Current music:	Bruce Springsteen - Darlington county
Entry tags:	30 seconds to mars, btvs: xander harris, hellfire tales, mcr: matt cortez, my chemical romance

Hellfire Tales: Could Have Been Worse--adult 30stm/BtVS/MCR Xander/Matt 6/7
full header & part 1 || part 2 || part 3 || part 4 || part 5





It seemed like everyone in Hellfire, including the ghosts had come out to see Matt and Xander off for the trip to Tahoe to get the kids from Cleveland. And every last one of them, not in so many words, asked them if they'd had sex already.

Andrew and Tyson had gotten Hezekiah to help them with the fingerless leather glove thing that did kind of look like a wrist brace. It looked good. Odd but hell it could be gotten away with. Xander's scarred eye socket and he was big enough no one was going to want to ask why he was wearing the leather glove/arm guard thing.

Matt fucking hated it.

His own tattoos from this crazy shit were covered completely at the moment. Between the bandages on his hands and wrists and a long sleeve t-shirt of Xander's which was three sizes too big. Probably loose on Xander and Matt looked kind of ridiculous in it but nothing of his was going to work easily with his hands.

“That's going to drive me nuts,” Matt said reluctantly looking at the leather on Xander's arm about an hour from where they were supposed to meet the bunch from Cleveland. The bus, was a freaking tour bus from probably 1960. The only explanation as to where it came from was Spike won it in a poker game under Vegas, which was followed by a round of razzing Spike about gambling and wondering how badly he'd cheated.

“Shit.”

Matt winced and looked at the mark on Xander's neck. “Hickey helps.” he muttered.

“Good.”

Matt kinda wanted to start screaming and never stop. This was so fucked up it was unbelievable. “Yeah fantastic.” Matt said sarcastically.

“It-means somethings going to work. I mean-some other ownership mark. Keep my wrist covered for as long as possible, what are your friends going to say with us showing up all of a sudden with matching tattoos ya know?”

“Yeah-just...fuck.”

“IF marking me works, we'll go with that. Or something .”

“What put a fuckin' collar on you?” Matt snapped.

“Would it work?”

Matt swallowed something in Xander's voice bothered him . Tight and tense and almost as if he was fighting to keep from freaking out..

“Would. It. Work?” Xander demanded with almost a growl in his voice.

“Maybe, I-think, yeah.” Matt swallowed. “Gonna-freak if I say I've...dabbled in that sort of thing enough that collar means enough it might. Probably.” Jesus. Yeah. Crazy ass fucking marriage by demonically cursed ruby to a complete stranger who is fighting going psycho possessive and defenseless against him trying to fuck you half to death if he loses it and hey, guess what that guy plays in the Scene too. As fucked up as it was and next to impossible for Matt to get his own head around that he didn't know how the hell Xander was even remotely being calm about fucking any of this. Even if he was used to fucking demons and crazy shit. “This shit doesn't-make you just fucking go along with whatever...”

“Nope.” Xander shook his head. “All that it does is make sure I can't fight it. Wanting or enjoying doesn't make a difference, I just can't fight back or kill you in your sleep or anything like that.”

“How freaked are you? I mean I wouldn't-shit...”

“Not freaking over a little kinky. Tell you about Anya sometime when you're settled enough it's not going to get you crazy. Not sure how long I'd stand a collar put on just because...” Xander shook his head. “This shit's got everything stirred up. Echoes of possessions and magic I've been hit with over the years. Maybe eventually I could wear it-not yet. I'll be the one losing it and...chained up in Hellfire's jail for the rest of my life Fuck, I have enough trouble anymore after the last round of shit from Africa. Spent most of the last few years in jungles or deserts.”

Matt tried to absorb the explanations of hyena possessions from a field trip to the zoo-which included eating a live pig, attacking Buffy who beat him and put him in Oz' cage, and the rest of the pack eating the school principal. And a stint on the swim team which nearly turned him into a creature from the black lagoon looking sea demon, and since a crazy little old witchdoctor decided he needed rewarded for saving his grandson from being sacrificed to a demon by killing the demon. Which brought back pieces of the hyena and sea demon sorta. He'd also been thralled by the same vampire-twice-and that was it's own set of nightmares kinda stirred up again.

“No woulda worked,” Matt said warily.

“I don't know what he did. More the instincts of them than them actually there...it's not like the possession was with the Hyena or the Soldier...”

