Xander proposing at the end of season 5, and then not telling anyone for the summer and struggling in season 6 makes complete sense to me.
Forget that this is a 20/21 year old. This is a guy who has had a good year, in season 5. He’s gone from being listless and feeling left behind by his friends who have gone to college to having a good job. Not just a job, a career path. His skills have been *noticed*. He’s gotten a promotion, a pay bump, and the respect of his boss. He’s gotten out of his abusive parents’ basement. He is flying high and feeling good. And he proposes, because it’s not going to be the end of the world. He proposes to Anya because he doesn’t just have faith Buffy will save them all again - he knows it. Just like he knows the sun will rise tomorrow, he knows Buffy will save the world.
And then she does, but she dies doing it. One of the people Xander loves most, one of the only people I think he legitimately considers family, dies. Dies saving them. And they all just… stop. Willow, Xander, Giles, Dawn… they stop. They are existing but not living. And it’s grief and it’s guilt and it’s the promise that they’re going to get Buffy back that keeps them in stasis. And Xander doesn’t want to tell the gang he got engaged, not when it’s the gang minus Buffy, not when they plan to make the gang whole again soon. They get her back, and it’s not time now, either, because Buffy is back but she’s also not herself. She’s hurting and quiet and separate from them in a way that was never true before. They brought Buffy back, but the gang isn’t whole. Not yet. And then he feels compelled to tell them all that he’s engaged, when the Buffy who came back starts to feel like normalcy, when everyone is together and he sees this amazing woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with.
But then the rest of the year happens. He felt sure footed when he proposed; Xander knew who he was and where he was going. But since then, it’s been one blow after another. Buffy’s death, learning they ripped her from heaven, Tara and Willow breaking up, Willow struggling with magic… Everything is whispering to him the good times don’t last. He doesn’t get to keep the good things in his life. Not Buffy, not Willow. Not Anya. Xander came so far from being that abused kid hiding from his father in his basement, or camping out in the back yard on Christmas; but he starts feeling dragged back down in it. He is the screw up. He is the problem. He could be his father, might be like his father, is like his father. He could hurt the one person he wants to spend the rest of his life with - he is going to be the death of her. Anya starts planning their wedding, and every family member he has pushes this funhouse mirror closer and closer until it feels like it’s just a mirror. Like it’s reflecting his reality.
Xander wanted to be married to Anya, but he didn’t want Anya to be married to him. Not the him he feared he was or the man he worried about becoming. And I wish season 6 had done more with that, because the storyline runs deep through all of the preceding seasons and shines brightly in Hell’s Bells.
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A Jamie-centric pre-OT3 Christmas story told in 25 short chapters.
Masterpost / AO3
25.
Epilogue
Roy called her in the evening, as Keeley was carefully removing her make-up in front of the bathroom mirror. It had been a long day, a stifled Christmas lunch with her mother followed by Richmond’s home game against Norwich in the afternoon. At least Richmond had won, managing a by the skin of their teeth 1-0 after a late and defiant goal by Jamie.
She thought she’d seen him looking up at the VIP box as the team celebrated around him, and she’d blown him a little kiss, even if she knew the distance was too far for him to catch it.
Next to her, Rebecca had raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow in a perfect expression of slightly sceptical interest. “And here I thought you were here to support me.”
“I am here to support you,” Keeley had said firmly. “Because I’m an amazing friend and I’d show up to support you with chants and balloons of cute animals and stuff at your murder trial, especially if Rupar’s the victim. But I told you, he’s been having a rough time of it.”
Not telling Rebecca about what had gone down with Jamie and Roy the other day had never been an option. Rebecca had listened with a frown, and asked if she needed to do anything about James Tartt. Keeley had said no, for the moment: Jamie needed to be the one to make the call on that.
“Hey you,” Roy said now, looking properly fit in the black suit he usually put on for his pundit appearances (and which, to the untrained eye, looked identical to all his other black suits, but Keeley knew him and fashion better than most, and thought the Hugo Boss was a particularly nice look on him).
“Hi, babe.” Keeley propped the phone against a moisturiser bottle, so she could continue her routine while they talked. “You back from work then?”
“Yeah. Took fucking ages, because Cartrick wouldn’t fucking shut up. You’d think he’d run out of things to be wrong about after six hours, but no, if the filming crew hadn’t started making noises about needing to go home to their families, we’d still be there.”
Keeley hummed in agreement, even though she suspected Roy was maybe exaggerating things a little. Sometimes it was best to just let him vent belligerently for a bit, get it out of his system. Besides, it was lovely to have him care about things enough to be pissed about them again. Roy was a passionate man, and Keeley loved him for it; having seen him go through the motions with nary a flicker of true feeling throughout the autumn had been awful.
