Phoning It In 15
As the afterglow faded, the three teens came back to themselves and their various insecurities began to take hold once again.
Buffy wasn't sure how she felt. She'd always considered herself straight, but finding she enjoyed herself with Willow and her surprise at how quickly she had gone from 'fumbling virgin' to 'expert in making Willow moan' really didn't help much. Xander's part was at least easier to deal with. She enjoyed it. She cared about him. It was 'normal' and acceptable. Except... she needed him as a friend more than anything else, just like she needed Willow. She was told that the Slayer works alone, but she couldn't. She needed them to remind her why she was fighting, because... she didn't value her own life much anymore. She was all too aware she was living on borrowed time.
Willow didn't have a problem with any of what happened. She was a bit surprised to find she liked girls as well, but Buffy was her best female friend and her feelings for Xander were unchanged, so she didn't have a problem with it. Her own insecurities about her body had been shredded by their honest appreciation. However, her fears of abandonment still remained even though she knew Xander couldn't even picture his life without her in it… the fear remained. It was part of the reason she couldn't fully disconnect her mind from his.
Xander's fears and insecurities stemmed from being raised by a pair of drunken, abusive alcoholics; and being poor while surrounded by rich teens who considered being poor a personal flaw. He placed even less value on his own life than Buffy did on hers.
Thoughts flew back and forth between the three, filled with emotions and lots of underlying assumptions that each were not aware of until they saw it in the others' thoughts.
'Can you shut off my attraction to Buffy?' Xander sent to Willow as he washed up in the janitors sink, their minds slowly pulling apart once more.
'I think so,' Willow replied as she slid deeper into Xander's mind.
'What?' Buffy asked, surprised and not connected deeply enough to get more than a hint of intention.
'While every guy's dream would be dating the two of you, you need us as friends more, so we simply make a little snip in my head and we are all hunky dory,' Xander explained, moving aside so Buffy could use the sink.
'That works,' Buffy agreed, relieved things were going to go back to normal and she wouldn't lose her best friends to a short, passionate affair, which is all this would have led to.
"Done," Willow said aloud and then fell against the wall, her face looking shocked.
"What?" Buffy and Xander chorused as they felt their connection to one another fade.
"I-we-oh my god!" Willow stated, hyperventilating.
Xander quickly took Willow in his arms and rubbed her back while sending calming thoughts through their link.
"Willow?" Buffy asked gently. "What's wrong?"
"Janitor's closet after having sex?!" Willow exclaimed in shock.
Buffy and Xander exchanged glances, showing humanity was at least empathic if not outright telepathic on their own as they shared an entire conversation in an instance.
"I'm perfectly fine with it," Xander told her, covering her mouth with his own and quieting her fears.
"It's okay with me too," Buffy assured her, gathering her clothes. "I mean, it was a surprise and I-we all got swept up in the moment, but I'm completely fine with it."
"And why are you all panicky now?" Xander asked as he pulled back from the kiss.
"B-because I'm not sure where all the bravery came from but it's gone now, and I was worried I'd telepathically controlled you or something," Willow explained, blushing as she realized she and Xander were both naked.
"It certainly helped with the sweeping," Buffy admitted thoughtfully, "but mainly it was feeling your feelings and my feelings and how they felt about feelings and so on."
"A feedback loop with a trio of very horny teens," Xander agreed. "We're fine, honest."
Willow closed her eyes and relaxed, able to feel their sincerity.
"So...bravery all gone?" Xander asked, slipping a hand down to give a squeeze.
"I-I think I can muster up a little more courage," Willow said shyly.
"And on that note, I gotta go," Buffy said. "Giles has me training with staves today."
"Have fun," Xander said absently before making out with Willow again, who gave Buffy a quick thumbs-up.
Buffy cautiously opened the door and peeked out before slipping out and closing the door behind her, relieved to find no one around.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"...and that's the whole story," Buffy finished, leaving out or at least heavily editing what had happened between the three of them.
Giles just stared at her.
"What?" she asked.
"I have no words," Giles said.
"What?!" Buffy exclaimed in shock. "Normally you have tons of words, like 'Good Lord', or 'Righty ho!'"
Giles made a face. "To the best of my knowledge, I have never used the words 'Righty ho.'"
"You know what I mean," Buffy said. "I'm just giving you a heads up. If a Xander dressed strangely shows up, you might want to talk about cool powers you wish you had."
"Dressed strangely?" Giles asked. "How, pray tell, do you expect me to tell? You've seen how he dresses."
Buffy opened her mouth and then closed it again. "Okay, you have a point." She tapped her chin. "How about if he's alone? He's just started dating Willow, so they'll be joined at the hip for a while."
"Really? Good for them," Giles said, thinking the pair could use the stability.
"Very," Buffy said with a big smile before clearing her throat and forcing it down. "Anyway, young genie, very helpful, likely to empower you thanks to Dawn's wish. Got it?"
"Got it," Giles agreed. "The funny thing is, this isn't even the strangest thing we've seen. It is the most positive, however."
"Law of Averages," Buffy assured him. "It was bound to happen eventually."
"And all the wishes have ended up positive?" Giles asked intently, already making a list of reference books to check.
"Dawn got a strange transport power that she used easily, Xander got a magic ring that is teaching him fire magic, and Willow got some serious mind powers that let her show Xander how she felt," Buffy listed off. "So far, he's batting a thousand."
"Alright, just making sure," Giles said. "I'll give some thought to the type of empowerment I'd prefer. I still find the situation a bit questionable though, so try to be cautious."
"Oh, and there are like dozens of spotted owls and passenger pigeons and condors," Buffy reminded him.
"That does count rather heavily in his favor," Giles said. "Even more so than granting wishes."