Soldier? Matt wasn't asking. Weird fucking shit. Spirits, possessions, magic spells, demon sacrifices-or avoided demon sacrifices. He was probably better off not asking. The babble came too fast and detailed for his brain to even begin to follow. A nervous Xander was a babbling Xander just as much as a Xander trying to settle a nervous someone else was a babbling Xander. Difference in the babbling though, this was a little more frantic, not just rambling on to cover shy and quiet or upset of someone else.

“Tattoo?”

“What?”

“What about a visible winged serpent, your mark, on my arm-it would keep the tatts from the ruby from being added up and still be your mark, clear and permanent on me. We're heading for summer. Be in short sleeves enough that it's not going to be covered. I'm thinking the Riot Tour is going to be more of an issue than this coming bar tour. Oz and the guys know what's what, we're going to be driving the merch and just the two of us in our van-you'll have me to yourself plenty and the other two bands can be made clear to stay the fuck back from me. “

Matt nodded slowly. “You'd be willing to get a tattoo.”

“Yeah, we can even get Tara or Wes to do it. There's a set of inks that burn in rather than forced in with a needle. Rose has them. Hell, she might do it. She'd know exactly what your hunter-grandpa's tatt looked like. She could make it in the right colors if she remembers and she's got one helluva memory.”

*

Twenty one kids, the oldest all of twelve and three still in diapers and all their shit-clothes, diapers, formula, stuffed animals, boxes of toys, school books and god knows what shoved into every possible space on the bus. They were probably overloaded weight wise and the kids were smooshed together like sardines once they loaded up all the shit sent with them that had been in pup trailers behind the vans the two women had brought the kids to Tahoe in.

The trip back to Hellfire was kind of-oh fuck kind of, it was pure hell. It also took three times as long as the trip to Tahoe with the stopping constantly. Seriously it was fucking insane.

One started whining they had to pee. Find a place to stop. If it was a gas station (rather than just the side of the road because the whining was so insistent they couldn't wait) there was whining for something to eat, or god help them-drink. And how did you tell a five year old with the world's most pathetic puppy eyes they couldn't have a fucking juice box? Go through the whole freaking mob and the answer across the board was no one had to go. Until if they were lucky ten miles down the road, then the next one started in whining they had to go. Kids all had to have mutant kidneys and bladders the size of freaking peanuts.

And three of the girls didn't speak a whole lot for English. The word for bathroom was repeated several times in Italian, Slavic and Chinese when the kids were handed off to Xander and Matt. It took all of fifteen miles to figure out why the women had been so insistent they commit the words to memory.

He wasn't even going into the shoving match between the pair of brothers who were all of eight and ten. The eight year old accidentally gave their two year old sister floppy, kinda maybe basset hound dog ears.

“Shit the wards are strong,” twelve year old Lily Emerson gasped as all the kids under six started screaming and crying.

“Language!” Xander snapped.

The wailing of six year old Violet, three year old Stone, two year old Hannah, three month old Michael, four year old Brendan and ten month old twins Katie and Beth was added to by the snifflings of seven year old Gianna and eight year olds Kai Lan, Kimiko and Emilie all startled by Xander's end of his rope tone.

Tara looked as overwhelmed just by the sight of the kids as Xander and Matt got everyone unloaded in front of Hellfire's School-some four stories high of adobe and probably big enough to cover a couple freaking city blocks. The building across from it was the Hellfire Library, just as big in ground-covering footage, but more like six stories high. He'd seen there were a couple of bigger buildings out this way just past the main part of the town but...they were fucking giant.

He was glad one of the kids saved him from looking stupid by asking just that, not that the answer of the separate wards on the school and library actually obscured them from anyone not a resident of Hellfire was the clearest. Weird fuckin' magic shit that was actually real, not how the hell it worked.

Tara ripped their butts for the toddler with dog ears. Not really much more than stuttering out their names, a sharp look at the little girl with dog ears and back to them-her glares were loud. And fuckin' scary. Then she looked back and forth between all scared and worried and almost like she was going to burst into tears or run for a second.

“We're okay, Tare,” Xander murmured. “We're okay. Worry about these kids. We're okay.”

