Title: A Breed Apart
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Some, mostly early series.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy. I would buy the show but I am broke.
Summary: On her first day at Sunnydale High, Buffy finds an odd kinship to a fellow student and something she never knew about herself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Buffy entered the almost deserted gymnasium, looking over the equipment that Xander had purchased with his sizable inheritance from his biological mother. It had been almost a week since Xander had outlined the foreseeable options for them. She had spent the week thinking hard and had finally come to a discission.
Her eyes latched onto Xander and she definitely felt the physical attraction that he had mentioned. Xander was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he did not notice her.
Dressed in a gymnast's tights, Xander was performing a handstand on the rings. As she watched he slowly lowered his body into the basket, where his body was folded and his legs were parallel to the ground, before pushing back up into a handstand for a second before doing a full circle into an inverted crucifix, lowering to a normal crucifix without losing the position. He then did a forward circle to dismount. (AN: for those not familiar with Gymnastics, the rings are a very strength orientated apparatus and that is an impressive series of moves to end a routine.)
When Xander landed, he turned and looked straight into Buffy's eyes.
"We need to talk." She said quietly.
Grabbing a towel from his kit bag, Xander motioned to some benches by the wall and dried the sweat off him as they walked. Sitting down on the benches, Buffy's eyes searched the gymnasium, as if searching for a way out of the upcoming conversation. Taking a deep breath she began.
"Xander, this is going to be hard for me, so please just listen to what I have to say before you say anything." She paused, casting a glance at Xander for his nod. "Last time we talked, you said some things about instinct and attraction. I won't deny it, I am attracted to you because we are both Dampir, and it is a physical attraction."
Buffy looked at Xander and saw anguish in his eyes.
"However," she continued. "That is not all I feel for you. You are funny, and strong. I mean strong emotionally. When I'm around you I feel safe. I feel as if I have come home, and I'm not talking about the Dampir thing either. It is deeper, in my soul. I don't know if it is love or what it is but I do know one thing. I want to give it a try. I just have to know one thing first. Is it this face," Buffy gestured to her face, "Or this face that you love?"
As she said the last part, she brought forth her Game Face, her burnished Golden eyes gleaming with moisture.
"Oh, Buffy. I love them both. It is you, all of you, that I love." Xander replied, bringing forth his own Game Face.
They sat for the next hour, Buffy crying softly with relief into Xander's shoulder and neither noticed that they had their Game Face on or when it faded, they just saw each other.
The news spread through Sunnydale High like a brushfire. Xander Harris and Buffy Summers, the new king and queen of popularity at Sunnydale High after the unprecedented coupe a few weeks ago, which deposed Queen Cordy, were now officially dating.
********
Xander retracted the stake from the chest of the vampire in front of him, watching as it turned to dust. Willow had to admit, she was amazed by her life long friend. If this change had happened to anyone else, she would have freaked totally, but Xander was still Xander, there was just another layer that she had never known. She heard Xander give off a sound that she could not quite describe, almost like it was part of the night time noises and she thought she heard the reply from Buffy, maybe. Xander chuckled softly at what he heard.
'OK. That's kind of freaky.' Willow thought.
Xander and Willow kept walking through their part of the cemetery, with Buffy and Giles patrolling another area. They walked along in a comfortable silence. Ever since she found out that Xander and Buffy were Dampir, and what that meant for them, Willow had started to put her feeling for Xander, which were mostly a crush, if not away then at least on hold, particularly in the last month and a half, since Xander and Buffy had started dating. No matter how much she hated to admit it, Xander was out of her grasp. Xander had changed, but then again, so had Willow.
Xander now walked with confidence, radiating a sense of strength and danger at will rather than the goofy persona he usually adopted. His clothing had changed from baggy and so bright it was only fit for the colour blind or insane to dark but stylish clothing that revealed his well toned body. At the moment, Xander was wearing black combat boots, a pair of black slacks, a dark blue t-shirt and a dark jacket.
