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Out of Africa
by spikeNdru
Genre: Gen; Action/Adventure
Pairings: Xander and Ensemble; no pairings yet.
Rating: PG
Timeline: Two years post-Chosen
Disclaimers: The characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox; they aren't currently using
them so I'm borrowing them for awhile.
Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
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Chapter Nine
Dawn and Xander had a friendly competition going as they worked their way through the roster of Canadian Air Force exercises. At present, Xander and Dawn were lying on their backs on the floor with their legs extended, holding them exactly nine inches from the ground. They were each trying to outlast the other, as neither wanted to be the first to cave and drop his or her heels to the floor. Xander's face was turning a dark red shade from the effort and Dawn's legs began to tremble, but they each refused to be the first to give in and admit defeat.
Meanwhile, Willow was attempting to ignore them both. She sat cross-legged on the couch with her laptop balanced on her knees as she chatted with the coven in Devon.
There was a knock on the door. Willow leaned forward to place the laptop on the coffee table.
“I'll get it,” she said. “Wouldn't want to interrupt all the 'fun' you're having exercising.”
Xander groaned and Dawn contributed a somewhat breathless giggle.
“It's no trouble at all,” Xander gritted out between clenched teeth, “I'd be happy to—”
Willow was already on her feet and Dawn and Xander glanced at each other as they saw their chance at an honorable reprieve disappear. Willow carefully stepped over them on her way to the door. She looked down at Xander's red face and clenched jaw. “You know, you look exactly like a baby in the process of pooping in his diaper,” she commented.
Xander glared at her.
Dawn laughed delightedly and her feet dropped several inches before she got them under control again.
“He does, doesn't he?” she agreed.
Xander's breath hissed through his clenched teeth and he struggled to hold the position as Dawn raised her legs back to the proper level. There went his hopes for an easy out from the killer leg lift!
Willow arrived at the door, glanced through the peephole and then threw the door open. A figure was framed by the doorway. A shaft of golden sunlight from the living room window touched the figure with a warm glow. There was a loud crash! from the kitchen and Xander's and Dawn's feet hit the floor simultaneously.
Everyone turned in the direction of the crash. A tray and three cups of coffee lay on the floor. Coffee splattered the floor and the lower cupboards, but only one of the mugs had actually broken.
Faith stepped into the apartment wearing a black sports bra, tight black leather pants and Doc Marten boots. Her long dark hair flowed over her shoulders and a slash of crimson lipstick was the only color contrasting with the all-black of her outfit. It had the effect of drawing the eye immediately to her full, pouty lips. Faith grinned and walked toward the mess in the kitchen.
“I'm guessin' you're Dennis,” she said in her husky voice. “I'm Faith. We talked on-line. Need some help with that mess?”
Willow giggled and whispered to Dawn and Xander. “Boy, she sure knows how to make an entrance, doesn't she?”
“I think Dennis is in lust,” Dawn whispered back.
Faith and Dawn cleaned up the spilled coffee while Willow rinsed out the two intact mugs and Xander started a fresh pot of coffee.
Phantom Dennis retreated to Dawn's bedroom in ghostly confusion, glad that he wasn't visible so his new friends couldn't see his agitation. He wasn't sure what to do. Wesley had told him Faith would be needed, and so he had passed the message along when he was talking to her on Willow's fascinating machine. But he hadn't actually seen her then. Now that she was here, he was sure that he recognized her. She had been to this apartment before. She had hurt Cordy and nearly killed Wesley—why would they want her to help Dawn and Xander and Willow? And did his new friends know about her? Should he tell them? She was so beautiful, how could she have done those terrible things? Faith was definitely the cat's meow—and she scared the bejeezus out of him.
The now-four Scoobies took their fresh coffee into the living room. Xander chose the reclining chair and Willow sat on the couch with one leg tucked under her. Faith sprawled on the other end of the couch and Dawn sat on the floor.
“Sorry about that,” Faith said, with an unrepentant grin. “I was tryin' to give your ghost a thrill, but I didn't mean to give him apoplexy.”
“What's apoplexy?” Dawn asked.
“Dunno. But the nuns were always sayin' I gave it to them, whatever it is. Hope I didn't scare him off for good. Think I should go check on him?”
“I'll go,” Dawn said as she got to her feet.
Dawn slipped into her bedroom and quietly closed the door behind her.
“Dennis? Are you in here? Are you okay? Don't be embarrassed—Faith has that effect on most guys. Xander totally made a fool of himself when he first met her, and from what I hear, she did a number on Spike, too. You wanna come out and join us? Or if you'd rather stay in here for awhile, that's cool, too.”
Dawn felt a feather-light touch run down her hair.
He would never let anyone hurt Dawn, Dennis vowed, but what should he do? Maybe he could ask Cordy? Dennis winked out to go find Cordelia.
“You're welcome,” Dawn said softly. “If you want to, you can put the radio on. Or . . .” she flashed a conspiratorial grin, “you can listen at the keyhole.”
When Dawn rejoined the others, Willow had just finished bringing Faith up-to-date on Connor. Xander still looked flushed, but Dawn figured it was no longer due to the Canadian Air Force exercises. Faith was mainly focused on Willow, who was doing most of the talking, but she occasionally flicked glances at Xander to include him in the conversation. Every time she glanced his way, Xander's face reddened.
“Holy shit!” Faith interrupted after the third time it happened. “If this dude Connor is comin' over too, I'm gonna go change or we won't get jack done. Your ghost is hiding from me and Xander here hasn't said two words since I got here! Somebody make some more coffee while I change, okay?”
Dawn said, “I guess you'll be staying with me, Faith, but you might want to change in Xander's room for now.”
