Title: Bracelets: Post Apocalypse
Author: Sweetdoggie (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: B/G
Rating: FRM
Summary: Buffy and Giles get matching jewelry.
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: No permission has been granted to use the characters. They are owned by their creator, Joss Whedon, Twentieth Century Fox, UPN, WB, and Mutant Enemy. This story is non-profit and is intended solely as entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.

Willow sighed as she walked along the row of booths at the Renaissance festival. Normally, something like this would really perk her up, but with Buffy and Giles barely speaking to each other, she just didn’t feel festive. What they needed was something to remind them of all the good times they had shared in the past. Some token that would draw them back together. She walked past a booth selling jewelry and gave it a cursory glance, then stepped back as something caught her eye.

“What are those?” She pointed to a pair of matching bracelets.

“Oh, those are friendship bracelets. They used to be used as betrothal gifts, but since that fell out of fashion, people give them as tokens of remembrance.” The booth owner was an earnest young man who liked to please his customers. “I’m having a ten percent off sale as it’s the last day of the festival.”

“I’ll take a pair.” Willow plunked down her credit card. She could hardly wait to get home and show the guys. This was perfect. She would emphasize how close everybody used to be and how good it would be to have that feeling again. If effect, she would guilt Buffy and Giles out till they agreed to wear the bracelets. Then, when they had a concrete reminder of what they had been to each other, maybe they would get over this snit they had been in since before the fall of Sunnydale.

She returned that evening to the house that they were all sharing to find it mostly silent. Giles was reading in his office, Buffy was taking a nap, Dawn was spending the night with friends, and Xander had gone to see a cricket match. She planned her strategy.

Buffy eventually got up and wandered into the living room, flopping down on the couch with a yawn. “I shouldn’t take naps. They leave me feeling drunk.”

Giles came out of the office, saw Buffy sitting on the couch and hesitated for a moment in the doorway before joining her in the living room.. He was careful to sit in a chair some distance from the couch. Buffy didn’t acknowledge him.

Willow looked back and forth between the two of them. This was perfect. She slammed her purse down on the coffee table between them. “OK, this has gone on long enough!”

“What’s with you, Will?” Buffy asked.

“I’m tired of you and Giles walking on eggs around each other.. Yeah, so you had some hard times, well, get over it! You were friends for years. You trusted each other. I want that back for both of you.”

Buffy started to speak and Willow froze her with a sharp glance. “Don’t give me any of your crap about trust being earned or betrayed. I’ve heard it and I’m sick of it! I’m telling you now, this stupid animosity between you stops here.” She reached into her purse and pulled out the small box containing the bracelets. “I was at the Renaissance Faire today and I saw these. I thought it might help you guys out if you had something concrete to remind you of your friendship. I got one for each of you. I want you to put them on and take turns talking about your issues.. Then, I want to see some serious bonding and friendship resuming. Is that clear?” She tapped her foot, looking at them both, then nodded. “Fine, then. I’m setting these down here and when I come back later, I expect to see some mondo forgiveness from both of you.” She swept majestically out of the room.

Buffy and Giles eyed the bracelets as if they were poisonous snakes. Finally, she sighed and took them out of the box and tossed him the slightly thicker male version. He caught it expertly and studied it for a moment before sliding it over his left hand. Buffy took the female bracelet and slipped it over her right hand. Suddenly, they felt a wave of dizziness sweep over them.

“Whoa! What was that?”

“I don’t know, but it felt like magick to me.” The Watcher frowned at the bracelet.

There was a moment of silence between them before Buffy asked him if he wanted to discuss their issues.

“You know, up until a few minutes ago, I would have said yes. Now, I’m just tired of the arguments. I just want us to be friends again..”

She nodded her agreement. “Neither of us was 100 percent right or wrong. I forgive you. Can you forgive me?”

He grinned. “Nothing left to forgive, my dear. As far as I am concerned, that’s all water under the bridge.”

She returned his grin and he came over and joined her on the couch. “I think we’re probably under some sort of spell or something. Neither of us is the type to just let something drop between us.”

He took her hand and raised it to his lips. “No, we aren’t. I suspect you’re right. Strangely enough, I couldn’t care less.”

She ran her hand over his jaw. “Me neither. I’ve missed you terribly.”

“As I’ve missed you.” He leaned into the hand caressing his face and dropped a light kiss on her wrist.

She leaned in closer to him and slipped into his arms as if she had been born just for that purpose. He enclosed her readily and after gazing into each other’s eyes for a moment they were drawn together in a kiss so carnal and satisfying that neither came up for air till they were dizzy..

