Do ever had that feeling that Murphy is out to get you? That the old bastard has made his stupid law for you and only you? Then you know how Xander felt.
First being 'voluntered' by that troll Snyder to do the kiddie duty, then that fight with Larry and now that: a little boy grinning as he bought the last toygun. Which meant: that there were no guns left in the bargain bin. Xander groaned. No gun equaled no soldier costume. Who had ever heard of a soldier without a gun?
Angrily he started digging through the bargain bin, searching for something he could use.
A trident... no way! Living on the hellsmouth was bad enough, he didn't need to remind himself of the bad stuff. A pair of small fairy wings and a sparkly stick... who was he kidding? A troll mask and ugrh, that thing was damned ugly. A broomstick and a witchhat... maybe for Willow, but not for him. He dug deeper.
After demissing several cheap monster masks and other junk, he wound up with a headband with cat ears, a black and white striped tail and black and white facepaint. Hmmm... that had possibilities Not much but it was better than the alternative, buying a ghostsheet. Ghosts where Willows domain and one ghost as a kiddie-leader was enough, make it two and the brats would get confused.
And so he had dressed up in a simple white shirt and black jeans, the tail clipped on and the headband mostly hidden in his hair. Willow had helped him with the facepaint and after doing his face, she had used the rest of the white to make stripes in his hair. Viola, one white tiger ready to please.
And maybe he would have survived the night ok, with only a few tiger memories in his brain to acompany the hyena ones, if a certain English chaos wizard who should remain unnamed, hadn't had decided to spice things up a little, when he had found out that Xander was the Slayers friend. A little added charm to the headband, done when he had taken the items to the register and one ordineary white tiger became something much more.
Byakko, the guardian of the west, wind tiger, spirit god. And his form had been huge. He had been bigger than a normalsized car and had been able to carry one or two fullgrown humans on his back without complaints. The fact that he was able to talk and think like a human had been a plus too. He might not have known who he was, that night, but still he had been able to help the others.
Then, when the spell had been broken, when the bust of Janus had been shattered on the floor and they all had reverted to their normal selves, he had learned about the downside of becoming a spirit tiger... even if only for one night.
He had turned back to human form, but there were some differences that simply couldn't be hidden. His eyes, they were red now, rubyred and the pupils were slitted like that of a cat. His hair was longer, a lot longer than before, but the worst, and he glared down at the traitorus appendage, the worst was the long white and black striped tail that had become a true part of him.
To make it short, Xander was not amused.
He would have been even more angry at the situation if he had known about the meeting that happened in the JuuOhCho, a part of the Japanese Meifu, several hours after the spell had been broken.
So it was a good thing that he didn't know about the fact that his life had just been drastically turned around right now. There were time enough for that later.
Right?