Chapter Text
Xander Harris thought that perhaps God, or whatever was up there, owed him a little payback. Karma. He figured he ought to win the lottery or meet a supermodel or something. Life flat out owed him, and it was going to pay up.
He shifted into a slightly more comfortable position on the bus bench and looked across at his two main girls. Wills and the Buffster were deep in conversation on their own bus bench torture device, leaving him with the unenviable empty seat beside him. It wasn’t that he resented their closeness, conversation, or even sitting together. Hell, if Jesse had been there, he and Xan would’ve probably been worse. But Jesse wasn’t there. Now Xander was the only one contemplating the meaning of brown vinyl as they rode to the zoo.
That wasn’t why the world owed him.
Sure, the world owed him for Jesse too, but they could just add him to the tally. It was a long tally and he was starting to think it needed footnotes. Footnotes like, “Saved this guy from a vamp, and then he pantsed me literally a day later at school.” Or, “Have saved Buffy’s life again, but still no thanks and definitely no offer of a date.” Or, better still, “Bailed out Dad’s drunk and disorderly today. Still no love from parental figures. Getting better at paperwork though.”
At four in the morning.
There was no way his mom would’ve been sober enough to go, which left Xander pretending again to be his older and more mature nonexistent brother while dear old dad swore up and down that he would never touch the hard stuff again. They had a week until the court date, and two days until the promises wore off. By the time Xander had driven his parents home, it was time for school. And they wanted the car.
So, yeah, the universe owed him one. At least.
Xander kicked the seat in front of him. A male head whipped around and glared. Kyle. God this wasn’t his day.
“Watch it spaz!” came the expected insult, and really, was spaz still such an insulting word? Xander needed a moment to think about whether or not he should feel offended. “Do I need to tell Ms. Forwood you’re having a little ‘fit’?” Never mind.
Ms. Forwood was the head of the special education department at Sunnydale High, a fact Xander knew only too well. As it turned out, there was a difference between being functionally retarded and being lazy. Xander was lazy. Still, all the visits had given him a reputation for the former, and it seemed that Kyle was well informed. Dandy.
Gravel crunched beneath the bus tires as it pulled into the zoo parking lot. Kyle turned his attention to his minions and Xander let out a silent sigh. Kyle hadn’t been so bad up until a few years ago. In fact, they had even been on friendly terms for a while, at least before Kyle hit puberty like a brick wall and…changed.
He got hotter, for one thing.
Of course, Kyle’s hotness was really not on Xander’s mind ever. Nope. No siree. It was all ladies all the time for the Xandman. Don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it – crap.
Willow and Buffy were looking at him expectantly now. They’d waited, which was sweet, but he really could use the extra minute. Personally, Xander was considering falling asleep where he sat, but failing was worse than exhaustion, so he dutifully got up and piled out of the bus with the rest of the herd. Willow smiled at him and he stretched his facial muscles back. It was shaping up to be a long day.
With a Slayer on one arm and a Slayerette on the other, Xander led them into the zoo. Armed only with a vague knowledge of the park’s layout and a general sense of unease, he let the girls drag him off towards the reptile area.
And oh joy, Kyle was already there. Xander sighed, then faked a smile for Willow as she jabbered excitedly in his ear.
“…So many species! I can’t believe the zoo has so much funding!” she went on. Buffy nodded and tapped the glass on a snake’s cage. It didn’t move.
God, why did Kyle have to be everywhere? It was enough to make a guy a mite tetchy.
“Xander!” It was a Buffy screech, not a Willow screech. “They have a butterfly house! We so have to go in there!”
All he wanted was a nap. That’s all. Ooh, look, a park bench! Xander scanned to see if anyone was watching and, yep, Ms. Forwood was over there with her students, casting a wary eye at him. Oh crap, now she was looking concerned and “sensitive.” Balls.
“Sounds awesome, Buff,” was what he said instead, ignoring the sneer as he passed Kyle and headed out of the reptiles. Willow followed happily behind, untroubled by most things on this fine California day. Oh, to have Willow’s life.
Xander tried to enjoy the sensation of being covered in butterflies, but his mind kept drifting to other things, like his father’s upcoming trial. Defense attorneys didn’t come cheap, even in Sunnydale, and even if they could get one, the police seemed pretty confident in their ability to put Anthony Harris away for a few months. And all the lawyers who did pro-bono in Sunnydale really, really hated his Dad. For obvious reasons.
This was torture.
“Come ON, Xander!”
He followed the Willow voice leading him towards the zebras. It looked like Buffy was striking out on her own. That was just as well. One less person to please.
