Shadowlands Chapter 15, Final Chapter
Sep. 4th, 2005 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee34Title: Shadowlands Part 15
Email: lunabee34@yahoo.com
Rating: NC-17 (overall)
Pairing: Spike/Xander
Disclaimers: The Buffyverse and all its characters belong to Joss Whedon & co. The story is mine.
Summary: Set immediately after the Ats ep "Damage." Xander finds out Spike is alive and comes to L. A. to see for himself.
Beta:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kitty_poker1 Words cannot express how much you've helped me during the process of writing this fic. Thank you so much
This is the final chapter of Shadowlands. It's now complete. I feel bereft, sort of. LOL
Previous Parts comfort one another HERE.
Shadowlands Chapter 15
Xander stifled a yawn and shifted his chair closer to Spike’s. From across the table, Gunn made good-natured Awwwwww, isn’t that sweet faces at him when Spike casually slung his arm around Xander’s shoulders in response. He’d stumbled off the plane bleary eyed, exhausted, and fully intending to hold Spike to a rather panicked, naughty promise he’d made during some turbulence over the Atlantic. Instead Xander had found himself in Caritas, pinching himself to stay awake, as Angel described the battle plans to the others. Xander swallowed another yawn and forced himself to pay attention to the conversation.
“So that’s the plan. Tomorrow we take on the Senior Partners. Everyone knows what to do? Any questions?” Angel crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He was met with silence. Wesley cleared his throat once as if he meant to speak, but he merely nodded and gripped Fred’s hand more tightly. Angel continued, “This won’t be easy. We won’t all make it. Tonight might be your last night on earth. Don’t waste it.”
Lorne pushed his chair back from the table. “Don’t be such a drama queen, Angelcakes. This is apocalypse number how many for us? For what it’s worth, I’ve got my money on Team Angel.” He stepped behind the bar. “Of course, it couldn’t hurt to make some pre-Armageddon plans, maybe have one hopefully-not-so-final bash in the old joint. I could sing that new arrangement of “Over the Rainbow” I’ve been secretly working on. Excuse me, ladies and gents. I’ve got some calls to make.”
Fred stood up. “We’d better be running on, too. If this is my last night on earth, I’ve got some serious taco eating to tackle before morning.”
Wesley raised an eyebrow. “I sincerely hope there’s more on the agenda for this evening than eating tacos.”
Fred just giggled and pulled him across the bar toward the door, both of them calling out goodbyes through their laughter. Gunn laughed along with everyone else at Fred’s comment, but it sounded bitter and forced to Xander’s ears. Gunn left shortly after without volunteering any information about his plans. I really hope he’s got somewhere to be and someone to be there with. Sergeant Doom and Gloom has a point; if tonight’s all we’ve got, I sure as hell wouldn’t wanna spend it alone.
As if his thoughts ran along the same lines, Spike pulled Xander closer to him. “So, Peaches. Guess it’s just us family left now. Where’re you planning to spend the last moments of your unlife?”
Angel sighed. “At Wolfram and Hart, I suppose. I don’t want anyone to get suspicious.” He picked up a book of matches from a bowl on the table and idly tossed it from hand to hand.
Spike and Xander looked at each other. I so do not want to spend my last night on earth babysitting Angel, but damn it! He looks so pitiful, and I can tell Spike doesn’t want him to be alone. And if I’m really honest, neither do I. Crap. Xander opened his mouth to invite Angel to come back to Spike’s place with them, but before he could say anything, Angel went quiet and still, his attention focused on something behind Xander. Xander turned; Buffy was leaning against the bar, her hands in her pockets.
“Buffy, what’re you doing here? You were supposed to come through the portal tomorrow with the other Slayers,” Angel said.
Buffy shrugged. “I couldn’t wait.”
~ ~ ~
Spike opened the door to his apartment and tossed his duster on the coffee table. He fanned out a stack of restaurant menus on the end of the counter, pulling a green one from the pile. “You wanna get some Chinese takeaway, luv? That place down on South Seventh has good—“
Xander took the menu from Spike’s hand and threw it back on the counter. “Shut up already, would you? Last night on earth, remember?” And then they were kissing, hard and desperate, hands fumbling with buttons and zippers. They fell back on the couch clumsily, Spike’s mouth wet and moving on his neck.
