Spoilers: Season Five, up to and including Into The Woods
Feedback: It would give me a happy
Disclaimer: : I assert no claim to the characters, stories or concept of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and undertake to make no profit from my writing.
Summary: This is my season six antidote, just a piece of B/G fluff… Buffy's fed up with the pain and confusion which has been her love life. We all know exactly what (or should I say who) she needs, but does she?
"It's just…" Buffy sighed, dropping her bag on the floor and sitting at the Magic Shop table. "I wish it didn't have to be like this."
Behind the counter, Giles looked up at the slayer as she and her best friend talked. Willow smiled at Buffy sympathetically.
"Riley loved you, you know," the witch offered kindly. Buffy shrugged.
"I know, that's not the issue. But even with him, it got so complicated… God," she thumped her hand against the table for emphasis, making both Willow and Giles jump. "I don't understand why it's always like this, when you're with someone. Couldn't it just be…" she trailed off, trying to think of what she meant.
"Great sex?" someone offered. Anya appeared from around a bookcase, carrying a clipboard and a serious expression. Buffy gave her a look.
"No, just, two people, you know, being together, without all of the heaviness," the slayer explained. "Maybe, that part of my life… it could be the one place I get that's away from the darkness and the mess. Maybe I could have something simple." She scratched at the table top with a nail, trying not to see the sympathetic looks the others were giving her. "Or perhaps I do just mean great sex," she added, trying to lighten the mood.
Willow gave her a long look, then reached across the table to pat her friend's hand.
"You'll find someone," she said. Buffy looked at her dryly.
"And then what?" she asked.
The conversation weighed heavily on her for the rest of the afternoon. As she went to pick Dawn up from school, Buffy hardly saw the streets and people around her, buried as she was in the past. She thought over Angel, the romance which had promised pain and complications from the start. Scott barely counted; Parker had been a disaster, an ugly scar she could avoid looking at until it faded. Then there was Riley. Riley who loved her, but left like all the others, distancing himself as much as was possible. Why couldn't he have stayed, she wondered, even as she realised that wouldn't have been the answer. Their relationship had already become laden with overtones, of him protecting when she didn't want protection, giving when she couldn't receive. Since before he started letting vamps in, Buffy realised, they had been sinking under the weight of Riley's expectations.
Nothing was easy. Buffy's first love hadn't simply been her first love, her sister wasn't even simply her sister. There was no part of her life where Buffy could retreat, could spend time just being Buffy.
After her brooding walk, the bright irritation of Dawn's company was a welcome change. Buffy asked about school and Dawn's friends, keeping the conversation as far away from her current troubles as she could. When they arrived home, Buffy lingered outside instead of going in.
"Could you tell Mom I'm going to the Magic Shop, to do some training?" she asked her sister. Dawn's eyes lit up.
"Can I come?"
"No," Buffy said sternly.
"But-" Dawn began, looking stubborn.
"Please, Dawn," Buffy sighed. "I just want a little alone-time, okay?"
Dawn shut her mouth, and gave her sister a gracious smile.
"Oh. Working on your issues, right?" she said. "That's okay. I'll tell Mom."
"Take care," Buffy said, and began to walk again.
Giles and Anya were the only people in the shop when Buffy arrived. They both looked up as she entered.
"Oh, it's you. I thought you were a customer," Anya said, making no attempt to hide her disappointment. Giles gave his employee a long suffering look, and smiled apologetically at Buffy.
"Business a little slow?" Buffy asked, walking up to the counter.
"A little," Giles replied softly. Buffy gave her watcher a smile, thinking to herself that not every man that came into her life disappeared. Giles had been with her for years, no matter what, through torture and betrayal and apocalyptic threat, a promise of- what had he said? Support and respect.
"It's all Giles's fault," Anya said, glaring at her boss. "I told him we should advertise those charms which make people have more orgasms in the window, but he refused."
Buffy smiled as Giles turned red and changed the subject.
"Feel like a spot of training?" he asked Buffy, with a desperate edge to his voice.
"Just what the slayer ordered," Buffy replied, picking up her bag. Giles followed her into the back room and shut the door.
"Anya's giving you trouble?" Buffy asked as she stripped off her shirt. Giles shrugged.
"It's nothing. I keep telling her to be glad I let her order the damn things in the first place," he said, bending to pull off his shoes. Buffy noticed how embarrassed he seemed, and wickedly decided to tease him further.
"So, do those things really give people more orgasms?" she asked innocently, just as her watcher began to lay out the training mats. He gave a start, almost tripping over the mat, and turned back towards her, a stunned look on his face. Buffy couldn't hide a smile as she began to stretch out her muscles.
Giles gave her a glare, realising that she was teasing him, and turned back to the mats.
