Fic: The Perfectly Ordinary Life of Xander Harris
Title: Drabbles and doubles: The Perfectly Ordinary Life of Xander Harris
Rating: Teen
Warning: character deaths
Characters/Pairing: Xander/Anya (up to a point), Jesse
Summary: Would Xander’s life have been better if he hadn’t been a Scoobie?
Words: 1100
A/N: Thanks for letting me join the party. I hope this isn’t too sad an offering!
Season one:
If Xander had gone to the library that day, it would have changed his life. It was the day the new girl came, the one bringing trouble and excellent short skirts in roughly equal measure. Buffy Summers, bane of his life, though he didn’t fully understand that.
Something weird happened that day. He never did know exactly what. Something around the library, and the fogey new British librarian. Cordelia knew about it. And Larry. What a party that must have been. But mainly that was the day he started to lose Willow, because she was in on it too. Whatever it was. They made a team, a kernel of… something-ness… far away amid the teen concerns of their high school companions.
Xander was nowhere near the core, nowhere near understanding. And, as Willow seemed to be avoiding him, there was no chance he’d get in on the mystery. Or pass math, come to that.
It was cool. Who needs a girl friend when what you want is a girlfriend, right? Especially a funny, geeky type like Willow…right? Just him and Jesse then, two eligible beaux on the prowl. Ladies beware!
No, of course they never got any girls. Good grief.
Season two:
High school is tough. Especially when you lose a couple of classmates per semester. Xander and Jesse made it through. Nervous, and watching each other’s backs a lot, but they survived. Jesse got a car, and a girl on the strength of it, but she didn’t last. Xander envied him on all counts, and remained a virgin till summer, when by the grace of Grathnar he impressed a holidaymaker with his Frisbee prowess and popped his metaphorical cherry on Kingman‘s Bluff. The relief was considerably greater than the pleasure, but it allowed him to start senior year with head high.
Season three:
“Okay, so I know this town’s weird, but you’re trying to tell me the mayor’s a demon.”
“Wannabe demon,” corrected Oz, quintupling the number of syllables Xander had previously heard from Willow’s boyfriend.
“Okay, wannabe demon. Who’s in league with some vampires and the scary Buffy-friend Faith…”
“Slayer. So’s Buffy.”
“Yeah, so you said, and I’m still struggling to take that seriously. And they’re going to feed us to the demon mayor?”
“Come on, Xander, makes as much sense as anything round here does.” Thanks Jesse, real supportive.
He didn’t believe it. But took his place with the rest, ready with pouch of stakes and arrows. Moved on Larry’s word as the vampires rose. Missed Jesse being crushed along with his flamethrower.
In the aftermath, he was aware of the coterie, those geeky, freaky types who’d just saved a whole generation. (No, not a whole generation. Not everyone made it). They were laughing and crying and the centre of attention, especially from Buffy’s lurking ex. All together.
Xander sat, alone, waiting for the triage team. Jesse lay still beside him, already black tagged. Behind was the high school, burned and gutted from the inside. Xander knew exactly how it felt.
*
Season four:
Everyone understood Xander had to get away. Not college, he’d no chance of admission. He tried a journey instead, like he’d planned with Jesse - on the road, On the Road-style. Not so great in reality, alone and aimless, missing home and the friend he’d never see again. Even less so when he washed up in Oxnard, penniless and car-free, forced into waiting tables and stripping to survive. It’d be a funny story, if he’d had a bunch of good friends to share it. Not so much, when it was just Xander staring down the barrel of his future.
*
Season Five:
But you can’t stay forever in Oxnard. Not if you’re a Sunnydale guy, at any rate. Xander made his way home soon enough. He didn’t have to strip (not often, anyway), but he worked through a whole bunch of jobs almost as crappy. Pizza delivery, ice-cream guy, lifting, shifting, hefting. If it was manual and everyone got to give you orders, Xander did it. For a fortnight, max. Everywhere but the Doublemeat. He was never that desperate. Everyone knew the Doublemeat got through employees faster than even natural wastage of the wasted could explain.