“Holy smoke! Where did that come from?”

“I don’t know, but I think we need to research it.”

“Me too. Your room?”

They stood, hand in hand, and ran up the stairs. Seconds after he locked the door, their clothing hit the floor and they were back to kissing and petting. They ravished each other’s bodies as if they couldn’t get enough. While making love to each other wasn’t something either thought would ever happen, they found out that they liked it quite well. Finally, exhaustion kicked in and they reclined sated in the rumpled bed.

“I’ve never felt anything like that,” Buffy whispered, a satisfied smile curving her lips.

“Neither have I, but I wouldn’t object to repeating it in an hour or so.”

“Mmmmm. Yum. This feels right. Why didn’t we do this before?”

“You weren’t old enough before.”

“Did you care about me like this, then?”

“Buffy, I’ve loved you since you came back from that awful summer.” He didn’t have to specify which one. Their personal shorthand let her know he was talking about the summer she ran away.

“Sorry for that, Giles. It was a bad time.”

“I knew that, beloved. Since I’ve run away more than once myself, I can hardly blame you.”

“When you were twenty-one and again two years ago.” She didn’t make it a question.

“Yes. Very astute of you.”

“I understand Eyghon, but not the more recent attempt.”

“Ah. I could feel you slipping away. I couldn’t bear to see you die again.”

“Oh.” She was silent for a long time. “I guess I understand that.”

“Then, can we put it behind us?”

She shrugged, but it lost a lot of its impact since she was horizontal. “I have already. If there’s one thing I ever learned it’s that you can’t blame somebody for trying to escape bad stuff.”

“Can you forgive me for not trusting your judgment with Spike?”

“Yeah. Because it’s not like you weren’t right. He was dangerous: incredibly, hideously dangerous. Sure, he loved me and so I sort of had him on a leash, but that was no guarantee that he wouldn’t have turned if it looked to benefit him. I took stupid chances. The only excuse I have is that I was seriously messed up for a long time after I came back. I still have some issues—nightmares, remembering heaven, stuff like that, but I’m able to deal with it now.”

“I shouldn’t have left you.”

Since she agreed with this view, she could hardly protest. “Well, like you said, water under the bridge.” She rolled over to look him in the eye. “What are we going to do about these bracelets?”

He sighed. “I suppose we shall have to investigate them. How tedious. I hope we find they are inoffensive. I rather like their effects..”

“Me too! As long as we don’t get turned into goats or something, who cares about the rest of it? Frankly, it’s the best thing that’s happened to me in the eight years I’ve been the Slayer.”

He laughed and rolled her in his arms. “I think so too! Maybe this is our reward from the Powers?”

“I like that idea.” She giggled as his stubbly chin rubbed her neck. “What are the others going to think?”

“Probably that we’ve gone starkers. Who cares?”

She had to laugh herself at his carefree response. He began making love to her again and she gave him her complete attention. Afterwards, they slipped into rest and slept snuggled in each other’s arms till morning.

Willow returned to the living room about an hour after she had left it. She had listened for signs of battle but heard nothing. She hoped they hadn’t killed each other. Opening the door, she looked around the room and saw it was empty but that the bracelets were gone. Well, at least that much had been accomplished. Maybe they went for a walk to help iron things out. Nodding to herself, she decided that was the most likely scenario and went to fix herself a sandwich prior to working on a paper for one of her classes. She didn’t notice that they didn’t come back and went to bed feeling like she had really accomplished something.

~*~

Buffy woke slowly and realized that she felt better than she had for years. Her body felt satiated, even lightly bruised in some places. She stretched and moaned in relish at the feeling.

The motion and noise pulled Giles out of a wonderful dream. He rolled over and opened his eyes, expecting it to have all been a fantasy, but there she was, smiling, looking happy and fulfilled, and very, very pleased with herself.

“Morning, Giles.”

“Good morning, dearest.” He nuzzled her a bit before dropping a soft kiss on her neck.

“Have I mentioned how much I love you?” Buffy asked him with a soft smile.

“Almost as much as I love you,” he replied.

“Only almost?”

“I’m older. I’ve had more practice.”

She thought about that for a second before nodding and acknowledging that he had a point. “I’m also starving!”

“I could bring myself to agree with that.”

“You couldn’t just say, ‘me too’?”

“Nothing so indecorous will ever pass my lips.”

She snorted. “Right!”

