ARCHIVE: Land of Fluff, anywhere else please ask
DISCLAIMER: don't own em
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is set after Amends and is the first story in my Brother's Series. Please, send feedback, it makes my world so pretty.

Angel strode up to the bar and threw his thickly wadded wallet on the table. "Bourbon, " he muttered to the grim faced bartender.

"Ice?" the bartender asked, pouring Angel his drink. He shook his head. Angel downed the drink in one gulp, said, "Again," and downed the next. This went on for a while. Angel sat at the bar cradling his 8th or was it 9th drink? The bartender had given up and just left Angel the bottle. His thoughts turned to Buffy, as they always did when he was alone. He began to relive Angeles' memories, torturing himself once again. He still couldn't believe the things he had done to her.

So caught up in his misery was he that he didn't notice the extremely drunk youth that had stumbled in from another room up to the bar next to him. "Tequila," the guy mutters running a hand through his unkempt hair. He shot it down, sucking on the lemon before bumping into Angel.

"Hey, sorry, I didn't mean…. Deadboy?" he slurred. "What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out breaking Buffy's heart, or trying to kill yourself again?"

Angel growled at Xander, looking into his bloodshot eyes with distaste. The boy smelt even worse. "Shut up!" he muttered, pouring himself another drink. "Aren't you a little young to be drinking?" he sneered patronisingly.

"Young I may be, but at least I know what to drink." He called over to the bartender, "A bottle of tequila, 2 shot glasses, lemon, salt." He turned to Angel. "Are you game?" Angel glared at Xander, but accepted the shot. The matched it other shot for shot, Xander all the while tormenting Angel with cutting remarks on his behaviour toward the group during Angeles reign.

"I thought I told you to shut up."

"Whattcha goin' do? Bite me?" Xander asked, before continuing with a lurid description of Giles' being tortured by Angelus. He kept going on and on, reminding Angel of all he done. Xander had no warning, Angel's fist connected with his cheek. Xander's fist flashed back of its own accord, hitting Angel in the neck, his state of drunkenness causing him to miss his mark.

Soon they were happily pounding on each other, muttering drunken curses at each other. They rolled around on the floor for a while to the ecstatic cheers of the onlookers. Finally the crowd grew bored of watching them. Xander's and Angel's fighting was inept anyway, due to the liberal amount of alcohol they had both consumed. When pulling them apart, one of the bouncers hit Xander causing him to reel unsteadily.

"Hey!" Angel cried out. "Don't you dare hit him!"

In response the other bouncer hit Angel in the gut. As he bowled over in pain he heard Xander say, "Hey, don't rag on my friend!"

That caused Angel to look up in surprise. Xander clapped a hand over his mouth and rolled his eyes. Then he started laughing hysterically. Angel looked at him strangely, and after a moment or two, comprehension sank in and he too started laughing.

One burly bartender shook his head and said, "You're both loonies," which simply set Angel and Xander to laugh even harder and contrast the laughter with some back pounding. "Get out," he said flatly.

"Huh?" Angel looked confused for a moment before continuing, "You can't kick us out, we're paying customers and we want to stay and drink." Xander meanwhile had retrieved their bottles and began dragging the furious Angel into the street.

Almost instantly, Xander fell taking the staggering Angel with him. Too drunk to get up, they began drinking again and as their bottles got lighter, their tongues got looser, and they began to talk. Xander began telling Angel about his relationship with Cordelia, and his friendship with Willow. He talked about how badly he hurt Cordelia and how he almost destroyed his friendship with his best friend all in the name of teenage lust and uncontrollable hormones. Angel in turn talked about his relationship with Buffy, how he had hurt her and his memories of Angeles. He also talked about the future, wondering what he would do next.

"Well, I'm no help on that one," Xander muttered. "I have to get outta school first."

They grew silent for a moment till Xander leapt up screaming, "Ah shit! it's 3 am!"

Angel looked at him in horror. "Oh no!"

"We're missing the wrestling!" they cried together and bolted back to Angel's place in record time. Comfortable reclined on the couch, they spent the next hour enraptured with the wrestling, breaking the silence occasionally with, "Get up you tubby bitch!" and "What the hell was that? Who are these people?"

Xander stood to go to the bathroom, walked 3 steps before he fell face first on the floor, fast asleep. Angel looked at him curiously. "Xander man, get up, you gotta sleep on the couch. Comfy couch."

Xander ignored him.

"C'mon man, don't make me get up." Xander snorted a little snore.

Angel prepared himself for the task of standing up. After a few attempts, he managed to stand straight, looking slowly around as he did so, before falling back to the couch, fast asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xander awoke the next morning with a start. Looking around he realised he was at Angel's place. Last night came back to him fuzzily. *Him and Angel… friends?* Mentally shrugging he muttered something about living on a hellmouth.

Ignoring his demon sized hangover he got his stuff together and prepared himself for the horror that was school. He looked over at Angel, who was completely and utterly asleep and decided not to wake him but left him a note saying he'd call later. He stuck the note on the fridge before going off the school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xander stumbled into the library looking for peace and quiet.

Instead he found Buffy and Willow screeching at him. "Where were you last night?"

"How come you didn't call?"

"There are vampires out there you know."

He groaned at the loudness of their voices. This was no way to deal with a hangover. "I was with a friend."

"Who?" Willow demanded.

Xander ignored them and staggered over to the phone. He quickly dialed Angel's number.

"Hello," came Angel's groggy voice.

"Hey it's me."

"Oh…. Hey."

They paused in uncomfortable silence for a moment before Xander rushed on. "I just wanted to say thanks for last night, it was exactly what I needed, and though I feel like utter shit this morning, I feel better about and everything and I'm kinda glad we made peace and…"

"Xander, you're babbling," Buffy called from the next room.

"And I don't wanna push it or anything, cos you know, you're still dead but it's ok." Xander continued, completely ignoring Buffy.

"I agree," Angel said softly. "I mean…."

"Yeh I know," Xander fell silent for a minute then perked up again. "So wanna do it again tonight?"

"Yeh, but minus the drinks, I feel like death incarnate."

Xander laughed at the reference. "How do you feel about a road trip?" Angel continued. "We'd could go down the coast."

"Cool, that's sounds like fun. And seeing as today is Friday we can go all weekend."

"I'll pick you up at 7 then?"

"Yeh, I'll be in the library."

"OK, now piss off and let me get back to sleep."

They hung up and ignoring the curious looks from the girls, Xander sat down and promptly fell asleep, snoring softly.

At 7 Angel walked into the library. Giles' eyes went dead at the sight of him, Buffy looked hopeful and then quickly disguised it as nonchalance. "Angel.." she began, "What are you doing here?"

"Hey man," muttered Xander from the desk he had appropriated as a bed, knocking the book he had used as a pillow to the floor as he got up. "Let's go. I need to stop at home to get some supplies together."

Angel nodded his head, "you look like I feel," he said wryly.

With a glance at everyone, who admittedly looked shocked, Angel walked toward the exit of the library, Xander walking next to him. At the doors, Xander turned and smacked himself in forehead.

"Where are my manners? Giles, Willow, Buffy, I want you to meet my good friend Angel." And grinning mischievously, he sauntered out, dragging Angel with him.

"No way!" said Buffy as she turned to Willow and Giles, who looked as shocked as she felt. She repeated more softly, "No way!"

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