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Hellfire Tales: Could Have Been Worse--adult 30stm/BtVS/MCR Xander/Matt 4/7
full header & part 1 || part 2 || three






“Easy, easy, Tara's gonna be here in a minute,” Xander murmured as Matt was able to focus on what was in front of him again. “Got the chains undone for now, as hard as Rose fed on you, you should be safe. Just try to remember lube please if you lose it.”

Matt gaped at that, swallowed against nausea that he couldn't say was just from pain.

“I got your shoulder back in joint, but I mighta screwed up muscle some. It wasn't wanting to budge and the muscle had started swelling pretty bad. “

“This crazy shit is real?” Matt managed weakly.

“Yeah, real. Welcome to the weird.”

“Are you fucking insane?”

“I've been fighting demons since I was fifteen. Maybe.”

Matt made a slightly strangled sound at that answer. “Not reassuring.” Xander was a smart ass that was for sure.

Xander gave him a weak grin, that didn't even come close to being mirrored in the single tired dark eye.

“How fucked up is this?”

“So far beyond what you can imagine, hell I'm not sure where to begin to get it straight in my head let alone tell you. So much of the wrong there's not words.” Xander sighed.

“Xander,” a soft uncertain voice came from the bedroom archway.

Matt felt his face go up in flames. Tara walked toward them and he was acutely aware of his pants still bunched around his ankles and the sheet just barely preserving any dignity he might have left.

“You sent Oz and d-Devon home.” she accused, the stutter almost gone.

“Yeah, Rose fed hard enough he should be rational for a couple days and that's hopefully long enough to get this settled so we can function.”

“You need to--”

“Yeah I know.” Xander cut Tara off. “Get to that when he isn't in pain from dislocating his damned shoulder fighting the chains and he's got his wrists and hands all torn up.”

“Xander-“

“Be okay, Tara,” Xander gave her a crooked smile brighter and bit more forced to Matt's mind than the one he'd gotten a little earlier.

Matt fought down the urge to growl at Tara. He could only be glad he was too fucking wrecked to quite manage to move at the moment. He kinda wanted to punch her and chase her out. HIS XANDER.

Oh...fucking hell.

“Easy, easy,” Xander crawled over him so he was on the opposite side of Matt from Tara. “Tara's one of my girls. Tease 'em. Hug 'em. I've been packmule on more mall missions than you want to know of and have been forced to give my opinion on candidates for new lucky underwear belonging to women I consider my sisters. End up with them on my lap either blubbering and getting snot on my shirt or inhaling ice cream when they've gotten dumped.”

“I'm loosing my fu-frickin mind.”

“It's the claim isn't completed yet,” Xander said. “We get groiny it should start to settle down at least the sex part...preferably while you're still in your right mind. I'll pass on you blindly out of your mind like earlier if at all possible. Not that fond of pain. Possessiveness'll take longer.”

Matt stared at Xander in horror shaking his head.

“Well, it's sane and awkward or very much with the ow for me. I'd rather pass on the ow.”

Matt swallowed. Fuck.

Tara nodded. “L-lube and...just in c-case of ow, this one can be used...” she winced. “inside.” She held out two little odd shaped jars pulled from her pocket and set them on the edge of the bed.

“I'll do it, just what--” Xander said softly as she seemed to start winding up and looked ready to bolt.

She held up a bottle of some purple liquid. “Shoulder. And this for the cuts...”another little odd pot with a lid.

“Okay. Just sit them there. I'm fine. We're good.”

“D-don't-wait.”

“Not planning on it. But what sounded like almost twelve hours of a succubus feeding on him from what Oz said? Little recovery time required,” Xander assured her.

Tara rolled her eyes at Xander and gave him a quit being an ass look, glanced back at Matt and almost bolted.

“Later, Tare. I can manage,” Xander said softly.

Matt kind of wanted to die as she bolted. Great. Yeah. He glanced at Xander and the dark, furious look on his face once Tara was gone.

“What the hells did you do, Willow?” Xander whispered brokenly.

“Sure it ain't just not wanting to be around the guy she figures is gonna rape her friend?” Matt said a little sick, and fighting the urge to grab Xander.

“More like running from you being so messed up fighting the chains and Rose feeding.” Xander said quietly. “Hey, no fists. Your palms are nearly hamburger there, genius.”

