Xander and Angel: Shunned by the Light
"Did you hear what I said, Xander?" Buffy asked, exasperated at the uncaring and unconcerned expression on Xander's face.
Xander stood up and looked Buffy directly in the eyes. "Fuck you."
Turning to each of the Scoobs present he said, "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you. I'll be back for my weapons and books."
"Weapons and books?" Wesley asked, a little put out at being ignored, as Xander left.
"Yes, well Xander has made a habit of collecting things he thought would help and lent them to me. A good two-thirds of the weapons and well over half the books I have, although many are duplicates, have been loaned by him to me. The council is only supplying the requirements for a single watcher and slayer, while we've really been fielding an entire team and Xander's the one who made up the difference, bit by bit."
"Is this going to be a major problem?" Wesley asked concerned.
"No, between the two of us we've also managed to restore a number of weapons to working order that I've added to inventory from estate sales and the like."
"Actually I meant is he going to be a problem?"
"No," Cordelia answered quietly. "He's not going to be a problem unless you make him one, but he's never going to help any of us again either."
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked, still a little shocked at Xander's behavior. "I know he's mad-"
"No, Cordelia's right," a very pale Willow interrupted. "We know him better than you. We no longer matter to him."
"What, but you've been friends forever!" Buffy protested.
"Doesn't matter," Cordelia said flatly. "Ryan Holdings was a friend of theirs once, but he said something, I don't know what, and Xander never talked to him again. Hell, Ryan crashed his bike and cut his head open when we were ten and Xander simply stepped on him, didn't say a word while he was lying bleeding on the sidewalk."
"But you've insulted him for years and he's never done anything like that to you!" Buffy protested.
Cordelia shrugged. "I never stepped over the line until today."
"I-I didn't think we were that close to it," Willow sniffed.
*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*
Xander felt empty. He thought he'd had friends, but their actions had shown that wasn't true. He'd learned long ago that turning the other cheek just meant new places for people to hit you. He'd been six when he'd learned that and he still wasn't sure if it was because he'd been an eager pupil or his father just that good a teacher. Thankfully he healed fast.
He shrugged off his depression as best as he could and thought about what he wanted. He wanted friends and to keep on what he was doing.
Did he have any friends left? Well, no close ones, but there were a couple, mostly geeks he gamed with, so he wasn't completely alone. They wouldn't be much help against vampires, but then he didn't really want them for that and it might be best to hunt alone anyway it opened up some ways of fighting he couldn't before.
He no longer had to follow Willow's rules…
Xander began to smile. His place with the group had been shaky for a while and the looks and comments he'd been given, as if he'd forced himself on poor innocent Willow, hadn't been helping either, but now he was free.
First he needed a place for his books and weapons and possibly to live, now that he thought about it. Without Willow telling him he couldn't run away he could leave his parents. How hard would it be to get a GED and move out? Moving out just required finding a place to live, as no way in hell would his parents complain, but the GED might take a little effort.
'Too bad Deadboy is back, I liked the mansion, of course I haven't checked to see if he actually lives there.'
Having made his decision he decided he might as well check it out before the sun went down, just in case Angel didn't live there, but something else did.
'Ah the joys of car-ownership.' he thought to himself as he started up the whale of a car he got from his uncle.
*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*
Xander parked the car and looked at the mansion for a moment before loading up with weapons. Sure Angel was a… not an enemy, but there was no guarantee he lived there or that other vampires hadn't moved in if he didn't.
Entering through the front door he heard the signs of battle and quickly followed it into a huge entryway where he found Angel fighting a horned demon of some kind while a trio of vampires laughed and taunted him. Of all the things Xander expected to find, Angel in red silk jammies going hand to hand with a demon that brought its own cheering section hadn't been one of them.
"Die, traitor!" the very large vampire in the rear called out.
Xander walked up behind the vamp but knew he couldn't stake him from behind, not for any moral reasons, but because he had a thick leather jacket on that would make it difficult. Seeing the chain dangling from his back pocket Xander grinned and pulled on it… getting his wallet, but not his attention. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Xander transferred all the cash to his own pockets.
"Bet you wish you had a little silver on you, don't you?" the female vamp laughed as Angel was slammed into the wall and barely managed to avoid the demon's attempt to gore him with its horns.
Giving up on subtlety Xander tapped the vampire on the back.
Not being very bright before he was turned, and death hadn't done Bruno no favors on that score, as he was, if possible, even dimmer now that he was dead, Bruno did the worse thing he could have. Turning around to see who had tapped him on his shoulder he felt a sharp pain in his chest and like the Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons reality seemed to wait for him to catch up to it as it was at least a couple of seconds before he looked down, noticed the stake, put two and two together, and burst into ash.
