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“Again.”
“No. This is stupid.”
“Again.”
“Fine.”
Angel watched as Xander stepped cautiously out of the alleyway, head ducked, eyes
darting.
“The perimeter,” Angel hissed.
Impatiently, Xander waved a hand that clutched a stake
back at Angel.
Sighing, Angel stepped back, following Xander’s movements with his eyes and then stiffening as
he saw a dark clad man walk out The Bronze and lift his chin, scenting. Two sets of yellow eyes followed Xander as he moved
past the dimly lit doorway to the club, wandering over to a darkened area filled with wooden crates.
Fighting every
instinct, Angel stayed hidden in the alley as he listened to Xander whistling tunelessly under his breath and watched as he
turned his back to the slowly approaching vampire.
The vampire’s hand was grasping Xander’s shoulder,
his head already lowering for the bite, when Xander suddenly spun around, holding up the stake.
“Oh, hey,”
he said, his face filling with artless confusion. “Say, I found this just laying around over here.” He looked
at the stake in his hand, and then back up at the vampire, grinning. “Do you know where it’s supposed to go?”
The
vampire growled, backing away, and then cocked his head, a smile spreading around fangs as he looked Xander over. “I
could think of a place or two.”
“Okay, ow, pokey!” Xander said, flipping the stake in his hand.
“And…splinters!”
“Why don’t you lose this,” the vampire said, reaching out and
stroking a hand slowly up the stake, wrist flicking with innuendo, “and we’ll see if I have something you’d
like better.”
“You know, as far as pick up lines I’ve gotten from dead guys in alleys go, that one’s
actually not too bad,” Xander said, ripping the stake from the vampire’s hand and plunging it into its chest,
“but I’m gonna have to say no.” He grinned, and then leaned in, whispering as he jerked it back out, “Besides,
my boyfriend’s watching.”
Angel watched as Xander turned away from the pile of dust that settled around
his feet and headed back to the alley, whistling.
Xander stopped in front of Angel, flipping the stake and grinning.
“You
didn’t do one thing I told you to do.”
Xander’s grin faded.
“And you were talking to
him! Unless you can stake like a Slayer, you don’t have time to quip.”
“Okay, so sue me,” Xander
said, shoving the stake into his back pocket. “It’s not like I’m used to getting the drop on them. They’re
usually just jumping me out of nowhere and I end up beating them off.” He paused. “Fighting them off.”
“And
you lead him away from the The Bronze and into the darkness, giving him the advantage. Well lit areas, Xander. It’s
the first thing we covered.”
“Yeah, well, the idea of throwing down with a vamp right in front of my English
class didn’t seem like a good idea to me. I know there are vampires, you know there are vampires. I kinda
like to give other people the option of living the fantasy.”
Angel raised a hand, rubbing tiredly between his
eyes and sighing. “Well, it was better than the last time.”
“Hey, I totally flushed him out
for you.”
“C’mon,” Angel said, brushing past Xander and leading him out of the alley. “If
nothing else, I think you made enough noise to cost us the element of surprise. Let’s try one of the cemeteries and
then we’ll call it a night. And next time? A little less conversation.”
“I was just throwing him
off,” Xander said, falling into step with Angel. “He didn’t even see it coming.”
“You
were flirting with him.”
“Jealous?”
“And I’m not your boyfriend!”
Xander
grinned. “My ass says different.”
***
Angel watched Xander shiver slightly as they walked through
the gates of the cemetery, the night air damp, the moonlight thin and making everything darker, deeper. He drew his stake
and then nodded for Xander to do the same.
“Rules of engagement?”
Xander sighed. “Anything
can be a weapon. Know your environment. Vampires gotta kill to eat – you’re fighting his instinct as well as his
strength and…Angel, you realize I can’t actually remember any of that when they’re coming at me fangs first,
right?”
“That’s the point, Xander, you’re supposed to know it so well it becomes instinct.”
“How’d I end up being the only one to get this training gig, again? You could just teach Willow and I
could copy what she does.”
“You’re supposed to learn it so that you can protect her so she doesn’t
have to learn.”
Xander stopped, looking back at Angel. “You know, now I’m gettin’ why things
would have never worked out between you and Buffy.”
Angel shifted uncomfortably. “Buffy’s different.
A lot of this came to her naturally. And as long as you and Willow are determined to cover for Buffy until she comes back
from LA, at least one of you needs to know what they’re doing.” He stopped suddenly, grabbing Xander’s arm
and pulling him back. “Goettenhardt.”
