MCA #0. Tuesday Night.

[needsaparrot]

Xander was expecting to have to deal with all kinds of fallout from this weekend; he knew minor property damage was likely to be the least of his worries. What he wasn't expecting was that it would somehow end up being his broken door he was currently fixing. Diligently. With every tool in his travel case, now moved out of his former room at the Arms, spread across the floor in front of the glass doors, just in case he might need them.

Trying to occupy himself so he didn't leave yet another voice-mail message, or start thinking too hard about why he hadn't had a response to any of them? Or thinking too hard about anything, really?

Why no.
___
[OOC: For do we really need to say? Why no.]

Comments

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"You're really here," Bridge says, not quite able to keep the wonder out of his voice.

[needsaparrot]

"You're about where I was a week ago." Xander smiled. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm still ending it with a question mark every third time I think it."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Sorry you got dumped headfirst in to craziness right after you got back," Bridge says. Yes, he's apologizing for being kidnapped. And for the weekend.

[needsaparrot]

"It's Fandom." Which...was a couple hundred replies rolled into one. "I'm sorry for--"

That was a couple thousand, but Xander opened the door wider and waved the hammer, still clutched in one hand, towards the broken patio glass, for the most immediate one. And yes, he was apologizing for the weekend too, despite telling Rory it wasn't their fault, and meaning it.

He glanced down. "I kinda was wondering if you didn't want to talk to me after that."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"...Why would you think that?" Bridge asks, confused.

[needsaparrot]

"Because I almost...eeggghhsh?" Xander raised both eyebrows, though only one was really visible. "I left you about half a million voicemails or possibly five and didn't hear anything back, so..."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"My phone's kind of... in pieces, thanks to Gruumm," Bridge says. "Haven't had time to build a new one yet, what with... everything. So I didn't even *know* I had messages."

[needsaparrot]

"A few, yeah." Xander shook his head and stepped aside, waving Bridge inside. "Sorry it's spammy. Was just...worried."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Thank you, by the way," he says quietly after he's inside the apartment. "For being there, on Thursday."

[needsaparrot]

"Like I'd have missed that?" Except he'd been away for a while, even looking at it from the other side of the mirror. And as far as they knew, he realized, he might be a complete stranger by now. He looked... well, yeah. Something Bridge hadn't remarked on yet and Xander wasn't sure if he was grateful for that or not.

"I haven't changed that much," he said gently, gesturing Bridge towards a couch.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"But you *have* changed," Bridge remarks quietly. "Dawn told me- she told me what happened to the Xander from her universe."

[needsaparrot]

"I really need to talk to her. Compare history notes, now that it's history for both of us." Xander set the hammer down on the coffee table and sat against the arm of the chair nearest the couch. He looked at Bridge and adjusted the string of his patch. "It's good you knew before you got here, though. Sorry I didn't say anything about it in my e-mails; bigger things going on when it happened, and then later... well, it didn't seem like it mattered so much, unless you were gonna see me again."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I haven't checked my e-mail yet either," Bridge admits sheepishly, trying to keep the guilt he feels at the mention of seeing Xander again from showing on his face.

[needsaparrot]

Oh, wow was he coming into this conversation empty-handed, then. Xander winced. "You might want to; from what I hear, everything I sent while I was gone suddenly showed up once I got back. Let's just say the Viagra ads are probably bouncing out of your inbox right now."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Does that mean you got the ones I sent, too?" Bridge asks. "When you crossed over the... barrier or whatever?"

[needsaparrot]

"I think what happened is we caught up with Fandom." It'd be nice to believe that - that it would stay even now, and not cut things off again. "Because it's the same time back there as it is here, now. When I say your inbox go splodey I'm talking grenade, not shook-up can of pop. Lot longer from my end." Not that that wasn't visibly obvious.

Xander shifted to rest his arms on his knees, and nodded. "And yeah, I got yours, when I got here. And the voicemails." He realized, or thought he did, where Bridge might be going with that, and Xander beyond owed it to him to spare him the awkward part, especially after this weekend. He smiled. "I got the ones about Rory."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Um, yeah," Bridge says, running a hand through his hair. "About that? We kind of- we actually broke up, earlier today."

[needsaparrot]

"Ahhh damn, no. Not because of--" Xander waved a hand at the now-boarded-up glass door, then ran it through his own hair. "--this stuff? Nothing happened. Which believe me I was thanking God for as much as anybody."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge shakes his head. "No, it's more like... she's not in love with *me*. I'm not in love with her. It wasn't really fair to either of us to keep going."

[needsaparrot]

That threw Xander for a loop. More than hearing about them getting togetger in the first place, back when he'd been guessing it had happened long ago and far away. "You're sure it's not about me being back? Because if you need me to talk to Rory, I will. I mean, I'm twenty-six. You're seventeen. There's special hell and then there's Special Special Hell."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"It's not," Bridge insists, feeling a flicker- okay, more than a flicker- of disappointment when Xander mentions the age difference. It had thrown him for a loop when he'd figured out that his dream hadn't been *wrong*- six, nearly seven years had passed for *Xander*, just not for him. So he hadn't expected things to just effortlessly go back the way they were. But there was still part of him that had hoped.

[needsaparrot]

It unsettled Xander, though he couldn't say why. Maybe it was just that Bridge sounded unsettled about it, or that he'd been sincerely glad Bridge had somebody, because he remembered how completely lost he'd been, at first. And now... not so much with the having.

Xander nodded, though. "Well... crap, still. Sorry." He reached for his cell-phone, hiding another wince. Because this was gonna be a mood-lifter...

"If you didn't get my messages, then you didn't hear about the one I really need to play for you," he said, switching the phone over to speaker-mode and setting it on the coffee table.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, because *that* didn't sound slightly ominous. Bridge bites his lip as he waits for the message to begin to play.

[needsaparrot]

"Callisto left this for me, about a week before I got back. I called her cell and got Logan before everything went wacky...er this weekend, and she's safe right now, but..."

He hit Play Message, and Callisto's voice started in.

"Tell Bridge I'm sorry.

"I mean, I don't know if you're ever even going to get this, or be able to talk to him, but if you do, just tell him that I'm sorry, that I didn't mean to hurt him, that it wasn't his fault, none of it, that at least it's me doing this, and I wouldn't have been if it wasn't for him, that he gave me that.

"Tell him I won't hate him if he wants to kick Angel's ass over this, and I'll understand if he wants to hate me.

"Just...if nothing else, just tell him I'm sorry."

"Goodbye, Xander."

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