Matt managed to not make a sound as Clem introduced his grandfather who'd hauled thee of Clem's cousins-Mamie, Louise and Gertie-along with Clem's sister Mae to stay at the school with the kids full-time. Tara, Wes Spike and Andrew would teach the kids actual school stuff and Faith would train with the little slayers. The old demon was kind of ashen gray and his ears drooped and the wrinkles were beyond belief. He was leaning heavily on a cane with the claws at the ends of his finger tips kind of long and blunt and cracked, liver spots and hairy moles and the most surreal thing he'd seen yet as the cranky old demon swatted away a hovering granddaughter.

The old demon coughed, wheezed and nearly hacked up a lung before spitting a mass of neon green phlegm on the ground. “You two lookin' for more females? 'Bout time those four settled down and started spawnin' instead of pesterin' me. Human or not, the Slayer's Knight and one of the Serpent's Kin bloodline aren't ones to scoff at. Could have yer pick or all of 'em if ya want.”

The four giggled and Matt supposed it was flirting. Xander was behind him in a heart beat wrapping his arms tight around Matt. Xander politely declined with a steel grip on him that Matt could only be thankful for. Something about Rose already part of their family way back through Matt's something like three greats-grandparents. Tara would be the other they considered. Not wanting trouble going outside of their own makeshift clan. No accusations or rivalries or wars accidentally set off. And really it wouldn't be fair to the kids, not being able to pass in the human world and not only half-human but with one of them for a father among demons. The conversation barely comprehended as he fought down the possessiveness and the urge to kill-the old demon for suggesting any one else touch Xander or kill the four in question for giggling and giving flirty looks.

“C'mon, Walk,” Xander growled softly in his ear then shouted over his shoulder at Tara they were going.

Matt lost track of their surroundings, of everything just trying to control himself. Reason still present enough to know it was nuts and that he couldn't but the overwhelming urge to go back and kill anyone with the thought someone should touch his mate. The crazed urge to 'remind' Xander who he belonged to was even stronger, all the worse with the fact his hands bandaged as they were he couldn't even really touch Xander.

“Screw it, far enough. It's almost dark and they're going to be at the school long enough, just please no snakes around.” Xander muttered coming to a halt that startled Matt.

Xander dropped to his knees in front of Matt, hands sliding up Matt's thighs and to the fly of his jeans.

Rational thinking nearly fled completely as he was all but overwhelmed with frustration at not being able to touch, the goddamned bandages on his hands left him helpless, unable to do a damned thing for himself and worse, unable to do a damn thing to Xander just now. Matt growled as Xander nosed at the fly of his jeans. His hands went to the sides of Xander's head, almost enraged at not being able to grab Xander's hair. To hold his head in place and fuck his mouth. Xander undid the fly of Matt's jeans.

“Xander,” Matt managed to croak out.

“S'okay,” Xander whispered and licked at the head of Matt's cock, teasing and stroking him fully hard.

Matt growled as Xander dropped his hands to his sides then moved them behind his back. “Xander-“

“I can take it,” Xander murmured.

Matt didn't need anymore encouragement, the last thread of self-control and rational thinking snapped as he pressed his bandaged hands to Xander's head and fucked his mouth mercilessly.


~*~

Matt looked down at his hands. At least they were healed up. Mostly. The palms were still angry red, new skin tender and fragile, tendons still not up for major use. His wrists were still sore as hell. Doc Bidlow had left salves that he'd watched Tyson and Andrew brew to help with finishing healing and pain, as well as braces which Hezekiah had made for his wrists.

Doc had admonished them to go tell Hezekiah how fine the braces were themselves. Xander had promised they would before they left in the morning.

Xander had gotten them out of the send off dinner as well. Andrew had been disappointed but no one had protested much. Easily accepting Matt didn't want to have to deal with being fed in front of a room full of virtual strangers. Andrew had sent Faith over with a cooler of food that would have been enough for eight people for Matt and Xander.

Three days of his hands being totally useless, being totally fucking helpless unable to feed himself or wipe his own ass had been hell. He couldn't imagine months which Doc Bidlow had said it would have been otherwise. Even weeks if it had been other than Tara and Andrew brewing up the salves, well Tyson too, he at least helped. Something about how they infused their magic into the brewing. Which seemed to disturb Doc Bidlow as they were both too well trained to unconsciously leak magic like that or some damned thing. Neither were inclined to healing. Tara had the nature and the patience to be a skilled herbalist, brewer and nurse but her natural talents, considerable as they were, didn't lie in healing magics.

