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summer_of_giles2012-06-03 09:04 am
FIC: ACCEPTABLE ALTERNATIVES (GILES/JENNY)
Author: Calendiles
Setting: A few days after "Ted" (2x11)
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1,085
“Are you sure about this?” Jenny’s voice, though still retaining its usual teasing tone, had a definite note of nervousness in it. And her lovely brown eyes, the ones that made him go weak at the knees whenever she – well, her eyes also held a taint of fear.
“You’ll do fine, Jenny,” he assured her, and then winced as he carefully sat down on one of the library’s wooden chairs. “At least, I dearly hope so,” he murmured to himself as he massaged the wound she had given him with the very crossbow she now held in her trembling hands.
Trembling? Perhaps it would be best to nip this in the bud.
Heaving himself from his perch on the chair with a regretful sigh (he had only just settled himself into it, after all), he strode over and positioned himself behind her. “And I would much prefer that you know what you are doing the next time you attempt to operate one of these,” he said as he placed his hands on top of hers to steady them. He had meant to pull away after that, and give her enough room to aim at the small target he had hastily scrawled on a cardboard box, but she had leaned back into him the moment he came up behind her, and she would likely tip over if he moved.
So staying here and holding her hands a crossbow and sort of (sort of) “cuddling”, as the kids would call it, because otherwise she might fall and hurt herself – that was the gentlemanly thing to do.
And Rupert Giles was most certainly a gentleman.
“Erm, it’s easier to aim if you put your hands here,” he told her, trying to think of a pretense to keep in contact with her as long as possible (because her hair really did smell nice, like some sort of sweet flower that he couldn’t possibly remember the name for, especially not when she was still leaning back onto his chest and looking like she wanted to kiss him and ignoring every word that he had just said).
“Where should I put them, Snobby?” she asked in a low voice, and he was pleased that she had actually been listening, even though he didn’t think that she was talking about the crossbow at all.
It was simply amazing how quickly this woman could make him want to–
“Hey Giles! What’s going-” Xander started to say, cheerfully pushing open the doors to the library, but then dived out of the way as the crossbow’s bolt flew past his left ear and out into the hallway.
Jenny, startled by his sudden appearance, had fumbled the crossbow and accidentally fired it. Now, she stared with her mouth open in a perfect ‘O’ of surprise as she stared at the boy. Giles imagined that his expression must have been very similar, if a shade more embarrassed.
“Uh, what just happened?” Xander asked finally, staring at the two of them. Giles realized that he was still holding onto Jenny, and he quickly let go and stepped away.
Jenny unfroze as he moved aside, and she looked as if she was about to ask him to come back before she changed her mind and turned to look at Xander.
“Are you all right?” she asked him, and relaxed slightly when he nodded.
“I’m fine, and…” he craned his neck and stared around the hallway. “…And I don’t think that anybody saw that. And speaking of ‘that’, what just happ-”
“Never mind that, Xander,” Giles told him hurriedly. “Could you please retrieve the bolt?”
“Sure thing, G-man,” Xander said easily, and the small smirk the boy flashed at him as he stepped outside gave him a feeling that Xander knew exactly what had led up to the accident.
Jenny, meanwhile, had plopped down on one of the tables and had was shaking her head, dumbfounded. When he caught her eyes, she said ruefully, “I’m just not good with crossbows, I guess.”
He wanted to go over to say something encouraging, but Xander stepped in again at that moment. (This was, perhaps, a good thing, seeing had he couldn’t actually think of anything comforting to say.)
“The arrow thing is stuck,” Xander told them, sounding as if he was trying to keep from laughing. But when he saw the deer-in-the-headlights look on Jenny’s face, he couldn’t stop himself from chuckling.
Giles, however, was not amused. “The bolt is stuck? Where?”
Xander composed himself (though he was still grinning) and continued, “In the wall over there.” He gestured out he swinging doors.
“Good lord,” Giles muttered, and Xander’s smile grew wider.
Jenny glanced at the clock, and then turned to them, panicked. “This period ends in five minutes! We’ve got to get it out – people will see it!”
Xander shook his head. “No can do, Ms. C – that thing is really stuck.”
“Well, then, we’ll cover it up!”
Giles looked dubious. “With what? I hardly think that we could paint it.”
Jenny shook her head impatiently. “No, we could make a poster or something!”
“I’ll get the markers from the art room!” Xander put in, and ran off, leaving Giles and Jenny to scrounge up some craft paper.
And so it was that a miniature art marathon took place in the library, with Giles snipping the paper with safety scissors and Jenny scribbling in blocky letters that read “Reading is Good for You!” and Xander mostly just observing and laughing. And afterwards, when the library had been cleaned up and the sign (with a very conspicuous bump in the center) had been hung in in its place and Xander was safely locked away in fourth-hour history class, the two of them had the library to themselves again.
“Well,” Giles said, once again gently setting himself down in one of the library chairs, “that was much more eventful than I could have imagined.”
Jenny sat down beside him and smiled coquettishly. “It always is – at least around here.”
“Would you, ah, like to try again?” he asked hopefully, and was slightly disappointed when she shook her head.
“There’ll be lots of time for that later,” she told him. “You’ve got forever to teach me how to use that deathtrap.” She then pulled herself closer and whispered in his ear, “but there’s something else I’d like to do now.”
And then she was kissing him, in a way that was soft and fierce all at once.
That, he conceded, was an acceptable alternative.
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Aw, I love this. Which you already know. Love the (almost) steamy crossbow lesson, and the random super fast art session, and then the end. Aww.
Twosome of cuteness indeed. :o)
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Aw, I wish things would just write themselves for me! How long has it been now that I've owed you a fic? Heh.
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And thanks!
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(Anonymous) 2012-06-04 07:27 pm (UTC)(link)(I wonder if later they'd ask Buffy to try and retrieve the bolt? I doubt she'd wanna know the details about how it got there either...)
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There's something about Giles and Jenny awkwardness that does seem to translate into Giles and Jenny cuteness, hmm? Thanks for sharing it! :D
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