Buffy the Shemale Vampire Slayer Part 14

"I should have told you I'm bisexual. I should have told Willow, too."

"No big," Buffy had lied.

Obviously distressed at having been caught fucking another man in the ass, Xander had stared into the Slayer's eyes. "About what happened here, Buffy-can it be our secret?" he'd asked, adding, "I'm very comfortable living in the closet, and-"

Buffy had tried to put him at ease with a corny joke: "Closet? I thought you lived in your parents' basement."

Nevertheless, Xander had looked devastated. It must be really hard to have one of your best friends discover such a secret about you, Buffy had thought.

Looking sick, Xander had made her promise not to tell anyone else about the incident-or his true sexuality. Of course, Buffy had agreed never to divulge what she had learned. "No one's going to know," she had assured him, adding, "What someone does in the privacy of his own home is totally his business." Watching him closely as she spoke to him, she'd noticed that he was crying.

He'd wiped the teardrop away, apologizing again, his voice breaking. He'd sobbed, the tears coming fast and furiously, his body shaking, and a keening, wailing sound coming from the depths of his being.

Crossing the room, Buffy had held him the way that a mother might hold a frightened child, cooing soothingly to him. "It's all right, Xander," she'd whispered.

"It's been so hard living a lie all these years," he'd confessed between the sobs that wracked his body. He'd explained that he'd wanted to tell Buffy, Willow, Giles, and everyone else many times, but he'd been too ashamed.

"There's no need to be ashamed," Buffy had assured him, contending, "We are who we are."

Xander hadn't been consoled, though; he'd continued to weep.

"Willow's gay," Buffy had reminded him, "but that doesn't make us love her any the less." Her reminder had had the intended effect-or so Buffy had believed, at the time.