Spikedluv's Scribblin'

~BtVS/Ats: The Seduction of Spike~

Back to Spike/Xander Fanfic

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When Visions Come True
by Spikedluv

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Part Four

Friday night at The Bronze, Xander couldn’t stop smiling.

“What?” Spike grumbled.

“Nothing.”

Xander paid for their drinks and put quarters down on the pool table. He bounced on his toes as they drank their beer and watched the other players at the table. After the waitress disappeared with more of Xander’s money in her pocket, Spike turned to him.

“Will you knock it off?” he snarled.

Xander lowered the fresh bottle he’d been about to take a sip out of. “Knock what off?”

“Th-th-the smiling! And bouncing! It’s creepin’ me out. Plus, it’s bloody annoying.” Xander’s smile widened. “That! Right there. Knock if off or, so help me, I’ll forget about this chip and....”

Xander thought that his smile might split his face. “I’m excited,” he admitted. “This is gonna be so much fun!”

“We’ve done this before,” Spike reminded him.

“Yeah, but now I don’t suck quite so much.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Says who?”

“Says Reggie,” Xander retorted.

“What was it I said?” Reggie asked.

Xander turned in surprise. “Hey, Reggie!”

“Hey, Xander.” Reggie clapped him on the back. “Spike.” He and Spike shook hands while Xander looked on enviously. “Spike, you remember Carla.”

Spike greeted the woman Reggie pulled forward politely. That alone would have made Xander’s jaw drop, but the slender redhead who stood about a foot shorter than he did could actually take most of the credit.

“Xander,” Reggie continued, “this is my wife, Carla.”

“Wife?” Xander blurted, then blushed. “Sorry,” he told the woman smiling up at him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Carla placed her small hand in his. “The pleasure’s mine, young man.”

“I told Carla that Spike had a new friend, and she insisted on coming along tonight to meet you,” Reggie explained.

Carla lovingly slapped Reggie’s arm, and Spike said, “Oh, we’re not friends.”

“He keeps saying that,” Reggie stage-whispered to his wife.

“In fact,” Spike continued as if the larger man hadn’t spoken, “you just saved me from a splittin’ headache caused by knockin’ some sense into him.”

Xander lightly punched the vampire on the arm. “I’ll give you a.... Oh! We’re up!” He bounced and grinned at Spike, who just rolled his eyes.

“See what I mean?” he whined to Reggie and Carla.

Xander played a much better game than he’d done two weeks before, thanks to Reggie’s patient tutoring, but he was often distracted by Spike’s ass, or hands, or tongue...and the vampire easily took three out of the four games they played. After that, they convinced Reggie and Carla to play doubles with them. Luckily, Carla wasn’t a much better player than Xander, so they were evenly matched.

At night’s end, Spike walked Xander to his car, but declined a ride back to his crypt in favor of a quick patrol. He paused to light a cigarette and said casually, without looking at Xander, “Don’t forget the basket Sunday.”

Xander’s heart rate sped up. “I won’t,” he said nervously. “What, um, what time? Would, uh, be good for you, I mean?”

Spike gave a careless shrug as he drew on the cigarette and stuffed the lighter back into his pocket. “Four-ish.”

“O-okay. Four’s good. For me. Too.” As much as Xander was enjoying Spike’s company and didn’t want the night to end, he wished the vampire would get going so he could do the little bounce that was causing his whole body to vibrate as he struggled to suppress it.

“Good,” Spike said shortly. He turned to walk away. “Bring some snacks,” he said over his shoulder. “And some beer. The good kind,” he called as he moved off.

Xander started to bounce. His fingers shook as he unlocked his car door.

“And bring a chair, ‘less you wanna sit on the floor.” Spike’s voice drifted out of the darkness.

Xander was so excited he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face, and the sun was nearly coming up before he managed to fall asleep.

---

Xander took a deep breath before he tapped the door with the toe of his boot. He was loaded down with snacks and drinks, the empty basket dangling from one finger, a folding chair hanging over his shoulder.

He put his back to the crypt door and pushed it open a crack, and then peeked inside. Seeing no one, he pushed the door open farther. “Spike?” he called as he stepped into the dimly lit room. His luck, Spike was hiding in one of the dark, shadowed corners, ready to jump out and scare the crap out of him.

