Disclaimer: no one mentioned belongs to me, yada yada yada.
Dedicated: to Sarafu and Arrowned, who are the only people not to think I'm crazy. Love you kids.
"We really need to stop doing this," said Madison, trying ineffectively to step away from Xander. He only grinned in response and kept his arms tight around her waist, having heard this statement time and time again. It wasn't a complaint, merely an idea without a belief to back it.
The two of them were in the store room at the Rockporium, supposedly to take inventory, but Xander had cornered her ten minutes ago, and they hadn't come up for air since. Xander felt a little guilty about always being the one initiating these moments, but Madison wasn't the sort of person who would. Besides, she knew he'd stop if she asked him to. She just hadn't ever asked.
"Why do we need to stop doing this?" he asked, still smiling.
"Because we're crammed in a closet, for starters."
"Well, that has an easy solution. We can just tell everyone about us, and then we don't have to hide."
Madison, however, remained unamused, unmoving in the circle of his arms. Realizing it was a lost cause yet again, Xander sighed and released her. She stepped back as far away from him as the tiny room would allow, and smoothed her hair. "There's no 'us', Xander."
"And why not. I like you, you like me... it's all really very simple."
Madison shook her head. "We just... We're at work. We should work."
"We haven't managed to do any work in the three years we've been here," he said. "Why start now?"
"My sister's out there," she said helplessly.
"Are you afraid of your sister?"
"No," she said, "but you should be."
"I don't know why you're so afraid to move forward with this—" he began, but she was already out the door, claiming she had to get back to work.
If Xander was the sort of person who got angry, he would've taken out his frustrations on the heaps of cardboard around him. But Xander rarely got angry. He preferred to see reason through calm means, through talking things out. But there were some things that were apparently impossible to talk out. Still, the flicker of irritation was gone as soon as it'd come, and instead of doing inventory like he should have, he went back into the main room of the store. He didn't really believe that Madison was going to be doing work, and he knew that Vida and Chip wouldn't be spontaneously productive, either. If they weren't going to work, neither was he.
Xander loved his job. Sure, comics were a medium conducive to fanboys and not cute girls parading around the store for the most part, but the presence of an underground music scene, not to mention a budding female DJ, led to a fair balance of the sexes. Toby was fairly lax about just how much work any of his employees had to do anyway, and he never minded if Xander practiced boarding in front of the store, because it drummed up business.
Plus, Xander had the bonus of working alongside his three closest friends. It was the mutual interest in getting paid for slacking in a cool environment that probably bonded them the most, because it wasn't like the four of them had anything in common beyond where they lived, where they went to school, and where they worked.
Xander loved skateboarding, talking, hearing himself talk, and girls who liked to hear him talk. Chip also liked girls, but much preferred them when they came from the pages of comics. It wasn't as though he had time for his lack of love life anyway, too busy being enrolled in every after-school activity known to man. Comic club, chess club, hurdles for the track team, and his passion for archery took up a considerable amount of time. Factor that in with his erratic work schedule, his penchant for daydreaming, and his unofficial role as Vida's sidekick.
Vida and Chip's friendship was the most interesting dynamic of the foursome by far, as it was one that completely defied explanation. While everyone around Chip lost patience with his little boy fascination with superheroes of all forms, even Xander, Vida didn't so much as blink. Likewise, Chip wasn't the slightest bit afraid of Vida's off-putting demeanor. On a bizarre level, she and Chip connected absolutely.
Vida and Madison, on the other hand, were twins who neither looked nor acted alike. Vida was bold and assertive, with nerve to spare. She told everyone exactly what she was thinking, and didn't care if they liked it or not. But on the flip side of that, a person always knew where they stood with Vida. She had fierce loyalty towards her sister in particular, and on the fringe of that, towards Chip and Xander.
That was perhaps the only trait that she and Madison shared. While Vida expressed herself through her DJing, and never shied from the spotlight, Madison tended to be at the fringe of things, observing. It was only logical, since the three of them all loved to mug for the camera, anyway.
