Blood Tears 10 - New Slayer In Town
As if his life wasn't complicated enough. Now the woman who he'd come to think of as his mentor was apparently in love with him. Crazy, Xander shook his head, what would a stunning 300 year old vampiress want with a seventeen year old boy? It had to be a taunt from Angelus.
But what if it wasn't? She was so beautiful, so graceful, he loved talking to her for hours. But then there was Buffy, a fond smile flickered across his face, he lived to see her smile, hear her laugh or just say his name. So Buffy or Faith? Dazzling light or seductive darkness? Was there even a choice? It was stupid to think that either of those two amazing women would be interested in a doofus like him.
"Penny for them, Xander."
He glanced up to see Buffy stood before him, a grin on her face, her nose scrunched up in the way he loved. "Only a penny for them?" he joked. "Have you heard of inflation?"
The blonde Slayer arched an eyebrow. "We're talking about your thoughts Xander," she jibed before linking arms with him. "So what was my Xander- shaped friend thinking about anyway?"
"Um, nothing really." He glanced down at their entwined arms in puzzlement. Women, he'd never understand them. For weeks now Buffy had been encouraging him to hang with her more, an exact opposite of her previous behaviour.
"So, how the ribs doing?"
Xander grimaced. Willow and Amy had used magic to heal the wounds to his back and legs but broken ribs were beyond their powers so they had to heal naturally. "Faith says they should be fully healed in a week or so."
Buffy beamed at him. "That's great. Then you'll be able to start running again?"
"I guess." Xander paused to hold open the school doors open for his companion. That was another thing he didn't understand. From completely ignoring his training, she'd become his own personal cheerleader, ah he still remembered that outfit, for him. She jogged with him in the morning, lent him books on physical conditioning and martial arts and sometimes even sat on his training sessions with Faith, offering encouragement and suggestions.
As they walked through the school corridor he saw someone he really needed to speak to. Turning to Buffy, he smiled apologetically. "Buff, I'm sorry I've got something I have to do."
Disappointment flickered across his friend's face. "But we'll meet up at recess right?" "Try and stop me." He waited under his friend had walked off before swallowing hard and making it over to Cordelia. "Um, Cordelia can I talk to you?"
The head cheerleader shot him a scornful glance. "And why would I want to talk to you, Loser Boy." Smirking slightly, the beautiful brunette turned back to her sniggering friends.
With an effort Xander bit back a smart reply. "Remember be nice, she saved your life," he muttered under his breath. After a few minutes Cordelia dismissed her followers and turned back to Xander, a disdainful expression on her face. "You still here? It's bad enough that I have to be with you in the library, I don't want to be seen in public with you too."
Xander's patience snapped. "Fine, great!" Grabbing the startled girl's elbow, he opened a near-by broom closet and shoved her inside, before following and closing the door.
"Loser! What are you doing!"
"You don't want to be seen with me? Fine, then we'll meet in here! That private enough?" Xander forced his temper under control. "Look Cordy, I wanted to thank you for helping to save my life. If you hadn't managed to get a message to the others I'd be dead or worse." Xander turned to leave.
"Wait." The young man stopped at a light touch on his arm. He turned to see that Cordelia's face had softened. The cheerleader opened her mouth but whatever she was about to say was lost by the opening of the closet door.
"Mr Harris! Ms. Chase! What are you doing in here?"
Xander forced a smile before turning to face the school principal. "Mr. Snyder, always a pleasure. The janitor asked us to check for rats. And I'm happy to say there are none." He grinned at Cordelia who looked like she was struggling to stop from laughing.
Snyder on the other hand looked far from amused. "A likely story. I've got my eye on you Harris, and on you, Miss. Chase."
"Careful Mr. Snyder, you know what they say about older men who watch attractive younger women."
"So you think I'm attractive?"
Xander glanced at Cordelia as they hurried away from a fuming Snyder. "To quote yourself 'well duh', besides next to Snyder, G-Man looks good."
The cheerleader raised an eyebrow. "Does Giles know how you feel?"
* * *
"Excuse me sir. Could you tell me where Mr. Rupert Giles or Miss. Buffy Summers are?"
