Katrina Aid Fic Donated by Noreen

Request pairing:  Buffy and Giles

Title:  "Best Laid Plans"

Lead Author:  Tara

Lunatics Currently at Large:  
Giles Fan, Jessie, Koala, Miss Witch, Tara, and WickedFox

 

Time: In the Luniverse, sometime in the summer after the season's end.

"That was a nice dinner." Buffy stopped and turned to face Giles, looking up at him with a smile. "Thank you for letting me treat you to it."

"Thank you for inviting me." He smiled back at her before dropping a light kiss on her lips. "Too bad about our moonlit stroll, however."

"What's too bad about it? There's you and me next to a lake under full moon." She frowned slightly. "There isn't a werewolf behind me again, is there?"

"No. Not a werewolf." His gentle smile turned into a grin as she reached into his jacket pocket.

With a heavy sigh, she pulled out a stake and complained, "This really isn't fair. I had this whole night planned out." She turned quickly, keeping her stake behind her. “And you guys weren’t part of my plans.”

Three vampires stood leering at her. The tallest attempted an evil laugh. "You know what they say about plans, lady!" 

She offered him a perky, if somewhat puzzled smile.  "No, I don't. What do they say about plans?"

Her casual response made the other two vampires shift restlessly. Their leader glared at them and then tried for a show of bravado. "Well. You know."  He shrugged.  "They get laid."

"Oh dear," murmured Giles. He bit the inside of his lip and looked away for a moment. The effort wasn't enough to prevent a very tiny snort of laughter to escape. 

Buffy sighed and turned back to face Giles. “You know, I never thought I would say this, but I miss Spike.”

The shortest of the three vampires was pushed forward by the other two, and he stumbled to a halt behind Buffy. Giles glanced disinterestedly over her shoulder at him and looked back down at Buffy. “Miss Spike? You can’t be serious.” 

“I am.” Without looking, she whipped her hand backward with unerring accuracy. The hapless fiend exploded into dust.

“Of all the sweet nothings you could whisper in my ear during our romantic, moonlit walk, that would not be my choice,” Giles answered, trying with limited success to maintain a stern visage. The leader of the vampires looked at his remaining cohort and gestured him forward. The other vampire frowned and shook his head. The leader shoved him toward Buffy.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Please. All I’m saying is that Spike had a sense of style. He knew how to improvise his lines, you know?”  Her stake went into her left hand, and it too shot backward, finding its mark with dusty precision.

“I suppose so.” Giles looked at her a bit glumly and added, “The third one is trying to sneak off.”

“Figures.” She turned and threw the stake at the vampire’s back. It went into and through the torso, hanging for a moment in the resulting dust before falling to the ground. When she faced Giles again, she teased her fingers along his chest and asked, “Now. Where were we again?”

“You were just bemoaning the lack of witty vampires on our evening out, and I was about to kiss you, because you're looking rather adorable at the moment.” He put his arms around her and pulled her close to him before she could articulate her protest. As he bent down, she stretched up, hooking her arms around his neck. The kiss started out slowly, but as it continued, the intensity grew, with both of them making small noises of need, want and desire.

In the end, it was Buffy who pulled away first. “Okay, much as the idea appeals, having sex on the beach isn’t part of tonight’s plans.”

"So your plans don't include getting laid?"

"Giles!"  Buffy snorted.  

Giles laughed and smoothed a stray strand of hair from Buffy’s face. “Bloody shame, that. Sure I can’t change your mind?” His other hand started wandering away from her waist, and she slapped it.

“Focus, honey.”

“I am focused. It’s just not on what you want.”

“Well, like I said, I had plans for tonight. There is definitely something I want and I hope you want it too.” Buffy drew a breath to speak then stopped. After another breath, she took both his hands in hers and stepped back slightly. “Rupert Giles, will you marry me?”

Xander entered the house to the sound of serious chopping in the kitchen. He paused as he heard a slightly different tone, and his eyes narrowed as he listened. The second time he heard it, he stalked quietly toward the noise. At the kitchen door, he stopped short.

Buffy was the one chopping, and she was putting every food processor out on the market to shame. The stack of cucumbers he’d bought at the farmer’s market the day before was down to a paltry three, and in their place was a hefty pile of cucumber slices. Xander swallowed hard at the look on Buffy’s face then blessed himself before taking that next step into the room.

“Uh, Buffy?”

She continued slicing at speed.

“Yo. Buffster. What’s up?”

At that, she did look at him. “Nothing. Why?”

“Just wondered if you were putting down a cucumber rebellion is all.”

“Huh?”

Xander pointed at the knife in her hand. “If you keep up at this pace, you’re going to kill that Ginsu knife, which, now that I think about it, might be pretty cool, because then we can send it back and maybe get a lifetime supply of free knives.”

Buffy looked at him as if he was losing his mind. “You’re babbling.”

“Yeah. I do that sometimes.”

“Why?”

“You’re making me nervous.” 

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She worked her way through another cucumber.

Xander gestured at the remaining pair. “You’re violently slicing up vegetables that have definite phallic value, and doing so at a superhuman rate. Honestly, I don’t think ridiculous is the word to use.”

