Taking the Initiative
by Rainne
Part Five
[reviews]
"Buffy! Here!"
At Xander's shout, Buffy turned just in time to catch the two-handed broadsword that was flying through the air toward her. Once her had a firm grip on it, she stretched her arms out and pivoted, neatly halving three of the Knights of Nho who had been attacking her. She looked around quickly, trying to gauge any more, but the demon and his remaining minions had disappeared.
Xander walked over and laid a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "Let's get outta here, Buff," he said quietly. "Willow's probably going nuts wondering where we are."
Buffy sighed and nodded. She knelt, wiped the blade clean on the grass, and hoisted it over one shoulder as they started down the sidewalk toward the Magic Box. "So, interesting patrol," Xander commented brightly. "Those are the Knights of Ni, huh?"
Buffy nodded. "And not a herring in sight."
"Ah, well," Xander sighed, and then began to softly sing. "Always look on the bright side of life."
Buffy, having sat through the Monty Python videofest the previous weekend which had included "The Life of Brian," burst out laughing. She shoved him gently. "You dork."
He laughed as well. "I can't help it. It's just too good. The Python is there, I gotta take it."
"You should have to work for your jokes," she teased.
"You know, at least I skipped all the Star Trek red-shirt jokes I could have made at the expense of half of the Slayer Academy," he pointed out.
"Only because we were in the middle of a Willow-centric apocalypse and you didn't have time," she shot back.
"Good point," he conceded. They entered the shop then and continued to tease one another until Giles finally interrupted.
"Yes, thank you, and your information about tonight's patrol has been most valuable," the older man said sarcastically.
"Sorry, Giles," Buffy responded. "Three more Knights down, something like ten left."
"Lovely, thank you. We do need to keep thinning their ranks. The eclipse is next Tuesday and we need to be ready."
"Is everything in place at the high school?" Buffy asked.
"Not quite, but it will be soon," Giles responded. "Are you prepared to do what you'll have to do?"
Buffy gave her Watcher the Look of Shame. "Giles. How many apocalypses have we been through together that you should ask me this?" She faked an Italian accent. "You're breakin' my heart, Giles, you're breakin' my heart."
Giles very nearly rolled his eyes but was fortunately stopped at the last moment by his inherent Britishness. He settled instead for a cold glare and returned to shelving books. "Willow and Tara are in the training room, going over the spells necessary to close the Hellmouth once it's opened."
"She's done it before, right, Giles? With the Sisterhood of Jhe? It's not like it's going to be so different this time. Is it?" Buffy was concerned.
"Not so different," he responded. "Only that Willow's terrified after her experience with Rothschear at the Academy. She is afraid that if she works higher magicks again, Rothschear will return."
"But that's not gonna happen, right?" Xander needed to know. "Rothschear's dead, right?"
"I certainly hope so," was all Giles said. Buffy and Xander exchanged worried glances and moved to the training room to try and offer their support.
Willow was standing in the middle of a light show when they walked into the back room. She was standing near the center of the room, inside a circle which had been drawn on the floor in chalk, and there were what looked to be hundreds of little colored lights flying all around her in the cylinder of air that ran straight up from the outline of the circle. She was smiling. Buffy grinned at the sight an walked over to Tara, who was seated atop the vault horse. "She doing okay?"
Tara nodded. "S-she's d-doing great. We've b-been working for about an hour, a-and she's lost most of her fear. I didn't even shield her on this one."
Willow suddenly said a few words in what sounded like Latin, and all the lights disappeared. She grinned across the room at Buffy. "Check me out, I'm light-show-girl."
Buffy grinned back and went to Willow as she crossed out of the circle. "Yes you are," she affirmed, kissing Willow softly. "You're also looking like no-fear-girl."
"Well, there's fear," Willow said slowly, "there's definitely fear... But I'm facing it." She levitated one of the candles off the floor. "Facing my fear. Hear that, fear? I'm facing you."
Buffy grinned and hugged Willow tightly. "That's my girl," she encouraged gently. "So, Giles said you were working on the close-sesame spell for the Hellmouth."
Willow nodded. "We were doing those earlier. Tara was shielding me."
