Chapter 17: To Your Left, Vampires
Apr. 27th, 2018 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Bleach (I Hope Tomorrow's a Better Day)
Chapter Summary: Xander gets bored hanging around in his own body when he's stuck in the hospital.
Word Count: 1175
Rating: Gen
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Bleach (I Hope Tomorrow's a Better Day)
Chapter Summary: Xander gets bored hanging around in his own body when he's stuck in the hospital.
Word Count: 1175
Rating: Gen
It’ll only be a day until he’s released from the hospital, but he’s bored enough that the next time he wakes up, he considers it briefly before deciding he can probably blame it all on losing his mind from boredom and closes his eyes, concentrates.
It’s a familiar situation by this point, sitting up out of his own body. But as he does, there’s a hint of alarm—
Wait, what? She hides the worry quickly, but it’s not quickly enough. He actually caught that. What’s wrong?
Now it’s a flash of anger, but he gets the feeling she hadn’t expected him to catch on to this reiatsu sensing thing—reikaku—man, you guys must be direct parallels to the Watcher’s Council with all these fancy term things going on, I’m just gonna call it ‘spiritual senses’ and was angry she hadn’t gotten a good feel for her new—what’s a good term, owner? That implies you’re just an inanimate object, though…
Shinigami will do nicely, she responds, voice a little icy as she replies, so yeah, that was a little insulting. At least she gets that he’d realized that and hadn’t wanted to use the term, so there’s that. As for the other—I…I’ve never run into another Shinigami who can switch between spiritual and physical forms the way you do. Every other Shinigami needs some sort of impetus to leave their bodies.
That’s slightly terrifying, honestly, but there’s a good explanation. How many other Shinigami do you know that are a) alive and kicking and b) subject to weird demon magic when given their zanpuktou?
Instantly, she calms down, and the itch in his soul goes away. That is a very good point. You’re more intelligent than you appear, Harris-kun.
It’s not like we don’t play connect the dots all the time when researching and trying to keep ourselves alive. As for the other, Xander-kun or Alexander-kun or Alex-kun or something. Not Harris anything, please. He pauses in front of the vending machine. Hey, do Shinigami eat? She’s a little disturbed when he’s eyeing the Twinkies wistfully, but he opts to ignore her.
Food from the Spirit World is much like food from the Living one, but it has reishi to replenish what is lost, she answers, and he nods thoughtfully.
You know, that one almost makes sense. He runs down the stairs instead, because he doesn’t have any money and Willow would probably pout at him if he actually demolished the vending machine. He could always try to call an elevator, but he doesn’t want to wig out anyone by making them think the hospital is haunted (because this is Sunnydale, ninety eight people out of a hundred wouldn’t think anything of it and the last two would be screaming their heads off about ghosts) and he’s not sure if it’d even work anyway. He’s out the entrance before he realizes that he’d been running pretty quickly. Hey, do Shinigami move faster than normal people?
She’s been analyzing him, but then, he’d be insulted if she hadn’t been. It was only natural to try to understand the abilities of your partner, particularly if the lack of doing so could get you killed very, very quickly. You seem to be a natural at shunpo. You’ve been doing it unconsciously. Unfortunately, using it too much leads to you using up your power—
Well, it pays to be a natural runner in this town, he jokes, all the while aware that it’s morbid humor. That probably explains why I’m really hungry all the time, though. Shinigami’ve got stamina like everybody else.
You also heal slower, she responds, and, wait, what?
It’s the lack of ambient reishi, and you don’t get the necessary replenishment in your food as you would in the Spirit World. She’d been apparently worrying about this for some time. Well, that’s a big dampener to drop on his lap.
He frowns and tries to slow down. It sucks to be walking this slowly but from the twinge in his shoulder he can’t afford to push it. So, it’s like I’m not getting a necessary vitamin, is pretty much the only analogy he can come up with. Most people like me get it in their diet, or like the whole vitamin D sunlight thing get it from being outside, or if necessary in vitamin tablet things they sell, but I don’t get any of that right now.
