Co-written with
actuallybye[Follows
THIS and
THIS]
“We’re doing it wrong.”
Xander glanced over his shoulder at Buffy approaching and gave her a tired smirk. “We’re not doing it at all, so how can we be getting it wrong?”
Buffy slipped her arm under her friend’s as they both leaned against the stone wall of one of the turrets in the castle and gazed down at the Slayerettes training below. “Ha, ha. I’m talking about this… Them.”
“Ah, okay. My mistake. Guess I just have messed up sex on the brain.” Xander bit his lip as he went back to frowning. “The night with Airlie didn’t exactly go as planned. Not only did I apparently flake out after foreplay, we then had an argument about this… Them. You.”
Buffy watched Xander’s face carefully, her lips forming a thin line. She’d picked him up from the redhead’s, but hadn’t asked anything about what had happened. She knew he’d looked like crap, but Xander had just pulled the silent act, and done a pretty good impression of Angel back in his broody days. And then Buffy had had her date with Blaise, so it wasn’t like they’d seen much of each other. Everything the Ventrue Prince had told her was still fresh in her mind, making her consider the future of her ‘army’. “That really sucks, Xan. I’m sorry. Funny how we seem to be arguing with Scots about what we’re doing lately… Even me and Rory got a little heated about This. Pretty sure it definitely constitutes a capital letter now.”
“Agreed,” Xander replied as he took Buffy’s hand in his. “So why do you think we’re doing it wrong, Fearless Leader?”
Buffy arched an eyebrow at the title, but let it slide. Lately she wasn’t exactly feeling like the Fearless Leader. In fact, she was feeling like the leader who wanted to retire, move away and start living a little more selfishly. She had things she now wanted to do on her own. She also had a pile of regrets that were catching up with her. “They shouldn’t be here. We made a mistake, and now we’re stuck with it. But I think the way we’re training them, it’s wrong. I just can’t seem to grasp onto a plan that works. Anything I come up with seems stupid. Like splitting them up into smaller groups and sending them around the world. Bl-People will just assume they really are out to murder and kill off any and all demon races.”
“Sure you haven’t been talking to Airlie? She called them murderers.”
Buffy shook her head. “No, I haven’t. But maybe she’s right. We need to fix what we’ve done, Xan. We need to do this properly. I need to know I’m not wasting my leadership. Because right now, all I want to do is get out. This isn’t what I wanted. I don’t want an army.”
Xander shifted to hug Buffy, and kissed the top of her head as they turned away from the girls training below them. Faith was leading them in weapons training, and Xander couldn’t help but picture Airlie and their fight all over again. He still didn’t understand why she’d been so riled up when Rory was a Hunter. The only difference between the Scotsman and Buffy was that Rory hadn’t been given mystical power to help him, nor did he have a little army of kilted Scots under his guidance. “I know, Buffster. Trust me. I’m just not any more cluey about how to stop this than you are. Maybe you do need to get away for a bit. No one will hold it against you. Me, Will and Giles can work out on the how. Maybe even Faith. There has to be some way to fix it.”
“He’s going to go back to France,” Buffy murmured, changing the subject dramatically. “And he gave me diamonds. He actually thinks I’m diamond worthy.”
“She’s never going to speak to me again,” Xander replied with a sad sigh.
Buffy glanced up at him. “You really flaked after the foreplay?”
Xander cleared his throat and pushed her back towards the edge of the turret. “Hey, this is about your regrets, not mine.”
Buffy gave him a small smile. “Hope the foreplay was at least memorable for her.”
Xander pointed a finger at her. “I really will pack you up in a crate and ship you to Paris myself if you don’t let up.”
Buffy held her hands up in surrender as she smiled. “Okay, okay. But at least I have follow through.”
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