Title: Third Lesson
Author: Sweetdoggie (stirling_summer@yahoo.com)
Pairing: none Rating: FRT
Summary: Lessons are learned, sequel to The Lesson, and Second Lesson
Warning: Willow and Xander don't come off looking too well here.
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.
Buffy and Giles were laughing together on the dance floor of a club. They looked like they were having a really great time. Willow and Xander, hidden from view by a glamour, watched in open-mouthed disgust as their two friends enjoyed each other's company.
Willow looked away from the show on the dance floor and turned to Xander. "I told you so."
Xander couldn't force his eyes away from the sight of Buffy and Giles in each other's arms. "I know, but I just couldn't believe it. I still can't. What's wrong with them?" The disapproval and horror in his voice was obvious.
"I don't know. This all started after the Kennedy thing. I just can't believe that they would rub my nose in it quite so blatantly," Willow said bitterly. "I lose my girlfriend and they celebrate by getting all couple-y with each other. It's gross."
"It's that!" Xander agreed wholeheartedly. "Why can't they find somebody their own ages to get groiny with?"
Willow shrugged. "Buffy doesn't care about age—I guess you couldn't and date vampires—but I thought Giles would have more sense. Not to mention that she's practically his daughter."
"Do you think they're 'doing it'?" Xander shuddered.
"Look at them. They can't keep their hands off each other. If they aren't already, it won't be long."
"This is so wrong, it's beyond wrong. We need to stop this!"
"I think so too. But they are never going to listen to us."
"Buffy hasn't said anything, has she? Like, she's dating somebody new?" Xander asked his life-long friend.
"No. But she's been quiet about dating since the whole Spike thing."
"Maybe I can fix her up with somebody our age—show her that it's way more fun to go out with somebody young than somebody like Giles."
Willow shrugged. "I don't care who she dates, really, except, not Giles. And it still seems like they're celebrating getting rid of Kennedy. Look how happy they are!"
Xander, who had his own thoughts about Kennedy and celebrations of her departure from their lives, satisfied himself by nodding. He did care who Buffy dated. Somewhere deep in his heart, he sort of still believed that someday, she would turn to him. He really didn't expect it to happen after all this time, but he still felt like Buffy belonged to him in some indefinable way. He'd been overjoyed when Angel had been sent to Hell and deeply disappointed in his return. In some inner part of his soul, he thought it served Buffy right that the vampire had left her, bereft and heartbroken after graduation. It should have been a lesson to her. Vampires are for staking, not loving.
When Riley had come along, he'd been deeply immersed in his affair with Anya. Still, he'd felt a sharp jab of glee when Riley turned out to work for the Initiative. It just proved that he wasn't the right guy for Buffy, even if he was human. She'd dated a few losers that he'd set her up with himself, knowing that she wouldn't like them and they were, therefore, safe. He couldn't believe it when her affair with Spike surfaced. How could she give herself to that thing? He would never understand it.
That last week in Sunnydale, when they had turned against Buffy, thrown her out, he expected her to come to him for suport. It was his role in her life. Instead, the vampire had tracked her down and given her hope. Xander felt his teeth grinding together at the thought of it. Spike had taken something that should have been his, once again.
He'd lost Anya in that final battle, though even he knew that he'd lost her well before that in reality. Anya was a place where he didn't let his thoughts go very often, mostly because he had screwed up big time and would never have a chance to fix it. He understood exactly what Willow meant when she said that it was as if Buffy and Giles were celebrating on the misfortunes of their friends. Why should they be happy? If it wasn't for the two of them, he and Willow would never have known about the horrors that lurked just below the surface of the world. If you thought about it, didn't Buffy and Giles owe them something?
As long as the Slayer and her Watcher weren't happy, it seemed OK because they were all in the same boat, but now they had found each other and it wasn't right. They'd both screwed up so many times, they didn't really deserve happiness, did they? He watched them laughing with each other and sulked.
Willow had always been ambivalent about Buffy's romantic choices. She'd known the thing with Angel was doomed, but it was so thrilling to be involved in it, all-be-it vicariously, that she had egged Buffy on, even when common sense had indicated that she should tell her to back away. Then, it had all gone wrong, but Willow had been wrapped up in Oz and the excitement of being part of a couple and Buffy's problems had taken a back seat. It had been fun in a mean sort of way to point out that at least, she, old faithful Willow, wouldn't be the only girl without a date for the prom. She had immediately apologized to Buffy for her innocent little slip of the tongue. Buffy never realized that it had been deliberate.
