The Paladin armor is your average ATV. The analogy isn’t perfect but whatever. The Jedi line is light and maneuverable, with your basic body armor and extra-pumped Exoskel, but relies heavily on magic (other than its sophisticated computer system, which Willow designed and programmed). The Xena armors are pretty basic, designed to accentuate Buffy’s natural abilities. Buffy doesn’t end up taking it out much, so it’s also the line with the lowest Mark. Adding too much would be stupid if that meant a steep learning curve in the field when she could die. Warwolf is their killing machine; a scrapper, not a tank. She can’t take damage as well as Paladin or Xena, but she can dish it out, especially with the twin plasma blades.
It’s Willow that finally manages to get his head out of his ass and actually ask Kris out. It’s probably that that gives him permission to mess with his friend’s love life later. He’s already made a dozen designs for Kris’s suit, but he’s not bringing any of them up, not until she asks.
Kris and Willow have had a serious conversation about how Xander is a wuss who needs to man up and get over his ‘everyone I love dies’ issues. Because while that’s a thing, it’s also hurting him, stopping him from living his life, and he and Kris are already a couple in everything but the kissing, and he’s lonely, and neither one of them likes seeing him unhappy like this.
The three are hanging out. Xander and Kris are watching some video game let’s player that apparently both of them have watched, since they’re joking around and making some sort of references Willow misses. She needs to do more computer stuff. She’s been neglecting that recently with all the magic.
They’re both working on some paperwork for Knight Innovations. Kris is enjoying the budget-sheets and Xander is teasing her for being a nerd.
There’s the sweet, soft look in his eyes and tone that he uses for Willow. For people that he really loves. But there’s something more vulnerable there.
She knows not to take his teasing seriously. She’s not offended at all, teasing back, quiet and sweet and patient. Everyone in the entire room knows that he loves her.
Willow leans over as he’s daydreaming, staring with soft eyes in Kris’s direction. “If you don’t kiss her right now I will."
He recoils and nearly falls over. “What?”
“Anyone who doesn’t know you thinks the two of you are dating. You’d rather deal with my plan than Dawn’s. I’m looking out for you.”
He looks at her, gulps, then at looks at Kris.
And then he gets that look of determination in his eyes, and she giggles.
He scoots a little closer and leans in. Krista isn’t even paying attention. He gives her a sweet peck on the cheek and backs off quickly, cheeks dusted with pink.
She has the largest smile. It’s cute. She scooches back and snuggles into him. He swallows again, but looks happier than he’s been in a while even if he’s not smiling. That soft embarrassed look on his face is just as precious.
“I want a suit,” Kris announces during a meeting of the ITK portion of Knight Innovations. It had absolutely nothing to do with whatever her boyfriend and Andrew had been discussing seconds before, but now she has his complete and undivided attention.
“Uhm, Xander, are you sure that’s…” Andrew begins, and Xander rolls his chair away from the Head of Testing Department (aka the Magic Department for those In the Know) and resident Head Chef, eyes wide.
“I am not being your average superhero girlfriend,” she states firmly.
Xander smiles slightly. It’s a touch worried, but the way his eyes narrow at her, he’s already seeing the possibilities, drawing up schematics in his head. If he hasn’t already. …Given that he’s Knight, he probably has at least five different possibilities already in his head and is just pulling them up mentally. “And see, me? This is a person in a relationship who is not being a man with no sense of self-preservation.” He blinks. “That sentence made no sense, but y’know. In terms of suit design, what were you thinking?”
She beams, then frowns. “Well, I already have possible names. Warwolf or Sky Cavalry. My favorite cards, you know.”
He nods, unphased, but she can see Andrew and the others gaping. Which just makes her puff up a bit. “I like those names. And from that…Probably weapons-heavy, huh?”
“Please,” she asks, blinking her eyelashes as she leans against the table.
He laughs at her even as the others look disturbed and leans in to kiss her. It’s sweet, but he’s definitely distracted, and she’s anything but mad about that.
“You’re not going out in the field until you get a pass from Lehane,” he says offhandedly, already grabbing budget reports, turning them over, and doodling on the other side.
“Faith?” she asks, but he cuts her off.
“Yeah. I can’t think of anyone else who would push you more. And we need to know what you can do. What you’re capable of. It’s the only way to make sure you can keep up.”
When Xander comes to pick her and her friend up, she can tell something’s different. He’s grinning at her, nothing held back, but his mind is a million miles away. He’s just vacantly grinning and humming under his breath as he slips his hand in hers and begins walking. He does take a moment to admire her outfit and say “Hello, beautiful.” It’s not even flirting. It’s too quiet and honest for that.
The meeting must have gone well.
