Originally Posted: Feb. 23rd, 2007
Length/Rating: 213 words, PG, Gen
AU: The Secret Lives of Superheroes
Pairing/Warnings: none
Summary: Just like that, everything changed.

“BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER” is owned, trademark and copyright by Twentieth Century Fox, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and the WB Network. All rights reserved. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied.

He watched the mile markers spin by in hypnotic rhythm, running on too much caffeine, too little sleep, and the free-falling sensation of having left everything behind. Only what had he left? Clothes, knickknacks, an apartment billed to the Council who wouldn’t notice the Xander-shaped hole for months. So nothing really. A nothing three states, sixteen hours, and a lifetime away.

At some point, when the sky had been shading into dawn, he’d asked Faith were they were going, but all he got was ‘anywhere but here.’ Before the pit he would have snapped back with a witty retort, but now– now he just relaxes into the battered seat and watches the markers count off the miles between them and nowhere.

Because ‘here’ was the story they’d both been living, nothing but supporting roles in Buffy’s fairy tale. Who they were was what they were, and he was tired of fitting into a mold carved by someone else.

Somewhere, out there beyond the bounds of here, was another Xander-shaped hole and eventually they’d find it. And even if they didn’t, he’d find a different hole and make it fit, because he was tired of going home again.

And the mustang’s wheels hummed over the patched pavement, harmonizing to the rhythms of the markers and the quiet determination of anywhere but here…