But there was a bright spot. Anya. Sudden arrival at high school, weird new girl #2, but with the significant advantages that she knew he was alive and now for some reason wanted to sleep with him. He reciprocated. She was cute. Perky smile, perky breasts. Those he could get used to. He stuck with her, even when she had a deeply peculiar spell; started talking garbage and eventually joined some kind of wacky cult building a crazy tower on the outskirts of Sunnydale. Xander worried and missed her deeply, to the point where he proposed on her return. Wasn’t that, surely, enough for a lifetime?
*
Season six:
And yet… The didactic manner and the fact Anya seemed to know everything about everything that had ever happened got him down sometimes - she could seem so very old. But she was funny, she got him, they made an okay team. Was that enough? Maybe.
Yes, it was. So he told himself, until the point where vows were about to be exchanged. Then he fled, leaving the perky, weirdly wise, girl who loved him, broken and humiliated and vowing revenge she never took.
He always regretted it and yet never thought it was the wrong thing to have done.
*
Season seven:
Yeah, he was a cowardly piece of shit. But, bright spot, work was looking up. He’d made a name for himself in construction by this time. A good name - reliable, sensible, effective. Kind of name that gets you employed for long stretches in responsible positions. It felt good. And Sunnydale, with all its peculiarities, was a rich prospect for a carpenter. From the leather demons smashing up the place the year before to the glossy new-build high school, opportunities abounded. Xander was making a mint. Feeling good, moving on, the future was his .
And then everything went to hell again. Clearly the town’s secret underbelly was winning out over its sunny skin. A sensible man would have left with the rest, especially once the power went out.
But there was still call for carpenters. Houses, abandoned, needed additional security. Tremors shook foundations, shoring up became necessary. Not much need for delicate creativity but a guy who was good with planks and nails could still do pretty nicely. He might not sleep much, but there was work to be done.
Anyway, where else was Xander gonna go?
As it turned out, nowhere but down.
******
Rating: Teen
Warning: character deaths
Characters/Pairing: Xander/Anya (up to a point), Jesse
Summary: Would Xander’s life have been better if he hadn’t been a Scoobie?
Words: 1100
A/N: Thanks for letting me join the party. I hope this isn’t too sad an offering!
Season one:
If Xander had gone to the library that day, it would have changed his life. It was the day the new girl came, the one bringing trouble and excellent short skirts in roughly equal measure. Buffy Summers, bane of his life, though he didn’t fully understand that.
Something weird happened that day. He never did know exactly what. Something around the library, and the fogey new British librarian. Cordelia knew about it. And Larry. What a party that must have been. But mainly that was the day he started to lose Willow, because she was in on it too. Whatever it was. They made a team, a kernel of… something-ness… far away amid the teen concerns of their high school companions.
Xander was nowhere near the core, nowhere near understanding. And, as Willow seemed to be avoiding him, there was no chance he’d get in on the mystery. Or pass math, come to that.
It was cool. Who needs a girl friend when what you want is a girlfriend, right? Especially a funny, geeky type like Willow…right? Just him and Jesse then, two eligible beaux on the prowl. Ladies beware!
No, of course they never got any girls. Good grief.
Season two:
High school is tough. Especially when you lose a couple of classmates per semester. Xander and Jesse made it through. Nervous, and watching each other’s backs a lot, but they survived. Jesse got a car, and a girl on the strength of it, but she didn’t last. Xander envied him on all counts, and remained a virgin till summer, when by the grace of Grathnar he impressed a holidaymaker with his Frisbee prowess and popped his metaphorical cherry on Kingman‘s Bluff. The relief was considerably greater than the pleasure, but it allowed him to start senior year with head high.
Season three:
“Okay, so I know this town’s weird, but you’re trying to tell me the mayor’s a demon.”