"You doing okay, Wills?" Xander asked, peering closely at Willow's face for any sign of worry.
Willow nodded at her old friend. "It's gonna be okay, Xander," she said quietly. "I've been working higher-level magicks all night, and nothing happened. It's gonna be okay."
Xander hugged her as well, and then hugged Tara. "You're terrific, Tara," he told her quietly. "You're just what we all need."
Tara blushed and stammered incoherently. Xander smoothly interjected with a suggestion of pre-apocalypse party at the Bronze that night, which was met with great enthusiasm.
---
I was born an original sinner
I was born from original sin
And if I had a dollar bill for all the things I've done
There'd be a mountain of money piled up to my chin HEY!
Buffy pulled Willow out on the dance floor to dance to the Eurythmics. "I can't believe the Bronze is having an eighties night!" she exclaimed over the loud music. "It's great!"
"The music is terrible!" Willow responded, laughing.
"Yeah but it's so much fun!" Buffy replied, sliding close to Willow and dancing suggestively as the music turned sexier. "I feel like I should be in leather with a whip."
Willow's eyes glazed over. "Oh."
Buffy burst out laughing at the look of undisguised lust that was plastered to Willow's face. "Baby, we've only been here an hour. We can't bail this early."
Willow shook it off. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry."
Buffy pulled Willow into her arms as the music changed, becoming a slow tune, and the dancers on the floor coupled off. Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy could see Xander and Anya dancing close together, and farther behind them she could see Tara and Giles at the table engaging in an animated conversation. "I'm glad Giles came with us tonight," she murmured in Willow's ear.
"Me, too," Willow replied. "He never does stuff with us. It's like he's still got that teacher complex. We should get him to do more stuff with us. Since he's not our teacher any more. He's our friend."
Buffy thought about that. "Maybe he doesn't know we think that. Maybe he thinks we still think of him as... as a grown-up. Substitute dad. We should say something about that."
Willow nodded. "We should. And we will. As soon as this song is over."
Buffy smiled and pulled her lover close, swaying slightly as the words washed over them.
Say you, say me, say it for always — that's the way it should be
Say you, say me, say it together naturally
So you think you know the answer, oh no
Well the whole world's got you dancing
That's right, I'm telling you, it's time to start believing
Believe in who you are
You are a shining star
Say you, say me, say it for always — that's the way it should be
Say you, say me, say it together naturally
The two young women were as good as their word. As soon as the song ended and they managed with much sighing and many meaningful looks to pry themselves apart, they made a beeline for the table and sat down, one on each side of Giles. "We need to talk," Willow said promptly.
Giles blinked. "Y-yes?"
"You never hang out with us," Buffy stated. "We don't like that."
He blinked, wondering briefly if he'd wandered into a movie spoof of his own life. "Y-yes, well, Buffy, it wouldn't be —"
"Appropriate?" Buffy cut him off. "Why not? We're all happy individuals between twenty-one and forty-one years of age, except for Anya who's way much older than that."
Willow laid a gentle hand on Giles's arm. "We're not kids anymore, Giles. We don't need a teacher-slash-father-figure any more. We need a friend."
Giles blinked, looking around at the earnest faces of the children — no, Giles, young adults — surrounding him. Anya and Xander had come back from the dance floor and were both nodding emphatically. "They're right, Giles," Xander said softly. "Besides, having a bunch of people depending on you to be their dad all the time isn't healthy. For you or for us."
Giles blinked. Xander had called him Giles. "Xander. You didn't call me one of your appalling nicknames."
Xander grinned. "I figure it's time for us to grow up. All of us."
Giles smiled at his friends. "I suppose you're right."
Buffy grinned. "Of course we are." Then she paused. "Of course, as our older friend who knows everything, we're still gonna come to you from time to time for advice and things like that."
Giles rolled his eyes. "Of course."
"But in the meantime..." Buffy grabbed his arm. "Let's all dance!"
The group dragged Giles out onto the dance floor as George Michael began to sing about freedom, and began to bond as friends. Of course, it helped that Giles was a fantastic dancer, but somehow none of them were surprised.