Giles

When it was all over, after Warren was arrested, and the coven had gone home, Buffy came to see him.

She didn't want tea. He sat next to her on the couch, wishing he had something else to do to distract him from the conversation that was coming.

They stared at each other, the silence stretching between them. He was torn between wanting to get this undoubtedly painful conversation over with, and wanting to delay it just a bit longer.

Finally Buffy said, "You go first."

"I-I know that I didn't bring you back from a Hell dimension, and I'm truly sorry for that."

Buffy was quiet for a moment, then said, "It was hard. It still is. But I made a choice. I could have chosen to stay in my hallucination a few weeks ago, and instead I chose to be here. And we can't do anything to change it. I guess we should just try to fix what we can."

Undeserved forgiveness weighed on his chest. "I'm not sure what to apologize for next," he said. "I've made so many mistakes in the last six months."

She nodded, "Yeah, you have." She sat up a bit straighter, her shoulders back. "Whatever massive world-savage thing I'm supposed to be doing against The First, I can't do it without you, and Willow, and everyone else. So I need you to stop being big with sacrificial gestures."

"Right," he replied. Relief began to set in; she was starting to regain her confidence. He hadn't ruined her forever. "Is there anything else I can do to start making this right?"

She crossed her arms over her chest. "You need to trust me to make the right decisions. No more sabotaging and second-guessing me." Then she turned to him with her most intimidating Slayer glare. "And I don't know what's going on with you and Willow, but you'd better not hurt her. Or I'll kill you."

"I'd expect nothing less." As much as he'd like to declare that he'd never hurt Willow, he knew he already had.

Xander

He thought maybe Willow would be hungry after the whole ordeal, but she just picked at the Mongolian Beef, and ate maybe a spoonful of fried rice.

"If you don't like it, I can go get something else for dinner."

"I-I don't know," Willow said. "I'm not sure what I want."

"Why don't I call Tara?" Tara would know how to help her, instead of blundering around like Xander was now. This whole dark-magic-palooza would be right up Tara's alley.

"No!" Willow said. "We had a pretty bad fight. She thought it was too dangerous for me to try this."

The pain in his ribs flared up, and all of his concern turned into anger. "So you decided not to ask my opinion at all? You figured the best way to get what you wanted was to drag me along and not tell me what you were doing?"

"No," Willow said. She looked like she was about to cry, which was completely unfair. Willow crying was one of the worst things in the world. He needed to hold onto his argument, and not give in, dammit, because this was important.

She touched his hand, and he felt the magic buzzing like an electrical current under her skin. "I couldn't tell you. If I had, Giles would have read your mind and he'd never let me get close enough to him. The only chance I had was tricking him. If you'd known, he'd have figured it out right away, because everything is straightforward with you. I'm more-secretive."

He wasn't always straightforward-but if he told her that he'd been the one to summon the musical demon a few months ago, they'd get sidetracked from the real topic of conversation, which was Willow and her secrets.

"So what exactly is going on with you and Giles, anyway?"

"Um. It's complicated?" She turned back towards her food.

He grabbed her shoulder, turning her so she faced him. "Nope. You owe me, big time. Spill."

She ran a hand through her hair, twisting a strand of it around her fingers. "I think I love him, Xand."

"You think?" None of those words made sense together, but for some reason, he zeroed in on that one.

"I'm still kinda getting used to the idea," she said.

"Christ, Will! He's old enough to be your dad!" Then he thought maybe he'd figured it out. "Is this some weird association thing with magic? Like you shared magic with Tara, and you fell in love, and now you think you're in love with Giles because you shared magic with Giles."

"It's not that-" she began.

"Then what? You weren't in love with him before, but that little stunt he tried to pull sealed the deal? You thought it was incredibly hot that he got world-endy with dark magic, and nearly took you with him?"

She pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged on the chair. "It's not magic. I think it was there for a long time, but it was hard to recognize because I still had feelings for Tara. And it was scary because he's older, and because I know everyone else is going to be wigged by it, and he's got all this messed-up stuff from his past that he's still dealing with. And he's intense, and sometimes it's intense in a 'grr' kind of way, not in a sexy way. It just felt a lot simpler when I was in love with Tara."

Still not making any sense. But then, it wasn't like his love life made a lot of sense, either. "What are going to do about it?" he asked.

Her lips turned up in a sort of half-smile. "I'm still figuring that out."

Giles

After the discussion with Buffy, Giles had been struggling between two competing impulses: to start work immediately on making amends to everyone, or to remain in his apartment, wallowing in his guilt. On the whole, making amends was preferable, but he was still weak from the fight. Even walking felt like an odd challenge, as if his legs had forgotten all muscle memory.

He took out his guitar, strummed a few bars of a song, trying to calm his jangled nerves, and as the rhythm of the music drew him in, he started to sing.

I'm gonna love you

Till the heavens stop the rain

I'm gonna love you

Till the stars fall from the sky for you and I

He sensed Willow on the other side of the door. Was that heightened awareness of her a short-term side effect of the magic transfer, or something more permanent?

She let herself in.

"That was really pretty," she said. "What song is it?"

"It's called 'Touch Me,'" he said. "It's by The Doors."

"Oh. I liked it," she said. She blushed, and for a moment he caught a glimpse the shy teenager he'd met years ago. She sat down on the couch, and he sat down next to her, leaving plenty of space between them.

"How are you?" he asked, dreading the answer, but still needing to hear it.

She shrugged. "I'm hanging in there. Some of the magic stuck around, and Catherine's been helping me adjust. Are you ok? That didn't go as smoothly as I thought it would. I didn't want to hurt you."

He snorted. "Except for the crippling guilt, I'm fine."

"If any of that involves me, you can drop it right now. Everyone told me it was dangerous, and I went in anyway. And I'd do it again."

"You wouldn't have had to-"

"Nope, not gonna listen to you beat yourself up. I'm just glad that you're back with us in one piece."

She looked like she was on the verge of tears, and he couldn't help but pull her close to him. It was just a comforting hug; he wouldn't let things drift into inappropriate behavior this time.

"I'm glad you made it through, too. If you had been killed, I'd-" he paused for a moment, as his awareness of her grew stronger and stronger, and it seemed as if words weren't even necessary. The look in Willow's eyes suggested that this heightened awareness was mutual.

Then a wave of magic crested through her, and she hunched over in pain. She retreated from the connection. "Just a little hiccup there. I need a minute to adjust."

Giles waited through a few tense moments as the magic worked through her, until Willow started breathing slower and sat up straighter.

"Willow, I'm sorry you and Tara had a falling-out."

"It wasn't your fault," she said. "And we weren't going to get back together anyway. It took me a long time to figure it out, but I think we'll both be happier that way. If we'd been meant to be, we'd never have let magic-or someone else-get between us. "

His heart lurched; somewhere under his self-loathing lurked a tiny, foolish sliver of hope.

She took his hand in hers. "Giles, I know we're not supposed to make major decisions after getting shot, or after a huge fight with an ex, or after nearly ending the world, or almost getting lost in dark magic. But we both know how we feel about each other now. Can't we try?"

He said, "It's a little more complicated than whether we love each other. I've made a lot of terrible choices, and they left scars. It's unfair to ask you to deal with them when you're just starting out in life."

She squeezed his hand. "I know, but obviously I've got-problems, too. I'm kind of precocious that way. I'd still like to work through them together."

He kissed her hand. "I'd like that, too."

Her face lit up with a smile of such uncomplicated joy that he forgot to breathe for a moment.

Then she pulled him in for a kiss. She tasted of cinnamon gum and hope.