I…suppose that’s a fair assessment. If she’s not used to comparisons, she better buckle in, because she’ll be hearing a lot more of them before she’s through. Good. Something to look forward to.
That startles a laugh out of him, because he’s pretty certain that’s actually meant to be a joke. She’s not bad at it.
It naturally replenishes itself while you’re alive, but it’s at a much slower rate. I’ll need to be much more careful—
We, he corrects, and at the startled feeling smiles kindly. I don’t know what your last Shinigami was like, but here we’re a team. The Scoobies, all of us. You don’t have to be alone anymore.
It feels like she’s getting choked up, but given what he’s felt from her before, she’s traditionally Japanese, so he doesn’t pay too much attention for fear of embarrassing her. He gives her space to regroup. Shrugs his shoulder, carefully, and glances down to see the damage. The wound’s no longer reaching through from one side to the other of his shoulder, and it’s rather small, overall. Hopefully it can’t get infected when it’s not in his physical body, but if all else fails, he can maybe get Spike to bandage it if he bribes him. Probably with more than it’s worth, given the earlier ‘help’ he’d given.
He gets all the way out to the most boring of the cemeteries (no mausoleums, just gravestones, so nothing particularly interesting like vampire artifacts or secret passageways or weird rituals happen there) before he realizes there’s a problem with his plan.
Specifically, it’s dusk, when all the most crazy of the fanged folk get frisky. Specifically, Spike could see him, which means that maybe other vampires could see him, too—which, given the way they’re turning to look at him and alternatively looking freaked out or licking their lips depending on how aware the individual fledge is, they totally can.
Sure, a few have realized he’s more spirit than body and therefore isn’t necessarily a nummy treat, but he’s still recovering, and something’s telling him he doesn’t want to get in another fight against vampires, not now, not when he doesn’t have a full grasp of Hikari’s powers yet.
He’ll tell Buffy. She’s supposed to call in—damn, that’s soon, huh? He exercises his right to die another day and on light feet crosses the distance in a matter of minutes. Not bad. He’s still panting, yeah, but it feels good, like it sometimes does after you’ve been running for a while and/or survived something you didn’t think you would, and he’s definitely not bored anymore.
It’s a familiar situation by this point, sitting up out of his own body. But as he does, there’s a hint of alarm—
Wait, what? She hides the worry quickly, but it’s not quickly enough. He actually caught that. What’s wrong?
Now it’s a flash of anger, but he gets the feeling she hadn’t expected him to catch on to this reiatsu sensing thing—reikaku—man, you guys must be direct parallels to the Watcher’s Council with all these fancy term things going on, I’m just gonna call it ‘spiritual senses’ and was angry she hadn’t gotten a good feel for her new—what’s a good term, owner? That implies you’re just an inanimate object, though…
Shinigami will do nicely, she responds, voice a little icy as she replies, so yeah, that was a little insulting. At least she gets that he’d realized that and hadn’t wanted to use the term, so there’s that. As for the other—I…I’ve never run into another Shinigami who can switch between spiritual and physical forms the way you do. Every other Shinigami needs some sort of impetus to leave their bodies.
That’s slightly terrifying, honestly, but there’s a good explanation. How many other Shinigami do you know that are a) alive and kicking and b) subject to weird demon magic when given their zanpuktou?
Instantly, she calms down, and the itch in his soul goes away. That is a very good point. You’re more intelligent than you appear, Harris-kun.
It’s not like we don’t play connect the dots all the time when researching and trying to keep ourselves alive. As for the other, Xander-kun or Alexander-kun or Alex-kun or something. Not Harris anything, please. He pauses in front of the vending machine. Hey, do Shinigami eat? She’s a little disturbed when he’s eyeing the Twinkies wistfully, but he opts to ignore her.
