Fic: BtVS: Rumours, Giles/Wesley, G/FRC
Title: Rumours
Author: lostgirlslair
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing: Giles/Wesley
Rating: G / FRC
Summary: The whole school is whispering whispery things.
Spoilers: Season three, sometime after 'Earshot.'
Feedback and Concrit adored: lostgirlslair AT yahoo DOT com
Disclaimer: All things BtVS and AtS belong to Joss Whedon and various corporate entities. I am neither.
Written for Prompt #156 of the lgbtfest! Prompt at the end of the story. Big, huge thanks to katekat1010, for the wonderful beta magic!
"Have you heard?" Willow asked, meeting Buffy at the junction of two hallways. She fell in next to Buffy, which meant whatever Willow was talking about was huge: she was supposed to be in history class, in the opposite direction.
"Nope," Buffy said, glancing over and realizing that Willow was wearing her worried face. "Early morning slayage with Faith."
The wrinkles in Willow's forehead deepened and she looked worried and curious, and kinda scrunchy. "Morning? Not a vampire."
"Raggamuffin demon."
"Raggamuffin?" Willow looked dubious.
"Ragishmuerfin. Whatever. What didn't I hear?"
Willow made a small, whimpering kind of sound. "Oh, boy. Buffy, the whole school is whispering whispery things!"
"What whispery things? Is Ms. Gomez on again with Mr. Clark?" Buffy liked that ongoing saga. It was kinda sweet, in an old lady making eyes at an equally old man kinda way. They probably shared a park bench and watched the sunset.
"No!" Willow glanced around, as if looking to see if her loudish tone had drawn any attention. When she spoke again, it was lower and with layers of meaning Buffy didn't understand. "It's Giles."
Buffy stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening. "Ms. Gomez is making eyes at Giles?"
"What? No!" Willow shook her head so hard her hair tossed. Buffy started walking again, with Willow a step behind. "People are saying someone saw Giles in the library."
"Not a shock, Will, the man practically lives there. I wouldn't be surprised to find out he sleeps on books." Buffy said, mostly to prod Willow to whatever this finish was going to be. "I mean the fact that anyone went into the library at all is kinda new and different, but--"
"I mean," Willow said, taking a quick step to catch up to Buffy as they headed through the near-empty halls, "that someone saw Giles . . . kissing someone in the library."
"Kissing?" Buffy said it loud enough that a kid walking past looked at her. The scary part was that he snickered. "Kissing who?" she asked, this time keeping her voice down.
Willow opened her mouth and then shut it again. She glanced around and then looked Buffy straight in the eye. "Wesley."
Buffy dropped her books.
-----
"It might not be a bad thing--" Wesley knew that was the wrong thing to say. Giles could see the realization on Wesley's face and forced himself not to snap. Wesley only wanted to calm him down, after all, and that was probably a worthy goal.
"It could cost us our jobs," Giles grumbled. He knew Wesley had already thought of that, but Wesley wouldn't be losing anything he really cared about. Not being at the school during the day would make things more difficult, but Wesley's position with the Council wasn't in danger. The library was all Giles really had left, as sad as that was, and he didn't want to lose it, or to lose this time with his slayer.
"Is that really what's worrying you?" Wesley's voice was quiet, even in the closed office. Giles couldn't seem to stop pacing, his hands shoved deep in his pockets.
It was what bothered him, partly. It did bother him that Snyder--whom he strongly suspected to be a reject from a slime mold colony--might actually be able to convince the school board that this somehow affected his job. There was a reason Giles normally didn't date those he worked with. It was a stricture he'd kept to for many years, until he'd broken it for Jenny, but he hadn't thought he'd do it again. But Wesley was . . . infuriating, and awkwardly charming, and they were both very far from home.
Giles sighed, his eyes moving to the right, over Wesley's shoulder and out into the library proper. His thoughts followed his gaze. It wasn't only Snyder that bothered him.
"It's Buffy you're worried over, isn't it?" Wesley leaned back against the door frame, fixing Giles with a serious look. Giles nodded, but he didn't say anything more for a moment.
