And now, the story continues.
An Eternal War
Chapter Twelve
By IceWing (icewing@one.net)
The incessant beeping of the alarm roused him from his restful slumber. Bleary eyed, Rupert Giles mashed the snooze button down for the third time. It was too early for it to be time to wake up.
It had been almost four in the morning before his youthful wards had finally departed. He wasn't sure why this situation was such a shock to them. Did they not think that the way they had been treating Xander would go on without some kind of overall reaction. He paused, forcing himself to be honest. They had not seen it coming, and truth be told, neither had he.
Although things had been tense after Buffy had staked Xander, he had expected things to return to the status quo after a short period of time. But that had not occurred, and now seem extremely slim as an overall possibility.
Giles rolled out of bed and padded down to the kitchen, robe flapping over his boxers as he walked. He had never seen Buffy or Willow this distressed before. They were simply spinning in reaction to the events that had transpired. Rather unsurprising when one took into account that they had both lost their anchor in one fell swoop. Perhaps there was something that he would be able to do to try and patch things up. Xander usually listened to what he had to say, and unlike the rest of the Slayerettes, he was not prohibited from visiting Xander's domicile.
"After breakfast," he said as he steeped his tea.
But with all his experience and knowledge, Rupert Giles was not sure that he would even get a chance to speak before the door would be slammed in his face.
Faith awoke alone in bed. Not that the situation was normally any different, but part of her had expected Xander to climb in with her some time during the night. Not that she would have really minded, but the fact that he had been willing to sleep on his own floor meant a lot to her. She rolled over to face the room and saw Xander sitting on the recliner he had, watching her silently.
"Morning Faith. Sleep well?" he asked.
"What time is it?" she asked as she wiped the sleep out of her eyes.
"About seven. If you want to head up for a shower, we can get out of here
before the parental units drag themselves out of bed. Any ideas what we should
do today?"
Faith stretched like a cat on the couch before rising to her feet. "Well,
I was thinking maybe check out my apartment and grab some of my stuff. After
that, I don't know. Maybe try and figure out a plan. I mean, I'm not exactly
on the Watcher's list of favorite people right now, and with the Mayor down
for the count, don't have a lot of options left to me."
"Faith.." Xander stood up and stepped over to her, taking her hand in his. "Remember what I said. You can crash here as long as you want. No strings. From what I've picked up, you can't exactly go back to your folks."
The air grew still between them. Faith met his eyes and a faint, sad smile appeared on her lips. She looked at him for a long moment, then gave him a hug. "Thanks for being my friend Xander. You don't know how much it means to me."
Xander just squeezed her hand softly and smiled. "That's what I'm here for. Now get upstairs and get cleaned up. I left a stack of some more of my old shirts and stuff by the steps and I bet the stuff you hung up in the bathroom to dry last night is done. So get moving so we can avoid the parents."
Faith grinned and headed into the bathroom, then upstairs a moment later to get cleaned up.
As he watched her head up the stairs, Xander shook his head to try and clear his mind. It had taken just about all his control not to kiss her right then. But he knew this was the best way. Neither of them needed the added confusion of a relationship right now. But he had to admit, it had been damn tempting.
Something to take my mind off all this,' he thought and took the steps two at a time upstairs and then headed out the back door into the yard for his morning exercises.