Xander glanced up to look at the owner of the exotic voice. His mouth dropped open at the coffee-coloured teenage beauty stood opposite him. What he noticed after her gorgeous looks was the frayed state of her clothes and her stance of practiced deadliness. Only two other women stood like that and as it was daylight and she was asking for the G-Man and the Buffster, she had to be... "You're a Slayer right?"
The girl's eyes widened. "W..what is this Slayer?" she asked.
The girl made to leave only for Xander to grab her arm. He cringed at how thin she seemed. He looked at his packet of unopened potato chips and Twinkie bar and sighed. He pushed them across the park table towards the girl. "Here have these. You look like you need that more than me."
The girl glanced down at the food longingly before then directing a suspicious look at him. He sighed. "Look, I know all about Slayers. I'm a friend of Buffy's."
The girl's eyes widened in wonder. "Slayers aren't allowed friends."
And that's what your Watcher told you. Giles had informed them of some of the things that the Council had done to past Slayers, but he'd never really believed them until now. Even as his stomach clenched painfully at the girl's exhausted state, he felt his temper rise at the way she'd evidently been treated by the wise and mighty Council. Inwardly fuming, Xander forced a smile. "Well you've got one now. I'm Xander, and you are?"
The girl hesitated before speaking. "I'm Kendra. We're friends?"
"'Course we are. You don't think I share my food with just anybody," he leaned forward and winked at the girl. "Only my friends and only the really good-looking ones. So why don't you sit down and eat up? Then I'll take you to see Buff." After a second, Kendra nodded, sat down and began eagerly tearing open the chip packet. And as she talked, Xander's anger grew.
* * *
Buffy smiled at the sight of Xander entering the library, she'd missed him at lunch but then he occasionally disappeared to think about stuff, he called it his 'quiet time'. The smile wavered as she noticed the rage in his eyes and the bedraggled girl clinging to his hand. "Hi, Xander. Who's your friend, haven't seen her in class before?" She hoped he didn't hear the jealously in her voice.
"Hi Buff," her friend glanced at the clearly nervous girl stood beside him. "This is Kendra, she's a Slayer."
Buffy's mouth dropped open. "How's that possible, I'm the Slayer?"
"Sit down Kendra," Xander gently guided the newcomer to a seat at the library table. "You still hungry?" The girl nodded meekly. Xander turned towards her. "Give me your lunch, Buff."
"My lunch!"
"Apart from a packet of chips and a Twinkie, half an hour ago, she hasn't eaten in nearly a week. I think she needs it more than you, don't you?" her friend growled.
The blonde Slayer swallowed as she noticed the full burning intensity of the anger in Xander's eyes, this was a seriously scary side to her friend that she'd never seen before. Wordlessly Buffy went through her bag and passed her sandwich box to Xander who nodded shortly before passing the box to the other girl. "There you are Kendra," he said kindly.
The girl looked up at Xander with what Buffy noticed uneasily seemed very close to hero worship. "Thank you Mr. Xander," she turned to Buffy and nodded. "Thank you Miss Buffy."
Buffy smiled numbly. "No prob Kendra, and it's just Buffy." Pulling Xander a distance away from the eagerly eating girl, she looked up into her friend's face. "She's a Slayer all right, I can feel it. How is it possible?"
"You died remember? I revived you?"
"That was only for a minute!" she hissed.
"Long enough apparently," Xander replied. "Is Giles in his office?"
"Yeah."
"Look after Kendra for me. This will just take a minute." Her friend pulled away from her and strode into the office.
* * *
The Watcher glanced up as Xander entered his office, an unusually serious expression on the boy's face. "Hello Xander, can I help -."
Xander's fist slammed into his jaw, flipping him backwards out of his chair and onto the floor. He looked up dazedly at the enraged youth stood over him, Faith had trained him well, the young man certainly knew how to throw a punch. "Xander?"
"Do you know what she said - 'Slayers aren't allowed friends'. Just what did you and your gang of sick bastards do to her?" The Watcher watched as Xander pulled back his arm only for the office door to crash open and Buffy to enter and pull the youth off.
"Xander! What are you doing!" demanded his Slayer, her face anguished.
"Ask your Watcher." The hatred and tore at the Watcher's heart. "Ask him about all the potentials being snatched or bought from their parents. Ask him about the little girls being forced to live and train alone, with only a cold-hearted bastard of a Watcher as company. Never being able to go to school or have friends. And while you're at it you might want to ask him what they would have done to you if they'd found you."
