Title: A Change in Perspective 3/5
Author: Kim
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They belong to Joss, ME, Fox etc. Although I'm sure they have more fun in my world. Feedback: Thanks, I'd love some! Please don't make me beg. I would especially love constructive criticism. Anything to make the final product better.

Halloween night came all too quickly. The gang had spent the time leading up to it in secretive plans. Buffy looked around the living room one final time.

She and Dawn had gone on a decorating spree. Buffy couldn't remember the last time the two of them had spent so much time together. They had carved pumpkins and hung cobwebs, laughing the whole time. Buffy couldn't wait to see everyone's costumes. She hoped hers was good enough to win tonight. She had her eyes on a new pair of boots. Ultimately, though, what she really wanted to know was who Giles would be. 'Maybe he'll be Spike,' she thought. Not that Buffy found Spike attractive, but the thought of Giles in black leather made her shiver. 'Good God, where did that thought come from?' she wondered.

The doorbell rang. "Dawn," Buffy called up the stairs, "People are starting to get here."

Buffy opened the door, a hello on her lips, and froze. Giles stood awkwardly in front of her, trying very hard not to make eye contact. Buffy let her eyes start at Giles' feet, encased in lovely red slingback shoes. She slowly raised her gaze, taking in the charming red and white wrap dress, finishing with the strawberry blond wig. He had done his make-up, which included red lipstick to match the dress. His glasses were conspicuously absent. Her eyes went back down to his chest, where a gold necklace with a green stone rested in his *cleavage??* `Wow, he really went all out for this she thought." Suddenly getting those boots seemed like a very distant possibility.

"So, Anya huh?" Buffy asked, breaking the silence.

Giles finally looked up. "Yes, Buf, er, Xander," he replied. "You're looking particularly, um, interesting tonight."

Buffy preened under his gaze. She was proud of the costume that she had gotten at the Salvation Army. She had considered doing "Xander" in all his ill-matching glory, but couldn't bring herself to wear stripes and plaid together. Instead, she had chosen to be Xander from their cursed costume Halloween stint. All in all, Buffy thought she looked rather smashing in fatigue pants, a tight fighting green t-shirt, and combat boots. She had her hair tucked up under an army cap, so she didn't have to worry about dyeing her hair brown. Rounding out the outfit were dog tags and a toy machine gun that she had on a strap slung around her back.

Buffy moved out of the way so Giles could enter. She noticed that he didn't really have any difficulty walking in the heels.

As she was shutting the door, she saw Xander walking up the steps. She started laughing, finally clutching the doorframe to keep from falling over. "Oh God, Dawn, you look hilarious. You are Dawn, right?"

"Very funny, of course I'm Dawn."

Giles had come back to the door when he heard Buffy laughing. Looking at Xander, he, too, started chuckling. Xander looked uncomfortable to say the least. He had on low-rise blue jeans that flared at the bottom and a crimson short-sleeved top that left his midriff showing. A black choker and black boots finished out the outfit. The crowning piece was the long brown wig. Buffy had to give him credit though; he had Dawn down to a tee, including the incredible amount of lip gloss she liked to wear.

Buffy finally got her laughing under control and stepped aside to let Xander enter. Dawn was coming down the stairs, "What's so funny?" she asked until she noticed Xander. She was the only person in the room who didn't find his outfit funny. "Nice outfit," she commented. "Although I don't think my, I mean your, chest is usually that flat."

"Crap," Xander exclaimed, "I knew I forgot something."

"Shouldn't someone be with you?" Buffy asked Xander.

"Oh, she, um, he, said she'd be along later. Didn't want me to see the costume. I'm not sure who will walk in that door." Xander said. "Anyway, I've got all the candy goodness. Where do you want me to put it?"

"I've got bowls set around," Buffy said. "Distribute at will."

