“So, were Buffy and William together last time I was here?”
“Of course they were. They were there on the couch. Together. Don’t you remember?” His intellect refused to stretch so far as to encompass the true meaning of her question.
“Xander Harris!”
Her eyes were somehow darker now, her veins all but popping under her delicate skin, almost scaring him.
“You know what I mean! Were they already together? As in… groiny-together? The sorta together I was not supposed to have witnessed just now!”
“What are you…? Groiny? Witnessed? Will and Buffy?” he spluttered indignantly. “Willow, baby, you’re confused. There isn’t – and never would be any groiny-ness between them. They’re my cousins!” he said incredulously.
Realization sank in both of them at the exact same moment. Willows eyes widened as she understood her boyfriend had no idea, just as his jaw went slack when said idea finally hit him.
“I-- I…“ The brunette stammered. “I have to go talk to her.” He got up to begin pacing. “She’s obviously out of her mind! This… this is disgusting!” Stomping his foot, he continued his rant. “It’s immoral and--, and it’s illegal! What the fuck is she thinking?”
He looked ready to storm upstairs and drag Buffy to the police by her hair, so Willow decided some damage control was in order before things got out of hand.
“Xander, sweety, you can’t. You can’t tell her – either of them – what they should, or shouldn’t be doing.”
“But he’s a MINOR Willow, and she’s using him! She’s so screwed up by those jerks she’s hung around with in the past that she’s gonna screw him up royally!”
His tone of voice was raising to a dangerous pitch,, so she did the only thing she could think to shut him up. She grabbed him by the balls!
“Xander,” her voice was sweet and even, but her grasp firm, “I cannot believe I’m doing this, but you have to hear me out. If you attack Buffy they will both end up resenting you. You will lose them both. Talk to William first. See what he thinks, what he wants. Maybe they’re using each other, but you-” the forefinger of her unoccupied hand was now poking him in the chest, “-treating him as if he has no say in this will cause a rift between the two of you!” She let go, both physically and verbally, shocked at herself but happy to see she had made her point. Her boyfriend’s face was scrunched up, deep in thought before he conceded by nodding once.
“I’ll talk to him. But if I feel she’s taking advantage of him, there’s gonna be trouble.” He hated to sound threatening, hated the idea of confronting his two favorite people, and so changed the subject as he heard two sets of feet descending the stairs… as if the conversation he had with Willow never took place. “So, do we need to make any preparations for lunch before we hit the pool?” He tried to keep his tone light but loud enough for the blonds to hear he was in the kitchen with Willow.
“Who you talking to Xan-man?” Buffy practically glided into the kitchen, a spring in her step and a glow on her face, making her look a lot younger than she was as she stepped through the swinging doors. “Oh, hey Willow!” She smiled, sneaking a bite out of one of the remaining croissants from the plate and didn’t seem to notice the slight look of discomfort that crossed the girl’s face.
William entered in a different fashion – except for the glowing part. He certainly had that part down! He entered as if he owned the place. Long, deliberate strides brought him behind Buffy. “Whelp, Red,” he nodded in acknowledgment before he stuck two cigarettes in his mouth and, lighting them both at once, passed one to his girl. “’Ere you go, Buffy.” His calling her by her name instead of one of the nicknames he usually used did not go unnoticed by anyone. But what actually managed to penetrate Xander’s hazy thoughts, to unexpectedly cut his female cousin some slack, was that not only did she not yell at Will for smoking indoors, she actually thanked him and took the proffered cigarette, pulling a long drag and letting it out again before she once more sank her teeth into the golden pastry.
“So, what’s with the preparations? Should I go get ready for a swim, or are we having lunch?” she managed to ask through a mouthful of breakfast.
“Uh… I brought some sandwiches and salad stuff. You wanna help me with the chopping and setting of the table and let the guys play their water-games by themselves?” Willow jumped in to give the two some time to talk things out.
*Hmmm… water-games… Sounds like fun. No! Bad! Bad naughty Buffy thoughts!!!* She rolled her eyes.
“I can help.” Will offered, misinterpreting Buffy’s grimace as meaning she didn’t want to be alone with the other girl. “No need for you birds to be handling sharp objects by yourselves!”
“No, that’s OK Will. You guys go. Be guys!” She smiled encouragingly.
As they turned to leave, she marveled once again at the granite-like terrain of her lover’s back, the slide to the perfect globes of his butt, intoned by those dimple’s on either side of his lower back, his muscled legs, his toes… Toes? *Urg! He did it again!* He’d turned to look at her staring at him, and as she faced him wide eyed, he smirked, but this time with infinite affection before he said, “Red, take care of m’ girl while she’s handling a knife now, don’t much care for blood on my veggies!” And just like that, he was out of her line of vision while she just stood there, blinking.
