Friends Who Are Boys
It had been awhile since Xander had a boy friend.
"Ha ha! Xander has a boyfriend!" his internal Nelson Muntz would shout whenever he thought about it.
It wasn't like he set out to make friends, too. Riley was dating Buffy, Buffy was one of Xander's best friends, Riley was a demon-killing super soldier, Xander liked to consider himself pretty good at the whole slaying thing, and it just kinda happened. As it would.
And it was all because of "that time of the month". Not theirs, of course, because they were men, but Anya would spend about an hour every day bitching and moaning down the phone at him, cursing the universe and Giles and Willow and everything that worked to make her human and have to deal with this entire bleeding thing again, and, well, the less said about the Summers' house and its perfect cycles, the better -- or so Riley liked to think.
So the chance to spend a few days every month in the company of another man who didn't want to talk about vampires or demons or the latest apocalypse or how everything went to shit when Xander was born...Riley and Xander not only jumped at the chance, but that first night, Xander actually cleaned the basement, and Riley showed up with a bag of Chili- cheese Fritos and two six-packs.
They quickly got through Xander's video collection, then through everything that was on Xander's secretly spliced cable, and then through Riley's video collection. After around three beers one night, they considered going through Xander's "secret" collection, but that was just a little too close to what Xander's internal Nelson Muntz kept on laughing over.
After all, watching porn leads to a man getting turned on. And when a man's turned on in close proximity to another man, that leads to strange possible attractions or associations, and it'd just be a big mess.
Especially with how Riley tall and strong and blond and had a nice smile and...
So porn was definitely out of the question.
That's when Xander remembered what else he had. He dove headfirst into a pile of boxes, throwing aside old clothes and abused toys, before pulling out a box from the very bottom of the pile, smiling widely as he carefully opened it.
"My Dad didn't want to spend much money on me for Christmas, so when Jesse's dad got him the SuperNintendo, they gave me this one...it ain't much, but..."
Riley looked into the box and smiled. "It's perfect." He lifted the controller reverently from the box. "So what games do you have?"
They started with Mario Brothers, alternating back and forth. Xander was Mario, Riley was Luigi, and they went through all the levels in one night, swearing and laughing at stupid deaths, cheering at wins, and finally blinking exhaustedly when they came to the end, suddenly realizing it was nearly 3am.
The next time, it was Duck Hunt. Riley won, of course, but Xander had a good time crowing whenever Riley actually missed. Then it was Super Mario Brothers 3, which took them a bit longer, even with the little whistle warp jumps that Xander remembered and Riley teasing him about being the Princess. Then they spent about a week going through all of the movie-related titles they had -- Batman and Indiana Jones and Goonies and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and even the Rescue Rangers game that Xander thought Jesse's little sister might have played.
Xander found Legend of Zelda underneath Scrabble, Monopoly, and this strange Bible-based game that Jesse'e crazy aunt must have given them one year, that was another month of male bonding. From there it was Paperboy, briefly, then Tetris obsessively, then they unearthed the pile of two-player games that Xander had hidden away after Jesse's death.
They were playing one of those obscure two-player fighting games, both of them around five beers in, wavering back and forth slightly as they played, their profanity slurred.
In-between levels, Riley turned to Xander. "Y'know, my friends and I, we used to place bets on our games. Y'know the kind. If ya win, you get this, if I win, I get this."
"So what kinda things did ya win?"
"Stuff. Once, I made a friend of mine give me his Transformers."
"Whoa."
"So, okay, um, yeah, with the bet, like, what do you want to do?"
"Um."
"Um."
"Um."
"Yeah."
Xander jumped up. "We need a bet!"
Riley fell over laughing.
Xander tackled him. "Come up with a bet! Come on!" he said, wrestling him.
"No, you come on!" Riley said, rolling him.
"No way!" Xander said, pushing him.
"No!"
They grappled for a bit more, then slumped against each other, laughing. After a few minutes, Xander wiped his eyes and looked at him. "Y'know, you're my best boy friend."
"You said boyfriend."
"Did not."
"Did too."
"You're not my boyfriend. You're my. Boy. Friend."
Riley punched him in the shoulder. "Boyfriend."
Xander punched him back. "Shut up."
"Make me!"
Riley laughed, then leaned in and kissed him. "Boyfriend," he repeated, poking him.
Xander blinked at him for a few seconds, then laughed. "Friend who is a boy."