giles_shorts | Ficlet: The Visitor

Title: The Visitor

Author: littleotter73

Characters: Giles, Buffy

Rating: FRT

Word Count: 1000

Prompt: Tropes - Time Travel

Disclaimer: Just for fun, not profit.

A/N: Many thanks to il_mio_capitano for the sanity check

Blinking around in the dark after stepping through the portal, Buffy’s eyes took a few seconds to acclimate, but there he was, shirtless, covered beneath a thin sheet, sitting on the mattress and resting leisurely against the wall.

“I-If you are some sort of demon, I suggest you get out, but if you happen to be part of a lovely dream to come and share my bed, then by all means,” he stated with cocksure bravado as he started to lift the sheet in invitation.

“No!” she responded, her hands raised in front of her, entreating him to stay beneath the covering. “Listen, I don’t have a lot of time-“

“We can take all the time you need.“

“Don’t!” she admonished. “Don’t be gross. You are better than this! I know this.”

“What do you know, exactly?” Ripper asked, rising from the bed, taking his sheet with him and securing it around his waist. Normally he wouldn’t have cared, standing stark naked in front of a beautiful woman, but this particular woman had caught him off guard, showing up in his room in a blinding light and claiming to know something of him.

“I know you are Rupert Giles, born to Thomas and Ellie Giles, destined to be a Watcher to the Slayer-“

“No! That’s… that’s not accurate! I left that life. If you are Council, leave now, because woman or no, I will make you leave!” he threatened as he stepped into her space, pointing a finger in her face.

Buffy sighed in resignation, grabbed his wrist and twisted with enough pressure to drop him to the floor in pain. “Ow! Ow, ow, ow!” he cried. “Let go! Who are you?”

Releasing him, she answered, “I’m Buffy, your Slayer. I’ve come from the future to help you save your future self.”

“You’re barmy!” he snapped in disbelief, rubbing his wrist.

“If by that you mean, stylish and has mad fighting skills, then I accept the compliment. Otherwise, you’d best take that back and say something nice.”

“Absolutely barking,” Ripper muttered under his breath as he took in the appearance of his visitor.

“Now I know you aren’t being complimentary,” she accused angrily, stepping closer to him.

“No, no!” he pleaded, backing up and scrambling to sit on his mattress. “I’m sorry!”

Feeling she had his full attention, she explained, “So, future you is fighting a magickal induced fever that is sucking your life force from you. Most of what you’ve said while you’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness is gibberish, but I have it on good authority that the key to your recovery is some sort of amulet that the you of this timeline loses sometime in your near future. If I don’t get it and return to my time, I will lose you, and that is so not an option.”

“This is mental!” he muttered forcefully through his teeth.

“No more mental than running away from Oxford and hiding out in abandoned buildings in the seedier neighborhoods of London, playing with dark magicks with the likes of the extremely shady Ethan Rayne.”

“What do you bloody know about it?” he asked gruffly.

Buffy sat down beside him. “Quite a lot, actually. Look, I’m not here to convince you to go back to Oxford or the Council.”

“Then how do I become your Watcher?” he challenged.

“I can’t really tell you. Things just have to happen the way they happen.”

“Ah, but you’ve already meddled with time,” Ripper pointed out smugly. “I now know I become your Watcher.”

“Get over yourself! I haven’t told you anything more than I need to. All I’ve really done is appeal to your curiosity for the weird and whacky and tell you that you’re in danger.”

Blinking at her insight, he answered, “Fair enough. Am I really at risk of dying?”

Buffy looked away, the grave look on her face providing the answer to his question.

“I … I see,” he said quietly. “What… erm… what do you need?”

“Do you have the protection charm your grandmother gave you when you left for boarding school?”

“Inside pocket of my duffle,” he replied, indicating to the corner of his tiny room. Buffy looked at him expectantly. “I’d get up, but I’m not wearing anything and I need to lean over using both hands to unlock-“

“Understood!” Buffy hopped up and made her way over to the duffle bag. Having found the charm she brought it back to him.

He took it from her and looked it over, his thumb caressing the ancient scrollwork engraving on the face of it. “I lose this?”

Buffy nodded. “In a week’s time or so, from what you’d told me.”

“Fat lot of good it does me here, then. Go help future me,” he said gently, placing it in her hand and covering it up with his fingers over hers.

Her eyes flew up to meet his. They were the same pale green ones that she’d come to know over the last eight years of their partnership, right down to the splotch of amber in his left eye. Even if he technically wasn’t yet, he’d always been her Giles.

“Thank you,” she said, holding his gaze.

“You must really care about me to come all this way.”

She looked down at the charm in her hand. “Yeah, I kinda do.”

“It’s been a long time since anyone has.”

A loud, raucous banging noise interrupted their moment. “Ripper! Wake up! Let’s cause some mischief!”

“I…”

“It’s okay,” she smiled. “I need to get going.”

“Rip! Come on, mate!”

“Yeah, right!” he called back. “Gimme a few!”

“You wanking in there?”

Giles looked at Buffy and blushed adorably before yelling back. “Yeah, mate, thinking about yer mum!”

“Fuck off!”

Buffy laughed and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be there when you’re ready, even if I might not be.”

He smiled softly. “I’ll make sure to watch over you.”

“You always do,” she returned before whispering the incantation to take her home.

Ficlet: The Visitor

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