Revello Drive

He’s come to think of this place as ‘home,’ more so than his own apartment. Sure, he has to share a room with Giles, and they argue every night about who is going to sleep on the floor, since Giles insists that Xander is injured and should have the bed, and Xander has won no favors by pointing out that Giles is *old* and that it would be better for his back if he had the bed…

The world has spun again, once more around it’s axis, and his world has spun again. Buffy still has the axe, carrying it around with her in a dufflebag, and the first time she pulled it out of the bag (mainly because Rhona and Dawn hadn’t seen it yet, and were insisting), Xander felt the warmth rush through him. He could hear them talking in the background, so far away, while he sat on the couch, paralyzed in the soothing light that poured off of the axe in waves.

He could see them all, bathed in light. Buffy burning bright, Faith smouldering like embers, Willow flickering like flame, there and gone again as her confidence leapt and fell. He didn’t realize that he was up until his hand closed on the axe handle, and Buffy, shocked at his apparent ability to see again, released it into his grasp. It felt heavy and strange in his hand. The balance was all wrong. He handed it back to Buffy, and he could see Faith relax, having tensed up when he took hold of the axe. “It’s pretty, but it’s not for me.”

Enjoying everyone’s shocked expressions he added, “It’s not really my color.”

*****************************************************

Hours of poking and prodding and Giles saying ‘extraordinary!’ and Willow trying to be surreptitious as she ‘checks him out’ with spells (and failing miserably) pass. Xander feels the light coming off of all of them, and it feels good. Finally convinced that the First isn’t behind this new ‘vision,’ his friends relax, and they settle down to the first relaxed dinner they’ve had together for what seems like forever. Sitting on every available surface, eating whatever is at hand, there’s a reassuring babble of conversation on all sides, and it feels like home.

So it’s just the perfect time for Angel to show up at the door, obviously.

Whatever weirdness is going on with his new ‘sight,’ he can see that Angel is a vampire, but he can also see human colors, mixed in. He can *see* that Angel isn’t just a vampire, and it’s a laugh-out-loud moment as he realizes that this may be the first time he’s ever really *seen* Angel.

Faith is already up and in his face, happy to see him when Angel looks up and sees Xander.

“What’s so funny… My God, Xander! What happened?”

And then he sees Buffy, and everything goes quiet. To Xander’s new vision, his colors go all blurry, and yet more intense, somehow… Nothing unresolved there, nosirree.

“You know how they tell you not to run with scissors? My bad. Never could follow directions.” He’s managed to thread his way across the room and grabs up Angel’s hand and shakes it, enjoying the strange colors roiling through Angel, which he guesses must be the aura-y version of a slack-jawed expression. He makes a show of looking Angel up and down, “Looking good, man.”

Angel snatches his hand away like it’s on fire, “Uh, yeah, thanks. And I’m glad you’re comfortable with your sexuality. What the hell is going on here?”

And Buffy is there, tugging one way, while Faith is clinging to the other arm, and various potentials are crowding around, with the inevitable question, from Rhona, “Are all of Buffy’s vampire ex-boyfriends totally hot or what?”

*****************************************************

“So, it’s an amulet, from an evil law-firm, and you’re not sure what it does, but your seers think I’ll need it?”

“I don’t think I’m telling it very well, it made a lot more sense back in L.A…”

“Look, we’ll check it out. Somehow. But this thing, it’s really coming down hard here, and I think it might be best not to have all our eggs in the same frying pan.”

”I’m not following you…”

“Exactly, you need to get back to L.A., ‘cause if we don’t manage to stop this, one vampire with extra soul isn’t going to make a difference here. You’ve got friends and your own power-base or whatever back in L.A. I need you to be our second wave, line, thingie.”

“Fallback position?”

“Yeah, that! Thanks, Giles!”