CHPercolator scribbling - 14 july 2001

This is as far as he knows to go

by Cayendi  (Anita Dapperens)

Pairing:	Giles/Xander
Rating:	PG-13
Spoilers:	This story is set somewhere in the fourth season of the UPN (former WB) series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Sander still lives in his parents' basement and hasn't found that wonderful construction job yet.
Summary:	Giles and Xander have something in common ... it seems.
Disclaimer:	Giles, Xander and all others related to Buffy the Vampire slayer are © and owned by Joss Whedon, 20th Century Fox, Mutant Enemy and WB/UPN. I'm not making any profit, I just borrowed them to have some fun. The picture was manipulated by Anita, using pictures from Gabi at www.buffygiles.com
Feedback:	cayendi@cayendi.nl
Note:	This story is now available in PDF format.
Awards:

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Out of breath, Xander sinks down against the front door, wrapping his coat tight around him, ignoring the pain that thrums through his body. This is as far as he knows to go, he just can’t bring himself to knock on Giles’ door at three in the morning. Maybe he should have gone to Willow and Buffy. Yeah, right! Walking into a girls dorm in the middle of the night? No, Xander shakes his head. No, he will just have to wait till Giles wakes up.

What is that?

Are those footsteps?

Xander’s head swirls around, desperately trying to locate the noise he heard before his heartbeat drowns it out completely. Suddenly he looks into a pair of yellow eyes.

Oh, no ... god no, not a vampire, not now. He didn’t escape his home to get caught by a vampire. But as he rumbles through his coat pockets, hoping to find a stake there, the creature turns away from him, and Xander lets out a huge sigh of relief when he realises it was just a cat.

"Well done, Harris. It was just a cat, not a vampire, and certainly not him."

It couldn’t be him anyway, could it? No, he probably passed out before he got to the door.

Wrapping his coat even tighter around him, Xander squirms a bit, trying to make himself as comfortable as possible, hoping to finally catch some sleep.

 

 

"Rupert Giles, this is how you degrade our name?"

His arms wrapped around Ethan, Rupert starts awake, looking straight at his father standing in the doorway.

"Father ... I ..." he mumbles as he crawls out of bed, quick

"I thought I had finally talked some sense into you, boy. But instead I have to hear from your teachers that you miss classes and hang out with these occultist friends of yours."

With terror written on his face, Rupert watches how his father steps closer to the bed.

"Ethan," he whispers hurriedly in his lover’s ear, "Ethan, wake up."

As his father takes his belt off, Rupert freezes and ...

 

Gasping for breath, Rupert reaches for the glass of water always present on his night stand. He hates the nightmares, hates his inability to stand up to his father, even now, and hates how all those memories come crashing back, every time he talks to him. Well, at least this time he woke up before Ethan’s face changed into that of Xander.

Checking the time he realises it is almost six. He might as well get up, he won’t be able to fall asleep now anyway. Grabbing his bathrobe, he makes his way downstairs into his kitchen and puts the kettle on to make tea.

Xander. He has no right to feel this way about a boy roughly twice his junior, but he can’t help it. Every time he flashes that goofy grin of his, it gets harder and harder to hide his feelings. It gets harder to ignore the urge to wrap his arms around the boy and kiss that grin off his face.

A soft thump grabs his attention. It seems to come from the porch. Could the newspaper boy be here so early?

Tightening the belt of his bathrobe, he goes to the front door, hesitantly opening it. The moment he does something falls inside, and Rupert automatically jumps back when the figure on the floor moves.

"Oh, hi G-man."

His eyes widen in surprise as he recognises the weary voice.

"Xander?" he asks incredulously, "Xander, what are you doing here this early?"

 

 

Struggling to sit up straight, Xander tries not to show his pain.

"I was a bit early for a Scooby meeting?" he says, showing his standard goofy grin.

But Giles doesn’t buy it.

Xander hesitantly takes Giles’ hand and hoists himself onto his feet.

"I think you’d better come inside."

He has barely taken two steps when Giles stops him, turns the light on and gasps. Xander wonders why, until Giles carefully brushes his fingers over his right cheek.

"Xander! What happened? Who did this to you?"

Oh, shit! He completely forgot about that blow to his cheek.

"It happened during patrol?" Xander says, but when Giles just glares at him he tries something else.

"There was this streetlight. I could swear it wasn’t there before and ..."

It is obvious that Giles doesn’t buy this either, and Xander drops his head, feeling suddenly very tired. He has been lying to all of them for so very long, trying to hide his pain with a quick joke and his always present goofy grin. But he can’t hide anymore, doesn’t want to hide, not from Giles. He is just too tired.

"What do you want to hear G-man? How I can kick demon butt, but can’t escape the demon that lives in my home?"

With his shoulders slumped, his eyes still on the floor, Xander sighs.

"You want to know what his reason was? ... I lost another job, so I couldn’t pay the rent. And he needed the money ... to buy more booze, of course."

 

 

Rupert stares at the defeated posture of the boy in front of him, and curses softly. Images flash through his mind. Images of how his father treated him. Images of how he always put up a tough front, not wanting anyone to know how weak he was. And images of Xander, of things that should have clued him in. The baggy clothes, the presumed clumsiness and the jokes, all a front, a defence mechanism, and he, of all people, should have recognised it, he should have known.

"I don’t charge any rent," The words are out of his mouth before he fully realises what he is saying.

He holds his breath as Xander finally looks up, gaping, stunned and eyes wide. And suddenly Rupert wants nothing more than to hold Xander, wrap his arms around the boy and tell him everything will be alright. But when his fingers reach out once more to caress the black and blue bruise on Xander’s cheek, he knows that this is as far as he can go ...

 

For now.

 

The End

 

Buffy and Angel Fiction

• All in a day's work

PG-13 Angel/Wesley

• As far as he knows to go

PG-13 Giles/Xander

• Can't get worse

PG-15

• Solitude

G

• Is this all there is?

PG-13

• Just Passing

NC-17 Giles/Wesley

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