Finally, they were both naked, pressed thigh to thigh, chest to chest. Spike made little needy noises into Xander’s neck when Xander twisted his hips against him and ran his hands down between them. Then Spike pulled back from him, just looking, his body never stopping that slip slide against Xander’s, his hands busy on Xander’s damp skin. Xander could see himself reflected in Spike’s eyes, could see his own mouth open and panting for breath, his own cheeks flushed with desire. He wondered what Spike saw in his eyes. Me. Only me.
They kissed again, and then Spike was slipping wet fingers into him. Xander gasped and clutched Spike’s shoulders tightly. Spike looked at him once more, as if searching for doubt, before easing himself into Xander, sliding forward gradually until flesh met flesh. He stopped for a long moment, their bodies joined together motionlessly, Xander slick with sweat, shaking and biting his bottom lip. Then Spike drew back and pushed into Xander again, again, again, until the edges of everything blurred and Xander felt warm and liquid. When he came, Xander thought he would dissolve, become indistinct from Spike, from the bed, the room, the almost unbearable pleasure that flowed into him from every place they touched.
Later, much later, when they were both limp and exhausted, Xander curled around Spike’s back and pressed his face into Spike’s shoulder. They slept.
Xander woke once, lamplight on his face and Spike busy scribbling something on a sheet of loose leaf at the desk. Xander watched Spike write, watched the quick movements of the tendons at his wrist, the furrow in his brow when he paused to think. Xander dozed again, and when he woke next he was alone. He could hear Spike in the kitchen, heating up a mug of blood or maybe a cold slice of pizza. He padded across the room on bare feet and ran trembling fingers across the words Spike had written while he’d slept.
I See Monsters
Baby, I know you cannot hear me now
‘Cause you’re fast asleep, but I need you now
Colors inside your head go spinning round
Like a Ferris wheel
Exploding and falling to the ground
Oh, people are screaming, people are screaming
My baby, he’s dreaming
Oh, people are shouting, people are freaking
I’m staring at the ceiling waiting for the feeling
Oh, when he comes
I know that he’s the one
Makes me want it harder
Makes me wanna be a little stronger
Still I see monsters
Still I see monsters*
~ ~ ~
Afterwards, Xander could barely remember what happened. Some moments hung in his memory with startling clarity—the initial flash of light and then a swirling confluence of colors and Faith stepping through first, stake at the ready; Spike’s arm tight on his elbow as they watched the dragon an honest to god, fucking dragon! circle overhead; Andrew holding up his hand, fingers in a taut V and whispering, “Live long and prosper,” before the horde of demons rushed the alley. The rest was a jumble of sounds and sensations.
Mostly what Xander remembered later was Angel, the look of surprise and regret on his face, the way his ashes hung in the wet air for a long moment before falling with the rain.
”I kinda wanna slay the dragon.” And Angel leaped forward, his sword bright in all that darkness. Buffy saw it coming first, like in that moment before a cup drops, when it’s whole in the hands but waiting to fall. Then there’s nothing left but to watch it break on the floor. Buffy screamed, and maybe so did Spike; Xander wasn’t sure. Beyond the rain and the sounds of metal on bone all he could hear was his own heart drumming. The dragon came down, eventually, a huge heap of serrated scales and burning coals. Buffy scrabbled in the mud where Angel had fallen, searching for some piece of him, but her hands found nothing. Then Spike was pressing his face into Xander’s neck and crying, digging his fingers in at the shoulders, hard, too hard.
~ ~ ~
Xander sat on the beach at Nerja, his back against a boulder worn smooth by centuries of surf. The moon hung high over the sea, a round ball bigger than his fist that illuminated the long stretch of sand with silvery light. Xander could see Spike, many yards out, swimming parallel to the shoreline. His body less cut through the waves than became part of them, the white glow of an ankle the echo of the shine on a white cap, the pale arc of Spike’s spine mirroring the bow and bend of the water he swam in.