She shook her head but didn’t look up again. “Fine. You have reason to be nervous. Go away.”

Blinking at her blunt dismissal, Xander said, “I’m thinking that’s an even worse idea. Here's a wacky notion for you -- maybe you could tell me what’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” She cut the second-to-last cucumber in half with a vicious slice.

The two of them paused to stare at the quivering pieces of vegetable. Xander frowned. “So this wouldn't have anything to do with your painstakingly planned and, I can only pray, perfectly executed date with Giles last night?" Without waiting for her agreement, he continued, "Lay it on me. How’d that go?”

“Fine. Great. Perfectly executed,” she said, her tone of voice at odds with her answer.

Xander considered her for another moment. “Okay. I realize I may be taking my life, as well as my manhood, into my own hands here, but what really happened?”

She shrugged and unclenched her jaw. “We went out for dinner and took a walk by the lake. I dusted three vamps and then--“ She picked up one of the cucumber halves and started to chop again.

“Come on, Buffy. Give. And then?”

"...then she asked me to marry her." 

Willow squealed. “Giles! That’s so cool! That's...”

"...great!” He took another look at Buffy’s face. “We are talking greatness, right?” When she didn’t answer, he got a sick look on his face. “Buffy, what did he say? I mean, he had to say..." 

"No." Giles smiled at her. 

Both of them jumped slightly at a loud noise from the kitchen.

"Um, Giles?" Willow looked upward as Giles turned his attention back to the computer. “Are you completely...?" 

"...wacked the crap outta the cutting board, Buff. Just thought you might like to know."

Buffy blinked as she looked down at the wreck of the butcher block. “Guess I cut down a little too hard, huh?”

About to agree with her, Xander gave up any hope of being able to tease her when her lower lip started to quiver.

"Aw, hey, hey, it’s okay. It will be okay. He loves you and he’s not..."

"Insane? Not at all," said Giles, staring intently at the keyboard as he typed. He hit ‘enter’ and grinned. “You know, Willow, I do believe I’m getting the hang of this thing you call the Internet.” He pointed to the screen. "What do you think of that one?" 

"You want to know what I think? I think you're..."

"Sorry. I just get so upset when I think about it." She sniffled a little and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.  "I just didn't expect things to go that way."

"Yeah. I can see." Xander moved around the counter and put his arm around her. “Look, it’s not the end of the world. I mean, Giles hasn’t moved out, right? He's still...”

"Confused now. I mean, how can you sit here surfing the web after dropping a bomb like that?" Willow stood up to look at the computer screen. "I think you just took a left turn out of Sensibleville, Giles. You told her no, but you're shopping for rings?" 

"It's never too early to start looking. She'll be graduating from university before any of us realizes it." Giles pointed out another ring. "Is that too gaudy?" 

"Not really. More..."

".... angry.  I get that and you're totally justified.” Xander rested his chin on top of Buffy’s head. “Not for murder or maiming, though. Just promise me you'll put that knife down when Giles comes up." 

"Huh?" Buffy looked down then up again as she realized what Xander was saying. "No! You don’t -- Xander, I'm not pissed at Giles."

"Does Buffy know about this grand plan of yours?" Willow looked at Giles out of the corner of her eye.

"She should. We discussed it at length last night. I explained why it was so important for her to focus on her education first and she agreed." He brought up another web page and said, “Oh! I like these much better.”

Confused, Willow looked up again toward the kitchen. "Then that loud noise in the kitchen was--?" 

"Probably just a loud noise. Do you think she'd like rubies?"

Standing very still, Xander pointed out, "But he said no." 

Buffy sighed. "Yeah. He wants me to finish college first. There was this whole big lecture-like speech that really wasn’t very romantic, even with the sexy accent and big words.  But the end result was no, not now.   He doesn't get that it should be now."

"Oh."  Willow looked at the screen and pointed at a ring. “That’s pretty.”

Giles pursed his lips. “A bit flash, don’t you think?”

"Flash?”

“Gaudy.”

“Maybe.” Willow settled back on Giles’ desk. “So you're getting married, but just not right now. Are you like engaged officially?"

Xander considered the situation for another moment then asked, “Well if it's not the G-man your PO'd at, who are you steamed off at?" 

"Myself."  She slumped down on a nearby stool. “I thought I could be a modern woman and just ask first, but I should have known better.”

“Perhaps I’m a bit old fashioned but I think I should propose to her.” He looked at Willow and grinned. “Which I fully intended to do, you understand, she just beat me to it. I’ll surprise her one of these days.” Giles turned back to the computer. “I like that ruby one.” He carefully bookmarked the page before going to the next site. "And anyway, it isn't as if there's any pressing reason to go down the aisle just yet."  When she didn't respond, he stopped his study of the screen for a moment and looked at Willow.  "Is there?"

Willow refused to meet his gaze and pointed randomly at the screen.  "How about that one?  You can get it on the installment plan."

Giles frowned thoughtfully and turned back to the computer.  He studied the screen for a moment and tapped at an image.  "That's the one.  But I think I'll pay cash and have it sent express.  You know what they say about plans...."