Xander sipped from his mug of coffee and followed the steady stream of thumps emanating from the gym. Turning the corner, he leaned against the doorframe to watch Buffy pound the heavy bag. She was wearing a pair of bike shorts and a sports bra, both faded pink. Her hair was swept back in a ponytail and she was sweating freely as she rhythmically rained blows onto the bag with both her fists and her feet. He laughed at himself just a little when he realized he was paying more attention to her fighting form than to her figure. Great, he thought, most of my life all I wanted to do was ogle Buffy – and now I’d rather think about a different blonde. He smiled at the memory of slipping out of Spike’s arms earlier, and the soft sounds the vampire had made as he wrapped his arms around Xander’s abandoned pillow and drifted back to sleep.
Buffy caught sight of Xander and danced over to the door, peeling tape from her knuckles. She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Hey, Xan. You’re up early,” she observed, tilting his mug to steal a sip of his coffee. He smiled down at her. “Yeah, those damn vampires want to keep us up all night, but I thought I’d go up to the roof and work out in the sun. Wanna come?” She nodded and replied, “Yeah! I could use some stretching work – can you show me some of the warm-ups you and your friends were doing?” He agreed, and they headed for the roof. Xander marveled a little that here was the Slayer, asking him, the Zeppo, for fitness advice. The mind boggled
They reached the roof and walked to an open, flat area that had been planted with grass. They kicked off their shoes. Xander led Buffy through some simple exercises to get warm, and then started challenging her with some more advanced moves. “Try this one,” he said, as he seated himself on the ground with his legs straight out in front of him. He pressed his fisted hands to the ground next to his hips and raised his entire body, still in the same position, to balance on his fists. Corded muscles stood out on his arms as he held the position and took and released seven deep breaths. He lowered his body in a controlled motion, and then turned to Buffy. He grinned at the stunned expression on her face. “Your turn,” he taunted.
She seated herself beside him and tried to mimic the move. She couldn’t seem to get both her heels and her butt off the ground at the same time, and teetered back and forth. Xander showed her how to lock the position before rising, and where to find the balance point. Within minutes, she had it. They both smiled as she executed it perfectly. “You’re a good teacher, Xan,” she said, back on the ground. “You explain things clearly and you don’t get frustrated, unlike some vampires and Watchers I could name.” He smiled. “I wish all my students were as easy to teach as you – at least you can follow directions.”
“Show me another one,” she pleaded, “this is fun.” He thought for a moment, and then his eyes lit up. “I bet you can do this.” He knelt and placed his elbows on the ground, forming a triangle between them and his cupped hands. He placed his head down in front of his hands and rose in a headstand. Once the headstand was stable, he tilted his hips forward and arched his back so that his entire body formed a taut crescent shape. He shifted his hands apart and braced his palms on the ground. Once he was steady, he lifted his head and balanced on his forearms. He bent his knees to bring the bottoms of his feet nearly into contact with the back of his head. He turned his head and grinned at Buffy. “It’s called the Scorpion,” he panted. She goggled at him while he slowly lowered himself back to the ground.
They worked on the posture until Buffy got the hang of it, stopping several times to laugh hysterically when she overcorrected and fell on her ass. Once she had the move down, they sat side by side on the grass to take a breather. Xander took a deep breath and turned to her.
Before he could speak, she touched a finger to his lips and said, “Don’t, Xander.” He looked at her quizzically and she removed the finger. “Don’t apologize to me,” she said, smiling. “I don’t need it. And, if you don’t apologize to me, I don’t have to apologize to you.” He grabbed her hand and held it. “Buff,” he whispered, “I was a shitty friend.” She clasped his hand back and looked him in the eye. “So?” she asked, “who wasn’t? It was the end of the freaking world, Xander – none of us got through it in good shape. I was a shitty friend to you for a long time before you left. I couldn’t see it at the time. All I saw was my own pain, not the pain I was inflicting. God, I was full of myself.” Xander smiled at her. “Remember the speeches?” he asked in a small voice. “Don’t remind me,” she groaned. “I’m just lucky nobody staked me out of self-preservation.”
“You should know by now that I’m a pretty simple person,” she told him. “I need things to be cut and dried. You always were my friend, and you always will be. That’s enough for me. You needed to be away for a while; you needed to not be here. I can understand that. You sacrificed so much to fight at my side – I could never begrudge you the chance at a normal life.” Xander looked into her open, happy face and was hardly able to believe that this was the same person he’d left behind so many years ago. She’d been through so much, yet she could still smile and forgive and love. The two old friends laughed together for a moment. “So, we’re OK? Just like that?” Xander asked. She nodded, “Just like that. You know me, Xan – save the world, love my friends, sleep with a vampire.” Xander pulled the petite blonde into his arms and hugged her tightly. “I love you, Buffy. I always have,” he whispered into her hair. “I know, Xan – me too,” she replied against his chest. After a moment, she started struggling. As soon as he released her, she said, “OK, enough with the encounter group – show me more cool tricks!” He happily obliged, and pretended not to notice as she wiped a tear from her face. It was only fair, since she pretended not to notice when he did the same.