Xander’s fingers tapped expectantly on his cell phone, and as if by magic, it rang.
“Hey, Andrew. I’ve been waiting for you to call.”
Andrew sighed. “I know. Things took longer at the hospital than we thought they would—X-rays, CAT scans, all those vaccinations he missed out on.”
“Is he okay?”
“Surprisingly, yeah. He’s held up pretty well for a guy who’s more than two hundred years old. Other than some smoke inhalation, he’s fine.”
Another phone call a week ago--Xander was still in L.A. Some of the Slayers had been seriously injured in the battle, and almost everyone had something that needed stitching up. Spike had whispered to him back in the alley, his voice thick with tears, “Wherever you’re going, I’ll go. There’s nothing for me here.” But for now, they were all together, bunked down in the hospital lounge, waiting for the wounded to heal.
Xander started when his phone began to ring shrilly in the church quiet of the waiting room. “Who could be calling me? Everyone I know is right here,” he said. “Hello?”
“Xander, it’s me. Angel.”
And Xander nearly dropped the phone; from across the aisle, he could see Spike’s eyes widen and his mouth drop open before he snatched the phone from Xander.
Angel had woken up under the remnants of the dragon, bruised and bleeding and human. He told Spike that clawing his way out from under that massive weight took nearly as long as digging through six feet of loamy earth so many years ago. Spike shook his head and said, with something unidentifiable in his voice, “ ‘No man of woman born, coward or brave, can shun his destiny.’ ”**
Xander shook his head to clear the memory and focused his attention on the conversation at hand. “Good. I’ve been worried. Even though he won’t admit it, Spike’s been really worried about Angel, too. How’s he handling the whole human again thing?”
“Pretty okay, I guess. He hasn’t taken his lips off Buffy’s long enough to really say.” Xander could hear the giggle lurking behind Andrew’s voice. “Speaking of smoochies, how are things going with you and Spike? Everything was so crazy when you left—Angel Shanshu-ing, all those newbie Slayers still in the hospital. You guys just kinda ran off.”
Xander sighed. “I know. But Spike and I haven’t had any time together, well, since before we even got together, that wasn’t full of apocalypses and evil lawyers and blue sucky demons. Soon as everybody gets on their feet again, it’s back to business as usual. And then we’ll have to decide what we wanna do—go somewhere on assignment, work at Headquarters, fight the good fight with Angel’s crew in L.A, blahblahblahblahblah. We just wanted to be alone for a while before the next time the world almost ends.”
“I get that. So this is looking like it might be a permanent type thing, then?”
Spike rose from the water and walked through the shallows toward Xander. He sat beside him on the towel and wrapped wet arms around his middle.
Xander smiled. “Oh, yeah.”
The end.
*”I See Monsters” by Ryan Adams on the album Love is Hell. I have changed the lyrics slightly to reflect the appropriate gender and to eliminate the word love from the song. Methought it a bit too soon for the L-word.
**Homer, Iliad, VI (Bryant trans.)
Thank you all so much for making this such a great writing experience. I truly have found a wonderful community of readers/writers I'm glad I'm a part of.
If anyone's interested, I wrote a seriously wanky post on the making of Shadowlands *snort* HERE
Email: lunabee34@yahoo.com
Rating: NC-17 (overall)
Pairing: Spike/Xander
Disclaimers: The Buffyverse and all its characters belong to Joss Whedon & co. The story is mine.
Summary: Set immediately after the Ats ep "Damage." Xander finds out Spike is alive and comes to L. A. to see for himself.
Beta:
kitty_poker1 Words cannot express how much you've helped me during the process of writing this fic. Thank you so muchThis is the final chapter of Shadowlands. It's now complete. I feel bereft, sort of. LOL
Previous Parts comfort one another HERE.
