I wish the people in the Buffy-verse belonged to me (who am I kidding? I just want Giles...), but they don't. Joss owns em all. Archway Paperbacks owns the Which Way books. I own my imagination, which no one wants. Sigh...

Part Nine

As soon as the last notes of the last song died away, Buffy jumped out of Giles' arms. To take away the sting of her rejection, she gave him her brightest smile and said, "Thank-you, kind sir. You dance divinely."

Giles smiled warmly, leading Buffy to wonder whether the slight flash of disappointment in his eyes was just wishful thinking on her part. "You're quite welcome, Buffy. Would you like me to give you a ride home now?"

"Thanks, Giles. For the dance, for the ride home, for, well, for everything."

Giles' smile became even broader as he affably offered her his arm. "My pleasure, fair lady."

Buffy giggled at his gallantry, and they started off towards the faculty parking lot. His silver Citroen was easily distinguishable as the single most beat-up car in sight, perhaps in all of Sunnydale. Buffy gave her Watcher a lot of grief over his car, but she secretly loved it for its extreme Gilesy-ness.

As they started to drive away, a companionable silence fell over them. Buffy was comfortable and happy, and Giles was humming the wild horses song that they had danced to earlier in the evening. Giles stopped humming suddenly and asked, "Do you know who performed that song? I think I would like to have a recording of it. Ah, you know, as a me-me-memento of a pl-pleasant evening."

Buffy glanced over at him, and saw that Giles was blushing so hard that he was actually glowing in the dark. She thought about teasing him about his taste in music, but decided to take pity on him instead. "I don't know who sang it. Sorry. I'm sure that Oz would know, though. Or maybe Willow."

"Quite. I'll ask one of them in the morning." Giles started drumming the steering wheel with his fingers nervously, and Buffy wondered what was going through his mind. Before she could ask, Giles startled her by saying, "I'm glad that Willow didn't do that spell on you. You looked wonderful tonight."

"Really? Don't you think that my dress was a little wrinkled?"

Giles chuckled kindly and shook his head. "I barely noticed the dress."

Feeling insulted, Buffy demanded, "Then what? I know it's not my hair! I was going to put it up like Willow, but there was no way to do that after Slaying. This isn't how I imagined looking at my prom at all! But you like the look anyway?"

"It's you, Buffy," Giles said earnestly. "You looked happy tonight. It's a good look on you; you should try it more often."

Buffy was touched by the compliment, but she decided to deflect the impact with some gentle teasing. "Yeah, and when did you become the expert on female beauty tips?"

"I happen to have a good friend who is a model," Giles said loftily. "She keeps me informed of all the latest trends concerning women's fashions."

"Yeah, right," Buffy giggled. "You and a fashion model. I can just see it." Giles looked somewhat put out, and Buffy found herself wondering whether his claim might be true. He did have a habit of surprising her every time she tried to pigeon-hole him.

He didn't call her on her disbelief. Instead he observed, "Well, here we are. I expect to see you at the library bright and early tomorrow morning. Don't wear nice clothes, as we will be burning the corpses of the hellhounds that you killed earlier this evening."

Buffy grimaced in disgust. "Goody! Just what I always enjoy doing on a Saturday! Can't I institute a I Slay em, you burn em' policy? I'm sure that the Slayer Handbook would back me up on this one..."

Giles grinned. "Then it's a good job for me that I never gave you the Handbook, isn't it?"

Still scowling, Buffy climbed out of the car. "Good night, Giles."

Giles smiled affectionately at her, and Buffy was overwhelmed by how lucky she was to have him as her Watcher ... and as her friend. "Good night, Buffy. Sweet dreams."

"You too, Giles. I'll see you in the morning." She grinned wickedly. "But not too early..."

Giles was chuckling as he drove away, and Buffy went into the house thinking fondly of her favorite Watcher. He was a good guy.

THE END

Okay, this ending was for Buffy. The Watcher-Slayer relationship is intact, maybe a bit stronger than before, and she didn't have to face any scary emotions. Yay for her, boring for us. Doesn't she know that faint hearts never won gorgeous librarians? If you think that Buffy should have shown a little gumption at the end of the prom, go to part ten.