Xander joined them after dinner to hear the outcome of their visit earlier that day. He looked genuinely upset when Willow gently told him about Mike's death and turned sharply towards Giles. "You can find a way to get the thing that did this, right?"

Giles, relaxing on the sofa as jet lag threatened to overtake him again, nodded and moved to place his mug on the coffee table. "I have asked some of my colleagues at the council to check some references for me and Willow and I will make a first pass at figuring this out tomorrow"

"Why not now?" Xander asked quietly. "It wouldn't be the first time we had pulled an all nighter when people's lives were at stake"

Buffy, snuggled in the armchair, looked at him over the rim of her mug. "Xander if Giles says we wait, then we wait"

Willow looked up as well. "We're both pooped after today's mojo and the next bit will take a lot of concentration so it would be best to wait until Giles and I are rested"

Xander looked set to argue when Giles stifled a yawn. "Honestly Xander, I have gone over the frequency of the attacks and their outcomes and I think we can afford the risk to take our time and be careful with this"

"Besides" Buffy smiled sweetly, hoping to cut through some of the tension. "The professor isn't getting any younger"

Giles glared at the girls as all three started to giggle. Xander looked a little confused but the change in atmosphere seemed to calm him a little and he was soon persuading Willow to tell all about her subterfuge and the ensuing spectacle of Giles being a `babe magnet'. Willow didn't need much persuasion and soon both Dawn and Buffy were helpless as she performed her over the top version of Mrs Wayne.

After an hour Xander said he would accompany Buffy on her patrol and Dawn yawned and headed off to bed, mumbling about needing to pace herself before the big weekend shopping trip. Willow and Giles were scrunched down at either end of the sofa and neither could really be bothered moving too much.

"Don't wait up for me, I think I'll take a longer patrol tonight, cover the outlying cemeteries at the edge of town" Buffy said as she grabbed her jacket from behind the door.

"Do you think there are likely to be any problems out there?" Giles asked, his interest peaked a little by the change to her usual routine.

"She just wants to make sure she gets a couple of good fights in" yawned Willow. "Helps her sleep" she smiled cheekily at Buffy.

Giles eyebrows rose a little and he glanced at Willow quickly before turning back towards Buffy. "Make sure you are careful. You always prolong the fights unnecessarily when you get like this"

Xander appeared from the kitchen with a packet of chips and looked around the slightly bemused faces in the living room. "What's the what guys, are we going on patrol or not?"

Willow was the first to recover and tore her glance away from an embarrassed looking Buffy to Xander. "Oh, nothings up, Giles was just joining in the girl chat, perhaps you should get going?"

Buffy shook her head to clear her thoughts and vowed to spend a little time explaining the new boundaries to Giles and avoiding Willow's questions as much as she could. She mumbled something about seeing them in the morning and pulled Xander out the door.

Willow turned to look at Giles, her head resting against the back of the sofa. "I don't think Buffy was very happy with the new `sharing' you?" she suggested.

He took a deep breath and shook his head slowly. "What did I say this time?" he asked in a slightly resigned tone. "Surely she hasn't forgotten so much about our early patrols and training sessions?"

"I don't want any details but she will probably choose the expensive shoe shop to wreak her revenge" Willow smiled as he grimaced. "What on earth possessed you to say it out loud?" she asked and then checked herself. "I mean, I'm assuming you actually aren't possessed or anything?" she leaned across and pinched him.

"That's not really a valid test for possession, you know?" he grumbled as he rubbed his arm. "I don't know, do you think I could get away with blaming the jet lag?"

Willow shook her head and stood to clear some of the mugs. "What I can't understand is how you could know about this and I didn't get it until Faith blurted it out at the Bronze"

"Faith told you that Buffy gets….." he stumbled to a halt, not sure there was any way to finish the sentence and still be sane at the end of it.

"No" Willow vigorously shook her head. "And eeuuww" she shuddered at the thought of the two slayers being that close. "Faith was a little more open to the physical side of slaying and she was telling us one night all about the buzz from her fights and just sort of let slip that she sometimes got hungry and ho.." she ground to a halt as well, not sure she could use the word in front of him. There followed a rather uncomfortable silence until Willow sat down in the armchair and pulled her knees up to her chin. "How did you know about it?" she asked quietly, not entirely sure she wanted to hear the answer.

His head rose quickly and he met her eyes. "It wasn't a regular part of slayer awareness training but one of the more recent watcher diaries touched upon it briefly and I tried to discuss it with Buffy. However, that proved beyond even our legendary ability to communicate and we finally got around to mutually agreeing never to discuss it" Willow nodded her head, relieved and unsure why, and continued to stare at him. He became uncomfortable under her gaze and looked down at his hands, resting on his knees. "So much for my high expectations of a more adult relationship" he sighed and stood up slowly. "Looks like I've just ruined any chance of Buffy or you seeing me as anything other than a strange old man who knows too many of the skeletons in your closets"

Willow stood as well and stretched her legs a little. "I don't need a closet any more and I never saw you as that" she smiled and started moving round the room, putting lights out and checking windows were closed. "I'd like to think that we had an almost adult relationship right from the very beginning and, although it has grown over the years, it didn't need much tinkering to keep it on the right track"

"You saw me as a father figure" he suggested quietly and moved towards her as she shook her head in disagreement. "You even taunted me for it when you were overcome with the dark magics"

Willow stopped on the second stair and turned back to him. "Giles, I was out of my mind, bent on destroying every part of our friendship even before I tried to destroy you" she took a deep breath. "I thought you understood that I regretted the things I said to you more than what I did to you?" she put her hand out to the bannister and rested it on his. "Your physical wounds were bad enough but I could help to nurse them, there isn't any way to make you forget what I said and I know that, but I had hoped that we had started again and were almost back to trusting one another?"

He glanced at where her hand met his and the common link in all of her strange behaviour suddenly came to him. He took an involuntary step back and pulled his hand away. "It was me" he said quietly and looked up at her in confusion. "Every time you jumped or looked scared today it was because I was near you, touching you"

Willow started to deny this suggestion but she could see the certainty in his eyes and finally sat down on the stair in resignation. "I don't know what is wrong with me" she admitted. "When that woman started paying attention to you earlier I found it quite funny to start with and then it got icky and then I got all jealous-y" she looked up to watch his reaction. "I know I don't have any right to get jealous about you but I wasn't consciously doing anything, it was all coming from some weird place inside my head and I…" She ground to a halt and seemed to be deep in thought for several moments, her eyes looking at, but not seeing him. Finally she slowly shook her head and seemed to come to a decision of some kind. She ran her hand through her hair "It's happened so suddenly" she started then checked herself. "Or, actually, it has happened so slowly over such a long period of time that I didn't even notice it until just now" she looked up into his eyes. "I've missed you so much since I got back and seeing you again reminded me"

He seemed a little surprised and then realised that his body was incapable of processing any new data and keeping him upright so he sank onto the bottom stair and leaned against the wall.

"This is completely ridiculous and can't be happening" she said, suddenly angry with herself.

"What do you mean?" he said quietly, determined to push her to make the first move in whatever was happening.

"I mean" she continued. "I can't possibly be falling in love with you, I still have dreams about Tara and they aren't just floaty, smiley dreams they are technicolour, full action with surround sound dreams" she stood up again and pushed past him to pace in the bottom hallway. "I mean I'm gay, right, so that means that I like girls, right, and you're a guy which means that I can't possibly want to kiss behind your ear just to hear what sound you make in your throat" she took a deep breath and turned towards him. "Right!"

His head had decided to put everything after the word `love' into a buffer to be downloaded and dealt with later. "You're falling in love with me?" he asked and found his mouth suddenly dry.

"No" she practically shouted and then remembered Dawn upstairs and beckoned him into the kitchen. "I just explained that I can't be" she stood with her back to the fridge and he hovered uncertainly near the door. "It must be something else and I'm just muddled up because you're back here and everything is going well and we did the spell together today and.." she ground to a halt unable to come up with any other excuses.

They stood silently for a few moments until he finally picked up on the rest of her previous outburst. "You want to kiss me?" he whispered fiercely and moved further into the room.

Willow groaned and covered her face with her hands. "It's wrong" she mumbled and turned to rest her forehead against the fridge. "How can I feel this way about you and still be in love with Tara?" He could hear the complete confusion in her voice and knew that this was at the root of her recent behaviour.

"Willow" he murmured softly as he moved to stand behind her. "Please turn around, I can't do this without seeing your eyes" he rested his hand on her shoulder and felt the shudder going through her again.

It took several moments, during which he didn't think she was going to react to him, before she finally turned around and dropped her hands to her sides. Her face bore a look of anguish but he could also see the blush that suggested a raised pulse and could tell that her breathing was a little more belaboured than before. "I don't want to do anything to make you uncomfortable and I would die rather than ruin our friendship.." he paused.

"You've got but face" she smiled weakly at him and raised her hand to run her index finger down his cheek.

"But" he smiled at her. "I need to know whether our feelings are mutual and what your concerns really are before we can work out what to do about this"

She took a deep breath and released it slowly. "I would guess the mutual part's the easy one to get out of the way first, I know you can't possibly feel the same for me and I wish I could find some way to get rid of these feelings and go back to being your friend"

He lifted her hand and pulled her palm round to his lips, gently kissing it, his eyes seeking out and holding hers. Her breathing got shallower and considerably faster as the look of shock on her face eventually transformed into one of desire. "Perhaps we should leave this until the morning when we are both….rested?" he suggested, very aware of how close he was to forgetting his good intentions and pulling her tight against his own body there and then.

"Ehm" she mumbled as he continued to plant tiny kisses on her palm. "Perhaps that would be for the best because it has been a very long day and you are jet lagged and I think I definitely need to lie down right now" she took a deep breath and gently pulled her hand from his. She stared down at her hand, expecting to see it looking different somehow and then looked back up into his eyes. "Oh yes, definitely some discussing to do in the morning" she mumbled and slipped past him towards the stairs.

"Goodnight Willow" he mumbled some minutes later, when he could finally find his breath and his voice. He was having difficulty believing that he had encouraged her to stop and knew that it would have taken very little persuasion for her to take things a step further. "Bugger" he mumbled to himself as he slowly climbed the stairs and walked past her room to get to his bed.

Chapter 14

Buffy awoke the next morning to find Willow sitting at her dressing table staring into the mirror. "Mornin" she mumbled as she rolled over to check the bedside clock. "Hey it's almost ten, why didn't you wake me?" she asked as she ran her hands through her hair and stifled another yawn.

