Chapter Three:

Duncan unlocked the dojo with the keys Mike had trusted him with in his second week in Sunnydale. He was looking forward to teaching this new student, Buffy Summers, for several reasons. She was serious about learning martial arts fighting skills, that was certain. He could tell from the look in her eyes as she had watched his class. Such an enthusiastic student was always a pleasure. She was mortal, which meant that he would be able to enjoy simply training her without worrying about her survival. The way she moved suggested that she'd already had quite a lot of training as well as, he suspected, some real life experience

These were all reasons he looked forward to teaching Buffy but mostly, he was hoping that the man who had come with her to the dojo the previous night would come again to see how she did. Duncan thought that perhaps he would; he had seemed protective of her as well as determined that she receive the best possible training. Well, they couldn't look for a more experienced teacher, except among Duncan's own kind. The man had introduced himself as Rupert Giles, and though the teens with him had referred to him simply as Giles, Duncan thought the name Rupert suited him admirably.

Duncan's friends often teased him for being a lady's man, but after four hundred years he no longer cared about the package, but about the person. In fact, he had learned that lesson before he even turned fifty. True, he liked beauty, but it was not a deciding factor in whom he chose to pursue. He'd had many relationships with men in his life and enjoyed most of them. Often, discretion was advisable and that had contributed to the fact that many of his liaisons with other men had not been recorded in his chronicles. In fact, Duncan was quite amused at just how much of his life the supposedly observant Watchers had missed. While he had indeed informed Joe of many details from his past that had previously gone unrecorded, there were just as many that he kept silent on.

This Giles fascinated him. Duncan had a good feel for people most of the time and Giles seemed to have hidden depths which drew the Immortal and made him want to get to know the man better, perhaps intimately. He was honest with himself: hopefully intimately. Even if Giles was not interested in a relationship he seemed to be the type of person that Duncan enjoyed the company of and easily made friends with. So as Duncan put aside his jacket and started to stretch, he had high hopes for the evening, both in the form of his new student and in her mentor.

Buffy and her friends walked through the dojo door, laughing about something that had apparently happened in school that day. Giles trailed in after them, looking slightly preoccupied. Duncan wondered what he was thinking of, the distracted look on his face was quite charming, but he turned his attention, albeit somewhat reluctantly, away from the librarian and towards his student, Buffy.

She was dressed in a purple patterned leotard and jeans. The jeans were the special kind made to be used by martial artists to perform kicks without tearing the crotch of the pants. Duncan had several pairs himself, though right now he was wearing a simple dark blue t-shirt and gray sweatpants. He believed in training in comfortable, but everyday clothing. After all, how many times would someone need fighting skills while dressed in a gi or those spandex exercise clothes that were all the rage?

"All right Buffy, we'll start by finding out how much you know and deciding on what exactly I'll be teaching you. You three, feel free to just sit and watch if you want." He smiled at them as he said that and noticed that Willow reacted to his smile by blushing very slightly. He was not arrogant about his looks but neither was he unobservant of the effects he sometimes caused in others. However, the high school girl was not the one he wished to cause a reaction in. He eyed Giles covertly, but the man was good at masking his emotions and Duncan couldn't tell if he'd noticed that the smile had been aimed at him or not. Well, he'd certainly have more chances later.

Watching her performance with a critical eye, he started Buffy out on a few simple exercises and then began increasing the difficulty. It appeared that she did not have quite as much formal training as he had first suspected, but her practical applications of the skills were very good. Perhaps she wanted extra training because she got into lots of fights. Richie certainly had at that age.

Duncan then started attacking her to get a feel for her defensive skills and had her come at him a few times to test her offensive ones. She was incredible! Especially for her age. Few mortals, besides the ones who had devoted their lives to training, could match an Immortal in sheer fighting skill, and yet Buffy, as young as she was, was able to counter his attacks efficiently, had a few innovative ones of her own, and even managed to throw him twice. Certainly, he was not going all out with her in a simple practice session but still, she was impressive.

Duncan also noticed that she seemed a little puzzled. He glanced over at the three watching them and saw that the two teens were also surprised while Giles looked both slightly shocked and contemplative. Duncan deduced that they had all expected Buffy to do better against him. She was certainly both skilled and strong. In fact, Buffy seemed almost abnormally strong for a girl her age, but perhaps she simply worked out a lot. She was certainly in incredible shape. But still, she needed a lot more experience to be able to match him. He had been fighting for his life for the past four hundred years after all and most of that time had been nowhere near as civilized as the modern era. Duels of honor were not just a quaint historical fact to him, they were memories.

Duncan used the remaining time of the lesson to tighten Buffy's form in preparation for teaching her some more advanced techniques. When they were finished he walked with her over to her friends, who had all stood, getting ready to leave. "You're an incredible fighter, Buffy, especially for someone your age. Now, you mentioned that you wanted to learn the sword, correct?" Buffy nodded, smiling eagerly.

"Okay, how about this. On Mondays, I'll start you with the sword and on Thursdays we'll work on some advanced unarmed combat." When Buffy agreed, he smiled broadly and put his jacket on. "Great! Now, we're going to be doing some fairly intensive training together so we might as well get to know each other better. I know you've got to be hungry." He addressed this to the whole group. When were teens not hungry? "How about we all go out for a late snack and talk. My treat. I just moved here about a month ago and I'd like to know the people here." This time, though he doubted the kids noticed, his smile was specifically directed at Giles, who smiled back a bit hesitantly, seemingly a little surprised when he realized the expression was meant for him.

The three teenagers appeared to have one of those nonverbal conversations that no adult anywhere ever understood and then they all agreed to the plan. Free food was not something to be turned down and besides, they were all obviously curious about him. Giles simply nodded. They all headed out and Duncan locked up. Then he started to lead them to Joe's new place which was only a few blocks away.