madimpossibledreamer | Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 24

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Xander tells Fitz a little of what he's experienced.
Word Count: 1,448
Rating: K
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

"You hungry? I'm hungry." In his head, he's babbling, but for once he manages to actually shut up out loud. Maybe it's being slightly tired from the fight.

The looks Fitz keeps giving him are definitely conflicted. It looks like he wants to keep scolding, but on the other hand whatever mystical respect he has for this family won't let him actually say any of it. He sighs. "Look, I'm not a telepath. Say whatever you feel like saying."

Oh, great, now the conflict looks painful. Maybe he really should be babbling out loud. "Okay. If I'm running, that's a strategic decision. I can be an idiot sometimes, so running because I'm terrified of something that it makes sense to be terrified of isn't really something that I do. He was just a Sire, and a fairly newly risen one at that. Which means that there's probably a nest, but...we can deal with figuring that part out later because a nest is of the bad and I can probably deal with that many vampires at once eventually when I actually figure out how to actually use my superpowers and get a costume and everything."

He has to take a breath; he's not Willow, after all. "I've faced worse. The guy that took my eye, for example."

He can't help the indrawn breath at that. Thinking about Caleb is still a bit scary. "I've had a lot of unintended fighting practice. And yeah, so my usual plan is to run to Buffy and the others, so at least I have help, but I don't need them for everything. I've saved the world on my own." He blinks at that. He'd never really gotten to sit down and process that.

"It's usually stuff like CPR to ensure the defender of the world doesn't die, and staring down a zombie so he doesn't blow up and open the Hellmouth, and talking people who are going to destroy the world out of it, but I wasn't just going to let the world end. Or my friends get hurt." He can feel a fierce strength rise in him, and welcomes it, because it's not a new feeling.

Meanwhile Fitz looks like Xander's slammed him in the face with a two-by-four. The American smiles apologetically.

"Your eye," the Englishman eventually says softly.

"I suppose I could've lost it working construction," Xander muses quietly, then grins goofily. Seems he's as full of surprises for his new ally as his new ally is for him. "Yeah, I worked construction."

"It wasn't just clumsiness." Fitz looks a bit sheepish at this revelation.

"Nah, it wasn't just clumsiness." They're pretty much walking aimlessly. Xander's not really that familiar with wherever-they-are. He should probably ask where he's been kidnapped, or adultnapped, to, at some point. "It was pretty gruesome, actually. When I was a kid," he continues, wistful, "...I thought eyepatches and pirates were cool. I thought it'd be an awesome story to tell people, y'know, 'Yeah, I lost an eye, and I didn't even flinch.' Nobody ever realizes how painful it is. They told me I was just lucky I'd been brought in to the hospital so fast." He's had far too many near-death experiences lately.

"I-if you don't want to talk about it..." That's sympathy on the Brit's face. Maybe hard to spot, but he'd had practice with Giles. Which in return made him certain that he actually wanted to talk about this. If he didn't, the topic would haunt them.

"An evil priest stabbed out my eye with his thumb." He was proud that his voice only wavered a little. "If you want, I can tell you more, but I really am kind of hungry. Now I know why Slayers, even grown up ones, still eat like they're teenagers."

Fitz makes a face. He's carefully not reacting, but at the same time it's not all pity or horror, either, which earns him a couple gold stars in Xander's book of people. "I actually don't think I know of many places open too late—certainly not this late." He anticipates the devastated face Xander's about to make and laughs. "I'll try to find us something before you starve to death."

Xander mock-pouts. Maybe he'd been spoiled by the Slayer Mansion with its open kitchens at any odd hour. Of course, he wasn't really going to starve to death. He'd gotten a lot more used than he'd ever thought possible to lack of food when he was tracking down Slayers in Africa, but that didn't mean that he'd liked the feeling, either.

Fitz makes some calls, as Xander keeps an eye out and half listens in. Few of the fledges and younger vamps would be out and about so close to the sun rising and dusting them, but the exceptions weren't worth getting ambushed by. The vamps now would be older, bolder, or meaner, or some unhealthy combination of the three. Spike, the Big Bad out to kill the Scooby gang version, was one that would run around even in daylight, and tangling with him or his like would definitely be of the bad at the moment. They're not ready to take on someone quite that strong yet.

He doesn't sense anything. It might be too quiet. That might, unfortunately, mean that they'd come to the attention of the local nest, which was now plotting their demise. Like humans, vamps are much scarier when they come in packs. And actually plan things out.

For a bookstore owner, Fitz reminds him a lot of a certain Watcher. Fitz seems to have a nearly endless contact list, and very few of them actually yell about contacting them at a more decent hour. On the other hand, the fact that the Englishman couldn't think of any off the top of his head and it's taking so long aren't reassuring. Neither is the face that he makes as he walks back. "I apologize, but the only ones I could find were in London. However, there isn't that much time before the breakfast places will be open, and I do have a few things in the refrigerator in our room, as I didn't want to leave you too often when you were unconscious."

"How...thoughtful of you," Xander manages, pulling a face. His ally looks like a miserable mistreated kitten, and he quickly shakes his head. "It's fine. Right now, I think any food would prevent me from collapsing."

"We could...potentially stop by a corner shop..." Fitz manages, the thought seeming alien at best. Xander's brain refuses to translate that at the moment, even though he's pretty sure he actually knows what that means in American English.

"Nah. It'll probably take longer, right?" Xander shrugs.

The Englishman looks somewhat amused and annoyed, but doesn't actually question. "I'm the one who knows where the hotel is!" he calls after Xander, but only gets a laugh in return.

The answer drifts back to him. "Then you better hurry up!"

Mouth full (which earns an eyeroll from Fitz), he goes through what he knows of the kind of vampire Buffy fights. Siring, all the 'vamp' family dynamics, all the ways to kill them, what little they know about the First, some of the other things they've had to deal with. He keeps talking, going into some of their random adventures now, and given the look he's getting, Fitz isn't certain what to believe of his stories. The one about the preying mantis substitute teacher, for example, or the Hell Goddess (which he doesn't really care to talk about, really, as it's still kind of terrifying), or the fact that Buffy's died a few more times than average, or... It's somewhat reassuring that even the really embarrassing things are fairly easy to talk about. Xander really has grown up. He's probably making his favorite witch proud. Well, maybe not at the moment, given that he went AWOL and that whole trial thing, but...in general. Just as she's making him proud. He's gotten off track again, but it leads to a more interesting story in general. Other than explaining a few of the things they'd faced and survived to the Potentials, he hadn't really done a lot of storytelling before, but decided he definitely liked it.

Eventually, Fitz stirs, and Xander raises a questioning eyebrow.

"I apologize; I didn't mean to interrupt..." he begins, but Xander waves that off, grinning a little and fighting off a yawn. The fact that he hasn't slept yet suddenly occurred to him, and with that realization slight exhaustion began to descend. "If we begin walking now, we'll probably arrive at approximately the time they begin serving breakfast."

Xander's stomach rumbles. "Lead the way."