Xander leaned into Angel, grinning up at him. “I have that
effect on people.”
Angel stared at him for a moment and then pulled a short sword from his coat. “Goettenhardt
demon,” he said, pulling away from Xander and running toward the demon that leapt down from the crypt a few feet
away.
“Wait!” Xander called, reaching for his stake and then frowning down at it. “What are the rules
on demons, again?”
Angel turned, vamp face grinning wickedly, “Keep hitting until they stop moving.”
Angel launched himself at the grey, spine covered demon that seemed to be more mouth than anything else. He threw
kicks and punches, dodging its shovel sized hands as he raised his sword, nodding as Xander rounded to the demon’s back.
Xander landed a hard kick against the back Goettenhardt’s knee, sending it forward into Angel. The demon lashed
out, knocking the sword out of Angel’s hand and falling on him with a screech. Its legs drew up, landing hard on Angel’s
stomach as it pounced, jaws opening wide.
“Vampire,” the demon hissed as its mouth grew wider and its teeth
seemed to multiply and divide, acrid saliva dripping as fell upon Angel’s throat.
Angel turned his head, watching
as Xander grabbed his fallen sword, hitting the demon over the head and then bouncing back, waiting for it to turn on him.
He didn’t have to wait long.
Angel sat up as the demon leapt from him with a howl, spinning toward Xander. “Vulnerable
areas: throat, mouth, eyes…”
“Right,” Xander muttered, his hands clenching around the hilt
of the sword, “anything that squishes.”
As Xander hacked at the demon, Angel jumped to his feet, watching
expectantly. His eyes followed the awkward movements of Xander’s body, the negligent way he held the sword, but also
the eagerness with which he used it and the careless strength he put behind it.
Xander’s leg suddenly made a
sweep, catching the demon as it advanced and knocking it on its back. His face seemed to register a brief moment of shock
that the move had actually worked, and then he was leaping atop the demon, the sword plunging as he tried to penetrate the
tough outer skin.
The sword twisted uselessly in his hands and he tossed it aside, drawing his knees up and pinning
the Goettenhardt by its throat. He looked back at Angel, waving him over, his hands going around the demon’s neck. “Come
do that,” he mimed a wrenching motion with his hands, “cracky thing.”
Angel ignored Xander and ran
for his sword, sweeping it up and plunging it into the demon’s eyes and watching as it howled, shuddered, and then lay
silent and still.
Breathing hard, Angel and Xander stared at each other for a moment and then Angel dropped the sword,
glaring. “Vulnerable areas. At no time did I say, ‘Xander, stab it in its heavily plated and covered with
spines chest!’”
Xander was silent and Angel turned away, sighing in disgust, “You’re not even
trying.”
“Try not. Do...or do not. There is no try,” Xander quoted dully, but his body was
shaking, his eyes wide and dark.
Angel stared down at Xander, his own body vibrating, tense, head still roaring with
blood lust and his throat tight with anger. Fear. “I can’t teach you,” he said finally, his voice harsh.
“I was wrong to let this start – any of this. You go out looking for death, laughing at it. You don’t even
understand it. Buffy’s made you forget what fear is. And I forget sometimes how young…” he shook his head,
looking away. “You’re so fucking young.”
“Too young,” Xander agreed angrily, jumping
to his feet and meeting Angel’s eyes. “Too young to have to try to understand any of this. But I lost that
choice the day my best friend looked me in the eyes and told me I was just a shadow to him. So I fight because even though
I don’t understand it, I know that it’s real and that’s it coming for me, whether I understand it or not.”
He glared at Angel for a moment longer, and then turned away. “So if you think I’m laughing at that, you don’t
know me at all.”
Angel reached out grabbed Xander’s chin, turning him around to face him. “I’m
just trying to make sure you’re safe,” he said, his fingers digging in, his eyes dark and angry.
“No,”
Xander said, jerking his head back, “you’re trying to make me into you.”
“If you think
that,” Angel said thickly, his hand reaching up to wrap in Xander’s hair, “you don’t know me at all.”
His mouth covered Xander’s in hard a kiss, anger fueling the drive of lips and tongue.
Angel felt Xander shudder
against him, and then Xander’s mouth was opening under his, lips wild and reckless and giving back as good as he got.
Angel groaned and pulled Xander harder against him, bodies tangling together, and then opened his eyes in shock as Xander’s
leg swept his, knocking them to the ground.
Angel closed his eyes again as Xander's mouth crushed down on his, hot
and hungry, his body driving into Angel’s. And then Xander was lifting his head, looking down at him.