Likewise, Willow had undergone a transformation. Gone was the shy brainy geek that no one, except Xander and Buffy, liked, gone were the horribly un- trendy clothing. Willow had cut her hair shorter, so instead of flowing down her back, it stopped just below her shoulders and was kept in a permanent ponytail, which surprisingly brought out the natural deep red colour of the hair more than the longer style. Thanks to the continuous workouts for the Gymnastics club, the Self-Defence club and her extra training, Willow had stopped being clumsy to any degree, instead she had developed a subtle grace that seemed to be a reflection of Buffy and Xander's.
While you could never have called Willow fat by any stretch of the imagination, she had also never been called fit, until now. Her body had hardened, muscles that had been lax, from a lifestyle where sitting in front of a computer for hours was considered exercise, were now lean and strong. Unsurprisingly, Willow now had the physique of a Gymnast, a lean and flexible body that was supple yet strong. Due to the way she was trained and the way she fought, Willow actually had an advantage over larger and stronger opponents, using her speed against her enemies. She was even fairly decent against vampire opponents, well fledglings at least who relied on their vampiric strength to feed and fight rather than their brains, as many older vampires did. Willow was dressed similarly to Xander, with combat boots, hip hugging denim jeans, a pale green blouse and short, black jacket and she seemed more at home in this attire, with weaponry, than she ever had in her old clothing.
Willow knew that she heard the second call from Buffy, a few minutes after Xander's kill, and although she could not understand it, she heard the urgency in the call. At the call, Xander got nervous.
"Wills? You trust me?" Xander asked.
"Of course." Willow said without hesitation.
"Ok, then hold on." Xander replied.
Xander picked Willow up, holding her behind the knees with one hand and the upper back with the other. Instinctively Willow wrapped her arms loosely around Xander's neck as he took off at top speed across the cemetery. For a second, Willow was thrilled at the speed they were going, but then she just relaxed back into Xander's arms, taking comfort in the mere presence of her life long friend, hoping that she would never have to life without him, even if she could never be with him. When they reached Buffy and Giles, Willow assessed the situation quickly, knowing Xander would do a better job. There were a full dozen vampires, with dust evidence of several more. Three of them were attacking Giles, with evidence of two dust piles near him, while the other nine, as well as the rest of the dust piles, surrounded Buffy.
"Help Giles, I'll help Buffy." Xander said.
Willow nodded and braced herself for what she knew was coming. Xander threw Willow accurately towards the vampires around Giles before laying into the back of the ones surrounding Buffy. Willow controlled her flight so that she crashed feet first into two of the three vampires around Giles, rolling away from the downed vampires and giving Giles a brief respite. Giles too the opportunity to stake the third vampire, who was staring at the amazing, flying redhead.
At first glance, Giles looked like he always did, dressed in a tweed suit. The suit, however, was customized for Slaying. The shoes had steel caps in the toes, the trousers were not as lose around the ankle as normal suit trousers, so they did not interfere with kicks or footwork. The shirt, vest and jacket were slightly looser and cut slightly differently than in normal suits to allow for a greater range of motion while fighting, and the jacket held hidden pockets for easy access to weaponry. While Giles still wore a tie, in concession to Slaying, it was a clip on tie that could not be used to try and choke him. As the two vampires rose, one faced Willow and the other faced Giles.
Willow went on the offensive, only noticing Giles out of the corner of her eye, monitoring him enough to know if he needed assistance and knowing that he was doing the same. She used her slight speed advantage and whipcord strength to her advantage, avoiding the vampire's clumsy attacks and hitting with virtual impunity. When the vampire overextended on a punch, Willow managed to catch its arm and, using her whole body as a leaver, flip the vampire onto its back and stake it. Looking up she saw Giles sidestep a clumsy charge by his opponent and stake it in the back.
Willow and Giles looked over at Buffy and Xander, at deadly poetry in motion. Six of the nine vampires were dust and the remaining three were putting up a good fight, evidenced by a cut in Buffy's forehead, claw marks on Xander's jacket and the fact that were both in 'Game Face'. Buffy blocked the attack of one vampire, twisting its arm till it broke and throwing it clear of the combat zone. Giles grabbed a crossbow from the small bag that was lying nearby and shot the vampire in the heart, dusting it.
