First chapter = disclaimers.
Muwhaaaaaa! The evil cliffhanger chapter awaits you!
Not all is as it seems, I promise you that.
Warning: Very B/G stuff in this chapter. I thought I might put this in for those of you who have been reading this as purely a friendship type fic and might not like that aspect.
Many thanks to the person who suggested a "misunderstanding" moment. (Yes, I'm much too lazy to go look up and find out who you are :)
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Buffy fiddled with the small mortar and pestle that was sitting on the floor in front of her. The entire family had been uncharacteristically quiet when she had come down from seeing Giles. The afore mentioned Watcher was still sitting up in their room and had basically left Buffy to her own devices.
Iris had started puttering about with various herbs and a small magic book, so Buffy out of her boredom had volunteered to help her out.
Iris glanced shyly at Buffy as she handed over a group of leaves to get pulverized. "Are you certain that you don't mind? I can do this myself."
"Me? Nah, my best friend is a Wicca. I'm down with the whole burning dried plants thing," Buffy replied as she began to grind the plant matter into a fine dust.
"Really?" Iris asked.
"Yup, doesn't bother me a bit."
"No, I meant your friend."
"Oh yeah, Willow was kind of a shy girl when we met. Big into school and computers and stuff, now she's a super smart and does the whole magic thing."
"Is she very good at it?" Iris asked intrigued.
"She's," Buffy suddenly felt several pairs of eyes on her. She knew that it probably was not a very good idea to talk about Willow too much given the fact that Giles family probably would not take to the idea, and at the moment Buffy did not feel like provoking them any more than necessary. "Willow is pretty good, but she's got the whole college thing going, so it's more of something she does in her spare time." Buffy tried desperately not to wince at the lie.
"Does Rupert know her?" Grace's voice was soft and unusually inquisitive.
"Yeah, Willow and I are best friends. She used to hang out in the library a lot with me."
"Do you have many other friends?" Grace asked in return, for a change not being abrasive in her questioning.
The change in Grace's demeanor was marked, so Buffy answered her question with her normal civility that she used towards normal people. "Well, there's Xander and his girlfriend Anya, and there's Tara too. My Mom, but she doesn't really like Giles much."
"No, I don't suppose that she would," Grace responded.
Buffy's eyes flew up in a challenging glare only to meet a pair of green ones crinkling in amusement. She would have said something witty, but those eyes reminded her too much of her Watcher's eyes.
Grace chuckled at the look on Buffy's face. "Oh come now, the two of us don't get on famously, but I can imagine what it is like for your mother. I don't suppose any woman would want her little girl taken away from her by a man old enough to be her father."
Buffy blushed and opened her mouth to correct Grace before she remembered that she and Giles were engaged as far as his family was concerned. Finding nothing to say, Buffy turned and looked back down at the now powdered herbs.
"Have you set a date yet?" Nancy's voice carried softly over to Buffy.
"A date for what?" Buffy asked distractedly.
"The wedding," Nancy answered her.
"The wedding," Buffy squeaked, "Ummm, not really. Sometime in the summer when there's lots of daylight I suppose. Not this summer, but maybe next summer or maybe not…" she stammered to a halt.
"Can obviously see that Rupert is the brains in that relationship," George muttered from behind his newspaper.
Buffy grit her teeth. Just when she had started to find a few redeeming virtues strung out amongst Giles' relatives…
"Pillock," Buffy said in a sugary sweet voice.
George whipped the paper down. His face went from white to a blustery red. "Do not use that sort of language in my house, young lady! You are a guest, and so far your behavior has been most unbecoming of you."
"And I suppose that your two sons trying to take pictures of me wrapped in nothing but a towel is the model of civility? And don't even try to pretend that wasn't what they were doing. I might not have Giles' IQ, but I'm not an idiot. It isn't my fault that Rupert can pick up a woman half his age while you live with the queen of the artic tundra."
George's mouth opened and closed several times, but no sound issued forth. The twins cringed at the angry face their father had. Iris looked alarmed. Well, really everyone in the room looked alarmed except for Buffy. She figured that there was very little that George could do to her that had not been done by The Master, Angelus, The Mayor, or Adam.
"HOW DARE YOU?" George bellowed.
"How dare I what?" Buffy asked in the voice that she normally reserved for taunting vampires. In fact, the Slayer side of her was desperately hoping for a fight. She had not killed anything in ages.
"How dare you come into my home and insult me in such a fashion?"
"How dare you take Giles' home and family away from him in the first place? You know, the rest of your family seems to have at least gotten a clue that they treated Giles badly, but you have got to be as dense as a sarcophagus."
