Mortification

"Oh. My. God." It burst out before Buffy could even think that the best solution in such cases would be to turn around and pretend it never happened, that she's never been there, never seen... this. If both of them hadn't turned around at the sound, if they hadn't seen her right there, she might have stood a chance of getting out of there with her brain, well, mostly intact.

 

Instead, she was standing there, mouth opened and completely mortified.

 

"Huh, Buffy," Xander stammered, shifting from foot to foot. "I can, uh, explain." But it couldn't really be Xander that was talking, because this guy who looked like Xander had a hand on Giles' arm, and his lips, well...

 

What in the hell had they been thinking? The library! Not a place for smoochies of the, not gay kind because she didn't care about that, but the gross kind, the Giles kind!

 

Okay, one look at Giles right now, with glasses kind of lopsided and his shirt a little rumpled, and okay, maybe not gross so much as--what?

 

"I don't need you to explain," Buffy said slowly when neither Xander nor Giles seemed to be able to move or talk. Her thoughts were still processing the information, but she wasn't freaking out. Much. "I just, you know, maybe you shouldn't be doing this anywhere in the vicinity of me or anyone who could, you know, have a heart attack."

 

Then she turned to Giles. "And you," she said, pointing her fingers and advancing towards him. "You break his heart and I'm kicking your ass straight back over that pond, okay?"

 

She walked to the table, ignoring their attempts at explanation, agreement, whatever, and putting her bag on a chair, claiming the next one as her own. She put her feet on the table, and turned back to Giles. "So, what have you got for us tonight?" Buffy would have to tell Willow about this new... development. Oh wow, that would not be a fun party.

 

Buffy smirked when Giles put his now very clean glasses back on his nose and knocked her feet off the table with a glare.

 

Xander snorted, and sat opposite her, pulling a book to him. "I think we have to look for a demon or something; he was explaining it to me, but erm--" Xander blushed and shrugged, holding out the book to hide his face.

 

"Oh yeah," Buffy said, picking up another book, "Never, ever tell me."

 

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