Shadowlands Chapter 15
Xander stifled a yawn and shifted his chair closer to Spike’s. From across the table, Gunn made good-natured Awwwwww, isn’t that sweet faces at him when Spike casually slung his arm around Xander’s shoulders in response. He’d stumbled off the plane bleary eyed, exhausted, and fully intending to hold Spike to a rather panicked, naughty promise he’d made during some turbulence over the Atlantic. Instead Xander had found himself in Caritas, pinching himself to stay awake, as Angel described the battle plans to the others. Xander swallowed another yawn and forced himself to pay attention to the conversation.
“So that’s the plan. Tomorrow we take on the Senior Partners. Everyone knows what to do? Any questions?” Angel crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He was met with silence. Wesley cleared his throat once as if he meant to speak, but he merely nodded and gripped Fred’s hand more tightly. Angel continued, “This won’t be easy. We won’t all make it. Tonight might be your last night on earth. Don’t waste it.”
Lorne pushed his chair back from the table. “Don’t be such a drama queen, Angelcakes. This is apocalypse number how many for us? For what it’s worth, I’ve got my money on Team Angel.” He stepped behind the bar. “Of course, it couldn’t hurt to make some pre-Armageddon plans, maybe have one hopefully-not-so-final bash in the old joint. I could sing that new arrangement of “Over the Rainbow” I’ve been secretly working on. Excuse me, ladies and gents. I’ve got some calls to make.”
Fred stood up. “We’d better be running on, too. If this is my last night on earth, I’ve got some serious taco eating to tackle before morning.”
Wesley raised an eyebrow. “I sincerely hope there’s more on the agenda for this evening than eating tacos.”
Fred just giggled and pulled him across the bar toward the door, both of them calling out goodbyes through their laughter. Gunn laughed along with everyone else at Fred’s comment, but it sounded bitter and forced to Xander’s ears. Gunn left shortly after without volunteering any information about his plans. I really hope he’s got somewhere to be and someone to be there with. Sergeant Doom and Gloom has a point; if tonight’s all we’ve got, I sure as hell wouldn’t wanna spend it alone.
As if his thoughts ran along the same lines, Spike pulled Xander closer to him. “So, Peaches. Guess it’s just us family left now. Where’re you planning to spend the last moments of your unlife?”
Angel sighed. “At Wolfram and Hart, I suppose. I don’t want anyone to get suspicious.” He picked up a book of matches from a bowl on the table and idly tossed it from hand to hand.
Spike and Xander looked at each other. I so do not want to spend my last night on earth babysitting Angel, but damn it! He looks so pitiful, and I can tell Spike doesn’t want him to be alone. And if I’m really honest, neither do I. Crap. Xander opened his mouth to invite Angel to come back to Spike’s place with them, but before he could say anything, Angel went quiet and still, his attention focused on something behind Xander. Xander turned; Buffy was leaning against the bar, her hands in her pockets.
“Buffy, what’re you doing here? You were supposed to come through the portal tomorrow with the other Slayers,” Angel said.
Buffy shrugged. “I couldn’t wait.”
~ ~ ~
Spike opened the door to his apartment and tossed his duster on the coffee table. He fanned out a stack of restaurant menus on the end of the counter, pulling a green one from the pile. “You wanna get some Chinese takeaway, luv? That place down on South Seventh has good—“
Xander took the menu from Spike’s hand and threw it back on the counter. “Shut up already, would you? Last night on earth, remember?” And then they were kissing, hard and desperate, hands fumbling with buttons and zippers. They fell back on the couch clumsily, Spike’s mouth wet and moving on his neck.
Finally, they were both naked, pressed thigh to thigh, chest to chest. Spike made little needy noises into Xander’s neck when Xander twisted his hips against him and ran his hands down between them. Then Spike pulled back from him, just looking, his body never stopping that slip slide against Xander’s, his hands busy on Xander’s damp skin. Xander could see himself reflected in Spike’s eyes, could see his own mouth open and panting for breath, his own cheeks flushed with desire. He wondered what Spike saw in his eyes. Me. Only me.
