Stating The Obvious
Part Four
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I actually don't have anything to say this time, but I seem to have gotten into the habit of adding an author's note to the beginning of each chapter. This is the last one, though. I promise.
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"Are you sure we have to tell them?"
"Buffy..."
"No, seriously. We can just keep on hiding it. For the rest of our lives. It'll be fun!"
"Buffy..."
"I know, I know. Be strong. I'm the Slayer. I can do this. How hard can it be?"
"How hard can what be?" Xander asked.
"Gaaah!" Buffy screamed, whirling and clutching at her chest. "Xander! You scared me half to death!"
Xander eyed her skeptically. "Hordes of demons, vampires out the wazoo, sorcerors and witches, a ginormous snake and a half-demon Terminator, and I'm the one who almost scares you to death? You're getting soft, little lady."
"You can be very imposing," Anya said, before Buffy had a chance to respond.
"I've always thought so," Willow agreed.
Tara just smiled shyly and nodded her head.
Buffy glared at all of them, then looked to Giles for support.
"Don't look at me," Giles said. "I'm with them. I'm quaking in my shoes at the very sight of Xander's imposing presence."
"You're in a good mood," Xander said.
"Yes, I rather am," Giles agreed, beaming.
"Wow," Xander said. "A really good mood. Does that make this good news you have to tell us?"
"It is good news, yes. In my opinion, at least."
"Where did you guys come from?" Buffy demanded, finally finding her voice.
"You asked us to come over," Willow reminded her.
"Well, yes," Buffy allowed, "but did you have to barge right in like that? You can't just use the spare key anytime you want to. It's only for..."
"The door was open," Anya said. "What?" she asked at Buffy's renewed glare. "It was."
"I did leave it open," Giles said. "I thought it would be the polite thing to do."
"Fine," Buffy growled.
"What did you want to tell us?" Willow asked.
"First, why don't you all sit down," Giles said, gesturing towards the couch. "Would any of you like anything to eat or drink? I have cake, and I could put a kettle on."
Willow, Tara and Anya sat down on the couch. Xander perched himself on the arm-rest next to Anya.
"This is going to be big, isn't it?" he asked.
"What makes you say that?" Giles asked, looking nervously at Buffy. She looked back at him helplessly.
"Well," Xander explained, "the last time I sat like this, you yelled at me. And you never offer us food. We have to steal it out of your cupboards."
"Then you pretend to be upset," Anya added.
"It's like a ritual," Willow finished. "So something big must be up."
"Well... yes," Giles admitted.
"Are you going to tell us?" Willow asked.
Giles started to speak, then took off his glasses and started polishing them with his handkerchief.
"Fine," Buffy said, shooting him a good-natured glare. "I'll tell them. Coward."
Giles smiled his gratitude. Xander said, "Tell us what?"
"I, uh, we..."
Buffy paused. She looked at her friends. Seated before her were some of the only people in her life whose opinions mattered to her. She had no idea what she'd do if they reacted badly.
But she had to tell them. Summoning all her courage, she took Giles' hand in her own and spoke.
"Me and Giles. Giles and me. We're an, um, an item. With the seeing each other. And the dating. And the being in love."
Xander, Anya, Willow and Tara stared at her. There was no expression at all on their faces.
Giles smiled gently and squeezed Buffy's hand. "What Buffy is saying, is that we've fallen in love with each other. We've been carrying on behind your backs for long enough, and we thought it was high time we told you. We didn't like lying to you, believe me. We just weren't sure how you'd react."
"Right," Buffy nodded. "How you'd react."
She closed her eyes, expecting said reaction to be bad. Yelling. Disbelief. Outrage. More yelling. When she heard nothing for several long seconds, she opened her eyes to see everyone staring at Xander. He stood up and pulled a small notebook out of his jacket pocket. He turned to Willow as he opened it.
"What's today, the 16th?"
Willow nodded. Xander flipped through the notebook and scanned a page.
"Damn," he said. "Spike won the pool."
"What?!" Anya demanded. "Give me that." Without waiting for Xander to comply, she reached over and yanked the notebook away from him.
"That stinks," Willow muttered, reading over Anya's shoulder.
"Yeah," Tara said. "If they'd waited until tomorrow, I'd have won."
Buffy looked at Giles. Giles looked at Buffy.
As one, they turned their attention to their friends and asked, "What pool?"
Anya threw the notebook onto the coffee table in disgust. "The pool about when you'd finally admit to all the sex you've been having lately," she explained, as if talking to two not very bright children.
Giles and Buffy were shocked to see Xander, Willow and Tara nod in agreement.
"You knew?" Buffy asked, horrified.
"Of course we knew!" Xander said. "We're not stupid, you know."
"Seriously," Willow said. "Did you really think you were fooling anyone?" She shook her head in wonder. "You did, didn't you? Wow."
Giles began to speak, then closed his mouth. He pulled off his glasses and began furiously polishing them again.
"How could you have known?" Buffy asked. "We were so careful."
"Careful?" Xander asked, then whooped with laughter. "You call that careful? We've been tripping over you two doing the dirty for the past month!"
"Here in your house," Tara said, "and in the cemeteries, and behind the Bronze, and in your car, and at the movies, and who knows where else."
