Newtonian Physics [BtVS; Giles/Jenny]
TITLE: Newtonian Physics
LESSON 1: The Law of Inertia
FANDOM: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
PAIRING: Giles/Jenny
SPOILERS: None; pre-series AU
RATING: PG-13
SUMMARY: An object that is at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts upon it.
*****
Giles grunted as he turned over, burying his face in his pillow. Somewhere beside him there was an obnoxious buzzing -- the sound was a cacophony of heinous noises, some sort of cross between a jackhammer, a game-show buzzer, a bell, and a horn, all enhanced by the incessant pounding in his head. Belatedly, he seemed to realize that it was his alarm clock -- newly-purchased and reminding him of his wake-up call for the very first time since his move to Sunnydale.
Groaning through his reach, he hit the sleep button without looking and curled into the warmth on his other side, his lips tracing soft, bare shoulders. That was when he froze, eyes popping open despite his aching head's violent protest to the motion. Leaning back, he assessed the sight in front of him -- a naked form, distinctly feminine, laid turned away from him. Dark hair sprayed across the pillow and the sheets swished as she moved in sleep. Panic seized him, breath turning shallow as his eyes searched the air in front of him as if an explanation would suddenly materialize.
Again, his gaze traced the form still facing away from him, memorizing the way the deep green of his sheets hugged and caressed the slight curves nestled there. One arm lay along the length of her torso, elbow resting against the curve of her waist, where the cover of the sheet began. Slender fingers moved just slightly against her hip and upper thigh and she shifted again; Giles held his breath.
What the hell had happened the night before? He recalled the desire for some scotch, though not of the store-bought variety. He had to have gone to a bar of some sort, though where he couldn't recall. And whoever his bed-partner was, he couldn't recall that either. It was quite unfortunate, in a way -- it had been so long since he'd taken a woman home, and of course now that he had, he couldn't remember a minute of it. Fantastic.
A soft sigh drew his attention and again he held his breath. Should he wake her? Allow her to sleep? He glanced at the clock and squinted his eyes shut, cursing himself. He was due at the high school for his first day of work in under an hour -- allowing this mysterious woman to loll about in his bed awhile longer wasn't an option. Luckily, that was when she began to turn over.
Giles looked about frantically, wondering for a split-second if he should hide before he admonished himself -- what was this, a bloody surprise party? And so instead, he just waited with bated breath as her eyelashes began to flutter. She was quite lovely, he couldn't help but notice -- the flawless porcelain skin, the thick, dark hair, and he hadn't for a second missed the full lips. In fact, he had the strangest urge to kiss them. Until, of course, her eyes snapped open, swam into focus, and she screamed.
He yelped, the momentum of his startled jump causing him to topple over the edge of the bed, crashing onto the floor. He recovered in an unprecedentedly short amount of time, keeping the covers around his waist as he got back onto the bed. He met the woman's widened brown eyes and realized, again belatedly, that in the few moments he'd studied her and wondered how she'd gotten there... not once did he consider what to say to her.
"Ehm... uh, h-hullo," he greeted awkwardly, with a courteous tip of the head.
She eyed him strangely, clutching the sheet to her collarbone. "Hi." Her gaze bounced about his room in a matter of seconds before she asked, "Where the hell are we?"
"Uh well, th-this would be, ehm, my... apartment. As it were," he explained, a bit nervously, still keeping the sheet high on his waist.
"You're English," she stated, a bit redundantly as she looked him over.
Giles nodded. "Yes, I am." Just as redundantly, he returned, "You're American."
"Yeah." Then, suddenly she closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Oh. God."
Instinctively, he reached out and touched her arm, asking her, "Are you alright?"
Still pinching the bridge of her nose, eyes squinted shut tight, she replied, "Aside from the overwhelming feeling of being hit by a truck, yeah. I'm peachy."
"Uhm... h-here." He scrambled for some clothes to put on, finding his boxers and tee shirt on the floor near his nightstand, and he pulled them on before he made haste for the bathroom. It took him a moment in his newly-unpacked upstairs bathroom to find what he was looking for, but finally he dug out a bottle of aspirin, popping two in his mouth and swallowing them dry before taking another two out to the mystery woman still wrapped in his sheets. "Here we are," he announced, holding them out to her.
