Prompt: 030: BtVS - Xander - Fiction
This really is a good prompt for me. I enjoy writing Xander and I have bunches of these in my head. :)
Title: After Hours
Author: Laura Sichrovsky
Rating: PG or FRT
Word Count: 1416
Prompt: 030: BtVS - Xander - Fiction
Characters: Xander and Giles
After Hours
Rupert Giles yawned and stretched, feeling the muscles in his back protesting eight hours straight of sitting and reading. It wasn’t want he wanted to do with his day, but, as usual, there was more research to do; always more research to do. He was walking towards his office when a noise caused him to turn around.
Xander had walked into the library and was looking around. Spotting Giles, he walked over to the closest table.
“I thought Willow’d still be here,” he said with no preamble. The look on his face was one that Giles hadn’t seen before; more serious than normal.
“No, she left about half an hour ago,” Giles replied, crossing to the table Xander was standing next to. “Is there something wrong?”
“Hmm? Oh, no, nothing wrong. I was just…hey, do you have any research or anything that you need me to do?”
The sudden change in subject threw Giles for a moment. He might have taken it for just one of the many shifts in Xander’s personality, but something felt off.
“I appreciate the offer, but there isn’t really anything for you to research right now. Unless of course you read Chinese.” He’d intended for the remark to amuse Xander, but it seemed to have the opposite effect.
“No, sorry. I guess you can just add that the huge list of what Xander can’t do.” Xander turned, looking as if he were about to bolt out the door.
Giles reached out, putting a hand on Xander’s arm to stop him. Xander stiffened, then looked at the floor mumbling some sort of apology, the words lost to Giles’s ears.
“Xander,” Giles said quietly. “What is wrong?”
“Nothing,” Xander was still looking at the floor. “I just…my…it was ‘list the things about Xander that bug us the most' night at home. I…I just wanted to…it’s no big deal.”
Suddenly Giles understood and the outrage he sometimes felt towards Xander’s parents came back in force. He gestured to the table, pulling out a chair and sitting. Xander looked for a moment like he was going to leave anyway, then he too sat.
“Your parents were displeased with you over something?”
“When you say it like that, it doesn’t sound so bad,” Xander replied quietly, looking back at the floor. “Displeased makes it sound like they asked me to please wipe my feet the next time I come home. I’d say the reality is that they weren’t displeased; they were pissed. Words were used like ‘idiot’ and ‘loser’ and let’s not forget my personal favorite ‘we wish you were never born.’ Which I suppose is more than one word so it really doesn’t count, does it?”
Giles didn’t know how to respond to that.
“Did they…” Giles paused, not sure how to go on, but knowing he had to for Xander’s sake. “Did they hurt you? Physically?”
“No,” Xander’s voice had gone even more quiet. “Not this time. Nothing worse than their telling me that they didn’t want me for a son. Nothing new there.”
Giles was relieved that Xander had been spared a beating. He was also pretty sure that had Xander’s parents physically hurt him, Giles would have returned the favor to them; all in all, not a good scenario. Xander was looking at the floor again, his whole demeanor that of a whipped animal.
“Xander,” Giles began, not knowing what he was going to say, but knowing that it needed to be said. “Your parents may be ignorant of your many special talents, but not everyone else is.”
“Special talents?” Xander let out a harsh laugh. “Like what; my talent for screwing everything up?”
“I was rather thinking of your talent for lightening up a tense situation. Of course, there is your talent for thinking of others before yourself. Being so incredibly dependable is also a talent of sorts, as is being quick to learn something new.”
Xander was looking at Giles like he was speaking a foreign language. Giles thought back over what he’d said, making sure he hadn’t been. Satisfied, he simply sat and looked at the boy.
“Dependable?” Xander asked, disbelieving. “Me? When have I ever been dependable?”
“When it really counted, when the world was at stake, have you ever let me down?”
Xander blinked, not really having an answer.
“Who was there when Buffy died to make sure she came back?” Giles went on. His voice was casual, but at the same time intense. “Who showed up in time to make sure a demon didn’t cut my head off in the talent show? Who requisitioned us a rocket launcher when we faced the Judge? Who rescued me from Angelus and saw to it that I got medical care? You may joke and be frivolous at times, Xander, but when help is needed, you are the one we can count on to come through.”
“I…I…” Xander shook his head. “I don’t know what to say.”
“That may be a first,” Giles joked. “Xander, I am sorry that your parents don’t appreciate you.”
“Eh,” Xander waved his comment off. “I can’t really say I blame them. I wouldn’t want a son like me; who would? And will you listen to me feeling sorry for myself. I guess I’d better go.”
Xander stood up and Giles rose to follow. As Xander turned for the door, Giles stopped him.
“Xander?”
“Hmm?” Xander turned to face Giles.
“I would.”
“You would what?” Xander looked completely perplexed.
“If I were to have a son, I would be very proud if he turned out like you.”
Xander opened his mouth, looking for all the world as if he wanted to say something, but there seemed to be nothing to say. He pressed his lips together looking for a moment as if he were fighting tears and Giles felt mildly alarmed. Then Xander took a deep breath and tilted his head up to look at Giles.
“Thank you.” It was simple and it sounded sincere. “Well, I guess I’d better go enjoy my night of camping.”
“Camping?”
“When my parents get mad at me it’s easier if I sleep in the yard. Cuts down on waking up with someone shaking the stuffing out of you.”
Giles swallowed his shock and tamped down his anger; Xander needed a friend, not an avenger.
“You know Xander, I have a sleeping bag at my flat and a couch as well. With the vampire population in this town it might be better if…” He left it hanging.
“I couldn’t do that to you, G-man.”
“You could if you stopped calling me that. I think I might even have to insist, in the interests of safety and all.”
“Thanks, Giles,” Xander said, watching as Giles turned out the lights in the library, closing up for the night.
“I should be thanking you. If you weren’t sleeping over, I would still be in my office studying Chinese prophecies.”
“You really need to get a new hobby.”
“Will you need to call and let your parents know where you’ll be tonight?”
“Na, they won’t even notice I’m gone.”
Giles nodded absently, his mind running over some of the evil things he’d like to do to Xander’s parents.
“I’ll drop you by your house in the morning on my way into school. I usually get here at 7:00,” Giles said as he walked to the door. In his head, some part of him hoped that Xander’s father would confront him when he took the boy home, but his better angels won out and he pushed that thought away.
“You get here early.”
“I have a lot to do.”
“Thanks again, Giles,” Xander said following him out the door.
“Think nothing of it, Xander. Let’s just say it’s my way of saying that I appreciate everything you do to help me.”
“Enough to make hot cocoa when we get to your place? With marshmallows? Maybe watch a movie?”
Giles shook his head and walked toward the parking lot. Xander followed behind him, shouting out further requests.
“We could bake cookies. Chocolate chip. Popcorn for the movie. Giles?”
Giles pretended to ignore Xander as they got into the car, just as he pretended that he wasn’t so very pleased to get yet another reprieve from the loneliness. But as Xander looked over from his place in the passenger’s seat, he could see a small smile tugging at the corner of Giles’s lips and he smiled in return as he continued his request list.
The End