InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "That wasn't love."

Rupert Giles (watcher_giles) wrote in dust_till_dawn,
@ 2009-05-14 13:22:00

Current mood:

contemplative

Meeting for Coffee
who. Rupert Giles
what. Giles and Willow visiting with one another.
when. A few days after the Scooby Meeting
where. A coffee shop not far from the hotel everyone is staying at (They need to get out more often.)
locked to. Willow Rosenberg
status. Complete!

Giles was incredibly glad that he had come to stay with everyone in Cleveland. They all seemed so down about, well, everything that was happening in their lives at the moment. Not that they didn't seem to have a reason to be. He was sure that he wasn't getting the entire story about Angel, but obviously a lot had happened while he was in England. He could only wish that he had come here much sooner than he had, but, alas, that wasn't possible.

Because he knew that he had missed a lot, he wanted to do a little catching up with all of them. He asked Willow to meet him at this coffee shop near the hotel that he was staying at with everyone. He hadn't had much of a chance to see any of Cleveland besides where he was staying at, and he figured that now was as good of a time as any. He also just wanted to do some catching up with Willow as well. She had been talking to him along with Buffy until the contact pretty much stopped a few months ago. Hopefully things would improve now that they were all together again. He really had missed them a lot.

He arrived at the coffee shop and, after getting himself a cup of coffee, picked out a table in the corner of the room and sat down to wait for Willow to arrive. He still, after all these years, didn't quite understand the newer (to him at least) types of coffee drinks that these places made. Coffee was supposed to taste like coffee, wasn't it? Not like a giant piece of candy coated with sugar and chocolate, wasn't it? Another sign to him that he was just getting too old.

That was just something that he was eventually going to have to learn to accept. Of course, that was something that he still didn't want to accept. That he was getting old, possibly even too old to keep doing what he was doing. Of course, old age wasn't really a good excuse when the chips were down and the world needed someone to help with saving it. No rest for the good as well as the wicked, apparently.

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willow_magic
2009-05-15 12:57 am UTC (link)

Things were-- well they were *kinda* looking up. Of course Willow as with the happy that Angel was back and Angelus was-- wherever Angelus was when Angel was Angel and she so didn't really want to know where that vampire went she hoped it was Hell. And yay for Giles being back! Even if Willow felt kinda really guilty for not keeping in touch with her mentor.

But with everything that had gone on she'd had more important things on her mind. Like Buffy pushing her away and not letting Willow comfort her. That had kinda stung. Then there was this big, looming, geronimous, gigantic issue that had Willow so upset.
She'd been able to stuff Angel's soul back into him *twice*. She was the only living person to survive ensouling Angel. She'd turned all potentials on earth - and maybe some weird dimensions no one knew about - into Slayers. She had the power of a *goddess* for freak sake! There was *no* witch on earth more powerful then Willow Rosenberg.

And yet she had not been able to put Angel's soul back into the vampire. It made her feel inadequate, unhelpful, stupid, useless-- lots of words like that and most starting with 'un'. It wasn't a feeling she'd had in a long, long time.

With the power of magic had come the confidence. The arrogance too, sure, but she'd gotten over that. But the confidence had stayed. The sure knowing that she could *do* stuff. Easily. And then not being able to do *this*, which she had been able to do *twice*.

It just didn't compute. She'd failed Angel. She'd failed Buffy. And in a way she'd failed Giles too. So while she was happy that Angel was back and kept that smile on her face in front of her friends, Willow was worried. Lots worried.

And now she had a meeting with Giles. This for some reason made her nervous. Willow was so *sure* he was gonna lecture her, or berate her, or worse, put the blame on her. Not that she hadn't done all those things herself, but it was always way worse coming from Giles. The man she saw as her shining example, her mentor, and her second father.

At least she wasn't too late for their meeting, even though she wasn't surprised to see Giles was already there. Willow contemplated getting her favorite mocha latte but then figured that Willow on a sugar rush wasn't what Giles would want to see. Not right now anyway. So instead she marched to the corner table and sat down.

"Hey," she said, plastering that smile back on her wave and giving Giles a characteristic Willowy wave with her hand. "Are you having coffee?" she asked, eyes going wide with shock. Coffee? Giles? So not of the good! "They got tea here too, you know."

