Title: Tender Loving 1/2
Author: Saint Buffy
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: B/G
Spoilers: Early S5, sometime after Out of My Mind but before No Place Like Home.
Feedback: makes me write more
Disclaimer: I have nothing to declare except my… no, wait. I mean, Buffy isn't mine, please don't sue.
Summary: Buffy finds herself tending the wrong man's wounds when Giles and Riley come to blows.
Warning: Riley bashing, of both the literal and the figurative kinds. If this upsets you then run, run for the hills. I was feeling very anti-Riley when I started this.
Dedication: Jocelyn, here's your guilty pleasure… thanks for the inspiration :)

Buffy motioned with her hand and Giles, Willow and Riley shrunk back into the bushes. Giles swallowed, hands ready on his crossbow, eyes searching the darkness around them for the monster.

Riley made a complicated hand gesture which looked something like a dance move from the nineteen eighties. Giles rolled his eyes, trusting that the dark would keep his reaction from the others. He wondered why Riley had bothered. Willow hadn't a clue what it meant, by the look of things, and Giles's watcher training translated it as `I have found a suitable river crossing' which didn't seem to apply. Riley shortly followed the gesture by scurrying away in an `I'm trained to be stealthy' sort of way.

He was being harsh, Giles knew it. But Riley was a distraction in a night filled with a strange demon, the like of which they had never encountered. Giles's worrying levels for his slayer, which were usually fairly high, had shot up, especially as he couldn't provide any useful information about the thing. He couldn't tell Buffy what it was, he couldn't tell Buffy how to kill it, he couldn't tell Buffy how it would attack and he couldn't tell her if there were any more of them coming. Somewhere in him, a part of Giles registered that there were other reasons why Riley's presence annoyed him, but he pushed that part back and concentrated instead on the dark graveyard.

There was a sort of croaking howl to the left of them and Buffy tore away, curving like a homing missile towards the sound. Giles and the others burst from their various hiding places and ran after her, brandishing weapons, yelling contradictory instructions and trying to distract the beast as Buffy attacked.

The thing was around seven feet tall, with black spiky arms and a hideous, snarling mouth full of sharp teeth. It moved as a blur of speed and sound, so fast Buffy could barely block its attack, never mind landing a blow herself. The bolts Giles shot were useless, bouncing off the thing's hard skin without effect. Giles threw his crossbow to one side and leapt towards the demon with a roar, hauling it back by the shoulders as it tried to lunge at Buffy. The slayer kicked it several times in the face before it tore itself out of Giles's grasp, sending him flying into the ground.

Riley dropped to one knee near where Giles lay, his taser charged and braced on his shoulder, following the fight in front of him, trying to get a shot in. Buffy gave the demon a flying kick that sent it back over a headstone and Riley raised his taser, aiming swiftly.

Giles realised what was going to happen in the seconds before it almost did. Buffy had been proudly practising a new move last time they trained together, a jump which ended in a sharp, neck-breaking kick. Giles let out a shout, realising that Buffy was about to execute her new move, putting herself directly where Riley was about to fire.

"No!" he shouted, but Riley paid no attention, flicking a switch on his taser to power it up. Giles threw himself sideways just as his slayer threw herself over the headstone, turning gracefully in the air and snapping the demon's neck as Giles crashed into Riley, sending them both into the ground, the taser blazing harmlessly at a tomb to one side of the fight.

They both scrambled to their feet, equally angry.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Giles hissed at Riley, slightly letting go of the Ripper part of him. Riley glared back.

"I was doing my job, for God's sake, until you-"

"Your job!" Giles shouted back, angrier than he could remember having been for ages. He took a step towards Riley threateningly. "Your job was never to get Buffy killed by interfering where you're obviously not needed!"

"I was doing a better job than you," Riley shot back, trying to get into Giles's face. Giles dimly felt Willow's hand on his arm, trying to tug him away, and shook her off. "All you could manage was to get flattened, as usual. Why didn't you really help, and go get yourself knocked unconscious?"

Giles almost couldn't speak, trying as he was to keep control. "Listen, you arrogant little-"

"Guys!" Buffy cut in, trying to push in between the two men. "Shut up, both of you!"

They both ignored her. "You almost killed her, you stupid little boy," Giles hissed, furious, pushing Buffy's hand off his chest. "How `useful' would that have been?"

