Title: I Finally Remembered You. Part 6 – Questions Answered Yet?
Author: Xanfan
Rating: R/NC-17 for future chapters
Pairing: Xander/Angel
Summary: AU futurefic. Slash. Xander, not Buffy, had gone to see Angel in "I Will Remember You" Years later, he finally keeps his promise.
Spoilers: All of BtVS & Ats
Warnings: M/M, mild language, more in future chapters
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: The next several chapters are going to be one long flashback. I pretty much took the transcript for the entire episode, "I Will Remember You" and changed the dialog to fit Xander. I got the transcript of this episode from Buffyworld
Words in Italics indicate thoughts.
FLASHBACK continues
"I'm sorry if I handled this wrong. I mean, what else was I supposed to do?" Angel inquired, again; trying not to stare at Xander. He also tried not to notice how the boy had filled out over the summer.
"I don't know. I just know that when you're around, whether she sees you or not, she ends up hurt. I know it's not entirely your fault."
"You do?" Angel asked, surprised, by the admission.
"Yeah, I do. I finally figured out that relationships go both ways. I guess I grew up some, it throws me." Xander looked a little nonplussed at the thought
"Throws me, too." Angel was half serious. Xander had never really given him the benefit of the doubt before and he was a little, well, thrown, by it.
"So, let's just stick to the plan, for her sake. You keep your distance until a lot of time has passed. Given enough time she should be able to.." Xander tried to get the conversation back on track.
"Forget?' Angel had a hint of pain and resignation in his voice.
"Yeah…Right, I was going to say, heal, maybe grow up a little… So, message sent and those of us who came into the room not dead are still, you know, not dead. I'll just…"
As Xander turned to go, a green skinned Samurai demon, with a curved sword and a red jewel in his forehead; crashes through the window behind Angel and attacked him.
Damn, I jinxed myself. Xander thought
Angel barely avoided the first stroke of the demon's sword, as he rolled across his desk.
"Angel!" Xander called out in fear and alarm.
Xander tripped the demon back against the wall; Angel came up and threw an ax at it.
Cordy and Doyle were about to leave the office when they hear the sounds of fighting.
"Did you hear that?" Doyle asked in alarm
"Yeah, the Angel and Xander show. First they snark at each other, then they punch each other."
"Shouldn't we.."
"Stick our noses where they don't belong and get them flattened? No thank you." Cordy ushered Doyle out of the office.
Xander and Angel continued to fight the Samurai. Angel slid across the floor, picking up the demon's sword and stabbed it in the gut while it is still wrestled with Xander. Some of its fluorescent green blood ran down the sword onto Angel's hand. The demon jumped back, causing Xander to land on top of Angel. Then the demon pulled the sword out and jumps out of the window.
Angel and Xander were still lying on the floor. Xander was still on top of Angel. They both wondered why they hadn't moved yet. Xander shifted and they both startled a bit, as their matching hard-ons made contact. They stared at each other, then jumped up and apart.
"Friend of yours?" Xander asked about the demon, pretending nothing had happened.
"Never saw it before." Angel replied, following Xander's lead in the whole avoidance thing.
"It was rude. We should go kill it."
"I'm free."
"Me too, Buffy's dad is going to drive her home in a few days. Got somewhere I can change?" Xander said, looking down at his torn shirt.
Angel and Xander were tracking the demon through the sewer tunnels. Well, Angel was tracking and Xander was pretty much just following him.
"It's heading towards the ocean." Angel indicated.
"Are you sure?"
"It's wounded. I can smell its blood."
"Oh. Great. Handy skill. And can I say, "Ew!" Xander wrinkled his nose at that thought.
Adorable. He's adorable. Wait, did I just think that Xander Harris is adorable!
Angel was jerked out of THAT thought when Xander continued to speak.
"Maybe if your crack staff hadn't run off at the first sign of trouble they could have helped us with some research. Find out what this thing is and why it wants to kill you."
A rustling sound was heard and Xander spun around, stake in one hand and an axe in the other.
"It's just a rat. So, you can put the stake down. It's not a vampire. I don't know why you brought that anyway."
"Because, I always have one with me and I know how to use it. Besides, it's not the only thing that could be down here." Xander reminded him.
"You should be fine then, unless he chops the stake in two and maybe takes some of your hand with it." Angel snarked back.
"Look, can we just get on with the hunting? I'd like to get this over with before dark."
"I can handle this myself." Angel said, a little reluctantly.
Reluctantly? Why am I so eager to spend time with Xander?
"You bailed us out last night. I'd like us to be even." Xander replied, a little hurt at the thought that Angel might not want to spend time with him.
Why do I want Angel to want to spend time with me?
"We're keeping score now?" Angel asked, sardonically.
Xander ignored that. "Are you getting anything? Because I sure smell sewer and more sewer."
Angel smelled the green goo he had just swiped off the wall of a tunnel junction with his fingers. "Tunnel number one it is."
They went through the mouth of a tunnel. He blinked his eyes, frowning.
"Angel? You okay?"
"I feel weird."
"I know. I do, too. I mean, I only came to see you so I could give you Buffy's message face-to-face to let you know not to see her…face-to-face anymore, and I know there is a fly in the logic ointment here somewhere, probably would have sounded better coming directly from Buffy, but.. The next thing I knew we're being attacked by this mutant ninja demon thing, and then we're on the floor on top of each other, and that was just weird." Xander's babble ended lamely.
"No, I meant I felt weird from the demons blood. It's powerful." Angel said, as he examined the hand he had touched the blood with.
"Oh. Okay." Xander said, intensely embarrassed, "Let's just rewind Xander's little ramble and pretend it never happened."
"No. I-It is confusing. And I.. Buffy, When we're apart – it's easier. It hurts, every day. But I live with it. Because we are over, it can't work between us. Clause or no clause. We just didn't make sense." Angel said, as he took a step closer to Xander. "And now you're here. And the thing in the office was weird and confusing, but not necessarily unpleasant."
Xander took a step closer to Angel, "Not unpleasant, at all. And with Buffy, I mean, what else can you do? It doesn't work with you two. It can't."
"No, I-I can't give her a life, or a future or anything a real girl would want." Angel moved forward a little more.
Xander also moved forward, "Do you still miss her?"
"Not at this very moment." Angel replied, staring into his eyes.
"Are we letting something happen here? Nothing's changed. We don't even like each other. Do We?" Xander asked, more than a little confused by the situation and his own feelings.
"No we don't, but, right now, I can't remember why." Angel inched closer.
"Oh, boy." Xander looks around for a distraction, "I, uh, did you hear that?"
"What?"
"Hear something coming from over there, you know, something that will save us from embarrassing ourselves and making a huge mistake."
"Some indefinable sound coming from far away, that you could hear, but, I couldn't pick up with my acute vampire hearing?" Angel asked, amused.
"Could we just…find this thing and get this finished? Oh look, a ladder! What if it went up?"
"Into the day, where it knows I can't follow."
"But I can." Xander headed towards the ladder.
"Uh, I…I don't want you going after it alone." Angel said with concern, straining with the effort not to reach out and touch Xander.
"Look, its best all around if we just split up. I'll try and follow it, then, come back and tell you where it is."
Angel paused to consider, "There's a dive on Second near Beach, The Lone Bar. Demons go there sometimes when they need to get patched up."
"Got it." Xander said over his shoulder, as he climbed the ladder.
"Be careful." Angel whispered.