Fic: A Welcome Distraction (Buffy/Giles) FRAO

[froxyn.livejournal.com]

Title: A Welcome Distraction
Author: Froxyn
Pairing: Buffy/Giles
Rating: FRAO
Timeline: Four months after Unconditional.
Synopsis: Work has been getting in Giles' way and Braden has some more training to do.
Author’s Note: Part XXXIII of the Giles Family Series.



"You’re dropping your shoulder."

Braden paused and took a step back from the dummy, turning his head towards his parents. "No, I’m not."

"You are." Buffy countered, agreeing with Giles as she jumped down from her perch on the pommel horse. "Your Dad’s right...you’re dropping your left shoulder just a hair before you throw a punch. Add that to the slight stutter-step you’ve picked up and your opponent will be able to time...and block...each one."

Braden rolled his eyes. Giles smirked as Buffy arched an eyebrow at their oldest child.

"Don’t believe me? Let’s go then...you and me, right now."

Braden sighed as Buffy stretched and then slipped into her fighting stance. "Mum..."

"Right now, Braden. And don’t you dare pull your punches with me, understand?"

Braden glanced over at his father, quickly realizing that he was going to be of no help at all. Giles merely crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorframe.

"Fine." Braden grumbled, taking a deep breath before facing off against his mother. "Wonder how many guys my age actually have permission to hit their mothers?"

Buffy chuckled and took a step to her left as Braden crouched slightly. "You have permission to try to hit me...I’ll bet you twenty quid you won’t be able to."

When Giles snorted, Buffy looked over at him. "What?"

"That just sounds amusing...you saying ‘quid’." He pushed away from the doorframe and gestured towards their son. "Carry on."

"Twenty?" Braden grinned. "You’re on!"

Giles narrowed his eyes in concentration, focusing on his wife and son as they circled one another. He held back his frustrated sigh as he watched Braden’s shoulder dip slightly. Less than a second later, Buffy successfully blocked the punch.

Giles was fairly certain that he wouldn’t be pulling twenty pounds out of his wallet tonight.

* * *

Forty-five minutes later, Braden groaned and took two steps back...effectively ending the sparring session. "Fine...you win..."

Giles shook his head, tossing Buffy a towel and handing Braden a bottle of water. "This isn’t about who wins, son. This is about learning how to fight without signalling your intentions."

"Doesn’t really help that I was fighting the Slayer, does it?" Braden mumbled, twisting the lid off the bottle with more force than necessary.

"Doesn’t matter who you’re fighting." Buffy stated, wiping the sweat from the side of her neck. "If you have the tells, then they’ll figure them out."

"Did you have any?" Braden asked before taking a large swallow of water.

Giles chuckled, earning him a playful glare from his wife. "What? You know you did...shifting on the ball of your right foot always led to a left-handed uppercut, for one."

Braden grinned brightly, the confirmation that his mother...the most successful Slayer in history...had tells at one time made him feel a lot better about his own problems that needed working on. "Well, if you fixed yours...then I bet I can fix mine. What do you say, Mum? Put that twenty quid down on a rematch for next week?"

Buffy snorted a soft laugh and reached over to ruffle his hair. She sighed, realizing that she was actually reaching up more than she had just a few weeks earlier.

"So much like your father..."

Braden gave her a crooked smile, his green eyes sparkling. "One day, I’ll have a Slayer who’ll challenge you for the title of ‘Most Successful’..."

"I have no doubt...especially if you pick up his training rituals." Buffy grinned proudly. "Go on...go grab a shower and you can go with me to pick Lucas up."

"Make it sound like you’re doing me a favour, why don’t you..." Braden joked, ducking out of the way when she moved to smack the back of her hand against his arm. "Telegraphed that one, Mum!"

Giles chuckled as Braden darted behind him and then headed up the stairs, taking them two at a time. "Don’t wake Declan up!"

"I won’t!" Braden called back down, pausing to give Callie a quick cuddle before heading down the hallway towards the bathroom.

Giles smiled when he heard the tell-tale sound of Zephyr playfully bounding after Braden. He met Buffy’s eyes, arching an eyebrow at her as she took a step towards him.