Wow. That was a lot of stripes.
Mating zebras had a way of making all of his problems seem monumentally less important, or at least less interesting, so long as he was mesmerized by the vague sense of intrigue and nausea. So many stripes. Plaid almost. Ugh. Horses shouldn’t bend like that.
Willow was bouncing up and down next to him, and he couldn’t decide if that was more or less disturbing than the zebra sex itself.
Dammit, he could see Kyle again, lurking a little ways away and scowling. He was alone, and Xander toyed with the idea of going over there and asking him what his problem was, but dismissed it. Willow would wonder, and this was something he and Jesse’d always tried to keep her out of.
Willow spotted Buffy coming back, and hopped over to greet her.
“Hey! Buffy!” Xander yelled, figuring he might as well pretend to be her Xander-shaped friend.
“You missed it!” Willow said.
“Missed what?” Buffy asked, her attention obviously elsewhere.
“We just saw the zebras mating,” Xander said, nodding towards the still hyper Willow. “Thank you, very exciting.”
“It was like the Heimlich, with stripes!”
Buffy did not appear to be nearly devastated enough. “And I missed it,” she said. “Yet somehow I’ll find the courage to live on.”
Well someone was a little miss pouty-pants today.
Willow remained blissfully oblivious. “Where were you?”
“I was looking at the fishes.”
“Was it cool?” Willow, bless her heart, just didn’t know when to give up.
“It was fishes.”
“I’m feeling you’re not in the field trip spirit here,” Xander said. Inside, he rolled his eyes. If anyone had a right to be in a funk, it was him, but he was making nice. She could just stuff it.
Buffy was making some excuse about doing this trip every year at her old school. Ah yes, the old school. The one that kicked her out. Love you too, Slayer. Seriously, though, how hard could her life be? She was a hot chick with superpowers. And her mom was awesome.
Xander sometimes pretended Joyce was his mom. Once she’d caught him, and it had been a little awkward for a few days, but she seemed to let it slide. Which really just made his infatuation worse.
But not, like, in a sexual way. That would be weird. And gross. Ew.
“Buffy, this isn’t just about looking at a bunch of animals,” he said, burying his ick. “This is about not being in class!”
She brightened and he winced inside. “You’re right,” she said, “suddenly the animals look shiny and new.”
“Gotta have perspective,” he said, mask firmly in place as he watched Kyle and company approach some guy…Larry? Lenny? Lance! That was it. It looked like they were pulling their usual stuff when Flutie intervened and Lance…defended them?
Xander geared up to go over there. Lance was an okay guy, and Kyle was just going to screw him up. They were heading to the Hyena House. Great.
Willow perked up behind him. “What are Kyle and his buds doing with Lance?”
“Playing with him as a cat plays with a mouse,” he said, grimacing.
“What is it with those guys?” asked Buffy.
“They’re obnoxious. Professionally,” said Willow.
“Well, every school has ‘em,” he said. “So you start a new school, you get your desks, some blackboards, and some mean kids.” Except that wasn’t it. That wasn’t it at all. Xander wanted to know what made Kyle tick, and he wanted to know now.
“Yeah, well, I’d better go extract Lance before…” Buffy said. Xander stopped her.
“I’ll handle it. This job doesn’t require actual slaying.” Plus, did Buffy have any idea how embarrassing it would be for Lance if a teensy little girl like Buffy saved him? He’d never recover. And Lance didn’t have much street cred to spare.
Plus, Kyle. He raced into the Hyena House, drawn inexorably towards the center. He could hear Kyle up ahead.
As he rushed into the main room, he knew he was right on time. The gang had Lance shoved up against the enclosure. Yeah, not a great idea. Xander ran up and pulled him down.
“Why don’t you pick on someone your own species?” he snapped at Kyle who looked even angrier than usual. Somehow.
“What, are you gonna get in my face?” said Kyle, stepping closer. Close enough that Xander could feel his breath and had just a moment to think about how deeply heterosexual this moment wasn’t –
The hyenas growled, distracting them. They all looked down into the enclosure and into the primal eyes.
As the wave of magic and power rushed over him, Xander couldn’t help but think that this was not how he wanted the universe to pay him back.
*
Kyle opened his eyes to a thrum of power underneath his skin. He looked at the others, Tor, Heidi and Rhonda, and he could see that they all felt it too. And then there was that amazing scent rolling off of the man next to him. Kyle pressed into it, murmuring. It smelled like Alpha and strength and home. There was something else in the air, though, underneath all of that…prey!