They managed to get themselves out of bed and into her shower without waking the entire house. Giles snuck back into his room and found some clothing while Buffy raided her own closet. They met back in the hall and headed downstairs for breakfast. They were laughing and joking as they worked side-by-side to prepare a meal when Willow walked sleepily into the room.

“You guys must have stayed out really late. I didn’t hear you come back.”

The Watcher and the Slayer exchanged a glance.

“Come back?” Buffy asked casually.

“From your walk.”

“Oh.” Buffy looked at Giles again. “Yeah, we were up late.”

“I see it helped you, though.” Willow smiled. “You guys look like you’re back to normal finally.”

“Er,” Giles began, but stopped with the thought unfinished. “We were rather wondering about the provenance of these bracelets, Willow.”

“I bought them at the faire like I told you. I even got a little discount because it was the last day. The guy told me that they had once been used to signify betrothals but in more modern times had come to represent friendship. I thought they would be visible reminders for you guys of what you really mean to each other.”

“Ah, well, about that…” he began.

“I just think it’s great that you guys are friends again!” the Wicca interrupted.

He caught Buffy’s gaze over Willow’s head. She was frantically shaking her head and had to quickly assume a straight face when Willow turned to her, a puzzled look on her face.

“We think they might have some, um, unusual properties,” he amended casually.

“Wow! Like what?”

“We, ah, found ourselves not caring a great deal about maintaining our previous, er, grievances,” he said, glossing over what had really happened.

“Really? That’s pretty cool. Can I see one of the bracelets? I never thought to check for a magic aura.”

“Of course.” He tried to slip the cuff from his wrist. “Ow!”

Buffy, standing ten feet away also yelped. “Hey! That hurt!”

“You felt that too?” Giles asked her.

“Damn right! What was that?”

“I’m not sure. Try removing your bracelet,” he commanded.

Buffy gripped the piece of jewelry and slowly slid it off her wrist. Pain shot through her body the minute the cuff hit the middle of her hand. She dropped it back into place, gasping. “Well, that was an eye opener!”

Giles had felt the bolt of agony shoot through him in the exact same second that she had. “Damn!”

Willow looked disturbed. “I think we’d better check you guys out. This isn’t normal.”

Buffy rolled her eyes but refrained from saying “Duh,” though she thought it.

“We need a spell that will separate any magic on the bracelets from you guys’ own innate magic.” She sat down at the kitchen table and gratefully took the cup of coffee that Buffy handed her. Thinking about what type of spell might be needed always gave her a cheap thrill. Even after all she had been through, she still loved magic, though now she also respected it..

“Hold out your hands, close together,” she told them. Concentrating, she released a tiny burst of magic crafted to reveal secrets on inanimate objects. Looking at the bracelets with her inner eye, she saw they were glowing with magicky power. “Oh!”

“Did you see something, Willow?”

“Definite enchantment. Looks benign.” She studied the jewelry. “I think…yes, it has some sort of anti-antagonism elements about it and there’s a binding too. I’d say that’s why you couldn’t take them off. The fact that they were used for betrothals is probably significant. After all, why bother to bring two people together if they could just break things off? Did you guys notice any side effects?”

Buffy met his eyes from across the room. They grinned at each other. “Other than shagging each other like bunnies all night, no, I don’t think I came across anything. How about you, Giles?”

“No. I can’t say that I experienced anything terribly unusual. Besides the shagging, I mean.”

Willow rolled her eyes. “I wish you guys would take this seriously!”

Buffy just grinned while Giles smirked into his tea.

Willow elaborated her theory. “Betrothals used to be much more serious than they are today. Whole dynasties could be affected. If there was a reluctant betrothal the bracelets would deal with it. That would explain why you guys were able to make up your differences so quickly.”

“Mmmm,” Buffy agreed. “Well, whatever it was, I’m glad of it. I really don’t think we need to worry, do you, Giles?”

“I’m not worried at all.”

Willow looked at them doubtfully. She was worried because they clearly weren’t. It wasn’t like either of them to be quite so accepting. “Are you sure you guys are OK?”

“Never better!” Buffy replied brightly.

Giles just grinned and nodded. They all looked up as Xander stumbled into the kitchen, hair rumpled and still in his pajamas.

“What’s up?”

Buffy looked at him questioningly. “Well, not you, obviously.”

“Sorry, but all the racket coming out of Giles’ room last night kept me awake.” He looked at the Watcher. “That must have been some video, Giles.”

Giles’ face got very red. “Er, video?”