Something in Willow's nature made her want to see Buffy brought down a peg. It wasn't that she didn't like the girl, because she did, it was just...call it jealousy, maybe. Buffy was the princess and Willow was her dutiful sidekick. Buffy had all the gifts: she was beautiful, graceful, the Slayer. Men and boys flocked around her. Her mother loved her. Giles, somebody Willow deeply admired, worshiped her. She could have anything, be anything, do anything and Willow burned with envy.
It wasn't that she wanted to be the Slayer, herself. Goddess no! That was the last thing any sane person would want. But the power, the charisma, the sheer guts...Willow envied her that right down to her toes. The only thing that had kept her invidious feelings in check was the fact that Buffy was a complete strikeout with personal relationships. It leveled the playing field, Willow thought. But if she was with Giles, all that had changed. He wouldn't flake out on her, abandon her, or lose his soul. He would never cheat on her and Willow could see that he would make an ideal mate for his Slayer.
The thought rankled. Why should Buffy and Giles find the happiness that had been denied to her and Xander? She'd had Tara and had lost her to an assassin's bullet, just as Xander had lost Anya to a murderous acolyte of the First Evil. Both deaths had occurred because of their involvement with the Slayer. It seemed to Willow that Buffy and Giles owed them in some inexplicable way for their losses. Was it asking too much for them not to flaunt their happiness under the noses of their friends as payment? She didn't think so.
Turning to Xander, she asked him if he thought an intervention was a workable possibility.
"I dunno. We might be able to guilt them into quitting this disaster, but they look pretty committed," he let his doubts creep into his voice.
"Yeah." She watched them touch each other's faces. In anybody else it would have been a sweet gesture of commitment and love, but with these two, it was just one more example of how wrong the whole idea was. "Let's talk to them tomorrow. This can't be allowed to go on."
Xander nodded. "I'm in complete agreement with that! Makes me want to poke out my eye just to see this much. Can you imagine them having sex?" He shuddered dramatically.
Willow grimaced, not because she couldn't imagine them having sex, but because she could and from where her imagination was standing, they were enjoying it a lot. She looked at Xander. "Tomorrow, we stop this nightmare."
"You got it," he agreed.
~*~
Buffy and Giles were sharing the chore of washing the breakfast dishes the next morning when their was a knock at the front door. They exchanged a glance, wondering who would be coming to Giles' apartment at this time of the day. He dried his hands on a towel and went to answer the summons.
Willow and Xander stood on his front step looking grim and...embarrassed? He let them in without an invitation. Old habits died hard. "What can I do for you two this morning," he asked them curiously. Buffy finished putting the last plate away and walked in to join him.
"We...know about you guys," Xander blurted out. "We've come here to talk sense into you."
Giles raised his eyebrow enquiringly. "Oh, yes?"
Willow took charge of the conversation. "You and Buffy and this, this thing you have going on between you. It's wrong and disgusting and you need to stop it, right now."
Buffy crossed her arms over her chest. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't try to hide it. We know about the secret romance thing." Xander shuddered.
"We wouldn't dream of hiding it," Giles said calmly. "But I fail to see how what Buffy and I do has anything to do with you two. Perhaps you'd be so good as to enlighten us?"
"You're like her father!" Xander blurted. "Buffy, he's old enough to be your dad. Why can't you date somebody normal?"
Buffy tapped her foot, maintaining her temper with difficulty. "First of all, Giles has never been my dad, my father-substitute, or any sort of relative stand-in at all. Second of all, what the hell makes you think anything he or I do is any of your goddamned business?"
"We're your friends and we have the right—no, the duty—to speak up when we see you two making this kind of mistake," Willow sounded proud of her words. She'd worked on the phrasing most of the night, after all.
"Are you my friends?" Buffy asked. "Because, I think friends would be more supportive of a relationship that makes both of us happy."
"We're just trying to stop you making a horrible mistake," Xander explained, spreading his hands in a 'let's be calm' gesture.