He set his packages down on the closest tomb, and turned towards the entrance to the lower level when he heard Spike coming up the ladder. A tousled head of blond curls appeared first, followed by bare shoulders. Xander’s breath caught when a shirtless Spike climbed out of the hole. His mouth gaped as the sleepy vampire ran the fingers of one hand through his hair and absently scratched at his belly with the hand that clutched his t-shirt.

“I, um, I....” Xander tried to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth. “I, uh, knocked. But, I woke you. I might be a little early...,” he babbled.

“‘S fine,” Spike mumbled, waving away Xander’s concern. “Bring the beer?”

Xander, unable to think coherently with Spike’s deliciously firm abs on display, much less form complete sentences, merely nodded. Heat flared in his belly, and then centered itself in his groin. He surreptitiously swiped the back of his hand over his mouth to make sure he wasn’t drooling.

“Why don’t you find some room for the beer in the fridge?” Spike asked as he pulled the t-shirt on.

Xander fought back a whimper of protest as the pale flesh was covered up. He turned quickly and grabbed the bag that held the beer, holding it in front of his crotch as he shuffled over to the small refrigerator in the corner.

While he packed the fridge, Spike disappeared into the back corner, and reappeared with a battered folding table that had seen better days. He set it up in front of his ratty easy chair, and then slid a magazine under a bent leg to keep it semi-level.

“Grab me a bag o’ blood,” he commanded as he retreated to the corner, returning with two folding chairs. “You bring a chair?”

Xander grabbed a blood bag out of the fridge, a lot less grossed out than he thought he should be, and tossed it into the microwave while he put the last of the beer away. “Yeah. Over there.” He pointed to the tomb.

Spike glanced over at the tomb and nodded. He set the chairs under the table and then went through the snacks Xander’d brought. He grunted once or twice, but Xander couldn’t tell if it was in approval of, or disgust at his choices.

When the microwave dinged, Spike carried the snacks over to the table and dropped Xander’s chair on the floor beside it. Xander stood back while Spike pulled out a mug and poured the warmed blood into it. He forced himself to look away while Spike drank, though he couldn’t resist a glance at the other man’s throat as he swallowed.

Spike finished the blood and took a step towards Xander. He started wondering if the vampire had been able to read his thoughts, but then realized he was moving past him and into the shadows. He jumped when the door opened and Clem stuck his head inside. Spike chuckled.

“Shut up, Spike,” Xander groused. “You coulda warned me!”

Spike grinned. “Where’s the fun in that?”

“Hey, Xander,” Clem said as he entered the crypt. A demon that looked an awful lot like the loose-skinned demon followed Clem in. “Spike here?”

“Hey, Clem,” Xander greeted him. “Yeah, Spike’s right here.”

Spike stepped forward. “Just staying away from stray sunbeams. You got the wings?”

“Yep.” Clem held up the bucket. “Xander, this is my cousin, Flem,” he added as he walked over to the table.

Xander’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, yeah,” Clem said in a dismissive manner. “We’ve heard all the jokes. It’s spelled with an ‘f’, and there’s no ‘g’.” He stepped over Xander’s chair and set the bucket of wings on the table.

Spike plopped into his chair, and Clem and Flem pulled the two folding chairs out and sat down as if they were at home here in Spike’s crypt. Clem pulled a worn deck of cards out from somewhere Xander didn’t even want to contemplate.

“Grab some beers, Harris, and get over here,” Spike commanded.

---

They played poker that first Sunday until it was well past Xander’s bedtime. Spike had rolled his eyes when Xander said he had to get going, but he’d just packed up his chair, smacked Spike on the back of the head, and stuffed his winnings—a dozen oreos and about thirty corn chips—into his pockets. He figured he’d paid for them, might as well have something to snack on during the drive home.

He still couldn’t believe how much fun he’d had playing poker with three demons he wouldn’t have been caught dead spending time with even three months ago. Flem was as taciturn as Clem was gregarious, but Xander couldn’t remember laughing so hard as he had when Flem finally opened up and told the joke about the three demons, a Platoc, a Grimlag, and a Creatch, that walked into a bar. He couldn’t actually remember the rest of it, but it had been damned funny at the time. Or, maybe it was just the beer.

