Ficlet: The Hustle
Title: The Hustle
Author: il-mio-capitano
Length: 1250ish
Rating: FRT
Characters: Giles, Buffy (not shippy)
Setting: It's early BtVS, somewhere in seasons 1-3 as you see fit.
Written for non-specific Sporting!Giles prompt
“So let me get this straight…” The female demon standing in front of the pool table paused, and the rest of her gang in the roadhouse bar, brandished their teeth in keen expectation. “I have something you want.” She held up the jewelled amulet and swung it gently by its chain. “But what I don’t understand, honey, is what you are proposing to give me in return?”
There were far too many of them to fight and Buffy really should have listened to Giles when he’d nervously pointed out quite how many motorcycles were parked outside. She’d walked in confidently without attracting any comment, her jeans and leather jacket having afforded her some camouflage, but the raucous female laughter had immediately died to a tingling silence when Giles followed at her heels. He had, in fairness, also muttered something about how all-girl demon biker gangs could be a bit a bit of a tough prospect, though when he’d described them as have a reputation as man-eaters, Buffy had actually assumed he was explaining their threat to the human species as a whole and not being gender specific. With hindsight, it might have been best to have let him wait in the car because, in his tweedy three piece suit and jaunty tie, he looked about as inconspicuous as an overdressed chicken in a barn full of lip-licking foxes. Still, it was too late now, and if she wanted that amulet, Buffy knew they were going to have to bluff it out.
“How about,” she began confidently, conscious she could play a little on female solidarity. “We shoot some pool for it?”
The leader stared at her with amusement. “It’s still the same question. What do you have to put up on your side? What are the stakes?”
“Giles, how much cash do you have on you?”
He sighed, took out his wallet and counted. “Fifty-seven dollars.” There was a very long expectant pause before he emptied his pockets further. “And eighty-seven cents.”
“Did you drive here?”
The question was addressed to Buffy who innocently answered, “Yes,” just as Giles yelped, ‘No.”
“Yes, we did,” Buffy asserted, finally understanding the implications, but knowing she couldn’t afford to show weakness. “I need that amulet, Giles.”
“It’s not your bloody car you’re gambling with,” he grumbled as he reluctantly he put his car keys down on the side of the pool table. "This had better be important."
The demon put the amulet on the side too, rolling her eyes greedily over Giles as she did so.
“He’s very obedient, isn’t he? You’ve trained him well.”
“Do we have a game?” Buffy persisted, keen to get the conversation back on track, but the demon laughed.
“You must think I'm very stupid, Slayer. I'm not about to play pool with someone with supernatural gifts.” Giles reached a hand for his keys but the demon caught his wrist with a strong grip. She didn’t look at him once, only addressing Buffy. “He plays, not you.” She applied more pressure and Giles looked like his knees might give way.
“Let him go!” Buffy ordered, and then added with reasoned calm, “He can hardly play with a broken wrist, can he?”
The demon released him and Giles whimpered, doubled up, and clutched his whole arm in pain. Buffy bent to his side with concern and whispered, “You OK? Can you play still?”
“Nothing is broken but this really isn’t a good idea,” he groaned.
“You know how to play pool?” She winked encouragement. “I’m thinking Ripper? You've played the game before?”
“Back in the day,” he admitted, and then swallowed hard. “But it’s been years.”
“Muscle memory. It will be like riding a bike,” she offered as encouragement.
“It's been years since I did that either,” he protested.
“I need that amulet.” He sighed at her insistence and stood upright again. Buffy turned briskly back to business. “Right then, best of three, Giles breaks.”
Someone passed Giles a cue and he held it awkwardly, blinking and regarding it with such open suspicion that he might have been expecting it to change into a serpent at any moment. The demon however, wasn't quite done.
“Just one more thing, Slayer. I’ve seen that crappy car outside and I’m not going to get two hundred bucks for it, so I’m going to need a little side action to keep me amused.” She gave a feral smile. “And the ladies here need to have something to watch.”
Buffy put her hands on her hips. “Name it.”
“For every ball he misses, I get an item of clothing.” Buffy looked at her own clothes. “No, no, honey. Not you.” The demon licked her lips. “I'm thinking I'd look good in tweed. And I'm sure he'd look better in a whole lot less of it.”
Giles turned about as bright red as Buffy thought a human could go without their head actually exploding but there was no other course of action.
“Rack em up,” she agreed, and Giles muttered an ‘Oh dear Lord,” behind her.
***
An hour later and he was still pretty crimson, though some of it seemed to be anger as he slammed the car door closed and swore as the engine failed to turn over. Buffy fixed her seat belt and twirled the amulet around her fingers as his car coughed.
“Start, blast you,” he pleaded.
They’d lost his jacket, his vest, his tie, belt, shoes and socks but he’d hung on to the rest of his wardrobe so overall it seemed a fair trade to Buffy. As a bonus they still had the fifty-eight bucks.
The engine caught and Giles, with an arm on the passenger seat, reversed out, then clipped his own belt and drove them to the main road where he proceeded to put his foot down. After a mile it was clear they weren’t being followed but he was still noticeably gripping the wheel with white knuckles.
“Chill, Giles. We totally fooled them. I knew that misspent youth of yours would finally come in handy.”
He crunched his clutch on a change up and uttered a swear word.
“I must say, it was a master stroke to be so klutzy and miss those early balls,” she continued. “I mean, I had every confidence, but it was awesome the way you made it look good.”
“I wasn't trying to make it look good,” he replied hotly. “I was trying to pot the bloody things.”
Buffy was puzzled. “But surely, you know, Ripper stuff. ‘Back in the day’,” she quoted.
“I couldn't play pool ‘back in the day’ either. It needs far better eyesight than I've ever had.”
“But, we won.” Buffy frowned. “So how did we win?”
“Because ‘back in the day’, I learned to do magick.”
“You cheated?” Buffy was part surprised, part disappointed. “You just cheated a bunch of man-eating she-devil demons?”
“Would you like me to turn the car around so we can give them the amulet back?” he snipped.
“No, of course not. Just wow, that's all. Color me impressed." Giles grunted. "And we have this, so all's good." She twirled the amulet again. "Mom was so disappointed when the junk store sold it, but now I can surprise her with it on her birthday,” she explained happily. "So it's all good."
They drove home the rest of the way in silence, and though she couldn’t be positive in the poor light, Buffy seemed to feel that from time to time, Giles had definitely shot her some homicidal glances.