#there might be one more to flashback to watcher academy

[andrea-lyn]

So, remember how I wrote Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU malex? With Liz as the slayer and such? Well, my brain decided that I wanted to do more - originally tagged onto the original post, but @christchex could not find, so a repost for her!

**

The sun has yet to go down, but Michael can hear movement in the back of the library, where the tall shelves create a shadowy effect and he glances up towards the source of the shuffling, listening for the familiar foot falls to place who it is. It’s no surprise that it’s his erstwhile husband, here to grovel.

Hopefully.

“I hear you,” he says absently, flipping the page of the latest book he’s been reading, trying to find out what demon Liz had run into, digging out a bookmark so he could slide it in, to mark his place.

Moments later, Alex comes skulking out of the shadows, head bowed, looking sad and pathetic.

“I wanted to apologize.”

Michael waits patiently, because he hasn’t heard an actual apology yet, and he’s not planning to give Alex any leeway until he hears it. The fight they had last night had been one of their worst, though not the worst, but Michael has opinions.

“I’m sorry that I want to turn you before you get too old and we look ridiculous.” It’s not a great apology and Alex seems to understand, because he inhales deeply and then reels himself back. “It’s your decision about when you want to be turned and I’m sorry I called you stupid for not wanting to do it now.”

Michael is thirty-nine years old. He knows that mentally, he wants to do this before he turns forty, but he’s also been waiting on Liz to graduate. Now that she’s in her senior year and with plenty of college opportunities awaiting her, Michael thinks he can start to look at his own future.

“You’re always going to look younger than me,” Michael points out, taking off his glasses to polish them, sliding them back on his face as Alex approaches, tenderly sliding his finger over the arm of the glasses.

Alex pouts slightly. “You won’t need these after I turn you.”

“No,” Michael agrees. “Maybe I’ll still wear them at my husband’s request.”

“I just need to know why,” he pleads. Michael understands, too, and that might be his fault. He has his reasons, he has Liz in mind, but he’s never told Alex, because he never thought that it would be such a bother. “I have the soul spell ready, so the instant after I turn you, we’ll put the soul in you so you won’t feed on anyone,” he insists. “I have a blood supply ready, and our house is already outfitted with everything we need.”

“Baby,” Michael sighs, reaching for Alex, wrapping an arm around his waist to tug him in. “When you turn me, I won’t be able to come to work anymore. I’ll have to quit my job here at the library and as a Watcher, and I know we’ve been establishing a business on the side, but I want to be here for Liz until she graduates. She’s my slayer.”

No one had truly trusted him to be a Watcher, especially not when everyone at the academy had discovered he had a vampire boyfriend, but he’d taken a role designed to fail and excelled. Sure, Liz had died the once, but they’d brought her back to life and now she’s about to graduate.

She’s going to fight demons at a college level, soon.

Alex settles into Michael’s lap, his fingers drifting up and down Michael’s neck, over the tendons and muscles, tickling him slightly.

“It’s just Liz, then? It’s not me?”

Michael gives Alex a worried look. “You think I’m backing out of eternity with you?” He scoffs, shaking his head. “I married you and I know the vow ‘until death do us part’ probably didn’t have people like us in mind, but I took it seriously.” He reaches up to slide his thumb over Alex’s furrowed brow. “I’m not worried about how ugly you’re gonna find my vamp face, I’m not worried about surviving on rabbit blood, I just…”

Liz is his slayer and he loves her like family.

“I need to be here, in this library, until she’s done with school.” He eases up to kiss Alex, trying to reassure him, because he doesn’t want him to worry that he’s suddenly going to love him any less.

That would be impossible.

“We’ll make a date after graduation,” Michael promises, leaning in for soft little kisses, chasing after the first. “I’ll enjoy a last meal as a human, we’ll get up to some funny business, and then, you can turn me and do the spell,” he promises. “Deal?”

Alex looks slightly chastised, but nods. “Deal.”

“That’s my vampire,” Michael praises as he digs his fingers into Alex’s hair a little harder to kiss him, eagerly encouraging Alex to slide into a straddle, despite the fact that they’re in the library of Roswell High, and not their own private home.

Privacy isn’t guaranteed, which is made clear when the doors swing open.

“Hey, Guerin!” Liz’s voice calls out. “Any news on that demon? I got a graduation dance to plan for and if I’m gonna be multi-tasking, I want to get a head start on …” She comes to a stop when she sees Alex in Michael’s lap, wrinkling her nose and covering her eyes frantically. “Oh ew, no,” she pleads. “You both have your pants on, right?”

Michael laughs as he wraps his arms around Alex’s waist.

“We’re decent,” he promises.

Liz peers at them through a tiny crack in her fingers, staring at them suspiciously like she’s not so sure. “I don’t think you ever are,” she says, and grabs the book out of Michael’s hands. “Is this my guy?”

“That’s the one. Take backup,” he warns. “Maria, for sure, in case you need a spell.”

“What about Kyle?”

“Sure, the demon could use a snack,” Alex snarks.

Liz gives him an impatient, annoyed look, but takes the book with an eager smile. “Thanks Guerin,” she says. “Bye Alex,” she says in parting, “You two should behave! Students actually do use the library sometimes!”

She makes plenty of noise as she leaves, but Alex goes right back to what he’d been doing before, prying Michael’s glasses off to kiss his way back down his neck. “She’s lying,” he teases, softly brushing kisses against the spot where Michael knows he’ll one day bite down and turn him. “I’ve never seen a single student in here studying.”

“I ah,” Michael pants, “guess this place has a reputation,” he moans. “All kinds of dangerous things roaming around, you’re safer studying at home.”

Alex grins as he eases back, and smiles so brightly that Michael knows they’re definitely done fighting. “Damn right, I’m dangerous,” he says, with the cutest little pleased smile.

Is Michael going to argue?

Hell no, he’s got better things to do – and right now, he is the better thing to be done.