Your Surrender: Chapter 9
Aug. 2nd, 2011 12:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_huffster Title: Your Surremder
Author: the_huffster
Pairing: Buffy/Giles
Rating: R for language and violence
Timeline: Season 4 AU
Synopsis: Giles has landed a job teaching at UC Sunnydale after defeating the Mayor and Buffy ends up, unknowingly, taking Giles' class. Surely all this extra time together won't affect their relationship, right?
“For once, I would like to not get vamp dust in my hair.” Buffy grumbled as she tried her best to get all of the dust off of her, glaring when she noticed Giles trying not to laugh. “I blame you, mister.”
“Me?” his eyes widened as he watched her walk over to him. “I’m not the one who explodes when I get wood in me…”
If it wasn’t so dark, Buffy was sure the ex-Watcher’s face was red. The Slayer just looked at him when she couldn’t think of what to say.
“Um…that wasn’t meant to be heard by you,” Giles muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Want me to pretend that you actually say that aloud?” she wrapped her arm around his and began leading him out of the cemetery and towards his apartment. “And what you were referring to is a whole different situation, Giles. I just meant it’s your fault because you wanted to do a quick patrol after leaving the Bronze.”
He just rolled his eyes as they continued walking down the street. They walked in silence, both just enjoying the moment of peace on the Hellmouth. They had patrolled for an hour and a half and, despite the three vampires she had just dusted, it was a fairly quite night.
“I suppose this brings an end to our date?” Giles flashed her a small smile when she looked up at him in surprise.
“What makes this a date?” she hoped she didn’t sound too eager.
“Again, I recall Xander saying that tonight was a triple date. You and I were dateless while at the Bronze,” he explained as they continued their walk. “But I fixed that minute problem. Ergo, this is a date.”
“I thought you didn’t do dates though,” she said, shrugging one shoulder when she saw him raise an eyebrow. “You said you didn’t want a relationship.”
“True, but I don’t think dates are considered relationships. Unless I missed something concerning that,”
Silence fell over them once more as they made their way to his apartment, Buffy keeping her guard up in case they ran into anything. As they continued walking, Buffy thought back on the last three hours of the night. Giles’ behavior didn’t make sense to her.
When she had first noticed him, he seemed well on his way to bringing home the woman he had been talking with. But instead, he had spent the rest of the evening with her and not given a second thought to the woman he had left. At first Buffy had thought it was because he didn’t want her to be alone, like he had told her, but after hearing him call it a date, she just wasn’t sure anymore.
“How are things going with Mr. Right?” his soft voice brought her out of her jumbled thoughts.
“The same as when I told you.” She answered, adjusting her grip on Giles’ arm.
“Any particular reason you won’t tell me his name?”
“Any reason why you wanna know his name?”
“I need to know who to come after if he hurts you,” Giles looked down at her, his expression saying it should have been the most obvious reason.
“You mean, like you did to Parker Abrams a month ago?”
Buffy giggled when he stopped walking and stared at her, his mouth hanging open in shock. “Didn’t think that I would find out about that, huh?”
She tugged on his arm to get him walking again, shaking her head when he continued to have the same look of shock on his face. “How did you…?”
“I heard some girls talk about a British man breaking Parker’s nose,” Buffy smiled when Giles ducked his head as a sheepish smile appeared on his face. “Wanna tell me what happened?”
“I was walking home, noticed three people near me and then I heard your name mentioned.” Giles told her, his free hand fishing in his pocket for his keys as they approached his apartment. “One of them, which turned out to be Parker, started telling the other two that if they ever wanted an easy…” he made a gesture with his hand and tilted his head. “The moment I heard him say your name…”
“You went up and punched him?” she giggled as he unlocked his door and stepped aside to let her in first.
“No, I tried talking to him. At first,” he shut the door behind him before following her into the kitchen. “I only punched him when he continued to talk about you.”
Buffy jumped up on the counter and watched as the ex-Watcher pulled down to glasses from the counter, pouring orange juice into the glasses after Buffy had declined the offer of tea.
“Needless to say, nothing will be said about you like that again. By anyone,” he handed her one of the glasses, leaning on the counter next to her.
“Why? I mean, why did you do that?” she took a sip form the glass as she turned her head to look at him.
“Because he hurt you, Buffy.” Giles said, staring at his orange juice.
“Which is exactly why I’m not telling you the name of this other guy,” she gave him a smile at the confused look on his face. “I’m afraid of what you would do this him if you found out his name.”
“Buffy, this prick clearly deserves…something for what he’s putting you through,”
“Even though he doesn’t realize it?”
“Especially because of that.” Giles placed his glass on the counter before he turned to face her. “If he’s as right for you as you claim he is, then he doesn’t deserve you. However, he does deserve to be locked in a room with me for an hour.”
