Xander woke to the gorgeous smell of blueberry pancakes wafting its way up
the stairs into the room.
He looked up from his space on the floor to see Willows empty bed, figuring she was the one responsible for the blueberry goodness partying in his nostrils, he pulled back his covers and struggled to his feet.
"You'd better have some of those pancakes left for me, Will or there will be hell to pay!" Xander talked to himself, he didn't want to shout down stairs in case one of the Summers sisters was still asleep- a grumpy slayer was the last thing he needed after his performance last night.
He pulled on some trousers and made his way downstairs, deciding to go for an all out assault on the pancakes. As he entered the kitchen, he paused, expecting to see Willow at work with the frying pan in her hands, he was greeted instead, by the sight of a half naked Pike.
Buffys ex- beau from her days as a slayer in L.A had turned up on her doorstep after graduating out of prison. Buffy, naturally welcomed the potentially dangerous ex con into her house. Xander couldn't believe his ears, and after tracking her down to the graveyard she was patrolling, he was disgusted by the sight of her lips locked with Spikes, the meer thought of that embrace sent shivers down his spine and made vomit rise in his throat. He'd been made to apologise for his reaction and made out to be the bad guy- how did she do that?
"Morning" Pike greeted Xander cautiously.
"Hey," Xander returned the greeting, "Willow left already?"
"Yeah, the girls all got up early, Buffy took Dawnie to school and Will headed to the library."
Xander eyed the pancake forming in the frying pan, the flecks of blueberry seducing his sight. The smell of the pancake frying was overwhelming his senses.
"Pancake?" Pike asked
"I was just beginning to think you may never ask." Pike flipped the finished piece of art on to a plate for Xander,
"hope you got plenty of mix left!" Xander sprayed pancake bits across the room as he attempted to put the whole thing in at once. Pike laughed and showed Xander the bowl of pancake mix he had made.
"I could hardly spend the night in the Summers' residence without making Buffys favourite breakfast!" Xander raised his eyebrow- and swallowed, "And how, exactly do you know what Buffs favourite breakfast is?"
"Well I'd be lying if I said it never got hairy in L.A, Buff just happened to save my ass on several occasions,"
"And that meant you had to stay at Buffys because.?" Xander asked, he wasn't sure he was going to like what he was going to hear, but from his eavesdropping of the conversations between Willow and Buffy, he was pretty sure Angel was Buffys first intimate boyfriend, so whatever Pike had to say couldn't be that bad.
"Ok, so the thing was, Vampires were taking over L.A, it was a scary place to be, and you know I was a worldly kinda guy, or so I liked to think, but after beng attacked by vamps and saved by Buff a few times, I decided I'd be safer sticking with the slayer, you know, helping her rather than skipping town, which was my first choice."
"In other words," Xander interpreted what had just been said, "You got scared and hid at Buffys cos you thought the big bad and scary would get you otherwise!"
Pikes cheeks coloured, 'at least the guys got blood circulation, so one up on her present choice of boyfriend' Xander thought.
"So you've never hid behind Buffy in one of those fights?" Pike asked looking at Xander straight in the eye.
"Well I'd be lying if I said I hadn't hid, but Buffys the slayer, this is something she was born to do, I just help out when I can."
"Yeah," Pike said, "Buffs got the whole 'chosen one' wrap to deal with, pretty harsh. Last I heard though, she was going to come here and stop, now she's faced death and the end of the word on several occasions, it doesn't sound to me like she took the break she deserved."
"She told you about all that then did she?"
"Yeah, we caught up this morning, it was a good chat. She seems happier than she was in L.A, and I'm sure that's got something to do with you and Willow. Her friends in L.A were, well flaky doesn't quite cover it."
"So you were around when she found out she was the one?" Xander was curious to know what that must have been like for a fifteen year old girl to discoer that the weight of the world really was on her shoulders.