Kyle turned around, dimly noting that the others followed. Lance was sprawled across the ground where he had tripped and the sight was just so pathetic that he had to laugh. But instead of his usual throaty laughter, what came out was a high, tense cackle that seemed to fit him like and old skin. The others joined in, all but Xander, who just turned and smirked.
It was the smirk that did it, really. Years afterwards, Kyle would swear that history would have been different had it not been for that little twitch of facial muscles.
Lance ran. The laughter increased.
Kyle turned and looked at Xander. He could feel himself panting for attention and what the hell was that about? It was like he needed to bend over for this pathetic loser and damn was Xander getting fine these days like his muscles had just come out and Kyle needed to lick it lick everything…
Really not cool. What the hell was Xander doing, making him think stuff like that? What the hell was he?
Alpha.
Wait, Xander fucking Harris was the Alpha? This was just too much. Too much sexiness…aw fuck.
With a snarl, Kyle launched himself at the still smirking Xander, intending to prove who was really Alpha. Xander let himself be thrown to the ground, and began to wrestle a bit, thoroughly enjoying it. Bastard. Kyle’s thoughts whirled. He was an imposter, not good enough for the pack, outsider…He tried to pin Xander, but Xander was larger and stronger and just reversed the situation.
Kyle lay pressed into the floor of the Hyena House as the others watched and he knew that he would have to find some way to prove himself again. They would never follow him after this. And that was important, somehow. Respect of the pack. Yeah.
“You smell amazing,” said Xander, nuzzling into the joint between his shoulders and neck, “like sunshine and warmth and submission and home.” He gave the area a few playful nips. “And waffles.”
Home. That was what Xander smelled like.
Wait—submission? He DID NOT smell like that, no matter what Xander “son of the town drunk” Harris said. Kyle ignored the voice urging him to tilt his neck and just relax, that Alpha would take care of him. That Alpha would make everything good again. He began to struggle against Xander’s hold. The bigger boy just smirked again.
“Come on, Kyle,” he said, wiggling into a better position. Kyle groaned. “You know you want to. All the cool kids are doing it.” Heidi and Rhonda cackled. Tor just looked confused. Kyle’s eyes pleaded for an intervention, but Tor remained steadfast in his avoidance.
Xander’s head dipped back down to his shoulder joint. “Give in,” he said, “I’ll keep you safe.” As much as he wanted too, Kyle couldn’t fight the little voice any longer. Every time Xander spoke it got louder, and right now it was shouting. He slumped. Xander smiled in victory.
“You’re mine now,” he said, “all mine,” then bit down as hard as he could on Kyle’s shoulder. Kyle gasped as he was flooded with pain and an odd feeling of belonging and holy fuck endorphins. Goddammit, if Xander was kidding around about this…
Xander was still smiling as he stood up, and extended a hand to help Kyle. Kyle took it without thinking. Xander would take care of him. He belonged to Xander.
Tor whined at the back of his throat. Kyle watched as he went up to Xander. What, was Xander going to give him the whole dog and pony show too? Was that all it was, a welcome to the pack gift? He bit back a snarl. He had no right to be angry. He’d lost.
But Xander didn’t throw Tor to the ground or speak to him or fight him. He just walked up and bit him on the neck, just a little mark. He did the same for Heidi and Rhonda too.
It looked like he was special then, or at least the only one who hadn’t been able to instantly adapt to Xander freaking Harris as Alpha. Kyle resisted the urge to go to Xander, then gave in as the other boy extended an arm towards him.
God he was pathetic.
“We should go,” Kyle whispered into Xander’s neck, right where the scent was strongest. Shit that was good. Though, really, nothing like shit. He had the strangest urge to cackle. “The bus is leaving soon.”
“Screw the bus,” said Xander, but slowly pulled away. He led them all back through the halls and into the open air. It smelled so much better here, so much freer. Kyle scented the air and smiled at Xander. He smirked back.
Cocky bastard.
He felt lighter now, as if he’d let go of a weight he’d carried for years. He felt stronger too, more powerful and more awake, like he’d been asleep since he was a child.
Ahead of him he could see Xander, but more than that, he could feel him. It was like he had a Xander-detector in his bones or something. It was always there now, humming away, letting him know if Xander was close. It was more than just keeping track of the Alpha, too. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he did. This was something deep and dark and it had to be related to the bite on his shoulder and the smell of home.
Which was crazy. He was crazy. Oh god what was he going to tell his mom about the giant bite mark on his neck? That he had a new girlfriend and she was part vampire? Good luck with that.
