He couldn't get rid of the feeling that Willow, his bestest buddy and friend, had a slight crush on him. What else could be the reason for her to double-dog-dare him into wearing a tight spandex costume at halloween?
Well, a dare is a dare and he would fulfill his bestes buddies wishes. But which costume should he take?
There was a stereotype Superman costume, but he decided against it. It had to be spandex, but that was no reason for him to become the laughingstock of the entire school. A Batman costume hung next to it, but did he really want to dess up as the brooding dark knight? Nope, one brooder was enough and he had no desire to ursup deadboys place. The Spiderman costume had already been sold and he had no desire to go as a villan, so the Venom, Green Goblin and the Riddler were out... although he had to admit that he almost went with the Magneto costume, until he saw the helmet. He absolutely and utterly refused to wear a costume if he had to wear a strange bucket helmet[1], no sir, not this Xander!
The next costume he had to think for a moment to remember who it was, but then he knew. And it had definetly potential. True, the man had quite a checkered past, a quick temper and a very disfuncitional family, but if he remembered his comics correctly, he was a good guy, a member of the Avengers even.
So, it was an ok costume and not that expensive, two good reasons to hire the costume for the night.
He took the black and silverish white costume to the register, where he was able to wraggle out a few percent discount with the owner of the shop, never noticing the halfway psychotic grin of the man as he left with his purchase.
Xander tried to calm down and think. Thinking was not a problem, but calming down was. His world was fast now, his minutes, seconds for the rest of the world, and the worlds minutes were passing like hours for him.
It had been a week since halloween, an endless week since his life had been turned upside down with no chance of being put back into the old lanes.
His hair was still white, his eyes still blue and he still was the fasted living being on earth. And he had the feeling that this wouldn't change in the near future.
Well, he was a lot more useful on patrols now, staking vamps and running on before the suckers had even notived that they had been put out of the game. And his research skills had shoot through the roof as well as his grades... kids play if you could read and memorize the entire libary in one evening.
But there was one thing, one thorn in his new life that he couldn't help but think and be angry about. Jonathan had worn the Magneto costume that halloween night, ugly bucket helmet and all and he absolutely refused to call that twit father.
[1] I'm thinking about the Comic costume, not the Movie version and every time I see that thing I think 'Bucket'. What can I say, it's like those strange inkblot pictures, you see what you see.