Title: Spike

Series: Pretending Chapter Five

Author: Xandria

Rating: NC17+ Slash, het m/m/f, Xander/Spike/Anya

Spoiler: All Seasons of Buffy and the Pretender scattered throughout.

Fandom: Buffy / The Pretender

Summary: Xander is a genius, a Pretender, like Jarod. Years ago he was smuggled out and brought up to lead a 'normal life', in hiding. A little of how Spike, Anya and Xander got together.

Warning: Swear words though

Archive: Ooh, if you like. Anywhere at all. Just let me know so I can look.

Date: Friday, March 09, 2001

Feedback: Yes please. I love it. And it leads to more stories usually.

Notes: Thank you to Little Pinky and Anjxr for answering my questions, and to B3v and Marina for the Russian phrasing and the name especially.

Notes 2: Yay! The block is gone! Finally the muse is answering. It hates the fact I have to look for work at the moment...sorry about the delay guys. I got stuck on this chapter in January.

Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine, they belong to Joss, and whoever owns the Pretender and that's that. *SOB!*. Heck, if I did own them, I'd be in Queensland with all the boys attending to my every little whim! {I can dream can't I?} The idea isn't mine either, it's from the Adopt A Plot Bunny Agency created by PEJA. The plot, however? That's mine *EG* and I have an army of feral Smurfs and rabid teddybears to back me up.

SEPTEMBER 2000 XANDER'S APARTMENT

Xander stared at him for a minute and then put his head down on the table.

"It's a little late for that. We destroyed them."

"Actually you didn't. The original one, yes, but the same people have come back under another name. And they are watching you. All of you. The orders have come through that if you reveal any of what happened down there that you are to be dealt with."

"Swell. So you know what we do?"

"I have an idea. But I know for a fact that magic is an illusion. There are some very clever techniques out there. I was a magician for a while."

"Magicians. Ah. So you've only heard the government version then. What if I showed you some real magic?"

"It doesn't exist."

"I can show you it does. Look, how about if I show you a spell?"

"I would still think you had something hidden somewhere."

"I could take my clothes off and do it."


NOVEMBER 2000 X A

"Oi! Are you saying you offered to get naked for 'im?! 'Ow come you never bleedin' did that for me?!" Spike yelled, then glared at his younger lover.

"Because before we got together you tried to kill me? Several times?"

"Yeah, well, I might not have. Always thought you were a bit of alright. 'Sides, you were the first gift me bloody Sire offered me for over a century. I wasn't really ever going to kill you anyway. Not permanently."

"What?"

"Torture you, yeah. Kill the Slayer and all your friends in front of you until we were drenched in
their blood. The Slayer last, though, after a few days of...bloodplay. And I'd have you there tied down unable to move, watching it all. And then, at the last, I'd turn you, saving the Slayer so your first meal would be Slayer blood. And she'd die knowing the ones she was supposed to protect were dead while the one she had always derided as the weakest link was the one who ended up killing her."

Xander stared at his vampire lover for a moment. Smiling, he stood up and tilted his head slightly to the side, giggling a little in a high pitched laugh that made the hair on the back of Jarod's neck rise. Anya nodded to Jarod and they went to another room, hearing the thud behind them as Xander leapt on Spike, then a few more thumps as they rolled around.

"What was that?" Jarod asked, wide eyed.

"Spike...well, he's evil. That was him being romantic. I remember when we got together...the blood, the torture, the pain...such sweet promises. And Xander? He was possessed by a hyena spirit a while back. He doesn't often let it out to play because it's hard to keep it hidden from the others...they wouldn't understand."

"I see?"

"Don't worry about it Jarod, it's a Hellmouthy thing." Anya patted his hand. In the background could be heard the sounds of growling, thumping and giggles.

"So how did you get together?"

"Oh that was easy. I was a vengeance demon..."

AN HOUR LATER

"...and the look on his face when I took my clothes off like that. Xander and I have been with each other ever since. Spike though was a different story. You know how the Initiative put a chip into him? It forced him to be with us. No one liked him, not even me and Xander. He had to stay with us for a while and it was interfering with our time together.

"And I don't mean just the sex. At first we were all animalistic like you've seen us act in front of the others. Xander soon taught me how to act though. To be a human. And I taught him what I had learnt over the years as well. He'd read all of Gile's books and wanted to practice, learn other magicks.

"Spike staying with us put a stop to that. We kept up the sex maniac act for laughs, and because they would ignore us. And it annoys the hell out of them. And they don't even realise we're only reflecting back what we see in them, just...a little more exaggerated. There was this house, that reacted to lust, and it focused on Buffy and Riley. It needed true love to release the spell and that was me and Xander. And they still don't get it.

"So, Spike was doing his usual thing, being an evil vampire. And he found a way around the chip, at least as far as I was concerned. And he liked me, in his vampire way..."

FEBUARY 2000

"Spike, let go." Anya wriggled underneath the vampire, who held her tight and wouldn't let go.

"I don't think so Anya. See, I want the whelp to suffer, and since I found a way around the chip I can. Anyway, I can do things to you `e can't. Show you pain..."

"Spike, no! Xander is my boyfriend. Promising me torture is all very nice, but let. Me. Go!"

"Well actually, Luv, I..."

"Will let her go." Spike looked up and smiled. His Nummy looked absolutely delicious like that, eyes blazing and hands raised. Reminded him of this sorcerer he had met, only Nummy couldn't do magic of course.

"I don't think so Pet. Not until you back away a little. I know you won't dare try and stake me while I'm wrapped around Anya like this and I'm quite comfy `ere." Anya stared at him suddenly in surprise.

"You like him! That's what this is about. Xander, he's courting you!"

"What? By trying to rape you and threaten to kill you?!"

"It's what vampires do. Most demons do it that way. Oh.that is so romantic!" Anya sniffed and began to cry. Spike stared down at her in surprise. Threats of torture, bloodletting and rape and she'd glared at him and yelled back. But a hint of actual romance and she's bawling like a baby. Women! He drew back from her a little and Xander struck.

Spike suddenly found himself flying through the air to hit the wall, hard, with a loud thud before slumping down. Snarling, he tried to stand and was struck again. Looking up, all he could see was the whelp, his hands upraised, as Anya shakily stood up and went over to him. He put his arms around her and the building pressure, which he only noticed once it was released,
stopped.

"Bloody `ell! You're a magic user!" Xander smiled at him grimly before ignoring the vampire and paying attention to his girlfriend instead. Spike lay there, and smiled. Even better!

Nummy had great looks, a good sense of humour, and a tendency to keep secrets from the Scoobies anyway. And he was a magic user. As for Anya, she was ideal, smart, voracious, and a lover of violence, not to mention rather easy on the eyes as well.

What a lovely pair of Children they would make when he finally got rid of the chip and could turn them.

end part 5