"Giles, this isn't true. Is it?"
He opened his mouth to reply to his Slayer's plaintively asked question only for Xander to angrily override him. "Ask him about the scared little kid sat in his library who was told by her dying Watcher to go to Sunnydale to see the all so wise Rupert Giles. So she stowed away on a freighter, because of course the mighty council couldn't afford to send her on a plane. After all, she's just a tool. Since then she's spent the last three week, living on scraps, hitching across the country. Been attacked and scared out of her tree about half a dozen times in the past month."
The bemused Watcher was having trouble taking all this in. Another Slayer? Why wasn't he told? "Xander, I didn't -."
"Save it." The angry youth somehow managed to pull away from a restraining Buffy and strode to the door before turning back. "Know this Watcher," contempt laced the youth's every word. "Kendra is staying with me and if you or any of your Council goons come after her, I'm going to let out Soldier Guy out to play."
* * *
"You live here?"
Xander bit back a chuckle at the awe in the young girl's voice, the encounter with G-Man had left him drained and it was good to feel an emotion different from rage. He glanced at the Slayer, she looked a lot better after eating, her eyes were more alive, her posture straighter. But she still looked unhealthily gaunt. "This is my abode, yeah. And yours too for as long as you want." He unlocked the front door and opened it. "I live here with my guardian. Which reminds me -."
"Vampire!" Cursing under his breath, Xander body-checked Kendra as she lunged at Faith. "No Kendra. What is it with you Slayers, stake first ask questions later. Faith is kind of unique -."
"Thanks for that."
Xander glared up at the vampires. "Really not helping." Only his superior weight, the Slayer's apparent reluctance to hurt him, and her weakened condition allowed him to keep her pinned down, for a while at least. "Kendra! Listen to me, Faith has a soul. She's not like normal vamps, I've been living with her for months. She's my friend."
After a few seconds Kendra relaxed. She looked up at him with her doe-like eyes and nodded. "I trust you Mr. Xander."
Xander smiled down at the girl, damn but it was comfy lying on her. "Okay."
"Xander, I think the girl wants to get up."
He flushed red. Oh yeah, like he really didn't need another girl to complicate his life. "Of course." After standing, he helped Kendra to her feet. "If you want Kendra, there's a bath and shower upstairs."
"Thank you Mister Xander." The girl stared distrustfully at the vampires as she hurried upstairs.
"Mister Xander," Faith snorted. "Front room now."
Sighing, he followed into the front room. "Sit."
"Hey I'm not a -."
"Sit!"
Paling slightly, Faith never yelled at him, Xander quickly sat. "I had a phone call from Mr. Giles ten minutes ago. He told me about your behaviour."
"Hey did h-."
"Quiet! I'm talking. In all my years I've encountered and either killed or helped nearly ten Slayers. Buffy is different from all of them, she has friends, family, a social life - unlike those other Slayers she's not just fighting for an abstract ideal, she's fighting for her own piece of the world. And that's what makes her all the harder to beat. That she is able to have these friends, those things to fight for, is down in large part to one man - Rupert Giles. The man you attacked earlier." "But -."
"I don't want to hear any excuses, you will apologise to Giles in the morning. Now why have you bought Kendra here?"
"She needs somewhere to stay."
Faith let out a disbelieving laugh. "Oh no way, a vampire and a Slayer in the same house? Not a good idea. What are you doing?"
Xander paused from picking up some magazines from the coffee table to look at her, his face determined. "I told her she was my friend, I promised to look after her and I don't break my promises. She needs me, if you won't let her stay here I'll find somewhere else, maybe stay with Will while I work something out."
"Oh sit down," the vampire sighed. "She can stay. Just make sure she knows who's the boss. And tomorrow -."
"I'll apologise, promise." He threw his arms around the vampiress and kissed her on the cheek. "You're the best. I'll go and make up the spare rooms. Thanks Faith!"
* * *
Faith shook her head in disbelief as the young man charged out of the room. Her heart had nearly broken when he'd said he was leaving. But that was her Xander all over, any friend of his got total loyalty no matter what. It was one of the things she loved most about him. She sighed, somehow she guessed with another Slayer around her unlife was about to get a lot more interesting.