"Help us, Darla." One of the vampires called into the darkness as Xander sweep kicked and staked its companion.
Xander looked up and saw the blond vampiress that had disappeared from the Bronze during the Harvest. Growling to Buffy that he was going after her, Xander took off into the night following the four hundred year old female vampire. Buffy traded a few final blows with her vampire foe before she staked it. Dusting herself off, Buffy wondered over to join Willow and Giles. Buffy was wearing combat boots, slightly loose pair of dark cargo pants, with enough pockets to hide plenty of Stakes, a dark grey tank top and Xander's swimming team jacket.
"Um. Shouldn't we." Willow said, gesturing in the direction that Xander had taken off in.
"Nah." Buffy said, shaking her head. "He'll be fine."
The group began wandering after Xander, and they went undisturbed for several minutes. They heard Xander approach before they saw him, Willow turning slightly red and the string of profanities and obscene comments that Xander spewed.
"Well, I would need a few days to recover from that one, but if you want to give it a go? I would not recommend it for anyone else though; a human would not survive that." Buffy said jokingly after Xander made an extremely violent and very obscene statement.
That comment, and the tone in which it was delivered snapped Xander out of his vocal introspection. He did however note the inquisitive look in Buffy's eyes from some of his comments, before he blushed.
"She got away." Xander grumbled.
"So I guessed." Buffy responded with a chuckle.
The group started off through the cemetery again to finish the patrol.
"Guess we are going to have to research this 'Darla', huh Giles?" Buffy said.
"Well, that would be prudent." Giles responded.
"You couldn't have just said 'yep'?" Xander said.
"Oh. Research party! And that was way to enthusiastic, wasn't it?" Willow said.
"Don't worry, Wills. We love you anyway. So what mix are we getting on the donuts?" Xander inquired.
"Make sure there are Jellies." Giles said.
Buffy smiled at the byplay. She may be the Slayer, Xander and her may be Dampir but they were all still themselves.
TBC.
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Some, mostly early series.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy. I would buy the show but I am broke.
Summary: On her first day at Sunnydale High, Buffy finds an odd kinship to a fellow student and something she never knew about herself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Buffy entered the almost deserted gymnasium, looking over the equipment that Xander had purchased with his sizable inheritance from his biological mother. It had been almost a week since Xander had outlined the foreseeable options for them. She had spent the week thinking hard and had finally come to a discission.
Her eyes latched onto Xander and she definitely felt the physical attraction that he had mentioned. Xander was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he did not notice her.
Dressed in a gymnast's tights, Xander was performing a handstand on the rings. As she watched he slowly lowered his body into the basket, where his body was folded and his legs were parallel to the ground, before pushing back up into a handstand for a second before doing a full circle into an inverted crucifix, lowering to a normal crucifix without losing the position. He then did a forward circle to dismount. (AN: for those not familiar with Gymnastics, the rings are a very strength orientated apparatus and that is an impressive series of moves to end a routine.)
When Xander landed, he turned and looked straight into Buffy's eyes.
"We need to talk." She said quietly.
Grabbing a towel from his kit bag, Xander motioned to some benches by the wall and dried the sweat off him as they walked. Sitting down on the benches, Buffy's eyes searched the gymnasium, as if searching for a way out of the upcoming conversation. Taking a deep breath she began.
"Xander, this is going to be hard for me, so please just listen to what I have to say before you say anything." She paused, casting a glance at Xander for his nod. "Last time we talked, you said some things about instinct and attraction. I won't deny it, I am attracted to you because we are both Dampir, and it is a physical attraction."
Buffy looked at Xander and saw anguish in his eyes.
"However," she continued. "That is not all I feel for you. You are funny, and strong. I mean strong emotionally. When I'm around you I feel safe. I feel as if I have come home, and I'm not talking about the Dampir thing either. It is deeper, in my soul. I don't know if it is love or what it is but I do know one thing. I want to give it a try. I just have to know one thing first. Is it this face," Buffy gestured to her face, "Or this face that you love?"