Over the next couple of weeks, Spike and Xander continued to play pool at The Bronze on Friday nights, and Xander had a standing invite to be their fourth for Sunday afternoon poker. He’d even managed to convince Spike to go see a movie with him. Actually, the vampire had said he’d only go to the movie if Xander went on a motorcycle ride with him, and though he’d hesitated before agreeing, Xander couldn’t back down from the challenge in Spike’s eyes. The two hour ride up the coast the following weekend had been more than he’d bargained for, but it had been worth it to be that close to Spike.

Friday night had rolled around again, and Xander was whistling happily in anticipation of seeing Spike when he pushed the crypt door open without knocking, as he’d gotten into the habit of doing. “Hey, Spike, get your undead ass....” His voice trailed off when his eyes adjusted to the dim light and he saw Spike and Buffy facing off. “Oh, you’re already up here. Buffy,” his voice squeaked. What in hell was Buffy doing here?

“Xander,” Buffy said, her eyes narrowing suspiciously, “what are you doing here?”

“Ha! I was just wondering that. About you, not me, ‘cause I know what I’m doing here,” Xander babbled.

Buffy crossed her arms over her chest. “Which is?”

“Which is what?” Xander asked, suddenly confused.

“Why you’re here.”

“Oh, that.” Xander had imagined this happening, his ‘trysts’ with Spike being discovered, but he found denial a happy place to be, so hadn’t actually thought of what he’d say when that happened. What came out was, “For our play date!”

Buffy and Spike both stared at him as if he was nuts.

He gave a nervous laugh. “You know, when kids go to their friends’ houses to play, it’s called a play date?”

Buffy’s frown deepened. “I know what a play date is, Xander. Are you saying you came here to play with Spike?”

“Yes....” Xander blushed at the bad, wrong thoughts that comment engendered. “No!”

Spike looked away before Xander could determine whether his expression was one of amusement or annoyance, though he figured if Spike was annoyed, he’d be unlikely to try and hide it. He shook his head and wished he could just learn to keep his mouth shut.

“Pool,” he said. “We’re going to play pool. At The Bronze.”

Buffy didn’t look convinced. “You and Spike?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” she demanded.

Xander’s eyes widened. He so didn’t want to be having this conversation now. “Because it’s fun?”

“Playing pool with Spike is fun?” She sounded very skeptical.

“Hey!” Spike snarled. “I can be fun, as you very well know,” he said nastily. “‘Sides, it’s fun for me, ‘cause I can beat the pants off him,” he contributed.

“Thanks,” Xander drawled. Though he’d improved, thanks to Reggie, he still wasn’t a match for Spike’s skills. “It’s something to do on a Friday night,” he told Buffy.

“Plus, he buys,” Spike added.

“And again, thanks.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Now we know why Spike hangs out with you, why is it you’re hanging with Spike again?”

Xander’s embarrassment over his secret—or rather part of it, since his attraction to the vampire was still hidden—having been found out was suddenly overshadowed by a flash of hurt. “Thanks, Buff,” he said, stung by her words.

She immediately looked contrite. “Xander, I didn’t mean....”

Xander didn’t want to hear it right then. He ignored her and turned to Spike. “I’m leaving. You still coming, or you gotta patrol or something?”

Spike glanced at Buffy. “I’m comin’. Got nothin’ here I need to do.”

---

The next night, he, Buffy, and Willow were sitting around the research table at the Magic Box. His best friends were discussing him as if he wasn’t sitting right there listening.

“Maybe he just needs a guy friend,” Willow suggested.

“Spike’s not a guy,” Buffy retorted.

“He’s a guy, he’s just not a human guy,” Willow corrected.

“Thanks, Will, that makes me feel so much better.”

“Look, can I have a say...?”

“No!” both girls told him.

Xander raised his hands in surrender and leaned back in his chair.

“Seriously,” Willow went on, “it’s not like there’s a plethora...”

‘Plethora?’ Xander mouthed silently.

“...of guys in our little group. I mean, there used to be Oz and Riley, but now there’s just Giles and Spike.”

Xander watched them contemplate him and Giles playing pool, or sipping port, and then shake themselves out of it.

