Title: Family Matters
Author: DhampyrX2
Genre: X-over
Series: Impure Souls
Rating: PG-13, just to be safe
Summary: Xander has hidden family. Xander discovers them. Xander's life gets turned upside down in a way that will hopefully help everyone evolve a bit.
Timeframe: After Graduation, but before the College crap starts.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.
"So Cordelia took the rest of it well, I take it?" Seras asked as she finished checking her bags for the drive to Sunnydale that after noon.
"Yeah. Well she did after a half hour rant about how she dated a vampire and how sick it was she was imitating Buff. Once I explained all the differences between you or Gramps and those... things, then explained about dhampires, she handled it well." Xander replied from where he sat at the table cleaning and oiling Ed.
"I take it you omitted how you drink medical blood now?" Seras asked with a grin.
"Figured I'd save mentioning it for a special occasion. You know, like hell freezing over." Xander responded with a roll of his eyes.
"You really think that wanker revenant will keep quiet for you?" Seras inquired as she moved behind Xander and kissed his neck.
"He will if he knows better than to piss of Teg and Gramps." Xander replied with a classic Alucard grin.
"I think you're giving that thing entirely too much credit, then." Seras confessed seriously, before increasing her attention to the back of Xander's neck, as she added a roaming hand or two to his front.
Xander ignored the attention valiantly until he reassembled Ed and placed it in its holster. "Seras, I think I have a problem. I have this insanely hot and cute vampire paying unhealthy attention to my neck. How ever can I save myself?" he inquired impishly as he let her play.
Seras growled huskily in his ear as she replied, "You can remind her that no matter how pretty your ex is, you still would rather shag your gorgeous vampire girlfriend."
"That might just be a plan." Xander agreed as he reached around and coaxed Seras into his lap. What followed erased any insecurities in the vampiress, despite the attraction she smelled or Cordelia toward Xander; and it erased Xander's concerns about coming back to the Dale for a good long while.
A few hours later found a classic 57 Chevy owned by a certain Hellsing heir parked in the driveway of the Harris family home. "Well here we are, Casa del Harris." Xander commented in a resigned tone.
"Don't fret, love. We're just here to get your clothes an' things, right? It won't be too trying." Seras comforted. She knew how much her lover had been dreading this moment. Still, it was for the best to break ties cleanly.
"I know, Vicky. I just don't want you to see what's in there I guess. What I could become." Xander admitted in a pained whisper.
"Hey, now. We promised each other remember? You keep me from becoming a monster like Bartley, an' I keep you from falling into a bottle. There's nothin' to be ashamed of there, because you're not going to end up like them." Seras responded in strong, yet gentle tones.
Xander nodded weakly, and gave her a ghost of a grin as he said, "Let's do this."
The first thing to imprint itself on Seras and Xander both was the smell. For Xander it was one he was used to, but it smelt far more intense in the face of his ever-growing mideon dhampir abilities. For Seras, all she could think was Blimey, it smells like a soddin' distillery in here. as she tried to avoid recoiling in disgust.
That effort required to reign in that revulsion grew exponentially when the fat, sweaty, greasy man that was Anthony Harris stumbled up to meet them. "That you, kid?" he asked blearily as he tried to focus on Xander who was backlit by the open door.
"Yeah dad, it's me." Xander replied automatically, even though he happily accepted the fact Tony was not his father. Granted, Tony was actually a better person than Richard Hellsing had been, especially when sober, but still Xander had embraced his true family gratefully in comparison to embracing the broken lives of the Harris clan.
Tony took a few moments to get a better look at Xander, and to leer at Seras once he noticed her, before he commented, "We moved yer shit to the basement. You're eighteen now, law says we don't gotta coddle ya, so you better get a job. You want to live here, you pay rent."
Where before Xander would have taken that with a grain of salt, before he arranged everything in the basement, then took off to forget his troubles at the Bronze for a few hours; now he felt an appreciable anger at the callous actions of his childhood guardians. "Whatever you say, Tony. I'm just here to pick up a few things I actually want before as I move into my new place." he responded with narrowed eyes.
This brought a bout of confusion to the drunk, before his face broke into another leer and he commented, "New place? You shacking up with the blonde with the rack over there? What the hell does she see in a pissant like you? Though I gotta admit, you got to do something right to get all those hot broads following you all the time."
Xander thought idly about several different responses, ranging from a fireball to the genitals, to aerating organs with Shenzi tucked someplace uncomfortable, to flat out beating the shit out of him. Instead, he took the high road and ignored him as he motioned toward Seras, who seemed to be entertaining similar thoughts, along with shredding the man into a pile of red meat, with his head toward the basement door.
Tony, who did not like the thought of Jessica's little bastard ignoring him like that, decided to teach him manners in the same way he had when Xander was younger. Of course this ignored the fact that the last time he took a swing at the kid two years ago he woke up with a mild concussion and a split lip for his trouble. "Don't you turn you're back on me like that you little shit." the drunkard growled as he let loose with a wild full force haymaker right to the side of Xander's head.
He was utterly shocked when Xander didn't even stagger from the blow, and instead just turned an icy glare on the man that nearly sobered him in an instant. Although that wasn't nearly as shocking as the sensation of suddenly being lifted off the ground by his throat as he was forced to look into the furious crimson eyes of Seras Victoria, who was on his before he knew what happened. "You want to try a cheap shot like that with me you lousy little cocker?" she snarled icily.
"Vicky." Xander warned coolly. "He's not worth it." the White Knight added.
"He blindsided you, Xander! I was a copper for long enough to know he could have killed you if he hit you in the right spot from that angle." Seras protested.