"Just be prepared," Buffy ordered him, much to Giles' amusement.
"I'll look up some things," Giles promised. "And now I believe we have some training to attend."
The next day
Merlin was better prepared this time. He'd hacked into the school's computer system and checked to see what the gang's classes were before sneaking in.
"Hey, Giles," he greeted the watcher as he entered the library. "I got kicked out of class, as apparently... I snore."
Giles rolled his eyes, not at all surprised to hear Xander had been kicked out of class when he noticed what he was wearing. He wasn't up on teenage fashion by any means, but he knew Xander and the boy avoided dark colors and hadn't worn a leather jacket since that incident with the hyenas.
"Shouldn't be a problem," Giles replied, waiting to see how the genie was going to play things.
"Excellent. I was planning on catching up on my comic reading," Merlin said, pulling an X-Men comic out of his backpack. "I don't suppose you have a favorite hero?"
Giles mentally smirked. "I was never big on comics, because while being strong and tough are all well and good, I'd much rather have a mind like Sherlock Holmes with a photographic memory. As one gets older, you'll find failing eye sight and a faulty memory are of more concern than not being able to kick in a door."
"That is a good point," Merlin agreed as he decided that a little regeneration seemed to be in order.
"Of course, the most useful power is one none of them seem to possess," Giles pointed out.
"Really? What's that?" Merlin asked curiously.
"The ability to heal others," Giles said firmly.
"That would be a good one," Merlin agreed, surprised he hadn't thought of it himself. He took out a piece of paper and started trying to work out a way to grant Giles the ability to heal others, as he was positive there were no natural healers in the Buffy universe.
Giles used to practice magic, which meant he'd probably have access to the basic psionic package like Willow did, but using telekinesis alone to fix wounds was difficult and didn't really cover internal injuries. Limiting the ability to a specific material made it much more effective, so turn telekinesis into ... biokinesis, but that was only the first step. He also needed to be able to see what was wrong and know what it should be.
'Weren't there people who psychically read things by touch? Limiting everything to touch would make it that much more powerful too.' Merlin nodded to himself. 'Now all we need is a way for him to understand it all, because resetting everything on a person to base DNA would undo dental work and could add a whole host of problems for people who've had surgery to correct genetic medical problems.'
Merlin tapped his pen on the table for a minute before deciding that the best he could do was to boost Giles' brain in medical matters to beyond genius levels, and let him learn as he went.
The bell rang, signaling the end of the period and Merlin quickly got up. He granted Giles Biokinesis, Bioreading, and Medical Savant before vanishing into the stacks to avoid the people he heard entering the library. He sighed as he realized he'd spent half his energy for the day and only did half of what he'd planned for Giles. At this rate, he'd be here for another week, possibly two!
"What are you looking so deep in thought about?" Buffy asked Giles, who'd been standing frozen in place.
"I bet it's another prophecy," Xander said. "Is it a prophecy?"
"Buffy, is anyone else here?" Giles asked her, snapping out of it.
Buffy looked around before sprinting to the stacks and doing a quick search. "We're alone," she reported. "Now, what's the sitch?"
"The genie was just here," Giles explained. "He was pretending to be Xander and reading comics."
Xander walked over to the table and picked up Merlin's backpack. "Free comics," he said cheerfully.
Willow picked up the piece of paper Merlin had been writing on. "Whoa!"
"Whoa? What whoa?" Buffy demanded, taking the sheet of paper from Willow. "Okay, this looks like whoa," Buffy said. "I guess you went with healing."
Giles shook his head. "What he gave me is far beyond simple healing. In fact, it's a little frightening."
Willow took back the paper from Buffy. "Yeah... it's far beyond just healing, or will be once you get enough experience," she agreed.
"What am I missing here?" Xander asked, trying to read over Willow's shoulder.
"He can do a lot more than just heal, he can make improvements," Willow explained.
"Heady stuff," Xander said. "So that's why you were zoned out?"
"Partially," Giles allowed. "But mainly I was distracted by suddenly knowing absolutely everything there was to know about my body." His hair darkened as he spoke, lines vanished from his face, and the years seemed to roll back for the Watcher.
"You'd make a fortune in plastic surgery," Xander said, breaking the silence as all three stared at Giles.
"It goes far beyond that," Giles said, looking at his hands now swept free of liver spots or any other signs of age.
"Eternal youth," Willow said in awe.
"Wils..." Xander said, shaking his head. "Old age has never been one of our boogiemen because we deal with... the actual boogieman here."
Giles sighed as if a great weight had been taken off his shoulders. "That, while pessimistic, is a bit of a relief. I find the idea of living eternally a bit daunting."
"Yeah, but most people whine about being immortal while their friends and family aren't. You wouldn't exactly have that problem," Xander said.
"There's a lot of that sort of thing in the comics you read?" Giles asked with amusement.
"The writers like to come up with reasons that being awesome sucks," Xander agreed.
"You can make me bigger!" Buffy exclaimed with wide eyes as the extent of his powers dawned on her.
Giles blushed. "Um... well... I suppose, but just this once mind you."
Buffy held out her hand excited for Giles to take. "I just need a few more inches."
Giles took her hand and got a far-away look in his eyes for a moment. "Misaligned bone in your leg. It's not off by much but it's easy enough to fix. Everything else is in perfect condition thanks to slayer healing."
"Skating accident when I was a kid," Buffy explained.
"Alright, now we just..." Giles concentrated and Buffy's shirt tightened as her breasts grew two cup sizes. "There. Is that satisfactory?" Giles asked.
Buffy stared down at her breasts in shock.
"I think she meant a few inches of height," Willow offered softly, biting her lip to keep from laughing.
Typing by: Ordieth