Xander hadn't seemed the least bit bothered by that. As far as the ways they'd been screwed up over the years, putting a little extra oomph in healing potions and salves that they shouldn't wasn't that drastic of a thing. Xander told Bidlow to have them make stock of, well, anything he thought could be useful for salves and stuff. After all with almost a couple dozen kids in town now and Rose pregnant, some basics on hand wouldn't hurt. Xander bet all of that was closer to normal and told Bidlow he thought it was situational reaction. Tara's family was human only by the genetic definition, she'd grown up in hell and then the number Willow had done on her which-none of them were sure of the extent of. Andrew hadn't grown up any better and his older brother Tucker had been good with demon summoning too. The only thing Tucker had ever taught Andrew, only thing they'd gotten along at. Usually Tucker made Andrew the target or test subject of his latest shit. Andrew'd had quite a number done on him more than once as well, first Warren, then a demon impersonating Andrew's friend Jonathan.

Matt swallowed as he caught a glimpse of Xander heading for the bathroom. He curled a little further into the couch he was sitting on, hoping the shadows hid him, that Xander didn't...

The possessive raging madness had been staved off by-well, Xander pulling stunts like kneeling and letting Matt brutally use his mouth until he came and calmed down and Xander prepping himself and riding Matt when they were in bed.

He'd barely kept control of himself until Doc Bidlow faded away and vanished back to his office. Xander was HIS and days of unable to touch, unable to touch since the asshole Angel, Angelus whatever caused the scene that got them in this mess. Mindless and brutal the only words for...

Fuck if Xander hadn't said he'd end up dead too with the way the fucking curse worked Matt thought killing himself sounded damn good.

Matt picked up the phone next to him. It had been his excuse to flee the bedroom when he'd recovered his breath and senses enough to realize exactly how brutal and violent he'd been, Xander covered in forming bruises and bites, mark after mark proclaiming Matt's complete ownership of him.

”Hello?”

Oh fuck. Matt had figured he'd get voicemail, just hear Jay's voice on the message... His breath caught with a broken sound.

”Matt? Matt is that you?”

Jared sounded...almost as fucked up as Matt was at the moment.

“I'm sorry,” Matt whispered. “Fuck I'm so sorry.”

“Matt? MATT!-”

“Sorry, baby,” Matt whispered and ended the call, cutting off Jared's shout of his name.


~*~


Xander's eyes scanned the house finding Matt easily despite the shadows and precious few lights on. Matt was on the couch in the corner, arms around his shins, knees pulled up to his chest and his face lowered onto his knees. The cellphone next to him ringing out two different ring tones in no particular order, the breaks in between-two people trying to get a hold of him, probably frantically if the persistence of the ringing was anything to go by, whoever hit redial fastest and got through making up the order of the ring tones.

“Hey, phone's ringin',” Xander said softly kneeling down in front of where Matt sat.

A quiet agonized sound was his answer.

“You gonna answer that?” Xander asked as the ringtone stopped and restarted.

Matt shuddered and shook his head.

“Mind if I do? At least tell whoever it's bedtime?”

Matt shrugged. The ringing stopped and the other ringtone started.

Xander reached for the phone and answered. “Yeah, Matt's phone.”

“Who the fuck are you and where's Matt?” the voice was furious and demanding. It sounded like the guy would reach through the phone and rip Xander to pieces if he could.

“My name's Alexander Harris. I'm working for the Dingoes Ate My Baby. Matt's doin' shit for the other two bands going out with them that are managed by Riot Squad. Matt's right here...just not really up for talking. Who is this?”

“Shannon.”

“Matt? Shannon-” Xander asked quietly. Matt shook his head, not looking up and starting to shake. “Okay, shh, s'okay.” Xander whispered and moved to sit on the couch next to Matt, wincing just a little as he moved wrong. The salve was doing it's job but it wasn't instant.

He carefully put his arm around Matt's shoulder and pulled him close, holding Matt to his chest as if he'd been Dawnnie or Andrew balled up and broken like this. “Gotcha, s'okay.”

”What the fuck happened?”

“I'm not giving details of damned well anything to someone I don't have a clue of who they are. Some fucked up shit Friday night, kinda just hitting and the fallout from that.” Xander offered. “Been a long damn weekend and taking off for this bar tour in the morning.”

Xander waited out the background bickering. A second male voice that was almost hysterical in the background, terrified and worried, wanting to know if Matt was okay, where Matt was, what the fucking hell had happened...