Willow seemed to be working in slow motion as she turned round and looked at Buffy. "Hey sleepy head, I thought you were never going to wake up"

Buffy scrunched her eyes up and stared back at Willow. "Did Dawn get to school OK?"

"I guess so" Willow shrugged and returned to looking in the mirror. "I heard Giles and her talking earlier and I kinda assumed he would remember the drill"

Buffy got up and put her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Will are you OK, has something happened?"

"Not really" Willow sighed and shrugged again. "Do I look any different to you?" she asked as she continued to stare.

Buffy moved to look at her friend's reflection in the mirror before gently pulling her shoulders round to look straight into her face. "Did you try a glamour spell and it's gone kablooey?" she asked, concerned, and tried to make out any perceptible difference in her face. When she didn't get any response she gently shook her shoulders. "Willow, you're starting to freak me out, what's wrong?"

The sudden movement and the hint of panic in Buffy's voice seemed to bring the rational part of Willow's mind back to the fore. "Nothing really, or actually, everything really" she paused. "Perhaps it would be better if you sat down and just listened to what I have to say?" Willow suggested.

Buffy nodded and then started shaking her head. "Give me two minutes, I'll be right back" she smiled and headed at speed for the bathroom. "Okey, dokey" she tried to lighten the mood a little as she came back into the room. She had had a little time to waken properly and knew that with anything really serious, Willow would have involved Giles by now. "Total listening gal on duty" she said as she sat on the edge of her bed.

Willow nodded and started to pace nervously. She started to speak twice before changing her mind and pacing in the other direction. Eventually, just as Buffy was about to start shaking her again, she sat back down on the chair and took a deep breath. "OK, I don't know how to tell you this and it will probably ruin our friendship but I think the best way is just to tell you straight out, would that be OK with you?" she smiled as if she felt a little better now that she had started.

Buffy looked completely bewildered and didn't even try to follow the logic. "Whatever is easiest for you Will, but I think if our friendship is still going strong it is pretty indestructible, so hurry up and spit it out"

Willow seemed to consider her friend's answer before giving an almost imperceptible nod. "The thing is" she started slowly. "I think I have feelings for Giles and I think it's kind of been happening for a while, probably even before I tried to end the world, but the whole `being in love with Tara' thing sort of threw me" She settled back into the chair as she got into her rhythm. "Every time I felt fuzzy feelings I just assumed they were all for Tara and, obviously most of them were, her being my girlfriend and me being very much in love with her and everything" She stopped for a breath and was relieved to note that Buffy didn't try to interrupt. "Anyway it turns out that I'm still getting the fuzzies and they're not all for Tara anymore, although I still get Tara fuzzies, they seem to be Giles fuzzies now and so…." she seemed to be nearing the end and Buffy had turned into some kind of statue. "What I want to know is how can I be kinda straight again and why don't I look any different?" she ended in a whisper and finally looked up to see what Buffy's reaction was.

"Giles" was all her friend said. Then she started to shake her head. "No" she seemed to be having an argument inside her head and was vocalising the highlights. "Nope, not going to happen" After several moments of slowly more definite shakes Buffy finally seemed to realise that Willow had stopped talking and was staring at her. "Willow" she said quietly and took a deep breath. "Let me get this straight" she winced as her friend flinched from her use of the word. "You and Giles are an item?"

"No" Willow mumbled. "Over the last few days I've been feeling kind of funny when he's around but I just assumed I was excited to have him visiting. Yesterday when the woman at the home was all over him I kind of flipped and I couldn't understand why" she looked up to see Buffy still sitting, in shock, on the end of her bed. "Last night, after you went out on patrol we sort of chatted about his knowing you were, well.." she ground to a halt and could feel the blush starting in her neck. Buffy closed her eyes and took a deep breath before signalling her friend to continue. "Anyway, he was a bit down and seemed to think you would be pretty mad with him and you would go back to being watcher and slayer instead of friends"

Buffy shook her head. "So it's my fault you've got the hots for him?" she asked a little incredulously.

Willow vigorously shook her head and seemed frustrated that she wasn't explaining this very well. "No, of course not" she mumbled. "He seemed to think we all thought of him as some kind of uber dad and then we had a disagreement over how I felt about him and then I'm telling him exactly how I feel about him and then we were just kind of standing really close and he was kissing my hand and then.."

"He kissed you?" Buffy asked, and a part of her mind was impressed that she was still able to form sentences at this stage.

"I was trying to apologise to him for letting my crush get out of hand and making him feel uncomfortable when he started to kiss my hand and made it quite plain that it wasn't necessarily one sided" Willow took another deep breath and met Buffy's eyes. "Do you hate me?" she asked simply.

Buffy was still processing the kissing information and took a second or two to tune into Willow's question. "Of course I don't hate you" she said and finally moved from her seat to kneel in front of Willow. "I just need a second or two to get used to this, that's all"

Willow nodded and smiled a little. "You need some time?" she asked sarcastically. "How do you think I feel?"

"How do you feel?" Buffy asked and cocked her head to one side. "I mean is this just the high school crush rearing it's head again?"

Willow took a moment to think about her answer. "I've loved him as a close friend for years now, and the schoolgirl crush kind of went away when Oz came on the scene" she admitted with a smile. "It's just recently that I've realised how much he means to me and I know some of the feelings are residual guilt from the Magic Box. But I think some of the other stuff feels an awful lot like…." Willow paused, as if finally putting this into words in front of Buffy would be an irrevocable step.

"Love?" Buffy supplied, slightly less freaked out but still disbelieving.

Willow nodded and sighed. "This all came kind of crashing into my head late last night and it all feels new and old in a weird kind of way. But I swear, if he hadn't suggested we stop to think about what we were doing, I would have done more than kiss his hand"

Buffy couldn't stifle the grin that was finally coming through. "Willow!" she shouted and then realised who they were talking about "Eeeuuww, please no details" she begged as she returned to the bed to lie on it facing her friend. "What about him not being a her?" she asked.

"Oh yes" Willow nodded and rolled her eyes. "As if falling in love with Giles wasn't weird enough I now have no idea if I am gay or not. Surely you can't just switch this on and off?"

Buffy shrugged and rested her chin on her hands, thinking for a moment or two. "Perhaps you don't need to define it, you're just who you are"

Willow took a minute to think about this and then motioned for Buffy to move over in the bed. They both leaned against the headboard and stared at their toes. "The biggest problem is that I'm in love with two people and not that one of them is male and one's female" Willow admitted.

"Tara" Buffy guessed and shook her head when Willow started to get a little teary. "I think she would want you to be happy with whoever you choose"

"It was her biggest fear and I can't help thinking I've let her down by choosing a man" Willow decided to off-load some of her guilt. "The day that Glory got to her we had argued and Tara had walked out, she accused me of trying out the gay thing as a fad and she was afraid that some day I would realise it was all a big mistake and leave her"

Buffy felt herself choking up and took a shaky breath before putting her hand on Willow's arm. "But you brought her back from the hell she was in and you were both happy again, she wouldn't have wanted you to avoid the chance of happiness for the rest of your life just to prove a point"

They sat in silence for a minute or two, each of them deep in thought over the conversation. "So do you hate me?" Willow asked again.

"Will" Buffy sighed. "I don't hate you but this is going to take a while to sort through in my head because I didn't ever think of Giles as possible boyfriend material for anyone and I'm not sure I can adjust to it now" she admitted.

Willow sighed. "I know, I remember how mad you were when you found Olivia at his place, but I just kind of assumed that some of that was jealousy"

Buffy turned to stare at her. "How could you think that?" she asked, stuck somewhere between shock and indignation. "Giles and I were never…." she struggled to find a word to describe what they had never been to each other. "He is way older than me and getting better with the clothing issue, but still. And he has the whole, staying in with a book being a good night, thing going on" she ground to a halt as she saw Willow struggling not to grin. "You thought Giles and I were together types?" she pinned Willow with a fierce glare.

Willow shook her head and struggled to wipe the grin off her face. "It's just that he is older than me and I think he looks kind of cute in his suits, I always loved the tweed and the book thing?" she raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "And no, I don't think you and Giles were ever smoochie buddies but I did wonder if you would ever be happy if he found someone else to share his life, to spend time with and concentrate on and…" she paused to look at the raised eyebrow of her friend. "Now you see this started out as me needing your help and advice and I'm guessing that I'm losing some of the sympathy at this stage?"

Buffy shook her head. "I admit that finding Olivia was a bit of a shock but it happened at a really difficult time for me and he ended up leaving me anyway, even without a significant other to blur the loyalties" Buffy ended sadly.

Willow seemed to think about this for a while and finally stood up at the side of the bed. "So we are OK about this?" she asked and waited for Buffy to look up.

"I think I can handle my best friend having a new honey but I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with Giles being the honey in question" she admitted. "Can we just leave it at that for now?" she asked and checked the clock again. "If we don't go down soon he's going to wonder what's going on" Buffy stood as well and started to pull clothing from her closet. "How did you leave it with him last night?" she asked over her shoulder.

"We said we would think about what we were doing and talk about it this morning" Willow admitted glumly. "But I have no idea what I'm going to say to him"

Buffy dragged her towards the bathroom. "Get in the shower and think fast, I'll go and see if the coffee is on, I think you're allowed caffeine today"

Giles looked up to see Buffy descending the stairs. He must have looked a little disappointed because Buffy shook her head and headed for the kitchen. He followed her and watched as she pulled the coffee maker over and started to fill it. "Is she OK?" he asked and saw her tense a little. "Buffy I'm sorry that this is going to complicate things but I need to know if Willow is OK this morning, if she despises me I can be packed and gone in half an hour"

Buffy turned and looked at him. "Don't leave" she said quietly and took a glass of juice through to the living room. He followed her, nervous of her apparent lack of emotion.

"I'm sure you think my behaviour is completely inappropriate and I would understand if you wanted to take me outside and thrash me" he seemed to sink further into his misery as he wasn't getting any reaction from her. "Please say something?" he finally gave in and begged her.

"Willow will be down in a few minutes and she is a little confused but I don't think she'd want me to beat up on a potential boyfriend just yet" Buffy took a sip of juice before pointing at him. "However, don't think a good thrashing isn't going to come your way if you ever hurt her"

Giles kept his head bowed and took a couple of deep breaths. "I'm sorry Buffy, I never meant for this to happen"

"This is just a new thing for you then?" she asked.

