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English
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Published:
2019-03-22
Words:
762
Chapters:
1/1

professionalism

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“Are you kidding?” said Buffy. “No. Absolutely not. Stop grossing me out.”“You don’t see it?” asked Willow, sounding genuinely surprised.Up ahead, Giles and Ms. Calendar were having what looked to be a conversation about the misdelivered yearbooks. Giles was holding the very large box that had shown up in the library, and Ms. Calendar was laughing at something that Giles had said, and all in all, there was absolutely zero sizzling chemistry. Which was good, because Buffy’s brain did not need to break on the day she had a physics test. “Like, sure, objectively, they’d probably be a really cute couple,” she allowed, because it was probably true. From what little she knew of Ms. Calendar, the lady seemed nice, smart, friendly, and relatively unlikely to turn into a giant bat. “But is it actually gonna happen? No way.”Ms. Calendar took the yearbooks from Giles and said something that made him turn pink around the ears.“NO way,” said Buffy a little too loudly. Both Giles and Ms. Calendar turned to look at her, and she did her best to hide behind Willow. “This is your fault!” she hissed. “You and your talking about teacher crushes—and teachers with crushes—”“—yes, thank you for resolving the, the yearbook thing,” Giles was calling over his shoulder, hurrying away from an amused-looking Ms. Calendar. “Wouldn’t do at all to have extra yearbooks in the library. Bye now!” To Buffy, he said, “Buffy, really, what on earth has gotten into you?”“It’s not my fault!” Buffy whined. Then, because she so was not going down alone, “Willow thinks you have a crush on Ms. Calendar!”Willow whacked Buffy’s shoulder. “I told you that in secrecy!” she said, blushing almost as red as her hair.Giles was looking between Buffy and Willow with a very strange expression on his face. His mouth was twitching, he was sporting something of a blush of his own, and he seemed unable to look either of them in the eye. “Well,” he said. “I don’t think crush would be exactly the right word.”Buffy and Willow exchanged an astonished look. “Do you mean—” Buffy began.“I do think you two should get to class,” Giles continued calmly. “Especially you, Buffy. Don’t you have that physics test next period?”“Ugh,” said Buffy, though she was secretly a little relieved at the change of subject. Two more sentences and she was pretty sure she would have found out exactly how Giles felt about Ms. Calendar—ending it here meant she could live in the happy land of denial, where her Watcher had absolutely no interest in ever dating anyone, ever. Giles waited, patiently, until Buffy and Willow were a good deal down the hall. Then he turned around, heading in the opposite direction, and stepped into the computer lab.Jenny was setting up for her first class of the day, students already milling about and getting laptops from the computer cart. “Hey, Mr. Giles,” she said, giving him an amicable smile. “Is there something you need?”“Ms. Calendar, I may have left another box of yearbooks in my office,” said Giles, well aware that a handful of students were watching this interaction with curiosity. “If you could perhaps help me look for them?”“Sure,” said Jenny mildly. “Kids, I need to see if Mr. Giles has that, uh, other box of yearbooks. You guys can get started on your projects if I’m not here, right?”There were some vague groans.“I’m gonna just take that as a yes,” said Jenny. “Mr. Giles?”“Of course,” said Giles, and exited the computer lab, Jenny at his heels. He made it halfway to the library before he finally started giggling.“Stop,” said Jenny. “Stop. Get in—” She shoved him the rest of the way into the library, shut the door behind them, and burst into laughter herself. “Oh my god,” she wheezed. “Oh, god, now you’ve got me doing it—”“You caught them watching us too, then?” Giles managed, pressing a hand to his mouth in an attempt to stop the giggles. It didn’t work. “Should you tell them that we’ve been seeing each other since December, or should I?”“I’m pretty sure they’d need, like, skywriting to figure it out,” Jenny laughed, leaning against him.“I can hijack a plane,” said Giles, throwing an arm around Jenny’s shoulders. “Rupert Giles is shagging it out with Jenny Calendar on a semi-regular basis.”“Well—” Jenny stopped, considered, then grinned, leaning into Giles’s side. “Make it regular and that sounds pretty on the nose.”

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