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watcher_giles
2009-05-15 05:11 pm UTC (link)

Giles was very happy to see Willow when she walked in, giving her a smile as she came over and sat down. Willow usually could be a bright ray of sunshine in what could be sometimes a gloomy bunch of people. Of course, they all had good reasons to be a bit gloomy, especially as of late, but Willow was usually the one who tried to cheer them up.

Unfortunately, she seemed just as down as everyone else right now. It made him wonder just what had happened to her as of late. Probably something else that he didn't know about. He really should have come sooner instead of waiting over two months before actually showing up to see how they were doing. Thankfully, he had made arrangements to stay here on a permanent basis before he had actually came here. He was glad to have already of gotten that out of the way.

"Do you all really think that all I drink is tea?" Giles asked Willow with a grin when she asked about his drink of choice. Does everyone on this side of the ocean think that the English are only allowed to drink tea? Sure, he might not suck down those sugary sodas that they seemed to like over here, but he might want to enjoy a cup of coffee every once in a while.

"It's not like they are going to revoke my British citizenship over such a thing," he said with a grin to her. He thought of pointing out that a British person was just as likely to be seen with a beer in his or her hand as much, or even more likely than, a cup of tea, but figured that he didn't need to mess with her world view quite that much.

Not yet, anyway.

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willow_magic
2009-05-16 02:49 am UTC (link)

"Well... yeah."

That's what she and the rest of the scoobies thought. Cause that was inbedded in their memory. Giles and his tea. If there was an emergency or an end of the world thing - again - there he'd be with the tea. Making it, drinking it, giving it to her to drink. It was-- soothing. Not to forget the snipping and griping the other man had done toward this beverage called coffee. Uh huh.

Giles was tea, tea was Giles and coffee should like *totally* never enter the pictures! They so should revoke his Britiship over such a thing! It was like tilting the view Willow had on the world involving Giles sideways a bit. Then again better have tilt due to the lack of tea then a demon attack.

Or magic gone wrong. No chance of that happening though, since Willow's magic no longer seemed to work. At least not the way she wanted it to work, the way it was supposed to work. What good was she to anyone if she didn't even have that anymore?

Silence. Awkward! Not that Willow wasn't used to awkward but never with Giles. Besides, she thought she'd left that whole awkward scene behind her. Ugh.

"So-- how are you settling in?" she asked. Small talk, at least it trumped asking about the weather!

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watcher_giles
2009-05-16 04:10 pm UTC (link)

"Coffee itself isn't that bad. It's all of the strange coffee-like drinks that I really don't understand," Giles said to her. "Besides, I really don't trust a coffee shop in Cleveland to make tea properly." Their regular coffee was fine enough, though. Besides, why would a coffee shop really know how to make a decent cup of tea? It wasn't like it was a tea shop, after all.

Still, no matter. He could always make tea for himself at home, anyway. Or for him and Willow at another time. She usually did like his tea, anyway. Buffy never really saw the point in tea drinking, and he didn't remember Xander really getting it, either. "If I make you tea later, will that make you feel better?" he asked her. Even if he wasn't the same person who had once watched over them in Sunnydale, he could at least fit into parts of it by making tea for her.

"I'm settling in just fine," Giles told her. "It's a little odd to be living in a hotel, but I'm getting used to it." It didn't really feel like he had his own space there. Sure, it was a little nice to be cleaned up after, but even that sort of felt like a privacy invasion of sorts. He might start looking into apartment prices around here. None of them should have to live out of a hotel forever, after all.

"Willow, what is going on here? I have to ask. I feel that I should have come sooner here instead of waiting for two months of no contact to come, but I do want to be caught up on everything that's going on." He'd rather not have another meeting that showed just how behind he really was, being told that Angel had gotten his soul back when he didn't even realize the vampire had lost it to begin with.

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willow_magic
2009-05-17 04:19 am UTC (link)

Okay. Giles had given the whole coffee concept far more thought then Willow *ever* had. And she was the mocha latte addict! She could use one by now come to think of it. Heck, if this convo was going in the direction she was dead sure it was gonna go she might need one of those pink frilly drinks. The one she had when going out on the town with Faith. Things had been much with the happier then, when she was going out with Faith. Who'd have thunk it?

"Uhm..." If he was making her tea later would that make her feel better? Well maybe on the whole 'Giles is British and should drink tea!' bit. But on a whole? Not so much. She'd still feel guilty, she'd still feel inept, she'd still feel useless. Considering how far she'd thought she'd left those feeling behind? It was not of the good.

