Title: Without Shrimp
Author: Brin Londo5
Email: ogreblood@hotmail.com
Rating: Not sure yet, winging this as I go
Summary: Buffy's various ficdom's begin to crash into each other
Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox. Archive: Whoever wants it, just please ask first.
Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, and all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide in this fish-wrap I'm working on.
Xander Harris sighed and slid down the wall, holding his head in his hands. Caleb had been right. He was the one who 'sees things', everything, he just refused to acknowledge what he saw, 90% of the time. This couldn't go on for much longer. Cleveland sucked, at least Sunnydale had been warm, but the bleak winter here made everything everyone had lost that much more unbearable. And he was tired of ignoring what he saw each morning. Buffy's eyes, damp and red, from crying over Spike each night, and refusing to admit that it was Spike she'd been crying about. Willow's face, flushed and angry over her latest fight with Kennedy. Andrew's constant fidgeting as he chickened out of wanting to intercede in the near constant bickering between the Witch and the Brat Slayer. And what he saw in the mirror each morning, the pain etched in his face, not just the eye-patch, but the missing of Anya. It had to end soon, or the Scooby Gang was rapidly going to self-destruct in a messy, well, mess.
"Hey, Xan-man, you OK?" Faith asked, as she knelt by the exhausted carpenter.
"This can't go on, Faith. It just can't. All this is ripping us apart, faster than Dawn can go through a bowl of Cheerio's. It's like the First Evil's winning, even after we beat it."
Faith shook her dark mane out, and sat down next to Xander. "I know whatcha mean, Xan, but what're we gonna do about it? It's gonna take time for B to get over whatever happened down in the Hellmouth between her and Spike, and I think Willow's beginning to realize that Kennedy was just a rebound fling thing. And Andrew REALLY needs to haul himself out of the closet before someone throttles him. You, me, Giles, and Robin are about the only ones who seem to be doing ok, here."
"Keep telling yourself that, Faith. Just keep telling yourself that. You and Robin, ok, maybe, but even I'm falling apart, and Giles seems to be a bit more Ripper than Rupert these days, what with him training Vi and the others in between his trips back and forth between here and London. And last night, I had to keep Andrew and Willow both from chewing out Dawn for hacking into Pentagon encryption files again. She was looking for something in the Initiative's Red Files. Don't know what, don't care, but if the Feds trace her back here, we could all be screwed."
"So, say you're right. Back to my question. What do we do about it?"
"I don't know. I really don't. I just." He paused and closed his good eye. "I just wish we all could have the chance to sit down and talk with ourselves, see what things could have been if we'd just made other choices along the way, or had different circumstances, so we could see what we were doing wrong, and what we could have done right. A chance to see what we can change now, to stop all this."
A shadow fell over Xander and Faith, causing the pair to look up at the blue-skinned visage of D'Hoffryn, Lord of Arash'maharr.
"Wish Granted, Alexander Lavelle Harris."
TBC.
Author: Brin Londo5
Email: ogreblood@hotmail.com
Rating: Not sure yet, winging this as I go
Summary: Buffy's various ficdom's begin to crash into each other
Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox. Archive: Whoever wants it, just please ask first.
Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, and all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide in this fish-wrap I'm working on.
Xander Harris sighed and slid down the wall, holding his head in his hands. Caleb had been right. He was the one who 'sees things', everything, he just refused to acknowledge what he saw, 90% of the time. This couldn't go on for much longer. Cleveland sucked, at least Sunnydale had been warm, but the bleak winter here made everything everyone had lost that much more unbearable. And he was tired of ignoring what he saw each morning. Buffy's eyes, damp and red, from crying over Spike each night, and refusing to admit that it was Spike she'd been crying about. Willow's face, flushed and angry over her latest fight with Kennedy. Andrew's constant fidgeting as he chickened out of wanting to intercede in the near constant bickering between the Witch and the Brat Slayer. And what he saw in the mirror each morning, the pain etched in his face, not just the eye-patch, but the missing of Anya. It had to end soon, or the Scooby Gang was rapidly going to self-destruct in a messy, well, mess.
"Hey, Xan-man, you OK?" Faith asked, as she knelt by the exhausted carpenter.
"This can't go on, Faith. It just can't. All this is ripping us apart, faster than Dawn can go through a bowl of Cheerio's. It's like the First Evil's winning, even after we beat it."
Faith shook her dark mane out, and sat down next to Xander. "I know whatcha mean, Xan, but what're we gonna do about it? It's gonna take time for B to get over whatever happened down in the Hellmouth between her and Spike, and I think Willow's beginning to realize that Kennedy was just a rebound fling thing. And Andrew REALLY needs to haul himself out of the closet before someone throttles him. You, me, Giles, and Robin are about the only ones who seem to be doing ok, here."
"Keep telling yourself that, Faith. Just keep telling yourself that. You and Robin, ok, maybe, but even I'm falling apart, and Giles seems to be a bit more Ripper than Rupert these days, what with him training Vi and the others in between his trips back and forth between here and London. And last night, I had to keep Andrew and Willow both from chewing out Dawn for hacking into Pentagon encryption files again. She was looking for something in the Initiative's Red Files. Don't know what, don't care, but if the Feds trace her back here, we could all be screwed."
"So, say you're right. Back to my question. What do we do about it?"
"I don't know. I really don't. I just." He paused and closed his good eye. "I just wish we all could have the chance to sit down and talk with ourselves, see what things could have been if we'd just made other choices along the way, or had different circumstances, so we could see what we were doing wrong, and what we could have done right. A chance to see what we can change now, to stop all this."
A shadow fell over Xander and Faith, causing the pair to look up at the blue-skinned visage of D'Hoffryn, Lord of Arash'maharr.
"Wish Granted, Alexander Lavelle Harris."
TBC.