She flicked him a slight smile, her palm turned up as he dropped the two small pills into it, his fingers just barely brushing her skin. As they did so, they met eyes and Giles respectfully took a step back as she popped the pills into her mouth. Surprisingly, she too swallowed them dry, and then looked over at the clock. All at once, she was a flurry of motion, a string of curses leaving her lips as she rushed about his bedroom with his bedsheet still wrapped around her.
Giles watched, a bit bemused as she gathered her clothes, muttering about how late she would be as he tried to think of what else he could do or say. Propriety suggested that he ask for her name, though it also served as a reminder that he should have remembered her name from the night before. The next thought in his head was that he should offer to make her a cup of tea, or perhaps some coffee. Yes. That would be a good place to start.
"Ehm, w-would you care for a cup of... of tea, perhaps? Or-or maybe some coffee?" He averted his gaze when she began pulling on her clothing in a hurry.
Shaking her head, the woman told him, "I really can't, I'm sorry. I'm gonna be late for work," and she hopped around on one leg, trying to pull her high-heeled boots on, zipping them up and pulling the legs of her jeans down over them.
"I-I don't even know your name," he told her, a bit helplessly as he watched her rush down the stairs, grappling for anything else he could say to her.
"It's Jenny," she told him over her shoulder. "Gotta go! Bye."
Giles frowned to himself, listening to the door slamming shut as he murmured to his now-empty bedroom, "I'm Rupert, pleased to meet you." He was only allowed another few seconds to wallow in the confusion and regret before he got another glimpse of the clock, and began rushing around the room himself, similarly crazed and quite late for his first day on the job.
"Spectacular start to the school year, old chap," he congratulated himself under his breath. "Just spectacular."
*****
His morning hadn't gotten any better once he'd arrived at the school. He'd been twenty minutes late, and had rushed to unlock the library. Luckily, it was practically unheard of that students would visit the library on the first day of school.
The school's administrator, Principal Flutie, had stopped in shortly after he'd unlocked the doors, in a cheery mood though Giles suspected the worst -- possibly a friendly comment about his tardiness, followed by a more serious reminder that the incident would result in some sort of verbal or written warning.
Strangely, the principal's good mood was merely that -- a good mood. Giles had apologized profusely for being late but it had been shrugged off with a good-natured chortle.
"Don't worry about it, Mr. Giles! I'm sure it's just from adjusting to the time change."
"Y-Yes." Giles hadn't bothered to tell him that he'd been living in the States for over a week now.
"At any rate, I'm just here to give you the official tour of the school grounds." He checked his watch. "We're just waiting on one more person -- another new teacher. She must be running late as well." He chuckled again, joking, "It's an epidemic!"
Giles smiled nervously, and glanced around the library. His eyes settled on the book return cage, mind immediately processing where he could hang the various weapons he'd need for training his Slayer -- a Miss Buffy Summers, soon to arrive at the school herself. Any day now he'd be immersed in an extensive training program, not to mention dealing with the headache of putting up with a teenage girl controlling his life.
"Ah, here she is!" Flutie exclaimed. "Miss Jenny Calendar, I'd like you to meet Mr. Rupert Giles. He'll be taking the official tour with you."
Giles glanced up and, upon meeting a quite familiar pair of brown eyes, he felt his own widen. "You," he murmured without thought.
A slight smile plucked at her lips and she returned without missing a beat, "You."
Flutie glanced between the two of them curiously. "You two know each other?"
"Uh, we've..." Giles stepped forward, shaking the hand she extended. "We've run into each other before, yes."
She smiled, still looking him in the eye and shaking his hand as she told the principal, "We bumped into each other not that long ago." Then, when the principal wasn't looking, she sent him a wink.
Giles instinctively pulled his hand back, feeling a bit flustered all of a sudden as the image of her bare skin cocooned in his sheets returned to him.
"Well, so this will be great, then!" Flutie smiled. "You two will be like old friends by the end of the day."