Faith stood wrapped in a towel after getting out of the steaming hot shower. She was trying to be good. She was trying desperately not to mess things up with Xander again. He had looked so damn yummy downstairs. It had taken all her of her being to resist kissing him as he had never been kissed before. She looked at herself in the mirror. Both of them were on the upswing right now, and although it might be ok in a couple of weeks, now was definitely the wrong time to make a move. Even though she wanted to. And even though she was pretty sure he did too. 'So, why don't you just say to hell with it and move on what you feel?' she asked herself. "Because its wrong," she answered softly, but with conviction. 'Well, this is going to be a good test for myself. I want to change, and prove it, to me and everybody else, then I need to do things right. I can do this!" Quickly she finished drying off and got dressed. Clean bra and panties which Xander had been kind enough to pay for yesterday. Faith grinned. He had handed her a hundred dollars and said he didn't want to know, just to meet him at the arcade when she was done in Victoria's Secret. For the life of her, she wondered where he had come to believe that all women shopped for bras and stuff at Victoria's. Then she remembered that he had dated Cordelia and figured she was the type to only shop the name brand stores. And then make Xander carry all the packages all day. As she pulled on a t-shirt and her leather pants, Faith wondered for a brief moment what it would be like to dress like Cordelia did, in all those designer dresses and heels. Oh well, its not like it would happen again. After tying her shoes, running a brush through her hair and applied a lot less makeup than she normally did, Faith opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom. She was about to head back down to the basement, when she noticed that the sliding door was ajar.
As she approached it, she realized that Xander was in the backyard, wearing a tank top and shorts, doing some kind of morning workout. Sitting down at the table, she watched him intently, recognizing not for the first time that underneath those loose clothes he preferred to wear, that Xander had quite a nice physique going for him.
His stretches complete, Faith watched as Xander began some basic martial arts drills, focusing on his kicks and blocks. After about ten minutes, he began doing some kind of kata, but Faith couldn't recognize anything about it other than it looked moderately difficult for someone without the curse of being the Slayer. As he finished and bowed to nobody, Faith began to clap quietly. "How long you been doing karate Xander?"
"About six months now. And actually, it's kempo, not karate. I got tired of getting my ass kicked constantly and so I decided to try and do something about it. Earned my yellow belt a month ago and can test for the next one in six weeks. Of course, doesn't help a lot when the guy I'm fighting is a demon and about five times as strong as me, but the vamps aren't getting quite the free punches they used too."
"Well, maybe we can spar sometime. I'd like to see how good you are."
Xander agreed, then he headed back inside to get cleaned up so they could get moving before it got too late.
Giles stood outside the Harris household, his hand inches away from the door as he paused before knocking. Steeling himself for whatever would occur next, he knocked. A moment later, after no response from within, he knocked once more. This time he heard footsteps approaching, then the door swung open, revealing Xander and Faith standing inside. He looked at them for a moment, and when it became clear neither one of them was going to say anything, asked if they would be willing to talk to him.
Xander blinked. "And exactly why should either of us listen to what you have to say, Giles?"
'Well, at least they didn't slam the door in my face,' thought Giles. "Well, to be honest, there is no reason why you should listen to me, but I am hoping you will both at least be willing to give me a few moments of your time and hear me out."
Xander looked to Faith. This one was as much her choice as it was his. After a second of consideration, she nodded. She and Xander both stepped away from the door and waited for Giles to enter before they all headed down to the relative privacy of his basement.
"Ok, we're listening."
Giles sat on the edge of the chair he had been offered and cleaned his glasses for a moment to gain a sense of confidence which, to be honest, he didn't feel at the moment. "First, I would like to say that I am sorry for the way both of you have been treated by the group. You both have every right to tell us all to sod off and go your own way. I am asking you both not to choose that path however." He looked up and met Faith's gaze. "Faith, I am not going to make excuses for how we treated you. Obviously, we helped drive you to the choices you made. I am offering my apologies to you and I would like the chance to at least try and make it up to you."
Faith looked at him, considering his words, then responded that time would tell.
Giles then turned to Xander. "There is nothing I can say which will possibly excuse the way you have been treated. You have stood by Buffy in the darkest hours, always unflinching in your dedication, always selfless in your duty. An in turn, you are ignored, hassled, used as a delivery boy and treated worse than I would wish upon my worst enemy. If there were a medal I could bestow for bravery and dedication to duty, then you would have earned it a dozen times over. We failed you Xander, and you Faith. Please, do not give up on those who are your friends, even if they have been acting like bumbling fools for the past several months."
