Chapter 5

After a huddled conference in the downstairs hallway, the Scoobies decided to send Xander after Giles while Dawn and Willow went to talk to Buffy.

Xander was not relishing the conversation as he headed out the door, wondering where Giles would have gone. It took him only seconds to make a decision.

Sure enough, he found the former librarian standing in front of the new high school, hands shoved deep into his pockets, chin tucked into his chest.

"Geez, Giles, that is the ugliest damn sweater ever," Xander blurted. "Makes me want to gouge my eyes out."

Giles ignored him.

"Come on, G-man, gray? I mean, seriously."

"I'm surprised my display earlier didn't effect your eyes more than my maligned sweater," Giles muttered back.

Xander breathed a sigh of relief. At least the G-man was talking.

"What, with the kissage? I'll let you in on a secret. We've been expecting Giles and Buffy lip-locking since Buffy…came back."

Giles looked at him startled. "But, I never…I mean, Buffy is beautiful And powerful. And…but she's so much younger than me! She's a child."

"Ah, now I get it."

The older man glared at him. "What, exactly, do you 'get'?" he snapped.

"She's not that much younger, anymore, is she? Maybe a couple of years. And she's still beautiful and powerful and whatever the other 'and' was going to be, which if it was me, would have had something to do with the length of her skirts, and shall therefore remain unspoken.

"Add in the elimination of the Watchers' Council and thereby the rules, and she's not forbidden fruit any more. And let's not forget the longing Buffy looks. So you can finally admit how much you want her."

Giles expression went from a full-out glare to astonishment.

"Xander, your insight often surprises me."

Xander shrugged. "I keep my eyes open, that's all."

Giles smiled, an expression that quickly faded. "Oh dear Lord. Buffy must hate me. I've been a complete prat."

"Running off in the middle of your first kiss, probably not the best move, no. But, hey, it's not like you left her at the altar!" Xander said. Giles looked at him sourly. The younger man patted Giles on the shoulder. "Let's get you back to her."

Back on Revello Drive, Buffy was sitting on her bed holding Mr. Gordo and staring out her window. Willow and Dawn didn't bother to knock, instead barging right in. They had had a long conference in the hallway before entering, and thought they had their lines down. The fact that Buffy had no response to their rude entry made the two girls exchange worried looks.

"What's up, Buffy?" Willow asked tentatively.

"I'm sure Xander filled you in. I chased Giles away."

"That's not what Xander said," Dawn said. She sat down next to her sister, ignoring the fact that Buffy refused to meet her eye. "Xander said there was major lip wrestling going on, he startled you two, and Giles bolted."

"Like I said, I chased Giles away."

Dawn looked at her sister, who now looked more like her mother, and sighed. A deep, heartfelt sigh that only an exasperated teenager could produce.

"Xander interrupting my first kiss would probably make me all dashy too," Dawn said. "It was your first kiss with Giles, right? How was it?"

"Yeah, Buffy, dish," Willow said.

"Dish? Dish?" Buffy exploded, leaping off the bed and flinging the stuffed pig across the room. "I just scared off my Watcher, my Giles, the only man who has ever stood by me, well, other than Xander, and most of the time, and you want me to dish on our first kiss?"

"Somewhere in all that, there was a statement that made sense," Willow said. She paused. "I think."

"Oh, Will, I don't know what to do! I've wanted him for so long, and I kept it so buried since he went back to England and now….now, I've ruined everything!" she burst into tears on her friend's shoulder while Dawn rubbed her back, shushing her. She and Willow exchanged wry looks. So much for the script.

"For pity's sake, what is wrong with you people?" demanded a woman's voice from the doorway. The three girls swung to see Gizelda standing in the doorway, arms crossed, foot tapping and a very annoyed expression on her face. "I tell you the Slayer's dying, I get giggles. She gets kissed, and now there's tears. I swear, what is your problem?"

Buffy dashed tears from her face and crossed her own arms. Looking past the witch, she could see Potentials huddled behind her in the hallway, whispering to each other.

"Let me through, please, girls." Her stomach leapt, then dropped. Giles! Giles' voice. He came back. Oh, God, what should she do? "Girls, let me through!"

The group of "mini-slayers," as Xander had begun calling them, reshuffled to allow Giles access to Buffy's bedroom. He pushed past Gizelda without an apology, eyes on his Slayer, who seemed to be frozen as she stared at him.

Crossing the room, he took her in his arms, whispered something in her ear, and, in front of everyone, kissed her.

"Aww…." Willow and Dawn said together, smiling at Xander, who was hovering in the doorway behind the witch. She was looking, if anything, more annoyed.

"Ahem!" she said, clearing her throat. "AHEM!"

Buffy and Giles broke apart, flushed and slightly disheveled. His arm around Buffy's shoulder, Giles turned them to face Gizelda.

"You have news?" he asked her.

She sighed. "Yes, I do. We can…adjust the original spell, returning Buffy to her proper age, but it will probably interfere with the long-term timeline. We have no way of knowing if Buffy would have the remaining 20 years she is destined to have.

"If we leave Buffy as she is, we believe she will, as Rupert proposed, continue to age at a normal rate for another 20 years. Assuming, of course, no other magic or Apocalypse throws the timeline out of kilter."

"Big assumption," Xander muttered. The woman glared over her shoulder at him and he shrugged.

"Giles?" Buffy asked softly. He looked down at her, marveling again at the differences in her so-familiar face.

"Yes love?" He smiled.

"I think we need to talk." Buffy felt Giles stiffen, and his arm slowly dropped away from her shoulders.

"If we could have some privacy, please?" Giles asked the rest, and they shuffled quietly out of the room, casting worried glances over their shoulders at Watcher and Slayer.