Home is Where the "cidal" Isn't
May. 2nd, 2009 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiceblueeyesRating:pg
Warnings:none
Summary: Xander has a weird life indeed.
Disclaimer: characters are not mine, they belong to Joss, and mutant enemy and blah blah blah.
A/N: For the prompt imbroglio at
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
tamingthemuse .
Xander honestly did not know how his life got so weird. He could try to pin it on one event, one day, like the day Buffy transferred to Sunnydale, or the day the Mayor tried to eat the school, or the day he got possessed by a Hyena. There were really too many days to choose from. His life had been more like a slope of increasing weirdness, and the weirder things got, the less he could tell what normal was supposed to be.
All of his life’s weirdness culminated in this. He was sitting on the couch watching a movie, Spike on one side with a beer that he’d complained about but was drinking anyway, and Drusilla snuggled up to him on his other side. She held a bowl of popcorn in her lap, which Xander would not be eating, because the pink sauce on top? Yeah, not strawberry flavoring.
Spike scooted slightly closer while he pretended not to notice. By the end of the movie Spike would be snuggled up to Xander too, both vampires loved his 98.6 degrees of warmth, not that Spike would ever admit it. Dru giggled at the movie, it was Saw III. Slasher films weren’t really his thing, but they made his vampires happy.
That’s it, that’s when his life had taken the turn for the truly, incomprehensibly weird imbroglio that it was now. Wow, guess some of the SAT words that Willow shoved down his throat senior year stuck. It was the day they found Spike and Dru, huddled up in a crypt, starving. They’d escaped the Initiative, but not before both of them had been chipped.
There’d been no where for them to go, and Spike had begged, actually begged, for the Scoobies to take them in. Xander thought that if Spike had been on his own he wouldn’t have been so helplessly desperate, but the chip had taken away his ability to care for Drusilla, and he couldn’t watch her starve to dust. So, he’d swallowed his pride and begged.
Xander, being the good-hearted idiot that he was, had taken them in. Did he see even a second of the humility or gratefulness that Spike had showed that night ever again? No. The first week he’d been so scared that they would kill him while he was sleeping that he’d tied them up, even knowing that simply stepping on his foot by accident would cause them agonizing pain.
After a while though, things became…disturbingly domestic. Nowadays there was just as much blood in the fridge as food, and the windows had been permanently blacked out. He yelled at Spike for smoking inside, and Drusilla talked to her dolls while Xander was trying to sleep, which had forced him to buy earplugs. Hearing things like “Now Miss Edith, you know cakes must have hearts. Fresh from the flower girl so the stars will not cry,” gave him nightmares.
They’d settled into a little family. As much as Spike insulted him, snarked at him, belittled him, he also made him breakfast when he had to leave early for work. One time, when Xander wrenched his back at the construction site, he’d come home and found Spike chain smoking and completely freaking out because Drusilla had a vision of him getting hurt. The vampires had fussed over him more than his own mother ever bothered to, and it felt good.
So even though his life was totally crazy, and would crumble down around his ears if Spike ever managed to get the chips out, Xander wouldn’t change a thing.
Drusilla giggled at the movie again and Spike scooted another tiny bit closer. Xander looked at the screen, where some guy was getting killed in an especially horrifying way, and smiled.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 02:53 pm (UTC)Thanks for commenting!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 03:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 02:54 pm (UTC)Thanks for commenting!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 02:54 pm (UTC)Mwahahahaha!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 05:06 am (UTC)There were really too many days to choose from. Great line.
I love that they both cuddle up next to Xander for the warmth. And Spike begging them to save Dru? So true to character. I suppose offering you a gold star just isn't done. Oh, but I do know what is. "Brownie?" *Holds out homemade brownies with walnuts in them*
I also love Drusilla's comments about cakes and hearts and how listening to what Drusilla says gives Xander nightmares. Excellent touch.
Last line: Xander smile at the screen, where some guy was getting killed in an especially horrifying way, and smiled. Xander smile... and smiled? I'm guessing typo for something like "Xander stared at the screen".
Even though you are a better writer than I am, I'm presuming to offer my opinion because... well, words like hubris and arrogance spring to mind. This is the only part I don't like: where some guy was getting killed in an especially horrifying way; it just seems to general to me. I would 1) either leave it out, and let the user guesstimate, given what the movie is, that the screen is showing something gross or 2) have Dru or Spike's reaction to the screen, when Xander is smiling at it, show that it's something gross or 3) write in something short but specific from Saw III. Crossing fingers and hoping concrit is OK.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 02:57 pm (UTC)Thanks!
Concrit is always welcome. I figure if you care enough about it to say something that can only be a good thing :)
I've never actually seen any of the Saw movies, they looked way too scary for me.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-04 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 07:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 02:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 09:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 02:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 02:59 pm (UTC)Thanks for commenting!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-04 04:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-04 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-01 09:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-01 04:06 pm (UTC)There is sequel if you're interested.
http://spiceblueeyes.livejournal.com/13752.html