"You suck!" the smaller male booed as Angel managed a double handed blow to the demons back that knocked it to its knees for a moment.
With the way the two were standing side by side Xander knew he couldn't pull that trick again, which frankly he was surprised had worked the first time. Reaching between them he squeezed her breast and quickly moved back.
"You prick, I said not now!" she yelled and nailed the male with a right cross that shattered his jaw and turned out his lights.
Since there was no way she hadn't noticed him now he yelled, "Angel, catch!" and slid his shortsword across the floor to him. The blonde was apparently a big fan of the traditional growl and hiss, which was unfortunate for her as she clearly sucked at it, and it did give Xander an easy shot at her mouth which he tossed an entire vial of holy water in.
"Stop helping me!" Angel yelled ducking a lightning fast swing of the shortsword as apparently the demon had been quicker than Angel to the sword.
With one vamp knocked out and the other convulsing Xander ignored Angel and threw a candlestick holder at the demons head. Xander wasn't sure why the vamps always went with the Goth décor, but it did make their candleholders look like props from the game Clue. The demon roared and dropped the sword as it grab it's head acting like Xander had hurt it, far more than he had in his opinion.
"Sure, make fun of the Xan man," Xander muttered.
The sounds of Angel gleefully beating a demon to death in the background covered Xander's humming as he staked the female vamp.
Xander turned around as Angel grabbed the sword and straightened up. "How did you know I needed help and where is everybody?"
Xander shrugged. "I didn't know you were in danger, and I don't care where they are."
Finding the vamp's wallet of much better quality than the one he owned he transferred everything into it and pocketed it.
"If you didn't know than why were you here armed for bear and what do you mean you don't care?" Angel asked in confusion.
"I am looking for a new place to live and I wasn't sure you were still living here, so I thought I would do the smart thing just in case something else did live here and come armed, I don't care where the others are because we've made a clean break of it," Xander explained cheerfully.
Angel almost opened his mouth but something in Xander's eyes stopped him. It was the same look Angelus had seen when Xander had told him to leave, in the hospital, it was… like looking into Dru's eyes at times. It said something here is broken and if you poke at it you'll be going off the edge of the map and into dangerous waters. To those who could read it, it said 'Here be dragons!'
"Well I appreciate the help. Why do you need a new place?" Angel asked, pulling his mind back into his own head.
"My home life isn't the best and I don't see any reason to put up with it anymore," Xander explained. "Mind if I ask what was up with this whole mess?"
"Vamp homes don't get threshold protections, so these three decided to sneak in and attack me with a Fyarl demon while I was sleeping."
"Sucks to be you," Xander said shaking his head. "Well I still need to find a place, so I'll see you around."
"Wait," Angel said. "This place has more than enough room for both of us and if you're living here it'll gain a threshold and I'll be able to sleep safely during the day."
Xander consider that. "Utilities and mail working here and what if I have someone over?"
"Angelus had everything taken care of, it's legal and I have a soundproof room in the basement I can use, the rest would be yours," Angel offered, not quite sure why he was offering it.
"Cool, I'll start moving things in today."
*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*
"OK," Angel said, announcing his presence as he came through the stacks. "I've found out why Dru was so taken with Xander. Would anyone care to tell me what happened?"
"What?" several voices chorused in confusion as they helped Giles sort and box books.
"What happened with Xander?" Angel asked flatly.
"He was always getting in the way and wasn't that much help," Buffy explained. "So we decided he should be fray adjacent and keep out of the slaying."
"Getting in the way?" Angel said with a strange look on his face.
"Yeah," Buffy said firmly.
"Wasn't much help?"
"Exactly," Buffy confirmed.
"The man who came to my door with a cross and crossbow and convinced me to man up and lead him to the Master's lair, where he quite literally brought you back from the dead, wasn't much help?" Angel asked.
No one answered.
"The man who stared Angelus down, unarmed to protect a sick slayer, was useless?"
Again no one answered.
"And are you seriously claiming Cordelia is a better fighter, cause no offense, I've seen them both fight, hell I've seen all of you fight and in the under thirty set who is not mystically empowered there is no one here I'd rather have at my back in a fight," Angel said flatly. Sure he may have been laying it on a bit thick, but something was rotten here.
Xander paused outside the library. 'Maybe Dead… Angel isn't so bad a guy after all.' Thinking it would be really awkward to walk in right now Xander decided to go get something to eat.
"What did you mean when you said you knew why Dru liked Xander?" Giles asked to change the subject.
"Because he's insane," Angel said bluntly. Waiting for the yelling to quiet before continuing, "I should say he's selectively insane. Something is broken inside him and I didn't realize it until recently because it's only shown up in events I avoid thinking about. He would do anything for a friend, anything!"