As she said the last part, she brought forth her Game Face, her burnished Golden eyes gleaming with moisture.
"Oh, Buffy. I love them both. It is you, all of you, that I love." Xander replied, bringing forth his own Game Face.
They sat for the next hour, Buffy crying softly with relief into Xander's shoulder and neither noticed that they had their Game Face on or when it faded, they just saw each other.
The news spread through Sunnydale High like a brushfire. Xander Harris and Buffy Summers, the new king and queen of popularity at Sunnydale High after the unprecedented coupe a few weeks ago, which deposed Queen Cordy, were now officially dating.
********
Xander retracted the stake from the chest of the vampire in front of him, watching as it turned to dust. Willow had to admit, she was amazed by her life long friend. If this change had happened to anyone else, she would have freaked totally, but Xander was still Xander, there was just another layer that she had never known. She heard Xander give off a sound that she could not quite describe, almost like it was part of the night time noises and she thought she heard the reply from Buffy, maybe. Xander chuckled softly at what he heard.
'OK. That's kind of freaky.' Willow thought.
Xander and Willow kept walking through their part of the cemetery, with Buffy and Giles patrolling another area. They walked along in a comfortable silence. Ever since she found out that Xander and Buffy were Dampir, and what that meant for them, Willow had started to put her feeling for Xander, which were mostly a crush, if not away then at least on hold, particularly in the last month and a half, since Xander and Buffy had started dating. No matter how much she hated to admit it, Xander was out of her grasp. Xander had changed, but then again, so had Willow.
Xander now walked with confidence, radiating a sense of strength and danger at will rather than the goofy persona he usually adopted. His clothing had changed from baggy and so bright it was only fit for the colour blind or insane to dark but stylish clothing that revealed his well toned body. At the moment, Xander was wearing black combat boots, a pair of black slacks, a dark blue t-shirt and a dark jacket.
Likewise, Willow had undergone a transformation. Gone was the shy brainy geek that no one, except Xander and Buffy, liked, gone were the horribly un- trendy clothing. Willow had cut her hair shorter, so instead of flowing down her back, it stopped just below her shoulders and was kept in a permanent ponytail, which surprisingly brought out the natural deep red colour of the hair more than the longer style. Thanks to the continuous workouts for the Gymnastics club, the Self-Defence club and her extra training, Willow had stopped being clumsy to any degree, instead she had developed a subtle grace that seemed to be a reflection of Buffy and Xander's.
While you could never have called Willow fat by any stretch of the imagination, she had also never been called fit, until now. Her body had hardened, muscles that had been lax, from a lifestyle where sitting in front of a computer for hours was considered exercise, were now lean and strong. Unsurprisingly, Willow now had the physique of a Gymnast, a lean and flexible body that was supple yet strong. Due to the way she was trained and the way she fought, Willow actually had an advantage over larger and stronger opponents, using her speed against her enemies. She was even fairly decent against vampire opponents, well fledglings at least who relied on their vampiric strength to feed and fight rather than their brains, as many older vampires did. Willow was dressed similarly to Xander, with combat boots, hip hugging denim jeans, a pale green blouse and short, black jacket and she seemed more at home in this attire, with weaponry, than she ever had in her old clothing.
Willow knew that she heard the second call from Buffy, a few minutes after Xander's kill, and although she could not understand it, she heard the urgency in the call. At the call, Xander got nervous.
"Wills? You trust me?" Xander asked.
"Of course." Willow said without hesitation.
"Ok, then hold on." Xander replied.
Xander picked Willow up, holding her behind the knees with one hand and the upper back with the other. Instinctively Willow wrapped her arms loosely around Xander's neck as he took off at top speed across the cemetery. For a second, Willow was thrilled at the speed they were going, but then she just relaxed back into Xander's arms, taking comfort in the mere presence of her life long friend, hoping that she would never have to life without him, even if she could never be with him. When they reached Buffy and Giles, Willow assessed the situation quickly, knowing Xander would do a better job. There were a full dozen vampires, with dust evidence of several more. Three of them were attacking Giles, with evidence of two dust piles near him, while the other nine, as well as the rest of the dust piles, surrounded Buffy.