As Xander moved around the room filling the bowls with candy, the doorbell rang and Dawn went to get it. Standing outside were Tara and Willow. Tara and Dawn simply stared at one another for a minute. Dawn was dressed in a long skirt with a peasant blouse and a straight blond wig. She quickly reminded herself that she needed to get into character. Dropping her face, she looked up at Tara through a veil of bangs. "C-c-come in, Mr. Giles."

Tara entered and Buffy, again, started to chuckle. Tara had on a full tweed suit that screamed early Watcher. She even had on a pair of glasses that she took off and started to polish as she walked in the door. Tara's entrance, however, did nothing to prepare Buffy for Willow's.

Everyone in the room turned to look at Willow when she walked in. Xander gave a low wolf whistle, "My, my Miss Summers, I haven't seen you wear an outfit like that in a long time."

Willow was dressed like Buffy from their first year of high school together. She had on a miniscule black skirt that was just this side of indecent and a tight blue halter top with a plunging neckline. She stood several inches taller with platform boots that reached to her knees. A large silver crucifix hung around her neck. "Hi," Willow said, flipping her shoulder-length blond wig, "I'm Buffy, can I slay something for you?"

Buffy couldn't believe it. `Geez, no wonder there were rumors about me floating around the high school if I dressed like that,' she thought.

Willow moved into the center of the room. "Okay guys, Giles here and I brought the tunage, although you know, he wanted to bring the Bay City Rollers. So, let's get this party started." Willow was enjoying herself immensely. She had decided that tonight was her chance to let go and be the center of attention for a little while. See how Buffy lived.

Xander, getting into the swing of things, said, "Oooh, I really hope you brought the new N-Sync CD, they are totally chill."

Dawn rolled her eyes at that comment and went to sit quietly on the couch. `At least Tara doesn't say a lot, so I won't have to think of what she would say,' she thought.

Willow went to the stereo and put in a CD. As the pounding music started, Buffy got a mischievous idea. Going over to Giles, she held out her hand, "Come on Anya, let's dance."

For a moment, Giles almost refused. Then, he saw the glint of challenge in Buffy's eye. She was sure that he was going to turn her down and that would be a strike against him for staying in character. `Oh well,' he thought, making a mental decision to abandon all sense of decorum for the evening, `this lot needs to see what true acting is all about.'

Giles put his hand in Buffy's. "Okay Xander, we can dance. But remember to let me lead this time. I'm a lot better at it than you are." With that, he pulled Buffy into the center of the room and they started to dance.

Xander flung his hands in the air and whined, "No one wants to dance with me. This isn't fair." With that he went over and plopped onto the couch next to Dawn.

Dawn leaned over, "It's okay Dawnie, someone will dance with you later." She leaned closer to Xander as she spoke. "Okay Harris," she gritted out between teeth clenched into a smile. "You'd better watch with the pouting jokes or else."

Xander leaned back in surprise. He wasn't going to take that. "No, everyone will want to dance with Buffy; no one will want to dance with me. I'm going to pout all night about it." With a cheeky grin at Dawn, he moved off the couch to grab a piece of candy.

After watching Buffy and Giles' dancing for a moment, Willow walked over to Tara. "So, Giles," she said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger, "Wanna dance?"

"Oh, er, um, really B-b-buffy, I don't think that would be appropriate," Tara replied in her best imitation of Giles' stutter. "B-b-besides, you know this n-n-noise isn't really music."

Unbeknownst to everyone else, Willow and Tara had shared their costume identities with each other before the party. Once they had discovered that they would be portraying the Slayer and her Watcher, they decided to make the most of the evening. Willow had informed Tara that she thought Buffy and Giles had feelings for each other. Deeply buried and repressed feelings, but they were there. And they were never going to admit those feelings without a little prodding. The two had come up with a plan to drop as many hints about how others perceived Buffy and Giles' relationship in the hopes of opening the pair's eyes.

