Buffy had training with Giles scheduled Monday after class. She had to psych herself up to go. What am I so worried about anyways? Nothing was going to happen… She thought of the way he looked at her the last time they talked, the way he had said he loved her… her heart beat faster... No, she told herself. Nothing would happen. It would be fine. Fine and normal.
Giles was there waiting for her when she got to the room they had booked at the gym. He lit up when she walked in.
"Hello," he said.
Buffy felt her face burning up. "Try to be normal, Giles."
"What? I am normal," he said, still smiling uncontrollably and not taking his eyes off her.
"You can't look at me like that," Buffy said, avoiding eye contact. She couldn't look at Giles without blushing.
"Oh." He got flustered. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was looking, um, abnormally."
"Just... tell me we can do this."
"We'll be fine," Giles assured her. "Emotional repression is what I was trained for," he joked gently.
She smiled at him despite herself.
It made his heart skip. "I just need some practice," he said.
"Well, that's what we're here for, right? Practice."
The training started out awkwardly. Giles mixed up his instructions and Buffy messed up some simple moves, but as the session went on they became more and more at ease. When they had something to concentrate on they were both able to interact absolutely normally. In between sets Giles still smiled at her a bit much, but Buffy wasn't blushing over it anymore. She started to feel like it was kind of nice.
Buffy moved on to her core exercises, holding poses on a balance beam.
"Maybe we should skip that for today," Giles suggested, his voice a little higher than usual.
"Why? I need to work on my balance."
Giles just shrugged and turned away. Buffy shook her head, bemused. She wasn't doing anything more provocative than stretching while standing on one leg at a time. If he had trouble watching her do that, he was going to have issues.
"Hey Giles, I need you to spot me."
He turned around, looking uneasy.
Buffy couldn't help but smile, it was too amusing to make him act like this. She made eye contact with him and held it as she switched poses, leaning forward and curling one leg up behind her.
He turned red. "Try to be normal," he asked.
Buffy smirked. "I am normal."
"You did want us to act like Friday never happened."
"I did," she said apologetically and jumped down from the balance beam. "You're right." She cracked a smile. "It's just kind of fun making it hard for you." Buffy's eyes widened a little, realizing a moment too late she used a double entendre. But hey, if she was making fun of Giles anyways, may as well go all out. She met his gaze with a smirk to confirm she stood by her phrasing.
He was dumbstruck for a moment. Then his eyes glinted and he fought back a smile. "If that's what you want to do I won't say no."
Buffy was taken aback, she felt her face growing hot, but there was no way she was going to let Giles fluster her. She desperately tried to think of something sexy to say back...
There was a knock on the door.
Riley popped his head in. "Hey Buffy, we still on after this?"
"Oh! Yeah! Yeah... just give us a minute to wrap up."
Riley smiled at her and left again.
Buffy glanced at Giles. He looked abashed.
"So that's what it's like when we're not acting normal," she said.
"Quite."
"We won't do that again."
"Indeed."