FIC: (In Between Trips to Vegas), Vegas NV series (Giles/Xander, FRT)
Title: (In Between Trips to Vegas)
Series: Vegas, NV
Author: soft_princess
Website: Fly With Me
Date: June 7, 2007
Word count: 2,659
Pairings: series: Giles/Xander; this part: mentions of Angel/Xander & Anya/Xander; Andrew/Larry
Rating: FRT
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, but the story and setting are all mine.
slash_100 prompt: 058 - Thanksgiving
Spoilers/setting: AU. Follows What Happens In Vegas....
Summary: By the time he was done with his first beer, Xander had pretty much decided that he hated Thanksgiving. A lot.
Notes: Written for summer_of_giles. This story will not make sense if you haven’t read What Happens In Vegas....
A big thank you to my lovely mireille719 for the wonderful thorough beta. And yes, Xander does work for Firstevil Inc. *g*
* * *
Xander liked the sound of the rain a lot more than the noise coming from behind the closed living room door.
He held his beer bottle to his lips absently, standing at the window, and watching the rain fall hard on the pavement. He'd had to open the window to be able to hear it, because the noise inside the house drowned it out otherwise. Nobody had noticed when he’d slipped out of the living room a few minutes earlier, and he was glad for the relative quiet. Maybe they wouldn’t notice if he left altogether.
He didn’t want to be here in the first place, but Larry had insisted that Xander shouldn’t spend Thanksgiving alone. Willow was off traveling with her new girlfriend, and Buffy had taken Dawn off to Rome to visit their father for the long weekend. The moment Larry had heard that Xander wasn’t planning on going back to Sunnydale for the holiday, he’d told him that he was coming to Larry’s party, and that was that.
Xander was going to have a talk with the new guy. Charles was cool and all--and actually pretty good with a saw too--but he needed to keep his nose out of other people’s business.
Carefulness was key, though, Xander thought, rubbing his left eye. Charles was a great guy. He’d won Xander’s admiration the first week when he’d shown up to work with a PlayStation, and they’d started playing Grand Theft Auto in the break room during their downtime, but Xander was still just a little scarred from the whole Caleb incident.
When the company had started expanding--the biggest boom coming a few months after that big Vegas convention a year and a half ago, when they had to manage four big contracts, plus any number of small ones, at the same time--the Big Bossestm had hired Caleb and thrust him into the fray, leaving Larry to deal with him. The one and only time Xander had decided that he had had enough of the whole homophobic preacher attitude and openly disagreed with the guy, he’d ended up having to wear an eyepatch for six months.
They’d been the worst six months of Xander’s life, no doubt there. A carpenter with no depth perception wasn’t much of a carpenter at all. Xander had barely been able to cut wood in a straight line. Although, he hadn't been trying all that hard to be honest.
Needless to say that Caleb had been shown the door; Larry had wanted to press charges, but the Big Bossestm had put their foot down, and Larry had backed off. At least the guy was gone, and a few weeks later, Charles arrived. He'd been carefully handpicked by Larry and the HR girl whose name Xander still couldn’t remember, and as far as Xander knew he didn’t throw screwdrivers across the room at his coworker just for a slight difference of opinion. Not that there were many of those; Xander and Charles got along pretty well.
"Hey, there you are."
Xander turned away from the window, gulping down the last of his beer. He tried to smile at Larry, but it felt forced and he ended up dropping it. He put his empty bottle on the dining room table and pulled out a chair.
"Why are you hiding out here?" Larry asked, cheerfully slapping Xander’s shoulder. "The fun’s in there!" He waved toward the living room door. As if on cue, a roar of laughter erupted from behind the closed door. Xander shuddered.
"No reason," he replied with a shrug, but he knew Larry wouldn’t give it up so easily. Ever since they’d come back from their weekend in Vegas, Larry had been making conscious efforts to become Xander’s friend, which was sort of fun, but--
"I meant to ask," Larry said, sitting down next to Xander. "What happened with Angel?"
--there was such a thing as trying too hard. Xander appreciated the effort, but he wasn’t in the mood to discuss his (failed) love life, now or ever.
"We broke up," he replied, wishing he could end the conversation or change the subject easily. Larry would just follow him around until he had all the answers he was looking for, and Xander wasn’t in the mood for a game of hide and seek.