He lifted his head in one sharp movement and met her questioning gaze. "No, the feelings are not new and it's not just a flash in the pan infatuation" he admitted. "What I meant was that I had become very proficient at hiding my feelings towards Willow and I didn't think I would ever get the chance to admit them to anyone, least of all her"

Buffy continued to stare at him and was trying to picture him as Willow and others obviously saw him. She remembered Faith's first reaction to him and how Jenny and Olivia had looked at him. She shook her head and ran her hand through her hair. "I just don't get it" she finally mumbled and caught his questioning look. "I mean, you're Giles and I admit that we aren't school kids any more and you're not the librarian any more but this is just a step too far for me right now" She stood and headed for the stairs "I'm going to take a long hot shower, I'll be upstairs for the rest of the morning"

Giles nodded and returned to pacing in front of the fireplace. He knew that Buffy was probably going to be harder to win over than Willow. It was just as he was trying to figure out a way to explain things to her that he suddenly stopped dead and put his hands over his eyes. "Xander" he said and groaned out loud.

"I would expect you to be groaning like that only if I'm on your mind, not Xander" Willow said quietly as she stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"Willow, ah, I didn't see, or hear or see you there" he stumbled and looked at her. "You look lovely, are you feeling OK?" he asked and watched as she stood a little dumbfounded at the bottom of the stairs.

"You may want to schedule a little homework on the flattery thing" she shook her head and turned towards the kitchen. "Did Buffy put the coffee on?" she asked and sighed when she saw the pot on the worktop. "Would you like a little of the hard stuff, I didn't sleep very well last night and I think this might be just what I need" Willow was quite proud of the adult thing she was pulling off, perhaps the drama course she had taken to fill up her timetable wasn't a total loss after all. Her stomach was doing back flips and the only thing keeping her in one piece was the way that Giles was obviously struggling just as much as her. She inhaled deeply over her coffee and closed her eyes to savour the aroma. "Are you OK?" she asked quietly as she pulled a stool to the counter and sipped the hot coffee. He was standing at the kitchen sink, his arms crossed over his chest and an anguished look on his face. She shook her head. "Look, I'm prepared to forget last night ever happened if that's what you want but it would be best for our continued friendship if we got this off our chests and communicated with each other"

He seemed to think on this for a moment before nodding his agreement and pouring himself a coffee. "I can forget last night as well, if that's what you want but I would prefer to remember it as the first step on a journey we should take together"

Willow exhaled loudly and finally allowed herself to smile a little. "I was hoping you would say that" she announced. "Look this is going to be weird for everyone but I think it's worth us taking the risk and seeing where it goes"

He took his glasses off and cleaned them before looking back at her. "I need you to know that I have had these feelings for you for a year or more now and it's not some sort of reaction to our closeness this summer" he began and raised his hand to stop her interruption. "I am also painfully aware of all of the barriers to this being anywhere near a good idea, many of them I would agree with myself. However, there is a large part of me that doesn't care about any of that and is prepared to put up with anything that fate can throw at us to make this work"

Willow nodded and took another sip of her coffee. "I'll see your barriers and raise you a few you haven't even thought of but I wouldn't be sitting with you now if I didn't think we had a chance to make each other happy"

He put his hand out to touch hers and took a deep breath. "Let's go for a walk, I always think better when I'm moving"

"OK, I'll just go and let Buffy know what we're doing" she smiled at him and took her coffee upstairs with her. "Buffy" she hissed through the bathroom door only for it to open with a rush of steam a few seconds later.

Buffy pulled her into the room and finished wrapping her hair in a towel. "Is everything alright, do I need to kick his butt?" she asked and Willow could see that she was serious.

"No, we are going to go for a long walk and try to talk this through so I don't really know, but he seems to think that last night was not a forgettable situation" she smiled a little and handed Buffy the coffee mug. "You look as if you could use this about now" she suggested and headed towards the bedroom to collect her jacket.

Giles had both hands stuffed in his jacket pockets and was waiting on the front porch when she came back downstairs. He reached for her jacket and held it for her to put on, his finger lightly brushing against her neck as he straightened her collar. He closed his eyes and tried to slow his racing heartbeat before looking down at her amused face as she stared at him.

"Perhaps we should keep the possible touching situations to a minimum if you are determined to take this outside?" she suggested. "I don't know about you but I'm getting fairly buzzed already and we're not even off of the property yet"

"I'm sorry" he smiled. "Actually I'm not, but I agree to behave myself for the rest of the day until we sort this out" he stuffed his hands back in his jacket pockets and deliberately took two steps away from her.

She shook her head and pulled the door closed behind her. "Let's head for the centre of town, I have a feeling that another coffee will be required before much longer"

They walked in silence for a few minutes, trying to clear their heads and hoping the other one would begin.

"Do you think I'm a dirty old man?" he asked finally, determined to just get the question out into the open and deal with whatever resulted.

"Do I look like the kind of girl who is attracted to dirty old men?" she asked him in return, trying to keep her tone light but a little annoyed at his question.

"Up until eleven last night my best guess would have been that you were attracted to dirty old women" he couldn't stop the words, even as they passed his lips he knew that it was probably the stupidest thing he had ever said. However, part of his mind was keen to hear the answer.

Willow winced and felt her anger building within her. "That's not fair" she blurted out. "I can't explain how this has happened, I don't have any control over my heart and I don't think it cares about gender or preferences"

"That's convenient" he muttered under his breath and was even more aware of a small voice inside his head screaming for him to shut up.

"Giles, I already offered to end this but you said we needed to talk" she stopped walking and waited for him to turn to look at her. "Do I really need to show you my 100% hetero certificate before you will even talk to me?"

"I just need to know that this isn't a reaction to any of what we've been through over the past few months" he finally admitted. "You can't deny that you were in a long term, loving relationship with a woman less than a year ago and that we have been in close proximity even more recently than that" He realised that he had raised his voice and tried to rein in his emotions. "It would be perfectly reasonable for you to still be feeling guilty about what happened and also responsible for my future well-being as a penance for your attack"

Willow could feel her temper spiralling dangerously and consciously tried to dampen it. "Of course I feel guilt, we've talked about it, but do you really think so little of me that you imagine I would offer my heart, body and soul to someone just to assuage the guilt, as a peace offering?" She was really starting to lose it now and could feel tears pricking her eyes. "I can't help the fact that I'm seriously attracted to you on a physical, emotional and intellectual level. It's as much of a surprise to me that you have the wrong chromosome balance, and it is obviously something you can't deal with so I'll be at Xander's if Buffy needs to see me before you leave" she turned and started walking back towards the house.

He watched her receding figure as she bypassed the house and continued walking, her shoulders hunched and obviously sobbing. "What the hell was that?" he asked himself out loud and threw his hands in the air. "Oh bloody hell" he burst out as he started to run after her. "Willow?" he shouted and was painfully aware of several neighbours watching his progress. "Willow please slow down" he puffed a little and remembered that he hadn't trained with anybody in a while and certainly hadn't chased a woman in even longer.

She had turned to watch him as he pounded up to her and tried to catch his breath. "I'm sorry" he panted. "I don't know what came over me" he leaned his hands on his thighs and bent over a little.

"Terminal stupidity?" she suggested and turned to walk away again, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

"Oh god, please don't cry" he begged and caught up with her in a couple of strides, handing her his handkerchief. "I can't stand it when you cry"

Willow blew her nose noisily and stuffed the handkerchief in her pocket. "Do you really think you are a charity case and I'm desperate enough to atone for my actions that I would cast aside everything that Tara meant to me to put it out for you?" she surprised herself with the venom in the question. He shook his head and tried to get the conversation back under control but she was determined to have her say. "I may be oblivious girl about most guy things but I'm fairly sure that you weren't acting last night so why are you deliberately killing this before it has a chance?"

He didn't answer her directly but took a deep breath and tried to explain the root of his uneasiness. "I always knew that losing one of you would be the hardest thing I would ever have to endure and I thought that Buffy's death would finish me" he took another deep breath to gather himself. "However, when the coven contacted me about their concerns and I checked into them I could tell it was Tara immediately. I was shocked and more scared than I have ever been in my life because I knew the depth of feelings you had for each other and I knew you would destroy yourself before you would forgive yourself"

Willow had a haunted look on her face. "I tried to destroy the world, not just myself. And it didn't work, I'll never be able to forgive myself"

"I know that you will blame yourself for the rest of your life but I need you to understand that it is possible to be happy again without destroying everything you had with Tara" he took his glasses off and put them in his pocket. "I'm sorry about what I said earlier but I'm a little confused about this turn of events as well. I've loved you for a long time with the certainty that you would never reciprocate and never know of my feelings" he ran his hands through his hair in exasperation. "I got so used to the feelings of unrequited love that I just assumed they would be with me for the rest of my life as I watched you grow older with your girlfriend" he sighed. "When you offered me an outlet for my feelings last night I jumped at the chance without thinking things through and I'm just trying to make sure that you are sure before we take this any further"

She didn't answer him, but she didn't walk away again either so he took this as a sign that he was having some success. "Willow I don't want to make this any harder for you, all I can say is that I love you and want you and will abide by whatever decision you make on the outcome of today"

"You want me?" she asked with a scowl on her face. "What I can't understand is how I can have erotic dreams about my girlfriend and still wake up wanting to kiss you?" her voice cracked a little. "I don't have any answers here Giles but I need to work through my feelings and I admit to being selfish enough in hoping that you would help me with that" she turned to meet his eyes. "I'm really sorry but I don't think I have the energy to persuade you that my feelings are valid when I can't even persuade myself" She turned and walked back towards the house, this time opening the front door and disappearing inside.

He waited for a few moments before turning and continuing towards the centre of town.

Buffy heard the door open and peeked over the bannister to see a disconsolate Willow trudging into the living room. She heard the sobbing start before she could throw on some sweats and run downstairs. For several minutes she held Willow in her arms, murmuring soothing sounds to try and slow the tears. Eventually Willow was only sniffling a little and Buffy pulled back, keeping her hands on her shoulders. "What happened?" she asked softly and watched her friend gather herself before moving to sit next to her on the sofa.

"We talked in the kitchen earlier and he said he wanted to explore what we had both admitted to" she began and hiccuped a final sob. "We started walking and he asked if I thought he was a dirty old man and then suggested I would normally go for dirty old women and then he said some more horrible things and now I don't know what I want and I don't know where he went and this was a terrible idea and we should just all forget it ever happened" she started to sob again.