"Frankly, I'm impressed," Anya said. "Not bad for a man your age, Giles."
"Er, uh, yes... Thank you?" Giles managed, clearly in shock.
"You knew?" Buffy asked again, still catching up.
Willow took pity on the two of them. Standing and walking over to take their hands, she said, "Yes, we knew. You might have thought you were leading a life of intrigue, but not so much. The other night, when Tara and I came over and you two hid in the closet? We knew. You were giggling too loud for us to miss it."
"I don't giggle," Giles muttered.
"We knew," Willow went on, ignoring him. "And it's okay. You guys haven't looked this happy in a long time, and we're glad you finally worked up the nerve to tell us."
"Really?" Buffy asked, looking into Willow's eyes.
"Really," Xander assured her, walking up and pulling her into a quick hug. "It's even better than we thought, actually. We figured it was just sex."
"Not that there's anything wrong with that," Anya added.
"Right," Xander said. "But if you two are in love? Cool. That's all I have to say."
"Definitely cool," Willow agreed. "This is so great! Have you told anyone else yet?"
"Not yet," Giles said, smilng and almost sagging with relief. "We thought you'd be easiest to tell, even though we were still quite nervous."
"Yes!" Tara cried.
"Damn!" Anya cried.
Everyone turned to stare at them.
Tara blushed. "I, uh, I had a bet with Anya that you'd tell us before anyone else."
Anya grumbled and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a ten and threw it at Tara.
"Feh," she muttered. "Telling us before Buffy's mom. No respect. What's the world coming to? In my day..."
"An," Xander said, "in your day, everyone thought the Earth was flat."
"I'm still not convinced it isn't," Anya said, scowling. Then she smiled, stood up and faced Buffy and Giles. "But I'm very happy for you two. This works out well - there are six of us, and now we're all couples."
"I hadn't thought of it like that," Willow mused. "It does seem sort of tidy that way."
"What about Spike?" Tara asked.
"Spike doesn't count," everyone answered together, then laughed.
"Well," Giles said, "this went much better than I had expected it to. I'd say a celebration is in order. Would anyone like pizza? My treat. I'll even put it in the cabinet when it arrives so you can all steal it and feel at home."
"Pizza sounds great," Buffy said, smiling as she felt herself relax. "Double cheese for me."
As Giles, Willow and Tara moved towards the kitchen to place the order, Buffy motioned to Anya and Xander.
"What's up?" Xander asked. "Sausage!" he called out to Giles.
"Anchovies and garlic, please!" Anya yelled.
"Okay," Buffy said, when she had their attention. "You guys all knew about us. I can accept that. I thought we were being sneaky, but I guess not."
"Definitely not," Xander said. "You two were about as sneaky as... Well, as something that's not very sneaky."
"As a L'huvork demon during mating season," Anya said.
"I get it," Buffy scowled. "So did you know we were there in the graveyard the other night? Is that why you said it was tacky?"
Xander laughed. "Yeah, Buff, we knew you were there. We were just teasing."
"It is a little weird," Anya said, "doing it in a graveyard. But there's nothing wrong with weird. I could tell you stories..."
"But she won't," Xander said to Buffy, pulling Anya against him. "Right, hon?"
"I suppose," Anya said, smiling up at him. When he turned his attention back to Buffy, she mouthed "I'll tell you later," to the Slayer.
"Right," Buffy said, wondering what she was in for. "But how did you know we were there?" she asked, getting back to her point. "We were hidden pretty well, I thought."
"Buffy," Xander explained gently, "it was a bush, not a brick wall. Pretty easy to see through, even at night. Especially when we half-expected you to be hiding from us when we got there."
"Oh," Buffy said. "Wait," she went on, "exactly how much did you see?"
"Well, not that much..." Xander began.
"You have very nice breasts," Anya said.
Buffy's eyes widened in shock. Xander made a strangled noise, then found his voice.
"Does she?" he asked Anya, trying and failing to sound innocent. "I didn't notice."
Anya frowned. "Yes, you did. When I said they were nice and told you it was okay to agree, you said..."
"So!" Xander said, cutting her off and speaking to Buffy, who had turned an interesting shade of red. "Double cheese, huh? Interesting choice of pizza topping. You don't see that every day."
It took Buffy a minute to find her voice. "I, uh..." she trailed off. "You know what?" she went on after a few seconds. "I don't care. Giles and I told you guys, and you're okay with it, and I'm happy. And Giles is happy. So, I don't care." She nodded her head forcefully.
"Great," Xander said, relieved. "Very healthy attitude."
"Right," Buffy said. "Okay, kitchen time." She started to head that way.
"Kitchen time," Xander agreed, falling in behind her. "Oh, and Buff? You really do have nice breasts."
"What?" he asked, when she turned around to glare. "I'm just saying."
Buffy frowned him, then smiled. "Given that you have to go home with anchovy and garlic breath here, I'll just say thank you and leave it at that."
She turned once more and stalked off towards the kitchen.
"Damn right they're nice," she muttered to herself,
then laughed. Things hadn't exactly gone according to plan, but overall she
had no complaints. She just hoped her mother would take the news half as well.
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END 4/7
On to Part Five