She grins at her friend. “It’s quiet. Appreciate it while you can.”
Xander pauses from stealing from Kris’s smoothie to pout. “I’m not that bad.”
“Uh, yeah, he is,” Henry laughs, taking a handful of Xander’s popcorn while he’s distracted. “If he’s not talking, he’s got music or a program on.”
Xander shrinks, and she can see the instant her teasing went too far. “If you didn’t like it, why didn’t you say anything?”
“I love you as you are, Xander. That’s not to say that I’d ever want you to stop improving, because I love the man you are and the man you could be and no true friend would ever ask you to stay stagnant and not get better as a human being, nevermind someone you’re dating. I’m the one who seeks you out in your office to do paperwork, remember? It just makes me appreciate the quiet more. Really, I should be thanking you.” She snuggles up against his arm, and he blushes slightly, which is extra special because it’s actually decently hard to get him to blush. Probably because he’s grown up with many versions of Tony Stark in his head, so he’s no doubt gotten used to it. Still, he’s grinning.
“Come on, Chase, you can’t sleep on my desk. People will talk.” She mutters something unintelligible into the desk. She doesn’t want to move. She might be drooling, which is a little embarrassing but nothing too major. “Open those beautiful eyes. I wanna see those pupils and irises and sclera.”
That actually does filter its way into her subconscious and makes her crack an eyelid open. “Are you…naming parts of the eye, Knight?”
“Hey, I have a newfound appreciation of the eyeball since high school. It’s a perfectly normal reaction to the situation.” That’s a lopsided grin on her boss’s face, if a bit strained. Then again, he’s self-conscious about the eyepatch.
“I believe they call that overcompensating,” she mutters sleepily, wiping away the drool, and that shocks him into a laugh.
“Well, ladies do love an eyepatch,” he says and gets off his knees, wiping his pants off from where he’s been kneeling trying to get her attention. “Then again, they pretty much all universally freak out when they get it off. And hey, that could be a metaphor for most relationships. You look at the exterior, you go ‘that looks pretty swanky’, you get involved and then you see all the nasty bits underneath and try to decide whether it’s even worth it.”
She stares at him. Hard. “You have problems, sir,” she eventually says, and he nods.
“I’m aware, thanks,” he responds almost cheerily and then brushes past her to make mac & cheese.
She shakes her head, stretches, and tries to figure out what she’d been doing before she fell asleep.
If he squints, really squints, he can see Cordy in her.
It’s not like he’s looking to replace his dead ex or anything. He’s gotten to the point in his life where he gets that dead people are not the same as lost possessions and you can’t just buy a new one and forget the old. It doesn’t work like that. Mostly it’s…he’s fascinated.
The two seem nothing alike, on the surface. He can’t see the components that mean that they’re fashioned from a little of the same source. Krista isn’t the queen bee. She doesn’t break hearts and people by incisive commentary. She’s actually kind of shy, which is endearing. She’s usually good-natured and has a smile for most of the people she meets. She has good taste in clothes but is hardly the fashion palette (mostly, Xander muses, it’s a difference in household budget, from all available evidence, but he’s not going to ask; he does think about what he says now and then). She respects other people and their opinions, which is nice but also means that she doesn’t get herself heard as often.
It’s once she figures out about the secondary life of himself and his friends that she truly begins to shine. Contrary to what one might expect, she completely loses all her worry about him and how he’ll react once she learns that he’s a superhero. Confused respect leads to unbridled enthusiasm and lack of any worries about being fired or anything like that. She opens up in a way that not even Willow’s done in years.
She does turn to sarcasm, occasionally. Sometimes it’s even really biting sarcasm, but it’s generally meant as a joke. Her confidence looks like forgetting to be self-conscious. What had been a matter of gradually taking on responsibilities and learning the ropes is replaced by the metaphorical equivalent of an unannounced and rather enthusiastic cannonball. She refuses to be embarrassed by anything, which is definitely something she shares with Cordy. She’ll only get really mean when she’s especially sleep-and-caffeine deprived, and then he can definitely see the family resemblance, but for the most part it’s joking and only directed at those who can take it. It’s an indication of respect, that she thinks you can take it, and she’ll only truly relax and grin when she gets as good as she gives.
But when she’s in full-on geek mode and is taking charge like nobody’s business, even with all the jokes and the smiles, he can see it.
Krista squints at the closed door. And begins to grin.
She nudges it open with her knee, and instantly her boss is pausing something on his computer and trying to look as busy as possible with paperwork.
“Come on, you’re acting like I caught you watching porn on company computers.”
He has the grace to look sheepish.