"Oh come on Giles, I bet you've wanted to ask me to dance for years," Willow said, leaning a little closer, giving *him* a good look down her shirt.

"Well," Tara replied, pulling off her glasses for yet another polish, "You were quite lovely at the Prom. And I did feel badly that I didn't get to dance with you that night."

"So let's dance already," Willow said, taking Tara by the hand and starting to move.

Buffy and Giles had heard the exchange between Willow and Tara.

`Did he really want to dance with me back then?" Buffy wondered. `Why didn't he ask me? Oh yeah, probably because Angel showed up.' Strangely enough, dancing with Giles didn't freak Buffy out as she thought it might. In fact, she and Giles had spent a lot of the past year getting closer together after the debacle of her freshmen year in college. After Glory, when Willow and the others had brought her back, Giles had been the only thing that made sense to her. He had helped her to deal with being pulled out of heaven. They had been spending a lot of time reconnecting on a Slayer/Watcher level as well as on a personal level.

`I'm certainly dancing with him here right now,' she thought. `I wonder how far I can push this tonight? Guess I'll just have to find out.'

Reaching out she pulled Giles a little closer. "You know, Anya, hon, you really look beautiful tonight."

"Why, thank you Xander," Giles replied, a smile lighting up his gorgeous green eyes. "You look very handsome and masculine yourself."

Buffy grinned. Giles really had Anya's routine down. It probably helped that he worked with her everyday.

"Of course," Giles continued, "this isn't nearly as fun as the dirty dancing we do when we're in our apartment." Buffy simply stared at him for a moment, not sure how to respond.

In the din of the music and dancing, no one heard the door open, nor did they see Anya step into the room.

Anya stood, surveying the room. She was very excited about the party and her costume. Role-playing was one of her favorite games, just ask Xander.

Xander finally noticed Anya from across the room. "These costumes just keep getting better and better."

"Huh?" Buffy and Willow asked at the same time. They turned their heads to see what Xander was looking at.

"The Big Bad's here," Anya announced. Her costume was an exact replica of Spike's usual outfit, down to the black leather duster. She had bleached her hair and slicked it back into a low ponytail on her neck. "I brought a Sex Pistols CD so we could listen to some real music."

Locking eyes with Willow across the room, Anya stalked over to her. "Well, well, well, Slayer, ain't you lookin all ready for a bit o' fun tonight?" she leered.

Buffy snorted at the same time Willow flipped her hair again. "Eiww Spike, no thanks, I'm having fun with Giles tonight."

Anya raised her eyebrows in silent understanding. So tonight they were finally going to try and push Buffy and Giles together. Maybe once he had a regular orgasm partner, he'd stop hanging around the shop getting in her way so much. Shrugging she replied, "Your loss, Slayer."

As the two couples started dancing again, she looked at Xander, "Hey Niblet, wanna dance?"

Xander bounced excitedly. "You want to dance with me? No one ever wants to pay attention to me." He hurried across the room to her and they started to dance.

On the couch Dawn tried hard not to pout. Now she really wasn't getting any attention.

Amidst the dancing, Buffy was enjoying the occasional brush of Giles' body against hers. Taking a chance, she grabbed Giles firmly about the hips. "Now," she said, pulling him up against her, "about that dirty dancing you mentioned a few moments ago."

Giles felt a thrill rush through him. He couldn't deny that on some level he had been attracted to Buffy for a very long time. Their recent bonding had only reinforced his feelings for her. Feelings he was sure he was going to have to spend the rest of his life hiding. `I suppose I might as well make the best of tonight then,' he thought. `I might never have this opportunity again.' He wrapped his arms around Buffy's neck and ground against her.

Tara and Willow stopped briefly in amazement at the two next to them. Maybe this was going to be easier than they thought.

"Hey," Dawn said as she walked over to the stereo and turned down the music. "Aren't we missing someone?"

As if on cue, Spike walked in the door. Everyone in the room stared at him in shock.

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