Small talk. More small talk. She was just waiting for it. Giles was kinda sucky when it came to small talk as well. So far he was doing way better with it then Willow. The red head only seemed to be able to look at the table, and then not even at the paper napkin her hands had gotten hold which she had started to shred to teeny tiny papery bits.

"Kinda the wrong person to ask," Willow sighed. Well, mostly the wrong person to ask. Both Giles and Xander didn't know what was going on. But for the most part neither did Willow. First there was Angelus, then there was Buffy being attacked and pushing her away, then there was Angel. In the middle there was an ineffectual Willow who was incapable of doing nothing with the magic.

She'd told Xander about Angelus attacking Buffy, but she wasn't sure if she should tell Giles. Willow didn't think it was her place. If Buffy wanted Giles to know she should be the one to tell her. Considering how *bad* it had been and the Watcher's history with Giles? Nope, Willow wasn't gonna tell.

"Angel turned into Angel and I couldn't put his soul back, which I so don't understand cause I'm the only one who's been able to do that and live to tell the tale, I researched it and researched it and tried and tried but nothing and I think my magic has gone poof somewhat since I couldn't get it done and I don't understand why Giles I mean what good am I without the magic and unable to help Buffy with the whole goody fighting thing I'm scared cause my magic's gone wonky haywire and that's not of the good..." Willow rattled before finally taking a breath, "you know?"

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watcher_giles
2009-05-18 07:40 pm UTC (link)

Something was obviously on Willow's mind. He could see it in the way she fiddled and tore at her napkin, and how she wouldn't look him in the eyes like she usually did. She was usually such an honest and open person that it was painfully obvious when she was either lying or at least avoiding a subject that she either didn't want to talk about or wasn't able to talk about.

It did seem that she was a little out of the loop as well, when it came to Angel. Buffy always was one to hide things about him. She hid him for months back in Sunnydale before Xander accidentally stumbled upon him. Who knows how long she would have hidden his reappearance if someone hadn't of seen him first. She would probably always have a soft spot for the vampire, even if, more often than not, it hindered her to do so. Then again, you just can't control love.

Giles just blinked for a moment when Willow started to spill forth what seemed to have been on her mind for a while. "Willow, putting a soul back into a vampire is very hard to actually do. It was an amazing feat that you were able to do it not only once, but twice. I highly doubt that your magic has gone all 'wonky haywire.'"

Willow's magic, while powerful, had always been something a little wild about hers. He remembered the story of how she once killed the power of her entire block one summer. Of course, she had progressed so much since then, but things did tend to backfire on her more than a more trained witch or warlock. She certainly had much more raw ability than actual training, to say the least.

"You certainly are good past your magical abilities, Willow," he pointed out to her. "Whether or not you can perform magic right now," and he would be looking into that, "you are still an important person to have around right now."

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willow_magic
2009-05-19 01:30 am UTC (link)

Ugh. Okay. Seriously not the reassuring Giles thing she was going for. Or, you know, the 'not to worry I shall fix this' Gilesy thing she was going for. She had almost killed the man once, right about the time she had absorbed *all* the magic books - good or bad - in the old magic shop. Right about the time she almost killed Dawnie and Buffy, almost ended the words, didn't almost but most definitely killed a guy.

She had turned all potentials into Slayers and felt that power course through her body like the addiction it was. It had been so, so hard to reject it from consuming her whole. Though it was kinda nice to have Kennedy call her 'goddess' in *that* way. If only it didn't turn out Kennedy was scared of her power, her magic and in the end couldn't cope.

So how come people were looking at her like she was just a wee witch who could do nothing but mere parlour tricks? So how come her friends, who had been there with the whole murder killing streak, *especially* Giles who had been almost killed by her, acted like she was still cute little innocent Willow?

She wasn't. She hadn't been in a long, long, *long* time. With all this raw power, all the power she had been *trained* to use at the coven, she should have been able to put Angel's soul back inside him. Should have.

And now with Buffy pushing her away and Xander and Giles going their own way, Willow had never felt more alone. Or useless. Giles' 'whether you can perform magic or not' wasn't calming her down at all. In fact, it made her panic and not listen to the rest he was saying. Green eyes went impossibly wide, mouth started to open but nothing came out at first, just kept hanging open as she stared at him.