They kissed again, and then Spike was slipping wet fingers into him. Xander gasped and clutched Spike’s shoulders tightly. Spike looked at him once more, as if searching for doubt, before easing himself into Xander, sliding forward gradually until flesh met flesh. He stopped for a long moment, their bodies joined together motionlessly, Xander slick with sweat, shaking and biting his bottom lip. Then Spike drew back and pushed into Xander again, again, again, until the edges of everything blurred and Xander felt warm and liquid. When he came, Xander thought he would dissolve, become indistinct from Spike, from the bed, the room, the almost unbearable pleasure that flowed into him from every place they touched.
Later, much later, when they were both limp and exhausted, Xander curled around Spike’s back and pressed his face into Spike’s shoulder. They slept.
Xander woke once, lamplight on his face and Spike busy scribbling something on a sheet of loose leaf at the desk. Xander watched Spike write, watched the quick movements of the tendons at his wrist, the furrow in his brow when he paused to think. Xander dozed again, and when he woke next he was alone. He could hear Spike in the kitchen, heating up a mug of blood or maybe a cold slice of pizza. He padded across the room on bare feet and ran trembling fingers across the words Spike had written while he’d slept.
I See Monsters
Baby, I know you cannot hear me now
‘Cause you’re fast asleep, but I need you now
Colors inside your head go spinning round
Like a Ferris wheel
Exploding and falling to the ground
Oh, people are screaming, people are screaming
My baby, he’s dreaming
Oh, people are shouting, people are freaking
I’m staring at the ceiling waiting for the feeling
Oh, when he comes
I know that he’s the one
Makes me want it harder
Makes me wanna be a little stronger
Still I see monsters
Still I see monsters*
~ ~ ~
Afterwards, Xander could barely remember what happened. Some moments hung in his memory with startling clarity—the initial flash of light and then a swirling confluence of colors and Faith stepping through first, stake at the ready; Spike’s arm tight on his elbow as they watched the dragon an honest to god, fucking dragon! circle overhead; Andrew holding up his hand, fingers in a taut V and whispering, “Live long and prosper,” before the horde of demons rushed the alley. The rest was a jumble of sounds and sensations.
Mostly what Xander remembered later was Angel, the look of surprise and regret on his face, the way his ashes hung in the wet air for a long moment before falling with the rain.
”I kinda wanna slay the dragon.” And Angel leaped forward, his sword bright in all that darkness. Buffy saw it coming first, like in that moment before a cup drops, when it’s whole in the hands but waiting to fall. Then there’s nothing left but to watch it break on the floor. Buffy screamed, and maybe so did Spike; Xander wasn’t sure. Beyond the rain and the sounds of metal on bone all he could hear was his own heart drumming. The dragon came down, eventually, a huge heap of serrated scales and burning coals. Buffy scrabbled in the mud where Angel had fallen, searching for some piece of him, but her hands found nothing. Then Spike was pressing his face into Xander’s neck and crying, digging his fingers in at the shoulders, hard, too hard.
~ ~ ~
Xander sat on the beach at Nerja, his back against a boulder worn smooth by centuries of surf. The moon hung high over the sea, a round ball bigger than his fist that illuminated the long stretch of sand with silvery light. Xander could see Spike, many yards out, swimming parallel to the shoreline. His body less cut through the waves than became part of them, the white glow of an ankle the echo of the shine on a white cap, the pale arc of Spike’s spine mirroring the bow and bend of the water he swam in.
Xander’s fingers tapped expectantly on his cell phone, and as if by magic, it rang.
“Hey, Andrew. I’ve been waiting for you to call.”
Andrew sighed. “I know. Things took longer at the hospital than we thought they would—X-rays, CAT scans, all those vaccinations he missed out on.”
“Is he okay?”
“Surprisingly, yeah. He’s held up pretty well for a guy who’s more than two hundred years old. Other than some smoke inhalation, he’s fine.”
Another phone call a week ago--Xander was still in L.A. Some of the Slayers had been seriously injured in the battle, and almost everyone had something that needed stitching up. Spike had whispered to him back in the alley, his voice thick with tears, “Wherever you’re going, I’ll go. There’s nothing for me here.” But for now, they were all together, bunked down in the hospital lounge, waiting for the wounded to heal.
Xander started when his phone began to ring shrilly in the church quiet of the waiting room. “Who could be calling me? Everyone I know is right here,” he said. “Hello?”
