of voice, more of warning than recommendation, she replied, "Don't ever do that in my presence again." Xander laughed, stood up and gave Buffy her morning embrace. He kissed her forehead and nuzzled his scruffy cheek next to her smooth one. "Do a girl a favor, and shave before you touch me, would ya?"
Xander kissed her wrinkled brow again and trotted over to the wash basin on the opposite side of the room. As he shaved with a small blade, he looked into the tiny, shaded mirror and at Buffy and inquired, "So what's on the agenda today, my love?"
"Well," she started, pulling a lilac T-shirt over her head, "I was thinking—"
"Hold that thought. Do you have to put a shirt on?"
Buffy looked down at herself and noticed she wore only a small nightgown. Ignoring his request and exhaling noisily, she slid the top on and turned her back to Xander, just to torture him more. "I was thinking we should do a little more scouting about for jobs. You know, ask around at the booths, see if anyone needs an extra merchant or monger or whatnot."
"In this place, it's the whatnot I worry about, Buffy." Xander put his razor down and milled around the room, looking for a clean shirt and pair of pants. He finally settled on his original blue jeans and a green short-sleeved shirt.
"Agreed, but we'll have to take what we can get. Who knows how long it will take for us to catch the next portal out of here? If I have to, I'll do grunt work on a farm or fishing in the northern lakes."
The young, strong man waltzed coolly up to her, slipped his arms around her waist—God, he fit perfectly—and stared her in her amazing eyes. "As long as we don't get separated, I'm cool with anything, especially if it means less or wet clothing for you."
@~~`~~~
Already the marketplace was alive with color and aromas. The elf-like citizens meandered up and down the sidewalks, baskets in hands and silver in their pockets. A particularly noisy booth just outside of Hothgot Square was selling exotic fish to eager customers. Prices and deals were negotiated through the dewy morning air.
Buffy's favorite vendor, a very handsome, young Orystinnian named Melethinain, who sold nail polishes, of all things, had parked himself on the corner of Neergotin Street, prime merchandising property near city hall. At the sight of Buffy, Melethinain waved her over, dropping his vibrant bottles onto the ground. When she approached him with Xander on her arm, Mel and Xander exchanged their usual grimaces; neither liked the affections each showed to the gorgeous blonde. Then the merchant stepped up to Buffy and traced her jawline with both thumbs—his personal sign of affection for her. "Good morning, my sweet velo!" he exclaimed excitedly in Orystinnian.
"Velo?" Buffy asked with her head cocked in confusion.
His brilliant smile, which revealed a row of pearly teeth, lightened the street even further. "Pardon my ignorance, dear. I forget you are not from my beloved city. A velo is a type of flower, most prized and adored."
"Oh, well, in that case, I don't need to hit you."
In English, Xander muttered bitterly, "But I'd like to."
Mel could instinctively tell whatever Buffy's companion had said was not nice, so he was pleased to see that the lovely lady elbowed Xander roughly in the side. Once she had turned attentions back to the merchant, Mel smiled as though he had no idea what the two were fighting about and instead offered them two pillows—Buffy's on his right and Xander's on his left so as to keep them separated. "How is business this morning, Mel?"
Mel loved it when Buffy said his nickname; it nearly gave him tingles. Xander hated it; it made his stomach turn. "Could be better, I suppose. Most of the eccentric housewives do their shopping today, so I have been able to sell all of my ugly colors at least. I see a question in your eyes, my love. What is troubling your pretty little head today?"
"Same problem as always. Xander and I need work. You do not have any idea where the two of us can find jobs, do you?"
The dark-skinned man touched his chin as he pondered her request. His sparkling emerald eyes, so rich a green that they rivaled the color of grass, scanned back and forth, like he was reading. Eventually, he looked her in the face and responded, "I can offer you a position here with me, my sweet, but I have not for dear Xander."
With a disbelieving snort, Xander crossed his arms furiously and pouted. "Figures," he spat again in English. "Plenty of 'opportunity' for my woman, but can't offer me anything cos that would be disrupting his play."
