Title: Dusty Bottles (Mini-challenge #30)
Author: Neena (varscona_pal@yahoo.ca)
Rating: G
Pairing: none
Feedback: Oooh! Please?
Disclaimer: It’s Joss’ backyard, but he said I could play in it :)
A/N: This is in answer to Gileswench’s Monday mini-challenge #30: Champagne.

Giles had to dig around in the cellar for nearly half an hour before he found it. And it was so covered in dust that when he did find it he nearly overlooked it, mistaking it for just another dusty old bottle. But this wasn’t just any dusty old bottle. This was a bottle with a history.

He’d been twenty-one when he bought it, and it was a proud day. It was the day he’d told his father that the Council had marked him as a PAW—a Potential Active Watcher—and that one day he would have a slayer of his own. Just like his father. Just like his grandmother. And in keeping with the Giles family tradition, he’d purchased the finest bottle of Champagne he could afford (and in his case, he’d even borrowed a bit from his friends so he could get the most expensive bottle in the shop).

Giles sat down on the bottom step and turned the bottle around in his hands, brushing the worst of the dust off with his thumbs. He smiled at the soiled label, remembering how cocky he’d been when he’d brought it home. He never said anything to his father, but he was absolutely sure things would be different for him. He knew without a doubt that this bottle of Champagne would be uncorked at his slayer’s wedding. It would pop ceremoniously in the presence of friends and family on the happiest day of his slayer’s life, and it would mark the end of his duties as a watcher. It was what every PAW dreamed of, and what so few ever achieved. His father and grandmother had never seen their slayers marry. Their Champagne filled the glasses of mourners on the day their slayers met their inevitable fate.

Twice already, Giles had cause to open the bottle. The first time, he was saved that unpleasant task when Buffy cheated death at the hands of the Master. The second time he thought he’d lost her for good. But he couldn’t bring himself to bring out the Champagne. It seemed wrong, somehow, to celebrate Buffy’s death when the Buffy-bot was around, looking so much like her…taking her place.

But this time was different. This time the bottle that had travelled with him for decades had had its time. A tear formed in his eye—he’d been so proud of her.

“Giles—you still down there?” Xander said as he clumped down the bare, wooden steps to join him. “What are you doing? You’ll get your tux all dirty sitting on the stairs like that. You don’t want to walk Buffy down the aisle with dust all over your butt, do you?”

“No, of course not,” said Giles, blinking away his tears. “I just needed to find something. I’ll be up in a minute.”

Xander disappeared up the stairs, leaving Giles alone once more with his thoughts. Upstairs a gathering of friends and family was waiting to head off to the church. Unlike most slayers, Buffy had befriended many people…and demons…and he found himself wishing he’d had the forethought to buy a case of Champagne instead of a single bottle. How he wished his father could be here to see this: the chain broken at last.

With a hearty sigh and a heartier smile, Giles got to his feet and brushed the dust off his trousers. Xander was right—it wouldn’t do to walk his slayer down the aisle with dust on his butt.

END