MCA#0, Sunday evening

[needsaparrot]

After a week full of encounters, some of them less awkward than others and at least one a lot less expected than others, Xander was alone.

More specifically, he was sitting alone at the small table in his kitchen, with a beer and a box.

The tv out in the den was playing something old enough to have a laugh track and familiar enough that he wasn't really listening to it. He'd just left it on for the noise.

You'd think he'd be out there watching, since it wasn't like he was doing anything else productive, like going through the box. He was just sitting there in the kitchen, slowly sipping his beer and flipping through the first thing he'd found packed at the top of the box: a photo album.
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[OOC: for a certain returning wayfarer, yis]

Comments

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"She told me not to worry, that she'd catch you, in my dream," Bridge says quietly. "I'm... glad she was there. For you."

[needsaparrot]

"She was, yeah." Xander laughs. "Not that it wasn't weird. I mean, first person I ever--" Right, still stymied by that lack of a word. "--had something with after they tried to kill me..."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge nods. "I... read all the stuff you sent," he offers awkwardly.

[needsaparrot]

"There was kind of a lot," Xander says in a half-apologetic tone. "Not surprised it took a while."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I didn't mind," Bridge says. "Meant a lot, actually, that you'd still write after it'd been years and you hadn't been able to hear back."

[needsaparrot]

"Like I actually need somebody to be listening to me to keep talking?" Xander waves a hand, painfully casual considering how much he had got by on imagining exactly that, all those years. "Have you met me?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

And that earns a "bitch, please" look.

[needsaparrot]

Xander sticks out his tongue and turns the page to a picture of Faith hitting Larry over the head with a sofa-pillow. Still looking down, he admits, "It helped. Talking to you. To everybody. A lot."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Glad I could do *something*, even if I couldn't actually be there."

[needsaparrot]

"Not your fault." Even if somewhere way down there under a couple tons of rubble, Xander still wonders, well... He takes a drink. "Um. Can I ask you something?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Anything," Bridge replies.

[needsaparrot]

"When you had your dream vision thing, how much of that did you know was gonna happen?" That's not entirely what he wanted to ask, not really, but it would do.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I knew... I knew if you didn't go back, your world or reality or whatever... there probably wouldn't even be rubble left over. That if you went, I *would* see you again, though I thought it'd be six years for both of us. That you'd be hurt. That Faith would be there to catch you." Bridge says quietly.

[needsaparrot]

Xander nods slowly. "But not the details. You didn't know whether I'd pass drafting, or see a Dayplanner showing when all the apocalypses were scheduled."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge shakes his head. "No dayplanners, no."

[needsaparrot]

"Too bad - I'd've tried to see if there was some wiggle-room on the dating for caving in the Hellmouth, if I'd known," Xander says with a little smile. "Didn't mean to make your homecoming party all beer-and-emo."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge shrugs. "Didn't want to be anywhere else but with you, today."

[needsaparrot]

"You remembered the date?" Somewhere between touched and confused. Or just both at the same time. Xander might have forgotten it himself if Sam hadn't brought it to his mind on Thursday, and then with Giles turning up today...

Well, might. It was four years now and he hadn't yet.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Of course," Bridge says, absently sipping at his drink. "It's only been a year for me, after all."

[needsaparrot]

Xander blinks once, twice, then gets it. "Ah. That date." He hadn't forgotten that one either, or missed the irony when it happened. He just hadn't been thinking about it now.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge frowns slightly. "What were *you* thinking of, then, if not that?"

[needsaparrot]

"When I said I'd re-schedule the day we destroyed the Hellmouth..."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"That was *today*?" Bridge says. "Oh," he adds, after a moment, much quieter.

[needsaparrot]

"Sorry about the bad timing. Kind of a whole 'you got your melancholy in my nostalgia' thing." Xander tilts his head. "Two great tastes that taste great together?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Thought we just went over how you didn't plan this?" Bridge points out. "Still nowhere I'd rather be than here with you," he looks over hesitantly. "Unless you'd rather I not be here."