A/N: So, here I am, the day before Christmas and writing a dark/tragic romance type thing while waiting for my dad to hurry up and make T-Bone steaks for lunch (I love my dad). And so, like I promised, here is the Balcony Scene (finally), where secrets are revealed – though not all the secrets: that would just ruin it, wouldn't it?

Distribution? No one's ever wanted something of mine for their site, but it'd be cool to have a story on more than one site. Feel free as long as you tell me who you are and where it's going (I'd like to see it on the other web page, you know).

the Passion of Angels and Demons

chapter III

The Balcony Scene, Part I

Xander was unconsciously moving with the beat.

This was where he'd always liked best in the Bronze, even when he'd come here with Willow and Jesse, and then Buffy after Jesse had died. Friends were great, but Xander savoured the small moments when he could get away for a while and have a small amount of space to himself. Then he'd dive right back in with his friends…it was a sweet deal, and nobody ever cottoned on to Xander's bouts of the occasional brood.

Of course, thinking of brooding always made him think of Angel, and Angel was what was making him wig out lately in the first place, so it was all the better that he had these moments alone.

His hips swayed lightly with the easy rhythm of the R&B style song, some popular tune from the radio…Never An Easy Way by something or other, he thought after a moment.

Good song, he thought to himself.

And he never saw the demon come up from behind him.

Angelus grinned savagely as he shifted to his true vampire countenance. Add that to the tiger-like snarl that emanated from the space between his vicious fangs, the scattered few other humans on this level of the Bronze decided to make themselves scarce. When they were alone on the balcony, Angelus stalked slowly toward his boy.

He watched, leering slightly as Xander's delectable ass moved unconsciously to the beat of the song on the DJ's box. He had a brief image of himself grabbing Xander's hips hard enough to bruise and just slamming himself into the tight heat of Xander's passage, biting his boy and completing the Claim that he so wanted. Cruor Aduro, his mind chanted as the scent of Xander's intoxicating blood wafted toward Angelus.

He stepped slowly forward, never once moving from what the Slayer had deemed his "game-face." Xander would learn who he was dealing with – Angelus was possessive enough to know that once he had Xander seduced and in his proper place, he would never scream for Soul-boy – it would be him, Angelus, the demon that the boy would yelp for as he took it from his Mate.

Buffy followed Willow as the redhead moved to sit down at one of the little café-style tables near the snack bar of the Bronze.

"So, we here to talk about you and Oz or about Xander's wiggy-ness lately?" Buffy asked nonchalantly, before the worried-looking novice-witch could open her mouth. Willow had recently begun training with Jenny Calendar to study magick – it turned out that Willow had a natural skill with it, and was picking up on concepts faster than even Giles had anticipated. Willow's natural empathy had been sharpened, and she picked up on emotions very easily lately. Particularly from her friends; she had been worried about Xander far longer than either Buffy or Giles.

Buffy felt a flash of guilt at that. Xander was one of her best friends; hell, he'd brought her back to life after she'd drowned in the Master's underground lair last year. She'd thought lately that she should have been able to pick up on Xander's weirdness before Willow had sounded the alert to her and Giles.

"Not much else to talk about on the Oz front," Willow said with a small smile that Buffy returned in full. Willow was one of the sweetest girls that Buffy had ever known, and her relationship with Oz had really helped to bring her out of her shyness-induced spell – that and Cordelia Chase's unexpected friendship after her sudden induction to the Scooby Gang and her apparent ability for fighting evil. Hadn't that one been a shock?

"But that's okay. It's Xander I'm worried about," Willow said, her look of concern very pronounced. Buffy nodded, not sure what to say, willing to let her friend go on. "His…vibes, I'd guess you'd call them, have been…off, since that whole love-whammy thing," Willow started hesitantly. "It's like, when we're out on patrol with you, he's more nervous and afraid than usual. Or when he'll just turn around at all those random moments—"

"Like he's being watched," Buffy cut in, sitting back quietly. Willow's eyes widened as she saw the dark turn that her friend's thoughts had taken.

"You don't think that…" Willow trailed off, unsure how to put it. Buffy looked at her helplessly, and Willow found that she had to continue. "That…Angel is harassing Xander now, do you?" she asked. Buffy flinched a little at the mention of her ex-lover's name.

"Well, first he went after you," Buffy said after a pregnant pause, "and then your fish, and then after my mom…he hasn't done much to me," she continued, with a sigh. "He seems to want to hurt me through my friends. I'm worried," she finished tiredly.

"Yeah," Willow said softly, putting a comforting hand on Buffy's arm. Buffy gave her a soft smile, but she still pulled herself back together. Buffy was an unusual Slayer, true, but she valued her friends, and she would rather die than let anything happen to them.