Giles wasn't so sure, but went along with the tour anyway. The principal was at the helm, he and Jenny behind, occasionally throwing each other glances that were laced with just a bit of awkwardness.
As Flutie made grand sweeping gestures toward some of the architecture, leading them around the school's inner courtyard, he turned as he felt her lean close. "I'm sorry about this morning," she murmured.
He shook his head, hands in his pockets. "Quite alright," he assured her, though he still felt a small pang of hurt that she hadn't stuck around long enough to learn his name.
"It's just... it was my first day. I was running late, I was hungover, and... a little confused."
His brows quirked, eyes focused on the pavement beneath his feet. "You're not the only one."
Looking up, he met her eyes, watching as they diverted to the man leading them around -- checking to make sure he was still otherwise occupied -- before she looked back at him again, dropping her voice to a whisper. "Do you remember anything from last night?"
"Other than the need for scotch, no. I'm sorry." A moment of silence passed between them and he listened to the principal talk about the Olympic-sized swimming pool nearby before going off on a tangent about the diving team. Giles glanced up at Jenny once more. "What about you? Do you remember anything?"
She shook her head, brows raising ruefully. "Nothing that could explain how the hell we ended up in bed together."
"Yes. Well." Nervously, he chuckled. "It is peculiar, isn't. Someone like you, and someone like me."
She stopped walking, furrowing her brows as she folded her arms across her chest. "What do you mean by that?"
"Alright!" Flutie turned to them. "Here's where I'll leave you. Since first period is in session, we'll wait to do the tour of the inside of the school, so let's meet in the faculty lounge in twenty minutes." He glanced between the two of them. "Everything okay?"
"Y-Yes, everything's fine," Giles replied quickly, occasionally still glimpsing at his cohort to find her still looking expectantly at him.
"Okay." The principal gave them one last puzzled glance before reiterating, "Twenty minutes, then," and turning on his heel, heading back inside.
Giles cleared his throat, one hand leaving his pocket to run through his hair as he looked around the courtyard nervously. "Right. Um..."
"So, what did you mean? Someone like me, and someone like you?"
"W-Well, I just mean, you seem so..." He struggled for the words, taking in her appearance -- dark eyes, dark hair, and dark leather jacket over a sweater and miniskirt, tall leather boots climbing to her knees. "I-I just mean your appearance is a bit, ehm..." He tried not to use the word 'provocative.' "A bit unorthodox for a school teacher."
"Ah. You mean," she arched an eyebrow, "Provocative?"
"Well..." Giles tilted his head, trailing off. To deny it would be lying, though he couldn't think of anything else to say, so he merely frowned thoughtfully, both hands in his pockets again.
"I see," she nodded. "I guess you're right. It is a little weird that we hooked up last night, given how uptight and snobby you are."
"Uptight?" he quirked an eyebrow. Then, his brain put focus on her second adjective. "Snobby? I am not snobby."
"Oh yeah you are. Bigtime. You're judging who I am just based on my appearance," she hissed, glaring at him.
He returned the expression in the form of a scowl. "You're doing the same thing to me!"
"Well then I guess that makes us even, doesn't it England?"
"I suppose it does." He folded his arms.
A tense air settled around the two of them, and they occasionally threw each other sour looks before Giles sighed, wishing to get away from this woman.
"Perhaps it'd be best if we just chalk this up to a drunken mishap. Nothing more."
"I agree," she returned. "Because clearly under normal circumstances, you wouldn't even give someone like me the time of day."
"And vice-versa," he volleyed, turning his nose in the air haughtily, tugging at his tweed suit jacket.
"Fine. So," she shrugged. "I guess I'll see you in the faculty lounge in fifteen minutes?"
Inwardly groaning, he nodded, hating that he'd have to spend the rest of the day with this woman. "Yes, I suppose you will." He tipped his head, as courteously as he could manage. "Until then, Miss Calendar."
"Mister Giles." She tipped her head as well, though it was done almost facetiously, before she spun on her heel and strode quickly down the colonnade. She threw him one last glare over her shoulder before pushing through the double doors leading back into the school.
And Giles huffed to himself, shaking his head as he murmured, "Yes. A spectacular start indeed."
