Chapter 15: Hot and Heavy Breathing

"No, thank you."

"Giles! I promise it's tasty."

"The reason I can justify my infrequent forays into indulgence is that I do not –" pointed glare "- give in otherwise."

"This is ridiculous," Buffy muttered, ripping a piece of cotton candy off her cone and offering it to him. "Please just try it."

Dawn chuckled, but it trailed off as her eyes locked on a lanky boy walking past with a group of friends. "Be right back!" she said, standing and rushing away.

"Not too far!" Buffy called, then looked back to Giles.

"I practically lived off cotton candy and the like when I was her age. Ethan and I, we'd break into fairs and raid the food stands at night, if it was in season." His gaze followed Dawn's own lanky form, now caught up to the boy and his friends. They started talking by a ride – it looked as if they knew one another.

Buffy huffed, catching his attention, and she shoved the sweet treat against his mouth. Surprising him enough that he opened his mouth and she pushed it further. She laughed lightly, realizing a moment too late that her fingers were still on his lips. She yanked her hand back and looked for Dawn, avoiding the awkwardness of the moment.

"It's… more flavorful than I remembered," Giles said, mulling the fast-melting sugar on his tongue.

"Yeah," said Buffy, "artificial flavorings and stuff. Does she really think I'll let her disappear on that ride with those kids?"

"We can wait for her on the other side, Buffy." He squinted as he looked up at the building. "What is the ride?"

"Close encounters of… something. An alien ride."

"This is a part of 'Tomorrow' how, exactly?"

"Science fiction. People need monsters to be from another planet so they don't exist on Earth." Memories of an alien descent on Sunnydale had both Giles and Buffy shaking their heads.

Giles grinned at her, nodding. "Quite a wise observation, Buffy."

"What, you think I don't pay attention when you say stuff?" she asked, quirking a brow at him.

"Not at all," said Giles, standing. "You simply choose to oppose it, or better yet, ignore what I have to say at all."

"Hey!"

He laughed and ducked away from flying cotton candy. "Look, now you've wasted a perfectly good cone of candy."

"No problem, Dad's got it covered."

Giles leveled a look at her as she stood, adjusted her top and wrangled a tote bag onto her shoulder.

"Buffy, don't you think you're going a bit overboard?"

"No," Buffy said, blinking at him. "He said we could have whatever we wanted, stay as long as we wanted, and do whatever we wanted. That's a lot of whatever-we-wanted's, Giles. I'm just doing… whatever I want. Ed." She wrinkled her nose and stepped closer, linking her arm with his. "C'mon, let's go try out the aliens."

"Uh, that's not entirely necessary, is it? I could wait for you out here, a-and –"

"Giles. Just come on the ride. What is the likelihood that you'll ever, and I mean, ever-ever, come back to Disneyland again?"

"With you? None."

"My point, Watcher. Let's go."

Giles sighed, removed his glasses and set to polishing them as they walked. He didn't want to see where she was leading him or the people who were clearly staring at them as they approached. There was only so much a man could take in one day.

"You've fought demons far worse than that, Buffy, really!"

"It was hot breath. On my NECK!" She paced the small room again, her arms crossed and her cheeks flushed. "I really was only acting on instinct, here, Giles!"

"They won't understand, Buffy, you must calm down and think about this rationally." He set to polishing his thoroughly polished glasses. "The worst that can happen is they charge you for the, er, puppet."

"It's a giant, hot-breath-spewing, animatronic alien."

"Nevertheless, it is run by a human."

Buffy pouted and dropped into a chair, her leg jumping spastically with unspent energy. Their wait wasn't terribly long – a suited man carrying a brief case entered, accompanied by one uniformed guard, and sat down across the table from Buffy and Giles. He looked from one to the other then pulled his brief case up onto the table, releasing its latches and pulling two folders from its shallow confines.

"First, let me offer my sincerest apologies for this… mishap. Your tickets will be fully refunded to you prior to your exit from the park."

Buffy and Giles exchanged a glance, then looked to this bureaucrat with renewed interest.

"I don't have a detailed report of the malfunction, but we have reports from the few witnesses who actually saw things as they unfolded. You're very lucky to be alive, Ms. Summers."

Buffy frowned and shifted forward. "What do they say happened?"

The suited man clearly looked uncomfortable and studied her as he spoke. "That there was a malfunction of some kind and you were able to combat a potentially dangerous situation, protecting the other passengers of the attraction."

"Let me hazard a guess," said Giles, leaning forward. "You want us to sign a waiver and consent to keeping whatever went on there a secret."

"The park would prefer this not get leaked to the press to protect its reputation as a safe and respectable vacation spot, yes."

Giles nodded and waved at the folders, impatient. "Well let's get this done. I have a fifteen year old who needs my attention."

**A/N: I have no idea if Disneyland CA sells cones of cotton candy. Let's just assume for the sake of my peace of mind that they do. Close Encounters, however, DOES exist, at least in FL, and it is one helluva fun little attraction. I'll never forget that hot breath business… y'know, unless I go senile or something. XD