"Would you knock it off over there, Xand! Quit being such a baby!" Buffy snapped. Returning to her somewhat shaky Orystinnian, "I am sorry to have to turn you down, Mel; however, I would like to stay with Xander, you know, two of a kind." She glanced at her boyfriend to see him grinning from ear to ear at her last comment. Good, she thought, tragedy averted.
Although Mel frowned quite openly, he tried to think of something else for Buffy's sake. Finally, he sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I really do not know what to tell you, Buffy," he said, almost hissing her name. "There is not too much going in the Orystinnian market this late into spinock."
"Spinock?" Xander asked, glaring at his girlfriend.
"Winter, Xand," she quickly replied, noticing that now Mel had the lost look in his eyes.
Buffy's head was spinning wildly. It was so hard to balance these languages, and it didn't help that Xander refused to talk to Mel either. Orystinnian had no form of contractions, and it took her five or so extra seconds to make sure she remembered to break words apart. Plus, word order was haywire here, so Buffy had no choice but to guesstimate the structure of her sentences and hope she got her point across. Xander claimed to be worse, but he clearly had the better handle on the grammar, although his vocabulary was lacking quite a bit. Now, Buffy was worried they would have to move on to another town to find work, forcing them to, again, learn a whole new language from scratch. Would a damn portal just open back up already!
Mel interrupted her thought process with some disheartening words. "Any work that I might know of would be so thoroughly revolting that I refuse to trouble you with thoughts of it. I am sorry, my desert blossom, but I have not another idea in my head."
"There's another big surprise," Xander groaned, his facing turned to watch Hothgot Square and the people wandering through it.
With a growl in her throat, Buffy stood up, curtly said goodbye and thank you to Mel from the both of them, then proceeded to drag Xander away by his ear. Once they had walked further down Neergotin Street, beside a buxom young woman peddling hand-woven rugs, the Slayer was free to ream out her companion in English. "Dammit, Xander! I'm trying to pump our only friend, may I remind you, here in Mystenninna, for information to help us LIVE, and you have to add all these smart-ass remarks. You're gonna land us in trouble, and we don't want that in a city where we have no allies."
"What's the big deal?" he shrugged. "Our sweet velo, Mel, doesn't speak English."
"I can't take you anywhere," Buffy complained, immediately losing her temper at the sound of his carefree voice. "What am I going to do with you, Mr. Harris?"
He was only happy to respond. "First, you're going to kiss me, then you're going to shut-up and listen to my idea."
Even though she tried to protest, Buffy had to concede to herself that she wanted to do what he asked; it was nice to have someone else take charge for once. Besides, neither order was too hard—or absurd—for her to carry out. "As long as your idea doesn't involve hurting one hair on Mel's head, then I can agree to your stipulations," she admitted, falling into his arms. The beautiful vendor beside them started advertising her merchandise less and less loudly as she became intent on watching the human couple.
"How about the hair on his arms?"
"Xander…"
"Legs?"
"Shut-up and kiss me. You're wasting valuable kissing time."
"I never could fight you about that!" With his words, he lowered his lips down to Buffy's, kissing her upper lip first, then the corners of her mouth, then taking in her bottom lip and sucking it a little. It was enough to elicit a grateful sigh from Buffy. She forced her lips back against Xander's, exchanging as much affection—if not more—with Xander. Man, did she love the taste of his mouth!
The Slayer wove her hands through his silky hair, twisting a lock around her finger. Meanwhile, Xander rubbed the small of her back gently to let her know he loved to have her hands on him and his hands on her. Buffy felt as though she could live in this moment for the rest of eternity, but her boyfriend had other plans and he goosed her, making her jump out of his grasp and slap him across the chest. "Boy, you were really going to town that time weren't you?" he chided, massaging his chest. "Can't get enough of the ol' Harris charm."
"Something like that," Buffy sneered, licking her lips to savor Xander's delicious taste. "Okay, Mr. Bigshot, what's your grand plan here? Please, enlighten me."