“Plus, it’s not like he can just go find another guy friend outside our group and bring him by to get to know us, what with the whole demon fighting thing. And,” she went on, “it’s not like we hang as much as we used to. I mean, a-and that’s okay, ‘cause we’ve each got our own lives and stuff, and I didn’t mean to imply....”

“Then let’s do something together,” Buffy suggested. “A movie.” She got up and rifled through Giles’s newspaper until she found the movie section. “Lord of the Rings is playing at the cheap theater,” she announced.

“Xander’s already seen that,” Willow said, and then made a ‘sorry’ face at him.

“What! When?” No one answered her. “Xander?”

“Oh, I get to speak now?” he asked sarcastically.

“Yes, sorry, please, speak,” Buffy said as she retook her seat.

“Yes, I’ve already seen it, is there anyth—?”

“When?” she whined.

“A couple...weekends...ago.” Buffy was obviously waiting for more. “With Spike,” he squeaked.

“You went to the movies with Spike?” she demanded. “He went to the movies with Spike!” she told Willow. The redhead nodded. “See? That’s what I mean. It’s just....”

“Ooky?”

“Unnatural! Spike and Xander hate each other, and suddenly they’re hanging out? Something Hellmouth-y is going on here,” she declared, and then buried her face in the paper.

Willow’s eyes went wide with understanding. Xander blushed. ‘Spike?’ she mouthed at him. He thought about lying, but knew he couldn’t. Not to Willow. He closed his eyes, and nodded.

“I mean, they don’t even have anything in common,” Buffy griped.

“Well, um, fighting evil,” Willow supplied gamely, though still obviously in shock over this latest revelation.

“Pool,” Xander added weakly.

“Action movies,” Willow said with a smile, getting more in to it.

“That flowerin’ onion thing,” Spike said as he pulled a chair away from the table, turned it around, and straddled it.

Xander screeched, and then slapped at Spike, who expertly evaded him.

“What’s up?” he asked. “Somethin’ odd in the obits?” He nodded at the paper Buffy held.

“Movies,” Willow said. “Hey, maybe Spike can go with us!”

Xander turned red with embarrassment.

Buffy turned red with irritation. “Willow!”

“What?” she asked innocently.

“This was supposed to be an ‘us’ thing, ‘cause you said we weren’t hanging out enough and that’s why....” She had the grace to look uncomfortable as she trailed off.

Xander caught a fleeting expression of hurt cross Spike’s face before it was quickly covered by a sneer. “Keep the boy busy so he’s not bored enough to wanna hang out with me, is that the plan, Slayer?” He stood up, turned the chair back around, and practically threw it back under the table. He gave Xander an angry look. “Well, I don’t bloody need....”

Xander wasn’t sure what made him do it, but he quickly stood and grabbed Spike’s arm. “I’m good for whatever you decide,” he told Buffy, gesturing towards the paper. “Saturday’s better for me, ‘cause Friday night is pool night, and Sunday is, um, not good either. Right?” he asked Spike, and then continued on without waiting for an answer. “Come on, let’s go patrol.” He took a step towards the door and tugged on Spike’s arm.

Spike glared at Buffy, and then turned and stomped out. Xander gave Willow a little wave, and then followed him. He breathed a sigh of relief, figuring he’d just killed three birds with one stone—he managed some alone-time with Spike, got away from Buffy’s disapproving looks, and evaded Willow’s certain grilling.

---

He’d managed to avoid Willow the next day by the expediency of letting his machine pick up all his calls, and by going over to Spike’s early for poker, but when Xander’d gotten home from work Monday night, she was waiting for him. She’d closed her textbook and scrambled to her feet when she saw him. He’d taken a deep breath. After the other night, and too much beer yesterday, he was so not in the mood for this confrontation...discussion...whatever.

“Will....”

“Stop right there, buster.” She’d held her hand up to silence him. “We’re talking. You can take a shower and relax, we’ll order takeout, but we’re talking. Plus, I brought chocolate.” She issued the bribe with a knowing expression.

Xander was weak, so he’d relented, giving her a wan smile, and then opening the door. He’d showered and changed into sweat pants and a t-shirt, and they’d eaten the Chinese takeout Willow had ordered while he was in the shower. Now they were sprawled out on the couch eating the chocolate brownies she’d picked up at the bakery on her way over.