TBC
{x-posted to gilesjenny}
LESSON 1: The Law of Inertia
FANDOM: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
PAIRING: Giles/Jenny
SPOILERS: None; pre-series AU
RATING: PG-13
SUMMARY: An object that is at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts upon it.
*****
Giles grunted as he turned over, burying his face in his pillow. Somewhere beside him there was an obnoxious buzzing -- the sound was a cacophony of heinous noises, some sort of cross between a jackhammer, a game-show buzzer, a bell, and a horn, all enhanced by the incessant pounding in his head. Belatedly, he seemed to realize that it was his alarm clock -- newly-purchased and reminding him of his wake-up call for the very first time since his move to Sunnydale.
Groaning through his reach, he hit the sleep button without looking and curled into the warmth on his other side, his lips tracing soft, bare shoulders. That was when he froze, eyes popping open despite his aching head's violent protest to the motion. Leaning back, he assessed the sight in front of him -- a naked form, distinctly feminine, laid turned away from him. Dark hair sprayed across the pillow and the sheets swished as she moved in sleep. Panic seized him, breath turning shallow as his eyes searched the air in front of him as if an explanation would suddenly materialize.
Again, his gaze traced the form still facing away from him, memorizing the way the deep green of his sheets hugged and caressed the slight curves nestled there. One arm lay along the length of her torso, elbow resting against the curve of her waist, where the cover of the sheet began. Slender fingers moved just slightly against her hip and upper thigh and she shifted again; Giles held his breath.
What the hell had happened the night before? He recalled the desire for some scotch, though not of the store-bought variety. He had to have gone to a bar of some sort, though where he couldn't recall. And whoever his bed-partner was, he couldn't recall that either. It was quite unfortunate, in a way -- it had been so long since he'd taken a woman home, and of course now that he had, he couldn't remember a minute of it. Fantastic.
A soft sigh drew his attention and again he held his breath. Should he wake her? Allow her to sleep? He glanced at the clock and squinted his eyes shut, cursing himself. He was due at the high school for his first day of work in under an hour -- allowing this mysterious woman to loll about in his bed awhile longer wasn't an option. Luckily, that was when she began to turn over.
Giles looked about frantically, wondering for a split-second if he should hide before he admonished himself -- what was this, a bloody surprise party? And so instead, he just waited with bated breath as her eyelashes began to flutter. She was quite lovely, he couldn't help but notice -- the flawless porcelain skin, the thick, dark hair, and he hadn't for a second missed the full lips. In fact, he had the strangest urge to kiss them. Until, of course, her eyes snapped open, swam into focus, and she screamed.
He yelped, the momentum of his startled jump causing him to topple over the edge of the bed, crashing onto the floor. He recovered in an unprecedentedly short amount of time, keeping the covers around his waist as he got back onto the bed. He met the woman's widened brown eyes and realized, again belatedly, that in the few moments he'd studied her and wondered how she'd gotten there... not once did he consider what to say to her.
"Ehm... uh, h-hullo," he greeted awkwardly, with a courteous tip of the head.
She eyed him strangely, clutching the sheet to her collarbone. "Hi." Her gaze bounced about his room in a matter of seconds before she asked, "Where the hell are we?"
"Uh well, th-this would be, ehm, my... apartment. As it were," he explained, a bit nervously, still keeping the sheet high on his waist.
"You're English," she stated, a bit redundantly as she looked him over.
Giles nodded. "Yes, I am." Just as redundantly, he returned, "You're American."
"Yeah." Then, suddenly she closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Oh. God."
Instinctively, he reached out and touched her arm, asking her, "Are you alright?"
Still pinching the bridge of her nose, eyes squinted shut tight, she replied, "Aside from the overwhelming feeling of being hit by a truck, yeah. I'm peachy."
"Uhm... h-here." He scrambled for some clothes to put on, finding his boxers and tee shirt on the floor near his nightstand, and he pulled them on before he made haste for the bathroom. It took him a moment in his newly-unpacked upstairs bathroom to find what he was looking for, but finally he dug out a bottle of aspirin, popping two in his mouth and swallowing them dry before taking another two out to the mystery woman still wrapped in his sheets. "Here we are," he announced, holding them out to her.
