MCA roof, Xander's workshop: Thursday night

[needsaparrot]

If Xander had a hammer - oh wait, he did.

There was some small irony in the fact that what he was hammering away at was a bookshelf, but really it was just something to pound small, sharp pieces of metal into at very high velocity and even higher volume. While wearing proper eye-protection.

*BANG*

It was helping. Really.
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[OOC: For a specific visitor.]

Comments

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I know," Bridge says softly.

[needsaparrot]

"You don't have to be possessed to mess with my head," Xander says, just as softly.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I-" It takes him a while to think of what to say to that. "I love you, you know. More than anything."

[needsaparrot]

Xander wishes he knew what to say, wishes Bridge didn't already know what he can't find words for, wishes... he even knew what he should be wishing. He gives a helpless little laugh. "Willow brought me a powerpoint presentation today. There was a pie-chart."

In Fandom, as has been pointed out by smarter people, this counts as a segue.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"No tire iron?" Bridge asks, just to make sure.

[needsaparrot]

Okay, that gets a bigger laugh. "No, but there was clip-art."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"So what did you think of the presentation?" Bridge asks.

[needsaparrot]

Xander reaches for the goggles again, just to have something to do with his hands. He toys with the elastic strap as he says, "Lots of focus on trying to convince me how great you are."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I'm just me," Bridge says, looking down at the ground.

[needsaparrot]

"Thing is I already knew that." Xander snags a stool from the workbench with his foot and slides it towards himself. "I didn't need pie charts."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I know," Bridge says again. "I mean, I saw. The way you feel about me."

[needsaparrot]

And Xander could wish that hadn't happened, but he spent most of Saturday night and Sunday doing that, when he wasn't concentrating on feeling like he should have a thermos lid thrown at him, so the novelty's mostly worn off.

"I don't know how to do this," he says instead. "The just-friends thing. I thought I did."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Me too." Bridge admits. "I mean, I *tried*. Because it's what you said you wanted," and there's an unspoken, and I'd do anything for you, there.

[needsaparrot]

"I used to know how. I mean I was rockin' it when I was stuck in another dimension..." Xander hooks the heel of his boot around one of the rungs of his stool and adds with a frown, because maybe this part is admitting something Bridge doesn't already know. "It's not about what I want."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Then what *is* it about?"

[needsaparrot]

"There wasn't a lot in that presentation about why dating somebody like me would be good for you," Xander points out.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Somebody like you?" Bridge raises an eyebrow. "Somebody who's smart, and funny, and hot like you? Who'd never let anything hurt me in a million years, if they could help it? Who never, not once, thought twice about letting me touch them? Even when we *weren't* dating?"

[needsaparrot]

That last part's not entirely true. In more than one sense, but one of them has only been this past week or so and the other... Xander's so not about to mention.

The rest of it makes Xander look down at the floor and smile for a moment, before he looks up and says, not smiling anymore, "Somebody who's nine years older than you like me. With one eye and more baggage than Parker would take on a trip to Greece for the summer."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I think we've already established that I could care less about the age difference thing," Bridge says. "And I must've missed the memo about how having one eye means you can't date people. If that's true, there's a couple of guys back at school who need to be informed of that. And as for baggage... is there anyone in Fandom who *doesn't* have some?"

[needsaparrot]

"RIC?" Xander suggests.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"He's this close to being obsolete and he can't speak Dog." Bridge says solemnly.

[needsaparrot]

"I stand corrected. That must keep him up late at nights."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"No, that would be the fact that he runs on a near-inexhaustible power source."

[needsaparrot]

"You have an answer for everything, don't you." That comes out sounding less sarcastic and more strangely hopeful than Xander intended.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I try to," Bridge says. "It's worked well for me so far."