As if his life wasn't complicated enough. Now the woman who he'd come to think of as his mentor was apparently in love with him. Crazy, Xander shook his head, what would a stunning 300 year old vampiress want with a seventeen year old boy? It had to be a taunt from Angelus.
But what if it wasn't? She was so beautiful, so graceful, he loved talking to her for hours. But then there was Buffy, a fond smile flickered across his face, he lived to see her smile, hear her laugh or just say his name. So Buffy or Faith? Dazzling light or seductive darkness? Was there even a choice? It was stupid to think that either of those two amazing women would be interested in a doofus like him.
"Penny for them, Xander."
He glanced up to see Buffy stood before him, a grin on her face, her nose scrunched up in the way he loved. "Only a penny for them?" he joked. "Have you heard of inflation?"
The blonde Slayer arched an eyebrow. "We're talking about your thoughts Xander," she jibed before linking arms with him. "So what was my Xander- shaped friend thinking about anyway?"
"Um, nothing really." He glanced down at their entwined arms in puzzlement. Women, he'd never understand them. For weeks now Buffy had been encouraging him to hang with her more, an exact opposite of her previous behaviour.
"So, how the ribs doing?"
Xander grimaced. Willow and Amy had used magic to heal the wounds to his back and legs but broken ribs were beyond their powers so they had to heal naturally. "Faith says they should be fully healed in a week or so."
Buffy beamed at him. "That's great. Then you'll be able to start running again?"
"I guess." Xander paused to hold open the school doors open for his companion. That was another thing he didn't understand. From completely ignoring his training, she'd become his own personal cheerleader, ah he still remembered that outfit, for him. She jogged with him in the morning, lent him books on physical conditioning and martial arts and sometimes even sat on his training sessions with Faith, offering encouragement and suggestions.
As they walked through the school corridor he saw someone he really needed to speak to. Turning to Buffy, he smiled apologetically. "Buff, I'm sorry I've got something I have to do."
Disappointment flickered across his friend's face. "But we'll meet up at recess right?" "Try and stop me." He waited under his friend had walked off before swallowing hard and making it over to Cordelia. "Um, Cordelia can I talk to you?"
The head cheerleader shot him a scornful glance. "And why would I want to talk to you, Loser Boy." Smirking slightly, the beautiful brunette turned back to her sniggering friends.
With an effort Xander bit back a smart reply. "Remember be nice, she saved your life," he muttered under his breath. After a few minutes Cordelia dismissed her followers and turned back to Xander, a disdainful expression on her face. "You still here? It's bad enough that I have to be with you in the library, I don't want to be seen in public with you too."
Xander's patience snapped. "Fine, great!" Grabbing the startled girl's elbow, he opened a near-by broom closet and shoved her inside, before following and closing the door.
"Loser! What are you doing!"
"You don't want to be seen with me? Fine, then we'll meet in here! That private enough?" Xander forced his temper under control. "Look Cordy, I wanted to thank you for helping to save my life. If you hadn't managed to get a message to the others I'd be dead or worse." Xander turned to leave.
"Wait." The young man stopped at a light touch on his arm. He turned to see that Cordelia's face had softened. The cheerleader opened her mouth but whatever she was about to say was lost by the opening of the closet door.
"Mr Harris! Ms. Chase! What are you doing in here?"
Xander forced a smile before turning to face the school principal. "Mr. Snyder, always a pleasure. The janitor asked us to check for rats. And I'm happy to say there are none." He grinned at Cordelia who looked like she was struggling to stop from laughing.
Snyder on the other hand looked far from amused. "A likely story. I've got my eye on you Harris, and on you, Miss. Chase."
"Careful Mr. Snyder, you know what they say about older men who watch attractive younger women."
"So you think I'm attractive?"
Xander glanced at Cordelia as they hurried away from a fuming Snyder. "To quote yourself 'well duh', besides next to Snyder, G-Man looks good."
The cheerleader raised an eyebrow. "Does Giles know how you feel?"
* * *
"Excuse me sir. Could you tell me where Mr. Rupert Giles or Miss. Buffy Summers are?"