"Well she found out before she met me, but it wasn't a long time before she met me, she was really busy trying to catch up with all the training she'd missed out on. Good job she was a cheerleader, she was a natural gymnast!" "I can't imagine Buffy as a cheerleader, she tried out for the sunnydale squad, but things got a little out of hand, there was this whole witch incident which put her off, the whole thing nearly killed her."
"Willows not the witch we're talking about here is she?"
"Wow, Buffy really did fill you in, didn't she!"
"Well she told me the score, you're the carpenter, Dawnies the key, Willows the witch, Anya's some kind of vengeance demon, Spikes the vampire and Giles is the new watcher."
"Carpenter huh- is that what I am?"
"Well she made you out to be some kind of life saver type, she said you keep bringing her back, you are the fixer of people and possessions, without you the whole town would be rubble- the house, the school, and buffy would still be dead."
"I'd hardly call Giles a 'new' watcher, but I think you've got the general idea of who we are, but how about you- all we know about you is that you're an ex- beau of buffys and got put in the slammer for a couple of years for setting fire to Buffys old school hall."
"Theres not much to tell about me, that's about it. My life was dull until I met Buffy."
"tell me to get lost if this is too much of a personal question, but how serious were you and Buffy?"
"Pretty close. We had our moments you know. She was the only thing keeping me going inside, the thought of seeing her kick some vampire ass again."
"You're in love with her aren't you." Xander observed the familiar flicker in his eye, which had long been inside him, and which he had seen in Angel.
'Was there a guy alive who had never been in love with Buffy?' he wondered.
"Yeah well, hard not to be isn't it. She's a powerful incredible woman."
"You said you thought she would quit. How come you arent' surprised she's still going?" Xander suddenly realised he had a thousand and one questions, he wanted to know who Buffy was before sunnydale.
"She's the one, you know, the only one. She has to keep going or we're all dead, and she cares to much for people to just sit back and let it happen."
"Actually, Pike, she's not the only one." Pike looked over, with a curious expression on his face, he flipped another pancake on to xanders plate.
"But Merric said she was the only one who could fight these things, you're telling me theres someone to share her burden? That's great! It must be a huge relief for her, she always got so uptight and sad at the prospect of having to face this huge thing alone."
"Well it should have been great," Xander blushed at the memory of his encounter with Faith. "Faith went bad, a slayer turned bad is an ugly thing to see, she killed a guy."
"That's harsh!" Pike said.
"Well last thing we heard was that she turned over a new leaf and let herself be put in prison, we're hopeful she's repenting and she'll come out a changed slayer."
"Poor Buffy!" Xander looked up at Pike, confused,
"Why poor Buffy?" He asked.
"Well just think of it from her perspective, being told that she's the only one with the power to defeat all these big bad creatures threatening the future of the human race, then being sent this miracle of another person to share the burden, and then to have this person go bad, adding to the pressures that she's under. That's harsh! How did Faith come to be in the first place?" Pike asked.
"See the whole prophecy that another slayer will only be called in the event of the first slayer being dead. Buffy died and a new slayer came to be, it just so happened that Buffy didn't stay dead for long." Xander remembered that night in the Masters territory.
"And so Faith came long?"
"Kendra."
"Kendra?" Pike asked.
"Now there was a slayer filled with the fun of life" Xander said sarcastically
"You've lost me." Pike admitted.
"Kendra was the slayer who was called after Buffy died the first time, she was raised by a watcher, and if you ever met one of those men, you'll understand that they're completely devoid of any sort of humour." Pike nodded. "Kendra was raised in quite a strict environment, she wasn't allowed friends, it was all books and weapons."
Xander remembered Kendras embarrassment of being anywhere near him, she had never been allowed to be near boys, too much of a distraction.
"OK, so Kendra was called, where is she then?"
"Kendra died in a big fight, and so we have Faith, who also had a watcher, but her watcher was killed and she went off the rails. Actually I'm not sure she was even On the rails, she's unstable that way."
"And so Faith, replaced Kendra, One slayer dies and another one is called, I get that now." Pike said as he poured some more pancake mix into the frying pan.