It wasn’t the break-up that he was maudlin about. That had been for the best, because going out with Buffy’s ex had been Xander’s worst idea ever. The sex had been just okay, nothing earth-shattering or mind-blowing, and it had gotten pretty boring after only a couple of weeks. Xander figured he just wasn’t cut out for long term relationships with men, but he’d still tried. When he’d suggested that they add a little variety in their routine, Angel had freaked big-time and thrown Xander out, vowing loud enough for Xander to hear it through the closed door to never again fall for the weird guys.
Xander probably shouldn’t have mentioned the spanking and the daddy thing the first time they had a semi-serious talk about sex. Never mind the fact that Angel was a complete bottom to begin with, which, Xander had realized while in Vegas, didn't work so well for him at all. He really liked being on the receiving end a lot more than the other way around.
"You know, ever since we came back from that convention, you’ve barely dated--"
"Hey, I dated!"
"Angel, for--let me think--five weeks, total."
"Anya," Xander countered. "I was with her for a while."
"Because she kept throwing herself at you. But the moment you had your accident, she disappeared. I won’t call that a relationship."
"I asked her to leave," Xander replied quickly, glaring at Larry and probably sounding a lot more irritated than he actually was. He just couldn't help it: whenever that break-up was brought up in conversation, he got defensive. "It’s not like she just left when I needed her or anything."
"Man," Larry said, holding up his hands. "I know, I wasn’t dissing her. She was cool in a weird kinda way; and I can't say anything about the being weird thing because my boyfriend's the same. Still, the whole thing was based on sex. You never actually took her out on a date, so it doesn’t count. If I didn’t know you better, I’d think your librarian ruined you for everyone else."
"You’re insane." Except, not really. One year, seven months, and thirteen days, and Xander still vividly remembered Rupert Giles. He’d tried not to; he’d been totally resolved to never, ever think about anything that happened that weekend ever again, except maybe when he was alone with his right hand, but that hadn’t done any good.
And it wasn’t just the sex, either. He remembered Rupert’s laughter and the way his hand fit against Xander’s lower back. Xander had moments, especially when he’d just finished working on a piece he was particularly proud of, where he kind of wished Rupert was there, so he could show it off, or just see the expression on Rupert’s face when he told him something, anything. He had jokes he’d thought of with Rupert in mind, a list of 'sexual kinks and position to be tried in my lifetime' that had been clearly made to be tried out with Rupert, no matter how much Xander had tried to deny it.
And he had tried, but after a while, he’d just given up.
Then he’d had his accident, and he’d spent the next six months alone, wallowing in self-pity and dreaming up countless fantasies in which Rupert took care of him.
Stupid. The whole thing was ridiculous. It wasn't normal to be this attached to a guy after just the one weekend; never mind that it was one weekend where pretty much all they did was have sex.
So, yeah, really, completely stupid. Or at least unusual. Xander could go for unusual.
"You’re thinking about him again, aren’t you?" Larry interrupted Xander’s thoughts.
Xander looked up at him and shrugged. "Doesn’t matter either way." Then he tried to change the subject. "Do you have any more beer?"
"Yeah, in the fridge. Help yourself."
When Xander stood to go into the kitchen, Larry followed him. Andrew, Larry’s current obsession, was in there cooking dinner, and Xander pointedly didn’t look at them as they kissed and teased each other. They were so sweet it nauseated him. To top off the saccharine romance thing, Andrew was an utter geek, even more so than Xander. Considering Larry’s past history with geeks in general, that was very hard to understand, and Xander just couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that they were actually good together.
When Larry and Andrew had first started going out, Charles and Xander had started a poll at work with bets on how long their relationship would last. Three months later the only one left in the running was the HR girl. Xander had bet on two weeks. Way far off the mark.
"Did you ask him?" Andrew asked, excitedly, and when Xander turned around with his eyebrow raised, they were still embracing in front of the stove.
"Ask who what?" Xander asked.
"Andrew’s moving in," Larry said, proudly, as if he was telling Xander that Andrew was expecting their first-born. And that had to be the most disturbing thought Xander had ever had in his life.