“Sure thing.” Faith picked up her bags and gave an inquiring look at the three closed doors. Dawn pointed to Xander's. Faith nodded and opened the door. Before stepping into the room, she glanced back at the three Scoobies with a devilish grin. “I still got it, yo!” She laughed and closed the door behind her.
Willow snapped her fingers in front of Xander's rather glazed eye. “Middle Earth to Xander,” she said. “I guess I'm just lucky Faith isn't my type.” She had a brief, uncomfortable memory flash of ogling a girl at the Bronze, with Xander in complete accord, several years ago. That hot chick had turned out to be Dawn, and she and Xander both felt mortified. Willow sighed and decided not to tease Xander about his reaction to Faith. She was gorgeous and dangerous and what red-blooded male—or no-blooded male ghost—wouldn't find Faith attractive? She deliberately pushed away the earlier thoughts she'd had about how Faith-like Kennedy was. She'd deal with that later. She just hoped Faith could turn it down a few notches for the sake of working together as a team. Sure, she could. Right? Willow shrugged. Too many thinky-thoughts, Willow decided and went to the kitchen to make more coffee.
Xander sat wrapped in his own thoughts. What the hell was the matter with him? He thought he'd been prepared for Faith, but she shows up looking like sex on wheels and Boom! And it's not even that he found Faith all that attractive! Okay. That was a lie. Clearly he found Faith attractive or he wouldn't be sitting here with a big honkin' erection. But he didn't particularly like Faith. And he had absolutely zero interest in getting . . . up close and personal with Faith. Been there, done that, didn't get the T-shirt. He'd been trying so hard to repress lusty thoughts about Dawn that Faith kind of caught him by surprise. The hit-over-the-head-with-a-sledgehammer kind of surprise.
He hadn't actually been . . . up with people since . . . since the night with Anya BCH. Now, he tended to divide time by that momentous event. Before Closing the Hellmouth, he'd been Xander. Since then, he'd been Alex. And Alex was withdrawn, depressed, and unable to put forth the effort it would take to connect with anyone, even on a purely physical level. So . . . Alex had seen to his own needs. But now . . . Dawn and Willow had brought Xander back. And Xander needed people. He needed the connections that went with relationships—whether deep, unbreakable friendships or something more. And Faith had blindsided him. Xander gave an inward chuckle at the aptness of the term.
He was starting to have real feelings for Dawn. Not that he'd ever admit to them—his psyche was still too fragile to open himself up to that kind of rejection. She was young, vibrant, gorgeous—what would she possibly want with a used up, emotionally needy, one-eyed ex-carpenter? Still, he had hoped to get to know Dawn as adult-to-adult during this mission, and then afterwards . . . he hadn't dared think about afterwards, yet. So here he was, hoping Dawn would see the real Xander and like him anyway—hoped she'd find him kind, caring, responsible, trustworthy, and in no way big-brotherly. He was hoping she'd eventually think he was hot—or, at least lukewarm, Xander amended.
But, if there'd ever been the slightest chance that Dawn would see him as . . . boyfriend material . . . he was pretty sure he'd just blown it by his reaction to Faith. Yep. Men were shallow. He'd been seduced by a pair of skin-tight leather pants and Angelina Jolie-esque lips. Somebody just shoot me now!
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Faith returned shortly wearing a plain black T-shirt and shiny red boxer shorts. Not men's underwear, but actual boxer shorts with the wide elastic waistband and the rectangular EVERLAST patch on the front, Xander noticed. Gray quarter-style socks were on her feet.Willow poured her a cup of coffee and Faith liberally added cream and sugar.
All this coffee on empty stomachs probably wasn't a good idea, Dawn decided. Breakfast would be good. She was pretty sure they had all the makings of an omelet in the refrigerator.
Dawn went to the fridge and got out eggs, cheese, onions, peppers and ham. She paused as she couldn't remember if Willow actually ate ham or not. She thought for a moment and then put the ham back and took out a jar of salsa instead. She had been concentrating so hard on the ham question that she hadn't heard anyone else enter the kitchen. She turned, nearly bumped into Xander, let out a startled gasp and dropped the salsa jar. Xander's hand shot out and caught it before it could hit the floor and break. That was of the good, because we already cleaned up one mess this morning, Dawn thought. Seems like everybody is extra-twitchy today.
Xander's face flushed red again. Holy moly! This is really embarrassing. I bet I've blushed more in one morning than in the last five years put together! What's up with that? “Sorry, Dawn. I didn't mean to startle you. I just came to see if you needed any help.”
“Sure.” She thrust the onion and pepper at him. “You can chop these and then open the jar while I grate the cheese and beat the eggs.”
They worked in companionable silence. Xander chopped, then sautéed the onions and peppers. When the onions were translucent, Dawn poured in the beaten eggs, added the cheese and several tablespoons of salsa.
“We make a good team,” Xander observed and reached for the bread to start toasting it.
Dawn smiled happily. “Yeah. We do.” She returned her attention to the huge omelet. “Mmm—that smells good!”
She cut the omelet into quarters and deftly slid each section onto a plate. Xander put the omelet pan into the sink to soak while they ate and then followed Dawn into the living room with a plate of toast. Good friends and good food—it doesn't get much better than this, he thought.
Faith grinned. “I think I will take you up on your offer to stay here, Willow. You don't get this kind of food or service at a motel!”
Dawn and Willow smiled welcomingly. Xander smiled half-heartedly. Phantom Dennis fled to Xander's room. Cordy had assured him that Faith was completely redeemed, but . . . she still scared the bejeezus out of him!
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Continue to Chapter Ten
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