"So how did Buffy get so soft on the whole 'kill all vampires' issue, I remember the day where she told me in no uncertain terms, that if it has sharp pointy teeth, it was the case of kill or be killed, and now you're babysitting vampires? Speaking of which I am yet to meet this 'Spike'" Pike seemed to spit out Spikes name as if it had insulted his mouth by coming out of it.
Xander felt his face flush read, as again the memory of what he walked in to in the graveyard flashed through his mind. Xander wondered how long had it been going on for, and why Spike of all people. Except Spike wasn't exactly a person.
"Things have got confused in Buffys head I think. The whole grey area where some vampires are concerned began as soon as Buffy moved here. She met someone who insisted he was trying to help her fight vampires, naturally this all came as a shock to her as it seemed to have been broadcast that the Slayer had moved to Sunnydale, first Giles had known who she was In the school library and then this guy."
"Spike?" Pike guessed
"No, Spike didn't come on the scene until a while later, they guy in this particular story is called Angel."
"So this Angel, he helped? He was a vampire? How the hell did that one come about?"
"Theres this whole restoration of his soul issue which basically saved his life. Angel really got to Buffy, they were really serious for quite a while there."
"A vampire with a soul? That's a new one."
"It wears thin after a while, believe me. Especially when she lets them get away with murder, just because he has a soul."
"Murder? That doesn't sound like a guy who has a very good soul!"
"Well he has this whole moment of happiness with Buffy and loses his soul, then goes on the rampage under the guise of this whole alter ego 'Angellus'. Comes after Buffy and all her friends, kills a gypsy teacher, who happened to be Giles's other half. It was a harsh time."
"And Buffy let him get away with this?"
"Well, no, she sort of sent him to hell seconds after he got his soul back. She was cut up. But he's back now, well back on earth anyway, he's living in L.A"
"So Angels out of her life, whats the deal with this Spike? I didn't realise vamps with souls were all that common."
"They're not really. Spike got caught by the military, to cut a longer story down a bit. Got a chip put in his head, he went to get the chip removed and ended up with the chip AND a soul- do not ask me how that happened, I don't have a clue. I may live with the guy but that doesn't mean I've got to like him."
"you live with him?"
"well, he doesn't exactly live, but he's staying at my flat, it was either my flat or the school basement, and that place seemed to be driving him crazy. Buffy didn't like the idea of a crazy vampire loose on the grounds of a school, and I didn't want Spike in the same house as the slayer, for other reasons, so he's at my flat."
"Sounds like it's all going on round here!" Pike said as he cleared away the pancake mix. Between the two of them, they had devoured eight pancakes. He still wasn't feeling too comfortable. After his less than warm greeting from Xander yesterday he wanted to make sure they were ok.
"You are ok with me being here aren't you? I just get this vibe that you are less than happy with something."
"Hey- you make pancakes like those every morning and you aren't going anywhere!" Xander laughed.
"Seriously man, I don't want to cause any hassle."
"It's not you, look, the last old school friend that turned up in Sunnydale turned out to be this vampire wannabe. He tried to turn Buffy over to a group of viscious vamps and Buffy only just got away with her life. Can you understand I'd be a bit suspicious. I don't want anyone turning up and threatening the lives of those people I care about. But Buffy trusts you, and I don't see any sharp teeth or I-love-vampires t shirts, If it's ok with Buffy, it's cool by me. But I ought to warn you, you do anything to any of my friends and I will kill you. I may not have the strength of a slayer, but I am resourceful, I will find a way."
"I understand Xander, I'm not a threat, I helped Buffy kick vampire ass, I'm not gonna hurt anyone."
"I just wanted you to know. Look, as far as I'm concerned, a friend of Buffys is a friend of mine, and if you've helped kick vampire ass, then that makes you part of the Scooby gang, and part of my family."
Pike and Xander shook hands, Xander couldn't put his hand on his heart and say that he would trust Pike, but he was willing to give him a chance. And for once, it was nice having another man around who was as seemingly useless as him.