"Okay? Congratulations?" Way, way off the mark. Apparently. In all the years Xander had known him, Larry had never had any boyfriend living with him. Ever. This was a lot more serious than they’d all thought--except, apparently, the HR girl. Xander really had to try to remember her name. He didn’t see her very often, so he had an excuse, but this was getting ridiculous.
"Oh, I’m so excited!" Andrew actually bounced. It was sort of cute, but also disturbing. Mostly with the disturbing. Seriously, this guy was all about the disturbing. "We were wondering if you would build us some new furniture for the bedroom. You know, something solid."
He didn’t need to know, but his imagination took him there anyway. Xander seriously needed to get laid. "Sure."
"It’ll be a personal contract, not through the company or anything, so all the money goes directly to you," Larry added. "We're ready to cut you a really good deal. And you don't have to give up all your free time or anything either, because it's not urgent. Andrew won't be moving in for another four months, so you got all the time in the world."
Xander had seen Larry’s bedroom; Larry hadn’t yet learned the art of keeping some doors closed. And Larry’s bedroom was not much of a bedroom. The bed was just a mattress on the floor, and the only dresser he had looked like it’d been rescued from the 70’s. This wasn't that bad of a deal--sure it would take up a lot of Xander's free time, but it was money, and the chance to design something that wasn't a bookshelf.
"So, what do you say?" Larry asked, before turning to smile at Andrew, who was looking up at him adoringly.
Feeling just a little sick--okay, jealous but Xander wasn’t ever going to think of it like that again--he took off the cap on his beer and took one long swallow. "Sure, I’ll do it," he said. Probably a bad idea; Andrew had the tendency of changing his mind every two seconds, but it was a step up from making bookshelves. Not that he didn’t like bookshelves, but still a step up. Or a change, at least, considering shelves was all he seemed to be doing these days.
Xander was already designing the set in his head. It was the part of the process he loved the most, thinking up ideas and seeing them take shape--
Which is the moment Andrew chose to grab Xander into a forceful hug, knocking the air out of him. "Thank you! You are a really Cool Guy, Xander," he said.
"Erm, okay. You’re welcome." Then he added, when Andrew showed no sign of stepping away, "You can let me go now."
"Oh, right," Andrew muttered, blushing.
"Hey, Andrew, you should go see if they have all the snacks they need in there." Larry motioned to the living room and smiled. "I’m sure they went through the Doritos already."
Andrew agreed and grabbed the half-empty club-sized bag of Doritos, and went into the room. The noise got louder for a moment, and then went down to bearable when the door closed behind him again.
"Now that I’ve got you alone, about that conference thing..."
"Forget it, Larry," Xander interrupted him. "It was almost two years ago, and there’s no way he even remembers me."
"Oh, so you are still thinking about your librarian! I knew it." Larry patted Xander on the back. "But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. We’ll keep that for later. There's another one coming up, and the Big Boss wants us to be there again."
"No." No way, not ever. Xander wasn’t going to back to that convention. His life had been a nightmare ever since the last time, and he didn’t want to end up there alone and miserable. As opposed to in L.A. alone and miserable. The chances of Rupert attending the convention again were way too low for Xander to give a damn.
"Xander..."
"I'm not going again, Larry, you know how much I hated it last time."
"Oh, shut up," Larry laughed, adding an eye roll for good measure. "You had the best weekend of your entire life. So much so that you’re still completely hung up on it."
"Come on, there’s no way that’s ever happening again, and you know that’s not what I was talking about. I suck at sales."
"You’re going, Xander," Larry said more firmly. "Look, I know you’re not the best at sales stuff, but I won’t be able to go. It’s the weekend after Andrew moves in and we’ve already planned to go up to Frisco for a breather. I need you there with Charles. You know more about how the business is run than he does. He can do most of the sales, but I don’t want to send him out there on his own, okay?" He didn’t wait for Xander to answer that. "You’re going. Now get your beer, and let's go back in there and watch the game."
Xander blinked. Okay, well, it seemed like he didn’t have much of a choice, now, did he? With a sigh, he grabbed his half-empty bottle of beer and followed Larry.
* * *
Additional note: ...Stays In Vegas, the next part in this series, will be posted in five parts, three in the course of today, two on July 5 on my second summer_of_giles day.