“Xander, it’s me. Angel.”
And Xander nearly dropped the phone; from across the aisle, he could see Spike’s eyes widen and his mouth drop open before he snatched the phone from Xander.
Angel had woken up under the remnants of the dragon, bruised and bleeding and human. He told Spike that clawing his way out from under that massive weight took nearly as long as digging through six feet of loamy earth so many years ago. Spike shook his head and said, with something unidentifiable in his voice, “ ‘No man of woman born, coward or brave, can shun his destiny.’ ”**
Xander shook his head to clear the memory and focused his attention on the conversation at hand. “Good. I’ve been worried. Even though he won’t admit it, Spike’s been really worried about Angel, too. How’s he handling the whole human again thing?”
“Pretty okay, I guess. He hasn’t taken his lips off Buffy’s long enough to really say.” Xander could hear the giggle lurking behind Andrew’s voice. “Speaking of smoochies, how are things going with you and Spike? Everything was so crazy when you left—Angel Shanshu-ing, all those newbie Slayers still in the hospital. You guys just kinda ran off.”
Xander sighed. “I know. But Spike and I haven’t had any time together, well, since before we even got together, that wasn’t full of apocalypses and evil lawyers and blue sucky demons. Soon as everybody gets on their feet again, it’s back to business as usual. And then we’ll have to decide what we wanna do—go somewhere on assignment, work at Headquarters, fight the good fight with Angel’s crew in L.A, blahblahblahblahblah. We just wanted to be alone for a while before the next time the world almost ends.”
“I get that. So this is looking like it might be a permanent type thing, then?”
Spike rose from the water and walked through the shallows toward Xander. He sat beside him on the towel and wrapped wet arms around his middle.
Xander smiled. “Oh, yeah.”
The end.
*”I See Monsters” by Ryan Adams on the album Love is Hell. I have changed the lyrics slightly to reflect the appropriate gender and to eliminate the word love from the song. Methought it a bit too soon for the L-word.
**Homer, Iliad, VI (Bryant trans.)
Thank you all so much for making this such a great writing experience. I truly have found a wonderful community of readers/writers I'm glad I'm a part of.
If anyone's interested, I wrote a seriously wanky post on the making of Shadowlands *snort* HERE
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 01:20 am (UTC)Congrats babe! It's a winner! MWAH!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 04:36 am (UTC)I'm so glad I made you like Andrew and Angel. I'm evil that way. LOL
*smooch*
Thanks so much for being so encouraging throughout this process. You know, this fic wouldn't even be here if it wasn't your and Suki's divine intervention. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-09-07 02:49 pm (UTC)Aww! Thanks luv! I'm not sure what I did but I'm all blushing! Hee!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 01:29 am (UTC)Oh, nice ending, bay-bee. Good stuff.
It's weird when a story ends, isn't it?
*smooch*
Yay!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 04:38 am (UTC)It is weird; I went back to see when I started this fic and it startled me to realize I'd been writing it for eight months. That's a little longer than I carried my daughter. LOL /birth analogies
*smooches back*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 05:18 am (UTC):)
Wow - less than eight months? Lucky you!
Hee.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 02:28 am (UTC)Fantastic work!
Kat
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 04:39 am (UTC)I'm really damn pleased you enjoyed it.
*blushes*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 03:46 am (UTC)Spike and Xander do love each other. They just haven't admitted it yet.
I'm kind of sad about Gunn, but maybe he finds happiness later.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 04:43 am (UTC)I pondered long and hard about whether to include a character death warning, but since I brought him back in the span of a single chapter, I decided not to bother with it. I'm glad you liked the Angel Shanshuing part. I didn't want to leave him in the lurch, especially since Spike gets Xander, the ultimate prize. LOL
And I agree. Spike and Xander are falling in love. That's the stuff of a sequel. Heeeeeee....
I hated to do that Gunn, but I didn't want it to end too hunky dory, ya know? In the sequel, I'll see about getting the man a dose of happiness. :)
*smooches*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 05:02 am (UTC)Maybe I meant thank you for proving me wrong. :shrugs:
Since Angel didn't get Xander, Spike, Wesley, or Gunn, I feel sorry for him. I think Buffy is too high maintenance for someone as confused and laid back as Angel. Well, he's horny now, but he'll find out.