*His girl! My man!*She grinned, and swiftly settled her face to normal-ish before turning to the redhead who looked amused. “So, where are those mean cucumbers that need slicing?”
The two sliced and diced in silence, the blonde not missing the weird looks the younger girl was shooting her way, as if she was ready to blurt something out...
~~~*~~~
They hadn’t even gotten out the back door before Xander asked with exaggerated nonchalance so there was no misinterpretation, “So, have you and Buffy been fucking since the first night?” Will’s look of utter terror was priceless.
“How…?” His eyes squeezed to slits in speculation. “She told you?” He replayed the morning’s events in his mind but couldn’t remember any moment when Buffy could have seen Xander, let alone told him about what had transpired during the night. Then shock registered in his features “Oh! You must have heard us! Don’ tell her Harris, please don’t! She’s goin’ to drop me!”
His cousin was practically pleading and he couldn’t help but feel for him. “Actually, Willow walked in on the two of you… by accident. Soooooo, what is this? You guys just having casual sex? Scratching mutual itches? Is she… teaching you stuff?” His tone was soft, despite his rough words. But the blond seemed both devastated and enraged at the same time, eyes blazing with fury while somehow brimming with tears.
*I’m a ponce is what I am! Not even in the bloody country for a week and ‘ave cried a river! Nancy boy!* Will managed to think, as he turned and crouched to the ground facing the pool to light a cigarette before bursting out with indignation “Nothin’ casual about it mate!” His voice and head drooped. “Leas’ not for me. I don’ rightly know `bout her feelings… yet. Bint’s not exactly straightforward with her emotions.” As an afterthought he added “Red saw us?”
“So you do feel something for her?” Brushing off the question, the brunette mimicked the other’s position, both boys now absently looking at the still expanse of water in front of them.
“I bloody well do! ‘M in love with her, whelp! Have been, forever!”
“You can’t be in love with her! She’s seven years older than you!”
“Six and a couple of months!” he scoffed. “So wha’? My da‘s twenty years older than Anya and they‘re in love! Have been for more than a decade” Will’s mother, the first cousin of Xander’s mom, had passed away at childbirth and his father had been married again, to Anya, an American, when Will was four.
*It’s six and five months* Xander thought, then pressed on. “Still! You’re only sixteen-", warning look acknowledged, "-almost seventeen. You can’t even know if it’s really love you’re feeling. I mean she is your first, it’s probably just a crush! Use your brain, Will!”
“Love isn't brains, whelp, it's blood... blood screaming inside you to work its will.”
Xander considered that for a moment. Heck, he considered coming up with a retort as to its cheesiness, but Willows face flashed in front of his eyes, and – finally conceding – seemed to ponder his next question before whispering, “But what about her? Does she feel the same?”
“Have you been listenin’ at all? I. Don’. Know! Sometimes I hope… Might be she’s more into me than she lets on, but I wouldn’t know. I don’ think she’s willin’ to let herself feel somethin’… for me. ‘M too bloody young!” He seemed to deflate with that admission.
His cousin patted him on the back, wheels in his head turning as fast as they ever had – which really? Not so fast, but still... When they’d first gone outside he felt cheated, betrayed almost. He believed two of his favorite people, his cousins. were hiding things from him, maybe even laughing behind his back at his cluelessness. Now, his heart went out to the young man next to him. “We’ll figure it out man, don’t give up.” Not even he knew where that came from, but he meant it as it left his lips. If the smile on Buffy’s face earlier was any indication, things were much more complicated than he’d initially thought… And he was a sucker for solving mysteries.
“Sod the pool” Will abruptly stood up, extinguished his cigarette on the brick fence separating the house from the one next to it, and threw the butt in the neighbors’ garden “Let’s check on the chits!”
~~~*~~~
He entered the kitchen first, faced with the site of Buffy’s delectable behind, lower part more than fairly exposed as she bent over to wipe some spill off the floor. He groaned and dropped into a chair, trying to hide his instant hard-on which was clearly defined beneath the thin fabric of his trunks. She raised her head, but looked at Xander when she said someone should get the drinks from the refrigerator.
The table was already set and soon, all four dug in, chatting about trivia, but Will couldn’t shake the feeling that Buffy was avoiding his gaze. Something was wrong. The few instances their eyes happened to meet, he’d smile at her, but she’d turn her attention to something else, like her plate or a spot on the wall visible only to her. His mood kept taking turns for the worse as his food remained mostly untouched in front of him while Xander was whining cause he hadn’t been allowed to have a sandwich as Buffy thought a healthier diet would benefit him… and his girlfriend hadn’t cared to disagree!