"She's very young," he finally managed. "Snyder's scheming, the giggling in the hallways . . . I can handle all of that, but . . . Buffy is . . ." He wasn't sure how to finish that sentence. "She was less then thrilled when she found out that Joyce and I . . . I can only imagine what she'll think of this." Giles motioned between Wesley and himself as he spoke.
"I suppose it's lucky I didn't have much of a reputation with her to begin with," Wesley tried to make a joke of it, at first, but seemed to give up halfway through.
"I suspect that will change rather soon," Giles said, nodding out at the library doors, through which Buffy and Willow had just walked.
-----
Buffy saw Giles and Wesley, through the office window. Giles met her eye and she jerked her gaze away, worried he'd see the rumours written on her face. Or that she'd blush and he'd know something was up. The last thing she wanted was to have to tell Giles about stupid high school gossip.
She heard the office door open as she set her books down on the table. Willow was doing the same thing, her head down as she picked at the wire spiral of one notebook.
Buffy slapped a big smile on her face as she looked up at Giles, standing just outside the office doorway and Wesley, looking out of the office.
"Hey, Giles. Any impending doom I should know about?" The words kinda twisted in Buffy's head and she flicked her eyes away from Giles'. That didn't really help much, since her eyes met Wesley's. She looked down at her books with what she hoped was a nonchalant flick of her head.
"Nothing that I know of," Giles said, but he didn't really sound too sure of that. "Is there anything the matter?"
"What? What matter? There's no matter that . . . matters." Buffy did her best to grin, but it felt a little wilted.
"Buffy . . ." Giles said, trailing off in a way that gave her a sinking feeling.
Buffy started to say something, though she wasn't really sure what. They were both cut off by the library doors whooshing open.
"You guys will never guess what I--" Xander saw Giles and Wesley. "--was thinking." He finished, making it sound more like a question than he'd probably meant it to.
"I see," Giles said, his voice soft. He didn't go on and suddenly Buffy was standing in a library that had probably never been so quiet.
-----
Giles' eyes flicked from Willow, to Buffy, to Xander and back to Buffy. He could feel the pressure to speak pressing at him, but he had no idea what to say.
"Umm, Xander?" Willow said, lifting a notebook up to her chest as if it were a shield against the awkward tension filling the room. "We should probably go over your homework, in case Mrs. Mason asks you about it."
"Huh? Oh . . . homework. Right." Xander's voice sounded too high. He cleared his throat. "Right," too deep now. "Let's go do that." He and Willow shuffled out of the room, almost breaking into a run just before they hit the library doors.
Giles' gaze slipped back to Buffy just as she was turning her head back toward him. The sound of the flopping doors filled the room, and still Giles would have called it silent.
The moment stretched on with no one speaking. Buffy opened her mouth, but Wesley spoke before she could.
"I should, uh, I should leave you two to talk," Wesley said. Giles looked over his shoulder, sending Wesley a small, thankful smile. Wesley brushed an inconspicuous hand over Giles' elbow, and then left.
Buffy watched him go, her whole body turning to follow his path, though she still didn't seem to know what to make of things. She turned confused eyes back to Giles.
"So . . . I'm assuming you and the others have heard the gossip in the halls?" Giles saw no reason to drag this out. He wanted it over and done with, wanted everyone in the school to just move on. It wasn't as if it affected their lives. But it did, in some ways, with Buffy and Willow and Xander. Not on any real level, but he had to at least know how Buffy felt, if . . . damn it, this shouldn't even have mattered. Especially not to the entire school.
"Yeah," Buffy said, drawing the word out until it sounded reluctant, as if she were worried about what would fill the silence afterwards.
"Well, they may . . or may not, be true. More or less depending on which version you've heard," he said. Earlier, there had been a rumour circulating that he and Wesley had been completely naked at the time.
"Oh." Buffy said, and she'd gotten that look on her face that meant she was thinking about things she didn't want to be thinking about.
