Rating: R
Author: Trekker
Pairing: Giles/Oz
Fandom: Buffy
A/N: Set in the Wishverse, sequel to In Quiet Moments.
It happens so *fast*. He's usually not more than ten feet from Giles. He'd only gone this far to check out one crypt, hadn't been out of sight for more than twenty seconds. Without the wolf, he never would have heard Giles' strangled cry, never would have smelled blood. He would have walked back and found him dead and drained, would have dragged his body back to the school, would have burnt it and would have died inside. But he hears. So he runs. Later, he can't remember it. Can't remember how he got there, can only vaguely remember ramming the stake home. The next thing he's really aware of is Giles falling forward, is trying to catch him, and failing, because Giles outweighs him by way too much. They fall, and Oz lands hard on his back and all of Giles' weight lands on top of him, and for a moment, he can't breathe. Giles is dead weight, crushing his lungs, trapping his arms. He feels a soft, warm wetness where Giles' throat presses against his cheek, and realizes it's blood.
Giles coughs then, and shoves himself off Oz, scrabbles against the dirt, gets himself braced and half-rises. Then falls on his side, rolls to his back, and lies still. Oz's heart clenches in horror as he flips himself over, gets to his knees, and wonders how much blood the vamp got. He kneels over Giles and sees him blink up at the sky.
"Giles. Shit. Giles, talk to me." Giles' throat, in the dark, is black with blood.
Giles coughs again, and then, blessedly, gets his arms under himself again, and sits up. Stays up. He's panting.
"Giles," Oz says again.
"I--I'm all right," Giles says, and Oz can finally breathe.
Once more, Giles coughs, then says, "Do you see my glasses?"
***
It seems to take hours to get back to the library. With the difference in their heights and weights, Oz can't really help him, and every few minutes Giles has to stop and rest. The smell of his blood seems to fill up Oz's nostrils, like drowning. He's sure every vampire in the town can smell it. In the parking lot of the school, Giles trips on the asphalt and says, "Wait."
Oz says, "No. Almost there."
"Can't--"
"No," Oz says, again.
They reach the door and Oz unlocks it. Giles precedes him into the library, and as the light falls over him, the black transforms to vivid red on his throat and on the hand that he has pressed over the bite. Oz feels bile rise in his throat. He drags the door shut behind them, his body all one tight knot.
Giles grabs the rail of the stairs up to the stacks, swings around and drops like a stringless marionette onto the third step.
***
At the sink in the bathroom, Oz stands with a bowl and washcloth balanced on the edge, waiting for the water to heat. When he looks up, he sees his reflection for the first time. Giles' blood is smeared across his cheek. He stares, even after steam starts to rise from the faucet. Then, with a fist he hadn't even realized he'd made, he shatters the mirror with one punch.
He takes one long, shaky breath, then sticks the bowl under the faucet. He hisses with pain as the hot water splashes across his bloody knuckles.
***
"You're hurt," Giles says.
"It's nothing," Oz says, dabbing the wet cloth around the ragged, semicircular tear. A small amount of blood still oozes from the bite, but the flow slackens as Oz works. Oz can't look at Giles' eyes, so he looks down, instead. Giles hands are clenched tightly together between his knees. He keeps moving his shoulders. Oz's about to tell him to hold still, when Giles suddenly curls forward, wrapping his arms around his middle, squeezing his eyes shut, and Oz realizes he's not really *moving*. He's shaking.
"Fuck," Oz says, softly. "Giles..."
Giles snorts, a whoosh of breath from his nostrils, that it takes Oz a moment to realize is something like a laugh. But, laugh or no, there's no amusement in Giles' eyes as he sits up and carefully clasps his trembling hands back together and says, "Never came quite that close before."
"Fuck," Oz says again.
***
Fucking Giles. He's rolled Giles over, and now Giles has one knee tucked tight under him, the other leg trailing down the steps, and Oz is fucking him. It's not right. Not right. Giles is *hurt*. Giles is groaning. Giles is naked from waist to ankle, his shirttails hanging down around him, rucked up just far enough to be out of the way. Oz is stretched over him, braced over him, hands flat on the floor on either side of him, and Oz is fucking him.
He's tight, so tight it's bringing tears to Oz's eyes. Oz's hips keep shoving forward, keep pounding his cock into Giles. The pleasure is so white-hot it's pain. Giles' breathing is harsh and loud, and Oz stares at the white gauze taped to his throat. Wants to tear it off. Wants to sink his own teeth into Giles, obliterate that vampire's mark, change it to his own. Make Giles his, forever and ever and ever. Oz cries out. Heat rash on his thighs and his stomach, from where their skins burn each other.
Giles gasps, "Don't stop, Oz, don't stop--"
Can't stop now, can't, can't. Not with these explosions pulsing behind his eye sockets, hard enough that it feels like it's going to push his eyes right out of his head. Climax building with every one of his awful, brutal thrusts. Giles' hand is under himself, working frantically fast. Oz can feel Giles trying to beat him over the edge, but he doesn't stand a chance.
Oz comes with a long wail that rips out of his throat like knives.
***
After, Giles sprawls on his back on the stairs, still naked from the waist down, still breathing hard. Oz sits at his feet, the edge of the lowest step digging into his back. He feels as dizzy as Giles ought to be.
"God," Oz says, staring, sightless, across the library. "God, Giles, I am so sorry."
He doesn't look when he hears Giles sit up, pull his pants up, edge down to sit beside Oz on the bottom step.
"Oz," Giles says. Oz feels his fingers drift through his hair, one soft caress. Oz closes his eyes.
Giles moves down off the last step, sitting now pressed up against Oz's side on the floor. His arm curls around Oz, and pulls him close to him, crushed against his warm, solid side.
"Oz, it's all right."
And that's when Oz can finally turn, press his face into Giles' shirt that smells of sweat and dust, and cry.
The End