Willow seemed to notice the distress of both males in the room and chirped, “So, you guys wanna go Bronzing tonight?” Clubbing was a sure-fire way of cooling things down! Or heating things up as the case might be.
The blank look on Buffy’s face as she said, “Uh, Wills, I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’ll look like I’m slacking on my babysitting duties, corrupting the kiddies!” It was like a punch in the stomach for Will. She could see the impact of her words and forced out a giggle to smoothen the impact, though it didn’t help.
Will abruptly pushed back from the table. “Whelp,” he addressed Xander. “I’m goin’ out, an’ you’re drivin’.”, He turned on his heel and left the room, only to re-enter ten minutes later, fully dressed in his faded blue-jeans and T-shirt, tossing his cousin the keys. “Com’ on then, move your arse! Red, you can come with if you want, might take a while.”
“Excuse you!” the woman he loved – and whom he right now wanted to hit more than anything – cut in, “Am I just gonna stay here by myself? And you two-” she pointed between her cousin and her lover “-are supposed to do the dishes!” She crossed her arms in that unique ‘I dare you to disagree’ manner of hers. But her jaw went slack as her dare was met by a cold stare.
“Wouldn’t wanna be seen with the kiddies, now, would ya?” he mocked, eyebrow raised. “Dishes can wait.” He threw the statement at her over his shoulder as his dramatic exit was only slightly downplayed by the lack of slamming in his wake. *Buggerin’ swingin’ doors!*
~~~*~~~
The car door, however, made a rather satisfying ‘bang’ as he slumped into the back seat, lighting another smoke while mumbling, “’M not a bloody sprog! Gave it to her good an’ proper all last night and this mornin’… Wasn’t a kiddy then, was I? Bitch!”
“Mystery solved, feelings not reciprocated!” The bigger boy, having put on a Hawaiian shirt in addition to his shorts, stated in his best electronic voice, trying to make light of the situation as he slid in the driver’s seat, inserting the key to the ignition. Willow quietly put her safety belt on without voicing any comments.
Will waited for Xander to turn on the engine before sitting up straighter. As if lightnening struck, a thought occurred to him and he seemed to gain height. His shoulders un-rolled to a relaxed, more confident position, a smile adorning his face as he exclaimed, “The two of you are gonna help me!”
“Help you? I thought you just wanted to get out of the house. Will, you do realize what you’re doing is wrong. Buffy could go to jail if people found out!” Willow exclaimed, flabbergasted at his attitude.
“No one’s gonna know, a’right? And how can it be wrong ‘f it feels so right, so good? ‘Sides, I’m seventeen next month, and already legal in England!”
“Yeah, but you are not in England.” Xander interjected, taking the cue from his girlfriend. “This is the States and if you’re gonna keep fu-” he was stopped short by the harsh reflections of his cousin eyes glaring back at him in the mirror. “-being together, you’re gonna have to keep it… hush-hush! And maybe she’s changed her mind. I don’t mean to sound negative, but it looked like she was giving you the brush-off back there.”
“She did not change her soddin’ mind. It’s people knowin’ `bout us that twists her knickers! And tha’s where you come in, whelp! We have to show ‘er – and the world – I’m not a kid!”
Although dreading whatever it was that had caused the glint in the brit’s eye, Xander decided he’d do whatever he could to assist. He’d either be doing true love a service, or helping Will realize the wrongness of the whole situation. Willow too, seemed to think so as she nodded reluctantly.
~~~*~~~
Inside the kitchen, Buffy sat on the floor, knees drawn close to her chest, back to the fridge – upon which she repeatedly slammed the back of her head as tears ran down her face. *What have I done? I just didn’t want Xander and Willow to figure it out! Oh God!* “I’ve lost him,” she whispered between sobs, again and again as she rocked herself, finding little solace in the thought he’d have to come back and she’d have to face the disappointment in his eyes.
tbc.
A/N: Let me know what you think, and I promise heavy smut and a little kink soon:PXXX
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Good morning! This is the answer to those of you who were wondering how Xander is going to take the news. There’s a little cliffy there at the end, but please bear with me! A huge ’Thank you’ to all of you who read my story, and especially those that take the time to leave a review! You guys make me smile!!! Im_bloody_English has used her magic wand on this chapter too, and I hope her laptop gets back to normal soon (join hands and pray with me, people:P) cuz she's brilliant and I already miss chatting with her!So, till Monday XXX