“That or start grabbing.”

Xander frowned. “You-“

“Not crazed like before just-you're,” Matt rolled his eyes angry with himself. “Upset and mine goddamn it. This Willow bitch seems like a threat. And...FUCK.”

“I met Jesse when I was three. Met Willow in Kindergarten. She broke her yellow crayon and cried and I gave her mine. And she was friends with me and Jess from then on.”

“Jesse going to show up around here?” Matt demanded warily, stubbornly trying to shove the insane jealousy down.

“Oh fuck don't even think that.” Xander shuddered. “Jesse was turned and dusted in 96. The biggest reason I've been doing this since I was fifteen. First kill was Jesse. He'd been grabbed as bait for Buffy. There was a prophecy involving her-she'd just moved to town and ended up hanging with us-Me Jesse and Willow. Turned into a vampire. Watched him crumble to dust on the stake in my hand. Now Willow...Jess I couldn't do it. Crowd panicking and he got shoved into the stake. Willow I'm likely the only one that's going to get close enough to be able to do it.”

Matt fought the urge to reach for Xander and drag him somewhere and hide him away from the world and this Willow bitch. Except how the hell did you hide from demons and witches and shit and what was more hid away from the world than this bizarro as ghost town.

“Here-crap-you think you can make it to the bathroom? Get you a shower before we get this on or just fuck it for now.”

“Unless you think you can carry me-fuck it.” He wasn't moving unless the house was on fire right now, and maybe not even then.

“I-yeah. Right now? I might if I had to, adrenaline rush from a battle or something. Faith beat the crap outta me sparring this morning, well, yesterday morning now. And we spent the night working answers out of Angelus. I could sleep for a week. Even with the four of us taking turns. Long fucking night. My shoulders and back are sore. And no growling. It was sparring, that's all. Have to train and keep in shape or end up dead in this line of work. Slow off days and getting your ass handed to you sparring happens, make you work that much harder, rather than get you dead in an actual battle.”

Matt nodded and managed, “Yeah.” The fury at someone hurting Xander was irrational, sparring like Karate practice or some shit. The battle part his mind was backing away from. “What-what did you do to that asshole?”

“Angelus? Reacquainted him with the receiving end of the five basic torture groups.”

“Five basic torture groups,” Matt repeated incredulously.

“Hot, Cold, Sharp, Blunt and Loud-well, four of the five. Loud really didn't come into it unless you count all the shouting and screaming and cussing. He's going to be dust soon enough, we'll be able to stomach another session or two to get anything more out of him what the hell else he's up to and who he's working for because this was too subtle and too well planned for Angelus. Angelus likes to torment his victims but this...just was off for him. He's working for something and we need to try to get a clue what.”

Five. Basic. Torture. Groups.

Jesus.

There were five basic torture groups? And that Xander could just rattle them off like that? Matt wondered if they'd been used on Xander. “Eye?” he demanded.

“Minion of the first evil. Called me the one who sees and decided I saw too much. Thumbs squish went the eyeball. I got lucky the cavalry showed up before he got the other eye.”

If he had anything in his stomach, he thought he would puke. “This is fucking with my head.”

“Possessive yeah.” Xander nodded. “Got that much. Emotional shouldn't other than irrationally possessive. We'll-figure it out. On the bright side, if I get killed and that's always a possibility-you're okay. Other than having tattoos not even laser removal is gonna touch. Not going to be recognized what exactly they are by your average humans so not that big of a deal. Just-before you might get any bright ideas. You die, we're both dead. So, try to stay alive. I'd appreciate it, even if I'm probably past expiration date for a normal human in this business. Need to work something, leather brace or something, can say my arm got burnt and messed up. My tattoo not seen would be best. Hell, I got a couple Demon Lords with me on their 'to have in their playroom and torture for a few years before killing slowly' list. The longer it's quiet about this the better. You're going to have to learn some basics at least-me tied to you makes you a target.” Xander sighed. “You just got sucked into a world of shit you should never have had to deal with.”

Matt fought down the irrational rage that Xander was trying to hide who he belonged to.