"I don't know, I've never felt the need to try one," he replied, so calmly that for a moment, Buffy thought someone else must have spoken. She worked her mouth for a moment, hiding her shock as she stretched out her legs.
"Oh," she said eventually, in a very small voice.
Something changed after that. The routine of their training schedule felt alien, each gesture charged with new meaning. The thought of Giles being so confident in bed he didn't have to try and improve the experience, left Buffy with a growing sensation in her body, a rhythm of interest building within her. Giles was certainly behaving differently, watching her more intensely as she stretched, eyes holding hers. She was drawn to the sight of his muscled arms and firm legs on display, and he was doing nothing to hide the impressive sight of his body. Buffy felt a flush of shock as he stripped off his tie and shirt in front of her, calmly pulling on an old sweater he used for training, slow enough for Buffy to get a good view of his wide chest. She stared openly as his chest hair disappeared beneath the top, suddenly fascinated by it, glad that her watcher hadn't disappeared shyly into the toilet to change as he usually did.
They began to spar. Giles held her eyes as he circled her, armed with a heavy stick. Buffy watched his face, waiting for his neutral expression to flicker and betray his next move. Instead, she was almost caught out when his foot shot out to trip her.
Using her slayer speed, Buffy skipped back, then reached for his foot and heaved it upwards, trying to knock him down. Giles twisted out of the way, but nodded.
"Good," he murmured, circling around to the left.
Buffy was fascinated. His movements were almost hypnotic, his eyes never leaving her as his body moved silently over the mat. She was so involved by him, aiming punches and kicks at the pads he carried, that she reacted a moment too late when he caught a punch in one hand. Giles pushed her back, and used his superior weight to bear her to the ground.
For a moment, Buffy lay beneath him, panting heavily and enjoying- there was no other word for it- enjoying the feeling of his body against hers, his weight crushing her in all the right places. He opened his mouth to say something.
"I know, I should have used your move to throw you," she said, reaching up to stop him from speaking. Her fingers rested over his mouth, and she could feel his damp breath on them, and the warm, soft feel of his lips. Giles smiled against her fingers, in a completely un-Giles-like way, and Buffy swallowed and pulled her hand away.
"I was going to say, that should teach you to pay attention," he said in a low voice, and Buffy could feel the vibration of his words rumbling through his body and into hers. He wasn't letting her up, she realised dizzily. He was lying, his left hand engulfing her fist, his right hand bracing himself above her, just watching her with a thoughtful look on his face.
Suddenly he rolled away, and stood up, leaning down to help her get to her feet.
"Come on. You need to practise that new kick," he said, suddenly business-like and completely Giles. Buffy felt almost relieved as the tension subsided, and concentrated harder on her training, although she found herself missing the looks he had been giving her.
They were interrupted as Anya looked into the training room.
"It's late, Giles, I'm going," she said abruptly. "I'll lock up the front."
"Thank you, Anya," Giles said, as Buffy paused in her punches. "Were there many more customers?"
"Two young girls came in, then a couple who bought a fertility statue. Oh, and a little man bought that statue of Hermes I really hated."
Giles nodded.
"See you tomorrow," he said, and Anya left.
Buffy felt the change in the air as the bell on the door rang distantly, followed by a bang, confirming that they were alone. Giles immediately turned and gave her another of the unwavering, disconcerting looks he had been delivering before. Buffy swallowed and deliberately looked away, pretending to adjust her wrist guards.
"That's enough for today, I think," he said quietly. Surprised, Buffy looked up. He was half-naked again, pulling his shirt on over his shoulders. The sexual implications of watching him dress were not lost on the slayer, as she watched Giles button up the front of his shirt, his long fingers working skilfully. For a moment, she imagined those fingers working on the clasp of her bra, or elsewhere, until her brain protectively shut off that train of thought.
"Okay," she said, and went to change her clothes.
Giles was going through their weapons when she returned, although from the cursory way he checked them over, Buffy guessed he was just filling time while she changed. She adjusted her clothes and cleared her throat.
He turned, and smiled a little shyly at her. Buffy returned the smile, relieved that he was acting more like himself again.
"Do you have any plans for tonight?" he asked, coming towards the slayer. She shrugged as he reached her, leaning one strong hand against the wall.
"Not really, patrolling aside," she replied easily, missing the point of his question in her relief at having their normal roles resumed.
"Hm," Giles said, leaning closer to her. His arm blocked her way to the door, she realised, reminding her of the first day they met, when he had prevented her from walking away while they talked of vampires.
Suddenly the question came back to her, combining with Giles's body language to make Buffy revise her opinion of it. Was he coming on to her? His green eyes held her effortlessly, suggestively, and Buffy decided that if he was, she definitely liked it.