“This is cozy,” Spike drawled from the doorway of the small atrium that looked out over the roof of the hotel. Inside the specially treated glass room, Angel sat in a chair next to a large, padded chaise lounge and watched Buffy and Xander contort themselves into pretzels in the sunshine. “What do you call it?” the younger vampire asked, “Stalker Hut?” Angel spared his grand-childe a glance and ignored the question. “It’s only 11:00 - what are you doing up?” he queried. Spike looked at the floor, then walked into the room and seated himself on the lounge at Angel’s side. Angel looked at his face and barked a short laugh. “You, too, huh?” he asked ruefully. “I sometimes can’t sleep after Buffy gets up either,” he admitted. “Christ,” Spike groaned, “we’re a matched set of poofs, aren’t we?” Angel shook his head. “That we are, my William, that we are.”
“Looks like the Slayer’s doing the old forgive and forget,” Spike observed, seeing the two old friends embrace. Angel smiled. “Buffy can be very forgiving. It’s a damn good thing, too.” They looked out the windows in silence for long moments.
“I love her,” Angel said quietly, not looking at Spike. “I mean, I’ve always loved her, since she was sixteen; but now, it’s different. It’s like she’s a part of me.” Spike regarded his grand-sire seriously. “She is a part of you, Angel. You make her complete. Oddly enough, you’re what makes her more human.” The younger vampire snorted. “I used to wonder how you could love a human more than your own childer; it used to eat me up inside.” Angel’s dark eyes settled on his face. “Oh, Will – how could you think such a thing? I didn’t always like you, but I’ve never stopped loving you.” Spike’s eyes opened wide in shock, and Angel couldn’t hold back a soft laugh. “You didn’t know, did you?” When the blond head shook at him, he sighed. “Childe, I always loved you. I loved your humanity.” He laughed bitterly. “I loved it as much as Angelus hated it. He – I tried so hard to tear it out of you, but it always stayed. That’s why you’re so different from most vampires - your core of humanity was never destroyed, no matter how hard I tried. It made you unique.”
Spike simply stared at his grand-sire, unable to form coherent thoughts. Angel moved from his chair to sit beside the smaller man. He took a slim, pale hand into his own larger one. He looked into Spike’s ice blue eyes as he stroked the cool hand. “Maybe I haven’t been clear in the past, Will, so I’m just going to tell you outright. You can call me a poof and a ponce all you want later. When Drusilla turned you, I was furious. She had no right to sire anyone, but she took what she wanted and didn’t care who got hurt. If I hadn’t stepped in and taken you away from her, you would have died like so many of her childer did. I wanted you, and I took you for my own.” Angel paused.
“I’m not sorry I did it, Will. I’m sorry for so many things that I did in the past, but I will never be sorry about that. We were magnificent demons, you and I.” Angel’s voice was husky, and he saw Spike’s eyes flashing yellow and knew his were doing the same. He smiled gently and squeezed the hand he held. “We can be good men, Will. We have good hearts; they may not beat, but they can love. We have good souls.”
Spike kept his eyes lowered. He was truly stunned. He had always thought that Angel saw him as an abomination; a mistake that Dru had made in a flight of fancy. Knowing that his grand-sire, the only true sire he’d ever known, loved him was almost more than he could bear. It occurred to him that he’d spent the past nine years coming to terms with having a soul, while guarding that same soul from the risks of loving and being loved. Sure, he loved Dawn and her family, and Willow and Cordelia, but not the way he loved his sire, and not the way he desperately wanted to love Xander. Without looking up, he made the one gesture that he knew would speak volumes to Angel. Turning his head to the side, he bared his neck and whispered, “Sire.”
Angel’s mouth dropped open in shock. He had never imagined that he would see Spike make this submissive offer to him ever again. They had not renewed their blood bond in over a hundred years. He placed his hands on Spike’s shoulders, and leaned forward to place a soft kiss on the side of his favored childe’s neck, then sat back. When Spike’s eyes rose to meet his, he smiled. “No, Spike,” he said. “After all this time, you and I are met as equals.” At the ritual words they shared a long look, and the younger vampire shifted over to make room on the chaise. Angel settled into the space, pressing the entire length of his body against Spike’s side. He threw an arm around Spike’s shoulders and drew the blond head down against his chest, and began stroking his silky hair. Silently, they watched Buffy and Xander.
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