...Stays In Vegas, part 1: Jealousy (Is a Necessary Evil)
Series: Vegas, NV
Author: soft_princess
Website: Fly With Me
Date: June 7, 2007
Word count: 2,659
Pairings: series: Giles/Xander; this part: mentions of Angel/Xander & Anya/Xander; Andrew/Larry
Rating: FRT
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, but the story and setting are all mine.
slash_100 prompt: 058 - Thanksgiving
Spoilers/setting: AU. Follows What Happens In Vegas....
Summary: By the time he was done with his first beer, Xander had pretty much decided that he hated Thanksgiving. A lot.
Notes: Written for summer_of_giles. This story will not make sense if you haven’t read What Happens In Vegas....
A big thank you to my lovely mireille719 for the wonderful thorough beta. And yes, Xander does work for Firstevil Inc. *g*
* * *
Xander liked the sound of the rain a lot more than the noise coming from behind the closed living room door.
He held his beer bottle to his lips absently, standing at the window, and watching the rain fall hard on the pavement. He'd had to open the window to be able to hear it, because the noise inside the house drowned it out otherwise. Nobody had noticed when he’d slipped out of the living room a few minutes earlier, and he was glad for the relative quiet. Maybe they wouldn’t notice if he left altogether.
He didn’t want to be here in the first place, but Larry had insisted that Xander shouldn’t spend Thanksgiving alone. Willow was off traveling with her new girlfriend, and Buffy had taken Dawn off to Rome to visit their father for the long weekend. The moment Larry had heard that Xander wasn’t planning on going back to Sunnydale for the holiday, he’d told him that he was coming to Larry’s party, and that was that.
Xander was going to have a talk with the new guy. Charles was cool and all--and actually pretty good with a saw too--but he needed to keep his nose out of other people’s business.
Carefulness was key, though, Xander thought, rubbing his left eye. Charles was a great guy. He’d won Xander’s admiration the first week when he’d shown up to work with a PlayStation, and they’d started playing Grand Theft Auto in the break room during their downtime, but Xander was still just a little scarred from the whole Caleb incident.
When the company had started expanding--the biggest boom coming a few months after that big Vegas convention a year and a half ago, when they had to manage four big contracts, plus any number of small ones, at the same time--the Big Bossestm had hired Caleb and thrust him into the fray, leaving Larry to deal with him. The one and only time Xander had decided that he had had enough of the whole homophobic preacher attitude and openly disagreed with the guy, he’d ended up having to wear an eyepatch for six months.
They’d been the worst six months of Xander’s life, no doubt there. A carpenter with no depth perception wasn’t much of a carpenter at all. Xander had barely been able to cut wood in a straight line. Although, he hadn't been trying all that hard to be honest.
Needless to say that Caleb had been shown the door; Larry had wanted to press charges, but the Big Bossestm had put their foot down, and Larry had backed off. At least the guy was gone, and a few weeks later, Charles arrived. He'd been carefully handpicked by Larry and the HR girl whose name Xander still couldn’t remember, and as far as Xander knew he didn’t throw screwdrivers across the room at his coworker just for a slight difference of opinion. Not that there were many of those; Xander and Charles got along pretty well.
"Hey, there you are."
Xander turned away from the window, gulping down the last of his beer. He tried to smile at Larry, but it felt forced and he ended up dropping it. He put his empty bottle on the dining room table and pulled out a chair.
"Why are you hiding out here?" Larry asked, cheerfully slapping Xander’s shoulder. "The fun’s in there!" He waved toward the living room door. As if on cue, a roar of laughter erupted from behind the closed door. Xander shuddered.
"No reason," he replied with a shrug, but he knew Larry wouldn’t give it up so easily. Ever since they’d come back from their weekend in Vegas, Larry had been making conscious efforts to become Xander’s friend, which was sort of fun, but--
"I meant to ask," Larry said, sitting down next to Xander. "What happened with Angel?"
--there was such a thing as trying too hard. Xander appreciated the effort, but he wasn’t in the mood to discuss his (failed) love life, now or ever.
"We broke up," he replied, wishing he could end the conversation or change the subject easily. Larry would just follow him around until he had all the answers he was looking for, and Xander wasn’t in the mood for a game of hide and seek.
