Fic: Shanshu 7 - Reflections

[dragonyphoenix]

Title: Reflections
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: 438 - Whimsy
Rating: G
Summary: Part 7 of Shanshu
Word Count: 961
Note: After the previous chapter I was asked why Xander's reaction was so extreme so I came up with some backstory for Xander and Willow. Oh, and for LA as well.

Spike had killed two Slayers. Xander could picture them, well, no, he couldn't because he didn't know the details and yet he could. He'd seen so many dead Slayers, girls new to their calling, Watcherless, alone, outnumbered. Maybe no one got the credit when it was dozens against one. Maybe Spike still had the high-count for Slayer kills. Xander wished the vampire away. The conservative look – pinstripe shirt and khakis – as well as a return to what must be his natural hair color didn't make Spike any less undead. “Like the look. Very non-threatening.”

The bastard couldn't even be bothered to snark back.

“I'm not inviting you in.” Damn. He should just slam the door shut. He shouldn’t have opened it in the first place. Not that a closed door would keep Spike out. Vampire here. Easy enough for him to break it down and then who'd be stuck paying the bill. Not the evil undead, that's for sure.

“I'm not going away.”

LA had been promoted as Xander's chance to get away, to leave the deaths behind, as if they could be left behind. LA had been uneviled. There'd been an evil law firm but the portal to its senior partners had been closed, leaving behind, Xander imagined, a law firm that was slightly less evil. All this meant that LA should have been a plum assignment, almost a vacation. It hadn't been and now Spike was here. “You couldn't have come some other time, oh I don't know, possibly high noon when the sun's shining all bright and deadly?”

Knowing he shouldn't, Xander invited the vampire in. It wasn't as if he could keep Spike out. Vampires could walk into hotel rooms. He turned his back and walked into the room first, acting as if Spike weren't a threat but he wasn't nearly so sure. Spike should have been ashes in the wind. He wasn't. What did that mean for the chip? Could Spike kill him now? Xander found it hard to care. Too many Slayers would be alive now if he hadn't been the one sent to save them. Once upon a time Spike had helped save the world. Well, once upon a time was a hell of a long time ago. Xander didn't forget what Spike really was. “I don't forgive you. I never will. Buffy won't either if that's why you're here. We put up with you because she needed you but that's over and done with. From here on out, we're quits.”

“Why would you need to … What did I do?”

You killed. Xander wanted to shout the words but that hadn't been Spike, at least not recently, and that wasn't fair. “You still don't get it, do you? Buffy, bruised and bloody on the bathroom floor. Ring a bell?”

“I hit a woman?”

For one wild moment the floor seemed to give way from beneath Xander's feet. Spike didn't get it. Of course he didn't, evil, but how could he not know what he'd done? “Hit? Try rape.”

Spike stumbled through the entryway, that narrow hall between the mirrored closet and the bathroom, and landed with a thump against the door. Just for a moment, before Spike darted out of the room, Xander could see two of him: Spike in the room and Spike in the mirror.

“Hey.” Xander chased after but Spike was gone. “How did you … mirror … vampires don't reflect …”

Spike had become human? Oh, shit.

* * *

Xander called Willow. Yeah, maybe Giles or Buffy should be his first call in the case of apocalypsey goodness, but Willow had been his best friend forever. His first call would always be to her.

“This better not be some sort of whimsy.”

So his timing kind of sucked. “Uh, Will?”

“I mean it, Mister. If this isn't at least life threatening, I'm hanging up.”

“Apocalypse or bootie call?”

“Xander.” She spluttered into the phone. “I would not blow you off just for … well, okay, maybe I would, but she's a gymnast. I didn't even know a body could be that bendy.”

“Aaaaand I don't want to know. Well, yeah, actually I do but that's not why I called.” Gymnast. So she'd given Diego the boot. He couldn't say he was surprised. When Kennedy had worked out that Willow had been doing the naughty with some kind of snakey demoness, well, that fight had made apocalypses look peaceful. Apparently Kennedy wasn't big on second chances. Willow had given up on Kennedy years ago, at least as far as Xander knew, but she'd also given up on long-term white picket fence relationships.

“Nightmares again?”

Nightmares. A corpse left sitting up, looking as if it were still alive. They'd known he was coming. They'd known he'd find the body. A whole family torn to pieces. Grisly bits he couldn't identify. “No.” He couldn't wish for a simple nightmare, especially since his nightmares weren't simple, but this … wasn't good. “You remember when you took away Angel's chance to shanshu?”

“I didn't take it away. He voluntarily gave it up.”

“Okay, so not the point. Remember how we thought that whole shanshued vampire apocalypse prophecy had been averted?”

“Sure, I mean, if there is no shanshued vampire then demons can't use the shanshued vampire to end the world, because he's, like, not there as in not shashued.”

“We forgot about Spike.”

There was a long moment of silence before Willow spoke. “Xander, honey? Spike's dead, well deader, dusted.”

“That's what I thought until he waltzed into my hotel room. Oh and guess what. I saw his reflection.”

“Xander, are you saying Spike's human?”

“Looks like.”

“Oh, by Ishtar's round firm tits.”

“That's what I said,” Xander replied, “but with less tits.”

Comments

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

I loved to see Xander's perspective (actually one of the things that I find strangely fascinating is "what's going on in the person's head when he's being a dick?").
And Willow's and Xander's interaction is just priceless!

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

You have red satin doll to thank for Xander's perspective. She asked why he was being such a jerk so I decided to take a look at that.

And Willow's and Xander's interaction is just priceless! Thank you. It's great to hear that because I wasn't completely sure of it.