A/N: Not going to disclaimer, of course I don't own Buffy. The only thing I own is the original stuff I've come up with for this fic.
I've only just gotten into Buffy (I know late to the party!) and I LOVE IT. I love the tropes, the romance, the comedy, the fun. I love all of it and I knew I wanted to write something for it. I thought about writing something with Spike because I love him but I decided instead to write something with Giles. This starts about half way through season 3 (just before Wish) as I'm only half-way through season 4 in watching.
I hope you enjoy!
Maria was humming to herself as she set about getting the tea tray ready. Her mind kept flitting between the task at hand and the Librarian who'd come into the tea shop. Her mind also kept replaying the conversation and wondering if she'd made as much of an idiot of herself as she thought. Honestly who talked about burning up insides and chemistry in a first sentence.
Besides all that he was probably very married. Handsome man like that, from England, wouldn't be single long not if there was any truth to women being very taken with a British accent. Which, given what Maria had seen was probably true. He was the first man in the seven months she'd been here that had given her pause. Sunnydale seemed populated with mostly teenagers and then the men were, well married or sunshine beach boys or slightly macho and that was just at the Espresso Cup and in Meryton. Maybe her brain was running with that flash of attraction she felt because it hadn't been able to in so long but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Maria and her father had moved to America eight years ago and Sunnydale, seven months ago after he'd gotten sick. Maria had no idea why her father had chosen Sunnydale but one day he'd suggested it, informed her that it was a perfect place for her to set up the tea shop she'd always dreamed of and Maria had been hard-pressed to resist.
"Dad, I brought you some tea it should help with the-" Maria pushed the door open holding the tray to her hip with one hand but stopped on seeing the two rather large suited men stood in front of her father's desk. "-I didn't realise you had clients, sorry."
"Maria-" Her father stepped up from the desk a little too quickly and the suited men turned to face her, revealing a third in the process. They parted slightly so she could put the tea tray down.
"Now there's something you don't see every day, what a lovely daughter you have." The third man said. He was short, a thinning head of hair and a look about him that gave Maria a bad feeling. He was almost rat-like and the way he appraised her made an uncomfortable feeling creep up her spine.
"Tea and biscuits, how lovely of you- Maria- was it?" he held out a hand for her to shake and when she took it, he leaned in and kissed her fist looking back at her father.
"Yes, thank you Maria." Her father replied with a smile that said he was a little embarrassed to have been brought tea in front of clients.
"I just wanted to tell you I won't be at the shop tomorrow. I told Brienne I'd cover her piano lessons up at the school. Her mother is-" Maria started before she could think. She stopped quickly looking between the men and chewing her lip. "But now is probably not the best time."
"Not right now." Her father replied with a warm, if slightly strained smile.
Maria looked between her father and the other men for a moment. She was trying to figure out if something was wrong or if she'd just walked in on something private. Since getting sick her father saw most of his law clients at the house, in his office. Usually not so late but this wasn't the first time Maria had overstepped her welcome in regard to an important meeting. There was no reason to think anything was untoward, except the slow ill feeling creeping up her spine. That could just have been because the kiss to her fist had made her uncomfortable though, and of course the fact she'd been reading a lot of thrillers lately.
"Pleasure to meet you Maria." The man who'd kissed her fist said with a slight bow.
Maria gave a nod of her head and left closing the door behind her. The voice in her head was probably right, that ill-feeling creeping up her spine was probably just one too many stories. Maybe she ought to put the Christie away for the evening and read something a little more romantic.
#*#
Maria turned and turned again. Sunnydale High was quite confusing in its layout. All she wanted was to find the music room, but she was starting to regret ever agreeing to cover for Brienne. The directions had been useless, but then geography had never been her strong suit.
"Maria?" Giles caught himself, using her first name. Given their rather brief encounters it didn't feel entirely right. "Miss Bingley, what are you doing here?" He asked veering off course and heading down the corridor towards her.
Relief washed over Maria on seeing a familiar face. She'd definitely romanticised that moment in the tea shop between them. It had barely been a conversation and yet she'd thought about it most of the evening. She'd gotten swept up in one romance novel or another and it had fed into her mood, and her daydreams. Flashes of Rupert Giles sweeping her off her feet in the tea shop were incredibly embarrassing in the light of day and she was grateful that no one could see inside her head. Her cheeks coloured a little with embarrassment as he moved towards her.
"Getting lost by all accounts, you don't know where the music room is do you?" She asked. When she turned to him with that smile it knocked him for six again. His brain took a moment to reconnect and his want to grin was replaced with confusion.
"I-I thought you owned the tea shop?" Giles asked looking confused.
"I do." She replied peering into one classroom and then another. "You couldn't point me in the right direction could you. Brienne did tell me, but I'm completely lost."
"Ah yes, it's this way-" Giles gestured with a hand. "Forgive me, are you looking for someone?" Giles looked at her again his brow worrying back into confusion.
"Oh no, I have a lesson to get to." Maria replied. "I didn't stop you from doing something did I?"