"Number one" Buffy said as she stroked Willow's hair "He'd better have brought his painkillers with him cause I am going to kick his butt up and down town for saying that to you" she lifted Willow's chin to meet her eyes. "Number two, you are a good person and you deserve some happiness, even if you do have terrible taste in men" she smiled at her friend and was rewarded with a watery smile back. "Number three, you need to sort out what you want before you talk to him again. He works better when there are rules and guidelines to follow"

Willow nodded and used his handkerchief to wipe her eyes before taking a deep breath. "OK" she tried to sound positive. "I need to get a pen and some paper and start dealing with this methodically" she nodded.

Buffy seemed a little surprised but headed for the dining room to find the materials. She turned round to find Willow standing behind her and handed her the notebook and pen. "Do you need anything else?" she asked.

Willow nodded. "I think we both need another mug of coffee and then we will work this out properly"

Buffy brought the coffee back to find Willow sitting at the table, drawing a line down the middle of the page. "Left side are `fors' and right side are `againsts'" she explained as Buffy curled up in a chair next to her.

They both sat looking at each other for a few moments before Buffy held up her hand. "He is really smart" she smiled and Willow nodded eagerly and put this under the left hand heading. "But he was also really stupid this morning?" Buffy suggested a little warily and Willow chewed the end of the pen for a moment before writing in the right hand column. Buffy leaned across and looked over her shoulder "Emotionally retarded?" she read and looked up at Willow in surprise.

"My list, my words" Willow said succinctly and then wrote another item in the `fors'. "His singing voice is a definite plus" she sighed.

"I'll take your word for it" Buffy was still a little put out that she had never heard him singing. "What about his dress sense?" she asked and left it to Willow to decide which column that was going under.

They continued for another half hour, filling the page and relieving some of the tension with occasional jokes.

Willow was just about to give up when she suddenly blushed a little and then wrote something in quite small writing at the bottom of the page.

"What does it say?" Buffy asked and was surprised when Willow made to close the notebook. "Hey, slayer reflexes Will, don't make me take it from you" Willow looked a little embarrassed before accepting the inevitable and handing the book to her friend. Buffy read the entry and started to laugh. "How could I have forgotten that, I trained with him often enough?"

Willow was lost for words for a few seconds before grabbing the book back. "Let's just pretend that you never noticed his cute butt and then we can move to the next stage?" she suggested.

Buffy waved her hand in agreement and moved to refill both of their coffee mugs. "So what is the next stage?" she asked from the kitchen.

"I just need to decide if there are enough important things in one column to overcome the other one" she suggested, a little unsure. "Also, I should probably place a call to the coven and leave a message for Morag to call me back" she looked towards Buffy. "Is it OK to make an international call?"

Buffy nodded but put her hand on Willow's arm before she moved from the table. "Why the coven, they don't deal in wacky love spells or anything?"

Willow shook her head and smiled wryly. "Nothing like that, it just occurred to me that Morag had hinted about us being more than friends a couple of times and I need to talk to her to find out what she saw between us"

Buffy nodded. "You guys always had a weird chemistry thing going on but Xander and I guessed it was the fumes from all of those old books"

Giles walked without paying attention to where he was going until he ended up at the Espresso Pump. He hesitated for a moment before heading inside and sitting at the counter. "Hey Rupert" a middle aged man smiled at him. "Usual?" he asked and held up a large mug.

"Please" Giles nodded and looked around to see if there were any changes. He spotted the notice board and the flyer advertising open mic night and smiled to himself. "Thanks Peter" he said as a large mug of herbal tea was placed in front of him. "Keeping busy?" he asked, keen to get his brain off topic for a while.

"About the same, are you back for good this time?" Peter asked and pulled a chair up next to Giles. "We could sure use you next Tuesday, the usual guy called off last week and it got pretty ugly when the ladies didn't get their cute singing guy fix"

Giles smiled and shook his head. "It's only a flying visit, I might have to leave tomorrow" he shrugged. "Anything new with you?" he tried to keep the conversation going, keen to engage in a conversation where there wasn't any chance of making the other person cry.

Peter shrugged as well. "This may be the weirdest town I've ever set up in but people here certainly love their caffeine" He gestured at the dozen or so patrons. "Even this early in the day we're usually more than half full and I can't remember the last time we had any seats available after seven"

"You should expand, get bigger premises" Giles suggested. "I seem to remember that retail rental was reasonably cheap"

Peter laughed a little. "Yeah, but I`m happy keeping to what I've got, it costs less to repair every time it gets trashed"

Giles nodded "I know what you mean" he agreed with feeling and suddenly knew where he wanted to spend the next few hours. "Listen Peter, it was really nice seeing you again, next time I'm in town I'll bring my guitar" he shook the young man's hand and headed towards the Magic Box.

Anya looked up with all the keen-ness of an upcoming retail manager and even managed to keep her disappointment to a reasonable level when she realised that he was unlikely to be a paying customer. "If you've come to check the books I took them home last night and haven't brought them back yet" she lied.

He shook his head and trudged towards one of the bookshelves, glancing disinterestedly at the titles. When he reached the end of the row he looked up and found her staring at him with some concern. "No, I'm not checking up on you I just needed to see the place again" he shrugged and continued on his tour of the premises.

"Is there anything you specifically needed to see?" she asked and followed a few paces behind him.

"Anya" he said without looking at her. "I'm not a shoplifter, you don't need to supervise me"

She shrugged and returned to organising a display on the counter. After a few minutes her curiosity got the better of her. "Did you fall out with Buffy?" she asked.

"What?" he mumbled as he skimmed through a thick book. "Of course not" he finally looked up at her and replaced his glasses. "Do I really need a reason to be in my own shop?" he asked and gently replaced the book to its position on the shelf.

"Our shop" she automatically corrected. "Of course not, I just assumed that your schedule had been filled with activities and I didn't expect you to have much free time"

He sighed and sat down at the large reading table. "Things are just a bit complicated and I decided to give everyone some breathing space before I returned" he admitted in his own mind that he may only be returning to pack for the last time.

"What did you do to get chased out of the house?" she asked with a little smile. "And don't try to pretend that it wasn't your fault, I'm an expert in men's frailties remember"

"It was really nothing and Willow was just a little upset and anyway, I don't want to discuss it" he mumbled and took his glasses off to clean them.

Anya recognised the delaying tactic and moved to the door of the shop to turn the closed sign to the window. She locked the door and sighed at her own folly in feeling a need to help him, perhaps the human feelings were finally gaining domination over her demon self interest. She sat down opposite him and watched him go through his ritual. "Remember the rabbits I conjured during that awful memory wipe spell that Willow did?" she asked quietly and he looked up at her with confusion on his face. "I just kept making things worse and worse and you finally lost your temper" she smiled a little to let him know that she was OK to talk about it. "As well as the breaking up I also remember the making up part of that very strange day" her voice had dropped to barely a whisper.

"Anya" he started and seemed to change his mind before continuing. "I do indeed remember everything of that day and some of it is even quite pleasant"

"I never told anyone what happened, not even Xander" she watched her finger as she drew circles on the surface of the table. "I also never told anyone about thinking you were dead at the end of the battle with Willow"

He took a deep breath, uncomfortable to be reminded of the day and also of Willow. "Why?" he asked, he knew that she needed to share this with him.

"You didn't let me finish" she sighed. "I didn't tell anyone until Willow came back after her visit to the coven and then I told her that I thought she had killed you"

"You had no right to tell her" he raised his voice a little. "Willow and I were trying to deal with the situation in our own way and your interference may have…"

She met his angry gaze with one of her own and saw him sit back a little as she interrupted him. "My `interference' was simply telling Willow the truth and she needed to know that she isn't the only one who loved you" her anger abated a little. "Perhaps I gave her a little jolt towards finally admitting her feelings about you, because you were all so busy tiptoeing around her that she was too scared to let her emotions go again"

"What do you mean?" he asked, completely bewildered. "What do you know of Willow's feelings towards me?"

"Do you seriously think that an 1100 year old vengeance demon doesn't pick up the ability to read body language?" she sneered at him. "Or that I haven't been around women who say they want to disembowel their husbands with the same breath as renewing their vows of undying love?"

He was staring at her. "But Willow" he started before she interrupted him again.

"But Willow nothing" she stood up and started to pace a little. "She is just another girl who is madly in love with someone without having the slightest inkling. And when it does finally seep through her mushy brain cells then she has to cry and sob and agonise over and over again instead of just telling the person concerned and getting on with the sex"

The final word of her tirade finally jolted him out of shock. "Anya" he pleaded with her. "Willow and I are going through a very traumatic situation" He stood up to try and assert his fragile authority.

She moved to stand in front of him, poking him in the chest with her index finger. "Why is it traumatic?" she asked and could see the confusion on his face. "You love her, she loves you" she let him stew on that for a few moments as she walked to the counter to lift one of the small boxes from the display. "Do we need to read the cards?" she asked sarcastically as she threw the pack of tarot cards at him.

"But she isn't sure" he began and was completely confused as to why he was discussing this with Anya, of all people. "I don't want to rush her into this if it isn't what's right for her"

"Rush her into it!" Anya shouted and threw her hands up in the air. "You have been hanging around her like a love sick puppy for years and I've seen the way she looks at you when she thinks nobody can see her"

He was about to argue with her when she pushed him back a step or two and he sat down abruptly on a chair.

"You're worried about the gay thing" she said matter of factly. "Why do people have to be one or the other?" she turned away from him and started counting on her fingers. "I could tell you of several dozen very happy women who have tried both and been perfectly happy with either. It's about the person not the label" she paused for a moment or two. "In fact I can remember quite a few women who were happiest when they were with both at once" her eyes had a far away look.

He raised his hands as if to defend himself. "Enough" he tried to sound commanding but his head was still reeling from the lecture he had been given. After a few moments, during which she was thankfully silent, he raised his head from his hands and looked at her. "So you're telling me that I'm being a bloody fool to let her fret about this and we should just get on with it?" he paraphrased.

"I think I was a little more eloquent, but that about sums it up" she nodded. "I still have `issues' with Willow and our history isn't going to go away any time soon, but I have some unfathomable need to see you happy and I think she might be able to help you with that" she seemed a little embarrassed.

They sat in silence for a few moments, each trying to work out how the conversation had gotten so personal so quickly. Finally he stood up and lifted her hand, pulling her towards him. He put his arms round her and gave her a hug, his hands gently rubbing her back. "I suspect you have just given me some very sensible, life changing advice" he mumbled into her hair. "And I doubt that I will ever be able to pay you back, irrespective of whether the outcome is successful or not"

She breathed in the scent of him and remembered the last time they were so close. "You still own 51% of the shop" she suggested and heard him start to laugh. She could feel the rumble in his chest and held onto him a little tighter, unwilling to end the contact so soon.