Sequel???? Oh please, yes. Please.
The only times Gunn ever seems happy to me in stories or on the show are when he's doing frienshippy things with Wes and Cordy or helping Anne. He's a pretty bitter man, and he has a lot to be bitter about. He had a very very hard life, and then one time he tried to improve his station in life, to make himself feel equal and as valuable as his peers, he got someone he loved killed. Sad. Oh, and staking his sister was no walk in the park for him.
Lovely story.
I don't think you should be so hard on yourself about Anya's letter to Xander. Really. It didn't seem completely contrived to me. In a story based on a supernatural show with supernatural things happening all the time affecting everyone's lives, it was not implausible to me.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-07 05:13 pm (UTC)Thanks for saying that about the letter. I know it's not outside the realm of supernatural possibility for the show. I just think it was a bit cheesy. LOL Oh, well, no biggie. I did like getting to show that Anya was bored in heaven. *g*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 04:44 am (UTC)*hugs you tight*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 03:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 04:46 am (UTC)Thank you so much. I'm so glad you enjoyed this. I really appreciate the glowing feedback.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 05:12 am (UTC)Angel shanshu'ing was an excellent touch. I've thoroughly enjoyed beta'ing and reading the whole series and thanks so much for writing it.
*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 04:49 am (UTC)*hugs you so tight*
You're a treasure, and a dear dear friend.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 09:10 am (UTC)Marie
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 04:50 am (UTC)I'm so glad you enjoyed this fic. Thanks for the kind words. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 10:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 04:53 am (UTC)I really appreciate the kind words.
:)
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 12:51 pm (UTC)Now that it's over, I just want to let you know that this story is one of the reasons I got an LJ. I found out about the friends feature and it sounded easier than bouncing around the lj's I'd bookmarked looking for updates. :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 04:58 am (UTC)I'm so flattered to hear that this story contributed to you getting an lj. I'm glad you did. Now we all get to read yummy Ethan and Giles and oh Xander and..... LOL
*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 06:30 pm (UTC)I know I sort of cheated by discovering the whole story the very night you posted the last part, but it was nice to read it all at once!
Funny, though I'm definitely down with the Spike/Xander love, it was the Andrew/Xander friendship that stood out for me most in this story. It really, really worked—their mutual geekiness shone through, along with the periodic reminders that both have them have seen and done things far out of the ordinary.
Anyway ... thanks for the happy ending!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 05:02 am (UTC)You know, it's funny, but for me the most gratifying elements of the fic were the Andrew/Xander friendship and the whole story arc with Angel. I had to fight toward the end not to let the Angel bits especially dominate the fic. I love the Spander, but I found myself really getting sidetracked by tangential parts of the story.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Thanks so much!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 07:15 pm (UTC)This was just wonderful, a Masterpiece from beginning to end. Well done, luv.
Sooooooooo, whatcha gonna write next?
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Date: 2005-09-06 05:08 am (UTC)Thank you so much, Suki. You know this is largely due to your and Ame's divine intervention. If it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't even be here, having so much fun with the boys. :)
I'm so glad you like the ending.
Next? I think I'll start it off with some Firefly fic and then I'm gonna see about that Andrew/Ethan. LOL
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Date: 2005-09-06 06:22 pm (UTC)Andrew/Ethan?!Lord!
I suppose I can't say much to that. I am planning a Giles/Xander. ~g~
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Date: 2005-09-07 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-07 08:28 pm (UTC)Yes! I love to read the pairing as I write!! Yes! YES!!!
I would be so grateful for some links. That would be just great!!! I have so much trouble finding anything but Spander.
I'll go check out those guys too.
Loves my Tiddlyflop.
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Date: 2005-09-05 10:49 pm (UTC)A good strong ending. Lovely. :D
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Date: 2005-09-06 05:09 am (UTC)Thank you so much for the kind words. I'm really glad you liked this piece. :)
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Date: 2005-09-06 09:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 05:37 pm (UTC)*hugs you*
You have been such an encouragement for me while writing this.
