You are reading: Buffy recs by LitGal

My Spander favs

As If We Should Forget We Have No Hands
One of my favorite Spander writers is at it again with Spike being sent after Xander, who has shown up in a hospital in Vietnam with no memories and suffering from horrible nightmares. I love how she deals with the canon characters and their dislike for each other while building a very logical and believable relationship... all while the boys are stalked by a powerful and mysterious demon.

Breaking Free
This takes all our familiar characters and puts them in a totally new situation in a flawed futurist universe. Xander is the ever-loyal but slightly broken soldier fighting with the Council. Spike and Angel are biogens... synthetic creatures who turned on their masters in a bloody revolt. Oh, this is just so damn good I can't explain it! Now Finished

The Dark Cavalier
Xander died...a looong time ago!  After 800 years of working for death in other dimensions, he has been sent back to Sunnydale only two years after his death in Earth years.  When Spike sees the "ghost" of Xander wandering around, he is just a little freaked out, and when a conspiracy seems to be plotting to kill Xander again, things get interesting.

Dead Sunflowers  
This is a sad and disjointed story of a sad and disjointed Xander broken by the deaths of Buffy, Willow, and Giles at the end of season six. The story is told in fragments of flashback and narrative and fantasy all twisted together as Xander tries to find himself and Spike becomes increasingly important to him. The chapters are out of order here, so make sure you look at the numbers.

Dogs of War  
One of my all time favorites, this universe features a hellmouth under martial law at the hands of the Initiative.  Xander with his soldier memories has managed to avoid capture, but can he rescue the others before Spike is dust and the others are tortured to death?  Even more importantly, can he save the Initiative from its own stupidity?  Oh I just loooove this fic!

Donut Boy
Xander attracts the attention of a justice demon who offers to give him his one true wish: to be special. It's told like a fairy tale complete with a magical midnight deadline and a lost shoe. If you need some sweetness to cheer you up, this will do it.

Feminine Perspective
Anya girlifies Xander *again*, but this time, she gives him a whole new universe to play in, one where Jesse and Buffy are together and Xander is dating Spike. And the rest of them think that Xander has just slipped 'round the bend.

Finding Home
This is a little guilty pleasure of mine. Spike's emotions aren't quite as realistic as I usually like, but the charm of this story is in Xander's slow changes as he first protects a badly damaged Spike and then finds the strength to fix his badly damaged life along with his mother who finally breaks away from her drunken hubby. Happy sigh.

Five Ways Spike and Xander Didn't Meet
Here are five hot, irreverent, slashy stories that undo cannon to show a wide range of events that could have happened... only they didn't, unless they happened in some alternate reality.

Hold me, Thrill me, Kiss me, Kill me 
This is unusual because it features season two Spike with Xander. After Dru's death, Spike comes to the Hellmouth and finds and befriends Xander who alone for the summer with Buffy and Willow away. The story retells much of season three with Xander officially declaring his gayhood, Giles dating Ethan, and a dead Dru making her reappearance in a way that changes all their lives. Now Finished!

Hunt Brother
An classic in Dom/sub relationships!  Spike moves in with a damaged Xander and discovers that Xander's hyena has left the boy in need of a pack and a master.  It really is a good story with lots of control without too much darkness.  WIP (Not being Updated).  *sigh*

Land of the Lost
A failed spell sends Spike and Xander to a hard and wild dimension that seems to be having a strange effect on Spike. Add in some angst and an insecure and physically weak Xander, and you have some awesome stuff here. I love the details on Spike's psyche.

My Scorpion
I don't know why I like this one since Xander is totally out of character, but it is one of my guilty pleasures.  Xander, remembering what it's like to be the hyena trapped in the cage, helps Spike to get rid of the chip, and Spike finds himself falling (of course).  I like the hints about a full demon community on the hellmouth.

Observations
Spike is the masterful Dom slowly leading Xander to a place where he can let go and truly surrender.

Perceptions
Spike comes to town in time to see Willow manipulating Xander, and instead of kidnapping her, he watches. And slowly, he starts wishing he was the one manipulating the boy.

Raising the Stakes
This is a hot little PWP where Spike doesn't love, he just lusts, and Xander has more denial that that river in Egypt. Hot, hot, hot!