Food from the Spirit World is much like food from the Living one, but it has reishi to replenish what is lost, she answers, and he nods thoughtfully.
You know, that one almost makes sense. He runs down the stairs instead, because he doesn’t have any money and Willow would probably pout at him if he actually demolished the vending machine. He could always try to call an elevator, but he doesn’t want to wig out anyone by making them think the hospital is haunted (because this is Sunnydale, ninety eight people out of a hundred wouldn’t think anything of it and the last two would be screaming their heads off about ghosts) and he’s not sure if it’d even work anyway. He’s out the entrance before he realizes that he’d been running pretty quickly. Hey, do Shinigami move faster than normal people?
She’s been analyzing him, but then, he’d be insulted if she hadn’t been. It was only natural to try to understand the abilities of your partner, particularly if the lack of doing so could get you killed very, very quickly. You seem to be a natural at shunpo. You’ve been doing it unconsciously. Unfortunately, using it too much leads to you using up your power—
Well, it pays to be a natural runner in this town, he jokes, all the while aware that it’s morbid humor. That probably explains why I’m really hungry all the time, though. Shinigami’ve got stamina like everybody else.
You also heal slower, she responds, and, wait, what?
It’s the lack of ambient reishi, and you don’t get the necessary replenishment in your food as you would in the Spirit World. She’d been apparently worrying about this for some time. Well, that’s a big dampener to drop on his lap.
He frowns and tries to slow down. It sucks to be walking this slowly but from the twinge in his shoulder he can’t afford to push it. So, it’s like I’m not getting a necessary vitamin, is pretty much the only analogy he can come up with. Most people like me get it in their diet, or like the whole vitamin D sunlight thing get it from being outside, or if necessary in vitamin tablet things they sell, but I don’t get any of that right now.
I…suppose that’s a fair assessment. If she’s not used to comparisons, she better buckle in, because she’ll be hearing a lot more of them before she’s through. Good. Something to look forward to.
That startles a laugh out of him, because he’s pretty certain that’s actually meant to be a joke. She’s not bad at it.
It naturally replenishes itself while you’re alive, but it’s at a much slower rate. I’ll need to be much more careful—
We, he corrects, and at the startled feeling smiles kindly. I don’t know what your last Shinigami was like, but here we’re a team. The Scoobies, all of us. You don’t have to be alone anymore.
It feels like she’s getting choked up, but given what he’s felt from her before, she’s traditionally Japanese, so he doesn’t pay too much attention for fear of embarrassing her. He gives her space to regroup. Shrugs his shoulder, carefully, and glances down to see the damage. The wound’s no longer reaching through from one side to the other of his shoulder, and it’s rather small, overall. Hopefully it can’t get infected when it’s not in his physical body, but if all else fails, he can maybe get Spike to bandage it if he bribes him. Probably with more than it’s worth, given the earlier ‘help’ he’d given.
He gets all the way out to the most boring of the cemeteries (no mausoleums, just gravestones, so nothing particularly interesting like vampire artifacts or secret passageways or weird rituals happen there) before he realizes there’s a problem with his plan.
Specifically, it’s dusk, when all the most crazy of the fanged folk get frisky. Specifically, Spike could see him, which means that maybe other vampires could see him, too—which, given the way they’re turning to look at him and alternatively looking freaked out or licking their lips depending on how aware the individual fledge is, they totally can.
Sure, a few have realized he’s more spirit than body and therefore isn’t necessarily a nummy treat, but he’s still recovering, and something’s telling him he doesn’t want to get in another fight against vampires, not now, not when he doesn’t have a full grasp of Hikari’s powers yet.
He’ll tell Buffy. She’s supposed to call in—damn, that’s soon, huh? He exercises his right to die another day and on light feet crosses the distance in a matter of minutes. Not bad. He’s still panting, yeah, but it feels good, like it sometimes does after you’ve been running for a while and/or survived something you didn’t think you would, and he’s definitely not bored anymore.