“I doubt that would be possible,” she muttered before looking up and seeing the question in Giles’ eyes, which made her realize what she had said out loud. “I just meant that it wouldn’t be you in the room, it’d most likely be Ripper. Right?”
Giles gave her a small smile as an answer. He grabbed his glass and finished what was left of the juice before placing it in the sink and walking to the other side of the kitchen, looking at Buffy as he leaned back. They stared at each other for a few moments, Giles knowing there was something on Buffy’s mind that she wanted to ask. The Slayer sighed when he tilted his head in a request for her to ask whatever it was that she wanted to know.
“You know me entirely too well, Giles.” She grumbled as she ran her fingers through her hair. “How come you left the Bronze by yourself?”
“I left with you, Buffy.” He raised his eyebrow, not sure where her question had come from.
“I meant, you were talking to someone before you walked over to me. Why didn’t you leave with her?” she clarified.
“There were more important things to attend to,”
“You couldn’t get her to leave with you, could you?”
Giles just glared at Buffy, which coaxed a laugh from her. The more she laughed, the more intense his glare grew. Buffy took a moment to compose herself before giving the ex-Watcher her full attention.
“If you must know, I was actually on my way out with her when I saw you.” He sighed, removing his glasses and cleaning them. “I told her that something had come up, and then I walked straight over to where you were.”
“That would explain the death glare I got from a complete stranger,” Buffy mumbled as she kicked one foot out and let it bounce against the cabinet. “Was that the first one night stand you’ve walked away from?”
He was quiet for a few minutes, his gaze focused on the kitchen tile. The Slayer was beginning to think that he wasn’t going to answer until she caught a glimpse of his expression. As soon as she saw the look of concentration on his face, she knew he was thinking about the best way to answer her question. Giles heaved a sigh and looked up to find Buffy watching him intently, running a hand through his hair before placing his glasses back on.
“No, it’s not. I seem to be having less and less one night stands as the weeks go on.” He answered, rolling his eyes at the look on the blonde’s face.
“Sex with strangers not holding the same appeal that it used to?” Buffy wiggled her eyebrows as she continued to lightly kick her feet against the cabinet.
“It’s not that. I very much want to have sex with these women,” he had the decency to blush at that statement before he continued his explanation. “I just keep finding reasons to not go through with it.”
“Is everything okay?” she jumped off of her perch on the counter and walked over to him, concern showing in her hazel eyes.
“Yes, everything is fine and in working order.” He let out an embarrassed chuckle at the look she gave him.
“You seem to be in the habit of saying the wrong thing lately, huh?” she gave him a smile when the blush reappeared on his face. “If everything’s fine, then why do you turn them down?”
“I don’t exactly know,” Giles gave her a reassuring smile when he noticed the flare of panic on her face. “It’s nothing bad, Buffy. It’s just…something I haven’t figured out yet.”
“But it’s nothing that’ll take you from me, right?” she asked as she stopped in front of Giles. “Because, remember me saying that you’re not allowed to leave me? It’s still in effect, even though we had a one night stand. Hell, we can have sex tonight and go through the awkwardness again, and you would still not be allowed to leave. I don’t know what I would do without, Giles. I mean, a part from failing your class…”
“Buffy,” Giles placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a small smile. “It’s nothing like that. I just…it’s complicated. And by complicated, I mean that I don’t even know what’s going on with me. And I did promise you that I wasn’t leaving, correct?”
“Yeah, you did.” Buffy smiled up at him, reaching up to squeeze the hand that was resting on her shoulder.
They stayed like that for a while, Buffy trying to figure out what was going through Giles’ brain. She couldn’t place the look in his eyes and it just added to her confusion about the whole evening. Throughout the whole evening there had been brief moments where Buffy thought that maybe Willow had been right- that Giles did have feelings for her and wasn’t exactly sure how to tell her. But just as with this moment, it was over before she could really find out what was going on. He removed his hand and began walking to the living room.
Before he was able to make it to the couch, the Slayer had cut him off and wrapped her arms around his waist. She laughed when he tensed up and hesitated before returning the hug, chuckling when she nuzzled into his chest.
“Promise me when you figure out what’s up that you’ll tell me?” Buffy looked up at him, hugging him tighter.
Instead of answering her, Giles just held her closer and placed a kiss on the top of her head before they sat down on the couch. Buffy stayed over for a little over an hour before saying that she should probably head back to her dorm, declining his offer for a ride back to her dorm. After telling him she’d do a quick sweep on her way back, Buffy walked out of the apartment.
“Buffy?” Giles called after her, taking a small step forward.
“Yeah?” she turned around, surprised to see that unidentified expression on his face again.
“Call me when you get back to your dorm?” he requested, sending her a shy smile when she raised an eyebrow. “To let me know that you made it back in one piece,”
“I will,” she promised before turning around and walking away.