"You, uh...you should probably grab a shower too..."

She gave a slight shake of her head and hooked the index finger of her right hand into one of his belt loops. "Would rather give you a blowjob..."

"Buffy..." His tone was one of warning, but desire flickered in his eyes. "Not here, not now."

"Why not?" She asked, running her tongue over her bottom lip. "Dec’s asleep, Braden’s in the shower, Lucas is at Tom’s, and Haddie and Ev are with Mom. I can make it...quick."

"I’m sure you could." Giles sighed, fighting the urge to kiss her. "But, you know that we’re..."

He trailed off, casting a glance towards the stairs as the doorbell interrupted him.

"What? Is there some kind of sign outside that says I’m going to try to seduce my husband, so please interrupt me?" Buffy huffed, pulling her finger from his belt loop.

Giles grinned and quickly wrapped his fingers around her wrist. "You know as well as I do that you don’t have to try."

"Apparently, I do." She mumbled, pulling out of his grasp and moving around him.

His grin disappeared as he turned to watch her climb the stairs. "I’m sorry?"

She paused on the fourth step and heaved a somewhat sad sigh. "Rupert...you know exactly what I mean."

He opened his mouth to deny that statement, but then closed it almost immediately. He did know what she meant.

"Buffy, it’s not – " His jaw clenched when the doorbell interrupted him again.

"Can we talk about this later?" Buffy asked softly.

"No." Giles stated firmly, reaching up through the railing and placing his hand on her foot. "Because you think that I don’t want you...and that’s the furthest thing from the truth."

"There’s someone at the door...and Braden’ll be out of the shower soon. We don’t have time to talk about this right now."

"But we had time for me to come in your mouth?" He asked, his green eyes narrowing.

Buffy’s eyes flashed with annoyance as she pulled her foot out from under his hand. "Did you really just ask me that?"

"Yes, I did. Because if I’d agreed then that’s where we’d be right now...and you’d ask me to ignore the doorbell so we could finish." He replied, his tone equal parts frustration and confusion. "Tell me that's not true."

"Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it? Because you turned me down...again."

"Buffy – "

She interrupted him with a shake of her head, blowing out a deep breath as the bell sounded for a third time. "Not now, Rupert. Just...not now."

"But..." He started, trailing off as she ran the rest of the way up the stairs. Dragging his hand through his hair, he exhaled forcefully and wondered exactly where everything had gone wrong.

He swallowed thickly, immediately giving himself an answer. He knew exactly where things had gone wrong. But, he also knew that she didn’t understand...not that he had made it abundantly clear, of course. There were times that he forgot that she couldn’t really read his mind...it just seemed like she could most of the time.

She obviously thought that she wasn’t desirable to him for whatever reason.

She obviously thought wrong.

With that thought swirling around in his mind, he ran up the stairs...intent on asking their visitor, or visitors, to leave.

Hopefully, Braden would spend just a little longer in the shower...

* * *

Giles rushed into the room just in time to see Buffy close the front door. He glanced around, somewhat surprised to find no one to ask to leave.

"Who was it?"

Buffy’s eyes darted over to him, her eyebrow arching slightly. Obviously, she hadn’t expected him to follow her that quickly.

"Someone wanting to give us energy-saving lightbulbs..." She replied, running her fingers through her hair. "Look, I’m – "

He shook his head as he quickly made his way over to her, lifting his left hand to the side of her face. "Please, Buffy...please, be quiet for just a moment."

For the briefest of moments, she looked as though she was going to argue with him. And then she gave a sigh of resignation, her shoulders slumping slightly as his thumb rubbed over her cheek.

"Yeah, okay..."

He felt a twinge of sadness. A twinge that threatened to grow into much more. He stamped it down quickly and whispered her name as he lowered his mouth to hers.

He swallowed her gasp, slipping his tongue into her mouth as he pushed her back against the door. He felt her resist for just a second, more than likely trying to just assess the situation. And then he felt it...her fingers sliding through his hair, her nails scraping against his scalp as she tilted her head and began to return his kiss.