“Calm down. Safer for everyone. For the bands you work with too, your friends and family. Not denying it. Hell, you're human and non-evil, one hell of a bonus as far as I'm concerned if something like this was going to happen. Something targets you just now, you're nothin' more than a pretty toy or happy meal on legs to the evil. At best you're bait to get to me, and bait gets worked over hard and generally ends up dead-except they'd recognize the tattoo on you for what it is, and not kill you. There's a helluva lot worse than dying and demons can come up with a lot longer list than I can. You got nieces or nephews or your friends have kids? Stealing a baby to draw me out for a swap would be easy if something took a mind to. You and Rose's baby is pretty much going to have to grow up out here in Hellfire. Not going to be safe to let the kid out of the wards until they're old enough and trained enough to stand a chance on their own. Just trust me while you're figuring out the demon crap okay?”

Matt swallowed and nodded, relaxing a little. He couldn't deny the logic of that. He'd managed to get himself in and out of a few scary situations over the years but...yeah. So not anything like what Xander was talking about.

Xander murmured something. Matt didn't quite hear. His mind was beyond overload and fighting the urge to touch Xander. He was too wrung out and hurting too much to really move on his own much let alone do anything but that didn't really calm the thought that Xander.Was.His rampaging through every fiber of his being and the need to prove that, at the very least touch Xander.

Xander's hands on him helped. Helped a lot. His mate touching him, helping him sit up to rub the oil from the bottle of eye-burning not-exactly mint smelling purple liquid on his shoulder, easing away the pain there with practiced movements.


Mate?

Oh fuck he was losing his goddamned mind.

Xander moved. Said something. All that registered was leaving. NO! His mate was not going out of arms reach again so soon. He grabbed for Xander and howled at the pain in his hands and wrists as he gripped Xander's arms.

“Easy, easy. Just going to get water to clean your hands...”

“MINE” Matt growled. The word escaping before rational thinking could take control of his tongue.

“Yeah, not arguing that, I know.” Xander swallowed arms moving around Matt, “Gonna hurt yourself. Lean against me, and let go, gonna fuck your hands up worse. Tara's salves and stuff are good but let's not push how far they need to perform miracles.

Matt leaned into Xander where he sat on the bed, his shoulder throbbing apace with his hands and wrists. His head rested on Xander's shoulder and he struggled to force rational though back to the forefront of his brain. He almost wished he hadn't halfway succeeded. Something resembling rational thought made him realize, he'd lost his sheet, and his pants were still fucking ridiculously tangled around his ankles. Other than the part where it would kill Xander too, shooting himself sounded like a thought. He knew there had to be an actual gun somewhere, after all Faith had had one to shoot snakes.

“You're too wiped out to make it to the bathroom and I'm too damn beat to carry you. You letting go anytime soon? We've gotta get your hands and wrists.”

“Don't think I can...” Matt admitted shakily.

“Shit,” Xander said with a frustrated sigh. “Gotta-Bite me.”

“What?!” Matt yelped incredulously.

“Bite me, gimme a hickey, something, put your mark on me maybe you'll be able to let me go long enough to get a bowl of water from the kitchen. Not leaving the house, not going any further than that. We need to get your hands-and my back likes that idea better than trying to carry you. If it doesn't work, I'll carry you but worth a shot.”

“This is fucked up.”

“Yeah I know. Welcome to my world,” Xander sighed. “This should pass, least so we don't have to be joined at the hip once you're up for it.”

“Fuck,” Matt muttered and struggled not to shake. Yeah, marking Xander sounded like a plan. Xander was HIS.

“Hands and wrists need taken care of first.” Xander shot back.

Matt swallowed back the crazed laughter that threatened with a strangled sound. “Are-how the fuck can you-I-“

“Hey, shh, Scooby Motto-we went, we mocked, we slayed, we had pizza.”

“Scooby?!” Matt yelped.

“Yeah. Way back when, we had actual Scooby meetings in the high school library. Giles, Buffy, Willow and Me, Oz and Cordelia for a while, later at the Magic Box, Tara, Anya, Dawnnie and Spike at those. My high school was on top of a dimensional convergence called a hellmouth. Major power source, thin barriers, open one and it's direct freeway to hell dimensions. Sunnydale's hellmouth was one of the most active ever known of. OF course a century of hormone explosions sitting on top of it had to add to that. It was directly under the high school library. Scooby Doo got his monster. So did we. Doesn't it make you feel better to know that a geek who got the shit beat out of him regularly by the football team, a guitarist, two cheerleaders and a bookworm saved the world calling themselves Scoobies, with the help of their high school librarian?”