Author: the_huffster
Pairing: Buffy/Giles
Rating: R for language and violence
Timeline: Season 4 AU
Synopsis: Giles has landed a job teaching at UC Sunnydale after defeating the Mayor and Buffy ends up, unknowingly, taking Giles' class. Surely all this extra time together won't affect their relationship, right?
“For once, I would like to not get vamp dust in my hair.” Buffy grumbled as she tried her best to get all of the dust off of her, glaring when she noticed Giles trying not to laugh. “I blame you, mister.”
“Me?” his eyes widened as he watched her walk over to him. “I’m not the one who explodes when I get wood in me…”
If it wasn’t so dark, Buffy was sure the ex-Watcher’s face was red. The Slayer just looked at him when she couldn’t think of what to say.
“Um…that wasn’t meant to be heard by you,” Giles muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Want me to pretend that you actually say that aloud?” she wrapped her arm around his and began leading him out of the cemetery and towards his apartment. “And what you were referring to is a whole different situation, Giles. I just meant it’s your fault because you wanted to do a quick patrol after leaving the Bronze.”
He just rolled his eyes as they continued walking down the street. They walked in silence, both just enjoying the moment of peace on the Hellmouth. They had patrolled for an hour and a half and, despite the three vampires she had just dusted, it was a fairly quite night.
“I suppose this brings an end to our date?” Giles flashed her a small smile when she looked up at him in surprise.
“What makes this a date?” she hoped she didn’t sound too eager.
“Again, I recall Xander saying that tonight was a triple date. You and I were dateless while at the Bronze,” he explained as they continued their walk. “But I fixed that minute problem. Ergo, this is a date.”
“I thought you didn’t do dates though,” she said, shrugging one shoulder when she saw him raise an eyebrow. “You said you didn’t want a relationship.”
“True, but I don’t think dates are considered relationships. Unless I missed something concerning that,”
Silence fell over them once more as they made their way to his apartment, Buffy keeping her guard up in case they ran into anything. As they continued walking, Buffy thought back on the last three hours of the night. Giles’ behavior didn’t make sense to her.
When she had first noticed him, he seemed well on his way to bringing home the woman he had been talking with. But instead, he had spent the rest of the evening with her and not given a second thought to the woman he had left. At first Buffy had thought it was because he didn’t want her to be alone, like he had told her, but after hearing him call it a date, she just wasn’t sure anymore.
“How are things going with Mr. Right?” his soft voice brought her out of her jumbled thoughts.
“The same as when I told you.” She answered, adjusting her grip on Giles’ arm.
“Any particular reason you won’t tell me his name?”
“Any reason why you wanna know his name?”
“I need to know who to come after if he hurts you,” Giles looked down at her, his expression saying it should have been the most obvious reason.
“You mean, like you did to Parker Abrams a month ago?”
Buffy giggled when he stopped walking and stared at her, his mouth hanging open in shock. “Didn’t think that I would find out about that, huh?”
She tugged on his arm to get him walking again, shaking her head when he continued to have the same look of shock on his face. “How did you…?”
“I heard some girls talk about a British man breaking Parker’s nose,” Buffy smiled when Giles ducked his head as a sheepish smile appeared on his face. “Wanna tell me what happened?”
“I was walking home, noticed three people near me and then I heard your name mentioned.” Giles told her, his free hand fishing in his pocket for his keys as they approached his apartment. “One of them, which turned out to be Parker, started telling the other two that if they ever wanted an easy…” he made a gesture with his hand and tilted his head. “The moment I heard him say your name…”
“You went up and punched him?” she giggled as he unlocked his door and stepped aside to let her in first.
“No, I tried talking to him. At first,” he shut the door behind him before following her into the kitchen. “I only punched him when he continued to talk about you.”
Buffy jumped up on the counter and watched as the ex-Watcher pulled down to glasses from the counter, pouring orange juice into the glasses after Buffy had declined the offer of tea.
“Needless to say, nothing will be said about you like that again. By anyone,” he handed her one of the glasses, leaning on the counter next to her.
“Why? I mean, why did you do that?” she took a sip form the glass as she turned her head to look at him.
“Because he hurt you, Buffy.” Giles said, staring at his orange juice.
“Which is exactly why I’m not telling you the name of this other guy,” she gave him a smile at the confused look on his face. “I’m afraid of what you would do this him if you found out his name.”
“Buffy, this prick clearly deserves…something for what he’s putting you through,”
“Even though he doesn’t realize it?”
“Especially because of that.” Giles placed his glass on the counter before he turned to face her. “If he’s as right for you as you claim he is, then he doesn’t deserve you. However, he does deserve to be locked in a room with me for an hour.”
