The Mighty Belthazor

"Quit being so frakking loud," Anders grumbled into his pillow, jabbing an elbow back at Bel. "'s too damn early for that."

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Bel, still holding on to a groggy Phoebe, stared at Anders. "Who the fuck are you?" he said. He did look kind of familiar, though.

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Anders required caffeine before he could process things like the possibility of residual Fandom craziness rearing its head again. "Oh, ha, ha. Too early to be a comedian, too. Gods. We only got to sleep a couple hours ago."

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Warm, not a vamp. But however the hell Phoebe was here with him, he'd never share her with somebody else, so what was this guy doing here? "Wait a minute," he said slowly. "I know you. I've seen you around. You're one of the blood whores."

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Anders sat up at that, blinking confusedly -- and frowning a little. "'kay, I know all about your vampire fetish, but . . ."

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It finally dawned on Bel that he wasn't in his usual room. He wasn't in any room that he recognized. "Where the hell am I?" he snapped, still holding on to Phoebe possessively.

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"In bed," Anders replied with a definite trace of 'duh.' And it finally started to dawn on him what was going on here. "You are Bel. Right?"

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"And you've got three seconds to tell me where I am and what you're doing here before you go up in flames," Bel growled.

Bel, setting the bed on fire wouldn't be wise.

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Phoebe's empathy didn't kick on instantly. Like most people her age, she needed caffeine and time to wake up before everything was acting like it was supposed to.

However, what did dawn on her was that Cole was hanging on to her a lot more possessively than he usually did unless there was trouble. It also dawned on her that she was threatening to fireball their boyfriend.

As she took this in, she finally realized that she was getting quite the mix of emotions coming off of Cole.

"Soulmate?" She asked calmly, trying to soothe him. "Why are you threatening our Anders?"She had managed to free one of her hands and was stroking his hair and the back of his neck.

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"Oh, good. Threaten to set the bed on fire with me and Phoebe in it," Anders said dryly. "You're obviously not our Bel."

Of course, that begged the question of whether Phoebe was Phoebe.

Although she seemed to recognize him at least, so . . .

"Okay, so it's not me who woke up in the wrong version of everything this time." He looked mildly exasperated, but relieved.

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Phoebe's voice soothed the savage demon, and he turned his attention back to her. "Phoebe, you're alive," he said, touching her face almost fearfully, like he thought she would vanish. "What is this place?"

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All right, definitely not their Cole. She gave Anders a confused look before focusing all of her attention back on Cole.

"Yes, love," she said, still speaking in a soft voice for him. "I'm very much alive. We're at the Hyperion, in California. We've been living here for about two years, now."

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"Well, he's listening to you, at least," Anders observed with a heavy, nearly jaw-cracking yawn. "I'll just go back to sleep and let you explain."

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Bel looked from Anders and back to Phoebe. "What's the blood whore doing here?" he said. He was alive, and Phoebe was warm and alive, so he wasn't here for them to feed on.

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Phoebe gasped in shock. "Blood whore? What are you talking about, love?" She reached to tug at Anders' hand. "This is Anders. You remember Anders. You love him."

She looked into his face. "Soulmate, what is the last thing you remember before waking up with me?"

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"I've seen him at the flower shop," Bel said, sizing Anders up. Because he totally went there himself from time to time, hush. Love him? That didn't make any sense. He had to admit he was pretty good-looking, though, and he wouldn't kick him out of bed. Unless he tried to touch Phoebe. "He's a white hat, but he lets the vamps drink from him. Gets off on it."

He kept a wary eye on Anders but addressed Phoebe. "I remember..." -- oh, screwing Veronica, screwing Lindsey, nooooot going to mention that -- "going to sleep. In my room at the town hall."

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"No one feeds on Anders," Phoebe said with a hint of anger in her voice. "No one messes with him at all. We don't let them. You'd kill someone for even trying."

Wait. Vampires. Town Hall.

Oh shit.

"Cole," she said softly, cradling his face between her hands as she looked into his eyes. "Fandom. Are you talking about Fandom?"

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He didn't think Phoebe would be so accepting of him screwing Anders. If that's what he'd been doing. He had to wonder if she'd be OK with Veronica, too. And Lindsey. And Tyler. And...well, it was a long list.

He reached up and caught her wrists in his hands, not pulling her away at all, just holding her as she touched him. This still didn't seem real. It had to be some sort of fucked-up dream, because Phoebe had been dead for years. "Fandom, yeah," he said. "That's not where we are now?"

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No, no she really wouldn't. Anders was a special case. The others, well, let's not see what her temper would do, okay?

She shook her head, leaning forward to kiss him gently. "No, we're in California, love. We've lived in California since we graduated and then about two years ago, we moved in here and started working for Angel."

She leaned into him again.

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"Angel?" Bel repeated. "Angelus? He's here? He's alive, too?" This just kept getting better and better.

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"Angel," Phoebe said firmly. "Angel. Not Angelus. Angel is alive and has been here for awhile." She took a deep breath. "This world is not the same as the world you're used to."

The world where Hurley told her she was dead.

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"He's calling himself Angel now?" Bel snorted. "Whatever makes him happy. Sounds kind of girly to me." Not that he'd ever say that to Angelus's face.

"What else about this place is different? How did I get here?"

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"Well, for one, I'm not sixteen here, I'm almost 21... and I'm alive."

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"I've missed you so much," Bel said, dropping his head to kiss her again. He was, for the moment, completely forgetting about that other guy in the bed, because he was so hungry for Phoebe that all he wanted to do was taste her, possess her like he hadn't been able to in years.

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