"You never know," Xander said, "We might find that we have a lot in common."
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He looked up from his space on the floor to see Willows empty bed, figuring she was the one responsible for the blueberry goodness partying in his nostrils, he pulled back his covers and struggled to his feet.
"You'd better have some of those pancakes left for me, Will or there will be hell to pay!" Xander talked to himself, he didn't want to shout down stairs in case one of the Summers sisters was still asleep- a grumpy slayer was the last thing he needed after his performance last night.
He pulled on some trousers and made his way downstairs, deciding to go for an all out assault on the pancakes. As he entered the kitchen, he paused, expecting to see Willow at work with the frying pan in her hands, he was greeted instead, by the sight of a half naked Pike.
Buffys ex- beau from her days as a slayer in L.A had turned up on her doorstep after graduating out of prison. Buffy, naturally welcomed the potentially dangerous ex con into her house. Xander couldn't believe his ears, and after tracking her down to the graveyard she was patrolling, he was disgusted by the sight of her lips locked with Spikes, the meer thought of that embrace sent shivers down his spine and made vomit rise in his throat. He'd been made to apologise for his reaction and made out to be the bad guy- how did she do that?
"Morning" Pike greeted Xander cautiously.
"Hey," Xander returned the greeting, "Willow left already?"
"Yeah, the girls all got up early, Buffy took Dawnie to school and Will headed to the library."
Xander eyed the pancake forming in the frying pan, the flecks of blueberry seducing his sight. The smell of the pancake frying was overwhelming his senses.
"Pancake?" Pike asked
"I was just beginning to think you may never ask." Pike flipped the finished piece of art on to a plate for Xander,
"hope you got plenty of mix left!" Xander sprayed pancake bits across the room as he attempted to put the whole thing in at once. Pike laughed and showed Xander the bowl of pancake mix he had made.
"I could hardly spend the night in the Summers' residence without making Buffys favourite breakfast!" Xander raised his eyebrow- and swallowed, "And how, exactly do you know what Buffs favourite breakfast is?"
"Well I'd be lying if I said it never got hairy in L.A, Buff just happened to save my ass on several occasions,"
"And that meant you had to stay at Buffys because.?" Xander asked, he wasn't sure he was going to like what he was going to hear, but from his eavesdropping of the conversations between Willow and Buffy, he was pretty sure Angel was Buffys first intimate boyfriend, so whatever Pike had to say couldn't be that bad.
"Ok, so the thing was, Vampires were taking over L.A, it was a scary place to be, and you know I was a worldly kinda guy, or so I liked to think, but after beng attacked by vamps and saved by Buff a few times, I decided I'd be safer sticking with the slayer, you know, helping her rather than skipping town, which was my first choice."
"In other words," Xander interpreted what had just been said, "You got scared and hid at Buffys cos you thought the big bad and scary would get you otherwise!"
Pikes cheeks coloured, 'at least the guys got blood circulation, so one up on her present choice of boyfriend' Xander thought.
"So you've never hid behind Buffy in one of those fights?" Pike asked looking at Xander straight in the eye.
"Well I'd be lying if I said I hadn't hid, but Buffys the slayer, this is something she was born to do, I just help out when I can."
"Yeah," Pike said, "Buffs got the whole 'chosen one' wrap to deal with, pretty harsh. Last I heard though, she was going to come here and stop, now she's faced death and the end of the word on several occasions, it doesn't sound to me like she took the break she deserved."
"She told you about all that then did she?"
"Yeah, we caught up this morning, it was a good chat. She seems happier than she was in L.A, and I'm sure that's got something to do with you and Willow. Her friends in L.A were, well flaky doesn't quite cover it."
"So you were around when she found out she was the one?" Xander was curious to know what that must have been like for a fifteen year old girl to discoer that the weight of the world really was on her shoulders.
"Well she found out before she met me, but it wasn't a long time before she met me, she was really busy trying to catch up with all the training she'd missed out on. Good job she was a cheerleader, she was a natural gymnast!" "I can't imagine Buffy as a cheerleader, she tried out for the sunnydale squad, but things got a little out of hand, there was this whole witch incident which put her off, the whole thing nearly killed her."