"A lesson?" Giles almost stopped in his tracks. He suddenly felt like flaying himself, she was a student and he'd been, well he'd been thinking some rather base thoughts about her in moments of quiet. Brief encounter or no there was something about her that had lodged itself in his mind in a way that a woman hadn't in a while. God, he wanted Buffy to punch him in the face. How could he- but she couldn't be a student. She owned the tea shop. She'd said as much, he was sure of it and she was older, she looked older, there was no way she was a student unless something was amiss-
"Yes." Maria said and then paused to see why he was no longer in step with her. "Oh god not like that, no. Goodness no my high school days are well behind me, 20 years behind me in fact. Give or take."
Giles hoped she couldn't see the relief that washed over him.
"No, my friend, Brienne- she comes into Meryton a lot. She teaches music but her grandmother is sick. She was telling me yesterday. They don't think she's got very long and she's been sliding down hill. She was worried about some of her AP music students, she's been giving them extra piano lessons and she was worried about letting them down. I offered to cover for her." Maria said without missing a breath. "And you didn't need to know all that, I'm sorry, my mouth tends to just keep on running sometimes and I know I should stop talking but I just can't seem to and-"
Maria stopped worrying her fingers between her hands in a way that made Giles want to take them and tell her to stop.
Maria knew she had a problem with talking too much, she'd been very much made aware of it her whole life. Sometimes it was nerves, to fill the silence, sometimes it was nerves that turned to apologies that just ran and ran. Sometimes she just got so excited or passionate she didn't realise she'd run on until the whole room was looking at her and no one else was talking.
"Sorry." She apologised again looking anywhere but him and giving Giles a moment to appraise her curiously, because she was a curious thing and he wanted to know more. She was like a thread he wanted to pull on to see where it led. A mystery to unravel.
"You play piano?" Giles asked her, mouth picking up at the corner.
"I do, nothing Albert Hall standard but I used to play a lot in my youth, and I don't think you ever really lose it. When I get the chance, I do like to flex my fingers along the ivories." Maria replied. "Do you play?"
"Not piano no, Guitar." Giles replied. Moments of a misspent youth slid through his mind and he wondered if Maria would believe his line about Pink Floyd. Probably not.
"Are we talking Sex Pistols Rock Star or more Country Chet Atkins?" Maria asked.
"Oh, I think I'm a little old for Rock Stardom." Giles laughed.
"Nonsense didn't the Pistols recently reunite for a tour?"
"Yes, a few years ago now I think?" Giles replied.
"Maybe we should form a band." Maria laughed. "We can call it Torn Pages and Tea Leaves."
"Would I get more free tea?" Giles joked.
"Maybe, maybe I could repay everyone who listened in tea." Maria laughed.
"I do hope you aren't giving too much away in return for favours and music. Doesn't seem the most feasible business plan, though I suppose it would make you popular amon-" Giles tailed off as he saw the look of slight horror on Maria's face and realised what he might have accidentally been implying. Open mouth and insert foot Giles.
"Oh no, no I didn't, I meant-"
"I think I got what you meant." Maria said, jaw slightly tight, she stalked ahead as they rounded a corner and he felt he'd accidentally pressed on a nerve he hadn't meant too.
"Maria, I didn't mean to imply-" Giles said trying to keep pace with her.
"That what?" She asked daring him to say it.
"I spoke without thought and-" Giles started to try and explain himself.
"Well it's good to know it's only subconsciously you think I might be some sort of Harlot." Maria fired back.
"Maria I didn't-" Giles said trying to explain himself but stopping when she turned back to him with a fire in her eyes that he hadn't really pegged her for. He'd definitely stepped on a nerve and he really hadn't meant too.
"For your information, not that it's any of your business who I do and do not give anything too. I don't just give away whatever to whomever. I'm not some- well- I'm not some, some- I'm not like that. I was just being nice and you seemed in a rush and- and-" She paused to figure out what it was she wanted to say but her words weren't coming out right. Why had she given him the tea for free? Because she'd swooned a little? Because she'd been in a pleasant mood? Because he seemed in a rush? Seemed nice? Because he was a first-time customer? She didn't know, she'd just done it, she hadn't thought.
"and I have more business sense than that." Maria ground out tightly before stalking off up the corridor and leaving Giles perplexed. He really hadn't meant to offend it had just slipped out. He could feel he'd touched a nerve he just wasn't sure which bit of his phrasing had done it. Maybe it really was about her business sense and not about the implied nature of her…. Virtue. A reaction like that from a woman would usually make him want to walk in the other direction but there was that feeling again as he shook his head, the feeling of a thread he wanted to follow. That fire in her eyes had been, well, impressive for a woman who appeared all sweetness and light.
"Who was that?" Buffy's voice appeared behind him, dragging him from his thoughts, quickly followed by Xander's.
"What did you do to hot tea lady? And what is she doing here?"
"That was hot tea lady." Buffy wrinkled her nose before shrugging her shoulders.
"What did you to her?" Xander asked stepping in front of Giles. "You're usually so smooth with the ladies Ripper." Xander teased.
"All this over tea." Giles groaned pushing his finger and thumb up under his glasses and into the corner of his eyes and ignoring Xander.
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