"So, what can we do? I mean, how can we be sure unless he tells us?" Buffy asked, suddenly business-like. Willow looked around her nervously.

"Actually…" she began hesitantly, "I think that I have an idea, if I can get it past Miss Calendar and Giles…it's kinda risky," Willow said. Buffy's eyes narrowed, and then they widened as the Wiccan leant forward and whispered in Buffy's ear.

Xander was oblivious to this, as oblivious as he was to Angelus' approach. He nodded his head once or twice, a discreet means of trying to rid himself of an approaching headache. He'd had them a lot lately, more so whenever he got around a demon…

Or a demon that wasn't Angelus.

He quashed the thought before it was even fully formed. He refused to admit to himself that the headaches tended to go away whenever Angelus was around, or whenever the vampire left another one of his "gifts." No matter if it was true, it was just something that Xander wasn't ready to deal with.

Xander's heart nearly exploded when a cold hand covered his mouth, effectively stopping the strangled yell that nearly tore itself from his surprised throat.

"Hello, lover," a silky-smooth voice whispered in his ear. Lover? Xander thought wildly. The grip around his mouth and the other hand on his hip tightened meaningfully. "I'm going to let you go now," Angelus informed him, still in that calm, damningly intimate whisper right in his ear. "If you attempt to scream or attract the Slayer's attention in any way, Spike and Drusilla are going to tear your little redhead apart," he said conversationally.

"And I'll make you watch."

Xander nodded frantically, his only thought to protect Buffy and Willow – even at the cost of his own life. He felt Angelus chuckle, a deep sound that reminded him even more of a giant cat, against his back; and it send shivers skittering up and down his nerve endings.

"Good pet," Angelus said, his voice completely complementary. Xander made to turn his head, maybe to toss a sarcastic retort over his shoulder, but a cool hand on his neck, just a gentle, almost seductive stroke made him stop.

"No, Xander," Angelus murmured into his ear. "I want you to look at your friends. Look at them long and hard, and then tell me what you see," he whispered, his lips practically brushing Xander's sensitive earlobes with every quietly spoken word.

And Xander could do nothing but obey. Angelus' eyes were like the hypnotic gaze of the viper, and Xander was losing himself in the black orbs. Helplessly, he turned and saw his friends, looked down at them, and felt shame radiating from the straining erection in his pants.

"I see them," he whispered back. "I see women…I see power," he said, hoping against hope that he'd say whatever Angelus wanted to hear, or better yet, scared him into letting go. But he was horrified to look inside himself, to a dark place that he'd always hid from Buffy and Willow, that he didn't want Angelus to stop that seductive whispering.

"What else, mo chroi?" Angelus asked softly, moving closer to Xander, nearly touching him but not quite in that maddening way that made Xander want to moan in frustration and touch that cold body that was making this static electricity inside of him jump to attention.

"I…I don't know," he confessed, unsure as to what Angelus was asking. Angelus pulled away from him slightly, and Xander tried to turn to see, but the vampire still wouldn't let him turn away from his friends.

Smack!

The sharp slap of Angelus' hand against Xander's ass was muffled by the music, and no one heard it but the two of them (and the vampires that Angelus had spread insidiously throughout the club). Xander jumped, a startled yelp escaping from his mouth, but still he could not turn.

"Are you questioning me?" Angelus purred in his ear. Deceptively casual, pleasant voice vibrating through Xander's being. Terrified, by the vampire and by his own bodily reactions to said leech, Xander shook his head frantically. His ass stung slightly from the hard smack.

"Good, mo chroi," Angelus said, apparently approving of Xander's obedience. And for once Xander couldn't think of a single snappy comment, some sarcastic quip that would make this a life-and-death situation that he was somehow sure that it wasn't. There was something in Angelus'…presence that told him that Angelus was here for something specific. Something that wasn't involving bloodshed.

And Xander was terrified at the ease with which he'd accepted this behaviour about Angelus. It suggested an already-forged empathic link that he never, ever wanted to admit to himself. Any connection between him and the mysteriously charismatic immortal should be squashed quickly.

"Would you like me to tell you what I see?" Angelus inquired innocently, still holding Xander close. Xander didn't even notice that the vampire's hold was extremely loose. It never occurred to Xander to try and break away.

"Yes," Xander found himself whispering quietly. And he brazenly turned to meet Angelus' eye. He had no idea where the courage to move had come from, but Xander had learnt early on in his life on the Hellmouth to trust his instincts…and for some insane reason, he knew that Angelus' wasn't going to hurt him. Not tonight, at least.