Chapter 15

Willow was pacing in the living room as Buffy sat on the armchair watching her. "Ooh you could toss a coin?" she suggested.

Willow turned to look at her and shrugged. "I'm getting to the point where I think if the decision is this hard to make maybe it wasn't meant to be" she sank onto the sofa and stared at her friend.

They both slouched in their respective seats, at a loss how to continue a conversation that seemed to spiral into the same old arguments for and against. Buffy was the first to react as the front door banged open and Giles strode into the living room, she was on her feet and had her hand on his chest to stop his movement before Willow even realised what was happening. "Now is not a good time Giles" she suggested with her firmest tone.

"Buffy, this doesn't concern you" he said quietly and quickly twisted her wrist to remove her hand. He kept eye contact with her to dissuade her from taking things further and nodded slightly as she stepped back, acknowledging his right to have a few minutes to sort this out before she got involved.

Willow was on her feet and staring at both of them. "Buffy please don't hurt him" she blurted out before she realised that they had come to their own, silent agreement to that effect. "What do you want?" she asked him wearily, prepared for another round of tears and recriminations. "I don't really feel up to a big discussion" she started and was startled as he moved to stand in front of her.

"Me neither" he said as he reached out for her shoulders and pulled her against his chest. He leant down and kissed her before she could object.

Buffy was staring at them in amazement and it took several seconds before she finally shook herself. "This is in no way a spectator sport" she mumbled as she headed for the relative sanity of the kitchen.

Willow had gasped when she was pulled against his chest and air was now becoming a definite issue for her. She pulled back and put her hand on his chest to steady herself. "Need to breathe" she took a couple of deep breaths. "What on earth are you doing?" she finally asked and took another step away from him.

"It just suddenly occurred to me that the best way to decide if we were compatible was to kiss you until you either kissed me back or threw up on me" he suggested and retrieved his glasses from his jacket pocket. "So which is it to be?" he asked and tried to find something to do with his hands that didn't involve touching her.

"But we haven't resolved anything" she argued, although he could tell she was weakening. "Buffy and I put together a list and we were being methodical and now you've just come along and made everything all confusing again" she pouted a little.

He cocked his head to the side and stared at her lips. "Someone in this house is going to get kissed again in the next thirty seconds, your only decision is whether it is you or Buffy" he stated matter of factly and marvelled that he could still remain relatively calm while his heart was racing like an express train.

At this point they both heard the front door slam shut and Willow looked out of the front window to see Buffy departing at speed. "Perhaps your idea of using empirical evidence for the decision making process isn't to be dismissed out of hand" she nodded.

"Willow, shut up and kiss me" he sighed.

"I don't know, what is it with the masterful thing?" she asked and watched as he slowly took a step towards her. He waited, willing her to make the next move. "I'm still a little confused" she said quietly as she wrapped her arms protectively around herself. "I made a list and…"

"Willow, shut up and kiss me?" he pleaded with her, his voice almost a whisper, watching as she worried her bottom lip with her teeth.

She reached out and touched his chest, needing to feel his warmth. She seemed to come to a decision and her hand wandered down to his waist while her other one reached to hold his right hand. Their fingers intertwined as she leaned into him and took a deep breath, inhaling his scent. She bent her head back a little and tentatively kissed him.

His earlier kiss had been fuelled by adrenaline and his mind had been so busy concentrating on her reactions that he hadn't really noticed the kiss itself. This one began gently, her lips barely touching his until she gained a little courage and moved even closer. His left hand trailed through her hair and rested on her neck, causing her to whimper slightly when he traced the same section of skin he had brushed against earlier in the day. Her reaction to his touch caused his heart to miss a beat and he opened his lips, inviting her to take their intimacy to another level.

Willow was at the floaty stage, completely unaware of any part of her body except for her lips and her hands where they touched him. She finally noticed his hand trailing fire across her neck and felt the shivers running down her spine. Now the simple kiss that had seemed to be the most important thing in her world seconds ago, paled into insignificance as she gently ran her tongue along his bottom lip. He tasted of minty toothpaste with a hint of camomile. He must have had some tea, she rationalised in one part of her brain until the rest of her grey matter ganged up on her and told her to shut up and kiss him.

Giles let go of her hand to wrap his arm around her waist, holding her against his body. The inevitable physical reactions were well on their way and he tried to take some control of the situation back. "We need to slow down a little?" he suggested as they broke apart for a few moments.

"Too slow already" she mumbled as her lips moved back to his and her tongue duelled with his for dominance. After the battle was declared a draw she pulled back a little, letting her hands run across his chest. "I think the doubts are almost gone, can you think of any reason why we can't spend the rest of the day doing this?" she asked sweetly.

"None at all, perhaps we should research to see if there is a prophecy about it?" he tried to keep the tone light, knowing that the serious discussions were still to come but happy for them to be delayed for a little while yet.

She sank down onto the sofa and pulled his hand to bring him next to her. "Not the kind of laptop I had in mind" she suggested and waited to see his reaction.

He tried to look stern but his hormones had gone into overdrive and he remembered that he wasn't cast as the responsible adult in this scenario so he grinned at her instead and pulled her nearer to him.

Thirty minutes later Dawn opened the front door and headed towards the kitchen. She was aware of movement in the living room out of the corner of her eye and turned to greet whoever was there. "Oh my God Giles, I'm really sorry, I didn't know you had someone here and I'm leaving now and bye" she practically threw herself towards the front door.

"Dawn, it's OK" Willow giggled and manoeuvred herself out from under Giles.

"Willow?" Dawn said and then stood rooted to the spot, completely unable to think of anything to say or do.

Willow walked up to her and waved her hand in front of her face. When she didn't get any reaction she turned to see Giles still sprawled on the sofa. "Do you think we broke her?" she shrugged.

He shook his head and slowly stood up, rearranging his sweater. "Probably just shock, perhaps you should get her a glass of water?" he suggested and gently guided Dawn towards the dining room before putting her on a chair. He stood in front of her, staring into her eyes and was a little surprised when the eyes suddenly focussed on him and she scooted back a little in the chair. "Welcome back" he smiled at her. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way"

Willow stood behind the young girl and motioned with her head for Giles to leave them alone for a minute or two. She knelt down in front of the chair and took Dawn's hands in her own. "Dawnie, I need to know that you are OK with this" she murmured. "You are part of our family and neither of us want to hurt you"

Willow finally felt Dawn squeeze her hand and looked up into the teenager's eyes. "I just got a bit of a shock when I thought Giles was kissing someone. Then you popped up and then I knew it was both of you making out on my sofa and now I think I need to go to the bathroom" she stood up abruptly and ran upstairs, slamming the bathroom door.

"Well, that went well" Giles observed from the bottom of the stairs. "Now that Buffy, Dawn and Anya know I think it's about time you told Xander" he suggested.

"Anya knows?" Willow spluttered and followed him back to the living room. "You told Anya about us?" she accused him. It took a second or two for the rest of his suggestion to sink in. "I have to tell Xander, when did I get nominated for that?" she stood in front of him.

"I didn't tell Anya, technically she told me and I think it's only fair that you break the news to your oldest friend, after all I wouldn't want to come between you?" He seemed to think he had said enough and sat down on the sofa, gently patting the cushion next to him as a hint.

Willow folded her arms and frowned. "We'll discuss Anya's role in this later, we need to sort out how we're going to tell Xander"

"Tell me what?" the man of the moment made his appearance through the front door at that exact moment.

"You couldn't resist could you?" Giles murmured as he stared up to where he assumed the powers that be were looking down on them, shaking with laughter at his situation.

"Xan!" Willow had paled and quickly headed for hyper-panic mode. "Best buddie of mine, how you doing?" she playfully punched his arm.

"Ow" he mumbled and rubbed at the spot. "I'm fine, have you been drinking full strength coffee Will?"

"Nope, just delighted, surprised even, to see my bestest bud and why are you here so early, don't you have work?" she was still grinning inanely at him.

"Took the afternoon off to help out with the ghost busting" he looked over her shoulder towards Giles, who was still sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands. "Giles, has Willow been doing happy spells?"

Giles took a deep breath and decided he really had to sort this out once and for all before Buffy, Anya or Dawn broke the news for him. "Xander, just the man I was looking for, we need to get some supplies from the Magic Box, want to walk with me?" he suggested and wearily stood up to get his jacket from the end of the sofa.

Willow looked even more panicked. "Oooohh, not a good idea, perhaps I should go with Xander and you can wait here?" she asked him, her eyes pleading with him.

"I would rather you spoke to Dawn and made sure she was feeling OK" he smiled gently at her. "Come on Xander, we need to get going"

Xander looked between the two of them, aware of some undertone that he wasn't getting, but knew that Giles wouldn't be leaving Willow if there was anything serious wrong. "OK big guy, let's go" he turned back as he got to the door. "Will, take it easy, we'll talk later?"

"Okey dokey and I Iove you Xan" she smiled at him and waved.

Both men shook their heads as they turned to walk down the path.

They walked in silence for a couple of minutes before Xander asked "So I guess Dawn has a girl's problem and that's why you and I are dispatched on a meaningless errand while Willow gets freaky and stays behind?"

"Sorry?" Giles had been running through conversational scenarios and hadn't gotten to one yet where Xander didn't try to strangle him so he hadn't really been listening.

Xander shook his head "Now you're phasing out on me" he complained. "Let's try some easier questions" he suggested and stood in front of Giles to stop his progress. "Is Dawn OK?" he enumerated question one on his index finger.

"As far as I know she's fine" Giles murmured, unwilling to suggest that her recent shock had probably caused irreparable mental scars.

"OK, we're getting somewhere" Xander smiled at him and held up another finger. "So how's Willow, she seemed a little wired back there"

"Well, that is a rather more difficult question" Giles admitted and saw the panic start to form behind Xander's eyes. "Essentially she is fine, better than she has been for some time I would hazard to guess" he suggested, trying to keep the smug grin from his face. "She has just made quite a difficult decision and I think the relief and…" he struggled for the correct word. "Excitement she was experiencing over this decision" he continued doggedly, determined to get this out in one go. "Perhaps caused her to be a little effusive in her manner but I think she will be much better from now on" he smiled in relief at having got that off his chest and checked to see how Xander was reacting to the shocking news.

"Huh?" Xander asked. "Were you still speaking English there?"