It wasn’t the break-up that he was maudlin about. That had been for the best, because going out with Buffy’s ex had been Xander’s worst idea ever. The sex had been just okay, nothing earth-shattering or mind-blowing, and it had gotten pretty boring after only a couple of weeks. Xander figured he just wasn’t cut out for long term relationships with men, but he’d still tried. When he’d suggested that they add a little variety in their routine, Angel had freaked big-time and thrown Xander out, vowing loud enough for Xander to hear it through the closed door to never again fall for the weird guys.
Xander probably shouldn’t have mentioned the spanking and the daddy thing the first time they had a semi-serious talk about sex. Never mind the fact that Angel was a complete bottom to begin with, which, Xander had realized while in Vegas, didn't work so well for him at all. He really liked being on the receiving end a lot more than the other way around.
"You know, ever since we came back from that convention, you’ve barely dated--"
"Hey, I dated!"
"Angel, for--let me think--five weeks, total."
"Anya," Xander countered. "I was with her for a while."
"Because she kept throwing herself at you. But the moment you had your accident, she disappeared. I won’t call that a relationship."
"I asked her to leave," Xander replied quickly, glaring at Larry and probably sounding a lot more irritated than he actually was. He just couldn't help it: whenever that break-up was brought up in conversation, he got defensive. "It’s not like she just left when I needed her or anything."
"Man," Larry said, holding up his hands. "I know, I wasn’t dissing her. She was cool in a weird kinda way; and I can't say anything about the being weird thing because my boyfriend's the same. Still, the whole thing was based on sex. You never actually took her out on a date, so it doesn’t count. If I didn’t know you better, I’d think your librarian ruined you for everyone else."
"You’re insane." Except, not really. One year, seven months, and thirteen days, and Xander still vividly remembered Rupert Giles. He’d tried not to; he’d been totally resolved to never, ever think about anything that happened that weekend ever again, except maybe when he was alone with his right hand, but that hadn’t done any good.
And it wasn’t just the sex, either. He remembered Rupert’s laughter and the way his hand fit against Xander’s lower back. Xander had moments, especially when he’d just finished working on a piece he was particularly proud of, where he kind of wished Rupert was there, so he could show it off, or just see the expression on Rupert’s face when he told him something, anything. He had jokes he’d thought of with Rupert in mind, a list of 'sexual kinks and position to be tried in my lifetime' that had been clearly made to be tried out with Rupert, no matter how much Xander had tried to deny it.
And he had tried, but after a while, he’d just given up.
Then he’d had his accident, and he’d spent the next six months alone, wallowing in self-pity and dreaming up countless fantasies in which Rupert took care of him.
Stupid. The whole thing was ridiculous. It wasn't normal to be this attached to a guy after just the one weekend; never mind that it was one weekend where pretty much all they did was have sex.
So, yeah, really, completely stupid. Or at least unusual. Xander could go for unusual.
"You’re thinking about him again, aren’t you?" Larry interrupted Xander’s thoughts.
Xander looked up at him and shrugged. "Doesn’t matter either way." Then he tried to change the subject. "Do you have any more beer?"
"Yeah, in the fridge. Help yourself."
When Xander stood to go into the kitchen, Larry followed him. Andrew, Larry’s current obsession, was in there cooking dinner, and Xander pointedly didn’t look at them as they kissed and teased each other. They were so sweet it nauseated him. To top off the saccharine romance thing, Andrew was an utter geek, even more so than Xander. Considering Larry’s past history with geeks in general, that was very hard to understand, and Xander just couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that they were actually good together.
When Larry and Andrew had first started going out, Charles and Xander had started a poll at work with bets on how long their relationship would last. Three months later the only one left in the running was the HR girl. Xander had bet on two weeks. Way far off the mark.
"Did you ask him?" Andrew asked, excitedly, and when Xander turned around with his eyebrow raised, they were still embracing in front of the stove.
"Ask who what?" Xander asked.
"Andrew’s moving in," Larry said, proudly, as if he was telling Xander that Andrew was expecting their first-born. And that had to be the most disturbing thought Xander had ever had in his life.