Xander glanced up to look at the owner of the exotic voice. His mouth dropped open at the coffee-coloured teenage beauty stood opposite him. What he noticed after her gorgeous looks was the frayed state of her clothes and her stance of practiced deadliness. Only two other women stood like that and as it was daylight and she was asking for the G-Man and the Buffster, she had to be... "You're a Slayer right?"
The girl's eyes widened. "W..what is this Slayer?" she asked.
The girl made to leave only for Xander to grab her arm. He cringed at how thin she seemed. He looked at his packet of unopened potato chips and Twinkie bar and sighed. He pushed them across the park table towards the girl. "Here have these. You look like you need that more than me."
The girl glanced down at the food longingly before then directing a suspicious look at him. He sighed. "Look, I know all about Slayers. I'm a friend of Buffy's."
The girl's eyes widened in wonder. "Slayers aren't allowed friends."
And that's what your Watcher told you. Giles had informed them of some of the things that the Council had done to past Slayers, but he'd never really believed them until now. Even as his stomach clenched painfully at the girl's exhausted state, he felt his temper rise at the way she'd evidently been treated by the wise and mighty Council. Inwardly fuming, Xander forced a smile. "Well you've got one now. I'm Xander, and you are?"
The girl hesitated before speaking. "I'm Kendra. We're friends?"
"'Course we are. You don't think I share my food with just anybody," he leaned forward and winked at the girl. "Only my friends and only the really good-looking ones. So why don't you sit down and eat up? Then I'll take you to see Buff." After a second, Kendra nodded, sat down and began eagerly tearing open the chip packet. And as she talked, Xander's anger grew.
* * *
Buffy smiled at the sight of Xander entering the library, she'd missed him at lunch but then he occasionally disappeared to think about stuff, he called it his 'quiet time'. The smile wavered as she noticed the rage in his eyes and the bedraggled girl clinging to his hand. "Hi, Xander. Who's your friend, haven't seen her in class before?" She hoped he didn't hear the jealously in her voice.
"Hi Buff," her friend glanced at the clearly nervous girl stood beside him. "This is Kendra, she's a Slayer."
Buffy's mouth dropped open. "How's that possible, I'm the Slayer?"
"Sit down Kendra," Xander gently guided the newcomer to a seat at the library table. "You still hungry?" The girl nodded meekly. Xander turned towards her. "Give me your lunch, Buff."
"My lunch!"
"Apart from a packet of chips and a Twinkie, half an hour ago, she hasn't eaten in nearly a week. I think she needs it more than you, don't you?" her friend growled.
The blonde Slayer swallowed as she noticed the full burning intensity of the anger in Xander's eyes, this was a seriously scary side to her friend that she'd never seen before. Wordlessly Buffy went through her bag and passed her sandwich box to Xander who nodded shortly before passing the box to the other girl. "There you are Kendra," he said kindly.
The girl looked up at Xander with what Buffy noticed uneasily seemed very close to hero worship. "Thank you Mr. Xander," she turned to Buffy and nodded. "Thank you Miss Buffy."
Buffy smiled numbly. "No prob Kendra, and it's just Buffy." Pulling Xander a distance away from the eagerly eating girl, she looked up into her friend's face. "She's a Slayer all right, I can feel it. How is it possible?"
"You died remember? I revived you?"
"That was only for a minute!" she hissed.
"Long enough apparently," Xander replied. "Is Giles in his office?"
"Yeah."
"Look after Kendra for me. This will just take a minute." Her friend pulled away from her and strode into the office.
* * *
The Watcher glanced up as Xander entered his office, an unusually serious expression on the boy's face. "Hello Xander, can I help -."
Xander's fist slammed into his jaw, flipping him backwards out of his chair and onto the floor. He looked up dazedly at the enraged youth stood over him, Faith had trained him well, the young man certainly knew how to throw a punch. "Xander?"
"Do you know what she said - 'Slayers aren't allowed friends'. Just what did you and your gang of sick bastards do to her?" The Watcher watched as Xander pulled back his arm only for the office door to crash open and Buffy to enter and pull the youth off.
"Xander! What are you doing!" demanded his Slayer, her face anguished.
"Ask your Watcher." The hatred and tore at the Watcher's heart. "Ask him about all the potentials being snatched or bought from their parents. Ask him about the little girls being forced to live and train alone, with only a cold-hearted bastard of a Watcher as company. Never being able to go to school or have friends. And while you're at it you might want to ask him what they would have done to you if they'd found you."