They were at the buses, and Principal Flutie was standing out in front, tapping his watch. Kyle smirked a bit at that, and Xander looked behind to share in the joke.
His Xander-detector thrummed with joy. Weird.
As they climbed on board, Kyle could see the two little bitches that hung off Xander looking his way, their eyes wide with concern. He hadn’t broken their toy, promise. The redhead was whispering something thing Buffy’s ear. He would bet a kidney they were talking about him. And he liked his kidneys.
Xander flopped into an empty seat, and pulled Kyle down with him. Kyle railed for a minute. He was a person and not a possession, dammit!
Alpha, good, strong.
Shut up creepy head voice.
The other three managed to squeeze into the seat directly in front of them. And so, all students finally accounted for, the bus took off, and with it, Kyle’s feelings of safety. He got motion-sick at the best of times, but right now he felt like being on the moving bus was actually making his soul sick.
He whimpered softly, but apparently not softly enough, because Xander heard him.
“What is it?”
Kyle curled in tighter and tried to tell himself that soon he would get off the bus and he could lie in the grass and not move. Which, what?
“Kyle?”
His Alpha was asking him something. He should answer his Alpha.
“What’s wrong?”
“Hurts,” said Kyle, through clenched teeth. “Feels wrong.”
“What feels wrong?”
Being on this abomination.
He didn’t say that. It was weird. “I get motion sick sometimes.”
Xander nodded and wrapped an arm around Kyle’s shoulders. They ignored the mutterings around them. There would be a time for dealing with those later. Besides, Xander had nice arms. Which was something he’d never noticed before, obviously. Yeah.
“Concentrate on me, Kyle,” he said, and Kyle tried to comply. He let the scent of Alpha-strong-home wash over him, and it helped, even if it didn’t make it all better.
But it seemed to have helped enough, because now the bus was pulling in to the Sunnydale High parking lot, and stopping, thank God and all the powers that be. Kyle breathed out his nausea and stood on shaky feet. Xander watched him closely, and that knowledge alone allowed him to walk off the bus.
Heidi, Tor and Rhonda gathered around him in the parking lot, speaking low words of comfort. Xander was a solid presence at his back, and he basked in the feeling of family.
Buffy and her minion were still glaring at him, so he took the time to send her a snarl back, his eyes glinting green just a bit. That sent them packing! He smirked and turned his attention back to Xander and the pack.
The pack. His pack. He had a pack now?
“Where now?” said Kyle, breathing deep.
“Anywhere but here,” said Xander.
“Sounds like a plan,” said Tor, already gearing up to go.
“But Kyle,” whined Heidi, “I left my stuff inside.”
Kyle shrugged. He didn’t really care either way.
“Shut up!” snapped Tor. “Alpha said we’re leaving.”
“Leave her alone,” yelled Rhonda.
Xander looked at Kyle and raised an eyebrow. Kyle flushed. Sometimes his pack could be a bit immature. And again, pack?
“We have time for a stop,” said Xander, magnanimously settling the issue without addressing the dissension in the ranks. Tor seemed to think that whatever Xander said was the law, and the girls were just happy to get their own way.
Kyle didn’t really need anything inside, so he was perfectly happy to be dragged along by Xander. Well, most of him was perfectly happy. He was carefully stomping on the rebellious bits that insisted on shouting about public places and homophobia. Instead of listening, he just smiled as Xander pressed him up against a locker.
“You’re doing it again,” said Xander.
“Doing what?”
“Smelling way too damn good,” Xander breathed into the side of his neck.
Kyle just barely managed to keep himself from moaning.
“You’re all mine,” said Xander, nuzzling the bite he’d made earlier.
“And you?” said Kyle. “Are you all mine too?” Whoa, whoa, whoa. Was he nearly making out in the high school halls? With a dude? With Xander?
What. The. Hell. Except, he really wanted Xander to kiss him.
Kyle held his breath in anticipation. His Xander-sense was driving him off the wall with its purr. Xander pulled back to answer, only to be interrupted.
“Xander?” It was the redheaded one that followed him around. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
Xander growled low in his throat as he pushed off of Kyle and the wall. “Hold that thought,” he said as he walked over to the intervening harpy. She led him into another hallway for some ‘privacy’, and Kyle let his head fall back against the wall.
…Only to whip it around double quick as Buffy Summers, in all her psychotic little glory, slammed him against the wall.
“Alright mister,” she said, “answer quick and I’ll let you keep your ribcage: what did you do to my Xander?”