"Okay? Congratulations?" Way, way off the mark. Apparently. In all the years Xander had known him, Larry had never had any boyfriend living with him. Ever. This was a lot more serious than they’d all thought--except, apparently, the HR girl. Xander really had to try to remember her name. He didn’t see her very often, so he had an excuse, but this was getting ridiculous.
"Oh, I’m so excited!" Andrew actually bounced. It was sort of cute, but also disturbing. Mostly with the disturbing. Seriously, this guy was all about the disturbing. "We were wondering if you would build us some new furniture for the bedroom. You know, something solid."
He didn’t need to know, but his imagination took him there anyway. Xander seriously needed to get laid. "Sure."
"It’ll be a personal contract, not through the company or anything, so all the money goes directly to you," Larry added. "We're ready to cut you a really good deal. And you don't have to give up all your free time or anything either, because it's not urgent. Andrew won't be moving in for another four months, so you got all the time in the world."
Xander had seen Larry’s bedroom; Larry hadn’t yet learned the art of keeping some doors closed. And Larry’s bedroom was not much of a bedroom. The bed was just a mattress on the floor, and the only dresser he had looked like it’d been rescued from the 70’s. This wasn't that bad of a deal--sure it would take up a lot of Xander's free time, but it was money, and the chance to design something that wasn't a bookshelf.
"So, what do you say?" Larry asked, before turning to smile at Andrew, who was looking up at him adoringly.
Feeling just a little sick--okay, jealous but Xander wasn’t ever going to think of it like that again--he took off the cap on his beer and took one long swallow. "Sure, I’ll do it," he said. Probably a bad idea; Andrew had the tendency of changing his mind every two seconds, but it was a step up from making bookshelves. Not that he didn’t like bookshelves, but still a step up. Or a change, at least, considering shelves was all he seemed to be doing these days.
Xander was already designing the set in his head. It was the part of the process he loved the most, thinking up ideas and seeing them take shape--
Which is the moment Andrew chose to grab Xander into a forceful hug, knocking the air out of him. "Thank you! You are a really Cool Guy, Xander," he said.
"Erm, okay. You’re welcome." Then he added, when Andrew showed no sign of stepping away, "You can let me go now."
"Oh, right," Andrew muttered, blushing.
"Hey, Andrew, you should go see if they have all the snacks they need in there." Larry motioned to the living room and smiled. "I’m sure they went through the Doritos already."
Andrew agreed and grabbed the half-empty club-sized bag of Doritos, and went into the room. The noise got louder for a moment, and then went down to bearable when the door closed behind him again.
"Now that I’ve got you alone, about that conference thing..."
"Forget it, Larry," Xander interrupted him. "It was almost two years ago, and there’s no way he even remembers me."
"Oh, so you are still thinking about your librarian! I knew it." Larry patted Xander on the back. "But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. We’ll keep that for later. There's another one coming up, and the Big Boss wants us to be there again."
"No." No way, not ever. Xander wasn’t going to back to that convention. His life had been a nightmare ever since the last time, and he didn’t want to end up there alone and miserable. As opposed to in L.A. alone and miserable. The chances of Rupert attending the convention again were way too low for Xander to give a damn.
"Xander..."
"I'm not going again, Larry, you know how much I hated it last time."
"Oh, shut up," Larry laughed, adding an eye roll for good measure. "You had the best weekend of your entire life. So much so that you’re still completely hung up on it."
"Come on, there’s no way that’s ever happening again, and you know that’s not what I was talking about. I suck at sales."
"You’re going, Xander," Larry said more firmly. "Look, I know you’re not the best at sales stuff, but I won’t be able to go. It’s the weekend after Andrew moves in and we’ve already planned to go up to Frisco for a breather. I need you there with Charles. You know more about how the business is run than he does. He can do most of the sales, but I don’t want to send him out there on his own, okay?" He didn’t wait for Xander to answer that. "You’re going. Now get your beer, and let's go back in there and watch the game."
Xander blinked. Okay, well, it seemed like he didn’t have much of a choice, now, did he? With a sigh, he grabbed his half-empty bottle of beer and followed Larry.
* * *
Additional note: ...Stays In Vegas, the next part in this series, will be posted in five parts, three in the course of today, two on July 5 on my second summer_of_giles day.
...Stays In Vegas, part 1: Jealousy (Is a Necessary Evil)