Rebuilding the House of Scooby by Mike and Tony

Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: We do not own Buffy, the Vampire Slayer nor do I own any other characters. This is a work of fiction written for fun and enjoyment.
Distribution: The Mystic Muse http://mysticmuse.net
The House of Scooby http://home.iprimus.com.au/o163210/
Go for it, just tell us where.
Feedback: Is appreciated
Authors' notes: This is a collaborative effort between Tony and me due to Tony's illness.
Grouping: Willow/Buffy/ Xander

Summary: Xander is given the chance to rebuild the House of Scooby.

The first indication that something was wrong was the stain. It was a very familiar stain, one that Xander had stared at for years as a kid. The problem was that the stain was on the ceiling of his childhood room, in a house that didn't exist any more, in a town laid to waste in the battle with the First Evil.

Another surprise, although a welcome one, was the lack of pain. In the days and weeks following the final battle, Xander had roamed the desolate landscape in constant pain in his body, his heart, his soul. He had been living in his own worst hell. Buffy and Willow dead by their own hand, their own hubris. They had become mere shadows of the people he had loved long before the final battle. So when he stumbled across the portal he jumped into without hesitation. Anywhere, anything was better than this.

So Xander found himself laying in his childhood bed and wondering just where, or when, in the hell he was. The bed seemed to be smaller than he remembered and, after the hell he just left, incredibly soft. He lay in his bed for long minutes and when he hadn't been attacked by anything, he decided that he wasn't in hell. Hope filled him and it scared him because he didn't want it crushed again.

He looked around to try to get a grip on exactly was going on. There was a poster of Cindy Crawford on his wall that gave him a bit of a clue. He remembered that he'd replaced Cindy with Elle McPhearson just before he and Cordy started smooching. Add some other things here and there and Xander came up with the impression that it wasn't that far after summer of his junior year. Of course a calendar would have helped but the only one in the house was in the kitchen and Xander wasn't about to wander out there naked.

Reluctantly, he got out of bed and started looking for some clothes. He caught sight of himself in the mirror. It wasn't the goofy 17-year-old who looked back at him but the battle hardened 24 year old replete with scars attesting to his seven years on the frontline between good and evil. The largest and nastiest of these were the ones given to him by Buffy and Willow in his fight against them.

Eventually he found a pair of jeans and a plain black T-shirt that fit and after his shower, he emerged into the kitchen. There was no sign of his parents but this wasn't unusual given the early time of day. Looking at the calender it confirmed his guess on the date. He turned on the TV and dug around the fridge for some breakfast. As he ate his frosted flakes he watched the morning TV news. Everything seemed normal, Bill Clinton in trouble again, reports of gang related attacks here in Sunnydale, situation normal.

Xander decided that he'd either come back in time or had crossed into a parallel universe almost identical to his own. Either way he had to see Buffy, Willow and Giles. The opportunity to see his friends again, his real friends as opposed to the empty shells that had become, that was something he couldn't pass up.

As he headed off to school Xander thought that maybe, just maybe, he could save his friends from the dark future he had left.

Xander stood at the top of the stairs looking out at the scene. Groups of teens wandering around the courtyard doing all the things that high schoolers did on a Monday morning. Xander smiled a little when he realised how much he had taken all this of granted.

Behind him Cordy and her entourage stood staring at the man among boys who stood looking out over the courtyard.

"Let's see, broad muscular shoulders, big biceps, great ass. Yeah, I think he's worthy of the full Cordelia Chase treatment." She told her gathered hangers on. With a confident swish she came up behind him.

Cordy couldn't believe it. It was that dork Xander, only not. He looked older, more mature, more confident, sexy even.

Xander for his part was really happy to she Cordy again. She might be a pain in the ass right now but it was far better than the demonic she-bitch she ended up as.

"What in God's name happened to you?" she demanded to know. Xander's mind raced to come up with a cover story for his changed appearance.

"Look, Cordy. I can't explain right now but I promise we'll talk, OK?" he hugged her as the bell rang for first period.

"God! I missed you so much Cordy." He said letting her go and heading off to the library leaving a stunned and shocked Cordelia in his wake.

