Title: Walkabout – Voyage of Rediscovery 12/?
Author: Mike McD
Rating: R
Summary: Two bitter and lost souls on rock bottom decide to go Walkabout. Two years after 'Chosen'.
Distribution: Anywhere, just let me know.
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer nor do I own any other characters. This is a work of fiction written for fun and enjoyment.
WARNING!!!
If you don't like fics with some Buffy bashing then move along now. Everyone else, enjoy.
-------
They headed south, retracing their steps in order to avoid the massive cyclone that eventually hit the area of the coast that they would have been in had they pressed on.
Watching the news footage of the floods and the wreaked little townships unfortunate enough to be in the path of Christina, the two Scoobies agreed that they owed Ranger Tim a debt of thanks.
After so many days of driving, the pair agreed that they would stop somewhere for a couple of days to have a break. Having only one eye, driving placed a strain on Xander that sharing the duties with Willow could ease them only so much.
They ended up stopping in Rockingham, a coastal town south of Perth.
The first night was a quiet one; they were tired after days of driving and it was early to bed for both of them. The next morning Willow decided to curl up with her book (The Da Vinci Code) while Xander borrowed her laptop with the intension of writing the long overdue apology letter to Giles.
He never got past the 'Dear Giles'.
By his own admission, Xander had been rude and very harsh with Giles.
But did that make the substance of what he said any less true?
Somewhere, something had gone very, very wrong with the Scooby Gang and Buffy in particular. The details of what and when and how had haunted Xander in the years after the destruction of Sunnydale and his self-imposed exile in Africa. The issue of who was to blame sent Xander into alcoholic fits of alternating burning hatred of his fellow Scoobies and utter self-loathing as he searched for someone to lay blame on.
Xander still hadn't resolved the issue when Willow had come back into his life.
The two of them had used Willow's quest to make the final break with their old lives. To leave behind the problems of the Scooby Gang and the war which they had sacrificed their innocence for.
To avoid taking responsibility for the growing problems that they had helped cause.
All of the Scoobies did that, each in their own way.
The question Xander and Willow now faced was when would circumstance or their conscious force them to do the right thing.
"Not today, that's for sure." Xander exited the program and got up to grab a diet coke out of the mini bar "Not fucking today."
-----
"How'd it go?" Willow asked Xander as he flopped down on the bed beside her a couple of hours later.
"You can only write an apology letter when you feel like apologising and today I'm not feeling all that apologetic."
Willow glared disapprovingly at Xander over the top of her book. Xander gave her a 'don't-you-start-on-this-again' look. Willow went back to her book, letting the matter drop at least for the time being.
"Uh, Will. Since when do you wear glasses?" Xander asked, only just noticing that Willow was wearing a pair of light framed glasses.
"I got them in Rio. I was getting headaches reading, got my eyes checked, turns out that I need glasses if I'm gonna be reading for any length of time."
"So how come I haven't seen you wear them before?"
"I only wear them if I'm reading for a couple of hours. Besides, I don't like them." Willow fidgeted uncomfortably. She didn't want Xander see her wearing them. All through high school she had worried that she would need glasses and thus complete her total nerd look. Even though high school was long over, some hang-ups remained.
Xander knew the reason for Willow's discomfort about wearing her glasses and chuckled.
"Still worried about Jessie's 'boys don't make passes at girls with glasses?' Newsflash Willow, it's a load of crap and besides, 'Gay Now' ring a bell?"
Willow grumbled at the sudden attention to her glasses. She put down her book and reached up to take her glasses off but Xander caught her hand.
"Don't." Xander told her gently. The tenor of his voice and the way he looked into her eyes caused butterflies in her stomach in a way she hadn't felt for a very long time. "They look good on you."
Willow flushed a deep red as Xander let go of her hand a tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"R-re-really?" She stammered. Somehow Xander always managed to make her feel like she was 16 again.
"Yeah. Very Scully." Xander smiled. The moment broken, Willow leaned back on her pillows.
"Scully, huh? Sorry to say Xan, after seeing everything I've seen in the last nine years, I'd believe in damn near anything. Besides, you don't strike me as a Spooky Mulder type."
"How about 'Will & Grace'?" suggested Xander.
"How about just plain old Will and Xan?"
Xander shrugged.
"I can live with that."