“So,” she said, beginning the discussion Xander was dreading, “Spike, huh?”

Xander was loathe to discuss his dirty little secret—not the fact that he was infatuated with the vampire, but that he had feelings for someone who didn’t return them. Who wanted anyone, even their best friend, to know they were in unrequited-love? Lust, not love. Mild attraction.

Willow already knew how upset he was about the second vision and he’d already confided that the individual was a guy who Xander hated, but he’d left off the bit about the guy hating him right back. And failed to tell her that he’d decided to take things into his own hands to ‘disprove’ the vision.

“Xander? You can talk to me,” Willow assured him.

He snorted bitter laughter. “About how I’m secretly wooing Spike and I still don’t know if he even likes me?”

“Y-you’re wooing him?”

Xander rolled his eyes. “We’re dating,” he said with a small, wry grin, “but he doesn’t know it, yet.”

Willow made an ‘aww’ face. Xander swallowed hard.

“After the spell,” he told her, “I did a lot of thinking. I figured there was one way to disprove the vision, and that was if Spike and I couldn’t even be friends. I mean, what kind of happy future would there be for the two of us if we continued to hate each other, right? Well, he surprised me,” Xander admitted.

“So you...still...?”

“I think it’s worse now.”

“Really?” She blinked wide eyes in surprise.

“Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a jerk. But I’ve seen him sometimes when he’s not a jerk, and there were a couple times when he was being a not-jerk and he realized it and he did something double-jerk-y to make up for it.” His small smile was more genuine now. “He really tried to piss me off one night, but the thing was, I knew why he was doing it, so I pretended to let him get to me.” He glanced up at Willow. “That sounds stupid, doesn’t it?”

She shook her head, sniffled. “So, you and Spike.”

Xander laughed. “Not quite. I think he needs to at least like me for there to be a ‘me and Spike’.”

“Oh, Xander. I’m sure he likes you. He wouldn’t keep hanging out with you if he didn’t.”

“He told Buffy he hangs out with me because he can beat me at pool, and because I pay.”

“You pay?” Xander nodded. “For everything?” He nodded again. “And Spike hasn’t figured out you’re dating, yet?” she teased. “For a vamp who’s been around a while, he’s not very quick.”

“Yeah, well, no one ever said he was smart.”

“Seriously, Xan, what do you expect him to tell Buffy? That he hangs out with you because he likes you? I mean, they’re mortal enemies. He’s the ‘Big Bad’, and you’re a Scooby extraordinaire. And besides that,” she went on, barely taking a breath, “do you really think he’d hang out with you just because you suck at pool...”

“Thanks.”

“...and buy him those onion thingies, if he wasn’t enjoying himself? I mean, Spike? And, okay, that argument might, and I mean might hold for The Bronze, but what about the movies?”

“And, um, poker,” Xander admitted. Willow’s eyes urged him to tell her more. “Sunday’s, at his crypt, with Clem and his cousin, uh, Flem.”

Willow choked. “Clem and Flem?”

Xander grinned and nodded. “Yeah, it’s, um, anyway, so, he also....” Xander mumbled something Willow couldn’t understand.

“What was that?” she asked.

“He’s taken me for a ride on his bike. He doesn’t let me drive,” he qualified, “but at least I get to, uh....” He looked up at Willow. “That sounds really pitiful, doesn’t it?”

She shook her head, her lips clenched in a tight smile that either meant she was angry or trying not to cry. “I think it’s sweet!”

“Yeah, sweet. Except....”

“Nope,” she declared, “he likes you.”

“Really? How can you...? I mean, you’ve never seen....”

Willow counted on her fingers. “Pool, poker, movies, bike rides. How many times do you see him a week?”

“Uh, counting research and patrol?”

“No.” She rolled her eyes.

“Twice, sometimes, um, three...times,” Xander told her.

“And how long has this been going on?” she continued to interrogate him.

“Well, since the spell, so five...six weeks?”

She nodded as if the research she’d just conducted supported her theory. “Yep, he likes you. So...” She smiled at him. “...whatcha gonna do about it?”

“Do about it?” he squeaked.

Continued in Part Five

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