"Why is it that complete hotties are attracted by complete skanks like Cordelia?" sighed the Slayer. Willow looked up from her book to check out the scene.

"No! It's just… alright; he's got a great ass." Buffy sighed again as the bell rang. "Come on Willow, Miss Harkness awaits."

As they started heading off to class Buffy saw the expression on Cordelia's face as she got hugged.

"Typical. She has complete hotties throwing themselves at her and she's still not happy."

"I only wish I had a complete hottie like that throwing himself at me." Willow said a little dejectedly.

It was with a little trepidation that Xander entered the empty library. He needed to get Giles on side if he had any chance at making things right this time around. He walked up to the table in the centre of the room and ran his hand across it. Memories of happier times flooded back. The Scooby Gang, battling the forces of evil, hanging out together. In retrospect there were the golden years, a time of innocence. Giles emerged from the stacks.

"Growth spurt?" Xander tried but Giles wasn't buying it. "Yeah, OK. It really didn't fly with Cordy either." Xander steadied himself before going on.

"Or a future." Xander qualified. "I'm not sure if I'm from your future, or an alternate one. That's something for you and Wills to figure out."

"I… see…" Giles was finding the concept difficult to accept. Xander paced for a bit thinking for ways to convince Giles.

"OK, things that only future Xander would know. Mmm… Last year I got possessed by a hyena and I pretended not to remember anything about it but you knew and kept it secret anyway. And you used to be called Ripper and hung around Ethan Rayne doing magic and having orgies." Disturbed by the visuals Xander's mind raced for more.

"Oh! You've got an old girlfriend named Oliva back in England." Xander stopped pacing and looked Giles directly in the eye, a look serious and threatening on his face.

"And you even think about performing the Cruciamentum on Buffy when she turns 18 I'll kill you myself."

"Seven years, Giles. I've got seven years worth of future in my head and most of it I don't want to ever happen again. So do you believe me now?"

"Almost 8 years fighting evil and 4 working on construction sites is good for that sort of thing."

"Big shimmery portal opens up, badda bing, badda boom! I wake up in my old bed."

"Yes it is. And I'm guessing you'll be wanting to hit the old books any second now. Need a hand?" Xander smiled at the Watcher who smiled back.

"Thank you, yes. It would be a great help." Giles headed to the stacks but Xander stopped him and embraced the older man.

"Missed you so much man." Xander let go of Giles when he noticed Giles' rather awkward reaction to the hug.

"Right, stiff upper lip English watcher guy not into hugs. Cool. OK." A little smile appeared on Xander's face. "Don't worry, you'll grow out of it eventually."

"Yes! His arms. Attached to his shoulders. As they are. Traditionally." babbled Willow.

"Right. Yes." Giles tried to get things back on track. "I'm glad you two showed up."

"The crisis would happen to be me." Xander said as he emerged from the stacks. He was greeted by two sets of boggling eyes. He walked down the steps and stood before them.

To the further shock of the already stunned girls, Xander gathered them up into his arms and held them close as he wept.

"It's just, the future. And you're…" Buffy waved her hand in Xander's direction.

"Now, seeing this isn't the time nor the place for my yellow crayon speech, I'll just have to go with this." To the astonishment of Buffy and Giles, and to the delight of Willow, Xander started dancing. Willow giggled.

"OK! You can stop now!" Willow told him as she launched herself at him and locked him into a ferocious bear hug. Xander hugged her back, kissing the top of her head. God, how he missed being this close to Willow. He had to fight back the tears again as he held her to his chest.

"Every Christmas, Giles, I go around to Xander's place to watch ‘Charlie Brown's Christmas' and every year he does the Snoopy Dance. Only Xander is capable of the Snoopy Dance."

Giles took his glasses of and cleaned them vigorously before putting them back on.

"So" Buffy said deciding to re-enter the conversation "Future boy. Spill. What happens? Do I make it past 18?" Without thinking Xander looked at Giles and said venomously:

"Buffy!" Xander yelled, letting Willow go. "I don't want to go into it right now. Please, trust me on this one Buff. Not now. Later, maybe?" A reluctant nod from the Slayer.