Glad you liked the ending.
Catching up on Shadowlands
Date: 2005-10-09 06:17 pm (UTC)…before Andrew began waxing poetic about the gallant overhang of Angel’s brow or the valiant gleam in his soulful eyes. That’s just gorgeously funny.
I thought Angel’s “soul-anchoring” spell seemed too pat and simple at first – but then you worked the Ethan connection…so I buy it. OMG – Andrew slept with Ethan!! Hee! ‘Cause that’s the one B-verse m/m ship that I’m all, “No! No! No! And ewww!” And you made it work! Hah!
Little beta-y thing: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Great Giles voice, btw.
I mean, the whole time you were in the living room you kept looking at him the way Angel’s looking at Buffy. You know, like you were going to throw up but were really, really sad about it. Best – Dawn – Voice – Ever. And “throw up but were really, really sad about it,” is just perfect for Angel *and* Xander.
You see, early in his career Picard’s best friend was Dr. Crusher’s husband. Unfortunately, this worthy man, whose name and rank escapes me at the moment, which is weird, ‘cause I hardly ever forget things like that. This is where you get an official “I love you.” So good, so true, so funny, so Andrew – I got up and went into the house to quote the entire passage to Caza.
…the way his ashes hung in the wet air for a long moment before falling with the rain. Made my breath catch and “hung in the wet air” is gorgeous – beautiful bit of writing. I really didn’t expect the Shanshu, either, so you did a great bit of misdirection there.
No man of woman born, coward or brave, can shun his destiny. Absolutely perfect reference, something I think the show itself would have used.
Or, Xander Sighed…..a Whole Fucking Lot. (Um, I’ve written that fic. You owe me royalties.) Actually, after reading “The Making Of,” I’ve decided that we’re the same person. (Which also makes you the same person as Yin, so that’s good.) I had the exact same Bangel experience.
This is a lovely story – I love the way you’ve used so many of the charactes, the voices are wonderful (I kinda “eh’d?” at Angel saying “Pretty much,” since it’s such an Oz line, but otherwise everyone – especially Xander, Dawn and Andrew – have flawless voices.) I love the title, and after the reading the lyrics, I think you chose an excellent bit of inspiration. Thanks for a great read! (And sorry it took me so long to finish it.)
Re: Catching up on Shadowlands
Date: 2005-10-10 12:20 am (UTC)I plan to come back to the Ethan/Andrew thing at some point. I had some interesting ideas about how that ship might work, but I totally need a fic break at the moment. LOL
I'm so glad you liked all the Star Trek stuff. I just can't help myself on that front. It's a sickness. Ha!
Thanks for the spelling catch. I'll go edit that now. :)
*is grinning so widely that her husband looks very afeared!*
And you know, I could do much worse than being the same person as two of the best writers in the fandom. *hugs*
Re: Catching up on Shadowlands
Date: 2005-10-10 03:16 am (UTC)Re: Catching up on Shadowlands
Date: 2005-10-10 03:37 am (UTC):)
*grins*
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Date: 2005-11-13 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-14 01:29 am (UTC)Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.
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Date: 2007-02-05 06:47 am (UTC)...looking over the lyrics to another Ryan Adams song I have on my computer: I think "Sweet Illusions" has the bones for a Spangel; but an angsty, possibly/probably unrequited one. Ow. ;) (Just a mini plot-bunny, if you're interested!)... I'm totally off to sleep now. :)
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Date: 2007-02-07 01:57 am (UTC)I'm so glad that it got you into Ryan Adams too. He is such an amazing artist. I can listen to his music on repeat for hours. There's another song on the album Sweet Illusions is on that's called Let it Ride that has Spangel written all freaking over it. But don't buy Jacksonville City nights--the last two songs are amazing, but everything else is crap. :)
Yay! I get to be all glowy today. Thank you so much.
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Date: 2007-02-09 07:22 pm (UTC):D You're welcome for the fb and thanks for writin' it ;)