Title: No Fooling
Author: Gileswench
Contact: gileswench@yahoo.com
Date: 1/6/07
Spoilers: alternate scene from Fool For Love… but there’s no Riley. I leave it up to you whether he and Buffy broke up somewhere along the line or a monster got him. Either way, he’s not part of the picture.
Summary: A heart to heart talk leads to confessions…and Magic Box smut.
Rating: FRAO
Pairing: Buffy/Giles
Category: smut, romance
Distribution: If you've had my permission in the past, you have it now. All others, ask and ye shall receive.
Feedback: Constructive criticism always welcome. Praise abjectly sought.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Joss, Mutant Enemy, etc., etc., etc. I just let them have all the fun Joss won't. I own nothing except my twisted mind which you really don't want. Please don't sue.
Notes: Thanks to Mrs. Drake for the plotbunny, and to my brother and husband for leaving me alone with my filthy mind for a night.

Buffy flipped the pages of the volume before her. Her frustration rose another notch. Nothing. She closed the book with a thump. Across the table, Giles slid another volume toward her.

“Here’s another one,” he said. “Early eighteenth century Slayer.”

Buffy reached for the book eagerly.

“Good,” she said. “Let’s hope she’ll be more helpful than this last one.”

“Why? What does it say?”

“Same as all the others. Slayer called... blah, blah... great protector... blah, blah... scary battles... blah, blah... oops! She's dead. Where are the details?”

“Details?” Giles pointed at the page Buffy was looking at. “Well, it says this Slayer forged her own weapons.”

“Gotta love a girl with her own anvil.” Buffy looked up at Giles, her eyes searching his face for a clue. “But where are the details of the Slayer’s last battle? You know, what made that fight special? Why did she lose?”

Giles looked away uncomfortably.

“You didn’t lose last night, Buffy. You just….”

“Got really close. I slipped up, Giles. I've been training harder than ever and still I…. And there's nothing in any of these books to help me understand why. I mean... look, I realize that every Slayer comes with an expiration mark on the package. But I want mine to be a long time from now. Like a Cheeto. If there were just a few good descriptions of what took out the other Slayers, maybe it would help me to understand my mistake, to keep it from happening again.”

Giles pulled off his glasses and threw them on the table. He rubbed his eyes. His shoulders drew in tightly as he began to speak.

“Yes, well, the problem is after a final battle, it’s difficult to get any…well, the Slayer’s not… she’s rather….”

“It’s okay to use the D word, Giles.”

He nodded.

“Dead.” Giles picked his glasses up again and began to polish them. “Hence not terribly forthcoming.”

“Why didn’t the Watchers keep fuller accounts?” Buffy asked bitterly. “The diaries just stop. It’s like they didn’t even care.”

“No! No, it isn’t that at all” Giles protested. “In fact, if th-they were anything like me… it would be too….”

“I know, I know, I guess they all thought it was unseemly.” Buffy picked up another volume and began to leaf through it. “Love ya’, but you Watchers are such prigs sometimes.”

“Actually, the word I was going to use was…p-painful.”

The word hung in the air between them, tangible in its weight. Buffy set aside her book slowly. She looked hard at Giles.

“Why?”

Another weighty word; too weighty for Giles to accept.

“Well… I-I… it’s just that… you… Buffy… I know you don’t want to hear this, but dammit, I can’t keep quiet anymore.”

“About what?”

The air seemed thick and heavy to Buffy. There was a fire in Giles’ eyes that she’d never seen before. It frightened her, but it was exciting, too. Still he stayed silent.

“About what, Giles? Tell me, please.”

With a strangled cry he lunged at her. His arms pulled her close as his lips descended to hers. Despite the urgency, his kiss was tender. Buffy couldn’t help responding to his desire. Though she hadn’t seriously considered something like this before, a part of her had clearly wanted it for some time. A whimper rose in her throat. She kissed him back.

Giles reached out blindly with his hand and swept the books off the table. He urged Buffy back.

“I love you.”

They both laughed at the simultaneous declaration. Even as Giles continued to kiss Buffy an occasional giggle filled the air.

“We should probably stop,” Giles said reluctantly. He pushed up on his arms slightly. “We should discuss this.”

