Rating: G
Author: Trekker
Pairing: Buffy/Giles
Fandom: Buffy
Giles found Buffy in the training room after Travers and his team had finally left. The details had been hammered out, the information passed on. He sat down, wordlessly, beside her on the couch.
When she curled against his side and laid her head on his shoulder, he put his arm around her. Only natural. Easy. Comfortable. They sat together in sleepy silence, the stress of the past few days slowly bleeding away, their breath a half-step out of sync.
"I don't know what I'm doing, Giles," she said, this confession released softly as a dove from gentle hands.
When he answered her, he closed his eyes, ducked his head, and murmured the words against her hair, against the soft warm curve of her skull. "You were wonderful tonight, Buffy."
Then a frission of cold worked between them as she pulled away and tipped her head back. He ached at the pain and the exhaustion in her eyes. His hand slipped off her shoulder down to rest in the center of her back; her shirt was thin and her body warmth seeped into his palm.
He heard her swallow, then heard her lips part and then, "I-- Giles, I--"
That something in her eyes looked far too weighty to be borne by something as flimsy as words, but he waited. She said no more. She blinked once and then he felt a soft weight on his chest, then the slow curl of fingers, a loose fist resting over his heart.
Heart that was pounding now.
Her eyes pinched narrower for just one moment, a tension of something running through her. Then it was gone. When she leaned in, leaned up, and her eyes fell shut and her lips touched his, he knew immediately, viscerally, that the only answer, the best answer, the right answer was simply to return that kiss and pull her closer.
Then they parted and she looked down at him and said, "I love you, Giles."
He said, "I've always loved you," and it was a complicated truth, but it was the truth, more than she'd ever know. It was the one truth he'd ever known. It was inconsequential that he'd never before tonight even thought to touch her this way.
One hand still pressed to her back, the other running teasing, loving knuckles down her side.
She smiled for a heartbeat or two, but then that smile slipped and she said, "Is this weird?"
He only shook his head, the first flush of new love chasing a tingle of wonder. "Far from it. This is the most natural thing in the world. My god, you're beautiful."
Even more so now, ducking her head and blushing. Her smile crept back, small but steady, and she said, "You too."
They kissed again, her hair falling in tickling strands around his wrist.
The End