Giles quickly ran through the previous few seconds and sighed, preparing himself for the worst. "Xander, Willow was just a little anxious at you finding out about some major news in her life"

"She's got a new girlfriend?" Xander guessed and grinned at Giles. "That's it, isn't it?"

"Not quite" Giles acknowledged and took a deep breath. "The thing is that Willow has found someone to share her life with but it isn't, necessarily, a girlfriend"

"She bought a dog?" Xander asked, getting more confused by the minute.

"Willow has a new boyfriend" Giles decided the best way to get this through to Xander was in stages.

"What!" Xander shouted and started to pace in front of Giles. "But she's gay now, how can she be friending with a boy?"

"Willow was having some difficulty with that very question herself, however, I think she decided that the inner person is more important than the package they come in"

Xander took some time to sort through this explanation and shook his head. "Even if that lame-o mumbo-jumbo is true, who is this guy? She's been hanging with us since she came back, I'd know if someone was making any moves on her" He seemed to think that this was incontrovertible evidence that Giles was wrong and waited to hear an apology as Giles agreed to the complete sense of this observation.

"Well that's where the second part of this rather interesting situation comes into play" Giles admitted and slowly removed his glasses, carefully folding them and putting them in his pocket. He shrugged his shoulders and widened his stance a little before making eye contact with Xander. "The man that Willow has decided she is in love with would be me" he waited for Xander's first punch to land.

He wasn't prepared for the snigger to escape the boy's lips closely followed by laughter and some good humoured back slapping. "Giles, stop trying to protect the guy, I won't hurt him I promise"

Giles scrunched his forehead, trying to think of some way to persuade him. "Xander had you arrived ten minutes earlier at Buffy's you would have found us `making out' on the sofa" he paused to shake his head at the ridiculous phrase. "Instead of which Dawn caught us and is probably scarred for life"

Xander had stopped laughing. "Giles, please stop kidding around here, this is serious"

"Oh for god sake, I'm not kidding around with you but I am fooling around with your best friend" he had finally run out of patience and the small voice in his head once again reminded him of his stupidity as the first punch caught him unawares.

Xander hit him once and then bounced gently on the balls of his feet waiting for Giles to stand up so he could hit him again. "When I've finished here we'll go back and you can undo whatever spell you've whammied Willow with" he snarled.

Giles sighed and shook his head to clear some of the buzzing in his ears. "Xander, please?" he said and slowly started to get to his feet. "I'm sorry for the phrasing but I am very much in love with Willow and I believe she feels the same for me" he had finally made it to his feet and held up his hands to signal his unwillingness to fight. "I won't fight you but please don't suggest I've coerced Willow in any way, she's completely herself and used her own free will to come to her decision"

Xander shook his head and swiped Giles' hands away from him. "Why else would Willow go for you?" He swung another right hook at Giles and winced as he connected squarely, shaking his hand to get rid of the pain in his knuckles.

Giles lay on the ground breathing through his mouth. He had heard his nose break with that punch and could feel his anger building but he knew he couldn't retaliate and had to find some way to talk Xander round. He was just getting to his knees and wiping the back of his hand under his nose to remove some of the blood when he saw a pair of boots he recognised standing in front of him. "I guess you told Xander then?" Buffy asked as she reached her hand down to help him to his feet. "Ooohh that's gotta hurt?" she sympathised as she inspected his nose.

Xander was looking at her in disbelief. "You already knew?" he shouted at her. "Why am I the first to hit him when you knew he'd put some kind of spell on Willow?"

Buffy shook her head and turned towards Xander, carefully placing herself between the two men. "Xan, he didn't put a spell on her, this is Giles, he would never do anything as stupid as putting a love spell on someone" she looked pointedly at Xander and waited for him to catch onto her meaning. When the young man looked a little less belligerent she nodded. "So the reason I didn't take this out on his nose is that Willow and him were kissing when I left them to it about an hour ago" she put a hand on Xander's chest to stop him from coming any closer to Giles. "I'm not happy about this either but we need to let Willow figure this out for herself and.." she pushed gently against his chest to stop him interrupting. "If there is to be any whipping of Watcher ass I will be the first one to step up"

Giles coughed and tried to lean his head back to stop the blood running down his throat. "Xander, please I would never do anything to hurt Willow, it would be like cutting out my own heart"

"I call that when we're handing out tasks" Xander scowled at him and took a step away from Buffy. "I need some time to sort this out" he said, turning and walking briskly away from them.

Buffy turned to Giles and took his handkerchief from him to gently dab at the blood running freely from his nose. "Broken?" she asked and sighed when he nodded gently. "Just as well Willow is a whizz with the healing spells" she smiled at him. "Why on earth did you decide to tell him like this?" she indicated the street and interested neighbours who were now disappearing behind curtains again.

"It was taken out of our hands" he mumbled. "Dawn came home early from school and caught Willow and I ehm.." he tried to phrase this a little more delicately than he had with Xander.

"Inflagrante delicto" Buffy suggested proudly.

"Bloody typical" he shook his head. "The only Latin phrase you ever bothered to learn. And no, we were simply kissing and then I realised that Xander was the only one who didn't know and Willow was a little uncertain of the best way to break the news so I volunteered to explain the situation to him"

"Explaining the situation used to be a lot less painful" she laughed and guided him up the path towards the front door. "I don't ever remember you getting your nose splattered in the library when you explained stuff before"

"It was a happier time" he admitted and took a deep breath before pushing the door open.

Chapter 16

Buffy helped him into a chair and went to the bottom of the stairs. "Willow, bring down the first aid kit for Giles" she yelled and headed for the kitchen to get a bowl of water and some towels.

Giles winced at her shout and gingerly tried to hold the handkerchief against his nose at the same time as removing his jacket.

"Giles?" Willow shouted as she ran downstairs. "What happened?" she skidded to a halt in front of him and gently took over the blood staunching duties. "I told you I should have gone with Xan" she sighed at him. "Even you couldn't have upset Dawn enough to make her punch you out"

Buffy smiled at her as she came back in and put the supplies down next to Willow. "Where is Dawn?"

Willow blushed and dabbed a little too harshly, causing Giles to jump a little and he started coughing. "Sorry" she mumbled and handed him a clean towel while she turned towards Buffy. "She came back from school a little early and Giles and I were kissing on the sofa and she kind of.." her sentence lost the will to live and died an honourable death.

"Giles said she caught you guys making out in the living room" Buffy admitted and started to laugh. "You were just kissing, right?" she checked that the trauma her sister was suffering from had nothing to do with nakedness.

"Of course" Giles spluttered and glared as best he could around the large towel he held against his nose.

"Let's get you sorted out and then I'll have a word with her, she'll be fine" Buffy assured them and started taking supplies out of the first aid kit. "Do you want to go to the hospital or will I straighten the nose for you?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Willow, can you go and get me something to wear from my room please?" he asked and Willow looked between them both before heading off. "OK, get it over with quickly" he mumbled and grabbed the edge of the table.

Willow heard him swearing and then Buffy's soothing mumbles when she reached the top of the stairs but she only shuddered and headed for his room. "Will this be OK?" she asked when she had returned with a shirt. "I thought it would be easier than pulling on a sweater"

Giles was leaning back in the chair, taking deep breaths through his mouth while Buffy was clearing up the bloody towels and removing the pink bowl of water. She had reset his nose and pieces of cotton wool were dangling from it but at least he wasn't bleeding profusely any more. "That's fine Willow, thank you" he mumbled when he had managed to convince himself that he wasn't going to pass out. "Perhaps you could give me a hand to get out of this?" he indicated the blood stained sweater and t-shirt.

"Wasn't exactly how I pictured undressing you today but I guess it's better than nothing" she quipped in an attempt to lighten the mood a little. "I'm really sorry, I'll speak to Xander and you know he'll be really upset he did this to you when he finally comes round?" she suggested and slowly lifted his sweater over his head, carefully avoiding his face.

Giles didn't answer her but helped remove his clothes before pulling on the shirt. "I think perhaps I could have been a little gentler in breaking the news to him" he suggested as she slowly buttoned up his shirt for him, her eyes concentrating on getting him redressed. "I'm sorry, but I think he may be angry with me for some time, perhaps we should…"

"Don't you dare" she interrupted him. "At the end of the day it is none of Xander's business who I choose to share my lips with and we are not going to change things between us just to make it easier for him" she finished buttoning him and met his eyes. She smiled and leaned down to gently kiss him. "However, I think he has put paid to any serious lip sharing for the next day or two?" she suggested.

"Now who's being boring and old?" he asked as his hands ran down to her waist and he gently lifted her onto his lap. "We'll just have to find something else to do that doesn't involve my lips, yours are still working I believe?"

She leaned down with a wicked smile and started to kiss his neck and behind his ear. "This could be fun" she murmured against his neck and giggled when he moaned and started breathing heavily through his mouth.

"OK, Dawn and I are coming downstairs now" Buffy announced from the top landing. Her slayer powers may not have included super hearing, but she guessed that a timely interruption might be called for. By the time they were at the bottom of the stairs Willow and Giles were sitting side by side at the table and pretending nothing had been going on. Buffy smiled at them both and shook her head a little. "Dawn, go ahead" she pushed Dawn towards Willow.

The young girl was blushing furiously and seemed likely to bolt back upstairs but her sister's presence behind her, effectively blocking her escape route, meant that she had to carry on. "I'm really sorry I burst in and disturbed you guys earlier" she hastily managed to get out the prepared part of the speech before finally looking up and watching Willow. "So you're not gay now?" she asked quietly and heard Buffy groan behind her. "I know, it's none of my business and you guys are both really neat and have loads of stuff in common but I thought Willow was happy with Tara and now.." she ran out of steam as she saw Willow's eyes brighten with tears. "I'm sorry, please don't cry, I don't want to make you unhappy but I'm just really confused and I want you to be happy again"

Giles stood up and ran his hand across Willow's shoulders before heading for the kitchen. "Why don't we leave Willow alone for a while and you and I can sit in the garden and you can ask me any questions you want?" he suggested and was a little surprised when the young girl meekly followed him.

She looked over her shoulder once to see Buffy putting her arm around Willow's shoulders and trying to comfort her best friend.

Giles closed the back door behind them and sat down on the top step beside her. "First things first" he suggested and waited till she looked up at him. "Even if you don't like the answers I give, can we agree that you won't punch me on the nose?"

She winced a little and put her hand on his arm. "Did Xander do that?" she asked quietly. "Why was he so mad at you, did he think you were hurting Willow?"