"What is true is that . . . a student came into the library this morning, a good half an hour before school had even started, I don't know what he thought . . . In any case, he found--uh, found Wesley and me--"
"Stop," Buffy said, and Giles' eyes whipped up to her. She was blurry around the edges. It took Giles a moment to realize that he'd been industriously cleaning his glasses, though he didn't remember taking them off. "I get the picture. I may have to flood my brain with Bollywood movies to wash it out, but . . . I get the picture."
Giles waited, letting it all sink in. Buffy took a few deep breaths and then looked up again, meeting his eyes. "So . . . Wesley? I mean, couldn't you have found someone less . . . Wesley?"
"I would have thought less 'male' would have been your first request," Giles said, softly, fishing for some hint of Buffy's thoughts.
"Well," Buffy stretched that word out, too, only this time it was Giles who was worried about the silence on the other end. "I guess that's kinda less out of the blue." She made her 'ew' face and Giles felt his eyebrows rise.
"I'm sorry, what?" He blinked and the world grew blurrier. He could feel his hands polishing his glasses--if he glanced down, he could even see them doing it--but he didn't remember telling them to.
"Well . . . hello, Ethan Rayne? But then, with Miss Calendar, and then, you know, my mom," Buffy hurried over the words with another 'ew' face. "I just didn't . . . Oh, boy. Can we not do the big discussion thing? You're with Wesley. Wesley's a guy. Fine. Discussion done now?"
"So you're . . . all right with--"
"Giles, I'll be fine with it. As long as we don't have to talk about it. Or, you know . . . picture it. Oh!" She said, her tone bright, but false. "I have Chemistry. I should . . . chemistry is important. For . . . you know, things." With that she stepped backward toward the library doors. She tried to shuffle out, but Giles held up a hand and asked her to wait.
"Buffy, I just want to make certain that things between you and I are . . . all right?"
Buffy smiled, less brightly but with far more feeling than before, "Yeah, Giles, we're good, but . . ." Buffy looked down at the floor and then up again. "Does this mean we have to be nice to Wesley?"
-----
Wesley felt himself relax when he heard Giles' laughter from inside the library. He glanced askance at Willow and Xander, who were leaning against the wall, outside the library, just as he was.
The bell had rung moments ago, and the halls had filled with a crowd of teenagers. They darted him looks and covered giggles as they passed, but Wesley did his best to ignore them all. Willow and Xander seemed immune. Of course that could have been because they had their heads together, whispering. They, too, had looked up when Giles laughed and now Wesley found himself glancing back and forth between them.
"Hi," Willow said, giving him a tentative smile. Xander waved, then broke eye contact and shoved his hand in his pocket.
Wesley looked back over the crowd in the halls.
"So, you and Giles, huh?" Willow sounded amused by the possibility. Wesley glanced back and found Willow smiling up at him.
"Uh, well . . ." Wesley flailed for something to say, unsure why he hadn't thought of this before. A memory flashed through Wesley's mind, a picture of Giles from just that morning, sprawled across Wesley's too small bed. "Yes," he finally said. "Giles and me."
Wesley blinked and then focused on Willow's beaming face. "Is that . . . all right with you two?"
Giles might deny it, but these children's opinions mattered to him. Wesley knew all of this would go more smoothly if they accepted it.
"Just don't break his heart. We'd have to murder you horribly." It was surreal, hearing those words come out of Willow's smiling mouth. "Right?" she asked Xander.
"Huh?" Xander glanced at Willow, then straightened to his full height and looked up at Wesley. "Right. Hurting Giles bad." He nodded and gave Wesley a disturbingly serious stare.
The library doors swished open before Wesley had to commit to a response. Buffy walked out and flashed a smile at him, though it seemed a little strained around the edges.
"Well, guys, I think we should be Chemistry-bound." Buffy, Willow, and Xander started off into the change of class crowd.
"Do you feel better now?" Wesley asked, having caught a glimpse of Giles from the corner of his eye. He looked over to find Giles staring off after Buffy.
"We should get back to work," Giles said. As Wesley passed, Giles' hand brushed his elbow. Wesley smiled to himself. California might not be so bad after all.
