author: Lucinda

rating: y-14, T for Teen - may contain violence, flirtations, and emotional issues.

main character: Xander

Fireworks contains Xander/Jubilee, with side pairings of John(Pyro)/Faith and Bobby/Marie(Rogue)

number fifteen in the 'Fireworks' series.

disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or X-Men: the Movie, nor do I hold any legal rights to the comic sources for some of the additional background information for Movie characters.

distribution: XanderZone, IneedAparrot, Twisting the Hellmouth, PEJA, Cat if she wants it. Anyone else ask.

note: going rather AU after Becoming for Buffy (yes, all the way back to season 2!), post X-Men the Movie (Sequel? what sequel?).

f15.f15.f15.f15.f15.

Fresh from his shower, Xander went to track down Jubilee. His guess was that she’d be with some of their friends, possibly near the pool. If not poolside, his next stop would be Ms. Munroe’s greenhouse, with all the brilliant flowers. If not there, then he’d see if he’d conned someone into taking her to the mall, in which case he probably wouldn’t’ see her again until a bit after nine. Failing that, he’d see if Jean could locate her – there had to be advantages to having a telepath on staff, right?

As it turned out, Jubilee was at the pool, currently engaged in a screaming argument with a blond girl about boy bands. Xander couldn’t think of any song by either group – thankfully his mind could blank out non-survival related horrible things. He also noted that both girls looked rather hot in their swimsuits, Jubilee in this cute white bikini with firework patterns over it, and the blond girl in a bright pink one piece with a generous cut out in the middle that gave it a strong resemblance to a bikini. The matching pink earrings made him think that this might be Tabitha, though she wasn’t one of the students that he’d had much contact with.

Between his years fighting demons in Sunnydale and the fact that he’d just survived a session with Logan, Xander was feeling rather brave, so he stepped up to the girls and caught Jubilee in a kiss.

For a few moments, she tried to push him away, before sighing against him and kissing back. “I was trying to convince her that her boys suck. They can’t sing, can’t dance, and their manager dresses them funny.”

Xander grinned, his hand reaching up to play with the hair at the base of her skull, “Not everyone has the same taste in music, Jube. My parents like country, the music of pain. It turns out that Buffy likes the DiVinyls and Cyndi Lauper. Giles liked some old British bands. The fact that you can’t stand her group doesn’t mean she doesn’t like them.”

“They’re awful.”

Xander resisted the urge to say that her boy band wasn’t any better. Hoping to avoid the doom that was discussion of boy bands and their merits, he asked, “So how did you get control over your abilities? I mean, any helpful advice that someone can give me would be… helpful.”

“Have you figured out the feeling of it kicking in yet?” The blond asked, no longer shouting and popping a pink bubble of gum. “It’s just about impossible until you figure that one out.”

“I think so. Sort of a weird prickly tingle,” Xander shrugged, and shook his head, “It’s not the sort of power that’s safe to leave uncontrolled. I mean, it’s not like changing the channel by blinking.”

“Yeah, well I make time bombs,” she popped her gum and held up one hand. A glowing swirl of pink and white-gold energy formed an egg seized mass over her hand, and she tossed it into the air over the swimming pool.

Xander watched the glowing mass, though he took care not to keep it in his center of vision. She tossed it at two, and at five it exploded over the pool, sending a wave of heat and little golden and pink sparks towards the water, all fizzling into mere heat shimmers before touching the surface. There was also a booming noise, rather like the sound of dynamite in the movies.

“Some of us know the whole dangerous power thing,” Jubilee murmured. “It does get easier with practice. The big thing that I found, getting upset makes things more likely to catch sparks, and it’s really hard to calm down when you’ve just blown up the video game.”

Xander nodded as she made sense. Then, to break the almost too serious mood, he made an exaggerated pout before asking, “Why is it my girlfriend gets fireworks in almost every color of things going boom, she gets a range of bright colors, and all I get is green?”

His friends laughed, and Jubilee gave him a quick kiss before teasing, “Because you’re a guy and just can’t color coordinate like us girls.”

“I can’t argue with that, I guess,” Xander shrugged, and then settled onto one of the lounge chairs, pulling Jubilee onto his lap. “So, here’s a question. Apparently Willow’s parents finally got a clue that Sunnydale isn’t safe, and she might be staying here for… indefinitely. It might be awfully hard to drag her away from that computer. What kind of classes can she take to keep her busy and maybe off the computer? Is that even allowed, considering that she hasn’t shown any mutant power beyond Willow-babble?”

“That’s got to be a mutant ability,” Bobby gave an exaggerated shudder. “Doesn’t she have to breathe?”

“What made them wise up?” Marie asked, sipping at a frosted glass of tea.

“There was a meteor shower, complete with vampire attack. They might manage to repress it into some guy on lots of bad drugs – the normal excuse the Sunnydale PD gives is gangs on PCP – but they can’t repress away the hospitalization.” Xander shook his head, and added, “Meteors are cool and all, but stargazing in Sunnydale can be fatal.”

“Don’t worry, the teachers can cover her,” Bobby offered. “So, what kind of college is she thinking about?”

“She’s the one who’s supposed to go to one of the big prestigious ones and change the world some day. Discover a cure for cancer, or some wild new technology… something cool and amazing that leaves the rest of us going ‘I knew her when’ and makes her a zillion bucks.” Xander pulled Jubilee in for a closer hug, and added, “When out school’s computer teacher got killed, the troll of a principal made Willow take over for the rest of the semester. Willow the teacher… and she still got A’s in all her classes, since she didn’t have to take gym this year. It’s been the blight on her report cards for years.”

“You had a teacher get killed?” Bobby was appalled.

“We’ve had several teachers killed. Miss Calendar – the computer teacher – was dating our librarian. The biology teacher’s head was found in the supply room, and I don’t think the rest of him ever turned up. The sub turned out to be a giant Praying Mantis, and we had to kill her ourselves. The first principal, the one who was there my freshman year? Principal Flutie got eaten by umm… wild dogs. Our drama coach got his head cut open that year during the practices for the talent show… they didn’t even have the decency to cancel the ordeal, not even with two students and a teacher killed in the week leading up to it. We had a possession induced shooting result in two students getting shot in the halls, I don’t even know how many got killed during parent teacher conferences – and they really should have known to have those during the daytime, you know?”

Xander stopped when he realized that they were all looking at him in horror.

Holding Jubilee who seemed to be trying to hug him to death, Xander offered, “Sunnydale wasn’t safe, and my high school was built over a portal to hell. Literally. I’m used to life or death situations.”

“This school will be safer,” Marie insisted, with Bobby and Tabitha nodding in agreement.

“And instead of repressing things, we try to control and prevent,” Bobby finished.

“Good plan,” Xander smiled, hoping that it would be that easy. If it was, that would only leave that whole Essex thing, and maybe, just maybe the adults could handle it this time.

End Fireworks 15: Find a Fuse