And the Buffy thing sprouts fangs.

[stungunbilly]

Lists! I love lists. I can't stop reading Spike/Xander fiction, though the search continues for really, really good quality Angel/Xander and Xander/Willow. I'm also vaguely thinking of Spike/Dru plot bunnies, which is strange for me. So. Lists!

Things I love in Xike fiction (what? Spander is so much better?And Xandike is just scary.) 

 
-When, in pre-soul stories, Spike is actually dangerous to Xander, like a real predator with a chip and too much heart for a vampire would be.

-When (see above) Xander knows this, and isn’t suddenly completely suicidal or masochistic. Or willing to allow avoidable risk to the lives of his loved ones. Or suddenly, strangely compliant without magic. Or able to condone murder.

-When (see above) Xander is still attracted anyway, and that freaks him out just as much as it would in canon. My Xander fights! Oh, how he fights. Even when repeatedly beaten about the head.

-When the boys are completely in character, and the lust and love grow in around the edges of the animosity, without excessive short-cuts. Except magical ones. Magic solves everything. But it should be sparkly!

-When Spike and Xander are both plain and pretty to each other, at different moments. Like real people.

-When the rest of the Scoobies react characteristically to the boys getting together.

-When the rest of the Scoobies aren’t made out to be evil/wrong for their reactions, or ridiculously supportive. With the usual codicil regarding magic, and its solving properties.

-When everyone involved who doesn’t have rotten judgement is capable of realistically assessing the situation. With exceptions for substances that intoxicate (and I have a hard time seeing Xander pro-drinky). And also magic.

-When they have feelings that vary for the people they know, like real people do. More than one shade of emotion. Sometimes because of magic!

-When post-Chosen or post AtS stories manage getting them together while including canon in entirety. No mean feat, considering canon itself rarely manages to be canonical.

-When the voices are perfect, and the angst and the lust and the fondness and the hatred and dislike and prejudice and snark are all there, and they still get it on in fine style. Because that? Is good Xike.

 

And now I’m picturing an early Season 5 story wherein Spike, being Spike, doesn’t tell Xander about the sudden urge he has to lick him, and just takes off with Xander tied up in the trunk thanks to a friend (Clem? What a surprise for Xander!)  in hopes of a Stockholm Solution to his little problem of non-reciprocation. Of course, Spike has actually been whammied by a misdirected love spell, which was aimed at Giles by Willow, who wanted Giles to find love. Unfortunately it was a two-part spell, and Spike got half while arguing with Xander (poor Xander!). Giles got half, as he was supposed to do, but the object of his attention was not Joyce (as Willow planned). Instead, Anya was helping him with inventory, and well. Hijinks ensue.

Spike takes Xander to the Anza-Boreaga wilderness, driving a stolen SUV with tinted windows and enough water and supplies to feed a wagon train. Giles begins his suit of the hysterical Anya, who is searching for Xander, and Willow and Tara- are on vacation. Oops. Meanwhile, Willy’s is trashed by a baddy who turns out to be looking for Spike, and Buffy teams up with the villain in hopes it will lead her to Xander’s rescue. The Scooby Gang is in for trouble. Good times! And night-blooming cactus flowers.

 

 

Or, or a sad one. A sad story with Spike broken-hearted, but strong, with three great sorrows to carry and a list. The first sorrow is Dru, who makes him dust her after Angelus passes, because Angel was destroyed after AtS 5. Another is the slow death of the Slayer at the claws of Wolfram and Heart, when she becomes dragonslayer and dragonslain. She makes him drink her blood so it won’t be wasted, and so he’ll be strong and can free Xander from Lindsey’s black magic payment for his own resurrection. (He has to sacrifice a mortal hero.) And then the third is the letter from Angel that tells him how proud he was of him, and his hopes for their future, written a few days before Gransire became dust.

 

And Spike has a list, because he loved Buffy and Angel and Dru, and he wants to be what they wanted him to be, free and alive and helping the helpless and saving the world. So he keeps a list of all the places he goes for Dru and the people he saves for Angel and Buffy, to show them when he finds them again in the next world. And somehow Xander, rescued but a little damaged, reads it and *gets* him finally. And helps him. And gets him on the Council payroll, because Spike keeps messing up his plans like always.

 

Then they have really good sex, because of the love they are both still carrying around that sort of clings to them both and holds them together. And also because they are used to each other and secretly enjoy snarking.