Was It Always Like This?

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 heas ans 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”