Xander settled into his favorite chair, glad to see that work was as unproductive as ever. Everyone seemed to be in a silly mood. Vida wasn't DJing seriously, too occupied with making faces at her sister. Chip's usual running around lacked any sort of rhyme or reason; it was mostly just flailing. Madison, true to nature, was getting all of this on camera, and when she finally wheeled around to Xander with an affectionate 'hey,' he pushed up the sleeve of his uniform to flex his muscles at her. Madison turned away quickly, the smile dropping from her face. Apparently she didn't want any sort of evidence of Xander so much as looking at her oddly, much less flirting obviously. He would've been upset if he didn't understand.
The camera was how he and Madison had first met. Shortly after he'd moved to Briarwood, one of his classmates told Xander about a local underage club, where a girl from the high school would be DJing. Vida Rocca was a bit of a legend, even to a new guy, and Xander went.
Vida was great, but what had really caught his attention was the girl with the hoodie and the dark ponytail, who hovered around the stage instead of milling on the dance floor like everyone else. She was waving her camcorder at the crowd, and it happened to land on Xander just as he happened to be staring at her. He grinned and waved.
The girl looked up from her camera, met his eyes, and blushed noticeably in the dim lighting. Xander was sold. He made his way through the crowd, and used his killer opening line, "Hi, I'm Xander."
"Madison," she said shortly. Her lips quirked in a not-quite smile. She wasn't giving him much to work with, but that had never bothered him in the past.
"Not much of a dancer?" he asked.
Madison shook her head. "No, I—" She clapped the LCD screen shut and jerked her thumb at the DJ booth. "Actually, um, I'm filming for my sister. This is her first big gig."
"Very cool," said Xander, genuinely impressed by the both of them. "That's a lot of talent for one family. I'm surprised I didn't hear about you earlier."
Madison smiled at last, but only slightly. "People don't really talk about me," she said. She didn't sound particularly regretful, only matter-of-fact. Xander liked her ghost of a smile, and made it his mission to see it grow. Xander was friendly to everyone as a rule, but something about Madison just struck him. He couldn't put his finger on it.
"So you're going to show me the video later, right?" he asked.
"Um, sure."
"I'm serious," he said solemnly. "Don't just say yes to humor me and then we never see each other again."
It worked. She laughed. "All right. You are officially invited to the screening."
"Now I'm just impressed. Your sister has gigs, and you have screenings."
The camera was back on, fixated on him now. "And what do you do, Xander?" asked Madison, making him the star of the piece.
Xander grinned.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Madison asked, looking at him worriedly. Back in front of the store, she'd waved aside Vida and Chip's reckless behavior, but a good twenty minutes had passed, and she was beginning to pace. "It's dangerous in the woods, Xander, everyone knows that. They could be in real trouble."
"So we go after them," he decided.
She snorted derisively. "Sure. Then we'll be in real trouble."
"Hey," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I'll protect you."
"Uh-huh."
"Have some faith in your old pal Xander," he said with a grin, finally provoking a small smile out of Madison. "C'mon, let's go."
"How are we going to get there?"
"Vida has a car."
"As I recall, Vida threatened to mangle you if you even so much as touched her car."
"What Vida might do to me is nothing compared to what the woods might do to her."
Madison's face tightened with resolve. "You have a point. Let's go."
The first time they kissed was an accident. They'd been in the Roccas' kitchen, making cookies while Vida and Chip played a video game in the other room. Xander and Madison had both stooped at the same time to get the sheets out of the oven, and their heads bumped. Before Xander really knew what was going on, he was kissing Madison, or she was kissing him.
"That was interesting," he said, feeling awkward for the first time in a long time.
"What was..." she began.
"I don't know," he said.
They stared at each other slackly, unable to do much else.
It wasn't as though Xander had never kissed a girl before. But something about this was very, very different. And he could see it reflected in Madison's eyes: she felt it too.
They didn't kiss again. Xander made it a point of keeping his distance from Madison every time they hung out, just in case. But try as he might, he couldn't erase that moment from his mind. And now every time he kept his distance, he ended up watching her. The loving way she held her camera. Her shy smiles when dealing with customers or classmates. The way she giggled when Chip danced around the store. He couldn't stop thinking about her. And when he caught her throwing covert glances his way, when the camera pointed at him a little longer than necessary, he realized she had the same problem.