"OK, later." Buffy agreed as the bell rang for next period. Willow gathered up her books.

The day went surprising well. Xander's lame ‘growth spurt' excuse was actually believed, much to the amazement of his friends. Xander reasoned that people in Sunnydale were so used to excusing away even weirder things like vampires and stuff, that Xander's sudden change in appearance was pretty much a non-event.

Not that his appearance went unnoticed. A large proportion of the female population of Sunnydale High saw the change and were a little annoyed with Buffy and Willow for not sharing the wealth.

Xander was almost deliriously happy at again being with the two people he loved most in the world. Willow, for her part, soaked up the affection and attention that Xander was showering them with. She spent almost the entire day wielded to Xander, revelling in the huge amounts of time she was spending in his embrace.

Buffy, on the other hand, was quiet. She spent the day looking at Xander. He definitely was their Xander, the same humour, the same clown she knew. But there was something different. Yes, the eye candy factor was welcome and the lusty thoughts that kept popping into her mind were somewhat new (if not a little disconcerting). But something else. Something she had never seen in her Xander. A quiet confidence, the maturity, the look of someone who had been around the block a few times. But there also was the look of a man haunted by some dark secret. A secret he didn't want to share and one that Buffy wanted to know.

"We'll start researching this portal of Xander's, see if we can get him back." Giles told the gathered Scoobies.

"I've got a better idea. You research, we go out and patrol. Hellmouth, vampires, forces of Darkness ring a bell?"

"Isn't as high as keeping people safe from the evil things that go bite in the night. There's nothing out there at the moment that the three of us can't handle together. So I say we get out there and try to make some inroads on the bad guy population while things are still quiet." With a sigh, Giles acquiesced to Xander's idea.

"Er, right. Sure thing." Xander picked up some weapons. "Let's get rolling guys."

It was another happening Friday night at the Bronze. The three Scoobies were having a great time dancing, laughing, and hanging out together. In addition to all the other improvements, Xander's dancing was a big tick in the bonus column.

Buffy and Willow sat at their table and watched Xander who was currently dancing with Cordelia, or as he put it ‘repaying the old factory debt', much to the confusion of his friends.

Willow as over the moon at the extent that the fact Xander was currently dancing with Cordelia didn't phase her one bit. The last week was the happiest in her life. Xander had been attentive and affectionate to both her and Buffy the whole week. He was also big on the hugs, group hugs, Buffy hugs, Willow hugs. Any weirdness in Xander was overshadowed by the happy confirmation of everything Willow ever saw in Xander.

For Buffy it was a slightly different story. For Willow it was a confirmation, for Buffy it was a revelation. He was everything Buffy ever wanted in a guy. But there was three issues which stood before her that made her hesitate. Willow was one, Angel was another. But the biggest was Xander's secrets. Xander had been silent on details of the future and Buffy wondered. What dark secrets was he hiding? Why was he hiding them? Xander came bounding over to the table.

"That's it. I'm all danced out. What say you gals?" Xander asked as he plunked himself down between Buffy and Willow.

"Sounds like a plan. What about you, Buff?" Xander snapped his fingers in front of the Slayer.

"Sorry about that. It's just, you know, just this thing with Xander. It's a little mind bending."

The three of them entered the library where Giles was deep in his books researching Xander's situation. Xander headed directly for the book cage to gab weapons for patrol.

"I was hoping you would stay here and help me with research in rectifying you situation."

"No can do. We've got to… patrol." Xander's voice faltered as he saw the doors open and someone come in.

"Buffy, could we…" Angel was cut off by the cross thrust vigorously in his face by Xander.

"Back off, Deadboy!" Angel growled and flinched as Xander shoved the cross further in his face.

"I said leave her alone you son of a bitch!" A furious Xander yelled. Buffy shoved Xander away from Angel.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Buffy demanded from Xander. Yes, Xander wasn't Angel's biggest fan, but never anything like this. Everyone was shocked at the violence of Xander's reaction to Angel. Xander was silent, fury and hurt in his eyes.