“Wannabe demon,” corrected Oz, quintupling the number of syllables Xander had previously heard from Willow’s boyfriend.
“Okay, wannabe demon. Who’s in league with some vampires and the scary Buffy-friend Faith…”
“Slayer. So’s Buffy.”
“Yeah, so you said, and I’m still struggling to take that seriously. And they’re going to feed us to the demon mayor?”
“Come on, Xander, makes as much sense as anything round here does.” Thanks Jesse, real supportive.
He didn’t believe it. But took his place with the rest, ready with pouch of stakes and arrows. Moved on Larry’s word as the vampires rose. Missed Jesse being crushed along with his flamethrower.
In the aftermath, he was aware of the coterie, those geeky, freaky types who’d just saved a whole generation. (No, not a whole generation. Not everyone made it). They were laughing and crying and the centre of attention, especially from Buffy’s lurking ex. All together.
Xander sat, alone, waiting for the triage team. Jesse lay still beside him, already black tagged. Behind was the high school, burned and gutted from the inside. Xander knew exactly how it felt.
*
Season four:
Everyone understood Xander had to get away. Not college, he’d no chance of admission. He tried a journey instead, like he’d planned with Jesse - on the road, On the Road-style. Not so great in reality, alone and aimless, missing home and the friend he’d never see again. Even less so when he washed up in Oxnard, penniless and car-free, forced into waiting tables and stripping to survive. It’d be a funny story, if he’d had a bunch of good friends to share it. Not so much, when it was just Xander staring down the barrel of his future.
*
Season Five:
But you can’t stay forever in Oxnard. Not if you’re a Sunnydale guy, at any rate. Xander made his way home soon enough. He didn’t have to strip (not often, anyway), but he worked through a whole bunch of jobs almost as crappy. Pizza delivery, ice-cream guy, lifting, shifting, hefting. If it was manual and everyone got to give you orders, Xander did it. For a fortnight, max. Everywhere but the Doublemeat. He was never that desperate. Everyone knew the Doublemeat got through employees faster than even natural wastage of the wasted could explain.
But there was a bright spot. Anya. Sudden arrival at high school, weird new girl #2, but with the significant advantages that she knew he was alive and now for some reason wanted to sleep with him. He reciprocated. She was cute. Perky smile, perky breasts. Those he could get used to. He stuck with her, even when she had a deeply peculiar spell; started talking garbage and eventually joined some kind of wacky cult building a crazy tower on the outskirts of Sunnydale. Xander worried and missed her deeply, to the point where he proposed on her return. Wasn’t that, surely, enough for a lifetime?
*
Season six:
And yet… The didactic manner and the fact Anya seemed to know everything about everything that had ever happened got him down sometimes - she could seem so very old. But she was funny, she got him, they made an okay team. Was that enough? Maybe.
Yes, it was. So he told himself, until the point where vows were about to be exchanged. Then he fled, leaving the perky, weirdly wise, girl who loved him, broken and humiliated and vowing revenge she never took.
He always regretted it and yet never thought it was the wrong thing to have done.
*
Season seven:
Yeah, he was a cowardly piece of shit. But, bright spot, work was looking up. He’d made a name for himself in construction by this time. A good name - reliable, sensible, effective. Kind of name that gets you employed for long stretches in responsible positions. It felt good. And Sunnydale, with all its peculiarities, was a rich prospect for a carpenter. From the leather demons smashing up the place the year before to the glossy new-build high school, opportunities abounded. Xander was making a mint. Feeling good, moving on, the future was his .
And then everything went to hell again. Clearly the town’s secret underbelly was winning out over its sunny skin. A sensible man would have left with the rest, especially once the power went out.
But there was still call for carpenters. Houses, abandoned, needed additional security. Tremors shook foundations, shoring up became necessary. Not much need for delicate creativity but a guy who was good with planks and nails could still do pretty nicely. He might not sleep much, but there was work to be done.
Anyway, where else was Xander gonna go?
As it turned out, nowhere but down.
******