"Well," he began, pulling on the collar of his shirt, "Mel said something about jobs that nobody wanted. I was thinking, remember when we first dropped in here? People can sell themselves into slavery and get money, food and shelter in exchange for work. We should do that."
"You know what else we should do? Give ourselves lobotomies; that sounds equally as good an idea!" Buffy proceeded to throw her hands in the air excitedly and shake them.
His eyes narrowed sharply at his girlfriend. "I sense a bit o' sarcasm here…"
Looking Xander directly in his eyes, she replied innocently, "Oh really? I'm sorry I'm not genuinely thrilled about selling my body to the highest bidder."
"It won't be like that, Buffster, I promise. Orystinnians wouldn't do it so often if it were so horrible. Come on, now! At least let's check it out."
Buffy turned her back on Xander and began marching further down the street. Over her shoulder, she attempted to mimic his voice, "You know, I rank this up there with your second best idea of all time: 'Hey, what's that big shiny bubble over there? Let's go take a look. What the heck is this thing? Can I touch it? Now, Buffy, how could it hurt?' Look where we are now, Einstein!" As she trailed off, Xander could faintly hear her muttering "how could it hurt?" several times over.
Standing there, staring blankly after her, he waited for Buffy to turn around and come back. When she did no such thing, he raised an arm and shouted at the top of his lungs down the alleyway. "For the record, I said 'swirly bubble' not 'shiny!'"
@~~`~~~
What a blockhead
, Buffy grumbled to herself as she wandered around the back streets of the City of 1000 Suns. Thinking they should sell themselves into slavery! There simply had to be another, less involving way to make some silver.After strolling up and down the marketplace all day, leaving Xander to his own devices and forgetting their noon meeting in Hothgot Square, Buffy tried to focus only on the task at hand: finding work. She badgered many of the street vendors all around the city, but none had jobs to offer or were willing to give them to the "freak girl." A couple of times, when a rare merchant seemed even slightly interested, Buffy would drop Melethinain's name and they would question her more extensively, but she was always turned down on the grounds that her handle of Orystinnian was not masterful enough for street work. However, one particularly nice lady vendor named Yaleana told Buffy to visit a hut on Cherhogin Street on the morrow. Hopefully, she could make some silver there…
With her daunting day at an end, the Slayer decided to head back to the inn and pool together her money and Xander's in hopes of buying their first meal of the day. Trudging ever so slowly home, Buffy watched half-interested as men and women packed up their products and shoved them into wagons behind their elk-like beasts called mithnins. These sights seemed so familiar to Buffy, and she was afraid she was beginning to fall into life here in Orystinna. Geez, she even knew what some of the weird animals were called!
As she watched one strong older man heft up a load of cleverly woven jackets, she imagined buying one for Xander and then seeing him model all over the city—not Sunnydale, but Orystinna. Buffy felt more and more as though she belonged here, a fact that signaled something wasn't right. When exactly did she find this world so comfortable? Buffy had even acknowledged earlier that they had a friend there. Now, she and Xander were looking for jobs, which would clinch a lifestyle in the City of 1000 Suns.
And that was a whole other thing… Xander and Buffy. Buffy and Xander. Though it had a pleasant ring to it, those words were not two that she ever considered likely to be said together. Here she was, however, saying them over and over again in her head and sometimes aloud, too, just to hear them. Xander was everything that made sense in her life right now. Without him, Buffy would have never made it here this long. He made her feel whole; he was the fraction of Sunnydale comfort that she was missing. Maybe that's why life in Orystinna seemed so easy to slip into. Maybe that's why she had developed these feeling for him. Maybe that's the only reason she was clinging. Maybe now she was terrified.
No, not maybe, definitely.
As much as Buffy didn't want to lose him, she also didn't want to use him. If the only reason she felt attraction to Xander was because of his familiarity, she would have to break things off as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Suddenly, a pain flashed behind her eyelids and she felt dizzy and dropped to the pavement. The last thing Buffy remembered seeing was that strong Orystinnian hovering over her and scratching his head. Then blackness.