“You might not be the only one who likes to watch animated superhero shows when they’re working. So start that up again and stop looking like I’m going to kick non-present puppies or something.”
That earns a goofy grin. “Working here has completely ruined you. You will never be able to pretend you’re a normal human being ever again.”
She shrugs casually and sets down her papers on the side table. “I think I can live with that.”
“This is really cool,” she admits. Later, the terror of the evening will probably catch up with her but she’s currently running on an adrenaline high, and it’s true that it is kinda cool. “I never thought I’d be working for a superhero boss.”
He glances at her, startled, and smiles. It’s sweet and shy. “Would you like to see my lab?”
“Is that a come-on?” she asks, because she can read him in this mood, and knows he’s easy to fluster when he’s like this.
Also, it’s fun.
And a distraction from the fact that she could have died from attending an international company event.
True to form, he blushes a little. “What? No! It’s…it’s completely normal. Well, no, actually it isn’t, it’s my lab, but…”
“I’ve been in your lab,” she points out, and he shakes his head.
“My ‘show it off to the world’ lab, yes. Not the secret lab. That is an extension of the normal lab.” He trots downstairs, and she follows, and he waves a hand and says, “White Star, let’s show her where all the magic happens,” and a female voice answers, “Secret lab open, sir.”
And then she’s gaping, because there’s an actual suit of powered armor in there and it’s too cool for words. She runs up to it, examining it from all angles, leading to a gentle chuckle.
That’s enough to let the words start coming again. “This is so awesome! How does it work? What’s it like? My boss is a superhero and this is probably one of the best days of my life.”
He’s still staring at her, bemused. “You are going to spoil me,” is what he ends up saying eventually. “Seriously, I’ll want to keep you.” Even he realizes that sounds a little dumb, judging by the look on his face, but rolls his eyes and steps forward anyway. “If you want a show, then who am I to say no?”
He gives her a key. “What is this?”
He clears his throat and suddenly seems nervous. “This is the key to the liquor cabinet in the boardroom, kept safely by your predecessor until they walked off the job. You are under no circumstances to give this to me. If for some reason you have to serve me any, it is to come from this type of bottle and this type of bottle only.” He shows her. It’s a non-alcoholic wine. That solves one of the problems of Mr. Knight, then.
“I found you a bloody Watcher,” Spike says, and Xander sighs and sets down the soldering iron.
“Hello to you too. Also, I don’t know if you got the memo; I happen to be a Watcher myself. Then again, you don’t have an office or a desk, so maybe you didn’t get it.”
“Is it the bureaucracy that makes the lot of you raving idiots?” Spike asks. It’s a rhetorical question. “Though all things considered, I think you’re still more stable than Droopy.”
“Is that what we’re calling Angel this week?” He perks up a little. Buffy still gets mad, but she doesn’t get that this is his way of connecting with Angel without losing it. Seriously, Angel has seen way too much that should be strictly confidential and if they actually are civil there may be tears, and that’s not of the good. “See? Memos? Good.”
There’s a snort in the background. Xander guesses it’s probably Spike trying to contain his amusement. “By watcher, I meant more a babysitter. Keep you from blowing yourself up. The Little Bit wouldn’t like it.”
He blinks and then goes back to his workstation, fingers flying over the keys. At least he can do something. Be productive somehow. “Hey, I don’t blow things up that much, and last I checked I wasn’t under the age of, say, seventeen? Is that the cutoff point for babysitters?”
“I’d like to see you try to convince her that you’re an adult,” the vampire says, with bite. Which, yeah, maybe he was seeing how far Spike’s patience went. Still. “She said in the interview that she can deal with the odd, so you should hire her.”
He pauses what he’s doing and hacks into the Knight Innovations private (read: vampire-safe) jet to read the resumé submitted, and snorts into his cup of tea (earl grey, strong, he needed the caffeine and ran out of the good coffee a couple of days ago and forgot to replace it). “She lied.” It’s not even the way it’s phrased. He’s gotten better about reading tech, and she’d written this on her personal computer.
“Fine, she’s Cordy’s cousin,” Spike responded, and for a moment the world stops and all Xander can hear is his heartbeat, unnaturally loud, in his ears.
“Uh, yeah, okay, that’ll do it,” he manages, voice hoarse, and clears his throat. “Any other Chases I should know about?” The idea that he’d take care of them somehow is a given. Scoobies take care of their own. As well as they’re capable, given that they’re, well, them and completely capable of fights over the stupidest things.
“The dad’s a wanker, the other cousin Timmy’s happily employed, and the rest are dead, so no,” Spike says honestly, and Xander sits back and lets out a bark of laughter.
“It’s a pleasure to hear from you as always,” Xander murmurs and then shuts off the communication.
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