"Well yes his self-sacrificing behavior has been obvious," Giles replied.
Angel shook his head. "No, you don't understand. Most of the time he's pretty easygoing and acts just like anyone else, but the point where anyone would back down… he can't, the concept just doesn't exist for him. You can't make him stop protecting a friend, all you can do is kill him, and death doesn't always stop people in Sunnydale."
"Goofy fucker has some depth," Faith said. "So how'd they get rid of him then?"
Angel sighed. "They proved they weren't real friends." Once the girls had finally quieted down from the yelling that comment provoked Angel continued, "It doesn't matter what you think, it only matters what he thinks and in his mind you are all false friends which actually puts you at scum level, not to be trusted ever."
"How do you know all this?" Wesley asked.
"I'm a master vampire and while I don't have much of a gift for the mental arts, like some masters do, I do have one strong gift, I can look into the minds of the mad," Angel said flatly. "It's not like mind-reading, but it helps me get a feel for their world. I've never mentioned it because it's rarely all that useful."
"Can we fix him?" Willow asked suddenly.
Giles shook his head. "Altering a person's mind against their will is evil. Sure you could 'fix' him, but he'd no longer be Xander, you'd basically have killed Xander and replaced him with someone more to your liking."
"So what can we do?" Buffy asked.
"Nothing," Cordelia said bluntly. "You can kill him, but you can't make him do anything, and since we are all now persona non grata trying to convince him of anything is useless as well."
"How did you learn of Xander's problem so fast?" Giles asked.
"He was scouting for a new place to live when he found me facing a Fyarl with three vamps cheering it on," Angel said. "He took out the vamps and tossed me a silver candlestick holder to take care of the Fyarl with."
"New place to live?" Giles asked, ignoring Buffy checking Angel for wounds.
"He can't!" Willow burst out. "He promised me he'd never run away from home, no matter how bad it got…"
Angel nodded as Willow's voice trailed off. "Yeah, I'm thinking promises made to a person who turned out not to be his friend are no longer binding."
Willow burst out in tears.
"In light of this new information is Xander a threat or not?" Wesley asked.
Angel sighed as he saw the concerned looks everyone exchanged. "The only way Xander is a threat is if you hurt one of his friends and that number is really low right now."
Everyone fell silent. Faith and Wesley who weren't all that emotionally invested in the situation, but really didn't have much to say so they returned to boxing books.
After a few minutes Giles just shook his head and started sorting weapons.
"Some of those were my favorites," Buffy said with a sigh as the piles of weapons that belonged to Xander grew. "I mean they felt like they were made for me."
"That's because Xander altered them to fit you," Giles said. "As I taught him how to restore books, weapons, and what have you, he showed some talent in altering weapons to fit the wielder, most of it is done by altering the hilt to fit your hand, but there are also a lot of little things like the tiny crosses engraved on the pommel or the razor edge he tried to keep it at."
"Someone should make a list of all the things he did so we can make sure they still get done," Wesley suggested.
Giles nodded and pulled out a notebook jot down a few notes. "Got it."
The group made short work of the books needing boxing and sorting the weapons into two piles, which was good because Xander showed up just after they finished.
"Angel," Xander greeted him cheerfully before grabbing a couple of boxes to take to his car.
As Xander left the Scoobs turned to Angel the question clear in their eyes.
"If not for Xander I'd be dust right now, so I invited him to move in," Angel reminded them.
"Like the supernatural odd couple," Oz finally said receiving a lot of nods.
Giles quickly spoke up when Xander returned for another load of books, "I have about half a dozen of yours books in my office that I am still using. Is there any way I can finish with them before I return them?"
Xander nodded. "As long as you don't mind me borrowing a few of yours."
"What ones do you need?" Giles asked, already rising to get them.
"I don't recall the titles off the top of my head, but one was in old French and the other a weird form of Latin. The French one was talking about heat and motion, while the Latin one was about boundaries," Xander explained.
"What do you need those for?" Willow asked.
Xander's eyes brushed over her, but he didn't bother replying.
"I believe I know the books you're referring to, let me get them," Giles replied quickly fetching a book in brown leather and a journal size one with a wooden cover.
Xander accepted the books with a nod. "As long as you don't mind sharing books I have no problem doing the same."
"How about weapons?" Buffy suddenly spoke up.
"You have nothing I want," Xander said flatly before picking up a couple of boxes and carrying them out to his car.
"Ow," Buffy said with a wince.
Typing by: Bankrupt Samurai!
AN: My idea for an Insane Xander and Odd couple set up with Angel.