tarnished -- part two -- trekker |
Chapter Nine | |
End of Days |
After that, there were months of not seeing each other. Giles was needed in Sunnydale, or at least, felt he should be there. He settled into a hotel there. He called Ethan occasionally, and knew for sure he was alive every time he sent a new Potential their way.
He found himself, oddly, worrying about him. Ethan had, after a certain point, become extremely paranoid about being on the First's hit list, and Ethan was not usually given to undue paranoia. He also found himself missing Ethan, their conversations and even simply his presence. Somewhere in the past year, he'd begun to remember why he was fond of the man. His sardonic, witty humor, with that small twist of a smile, his relative calm in a crisis.
The physicality between them was only a small part of it, though he found himself missing that too, especially at night, alone in his room with nothing but the TV and its dire imprecations for company. He still loved the Sunnydalers, but in the past two years, they had become different people, older, adult people, and he felt he'd lost his reference points for relating to them, except possibly Anya, who was, and ever would be... well, Anya.
During those brief phone calls, over an international line to England, he'd find himself closing his eyes and just feeling the low tenor of Ethan's voice. It didn't matter what they said. They rarely discussed the apocalypse, or even the Potentials, beyond a few necessary words at the beginning.
And then it all ended, spectacularly, suddenly. He called Ethan again, when everyone was in the midst of the scurry that came after the last-minute preparations. There was a line at the bathroom, Dawn couldn't find her lip balm...
He tucked himself away in a quiet corner with the cordless phone.
"Hello?"
He ducked his head and smiled and moved a bit closer to the wall, less to hide and more to create a private space away from the hubbub of the house.
"Hello, Ethan."
"Giles. This is an unusual time to call."
"I just wanted to let you know... we're going in now."
"Going in?"
"A preemptive assault on the Hellmouth."
"Sounds like insanity to me."
"Possibly," Giles said, without heat.
"Don't die," Ethan said.
"I'll do my best," Giles answered, smiling again.
Then Buffy leaned in the front door and shouted, like a deranged, angry camp counselor, "Five fifty-seven, people! Let's *go*!"
"Got to go," Giles said.
"Right..." Ethan said, and Giles hit the button, hung up, and headed out.
***
He could have sworn that, a week later, he still had the dust of Sunnydale clinging to him. He and Andrew had finally arrived in Heathrow several hours ago, and now the boy (God knew why they'd foisted him on Giles) was finally settled in a hotel room until Giles could find something more permanent, because Ethan had already apparently taken over half of his own flat, and first of all, he wasn't quite sure how he'd explain Ethan to Andrew, second of all, he wasn't sure he wanted Andrew exposed to Ethan at all, or vice-versa, and third, there simply was not enough room in that tiny flat for three people.
He climbed the old stairway, tired down to his bone marrow. He reached his door, and felt the tingle of the wards, then felt them part as he slid his key into the lock, a sensation not unlike seeing something dart away in one's peripheral vision. The door unlocked and the wards let him step into the flat, but they'd obviously alerted Ethan to someone's presence, as he was waiting when Giles entered.
"Not to sound like an overbearing mother, but you could have called."
"Sorry. There wasn't time."
"Oh. Because it takes so much time to say, 'Hello Ethan, the world is not ending, and oh by the way, I'm not dead.'"
Giles set aside his bag. "Sorry."
Then, suddenly, dizzyingly, he realized that he hadn't seen Ethan touch anything, and no matter how unlikely it was that the First was still around, it sent a bolt of panic through him that wasn't assuaged until he crossed the space between them in two strides, grabbed Ethan by the shirt front and kissed him soundly, solidly, erasing any doubt that he was anything but human and alive.
Ethan blinked at him.
Then smiled slowly and yanked him closer. Giles grinned.
tarnished -- part two -- trekker |