Xander|Valichar Relationships

[madimpossibledreamer]

reminder kira = faith, anzan = oz, metis = willow
past xander/anya, xander/oz, xander/faith

Xander is an achievement hunter. He used to gush about how cool all of the small details were and the story stuff. Willow was the only one who would listen to him, and even she couldn’t fully pretend she was interested. She liked hearing about some of the story stuff, but the rest she didn’t care or thought he was bragging. Jesse would absolutely accuse him of bragging. Buffy was often distracted. His girlfriend didn’t want to hear about the game at all. He learned to keep that gushing to the forums and Discord, and kind of kept up that habit after the Tear. The lesson he learned, basically, was that no one wants to hear him geek out about things. He’s still chasing achievements once they get stuck, although a little slower, since he also has a lot more to do these days.

His girlfriend does actually visit him. Once. She’s in tears and feels terrible, and he reassures her. She explains that she’d been falling in love with someone else and felt terrible about it, and he’s like “no, I get it, we weren’t too compatible anyway, go, have fun, be free, no seriously, this is actually really nice because it feels like the closure I needed”. They both neglected each other. Honestly, it was probably Anya. And she might switch to sending emails instead. She had to borrow a cousin’s account to get in.

After a joint mission his emotions are still running high and he finally corners Valichar, growling. “Anzan?”
“Knock me out or I’ll jump you, Val.”
“What?”
“I need…” *growls, having trouble coming up with the words* “Metis always loved you, and I want—I need—”
“Wait, as in, sex jumping me?” Anzan is growing yet more agitated, but he’s clearly waiting for consent. “Metis might very well kill us both, but…yeah, sure.”
A slight ramp down, Oz blinking, shocked. “Valichar?” he asks, uncertain, and Val laughs, free.
“The last person I had sex with was Kira. I’m a little dry, and I trust you, so, come on, werewolf, wreck me.”
They only have sex the once, but do flirt a little and support each other when they work together in the future. Val also introduces him to the local Lusus community. It’s probably the best it’s ever been for Xander. He does warn Anzan not to take seriously the fact that he’s probably going to fall for Anzan, because that’s just how he is, and Anzan doesn’t say it directly but he does say quietly “I understand now”.

He does find it quietly hilarious afterward when Val is obviously a little nervous and shows off a little. It’s probably—it was exactly what he expected, getting into it, and there weren’t any unpleasant surprises. He needs that to stay the same and not change. The fact that they stay friends after is a huge surprise but not one he dislikes. And the fact that he can flirt and be friendly but it just stays wholesome like that? He’s happy with that.

Kira admits she might have actually been falling for him, too, but she had the rule that he couldn’t fall in love with her and couldn’t admit the truth, even to herself. He talks about ‘meatspace’ and the fact that he can’t just live in this kind of relationship. “I can’t plan my life around a maybe.” He needs something sure, something that won’t change, and their trauma was actively eating each other’s trauma and growing bigger in this huge vicious cycle. So while she didn’t actively abuse him like in canon, their relationship was never actually good, either.