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“You’re leaving?” Buffy asked as soon as she stormed through the door to Giles’ home. He had been reading a book on the couch but abandoned it with a sigh within moments.
He stood to greet her. “Buffy-“
“No, don’t ‘Buffy’ me! You’re leaving me? Why? Why now?” The desperate trill in her voice was not imaginary.
“Oh come now, Buffy, look around you,” Giles countered in frustration. “You don’t need me anymore. You have an excellent team to research and fight alongside you. You have Riley to train with you. I simply do not have a purpose to fill here anymore.”
“And what if I want you to stay?” She challenged.
“Buffy… if you really wanted me around, why haven’t you come here more? We-we’ve hardly spoken since you’ve begun college, and I suspect that would not have changed had Adam and the Initiative not become such issues.”
Buffy didn’t have an answer for that, but she didn’t look away from the Watcher, either. No, she hadn’t been around much, but did he really think she didn’t care?
Giles sighed. “It’s time I left and allowed you to realize your potential without an old Watcher around.” He turned to dismiss her and Buffy’s heart leapt within her chest.
“What if I’m in love with you?” She blurted out.
Giles didn’t say anything to that. Just gave her a hard stare. She was treading in dangerous waters.
“Well?” She huffed. “What if-if I’m in love with you? What if I’ve been avoiding you because I’m scared? What if seeing you with Olivia made me jealous when I have no right to feel that way, and-and I’ve stayed away to to give you space. Because I don’t want you to leave. I… I never want you to leave me.”
“And Riley?” Giles asked, clearly not convinced, though still very serious. He had stepped toward her, as if to intimidate her into telling him the truth.
“He liked me,” she answered in a small voice so uncharacteristic to her. “And he was there, and you were with Olivia and I thought… I thought I could get over it if I just tried hard enough. And… and I can’t.”
“Buffy…” Giles began with a tremble. “Are-are you just making this up to convince me to stay?”
“I-“ Buffy stopped and swallowed. “I thought I was,” she admitted nervously. She licked her lips and glanced to his. He stood a lot closer than she thought. Was she the one leaning in, or was he? “Is… is it working?”
“I uh,” he paused and found himself looking at her lips as well. “I don’t believe myself thoroughly enough convinced.” He swayed closer to her, as if pulling into her orbit.
“Yet?” She lifted her chin and trembled at the sensation of his breath on her lips. It was a question and a challenge.
“Yet,” he affirmed and leaned in to press his lips to her own. He could hear her sharp intake of breath as she leaned the rest of herself closer to him and his hands found her arms. One cupped her elbow and the other grasped her forearm. Her hands clutched at his sweater, tighter and tighter by the second.
The moment was so intense that neither moved their lips, simply basking in the sensations of touching so intimately. Never had she imagined this moment before, but she certainly knew she’d never forget it after. In a split second of divine clarity, she moved her lips, raising up on her toes to press her mouth against his further. His hand found the small of her back and it was so perfect, so awe-inspiring, she moaned. Her hands abandoned his sweater in favor of cupping his face and sliding into his hair. Her lips parted in the same breath as his and a new hunger washed over them both as their tongues met helplessly and insistently. Buffy felt like each press allowed her to devour Giles’ sensual sighs of pleasure. Each flick of his tongue gave him another window to the bright and searing desire blanketing her mind and her thoughts.
When the kiss ended and their lungs begged for mercy, they stayed there, clutching and grasping. Holding on as desperately as they loved. As they yearned.
“Convinced?” Buffy’s voice broke over the word, not enough air in her lungs to say it more strongly.
“I think I might need more convincing,” Giles gasped quietly, impossibly tightening his arms around her further.
“I am so up to the challenge,” she breathed against his neck, enjoying the shiver that wracked through him. Her lips found the column of his throat without any conscious thought. “But I think I need to take a break from convincing. There’s something I need to go do.”
“O-oh?” Giles asked an octave higher than usual as she licked along the hollow between his neck and chest. His pulse flittered as he failed to clear his throat. “And that might be?”
“I have a boyfriend I need to go break up with,” she sighed, resting her forehead against his collar. “He’s headed home to his parents in a few days. I should probably get it over with before he’s away for a month.”
“B-Buffy, are you sure?” He pulled away and almost fell to his knees at the beautiful sight before him. Buffy was flushed. Her mouth was gorgeously kiss-bruised, her lips still glistening. Her pupils were still blown wide as she looked up at him.
“I’m sure about a lot of things right now,” she purred and he shuddered against his own volition as her hand stretched down his abdomen. “But I’m most sure that once I’m done, I’m coming back over here and I’m not leaving until I’ve gotten rid of all the rest of your doubts. Does that sound amenable ?”
Giles cleared his throat. “P-perhaps.” He straightened his shoulders and gave her a mocked stuffy look that hardly hid his coyness—or his disbelief and adoration. “Although, I fear I might not stay this far convinced in the meantime.”
“Oh, we can’t have that,” Buffy responded with mocked seriousness. “Ya know, I have just the thing-“ she jumped up into his arms and Giles hardly had a second to correct his balance before Buffy had her legs wrapped around him and her lips overwhelming his.
If it took Buffy the rest of her life to convince Giles she was in love with him… well, she was amenable to that, too.