"You think I can't do magic no more too," she whispered, finally snapping her mouth shut only to chew her bottom lip to bits. "I knew it! It *has* gone all wonky haywire! Did someone take it away?" And that was the weird part. Willow knew it was still there, knew she still had the magic, but was convinced since she hadn't been able to help or figure out things with Angel something had to be terribly wrong.

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watcher_giles
2009-05-25 03:53 pm UTC (link)

It was hard not to think of Willow in the innocent way. That was what she had been for so long. He really didn't *want* to think of when he had been afraid of her. Her throwing him up to the ceiling and unceremoniously dropping him back on the floor. It had been so hard for him to treat her like the enemy during all of that. A large part of him just wanted to pretend that didn't happen.

Of course, that wasn't going to work. Willow was a different person from the teenager who came into his library and 'borrowed' magical books a little ahead of her expertise. She obviously wasn't looking for a part on the head at the moment. "I don't think that you can't do magic anymore, Willow," he said when she stopped talking. "Someone may be blocking you from doing magic, though."

"Start by telling me more about when you tried to re-ensoul Angel," he said to her. He needed to get her more focused and not panicking at the moment. "Did you feel anything different when you tried, or was it just completely nothing?" He wasn't one-hundred percent sure how to phrase his question. "Did anything strange happen before you tried to put his soul back, other than the fact that he lost his soul to begin with?"

Giles wondered how he lost his soul in the first place. Did him and Buffy...again? Did someone cast a spell on him, or did he find some happiness with someone else? The last idea probably would have been the least pleasing off all, especially to Buffy. Not that it was all that pleasant to Giles, either. They really should find a way to anchor his soul to him so they wouldn't have to deal with Angelus ever again. Maybe once they get Willow's powers back to normal, he can have her start work on that.

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willow_magic
2009-05-26 05:19 am UTC (link)

Well darn. She had perked up when Giles had said he didn't think she *couldn't* do magic anymore. But Willow had slumped down again when he said someone might be blocking her. She didn't think so, cause wouldn't she feel that? Hello! Most powerful witch in the world kinda. One would think she'd notice if someone tried to block her.

She had before. Back in LA when Cordelia had been... evil. Well, more evil, Willow couldn't help but think. Oh yeah, high-school still was fresh in her memory. And kinder garden, junior high and so on and so on and Cordelia had been there. Luckily so had Xander. And-- Jesse.

Anyway. She had been kinda hoping Giles would do his ripper mojo and proclaim that there was nothing wrong with her magic. Cause that was the whole problem see? She didn't *feel* as if there was anything wrong. In her eyes the spell she'd done twice before and hadn't done any different this time? *Should* have worked.

Except it hadn't. And that she didn't get.

"No, didn't feel any different," Willow said, not at a calming down much with Giles' line of questioning. "In fact it felt like it shoulda work. Except, you know, it *didn't*. It should have! I felt the spell leave like always and then-- It didn't work."

She grew thoughtful at Giles last question. Did anything strange happen? Other then the usual? She shrugged after a moment and then shook her head. "Can't remember anything strange. Maybe its gotta do with the way he lost his soul? I dunno. I put it back twice before and both times he totally lost it differently." Once by accident, once on purpose and then it got stolen. Stolen.

Stolen. Had it been stolen this time? Weird this.

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watcher_giles
2009-05-26 09:47 pm UTC (link)

Someone blocking her magic was the only thing he could think of. Well, there was one other idea, and that was her sort of blocking herself. It might explain why she wasn't feeling anything, as far as a block would go. Still, he figured that she had gotten past the bigger worries of how she was going to turn evil again or anything like that. Hopefully, if she came close again, they could all realize it before it was too late and pull her back before she was set lose.

Another thought popped into his head. "You felt the spell leave like normal?" he asked. He knew what she was talking about. He had performed enough magic to know the feeling when it feels like a spell was complete. "Do you think that maybe it worked on someone else?" Just an idea, really. It would explain why it felt like it worked but then didn't work on Angel/Angelus.

"It might have something to do with how he lost it. Some particular spells that steal souls can have certain effects when you try to break them." And they usually had ways of protecting themselves, or the warlock/witch in question would find a way to make sure that the witch trying to break it wouldn't survive trying to break the spell.

"Tell me something else. Have you tried to perform any magic since then? Has it not worked?" If she had tried and failed, that would lead to more of a general block. If it had worked otherwise, then it probably had more to do with possibly how Angel lost his soul in the first place than Willow herself, which might help relieve her fears a little as well.