“No, we shouldn’t,” Buffy said. She encouraged him to lie atop her again. “We can talk later. Right now I need you. Don’t stop, please.”

He couldn’t resist; he’d never been able to stand firm when Buffy wanted something. Buffy reached up and undid his tie. In a flash, Giles grabbed the hem of Buffy’s shirt and had it hauled up to expose her belly.

Buffy sat up and divested herself of her shirt. Giles took the opportunity to unbutton and remove his, as well. Just as Buffy reached back to unclasp her bra, Giles stilled her hand. Their eyes were locked as he finished the job and slid the scrap of satin down her arms and off.

As soon as he’d flung the bra out of the way, Giles grabbed Buffy roughly and began kissing her again, his hand reaching eagerly for her breast.

“So lovely,” he murmured.

Buffy moaned and rubbed against him.

“Giles! Please, I need you so much,” she panted.

“Just a moment, Buffy,” he said as he stood over her. His hand reached into his trouser pocket for his wallet. Opening it, he gave a small sigh of relief. “Oh good.” He pulled out the foil packet and immediately tossed the wallet aside. “Got one. And it’s still good. I can’t tell you how many of these bloody things I’ve wasted”

“Wasted?”

“Thrown away when they pass their expiration date. Let me just get the rest of these clothes off.”

Buffy sat up, kicked off her shoes, and wriggled out of her pants while Giles performed similar operations. In mere moments, they were both naked. Buffy was slightly surprised at how natural it felt to be nude with Giles of all people. She laughed and lay back across the table again.

“What’s so funny?”

“Mmmm…not funny; just it feels so right.”

Giles smiled and rolled on the condom.

“Ready?”

“And waiting.”

Buffy held out her arms. Giles lost no time in joining her, kissing her again and again as they became one in the flesh.

There was a feverish urgency about their coupling. Each was desperate to feel alive and warm and loved. Still, there was tenderness and joy in the act as well. Giles used every ounce of his skill to please his new lover. Buffy drew on her flexibility and stamina to give Giles the ride of his life.

As much as they never wanted the moment to end, both of them knew how close they were. Giles’ breath grew ragged and Buffy’s muscles began to clench.

A moment later, Buffy cried out. Within seconds of her orgasm, Giles felt his body lose control. He gave a short, harsh gasp and allowed himself release.

They lay exhausted, sweaty, but deliriously happy on the table for a while. They shared soft kisses and sleepy smiles. At last Giles gave Buffy a final kiss and rose to deal with necessities.

“I shouldn’t have done this,” he sighed.

Buffy’s heart froze.

“What? Giles… but you… didn’t you mean what you said earlier?”

“Of course I did! I do.” In a flash he sat at the table and pulled his still naked love into his arms. “Don’t you know you’re everything to me?”

“But you just said….”

“The most horrible thing I’ve ever said. I ought to have thought how that would sound.” He kissed her gently, running his fingers through her hair. “What I meant to say was that I ought to have waited, given you more warning…showed a bit of self-control. You deserve better than a quick grope on a table.”

“I got exactly what I wanted,” she said with a smile. “There’ll be time for slow stuff later, right?”

“Of course there will.”

“Then that’s okay. Right now I needed to know I’m alive and I’m loved. The rest of it comes when it comes.” Her expression grew more serious. “I’m going to ask something, and it might sound harsh, okay? But I have to ask this. It’s not just for me, either. It’s for the next Slayer.”

“What is it, Buffy?”

“When… when I lose? I know it’s a rotten thing to ask, but… write it down. All of it. What got me, how it got me, everything. She should know.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that.”

She smiled sadly at him and ran a finger down his cheek.

“Yes you will. You always do the stuff that needs to be done. This needs doing.”

He kissed her palm.

“All right. I’ll do it. But you have to promise me something, too.”

“Anything.”

“Don’t make it necessary for a very long time to come.”

“Yeah, I think I can promise that.”

“Really?”

“I’ll make it as long as I can. No fooling.”

They remained naked and entwined for a long time that night. Neither said anything about how likely it was that both would break those vows. Each knew the other would do what was possible to keep them.

THE END
Gileswench