Work Text:
Quite Contrary
Copyright December 2025
Characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kuzui Enterprises, Sandollar Television, and the WB.
It’s an old game between them: Ethan layering sly innuendoes into every conversation with Ripper, and the artificial persona of ‘Giles’ letting them pass without comment, while simultaneously making his distaste ostentatiously clear.
They’re playing roles, both of them. And, for both, the choice of artificiality is itself an insight into their character.
What they are to each other is much less — and more — than anything so banal as sexuality. Ethan may someday kill Giles in one of his games; Giles may kill Ethan in one of his fits of righteousness.
That’s intimacy … and Ethan prizes it with uninhibited glee.
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