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willow_magic
2009-05-27 01:06 am UTC (link)

"Uh... huh?"

She actually had to think about that. Magic had become such a normal thing for Willow, had become such a big part of who she wast that the little things barely ever got noticed. Like 'did the spell leave like normal'. She was getting to lax again when it came to magic, Willow decided, and that was never ever a good thing.

Before you knew it she was out there being mean to Dawn, trying to kill Buffy, hurting Xander and throwing Giles against ceilings. Oh and that would be right before she tried to, you know, end the world. Again. She might actually succeed this time, considering she had even more power now and it was *focused*.

Or she hoped it was focused. Not being able to get Angel's soul back had her doubt that.

"Yeah, yeah I think it left like normal." Yeah, she couldn't remember feeling anything strange, so it had to have left like normal. Right?

"Someone-- what? No, no, it was that Angel specific spell thingy. I mean, Angelus specific. The one Je-- Jenny had," she explained, giving the man sitting across from her a sad smile at the mention of his once lover.

Besides that, how many other people were there out there with a soul that worked like a jojo that sometimes got separated from its string? Not to many, Willow hoped, cause geeze... that would be scary.

"Uh, yeah I have. That all worked normal, but those were little spells, you know? Lighting a candle, making protective pouches - which was totally to late since I made them after Bu--" Green eyes went wide when she nearly tattled on Buffy and the fact that Angelus had beat her up. Badly. Woops!

"Anyway, the-the small spells worked. But I've been doing with the researching mostly since that spell to get Angel's soul back hasn't worked and it should have like it did twice before and I haven't tried anything *big* since then but I was thinking maybe uhm... Maybe the scythe spell super slayers everywhere kinda-- drained me?" Willow doubted it. She didn't *feel* drained. At all. And she knew drained.

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watcher_giles
2009-05-28 07:09 pm UTC (link)

It seemed like she hadn't thought about it all too much. She was probably so worried that she could perform one spell that she hadn't thought too much about anything else.

Jenny. He still thought about her all of the time. It still depressed him to think about her too much. All of his good memories of her were tainted by the one night that he found her in his bedroom, dressed up like a present from hell. So many things done wrong that year. If only there had been a way to stop all of that from happening. Who knows where they all would be now?

It didn't really do any good to think about what could have been, though. There were plenty of problems going on right now that he had to think harder about. "So, you've done other types of magic, and you haven't had any problems? That right there should tell you that you still have your magic, Willow," he reminded her.

"I don't think that it drained you. You would certainly feel it and know for sure if you had actually been drained. Besides, you would have recovered by now if you really had been drained." People were usually only drained for a couple of days after performing a big spell. Of course, he wasn't sure when the last time a spell of that magnitude had been performed.

He caught that she had stopped before telling him something. "Too late since you made them after what?" He could always tell when she was hiding something. Some things really did never change. Her voice would get higher and her eyes would widen.

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willow_magic
2009-05-29 01:26 am UTC (link)

"No? You don't think so?"

Green eyes went wide again, only this time with relief. It was times like this Willow's face showed, despite everything she and the others had gone through, how young she still actually was. A young girl with the experience of someone far, far older. Of course draining every magic book in sight and then some got her a few of those experiences the cheaty way.

A lot of those experiences, the worldly ones, had been hard gained and sometimes - a lot of times - not willingly. But that was the life they had all chosen to lead. Fight the good fight, them against the baddies. Even if said badie turned out to be a friend. Even if the badie had turned out to be Willow herself back then.

She was relieved to hear Giles say that the spells hadn't drained her though. Things were so hectic and chaotic lately that Willow found herself all confused. Especially with a big spell like ensouling Angel *not* working when it shoulda. With Buffy turning away, Xander being away, Giles-- Oh she'd missed Giles in a fatherly, comforting sorta way.

Her mentor had this calm way of making her feel better about herself. Even if he *was* drinking disturbing coffee. Too bad she nearly tattled on Buffy. No way was she gonna do that. Wasn't her place to tell about the-- beating. And since she didn't know if Buffy had told Giles about the Angelus treatment, she wasn't gonna.