"What 'horrible' mistake would that be? Loving a man who loves me back? Finally getting a tiny slice of something good for myself after nearly eight years of hell? Is that it? You don't want me to be happy? You don't want Giles to be happy?"
"Of course we want you to be happy, just...not together," Xander explained weakly.
Buffy studied her friends closely. "No. You're lying. You don't want us to be happy. Why is that?"
Willow couldn't take any more. "Have you even given a second's thought to what we've lost because of the Slaying? Tara would be alive now if it wasn't for you and so would Anya. We lost the people we loved best in the whole world and you two just rub our noses in it. I know you're glad that Kennedy is gone. You never could get along with her."
"I am glad Kennedy is gone. We gave her every opportunity to change that and she still picked on the younger Slayers. And while we're on the topic of Slayers...you guys volunteered for the lives you've led. Giles and I both tried to talk you out of it, but you forced your way in. So, don't complain that things didn't work out for you. Neither Giles nor I are responsible for Tara or Anya's deaths. They were our friends too and we miss them, but it wasn't our fault. I didn't put that gun into Warren's hands or give the sword to the Bringer that got Anya. You guys were the ones that had the relationships with civilians, and in Anya's case, even that isn't true. She knew the score and chose to stay."
Willow took a step back, surprise flashing briefly on her face before it hardened into something more determined. "I didn't want to have to do this, but," she raised her hand and made a waving gesture at Buffy and Giles while mouthing a magic phrase. There was a flash. Willow smiled triumphantly. "That will fix it." She turned to Xander. "They won't remember anything about being together."
"Au contraire, Willow," Buffy told her casually. "After your last bout of magicking all of us, Giles did a spell that would block the two of us from your magic forever. I guess it worked."
The redhead felt her mouth drop open in shock. "But, but...You mean, you didn't trust me!"
"Apparently with quite good reason," Giles interjected. "You would have stripped our memories without a care in the world for what we wanted, just so your views dominated." He looked hard at the pair of them. "You know, I really don't think you are welcome in my home any longer, either of you. And, as of right now, your positions on the Council have been terminated. We don't need friends who treat us this way."
"No, wait! You can't do this!" Willow protested.
"I can," Giles said. "I have. Be gone now." He gestured and the traitorous pair felt themselves pushed from the house, the door slamming behind them.
Buffy dropped onto the couch. "Well, this just bites, doesn't it?"
"Yes, it does, rather. I rather wish things hadn't gone so far with them."
"Me too, but they don't have the right to say we can't be together."
"No, they don't." He sighed and dropped down onto the couch, pulling her onto his lap.
She leaned against his shoulder. "What will happen to them now?"
"Willow used black magic again. She knows what the consequences will be when the Coven finds out."
"What will they do?"
"Drain her, bind her magic, limit her abilities. She will never again be able to do what she attempted with us tonight."
Buffy snuffled against him. "It seems so hard, Giles."
"We live in a hard world, dearest. Willow is an adult. She can not be allowed to impose her will on others lest she become one of the things we have given so much of our lives to fighting."
"I know. I even agree...but she was my friend for so long..."
"Has she really been a true friend to you since she ripped you from your eternal rest? Have you trusted her to be that sweet girl we knew and loved back in high school?"
"No. I couldn't trust her again. I tried, but I just couldn't. It was like turning my back on a dog that bites. It's acting all friendly now, but tomorrow, it might go for your throat."
"Exactly."
"And Xander?"
"He will probably go away and become a master carpenter. It might make him finally grow up. Maybe he'll eventually realize that you will never love him."
"He's wanted that for an awfully long time."
"And look at the grief and suffering it brought you," Giles replied.
"I'll miss them."
"As will I. This is a very harsh lesson, Buffy, for all of us."
"People change, I guess. Willow...who knew that she was so jealous? I mean, when she went dark, she talked about having the power now and everything, but I thought that was just the normal big bad talk. I didn't understand that it had been brewing inside her like a, a teabag of evil for years."
Giles smothered his sad grin in her hair. "I'm sorry, beloved. This has been such a sad day for us."
"We still have each other, Rupert. I'm not giving that up. Not ever."
"Nor I, my heart."
END