"Giles, this isn't true. Is it?"
He opened his mouth to reply to his Slayer's plaintively asked question only for Xander to angrily override him. "Ask him about the scared little kid sat in his library who was told by her dying Watcher to go to Sunnydale to see the all so wise Rupert Giles. So she stowed away on a freighter, because of course the mighty council couldn't afford to send her on a plane. After all, she's just a tool. Since then she's spent the last three week, living on scraps, hitching across the country. Been attacked and scared out of her tree about half a dozen times in the past month."
The bemused Watcher was having trouble taking all this in. Another Slayer? Why wasn't he told? "Xander, I didn't -."
"Save it." The angry youth somehow managed to pull away from a restraining Buffy and strode to the door before turning back. "Know this Watcher," contempt laced the youth's every word. "Kendra is staying with me and if you or any of your Council goons come after her, I'm going to let out Soldier Guy out to play."
* * *
"You live here?"
Xander bit back a chuckle at the awe in the young girl's voice, the encounter with G-Man had left him drained and it was good to feel an emotion different from rage. He glanced at the Slayer, she looked a lot better after eating, her eyes were more alive, her posture straighter. But she still looked unhealthily gaunt. "This is my abode, yeah. And yours too for as long as you want." He unlocked the front door and opened it. "I live here with my guardian. Which reminds me -."
"Vampire!" Cursing under his breath, Xander body-checked Kendra as she lunged at Faith. "No Kendra. What is it with you Slayers, stake first ask questions later. Faith is kind of unique -."
"Thanks for that."
Xander glared up at the vampires. "Really not helping." Only his superior weight, the Slayer's apparent reluctance to hurt him, and her weakened condition allowed him to keep her pinned down, for a while at least. "Kendra! Listen to me, Faith has a soul. She's not like normal vamps, I've been living with her for months. She's my friend."
After a few seconds Kendra relaxed. She looked up at him with her doe-like eyes and nodded. "I trust you Mr. Xander."
Xander smiled down at the girl, damn but it was comfy lying on her. "Okay."
"Xander, I think the girl wants to get up."
He flushed red. Oh yeah, like he really didn't need another girl to complicate his life. "Of course." After standing, he helped Kendra to her feet. "If you want Kendra, there's a bath and shower upstairs."
"Thank you Mister Xander." The girl stared distrustfully at the vampires as she hurried upstairs.
"Mister Xander," Faith snorted. "Front room now."
Sighing, he followed into the front room. "Sit."
"Hey I'm not a -."
"Sit!"
Paling slightly, Faith never yelled at him, Xander quickly sat. "I had a phone call from Mr. Giles ten minutes ago. He told me about your behaviour."
"Hey did h-."
"Quiet! I'm talking. In all my years I've encountered and either killed or helped nearly ten Slayers. Buffy is different from all of them, she has friends, family, a social life - unlike those other Slayers she's not just fighting for an abstract ideal, she's fighting for her own piece of the world. And that's what makes her all the harder to beat. That she is able to have these friends, those things to fight for, is down in large part to one man - Rupert Giles. The man you attacked earlier." "But -."
"I don't want to hear any excuses, you will apologise to Giles in the morning. Now why have you bought Kendra here?"
"She needs somewhere to stay."
Faith let out a disbelieving laugh. "Oh no way, a vampire and a Slayer in the same house? Not a good idea. What are you doing?"
Xander paused from picking up some magazines from the coffee table to look at her, his face determined. "I told her she was my friend, I promised to look after her and I don't break my promises. She needs me, if you won't let her stay here I'll find somewhere else, maybe stay with Will while I work something out."
"Oh sit down," the vampire sighed. "She can stay. Just make sure she knows who's the boss. And tomorrow -."
"I'll apologise, promise." He threw his arms around the vampiress and kissed her on the cheek. "You're the best. I'll go and make up the spare rooms. Thanks Faith!"
* * *
Faith shook her head in disbelief as the young man charged out of the room. Her heart had nearly broken when he'd said he was leaving. But that was her Xander all over, any friend of his got total loyalty no matter what. It was one of the things she loved most about him. She sighed, somehow she guessed with another Slayer around her unlife was about to get a lot more interesting.