See part one for notes and disclaimers.

Part Six

Buffy went to talk to Giles about the anti-stain spell, and he was distinctly displeased. "That irresponsible girl! When will Willow ever learn that magic is not the answer to every little picadillo that comes her way?" Giles abruptly shook off his irritation, and looked at Buffy with affection. "In any case, I'm glad you came to me. That particular spell would have been disastrous consequences. It repels particulate matter by changing the harmonics around the enspelled object. Had you gone out tonight with that spell upon you, the harmonic vibrations would have proven maddening to the hellhounds."

"Huh?"

"That spell causes a, um, buzzing noise that would have, erm, pissed off the demons." Seeing that Buffy still didn't seem to get it, Giles added, "It would have been a bad thing."

"Oh! Okay then. So, about those hellhounds..."

Buffy and Giles spent the next half-hour or so discussing the demons and the prom. Buffy must have allowed some of her bitterness to show in her voice, for Giles gave her a sad look. "Angel's not taking you, is he?"

Buffy was careful to keep her voice level and unaffected. "Angel's leaving me. He's leaving town."

Giles didn't say anything to that, and Buffy thought the subject was closed, but then he suddenly sighed. "Buffy, I'm sorry. I don't really know what to say. I understand, um, that this sort of thing requires ice cream, of some kind."

Buffy swallowed, amazed once again at her Watcher's extraordinary kindness. "Ice cream will come. First I want to take out psycho-boy. The great thing about being the Slayer? Kicking ass is comfort food."

- * - * - * - * -

Buffy actually enjoyed Slaying the hellhounds. They were in three teams, one with two dogs in it and two with three dogs. The first two packs weren't terribly challenging; the last group was a little harder to take out, but still not too bad. The worst part about hunting the hellhounds was getting them to pay attention to her; they kept ditching her in their attempts to get to the prom. Buffy actually wound up killing the last two hellhounds in the high school itself, a little too close to the festivities for her comfort. Still, they didn't get in the doors, so no harm, no foul.

Buffy dragged the demons off into the bushes (always her least favorite part of Slaying!) and then went to get ready for the dance. Her gown was pretty wrinkled, but it was such a beautiful dress that it still looked fairly presentable. As for her hair, she simply pulled her bangs back with a barrette and left it long in back. It wasn't the elaborate quaffed hairdo that she had always dreamed of, but it didn't look too bad. All in all, she didn't look too bad, even without Willow's cool anti-stain spell.

She went in to the prom, and looked about wistfully. Everybody had a honey except her... The first person she saw when she walked through the doors was Giles. He looked amazing in his tux. His tall, muscular, but slender frame seemed to have been tailor made for eveningwear, rather than the other way around. He smiled and nodded at her, and suddenly she knew that she could enjoy the dance, date or no date.

Even though Buffy was grateful to Giles for making things all right for her, she wasn't ready to talk to him just yet. First she sought out Willow and Oz–both of whom looked wonderful–and then she went in search of some punch to hide behind. She wouldn't have to justify not dancing if her hands were full with edibles. Besides, she was feeling a bit hungry after an evening of Slaying.

As she was filling her cup, her name was called. The next thing she knew, Jonathan was presenting her with a special award. The award was an amazingly tacky little umbrella with the words "Buffy Summers, Class Protector" emblazoned upon it. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life.

It didn't take long, however, for Buffy's happiness to melt away as she watched everyone she knew getting all couply. As Buffy was staring forlornly at happy, dancing couples, Giles came up behind her. He smiled fondly at her, and for a fleeting moment, Buffy thought he looked good enough to eat. "You did good work tonight, Buffy."

She smiled brightly and held up her wonderful award. "And I got a little toy surprise."

Giles chuckled. "I had no idea that children en masse could be ... gracious."

She nodded. "Every now and then, people surprise you." Buffy wondered whether her shy Watcher would surprise her by asking her to dance. She was startled to realize that she wanted him to rather badly.

Unexpectedly, however, the smile slipped from Giles' face. His gorgeous green eyes became distant as he stared fixedly at something over her shoulder, and his voice was absolutely flat as he responded, "Every now and then." He reached down to take the gaudy umbrella from her, still not taking his gaze away from whatever was behind her. As she turned around to see what had so captured Giles' attention, she sensed him slipping away unobtrusively.

Buffy scanned the crowd for a moment before she saw him. Angel. He was wearing a tuxedo, but James Bond he wasn't. Angel's shoulders were just too broad for him to ever look good in a tux, but it was still unbelievably sweet of him to wear one. In fact, it was sweet of him to come to the prom at all, when he had made it clear that he didn't want to go ... even before he dumped her.

Buffy was confused. Angel had dumped her, but now here he was, coming to claim a dance like it was his due. Giles had looked like he was working his way up to asking her to dance, but he had faded into the background the second Angel appeared. She wanted to dance with Angel because everyone knew that she was in love with him; and she wanted to dance with Giles because, well, she didn't know why, but she still wanted to dance with him. Her instincts told her that if she didn't go after Giles now, he would disappear and she would never get another opportunity; but, on the other hand, Angel would be terribly hurt if she turned her back on him. Of course, he had dumped her, so she really shouldn't care too much whether his feelings got hurt or not ... but she did.

If you think Buffy should wait for Angel to walk across the room and claim his dance, go to part seven.

If you think Buffy should chase after Giles, go to part eight.