"I… what?" George's face took on a look of bewilderment, "A sarcophagus?"
Buffy shrugged. "The word just sort of came to me."
Robert's eyes widened marginally. His eyebrows rose up fractionally, and Buffy knew what he was going to say before he said it.
"Oh, Dear Lord."
"What?" George asked his father.
Robert shook his head to clear the thought. "It's nothing. Do continue with your pointless argument, son."
"Pointless? What do you mean, pointless?" George sounded wounded.
"I mean that we are all dancing around a very big topic, and you are taking it out on Rupert's fiancée. This reunion was supposed to be about rejoining us as a family, but so far all we have accomplished is to further alienate your brother. And as far as the rest of us are concerned, the only two that have really done any reconciling are your mother and I."
George shook his head. "That isn't true. Rupert's girlfriend started all this bickering in the first place."
"Is that really true, George?" Nancy's soft voice interrupted, "If Buffy weren't here to take shots at, we would either be not talking or fighting amongst ourselves. As it is, we have been avoiding each other as much as possible."
"They are right," Grace added.
George looked around at the various members, "Well what else can we do?"
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Buffy crept timidly into their room. Giles was still sitting on the edge of his bed staring out the window, except that he was now dressed.
"Gave up the natural Watcher look, huh?" Buffy teased as she seated herself next to him.
Giles smiled. "I got a bit chilled the other way. There was nothing to keep me warm."
Buffy nodded, and they drifted into an awkward silence.
"How did things go downstairs?" Giles asked after a moment.
"Okay, I guess. There was talking, so it wasn't all silence and guilt laden breathing," Buffy evaded.
"You can tell me Buffy, they are my family. I shan't be surprised at anything that they do."
"It's just… Giles, have I ever told you how much you really, really mean to me?"
"Not in so many words," Giles replied uncomfortably. He would have reached for his glasses had they not still been sitting on top of the dresser where he had placed them before he went to take his shower that morning.
"Well, you do. I'm not sure I could live without you. You mean the world to me, and I can't help but worry about this changing our entire relationship."
"This?" Giles inquired softly.
"I..I have to tell you something, Giles. And I'm not sure that I can live with you not liking what I've got to tell you…" Buffy trailed off.
Giles focused his eyes on her and felt his breathing and heart rate speed up a bit. She was not saying what he thought she was. Was she saying what he thought she was? Ever since he had placed that ring on her finger, he had not been able to help the errant thoughts that crossed his mind. Thoughts of how much he cared for Buffy, deeply denied bouts of longing that rose occasionally to the surface.
After his initial embarrassment with the morning's happenings, Giles had sat and analyzed why exactly he had become so completely upset. What he had told Buffy earlier was true, but there had been something else. When he stumbled upon that something else, he had been quite shocked. He had fallen in love with his Slayer. He could not say exactly when it had started, but he knew that regardless of when it was there now.
Perhaps Buffy had come to the same conclusion. The way she was speaking seemed to indicate that she did.
Giles let his hand rise to push back a lock of hair from her face. His eyes centered on hers as that same hand began to cup her face.
"I am certain that it will change some things, and your friends and mother would have to make some adjustments, but I could never be upset with you to that degree over this sort of thing. In fact, I'm quite happy about it."
"You are?" Buffy looked skeptical.
"I am," Giles' voice was barely a whisper.
"How did you know?" Buffy's forehead wrinkled in confusion.
"I suppose that I was hoping for this to happen, but I really did not think that it would until you started talking."
"Oh," Buffy said, still confused.
Giles chuckled softly. Instead of answering with words, he took Buffy by surprise and quickly pressed his mouth against hers.
Instinctively, Buffy responded as her brain was still trying to figure out their whole conversation and had not yet reached the 'My Watcher is trying to play tonsil hockey with me!' thought.
Giles' tongue battled with Buffy's for a moment before he pulled her onto his lap for better access to her lips. It was at that moment that Buffy's brain processed the fact that she was kissing Giles. One moment, Giles had the very warm and pleasant weight of his Slayer in his lap. The next, she was half way across the room staring at him in shock.
"What was that?" Buffy gestured helplessly at Giles.
"I thought it was rather obvious," Giles replied not sure of what else he was supposed to say.
"Well yeah, but you know that isn't what I meant. I mean one moment I'm telling you that your family has decided to have the rest of their reunion in Sunnydale, and the next I'm finding out that you taste all, all… Gilesy."
It naturally did not take Giles brain very long to realize that he had drastically misread their conversation. He buried his head in his hands in shame.
"Oh Dear Lord," was all he muttered.