"Buffy is right." Giles interjected somewhat more reasonably than his Slayer. "You seem most reluctant to help research how to get you back. It's almost like you don't want to go back."

"NO!" Xander yelled making everyone jump. "I won't be missed because there's no one left to miss me. I don't want to go back because there's nothing left to go back to." His voice softer now, hurt and grief evident in his tone.

"Oh, you guys need to know alright. It's just that I'm positive you guys won't want to know."

"You'd all better sit down. The history of the fall of the House of Scooby takes awhile to tell."

For the next few hours, Xander told them everything that had happened. Angel's curse, Angelus, Jenny, Kendra, Cordy, the Fluke, Athicla, the Mayor, Faith, the Initiative, Riley, ADAM, Tara, Spike, Dawn, Glory, Joyce, Anya, the Nerds of Doom, the SiT's, the First Evil, the final battle.

"You both became more and more powerful in order to fight the First Evil. But along the way you lost yourselves, your humanity, your heart. Me. I could see what was happening to you two. I tried telling you guys but you never listened. As a last ditch I tried to reach the spark like I did for Willow on Kingman's Bluff, tried to reach that little remaining bit of the real Buffy and Willow who are a part of my heart, my soul.

"But the people I loved most had gone. They had been dead for a long time and all that was left was the empty shells. In the final battle, you two didn't just defeat the First Evil. You replaced it." Xander finished with an almost painful whisper.

He looked up to see the pain, the tears, the numb horror on the gathered faces of his friends.

It had been a week since he told them. It hurt him to tell them, and it hurt to give them the time and space they needed to deal with what he told them. Xander patrolled to keep himself busy and distract himself. Two vamps and a Feoral demon later, he headed home for a shower and a change of clothes. Unlike the two vamps, the Feoral demon made a real mess of his shirt.

"Uh, hi guys." Xander said finally. Buffy and Willow looked at the gore on his shirt. "Feoral demon. Messier than vamps slayage wise."

"We asked Miss Calender about Angel's curse. She confirmed it. The happiness clause bit." Buffy told him. Xander looked at her for a bit then headed for his wardrobe to find a clean shirt.

"Us? We're just peachy. Finding out we're destined become inhuman evil bitch monsters from hell? Just peachy."

"But…" Willow started to say however Xander cut her off and knelt in front of the two of them.

"I'm here now. I have to be here for a reason and that reason is to make sure that isn't your destiny. I'm going to fix the mistakes, to make it right this time around. I'm not going to abandon you two, no matter what." An impassioned Xander could see it in their eyes. A spark of hope. A belief for a better future. He got up and took off his gore stained shirt.

Buffy and Willow gasped a little as they saw they horrible scars on his chest and back. Buffy reached up and traced her fingers along some of the scars.

"How did you…" Buffy started to ask but stopped at the look of sadness on Xander's face. She dropped her hand into her lap and looked down.

"Yeah." A reluctant Xander replied. Willow closed her eyes to block out the vision of the scars and to fight the tears they caused. Xander put the clean shirt on. It was a minute before Buffy spoke again.

"Why did you keep fighting? Why did you keep tying to save us when you could have, should have, walked away? When we kept ignoring and hurting you? Why?"

"Love." Xander confirmed. "I love you two in every possible sense of the word, in every way possible, even in ways thought to be impossible. Buffy, Willow; you two are my heart and soul. My everything. I couldn't stop loving you if my life depended on it. Even when my life depended on it."

Xander was knocked to the floor as two other Scoobies launched themselves at him. Tears of happiness and love soaked his shirt as he held them close to his chest. To his heart. They held each other for a long time.

"Actually I was thinking I should get up and have a shower. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the Scooby snuggles here, and I'm looking forward to some more. But I got Feoral goo in my hair that needs washing out. Soooo…" Xander reluctantly untangled himself from his fellow Scoobies and headed for the shower.

Buffy watched him go—a look of contemplation on her face. After a minute or two she got up and headed to the shower as well.

Willow hesitated of a moment, then, with a sly grin on her face, she followed Buffy into the shower.

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Rebuilding the House of Scooby

by Mike and Tony

Copyright © 2003

o163210@iprimus.com.au