Giles took a deep breath and stretched his legs out in front of him. "I think he is just as confused as you are about Willow's selection, both because it's a male and, perhaps more importantly, because it's me"

"Why would he be mad that it was you?" she asked and wondered what had happened in the past between the two men. "You and Willow have been friend's for years and you are both really brainy and like to do the research stuff so it kind of makes sense"

"But Xander has known Willow for a lot longer and he thinks I'm using our friendship to trick Willow into something she can't really want because of her grief over Tara and her guilt over what happened earlier this year." He squinted up at her, trying to make sure that she understood Xander's concerns and didn't think any less of him because of them. "What Xander doesn't know yet, but he will come to realise, is that Willow and I are both very aware of the reasons why this has happened and have agreed that we are both taking this step with our eyes wide open." He wasn't sure that the young girl was mature enough to work out the complexities but knew that he should try his best to explain them to her in the hope that she would understand and, ultimately accept, them as a couple.

"Is that why you left?" she asked after several minutes of silence.

"What?" he asked, completely surprised by the question.

"When you left after Willow's memory spell went wonky, did you go because you were in love with her?" Dawn looked up to gauge his reaction. "Because Tara really loved her as well and she left her at the same time and I just wondered if one of you had stayed with her whether the bad stuff would have happened?" she set her lips, uncertain how angry he would be with her question.

He took a moment or two to gather his thoughts then took a deep breath and stared into the garden. "You would need to ask Willow but I think she would admit that losing most of her support structures in one fell swoop turned out to be a good thing for her. It eventually pushed her to realise her addiction and seek help" he gently probed around his nose, gaining time before returning to the difficult part of the answer. "What happened to Tara, after they had reunited, was the fault of one person only and that was Warren. He chose a particular path and carried out the darkest act a human can inflict on another to gain revenge. Willow's actions after his are no more excusable and she is still working through the outcomes of her actions" he glanced round to see if Dawn was following him.

"But did you leave because of Buffy and I or did you leave because you loved Willow?" she brought him back to the original point.

He could hear the pain in her voice. "Dawn I left because Buffy was relying on me for too many decisions and that is the most dangerous thing that can happen to a slayer" he began, remembering the argument when he had explained this to Buffy. "I didn't leave because of you, you had done nothing wrong" he put his hand on her arm to reinforce his words. "Well, except for snogging a vampire" he smiled and was relieved to see a smile winning through. "Buffy needed to take control of her life again and it was impossible for her to do that while I was here because I couldn't not help her, that's my weakness" He sat back from her a little and lifted one knee to his chest. "However, I won't deny that it was difficult for me to be around Willow while she was going through the worst because I couldn't take her in my arms and make her understand the danger she was in" he sighed. "I have loved Willow for quite a while now and had become resigned to never being able to tell her, so the last few hours have been a little strange" he admitted.

They sat beside one another for another five minutes before Dawn seemed to come to a decision. "I'm sorry I was so weird earlier, just let me know when you want the house to yourselves and I'll make myself scarce" she smiled at him and gently reached out to touch his nose. "You look younger without your glasses, how come I didn't notice that before?" she asked and shrugged her shoulders before moving back into the kitchen.

He shook his head and marvelled at the resilience of youth yet again. Perhaps he shouldn't have been so surprised at her eventual maturity, after all the world ending dangers she had faced, to say nothing of losing her mother at an early age, should all have combined to make her grow up much more quickly than a normal teenager. He was trying to recollect what the others had been like at her age when he heard footsteps behind him and tilted his head back to see who was coming out to join him.

"Hey" Willow smiled at him and handed him his glasses. "Buffy found them in your jacket when she was putting it in the wash"

"Thank you" he said and shuffled over a little so that she could sit next to him. "I'll leave them off for now, the nose is a little tender still" he put the glasses in the top pocket of his shirt.

"Nothing to do with Dawn thinking you look younger?" she giggled and stretched her legs out beside his. He decided not to dignify this with a response and continued to stare into the middle distance.

"Heck of a day" Willow suggested after several moments. "Here I was thinking it was all going to be about de-ghosting the olds and it turns out like this?" she indicated both of them.

"I'd completely forgotten about the residents" he admitted. "But I'm not sure I would have changed very much if this is the outcome." He turned to look at her. "Perhaps a spell to make me think before I opened my mouth, but that would be all"

"We still need to talk" Willow sighed. "But I think it will be about finding some way to make this work, not whether it should `be' in the first place"

"I'm relieved to hear it" he smiled at her. "I know that we have a lot to talk about but perhaps we should get the problems at the residential home sorted out first and then we can spend the rest of my holiday working through our personal situation?"

"OK" she seemed a little distracted. "I've set up your laptop to pick up any emails from the Council and I looked out some books on poltergeists and spiritual activity" She stood and held her hand out to help him up. "Just one thing" she asked as he stood beside her. "Can we agree not to mention the temporary nature of your stay or I probably won't be able to do much more than sit in a corner and sniffle?"

"Agreed" he nodded and opened his arms for her. She stepped into his embrace and sighed as she felt his chin rest on her shoulder. They hugged for several moments, the atmosphere slowly changing from a friendly gesture into something a little more intimate. "Ah Willow?" he finally mumbled into her hair.

"Mmmmm?" she mumbled back at him.

"Doesn't this qualify as hands in naughty places?" he asked and pulled back to look down at her pout. "Not that I mind but we did agree to sort out the supernatural shenanigans first"

She removed her hands from his butt and clasped them behind her back. "OK, but I better get a reward for all of this self sacrifice" she suggested and headed for the dining room.

Buffy looked up from the table. "Is everything OK?" she asked quietly and smiled when Willow nodded and grinned at her. "I started to look through the books but I'm still not sure what it is that we're dealing with?"

Willow shrugged. "Me neither, Giles and I didn't pick up anything when we searched the home yesterday" She looked up as he came into the room behind her. "Where do we start with the research?" she asked.

"I need to check my emails first as the information I requested should allow us to work out some areas for further research" he moved to sit at his laptop. "Perhaps one of you lovely ladies could get me a cuppa and some painkillers?" he asked as he scrunched his eyes up to read the screen. Buffy shook her head and left them to it. "Aha" Giles said after a couple of minutes. "I think this is the very thing we were looking for" he smiled and indicated the screen for Willow. "George has finally found the manuscript I asked him to hunt up"

Willow stood behind him and leaned over his shoulder to read the screen. Almost absent-mindedly she rested her hand on his neck and her fingers started running through his hair. "So this details the suspected cause of the abandonment of the San Diego Guilen community" she glanced at him. "And it seems to suggest that the sect had been overrun by a Lareck demon and that the other sects were trying to join their forces to vanquish it"

Buffy placed their mugs in front of them. "So this demon took them all with him but is it the same thing that's taking out the residents?" she handed him the painkillers and a glass of water.

Giles took the painkillers and shook his head. "The Lareck is a pretty nasty form of fear demon and it might have been strong enough to destroy the combined sects' once it realised it was losing the battle." He gingerly removed the cotton wool plugs from his nose and dabbed at the remaining blood with a clean handkerchief. "And the demon was obviously overcome because there is no record of it returning to this area. That leaves us with just one, intriguing possibility to explain the occurrences in the home" he paused to sip at his tea.

Buffy smiled at Willow as she settled into a chair opposite her friend. "I hate it when he lets the suspense build like this"

Willow sipped her tea. "I know what you mean, that would definitely go in the against column"

Both girls laughed and he looked between them a little suspiciously. "If you are quite finished?" he asked. "It seems to me that the most likely explanation is that some of those responsible for the Sunnydale end of the joining have remained, in spirit form, within the locale and are trying to communicate something to us"

"They aren't doing a very good job if they can only manage to make people scared, cold or dead" Buffy suggested dryly.

"And we didn't pick anything up yesterday, would they be able to mask their presence from both of us?" Willow asked.

"Perhaps" Giles nodded and picked his tea up to pace a little. "I chose the spell we used yesterday because I assumed that it would be a recent, incumbent spirit of some kind, perhaps a previous resident" he seemed to think for a moment or two. "Perhaps a more specific calling for the members of the sect would be more successful"

Willow nodded and pulled one of the books piled on the table towards her. "I remember reading about a séance that targetted one specific spirit and it seemed to rely on an ancient celtic calling to ancestors"

Willow and Giles continued to research for the rest of the afternoon until Buffy closed the book in front of him. "We need to get some dinner, I vote for Italian and Giles needs to let his eyes rest"

Willow yawned and agreed with her. "I am kind of hungry, I seem to have missed breakfast and lunch today" Giles stood and stretched before groaning as he gently probed around his nose. Willow stood in front of him. "I'm not sure if they are dark circles from eye strain and tiredness or if you're getting black eyes" she murmured. "How many times did he hit you?"

"Just the twice and the first glanced off my jaw but the second one was a doozy, I'd have been very proud of him if I hadn't been on the receiving end" he smiled.

Buffy stood on tiptoe to peer at him. "I've seen worse on you, they'll be gone in a week or so"

Dawn came into the dining room to find both girls staring intently at his face. He smiled at her quizzical look over their heads and sighed. "Someone mentioned food?" he suggested and headed for the front door while his three dinner companions rushed to find coats and bags.

Chapter 17

The four friends walked home from the restaurant. "How was I supposed to know they didn't speak Italian?" Giles asked indignantly as the three others continued to laugh at him. "I just assumed that we were in an Italian restaurant and that it would be appropriate to order in Italian"

"Did you see the guy's face?" Dawn was leaning against Willow to stay upright. "He thought you were doing it deliberately to make him look bad and the fake Italian accent got worse and worse every time he came over"

"What was the last thing you said to him, as we were leaving?" Buffy asked, barely able to keep her giggling to a manageable level.

Giles finally grinned as well and looked a little sheepish. "Well I suggested a good phrase to use on the next person who tried speaking the lingo, but it was actually rather rude"

Willow looked shocked. "How rude?" she asked and the other two stopped sniggering to hear his answer.

Giles seemed to take some time to think about this and then shrugged and grinned again. "Really very rude and no, I won't translate it for you"

"Bet Willow can persuade you?" Dawn suggested with a wink and put her arm through Buffy's to stride ahead. "And then she can just tell us in the morning" she smiled sweetly as she looked back over her shoulder at them.

"Bet you she can't?" he returned her smile.

"$5?" Dawn asked and waited for his nod. "Deal" she agreed.

Willow had finally found her voice. "Hey, wait a minute you can't bet with an underage person, especially about my love life" she poked his side.