She flicked him a slight smile, her palm turned up as he dropped the two small pills into it, his fingers just barely brushing her skin. As they did so, they met eyes and Giles respectfully took a step back as she popped the pills into her mouth. Surprisingly, she too swallowed them dry, and then looked over at the clock. All at once, she was a flurry of motion, a string of curses leaving her lips as she rushed about his bedroom with his bedsheet still wrapped around her.
Giles watched, a bit bemused as she gathered her clothes, muttering about how late she would be as he tried to think of what else he could do or say. Propriety suggested that he ask for her name, though it also served as a reminder that he should have remembered her name from the night before. The next thought in his head was that he should offer to make her a cup of tea, or perhaps some coffee. Yes. That would be a good place to start.
"Ehm, w-would you care for a cup of... of tea, perhaps? Or-or maybe some coffee?" He averted his gaze when she began pulling on her clothing in a hurry.
Shaking her head, the woman told him, "I really can't, I'm sorry. I'm gonna be late for work," and she hopped around on one leg, trying to pull her high-heeled boots on, zipping them up and pulling the legs of her jeans down over them.
"I-I don't even know your name," he told her, a bit helplessly as he watched her rush down the stairs, grappling for anything else he could say to her.
"It's Jenny," she told him over her shoulder. "Gotta go! Bye."
Giles frowned to himself, listening to the door slamming shut as he murmured to his now-empty bedroom, "I'm Rupert, pleased to meet you." He was only allowed another few seconds to wallow in the confusion and regret before he got another glimpse of the clock, and began rushing around the room himself, similarly crazed and quite late for his first day on the job.
"Spectacular start to the school year, old chap," he congratulated himself under his breath. "Just spectacular."
*****
His morning hadn't gotten any better once he'd arrived at the school. He'd been twenty minutes late, and had rushed to unlock the library. Luckily, it was practically unheard of that students would visit the library on the first day of school.
The school's administrator, Principal Flutie, had stopped in shortly after he'd unlocked the doors, in a cheery mood though Giles suspected the worst -- possibly a friendly comment about his tardiness, followed by a more serious reminder that the incident would result in some sort of verbal or written warning.
Strangely, the principal's good mood was merely that -- a good mood. Giles had apologized profusely for being late but it had been shrugged off with a good-natured chortle.
"Don't worry about it, Mr. Giles! I'm sure it's just from adjusting to the time change."
"Y-Yes." Giles hadn't bothered to tell him that he'd been living in the States for over a week now.
"At any rate, I'm just here to give you the official tour of the school grounds." He checked his watch. "We're just waiting on one more person -- another new teacher. She must be running late as well." He chuckled again, joking, "It's an epidemic!"
Giles smiled nervously, and glanced around the library. His eyes settled on the book return cage, mind immediately processing where he could hang the various weapons he'd need for training his Slayer -- a Miss Buffy Summers, soon to arrive at the school herself. Any day now he'd be immersed in an extensive training program, not to mention dealing with the headache of putting up with a teenage girl controlling his life.
"Ah, here she is!" Flutie exclaimed. "Miss Jenny Calendar, I'd like you to meet Mr. Rupert Giles. He'll be taking the official tour with you."
Giles glanced up and, upon meeting a quite familiar pair of brown eyes, he felt his own widen. "You," he murmured without thought.
A slight smile plucked at her lips and she returned without missing a beat, "You."
Flutie glanced between the two of them curiously. "You two know each other?"
"Uh, we've..." Giles stepped forward, shaking the hand she extended. "We've run into each other before, yes."
She smiled, still looking him in the eye and shaking his hand as she told the principal, "We bumped into each other not that long ago." Then, when the principal wasn't looking, she sent him a wink.
Giles instinctively pulled his hand back, feeling a bit flustered all of a sudden as the image of her bare skin cocooned in his sheets returned to him.
"Well, so this will be great, then!" Flutie smiled. "You two will be like old friends by the end of the day."
Giles wasn't so sure, but went along with the tour anyway. The principal was at the helm, he and Jenny behind, occasionally throwing each other glances that were laced with just a bit of awkwardness.
