Title: When I Was Your Age Version: 1.0, posted 2/3/05 (originally posted to LiveJournal 7/18/04) Rating: PG
Disclaimer: It's the Jossverse, we just slay in it. (See full
disclaimer on previous page.)
Summary: Giles wants to spend some quality time with Ms.
Calendar, but first he has to deal with a curious Buffy and Willow.
When I Was Your Age
by Mistral Amara
Giles picked up the plate of gingersnaps and offered it to his guest.
"Biscuit?"
Jenny Calendar reached across the desk for one of the spicy rounds and
eyed it critically. "It's a cookie, Rupert. You've been in California
long enough to know the local lingo."
"Indeed. And you've been teaching high school long enough to know
the--'local lingo', as you put it. Still, I don't hear you talking like
a Valley girl."
She considered this briefly and shrugged. "Fer shure," she said, and
bit into the biscuit with the enthusiasm of the young and slender.
As he considered possible responses to that, he heard the outer library
door creep open. Odd. No one should be here at this time of day.
He automatically checked that his favorite sword was within reach, then
sipped his coffee and waited. It would not do to draw attention to
himself by brandishing a weapon at, say, the principal.
It amused him to let the students think he had some preternatural
librarian's sixth sense that warned him when someone approached the
checkout counter, but in truth it was due to the precise angle at which
he habitually kept his office door. At present, the reflection in its
glass showed him Buffy and Willow sneaking along the near end of the
counter and dropping to their knees behind it.
He suppressed a twinge of annoyance. They were good children--well, no,
they weren't, really, but they were good-hearted--but no matter how
curious they were, or how protective of him, he deserved something of a
private life. And eavesdroppers deserved whatever they heard.
There was only one thing to do.
He picked up the coffee pot and refilled Jenny's cup, at the same time
motioning quietly towards the door. She followed the line of sight, saw
the girls, and nodded. "Now then," he said, "where was I? Oh, yes, the
Krevloch demon. Nasty thing. Of course, it wasn't the demon that was
the problem."
"What was the problem, then?" Jenny asked obligingly.
"Learning the hard way that when one conducts a banishment ritual,
sky-clad atop the girls' dormitory in mid-December, one should first
ascertain that no-one in the immediate vicinity is carrying a camera. I
had to date a certain scrawny, pimply-faced freshman for two months to
be sure I'd found and destroyed all the copies."
Jenny laughed, softly enough that Giles could hear the tiny yelp from
behind the counter; that would be Willow. He refilled his own coffee
and reached for the cream, listening for the whispering; that would be
Buffy, asking Willow what 'sky-clad' meant. And next, there would be--
"Ew! Giles, naked? Pictures of naked Giles? Ew! Ew!"
He winked at Jenny, then rose quietly and took the two steps to the
door. He poked his head around the door frame to see that Buffy had
jumped up from her hiding place. Willow was trying to shush her and
drag her back down. "Hello, girls," he said in his pleasantest
librarian's voice. "Was I supposed to be helping you with something
this afternoon?"
Buffy blanched. "No. N-no! We wanted to ask you
about . . . that thing,
but I have to go home now and wash my brain--my hair! My hair is yuck,
and ew, and . . . hair." She grabbed Willow by the
arm and fled the
library, dragging the other girl behind her.
He rejoined Jenny at his desk, and they grinned at each other over
their coffee. "It's good not to be that age any more, isn't it?" she
remarked.
"Yes, it is," he replied. "Have another biscuit?"
-End-
A/N: This story was written in
response to a challenge by Betty Ragan, who asked for a story about
Giles, the title as given, and the line, "Of course, it wasn't the
demon that was the problem."