"Blindsiding me is the only way he'd ever lay a hand on me anymore and he knows it. Just let it be. It's not worth the mess. Besides, I'm much harder to kill than I used to be." Xander responded emotionlessly.
"You got lucky, ya bastard." Seras spat as she tossed Tony Harris aside like the piece of human refuse he was.
Once the matter was resolved, Tony felt it was a good time to pass out from shock, fear, and alcohol ingestion from where he laid on the floor of the Harris family living room.
The sight that greeted the pair once the organized and started hauling up the fourth load of boxes from the basement to the Chevy was one Xander half-expected to see at some point. Jessica Harris was crouched down to check on her husband's condition after her return home from work. She looked over her shoulder to see her son carrying boxes, but dismissed the significance of the scene as she tended to Tony. "Alex, help me get your father to his room to sleep this off." she ordered.
"He's not out from drinking, mother. He tried to hit me and paid the price for it." Xander replied coldly.
"I thought we discussed hurting your father." Jessica replied angrily.
"My father is Richard Hellsing. And as ashamed as I am over that fact, I want nothing to do with the drunk you're tending, either." Xander spat back.
"What?" Jessica asked in shock.
"You heard me, mother. My cousin Integra tracked me down and filled me in over the summer. I can finally finish washing my hands of him and his abuse. By the way, I'm out of here. I'm just picking up my stuff. Tony can feel free to pawn whatever I leave behind." Xander clarified coolly.
"Alex..." Jessica started to say. She really wished she had a drink about now. This was more than she wanted to face sober.
"My name is /Xander/." Xander interjected.
"Xander, love, do you want me to wait outside while you and she talk this over?" Seras asked timidly from behind him.
"Don't worry about it, Vicky. We're done here." Xander responded evenly.
Jessica looked over to the young girl speaking once Seras asked her question and evaluated her as most mothers do when they first meet their son's new girlfriend. Nice figure, pretty, seems polite, and exudes kitten like cuteness. She's like Willow with huge breasts. she thought to herself as her eyes met Seras' for a moment. Once that happened, all her previous estimations went out the window. "Nosferatu." she breathed fearfully.
"You would know Miss /Belmont/." Xander countered nastily.
"You're leaving with /that/?" Jessica spat nastily at him, finally finding a bit of ground to stand on against her child.
"You'd rather I do what? Go to the people that left you sealed in a coffin for a century once they could get away with it without your great-grandfather gutting them for their treachery? At least Gramps, and Vicky, and Teg, and Alucard had the decency to tell me who they were and who I really was from the start. They didn't try to hide who they were in a bottle next to /that/ after the one true asshole among assholes in the Hellsing line left me high and dry." Xander spat back, sneering at Tony when he referred to him as '/that/'.
"You've met grandfather?" Jessica replied, stunned. She had not heard anything from any of her family since she had awakened. She had assumed they were all dead, save Dracula himself.
"Indeed I have. He gave me this. I understand it was your dad's." Xander responded with cool pride as he produced Trevor's whip.
Jessica's reaction to the whip was unexpected, however. "Oh god no. Get RID of that thing! Go run off with your vampire if you want but get rid of that whip and forget everything it stands for!" she cried as she backed away fearfully from her father's preferred weapon.
"I can't do that. I'm a Hellsing. And a /proper/ Belmont. I won't turn away now." was Xander's steely response to her plea.
"Xander that whip and father's quest are a curse. It got him killed, and I had to find the body after the assassin killed him! I had to watch as our family's worst nightmare teamed up with grandfather to avenge him. That's why the others forgot the hunt. It brings nothing but pain and death! Don't go down into the same trap." Xander's mother pressed.
The White Knight's eyes softened for half a second before a curtain of steel fell over them again as he replied, "I've fought without it, or any of the other gifts of my family for three years now, Mother. It's better to be armed. I can't walk away now. Besides, I already have a Terakan under my belt. You wanted me to be safe? You shouldn't have raised in a town built on a portal to Hell." Then he turned to Seras and said, "Let's book, Vicky. I can get anything else I want from here tomorrow." and headed for the door.
Seras nodded mutely as she made to follow him when Jessica's voice made her pause, "What are you playing at vampire? Why do you follow my son? Your eyes speak of being His childe. Is He stalking Alex through you?" the woman asked icily.
"Master and Xander deal with each other in their own way and on their own terms. Master saved me from death when a regular vampire and his ghouls had killed my unit, and were going to kill me. As for Xander...I love him. He looks at me and just sees Seras Victoria. Not a childe of Dracula, or a monster, or anything like that. He just sees...me. That's all the reason I need to stay with him." Seras explained before she too walked out of the house to Xander's car.
Jessica thought over what they both had said as she shouldered her husband and dragged him to bed to sleep off his combination of drunken coma and fainting from fear. As she cane back down the stairs, she took out a handle of Jim Beam and began to drink straight from it. It had been a long evening and she needed to get drunk to cope with it.
"You going to be alright, love?" Seras asked timidly after several long minutes of silence in the car on the way back to the mansion Master had purchased for Xander in Sunnydale.
"Yeah, I will, Vicky. It's just...there's a lot I still need to say to her, but I didn't have it in me to push it then. I'll deal. I always do." Xander responded shakily.
"I'm here if you need someone to listen. You know that, right?" she offered in comforting tones.
Xander smiled wanly as he replied, "I know Vicky. I know."
After a pause Xander seemed to brighten a bit as he said, "What do you say after we drop this crap off, we shower and change, and I'll show you the only place I hung out in outside of libraries and graveyards as I grew up in this one Starbuck's town?"
"I say I'm looking forward to seeing this Bronze place you always mentioned." Seras replied with a smile. She recognized he was just changing the subject, but she knew not to press him. If there was one thing the pair had, it was time.
END PART 24