“Yeah, all that moaning and stuff…” he broke off, realizing that the girls were looking at him in fascination. “I mean, um, explosions and uh, car chases and stuff. Yeah, that’s what it was. I think I’ll just go get dressed now.” He made a hasty retreat.

Willow turned a slightly wild eye on Giles. “What time did you guys get back from your walk anyway?”

Giles walked over to Buffy and put his arm around her. “Who said we went for a walk?” He pulled his love out of the kitchen with him and Willow could hear them laughing like hyenas as they raced back upstairs.

She sat there for a few moments while thoughts raced around in her mind. “Oh, my Goddess!” They hadn’t gone for a walk, and it hadn’t been a video that Xander had heard. They really had been shagging like bunnies! That was not a place that she wanted to go to mentally, she shuddered. This was awful! She didn’t know what to do.

Dawn finally made her way out of bed and into the kitchen to find Willow sitting at the kitchen table looking shell-shocked.

“What’s the matter, Willow?”

“Uh, you know how Buffy and Giles have been sort of fighting with each other for a while now?”

Dawn rolled her eyes. “Yeah, for two people who love each other so much, they sure manage to screw stuff up, big time.”

“You think they love each other—like, love, love?”

“Of course! I just wish they’d wake up and see it. They’re perfect for each other.”

“Well, um, I think, maybe they might have, um, seen it.”

Dawn looked surprised, but not unhappy. “Good. Tell me about it.”

Willow explained about the bracelets. “I think they might have done something to them,” she concluded.

“But that isn’t harmful.”

“Not as such, I guess. But it’s Buffy and Giles in bed together!”

“Sounds good to me! Well, I mean, not personally good or anything, but, well, you know.”

“But it’s Buffy! And Giles! And nakedness!” Willow grimaced.

“I thought you had a crush on him in high school?”

“I was sixteen and admired his brain…” At Dawn’s skeptical look, she smirked a bit. “Oh, all right, his brain and his butt! But I wouldn’t ever have slept with him. That’s just…wrong.”

“Why?”

“He’s twenty years older than her. He was an adult before she was ever born! Eeeuw.”

“Oh.” Dawn nodded. “I guess that being a lesbian witch is much more socially acceptable than loving a slightly older man who happens to love you back.”

“You don’t understand! Giles is like her father-figure!”

Dawn grinned. “I never saw her look at dad like she was undressing him with her eyes. Buffy already has a father, Willow, and for your information, it isn’t Giles!”

Xander came back in, looking carefully around the kitchen. “Are they gone?”

Willow nodded. “They went back upstairs.”

“I didn’t mean to spill the beans. I really thought it was a video. Anya and I watched enough of that stuff for me to have some pretty vivid memories.”

“How did you know it was them and not a video?” Dawn asked casually.

“I heard them run upstairs again, laughing about it.”

“I think we need to check for more adverse side-effects from these things,” Willow was adamant.

“OK, but if they’re happy, and not being harmed, you have to promise to leave them alone,” Dawn told her sternly.

Willow nodded reluctantly. “All right. If they aren’t being hurt, then I won’t do anything about this…thing.”

~*~

Giles and Buffy were sitting cross-legged on his bed. “I know a spell I can cast that will turn a bowl of water black if the intent of the magic is harmful.”

Buffy nodded. “That sounds OK.”

He got up and retrieved the necessary ingredients. “I’ll need a drop of blood from each of us.”

She shrugged and held out her hand. He took a black dagger and pricked her finger, then his own. Directing the drops of blood to fall into the water in the bowl, he recited a short phrase in some foreign language. The water began to bubble and boil. It turned as white as a bed sheet.

“So, I’m guessing that if black is for bad magic, white must be for good?”

“Yes. This spell is entirely benign.”

“Cool. Then we don’t have to worry about it.”

“Actually, I wasn’t worrying anyway.”

She giggled. “No, me neither.”

They set the magic implements aside and were getting ready for another sexual marathon when there was a knock on the bedroom door.

“Bloody hell!” Giles grabbed his robe and Buffy drew the sheet around her naked form.

He threw open the door. “What?”

Willow, totally unused to this sort of greeting from her old friend, took a step backward. “I’ve thought of a spell to test the bracelets…”

“We have already done so. Their magic is entirely harmless and frankly, we are quite enjoying the effects.”

“Oh. Oh!” She took another step back. “Then, um, I’ll just be going, uh, away now.” She beat a hasty retreat.

Giles shut and locked the door before turning back to his love. “Now, where were we?”

END