Fic: Watching (Devon/Xander, FRT)

[bookishwench]

Author: Meltha
Rating: PG/FRT
Feedback: Yes, thank you. Melpomenethalia@aol.com
Spoilers: Vaguely BtVS season 2
Distribution: The Blackberry Patch and Fanfiction.net. If you’re interested, please let me know.
Summary: Xander has a roving eye.
Author’s Note: Written for the second Minor Characters round at maleslashminis for allyndra, who requested Devon/Xander, a sound system, an old t-shirt, and a surprise, but no Oz/Devon past or present.
Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Mutant Enemy (Joss Whedon), a wonderfully creative company whose characters I have borrowed for a completely profit-free flight of fancy. Kindly do not sue me, please, as I am terrified of you. Thank you.

Watching

Xander was never really sure when he started staring at Devon. It wasn’t anything he had planned to do. At first it was sort of like staring out the window during algebra, tuning out the ramblings of the teacher and choosing instead to notice the tree across the street. The Bronze wasn’t algebra class, of course, but Xander had been bored. Willow was off with Oz getting triple sugared coffee (and wouldn’t she be fun to watch later as she started bouncing off stuff, like mailboxes and shrubbery and things that weren’t even there), and Buffy was somewhere in a shadow talking with Angel because, of course, Angel couldn’t possibly talk anywhere that was well lit or it might dent his mystery man persona.

That left Xander alone and vaguely grumpy, and in the pulse of music and lights, he had started staring at Devon, alone on the stage this time, singing some vaguely angst-filled song with only the drummer and a keyboardist as accompaniment. Dingoes was a fun band, but as Oz would be the first to say, it wasn’t a great band. Still, Devon’s voice wasn’t half bad. Kind of soothing, really, and after the Scoobies had just taken down a small nest of vamps earlier that night, soothing was not something at which to scoff.

Xander was pretty sure he was only going to stare at Devon the one time, but he found himself doing it again the next night. That surprised him. He wasn’t really bored that time, either, so he wasn’t sure what excuse he had to be going vacant looking at Devon MacLeish as the Dingoes had a good night, Oz’s guitar pulsing along with the flashing lights of the club and Devon looking as though he wanted to throw the mike to the ground and kick the hell out of it, which he actually did at the somewhat climactic end of the song, resulting in the sound system screeching in protest and every person in the building clamping their hands over their ears, including Devon himself.

“Uh…” he said, looking slightly embarrassed. “Oops? We’ll take, like, five?”

Xander chuckled quietly at that, but he did stop to ask himself, now that the music was stopped and there was no logical reason or even a semi-excuse to prompt it, why he was continuing to watch Devon as he walked off stage. He couldn’t find an excuse for it, but he studied the other boy carefully and started noted little things. Devon had a very straight nose, for example. His shoulders were broad, almost like a football player’s, and Xander remembered Cordelia mentioning he had dated her once upon a time along with half the cheerleading squad, so that sort of fit. For some reason, he also noted that the old t-shirt Devon was wearing, which from the wear and tear had to be from the actual, original first tour of The Who, was clinging to him slightly, probably because of the heat from the stage lights. He had a nice chest, Xander thought, startling himself again. Since when did he notice when guys had a good chest? Girls, yeah, but guys, not so much.

The mike was fixed, and, although the rest of the band was looking a little leery about letting Devon anywhere near electrical equipment again, they had launched into a rendition of one of their slower songs. Couples began taking to the dance floor, swaying in time to the music as the lights filtered everything to shades of blue and pink. It was a good song, not great, not perfect, but good, and Xander watched him, in the solo-spot on center stage, clutching the mike (fairly carefully, he noticed), and looking out over the crowd of writhing bodies.

And Xander saw Devon’s eyes scan the edges of the club as his lips formed words of love and hate and regret and simple, pure, animal lust, and when those eyes came to rest on Xander, they stopped. Xander realized he was being watched in return, and after a brief moment of panic, he let the feeling that Devon had chosen him out of the entire room sweep over him, and he didn’t look away. As the song ended, he just caught the slight flutter of an eyelid in his direction, the most subtle wink he had ever seen, and then the lights dimmed.

Comments

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

ooooh, love it. More!

[bookishwench.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ash-carpenter.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was very subtle and perfectly teenage and quite beautiful. Also loved Xander's thoughts and observations about his friends.

[bookishwench.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm glad it worked for you. :)

[ely-jan.livejournal.com]

Very, very lovely - I always had a huge Devon crush, still do, and this was a great little reminder. Thank you!

[bookishwench.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Devon was kind of an interesting guy to have around. :)

[zandra-x.livejournal.com]

Very nice. 8 ]

[bookishwench.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

ooooo very fun! Thank you! Lovely Xander POV!

[bookishwench.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

[allyndra.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was so nice! Sweet in a way I don't usually associate with Devon, and confused in a way I absolutely associate with Xander. Lovely descriptions throughout. Thank you so much for writing my prompt!

[bookishwench.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad you liked it. I thought I'd written almost every minor character before, but this is actually my first Devon, so I'm happy it worked for you. :)

[soft-princess.livejournal.com]

Nice to see Xander with a crush. ;)

Thanks for taking part in the ficathon.

[bookishwench.livejournal.com]

Thank you!