Title: Weary Traveller
Author: Lyl
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don’t own either Buffy or Smallville, only the plot is mine.
Summary: Two lone travellers meet up in the unlikeliest of places. (Xover Smallvile)
Feedback: Always appreciated. Please don’t flame.
Spoilers: Buffy (Post-Season 7) Smallvile (Post-Season 3)
Note: I tried to get everything right, but if something’s wrong in the canon, just pretend
it’s actually a slightly skewed AU...
***Notes2: I wrote this last year, but decided to post it to see how it works.****
Xander
He’d been travelling around for a year when it happened - something that made him
feel like he was living, and not just existing. A shared look across a dingy bar was all it
took, and they were out in the back alley going at it like horny teenagers.
Which is what the blonde looked like to Xander’s discerning gaze. One look into her
eyes told him that this girl may look young, but she was older in every way that
mattered to Xander. She’d faced hard times and come out mostly intact, but there was
still loss.
Just like him, she was running from something, only his pursuers were memories.
Maybe that was why she was the first girl to provoke any sort of interest in him since
Anya. They’d both had the same look in their eyes that said ‘old’ - but he didn’t want to
think of his dead ex-fiancé, especially not when he was in the middle of the first *real*
human contact he’d had since he left the others. He’d roamed aimlessly for over a year,
odd jobs keeping him flush enough to keep moving. The bar had been a last pit stop
before leaving whatever pin-hole town he was in, and he couldn’t regret the turn of
events even if he was in a mind to.
Leaving the crater-that-was-Sunnydale behind had been easy. Leaving the friends who
had become his family had been easier. It was as if the destruction of his hometown
had freed him - or maybe he was deluding himself, and one day it would crash down
around him.
He pulled him mind back to the present - deep thoughts were not meant for moments
like this.
She tasted like sugar and caffeine, he noticed, and Xander was addicted. The smallest
hint of fruitiness buried underneath everything sent his mind soaring even as his body
crushed hers into the brick of the alley wall.
Each raspy breath and movement of her hands sent him spiralling further out of control
until all his senses could focus on was her.
Blonde hair silky between his fingers, lips swollen from his, beautiful green eyes hidden
behind closed lids, and a lithe body that was pressing back into his even as hands
explored all that was available to them.
He felt one of her legs lift to curve over his hip, pulling his body further into hers, and
realized something important.
“What’s your name?” he asked, moving down her neck.
“Chloe.” she gasped, pulling his head closer to her skin, unwilling to part from the
sensations for even a second.
“I’m Xander.” was whispered harshly into her ear before he took possession of her
mouth once more.
Her hands were moving under his shirt again, exploring his muscled chest before
aiming for a lower target. His hands had just discovered Chloe’s lacy bra, when a
wailing car alarm had them both tensing and snapping around to look for the source of
the trouble.
The disturbance was classified as ‘non-danger’ and filed away accordingly, but it was
enough to break the heated urgency of the moment.
“We shouldn’t be doing this here.” she said quietly, pulling herself back from him as
much as possible.
Xander closed his eye, trying to calm his raging system and hide his utter
disappointment. The clawing void in his chest had nothing to do with his aching
erection, and everything to do with her rejection. As corny as it sounded, he wanted to
get to know her.
“I-I have a room across the street.” she continued. Xander’s eye snapped open.
‘Was she really . . .’
But her face answered his unspoken, unfinished question. She was dead serious and
Xander couldn’t have been more surprised. . .
. . . or pleased.
“Let’s go!” he said.
Moving as one, they made it to Chloe’s room before anything indecent was exposed,
though it was a near thing.
As the door closed behind him, Xander figured he should find out the name of the town.
He had a feeling he would be staying for awhile.
End.
Chloe
Chloe stared at the shadow-drenched wall without really seeing it. Her mind wouldn’t
stop replaying the previous hours, thoughts and feelings flashing through her mind like
lightening. Part of her wanted to get dressed, grab her things and run, but the other
part - the bigger part - urged her to stay.
She honestly didn’t know what had possessed her. She’d been sitting in the waste-hole
bar, alternately thanking Lex for the new ID that said she was legal, and cursing him for
not offing his father years ago. Lionel Luther had been the root of most of her problems
over the last two years, recently moving up to become THE problem in her life. She’d
thought she was doing the right thing by helping Lex take down his father. What she’d
ended up with was a dead father and a life on the run, her only contact being Lex, who
kept her updated on his father’s trial and would let her know when she was needed to
testify.
She’d been alone for months, hopping from town to town on the money and ID Lex
supplied. The last conversation with the bald man had left her feeling in need of
companionship, and when she’d looked up, there he was as if in answer to her prayers.
He’d had a look in his eye, that said he was tired of running but too afraid to stop. She
was intimately familiar with that look, because she saw it in the mirror every day.
Even now, she still didn’t know how they’d gotten outside, or what had prompted her to
offer her room. But when she was in his arms, she felt alive for the first time since the
explosion.
“Why didn’t you tell me.” came his voice in her ear. Chloe didn’t need ESP to know
what he was talking about, and it wasn’t the deep pink scars that littered her body.
Turning in his arms, she looked into his dark brown eye, thinking it was a shame there
was only one.
“You would have stopped.” she answered him, while silently wondering how the
eyepatch managed to stay in place throughout their frenzied joining.
“Do I want to know how old you are?” he asked her wryly, his lips quirking somewhat.
Chloe debated on what to tell him, not wanting him to regret something she didn’t - not
really, anyway - which was why she hadn’t warned him about how inexperienced she
really was.
“They were serving me beer.” she informed him, reminding Xander that they’d first seen
each other in a bar.
“ID’s are easy to fake.” he replied, settling himself back down and pulling her body back
into his.
Relaxing back into his strong embrace, Chloe decided that if he didn’t care, she
shouldn’t, either.
“I have to be in Metropolis in three days.” said Chloe, breaking the silence. She didn’t
move as she said it, wondering if a few short hours were long enough . . . maybe it was
for them.
“Never been to Metropolis.” came his easy answer, his chest rumbling under her ear.
Question asked and answered.
Smiling slightly, Chloe closed her eyes at last, finally able to sleep.
She wasn’t alone anymore.
END