Speaking of caring… “You catch any of the Richmond game?” she asked.
He grunted. “We didn’t really cover any of the Championship games, but yeah, saw some of the highlights.”
“Jamie played well, didn’t he? Seemed a little more aggressive than he’s been lately.”
Roy grunted again, but kept his mouth stubbornly shut. Not ready to talk about the advice he’d given Jamie last night, then. Fair enough; it’d keep.
Roy kept on saying nothing, though, when normally he would have tried to move on by changing the subject or asking her about her day. When Keeley glanced over at the screen she saw that he was looking unhappy, dark eyebrows furrowed.
Keeley cocked her head to the side. “You all right, babe? Something on your mind?”
“No, it’s… “ He paused, and she waited, until finally he let out a frustrated huff. “It’s just Jamie’s fucking dad, right?” His lips curled. “I can’t stop thinking— Jamie was in a right fucking mess when I walked in on them. Not physically, it was just scrapes, but he was so fucking quiet. It wasn’t natural, not having the little muppet run his mouth like he was getting paid for it.”
“He seemed all right after,” Keeley said hesitantly, because Jamie had, when he left them on the morning of Christmas Eve and when they talked to him yesterday. Happier than normally, even. But Roy was right, it seemed a little strange in retrospect, that he had shaken it off so completely, given the state of him when she first arrived at Roy’s three nights ago. “You think he’s used to it,” she realised aloud. “That’s why he bounced back so quickly.”
“I know arseholes like that, okay? My sister fucking married one. So yeah, I don’t think it’s the first time it happened, and it probably won’t be the last either, and I keep on fucking wondering if his dad’s the reason he walked out on City, and City’s playing Chelsea in a couple of week s and I—“ He paused again. “I know it’s fucking stupid, it’s none of my business. I don’t even like the prick.”
Keeley had a sneaking suspicion that that wasn’t quite as true as it once had been, but she didn’t mention that. Let Roy reach that conclusion when he was ready to. “I think it’s sweet,” she said instead. “The way you stepped in when he needed you to, and took care of him. I mean it,” she added off his predictable eye-roll. “I’m really proud of you, babe. And,” she pressed on, because it was true and because she knew he tended to get a little uncomfortable when things got too earnest, “it was kind of sexy, too.”
Roy’s eyebrows rose at that. “You thought me taking care of Jamie was sexy? What happened to your thing being me crying pathetically?”
“Girls have deep and complex tastes, Royo. So yeah, you being vulnerable and passionate is really hot, but as it turns out, you being all caring and protective and fetching tea really gets me going as well.” She smiled at him and he scoffed, but smiled back. “Seriously, though,” she continued, “I was thinking we should ask Jamie over some day. Just hang out a little, make sure he’s all right.”
Roy’s eyes narrowed. “You better not be suggesting we invite him to Sexy Christmas.”
“No,” Keeley said with a small a laugh, even as the thought of it sent a pleasant shiver through her. Sex with Roy was fantastic. Sex with Jamie had always been amazing. Both of them, and with the way she suspected their tastes would run exceedingly compatible, with her and with each other… Well. A girl could dream (and maybe have a wank once she got of the phone with Roy). “But dinner sometime soon, yeah?
“Fine,” Roy said, sounding like he was only reluctantly agreeing to do her a favour, but she knew him well enough to see the relief in his dark eyes.
Fuck, but she loved him. The way he cared so deeply, even when he didn’t want to, and even when he would sneer at the assertion.
“You’re so fucking hot,” she told him. “I can’t wait for the 28:th.”
He smiled for real then, that wide grin he reserved for just her and sometimes Phoebe and his sister. “Me neither,” he agreed. “I’ll see you then.”
“Yeah, see you then. Love you.”
“Love you.”
They hung up, and Keeley yawned. It was getting late, and she had to be up early tomorrow, for an entire day of what was supposedly just a bit of informal mingling for publicists, a little holiday get together on Jace Asthon’s country house, but which was in actuality the networking opportunity of the year for people in her line of business. She needed to be well-rested and looking ready to slay for this one, and had a bunch of people and business to read up on, potential sponsors and partners for Richmond.
She still took the time to send a couple of texts before turning out the lights.
hey jamie
got any plans for new year’s eve?
She hardly had time to set the phone down before it pinged with his reply.
Doesn’t really give a shit if I’m not playing for City.
Something slid into place then. “Is that why you did Lust Conquers All?” Roy asked. “To get away from you dad?”
Jamie didn’t answer, but that just said it all, didn’t it?
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