This is rated T for a reason. Violence, implied and attempted sexual assault, a favorite character turned into a vicious vampire, and language. If you can't handle those things, don't read any farther.
This is not like my usual happy fluff. You have been warned.
This story takes place during Season Four, around and during the following episodes: "The Harsh Light of Day," "Wild at Heart," "The Initiative," and "Hush." Assume the other episodes, minus Anya and Xander, take place as shown.
None of the characters belong to me, they all belong to Joss and ME. I'm just taking them out to play.
Homecoming
Chapter 1
Xander Harris came to a stop just outside town, eyeing the "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign. He snorted. Damn, how he hated being back here. But what the boss says, goes, he thought.
He was hungry. He hoped that Sunnydale still provided plenty to eat.
He gunned the engine of his Harley and sped into town.
A couple of hours later, his bike parked out of sight and his appetite satisfied, he saw her. The red hair was longer, but it was definitely Willow. She was walking alone along the main street, sipping at some kind of drink. Stuffing the remains of his dinner into a dumpster, he followed her, keeping to the shadows.
His Willow, he growled to himself. Should have been his years ago. He fought the urge to walk right up to her. Not a good idea, he told himself. She wouldn't want to see him. It could get ugly.
Still following her, he paused for a moment, seeing what appeared to be a ruined building in the distance. The high school? What the Hell had happened? He wished he could have been here to see that place burn.
Xander watched Willow's back as she walked along, her hair swinging, and felt his body react. He did some quick mental math, smiling in the darkness because it still wasn't his strong suit. She should be a freshman in college by now, he thought. Sure enough, he tracked her to the campus of UC Sunnydale.
He was surprised she was going to the local college. Probably hung around to help the precious Slayer, he sneered.
She met up with a short man with spiky black hair, who swung her around before kissing her. Xander growled deep in his throat from his place behind the bushes. He'd rip out his throat while Willow watched, then he'd claim her as his own. Engaged in his own fantasies, he was oblivious to anything except the two he watched.
"Whelp, what are you doing here?" asked a testy British voice behind him. Xander turned slowly, looking Spike up and down.
"You tell me. You think I wanted to come back here?"
"You thinkin' about goin' back to school?" Spike sneered. "I told you to meet me at my crypt. I had to come find you."
Xander shrugged. "I'm here now."
Xander looked back over his shoulder, annoyed that he had lost Willow and the man in the ebb and flow of the college crowds.
"Come with me, my fine young man, and we'll have a cuppa and a chat." Spike threw his arm over Xander's shoulder, leading him away.
"You only use that tone when you want something," Xander said, giving up on finding Willow right now.
"And have we forgotten what we owe old Spikey, whelp?" Spike asked. There was menace in his tone.
"No."
Not that I've ever had a chance to forget, Xander thought.
But if it hadn't been for Spike, Xander would have been wiped off the face of the planet by now.
Spike stopped to watch two giggling girls go by. They glanced back at Spike and Xander and smiled. Spike licked his lips. "Fancy a snack?" he asked Xander quietly.
"Just ate," Xander said. Then he looked again at the girls. One was a redhead. "If I get the redhead."
"Brunette's fine with me, friend," Spike said. "They all taste the same, and they all scream the same when you bite them."
"Not just interested in biting tonight," Xander said. "Looking for some fun too."
The two vampires looked at each other, nodded, and went after their prey.
After he finished with the redhead, Xander threw her body and her clothes into the river. No handy dumpster this time. He gently sucked her blood off his fingers, wishing it was Willow's. Soon, he thought. Spike might have plans for me, but when that was done, she's mine.
"Zip up, Xander, and get over here," Spike ordered. Xander did as he was told, refastening his belt as he walked over to the older vampire.
"We're here for a reason, not just for the pickings. Although, the pickings are good," Spike admitted. He nodded in approval at Xander's disposal method and tossed the brunette in after her friend.
"Tell me," Xander said. He sat down on the ground, Spike across from him.
Xander felt his mind wandering a bit as Spike went into a long, babbling story of a gem that would allow him to walk in the sunlight. It was hidden somewhere, they needed to get it, it would make him invincible, blah, blah, blah.
When Spike had spirited him out of town a few years ago, shortly after turning him, Xander had been too wet behind the ears to do what he wanted. Make Willow his. He was strong now, he knew. The years of hunting, and taking pleasure from the hunt, had made him almost as strong as his sire. If anything, he was more vicious than Spike, more interested in the pain than the blood.
All the Scoobies believed that Xander was dead, Spike had told him. They didn't know he had come back as a vampire. Spike had been waiting graveside when he had risen, helped him catch his first meal, and gotten him out of town. He smiled. Imagine Willow's surprise when her dear old dead friend turned up.
"So we find it, we dig it up, you wear it," Xander interrupted.
"And then we kill the Slayer and her little cast of helpers," Spike finished.
Xander grinned wolfishly. "Sounds good to me."
Like all of Spike's plans, this one didn't go quite right. He got the Gem of Amara, all right, but Buffy had taken it away from him. Outside. In the sun. Spike looked like he had been sleeping in a toaster.
Xander sighed to himself. He wasn't sure if a single plan Spike had created since Parent-Teacher Night, when he had turned Xander, had ever gone correctly. And actually, that hadn't been the plan at all, he thought. It had been Angel's attempt to fool Spike that had gotten Xander into Spike's clutches anyway.
And screwing Harmony! Good lord. Xander was beginning to wonder if Spike had gone off the deep end in a big way.
While Spike was nursing his burns, Xander was making plans. Plans that involved Willow.
It was some weeks later, after Spike was recovered, that Xander was able to put his plan into action. He had secured a location and stocked it with what he needed. He even stuck to strictly feeding for a few days so he would be completely ready for taking Willow.
A few nights before he was going to make his move, Spike vanished. Xander tried to decide whether to be worried or not. He decided on not. If he had been living with Harmony, he would vanish too, he thought.
Xander had trailed Willow for enough days to know her schedule. And he knew that the strange canine-smelling musician she was attached to was gone. Had seen him leave in his van, hard-faced and tearless. Willow deserved better. She deserved Xander.