-----
Prompt #156 - Giles gets out-ed while still the librarian at Sunnydale High.
Author: lostgirlslair
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing: Giles/Wesley
Rating: G / FRC
Summary: The whole school is whispering whispery things.
Spoilers: Season three, sometime after 'Earshot.'
Feedback and Concrit adored: lostgirlslair AT yahoo DOT com
Disclaimer: All things BtVS and AtS belong to Joss Whedon and various corporate entities. I am neither.
Written for Prompt #156 of the lgbtfest! Prompt at the end of the story. Big, huge thanks to katekat1010, for the wonderful beta magic!
"Have you heard?" Willow asked, meeting Buffy at the junction of two hallways. She fell in next to Buffy, which meant whatever Willow was talking about was huge: she was supposed to be in history class, in the opposite direction.
"Nope," Buffy said, glancing over and realizing that Willow was wearing her worried face. "Early morning slayage with Faith."
The wrinkles in Willow's forehead deepened and she looked worried and curious, and kinda scrunchy. "Morning? Not a vampire."
"Raggamuffin demon."
"Raggamuffin?" Willow looked dubious.
"Ragishmuerfin. Whatever. What didn't I hear?"
Willow made a small, whimpering kind of sound. "Oh, boy. Buffy, the whole school is whispering whispery things!"
"What whispery things? Is Ms. Gomez on again with Mr. Clark?" Buffy liked that ongoing saga. It was kinda sweet, in an old lady making eyes at an equally old man kinda way. They probably shared a park bench and watched the sunset.
"No!" Willow glanced around, as if looking to see if her loudish tone had drawn any attention. When she spoke again, it was lower and with layers of meaning Buffy didn't understand. "It's Giles."
Buffy stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening. "Ms. Gomez is making eyes at Giles?"
"What? No!" Willow shook her head so hard her hair tossed. Buffy started walking again, with Willow a step behind. "People are saying someone saw Giles in the library."
"Not a shock, Will, the man practically lives there. I wouldn't be surprised to find out he sleeps on books." Buffy said, mostly to prod Willow to whatever this finish was going to be. "I mean the fact that anyone went into the library at all is kinda new and different, but--"
"I mean," Willow said, taking a quick step to catch up to Buffy as they headed through the near-empty halls, "that someone saw Giles . . . kissing someone in the library."
"Kissing?" Buffy said it loud enough that a kid walking past looked at her. The scary part was that he snickered. "Kissing who?" she asked, this time keeping her voice down.
Willow opened her mouth and then shut it again. She glanced around and then looked Buffy straight in the eye. "Wesley."
Buffy dropped her books.
-----
"It might not be a bad thing--" Wesley knew that was the wrong thing to say. Giles could see the realization on Wesley's face and forced himself not to snap. Wesley only wanted to calm him down, after all, and that was probably a worthy goal.
"It could cost us our jobs," Giles grumbled. He knew Wesley had already thought of that, but Wesley wouldn't be losing anything he really cared about. Not being at the school during the day would make things more difficult, but Wesley's position with the Council wasn't in danger. The library was all Giles really had left, as sad as that was, and he didn't want to lose it, or to lose this time with his slayer.
"Is that really what's worrying you?" Wesley's voice was quiet, even in the closed office. Giles couldn't seem to stop pacing, his hands shoved deep in his pockets.
It was what bothered him, partly. It did bother him that Snyder--whom he strongly suspected to be a reject from a slime mold colony--might actually be able to convince the school board that this somehow affected his job. There was a reason Giles normally didn't date those he worked with. It was a stricture he'd kept to for many years, until he'd broken it for Jenny, but he hadn't thought he'd do it again. But Wesley was . . . infuriating, and awkwardly charming, and they were both very far from home.
Giles sighed, his eyes moving to the right, over Wesley's shoulder and out into the library proper. His thoughts followed his gaze. It wasn't only Snyder that bothered him.
"It's Buffy you're worried over, isn't it?" Wesley leaned back against the door frame, fixing Giles with a serious look. Giles nodded, but he didn't say anything more for a moment.
