Title: Mo Peata (My Pet)
Author: Chickalupe
Email: chickalupe@juno.com
Feedback: ooh, makes me feel all tingly… chickalupe@juno.com
Fandom: Buffy/Angel
Pairing: Angel/Xander
Rating: NC-17 for sure
Spoilers: vague Season 6, set in my own sort of little universe
Warnings: slashy goodness, vampiric bloodplay
Disclaimer: Lord Joss, god of the Buffyverse, owns everything you see here. I just make the pretty boys do naughty things without his permission, but the boys secretly enjoy it.
Summary: Angel finally gets his reward, and Xander finds something he didn’t even know he needed.
{{A/N: post-Hells Bells, Anya’s off somewhere doing the demony thing. I don’t know where, just say she’s gone. As for Angel, I have only two words; ‘Conner *who*?’ Got that? Good.}}
{{P.S.- As always, Angel is Spike’s sire.}}

That night on patrol, Xander got paired with Spike, a fact which obviously bugged the bleached vampire.

Xander could tell that Spike would have preferred being paired with Buffy; he wasn’t completely blind, something had been going on with them for a while now. Apparently it was over though, and the vamp was less than pleased about it.

Spike took the last drag of his cigarette, tossed the butt on the ground and crushed it under the heel of his boot.

The temperamental vampire scowled in Xander’s general direction and started walking towards the cemetery. Xander merely rolled his eyes and followed after the vampire’s retreating back.

As Xander got within about six feet, Spike suddenly froze and cocked his head to the side, appearing to sniff the air. Xander stopped just short of running into him.

“Hey, what’s the big idea, Fangless?”

Spike slowly turned around and carefully studied Xander with a strange look in his eye; as if he’d never seen him before, or as if he expected Xander to suddenly turn blue and grow horns, which was a distinct possibility on the Hellmouth. It made Xander inexplicably nervous.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Spike seemed to struggle for words, and it was the first time Xander could recall the vamp not having a quip on the tip of his tongue.

“Erm, whelp, you haven’t… uh… been to L.A. recently, have you?”

Xander gave him a ‘humoring the insane vampire’ look.

“Nooo…” he said very slowly, shaking his head.

Spike appeared worried, almost nervous; nibbling on his lower lip, tapping his feet, and fidgeting with his hands as if he didn’t know what to do with them.

Spike finally shoved the twitchy appendages in the pockets of his duster. “Have you had any… *strange* visitors?”

Xander looked at him, genuinely perplexed. “No. What’s going on?”

Spike seemed to want to say more, but didn’t. He began walking again, muttering to himself under his breath; “’Course not… couldn’t be in town… I’d sense it…”

Xander could only follow bewilderedly as Spike lead the way to the cemetery, frequently shooting odd searching looks at Xander over his shoulder.

After they ran across a group of fledges, Xander forgot all about Spike’s ever-increasing weirdness as he got caught up in the fight. There were about five or so vampires, but they went down relatively quickly.

As the vamp dust settled around them, Spike began cursing fluently in a demon language. Apparently, one of the fledglings had a switchblade, and now the Sacred Duster™ had a miniscule cut in the sleeve.

Xander listened to Spike most likely insulting someone’s parentage in a long-dead tongue, and had a brief flash of insight.

“Hey Spike, you speak lots of languages, right?”

Spike paused in the middle of his verbal abuse of the unfortunate now-dusted vampire. “Yeah, I know some. Been around long as I have, ya pick a few things up here an’ there.”

“Help me out, man. There’s this phrase I heard, and I don’t know what language it’s from or what it means. Does ‘mo peata’ sound at all familiar to you?”

For a dead guy, Spike sure could get pale. He raised eyes that took up his entire face to gape at Xander. His expression almost made Xander turn around to see if there was a twelve foot giant behind him, or something equally freaksome. Xander could honestly say that in all the time he had known Spike, he had never seen him terrified. Until now. And it was scaring the bejesus out of him.

“Spike? What is it? You’re seriously creeping me out. Does it mean something bad? Do you recognize the language or something?” Xander was getting justifiably nervous.

“Gaelic,” Spike near-whispered.

“Huh?”

“I know the language. It’s Gaelic.”

“And? This is frightening because? What does ‘mo peata’ mean?”

“It means ‘my pet’.” Spike paused, and gave Xander a look that was something like concern. “It was one of Angelus’ favorite endearments for his human lovers.”

Xander wondered when exactly his heart had stopped. Angelus. Oh God, no. No, it couldn‘t be. Blind panic commencing now. But that familiar, taunting voice… It was coming back to him now, the first time he had heard those silky, mocking tones.

**"Do you think for one microsecond that you could stop me?…Buffy's ‘White Knight’…It must just eat you up that I got there first."**

Spike was still talking. “Thought I smelled him on you earlier… but figured my nose was playing tricks on me.”

Xander, in a daze, spoke without thinking. “I’ve been having dreams. Over a week now. He just keeps touching me, whispering things…”

Spike looked halfway between grim and nostalgic. “It was one of Angelus’ favorite games. Pick a lovely morsel, use Dru’s hic hic mojo to send ‘em dreams, seduce them while they sleep, and once they’re ripe for the picking… snatch ‘em up.”

Xander visibly shuddered. “Does this mean Angel has lost his soul again? And that Dru’s with him?” As if Angelus weren’t bad enough by himself, Xander had very clear memories of a certain vampiress who insisted on calling him her ‘dark kitten’.

Spike nodded, giving him a look of almost compassion. “Don’t see any other explanation, luv.”

Xander went weak at the knees, and sat down heavily on a tombstone. “Am I going to die?” His voice was flat and quiet.

“Everybody dies, Xander. But if you mean, will Angelus kill you? That depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“On which version of my Sire has woken up this time.”




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