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'm so sorry this chapter took so long. I had started a chapter before this that I was really struggling with and just ended up vetoing. I've also been really ill over the past week or so which hasn't helped at all. I have just passed Tabula Rasa in Buffy though which I think has been my favourite episode so far or at least one of them!
Thank you for the favourites and follows and reviews so far! I hope you continue to enjoy!
"Maria." Giles said gently, nudging her.
He didn't really want to wake her up. She looked so peaceful and he knew she had been hitting the books just as hard as him, if not harder (as that was the only thing she saw she could contribute), trying to find out about the ascension, how to stop it, how best to help Buffy. Giles didn't think he'd ever been more grateful for her companionship.
Her natural sleeping state seemed to be with a book in her hand and it was no different here in the library apparently, where she'd nodded off, head balanced on her fist, book on her lap.
"Maria." Giles said again giving her another nudge.
Now was the time for her to go, now was the time for her to leave Sunnydale, especially after the Mayors surprise visit and the realisation he was invulnerable. Giles wouldn't ask her to stay through that. He wouldn't let her sacrifice herself in that way, that was for him and the others; well him and Buffy.
He kept choking off the thought of her dying. There were any number of ways and they kept flashing across his mind, paired often with thoughts of Jenny. He should have told Jenny to go when he'd had the chance. Of course, if the end of the world was coming, Maria would probably end up gone one way or the other, but even that caused a pain in his chest. Now would be the perfect time to tell her about how he felt but he also didn't want to run the risk of her thinking that his admission was only because of the end of the world.
Maria stirred, opening her mouth in a slightly pained expression as she moved her neck from side to side.
"I think I'm getting too old to be falling asleep like this." Maria said rubbing her neck and scooping up the book she'd been making her way through and just like that Giles forgot about asking her to leave.
"I thought we'd have the upper hand given Anya's knowledge but I still feel like we don't know enough." Giles replied.
"We'll get there." Maria said. "I need coffee. Do you still have those Robusta Beans I gave you?" She yawned, getting up out of her seat and started towards his office. "I was wondering, you know, if you'd teach me to sword fight, when this is over." She asked chewing her lip.
"It was hardly sword fighting." Giles replied with a grin.
"It looked like it and it looked cool, well you did, Wesley looked more-"
"Uncool?" Giles suggested raising a brow. He liked the compliment though, even if Maria saying something looked cool seemed ridiculous.
"It doesn't have to be sword fighting- just- I mean, now I know all about this world, now I'm helping you out I think I should at least know a few tips and tricks to be able to defend myself. Even how to punch right would be a start." Maria said.
Giles watched her, he always loved how animated she got when she talked. Suddenly he was overcome with a sadness he couldn't place. She couldn't stay here. He couldn't risk losing her. So, he hadn't asked her to dinner yet, hadn't plucked up the courage to kiss her during their many long nights in the library. So, he hadn't been able to tell her how he felt, that didn't mean he didn't feel it.
"Maria you need to leave." Giles said quietly.
Maria turned to look at him and then looked around the library, holding her stance like she was ready to see a demon.
"What's wrong? Is there something here?" She whispered back, eyes darting around the room.
"No." Giles swallowed and sighed. "You need to leave town, you need to go home and pack now before all of this comes-"
"I'm not going anywhere." Maria replied. "Rupert are you being serious? I'm not going to leave you here, when there's the potential a 50ft demon is going to spring out of the Mayor and kill you."
"Maria this is- it's not safe." Giles pointed out.
"This whole town isn't safe." Maria replied rolling her eyes.
"There's nothin-" Giles started and Maria cut him off.
"I can do? Tell me which of the teenagers involved in this can read in multiple languages and two books at once." Maria braced a hand on her hip and if the situation weren't so dire Giles might have admired how being annoyed made her look. "I may not be a- a- fighter in the traditional sense. I can't kick arse like Buffy, Xander or you and I'm not amazingly technically savvy like Willow, but I have my uses and I'm going to stay here and put them to- well to use."
Giles opened his mouth to argue but there was a crashing noise from the other end of the library. Buffy had come through the door supporting Angel who had an arrow sticking clean out of his chest.
"Nobody's going to shoot me." Maria hissed at him when Giles looked at her with a raised brow again.
#?#
As the rubble of Sunnydale High burned to ashes, Giles found himself torn. Too many people to look for to check on. Whilst he knew that Buffy and the others should be his first priority, he knew that each of them would be looking for the others. That, he reasoned, was why he was so intent on finding Maria. Scouring the distance for her.
She emerged from the smoke and mist rubbing the arm of a rather shell-shocked student, before handing them off to a group of their peers.
"I told you nobody was going to shoot me." Maria grinned at him. Giles pulled her into a hug and Maria flushed at the unusual display of affection. Maria wrapped her arms back around him and inhaled. He didn't quite smell like Rupert right now, what with the smoke and demon in the air but it was still there, beneath it all. She loved that smell; like books and coffee and cigarettes, with something else mixed in. She didn't know whether it was shampoo or after-shave but it was just something that only smelt like Giles. She hated the way it felt like home, being in his arms like this felt like home. Felt right. She didn't want to let go, didn't want him to let go.
"You alright?" Giles pulled back, coughing awkwardly after a moment too long.
"I was almost eaten by a vampire and just watched the Mayor turn into a giant reptile-" Maria paused to wipe her head with the back of her hand. "It's all a bit exciting isn't it." She grinned at him with a twinkle in her eye that said, none of this, as it hadn't before, had quelled her curiosity for this new world he'd brought her into.
"So-" She chewed the inside of her lip and Giles couldn't help thinking again how perfect this moment would be to kiss her. Wasn't that what romantic heroes did? Wouldn't it be kind of bad-ass (as Buffy might say) considering they'd defeated a monster and the school was burning away behind them. "-does this mean you'll teach me how to sword fight? And punch properly?"
"I suppose I'll have to yes."
"I think I'd quite like to learn how to use a baseball bat too, though I suppose that's not really weaponry is it, of course there's cricket bats but I think they'd be far more difficult. Imagine trying to see off the undead with a cricket bat." Maria rambled. Inside her stomach and chest seemed littered with butterflies. How romantic it would be to kiss after surviving the end of the world. How romantic to declare feelings amongst the fire and the rubble. She couldn't though.
No matter how much these feelings threatened to burst forth, she had to keep a lid on them, she was tying herself in knots in her own head. She needed to evaluate her feelings away from everything that had happened, away from the intensity of world ending and shattering revelations. Away from Rupert Giles and his stupidly perfect smile. She needed to evaluate this mess in her chest away from all of this.
Maria banished the thought she was merely avoiding the possibility of rejection, given that her feelings for Rupert Giles and his, well, everything had started long before the things to do with her father, or prom or the end of the world.
"Buffy looks a little lost." Maria swallowed as her eyes landed on the girl. She ignored the voice in her head calling her a coward for moving the subject on. "You should go and check on her." Maria said, noting something torn in Giles' expression. "She needs you."
"What are you going to do?" He asked turning back to Maria as Xander spoke to Buffy.
"Oh, I think after all of today's excitement a bath and a good book are needed. Maybe some sleep, lots of sleep." She admitted on a yawn.
"Just don't fall asleep in the bath." Giles felt something in him sink. Coward the voice in his head shouted. Another missed opportunity.
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