"She's very young," he finally managed. "Snyder's scheming, the giggling in the hallways . . . I can handle all of that, but . . . Buffy is . . ." He wasn't sure how to finish that sentence. "She was less then thrilled when she found out that Joyce and I . . . I can only imagine what she'll think of this." Giles motioned between Wesley and himself as he spoke.
"I suppose it's lucky I didn't have much of a reputation with her to begin with," Wesley tried to make a joke of it, at first, but seemed to give up halfway through.
"I suspect that will change rather soon," Giles said, nodding out at the library doors, through which Buffy and Willow had just walked.
-----
Buffy saw Giles and Wesley, through the office window. Giles met her eye and she jerked her gaze away, worried he'd see the rumours written on her face. Or that she'd blush and he'd know something was up. The last thing she wanted was to have to tell Giles about stupid high school gossip.
She heard the office door open as she set her books down on the table. Willow was doing the same thing, her head down as she picked at the wire spiral of one notebook.
Buffy slapped a big smile on her face as she looked up at Giles, standing just outside the office doorway and Wesley, looking out of the office.
"Hey, Giles. Any impending doom I should know about?" The words kinda twisted in Buffy's head and she flicked her eyes away from Giles'. That didn't really help much, since her eyes met Wesley's. She looked down at her books with what she hoped was a nonchalant flick of her head.
"Nothing that I know of," Giles said, but he didn't really sound too sure of that. "Is there anything the matter?"
"What? What matter? There's no matter that . . . matters." Buffy did her best to grin, but it felt a little wilted.
"Buffy . . ." Giles said, trailing off in a way that gave her a sinking feeling.
Buffy started to say something, though she wasn't really sure what. They were both cut off by the library doors whooshing open.
"You guys will never guess what I--" Xander saw Giles and Wesley. "--was thinking." He finished, making it sound more like a question than he'd probably meant it to.
"I see," Giles said, his voice soft. He didn't go on and suddenly Buffy was standing in a library that had probably never been so quiet.
-----
Giles' eyes flicked from Willow, to Buffy, to Xander and back to Buffy. He could feel the pressure to speak pressing at him, but he had no idea what to say.
"Umm, Xander?" Willow said, lifting a notebook up to her chest as if it were a shield against the awkward tension filling the room. "We should probably go over your homework, in case Mrs. Mason asks you about it."
"Huh? Oh . . . homework. Right." Xander's voice sounded too high. He cleared his throat. "Right," too deep now. "Let's go do that." He and Willow shuffled out of the room, almost breaking into a run just before they hit the library doors.
Giles' gaze slipped back to Buffy just as she was turning her head back toward him. The sound of the flopping doors filled the room, and still Giles would have called it silent.
The moment stretched on with no one speaking. Buffy opened her mouth, but Wesley spoke before she could.
"I should, uh, I should leave you two to talk," Wesley said. Giles looked over his shoulder, sending Wesley a small, thankful smile. Wesley brushed an inconspicuous hand over Giles' elbow, and then left.
Buffy watched him go, her whole body turning to follow his path, though she still didn't seem to know what to make of things. She turned confused eyes back to Giles.
"So . . . I'm assuming you and the others have heard the gossip in the halls?" Giles saw no reason to drag this out. He wanted it over and done with, wanted everyone in the school to just move on. It wasn't as if it affected their lives. But it did, in some ways, with Buffy and Willow and Xander. Not on any real level, but he had to at least know how Buffy felt, if . . . damn it, this shouldn't even have mattered. Especially not to the entire school.
"Yeah," Buffy said, drawing the word out until it sounded reluctant, as if she were worried about what would fill the silence afterwards.
"Well, they may . . or may not, be true. More or less depending on which version you've heard," he said. Earlier, there had been a rumour circulating that he and Wesley had been completely naked at the time.
"Oh." Buffy said, and she'd gotten that look on her face that meant she was thinking about things she didn't want to be thinking about.