”JUST CALM THE FUCK DOWN AND LET ME FIND OUT!” Shannon bellowed loud enough to make Xander wince. “He called Jared about a half hour or so ago and freaked him the fuck out. All he said was sorry and hung up and Jared's scared to death he's going to try something fucking stupid like off himself or something.”

“Jared? Your ex Jared?” Xander asked quietly. Matt tensed and gave the barest of nods against Xander's chest. Xander sighed and tightened his arm around Matt. “Who are you to Jared? That's Jared in the background there?”

”Yeah it is. Jared's my little brother. He okay?”

“Physically. Yeah. Otherwise? He will be, not so much now, but he will be. Kinda-really fucked up stuff of nightmares Friday, best case scenario came out of it for the shit that went down, but even best case scenario of that means not so much with the okay right now. He's not going to do anything stupid. Just needs some time to get back to okay.”

The arguing in the background sounded like a near miss of brawl for the phone as Shannon repeated what he'd said to Jared.

”You still there?”

“Yeah, still here. Look, try to settle your brother down. Matt's not going to do anything stupid, he's just wrecked right now. I'm taking him back to bed and we're going to get some sleep. We've got to leave early in the morning and it's freaking late. He's not-being left alone to do anything stupid. Tell Jared I'll take good care of him, I promise.”

Matt made a strangled sound suspisciously close to a sob.

“You and Matt-”

“Coulda maybe been-” Xander broke off. “Friday fucked a lot of shit up, and the fact he's still kinda obviously gone on your brother. Whatever the hell you want to call it, isn't all hearts and flowers and hallmark crap. Friends and whatever...”

”Yeah-well, take care of him.” Shannon said sounding kind of helpless in a 'what the fuck do I do?' sort of way.

“I will. Take care of your brother-whatever the hell happened even I can tell it wasn't Matt didn't care-just take care of him huh? Matt's safe with me. I promise. Couldn't hurt him if I wanted to. We need to get to bed, lot of driving tomorrow. I'm turning off the ringer and we're going to bed. So your brother can fill up the voicemail or email or something if he's gotta to settle down. Try to keep him from freaking too bad if there's not an answer right away or it's nothing more than yeah, still alive for a while...”

”That-that bad?”

“Yeah, just...gonna take time. He'll be okay. I'm gonna make sure of it. Take care of your brother.” Xander said quietly and ended the call. Fiddling a bit until he got the phone turned off and wrapped his other arm around Matt holding him tight.

“How the fuck are you just being so...” Matt grated out.

“Because as screwed up as it is, we can settle this out into something we can live with at least. How bad this is fucking with your head is actually a comfort.” Xander sighed tiredly. Didn't that sound just-wonderful. “I've sworn off nervous breakdowns over non-apocalyptic crap.”

Matt gave a strangled laugh.

“We're stuck. It could have been a hell of a lot worse. You're non-evil human , hot, and are dealing pretty damned well with all the weird.”

“You're fucking insane.”

“Me?” Xander snorted.

“You turned down a demon harem on the grounds of think of the children, dude,” Matt choked. “You're insane.”

“Got a better excuse for that? Without insulting the patriarch of a demon clan, or getting stuck with a demon harem and maybe setting off a few clan wars or stuck with more...”

“No...”

“Hah! Then score one for the Zeppo.”

“You are nuts.”

“Gotta laugh, or you'll be in the corner gibbering to yourself until something finds you and kills you or you starve to death, whichever comes first.”

“Did I hurt you too bad?”

Xander shook his head. “I knew it was going to be rough,” he said softly. “Couldn't not be as long as this had dragged on. You're not going off over what I told that Shannon guy are you?”

“No.”

“Not even a little?” Xander asked more than a little worried. 'Friends and whatever' was pretty clear that he meant the two of them. He wasn't quite sure either of them were up to dealing with another round of curse induced possessiveness, Matt probably less so than he was.

“Shouldn't have called-” Matt swallowed. “My fuck up. “

“Didn't exactly deny I belonged to you but...” Xander pointed out.

“Explained as much as you could to them at the moment.” Matt said, then snorted. “And made it clear where you were sleeping.”

“Yep. Which, we kinda need to pretend to do. Tomorrow's going to be a long drive.”

“At least it won't be with little kids.”

“Oh hell that was nothing. Imagine cross country with a bus full of about that many teenage girls.”

“I'd rather take a beating,” Matt muttered.

Xander laughed tiredly. “So would I. And I don't have to imagine, I've done it.”

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