It's an interesting experience writing something from the POV of such a hateful character while your brain cringes and yells, "You can't write that! That's racist! And sexist! And other -ist!"

In all seriousness, I based the Tony-Xander relationship on a bullying dynamic. I just find it interesting that throughout (most) of the series, Xander could stand up to someone like Angelus or pre-chip Spike (and sometimes get his ass kicked in the bargain), but would literally shy away from human bullies like Jack. And it seemed to be Xander's modus operandi according to Him when he talks about going to (crap, forgot his name) about the magic jacket.

Of course, Xander has the potential to be a bully like dear old dad. I'm one of those in the camp that says if he didn't wind up involved in Buffy's mission, he probably would've been Tony Jr. because his homelife was so overwhelmingly overshadowed by a bully. Certainly he had that potential *at least* until the end of S6. It really wasn't until S7 when you could see that Xander was working on that aspect (or because the BtVS writers just ignored him, your pick. heh.)