Title: Like Any Other
Author: soft_princess
Website: Fly With Me
Date: October 2007
Word count: 250

Fandom: BtVS/AtS
Pairing: Giles/Xander
Rating: FRC
Disclaimer: Joss owns, I don't.
Spoilers/setting: post-Chosen
Summary: This was just a library.

Note: for the Giles/Xander Fest's Dabble-a-Day prompts @ gilesxander. Prompt #08: "Library".

It was quiet.

Too quiet. Xander closed his eye and tried to imagine the sounds like he remembered them. Books shuffling; Buffy and Willow talking; the sounds of Giles moving about, picking up books, and placing them back on the shelves.

But this wasn't Sunnydale. This was just a library, exactly like any other libraries, with the exception being that the books were about demons and magic. And it belonged to the Council. It was several stories high, shelves lining up the walls with tables stacked neatly in rows down the middle. It was different, but the smells were the same. Books, old and new and in between, the smells of them mingling in the air.

No wonder Giles liked it so much here.

It didn't take Xander that long to find him, and when he did, he sat down across from Giles, and put his hand on the nearest book, sliding it closer. "What have you got?"

"A load of nothing," Giles answered with a sigh.

It was different, and yet, it would always be exactly the same. Xander opened his volume to the first page, and started researching the latest in apocalypse history. "What exactly am I looking for?"

"I'm not quite sure," Giles said, looking up and taking his glasses off his nose. "Xander, you don't have to do this."

Xander looked around at the rows of books, breathing in the silence, and when he turned back to Giles, he smiled. He'd missed this. "Yeah, I do."