"Willows not the witch we're talking about here is she?"
"Wow, Buffy really did fill you in, didn't she!"
"Well she told me the score, you're the carpenter, Dawnies the key, Willows the witch, Anya's some kind of vengeance demon, Spikes the vampire and Giles is the new watcher."
"Carpenter huh- is that what I am?"
"Well she made you out to be some kind of life saver type, she said you keep bringing her back, you are the fixer of people and possessions, without you the whole town would be rubble- the house, the school, and buffy would still be dead."
"I'd hardly call Giles a 'new' watcher, but I think you've got the general idea of who we are, but how about you- all we know about you is that you're an ex- beau of buffys and got put in the slammer for a couple of years for setting fire to Buffys old school hall."
"Theres not much to tell about me, that's about it. My life was dull until I met Buffy."
"tell me to get lost if this is too much of a personal question, but how serious were you and Buffy?"
"Pretty close. We had our moments you know. She was the only thing keeping me going inside, the thought of seeing her kick some vampire ass again."
"You're in love with her aren't you." Xander observed the familiar flicker in his eye, which had long been inside him, and which he had seen in Angel.
'Was there a guy alive who had never been in love with Buffy?' he wondered.
"Yeah well, hard not to be isn't it. She's a powerful incredible woman."
"You said you thought she would quit. How come you arent' surprised she's still going?" Xander suddenly realised he had a thousand and one questions, he wanted to know who Buffy was before sunnydale.
"She's the one, you know, the only one. She has to keep going or we're all dead, and she cares to much for people to just sit back and let it happen."
"Actually, Pike, she's not the only one." Pike looked over, with a curious expression on his face, he flipped another pancake on to xanders plate.
"But Merric said she was the only one who could fight these things, you're telling me theres someone to share her burden? That's great! It must be a huge relief for her, she always got so uptight and sad at the prospect of having to face this huge thing alone."
"Well it should have been great," Xander blushed at the memory of his encounter with Faith. "Faith went bad, a slayer turned bad is an ugly thing to see, she killed a guy."
"That's harsh!" Pike said.
"Well last thing we heard was that she turned over a new leaf and let herself be put in prison, we're hopeful she's repenting and she'll come out a changed slayer."
"Poor Buffy!" Xander looked up at Pike, confused,
"Why poor Buffy?" He asked.
"Well just think of it from her perspective, being told that she's the only one with the power to defeat all these big bad creatures threatening the future of the human race, then being sent this miracle of another person to share the burden, and then to have this person go bad, adding to the pressures that she's under. That's harsh! How did Faith come to be in the first place?" Pike asked.
"See the whole prophecy that another slayer will only be called in the event of the first slayer being dead. Buffy died and a new slayer came to be, it just so happened that Buffy didn't stay dead for long." Xander remembered that night in the Masters territory.
"And so Faith came long?"
"Kendra."
"Kendra?" Pike asked.
"Now there was a slayer filled with the fun of life" Xander said sarcastically
"You've lost me." Pike admitted.
"Kendra was the slayer who was called after Buffy died the first time, she was raised by a watcher, and if you ever met one of those men, you'll understand that they're completely devoid of any sort of humour." Pike nodded. "Kendra was raised in quite a strict environment, she wasn't allowed friends, it was all books and weapons."
Xander remembered Kendras embarrassment of being anywhere near him, she had never been allowed to be near boys, too much of a distraction.
"OK, so Kendra was called, where is she then?"
"Kendra died in a big fight, and so we have Faith, who also had a watcher, but her watcher was killed and she went off the rails. Actually I'm not sure she was even On the rails, she's unstable that way."
"And so Faith, replaced Kendra, One slayer dies and another one is called, I get that now." Pike said as he poured some more pancake mix into the frying pan.