"What is true is that . . . a student came into the library this morning, a good half an hour before school had even started, I don't know what he thought . . . In any case, he found--uh, found Wesley and me--"
"Stop," Buffy said, and Giles' eyes whipped up to her. She was blurry around the edges. It took Giles a moment to realize that he'd been industriously cleaning his glasses, though he didn't remember taking them off. "I get the picture. I may have to flood my brain with Bollywood movies to wash it out, but . . . I get the picture."
Giles waited, letting it all sink in. Buffy took a few deep breaths and then looked up again, meeting his eyes. "So . . . Wesley? I mean, couldn't you have found someone less . . . Wesley?"
"I would have thought less 'male' would have been your first request," Giles said, softly, fishing for some hint of Buffy's thoughts.
"Well," Buffy stretched that word out, too, only this time it was Giles who was worried about the silence on the other end. "I guess that's kinda less out of the blue." She made her 'ew' face and Giles felt his eyebrows rise.
"I'm sorry, what?" He blinked and the world grew blurrier. He could feel his hands polishing his glasses--if he glanced down, he could even see them doing it--but he didn't remember telling them to.
"Well . . . hello, Ethan Rayne? But then, with Miss Calendar, and then, you know, my mom," Buffy hurried over the words with another 'ew' face. "I just didn't . . . Oh, boy. Can we not do the big discussion thing? You're with Wesley. Wesley's a guy. Fine. Discussion done now?"
"So you're . . . all right with--"
"Giles, I'll be fine with it. As long as we don't have to talk about it. Or, you know . . . picture it. Oh!" She said, her tone bright, but false. "I have Chemistry. I should . . . chemistry is important. For . . . you know, things." With that she stepped backward toward the library doors. She tried to shuffle out, but Giles held up a hand and asked her to wait.
"Buffy, I just want to make certain that things between you and I are . . . all right?"
Buffy smiled, less brightly but with far more feeling than before, "Yeah, Giles, we're good, but . . ." Buffy looked down at the floor and then up again. "Does this mean we have to be nice to Wesley?"
-----
Wesley felt himself relax when he heard Giles' laughter from inside the library. He glanced askance at Willow and Xander, who were leaning against the wall, outside the library, just as he was.
The bell had rung moments ago, and the halls had filled with a crowd of teenagers. They darted him looks and covered giggles as they passed, but Wesley did his best to ignore them all. Willow and Xander seemed immune. Of course that could have been because they had their heads together, whispering. They, too, had looked up when Giles laughed and now Wesley found himself glancing back and forth between them.
"Hi," Willow said, giving him a tentative smile. Xander waved, then broke eye contact and shoved his hand in his pocket.
Wesley looked back over the crowd in the halls.
"So, you and Giles, huh?" Willow sounded amused by the possibility. Wesley glanced back and found Willow smiling up at him.
"Uh, well . . ." Wesley flailed for something to say, unsure why he hadn't thought of this before. A memory flashed through Wesley's mind, a picture of Giles from just that morning, sprawled across Wesley's too small bed. "Yes," he finally said. "Giles and me."
Wesley blinked and then focused on Willow's beaming face. "Is that . . . all right with you two?"
Giles might deny it, but these children's opinions mattered to him. Wesley knew all of this would go more smoothly if they accepted it.
"Just don't break his heart. We'd have to murder you horribly." It was surreal, hearing those words come out of Willow's smiling mouth. "Right?" she asked Xander.
"Huh?" Xander glanced at Willow, then straightened to his full height and looked up at Wesley. "Right. Hurting Giles bad." He nodded and gave Wesley a disturbingly serious stare.
The library doors swished open before Wesley had to commit to a response. Buffy walked out and flashed a smile at him, though it seemed a little strained around the edges.
"Well, guys, I think we should be Chemistry-bound." Buffy, Willow, and Xander started off into the change of class crowd.
"Do you feel better now?" Wesley asked, having caught a glimpse of Giles from the corner of his eye. He looked over to find Giles staring off after Buffy.
"We should get back to work," Giles said. As Wesley passed, Giles' hand brushed his elbow. Wesley smiled to himself. California might not be so bad after all.
-----
Prompt #156 - Giles gets out-ed while still the librarian at Sunnydale High.