Title: Can I Keep Him? – Part 1
Author: Xanfan
Rating: R
Pairing: X/A
Summary: From a request by stalinvsbear for Autumn with Angel. Xander finds a lost Puppy.
Spoilers: up through season 3 of BtVS.
Warnings: SLASH
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective
owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way
associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is
intended.
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Xander watched the girl in his Lit. class follow the tan-impaired man off the dance floor and towards the
back hallway of The Bronze. He sighed and looked over at Buffy dancing with the random denial crush
of the week and not paying attention to anything but the current boy she was using to pretend she wasn’
t still in love with Angel. When Xander couldn’t catch her eye, he sighed again and stood up. He felt his
jacket pocket to make sure the stake he habitually carried was still there and followed his fellow student
and her date.
The alley door was blocked by a necking couple. The vampire apparently decided a change of venue
was in order, so he led the girl through a door marked ‘Employees Only’ and Xander followed cautiously
through the door and down the stairs.
Just as the vampire was going for the neck, Xander walked up behind him and staked him. The girl
opened her eyes at the slight spray of dust when she realized that she wasn’t getting kissed and was
highly disappointed to see Xander there instead of her ‘date’.
“He had to go, I think his pager went off,” Xander offered lamely.
She snorted and pushed rudely past him to go back up the stairs.
Xander snorted in disgust and leaned against the wall the ‘couple’ had occupied.
“No respect, I get no respect,” Xander muttered to himself.
He took a moment and looked around the basement, finding it uninteresting. Just as he turned towards
the steps, he heard a noise, a cross between a whimper and a growl.
Xander mentally debated with himself about going to investigate the sound. He shrugged and headed
deeper into the basement, ignoring the voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like his own when he
had watched that horror movie with the girls the other night. It was shouting, “Don’t investigate the noise
in the darkened room you stupid girl, run, run far away and pretend you never heard it, only people who
are too stupid to live follow the suspicious sound.”
He followed the whimper/growling to the far corner and peeked around the stack of boxes and ‘eeped’ at
the sight before him.
A distinctly pale figure wearing cuts and burn marks and leather pants was huddled in the corner with his
hands covering his head.
“Hey buddy, are you okay? Did someone hurt you? Can I help?” Xander asked in a somewhat soothing
tone.
The figure flinched at his voice, then paused and tilted his head a bit, as if listening to something.
“Heartbeat,” the guy said softly, almost too soft for Xander to hear, then went back to his whimper-
growling.
“What?” Xander said.
“You have a heartbeat, you shouldn’t have a heartbeat. I don’t think I’m where I’m supposed to be.”
Xander stepped back at that revelation.
“Uh, I so should too have a heartbeat, cause I’m alive, not dead or undead or anything, I’m a heartbeat
havin’ Xander. And where are you supposed to be, if not here?”
The figure stopped the noise he was making and looked up.
Xander ‘eeped’ again.
“Shit, Angel? What the hell happened to you? It wasn’t, was it, hell I mean, you didn’t go to hell again,
did you? You look bad, man, does Buffy know, what should she go slay?” Xander began to babble.
“Xander?” asked a voice from behind him.
Xander turned and looked at the broodmeister who had called his name, turned back to the ‘Angel’ in
the corner, turned back to the gelled one, turned back to look at whimper boy, turned back to look at he-
of-the-flapping-trench-coat and closed his eyes, scrubbed a hand over his face and rubbed his eyes.
Then he repeated the whole process over again.
“Well crap, either this is a nightmare or another one of those really good, no bad, bad dreams. Oh well,
at least they’re not totally naked this time,” Xander muttered under his breath.
Angel, not the one whimpering in the corner, apparently heard the mutterings, because he was staring
at him incredulously. “What?!?”
Xander’s head snapped up and he looked back and forth between the two vampires in horror. “PLEASE
tell me I did not say that out loud?”
Both Angels looked at him, one with a hint of fear, the other with an evil and knowing smirk. Then they
nodded in tandem.
“Can we pretend I didn’t?”
The Angel who was fully dressed offered, “We can pretend for now, but I reserve the right to ridicule you
for it later.”
Xander considered this and countered offered, “Not in front of the other Scoobies?”
“Agreed.”
“Cool, now could you tell me why there are two of you?”
Angel looked around Xander and finally focused on his half-dressed and now whimpering doppelganger.
“Well, this can’t be good.”
Xander and Angel turned to face the cowering-in-the-corner Angel and asked in unison, “Who are you?”
Cowering Angel looked at them both hesitantly and seemed to think over their question carefully before
answering.
“Puppy?” he offered hesitantly, as if afraid that it was not the right answer and that he would be
punished.
Xander paled, Angel got paler, and they both looked at each other in horror.
“Willow!”
‘Puppy’ huddled further into himself at Xander’s angry shout.
“What did that girl do to us this time?” Angel said in frustration.
Part 2
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