"Shut up, old man," Riley retorted, and Giles lost it completely, his fist lashing out towards Riley's jaw before he could stop it.

Riley reeled, then came back with a blow to Giles's jaw and another which Giles blocked. Buffy was shouting at them, and so was Willow, but neither man heard anything as they trading punches. Giles ducked Riley's fist and came up to punch the younger man several times in the face before a blinding pain across the side of his head sent him to the floor, Riley crashing down a few feet away.

Buffy stood above them, enraged. "I said, stop it," she said, her voice snapping with anger. "What the hell was that about?"

Giles sat up, glaring across at where Riley sat, nursing his face. The whole of the watcher's head was screaming with pain, but he ignored it, getting to his feet.

"I'm going," he said, standing and gathering up his weapons. Buffy and the others watched in silence as he limped away.

Giles looked in his freezer, moving stiffly, sure he had an icepack buried somewhere inside. The pain in his face had lessened to a throbbing ache, but his knuckles had begun to swell from the many blows he had landed on the soldier's body.

He could have kicked himself. Buffy had been seeing Riley for months now, and the couple seemed to be perfectly happy. Buffy's friends had all accepted him. All Giles had to do was keep his mouth shut and his fists away and things would have been fine.

But he couldn't. The more time he spent with the younger man, the more Riley annoyed him, with his unnecessary, overprotective stance around Buffy, his constant disparaging comments about the efficiency of Giles and the others' research, and more generally, the home- grown, well-rounded smugness of someone who had yet to confront the less pleasant sides of their own character.

Finally locating the icepack, Giles held it to his face, wincing a little as the frozen pack touched his face. He wasn't being completely honest with himself, he thought. Riley could be everything the watcher thought was good to see in a man and Giles would still hate him, for one simple reason. He was jealous. Riley was with Buffy in a way Giles could never hope to be, in her bed, her life, lodging firmly in her heart.

Giles sighed and went to pour himself a drink, wincing a little as he worked the top off a bottle of scotch, his hands complaining. He knew he would never have the chance to show Buffy the love he felt for her, yet still the sight of her with someone else grated more and more every day.

He jumped as the door was thrown open, banging into the wall and revealing the slayer standing furiously in the doorway. She took him in for a moment. Giles put down the bottle.

"Oh, so this is what you do?" she snapped, advancing into his flat, slamming the door behind her. "You pound on my boyfriend and then go and get drunk again? Great plan!"

Giles hurried into the living room. "It wasn't a plan," he said hotly, holding his hand out as if to ward her off, "I was just-"

"Good God, Giles, look at your hands!" Buffy interrupted, noticing them in horror. Giles belatedly pushed them into his pockets. "Where's your first aid box?" she asked, in a voice that gave Giles no option but to reply.

"Cupboard above the sink, in the bathroom," he said sullenly, and Buffy stomped down the passage towards the bathroom. Giles sat warily on the edge of his sofa, hearing his slayer banging cupboard doors open and shut with unnecessary force. A moment later Buffy returned, bearing down on him with the first aid kit.

"Give me your hands," she ordered, still looking angry enough to spit daggers. Giles opened his mouth to stop her.

"Buffy, I-"

"Giles!" Buffy snapped. He thrust his hands out in front of him almost involuntarily and Buffy sat down on the coffee table, grabbing them roughly. Giles winced.

"You punched my boyfriend," Buffy said through gritted teeth, examining his bloody knuckles. Giles watched her.

"I know, Buffy, I-"

She pulled out an antiseptic wipe and began to clean his knuckles, ignoring Giles's sharp hisses as her prods stung.

"Why did you punch him?" she asked, her voice sounding slightly less angry and slightly more hurt. Giles hesitated. <Because I've wanted to ever since I met him at your birthday party, because I hate him for taking you away from me last year, and because I'm insanely jealous of him, because I'm in love with you,> he thought.

"He put you in danger," he said weakly. Buffy finished with one hand and took his other.

"I'm always in danger," she snapped, her eyes on her task.

"Unnecessary danger," Giles amended shortly. Buffy gave him a quick look and went back to his hands.

"Willow put me in danger last year, with those spells. Xander once had me turned into a rat. You didn't punch either of them," she pointed out, her voice still angry although her hands were gentle as they began to bandage up his knuckles.

"I'm sorry, Buffy, I was just angry," he said quietly, hoping she wouldn't probe any further. Buffy gave him another glare and taped down his bandages.

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