“I doubt that would be possible,” she muttered before looking up and seeing the question in Giles’ eyes, which made her realize what she had said out loud. “I just meant that it wouldn’t be you in the room, it’d most likely be Ripper. Right?”
Giles gave her a small smile as an answer. He grabbed his glass and finished what was left of the juice before placing it in the sink and walking to the other side of the kitchen, looking at Buffy as he leaned back. They stared at each other for a few moments, Giles knowing there was something on Buffy’s mind that she wanted to ask. The Slayer sighed when he tilted his head in a request for her to ask whatever it was that she wanted to know.
“You know me entirely too well, Giles.” She grumbled as she ran her fingers through her hair. “How come you left the Bronze by yourself?”
“I left with you, Buffy.” He raised his eyebrow, not sure where her question had come from.
“I meant, you were talking to someone before you walked over to me. Why didn’t you leave with her?” she clarified.
“There were more important things to attend to,”
“You couldn’t get her to leave with you, could you?”
Giles just glared at Buffy, which coaxed a laugh from her. The more she laughed, the more intense his glare grew. Buffy took a moment to compose herself before giving the ex-Watcher her full attention.
“If you must know, I was actually on my way out with her when I saw you.” He sighed, removing his glasses and cleaning them. “I told her that something had come up, and then I walked straight over to where you were.”
“That would explain the death glare I got from a complete stranger,” Buffy mumbled as she kicked one foot out and let it bounce against the cabinet. “Was that the first one night stand you’ve walked away from?”
He was quiet for a few minutes, his gaze focused on the kitchen tile. The Slayer was beginning to think that he wasn’t going to answer until she caught a glimpse of his expression. As soon as she saw the look of concentration on his face, she knew he was thinking about the best way to answer her question. Giles heaved a sigh and looked up to find Buffy watching him intently, running a hand through his hair before placing his glasses back on.
“No, it’s not. I seem to be having less and less one night stands as the weeks go on.” He answered, rolling his eyes at the look on the blonde’s face.
“Sex with strangers not holding the same appeal that it used to?” Buffy wiggled her eyebrows as she continued to lightly kick her feet against the cabinet.
“It’s not that. I very much want to have sex with these women,” he had the decency to blush at that statement before he continued his explanation. “I just keep finding reasons to not go through with it.”
“Is everything okay?” she jumped off of her perch on the counter and walked over to him, concern showing in her hazel eyes.
“Yes, everything is fine and in working order.” He let out an embarrassed chuckle at the look she gave him.
“You seem to be in the habit of saying the wrong thing lately, huh?” she gave him a smile when the blush reappeared on his face. “If everything’s fine, then why do you turn them down?”
“I don’t exactly know,” Giles gave her a reassuring smile when he noticed the flare of panic on her face. “It’s nothing bad, Buffy. It’s just…something I haven’t figured out yet.”
“But it’s nothing that’ll take you from me, right?” she asked as she stopped in front of Giles. “Because, remember me saying that you’re not allowed to leave me? It’s still in effect, even though we had a one night stand. Hell, we can have sex tonight and go through the awkwardness again, and you would still not be allowed to leave. I don’t know what I would do without, Giles. I mean, a part from failing your class…”
“Buffy,” Giles placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a small smile. “It’s nothing like that. I just…it’s complicated. And by complicated, I mean that I don’t even know what’s going on with me. And I did promise you that I wasn’t leaving, correct?”
“Yeah, you did.” Buffy smiled up at him, reaching up to squeeze the hand that was resting on her shoulder.
They stayed like that for a while, Buffy trying to figure out what was going through Giles’ brain. She couldn’t place the look in his eyes and it just added to her confusion about the whole evening. Throughout the whole evening there had been brief moments where Buffy thought that maybe Willow had been right- that Giles did have feelings for her and wasn’t exactly sure how to tell her. But just as with this moment, it was over before she could really find out what was going on. He removed his hand and began walking to the living room.
Before he was able to make it to the couch, the Slayer had cut him off and wrapped her arms around his waist. She laughed when he tensed up and hesitated before returning the hug, chuckling when she nuzzled into his chest.
“Promise me when you figure out what’s up that you’ll tell me?” Buffy looked up at him, hugging him tighter.
Instead of answering her, Giles just held her closer and placed a kiss on the top of her head before they sat down on the couch. Buffy stayed over for a little over an hour before saying that she should probably head back to her dorm, declining his offer for a ride back to her dorm. After telling him she’d do a quick sweep on her way back, Buffy walked out of the apartment.
“Buffy?” Giles called after her, taking a small step forward.
“Yeah?” she turned around, surprised to see that unidentified expression on his face again.
“Call me when you get back to your dorm?” he requested, sending her a shy smile when she raised an eyebrow. “To let me know that you made it back in one piece,”
“I will,” she promised before turning around and walking away.