"Help Giles, I'll help Buffy." Xander said.
Willow nodded and braced herself for what she knew was coming. Xander threw Willow accurately towards the vampires around Giles before laying into the back of the ones surrounding Buffy. Willow controlled her flight so that she crashed feet first into two of the three vampires around Giles, rolling away from the downed vampires and giving Giles a brief respite. Giles too the opportunity to stake the third vampire, who was staring at the amazing, flying redhead.
At first glance, Giles looked like he always did, dressed in a tweed suit. The suit, however, was customized for Slaying. The shoes had steel caps in the toes, the trousers were not as lose around the ankle as normal suit trousers, so they did not interfere with kicks or footwork. The shirt, vest and jacket were slightly looser and cut slightly differently than in normal suits to allow for a greater range of motion while fighting, and the jacket held hidden pockets for easy access to weaponry. While Giles still wore a tie, in concession to Slaying, it was a clip on tie that could not be used to try and choke him. As the two vampires rose, one faced Willow and the other faced Giles.
Willow went on the offensive, only noticing Giles out of the corner of her eye, monitoring him enough to know if he needed assistance and knowing that he was doing the same. She used her slight speed advantage and whipcord strength to her advantage, avoiding the vampire's clumsy attacks and hitting with virtual impunity. When the vampire overextended on a punch, Willow managed to catch its arm and, using her whole body as a leaver, flip the vampire onto its back and stake it. Looking up she saw Giles sidestep a clumsy charge by his opponent and stake it in the back.
Willow and Giles looked over at Buffy and Xander, at deadly poetry in motion. Six of the nine vampires were dust and the remaining three were putting up a good fight, evidenced by a cut in Buffy's forehead, claw marks on Xander's jacket and the fact that were both in 'Game Face'. Buffy blocked the attack of one vampire, twisting its arm till it broke and throwing it clear of the combat zone. Giles grabbed a crossbow from the small bag that was lying nearby and shot the vampire in the heart, dusting it.
"Help us, Darla." One of the vampires called into the darkness as Xander sweep kicked and staked its companion.
Xander looked up and saw the blond vampiress that had disappeared from the Bronze during the Harvest. Growling to Buffy that he was going after her, Xander took off into the night following the four hundred year old female vampire. Buffy traded a few final blows with her vampire foe before she staked it. Dusting herself off, Buffy wondered over to join Willow and Giles. Buffy was wearing combat boots, slightly loose pair of dark cargo pants, with enough pockets to hide plenty of Stakes, a dark grey tank top and Xander's swimming team jacket.
"Um. Shouldn't we." Willow said, gesturing in the direction that Xander had taken off in.
"Nah." Buffy said, shaking her head. "He'll be fine."
The group began wandering after Xander, and they went undisturbed for several minutes. They heard Xander approach before they saw him, Willow turning slightly red and the string of profanities and obscene comments that Xander spewed.
"Well, I would need a few days to recover from that one, but if you want to give it a go? I would not recommend it for anyone else though; a human would not survive that." Buffy said jokingly after Xander made an extremely violent and very obscene statement.
That comment, and the tone in which it was delivered snapped Xander out of his vocal introspection. He did however note the inquisitive look in Buffy's eyes from some of his comments, before he blushed.
"She got away." Xander grumbled.
"So I guessed." Buffy responded with a chuckle.
The group started off through the cemetery again to finish the patrol.
"Guess we are going to have to research this 'Darla', huh Giles?" Buffy said.
"Well, that would be prudent." Giles responded.
"You couldn't have just said 'yep'?" Xander said.
"Oh. Research party! And that was way to enthusiastic, wasn't it?" Willow said.
"Don't worry, Wills. We love you anyway. So what mix are we getting on the donuts?" Xander inquired.
"Make sure there are Jellies." Giles said.
Buffy smiled at the byplay. She may be the Slayer, Xander and her may be Dampir but they were all still themselves.
TBC.