Xander looked at Giles, then Faith, then back at Giles. "Giles, you are asking for my forgiveness, for you and them. And maybe I should offer it and let things go back to how they were. But to be honest, I don't know that I WANT to forgive them. You I bear no real ill will towards. You were the authority figure, there to tell us what was going to happen, then leave it up to us to come up with the solution. If I had said that I wanted you to hang out with me all the time, you would have looked at me like I had just killed the queen. I wish you would have been able to clue Buffy and Willow in on what they were doing, but it wasn't your job to do so, and its not your responsibility to do so. It was something they should have done as my friends. Just like they should have listened to me the other morning instead of acting like I was some kind of idiot. Well, I'm not an idiot and I'm not some dog who will come crawling back every time they kick me. If they really value me so much, they're going to have to prove it." He looked up at Giles again. "I'm not mad at you Giles, but right now I just don't want to deal with them. So, if you want you can tell them what I said, and then we'll see just how serious they are. Now, if you don't mind, we were about to head out when you arrived.
Giles thanked the both of them for at least listening, then left.
As they were getting in the car, Faith turned to Xander and asked what he would do if Buffy came up to him right now and asked him to come back to them. Xander thought for a moment, then responded that he would tell her she had a lot to make up for first. Both to him and to Faith, then after that, they'd see.
Buffy heard Joyce open the door downstairs, then the sounds of conversation, but none of it really made it through the fog which was surrounding her at the moment. Only the snapping of someone's fingers in front of her brought her, at least partially, out of her stupor. She shook her head to get the cobwebs out, then looked to see who it was.
Standing in front of her where Giles and Willow. "Hey guys," she said weakly as she scooted up higher on her bed. Buffy looked at Giles, who wore a slightly more pensive than usual face. "Tell me its not bad news. I think if the world were to rest on my shoulders right now, I might just shrug and let it fall."
Giles shook his head. Willow sat down next to Buffy, wrapping her arms around her friend for support. Buffy hugged her back and they both just sat there for a moment until Giles cleared his throat. "You both might wish to know that I spoke with Xander this morning." Before either of the girls could interrupt him, he held up his hand, asking them to wait till he had finished. "As I was saying, I spoke with Xander this morning, and with Faith. Both are ok, but neither seemed overly excited at my arrival." He removed his glasses, cleaned them briefly, then returned them to his face. "Both are quite upset over the way they have been treated. Now, before you say anything, Faith knows she brought some of it on herself, but that is not the case with Xander. We, and I do include myself in that descriptive although perhaps I should not, have treated him abysmally for the past several months. In short, we quite honestly do not deserve his friendship nor loyalty. And yet, he is willing to at least partially forgive the transgressions against him, at least to the point that he is at least open to allowing us the chance to try and prove ourselves to be worth another chance." He looked at Buffy and Willow, both of whom seemed on the edge of tears. "I have already done what I can, at this point, anything else is up to the two of you. Frankly, I'm not sure that I know what would do if I were you. He may or may not be willing to speak with you right now. As it was, I think they were very close to slamming the door in my face when they saw it was me, but for some reason, they chose not to."
"They? As in Faith was at his house? She spent the night there? Oh, I am SO going to kick her."
Giles interrupted. "Buffy, I hate to be the one to point this out, but your assault on Faith was the one of the catalysts which precipitated this entire situation. Perhaps it might be more advisable to attempt to talk to them instead of attempting more of what has been shown not to work already in this case."
"I could bake cookies or brownies. Xander always liked it when there were fresh cookies."
Giles sighed heavily. "Willow, I do not believe that baking will in any way make this easier. What is required in this case is the both of you talking to him, to both of them, apologizing profusely, begging, I would suggest a hefty dose of begging or groveling and then actually treating both Faith and Xander as actual friends and equals. I will now leave it up to you to figure out."
And with that, Giles turned and walked out. As he descended the stairs, he hoped devoutly that they would be able to mend this fence. Closing the outer door, he snorted in derision. "Baking things to get rid of bad feelings and for atonement. What a positively stupid idea"
End Chapter 12