“Wow,”
Xander breathed, licking his lips as he stared down at Angel, “is this what they call grudge fucking?”
Angel
shifted beneath him, his hips rubbing against Xander’s. “Not yet.”
Xander smiled, lowering his lips
to Angel’s throat and biting lightly. “So, he who is not so fucking young, ever done it in a cemetery?”
Angel looked away, remembering the stench of new death, the tang of fresh turned earth, and her hands as she took
him from the ground and into her body, into a new world of their own making. “Not in a very long time, but yes,”
he said, looking back at Xander.
“Well, then,” Xander said, his hands sliding down Angel’s chest
and stomach to his belt. “We’ll add this to the list of things you can teach me.” Xander slowly eased down
Angel’s zipper, his mouth lowering again, and then Angel reached out, grabbing Xander’s wrist.
“Wait,”
he said, licking his lips and looking around the cemetery. “This isn’t a good idea. It’s too open, too exposed.”
“Not
yet,” Xander said, tearing Angel’s fly open, filling his hand with Angel’s cock.
“I’m
serious, Xander,” Angel said, even as his eyes fluttered closed on a groan as Xander stroked him. “You know what
sort of things are out here. We can’t let ourselves get…oh, God, like that…distracted.”
“I’m
not walking back to your place with a hard on,” Xander answered, one hand moving to his own belt as the other slid teasingly
up and down Angel’s erection. “Besides,” he said, his hand slipping lower, cupping Angel’s balls and
then easing lower still. “I know the territory,” his fingers trailed back up, dragging slowly up the underside
of Angel’s cock, “I’ve chosen my weapon,” he rose up slightly, shoving his jeans down, “and
I’m going with my instincts.”
Angel grinned slightly in spite of himself. “You do pay attention.”
“I
do,” Xander agreed, slipping a hand into Angel’s coat pocket and pulling out a tube of lubricant and waving it
in Angel’s face. “See?”
“I don’t know how that…” Angel began, and then cut
off, back arching, as Xander’s now slick fingers slipped around his cock. Xander rose up over him, leaning in for another
hungry kiss as he opened Angel’s hand, rubbed the slickness into it and then guided it back, easing Angel’s fingers
into him.
Angel pressed deep, his fingers delving into the heat and thrusting his tongue into Xander’s mouth
with the same rhythm, swallowing the groans he received from both.
Xander tugged his hand away before Angel was ready
to let him go. He eased it forward, curving it around Xander’s hip instead, and guiding him down as Xander sank onto
his cock with a hard thrust that made them both cry out.
Angel’s thumb rode the curve of Xander’s hip bone,
brushing lightly at first, and then digging deep as Xander began to ride him hard, their lips meeting and parting as their
bodies slammed together.
One hand tangling in Xander’s hair, pulling him close, the other leaving Xander’s
hip to close tight around his cock, Angel whispered, “Need to make this one fast.”
Xander grinned into
Angel’s lips, his tongue flicking teasingly. “Don’t think we have to worry about there being another option.”
Xander’s hips rose and fell faster, his hand joining Angel’s on his cock and then he fell back, body tightening,
inside and out, as he came.
Angel’s hands fell away, sliding sticky warm around Xander, cupping his ass and
grinding him down hard. His jaw tightened, the chords in his neck standing out as he braced his legs and thrust, hips fast
and brutal.
Xander’s knees dug into his sides, rocking into him harder and faster than Angel knew he would ever
ask for.
“God,” Xander whispered, and Angel’s eyes fluttered open at the sound of his voice. “You’re
so fucking beautiful like this; I could fuck you all night, just to see that look on your face. I could come just from seeing
it. Knowing that I’m causing it, that it’s me taking you there. Knowing you, like this.”
Angel’s
body jerked, his orgasm ripping through him until the only thing real was the grind of the earth beneath him and the arch
of Xander’s body above him. He came back to Xander’s smugly smiling face and gave a wry answering grin of his
own.
“Sometimes I think you just try to piss me off so something like this will happen,” he said, groaning
as the cold and damp of the cemetery came back to him. “You’re learning,” he admitted grudgingly, “learning
how to talk me into something stupid.”
“Had my eye on the perimeter the whole time,” Xander lied,
leaning in for another kiss. “You trained me well.”
~End~
Rules of Engagement borrowed from Buffy's speech in "Potential."
"Try
not. Do...or do not. There is no try," is from The Empire Strikes Back.
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