As Flutie made grand sweeping gestures toward some of the architecture, leading them around the school's inner courtyard, he turned as he felt her lean close. "I'm sorry about this morning," she murmured.
He shook his head, hands in his pockets. "Quite alright," he assured her, though he still felt a small pang of hurt that she hadn't stuck around long enough to learn his name.
"It's just... it was my first day. I was running late, I was hungover, and... a little confused."
His brows quirked, eyes focused on the pavement beneath his feet. "You're not the only one."
Looking up, he met her eyes, watching as they diverted to the man leading them around -- checking to make sure he was still otherwise occupied -- before she looked back at him again, dropping her voice to a whisper. "Do you remember anything from last night?"
"Other than the need for scotch, no. I'm sorry." A moment of silence passed between them and he listened to the principal talk about the Olympic-sized swimming pool nearby before going off on a tangent about the diving team. Giles glanced up at Jenny once more. "What about you? Do you remember anything?"
She shook her head, brows raising ruefully. "Nothing that could explain how the hell we ended up in bed together."
"Yes. Well." Nervously, he chuckled. "It is peculiar, isn't. Someone like you, and someone like me."
She stopped walking, furrowing her brows as she folded her arms across her chest. "What do you mean by that?"
"Alright!" Flutie turned to them. "Here's where I'll leave you. Since first period is in session, we'll wait to do the tour of the inside of the school, so let's meet in the faculty lounge in twenty minutes." He glanced between the two of them. "Everything okay?"
"Y-Yes, everything's fine," Giles replied quickly, occasionally still glimpsing at his cohort to find her still looking expectantly at him.
"Okay." The principal gave them one last puzzled glance before reiterating, "Twenty minutes, then," and turning on his heel, heading back inside.
Giles cleared his throat, one hand leaving his pocket to run through his hair as he looked around the courtyard nervously. "Right. Um..."
"So, what did you mean? Someone like me, and someone like you?"
"W-Well, I just mean, you seem so..." He struggled for the words, taking in her appearance -- dark eyes, dark hair, and dark leather jacket over a sweater and miniskirt, tall leather boots climbing to her knees. "I-I just mean your appearance is a bit, ehm..." He tried not to use the word 'provocative.' "A bit unorthodox for a school teacher."
"Ah. You mean," she arched an eyebrow, "Provocative?"
"Well..." Giles tilted his head, trailing off. To deny it would be lying, though he couldn't think of anything else to say, so he merely frowned thoughtfully, both hands in his pockets again.
"I see," she nodded. "I guess you're right. It is a little weird that we hooked up last night, given how uptight and snobby you are."
"Uptight?" he quirked an eyebrow. Then, his brain put focus on her second adjective. "Snobby? I am not snobby."
"Oh yeah you are. Bigtime. You're judging who I am just based on my appearance," she hissed, glaring at him.
He returned the expression in the form of a scowl. "You're doing the same thing to me!"
"Well then I guess that makes us even, doesn't it England?"
"I suppose it does." He folded his arms.
A tense air settled around the two of them, and they occasionally threw each other sour looks before Giles sighed, wishing to get away from this woman.
"Perhaps it'd be best if we just chalk this up to a drunken mishap. Nothing more."
"I agree," she returned. "Because clearly under normal circumstances, you wouldn't even give someone like me the time of day."
"And vice-versa," he volleyed, turning his nose in the air haughtily, tugging at his tweed suit jacket.
"Fine. So," she shrugged. "I guess I'll see you in the faculty lounge in fifteen minutes?"
Inwardly groaning, he nodded, hating that he'd have to spend the rest of the day with this woman. "Yes, I suppose you will." He tipped his head, as courteously as he could manage. "Until then, Miss Calendar."
"Mister Giles." She tipped her head as well, though it was done almost facetiously, before she spun on her heel and strode quickly down the colonnade. She threw him one last glare over her shoulder before pushing through the double doors leading back into the school.
And Giles huffed to himself, shaking his head as he murmured, "Yes. A spectacular start indeed."
TBC
{x-posted to gilesjenny}