"Well if you don't think you're up to winning the bet I don't suppose it would be fair to take Dawn's money" he agreed and shrugged. "Sorry Dawn, bet's off, Willow doesn't want to persuade me"

Buffy started laughing again. "He's got you there Will. Want to go double or nothing?"

"Buffy!" Willow stuck her tongue out at her friend and then turned to glare at Giles. "I never said I couldn't do it, just that I didn't think it was fair to bet when I was obviously going to win"

They continued arguing all the way home until Buffy finally called a halt. "I need to go on patrol and Dawn needs to go to her room to finish her homework" she smiled at Willow. "That just leaves two responsible adults in charge of the entire downstairs, can I trust you?"

Willow was snuggled under Giles' arm and pulled him tighter as she grinned at Buffy. "You betcha" she pouted a little at the groans from the others and finally buried her face against his shirt.

"Be careful" Giles smiled at Buffy. "If I'm asleep when you get in please come and wake me, I need to make a couple of calls to England"

Buffy looked sceptically at the couple. "I'll see you later" she shook her head and left the three of them on the front porch.

Dawn waved her sister off and then turned to the others. "I'm going upstairs to read some stuff for history tomorrow and I'll probably have my headphones on and be listening to really loud music" she smiled innocently at them. "Goodnight"

Giles shook his head as he closed the front door and made sure it was locked. "There is something very strange about three young women having such an interest in my love life"

"Aren't I allowed to have an interest in it?" Willow asked as she hung her coat up and headed for the sofa.

"I suppose so" he admitted and snuggled up next to her on the sofa. "So do we have the serious talk now or do we kiss for half an hour and then get back to the research?"

Willow didn't let him finish the question before she was leaning over him and slowly kissing his neck. As he groaned and leaned back a little she opened the first two buttons on his shirt and progressed to kissing his throat and shoulder.

"Shouldn't we wait for a few minutes in case Dawn needs a soda or something?" he managed to gasp out as she gently nipped his earlobe.

"She wouldn't want to risk interrupting another Giles make out session" Willow giggled and slid one leg over his.

He didn't even bother arguing with her that it was, technically, a Willow make out session as she started working on his other earlobe and he ran his hand over her hip to rest on her butt.

Willow had settled comfortably onto his lap and found a particularly sensitive part of his neck, where it met his shoulder. As she licked, kissed and nipped around the area a part of her mind was trying to work out how they had managed to get to this stage in a little under twenty-four hours. He was running his hands over her lower back and she guessed he was very aware of the effect he was having on her, yet he couldn't possibly know her that well, this quickly. It was almost as if they had been this close for years and were slipping into easy, familiar routines to slowly turn each other on without the need for the frantic, early throes of passion. She absent mindedly kissed up his jaw line and started moving across to his lips when his mumbles of pleasure and encouragement stopped and he gasped. She pulled back to see him wincing and immediately started to drop feather light kisses on his cheek and nose. "I'm sorry" she crooned, over and over.

Giles couldn't stop his laughter as he pushed her gently away. "I'm OK, but we should get back to the research and I could probably do with some more painkillers"

"Is it really bad?" she asked as she shifted away but remained on his lap. "Do you need help with the healing meditations from the coven?"

Giles slowly slid her onto the sofa next to him before standing. "It is a little sore but it's not bad enough to need meditation yet, I'll try some later after I've made my calls"

"Do we have to get back to the research yet, I promise to be really careful this time?" she pouted at him and pulled the belt of his trousers to persuade him to stay.

"Willow" he unclasped her fingers and stepped away. "If we don't stop then I think we may need to have the serious talk sooner rather than later" he stared at her pointedly, hoping she would catch his drift without any further explanation.

She scrunched her brow and seemed to take a few moments to work out what he meant. "Oh!" she lifted her hand to her mouth. "Haven't lost my touch then?" she asked mischievously and stood up to head towards the dining room, putting a sassy sway into her walk. He couldn't stop himself grinning as he rebuttoned his shirt and shook his head.

Willow sat down and quickly read through her notes from earlier. After a couple of minutes she smiled up at him as he deposited a mug of coffee in front of her and nodded towards the book she was reading. "Does it mention the spell you were after?" he asked and sat down opposite her.

"Sort of, but the details are hidden amongst some fairly gory details of various Celtic tribes knocking lumps out of each other" she sighed. "I think another hour or so should get most of it together"

He nodded and turned to his laptop, quietly tapping in replies to several emails regarding work he had recently finished for the Council.

After half an hour Willow yawned and looked up to see him smiling at her. "What?" she asked.

"I was just thinking of the hilarity there would have been if I had predicted any of this a couple of years ago" he continued to smile. "I mean who would have believed that you would be knee deep in a book on Celtic spiritual activity while I was working on my laptop?"

"I think the revelation that I was dreaming about you while I was knee deep in the book would have caused a little more than hilarity" she suggested and raised an eyebrow.

"I think you may be right" he smiled and turned back to his laptop as the incoming message alert interrupted them.

Forty minutes later Willow stood up and stretched, wincing as her neck and shoulders cracked ominously. "I think that's it for me" she yawned. "How did you get on?"

He was concentrating on something on his screen and didn't look up as he mumbled "Give me a minute Will" He didn't see the startled look she gave him and the smile that worked it's way across her face. Shaking her head she lifted the empty mugs and went into the kitchen to tidy up.

He found her five minutes later, leaning against the counter top, reading a day old newspaper. "Sorry" he mumbled as he came up behind her and hugged her.

"Sometimes Solitaire can be pretty tricky" she nodded sagely and turned the page.

"Hey" he whispered in her ear. "Do you think I would miss doing this with you just to finish a card game?" he deliberately breathed on her neck, feeling the shudder run down her spine. "I'll have you know that I am in demand and that was a particularly tricky translation"

She gently turned round in his arms, mindful of his injury. "Italian?" she asked sweetly and he laughed as he leaned down to kiss her.

After a couple of minutes they parted. "Can we go back to the sofa, it was more comfortable"

She was about to make a suggestion of her own when a huge yawn overtook her and she put her hand on his arm. "Sorry" she mumbled. "I think today is finally catching up with me"

He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. "You should get some rest and we'll go over the spell in the morning. If we can get the ingredients together we can have this over and done with by the weekend and then we can spend our time in more interesting pursuits"

She ran her hands over his back and pulled him tight against her. "I'm sorry, it's just that I hardly slept last night and today has been a little strange" she understated with the mastery of years of practice.

"I understand, I'll make my calls and be in bed in half an hour myself" he disentangled himself from her arms. "Have I told you how glad I am that you decided not to throw up on me earlier today?" he had his hands on her shoulders, keeping her at arms length.

She looked a little confused and then remembered his ultimatum. "Technically I started all of this so it wouldn't have been fair to give you some hope and then turn you down" she rested her arms on his hips. "Could I ask one favour?" she looked a little sheepishly at him.

"Ask away, I'll probably say yes" he smiled back at her.

"Could you call me Will again?" she turned away, a little embarrassed. "It's just that you've never called me that before and you did it a couple of minutes ago and it felt really good"

"I didn't even realise I had said it" he seemed a little bemused. "I'm so used to hearing Buffy and Xander use it that it must have been stuck in my sub conscious with everything else that's made an appearance today" He gazed down at her and tried to memorise every single part of her as she looked at this minute. "I'll only call you Will when we're alone and then you'll know that I'm thinking about doing this when I use it" he leaned down and kissed her.

Willow sagged into his arms, closing her eyes and letting him take control of the kiss, just enjoying the sensations of being held. When he eventually broke the kiss it took several moments for her to realise he had stopped and she finally blinked a couple of times and smiled at him. "I'll see you in the morning" she sighed and headed for the stairs.

"Good night Will" he said, just loud enough for her to hear.

He was finishing his second phone call when Buffy returned from her patrol. He waved at her to wait while he finished and then concluded his business. "Patrol went OK?" he asked, more out of habit than any real need to know what had happened.

"Fairly quiet, just a couple of tourists and one newbie" she smiled at him and snuggled in to the large armchair. "Willow gone to bed?" she looked towards the dining room, expecting to see her friend still hard at work.

"She was exhausted and went up about forty minutes ago" he yawned himself as he settled onto the sofa.

"Is everything OK?" Buffy asked "Because I really thought I was going to have to get slayery with you earlier"

He smiled at her and gently rubbed the side of his nose. "I know and I probably deserved it. Willow and I have come to an agreement that once the problems at the residential home have been sorted out we will sit down and have a serious discussion on what all of this means for both of us and all of you"

"Will you still be going home in a couple of weeks?" she asked.

He could hear the hurt and anger from his last decision to leave seeping into her tone of voice. "That's one of the things we'll need to discuss but the phone calls I made tonight should allow me a few extra weeks" he knew she wasn't happy about this situation. "That is if you don't mind having a house guest, I wouldn't want to outstay my welcome" he tried to joke.

"You never outstay your welcome Giles, that's the problem" she took a deep breath. "Look I'm trying to be all grown up about this but it's a bit hard to understand how you can clear your schedule and extend your stay just because you've got the chance of a little action" She knew she was on dangerous ground but wanted to get this off her chest. "I really needed you the last time and you left me to stand on my own two feet and look how well that turned out" she shook her head, irritated to remember the mistakes she had made to try to fill the void after he had left. "I'm coming round to being happy for you and Willow and I'll be as supportive as I can when it comes to talking to Xander, but I'd be lying if I told you that it doesn't hurt"

"This is completely different Buffy" he spoke quietly and tried to remember that they were both tired. "Our relationship was trying to find a new way to work and it was harming you for me to stay" he raised his hand to forestall any interruptions. "However, I have told you that I regret that decision and its repercussions" he stood up and leaned on the fireplace. "I know you may feel that I only seem to do what is best for me and ignore your wishes, but I think I made the only decision I could. And I would hope to be reasonably clear headed about the decisions I have to make over the next few weeks"

Buffy thought about what he had said and stood up as well. "Look, this is none of my business and I genuinely hope that you can make this work with Willow because she does have feelings for you"

"You have but face?" he suggested.

"But" she smiled at him. "It may take me a little time to get used to being mature about how this works out so can you just bear with me?"

He moved across the room and pulled her into a hug. "Buffy, nothing would please me more than knowing that we have your blessing" he stood back from her so that she could see his face. "And I am sorry that the next few weeks will probably be filled with instances of my self interest coming before everything else"

"Maybe it's about time you looked after yourself for a change" Buffy shrugged. "I guess I can deal with you being selfish for a little while"

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