Angelus' eyes widened fractionally at the brazen action of the boy in front of him. For a moment, he simply stared into the large, invitingly warm, chocolaty-brown eyes that peered searchingly into his yellow gaze. Angelus realised that he was in his vampiric facial mode, his true face, and he felt so comfortable around Xander in his true form that it scared him.

Angelus mentally shook himself, snapping out of his mental reverie. He was in charge here, after all. He was here for a reason. He grinned benignly down at Xander, his fangs flashing, marvelling in the lack of fear of the mortal. He pulled Xander close to him, soothing his body's craving for his boy for the time being. If Xander noticed the large erection pressing into his back, he gave no sign.

Just being around my boy arouses me! the demon thought triumphantly.

Xander was drawing on this newfound confidence with everything that he had. A large, hard bulge was pressed against his lower back, and he knew what it was, and he was afraid. But there was a small part of him, a dark part of his soul that he constantly tried to suppress that exulted in the power his body held over the powerful vampire.

"I see," Angelus murmured, leaning in even closer to Xander. To anyone who happened to spare them a passing glance, they probably looked like two lovers embracing in the darkness of the Bronze's balcony. "Humans," he finished quietly, his voice carefully neutral. This was the tricky phase. If he lost his Alexander now, he'd not get him back willingly. And that was the sweetest part f possessing someone – their willing participation. Spike had never acquired Angelus' love of the stalk.

"So why aren't you down there with them?" Angelus asked, as he gently rubbed himself against his boy's back. So close…

And that's such a loaded question that Xander was rendered temporarily speechless. Not really given to such moments of introspection, is Xander Harris; but then, he'd never really been in a situation like this before.

"I don't know," Xander whispered, almost to himself. He looked lost, alone…so damn vulnerable that the demon inside Angelus was roaring in such a fierce possessiveness that Angelus himself was temporarily stunned. He needed to Claim his boy soon, drink of his Cruor Aduro, or he'd drive himself mad.

Which is why this requires so much finesse, he told himself sternly.

"Are you going to tell me?" Xander asked, still in that quiet, slightly confused voice. He turned to Angelus, looking into his eyes helplessly. Xander was lost in those infinite black orbs, feeling that part of himself so close to the surface tonight that he might explode and…and…what? he wanted to scream. But he never really knew, did he?

"Yes," Angelus said simply. And Xander nodded. There was all that was left was to listen. He knew nothing else but the sound of Angelus' hypnotic voice. It was sultry, it was…seductive. Xander had always been straight; hell, he'd always been practically homophobic (it was hard not to be with his father). But there was that place within his being that longed for this…and knew that it was right.

Right for whom?

Xander felt like he was going to explode his own brain – all of these thoughts kept chasing and chasing and all the time Angelus (Angelus! his mind screams) is just looking at him and isn't it nice that Deadboy finally, finally notices him?

"Who are you, Xander?" Angelus asks presently, jerking Xander from his wildly wandering thoughts and forcing him back into the present. This, this question is real and all of its implications are things that Xander can hold on to in order to stabilize a shifting world.

"Me," Xander says simply. He knows that that's not the answer Angelus is looking for, but it's true enough. In that moment, Xander isn't anybody – not the Soldier, not the Hyena, not the Zeppo or the Slayer's friend or any of it. He's just…Xander. And Angelus nods approvingly.

"Good answer," the vampire says. Then he spanks Xander again, harder, on the other side of his ass, and Xander can't help but let out another surprised yelp. "But I'm not here for your smartass comments, boyo," Angelus continued calmly, as if he'd never 'punished' his boy.

"I'm here to tell you who you are."

Xander turned to him warily, eyeing him with a nervous apprehension and mounting anxiety that hadn't been there before. Who I am? he wondered to himself in near-panic. The panic wasn't abated in the least bit when Angelus added, "I'm here to tell you what you are."

Eight simple words, and Xander's world is paralysed and shattered like glass all at once. And the glass has jagged edges and it cuts deep into his skin. And as the blood sprays the walls of Xander's once-mind, it spells out one word, like a brand for the world to see.

Angelus.

A/N: I know, I know, I'm a horrible, dirty bastard who holds out on you and makes you suffer. But there is a good reason for this being such a cliff-hanger – the explanation is really long, and events spiral into chaos from there…seriously, it's like a friggin roller coaster ride in my head. So, next chapter, it all (almost all) gets spelt out.

Until then, TTFN (as the First says to Buffy on Its way out in Showtime – I'm such an evil bitch, aren't I?)

Oh, and by the way - Merry Christmas!