"A-a-after Angelus appeared," she said, nodding her head several times. There! That wasn't a lie. Not perse. She had made the pouches after Angelus had appeared even if it was *after* he'd beaten up Buffy. "Then it was kinda-- uh, you know, to late. Is that coffee any good?" she babbled on, "cause I think I might get some to take away back."

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watcher_giles
2009-05-30 12:26 pm UTC (link)

"No, I really don't think so. I believe it may have more to do with how Angel's soul was taken from him than your own magic. Someone may have had some sort of protection spell over him to keep you or anyone else from re-ensouling him until a certain time or until he was 'supposed' to get his soul back." He was glad to see that she felt a little more relieved now.

Besides, he knew that, if something really *was* wrong with her magic, it might very well make her sick. Willow and magic were so connected now that it being taken away from her might kill her. When she was taken to the coven after nearly destroying the world, the idea of just taking her magic from her had been brought up, only for it to get quickly tossed aside for that purpose. It was the same reason why draining magic from others would kill them outright or nearly do so. Luckily, she looked fine, at least physically.

He caught the stutter when she explained why she had made protection pouches and why they were too late. He didn't really buy it, though. Sure, they were probably for when Angelus appeared, but he suspected that there was a lot more to the story than he was getting told. He'd question her again later when they weren't in public, though. He'd find out sooner or later. He didn't want to be out of the loop anymore.

"The coffee is fine, Willow," he said. He could make better if he set his mind to it. Honestly, it mainly just made him want tea. However, he needed the caffeine right now. Sleeping on a motel bed wasn't doing wonders for his ability to sleep well. That was part of the real reason behind his coffee drinking. He wasn't sure if Willow needed anything else to make her more...jumpy, though.

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willow_magic
2009-05-31 05:28 am UTC (link)

Huh. Well. Giles had given her a lot to think about, just like she knew he would. Or well, she had hoped he would and he had! Still good old reliable Giles for Willow. Despite the whole-- ceiling throwing trying to kill him thing. That time seemed to long ago for everyone else Willow thought. But for it was like yesterday.

The darkness she had tasted then, the black magic as they called it, still beckoned to her. Still tried to lure her over to the wrong side of things. And it was tempting, oh so tempting some days to just give in and go over there. When things didn't go the way she wanted to it was just easy to give in and-- let go.

Like not being able to return Angel's soul the way she was supposed to do, the way she had been able to do twice before. Wouldn't she have felt it if there was some sorta protection in place she could not help but wonder. Wouldn't the spell have bounced off that? It would have, so what was going on there? Fishy, that's what it was. And now Buffy's kinda really distant behaviour made-- actually it was fishy too.

What had happened? What had the Slayer done? Had to be something. Hmmm.

Willow glanced at her watch and frowned. She still wanted to go to some realters to check out some property. The idea to start a shop here, a magic shop, kept on lingering in the forefront of her mind. The red head figured just, you know, shopping around wouldn't hurt.

"Great," she said at Giles' words. "I think I'll go get one on the go then. Got another appointment of a sort," she explained, giving her a small smile. The first one in-- weeks. Smile that was. "Thanks so much for the talk, Giles," she said to the man gratefully as she got up and leaned in to kiss the man's cheek. "It's been really helpful."

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watcher_giles
2009-06-01 06:06 pm UTC (link)

He understood a little about the allure of the darkness of magic. While even he had not gotten quite as into it as she had (grief can do so much to a person), he understood better than any of the others here would, except for the possibility of Angel. Like Willow, though, his own decent into darkness had involved a death that he felt responsible for. It may not have been as direct as her's, but he was every bit as responsible for him.

Giles wasn't sure just how much he wanted Angel around any of them, since he seems to lose his soul every time they turn around now. He would definitely research to see if it was possible to find a way to anchor it to him. There had to be a way to prevent Angel from going berserk every few years. Well, Giles had a way, but it involved a sharp, wooden object, and he'd rather avoid that, if only for Buffy's sake.

"Good luck on your next appointment, then," he said, returning her smile. He was so glad to see any of them smiling again. He sort of wondered what it was, but he didn't want to pry. He got a smile out of her, and that was more than enough for him. He was a little surprised when she kissed him on the cheek, but kept smiling at her just the same.

"I'm glad to be helpful to you," he said. He took a sip of his coffee and finished it off. "Hope you enjoy the coffee here," he said with a slight grin this time. Maybe she would eventually get used to the fact that, yes, occasionally, he did drink things other than tea.

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