"So how did Buffy get so soft on the whole 'kill all vampires' issue, I remember the day where she told me in no uncertain terms, that if it has sharp pointy teeth, it was the case of kill or be killed, and now you're babysitting vampires? Speaking of which I am yet to meet this 'Spike'" Pike seemed to spit out Spikes name as if it had insulted his mouth by coming out of it.
Xander felt his face flush read, as again the memory of what he walked in to in the graveyard flashed through his mind. Xander wondered how long had it been going on for, and why Spike of all people. Except Spike wasn't exactly a person.
"Things have got confused in Buffys head I think. The whole grey area where some vampires are concerned began as soon as Buffy moved here. She met someone who insisted he was trying to help her fight vampires, naturally this all came as a shock to her as it seemed to have been broadcast that the Slayer had moved to Sunnydale, first Giles had known who she was In the school library and then this guy."
"Spike?" Pike guessed
"No, Spike didn't come on the scene until a while later, they guy in this particular story is called Angel."
"So this Angel, he helped? He was a vampire? How the hell did that one come about?"
"Theres this whole restoration of his soul issue which basically saved his life. Angel really got to Buffy, they were really serious for quite a while there."
"A vampire with a soul? That's a new one."
"It wears thin after a while, believe me. Especially when she lets them get away with murder, just because he has a soul."
"Murder? That doesn't sound like a guy who has a very good soul!"
"Well he has this whole moment of happiness with Buffy and loses his soul, then goes on the rampage under the guise of this whole alter ego 'Angellus'. Comes after Buffy and all her friends, kills a gypsy teacher, who happened to be Giles's other half. It was a harsh time."
"And Buffy let him get away with this?"
"Well, no, she sort of sent him to hell seconds after he got his soul back. She was cut up. But he's back now, well back on earth anyway, he's living in L.A"
"So Angels out of her life, whats the deal with this Spike? I didn't realise vamps with souls were all that common."
"They're not really. Spike got caught by the military, to cut a longer story down a bit. Got a chip put in his head, he went to get the chip removed and ended up with the chip AND a soul- do not ask me how that happened, I don't have a clue. I may live with the guy but that doesn't mean I've got to like him."
"you live with him?"
"well, he doesn't exactly live, but he's staying at my flat, it was either my flat or the school basement, and that place seemed to be driving him crazy. Buffy didn't like the idea of a crazy vampire loose on the grounds of a school, and I didn't want Spike in the same house as the slayer, for other reasons, so he's at my flat."
"Sounds like it's all going on round here!" Pike said as he cleared away the pancake mix. Between the two of them, they had devoured eight pancakes. He still wasn't feeling too comfortable. After his less than warm greeting from Xander yesterday he wanted to make sure they were ok.
"You are ok with me being here aren't you? I just get this vibe that you are less than happy with something."
"Hey- you make pancakes like those every morning and you aren't going anywhere!" Xander laughed.
"Seriously man, I don't want to cause any hassle."
"It's not you, look, the last old school friend that turned up in Sunnydale turned out to be this vampire wannabe. He tried to turn Buffy over to a group of viscious vamps and Buffy only just got away with her life. Can you understand I'd be a bit suspicious. I don't want anyone turning up and threatening the lives of those people I care about. But Buffy trusts you, and I don't see any sharp teeth or I-love-vampires t shirts, If it's ok with Buffy, it's cool by me. But I ought to warn you, you do anything to any of my friends and I will kill you. I may not have the strength of a slayer, but I am resourceful, I will find a way."
"I understand Xander, I'm not a threat, I helped Buffy kick vampire ass, I'm not gonna hurt anyone."
"I just wanted you to know. Look, as far as I'm concerned, a friend of Buffys is a friend of mine, and if you've helped kick vampire ass, then that makes you part of the Scooby gang, and part of my family."
Pike and Xander shook hands, Xander couldn't put his hand on his heart and say that he would trust Pike, but he was willing to give him a chance. And for once, it was nice having another man around who was as seemingly useless as him.
"You never know," Xander said, "We might find that we have a lot in common."
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