Matt shook. Hysterical laughter threatened as he managed to squawk out “No!”

“Gotta laugh, or you lose your mind and get killed somehow. Either let something kill you or go off the deep end into evil and your friends have to kill you.” Xander said softly, his hand rubbing over Matt's back, slow and awkward but skin contact of any sort was helping hold onto rational.

Awkward as hell or not, at least it didn't seem like Xander was...freaking out or completely repulsed by him. He didn't think he could stand that. “You like guys?” Matt blurted and could have bit off his tongue. He wasn't sure he wanted the answer, because he knew he wasn't going to be able to stop himself if he got as out of it as he had been earlier and Xander was acting like that would be a given.

“Been with a few, that you have a dick isn't anywhere near the fucked up of this for me,” Xander said quietly. “Couple I could have really gone for, one-no way in hell it ever would have worked because of history and slayage. The other...kinda a really wild intense week, never heard from again but would've liked to have seen if it could have been something if I was in any other line of work ya know? Mostly just drunk, sometimes apocalypse wind up or come down, just too fucking tired and buried another friend, another kid, another innocent you weren't fast enough, weren't smart enough to figure out what to do in time to save. Get to where whoever's there that's close enough to human works cause you just can't stand to go on without having someone there even just for the night.”

That...well, it was better than nothing. Better than it could be. Xander's suggestion of Marking him somehow was still rolling around in Matt's head and trying to go from pulled out of Xander's ass suggestion to absolute fucking imperative for Matt.

“Relationships have been with women-all two that were anything that lasted more than a date to a month. Cordelia-who you met yesterday. Bitchy, glowy. The other was Anya. We were together three years. Almost got married. Left her at the altar actually. Started working things out getting back together-she died saving Andrew's life during final battle with the First Evil and permanently closing the Sunnydale hellmouth. Didn't even get to bury her. Her body's still somewhere in the crater that was Sunnydale. Town couple hours from LA that fell into the sinkhole in 02. Relationships and saving the world just-don't mix well. Someone ends up dead or worse. It's been a good three years since I've even thought of attempting an actual date or considered anything that wasn't mutual last straw avoiding a complete breakdown get drunk and shag each other unconscious pretend it never happened the next day.”

“Remember...a school bus on the news...” Matt frowned a little, concentrating on the Sunnydale part rather than the 'relationships with women' part, and the satisfaction the women in question were dead. Christ. This had to fucking settle down or he was going to drive himself insane.

“Yeah. That was us. Me, Andrew, and Faith were on there. Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Giles, bunch of Slayers. Robin.”

The hand on his back kept up the awkward rubbing. “We've got to take care of your hands, Matt,” Xander said softly his other hand moved up to Matt's hair, nudged at Matt's head. Xander tilted his own head. “It's okay. Gotta try something or I'm going to trash my back and kill us both trying to get you to the bathroom. We might end up sleeping in the tub in that case.”

Matt let Xander nudge his head to face Xander's neck. “Sorry”

“We're good. It's okay. Angelus is the one who is to blame not you.” Xander said softly, tilting his head a little more and kept rubbing Matt's back.

Matt took a shaky breath and bit down hard on the juncture of Xander's neck and shoulder. Teeth pressing in as deeply as he could, sucking hard to draw up a bruise, determined to leave a mark that was going to last a while.

Xander made a hissing sound and a faint grunt of pain, but the arms supporting him where he sat, stayed gentle around him, hand still moving on his back, the other now just as awkwardly petting his hair.

“Don't think it's going to work-that shit that knocked me out-” Matt finally broke away, tasting blood. Two small marks where his teeth had broken skin. The thought of letting Xander out of his sight even to the next room for a minute was enough to make him want to snarl. But Xander looked fucking exhausted and hadn't slept from the sound of it since...yesterday sometime. Matt wasn't even sure what time it was.

“Yeah, I got some. It's on the shelf over there though.”

Matt nodded and forced his arms away from Xander. He didn't like letting Xander go but he could with Xander not going out of his sight. Xander went to a little carved box tucked way in the back on one of the shelves.

Matt inhaled deeply when Xander blew the pinch of pale orange sand in his face. Not caring what it was other than it would knock him out.

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