Fic: The Enemy of My Friend

Title: The Enemy of My Friend
Pairing: Xander/Lindsey
Rating: PG
Summary: Xander and Lindsey meet and discuss their feelings for a mutual acquaintance. Takes place right after Lindsey leaves L.A.
A/N: Written for a request by myrlynd at slashfest


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“Hey.”

Lindsey looked up from the drink he’d been muttering into. Focusing was a struggle, but the blur before him eventually coalesced into a tall, dark-haired man, a few years Lindsey’s junior. “Yeah?”

“Mind if I sit?” The man was at least half drunk and swaying slightly on his feet, but he seemed harmless enough.

“Sure. Knock y’self out.” Lindsey raised his glass to the opposite side of the semicircular booth.

“Name’s Xander. You?”

“Lindsey.”

The two men shook hands and Lindsey returned his attention to his drink. Xander raised a hand to flag down a server. In a matter of seconds, he had a drink in his hand, and Lindsey had another on the way.

Xander took a sip of his drink and leaned over the table a bit. “I mainly came over ‘cause you were muttering about vampires.”

Lindsey looked up at that. “Not ‘vampires’, vampire. One. Singular. A singular pain in my ass, in fact.”

With a quick look around, Xander leaned a little further. “You know, you probably shouldn’t talk like that in public. Someone might think you’re crazy.”

“Oh yeah! I forgot. No such thing as vampires, huh?”

The two men looked at one another. The challenge in Lindsey’s eye was unmistakable. Xander took it. “I think we both know better than that. But we should probably be a little quieter with the knowing thing.”

With a smile, Lindsey nodded. “Right you are.” He looked a little closer at the man across from him. Brown hair, deep brown eyes, one of those smiles that you can’t not smile back at. Not bad. He slid a little ways around the booth and waved at Xander to do the same. When they were side by side, Lindsey nudged him with a shoulder. “There. All private now. Better?”

And the challenge in Lindsey’s eye was back, but it was wearing a different hat this time. Xander liked this challenge better and nudged knee to knee. “Much.”

Signal sent and received, Lindsey laid a hand on Xander’s leg. “Well, you have body heat, so that answers that question.”

Xander smiled and leaned into the other man just a little. “That’s good. I prefer my questions with answers. But you sound like a man with other questions.”

“Lots of ‘em,” he said with a wink. “But I’ll start with one for now. How do you know about vampires?”

“Grew up in Sunnydale.” He shrugged. “Kind of like Demon Disneyland.”

Lindsey nodded, impressed. “That’s the big leagues. Me? I just have the one to worry about. Embrace the irony of this – he makes my life a living hell, but his name is Angel.”

Lindsey was very glad they’d moved side to side when Xander did the most impressive spit-take he’d seen since he made this kid squirt grape soda out of his nose in the fourth grade. While Xander sputtered and coughed, Lindsey patted him uneasily on the back. “Um, yeah. You okay?”

It took a few seconds for Xander to recover. When he did, he looked at Lindsey through watery eyes. “That depends. Did you just say ‘Angel’?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Big guy, low forehead, personality of an undertaker? And, oh yeah, I almost forgot. Dead?”

Lindsey nodded throughout Xander’s litany, his expression growing progressively darker. “That’s the one. You know him?”

Xander leaned back and nodded. “Oh, we go waaaaaaay back. We’re like family! I basically wanna see him dusty. That’s kind of family-like, right?”

“In certain parts. I see he’s charmed you, too.”

“Oh, you bet! Charmed me right out of my socks! Offered to let an old friend from his fang gang days snack on me, terrorized my friends, killed a friend of mine’s girlfriend, and he killed my best friend’s fish. Although, now that I’ve finished that sentence, the fish thing probably doesn’t quite fit, huh? Anyway, he does all that, but now?” Xander placed his hands over his heart and fluttered his eyelashes, raising his voice to a squeaky falsetto. “But Xander! He’s got a soul now. He’s suffering for his crimes.” With a roll of his eyes, Xander returned to his normal vocal range. “So, because he’s all soul-boy now, none of that stuff matters anymore. Like you can’t do bad stuff with a soul.”

Xander realized that he’d gotten a little louder than he’d intended and gave a quick look around. No one was paying them any attention, and he breathed a sigh of relief. “What about you? What’d he do to you?”

Lindsey shrugged. “Cut off my hand.”

Xander did a quick count. One hand holding a drink, one hand resting on Xander's leg. “So you used to have three?”

With a smile, Lindsey squeezed the aforementioned leg. “Nah, but wouldn’t that be cool? The company I work for…worked for…has a great benefits package. I had it reattached.” He flexed the hand in question. “Works good as new. Usually. But, in support of your theory, I’m pretty sure he had his soul when he did it.”

“Bastard!”

Lindsey raised his glass in a toast. “So we have something in common. To our shared hatred."

The two men clinked glasses and drank deeply. More rounds were ordered, delivered and drunk. Within an hour an a half, the men were leaning heavily on each other, trying to best the other in a rousing game of Angel Sucks Because. The rules were a little fuzzy, but the winner of each round got a kiss, so no one complained. Well there was that one couple, but they left two rounds into the game.

It was Lindsey's turn. "He's tone deaf. Can't carry a tune in a bucket but still insists on singing Karaoke."

Xander's eyes bulged. "No way!"

"Oh, yes way, my handsome young friend. Manilow, no less!"

"What's a manilow?"

Xander lost that round on principle.

After a couple more rounds, Xander slammed his hand on the table. "You know what really pisses me off about Broody-boy?"

Lindsey swiveled his head around to look at Xander. "What's that?"

"He's so stupid!"

"Nope. Can't use that one. We already did 'stupid' in round 4."

"No no no! This is different. See, he loses his soul, goes all Angelusy, and what does he do first? Breaks out the leather pants! I mean, come on! Everyone knows he only wears leather pants when he's evil. At least pretend for a while that you're still safe – don't go advertising that you're the big bad again. I mean, sheesh!"

Lindsey stared. "Leather pants? Really?"

"Yeah, I mean how dumb can you get?"

Lindsey gave that some thought.

"How'd he look in 'em?"

Xander scowled. "That's the worst part. Son of a bitch looks awesome. It's just not fair."

The End