“Enemies” 4/14

[sroni]

For the last big fight on Sunnydale turf, Buffy stationed him with Dawn. That was where he was told to be, so that was where he fought.

But he wasn’t happy about it. He wanted to be where the badness was. He and Dawn would be picking up the leftovers, as were Andrew and Anya. (Anya informed Andrew when he first started helping them that if he ever tried to screw them over, she would come after him herself, and while she might not have her abilities anymore, she did still have her knowledge, and she was more than willing to try her hand at knives; see if she could add that to her ‘ways I tortured men for thousands of years’ resumé. Fortunately for him, and unfortunately for her, he died in that fight, so Anya had never gotten to through with her threat … and she really did feel that it was something she had missed out on.) Xander wanted to be where the real danger was; not because he had a death wish, but because he had been a protector for years. He had saved Buffy’s life about a sixteenth of the times she’d saved his, but he had still saved her. He was good at being in the right place at the right time. And two people that he especially wanted to make it out alive were going to be in the thick of things. The worst part was, they hadn’t expected to live through the fight. Even though Buffy was acting the part of the happy optimist, she was never good at keeping her feelings out of her eyes. Faith didn’t say anything one way or the other, but she looked at him, touched him, like she knew that would be the last time.

That last night before the final showdown, he could have asked her anything and gotten a truthful response.

He didn’t, though. He didn’t want her to tell him anything she wouldn’t normally say. It just wouldn’t have been right. It would have been cheating, would have cheapened anything she said.

Instead, they’d watched Star Wars (she was a closet fan, but of the original only. None of the “new crap” for her) and she’d fallen asleep on him. He didn’t have the heart to wake her, so he just stayed there, even though his arm was shot to hell afterwards. It was worth it, though, for her to get some actual sleep.

Willow had pulled the spell off with Kennedy standing guard. He might not like Kennedy, but he would admit that she would protect anyone with her life.

Willow hadn’t needed him that day.

Neither had Buffy or Faith, as it turned out.

Dawn, however, had. It surprised him how much of a workout his axe got when he was fighting on the fringes. They both made it out alive, with Dawn telling everyone who would listen how Xander had saved her life.

A lot.

They’d lost people. Girls. Kids, really. Some of the girls who died had been younger than he and Willow when they first started. They lost Robin, Riley, and Spike. Mary, Amanda, Eliza, Annie, Jessica, Hannah, and Carrie had all been on the same list.

He remembered them. Even if no one else did, he would.

Someone had to.

And that day, as awful as it was, helped cement the whatever-the-hell-it-was with Faith.

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