A groan rumbled in his chest as her teeth lightly bit his tongue and he reached down to guide her left leg over his hip as he effortlessly lifted her. She broke the kiss with a moan as he rocked his hips against her.

"Giles..."

"I’d fuck you right here if our son wasn’t just down the hall." He mumbled, covering her right breast with his warm palm. "Christ, I want you...I’ve wanted you...Buffy..."

She wrapped her other leg around him and arched against his touch. Whimpering his name, she did her best to pull his mouth to her neck. He gave her breast a squeeze and licked his lips as she inhaled sharply.

"I’d almost take my chances..." He murmured, moving his hand to edge his fingers under the hem of her shirt.

"Huh?"

"Of fucking you right here...right now..." He clarified before finally allowing her the sensation of his lips, teeth, and tongue against the sensitive flesh of her neck.

"Oh..." She sighed, closing her eyes as he tenderly sucked at her skin. When he felt his hand move between their bodies and pull at the drawstring of her track pants, her eyes snapped open. "Oh! Oh, no...Giles..."

"Want you..." He mumbled, his words vibrating against her throat. "God, I want you, Buffy...please don’t ever think that I don’t..."

"You...turned me down..." She whispered, carefully unhooking her legs from around him. "Like...more than once."

He leaned back and gazed into her eyes, nodding slowly as she slid down his body to stand in front of him. "That...that had nothing to do with you, Buffy."

Her eyes glistened as she swallowed and moved her hands to his chest, her fingertips lightly stroking the cotton shirt he was wearing. "Then what’s it about? ‘Cause...I’m really starting to worry here, Giles."

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and offered her a tender smile. "There’s nothing to worry about, love. I’ve just had a lot on my mind...three more Slayers arrived this past week and I had to find Watchers for them. Then there was the nest of Blashovio demons – "

"Work?" Buffy whispered sadly. "Work has kept you away from me?"

"Mostly." Giles replied, gliding his thumb along her kiss-swollen bottom lip. "The rest of it is simply life. Friends, family...homework, training...we lead busy lives, Buffy."

"Maybe we should un-busy our lives for a while..."

"Easier said than done." Giles chuckled and leaned back down to brush his lips across hers. "But, I promise you...tonight is ours. Just you and me...dinner, a walk along the river..."

"Which will be interrupted by a vampire or some other beastie, probably. Because that’s how most dates with you end up..."

His eyes sparkled with amusement. "I remember one date that ended up with us making love in the front seat of the car..."

Buffy grinned. "Yeah...but, you said a walk, not a drive."

"Maybe I’ll amend my plans." He offered softly. "Because that was one hell of a night, from what I remember."

"Always is."

Giles smiled lovingly at her and then took a step back. At her questioning look, he gestured to the hall with a jerk of his thumb.

"Braden will be out of the shower soon..."

"Oh...and I guess you’d rather him not see us – "

"Hear, mainly." He interrupted, his eyes darting to her lips as he took another step back. "He doesn’t need to know what’s going through my mind right now. And if I stay that close to you, I’m not going to be able to keep my mouth shut."

"Tell me later?" She asked, walking by him and into the living room itself.

He nodded, a smile forming on his lips as he watched her bend over to pick up a stray toy. "Might be better to show you..."

Buffy grinned brightly, tossing the toy into the box in the corner of the room and feeling more at peace than she had half an hour earlier. Giles returned her grin and tilted his head in the direction of the hallway.

"I’ll, uh...go get Declan dressed if you want to hop in the shower. The four of us can go pick up Lucas...and then head over to your Mum’s. If you want, that is."

"Yeah, that sounds really good." She agreed, her grin drifting into seriousness for a moment. "I’m sorry, Ru. About earlier...downstairs."

His heart fluttered at the sound of her calling him ‘Ru’. That name was rarely used for him and more often for their eldest child.

"You’ve nothing to be sorry about, love. Your reaction was perfectly justified, given the circumstances." He exhaled softly as she walked over to him. "I’m sorry that my actions made you feel that – "

She reached up and drew his mouth down to hers, effectively ending his apology.

Chapter Two