One evening, walking home after work, he couldn't stop himself from grabbing her arm and kissing her. She was beautiful, the lights from the street lamps making her hair darker and her eyes brighter, and he felt like he was losing his mind.
Madison didn't shy from the kiss, and when they pulled apart, he could still feel the burn from her hands on his shoulders, but she looked uncertain. "I don't know if I'm ready for this," she said. "We've been friends for a long time."
"We're still friends," he promised her. "No matter what. I'll wait. You just say the word, all right?"
She nodded. They kissed again, and a lot more after that night, but the word still hadn't come.
Xander was still waiting.
"Where's Madison?" Xander asked.
Vida shrugged, holding up two CDs and studying them intently in an absolute refusal to put them on the shelf. "Outside. That Nick kid is back on his bike. I think she's trying to convince him to fight."
"Good luck with that," said Chip.
Xander stepped over the large pile of comics that needed to be put on display, and gazed out the miniscule front window. He spotted Madison instantly, hunched in her tan hoodie, hands crammed in pockets, some hair falling in her face, shifting her weight back and forth as she peered shyly at Nick. Xander couldn't hear what they were saying, and he couldn't see the look in Madison's eyes, but he could see enough of her face to get the gist. A hot surge of lava flooded him, made his muscles tense up, and one of his hands clenched into an involuntary fist.
With a final nod, Madison abandoned the biker and crossed back over to the Rockporium, head down as she entered the building. "Is everything okay, Maddie?" he asked.
"Looks like it's only going to be the four of us," she said.
"Well, you gave it a shot," Vida announced from the other side of the room. "I wouldn't have bothered."
"Good," said Xander quietly, and Madison looked at him. "It's been the four of us for a long time now. We work fine together. We don't need him."
"Sure, we work fine together," said Madison. "That's why the store's in shambles."
"That's something else entirely, and you know it," he said. But Madison still looked dejected. Xander grabbed her arm, and with only the slightest of cursory glances to see if Vida and Chip were paying attention, and they weren't, he dragged her into the stock room. "What's really the matter?" he said.
"I don't know," she confessed.
"Is it Nick?" said Xander, staring at an unlabeled box.
"Is what Nick?"
What was he supposed to say? That he'd been watching her, that the burning feeling in his gut was a raging case of jealousy? Last week, he'd gone on a date with the captain of the girl's basketball team, and Madison had known about it. How could she not, Vida had teased him so ruthlessly. But even though the date had meant nothing, it made no case for his jealousy when Madison spread her attention beyond him. "You seemed very... intent on getting him to join," he said carefully.
"Udonna said there were supposed to be five of us," said Madison. "And Nick was the very first person to volunteer to go into the woods."
"Because he doesn't know the first thing about them," Xander couldn't help but interjecting, latching onto the tiny bit of superiority he had.
"I just think it means something, is all," said Madison. Something unknown shimmered in her eyes when she looked up at him, making his blood warm. "I believe in the magic, Xander. I know it sounds crazy, and it probably is, but... I really do believe."
Madison managed to look both confident and terrified, and something in her expression just called out to him. Inspired, he gripped her hand and held it tightly. "I believe in it, too," he said truthfully. The idea of magic just made sense in the grand scheme of things. And he couldn't help thinking that it was the magic that had led him to Madison in the first place. He leaned in, feeling her breath on his lips, needing so desperately to kiss her, and the door opened.
Xander dropped Madison's hand abruptly, and she moved to put distance between them, but Chip wasn't paying attention, holding up his morpher with Vida at his shoulder. "There's trouble," Clare's voice blurted frantically. "I don't know where Udonna is. Please hurry!"
"We're on our way," Chip said, ending the transmission.
"Let's do this," barked out Vida, turning and leading the pack out of the store, running wildly to the nearest tree. Xander lagged by only a fraction of a second, the last to gather his bearings as they fled the Rockporium, and as he jogged behind Madison, he wondered why the two of them never seemed to move at the same pace.