Sands of Time
What an absolutely sweet story!!  Xander's parents go too far, so Giles takes Xander into his home.  It relies heavily on canon, but it changes enough to make it interesting, and Xander certainly fares much better here than in the original show!

Shards
The title is very appropriate because here Xander seems to be somehow fragmented as the reality of his life slowly unravels. Spike becomes his anchor as everything he believes slowly comes apart.

Stranger Things
Oh my god...what an epic.  This follows the relationship between Spike and Xander who are forced together by demon trouble and then find themselves drawn together.  Xander getting his consort thing going, Spike and Angel learning to deal with each other, the Initiative going to L.A. and taking on Angel Investigations.  It has everything, and the text never drags down because it is a series of separate stories.

Sweet Memories
Xander and Spike get their memories zapped, and thanks to a new apartment, the fact that the Scoobies don't know where that apartment *is*, and a very confusing note, the two of them think they are involved.  It just gets stranger from there, but I really like how they end up getting together here.

Twilight Time
An abused, injured Xander and a chipped, resentful Spike come together in a mystery and a romance that has more awwww than ten other stories.  Add a hellmouthy villian, a mysterious prophesy, and a bit of vampire lore, and you have one heck of a good read. This is one of my all time favs!!  I even love Deadboy in this one!

The Viking Series
Xander is turned...but not the way you'd expect.  An ancient vampire hunting Spike sees the boy, likes the boy, and takes the boy.  But a spell by Willow means that Xander still has his soul.  Now he's caught between his feelings for his sire and his concern for his friends and his growing feelings for Spike (who his sire intends to kill).

Xanpet
Someone makes a wish, and *poof* Spike and Xander are back in a French mansion during Angelus' prime.  A bit out of character since Angelus is occationally cruel but generally amiable, and the girls (Dru and Darla) are missing altogether, but this is a hot little Dom/sub number as Spike teaches Xander how to be a proper vampire "pet."  Really, this is one incredibly long PWP and a yummy one too! WIP!

Okay, I'll admit to reading other pairings.
Angel/Xander

Doppelganger 1 2 3 4 5
Xander and Angel both find their lives turned upside down when Anya and Willow's botched spell brings vamp!Xander through instead of vamp!Willow. Let me tell you, this is the most believable vampire Xander I've ever read, and I loved the ending! Okay, I sobbed a bit, but I still loved it.

The Re-Education of Xander Harris
Xander is a bigot. He hates demons without really knowing anything about them. Angel is tired of putting up with the boy's attitude, so he decides to give Xander an education in just what it means to be a demon. In this universe, demons come in all shapes, sizes, and moral flavors.

S-Curve
This is an all-human AU with Angel a year ahead of Xander.  He transferred to Sunnydale H. after his no-good parents didn't want to pay his private school tuition.  This one is just plain sweet.  You'll get cavities from it type sweet!

Xander/Riley

Song of Iowa
Yes, Xander/Riley. I *never* thought I would like this pairing, but here are two mature men who've had more than one curve thrown their way meeting in a gas station in Iowa by accident. This is a mature, emotionally satisfying story that sells me on Xander and Riley falling for each other.

Angel/Spike

Cryptic and Caustic
Angel has just killed a lot of lawyers. Spike is obsessing over Buffy. Giles asks Angel to please get Spike out of the way because Buffy can't handle him in the aftermath of Joyce's death. The pieces are short, but I love how these two fill each other's emotional needs while not ever admitting having emotional needs.

Xander/Faith

Lilac City
After the fall of Sunnydale, Xander resigned as the heart of the Scoobies, creating a solitary life away from the supernatural wars. He manages a supermarket in Spokane, stays sober, keeps to himself. But now, five years later, his quiet life is about to change forever, in ways he can't possibly imagine

Xander/Giles

The Giles Thing
I know... I *know*! This pairing squicks me... teacher/student ALWAYS squicks me, but this is different. Giles' younger Ripper self gets pulled into the future, and Xander learns a few things. Very lovely, in a juvenile delinquent sort of way.

How about some GEN (*gasp*)

Lonely on the Mountain
Xander is off on another mission for the Council and off on another attempt to find a way to connect with other (normal) human beings. This is a very realistic look at where Xander may end up five or ten years after the end of Sunnydale.